Third-Fifth Month: Sarreguemines, France

Yesterday was, officially, the fifth month anniversary of my arrival in France. That means there's only five months left, and frankly I can't tell if I'm excited or sad about it. A lot has happened in the past five months, and unfortunately I was less than efficient at keeping everyone updated on what's been going on. So I'm going to make that up to everyone with this post, that is going to hopefully encompass everything that's been going on in the past three months.

And that includes the election. I can't recover from the intense game of 1,498,165 questions europeans played with me.

Month #3 was November, but it was the month before that I had my first two week vacation. During that time I was still with my first host family, but I went on a five day trip to Alsace with my third host family and stayed with their relatives. Needless to say, thinking that people in Sarreguemines talked about wine a lot was a massive understatement compared to Alsace. While I was there I went grape picking, which was transformed into very good wine. Very, very good wine. Which is saying something, because I don't even like wine. That trip was awesome because I got to get much closer to my third host family, and honestly they're so nice. I love everyone there.

Behold, the entirety of Alsace. Vineyards.

My third host family (child edition)
Dorine and Evan

Month #4 was December, and this was honestly my favorite for a plethora of reasons. I spent the first half of December counting down the days until the 16th, which is the day I left for Paris. I stayed there for close to three weeks with my uncle and aunt, as well as my cousin for a good portion of my stay there. Getting there was incredibly nerve wracking, because it was one of those situations where you really wanted to do something or go somewhere, but the universe is just being a massive cockblock and getting in your way. My train from Metz to Paris (keep in mind I was taking the TGV, the supposed 'super fast train') was delayed for like, 2 hours. So I was standing around Metz SNCF station twiddling my thumbs and scouring every nook and cranny there for a power outlet to charge my dying phone. My uncle wound up going to Gare de l'est in Paris to wait for me at the original time of arrival, so he was just standing around waiting for me for two hours also.

Getting into a situation like that and not having a stress ball to squeeze is one hell of an experience.

When my train finally arrived, I had this massive suitcase with me and was winded from dragging it up the stairs to the second level. So in the end I just chilled in the bar area of the train and bought like 2 Orangina's. I showed up in Paris close to 10PM, even though my original arrival time was 8:20PM. I found my uncle and it was so, so incredibly wonderful to see him again. Last I saw my relatives from France was a family trip we all took to Hawaii in 2010 (?).

The first few days were awesome, but I made a stupid mistake. It wasn't as cold in Paris as it was in Sarreguemines, so I took advantage of that by foregoing my winter jacket when we went outside. Because of that, I wound up getting sick. And I mean like, really sick. It was the lamest cold I've gotten in a long time, and I was quarantined for two days in the house at one point. Which was actually alright with me (and my family), because while we wanted to do stuff, it was also freezing and snowing a bit outside. During all this illness and being couch potatoes, my cousin was getting ready to go to La Réunion with her boyfriend for the holidays. I got to basically meet her friends and walk around Paris with her for about five days before she left for her tropical paradise. After that it was just me and my uncle going sightseeing, which then soon after turned into just me going sightseeing. In part because it was too cold for anyone except for me to brave the cold, but also because I learned how to take the metro pretty quickly by myself. It's difficult in theory when you think of all the different subways and intersecting lines, but super simple once you establish where you are and where you want to go.

The Louvre

The Catacombs

The Eiffel Tower (went there by myself)

View from the Pompidou Center (my cousin took me with her friends)

Christmas and New Years in Paris is as incredible as it sounds. There were fireworks behind the Eiffel Tower (that I watched from home on the TV because the weather had us trapped). We had lobster for dinner with one of my cousin's friends and oysters. So good. For New Years we celebrated like two hours early and figured it was New Years somewhere and cracked open champagne. Afterwards everyone just chilled in the house and I realized I had 2 days left in Paris and I still hadn't recorded that Q&A* I mentioned nearly 50 years ago. My last few days in Paris were spent relaxing mostly. It really got cold, and the sun was no where visible outside. Frankly everyone in the house was content to just stay inside with the heater and blankets.

Notre Dame

L'Arc de Triomphe

After I came back from France, my first host dad and my second host dad picked me up from the train station to take me to my new host family. The change was really quick and all my stuff was already at the new house, courtesy of my first host dad. The change was the best thing to happen on the exchange so far (not counting Paris). My second host family is so nice and so supportive of the things I want to do. I have three host siblings, two girls and one boy. They're so fun to be around, and since my french is so much better than it once was I can communicate with them better than ever. Of course, it's not perfect french, but everyone here acknowledges my progress and is proud of how far I've come! Myself included.

