Les premiers photos

outside the kitchen window

the kitchen

my room

outside my window

my fwendz :)

my shot at being artistic haha

La centre americaine:

(05/09/2012)

Ce qui est dommage, c’est qu’à mon école, bien que ce soit une programme très bien développée et entière, nous sommes tous des américains. Même la directrice, elle est américaine. Notre professeure Jessica Hackett, elle est américaine mais elle habite en France depuis plus que 10 ans. Si on n’a pas les oreilles d’un français, ou même si oui, on dirait qu’elle est une Marseilleaise, mais elle vient de la Pennsylvanie haha ! Bon, bien entendu on aura des profs français, mais on en a des américaines aussi. Au moins qu’elles sont pratiquement française…

 Je me disais au début, J’ai aucune envie de passer du temps avec les américains en France. Et bien, c’est un peu vrai, en France je préfère rencontrer des amis français et comme ça je peux créer un vrai réseau sociale et français. Pourtant, il faut pas ignorer tes camarades ! Et bien, on n’a pas encore eu la chance de faire des amis français. Il faut vraaaaiment essayer, comme si on déménage avec la famille à l’autre côté du pays. Ou de Portland à Seattle, même. C’est difficile de se trouver un nouveau réseau d’un coup comme ça. Ca prend du temps, malheureusement. Et là, nous sommes tous dans un pays étranger ! Voilà c’est difficile quoi. J’ai aucune doute que je vais m’en sortir et faire des bons amis cette année, j’espère avec des français surtout. Mais je vais devoir vraiiiiment me mettre hors du zone du confort pour y achever. C’est beaucoup plus facile à dire qu’à faire, comme on dit en anglais. . Et là que je vais être en train de le faire bientôt, ça va être même plus difficile que je veux l’avouer.

Moi je m’intéresse à mes études et je les prends sérieusement, je veux mieux connaître ma mère d’accueil et je ne veux pas aller dans la folie tout de suite avec les boîtes de nuit et les bars et les garçons, pourtant, je ne suis pas venue en France pour ne pas explorer la vie de la jeunesse en France. Comme mes amis de Linfield et de Washougal connaît bien, (Mon « DREAM TEAM « , les mecs de Pike, et mes « FEMMES » :D) bah ils connaissent bien que j’aime danser, j’aime sortir, j’aime faire la fête quoi ! Et ben, je sais m’amuser, quoi ! Avec moi quand on sort, j’aime penser qu’on va s’éclater. J’aime créer des aventures là ou je suis (Brandi, tu le sais bien mon amie ! haha) C’est pas le truc le plus important de ma vie, mais c’est une façon pour moi de socialiser, de me détendre, de « let loose » comme on dit. En tout cas, l’environnement de la salle de classe est très bon et très progressif, productif, intéressant. Nous faisons des bons étudiants, c’est vrai. Il y a deux gens de la Californie, un d’Idaho, une de Chicago, une de New Jersey, un de New York City, et j’ai oublié le reste. Mais on n’est que ONZE étudiants, ça fait un bon dynamique mais c’est trop petit à mon avis. Bon, tant pis. C’est comme ça.

J’ai découvert mais cours aujourd’hui ! C’est comme ceci mon emploi du temps :

Lundi : French and North African Cultural Patterns (French 310). 1 :30-3 :00

Mardi : Arabic 109. 11 :00-12 :30

Mercredi : French Linguistic Strategies (French 330). 9 :00-10 :30

                Inter-religious Communication (French 370, Poly Sci 354, Religion 352- I better get QR credit for this!!). 11:00-12:30.

                Inter-religious Communication, session 2. 1:30-3:00.

Jeudi: Arabic 109. 11:00-12:30.

                Humanitary Action/French NGO’s (French 369, Poly Sci 358…. Maybe towards my IR double major? Pretty please? :P) 2:00-5:30.

Vendredi: French Linguistic Strategies. 9:00-10:30.

                French and North African Cultural Patterns. 11:15-12:45.

I have a lot of free time some days, which I will use for studying but also hopefully to do things with friends (French and American) and to do some service work, maybe some club stuff, and later on if I for some reason find a job…… (My visa allows me to! Heck why not make some euros eh?!) I will find some way to fill that time, but if I don’t, I will become rather bored, thus depressed… crossing my fingers I create that French social network and sense of purpose that will be crucial to my happiness here.

