The end of the school

That’s it now it’s the end of the American school! It was our last week at northwest school because this week it’s Thanksgiving and we don’t have any class, it’s the break. We had to say goodbye to our American friends and it wasn’t very happy. We meet them again because they will come 2 weeks in France in March and they will be 1 week in angers at our school and 1 week in Paris so I’m happy when I think of that. This weekend it was the last time at Ava’s house with her family and we came to Whidbey island it was very nice. We also came to the grocery store to buy a turkey for Thanksgiving and all the stuff that we need for this tradition. This trip was very good and rewarding because we learned a lot about English and the American culture with all the differences between here and the France. We made really good activities and we had a lot of fun during those two months. In one week will be in France and we will have to comeback to our normal school, it’s gonna be really hard to have the french schedules but we are excited to see our friends and our family. I will enjoy this last week of an American life. I also have to tell you that I finally came to the American football game and the NBA game it was really amazing! I loved that and it was a so incredible to see that because for me it was always at the TV but this time it was real and super cool! This weekend I made a race at green lake in Seattle for the poor people and also for fun. It was only 5

km around the lake but there was people from all ages from 5 years old to 75 years old and it was good same if it was cold. I hope that you liked all our articles and our trip. This is my last entry so see you in France.

A Week like no other

Presentation 

As the name indicates, the week from 10/29 to 11/03 was a special week and akin to none other. First of all this week is significant because it has a special name called “spirit week”. The spirit week is a week we celebrate and it has been done for decades. My host mother told me this week existed when she and her mother were in high school. Thus we can say the spirit week is a sort of tradition.
The purpose of this week is dressed to represent the spirit school, in proclaim her freedom of expression and of to be in order to be happy within school. Because of this,everyday according to a theme more scatterbrain one another. However one was not obligated to follow the theme of the day, we could dress like we normally do. I’ll tell you the differents themes in the course of the week besides my sense.

The Pajama day

Monday, 29th October : Monday was the Pajama day, what of better for to start the week !. It was just as astonishing as well fun. Practically everybody have played the game. That seemed entirely unreal, it was a little bit like in a dream. On the one hand because there is nothing better than to come on a monday morning in comfortable and casual outfit knowing that the Monday’s waking is the most difficult of the week. Moreover if i had been told that one day i’ll come to high school i would have found that a little utopian.

Twin day

Tuesday, 30th October: Tuesday was twin day. You needed to dress similarly to someone, whether to an wear identical accessory, use the color or else simply to wear the same clothing.

Halloween

Wednesday, 31st October: Wednesday it was Halloween.
Halloween is Celtic feast of Samain ( God of death and night ) whose the origins date back more than 2 500 years, are considered like the ancestor of Halloween. This feast celebrated the end of year ans the entrance of new year. The Celt people thought, during the Samain Night, The boundaries between the world of the Dead and one the Living were open et the spirit came visit go to see the Living… In order to prevent ghosts from haunting them, the Celts people had some rituals whose the one to get dressed with the terrifying costumes for to frighten the ghosts and gather together for to celebrate the night of the 31st, October .
The Samain’s party, celebrated in Ireland and in Scotland, has progressively been supplanted by All Saints Day introduced the 1st, November by the Catholic Church around in eighth century.
It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that the Halloween party became the feast we know today. At this time,the Irish Migrants and Scottish Migrants set up on the new continent for to flee the big famine in Ireland, and bring with them their tales and their legends. Ever since, Halloween is celebrating in United States, in Canada, in Australia, in Ireland, and in Great Britain. Traditionally, The Halloween Night, the childrens wear costumes who are scary and ring at the door their neighborhoods by asking the candy with the catchphrase : Trick or Treat ! ( In french: des bonbons ou un sort )
The Halloween name is a alteration of All Hallows Eve which means «the evening of all Saints».

Then for the occasion the theme of this day was obviously focus on Halloween. We have a lot choices of costumes on that day. Between dreadful costumes, Disney characters costumes or else superheros costumes, the palette was pretty much more large. Incidentally the students, the teachers and the NWS staff and I had almost everyone to wear one Halloween costumes especially as harebrained each other. In my case, i had quite simply put on Halloween makeup since i didn’t a costume.
However it was not only in high school that people were disguising, in all the city we could find again disguised people contrary to France where that’s extremely rare. As well in public transit as in shopping mall or simply in the street.

