le Lycee

This morning I miraculously arose by myself at 6:30. I do not know how I did it, provided that I had had only a four-hour nap, two hours of sleep on the plane, and five hours the night before to support me. When Sabine awoke later we went to my school, Lycee Prive Saint Paul Lens, to find out which class I should take. I am in 1ere ES taking Spanish and maybe Latin. That means that I am in the French's version of junior year, specializing in Ecomonic-Sciences. My school is more focused on math and science than litterature or languages, so they do not have the L (litterature/languages) specialization that most highschools have here. ES is the most general option that they offer. The other one is T, which is more technical and heavily focused on math and science, much more so than ES. At the school I met Mme. Pruvost who deals with the exchange students among other things and M. le Directeur among others whose names I cannot recall at the moment. I learned that there are women who focus on pronounciation/speaking (they help young people after accidents,paralyzations,etc..) who will come to the school in September to help the other American, Michael, and me with our French. I feel so stupid and helpless, but at least I am not alone. Everyone understands. The school looks much larger than Providence High School (pop. over 2000) campus-wise, but the student population is only around 1500 including some post-BAC (post-grad.) students. Something different from the US is that high school is comprised of only three years, while middle school includes four years.

Something else strange/surprising that I noticed here: I have not seen even ONE smart car! I thought they were a lot more prevalent than they actually are. Maybe they are just used in the big cities. Perhaps I will find out; I go with Sabine and Heloise to Lille tomorrow morning. By the way Heloise is pronounced like the Americans pronounce Eloise (like the storybook character).

After visiting the school, we walked about Lens for a spell. Lens is significantly larger than Vermelles, which is not saying much. Then it started raining. It has been gray with no hope of blue these two days I have been here. Then, we returned home and I took a small nap. When I awoke, Chritophe (my host father)'s parents had arrived. They were very nice. His father speaks the local patois ch'timi, so it is quite difficult to understand him (even Sabine told me that she has a hard time understanding him often). Also, Heloise's cousine, who looks to be about 8 or 9 years old, came. He is the cutest little thing!

When they left, Sabine and I left to watch Heloise, the amazing horse-back rider, play horseball, a type of basketball on horses (pretty self-explanatory). It was cold. I met the families of other horse back riders who were all very nice. One grandfather promised to teach me Ch'timi, but I told him that I had to learn French first!