School, Food and the City

This past week has been a little more uneventful than most. I did a lot, but it was nothing much out of the ordinary. Like most weekends I went out to downtown Rennes and walked around with Eliza. The weather has been pretty cold and it's been raining a lot but at least for those three hours it was pretty nice out! Sunday wasn't that fun of a day. I ate a good breakfast then we went to my host dad's mother's house for lunch. Her cooking was amazing so that made me feel a little better but after lunch my host parents left somewhere so I was stuck in a room with my two host siblings until almost 5 o'clock in a room watching American Dad in french and eating candy. Remember when I told you how they ate? Yeah, so not the best time. I didn't even have wifi so I spent that time organizing all the pictures in my phone into files. I have 217 pictures of Pim and I've taken 233 pictures here in France so far. I wanted to take a picture of my friend Saku and I today because we were both wearing very similar flannel shirts! I really enjoy all the people in my class. Unlike most of the other classes, everyone in my class is very open and very willing to help me when I have even the stupidest of questions. They help me with my school work too, but not so much to where I don't do anything. For example; I had to make a presentation with a friend about solar energy. She made me research and write my whole presentation and then she went over it with me and corrected it for me! I didn't have to present it today and I don't have that class (SVT) for another two weeks so we will see how that goes. Another thing at school that's new is that there are four kids from Nebraska, they are only here for about five days though. They leave on Wednesday. It's weird though, I felt like an elder in a tribe talking to foreigners. Explaining the way of life in France. None of their french speaking skills were good enough to ask a francophone, so my class asked me to just answer their questions in English which was kinda really nice feeling useful and not like a burden to my classmates, which was a new experience for me. I guess that's isn't totally true. I tried to help my friend Emma, whom I became pretty close to, with her French. She's from Ireland and was only here for five weeks, I wish she was here for longer because we clicked so well. We will probably stay in touch though. I forgot to mention that Wednesday, since it was a half day, that Eliza, Alyssa and Emma and me all went shopping and got snacks and just had so much fun roaming downtown. That's what I think I'm going to miss the most when I leave here in June, the feeling of just walking around in such a beautiful city and getting lost in the cobblestone streets is just a feeling I'm not sure I can find in America. I guess that means I have to come back someday!
My English teacher wants me to start helping "teach" the class in someway, she doesn't know how she wants me to help yet but when she figures it out I'm sure I can handle it!
I forgot to mention that the week before last there was an eclipse but the teachers made everyone stay in the classrooms because they didn't want the student during their eyes. It was a very cloudy day so one could not see the eclipse until the end of the whole thing so I didn't miss much there.
I'm now starting to really watch what I eat and I'm trying to at least do some sit-ups every day. I'm not ashamed that I've gained a little extra on the sides because, hey, I'm in France! It would be more weird if I didn't gain! So I went to a healthy store and made some trail mix that I eat for breakfast, then now at lunch I don't get a baguette sandwich, instead I'll just get a salad. For dinner our food is always home cooks and not very unhealthy but I'm still cutting my potions down a little bit. I'm taking this more as a challenge than a chore. Yet another thing that I have to overcome and once I achieve my goal it will feel so awesome! Also, it makes me feel less guilty knowing I've been eating small, healthy meals when I cheat and eat two too many churros... they were so good though... sorry, Mom I know you don't approve of that kind of behavior.
Sorry my blog posts are all over the place, I will work on that next week!

