Keep Your Head Up!

Today marks the end of my first week with my host family!

 They have been really great but I am realizing how hard being an exchange student really is. I knew there'd be rough days but I never it expected to be this difficult. Before I came everybody from AFS told me that going abroad will be the hardest thing you ever do and now I'm realizing what they meant. It's so many mixed emotions and there is really no words to describe it. It is being completely overwhelmed with everything; the language, a new family, missing your home, and so much more. Anybody going on exchange believe me when I say this: It is a rollercoaster of emotions. One minute I find myself missing my family so much that it hurts and the next I am super stoked on something French. It's really ridiculous actually.

Before I left everybody told me I am the type of person to go on exchange and I convinced myself it would be so easy. Now Im realizing it's not like this. I'm not saying I wish I wasn't here because I am so happy with being here I am just giving other people going on exchange that if your first week isn't amazing, you got to keep your head up. I just have to keep telling myself how lucky I am to be here. As much as I would love to be curled up on my couch at home watching gossip girl with my family or friends, I have to remind myself this is the chance of a lifetime and not everybody gets this opportunity.

Anyway, enough with that! This week I had a few days of school and it was alright. The school is so cold and I have no idea where Im going but it was fine. I pretty much just followed my host sister around because we are in all the same classes. I really like my host sister but Im starting to realize maybe this isnt such a great idea because its really hard for me to make my own friends. So I think I might ask my host family to switch classes. Its important that I do but its kinda hard to bring up. However if I switch classes it will also help in the long run because I dont think its good if we are together every hour of the day for 5 months. She's really great but we will already spend all our time at home and on vacation together so I think changing would be for the best.

Okay well thats it for now. Hopefully I will be able to update again soon. Sorry for the dramatic rant!

Goodbye America, Bonjour France!

Well here I am finally updating my blog. I have been putting it off since I dont currently have internet on my computer and typing on a French computer is such a pain. However I figured it was finally time to update. I don't think I can fit everything I need to say in one blog post but I will try.

So 2 weeks from today I was in my room with my best friends packing up my room and trying to keep my suitcases under the restricted weight. Packing everything was such a pain and I am finding stuff everyday that I wish I had brought. However I was still over by about 2 pounds. Luckily the airlines didn't charge me any extra fees. Saying my goodbyes was one of the hardest things I've ever done and they were definitely pretty dramatic.

The fact that I was first headed to New York with Hannah and her family was pretty distracting. We had an amazing time there and did a ton of fun stuff. We went to Broadway, Times Square, The Russian Tearoom, The Metropolitan, Central Station, Rockafeller Center, and saw the Statue of Liberty. I had so much fun and fell in love with New York. I would actually love to maybe attend college there after seeing more.It was also really great because we stayed in an apartment in Manhattan that looked out onto the Statue of Liberty. It was really incredible. After all the sightseeing though we finally had to check in to orientation and say goodbye to Hannah's parents.

It was fun to meet everybody at orientation however it seemed to drag on pretty long since we were all anxious to get to our contries. The kids there were going to France (of course), Italy, Russia, and Austria. There was probably about 30 or 40 of us there and only 2 boys. At orientation we talked about the rules, culture shock, other countrys' customs and played some cheesy games that represented exchange. Overall it was pretty fun. The best part though was making friends from all over the US who have so much in common with you. These people have become similiar to a support group. When it was finally time to leave all of us going to France said goodbye to the others and took a bus to the airport.

Our wait at the airport was pretty long but it wasn't bad since there was about 11 of us and we made it fun. During the flight most people slept but it was really hard to with all the nerves and excitement. I got about 2 hours asleep, some girls slept the whole flight and others didn't sleep at all. It was 8am in Paris when we finally arrived. However we had to wait at the airport for about 2 hours for the Argentines and the Australians while all of us were extremely exhausted and pretty hungry. When we finally got to the hostile we had to drag all of our suitcases up a flight of stairs and it was terrible! Then we got to eat and although the food wasn't good we all ate anyway because we were so hungry. After that we finally got our rooms and had free time while we waited for everybody else to get there. I shared my room with an Argentine named Lucianna and a Braillian named Flavia. They were both really cool but they are in my region so I will see them again in March! For the rest of the day we mostly all socialized and tried to relax. I was so relieved to finally go to bed since I had only slept 2 hours in the last 30 hours! Then the next day we had an orientation where we talked about all of the things we could expect in France and how to deal with problems. Although we had all heard this a million times this was the most helpful because it pertained to France in particular. After that we went on a tour of Paris. We stopped at the Eiffel Tower and spent about an hour there. Then we drove around the rest of France in a tour bus and it was really fun! We saw Les Champs d'Elysees, Le Louvre, L'arc de triomphe and a bunch of other stuff I dont remember. Unfortunately though my camera stopped working after the Eiffel Tower so I only got pictures of that and Les Champs D'Elysees. Hopefully I can return to Paris while I am here and see everything not in a bus. We finished orientation with an awkward Bisoux activity which consisted doing Bisoux with everybody at the orientation. But its definitely something you have to get used to in France!

