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Rotary District 6110 Youth Exchange

Alex
Fayetteville,AR to France

	Nickname	Alex
	Age	18
	Foreign Languages	French
	Interests	Cooking, Acting, Drumming
	Host District	D1740
	Departure	Aug 23
	Previous Travel	5 week language immersion course in Belgium
Travelogue	Photos	Email

Note: Most Recent Entries Appear At the Top

Date	Travelogue Entry
Wednesday, December 05, 2001 12:29 PM	Hello all, I'm sorry I haven't written in a long time but I felt like there wasen't much to say. There still isn't much to talk about but I'll see what I can come up with. So, school's ok I don't know if I already said this but I get be a waiter and work in the kitchen so that is pretty cool but to tell the truth serving one or two tables is really not hard. The most I have gotten to serve is a table of five and a table of four at the same time and even that wasen't that chalenging but our clientel is limited so there really aren't many clients and everybody has to practice so there are practically as many clients as there are wait people. Oh well. But I won't get to be a waiter much longer. I had a conference with the professors and they want to put me in a higher class so I'll only be doing cuisine twice a week instead of service once and cuisine once. I want to be in a more challenging level with more mature students but even though I have already made some friends in my class and I have established relationships with my professors and I have my schedule down pat but all that is going to change. It's not really a big deal because I'll have the chance to prepare more complexe dishes and I'll get to meet new people so that's good. So, I'm really jelous of Laura Hawkins because I got an email from her saying that she hangs out on the beach and goes camping on the cliffs next to the sea with her friends and all that jazz. I'm stuck in a cold and rainy town. I really would like to see more of France I don't know if I can maybe after the school year. So, I've been giving English lessons to a little four year old here for the past few months and that is really cool. She loves to hear English when I speak in English she sits and stares and loves it but, when, I speak French she is bouncing around not listening to a word I say! It's normal for a four year old I guess. Right now we're working on the numbers. I've become sort of like the town translator everybody asks me to translate song lyrics, phrases and one girl has an English pen pal and I translate all her letters and his responses! It's good for my French but I still feel like I need more I feel like I'm not progressing enough. So, Christmas is coming up and I have no idea what to buy for my host family. The town is decorated like Fayetteville does the square but it is all over town lights on the lamp posts, trees, across the road and everything. It's pretty cool at night. I'm still skeeming to go skiing, my family isn't going so I'm gonna try to stay at a friends house and try and go together. What else? What else? I don't know who my next host family is where they live or anything about them so the change will be interesting. I'll have to change bus routes and everything. We'll see and I don't even know when I am going to change families I think it is at the end of December but I don't know. I'm still trying to find a sport to join but it is really difficult because the sports aren't part of the schools but they are for the whole town. I talked to a guy that plays rugby for the town team the other day and he told me that I could play junoirs if I wanted so I'll see how that goes, I've never played rugby in my life and I know nothing about it but it is super popular here. Well I guess that is about it. a bientot a tous, Alex
Saturday, September 08, 2001 5:14 AM	Salut ça và everybody? Well, I started school two days ago. It's alright, not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I really have a great schedule, it is only thirty hours a week. And on weds and thurs I get done at 2:30. I have cuisine class all the time. And it is no joke there is a huge kitchen with different areas designated for different applications. I think the hardest part for me will be writing and understanding recipies in french. The cooking I think will be awesome, but I'll have to take some time defining technical cooking jargon and stuff like that. My first day the French professor got on my nerves because he would not let me finish a poetry excersize. I could do it but poetry in french is a bit complicated for me. So, I asked him if I could keep it and work on it at home and give it to him tommorow. He said no, it was too hard and I had to turn it in then. So, that ticked me off and made me feel like he thought I was just some stupid slacker american and I didn't know anything. After the fact I thougt about it and I realized I know I going to give my best effort and do the best I can. And I have to realize I am not going to get good grades here, but that isn't the objective; it is to learn French, learn cuisine and to experience as much of French life and culture as I can. So, that has been my only semi-unpleasent experience so far. Well, I get frustrated daily that I can't express my self fully or speak or understand as much as I'd like. It is slowly getting better, but I still stumble for words and speak slowly. I can communicate simply things fine but when I try to have an in depth conversation, it lacks. Well, gotta go eat. allez, ciao Alex
Sunday, September 02, 2001 7:53 AM	Hello everyone, First off you'll have to excuse the type-o's and just bear with me, I'm still getting used to the different keyboard. So, I'm doing fine. I'm trying not to use the internet much becase I read and write in english and that's not good. The first day I stayed in a hotel in Toulouse by myself because there was some problem with whoever was supposed to come pick me up. But it was cool the Rotary club's president's son showed me around Toulouse. I helped him and his girlfriend move into this awesome apartment, it had a big terrace and it overlooked the downtown part of the city. After that we ate crepes in an outdoor cafe. They weren't the dessert crepes. There are crepes filled with ham, eggs, cheese, whatever you want. Then we walked along the river and the city was all lit up. Friday I came to Aurillac. I was lucky because that was the last day of the street theatre. I am alreay anticipating next year, to do the fete de rue again. Aurillac is normally only 30 thousand people but for a week there are 500,000 people here! People come from all over to watch the performances and to have fun. The entire town center is blocked off and there are thousands of people roaming around and on every street corner there are little stages setup or just jugglers, fire eaters or whatnot. I talked to Lucie, my host sister about her working in the cafe on friday night of the fete. She said by the end of the night all of their glasses were broken. It was a lot of fun walking around and seeing all there was to see! at night when Evie (my host sister) and I were walking home we must have stepped over 30 plus people sleeping in the street! Then just last weds. I dressed up to go eat with the rotarians. We drove for thrity mins to go up in the mountains to "the farm" It is a traditional Avergne resterant. I ate a huge five couse meal. It was awesome. We were there for a little over 4 hours and that's normal for eating in a resterant. I start school on Weds. That's a little scary. Cause school is not joke here. They really take it seriously. I'm worried about doing well. Lately I've been going to the cafe France with Lucie, she works there. It's great to have a coffee and just sit and listen and talk to all the people that come in. Some come in for a minute to say hi and to drink a coffee and some come and nurse a beer for a couple of hours or more. Well that's it for now. a bientot, Alex

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