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Published: April 11th 2009
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Bleuenn
Bleuenn. Other photos will come, but for now this is the only good one I have. If you look at my "location" line, you'll see that I'm no longer in Paris. Brittany is on the Northeast coast, and for those who are interested, I am in department 56. Location will get no more specific than that, as anyone could read this.
My sure bet turned at staying where I was turned out to be not so sure. Apparently the father hadn't been consulted. I was back at school for a week after recovering from my illness. In the middle of that, I found out about the no, and then, a day later, about my current family: names, photos, and birthdays. I was informed that I was leaving on Wednesday, and got on the train at 7:30PM Western European Standard Time.
The train rolled into my stop at about 11:30PM. The compartment door opened, and I was greeted by three of what are now familiar faces in my everyday life, recognizable because of the redheaded children I'd seen in photos. That night was quiet-we got to the house, I was given a 30-second tour, and then we all went to bed. I slept until nearly ten the next morning. A record for me, I believe.
Here's the rundown of life chez les Courtet:
Laurence is a midwife, and has very irregular work hours, although she's changing over to a part of the job that has no weekend or night hours (she works at the local hospital). She's also in the middle of a training on acupuncture, so she's been off to Strasbourg for that a couple of times recently.
Claude is an electrician. Most of the time, it's Claude who shows me everything I need to now, and fills in the gaps in my knowledge of history, especially where Brittany is concerned.
Anaïs will shortly be seventeen. She is in the science track at school, so I don't run into her at school very often, but we get along just fine: watched a few Tim Burton films and episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and I'd say we're pretty comfortable together. It was also Anaïs who explained the bus system to me.
Bleuenn is thirteen, and apparently in a major fashion phase. But we also get along just fine-I'm helping her with her English, as her teacher is apparently awful, and she's helping me in German, which she's been taking for three years and is apparently really good at.
Erwan is nine. A slightly whiny nine, but still a good kid. He's also the only child (other than me) who's not a redhead. When I laugh at "Simpsons" jokes that are too American for him to understand, he looks at me funny.
Yann has just turned four, and is well...a four-year-old. There's no other way to describe it.
Living with them is comfortable. In the morning I wake up, dress, eat breakfast, get my bag, and take the bus to school.
School, is mostly the same, with a few exceptions.
-I have art class five hours a week, two of which are suposed to be devoted to theory and art history.
-The level of German I was taking the first half of the year does not exist at my new school, so I am in a class with people who have at least a year of German already, and am therefore very behind.
-I have two different English classes, one more history based, which can be interesting, and the other the normal English language class. The teacher for the latter is...I'm not quite sure how to describe it.... I got the sensation that she was uncomfortable with me from the moment I told her that I was a native English speaker, and just before the vacation, she took it on herself to speak to the vice principal about arranging for me to take other classes during her class time. Without consulting me first. And at least implying that it was my idea. That hasn't gone anywhere yet, but we'll see after the vacation.
Other noteworthy things: -My first week in Brittany was not particularly interesting, as there were mock exams going on, and few classes.
-This was followed by two weeks of vacation. I passed the first of these two with another exchange student and her host family, while the Courtet children were off skiing, Laurence was in Strasbourg, and Claude was working.
-The first week after February break was also very interrupted-there had been a strike which prevented one of the exams from going on, and it had to be made up.
-My class put together a staged interpretation of some of the poems from Charles Baudelaire's
The Flowers of Evil. At the last minute, I replaced a girl who was in Italy for half of the performances (short exchange with her correspondent, she takes Italian). And I got pulled in to do lighting for the drama club's piece,
Ubu Roi, by Alfred Jarry, which was played back-to-back with Baudelaire.
-My class of 30 students is apparently responsable for a quarter of all the absents and lates in the school. There are 2000 students in this school.
-My group of friends seem to be among the better students in the class. Just their names for now: Natacha, Elise, Océane, Deborah, and Mathilde make up the group that I usually hang with.
-Laurence, Anaïs and Bleuenn all play the guitar, and Laurence is (sort of) teaching me.
-The family is currently in Egypt, and I'm with friends of theirs nearby (have been for a week), and I'm picking up a bit of piano, because one of the kids here is learning, so there's a keyboard and some very basic music.
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