The Problems with French Schools

Sorry it took so long for me to update this page! I have been very busy and when I'm not busy I just am too lazy to update it. I usually come home with a headache because its so hard to focus on speaking french all the time!

Barcelona was really really awesome we were camping like 45 minutes outside of the city right near the beach so I was able to go snorkeling and cliff jumping in the Medditeranean Sea, which was actually colder than I thought it would be! The day before we drove into Barcelona for the day and had a tour of the city on the 'Touristique bus'...Barcelona is the craziest city ever, they have a lot of really unique architecture which was really cool. We got to take a tram to a Montjuïc Castle located on top of Montjuïc Mountain which overlooks the entire city and the sea. Barcelona is absolutly massive, its the biggest city I have ever seen.




Above is the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família. It looks really cool at night becuase its all lit up, Its absolutly massive and from the fort on top of the mountain (where Larry is pictured below) you can see the city and this cathedral towers over all of the buildings beucase its so big!

Larry also was in Barcelona and here he is at the Montjuïc Castle.



I was really enjoying the summer holidays here in France my family was keeping me busy with all kinds of things like bowling, ski nautique, swimming, rugby games and random things like the game pitanque. Then school started......its not that bad except that I have to go on saturdays from 8-11, but today I found out that the parents of the kids in my class have started a protest type thing and they are trying to get the classes changed so hopefully it will work. I haven't actually gone to a class on a Saturday yet becuase of legitimate excuses but I still don't look forward to the occasional Saturday that I am unable to get out of becuase If I want to make it to school on time I must take the bus at 6:55 AM to be there for 8:00.

I'm slowly learning how the bus systems work....I usually miss the bus and end up being late and once I got on the right numbered bus but it didnt' go to the metro it went to some random school parking lot and let every single person on the bus off. It's times like those where I wish my french was better.

I dont' have a lot of classes on average its like 4 hours of classes a day and finish at 11, 12, or 6 the schedule really varies. On mondays I only have 2 hours of PE at 10. So I really love mondays and I hate fridays becuase I have classes from 8-6 But I only have like 4 classes so its not that bad. In my spare time I go with my friends to walk around the city or sit by the river....most of the time we go shopping though. When I discovered Zara my entire 'savvy-spending-in-Europe' stratagy kinda went out the window....


I was starting to develop theries on why the french are so skinny...when I ate at the canteen for the first time, everything became a little clearer for me, the food in the canteen is not actually edible, so I think this is a contributing factor, also EVERYONE in France smokes. Non-smokers don't exist, even if people say they are non smokers it just means that they only smoke at parties or occasionally have a 'social' smoke or whenever they can get a free ciggarette from someone. The German exchange student in my class always carries around a pack of ciggarettes and a lighter because people always ask for a smoke or a light and she has figured out that its a convient way to meet people and make friends.

I however handed out pencils with the canadian flag on them to some of the people in my class. The first few days were really hard to talk with people becuase none of the french kids knew eachother either. I kinda felt like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls on her first day of school, except that there is no way I would hide in the washroom. Its kinda a general rule that the washrooms in Fermat are to be avoided at all costs, or I kinda go by that rule anyway becuase there are no toilet seats, soap, paper towel, the hand dryers are broken, most of the time no toilet paper and worst of all they are co-ed....which reminds me of another really different aspect of France...a lot of guys just go in the streets and i know that it never rains in Toulouse so I always watch my step!

English is the best class, even though the teacher has a lisp and is sometimes hard to understand. But the stories and things that she teaches to the class are ridiculously funny. School here is really really really hard to get out of. They make you carry around a book with notes for lates, absences and visits to the sick room, if you dont have them filled out then you cna't go to class and along with the note you need a letter from your parents. They also won't let you into the school without the book. they call your parents for everything. At the canteen I have to swipe a card to get my tray and if I dont' go to lunch there they will know and they will phone my parents to tell them I didn't go to the canteen that day! The school I go to is one of the most prestigous high schools in the south so it is very very strict because they have to maintain their reputaion.

Last weekend I travelled to the city of Cahors with all of the exchange students in my district. It was a really fun weekend, and I met some amazing people! We had a tour of the city, which is nearly 2000 years old! Its really amazing to stand in a street knowing a little bit of the history, and then think of all of the of people from every time frame in the last 2000 years who have walked through those streets. When the guide was explaining the history of the city it I was almost unable to comprehend how old the city acutally is. We stayed in sort of a really sketchy hostel while the rotarians all stayed in a fancy hotel down the street. The next day we went canoing down the Dordogne river in Souillac. We had a picnic on the beach, flipped 2 canoes and floated halfway down the river in life jackets!

School is getting easier now becuase I'm starting to understand more french everyday and my firends at school are always helping me with it! Its sometimes hard becuase there is an Australian in my class and today I was hanging out with Mbali my friend from South Africa so sometimes I am speaking more English than french! But yesterday I was watching the movie 'Chicken Run' in french to build my vocabulary up, and I speak only french when I'm at home so that is when I learn the most french. I'm really excited becuase I found out my school ahs a volleyball team so I can play and isn't a seasonal sport like in canada it goes all year long! It should be starting in the next few weeks! So I can't wait to meet more people and have something to do afterschool, pretty much all of my friends from school go home and study and do homework right afterschool so it will be nice to have something to do outside of school.

PS. I'm sorry that my english is getting worse and I really cannot remember how to spell theries right now....

Bisous