La France, le première semaine. (France, the first week)

Okay its been a week since my last post and a lot has happened since then. It's been very busy, tiring, interesting, and I've also had heaps of fun. So here it is.

School
wow, school here is so different to St Marys! My school is called Lycée David D'Angers. Some mornings I start at 8, others at 9. And I finish either at 12pm, 4, or 5. My friends all finish at 6 on a tuesday because they have this study thing for the bac's which is kind of like our NCEA exams. The bac's are at the end of the school year which is June. It seems really stressful and the work looks really hard (not that I understand much) haha. The teachers speak sooooo fast and write nothing on the blackboard (yes blackboard, haha and I thought France was new age....) so I pretty much just end up sitting there doing nothing, sometimes I sleep, sometimes I try listen (it takes huge concentration though), and sometimes I copy what other people are writing. Oh and everyone here has neat as writing, its all kinda like caligraphy and linked, its really hard to read! So when the teacher does write the rare word on the board I can hardly tell what the letters are anyway. Everyone probs thinks my writing is messy as. We have 2 or 3 hours for lunch and we can do whatever we want. I have a card to eat at the canteen but the food isnt always that good. When we have 3 hours for lunch my friends go into town for lunch and then go shopping or something so we did that last week. Also people who live close to school return home and have lunch with their families. I went to Nicolas' last week for lunch and met his family which will soon be my family, I really enjoyed that. I am in the première grade which is the equivalent to 6th form, and after the summer holidays (july-ish) I will be in terminale (7th form). At my school they don't have options like we do but instead take either art subjects, science subjects, or social/economic subjects. I am in the social/economic group and I didn't get to choose it but its cool. The subjects I take are- Maths (i love maths because its stuff Ive done before and maths is universal), English, Advanced English (lol its either this or another maths),Economics (difficult- I do nothing), History/Geo (also impossible), PE (fun- we play volleyball), French, this thing like biology (equals sleepy time) and also this other subject and I have no idea what it is because I havent had it yet its on my time table as ECJS so whatever that is I'm sure it will be hard. Also if a teacher is away the class is cancelled- this has happened to me 3 times already. They don't have a morning tea break as such but instead there's 2 breaks during the day 15 mins each where we can leave if we want. Pretty much everyone goes outside the school for a smoke- everyone here smokes its crazy. I also have some lessonss that are 2hours long, those suck haha. When I tell people about the differences between school in NZ and here they are amazed especially at the fact that we wear a uniform and have no boys! (Schools like that dont exist here in France)


food/other stuff
Okay the food here is insane. Its so yum! But they never snack between meals so I am starving when the time comes to eat. Lunch and Dinner are both huge meals with like 4 courses. They have the best bread and cheese aswell!
Its really cold here ( sometimes in the minus degrees). To school I usually wear 5 layers and a scarf haha. But the houses/class rooms are warm enough, its just outside thats freezing. I went for a walk with my host Mum around the Lake in Angers called Lac de Maine its 5km around the lake and heaps of people go there for bike riding, running etc. It was really nice but cold as! Parts of the lake were completely frozen over it was really cool to see. Theres another rotary student at my school from Brazil but he arrived 6 months ago and will leave in june, he's really nice and we might be going to Nantes together this weekend. My house is real cool i love it here and I have a huge room, and they are renovating a bathroom that I will use. It will be finished in a week or so.

Anyway heres some photos for y'all. Enjoy and take care xx Laura



My school- its actually like a maze i never know where the class rooms are.



Inside the cathedral- amazing


me outside the cathedral


dinner at councillors house with all three sets of host parents and Nicolas


Me and my host mum at the Lake


My House- my room is at the very top where that window is =) its so nice!