En plus, aujourd’hui j’ai acheté mon portable. C’est touuuut petit et j’aime pas, mais bon je pratique la vie dans la nécessité et pas dans le désir. Un portable c’est un portable. Si tu veux mon numéro, dit-le-moi et je te le donnerai mais je t’avertis je sais pas comment ça se passe, les SMS à l’étranger. Bon, on verra.

In my next posts, I will add photos. Also I will talk a lot about culture, the observations I’ve already made (for those who are curious about the men, because everyone is, yes I’ve been catcalled or whatever you want to call it, it happens to literally every woman and I will tell a funny story that Lilli, our director, told us about the romantic game in France haha) and what I’ve learned this week in orientation (which is basically pre-classes since we’re in the center all day long, learning and taking tests ahah just give me homework already why don’t ya!).

A la prochaine mes amis! Et pour ceux qui étudient le français en ce moment, et votre prof (M. Grable peut-être ! :P) vous encouragent d’étudier à l’étranger ou de continuer avec le français (ou n’importe quelle autre langue), je confirme que ce serait bon pour vous. Les langues et les expériences dans les autres cultures vous feront du bien, plus que vous pouvez l’imaginer. Même si ce n’est pas toujours facile. Même pour moi qui comprends bien le français et la culture, moi j’ai beaucoup d’apprendre et comprendre que j’ai pas encore fait. Mais ça vaut la peine. Après cette expérience, je vais être une nouvelle femme. Je me régale en faisant ceci, et ça va rester avec moi à travers la vie. Régalez-vous et donnez-vous l’opportunité de voyager ou d’étudier en profondeur les langues étrangères. Vous allez vous remercier plus tard je le SAIS. Croyez-moi, qui le fais en ce moment ! Je ne dis pas les mensonges ! 

Outre, je voudrais bien écrire des lettres à tout le monde ! Soit en anglais, soit en français J demande-moi pour mon adresse et donne-moi la tienne et voilà.

Bises,

Katherine 

Google Translate's translation, it's not my fault if some parts sound awkward! :)

What is unfortunate is that my school, although it is a program very well developed and complete, we are all Americans. Even the director, she is American. Our professor Jessica Hackett, it is American but lived in France for more than 10 years. If you do not have the ears of a French or even if so, it looks like it is a Marseilleaise, but it comes from the Pennsylvania haha! Well, of course we'll have French teachers, but also has the U.S.. At least they are practically French ...
 I said at the beginning, I have no desire to spend time with Americans in France. Well, this is somewhat true, I prefer to meet in France French friends and like that I can create a true social networking and French. However, we must not ignore your friends! Well, it has not yet had the chance to make French friends. Vraaaaiment must try, as if moved with the family to the other side of the country. Portland or Seattle, even. It is difficult to find a new network of a sudden like that. It takes time, unfortunately. And here we all are in a foreign country! This is what is difficult. I have no doubt that I'll go out and make some good friends this year, hopefully with mostly French. But I'm going to put myself out of vraiiiiment comfort zone to finish off. This is much easier said than done, as they say in English. . And that I will be doing it soon, it will be even more difficult than I want to admit.
I am interested in my studies and I take seriously, I want to learn more about my host mother and I do not want to go into madness immediately with nightclubs and bars and boys, however, I am not come to France not to explore the lives of youth in France. As my friends and Linfield Washougal knows (My "DREAM TEAM", the guys from Pike, and my "WOMEN": D) bah they know I love to dance, I like to go out, I like to What party! And well, I know how to play, what! With me when we go out, I like to think we're going to have fun. I love creating adventures where I am (Brandi, you know my friend! Haha) It's not the most important thing in my life, but it is a way for me to socialize, relax, to "let loose" as they say. In any case, the environment of the classroom is very good and progressive, productive, interesting. We make good students, it's true. There are two people in California, Idaho, one from Chicago, one from New Jersey, one of New York City, and I forgot the rest. But it is only ELEVEN students, it's a good dynamic but it is too small in my opinion. Well, never mind. It's like that.

