I ate the best bread I have ever eaten in my entire life today. This was after several mishaps due to my failure to understand French and general cowardliness in the asking department. Today of course was my first day at Lycée Lamarck. The day started off alright, although waking up at 6:15 is not my cup of tea. At least the cat didn’t bite or scotch me this morning. At 6:15 I rolled out of bed (careful to avoid the cat this time), I got dressed and went downstairs to the smell of, well nothing really. But there were croissants, brownies and pain ou chocolate on the table which was delicious. I swear I am going to get fat in France with all these bread based meals. I had a cup of tea with breakfast, frantically packed, and then we were off, a 7:30am! The boys got dropped off first at their l’ecole. I sat in the car for twenty minutes trying to conjure up internet on my phone. Unfortunately I am no witch.Then came the time for Florence (my host mother) to drive me to my lycée. We got there at a time when young teenagers of 15 or 16 would naturally be milling around the gate smoking. As you do. The laws are very lax in Europe!
After failing to find my name on the great board of names, Florence and I consulted the front office. They told us something in French (I do not know what) which prompted us to go back to the board and look for my name yet again. Quelle surprise it had not magically appeared. So off we trotted, me having no clue where we were going, to a room in a building which we stood outside for a bit, while it filled with people.
After a very awkward ten minutes of people staring I went inside with Florence and kind of stood around awkwardly. Are you sensing a theme here? Florence had to call work because she was late, so I sat down awkwardly next to a stranger who looked at me funny. Oh well what can you do?
The roll was called out for all the people in all the home classes in seconde (the year level I’m in) and surprisingly enough my name wasn’t called. So I had to continue sitting there awkwardly along with three other people, who had gravitated to the front whilst I stayed as far to the back as possible. Florence came back then and then she and I took a tour of the main office (a place I have been given a tour of three times today!). I went to do subject selection and chose Italian instead of Spanish, which may have been a good choice, I do not know. What I have realised is practically nobody has chosen Italian and I’m strongly suspecting there is a reason for that. Oh well I only have to sit it out for five months.
I then went to class where I was given an introduction that I barely understood and told to sit at the front. A prime position for people to stare at me. In class we went over our timetables, which made no sense and he talked about other stuff which also made no sense. Overall I understood about 5% of what people said to me today.
After an extremely long lesson where we also walked around the school a bit, we had lunch in the canteen. I had couscous with “legumes”, bread with cheese and a doughnut type thing. I sat with two girls who after realising I knew only a little French, ignored me the entire lunch and only spoke to me in English about twice. Not sitting with them again!
As I was walking back to my lesson my homeroom teacher introduced me to the German teacher, an exchange student from Germany and her host sister. This is when I got my second tour of the main office. We then went in to a room to discuss things and the English teacher came in to talk with me in English. It was hard to understand her (although I did understand everything). I think my mind is deteriorating.
I then went back to class where I was told somebody would show my where to catch my bus and two people agreed to help me understand my timetable. The bus thing turned out to be very unhelpful but I am yet to see how the timetable decrypting goes. The guy that offered has already said hello to me (in English) and seems nice, so I have high hopes.
The teacher then went on to talk about goodness knows what, I think some of it was math because he is a math teacher and I heard the word parabola. We then took a tour (my third) of the main office and other buildings around the school. Then it was time to go. The girl who had offered to show me where the bus was told me it came at five and where to wait for it. I never saw the bus. We got out at four so I waited an hour in the cold for a bus that never came and ten more minutes to make sure it wasn’t late before I texted Florence. She came and picked my up then I waited in her car while she finished work. Waiting in the car was boring (and stressful because my phone was going flat) but I put on inspiring music and felt a little better about missing the bus. I also played terribly addictive free apps until my phone warned me it was going to die.
It was still alive when Florence finished work and after she had cigarette we drove to the place of the best bread In The World. I ate some of the baguette as we drove home, and it was heaven. The outside crusty and golden, the inside light and fluffy. You cannot buy bread better than this.
We got home at about 6:50pm and I went straight to my room because frankly I am embarrassed about the whole bus incident.
Dinner was really delicious, potatoes and pork. Then came the usual of cheese and clearing the table. I was given the wifi password, so I watched the latest episode of awkward downstairs because the internet does not work up in my room. I checked emails and messages, watched the awkward episode one more time (it was really good) then finally at 11pm I went to sleep next to a cat who thinks I am the best scratching post ever!
