Trip to the French Alps

    Last week I went with my family on vacation to the gorgeous French alps.

A new French President

 Yesterday Luke randomly decided to take a walk with me because we hadn't been outside all day. We walked on a public walkway above the city and found it strange that there were almost no people there. Then we heard the honking of cars and noticed people waving flags out their windows and shouting with joy. There was a craziness of honking, shouting and parading in the streets and we walked towards the Bastille. In the Bastille there were thousands of people gathered in a gigantic crowd and the streets leading up to the Bastille were all closed down. We assumed that the presidential candidate, Sarkozy won the election but in fact it was a man named Francois Hollande. The crowd was dense as we pushed and shoved our way towards the front and we saw a huge screen which was showing the news live as well as the newly elected president in the back seat of a shiny black car with heavy security surrounding him, driving towards the Bastille.

  The crowd went wild (even more so than before) when he showed up to give his speech. The speech went well. It was very patriotic and he spoke of a huge change in France. He is the first elected Socialist president here in Paris after 20 years, so many people are very happy about the change. It was interesting to be a part of the victory announcement and it was also the first time that I went to one. There were a lot of people climbing the place de la Bastille monument and waving flags in celebration. In the crowd a middle aged French woman came up to me and asked if I was from London. I said that I was American and she gave me a huge kiss on the cheek and said excitedly "Ah, se bon!" and I told her that I'm an exchange student living here. As we were maneuvering through the crowd almost everyone was smoking. After a short time I became light headed and dizzy because of the body heat in the crowd combined with all the smoke.
  After the president gave his speech there were live bands playing back to back. Around midnight Luke and I headed back home. It was a very eventful, memorable day for us both to be able to see the victory announcement of the newly elected president.

Photos taken by my brother, Luke Ekblad

L'amour entre les pigeons :)

7 months already!

   It's been a while since I've last posted and a lot has changed since I last wrote. Last week the best thing happened to me this year. A new girl came to my class all the way from Japan! Her name is Fumi. She is in the same class section as me, which is "Premiere L" (literature). We made an instant connection and we have been hanging out every day. She is very kind, funny and interesting. She has only been here one week so she's still a bit jet-lagged and overwhelmed. Fumi has it hard here because she doesn't know any French and hardly any English. But I've been helping her out and teaching her words in both English and French and she is teaching me Japanese.

  As for school my French is much better. It really feels like I've accomplished a lot in the last seven months. I take lots of notes in all my classes and I can pick up much more of what the teachers are saying. Spanish is still challenging because it's college level, which is much harder than a typical high school class but I have improved significantly. My favorite class right now is my English foreign literature class. The professor is this really awesome Irish guy who has a great taste in literature. I've read a handful of good classics these past months that are all very well written and inspiring. Right now I am reading Macbeth by Shakespeare and so far I'm enjoying it.  So there's my quick update. Just a heads up, next week I am going to Italy with my family so I will be updating about that pretty soon! Alright, goodnight world :)

5 month update

  Wow, I can't believe that it's already been 5 months since I first moved here!   For the first few months I was really quiet and didn't talk to the students in my class for the most part. I couldn't communicate in the beginning even if I wanted to because I knew so few words. Everyone spoke fast and seemed to slur their words together, so in the beginning it was hard to even make out what was being said.
   Soon I started making friends outside of school, and when I hung out with them they helped me a lot with my French as well as showed me around the city. I also made an American friend who goes to my school, so that's been nice because she can relate to me. My French has improved significantly since I've lived here and I can now keep up a conversation in French. I had a breakthrough the other day in my PE class when I was put on the same team as three other girls. I surprised myself when I started talking to them in French and it was flowing without me thinking about what I was saying. The girls looked a bit surprised too because I've hardly said a word to them since I've moved here and suddenly we were talking. I've been chatting with the students in my class more frequently these past three weeks and I really feel like I've gone a long way in my French.