The 80’s

Thursday, 1st November: The theme of the day was the 1980’s for us in the 11th Grade. Given that i wasn’t born at this time, i do some research on the website to know how young girls people and celebrities dressed and put on makeup. After over and over again i ended up finding one look I really enjoyed and and i had mixed this 1980’s look to how the young people like me nowadays. Hardly arrives at high school i looked enormously a diverse and varied look,the hippie style was coloured a little bit like mine, then i’ve also seen casual look but also preppy style (In french : Style bon chic bon genre, B.C.B.G). A real carnival hahaha !!!

The end of Spirit week

Friday, 2 November: At the end of spirit week, the theme of day was black and white. We had the option to dress in either in black or white or else in both.
In the afternoon, there was the annual pep rally. A pep rally is a fun event where the students, teachers and everyone else have fun to celebrate an upcoming or current event. During the pep rally there are various games. In the majority of American high schools, a pep rally happens just before the homecoming.
The purpose of such a gathering is to encourage school spirit and to support members of the team for which the rally is being thrown. The pep rallies are often very loud and have a lot of excitement to keep all the students excited for the upcoming game and to cheer on the team.
The homecoming is the moment of year where the students celebrate the start of the school year and in which they are proud. Firstly they welcome new and returning students, celebrate the seniors ( last year of high school not to be confused with elderly person ) and the sports team. That’s a event and a annual tradition. Another tradition is to elect a king and queen of the evening during Homecoming.

The Homecoming is composed of two parts:
Homecoming Fair: During Homecoming fair all interest group and the sport team are present and run a stand own each group. For instance a french interest group will can too sell crepe.
Homecoming parade:The Homecoming parade unfold just before the American football game, there is a parade of coloured float on which the Homecoming’s king and the queen parade.

However in NWS there isn’t football team so there was not Homecoming but there has been all the same a party for to close the spirit week.

Voluntary work

Saturday, 3rd November: Saturday normally was a day off because we hadn’t class however that saturday we have to work but otherwise usually, any papers, any pens, any classroom, this saturday we start in the professional world. We’re going to work in food bank in Rainier Valley, neighborhood located in Southwest of Seattle.
Firstly in order to bring our help and give our time in the most destitute and secondly to present this humanitarian action in the Board of Education Nantes who take care of our region in France.

First of all Théo, Lucie and I had each differents functions in the Food Bank. For example Théo’s task was to fill the shelfs and the refrigerators, he was everytime in movement at 12pm of 15pm.

Then Lucie was the canned food shelf and dairy product like milk and cheese and her work involved serving the Food Bank’s adherents according to their children’s number indicate on their hands thanks to a sticker.
To end, me i was between the frozen food shelf and the bakey shelf and my work was the same than the one of Lucie.

I myself, i had noted this day was the most enriching and the most special Sojourn’s Seattle. It was just filled with emotion, for once we had could to see a internal eye on impoverished life and that widens enormous the open-mindedness. On the one hand to see own eyes, families in need to come expired food or not ( that depended the products), but who kept despite everything smiling and who were very nice and kind, that warms my heart and i admire their courage of to face the life like it.

All in all i have not only loved this week but also i will recommend everybody to do voluntary work one time in their lifetime to become aware of the people who suffer to feed themselves while we have more and we waste it .

See you next week!

Farihati

My last entry

Today is my last entry on the blog since we’re leaving in 2 weeks and the other students have to write. So now I have to say goodbye ….