Actually Doin' Stuff Now

This past week has been quite interesting! For the second half of Monday, all of Tuesday, and the first half of Wednesday, the high schoolers had to the Epreures communes. Which is their big standardize test, or at least something like that. Me, not being fluent in the language, had to sit in the library with three other exchange students during that time. Monday we took some sort of test about child soldiers and how these organizations are trying to help free them and then we had to write a 150 word essay on a good and bad thing that has happened in our country sometime in the past 30 years. I'm just going to say that my test overall probably was not great and leave it at that! Tuesday, we had to create presentations about the differences and similarities between our high schools in our home countries and the high school here. It was pretty cool because the other exchange students are from Ireland, Canada and Australia so all of our presentations are at least a little different. We all had to make our presentations with zero guidelines besides what I previously stated. They all made powerpoints with all of their speech on that but I made a powerpoint just of pictures (Mountain Vista has some great pictures on google images of our student section at sports games). We were all finished and had nothing to do for about two and a half hours so we left to go sit in the sun and take pictures of the school, we were told just to not leave the campus. The colors all over my school are so crazy. One classroom is purple and a neon-ish yellow. I didn't get any pictures of the classrooms because they were either locked or had a class going on inside, but I got pictures of the hallways and I'll try to put them on my shutterfly (which I've been having trouble with lately so be patient with my lack of tech skills) and you'll get the gist of what I'm talking about when you see those! Then Wednesday we just hung out and talked and then went to downtown to get some sushi and candy to eat in a really pretty park that I had gone to a few weeks back. Wednesdays are only half days for most all students so we just had to wait three hours before we could leave. Thursday and Friday went by pretty fast! Nothing too special happened. My host brother did leave for London this morning and he will be there for a week with his school so thats really exciting for him! He really wants to learn English and so even though he has a long way to go, his accent is more understandable than a lot of other students even in my grade. After Wednesday though, the temperature has been decreasing and the amount of clouds have been increasing. Saturday, I did go on a forty minute run because I got lost, but thankfully it was pretty sunny most for most of it! Then today I went on about an hour and a half walk with my host mom and we just talked and she showed me around town which, besides the little square of the bank, post office, a few restaurants and a grocery store, is just houses. We did get to the edge of Thoriné-Fouillard and it was a lot of, very pretty, open fields and old stone houses. I'll get more pictures in the weeks to come. I'm so scared I'll forget a lot of what I'm experiencing, but at the same time what I'm experiencing is so cool I don't think I could ever forget this even if I wanted to.
Fun things that happened to me today! I signed up for a 5K Color Me Rad Run Rennes for the weekend after my birthday! I'm so excited about it! Probably more excited about it than I should be but I don't even care! I love that I have something to look forward to. Also, I'm in the process of finding a place I can volunteer at but it's proving a little more difficult than I thought it would be but hopefully in the weeks to come I'll get it all sorted out!

Classic High Schooler's Life of School and Fun... But in France

As I write this, I have to admit I am quite tired. I've been getting back into my night owl nature and just not getting enough sleep. If I have learned one thing in these past two months, it is that french is a much more enjoyable language to the brain when your brain is not yelling at you to get to a quiet place to sleep. I did have a very busy week last week so my lack of sleep was not just thanks to reading and watching YouTube (vlogbrothers are great by the way). Last Tuesday I had to wake up at six o'clock a.m. to catch an early bus to get to school thirty minutes early so that I could go on a day trip to Nantes with about forty other students from various art classes within my school. It was about a two hour bus ride to spend the morning walking around, learning about the public art and interesting architecture within the city. Then we sat in a park for lunch and had a classic french lunch which consisted of an apple, a little thing of cheese, some sort of sugary bread thing, a water bottle, potato chips, and a baguette sandwich which only had butter and ham on it. I really love the simplicity of most of the meals here, even the ones my host dad serves at my house. I do, however, really want Chick-fil-a, basically all the time. Paige if you're reading this, be prepared to see me at work a LOT this summer (For those of you who don't know Paige, she is my friend who works at Chick-fil-a). Anyways, for the second part of the day we went to this kind of odd place with a lot of old robot animal machines in which you could ride and I found it a bit strange to be honest. It did have some cool elements and I'm glad I saw it anyway even though it wasn't really my kind of art. The bus ride back was fun. I introduced my french, australian, and japanese friend to my guilty pleasure of putting peanut butter on oreos! Everyone thought it was going to be extremely disgusting for some reason but once they all tried it they quickly changed their minds. We got back to the school at about 18:00 which is one hour and twenty minutes later than the usual time I am finished with school on Tuesdays. Mondays and Thursdays are my toughest days because I am at school from 8:05 (9:05 on Mondays) until 17:40! Which is 5:40 p.m. for all of you who don't know. I don't know why the school day is so long. Not only that, but the classes are mainly all just lectures on whatever we are learning. It is painfully boring. Sometimes I'll try to write down some thoughts in class but most of the teachers are very strict and won't allow phones, food, books, or even water! Yes, you heard me! I am not even allowed to stay hydrated during class. I really don't understand why but oh well, the teacher has to look at the board at some point. I try not to fight the system too much, but I have to say, they make it so darn tempting. I've given up trying to ask because I've never received a satisfactory answer. I'm just going to leave it at I really miss Vista and I'm going to really try my hardest to never complain about it! Even though things here in France have never been better and my more carefree attitude has been helping an enormous amount with my overall mental health, I still miss my friends and family a lot. I just wish they were here with me. I feel like I might be saying that a bit often here in my blog posts but well it's what's on my heart a lot. However, going out with friends and getting closer to people here is what makes my homesickness practically disappear. On Friday I went out to get dinner in downtown Rennes with my friend, Joel. Seeing the city at night was a whole new experience, all the shops were closed and the streets with the restaurants and bars were lit up and there were a ton of college students and young adults. It was so lively! Definitely a fun experience! Next weekend, all of the exchange students at my school were going to go together to a popular city by the ocean (I forgot the name), but our local ordinator canceled it because he was too busy to take us. I was really looking forward to it too. That means I'll probably just go exploring in the city again with a friend! I need to get out next weekend, because with the exception of Friday night and my run on Sunday, I didn't get out of the house at all this last weekend! I got a lot done still but my family was surprised because I usually go to the store or to downtown almost every Saturday. Until next week! Bisou!

