Fourth Day In Lyon!

Bonjour!



This is my first post on my new blog. I am currently at my new home, it is Wednesday afternoon and I dont have school again until tomorrow! French kids dont have school after 12:00 on Wednesday. Nice, you might think....but then again, French kids go to school for 10 hours Monday, Tuesday, Thurday, and Friday, from 8:00 to 6:00, and we dont get 2 1/2 hours for lunch like I thought before arriving, only 1 hour:)



Now I am going to back up....briefly to last year. I started the process of applying for this opportunity last year around September, I think. I turned in my full application around October or November...and left my house, destined for France on the 25th of August. I had to fly to NYC to meet up with other AFS kids to have our national orientation. From August 25th to September 2nd, I explored NYC with my real mom, dad, and sister. Then, September 2nd, they dropped me off at the DoubleTree Hotel near the JFK airport for the national orientation. I met kids from all over the US there, most were facinated that I am an Alaskan! haha! 53 kids from the US were at the orientation ready to go to France, then there were also kids going to Austria, Spain, Russia, and one person going to South Africa. 1/2 hour before the French kids left to go to the airport, one girl decided she couldnt do it, and backed out. We flew all night and got in to Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport at about 10:30 Friday morning. Then we split up into two groups: the kids staying for a year, and the kids staying for 6 months. There were significantly more kids staying for one year. Then, the kids staying for one year took a bus to a hostel where we got to meet kids from EVERYWHERE!! Thailand, Japan, China, Finland (my exchange sister!), Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Hungry, Portugal, Paraguay, etc. There were about 200 kids staying at the hostel total from AFS. We took the rest of Friday to recover, and then Saturday we had an orientation for one half day, and then took a tour of Paris!!! I have lots of pictures, but have not decided if I will put them up on this blog, or on Facebook, and I do not know how to use this computer very well, so I am also waiting so I do not misplace my photos on it or delete them or something like that. Then, Sunday, about 30 kids from the total 200 took a sort of Greyhound Bus to Lyon. We started at 7:30 and Laura (my exchange sister) and I got to Claire and Michel's house at about 5:00. It was a very long day! My host parents are very nice, they speak slowly so Laura and I can understand them, and repeat things a lot for us. On Monday, Laura and I didnt go to school, which was very nice. Instead, we took a biking tour with Michel, which was crazy because it is a big city and we biked in the road and everything! Michel took us to see the big cathedrals and the center of Lyon and to the post office and to get our bus cards because we take the bus to school. Its not a school bus, but a public bus, and since Laura and I dont know the area and the bus system well, Claire took it with us on our first day of school and showed us how to use it...though it is still confusing for me.
SO, the first day of school (yesterday) was long, but not bad. When I arrived, Claire talked to the principle-person and got us our schedules. Then, a teacher or just a nice guy took me to my first class and asked one of the girls to show me around. Her name is Anne Sophie. She was really nice and let me copy her notes when the teacher was talking. The first two classes I had were in English!!!!!!!YAY!!!!! The first one WAS English, which was awesome, and the second was Chemistry. But then, I had French, History, French, Math, and then French AGAIN! (all in French). Then The day was finished....sometime in there though, I had lunch, Anne Sophie introduced me to all her friends. They were (are) really nice! They asked me how cold it is in Alaska, etc. They talk in French mostly, but also in English if I dont understand.
Today, I had two hours of Math, and then two hours of Gym. The gym teacher explained that for the first quarter of the year we would be doing something called accrosport??? which I understand to be some kind of gymnastics. Then after school, I found Laura and took the bus with her and two other girls named Chloé and Ingrid home. We ate leftover lasange(haha thats not how you spell it???), water, bread (they eat bread with EVERYTHING!!!!!!!! they also mop up their plate with it), and jus de pomplemousse (grapefruit juice)! Then I started this blog, and here we are. I think Claire is going to take Laura and I school shopping soon, so I had better go. Sorry for such a long blog!
Erin