Sadly my host brother is leaving this weekend for a 3 month exchange through his school in Germany! I've told him three months will go by really quick and he'll be home before he knows it, so he should enjoy it while he can (5 month flag here, hello). My host sister (the second youngest) will also be going on an exchange to Germany in February. I'm sad that I won't be seeing those two for a while, and by the time I do I'll be in a new host family :( But I support them 100% and hope they have fun. Exchange is a life changing thing ;)

Month #5 started yesterday, technically, but I'm sort of encompassing everything into the month of January. After I came back from Paris, it was back to school. I got to stick around for about two weeks before leaving for a weekend trip to Gérardmer. It's sort of the Lake Tahoe of my area. Two hours away, and usually where people go to go skiing. Myself and all the other exchange students were (for some reason) convinced we would be skiing on this trip, but before we all left we figured out there was no skiing. Just snow shoeing. If you've ever been snow shoeing you know it's super important to wear good shoes that fit properly since you're going to be attaching rackets to your feet and walking a distance.

Gérardmer Squad

Brazilian Babes

My luck ran out that weekend and the snow shoes I'd borrowed wound up being too small... thus my trek back to the cars was done the old fashioned way. With a lot of complaining while I carried the rackets and poles.

All in all though, it was a really fun weekend. We hiked 9 km (total) to this restaurant at the top of the ski slopes and had lunch there the second day. The first day after everyone arrived, we went wine tasting (which no one questioned, because Rotary was letting us drink alcohol and as one of the exchange students said "you don't look a gift horse in the mouth"). After that people were pretty content to go to the hotel we'd be sleeping in, but we weren't finished. We went to this super ridiculously tiny shack in the middle of the woods that housed one old fashioned wood slicer.

You know in Bugs Bunny those dramatic scenes where he's tied to a conveyer belt heading towards a spinning wheel of death? It was literally that type of machine but kinda... looked like a four year old built it. Not to say it wasn't cool, cause it was, especially when this two string guitar player sat on it and played his two string guitar while the wheel inched closer and closer to him. It just looked antique. :)

We stayed in a hotel called L'auberge de Jeunesse which, when googled, made me sad. But in person it was much cozier, and we were content to bunk up there for the night. Not to mention we got to pick our roommates, which again, was a "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" kind of thing. We all ate dinner, went over some bus trip information (because there's a bus trip to Barcelona coming up in February), then my favorite part came around.

I introduced the exchange kids to this game called 'Paranoia', and some of them knew it, but most of them didn't. It's a question/answer game, and if you're curious you can google it. Explaining it is a lengthy process, and I went over the rules at least 20 times that weekend. So I'm dusting my hands clean of it.

Me Eating Snow (after they told us we shouldn't)

That pretty much concludes this update. Needless to say it's longer than the other two. Everything is really awesome here, and since all the kids switched families I'm now closer to one of my friends who lives about 10 minutes away. Before I changed I was completely isolated from the other exchange students. It was good for immersion purposes, seeing as I couldn't just speak english with them. But now the metaphorical egg wash and bread crumb layer of the exchange is done. All that's left is to cook and season.

The metaphor makes sense to me so I'm gonna keep it there. The next update (and I promise I will update) will most likely be after the Barcelona trip! I'm going on that, and it lasts for about one week. Afterwards I'll make time to post plenty of photos and let everyone know how I'm doing. :)

Some more photos:

Art ft. that painting the art is looking at

Sacré Cœur

My Cousin's Dog Boudyou

A Really Nice View (behind the Louvre)

Also just going to take this time to say thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this exchange. 5 months have already passed, and the reason I'm even here in the first place is because of the support and hard work that my family has put into this. Thank you Mommy, and thank you Daddy. I love you both so much and I can't wait to see you and Stephan when you come to visit. Thank you to my home district 5170, because I for sure would have backed out of the idea of going abroad had Darlene and Kevin and Mark not made sure everyone was comfortable and knew what we were getting into. And thanks to my friends back home and here in France. I was worried I'd lose contact with most of you back home over the exchange, but if anything I got closer to half of you. My friends here in France have been so kind and supportive as well, helping me at school when I need it and making sure I feel included in everything.

I can definitely say that this exchange has been life changing, and it's not even over yet. Until next time!

* Q&A : It will be completed at some point, obviously not from Paris. But eventually.