C'est difficile, mais c'est la France!

I've officially spent two amazing weeks here in France, and I have so much to write! I'll start with school.
Monday:
I start school at 8:30 with two hours of sports, which is easy right now. We are playing basketball! After sports, we have a 15 minute break, then I have an hour to do anything because I don't have class! After the one hour break, I have one hour of English, then I am done for the day! After I'm done with classes, I eat in the cantine at school, which is surprisingly really good compared to the United States. After lunch, I take the bus home, which is really easy. On Monday nights, my host mother signed me up for a dance class! It's a great way to work out, and to make new friends. I love mondays. They are a great way to start the week!
Tuesday:
Tuesday's are one of my hardest days. I start school at 9:30, so I get to sleep in a little! I start school with one hour of French, then hour of break, then one hour of history, then lunch. French is definitely my hardest class. It is very difficult to understand anything. And in both history and French class, you are expected to take notes while the teacher is talking. After lunch, I have one hour of English, then two more hours of French, followed by one more hour of English(on even weeks). After school on Tuesdays, I usually take the bus home and finish my homework, and go to sleep early.
Wednesday:
Wednesday's is definitely the easiest day, because I don't have any classes! I take this time to sleep in the finish some homework. Then, in the afternoon, I usually go out with my friends!

This is a picture of me and one of new friends last weekend at the train station getting ready to go shopping!
Thursday:
On Thursday's, I start at 8:30 with one hour of math, followed by one hour of history, then one hour of French. After I have two hours for lunch, followed by one more hour of history. Thursday is a pretty easy day. Math in France is very different. Their multiplication is our addition, and their addition is our multiplication. It threw me off at first, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.
Friday:
Friday is by far my hardest school day! I start at 9:30 with one hour of French. Then, we are split into groups, A and B. I am in the B group. So, I have two hours of science then one hour of lunch. After lunch, I have one hour of french followed by one hour of english, then math. By the end of Friday's, I am always dead tired.
Saturday:
yes, I have class on Saturdays! :( However, I only have two hours of history(on odd weeks) starting at 9:30. On even weeks, I only have one hour of history, starting at 10:30. It isn't that bad. Last week Saturday, after classes, I went into Paris with a couple of my friends! We went to Bastille, then the eiffel tower, and sat in a park for a while. There was also a parade for the handicapped going on so we watched that, then went to a cafe and I had my first crepe! It was so good!

This is me and my best friend here, Amanda!

This is a picture of me with my first crepe!

This is a picture of the beautiful park!

This is a picture of me and my friends in front of the Eiffel tower!

This is a picture of Bastille!


This is a video of the handicapped parade!

I am going to end this entry with a question one of my new friends asked me. It really made me think. My friend asked me, "Why do we have learn 3-4 languages in school, where people in the United States only really learn English and possibly one other language?" I really did not know how to answer that. I have to go eat lunch now!
bisous tout le monde,
Natalia

Je suis en France!

After many days of traveling and orientations, I am finally in France with my host family! We arrived in Paris, France on Friday, September 3. After arriving, we went straight to our hostel (hotel). The hostel was better then expected! The rest of the day, we took very long naps, and got to know all the kids from the other countries.

On Saturday, the orientation leaders split us into groups. One group group went into Paris first, and the other had orientations. Then we switched activities after lunch. My group went into Paris first! It was better then expected! We saw all the famous monuments from our bus, but we got to get out to see le tour eiffel.

After our tour we had about 2 hours of orientations. They were surprisingly fun!
That night was full of emotions! We were spilt into our region groups, and given our travel information. I got lucky, and was placed right in Paris, so I didn't have to travel anymore! However, some people had to wake up at 4 am! After our group meetings, I had to say goodbye to all of my new friends... it was very sad.
Onto Sunday! Sunday was the day we were all waiting for! We finally got to meet our host families! My host family arrived at our hostel around 11 to pick me up, and I was so excited I ran straight to them when i saw them. We greeted each other with the traditional french "bisous" or kisses. My family then took me to my new home! It is absolutely gorgeous! My host mom, Laurence, decorated my room in my favorite color, pink!

For lunch my host father, David, made sausage and chicken on the bbq. It was delicious!
Well, I have to go! I will continue the blog with my first day of school later!
a bientot!