But I found the course today! It's like this my schedule:
Monday: French and North African Cultural Patterns (French 310). 1 :30-3: 00
Tuesday: Arabic 109. 11 :00-12: 30
Wednesday: French Linguistic Strategies (French 330). 9 :00-10: 30
Inter-religious communication (French 370, Poly Sci 354, Religion 352 - I better get credit for this QR!). 11:00-12:30.
Inter-religious communication, session 2. 1:30-3:00.
Thursday: Arabic 109. 11:00-12:30.
Humanitary Action / NGO's French (French 369, 358 Poly Sci .... Maybe Towards my IR double major? Pretty please?: P) 2:00-5:30.
Friday: French Linguistic Strategies. 9:00-10:30.
French and North African Cultural Patterns. 11:15-12:45.

I have a lot of free time some days, which i will use for studying purpose aussi hopefully to do things with friends (French and American) and to do some service work, maybe some club stuff, and later on if I find for some reason a job ...... (My visa allows me to! Heck why not make some euros eh?!) I will find some way to fill That Time, goal if I do not, I Will Become Rather bored, depressed Malthus crossing my fingers ... That I create French social network and sense of purpose will be crucial to That my happiness here.

In addition, today I bought my laptop. Touuuut is small and I do not like, but hey I practice life in need and not desire. A laptop is a laptop. If you want my number, said to me and I will give you but I warn you I do not know how it happens, text messages abroad. Well, we'll see.

In my next posts, I will add photos. Also I will talk a lot about culture, the comments I've already made (for Those Who Are curious about the men, Because everyone is, yes I've been catcalled or whatever you want to call it, it happens to every woman literally and I will tell a funny story That Lilli, our director, Told us about the romantic game in France haha) and what I've learned this week in orientation (Which is basically pre-classes since we're in the center all day long , learning and taking tests haha ​​just give me homework Already why do not ya!).

The next time my friends! And for those who are studying French at the moment, and your teacher (Mr. Grable maybe: P) encourage you to study abroad or to continue with the French (or any other language) I confirm that would be good for you. Languages ​​and experiences in other cultures will do you good, more than you can imagine. Even though it is not always easy. Even for me who understand the French language and culture, I have a lot to learn and understand that I have not done yet. But it's worth it. After this experience, I'll be a new woman. I enjoy doing this, and it will stay with me through life. Treat yourself and give yourself the opportunity to travel or study in depth the languages. You will thank you later I KNOW. Believe me, do it right now! I do not say lies!
Furthermore, I would like to write letters to everyone! Either English or French  ask me for my address and give me yours and voila.

Kisses,
Katherine

Les miracles, ils peuvent vraiment s'arriver

3/9/12

Et comme moi j’ai passé DEUX JOURS à L’ENFER, j’ai fait témoignage à  un vrai miracle. 

*Avertissement: Beaucoup de self-pity and pathetic moments. Don’t worry, you’ll laugh, j’espère*

You see, I was supposed to leave for France Friday afternoon. Nope. Too foggy in San Francisco, flight delayed, would miss other flights.. so I had to wait until Saturday. I didn’t mind waiting for the sake of getting one more night with my family. But the emotional whiplash was crappy. I was so ready to leave Saturday, and so excited. But, my flight from Washington DC to Frankfurt was late and I then missed my flight from Frankfurt to Marseille. They had me booked on the next flight for.. THE NEXT DAY. Hellll nahhh I was not about to spend the night in Germany, alone, with not a word of German in my vocabulary (Except for ‘zwei bier, bitte.’ Thanks Dad), so naturally I started crying. A lot. When I’m stressed, I cry. When I’m mad, I cry. When I’m happy, I cry. I just cry. It’s how I express my emotions and I can’t help it! But in this situation I really felt helpless. The Frankfurt airport is a CF and that’s all I have to say about that. Luckily the lady at the United Airlines kiosk was so helpful (The others in Frankfurt airport, not so much, one woman literally scolded me for crying. Okay, maybe I was overreacting. In any normal situation I would understand, but I was a foreigner who was tired and emotionally on edge, she didn’t know that of course). She booked me the next possible flight, which was Frankfurt>Berlin>Marseille.

