Oh la la. I am sitting in my bed at my first host family’s home as I write this post. I can’t believe I’m in France! It is absolutely unreal, and everything honestly feels like I am caught in a dream. The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy, so I’ll go ahead and give you all a little rundown of what has gone on, since this jetlag is messing with my sleep schedule hardcore, and I need something to do at this early hour.
So last week was a difficult week for me. My days were spent finishing my packing (and making sure I made the weight limits!) and saying goodbye to my friends and family. Every day last week I had several goodbyes to say over coffee dates, lunches and hangouts. Long story short, I cried more tears last week than I had cried in a looonnngggg time. Goodbyes suck, but the good news is I will eventually see everyone again, and we will all have new adventures to talk about!
On Saturday, my parents and I drove to Portland, where I flew out of, to spend some time with family before I headed out. I got to see my brothers and my aunt, uncle and cousin, all of whom live in Portland, so it was a good way to spend my last weekend in America. When Monday morning rolled around, we woke up bright and early and I was headed off to the airport. Saying goodbye to my parents was definitely the worst thing ever, and it was impossible for me to hold back the tears (I’ve become very accustomed to crying in public places after saying so many goodbyes in public over the last few weeks, so really it was no big deal.) When I finally pulled it together, I met up with a few exchange students who were also headed to France, and we went through security together and went to the gate. The first flight, Portland to Seattle, was only 30 minutes. In Seattle we had a 4 hour layover, so a big group of exchange students to France hung out together, anxiously anticipating our flight to our new homes.
Finally it was time to board! My friend from Eugene, Siobhan, and I tried to swap things around so we could sit together on the plane, but unfortunately it didn’t end up working. I watched movies the entire flight because, even though I was soooo tired, I was far too nervous to sleep. Finally, after 10 hours in the air, we landed at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport. All of the students who were getting picked up in Paris went through customs together, and we picked up a few more students on the way. Customs was super easy; all they did was look at my visa, ask where I was living in France, and stamp my passport.
After customs, we went to get our baggage. In all I brought 2 checked bags (both weighing 49 lbs, one lb shy of the 50 lb limit!), one carry on and then a shoulder bag that weighed roughly 1000000 lbs, and my pillow!! I had to get a cart to carry all of my baggage but it all worked out! I walked through the final checkpoint and saw some Rotary people from my district and my host family flagging me down and was instantly SO excited! I ran to them as fast as I could, ready to start speaking French, but as soon as I was addressed in French, I immediately forgot everything I had learned in my four years of French education and completely froze. I was happy when they spoke English to me, but upset with myself for not being better at French.
After taking some pictures, my host family and I got in their car and drove to Arras, the city where I’m living. It was about an hour and a half long drive, and I managed to stay awake for the majority of it, but I had been awake for a very long time already at that point, and ended up falling asleep. I woke up right before we entered the city, and lost my ability to formulate a proper sentence when I saw how unbelievably beautiful my town is. I can’t even describe it. The architecture of the region is amazing, and there are bricks EVERYWHERE. When I saw Le Grand Place and Le Place des Heros, the two main squares of the town, legitimately teared up. I had spent so much time looking at pictures of Arras, but nothing compared to actually being there. It is absolutely so beautiful I can’t believe I live there!
We went to my host family’s house (my current family is just my and my host parents, Christelle and Hubert, as my would-be host brother is on his own exchange to Japan) and dropped my bags. Then we walked into the center of town, literally a 2 minute walk, and had lunch at a creperie! I had a crepe with eggs, ham and French cheese, and it was to die for!
Up to this point I was feeling really good, but as we sat at the restaurant, it began to hit me that what I was doing was real. I was there for a year and there was no turning back. In that moment I started to miss my parents, and all of the sudden I wasn’t feeling as good anymore. After we had lunch we went back to the house and I went upstairs to unpack and take a small nap. My mom and I made a pact that I wouldn’t talk to my family until about a week had passed, but I just needed to hear from them, so I texted my mom on whatsapp. I didn’t think that I would be sad on my first day, and I really was trying not to be, but the combo of being awake for 36+ hours, being in a new place, not being able to fully communicate and just wanting to talk to my parents pulled a number on me, and I couldn’t hold my tears back. I felt so weak and vulnerable, but after a short nap I was feeling a lot better.
When I woke up, my host parents and I went to Auchan, a MASSIVE mall/supermarket, to buy some groceries. It was slightly overwhelming, but very exciting too. I loved looking at all of the French products and seeing how different it all was from an American grocery store. We came home from the store and I was able to talk to my mom, so after that I felt 10000x better. We had a yummy dinner of green salad, tomato/eggplant/rice salad, a potato/bacon quiche type of dish, and OF COURSE baguette! After dinner my host dad helped me insert my new French SIM card, so my phone is officially a French phone!
By this time it was very late so I headed to my room and did a bit of unpacking before heading off to bed. I fell asleep super fast, and slept soundly through the night until I was awoken by my host dad the next morning..... at NOON! I slept more than I thought but I woke up feeling great! I had some baguette and Nutella for breakfast, and took a shower. I got dressed, unpacked the rest of my bags, and then my host dad and I went to Lille to pick up my host mom from work and explore the city a bit. Lille is just................. unreal. It reminded me of Paris, just slightly smaller and honestly I liked it much more. We went to Meert and I had a “gauffre”, a famous waffle-type dessert, and it was sooooo yummy! We walked around the old part of the city for a while and I also got a Merveilleux, a cake special to Lille. It had white chocolate and speculoos and WOW. I could eat those alllllll day!
After a few hours in Lille, we headed back to Arras for a Rotary soiree. We arrived and I met a ton of Rotarians from the area, and lets just say I was completely confused and lost and had no idea what was going on. They all spoke to me in French and I could understand maybe one third of it, but luckily my host family helped me out and most people ended up speaking very basic phrases to me, or even English. Luckily I knew another exchange student, an Australian boy, would be there too, so when he arrived I was glad to have someone I could speak to in English! He also helped me to understand what was going on, as he’s been here for 8 months already, and it made me feel a lot better to have someone I could properly communicate with. The soiree lasted a long time and we didn’t leave until 11 pm, but I don’t think that is out of the ordinary, as dinner didn’t start until 9 pm. I went home and tried to go to bed, but the black tea I drank at the soiree didn’t aide my ability to fall asleep, so I started writing this! Day two was definitely a wonderful day and I am so excited for the many more to come!
So, so far so good! The next week is full of many fun plans, including a trip to Parc Asterix with my second host family and the start of school! I am so happy to be here and I cannot wait to see what adventures are to come! I’ll try to update as much as possible when I’m not too busy !!!
P.S. SO SORRY FOR THE LONG POST!!!!!!!!!
