Mallory Richey: ONE MONTH!

Holy Mackeral Cakes! Already a month into the exchange! I am not going to lie to you and say everything has been rainbows and sunshine, it has been hard adjusting to my new life here, but it is finally starting to resemble normal. Things have been going great at school. I am taking Biology, two History classes, two French classes, Spanish (learning Spanish in French is actually fun do to all of the mad laughing I cause every time I open my mouth...and is my favorite class) English (for which I am the helper) and I believe that is it. I meet new people everyday due to the fact that the school is huge! So, enough about school and onto the exciting parts. About two weeks ago we had our orientation in Touquet, which is like The Hamptons of Paris. It was gorgeous, hot, and I was extremely exhausted afterwards. There are a lot of us in the district and I have been also brushing up on some Spanish at the Rotary functions so I don't look like a complete idiot when I return to Spanish class at school, so maybe in addition to speaking French upon my return, perhaps I will retain some Spanish as well! In Touquet we all ran around on these giant team bikes that are super fun, for a kind of scavenger hunt, and our team got second place! WHOOO. Like Kestral said, meeting all of the other exchange students is like getting together with your family. There is a bond there that is hard to describe, and I love it! I even got a henna tattoo from the girl who came from India, talk about talent! After Touquet, and another week of school I went to Mamma Mia (in French of course) in the big city Lille which is about a half an hour away with my host mom and some friends. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I understood, so I think my French is improving! I have also been to four Rotary Meetings so far. They are different (like I mentioned before) women have just recently been accepted into my club and other clubs in the district don't have women at all. The meals are usually multi-course and loaded with butter, topped of with expensive wine. All of the meetings take place at night and the club is smaller than Steamboat's, but everyone is sooooo kind, helpful and nice. A surprising amount have actually been to Colorado which was exciting for me. Tommorrow, I am going to Paris with my host family and my friend Indy (she lives in the next town over and is from South Africa) to pick up Paolo who is arriving from the Philippines late due to some visa troubles. I am so excited, and coming up in October we have another Rotary outing at Mt. Saint Michel to look forward too. I hope everything is going well back home, and here are some pictures!