Day 61! What?!

It's still weird to think how incredibly far away I am from all my loved ones. It never hits me until I actually see a map and think, "Wow, if I want to go home I would have a lot of swimming to do."  Thankfully, I am starting to really enjoy my life here and I'm even getting a little nervous that the next 111 days won't be enough time! However, at the same time I look back and realize how much I've learned, how much I've grown and how many new things I've done! Just this past week I tried mussels! I have never eaten so much seafood in my whole life as I have in these past two months. All the fish and different things from the sea that I've eaten, I usually like the taste. It's just the texture that I can't seem to enjoy. I'm sure when I come back to Colorado I will be begging my mom to cook me up some mussels though. Another thing about food, I've decided I'm going to ship all my clothes back in boxes and just fill my suitcase, carry on, and backpack with all my new favorite foods and snacks... not sure if even that will be enough room. Sorry mom, but when I come back you will have to help me control my sweet tooth. I'm pretty sure gaining a little extra on the sides is just something that comes along with studying abroad in France. I don't know any exchange kids that didn't gain a few pounds their first few months here. For all I know this could be my first and last time eating all this delicious food so I'm going to shamelessly enjoy it for at least a little while! I'm still jogging about twice a week and swimming for a two hour P.E. class on Fridays (which is something I will bring back and do when I return because I really enjoy it!) and then doing exercises in my room almost everyday. So I'm still taking care of myself, don't worry parents. Eliza (my Australian friend) and me have decided that on our half way mark in France is when we will actually start making an effort to eat more healthy and we will keep each other accountable for working out and getting healthy food at lunch. Until then I will enjoy my baguettes. Yesterday Eliza and me walked in the city for about 4 hours and got hamburgers and candy from our favorite candy shop named Magic Pills. It seriously has the coolest candy. I think I will fill my backpack with that next June. Anyways, we walked around and got lost (of course) and found this really awesome market that was very crowded with every kind of fresh food you could ask for! We also stumbled upon this park with a bird house and tons of flowers and fountains. Everytime I go walking in the city I become even more enchanted. I will post pictures to my shutterfly today so you all can see what I'm talking about. Not only was it one of the best city adventures I've had thus far, it was also the warmest and sunniest day I've had living here! I was very happy to be able to leave the house without having to wear a heavy jacket or my raincoat. Even though I love the city and taking the twenty minute bus ride, it still is expensive to eat out and buy snacks and little things here and there. Advice to anyone reading this who is thinking of doing an exchange: You shouldn't have to stress a crazy amount about money and the best way to do this is to become organized. I need to get better about that but I do have an allowance that I try my best to stick to and I've found the best way to stick to it is to make a shopping list and not stray from it, and put in account for eating out and school stuff and extra expenses which, for me, march has been bringing a lot of. I'm really excited for this month because I have so much going on and I'm going out with my friends more which is such a blessing! I just need to not have a shopping spree every time I step into a mall. Which only happened once, calm down, Dad. :)
Random updates: I talked to my counselor and we picked out my classes for next year, even though it's going to be a lot, I couldn't be more excited for my senior year! My family is great! I've been getting closer with my host parents and are more open to them. Also, I weirdly miss doing my own laundry, here I put my laundry down a shoot (which is really cool, I have to say) but I could get it back in one or even five days. I miss knowing I'll have my socks back that night. I don't miss doing my own laundry nearly as much as I miss my friends and family. It's hard not having them here but I'm also glad I'm proving to myself that I am my own person that doesn't need any others to prove that I can happy in my own skin. I think for the first time in my life I'm fairly happy with my mind. I have a theory that you need to eat two kinds of food. Food to make your body happy (i.e. fruits and veggies) and food to make your mind and soul happy (i.e. sugar, carbs and everything nice). I have been eating enough of both and I'm giving my theory credit to my at least a little part of my newfound happiness.
I don't have much on the schedule for this next coming week, but after I get through this week I have a lot planned! I know my life here is getting more exciting because of how sore my feet and mind are by the end of the day. I should probably get some better walking shoes and more advil!

