je suis en france

Bonjour tout le monde -

On Tuesday the 25th I finallyyy left Maine for 6 months. I stayed in a hotel by JFK for 2 nights, one with all the other people going to France with AFS. Thursday at 1 PM we all got on a bus and went to the airport. After a longgg time in the airplane we finally arrived in Paris. Looking out the plane window and seeing the first lights on the ground was so amazing, because I knew I was actually here. Then when I went through customs I spoke French, and the "douanier" was quite impressed with my French as well as my French name. Then we then were taken to this international student hostile type place after waiting at the airport for a long time for all the other students to arrive. For a few days, I still didn't feel like I was in France, since all the other people were from Australia and New Zealand so there was no need to speak French. Yesterday afternoon, we were taken on a "bus tour" of Paris. It really wasn't much, we went for 45 minutes and saw barely anything. We stopped at la Tour Eiffel and took a lotttt of pictures and looked like total tourists :P That's when I really began feeling like I was in France... Finally this morning my host family came to pick me up. I am happy that they are so patient with me, because now I reallyyy really feel like I'm here since I'm dealing with the language barrier. At school I was always good in French class, but now I feel like I've forgotten all of my French. And I know I haven't, but that what I do know is just nowhere near enough. My host mom told me that in 2 weeks I will understand everything perfectly and that in one month I will be speaking fine too. I can only hope. Tomorrow I am not going to school, instead I am going to go see the surroundings with my host mom and but some last things I might need. Tuesday will be the same way and Wednesday I will start school! It still doesn't feel like I'm here and all I hope is that my French will rapidly start improving and soon I will be able to talk like a normal person....

A toute a l'heure, je ne veux plus ecrire en anglais parce qu'il faut pratiquer BEAUCOUP mon francais! 

First Entry....

I just created this blog since I've had so many people tell me they'd love to know what I'm up to while I'm in France, and I've been told it's a great way for everyone to be able to easily see that....

Anyways, I am about to leave for France for 6 months. I will be living in Puiseux-Pontoise, a very small town about 20 miles northwest of Paris. I will be living with a family and going to school there, just like any other French person. A real cultural immersion experience I guess is what I'm going to get out of this. At this point, I'm pretty much ready to go. I began packing my bag this weekend, and I think that's going to be my biggest problem... I get ONE 50-pound bag. I can fit everything in the bag, but I have far exceeded the weight limit. So some rearranging is going to need to be done before I leave :P This Friday, I'm going back to Boston to pick up my visa. I went to a "pre-departure orientation" yesterday with a girl going to Italy and another going to Argentina. Two girls from Sweden and Panama who are here for the year gave us a ton of good advice and it was really nice. That's actually where they said that making a blog is the easiest way to communicate with people back home. Now I'm just hoping I'll actually remember to update it...

Aussi, puisque je vais aller en France, je vais peu écrire en français, même si personne ne me comprend. Je suis enthousiaste de vivre avec une famille française et de vivre la culture française. J’ai parlé un peu avec la famille et ils semblent très très sympas. Je suis un peu nerveuse d’aller au lycée car je ne comprendrai rien, mais j’espère que j’apprendrai vite la langue. Tous mes amis me disent que je parle déjà très bien, mais je suis sur que lorsque j’irai en France, je ne comprendrai rien. J’allais pratiquer mon français mais… je ne veux plus. Alors, je vais aller là et je vais voir ce qui se passera.

A toute à l’heure !