Elle N'a Pas Compris

So I've officially been in France for three days. Where am I supposed to begin? How do you summarize your first impressions of a whole country?

I won't bore you with the travel details; just know that it was really long and really tiring and by the time I got to Orange I had been awake about 48 hours. It wasn't fun. I'm still really jet-lagged, I keep trying to sleep in until 11 in the mornings, but sadly both the dog and my host brother think silence is a luxury I should not be afforded, and they start screaming at about seven. I will get used to this. I will.

France.

I've been in France for three days, like I said, and I've already kissed so many boys I lost track. No, I'm not super attractive or anything, it's just the greeting here. Three kisses, for everybody. (You can stop having a heart attack, Dad.) I mean, I was informed that I would be greeting people like that, but I had no idea it had such magnitude. When I wake up in the morning, I kiss every single one of my family members. When I see someone new during the day, I kiss them too. But the funny thing is, when there's a huge group of people together, and they all arrive at the same time, it doesn't matter how big the group is: you have to kiss every single one of them. It takes forever, but it's so funny. (The word kiss doesn't sound right, but it's all I've got in English.) But everybody does it, all the time, and it's no big deal at all. The only time I didn't get a kiss from someone was this afternoon, when a boy about my age refused to do more than wave at me. This could be either because he hates me, or because he was getting embarrassed by Alexia constantly teasing me that "He could be your boyfriend, if you want."

Anyway.

There's so much I could say right now. I could go on forever about my host family (and I will in my next post, I think) but for now I'm just going to write down every single significant thing about France I can remember. In list format, too, because even though it's only been just a few days, speaking English is already so strange to me that I can't be bothered with transitions.

--- Driving. The French way of driving is completely baffling. On one hand, they'll sit and wait at an intersection for a car that's 500 meters away to pass by. On the other, they'll cut you off immediately without warning or reason to do so, and the speed limit is entirely optional. From what I've seen so far, the general rule here is that no matter where you are, you should be going 90 km/h. Residential area? You should be going 90 km/h. Unlit street in the middle of the night? You should be going 90 km/h. (With your brights on, of course.) Parking lot? Wait until you're out on the street, and then you should be going 90 km/h in under three seconds. These people go around round-abouts like they're race-car drivers. Did you have groceries in the back? Now you have groceries all over the back.

---The radio. The station my family usually listens to is the FUN radio, and it plays the same fifteen songs over and over again, in no particular order. Also, most of them are in English. I keep getting questions: "You know this song? It's in English." (Like I didn't know it was in my language, yes, thanks.) "No, I don't know this song. No, seriously, just because I'm American doesn't mean I know every song my country has ever produced." But then I surprise them by knowing all the words to Alejandro by Lady Gaga. (Thanks to my friends.)

---People think I'm British.
   "So, what's the weather like in England? Is it like here?"
   "I don't know. But in the United States, it's pretty hot right now."
   "Oh. But they said you were Anglaise."
   "No. They said I speak Anglais."

---People here refuse to believe that I will eventually comprehend their French if they use simple words and speak slowly enough. My host parents are the worst about this. They assume that when I don't understand their rapid and complex French the first time, I must be an idiot, and they make one of their daughters translate for me. The worst part is that now they tell all of their friends that I only speak English, so nobody tries to speak to me in French. I surprised a few people that were having a conversation with Majorie about me in French by answering one of their questions myself. The didn't know I could speak any French. This is going to be something I'll have to work on.

I really could say so much more, but that's the other thing about France: no Wifi. I'm typing this out on WordPad, and I'm going to copy and paste it up stairs when I connect to the internet. Because of this, my posts might sometimes be posted a few days after they're relevant, so I'm sorry for that. I also won't be on the internet much, because in order to connect, I need to unplug the internet connector from the main computer, which five other people use. So, no internet in my room...

~Josie Harris

I love you all so much, and I miss you all terribly. Night time is hard, I keep crying, but know that I do like it here, even if it is the hardest thing I've ever done. I love you all.

A Monster Named Suitcase

I'm packed.

I can't even explain to you how scary a feeling it is. I feel like, if I don't have everything packed, if I forget something important, then I'm going to have to make room for it. But I can't make room for it, I've only just met my weight limits. So I'm doomed. And I need to charge every electronic thing I own, so that I can use it on the plane. Except my cell phone. Oh god, I'm traveling across America without a cellphone. Am I crazy?

