How to vote in France

As you may know, France has a new president! François Hollande was elected yesterday and starts officially next week. I went with my host parents both times to vote and it is definitely different than from in the states.

Hollande

If you want to come and vote in France here's how you do it:

I mean you do have to be a French citizen but I'll just assume you already are...

In the mail you get sent packets for each one of the candidates (there were 10 this year I think) and an election card. The packets are all the same size and highlight what the candidate will do if elected. With these brochures you also get a white note card piece of paper for each candidate with just their name on it.

The 10 candidates of the 1st round

The Sunday of the first round of elections you go to your voting place (we went to an elementary school) with just your election card. You don't bring the packets or the note cards. There are a few tables in the school with all the candidates names on the little note cards. You take one note card for each candidate and one blue envelope. Then you go into the polling booth where you throw out all the candidates you don't want. As my dad said, this must be very gratifying to throw out the candidate you don't want. You put the candidate you want in the blue envelope, then exit the polling booth and go stand in line. Each line corresponds to a district so you go stand in a line for your district. When you get to the front of the line there is a table with a clear box that you put your blue envelope in. There's a little flap and a person who is working the  box pulls a lever and your envelope drops in! Here's where your election card comes in. You show it to another person who is working at the table and they look for your number. Each voter has a different number and then the person opens a book up to the page that your number corresponds to and you sign next to your number. Then ANOTHER person takes your card and stamps it. Then your done! 

Election Card

The results of the 1st round are announced that night, and them the top two candidate go onto the second round where the president is elected. The second round happens two weeks after the first round and in between the two rounds the top two candidates campaign and have a debate. 

Sarkozy vs. Hollande

Then the second round happens and by that night you know the president!



Now you know how to vote in France but here are some random things about voting you should probably know also:

-The polls all open at the same time in France but they close at different times. They close earlier if you are in a small town and later if you are in a city. They all close by 8:00 when the results are first allowed to be reported. If you don't live in France but you are a citizen they obviously don't open at the same exact time. I'm pretty sure they open a day before...

-Voting always takes place on Sundays because it is really rare to work on Sundays. it's rare in the us too but in France literally nothing is open on Sundays.

-There are no estimations of results during the day in French media. It all gets revealed at 8:00 Sunday night. If a media outlet posts estimations they get a fine of 40,000ish dollars.

- BUT there are estimations of websites in Belgium and Switzerland. Pierre found that some websites work but others are blocked on election day by the government.

-Even though the citizens don't know the results of the elections the candidates do- so they can write a speech about how they are going to be a great president or how they would have been a great president

-All candidates have en equal amount of press time. They all go on the same shows so they can have equal time.


- On election day the candidates are not allowed to talk to the media before 8:00pm and nothing that endorses them is allowed to be said before 8:00. This was a bit funny because obviously, there is coverage of the elections during the day but they just show shots of the candidates and members of their respective parties but they can't even say anything! 

Okay now you pretty much know everything! Comment if you have questions and FOLLOW

Vacances!

Bonjour!


To start off my two week spring vacation we went to Pierre's Moms house in the country. The house is a typical French country house- huge, beautiful and surrounded by sheep (and really nothing else). We were there with Pierre's sister (Anne), her son (Remi), Pierre's Mom and her cat (chat une). The cats name translates into cat one!

Anne is such a good cook and the food was amazing!! I don't remember everything we had but here's a list of what I can remember:

-Pasta with Caviar and a creamy sauce

-Apple Pie

-Foie Gras

-Rice pudding

-Steak

The boats we took in the cave

During the days we would go on a run, play board games, eat a HUGE lunch and then drive to a nearby town to explore! FYI- Nearby means like 40 minutes minimum! One day we went to Le Gouffre de Padirac. Gouffre is translated into abyss or chasm but basically it was just the coolest whole in the ground ever. We weren't allowed to take pictures but I took a few and I took some off of the website.We all decided not to take the elevator and walk down the stairs instead. According to Wikipedia the cave is 338 feet deep! Walking down to the cave was easy but when Lea and I decided to run up the stairs that was a bit more difficult. 

Inside the Gouffre

Halfway down the cave!

We were both super sore the next day, when we went to Rocamadour!

This village is built at the bottom of a cliff and there is a huge church built into the side of the cliff. We didn't enter the church but we got to walk on the roof and look down onto the village! The village and churches were sites of religious pilgrimages so on the walk down to the village from the church there are little stone boxes that have pictures of scenes from the Bible. Remember how I said we were both super sore? Yeah, well the elevator costs money to go down from the church to the village and up from the village to the church! So Lea, Pierre and I decided to race up to the car (which was parked by the church) from the village. We succeeded on running for about 30 seconds and then decided to walk the rest!

The next day we left and returned to Toulouse for the rest of vacation. During the week I went and saw Hunger Games with Lea and then Titanic with a friend! Saturday Nadia, Lea and I went to the gym to try out an Aquabike class! It was really fun but not that hard of a workout so we decided to not end up taking the class. We tried another class called "BodyAttack" which was much harder! It was also super hard to understand because the instructor was talking in French, and all the music was in English! The teacher kept on looking at me because it was obvious that I was having a hard time understanding but other than that it was really fun!

I start school on Monday and Lea leaves Sunday morning for Chicago for 10 days!

I'll update again soon!

Bonjour!

First of all, yes I am fine. If you have no idea what I am talking about- http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/world/europe/mohammed-merah-toulouse-shooting-suspect-french-police-standoff.html?scp=8&sq=toulouse&st=cse

The past few weeks have been really busy and really fun! I have been able to understand more, my speaking has improved immensely (not really the accent but my formulation of ideas), and I finally feel completely settled in and comfortable.

