The First Two Weeks

Since I'm a huge failure and didn't post anything for two weeks, be prepared for a long one. Sorry!
I'm not going to lie here--this has been really really hard. It's also been very frustrating for me. But I should probably start at the beginning and this is how that goes.

I took a flight to Amsterdam, then Paris. It's was in total around ten hours of flight. I flew with some other exchange students from Portland, and then there was a pretty large group in Amsterdam. I'm mostly just glad we didn't get lost! When I arrived, my host parents were waiting for me with a big sign with my name on it. I spoke a bit with them, but it was the equivalent of four in the morning so I was pretty tired. We ate lunch then went to the house. They had a super cute room ready for me which I love, and I think I slept thirteen hours the first night before waking up at six and not knowing what to do. My host parents, Sylvie and Eric, are really nice and do their best to make me happy. I have yet to cry about leaving home, though I will admit that I miss feeling like I'm at home. I'm hoping that one of my families makes me feel at home again. After the initial glamour wore off, I realized that, though my host parents are really nice and try really hard, we're just flat out not a good match. The hard part is that it's not that I'm horrible and it's not that they're horrible, it's that it just doesn't feel right to live with them. I think I'll be switching families soon because of that. It's a normal thing to have happen, but it doesn't make me feel any better when we all tried to make it work out.

Well, enough of my family situation. I started school about a week ago and I can't say that I love it because it's school, but I definitely don't dread it in the mornings. I was kind of adopted by my friend Margaux, who helps me out like you wouldn't believe. She has the same classes as me and she tolerates me following her around all the time because I can't find them myself. My school has six stories and you have to hike up the stairs all the time. The food at the cantine is actually really good, and I have many people to help me out when I do things like accidentally skip my Spanish class. Speaking of Spanish, the fact that I took five French classes and a Spanish class is really impressive in the US, but here I'm with the 14 year olds in Spanish :( oh well. I totally dominated when they were learning numbers so I guess that's okay. English class is really fun because my friend Hector (he's English) and I always have people asking us for answers or to be in their group. History will probably kill me before three months are up, French is fun if hard to understand, PE is much more interesting (I'm currently in a class that rotates gymnastics, swimming, step [you know where you step up and down on the block over and over], and badminton), and math is super easy.

There's a girl here from Canada who pretty much rocks, and we try to see each other often. We're hanging out on Wednesday, and then I'm staying the night for the weekend. It's really nice to have someone to speak English to when you're surrounded by French all the time.

My host mom makes such good food at dinner, and she made fondue the other night. Then they told me that if your bread falls into the fondue pot, you have to do something (often stupid) of the other diners choice. Sylvies bread fell in once, but we decided to be nice and let it slide. I've also been told that I need to like wine. It's not working out very well. At least I like cheese and bread!

Anyone who talked to me before I left knows that I have saved up a whole lot of money (nearly a years worth of work) for this year, and it's amazing how quickly I'm using it up. I've already been to H&M and Pimkie twice (my two absolute favorite stores plus they're a store away from each other here!) and I still want to go buy a watch (there aren't any clocks in the school) and get a haircut and buy more clothing and stuff like that. My funds are really going to be gone by the time I come home!

I obviously have an American accent when I speak French, but I'm really quite tired of people hearing it and immediately switching to English. Im also really tired of people thinking I don't understand anything. Seriously people, I studied French for five years before coming here. I can freaking understand you.

I've finally gotten used to the bisous, though I still really suck at knowing when to do them. It's a pretty touchy and confusing thing. I have three people that I know I'm supposed to give bisous every time I see them, but aside from that it's iffy. But the people in my class tolerate me. Oh, and that reminds me, I'm older than everyone in my class here! I was always the youngest at Summit, and I love being the oldest for once. Some people probably won't understand why I care at all, but it's a big freakin' deal for me.

I think I'll end with a list of the things I miss from the US: my pets, bellatazza, knowing how to express myself, feeling at home, never being uncomfortable, wearing sweatpants to school, not being interrogated by everyone once they learn I'm American, the lack of smoking, bath and body works (I'm absolutely not kidding I'm freaking dying here. My mom is sending me bath and body works crap because I can't live without it), driving, walking a reasonable distance away from people, not being terrified every time we get in the car, not having to close my eyes when we park because I'm so freaked out that well hit something, doing my own laundry (and doing my laundry in two hours), not bottled water, always knowing my sizes, lockers, making my own hot chocolate, not having people laugh at me because I don't like cherry tomatoes or bananas (seriously, it's like an inside joke or something. I don't know why it's so funny), hugs, being shallow (my friends know I'm shallow, but I just get this vibe that talking about shallow things [ie cute boys] is sort of just not something you do. This is why Hillary [my Canadian friend] is so awesome), not having people constantly worry about me, always knowing where I stand in other peoples opinions, and having constant confidence.

Well, I hope you didnt get too bored reading this, and here's to hoping I actually remember to post within a reasonable time frame.

Bisous, Gillian

 As a side note, I'll be sending out my first batch of letters/postcards soon. I wrote a date on all of them, but that's the date I wrote them--not the date I sent them.