Two big suitcases. One full of clothes (I'm such a girl...) and one full of quite literally everything else. We're talking books, makeup, notebooks, jewelry, photos, contact solution, bobby pins, teddy bears, space bagged EVERYTHING. I think I'm basically set for just about any environment. Including the middle of a desert. Yeah.

I leave for Boston the day after tomorrow. I've said goodbye to just about everybody but my parents...I'm not gonna lie, that was really hard. There have been plenty of times I just wanted to drop out of exchange altogether, and I figure there will be a few more in the next two days, but I'm just gonna suck it up and power through. Once I'm on that airplane, there's no turning back. Now...I just need to convince myself to get on the plane. (My parents have orders to drag me into the car, kicking and screaming or not, and throw me on the plane, and if they have to drug me to do it, so be it.) (Not to sound like I'm not excited, but right now my fears are seriously outweighing my joy.) (I'm such a pessimist.)

I've packed my laptop. If all goes well, I should be able to find a wireless internet connection and start blogging the week I get there!

~Josie Harris

Less Than a Week, Now

I had my going away party, yesterday. Oh man, it was so much fun seeing my friends again, we had a blast just hanging out. Almost all of my friends wrote me a letter for me to open on the plane to France, and it's taking all of my willpower to wait until then. And some even gave me gifts (though I told them not to, goodness knows how I'm going to pack everything), including a Toy Story 3 deck of cards and an absolutely gorgeous bag that one of my friends made herself. (Instructions: No textbooks or heavy items.)

Having a going-away party really puts things into perspective. (Oh no, she's gonna go on one of her exchange perspective rants.) Knowing you won't see these people for a whole year...wondering if you're still going to be the same person when you come back, whether they'll still like you. You can't ever know what's going to change. But I do know I'm going to miss every single one of them. I'm going to miss all our inside jokes, being able to understand them. I'm really going to miss the comfort you get from knowing someone for years. I don't mean that I don't want to make new friends too, but it's going to be so much harder...(end rant.)

On another note: SIX DAYS! Under a week until I board a plane to go away to France for a year! You're probably all dying to hear how excited I am, but the truth is I'm absolutely terrified. This is such a big step in my life. While I am really excited, I'm also both looking forward to and dreading trying to speak French for a year. I want the experience, but I really really like being able to say what I want to say when I want to say it. This...will be awkward. 

~Josie Harris

I Left My Heart In San Francisco

Okay, gotta say: San Francisco is absolutely amazing.

The hills, the flags everywhere, the cable cars, the waterfront...amazing! I heard so many different languages spoken there, I was amazed. People on the street would walk by you speaking Russian/German/French/Mandarin, and that wasn't at all weird. Boy, was I in a different world. I had fun teaching myself what all the flags were, because we were in a part of town that had a lot of embassies.

And speaking of embassies, the French one wasn't at all bad. Great location, I have to say: You could drop in, get a visa, walk over to Chinatown, and mosey back for dinner in a little French café right outside your hotel! Ah man, I loved San Francisco.

And you know how I was freaking out about getting my visa and making sure all my paperwork was in order? I think the hardest part of the whole thing was getting past the security guard (who wanted to search my bag, my purse, my folders, and wanted my appointment slip to boot, she only gave up when I told her it would take me a while to dig it back out of my folder.) Then I sat down in the most terrifying row of chairs in my life, next to three other people who looked just as worried and disorganized as I was, which was kind of a relief. At least I wasn't the only nervous one, you know?

But then I was called up (in San Francisco they don't even call you up in order of appointment: You just arrive sometime on your appointment day and wait in line until they get to you.) and I started talking to a nice French lady who took all my papers and started checking them off on the online list that we put my paperwork together based off of! It was so funny. Mom was like "Look, she's using the same list!" The only scary moments were when she called over her supervisor and started speaking very rapid French that I probably couldn't have understood even if there wasn't a big sheet of glass between us. Every time she did that, I nearly died, but it was fine. Finally she just took my papers and my passport and said "Do you want us to Fed-Ex you the visa or would you like to come and get it?" and I was like "I so totally did that!" :) It was great. Really fast, too.

Did you know they take your fingerprints? I didn't. The guy at the counter kept getting this angry look on his face because I wouldn't press my fingers down hard enough.

So now there's 25 days until I leave America. I've been talking with Alexia and Marjorie on IM systems, and I think Alexia and I already get along well. :) Twilight exists in France just like in America, and twelve-year-olds are the same everywhere, I guess. She speaks really good English, too. I think the only problem I'm going to have is going to be getting people to speak French to me! But I bet Téo can't speak English, so I'll get practice there, right?