Dinner at the Eiffel Tower

  Three days ago my family and I were invited by this really nice lady to eat dinner with her and some other people at the Eiffel Tower. The metro ride took at least a half hour and by the time we got there it was dark and rainy outside. We waited for the other people to show up that she invited then together we went up the lift to the top of the Eiffel Tower. When we got up to the top the view was incredible. You can see the whole of Paris and it is so beautiful to see all the lights of the city. It was very cold and windy and it was raining as well. Some of the people in the group pointed out the different monuments in the city and showed us different parts of Paris. Then the lady who had invited us paid for each of us to get a glass of champagne. The man pouring the champagne was eccentric and friendly and he was playing funky music. The champagne tasted great.
  When we went back inside we then went down to the second floor and walked around a bit. It was significantly lower than the top level because some of the skyscrapers in the city were higher. After looking around a bit we went into the cafe and ordered hot mulled wine. If you have never had it before, it's sweet and has a great spiced taste. When we were finished we all got back onto the elevator and went down to the first floor.
  On the first floor there is an ice skating rink and a fancy restaurant. We went into the restaurant and got a table. The food was pre-ordered because the Eiffel Tower is always crowded with people, so it came to us quickly. A nice appetizer came first with two slices of smoked salmon. The main course was the most delicious duck and potatoes I've ever had. I also had a some fancy Bordeaux wine and to top everything off beautifully, a rich chocolate dessert with coffee. It was a memorable night that I will never forget.

French people smoke a lot...

When I arrived in Paris I was shocked to see that not just grown-ups smoke, but kids as young as ten years old! Apparently smoking here is a social norm and kids as well as teenagers want to look cool by smoking like the other kids. My brother said that a while ago he saw some ten year old boys smoking a bong! About a week ago a girl in my class asked the teacher if she could step outside and smoke and he allowed her to. Teachers don't prohibit students to smoke and they themselves do it. I see them in the corner of the school smoking away all the time. The teachers also smoke with the kids outside during break. How strange. I don't think I've seen many kids in my school back at home smoking cigarettes. Anyway, thought I'd share that because I found it interesting.

Sunday at the park

The park was so gorgeous yesterday 

French markets

One thing, out of the many things I appreciate about Paris is that there are always lots of open markets. The French culture has really been into setting up markets in the streets, and they have been doing this for hundreds of years. It amazes me how you wake up one morning and just over night there are loads of stands set up that sell every kind of produce you could imagine. There is a market up the street from our apartment that has an entire stand of just olives alone. There is also a meat stand with practically every kind of sausage, a wine stand (where we got a nice bottle of wine), a bakery stand which sells lots of pastries and such,  and many other interesting stands. The French really know how to live. 

Fancy 6 course meal

While I was in Valence with my family we got invited by some friends of my parents to a fancy restaurant    in the countryside. We all ordered a 6 course meal and I was already almost full by the appetizer. The first course that went around were the drinks. Next for the appetizer my brother, Luke and I both ordered a dish of ravioli with this really good type of shrimp inside a creamy sauce. Then the main course was sliced duck with a dish of pumpkin, potato and mushrooms. We drank a good red wine as well as a sweet white wine called muscat. Then came a dish with several delicious French cheeses. I ordered a wild goat cheese with cream on the top, which was really good. For dessert I ordered 3 small rich chocolate macaroons with ice cream in the middle. I thought the meal was over but then the second set of drinks went around! Thankfully my drink was just a small tea cup sized coffee. It was an amazing meal but I was so full that it literally hurt to breathe.

Valence

I am on a 2 week break already and I've only been in school for 2 months! A few days ago I took a train ride with my family to Valence. The train ride was a little bit strange because there were a lot of people on it, yet I couldn't hear anyone talking with each other.

When we arrived in Valence a friendly older man with a brown scruffy beard heartily greated us. He gave me 3 whiskery kisses on my cheeks as well as the rest of my family. I heard that the kisses increase in number the further south in France that you go. He drove us in his little car to the cabin that we would be staying in for the next few days.

The next day we visited that same man and his wife and we ate lunch and dinner with them. It was really good food and I got to drink a glass of wine with each meal. I think I am starting to like wine more, but at first it was a little bit hard to get used to. The next few days my family and I explored a cool little village and drove all around the countryside.