In one hand I’m happy to come back since I gonna see all the people I love I left at home, but in the other hand I really don’t wanna go. I felt in love with this place, even if sometimes it’s too noisy for a country-girl, I love this city, the neighbor I’m living in and all of that. In this 2 months I had the oppurtunity to discover one culture, so much amazing people, their way of seeing life, everything is so different from where I live in France and sometimes I wish it could be the same… I’m gonna miss so much things from here, I discovered this new way of life and I wanna bring that back in France with me. I’m also going to miss my host family, they’ve been my family for 2 months and a half, my home, the people I could talk to when I was bad and with who I spend so much good time. I never gonna forget this experience, it tought me a lot, I’m an other person right now, I grew up, I’m stronger, and in one way I’m pretty proud of myself. I mean, it’s not an easy thing to go on the other side of the earth, whitout any knowledge of what’s gonna happen to you, but I did it and I don’t regret that. I really wanna enjoy those 2 weeks I still have here, same as I enjoyed the rest of my stay. It’s always awesome to discover something, like 1 week and a half ago it was haloween and it was so cool to see how american doing this party. When I was younger, I always dreamt to do just like in the movies, when everybody’s wearing haloween costumes and they’re going to ring on every house of their sreet, and here I had the chance to see that and it’s really good, just same as in the movies, with the people waiting for you with this big candy-bowl – so I went to a friend’s house to watch a scary movie and it was a fun evening. Last week-end, on the saturday, i had what we call the «bistrot night » which is some internationals students who are inviting in someone’s house to have dinner and play games together. This is a ver good way to get to know more people and to spend some good times, so I did that with my host’s siter, and the rest was people I didn’t knew, except for those I’m in class with and I really had fun. Last thursday, 3 days ago, vivian’s biological mother and her family came to our house. This is really cool and funny to see that, there is people everywhere in the house and everybody’s getting to know each other, so we’re inviting a lot of people and also going to some people’s houses. Like this afternoon we’re going to vivian’s aunt’s house to do a pizza party (which is something really unopular in France) and I think it’s gonna be good. Tomorrow we’re not going to school beacause it’s 11/11 – I don’t know how it’s going to be, and I think this an interesting stuff to see how american people is considering the end of the WW1. Tomorrow is also my host dad’s birthday so it’s gonna be a busy day ! After I have my last week of school since next week it’s thanksgiving break, so I’ll be in holiday for my last week in th United States. It’s gonna let me time to package all my stuff and say goodbye to this amazing country….

Goodbye Seattle ….

Lucie

The half of the trip

We have now made a little bit more than the half of the trip and the time past really fast. I have always the impression that it makes just one or two weeks that we arrived here. The life is always as good as at the beginning. I make a lot of activities with my family like going to a charity evening for the association « Goodwill ». It’s an association were they sell cheap clothes for the poor people and they also help students to pay there school. I also visited the « Mopop » museum which is a cultural pop museum and it was really nice ! I don’t think that the cultural choc is really big because it’s not very different as France because the people have almost the same social level, the streets are clean, they travel same if they have only two weeks of holiday in the year. So it’s not really different as we can imagine. One of the most difference that I’ve seen it’s the sport at school because the students make their sport in the school and most of the time it’s not outside school with a club. They have different level of team and every body is in a team and play against other schools. They have their training and matches after the school days and they recover credits for the university. I think it’s a really good system. In the school there is a good ambiance and all the students are kind and i’m happy to go to school. Here the weather starts to be raining and cold. We can feel that Halloween is coming because the students are speaking about it and they talk about their future disguises too. Furthermore we can see a lot of stores and all the houses which are decorated with pumpkins and a lot of scary stuff. I’m happy to discover how it will be here. Our Spanish friends are living soon because they leave on the 8th or 9th so it will be really quick. I’m in a hurry to go watch the NBA game of Portland Trail Blazers against the Celtics Boston and one match of the Seattle Seahawks. I’m so exited to see these matches ! I know that I’m very lucky to be here in this family and I’m aware that it’s a well-of family because we make a lot of activities and I met people who said that the northwest school is a really expensive school and they can’t send their children in this school. tht’s why I know that this trip is a really good experience but it’s not representative of all the american life.

My First Month In Seattle

Today the nineteenth of october, we did the half of our trip, and it’s hard for me to realize that. I mean, I feel that I arrive here 2 weeks ago … They’re all saying « enjoy your trip, before you realize it it’s gonna be over » and now I feel that …

My life here is so different from my usual french life. My home in France is in the coutryside, like really far away from any big cities, I don’t have the habit of seeing huge buildings everywhere, having neighbors or the possibility to take a bus whenever you want to !

I’m sometimes missing France, and all the people I love I left there, but I’m dreaming of this trip since more than 2 years now so I don’t wanna live here in nostalgia.

I’ve some new friends in the school, we spend a lot of time in class to laugh so that’s pretty easy to make new friends ! About my host family, they’re all are amazing ! My host father Ed, his boyfriend Korland and his daughter Vivan, they’re all nice, really funny, and they’re here for me if I feel bad. We spend a lot of good time together and I’m kind of part of the family thanks to them !

Two weeks ago, we spend the week-end on an island named San Juan Island, we took the boat after school friday afternoon and stayed there for 2 nights. We went there with some friends of the family, we were kind of a funny crew! The island is awesome, I’ve seen in my life a lot of french landscapes and it reminds me some of them, it was really good for a contryside-girl to see a little bit of nature ! What I can say is that when you’re standing on the coast, the pacific ocean in front of you and the Canadian coast just on the other side, you feel that you’re nothing and that’s the world is wide … And then we came back in town for a new week.