It feels weird to be planning a goodbye party and counting down the days until I go. I don't think my brain is going to catch up to me actually leaving until I'm boarding a plane for Boston. It still feels...distant. It's such a hard feeling to describe. Like I know, but I don't know yet. But over this year it's been slowly sinking in, so I don't know. What I do know is that I can't wait.

~Josie Harris

Visa Squeeze

So far, every step of the way, everyone has been conspiring against us to make sure getting my visa is as hard as humanly possible. At least, it seems like it sometimes. Among the list of infractions:
-CIEE sending my host family info the week before I left to get my visa
-No one willing to notarize forms in French (In WA state)
-All the forms are in French, but only some of them have English translations
-I didn't get my essential paperwork from CIEE until yesterday evening, and I'm leaving for my visa tomorrow

I'm not saying this to whine, as much as it may seem like it. Sure, I'm worried, and I'm stressed, but I'll get over it in less than a week. Then France will come along, and I'll be happy and cheerful.
Instead, I'm saying this to warn you. If anyone out there reading this blog is a future exchange student to France, I'm going to give you some tips I wish I had known about. In no way am I saying you shouldn't apply to either France or CIEE: They're both amazing and wonderful and each have their own excellent qualities. But as for French visas, oh man, listen up.

-Ask for paperwork early. If they say it's not possible, ask again politely. If they say it's still not possible, ask again politely. If they say it's still not possible, ask again politely. If they say it's still not possible, ask again politely. Rinse and repeat until you have all the essential papers in your hands.

-Find someone early on in your preparations who will do notarization of signatures for French paperwork. (When a signature is notarized, it means that someone certified to do notarization watched you, or in this case your parents, sign a legal document in front of them and can therefore confirm that they were in fact the people who signed. This is usually done at a bank.) Find someone who is both certified for notarization, and can speak French. It turns out that banks won't notarize anything that they themselves can't read or understand, even if you bring along an accurate English translation issued by the consulate themselves. Be safe, not sorry. If your French-speaking notary still won't sign it because the paperwork doesn't have the right verbiage for notary signature (which also happened to my parents) then call the consulate and ask them for an amended document.

-Start to schedule an appointment for the consulate at least two months before your departure date. At least for the consulate in San Francisco, appointments must be made a month in advance, and all visas must be applied for a month before your departure date. (So, for instance, if you leave on the 30th of August, you must have your appointment at the consulate by the 30th of July.) Important Rule: Visa procedure trumps exchange company policy. If your coordinator says you should wait until you have a host family to schedule an appointment, but the consulate website says you should be scheduling your appointment right now, you follow the consulate's rules. If worst comes to worst, you can cancel an appointment. You can not (unless you are very lucky) schedule an appointment on a day's notice.

-Use your resources. There is likely a French teacher at your local high school. If you are going to France, you have probably known them for several years. Take their help if they offer it, ask for their help if they don't. Most of the paperwork you will submit for your visa will be in French. It doesn't matter how well you think you know French: You will not understand paperwork French. Chances are, your French teacher will know what they are saying far better than you and your trusty online translator will. Ask for help. It is not demeaning, it is not awkward, it is not unnecessary. What it is is a brilliant idea and a potential life-saver if you've made a mistranslation. It doesn't take a home visit. Look up their school e-mail on your school's website, or call your school during summer school hours (which your school will most likely have) and ask for their phone number. Look them up in the phone book. Use your resources, and avoid looking like an idiot at the consulate when you realize you checked all the wrong boxes.

Make sure you don't make the same mistakes I did, is all I'm saying. I'm looking back at the last few months, and I'm realizing that a lot of what's been stressing me out (thought not all of it) could have been helped if I had known then what I know now.

France is an amazing country, with great people and great everything else, and CIEE is an amazing program, with great coordinators who put up with my mini tantrums and great programs that have inspired thousands of kids to go on exchange. Exchange is always going to be hard, but getting your visa should not be impossibly stressful. I wish I had someone to tell me all of this a long time ago.

~Josie Harris

Host Family

I finally got my host family!

I'll be living with the Henriques family of Orange, France.

Orange (what a funny name, I love it!) is located in the southeast of France, down by Marseilles apparently, and I'm relatively sure it's part of Provence. I'm extremely pleased, I was really hoping to go to the southeast. I've heard stories about it being the most beautiful part of France.

