Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
When is Julia going to update her blog??
I'm not sure... haha
Hey everyone. Thanks for still following my blog even though I have not been so good about keeping it up.
But you must understand that the last few months have been CRAZY!! But the best few months of my exchange. I am really comfortable in France now. I am constantly with my friends and my host family.
At the beginning of the year I struggled to keep away from my computer where i knew emails were waiting from the States.. and i could possible talk to a friend online.
I came home from school directly after class because I didnt have anything else to do. As soon as i came in the door i would literally crash!! I was so tired from one day of school all in french!
Some dinners with my first host family (7 including me), I would feel LOST in what seemed like and overload of conversation!!
Like I said, following classes seemed almost impossible at the beginning! If I didn't understand one word, I might not understand most of the lesson. I was constantly with my dictionary.. which was like my bible in class for the first 3 or 4 months...
My history class has become one of the classes that I like the best. I have always felt like I could follow, even if it was in french. But up until about a month ago, my teacher never gave me a grade on written tests. (most test consist of writing an essay or analyzing a document). I would only get a grade if it was a small quiz or map that we had to label. Even for midterms... we had the choice between writing an essay, or commentary on a document and I was the ONLY one who chose the essay. I wrote 5 pages and I had all the information... but no grade. Because my teacher kept telling me that I had made good progress, but I was still making too many mistakes in french!
At that moment I remember feeling annoyed and embarassed. Like all the other times we had a test passed back... if the teacher hadn't already announced your grade to the class.. everyone asked everyone what they got. And I had to tell them.. no grade. I thought to myself, "why can't she just grade me like the other teachers! she knows I have all the information even if my french isn't perfect!"
As the months went by my french got better and better, as I had become more and more motivated. I even bought grammar books at the middle school level to do in between classes.
Finally about a month ago I got a test back in History class, and my teacher announced to the class that I had recieved a grade. And that my grade was actually better that some of the others in the class. Because not only did i know the information... but my french was at the level of the others. She said that I had made a lot of progress and that I should be proud because she graded me like the other students.
It was a great moment that I will remember for a long time. I have that test hanging on my wall in my bedroom like a 2nd grader!! :)
Now it is the month of May.. and I honestly don't know where the time went!! My family was here.. and I had an amazing time showing them my new life. When they left I changed host families for a third time, and I am now living in the city. Which allows me to see my friends a lot more.. and I'm really loving it!
Last weekend we had a long weekend, and my host family took me to a region in France called "La Loire" which is near the city of Tours. We visited probably 5 or 6 different castles! What an amazing trip! I will post some pictures of that ASAP!
Hope everyone is having a great spring... and that you still understand my english?!
BISOUS!!
Hey everyone. Thanks for still following my blog even though I have not been so good about keeping it up.
But you must understand that the last few months have been CRAZY!! But the best few months of my exchange. I am really comfortable in France now. I am constantly with my friends and my host family.
At the beginning of the year I struggled to keep away from my computer where i knew emails were waiting from the States.. and i could possible talk to a friend online.
I came home from school directly after class because I didnt have anything else to do. As soon as i came in the door i would literally crash!! I was so tired from one day of school all in french!
Some dinners with my first host family (7 including me), I would feel LOST in what seemed like and overload of conversation!!
Like I said, following classes seemed almost impossible at the beginning! If I didn't understand one word, I might not understand most of the lesson. I was constantly with my dictionary.. which was like my bible in class for the first 3 or 4 months...
My history class has become one of the classes that I like the best. I have always felt like I could follow, even if it was in french. But up until about a month ago, my teacher never gave me a grade on written tests. (most test consist of writing an essay or analyzing a document). I would only get a grade if it was a small quiz or map that we had to label. Even for midterms... we had the choice between writing an essay, or commentary on a document and I was the ONLY one who chose the essay. I wrote 5 pages and I had all the information... but no grade. Because my teacher kept telling me that I had made good progress, but I was still making too many mistakes in french!
At that moment I remember feeling annoyed and embarassed. Like all the other times we had a test passed back... if the teacher hadn't already announced your grade to the class.. everyone asked everyone what they got. And I had to tell them.. no grade. I thought to myself, "why can't she just grade me like the other teachers! she knows I have all the information even if my french isn't perfect!"
As the months went by my french got better and better, as I had become more and more motivated. I even bought grammar books at the middle school level to do in between classes.
Finally about a month ago I got a test back in History class, and my teacher announced to the class that I had recieved a grade. And that my grade was actually better that some of the others in the class. Because not only did i know the information... but my french was at the level of the others. She said that I had made a lot of progress and that I should be proud because she graded me like the other students.
It was a great moment that I will remember for a long time. I have that test hanging on my wall in my bedroom like a 2nd grader!! :)
Now it is the month of May.. and I honestly don't know where the time went!! My family was here.. and I had an amazing time showing them my new life. When they left I changed host families for a third time, and I am now living in the city. Which allows me to see my friends a lot more.. and I'm really loving it!
Last weekend we had a long weekend, and my host family took me to a region in France called "La Loire" which is near the city of Tours. We visited probably 5 or 6 different castles! What an amazing trip! I will post some pictures of that ASAP!
Hope everyone is having a great spring... and that you still understand my english?!
BISOUS!!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
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