First Few Weeks

I've almost finished my first two weeks at my new school. It's crazy to think that I left Canada almost exactly one month ago. It is safe to say that I am experiencing a little bit of culture shock and homesickness. My classes here are quite a bit different than from at home (12 classes year-round) and we have exams in December (40%) and June (60%). The population size is very different from E.P. Scarlett, 300 some kids instead of 1,600. I've been taking the bus to and from school, I try to only use the one line as to not get lost. Though a few days ago, the bus was delayed so I took the opportunity to walk home and get to know my neighbourhood. The town of Athus/Aubange is full of old buildings, low sidewalks and green, green trees. Yesterday, I even took the bus after school (1/2 days on Wednesdays) to the "mall" in the next town over, and only needed a little bit of help from a classmate to get on the proper bus!

Last weekend was the celebration of 75 years since Aubange's liberation by the Americans. They had big military trucks, cars and bikes drive through the street with people dressed in American WW2 military wear. Felt kind of like the Little Bridges Parade in High River. I was also able to check off another country by visiting Luxembourg, we visited the big fair that was in town called Schueberfouer. Fried food, rides, games. The best was a really cool rollercoaster that had a nice big drop.

Recently, my brain has been feeling like it's melting. I've heard that this is quite normal for new exchange students. My brain is constantly feeling like I've pulled an all-nighter, just from trying to speak as much French as possible. Somedays, I seem to forget every third word and/or spend 7 minutes trying to search for an essential word in the sentence. But I am getting the hang of it slowly, I do believe.

All the love,

E

P.S. Thank you for all the nice messages and for checking up on me!