Here in America, they celebrate holidays that means almost nothing for us, Halloween is in 2 weeks and there are pumkins, skeletons and spiderwebs everywhere since the beginning of the month, I think this is a really important day for them and I can’t wait to live this !

Other big difference is about the weather ! But this one is really surprising because it was supposed to be in the other way. I mean right here the weather is really good, we still have sun all day, blue sky and all of that at the end of October. But it’s not usual here, when I talked to Dmitry (the man who’s dealing with the international exchanges) he said that this is the first time like that since he arrived in US. And when I talked with my family in France, they told me that over there it’s raining all the time, windy and cold, it was supposed to be in the other way but I love that change !

I’m trying to deal with everything right here, like to go to my american classes in the day, to do my fench work when I’m back home, to spend time with my host family, have fun with my friends and still maintain a link between the fance and me. So I’m living everything really fast, may be it’s the reason I can’t realize that I did the half of this travel … But anyway I’m lovin’ it !

Lucie

1 month in United States : My assessment

Given that I arrived in Seattle one month ago, i have been canning to note enormous difference in comparison to France. Therefore i go you to tell today in order to to share my experience in United States.

American’ people’s open mindedness

 In the first place i’ll like to talk of the immense American’s people open-mindedness. Generally we say sometimes that the American people are more open-minded than French people and i entirely approve this rumor. On the one hand i have caught sight many times of the gay flag on the shop window restaurant or elsewhere hung from window the houses. Furthermore on the way we go to High school i already have seen a sign where there was writing “i love my muslims neighbors” and i positively have been surprise because as this shows a remarkable tolerance for other side the religions, the cultural differences but also sexual. But still i never have seen this sort of sign in France this really what a shame…

 On the other hand every person in high school has his own style. If you walked a little, we have caught sight many people diverse and varied hair colors or with the style of all the more extravagant each other. Contrary to the France where practically all of people have the same look and especially in the high school where there is many people who is afraid of take on their look. I especially think with the girls who are scared to wear the mini-skirt because of fear of insult or harassment owing to a simple “bits and bods”.  .

Musical similarity among the young people

    However there exist too somethings in common between the American people and the French people. This similarity is the music style. In France, the teenager listen to entirety to urban pop music,us rap or french rap and any other songs very trendy on Youtube or the musics that is on a loop played on the radio like MHD nicknamed “the king of afro-rap”. But also those ones who are very actual on the social media . Furthermore in the United states, the american young people listen to as well the same style music. One will to say that the rap has tremendous success to the young people generally such as Instagram. On the other hand in the United States the women rapper are too much more famous than in France where there’s almost none like Nicki minaj, cardi B or same the queen’s pop Rihanna and Beyonce known in the whole world.

   Property value

    Thirstly i will like to approach a final point with you, this point is about on the American life. To begin with the American is very costly, the property price is really excessive. Seattle is the 10th city the most expensive in the rental market in United States. The median price of “one bedroom” here comes to  $1,750 otherwise €1,501,69. With 1500€ in Angers, we can to pay a rent with all bills included of apartment of 4-5 bedroom. In this case, he is more advantageous of find acommandations of to live in Angers. Not only the property price in Seattle is a lot of money but also the food price is more costly than the France . For example a banal chocolate croissant cost an average $3,50 to  €3,00 whereas the chocolate croissant in France just cost around €1.15. Either the triple of French price.

American people’s kindness

 To finish i will want you to talk amiability of the American people. They are nearly everytime the smile at lips. In entirety, there are very kind, they not hesitate to you held if you need. If you come here, be not afraid and don’t be shy to discuss with them because they easily talk and all the more if they know that you are french .

See you next week !!!

Farihati

 

My new American life

It’s already been three weeks since we arrived in Seattle, and the time has past very fast. My family life is very different than in France, first for the meals here in the morning I eat breakfast, for lunch it depends on the day, and for dinner we cook with recipes and ingredients that we receive at the beginning of each week so the food is not always fast food like hamburger or sandwiches. During my time here, I do a lot of different things like ride a boat to watch sailing races, go on different islands, and watch Nate’s (my host brother) soccer games. The last week I went to homecoming with Ava (who stayed at my house in France) at Shorecrest High School and it was really funny. I saw her mother again and I met her father, they are all really kind. At school we met a lot of people and we made a lot of friends, however, I miss my french friends but I can speak with them with my phone so it’s ok. We can play many different sports which is very cool, we can practice in the gym when we want if we have free time.In Seattle, it’s different than France because here there are a lot of homeless people more than in Angers. My host family said that’s because the price of living is so expensive. In my neighborhood there are lot of trees and vegetation so there are squirrels everywhere, that was really surprising. For the moment I’m happy to be here and it’s getting better and better because we have more friends every day and we discover new things all the time. This weekend I’ll go to downtown Seattle and on sunday I’ll go to Olympia which is a big city and we will watch and practice sailing. We’ll see you next week for a new article.

