First Month: Sarreguemines, France

As much as it shocks me to say it, I'm hardly ever online anymore. I don't have the time to chat with people or update statuses as often as I'd hoped to since moving to France. But that's all part of the integration process, and I've been told time and time again that it's to be expected.

Still, I've been here for a month and a few weeks and I realized that I owe it to the people on the other side of the world to try and make time for online activities. Thus I'm writing this post. No doubt I'll forget over half the things I've done so far, because amazingly I've managed to fit a lot of activities and trips into just one month. But I'll reiterate as much as I can and try to keep it as original as possible.

My first month can be summarized as really freakin' awesome. I hit a few rough patches in the beginning, but as I said, I was told it was to be expected. Since school started and I've have a place to go 5 days a week and friends to see, so it's not like I'm rocking back and forth in fetal position for hours at a time. I'm genuinely having fun with my friends, whether they're from school or fellow exchange students. Learning french has proved to be as stressful as anyone can imagine, and I'm still in that stage where I'm afraid to speak because I don't want to say something crass or incorrect. But I'm coming out of my shell more and more, and with the help of my friends at school it's very easy to learn the more modern way of speaking. Because let's face it: when you learn a language in school, you learn the proper way to say things. And by proper, I mean older way to say things. Like, a borderline Shakespearian version of X language. It's a bit intimidating, especially considering there are a few exchange students here who already speak french (what?) and it's frustrating when you realize you're loads more unprepared than they are. In the end though, it all comes back to patience and motivation. I want to learn french, and I want to be able to communicate successfully with my friends and family. So I will. Plain and simple.

My family has proved to be extremely helpful. In the beginning, my wonderful host mother Nathalie spoke english with me for the sake of making sure I was comfortable. As time went on, she transitioned to speaking more french with me. The same goes for my host dad Hervé. Sometimes they both repeat what they say in english if I can't understand, but after a month of hearing nothing but french my understanding is much better than my speaking. I can understand most things if people speak slowly, and Europeans like to talk with their hands too (which helps a lot). My family allows me to participate in the unofficial rotary meet-ups with the exchange students so I can figure out on my own how to make my way around France using the train/bus systems. I can confidently say I won't be in any danger of getting lost in the train station (at least in my town).

The exchange students here try to meet up as frequently as possible. There's only so much time we can all spend sitting at home, messaging one another. It's always better face to face. So we've met up in Nancy and Metz for day trips in the past 2 weeks. I'll include some pictures because if there's one thing we've perfected aside from understanding french, it's picture taking. I seriously underestimated what I heard from inbounds in California; the exchange students in your host country truly do become like a second family. At first we were just a bunch of kids from around the world in one unknown country, but it's changed so much already. I love all the people in my exchange family to bits, and honestly they make the whole exchange better. Because we're all in this for the long haul. One year in another language, making friends, and trying to fit in all over again.

Fitting in at school was fairly easy, considering I was approached by virtually everyone. That just made finding a usual group of friends very easy (also some of my classes have like... 7 people in them). My school is a private school and a religious school, which is the epitome of new for me. A few weeks ago we had the first sermon of the school year outside which was pretty interesting to watch. I don't know much about church services, and I know even less about french church services, but I found it unique and definitely a foreign. As my home Rotary club would say, "It's not right, it't not wrong, it's just different."

Before I forget, here are those pictures:

The view from the backyard of my new house

Not nearly the entire squad, but the people who came to Nancy ;)

The cathédrale in Nancy

Me and the Argentinian baby Agustina, alternatively titled I'm Tired Of Being Taller Than Everyone and Having to Crouch for Pictures

The exchange kids who came to Metz

Metz Cathédral at night

On-the-water housing in Strasbourg I'm insanely jealous over

Picture from the top of the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg

Every city here is so incredible and full of history. This region in France specifically, Alsace Lorraine, has a lot of past history due to the area previously belonging to Germany before World War 2. It's interesting because so many of these old houses that line the streets and are inhabited existed hundreds of years prior. Learning about french culture has been made so much more interesting because it's coupled with so many events that took place where I'm currently living. It's only been a month, but it's gone by so fast already. I'm excited for what comes next and to see all the new places I have yet to visit.

More updates are for sure to come. Until next time!