The family, though, is even cooler. I'm going to go from my American three-person family, where I'm an only child, to having four siblings! I can't even begin to imagine what that's going to be like. There are three girls, Marjorie, 16, who I'll be sharing a room with, Sandrine, 14, and Alexia, 12. Then there's a boy, Théo (or possibly Téo, they've spelled it both ways) who's only three. The parents are Joël and Sylvie, and they've expressed in their application that they'd like me to help their daughters with English, which I guess I'm fine with.

So far I've only got two pictures of the family: one picture is of them in Venice, and it's pretty recent, but also very blurry. The other one seems far less recent, but it's very clear. From looking at the pictures, they all look very nice. (Not that you can really tell what kind of people they are from a picture, I guess, but whatever.) The parents look pretty young, actually, I think their application said they were 44 and 38, almost exactly ten years younger than my parents.

I'm so excited, I haven't been able to stop smiling! It's one thing to know that you're going abroad. It's another thing entirely to know where you're going and who you're going to live with. I can't wait to meet these people! There's already so much personality in the application I have from them. I know that Sandrine and Alexia like to do cheerleading, I know that Marjorie plays the violin (and I'm a little apprehensive about sharing a room with someone that plays the violin, it must be said), I know that M. Henriques has an absolutely lovely script type handwriting (and that it's impossible to read), I know that the family keeps not only a dog, but also a chicken and several rabbits, and that's only the beginning. I'm going to try and e-mail them soon, if they don't contact me first. I want to get to know them...

(Subject change, sorry.) On a different note, I'm leaving soon for San Fransisco to get my visa. Thanks to my host family's timely arrival, I will soon have all the paperwork I need to turn in. Seriously, it's a pain in the butt. My parents have to fill out about a million forms, but half of them are in French. I know, you're thinking "So what, Josie? They're in French, but you speak French! Just translate for your parents." And I'm here to tell you it's not that easy. These forms are in both very formal and very paperwork-y French, which was really not covered in French 3. They ask simple enough questions, like "How long are you going to stay in France?" but they ask them in the most roundabout way possible, like "In France, you plan to stay for how long?" until your head spins. So, I should be helping Mom get those done soon, and I'm not looking forward to it. But whatever, it's good practice.

Anyway, I'M SO SO HAPPY THAT I HAVE MY HOST FAMILY! It's so great, you don't even know. I'm going to be in a good mood all week, not even summer school is going to drag this down!

~Josie Harris

Visas, Dates, and Flights: Oh My!

Ohhhhh. Wow.

So, today, Mom and I decided enough was enough, and it was already July, so we should have gotten my host family placement by now. So we called both of my coordinators at CIEE and left them voice-mail messages. A few hours later, my regional coordinator called back, and Mom had a chat with her about how much we're freaking out about the visa.

She told us that my host family placement will come in the next two weeks. Again. But this time, she had a reason for it: apparently France is very particular about having everything worked out before any exchange students get their placement. France wants to make sure that our schools are going to accept us, so that they won't have to change host families on us, and the week for the schools to mail back the acceptance is this week. Apparently, it's also the last week of school for French kids. Which is great and all, because now I at least know that they haven't missed me or anything, they've just been being extra careful. :)

The other part of the phone call was, obviously, dealing with visa stuff. I didn't hear much of what Mom was saying on the phone, but when she hung up she told me that we needed to schedule my visa appointment right now. And when she said right now, she meant right now. She hung up the phone and went over to her computer to schedule it. As it turns out, the consulate wants you to get a visa one month before you leave. Since I'm going to be in France on the 27th of August, this left us trying to get the appointment this month.

So, very luckily, the next available date for an appointment happened to be the 27th of July. At noon. So on the 26th, I'm going to be driving down to California with my parent(s) with a whole bunch of essential paperwork (some of which we don't actually have yet).

On another note, the day I'm leaving has been changed. I'm now leaving on the 24th of August, because my coordinator wants us all to arrive at noon on the 25th at Boston. Yeah. From Washington state, that's just not happening. So I'm leaving early on the 24th and getting there late the same day, then spending the night in the hotel booked for our orientation. I'll still be getting into France on the 27th, though.

It's overwhelming, sorry. I have no idea how I'm keeping all this straight. If it helps at all, absolutely nothing else about my life has changed. :)

So now when I say there won't be anymore posts until my host family info comes, I might actually mean it. Wouldn't that be a lovely change of pace.

Over and out.

~Josie Harris