Learning to Dance in the Rain Even After I Fall

After having a better than expected break, by first week back at school was depressingly the opposite of better than expected. As I had back in America, I have here. Which was me occasionally having a bad week. Up until Thursday I just felt as though there was no light in me. I wasn't sleeping well and I just missed my friends at home. It was the first time I felt homesick since one of the first weeks that I got here. I saw my “friends” here starting to not be so welcoming and I didn't really know what to do. In the mornings my host sister would just walk way ahead of me to get to the bus and I couldn't catch up but she didn’t even wait for me in front of the bus. She just got right on the bus and didn’t even look back to see if I was following. This quite frankly made me feel like shit. I asked her what was wrong and she said nothing. So I just dropped it, but I’ll seriously ask her if she does it again. I being in a not-so-bright mood made me see the differences in the culture here that I defiantly don’t like, such as not waiting for someone who you are going to the same place with at the same time.  Also, the whole asking how you are doing but obviously not caring about your answer. I will have people say to me,” Salut! ҫava?” and before I get half a word out they are back to their original conversation. I don’t think they realize that it’s ruder to ask and not care about the answer than to just not ask at all. Lastly, it’s a difficult thing to get over their manors (or lack of). It astonishes me how many people blatantly smack and chew with their mouths open. I think to myself,” Why do you choose to look like a dog? Do you find that attractive or sophisticated? JUST WHY.” If you can’t tell, impolite eating is my number one pet peeve. And it seems as though most everyone eats that way, unfortunately for me. However, once in a blue moon I’ll find someone who doesn’t, so that’s nice. That’s how my week went until Thursday after lunch. All the exchange kids met in our local coordinators office and gave him updates on their lives and we went over future schedules and whatnot. The other exchange kids left to take an exam that the newer exchange students didn’t have to take. So that left Eliza (my good Australian friend), Alyssa (new girl from Canada) and me with M. Vidal. It was all going fine until he started asking me questions. Okay, here is some background info about me; I’m a slow learner, I have to study for a really long time before I understand something, but once I finally get it I understand it very well. It just takes a little longer than most. So back to my story, M. Vidal was asking me questions and I got the most of what he was saying and I answered back in the best French I could muster in my depressed, stressed-out state. Then after I asked a few questions on what the translation of certain words were that he was saying, I said a sentence that was very bad French grammar and before I could correct myself he said(in French),” Cassie, you need to work harder and care more about learning French.” I didn’t even know how to respond. He has had no idea what I’m going through and he took my asking questions and my bad grammar as me not caring!? I was getting so mad at this point but I apologized and said I was working at my French, but he then he even COMPARED me to another exchange student (Who’s actually my good friend from Japan). I looked at him straight in the eyes as big fat tears rolled down my cheeks and said, “Je ne suis PAS Saku.” I cannot stand being compared to other people.  I couldn’t believe that in all his years of being a local coordinator that he still didn’t understand that every student learns at their own pace and mine is just unfortunately slower than others. I just sat there crying. He obviously felt bad and was trying to make me feel better but I wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction. But once I did calm down the four of us went to the office to ask the office lady about a future exam and she saw that I was in distress so once the Eliza and Alyssa went to their classes and M. Vidal left she had me come into her office and she gave me a tangerine to eat and talked me through everything I was feeling and she made me feel so much better. All week I just needed someone to give me a hand of kindness and encouragement. She was the first person all week to actually sit me down and help me. Earlier in the week when I got teary eyed my French friends didn’t really do anything but say something like, “don’t worry”, or “it’s going to be okay” and left it at that. Well, yeah I know it’s going to be okay! But right now I’m not okay. Right now I need a friend. Then the office lady had me come with her to fix a couch and there were some other students in the grade below me who found out I was American and started talking to me and was so amazed in the different places that I’ve lived and just talked to me for the last hour of school. I don’t know how to explain but it makes you feel better knowing that someone takes a genuine interest in knowing at least a little about your life. Talking to them made me realize that even though I am surrounded by a lot of people that don’t really give a shit about me and my life, that doesn’t mean that I’m not interesting enough to get to know. It just means that they aren’t my kind of people; I can’t have a connection with everyone. It may not be ideal, but it happens and I found out that it’s nothing to be bummed out about at all. After skype calls with my parents and best friend on Thursday, and then after an evening in the city with Eliza and Alyssa on Friday, I realized that I don’t need everyone to be my friend. I have people in my life that deeply care about me. I have family and friends I can ALWAYS fall back on. I don’t need anyone who doesn’t even put forth energy to having even a friendship with me. I have an awesome life. Not only because of friends and family, but because of the places I’ve lived, I know my interest and passions, and I know that I’m not a mess-up (trying to make it stay that way, too). I maybe a sensitive over thinker that is a little crazy and has bad jokes, but now I FINALLY understand the meaning of ”you do you and I’m gonna do me.” I’m in France! I’m not going to let my once-in-a-lifetime experience be a bad one just because I’m not going to be friends with everyone. I got my few people and I’m going to roll with them. I’m going to be as nice to everyone as I can and hope for the best from them. But I’m going to expect the best from me, that’s really all one can do in life. I don’t want to give up on this trip and go home. I want to accomplish my dream of learning and traveling. I knew it was going to be hard seeing that I’m an extreme over thinker and my tear ducks seam to work overtime, but I’m learning more about myself and more about life than I ever would have thought because of these hard times. Which is bitter-sweet. But with my new I’m-gonna-do-me attitude I feel like I’ll have a little more fun than I probably would have had otherwise in the months to come.  I want to be able to have great stories to tell my friends and family when I come back, so in the next 119 days, I’m going to make those stories happen weather I have awesome friends by my side or not (And my blogs won’t be such rants like most of this one was)!

