Two People

Sorry in advance for the third person, I'm trying to keep my english skills up. I don't want to sound like an 8 year old when I get home in 9 months.... it's weird that I say "9 months" now and not 10!

right now, I am two people, probably more, but in the simplest terms, just two, with two totally different opinions.


Meet Jared:
Jared is an American student who is studying in France for a year. He has studied 5 units of French in American High School and has fallen in love with the French culture. Jared is extremely excited and happy to be in France. He knows the great experience he is getting, loves everything new that he has experienced, and is hungry to explore more. He has learned more about himself in the past month, than he did in the past couple years. Jared has been to some really cool places in France, done some very exciting new things, eaten some VERY delicious food, and some that was not so delicious, rather fishy, moist, and slimy, and met some very nice people. Jared has started to make real friends, and his French language skills, which he was banking on being adequate for the adjustment period...pff, have improved enough, so that he can have a real conversation. Jared is finding enjoyment in the smallest of things, the novelty of something being "so european" has become a daily discovery for Jared. Jared misses his family, but knows that they are all on their own adventures, and that in 9 months when they re-unite, they will tons of stories to tell each other; life will be good.

Meet Jared:
Jared is an American student trying to fit himself into the French way of life. He is a student at a school in the center of a medium-sized French city, which is very cool, but very overwhelming, and totally French! Jared's 5 units of French had not prepared him for the battles that he has fought, nor for the weeks, perhaps months, of battles that he still has to face. Jared tries to occupy most of his time with new experiences, but there is only so many things to do, and so many more hours in a day. Jared stays away from his computer as much as possible, but watching T.V. he doesn't understand is only funny for so long, then it's just plain sad. Jared is trying to make friends at school, and he seems to be succeeding, but he still spends a lot of time in between classes alone. The French, Jared has noticed, like to keep to themselves. They like to smoke their cigarettes and talk with their small group of friends; nothing wrong with it, but it makes it very hard for Jared to fit in. Jared does love the french food, but is fearful that he is gaining weight... god please grant Jared the motivation to exercise more than he already has been. Jared misses soccer, a lot! Jared also misses WARM September afternoons, American movies, and Cocopuff. The lack of a car is shocking for Jared.
All in all, Jared is suffering from a mild case culture-shock. He has made leaps and bounds since sunday morning, when he had a [one person conversation] in which he decided that he had no place in a foreign country... Jared now knows that he is doing this for himself, he is growing stronger everyday, and in 10 months he will think that it all went too fast.


Which Jared am I?

That's just the trick... I'm both, neither, and each one individually.

I love it here, I really do; everything about France is interesting to me, but sometimes the idea of Honeycrisp apples, pumpkin pie, and bright red Fall Leaves... call my name, but I can't answer.

AND on top of all of this... High School in America ruined my life. The single most terrible thing in my entire life, up until this point: was High School... Why the Fuck (pardon my French ^.^) did I opt to go Do it all over in a different country !? I was nuts, I had stars in my eyes, or rather, Croissants, and I just wanted to be here. I'm still glad I made the decision to come, but man was I wrong about these first few months were going to pan-out...


Mom, Dad, don't worry (t'inquiette pas) I am still having a great time, I'm smart enough to know what I want, what I think I want, and what I need.

Love to all....


Bisoux and Bread (I've been eating a lot of it this week, need to either cut back, or start running and extra km)

Jared

1 Month!?

So a lot has happened here. I can't believe it has already been a month! It went by so fast... I know that is cliché to say, but it is true! I seriously don't know how it happened so quickly!

So about France, it really isn't that much different from America. If you look past all of the superficial surface stuff, French people act and interact just like American people. Everyone has been very receptive towards me, and as my French skills have developed, I have been more comfortable talking with people.

