J'ai passe une bonne weekend a Paris avec mes amis!

I had a great weekend in Paris with my friends! Belen, Maya, and I went to Paris on Saturday!! We took the train in the morning.. it takes about an hour and a half to get there by train. And we came back around five o clock that night. It was a great day. Very fun!

We did a little sightseeing, but mainly just enjoyed walking around, shopping, and hanging out in PARIS!! I am so lucky.

Friends

Time to meet a few of my friends! I love these girls!!

Pauline and Anne-Sophie

Mathilde and Anne-Sophie

Maya, Belen, and I

Mathilde and I

Anne-So, Mathilde, Maya, and I!




Anne-Sophie, Mathilde, Maya, and I!

The Weekend

French royalty

Court Room

Boat tour of the Port Of Rouen


I know it's been a long time since I wrote last! I've been really busy with school and friends!!

Here are some pictures from my weekend!

First day of school!

I have to say that I was very nervous abou the first day of school! But I had no reason to worry because it went very well!!

My host mother helped me take the bus and the metro this morning, to make sure I got there ok. She also helped me find my class. In France there's one main classroom where each class has their classes. My class has 28 students. There are three other exchange students from Ecuadore, Venezuela, and Canada! It's great that I'm not the only exchange student!
I am in the class 'Premier L'.. which is like 11th grade in the US. The "L" stands for Language. I am taking a third language, I believe Spanish. There are two different Premier classes.. the one I am in focuses more on languages, French, and History. The other one is more Math, science, etc.

Today I met three girls in my class this morning, and the befriended me automatically. The also ate lunch with me, and basically took me under their wing. They are great people, and they are in my opinion, a good crowd. haha.
It is a little hard for me because I am 18, and the students in my class are mostly 16. But if I were in the next class up (terminale), it would be way too hard for me.. according to the school. I think I will be able to make some friends my own age once I get the language down a little better!!

Today I met my french teacher, who is really nice!! She is also the teacher who is in charge of our class.. so if I have any problems I can ask her.

It was a short day today because it was the first day... different than the US.

Another thing that is different is that in France, most middle school and highschool students have a half-day of school every Wednesday! However, many students, because of that, have to go to school for half a day on Saturday! I got lucky because on Wednesdays I don't start school until 9 oclock, and get out at 12 or 1. And I have no classes on the weekends!!!

A funny story from today:
My Rotary club in France is paying for my meals at the school. So I will be eating there everyday. This meal plan is called "demi-pensionaire"... the other students who dont have this meal plan have to buy a ticket to eat lunch at school.
So.. Today I got my lunch.. and was ready to eat, and there was a man collecting tickets.. he asked me (in french of course) "do you have a ticket or are you 'demi pensionaire'.. so I said "demi pensionaire", and he said "ok, what's your name" and I said in an American accent "Julia Karpinski" and he said "what?!?" so then i tried in a French accent "Jeulia Kaerpenski" And he said "what?!" again with a confused look. So finally I said " Je suis Americaine" (i am american).. Then he had a huge smile on his face at exclaimed "OHHHH.. Julia, of course Julia Julia Julia, the American, go ahead! I'm sorry, go ahead Julia, go with your new friends!!", (he went on and on in french) Then in broken English he said cheerfully "have great meal Julia!"

Hahahaha.. what an experience. I am a celebrity!

A day in Rouen

I spent a day in Rouen with my host parents, the pictures explain how beautiful it is... and this picture explains how good I am at speaking French so far! HAHA
It was a great day, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I am so lucky to live in such an amazing city.

A typical street in Rouen

Another beautiful street in Rouen..

The oldest restaurant in France!!!


The menu: La Couronne "the oldest inn (restaurant) in France" 1345


Another street.. I believe that's the side of the town hall on the right..

Inside the Joan of Arc Church

The baptism basin

Beautiful stained glass windows

The Church from outside, the circle of purple flowers is where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.

Gros-Horloge (big clock)It only has one hand to mark the hour.

I thought this was adorable.. the man was also collecting money but it's still really cute!

Another veiw of the Gros Horloge.. there are actually two.. one on each side of the archway.

The Rouen Cathedral

The ceiling

Another veiw inside

This is a unique street in Rouen because you can see on the right there is a little river..

Abbataile Saint-Ouen (Saint Ouen's Abbey)

The inside

Adelaide's birthday!

Everyone signing a poster for Adelaide's new room in the United States.

Madeline and Marie-Lo

Adelaide and I with our parents!

Ade and I with the Grandparents... What is Grandpa doing??

Ade with her Grandparents!

Rotary sisters...

Yesterday was Adelaide's birthday but we celebrated it tonight because she also passed her road test this morning!! It's really hard to get your license in France and really expensive. Usually there are ten students who take the driving test in one day and only five get a license!!

Good job Dede!!

It was a great night, grandma and grandpa came over for dinner. they are so cute and so nice!!

Adelaide leaves on Saturday. My host parents and I will be going to the airport to drop her off in the morning. None of the other siblings can go for one reason or another.

But I said. of course I would like to go!! And I think we might spend the rest of the day in Paris?? Yeah, that's an added bonus!! haha.

It was kind of sad tonight because I really really really am going to miss Adelaide. She is the sweetest person, and we are really alike. When our younger sisters are acting.. well.. crazy. Adelaide and I are always together, laughing and rolling our eyes HAHA. We just understand each other. It will definitely be different without her. She will definitely be a great exchange student, I can guarantee that!

another exciting day

Today I met Eloise, a friend of Adelaide's that goes to my school. She is so nice, and she says she really likes the school, which is kind of reasuring for me! She is also a really fun person, I'm glad I got to meet her. Adelaide, her, and I hung out a lot yesterday, and had a lot of fun as you can see in the pictures above!

I finally met my host brother Paul-Etienne! He is a really funny guy! He's great to have around, and it's nice to finally meet him after hearing so much about him. His girlfriend also came over yesterday for dinner. She's also really cool, she goes to our church too!

Yesterday, I met the Martin's, who will be my second host family. Didier and his wife, I can't remember her name. But they were both really nice, and Didier is sooo hilarious! Thier daughter just left for Ecuador last week, and I'm not sure that any of their other kids are living at home. However, there is a girl from Ecuador who will be going to my school, and they might host her at the same time too!

I also found out that I have a third host family! They live right in Rouen, and the house is within walking distance of my highschool. I'm not sure if they have any kids, but Etienne (my host dad) said that thier house is bigger than the house I'm in now!!!! WHAT?!?! I was amazed.. i still cant really believe that...

But that will be great because there should be enough room for people to visit me!!!