I almost decided to stay in Frankfurt overnight, because I only had 45 minutes to catch my flight to Marseille in Berlin. But the mean ladies said that I had to go to Berlin because the tickets were already printed and my baggage was already on its way. Fine. So I did, and guess what happened?  I missed my flight. (I was cursing the mean Frankfurt ladies in my mind). At this point, I was delirious from travel and so tired that I couldn’t even cry, I was just pissed. Calm but pissed haha. Heureusement  the woman at Lufthansa kiosk in Berlin was really nice and booked me a flight from Berlin>Lyon>Marseille. (Her boyfriend even shared a little snack with me. They were so friendly there! I now have a bad taste in my mouth of Frankfurtians and much better sentiments of Berlinians :P) I had a four hour layover, so I had a chance to change my clothes from what I had in my carry on bag (Thanks mom for making me bring a change of clothes!) and I got to grab a drink, buy some postcards and write a bit.

When we were landing in Lyon (C’est votre pays M. Durand! Super beau, je comprends pourquoi vous êtes fier que vous venez de cette region!), we passed a rainbow amongst the lofty clouds. I laughed to myself. How symbolic is that?! In the Bible, a rainbow was God’s covenant, promise, that the worst was over and that (the flood) would never happen again. Now, I’m not very religious, but this moment held a ton of meaning for me. It was a higher power’s promise to me that I had made it through the worst and I was finally in paradise, France that is. When I got to Lyon, I automatically felt x1000000000000000000000000000000000000 times better. I could understand people, I could communicate with them, and I’m more familiar with French culture in general so I just felt more at ease. My flight, however, was late (all my freaking flights were late!) and so the lovely people of Air  France put me en priorité to go to  straight through security and then my gate but because I was running late.

So, I literally had to run what felt like a mile through the airport because what do you know, my gate was at the very very end of other side of the airport. Voilà ma vie. I was THAT GIRL who ran like Quasimodo down the center of the corridor with hundreds of people staring at her from each side while she struggled to hold all her bags at once without dropping things left and right, panting loudly and mentally telling herself, “Just keep going you’re almost there and you CAN’T miss this flight and DON’T LOOK AT ANYONE the embarrassment is bad enough.” Yepp just picture it now. It was a cinematic moment for sure. When I got to the desk the very nice man who was luckily for me not obviously judging my awkward and ridiculous appearance/arrival, said, “A Marseille?” “Oui, monsieur.” “Bon vous n’allez pas le rater, ne vous inquiétez pas. Vous avez de la chance ». He took my ticket and said, « Bon voyage ! » “Merci beaucoup, monsieur.” Even the baggage men who took my carry-on and put it under the plane wished me Bon Voyage. How nice!

As I walked up the stairs to the plane, I almost started crying. L’ENFER of the past two days was coming to an end, I made it, after plenty of bêtises, embarrassing and sad moments, scary and lonely moments, and the fear that maybe I wasn’t going to make it at all (Dramatic, I know), I was on my way to Marseille. You cannot imagine, or maybe you can, the relief I felt. I sat down on that plane and for the first time in two days I felt not anxiety, fear, or anger, but excitement. It was a good feeling.

Moreover, the woman I was sitting next to had seen my American passport, and saw the look on  my face when I saw the nighttime lights of Marseille (ecstasy I imagine) and said, “C’est ta première fois à Marseille?” “Oui! En fait, je vais mes études cette année à Marseille. Je suis des Etats-Unis. » « Ah bon, je me demandais ça, j’ai vu ton passeport et c’est pour ça que j’ai demandé. » « Ah. Oui.. » And thus continued our lovely and amical conversation. It was a good way to enter Marseille.

I then met my host mom, I was looking for my baggage when a woman came up to me and said, “Est-ce que vous avez vu une jeune fille américaine très chargée?” “Bah.. je suis une américaine.” “Ah! Tu es Katherine?! Je suis Marie-Paule!” « Ah oui ! Enfin on se retrouve ! » It was a cute moment, how we met. We drove back to the apartment which is the most ADORABLE apartment I’ve ever seen. I will upload pictures, because describing it just doesn’t do it justice. But imagine the most typically French apartment you can think of. A tiny street surrounded by close-together, tall buildings, with tall, thin windows and shutters en façade. A large, heavy wooden door that opens to a foyer with cute, encircling stairs, no elevator. On the 4^th floor, the door leads to my apartment. In my room I have my own salle de bain , which is awesome, but les toilettes are down the hall. I have two windows that open to the street. The kitchen and living room windows have spectacular views of the sunset in the evening and the orange and red tiled rooftops of the city. It’s a dream. Every night I sleep with my window open and fall asleep to the sound of people socializing into the late hours of the night. It’s wonderful.

Bises, 

Katherine