School in Bourges

School in Bourges is quite different than school in Tacoma. The first day was two hours devoted to learning our schedule. I arrived at the schoool with my host dad and met up with Camila, Anika, their host dads and the Rotary club president Alain Birer. We were already receiving stares from students but that was kind of expected. Alain showed us the lists that informed us which class we were in. At my school here you stay with your class for all of the courses, which is nice because I could follow a classmate to the next classrooom and not get lost on my own. We found out that Camila was not in the same class as Andika and I so she wasn't looking forward to being the only exchange student in her class. I sat silently for the first hour when suddenly a bell rang and the students were walking out to the hallway. I didn't understand what was happening so I just followed along. Turns out students get about a five minute break every hour even if they're in a two hour class. I tried to talk to some people because they were looking at me but they became bashful and would only say "Bonjour" back to me. Andika introduced me to Sarah who speaks English pretty well. We returned to class for another hour in which I sat quietly once again understanding nothing and thinking to myself "What the heck am I doing here?". After that hour the teacher allowed me to take a picture of the schedule so that I could write it down later. I was unsure as to where I was supposed to go from there so Andika and I wandered out to the courtyard and found someone in our class. With the help of her friends she was able to tell us that we were finished for the day. The schedule is a lot like college, or seems that way  to me. We might have a class in the morning, an hour of nothing, then two hours of class. It felt a bit disorganised to me because I am used to having a set three or four hours of class, lunch, then a final two or three hours to finish off the day. Throughout these last couple of weeks classes have been added, subtracted, cancelled, and unknown. Finally last Thursday we were given a concrete schedule. Unfortunately I followed this new schedule on Friday when I was supposed to follow the old schedule.

The thing about staying with your class throughout the day means I have to attend classes I have no knowledge about. For instance: Spanish. I have never taken a class of Spanish yet I have to go to the 2nd year Spanish class with my classmates.During my first class of Spanish each student had to introduce themselves in Spanish. I listened as the other people presented themselves and repeated what I would say roughly a hundred times in my head. When it was my turn I said "Me llamo Lydia, tengo diesiseis anos. (Switched to French) Pardon, je suis americaine, je ne parle pas français ou espagnol". The teacher exclaimed "Oh!" then rambled on in either Spanish or French. Don't ask me which, she spoke too darn fast for me to decipher! For the remainder of the class I did as I do for every class: I sat quietly and wrote in my notebook what was written on the board. I don't believe Spanish will be a favorite class this year along with History. The first class of history the teacher clearly didn't understand that I don't speak english. I decided to talk to her after class and I led with "Je ne parle pas beaucoup de français.." and she too began rambling in French. Okay, they're not getting the hint, but I'll be speaking French soon enough (hopefully).

One shocking difference at the school is the bathrooms! There are bathrooms specifically for boys and specifically for girls, then there are also bathrooms for both boys and girls together. WHAT?!?! One day I was walking out to the hallway from class for the five minute break and asked a friend where the bathroom is. She pointed to an unmarked door so I was a little skeptical but she insisted that was it. I walked towards it as a boy walked out. I quickly turned and walked friskly away then watched as a girl walked into the bathroom. I decided to investigate and sure enough I found a bathroom with both boys and girls in it. Thankfully there aren't any urinals! I found it super odd that no one else looked shocked. I realized that I probably looked really dumb gawking at this sight so I quickly checked my hair and shuffled out of there. I found Camila and her friend who is aso from Mexico, Natalia, and told them about the bathroom. They went to look at it and all three of us were mindblown. We had never seen a dual bathroom in our countries.

Another giant difference is the amount of students who smoke!There's a fifteen minute break around 10h00 and nearly everyone goes outside the schoolyard gate to smoke. In the morning the teachers will be passing through the parking lot and pay no mind to the dozens of kids smoking. Last week I hung out with about ten other girls after school and after a while of walking we stopped to sit and rest. About eight of the girls immediately began smoking. I knew a lot more Europeans smoked than Americans, but I didn't realize to this extent. It's just really different. (No worries mom, I haven't touched a cigarette and don't plan to!)