Hello everyone!

Its been a week since I arrived in Saint Lys! And it has been a incredible journey! I have made it through first meeting the family jitters and the nervous butterfly's of the first day of school!

School was very interesting, everything is different here than in America. For example I don't start school till 9 am on mondays, I have an hour and a half lunch, some classes are two hours long! But the best part yet is that I finish school at noon on Fridays! I have meet so many interesting people!

Every morning except Monday I work up at 6:20, which was always a struggle, so that I could make it to the bus on time at 7:15! School starts at 8 am and depending on the say you could have class for two hours then a you have a ten minute break where you socialize in the court yard. Than you have class for another two hours! After that lunch time! After lunch you go to whatever classes you have. Depending on the day we take the bus home at 5:30.

After school we do lots of different things, like go in the pool, play badminton or watch TV. And for my sisters they have sports or other activities. And around 8 pm we have dinner. We always have dinner together outside. Every meal that I have had here has been so amazing! We have had lots of different kinds of food, like quiche, tomatos, bread and cheese, and lots more.

My host family is awesome. They have been so nice to me as I settle in. I can't wait to see what will come next.

Talk to y'all later
Marla

Ready, Set, GO!

Hello y'all,

Right now I am sitting in the middle of the lounge in New York City at the JFK Hilton. I am surrounded by all the new friends that I have made.

My flight to France leaves at 7:15 pm, I have a long wait to go. I will be leaving at 3 pm with all of the other AFS France people.

I am so excited about going to France especially about meeting my host family and everyone at my new school!

So far the process of getting there has been no trouble at all! I left my dad and dog in Milwaukee because my mother and sister came along on the flight to New York. I said good bye to my sister and mother as they left to go see my family in New Jersey.

After they let I stayed in the airport with other afsers till around 2 o'clock then we came to the hotel where we checked in and got our rooms and name tags. Then I started socializing with other people, where I meet lots of interesting people from all over the country. I met people from California, Texas, Connecticut, New York, and many others.

Around 5 o'clock we officially started our orientation. At the beginning we talked as a whole but then we broke off into small groups where talked and introduced ourselves. After we finished with the groups we came back together where we had everyone going to France talk together and have any questions we had answered. We had dinner around 6:30 where we were allowed to socialize a bit. We had more orientation stuff after until 9 o'clock when we were able to have free time. A big group of us started to play a game called Hotel Tag but we were to loud so we had to stop.

Lights out were at 11 but I snuck to my friend Grace's room so we could talk for a little bit more!

The next day I woke up at 7:30 so that I could shower before breakfast which was at 8:30. After breakfast we had more orientation with our small groups till around noon when we had lunch which was sandwichs. After lunch we had one more orientation piece but that was with everyone here. And now I am wasting time till we have to go to the airport! So that's what I've been up to!

Au revouier
Marla