Blogs from Upper Normandy, France, Europe - page 6

The longer I stay here, the more I realize how diverse the world must be. Example: Here, the isn't an Easter Bunny. They were even perplexed by the idea like, why would there be an Easter Bunny? How does an bunny get ahold of eggs? What they have instead is church bells.... The church bells fly away for the weekend and when they return, as they fly over your house and they lose eggs along the way. And that's only one different country. Imagine all the different traditions other countries follow, which compared to us, seem completely ridiculous. Some things are similar though, and somethings scarily similar, Like the hierarchy of teenagers is exactly there same; the way people react to others from different social standings. Another that is really similar would be the profile of ... read more

One Way Roads You know how in Canada, when you want to get on the bus somewhere, you wait for the people getting off to disembark first? Yeah, that's not a thing here. It's took me a while to describe that in Canada, even if someone bumps into you first, you apologize as well, because you we were there to be bumped into in the first place, so technically it is your fault too... Right? But, they don't have that logic here. I say logic because for me, it is common sense, but here if you were to excuse yourself, you would be degrading yourself. I guess Canadians aren't afraid to admit their own defeat. Here, Streets are confused by signs that allow only one direction. Sometimes, I don’t even see the signs, and then I ... read more

Have you ever wondered how exactly we form questions in English? Not really in a philosophic sense of "how" but more, what makes a question correct? Well! According to my English teacher (and I use the term loosely), the correct form in which to ask a question in English is as follows: Wh( )+ Aux. + Suj. + verb +? = Question. Example, What did Suzy do? I never thought I'd learn something about English in France. Well, really, It wasn't as much of a lesson in grammar per say, but a realization. A realization that that formula for asking a question would limit anyones use of the English language, which is more of a rhythm and song than a math problem. So maybe I didn't actually learn anything, but became more ignorant to the lyrical ... read more

I woke up a little early today, and realised that with the time difference, there isn't really a decent time where I'm awake and out of school, and everyone back home is awake or, out of school. Skype hasn't been working because of a mic issue... If anyone knows any tricks for Skype on macs, please let me know. School was only 1h today, because of the organization of Alison's classes and exams this week. We had history; It's interesting the way students act around their teachers here. As you enter the class, you just sit, and write down what the teacher says. That's it, No questions, no discussions, no explanations. I've always heard people say that France's school system is so advanced, that the material is much harder and that the students are learning more ... read more

HII! I'm finally connected to good wifi after two days in Paris. I'm currently in Normandy with my exchange family. They picked me up from the hotel in Paris this morning, and we drove 2 hours north into Le Havre. It's hard to switch between english and french. I'm finding myself starting to type in english and switching to french. Valerie (my host mom) reminds me of my own mom, which is nice, but also makes me a bit homesick... even though it's my first day. 2 days ago, We arrived in Paris after a redeye flight from Toronto, and dived straight into sightseeing. We were 2 hours late on our flight, so we had to skip the Notre-Dame, and we went straight to Flunch (which is a cafeteria style restaurant with pretty decent french food). ... read more