La Première Semaine: Partie 2

by theboneyqueenofnowhere

At the house, there were always heaps of people over. My host mum would later describe it as a “community”. Normally there were several people over for any given meal – and the extended family all had keys to the house. I felt less of a hassle then, less in the way, less noticed – which was good.

School, during class, I studied French. I simply couldn’t follow anything the teachers said. I ended up reading my dictionary as though it were some novel I couldn’t put down. I was surprised at the amount of English words in French, probably about a third. (Or French words in English?)

Class for me was as incomprehensible as:

Each day after school, I would go home with Claire. I was always happy to get back, school was such an effort. I would pass the time doing nothing in particular (watching TV with Claire, meeting new people, swimming, reading…) until dinner and then bed. I was so tired all the time, sometimes during dinner I could barely keep my eyes open. I had to have a minimum of 10 hours sleep to fonction properly, or else my brain could simply not keep up.

I had my first contact with Australia on the Monday – half a week after I had last touched base. It  hadn’t been long, but already I felt so far away. I skyped David, Jwalita and my parents. Claire sat and watched, which made me feel self conscious. In Australia, computer time is private time. But here, I got the vibe that people didn’t really have “private time”. I also found that people here didn’t really use computers (even though my host family had several). This would later become more and more evident.

I tried to make several jokes in the first week, mostly to Claire – none going down well. I thought it was just my French, but after repeating in English, she just looked at me as though I was a fool for trying. I decided that the humor here must be different (definitely true) and that I wouldn’t try again until later.

I swum alot with my host sister during the first few weeks. It was nice, but I couldn’t understand a word in the pool room – it procuded such an echo! So I just hung around, awkwardly playing with Claire and her friends.

On Thursday, we went to Belgium. Claire told me we were going so I could see the neighbouring country – but really, it was so her and her friends could buy cheaper cigarettes. We went to the Service Station and had a drink at the café next door and then drove the 30 minutes home. At the time, I had a blast – but looking back, I’m a little annoyed that she told me we were going “for me”.

Saturday morning was spent at school. Then we drove to the parents of Xavier (host dad) for lunch. Claire and Guillaume are similar in that they are both very negative. They like to complain and poke fun at things lesser than great. So before we got there, they had already told me that their Grandma cooks terribly and is most definitely insane. I thought neither. Even during the meal, they weren’t afraid to voice their dislikes or even refuse to eat some things. I thought this was very rude, but maybe it was normal here?