One thing that I can say is very different here is school. Everything from schedules, to curriculum, to classroom etiquette, to school spirit is so different! Schedules are blocking schedules that work on a weekly basis, so every monday is the same, all year long, every tuesday the same, etc... the students have random 1 hour and 2 hour breaks during the day sometimes, but have to stay at school as late as 6 o'clock some days, It doesn't really make sense to me, and all the kids hate it. Lunch here is crazy, kids wait in line for 45 minutes to get their lunch because the school where I study is a Middle/High School, which is atypical for France, and there are a lot of kids! school meals are like a real 4 course meal though... I'm not saying the food is always delicious, but they get a hefty helping of some sort of salad, a main dish which is usually a protein and vegetables, a dairy dish, i.E. Cheese or Yogurt, and a desert, which is usually fantastic! plus up to 3 slices of baguette bread if you so please... In America we are lucky if we get 5 chicken nuggets, a dixie cup of green beans, and a cardboard bowl of stale pound cake... Curriculum is so much different here! Because the grade is split up into 3 specialities, Me being in the literature and language speciality, there is a much more focused curriculum. In my group, we take Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and Earth Science all in on class, which we only have once a week for an hour and a half. I don't see how we can learn anything with such a broad range of study, with such a small amount of time. On top of that, I was helping another student with math homework, hard to believe I was doing someone else's math homework when I couldn't even do mine right? and they are learning, as juniors, what we learned in Math I (Freshmen Math) in America... and they don't use any of the same formulas or methods, and they overcomplicate everything! For example: the F-O-I-L method first, outside, inside, last.... THEY DON'T USE IT! I was shocked! I don't know how these kids learn anything! and they kept talking about how they use their "tay-ee" to do the equations, and I couldn't figure out what they meant... Tay-Ee is the french alphabet pronunciation of "T.I." (texas Instruments) which means they use their graphing calculators, which are extraordinarily expensive here like $40.00 more than in the US. In my French literature class, we don't read books, we read excerpts from ancient texts, and try to dissect the meaning, I dropped AP English because I really don't enjoy dissecting books... and now i have to do it in French!? ugh! but the teacher is really nice and knows that I don't understand, so he lets me read this really effed up graphic novel in french about some sort of religious conflict that happened, I understand most of the content, but I still can't figure out where they are, and why they're doing what they are doing... And these kids, for being seemingly defiant outside of class, are extremely obedient and well mannered when the teachers are around. There is absolutely NO gum chewing, No drinking bottled water, or eating of any kind, they even frown upon cough drops... when another teacher enters the room, everyone stands and greets the teachers, then remains standing until they are told they can sit down. No one ever doesn't do their homework, and you aren't allowed to leave during class to use the bathroom. None of these things are that majorly harsh, but it is just things to get used to.

On top of all of that, teachers strike, A LOT, so there isn't school because all of the teachers are protesting for something, and in Public school, teachers just take random days off, and there are no substitute teachers! so if a teacher is missing, you don't have class! all in all I really like school, but it is totally different. I miss being able to go to a school sporting event, wearing blue and silver, and cheer for the bulldogs. there is Zero school spirit here aside from the people at my school, thinking that there school is better than one of the other public schools in Rouen (Jean d'Arc) haha.

I went into Rouen on Wednesday to go shopping with an American friend who lives in Elbeuf, a town south of Rouen and my town of St-Etienne du Rouvray. It was nice, I needed some more clothes... I didn't realize how much stuff I took out of my bag to avoid weight problems and having to pay $200 for an overweight bag! I didn't spend a lot of money, but I bought a good amount of stuff, and I bought a Striped t-shirt (everyone here has at least one)! I officially weigh 3 pounds less than the lowest weight in my old weight fluctuation zone, I am happy about that. French sizes are so weird though! Clothes are made for strictly skinny people... In America I am a pretty steady medium, sometimes a small even, but never a large or extra large... here, I wouldn't be able to fit my head in a medium... The larger the size, the longer the garment, but as the garment gets longer, its width stays the same! I am now usually a large, sometimes an extra extra large, My body type isn't rare here though, I don't know if everyone else buys the sizes I do, or if they shop somewhere else, but I found this somewhat surprising!
On top of shopping in Rouen, I got to take more pictures! I love exploring the city, it has a lot of history and a bazillion old churches, I want to see them all before the year is done! Sometimes I am jealous of the people that live farther out in the country because they get beautiful fields and rolling landscaped, but then I remember just how beautiful Rouen is and I get over it.

Because of the strikes, I didn't have school on wednesday, or thursday, and I also didn't have school this morning, so I am pretty excited about sleeping in!