School Tomorrow *crying*

My two week vacation is over. I did make the most of it though so I'm happy about that. This past week I mainly just hung out with my host family. I went to a cool carnival thing in the city where everyone was dressed up all crazy with Faustine and a few of her friends. It was very entertaining! I also went into the city to meet up with three other exchange students for lunch and that was very fun! I also tried a bit of the McDonalds. They said it was better in France than in the United States. I wonder if they've ever had it in the United States because from what I could taste it was still just a cheap, gross burger. Not gonna eat there again. That's one frustrating thing about eating out here with friends. So many of my friends wants to go to Dominos or some restraint that they have in the United States, like KFC, that's pretty big here, too. It's not that hard of a situation to get out of, though. Friday when I went out with my exchange friends we went to go eat kebab (not sure how to spell it) and it is something none of us had in our home countries. I am so eating there again because it was very good! I love trying new food, at least once! I'm not sure the next time I'll be able to go out though because we have seven weeks of school and I'm pretty sure we don't have so much as a three day weekend.  I'm not very much looking forward to the cold, early mornings and the long boring classes. The only reason I am looking forward to school is because that is where I learn and practice my french the most, and the school lunches are really good. Also, I've made some friends at school that I haven't seen this vacation so I'm looking forward to talking with them again. I'm excited that my french is improving, but I still have a long way to go, here is for everyone who asks me how my french is coming along (I wrote this when I was bored in class a few weeks ago): It's weird, learning French outside my actual French class back in the States. In the classroom your improvement is documented in how well you do on your homework and tests. Learning a language by everyday, all day, total immersion is a little bit hard to document. I try to write down the new words I learn but every week or so, my speaking is getting faster, more correct and more confident. It's more learning new phrases than words, and sometimes I'll know how to say a word or phrase but I won't know how to spell it or sometimes I won't even know the exact translation so I just won't write it down. There is no one moment I look back on and remember where I improved on my reading or speaking. I am not fluent by any means but I can understand a more simple conversation when people speak slower, and I can also hear each individual word even when people speak fast. I usually don't understand what they are saying because it's just too fast, but when I first came here when people talked it was just a jumble of noises. So theres an improvement! I've almost been here two months and I can't really remember the specific time when I improved. All I can tell you is that I remember how awful my french was when I got here and I know my skills now at this moment. Every exchange kid you talk to will tell you about the same thing. About the three month mark is when you'll be able to understand most of the speaking and reading and then after that your speaking and writing will improve faster than ever, usually by (at the very least) the five month mark. There is no one day when you say to yourself, "Everything clicked! I'm fluent now!" I looked up the definition of fluency in a language and basically you have to be able to speak correctly and without hesitation. That will come to me definitely by the time I get back home but I still will make mistakes and I will not know every word in the dictionary. I don't know if I ever will become, what I see as, truly fluent, to where people wouldn't even know french wasn't your native language. So here is my answer in short: Everyday I am growing. Every week I am improving. For me personally, I don't know when basic fluency will come. Hopefully in these next few months. Even if I'm not truly fluent, that doesn't mean I won't be able to have a good conversation with a french speaking person and that also doesn't mean I wont be pretty good at speaking french by the time I get back this summer. I'm excited to talk to the people I know who I can practice my french with. Even though I am loving it here more and more with every passing week, I can't wait for next summer!