The next morning we had to get up at 4:30 to head to the train station. It was really hard to say goodbye to all of the good friends we had made but we were all anxious to get out of the hostile and eat real food, sleep in a real bed, and of course to meet our families. We had to wait for about 2 hours at the train station and were all ecstatic to find that we finally had wifi! Then I had to say goodbye to Hannah which was really hard! She had been my support system for this whole preparation and I wasn't ready to lose that! But we said our goodbyes and Flavia and I boarded a train to Macon.

The train ride was pretty awful considering all we had that morning was coffee and we were both extremely anxious to meet our families. Then of course the high speed of the train didn't really help! Luckily it was only an hour and a half train ride! Afraid of missing our train Flavia and I dragged our huge suitcases down the stairs early and nervously waited. Then when the train finally arrived we both got out of the train lugging our suitcases behind us and saw our families waiting for us! We did the bisoux with everybody and they all talked in French for a few minutes while Flavia and I tried to catch a few words of what they were saying. Then we all said goodbye and headed to our towns.

In the car they asked questions and I tried to understand but it was so hard to focus because of how tired I was. All the jet lag was really catching up to me! We had a large lunch and then I slept for 4 hours. I woke up, watched a movie, ate dinner and went back to be for about 16 hours! I was so exhausted!

My family here is really great and the house is too! They are all so kind and help me with my french a lot. They love to watch movies which is really relaxing and helps me if I'm missing home. The house is great also and I have my own room with a tv! For an exchange student I am very lucky! There is a chateau right next door where Allain's (my host dad) sister lives and the vindeyards are surrounding the house! It's all pretty amazing.

Scholarship!!!

Okay well I thought the last post would be my last before I left until I got an e-mail from AFS. I opened it and was stoked to find that I got a scholarship! It wasn't too much money but anything helps and it's also extremely exciting that I was awarded it! The email explained how when I get back I have to speak to interested AFS students. It also read, "We believe that you are an outstanding ambassador to your host country and an admirable representative of AFS, Oregon, and The United States."

Needless to say this is really exciting! 

Two weeks!

I can't believe in two weeks exactly I will leave Oregon for six months. Then in 20 days I will be in Paris seeing the Eiffel Tower! This has been my home for the last 12 years and living anywhere else seems crazy! But I am so excited to go, as I have said in every other post.

People keep asking me if I'm nervous to go, but I'm not really. I'm anxious to find out what my life in France will be like, but I'm not nervous to go at all. The only thing I am nervous about is coming home. 

I'm scared that when I come back all my friends will move on and I won't even recognize them. I love the relationships I have at home and I am scared to leave them. However I know this experience will be with it. 

It seems like just yesterday I was filling out my pre-application thinking sure I'll go on exchange, it could be fun. Now I'm getting ready to leave and it's the only thing I ever think about. When I signed up for this I didn't quite realize how much of my life it would take up. 

Last Friday I went to the French Consulate in San Francisco to get my visa and now I am just waiting to get it back! It was pretty cool to hear all of the people speaking French but the people who worked there were rather cold. But things went well there and I ended up having all my paperwork I needed thanks to my mom! It was a fun, short trip to San Francisco I took with my dad! 

Now I just need to start packing, get presents for my host family, finish up with my schoolwork, and say all my goodbyes. The next two weeks are going to be very stressful and sad. It is going to be hard to say goodbye to all my friends,  my family, and my dogs! 

Well that's it for now, I will probably do one more update and then I will be in France! 

Joyeux Noël!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody has a great Christmas! 

Not only is tomorrow Christmas but it also is the one month mark before my orientation in New York which is crazy! I can't believe how close it really is. It's weird that I need to start thinking about packing and getting ready to leave Oregon. I was going to get my visa on December 21st but we were worried about getting all the paperwork in time so we rescheduled it to the beginning of January. 