I got a haircut on Wednesday, the Hairdresser came to the house and cut my hair right in the kitchen. It was really cool, and only 11 Euro which isn't bad considering if I went to a salon, it would cost about 25 Euro. The woman was really nice, really fast, and did a really good job. I am not used to no tipping people here. I always forget that they include tip in the price of the good or service, so tipping isn't really something that people here do.

Well I think I should get up now, It is 11:30 AM and I still haven't emerged from my room.
More to come!
Until next time
Love and Cheeeeese!
Jared

Re-cap...

So since I am starting this about 3 weeks into my exchange I am going to do a little re-cap.

I arrived in France on the 26th of september after a solid 18 hours of travel... and a six hour time-zone jump... the flights weren't bad... I had trouble sleeping on the flight, so that kind of sucked, but the kid sitting next to me was an 18 year old who lives in Paris and is a Terminale (senior) in high school. He was really cool, and he made me really excited to meet more french students! After arriving at Charles-de-Gaulle Airport, we waited in a customs line for an hour and then got our passports stamped and were allowed to enter the country. Most kids were meeting their host families, but I was meeting a Rotarian and another student from Canada. I searched for a solid 20 minutes before asking my chaperone if he knew where my ride was. The chaperone told me to find My host club's exchange chairman, which I did, and then waited with him for another 20 minutes before I was told what was going on. OH! and the wheel on my 50 pound suitcase broke off en route... so that was just the topper on my awkward morning. I then dragged my suitcase through the airport, up a broken escalator, and on to the tram, which brought us 3 terminals away from where we started. Again we had to walk... down two flights of stairs across the terminal and up an escalator. Wow my arms were tired. I met my ride and the Canadian student who is also going to school in Rouen, but at a different high school. and we returned to the parking garage to get into the car and go to our new homes.

Once we got into the car, the thing I feared most happened: the Rotarian started speaking in French! very fast French, and I was very tired! So after his third try, I understood and we decided to take a detour through Paris so we could see the city before the 2 hour car ride to Rouen. It was just as amazing as I had remembered. I can't wait to go back and actually stay for a little while!

I slept for the whole 2 hour car ride to Rouen... and I woke up as we were pulling up next to my new house! it was a lot bigger than it looked in the pictures, and the yard was huge! There are 8 foot hedges around all of the houses, it is very private, and very stereotypical European...

I got a tour of the house and unpacked... the first day is always awkward, but my family was so nice! and they speak some English, which will help a lot as I am getting my footing.

My first full day in France, we went into the city! It was so cool! I really love the city, it is the perfect size. I was very excited to go to high school in the city and be there everyday. We went to l'Eglise Jean d'Arc, which was awesome and modern with a lot of meaning. and Le Cathedrale Notre Dame de Rouen, which is SO COOL! it is SO BIG!

The supermarket here is called E. Leclerc... It is so cool! it is very similar to Walmart, but there is a bookstore/Music/Entertainment store attached. I was impressed. I am both excited at how convenient and close it is, but I am also disappointed that the French don't shop exclusively at small specialty stores for everything. The Bread and Cheese here is so good! as well as almost all of the other food!

I have been shopping a few times, French clothes are hella cool, I miss color sometimes though... they pretty much stay in the green, blue, black, grey range...

French birthday parties are so awesome! I'll make a separate entry to write about my experience!

Dieppe is an awesome village on the northern coast! it was so cool! More about this in another entry...

hmmm... What else... too much to think about now... I'll add more memories later.

Peace,
Jared

So I'm in France?!

...I know you all know that I am in France, but it is kind of just hitting me. It has been an interesting 3 weeks; a lot of confusion, headaches, awkward moments, misinterpretations, frustrations, new experiences, new friends, new clothes, new points of view, new EVERYTHING! I can't even begin to explain how new this is for me... I am excited to share my experiences with everyone through my blog! plus this is a little easier for me, and it saves me the headache of writing 8 e-mails that say what I did each week; don't worry Mom and Dad, and everyone else for that matter, you will still be getting e-mails... so welcome! its dinner time here, more to come later.

Love and Bisoux,
Jared