Family are friends, not food

I am now halfway through my two week vacation. I'm glad to say that even with some personal drama I'm still growing in my language skills and taking every opportunity I can to become closer with people here. I was, however, starting to take my host family for granted and pretty much only seeing them at meal times. It wasn't until this week I fully realized that they are my family. They aren't just here to give me food and a place to stay. They are here to form a relationship with. They are here to listen and talk about the good and bad parts of my day. I feel awful for not trying harder to be more a part of the family before, I read this quote, "the only person you have to be better than is the person you were yesterday." So I am not going to just live in regret. I've already started watching TV and hanging out with my host siblings more. I have started asking more questions about everything (even things I know so that I can get a little extra french practice in). I have also asked my dad to teach me how to cook, because I am hopelessly lost when it comes to cooking and I have a big appreciation for a good, home cooked meal and I am not going to just hope and pray I marry someone who will cook for our kids every night. It will also be cool to come home and cook my family and friends a French meal! So far I have only learned a simple omelette dish because I only asked him the other day, and last night and most all of today I was at my Australian friend's house. I will get to how that was in a little bit, I'll tell you how my week went in the order it went in instead of jumping around so much. So, last weekend I tried some new food! I had a liver. not sure from which animal and I didn't really know what it was at first. I kinda thought it was a different kind of steak. All in all it was not bad, but I didn't find it that great either. I also had pig stomach! It kinda just looked like an odd kind of baloney slices. It also, was not bad but I don't think I will be craving it anytime soon (or ever). My family never tells me what kind of food I'm eating until after I ate it. I think it's so I won't become to scared to eat it. There was this one other food that is very common in the United States... yet the way it was served in  bowl was... well... different. It was shrimp. I already know I don't like shrimp so I didn't have to try it. The shrimp, though, didn't come how you may be imagining it. It had the legs and eyes and full body and everything and you had to pull it all off! Now I don't eat a lot of seafood so that may be normal but that was bizarre to me. Just pulling off all the legs.. I didn't even like watching the process.I also tried bread and cheese with lettuce! That is my new favorite snack. I am also just really falling in love with cheese! Even though I am surrounded by all this amazing french food, I've been really craving a burger from Smashburger or 5 Guys and also I really have been wanting mexican food, even just chips and salsa. So when I go out to eat with friends I will now suggest something along those lines. I did more than just eat though, I went to Saint Malo with my host parents and Maxent (host brother) and it was so historic and beautiful. It's this walled town/city right on the ocean and good lord do I love the ocean. I mean I love the mountains too, but there is just something about the ocean that will always have a special place in my heart. At Saint Malo , there was also a little boardwalk carnival there with a ton of rides and games and it was like something from a movie it was so fun to just be there and walk around and my host dad bought me my favorite pastry so that made me very happy.  I also went out shopping with my friend Joel again, I had a hung out a lot with Faustine's friends (she's my host sister is you don't know) and then of course I hung out with Eliza (my Australian friend). It has not been a disappointing vacation so far to say the least.Well, except the whole difficulty of relationships from so far away. However, I have a great support system here and I've been leaning on my family and friends here, but also I have a fantastic support system back in the States. I feel as though it is important for an exchange student to have friends and a family member who really knows you and knows how to calm you down and everything because your new friends can help a lot, don't get me wrong, just sometimes you need someones voice you know. I do feel as though I am extremely lucky to be in the situation I am in. My family really helps me with my french and my host sister is so awesome. I wonder if week two of vacation will be as fun and eventful, fingers are crossed!