July, Revisited

I know more about my host family now. They're so nice and welcoming and friendly and...nice (my vocabulary fails me, but oh well)!

So. They live in Palaiseau, a suburb of Paris. School is a 30-minute walk, a 15-minute bike ride, or a 10-minute bus ride away. I'm so happy to be able to walk to school! (I can't here.)

Vero is 21 and Morgane is 24, and they don't live at home but they come back to visit a lot. The family likes gardening and walking and other outdoorsy things. They're all quite extroverted.

They have hens!!!

And they have a second home in Bretagne!

They called me to talk about logistics and stuff...that was interesting because on the phone I can either speak in French or understand French, but not both. So the entire time all I said was Oui, Non, D'accord, and Je ne comprends pas (I don't understand). Plus I managed a few complete sentences, of which I was quite proud.

Let's see, what else?

I have a Visa appointment in Houston on August 14th. Fun...

Oh, and I'm feeling quite virtuous because I'm doing what AFS says to do and reading about France. I requested a million books on french culture (okay, five), and I've just started one that belongs to my parents. It's called The French.

Sorry my writing is so unfocused...excitement will do that to you.

34 more days!

HOST FAMILY!

Okay, I know I'm breaking my self-imposed one-post-a-month rule. But this is a special occasion, because guess what? I have a host family! Elation does not even begin to describe it. I don't know much, except that I have 2 host sisters, Vero and Morgane, and parents Daniel and Nelly (which seems to me to be the most un-French name ever...). Oh, and I have a host cat, Fleep-flip.

I actually don't even know where they live, so I'll update this post once they reply to my clumsily written French email (Vero wrote to me in English--I think she's the only one who speaks English? That would be good).

Yay yay yay! I'm going to go do my happy dance now.

J'attends toujours.

Still no host family.

The good news is that I've found some stuff to do besides wait beside the mailbox--crossword puzzles, rereading the entire Artemis Fowl series (which I adore, even if it is too young for me), and driver's ed.

I finished Culture Trek last night. It didn't feel very helpful, but maybe my subconscious has been molded to be more accepting. On ne sait jamais.

I'll write again at the end of July, or when I get a host family (fingers crossed), whichever comes first.

Pre-Departure Orientation

So I just got back from my pre-departure orientation, which was okay. First we spent about six hours learning that 1) Drugs are bad, 2) Sexual harassment is bad, and 3) Other countries have stereotypes about America. Plus we played a fun game that involved hitting a table.

There are six people going somewhere from San Antonio next year, but only four of us showed up--Paraguay for a semester, Argentina for the summer, Egypt for a year, and France for a year (me). They were all really nice, and I felt (somewhat) reassured because no one had a host family yet.

Waiting

Well, this is my official post for the month of May. Nothing AFS-y has happened, except once I got an e-mail from AFS. I got really excited because I saw "AFS" in the e-mail's subject line and I thought maybe they were telling me that I had a host family. But no. They wanted me to take a survey about my customer satisfaction. Oh well.

My pre-departure orientation is next Sunday. Another post then, perhaps.

Culture Trek and Visas

It's time to make another post, I guess. Since last month, AFS has sent me account information for Culture Trek and instructions for getting my visa.

Culture Trek is supposed to help me be more accepting of other cultures. It's a good idea--I don't know yet whether it will work since I've just started completing the activities, but so far it's thought-provoking if not enlightening.

In other news, the visa application process is pretty entertaining. I thought "in triplicate" was a joke, but it turns out that bureaucracies really do ask for 3 copies of everything. I'm a bit worried about this process--I can imagine getting to the consulate (in Houston, a 4 hour drive from San Antonio where I live) and having an intimidating bureaucrat tell me that I've done something wrong.

But I guess bureaucrats are a different cultural group, so I'll use my newfound Culture Trek tolerance skills to deal with them. (mostly kidding)

Still no word from AFS about who my host family will be. On the bright side, I haven't been bored in three months because I can always wonder about my host family.

I'm going to France!

OK, so I have no idea how to write a blog, but I'm supposed to blog about my French experience since AFS is giving me scholarship money, which leads me to my first point of order: Thank you very much to whoever donated the money.

Second point of order: I'm going to France, through AFS, which is an exchange program.

Third point of order: I'm leaving in September to do my junior year of high school in France, and I am very, very excited, but I don't know who my host family will be yet.

Now that I'm going to France for sure (unless my mom changes her mind...but she won't, I don't think), I keep thinking of all these ridiculous things to worry about (and they are ridiculous--stuff like what if I can't think of anything to say when I first meet my host family, or what if I start craving peanut butter and I can't get any).

The other day my french teacher told me "Tu vas rever en francais" (you're going to dream in french). That's going to be weird.