♥ La Bonne Vie ♥

1:08 PM |

Alright Alright Alright. I know its only the first week and i've started to slack on my blog, my bad.

Well, lets start with Day 1 of orientation.
I arrived at LGA airport which was very scary, the only thing going through my head was "I'm half way there!" When I finally met up with the AFS group I saw Lizzie and I was so happy. We sat at the airport for another hour just in case of something (Je ne sais pas) Anywho, we waited for the van to take us to our orientation. (fast forward past traffic) We arrived at the double tree hotel and thats where the adventure of limbo began. When we arrived we put all our luggage in one room until room assignment where given out. Then we got registered, where they gave out name tags, a survey, and water bottles(not for you to keep). Once you finished filling out the survey you got a beautiful yellow T-Shirt. :) (OK if you sensed the sarcasm in that statment its because literally on the van ride over i said "I hope the shirts aren't yellow I dont look good in yellow." so ya) Any who, after waiting and talking to other exchange students we went to meet with our group leaders(Jim). We had Info sessions and what not, we got our room assignments, then we got our bags and headed to our rooms to freshen up for dinner. Dinner was pretty good, after dinner we did a few get to know you games then yea.....any who

D-Day
We woke up bright and early for breakfast then we had more safety and information sessions. Then we had an hour of repacking and what not, then lunch. After lunch we had another safety and info session and we also said our good byes to the kids going to different countries. The 51 people going to France....yea i said 51...there were a totally of 100 ish kids and 51 of them were going to France :) alright anyway the "French Army" left the hotel at 3 for JFK....waiting in the airport was so fun/boring/nerve racking/amazing checking in was awesome because i know my bag was overweight and it went through :p Also, BIG NEWS! We got to ride the biggest plane ever the Air France A830 the plane had two levels and a spiral staircase :) I loved it.

Arrival In Paris.
We arrived in Paris and went through all the boring things like baggage claim, customs, and what not. Finally when we got out of the airport we had to wait on our bus...ok funny story, we thought that we were riding in a Mercedes Bus because it pulled in front of us and the guy got out and me and a few friends "YAY were rollin in style" . Then the guy got back on the bus and left and we just sat there "umm hello" Then our real bus arrived but it wasn't shabby :) then we drove to our hostel which according to our leaders was the "nice" hostel and it was really nice :) We put our big luggage in a room for the orientation then took our little bags to another room so we could eat lunch...lunch was good...then we went to get our rooms then we had free time until dinner (i slept)....uh oh yea we got another yellow shirt....yay :)

On sunday, I woke up at 4:45 to take the TGV from Paris to Laval and met my host family. We went to a little cafe for drinks with the two other students staying close to me, Then we drove home about 30mins away. After I did some light unpacking, we had lunch. In France, lunch is massive especially on Sundays. So we had a big lunch, and afterwards I finished unpacking. Then I took a massive nap and when I woke up I got a mini tour of the farm. Then we had dinner. Families in France don't eat until around 8:30 or 9 at night, and dinner is long. After dinner the family gathers to watch a movie on tv :)

On monday I took the day the morning off of school to rest and recuperate. It was great. Then I went to school to get registered.I started school that afternoon, it was very scary and very confusing.I met a really nice girl in my class named Flora, she is Swedish and speaks english really well.

anywho A lot goes on and its really hard to keep up with the blog so i'll try but no promises to update every week or every two weeks

8:54 AM |

Hi,

Well, right now I'm sitting in the Akron/Canton Airport (lay over) waiting for my flight to LGA. I am so excited/nervous/happy/anxious/prepared/unprepared/ready/not-ready/ahhhhhh. I guess I should give you guys a run down of how yesterday and this morning went. Yesterday, I went and picked up my passport/visa from the French consulate(Just In Time :p ), I got a hair cut and a mani/pedi, took care of a few last minute things, and had a couple of friends over.
My best friend stayed over and came with me to the airport.
This morning I woke up at 5:30 to get everything ready, left the house at 6:30 and made it to the airport. The goodbyes were very sad, crying from my mom :), and random moments with my brother and best friend quoting shows and being silly around the airport.
At 9:10 my plane left Atlanta and that brings me here. My flight leave in a little bit and I should land in New York at 1:46 :)

I am so excited, I can't wait to get to orientation and meet all the other people going to France. I have two friends studying abroad too but there going to Spain and Egypt so I will get to see them in NY before I leave :)

Welp, I have to board my plane now so I'll try to update this blog as much as possible.

~A

P.S. The name I have chosen is Adriana it so much better than (Bonjour Je m'appelle Marche Hi my name is walk...or market)

4:46 PM |

Well, I have finally hit my maximum freak out level. There are so many things to do within this 3 day period. The main thing PACK, which is so hard with a 45lb weight limit and what not. It's also really hard when you look around your room and you think hmmm i could use that one day. Oh, today there was an AFS picnic in my area for volunteers and the exchange kids that are from other countries. I had a lot of fun and meet so many cool people.
Anyway I have pictures of my host town for your viewing pleasure. :)






My School

<3 A

11:56 AM |

So I have been emailing my host dad for the past two weeks. and this is the first letter

Bonsoir,

nous sommes très heureux de accueillir l'année prochaine .

