Today officially marks my third week in France, and already I have done so many new activities and discovered a different way of living. I’ve encountered similarities and differences, of which I can begin to describe here.

1. School
   1. I am attending Lycée Victor Hugo, a high school with 750 students. That already is a major difference, having come from the Bush high school of just about 200 or so.
   2. The grades here are different. Instead of having freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, they have got seconde, première, and terminale. I am a student of 1ES2, meaning that I am in the grade première and I am doing the ES course, which is social economics.
   3. Here, I am currently enrolled in nine different classes, but luckily they don’t all meet every day. There are eight hours of class periods a day, with lunch that opens at 11:30 and goes until 1:25. The class periods last for one hour, an hour and a half, or two hours, but we do also have breaks and free periods.

1. Family life
   1. I really love my family here. I live with the Bouteloups: Sophie, the mother, Eric, the father, Camille, my host, and Leá, her younger sister. There is a dog named Laska as well as a rabbit. It sure is different to be in a family with three girls now, as opposed to my house with my two brothers.
   2. I live in the country. I attend school in the actual city of Chatêau Gontier, however I live in the small village called Saint Denis d’Anjou. My neighbor is a pony, and from outside my bedroom window I see a field of cows. Coming from Seattle with all the cars and people and traffic and constant movement, it certainly is different – yet tranquil – to live out here.

All in all, I am having a very good time in France, and I still have seven more weeks to go!

-Grace Farwell