Observations

Here are some of my observations whilst living in Paris for nearly 2 weeks. Firstly the cheese here is incredible. If you think montry jack, cheddar or mozeralla cheese is good then you have no idea just how amazing the cheese in France is (unless you have tried French cheese.) Observation #2: Throw away the baguette in America. It is rock hard compared to the soft, flaky, warm baguette fresh from a typical French bakery. It is the softest, most delicate baguette you will ever try and I seriously recommend it to anyone. Observation #3. The wine here in France is very good. I'm sure many of you have tried French wine, right? And you'd have to agree with me that it is one of a kind :)

My first day of school

I have only been studying French for 3 months, so I cannot yet understand full sentences or write in French. The first day was stressful and confusing. I had no idea which classes I was taking, where I was supposed to go, or what the teachers were saying. The worst part was that while the teachers talked, the students would write and I couldn't keep up so I just sat there staring at the wall.  Luckily some of the kids knew a little bit of English so they helped me out. It was funny because a French girl tried to make conversation with me, but her English was as bad as my French so we had a hard time communicating. We ended up drawing pictures and using hand signals.  At the end of the day I had a headache. It was funny to think that I had sat in a French school for an entire day. 

Breakthrough

Yesterday I followed my new friend, Alexandra and a few other girls to the gym for PE. I didn't expect us to be traveling on the metro, so I hadn't brought a ticket. We checked that the coast was clear and I slipped with them, past the ticket barrier after Alexandra had scanned her card. 

When we arrived at the gym all of us had to choose a sport to play and I chose basketball with some other girls I knew. Next we did common drills and ran for 3 minutes. It was not hard at all but it was hot outside. Basketball was easy but I didn't enjoy it. I think it's supposed to just be a guy sport..

After PE, walking to the locker rooms with some girls, I wished right then that I could communicate with them. I made an effort, forgot about sounding perfect and ended up having a conversation with the girls. It was a great feeling for me, because that entire week I hadn't been able to communicate with any of the kids in French.

3rd day of school

Today was exhausting for me. In my first class the teacher spoke very fast so I didn't catch anything she said. School here in Paris is challenging and I am a little bit worried about passing my classes this year. It's hard being the new kid. These first few days I have been feeling quite a bit confused.
I heard that the first week is hard and this has definitely proven itself to be true. I know now what the exchange students back at home have to go through. It's overwhelming.
On the bright side of today I met a girl who just moved here to Paris from Missouri. She is just as lost and confused as I am so that made me feel like I wasn't alone. She is a grade ahead of me though so we don't share any of the same classes.
I'm expecting the next few months to be hard, but I'm still up for the challenge!

First 2 weeks in Paris

First of all, you are probably thinking "You are going to a French school in Paris for a year?! thats crazy!" Yeah it is crazy, especially because I didn't even know that me and my family were going to move to Paris until just 4 months ago. It was a shock even to my parents. A sudden opportunity came up for our family to rent out an apartment belonging to some mutual French friends of my parents, and they grabbed the chance as soon as they could. Maybe we are crazy for deciding on whim to move across the Atlantic ocean to a foreign country, but hey you can't ever get anywhere in life if you don't take a leap of faith, even sometimes a plunge into unknown waters..

The first week living in Paris has been great. For the first few days I felt like I was in a dream. I kept telling myself the new phrase "you are living in Paris now" and somehow it took a lot to convince myself that this was true. Now I have been here with Luke and my parents for 12 days and this crazy, amazing truth is finally starting to sink in.

The first few days that I arrived here with my family were relaxing. For the first 3 mornings my dad surprised Luke and I with delicious freshly made pain au chocolates and croissants, and we ate them with our coffee. The apartment that we are now staying at is much smaller than I imagined. It is nice and cozy though, and it overlooks a garden. Luke and I each have a bedroom and my parents stay in the living room on a large pull out bed, which is also a couch. We have a small kitchen, a closet sized bathroom and a shower room. 

The city here in Paris as everyone knows is large and full of activity. My family and I have been walking around the city every day and exploring all sorts of streets and alley-ways.  It is sad to see that there are quite a few homeless families on the streets. There is so much poverty in Paris and it seems to go over people's heads as many of them walk past the homeless without so much as turning their heads. Everyone is doing their own thing, so quite often it seems like the only people who give a hand to the homeless are the yuppy tourists.