A few days ago I skyped with my family for the second time and it went really well! They are super welcoming and kept saying how excited they are for my arrival, which was very comforting. I also found out that the father goes to Paris once a month to for his job (he makes wine) so I will be able to go a few times. They also said that we would probably go skiing and to the beach a few times. I'm so glad that I am staying with a family where I will get to see a lot of France! Overall it was really great talking to them!

I also just turned in a packet to apply for a scholarship. In the packet were recommendation letters, my letter to my host family, my transcript and an essay about how I was going to participate in the AFS mission. It took a long time to write the essay and perfect it but I am very happy the way it ended up. Now all I can do is hope I receive the scholarship! I should find out by January 7th, so fingers crossed! 

I also received my baggage tags today, which was rather exciting! 

Well I hope everybody has an incredible Christmas! 

A message from my friend who is currently on exchange.

This is a letter from my friend who is currently on exchange in Denmark. It scares me to know I am about to go into this but at the same time makes me extremely excited. I also found this to be incredible advice 

Being an exchangey student. 

Before I left, every student I talked to told me that they would never regret their exchange, they had an amazing incredible experience, they wouldn’t change it for anything. 

The thing they don’t tell you, is, the reason they say this is because they have gone through it, they have been on the exchange. … Let me rephrase. On exchange, you learn to look at your life and love your life and love yourself and see how all the strange paths, however painful or however amazing, have lead you to where you are. You learn to live with no regrets, appritiating your home, your family, your friends, yourself, your culture, more than you could have ever thought possible. 

Why wouldn’t everyone go on exchange then? I mean you get all these great experiences, learn a new language, attain this incredibly rare persepective that is oh so fairly impossible to attain in one year, esspecially so young. You get the best year of your life, handed to you on a platter. 

The reason is, because it is freaking hard. This is the hardest year of anyones life. No one really tells you this. Most people left it out of the itenerary. This year you’re are about to go on, will be so so terrible at times, that you just want to give up and go home, that you just want to cry and eat chocolate all day. And sometimes we do. 

But hear me when I say this; you are the bravest people I know. Stepping blindly foward into this whirl wind of crazy experiences. Cheers to you all. Because you are the kids that make those old rotarians hopeful when they think of the future. You are the kids that make me proud to be apart of this generation. We are the kids brave enough to step, blindfolded off the highdive. We are the kids running, shouting and screaming for more life and more adventure. And after eleven months of this, we look back and see how much we have grown, and realize, we are the captain of our fait, the master of our souls. 

Cheers y’all. Have an incredible year. 

50 Day Countdown Begins!

       Today I received my flight itinerary! I will be leaving home at 5:00 am to Portland and then boarding another flight straight to New York on the 25th of January. I'll arrive in New York at 3:30 pm, where I'll stay the night and do an AFS orientation. I think there we will also meet other students going from the US to Europe, but I'm not totally sure. Then the next day we leave at 7pm for France! We'll arrive in Paris at 8:30 in the morning, which is going to make for a very long day/night! In Paris we are going to spend 3 days at an orientation with students from all over the world who are spending the semester in France. Then on the 29th I will finally be headed to Le Chapelle de Guinchay! I'm not sure yet how I'm going to be getting there but I am guessing a train. And that's all the details about my travel plans.
        Wow, I can't believe I'm leaving Oregon in 50 days! It seems like a long time but when I think about it, it's really not. Especially since I only have 24 days of school left. I'm so excited I can't stand it! I'm really going to miss everybody in Bend, but I'm so excited that it's hard to think about missing people. Along with all the details about my flight I learned I can only bring 66 pounds of luggage along with a personal item (purse). I have no idea how I am going to fit 6 month of clothes into 66 pounds! It's going to be really hard for me to pack only a certain amount of stuff and I'm really not sure it's going to be possible.
        I also am going to be attending an AFS pre-departure orientation in Portland on the 14th of January, which just goes over last minute stuff. Then I have an appointment in San Francisco to get my visa at the French consulate on December 21st.
       Since I received my family, I have talked to them some but not too much. They told me that I'm going to be in in la seconde which is equivalent to a sophomore. My host sister is in this grade so that's one of the reason I'm starting there and if it's too easy or I don't like it they told me I can move up.
      Well that's all for now. Now I just have to get through the next 50 days which is proving to be very difficult. It's hard to wait when I'm this excited!

Thank you for all the support!

À bientôt! :)