Théo

Our first impressions…

This is our first entry on our blog, in this, we’re gonna talk about the way we’re living our american dream, what we love, what we feel, what’s strange for us, what’s different than in France and all of that. We want to explain that experience that we are living her in Seattle !

We have been here for almost 2 weeks and we hadn’t realized that at all ; time passes so fast right here ! We’re discovering everything : our school, our houses, our host families and obviously our new gorgeous city !

Let’s talk of our school first : it’s really lenient ! For them, it’s normal to go out of class without asking permission, every pupil is allowed to lay on the floor if he wants to, We even saw people bringing blankets to school ! We mean, we can’t do that in E.Mounier, and if we call our teacher by their first name, we’re going to have troubles. But here, it’s what we have to do. We were a little lost for the first few days but we rapidly took those habits.

The schedules are also really different, here we start school at 8:10 and we can some days have class until 13:00 whithout any breaks ! But the good point is that school ended at 15:30, never later, and thanks to that, pupils have their afternoons free, so they can do sports, homeworks or other leisures. I think it’s a really important difference since in France we often ends up classes at 17:30 and with the time for the transport, some students arrive in their home at 19:00 or later which give absolutely no times for our leisures and often not enough for homeworks !

The other big difference about school is the type of classes we have : here pupils go in choire, mixmedia, photography, journalism and all that cool stuffs we never have in our french school. One class is 1:30, longer than in France, but we don’t really have the feeling that it’s longer, because classes is almost always by oral. We have to take notes, but the most important is to participate and we think it’s really benefic, obviously in languages.

We go to spanish classes, and during the whole class we’re talking, the teacher (who is columbian which is really cool to learn how to understand a foreigner!) talks and make her pupils participate, and now we can see that, even if we made as spanish as the northwest pupils did, we are really far behind them … In France we’re always studying texts, maps and all of that but the fact is that we don’t really learn how to talk a foreign language, and because of that when we go in a foreign country we have to try to hold a conversation with almost no helpful vocabulary. But we’re learning, that’s what we are here and we’re improving ourselves day by day !

Now we gonna talk about differences between France and USA in our host families and our houses !

There are many things different than in our country.

First there are the meals : in the weekend we eat a lot of fast food and during the week dinner are different because when we eat together it’s really fast and also rare since often we have to prepare our own dinner, everybody eat when they want and what they want. And we eat almost always just one main dish without dessert or entry. For the breakfast it’s a typical one with eggs, bacon, pancakes and some trimmings. But there is one part of the american people who likes healthy food or are vegetarians, it depends of the family’s habits. The difference which is the same in our 3 host families is that they eat separatly, contrary to french people for whom meals are important to share.

Something whitch is really strange for us is that they let the house open all the day even if there is nobody inside and they close it just for the night.

The americans do more sports than french people since after school they go practice or have a match. They are a lot of different sports in the NWS like voley-ball, soccer, basket-ball or ultimate, every pupil can have one sport he can likes, and if they don’t want to be part of a team they can go in the fitness room.

Now let’s talk about what we saw of Seattle :

First of all hardly after we left the airport, the Seattle’s greatness strucked us because of the skyscrapers, the city center or the business district. This is totally different from Angers since we don’t have any skyscrapers in our city and not much in the whole France.

Secondly the other main difference between Seattle and Angers is the houses’s architecture. In Seattle the houses are mostly build in wood. It’s kind of a cliche since we can see that in the american movies.

This city is also noisier than Angers due to the population : there is around half a million inhabitants here contrary to only 200 000 inhabitants in Angers. Thirsthly, people in Seattle are really open-minded, more than in France. For example we find a lot of gay flag on the shop’s windows or hang up at houses. This is also present in the Northwest School, we can see a lot of looks and nobody judge, we are free to be who we want, and that’s really different from France…

This was our first story from Seattle, wait for next week if you wanna know the rest of our american lives!

Théo, Farihati and Lucie