Nous avons accueilli deux jeunes filles par l'association AFS et je te donne leurs coordonnées pour que tu puisse correspondre avec elles:
- Eloïsa en 2008/2009:
- Prisca en 2009/2010:

Lors du départ de Prisca en Juillet, nous avons rencontré à la gare de Laval une jeune fille au pair qui est originaire d'Atlanta. Elle habite Laval et son adresse e-mail est : suzanneb.nelson@gmail.com

Tu es inscrite au lycée de Saint-Michel à Château-Gontier en classe de première L ( option littérature française).

Tu peux découvrir ton lycée sur le site : www.saint-michel.org.

Tu peux aussi découvrir la région sur les sites : www.lamayenne.fr, www.tourisme-mayenne.com, ...

Si tu as des questions, n'hésite pas à nous écrire et nous serons très heureux de te répondre.

J'espère que tu passe un bel été et que ta famille va bien.

A bientôt.

Michel, ton papa d'accueil.

TRANSLATION!!!

Good Evening,

we are very happy to host you this upcoming year.

We have hosted two other young girls with AFS and here is there information if you want to talk with them:
- Eloïsa en 2008/2009
- Prisca en 2009/2010

When Prisca departed in July, we met a nice young girl from Atlanta.

You will learn at lycée de Saint-Michel à Château-Gontier and will be in the class première L ( option littérature française).

to look at your schools website : www.saint-michel.org.

to look at our regions websites : www.lamayenne.fr, www.tourisme-mayenne.com, ...

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reply we will be very happy to send a reply.

I hope that you and your family are doing well.

see you soon.

Michel, your host dad.

THey have sent other emails and I have found out they have a border-collie :D they are giving me a french cell phone ummm my school doesnt not have uniforms except for sports
yup thats about it :)

3:53 PM |

....so
I GOT MY HOST FAMILY :D
There are a million things to say, because I've kind of slacked off writing (Sorry!).

Part 1: Host City
Marigne-Peuton, France! Marigne-Peuton is 298km away from Paris, it is 84km away from Rennes, and 53km away from Angers :)

Pays: France
Région: Pays de la Loire
Département: Mayenne
Arrondissement: Château-Gontier
Population: 551 :O my current school has 1100 kids in it that is amazing :)
Postal Code: 53200
Mayor: Philippe Bouvet


Part 2: Host Family
Mom: Renee
Dad: Michel
Son: Matthieu (22)
Son: Vincent (20)
Animals: 1 Dog 1 Cat and a ton of cows :)
House: on a Farm :)
Pool?: Not that i know of
School Distance: 15 mins away from house by car
Starting school: Immediately after I arrive

I have a host mom a host dad and two host brothers over 18 so I guess I will be like an only child....idk....


I've e-mailed my host dad a couple times He seems really nice, and I'm really excited to meet my family. I think they all speak some English, so that should be useful.

Part 3: Departure
Departure: September 2nd
Arrival: September 3rd

Part 4: Freaking Out
Wow...I leave in 31 days... for a year... I'm really really excited... Like, REALLY excited....
OMGOMGOMG!! Ahhhh!

More to come as the day nears

google maps:

2:27 PM |

Oh, well I'm updating this blog to say that nothing to exciting (relating to the exchange) has happened since my PDO.
PDO (Pre-Dparture Orientaion) was alright, I meet some amazing people that are going on exchange. We had an all female group which was kinda cool i guess. We talked about a lot of stuff like "Stranger Danger" :p and other random things like that.
Hmmm oh the last day of school was May 25th and graduation was the 27th. I was really happy on the 25th but on the 27th I got really sad. A lot of my friends are seniors and I had to imagine not seeing them for a year or longer...and then I realized that I wouldn't walk with my class... it mad me so sad, I almost cried on my Cello but i restrained myself :)
....June has been a pretty amazing month I love all of my friends. My Best Friends Birthday Party was this weekend and we have been celebrating this entire month :) I bought her concert tickets and we had so much fun (3oh!3 Cobra Starship = <3) He actually birthday is Wednesday tho so were gonna hang out again. Oh I'm also leaving July 9th to go to a wedding in Virginia and then July 11th I will be off to be a camp counselor for a month. I'm excited and when I get back I am going to have so much to do.


~Adrianna

7:15 PM |

So I'm sitting in class learning as us children do and my phone vibrates....I think its my mom so I check to see...no its not my mom its an email saying "Congratulations! AFS-France has just accepted your application!"

I screamed, smiled, and my teacher and classmates looked at me like I was truly insane. I told them I was fine, and nothing was wrong. I was giddy the entire class period, as soon as the lunch bell rang I bolted out of the room. I found my friends to share the good news and they freaked out with me. :) (Imagine a bunch of girls screaming in a courtyard)

I'm so happy :)

ok now all i have to do is wait for a family and PDO (May 8th)
so
ill update soon... :D