My First Few Forays to French School

So, yesterday was my first day of school at Lycée Châteaubriand - and I have to admit it was crazy scary. Not only did I have to catch an unknown bus (okay, my neighbor Zeli helps me find it every day...), find all of my classes, understand all of my classes (I'll go into that later...), and explain to all of my teachers what's up, I also had to make friends :P Such a drag, that social life, huh? And all the while, I had to do these things in French! It was quite exerting, but I have to say the best first day ever!

First, I'll talk about my classes! Yesterday was in fact my only "full load" of the week, meaning that I had a class nearly every hour of the day. In case you can't make out my schedule (haha, it's in French and blurry), here is a little key!

• Olive green boxes signigy History/Geography
• Green boxes signify Economics/Social behavior studies
• Dark maroon boxes (for example on monday right after the short pink box and above the green box) signify english
• Light brownish-red box (there's only one, the first box on tuesday) signifies gym
• Dark brown boxes (for example the last two on monday) signify Spanish 5 (again, we'll get to that later)
• Black box (there's only one, on tuesday) signifies focus time, during which we may reattend a class to ask questions
• Yellow boxes signify French Litterature
• Dark green boxes (last on on friday or 2nd one on monday) signify Latin
• Blue boxes signify Physics
• Grey boxes signify biology

 Some Jolly Unknowns That Should Prove Interesting

• The big light pink box (on friday) is "homeroom", a class that I don't understand yet
• The tiny dark pink box (on monday) is also homeroom, but a different type(?)
• The red box signifies... Well, I have no idea!

A Couple Fun Facts!

• I am not taking Latin - I was allowed to drop it (for free periods) on account of it being a dead language! JK, it was too advanced for me... I have nothing against Latin!
• I am in Spanish 5... and have taken a grand total of half a year of beginner Spanish... hmm. Luckily my teacher is extremely kind and is having me do other (simpler) classwork etc.
• English is easy! Who knew?

Story Time!
MATH IS THE SAME. History tells us that, the transferable metric system tells us that, even Lindsay Lohan tells us that. Yet I was still indescribably happy when I found out that Math makes sense in French!

I actually turned to my friends* and tried to explain the plot of Mean Girls to them, just so they could appreciate it when I said "J'aime les maths. C'est la même dans touts les langues!" ("I love math! It's the same in all languages!")  Alas, no one turned to me and asked " If you're from Africa, why are you white?" Unfortunately, all I got were some blank stares and forced laughter in order to make me feel like they knew what I was talking about, and found it very funny. Come to think of it, the blank-stare-forced-laugh-incomprehension is probably exactly the same reaction that YOU, my blog buddies, are giving me right now... Ah, well.

*(that's right, I have friends! Sure, we communicate mostly by hand gestures, "oui"s and "non"s, and gutteral noises, but we're friends!)

I Made Friends?! What?!
Crazy, right? Fortunately for me, I guess chic French teens take pity on the blushing, overdressed, tardy American Exchange Student who communicates mainly by incomprehensive head nods and the occasional mispronounced "Oui! Eh, je ne sais pas... Désolé." ("Yes! Um, I don't know... Sorry.") It's pretty great. We've bonded greatly through my superb language skills.
But despite the language barrier (which I exagerate, but not greatly! I speak quite a bit, although with poor grammar. And - wow! - they speak back very slowly and simply so that I can comprehend) I have made friends!

First of all, there is Anaïs :) She took pity on me during the first hour of my first day (My luck is enormous!) and asked me to sit by her in History and helped me throughout the entire class, and all the other classes, since in France one's classes are all taken with the same classmates. I often look at her with a blank, slightly hysteric expression, and she rephrases what the professor said with simpler words. She's a life saver!

Then, there is Pauline! Pauline is also in my class, but we don't sit next to eachother (the way our classrooms are designed allow only 2 people to sit next to eachother). We ride the bus together, and that's how we first met! At the end of my first day, I realized that I didn't know where Zeli (my super cool neighbor who speaks crazy good English and helps me find my way blindly to the bus each day) was! I was going to be stranded in Combourg! Thankfully, Anaïs directed me to Pauline, who also lives in Hédé and is probably the most enthusiastic person I have ever met. Whenever I see her, she is laughing, no matter who she's with! And whenever we talk, she always makes a huge effort to ask me about the United States, which is really great for me (talking about the US gets rid of homesickness and lets me talk in the most simplistic sentences - and therefore builds my confidance/vocabulary). AND she listens to awesome music (some French, some English) and it's really fun when we translate for eachother!

Finally, there is Louise (not my host sister, though we're BFF's too!). Louise is one of the 6 students who contacted me via email before I came to Châteaubriand, and she is also friends with Anaïs. Yet again, we are in the same class! It's pretty great :) She's super musical, and we like a lot of the same things! For example...

• We both appreciate the genius of Grease
• We both love The Emperor's New Grove
• We both are Gleeks! (Although I only like the old seasons... I haven't broken that to her yet)
• We enjoy the same music: Lea Michele; the song Timber (but not Ke$ha or her other songs); and Les Miserables

So yeah, it's pretty great!

Note: I only mentioned a few of my friends, mostly because I don't want to misspell anyone's names! I will try to post some pictures of mes amigos (hey look, I do know some Spanish!) and me soon! Also, I will try my hardest to go see the Combourg Château soon (it's entirely intact, super close to my school, and so beautiful) and if it is allowed, I will take pictures. So far I've only seen the exterior, but it's pretty magnificent.