C'est ma vie.
I have been in Europe for two months now. It feels so strange to be away from home. I often wonder how I'll be able to repeat stories or how I can use my words to make people understand my experience.
Here is a background of my life in France:
I live in La Rochelle, France. It is the third most visited city in France. It's beautiful. It has ports, historic towers, and lovely architecture. What has made my stay challenging is school. I attend Sup de Co, a private school. I am taking 7 classes in English. The system is block schedule. Every week I have a new class. The times vary; sometimes I will have the class for three hours in a row or all day (7 hours). It's really difficult. The human mind can't focus that long. My professors are native French speakers so their accents are thick and really hard to understand. They misspell words or use words incorrectly. Classes here aren't interactive so they just talk and talk and talk. The French students are always on their laptops using Facebook or talking among themselves. The cherry on top of the cake is that our finals are in the same week of December and we have to remember everything from every class, no matter how far back we took it. No study guide, no guidelines.
I review my notes, ask questions, and study with friends but I still feel really nervous about my final grades.
The school staff is never working or when they are, they send you to someone else whenever you have a question. There's no specific group that caters to international students.
Locals can also be rude sometimes. They get annoyed that you don't speak perfect French. But hey, at least one tries!
Other than that, there are nice French people just like there are good days and bad days. The lady I live with, Marie-Jeanne, is very nice. She helps me with my French and makes superb food. I got lucky with her as many of my friends who did home-stay have had people who are mean and only host students for the money.
France is a beautiful country, with a rich history. I am lucky to be experiencing studying abroad. I have traveled to other places and I still have places left to see. Through this blog I will write down my thoughts and experiences of my time in Europe. Hope you enjoy!
**I apologize for my grammar. I constantly go from English, to French, to Spanish making each language a blur.