Week Three

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Well, I have just finished my third week of twelve, and officially (on Friday), I am already one quarter of the way through the exchange. It going incredibly fast and I think I will only go faster, but at the same time it feels like I have been here forever, and my life in Canada is like a dream, almost, that gets fuzzier every day.

Well this week in school I was in the French for dummies class. I started in the first of four levels and it was the French that we learned right at the beginning – simple vocabulary, present tense conjugations, etc., oh, and they were just starting passé composé. So I tried the second level and it was better, but still very primary. So now I am in the third level, and its still easy, and some things I learned a long time ago, and some things not too long ago, but I think it is just right for me. They are coming to the end of the second trimester here, so maybe after the Easter break, I will move up to the last level. It’s a bit frustrating, though, because I’ve been taught French for seven years now and have been in the top half of the class, but its almost as if I know no French at all, and there are people here who came to learn French and are staying for a year (and now are about 2/3 done) and they are just as good as I am. And Jana’s been learning English for only four years, and everyone know how amazingly she spoke when she was in Canada.

I think they are taught a lot more and expected to do a lot more here than the schools in Canada. They are very academic and work very hard. It’s interesting, though, because they know so much information and facts and everything, but they don’t have the same skills that I think we are taught in school. For instance, in gym, they are just learning how to step with the opposite foot when throwing a ball, and follow through and everything else - something we learned in primary school, I think. And in art and music class, they learn so much history and technique and what makes something beautiful and creative and the different time periods and all that nonsense, but when it comes to performing, they play recorders and draw geometric objects and use really watered down paints. I have been able to blend into the art class here, whereas I would not have been able to in Canada. I find it very interesting the differences between school here and in Canada. I think a mix of the two would be ideal.

I am continuing to eat chocolate by the kilograms. I think I’m developing a real sweet tooth. This week, I have managed to eat one extremely fine chocolate bar a day (that’s 100g a day and a total of ½ a kilogram in one week) on top of whatever the Kausches and others offer me (i.e. Chocolate covered biscuits everyday in my lunch and small single servings of chocolate, Nutella for breakfast, you know, the usual.) So I think I may be very “pleasantly plump” (in the words of Becca Hamma) when I get home. Although, with all the exercise I’m getting, it will hopefully even out.

So for my schedule, I have French classes every morning until 11:50, and then I have lunch and am free to go home. Except on Tuesdays and Thursdays when we go to the “Labo Lycée” and talk with a computer in French. Its pretty cool. But that class is only 45 min long and is not obligatory, but I like to go. On Mondays after French, I go with Jana’s class to History. The “prof” (teacher) just talks and the students have to make their own notes (it’s not like our high schools at all). The teacher is funny and talks a lot about how America is dominating and how it’s terrible and such. I think he’s turned it into more of a current events class, than a history class. After history I have lunch and after lunch I go to an art class for 2 periods. Its interesting and fun. On Thursdays, I go with Jana`s class to the gym for gym much the first periods in the morning. Its quite funny because I suppose they don`t and/or didn`t have gAlso on Thursdays, after the Labo Lycée, I have to leave early to catch the train so I can be home in time for Verena to take me to guitar lessons! It’s a private lesson for half an hour and so far I’ve had two lessons and learned two songs – Pink Floyd`s Is There Anybody Out There and The Beatle’s Blackbird. The teacher is really good, and has taught me good techniques for strumming and plucking and playing and tuning and everything. On Fridays, I was going to try going to the science classes (bio, chem, and physics) with Jana, but I think they may be very hard. Anyways, this week I did not go to them because it was a German exchange student’s last day today, so we when to a café in downtown Neuchâtel and did some “faire de shopping” afterwards.

After the Friday afternoon outing with the exchange girl, I ran all the way from the downtown to the high school where I take the “fun d`ambule” (the train that takes you from the bottom of Neuchâtel to the top, where the train station is). I had exactly 7 min till the train left, and I missed the fun d`ambule, so I had to wait something like 4 and a half minutes for the next one. By the time it came, left and arrived at the train station it was time for my train to leave. I sprinted out of the fun d`ambule and up to my train only to see it pulling out of the station. I had to wait (luckily only) half an hour for the next one. For some reason, the 5:06 train goes to a different track than the 4:37 train, and if I hadn’t been looking around, I would have waited at the wrong track and missed the 5:06 train as well.

This Friday at “zee yoüs grüpe” - the youth group – we had guest speakers from YWAM come and talk about their experience in Madagascar. It was cool, not only because they went to YWAM and did a DTS and stuff with them, but because they were Americans. I could finally speak English to someone. They had lots of interesting stories and it was great to hear them.

Saturday, all the kids had their first tennis lessons of the year this morning, and after lunch the first sailing preparation day. In the evening, we went to Jana’s friend, Céline’s house to see the new born baby goats. There were 37 of the ranging from 2 weeks to 2 days old, all cooped up in a small pen. We were allowed to step in and immediately got tramped by what seemed like millions of goats. The nibbled vigorously at our clothes and it felt so odd. By the end of the time, we were more green (from, I expect, their food) than any other colour. Céline also took us on a tour of the rest of the barn, which included 7038 chickens! It was quite the sight. They were all kept together in a separate building and running all the way down were troughs for eating and drinking, and Céline said that it is an endless supply of food because there are so many chickens to feed. Afterward, we went back to her house where she showed us the “fromagerie” where her dad makes goat cheese. It basically included a washing-looking-machine for I don’t know what; 2 refrigerators filled with large bins; and a large counter covered with cylindrical dishes with holes in the sides, where the goat milk becomes goat cheese, from what I could gather. After, we got to try 4 different kinds of goat cheese – all very delicious. Then we bought some more and ate it for dinner that night.

Today, Sunday, we had breakfast and an early lunch and then went to a watch/clock museum about a half an hour away. It was really fascinating to see how the invention has progressed and developed from simple mechanics to engineering I couldn’t begin to understand. It was really cool, as well, to see that clocks that were made 600 years ago are still in working condition. Also at the museum, there was a game that tested your reaction time, which we had a lot of fun with. There are 4 lights that turn on and at random times (but only one at a time) and when the red light goes on, you have to press the button and it times how long it takes you to press it. Apparently, sports men have to be in the range of 0.120 seconds. I think the best we got was 0.189 seconds, but usually more like 0.275, or something like that.

For the 4:00, we had Jello – peach and raspberry. It was the Kausche’s first time, and I couldn’t tell if they liked it or not.

After, Jana, Maren and I went to another small village to a church for a “cult soirée” – an evening service organized by the youth group. It was nice. There was a lot of singing (songs that we don’t have in English, and that I’m starting to learn. They sound really Middle Eastern, actually), accompanied by a clarinet, flute, violin, and piano. A few people did a skit about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead while the Youth Leader asked questions about it to the pastor. After the service there were refreshments and then we went home.

I think my French is getting better and better everyday. And its neat having a different schedule every day of the week at school, because I can see my progression from week to week. For example, the first week in art, I didn’t understand much of the lesson and had to ask students to repeat instructions for me, but this week (it’s actually Monday that I’m finishing writing this) I understood most of the lesson and all the instructions. Also, the guitar teacher said that I’m learning French very fast, which was encouraging.

Well I’m hopefully going to figure out, when Jana can help me, how to post photos on this blog, but if you have access to facebook, there are lots of pictures on there already.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my third week. It took 2 and an half pages on Word to write this.