School:

School is still challenging but I am enjoying it more than I did in the beginning. Here once you become a junior you choose a track. They are L (literature and languages), ES (economic and social), and S (Science and math). I am in L so I have been learning a lot about French writing! Another difference is that I have a block schedule here, which means each day I have different classes. This is really nice because not everything is due the next day and I don't get bored my having the same schedule all the time. They also have 15 minute breaks throughout the day and an hour and a half lunch period! At lunch I eat at school but on Wednesdays and Thursday I eat at home. Wednesday everyone eats at home because it is a half day. Thursday I have two hours of class and then nothing so I get to return for lunch and to relax! My schedule for the week is as follows: W1 stands for week one and W2 stands for week two.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
	French	French	Math	W1 : Math W2 : nothing
	English	French	W1 : English W2 : Math	French
Break	Break	Break	Break	Break
English Literature	Science	English		French
French	Science	History		W1 : nothing W2 : French
Lunch at school	Lunch at school	History	Lunch at home	Lunch at school
French	French		Philosophy	Geography
French	Math		English Literature	Geography
Break	Break		Break	Break
	Gym		English History
	Gym

Family:

I love my host family! They are very nice and have helped me with my french so much. I especially love all the traditions here. Saturday for lunch we always go to a restaurant and Sunday dinners are always pasta in front of the TV. This Saturday we went to a cute little restaurant downtown and I had a tomato salad which was sooooo amazing. Some Saturdays we go to McDonald's! McDonald's here is much better than in the states (probably healthier also). Last time we went I had a goat cheese wrap, salad and a Caramel Sundae.
This Friday is Léa's fourteenth birthday so I am going to try to make a card and go into centre ville to buy something for her. I wont get to be with her on her birthday because my host family is going to Amsterdam for my host moms work conference but we will celebrate it when they return!

That's it for now but I will update again soon!

One Month in France!

Sorry for the delay in blog posts- I have been super busy the past few weeks! From now on I will try to update very two weeks. School started Monday after a two week ski vacation but one of my teachers didn't show up for class so I got to go home at 2:00! You can easily tell you went skiing because multiple people have broken arms and ski goggle tans. There was one guy where you can see where his goggles ended, his helmet started and on his neck you can see the straps from his helmet.  Speaking of skiing, I went to the Alps for one week with my host family, which was so much fun! The first day we drove from Toulouse to Orange which was a 4 hour drive. The next day we walked around Orange for a little bit, but it was cold and windy so we only stopped to take a few pictures of a theater. We arrived in Bourg St. Maurice that evening, walked around the village and rented our skis. We skied for the first two days then relaxed on the third. Having not skied for 4 years it was a little difficult at first but after a few hours I got the hang of it. The mountains were gigantic and so beautiful! We went skiing one more day and did other activities on the other days. One day we all went snowshoeing and it was really fun. Our guide was super adventurous which caused it to be more like snowshoeing combined with sledding. We would go down huge hills where it was just easiest to slide down and hoped you didn't hit anyone or anything on your way down! Another day we actually did go sledding! This sledding wasn't like usual sledding though. First, you pay for a ticket for 1-3 runs down the hill. Then you take a chairlift up with the skiers and walk to the sledding hill. There you are given a helmet and a sled and taught how to use the sled. The sleds have steering levers on the side and you are strapped in around your feet and legs! The sledding path had so many twists and turns- which causes everyone to fall! The hill took about 10 minutes to go down, and 3 were probably spent waiting for people who had fallen or me falling and trying to get back into my sled (the buckles weren't that helpful). Sledding was definitely one of the highlights of my trip! We returned to Toulouse and the following week I got to explore the city more. One day I met up with some other AFSers and we had lunch and walked all across centre ville. We stopped in some famous churches and walked around those.  In one church we accidently walked in on a funeral! There wasn't a sign on the door of the church saying that anything was happening so we all walked in- being super loud. We then saw the casket and all the people and sprinted out as fast as we could! After that we shopped for a bit and went to a cafe.

That’s about it for now! I will post soon with more general stuff (school, friends, family etc.)

Also, the family computer has been acting up so next post I will also post pictures from vacation!

               

First post in France!

I'm here! After New York, Paris and multiple forms of transportation I am finally settled in Toulouse. The first step of my trip was saying goodbye to my parents at the hotel in New York. After that, I got settled in my room and waited for everyone to arrive. There were 11 of us going to France and other students going to Italy, Austria, and Russia. Our plane left the next day and we were all unbelievably excited and nervous. When the 11 of us got to Paris we waited in the airport for people from other countries. The orientation in Paris was really fun- we got to walk around the Eiffel Tower, take pictures and see other parts of the city through bus.

Throughout the orientation I met some of the most amazing people ever. The girls who I traveled with are some of the nicest, funniest and bravest I have met. We can all relate to each other and help each other out during our exchange. Saying goodbye to them before boarding the train was one of the first challenges this adventure will throw at me.

Picture from the train

From Paris, I rode the high speed train to Toulouse. I rode it with Malia from Rhode Island and Nina from Austria. Malia got off in Bordeaux and it was so cool to watch her meet her host family for the first time.  Nina and I both got off in Toulouse where I met my family! We were both so anxious, nervous and unbelievably excited. When I saw my family it ALL turned to excitement! Nadia, Pierre and Lea have been so great and have already helped my French improve immensely. 

My first full day here I went into the city with Anne; Nadia's friend. We saw the Capitol building, and walked around the streets. I fell in love with Toulouse that day- it is such a pretty city and there are all these little alleyway streets that look like they are from Harry potter. The next day was my first day of school. I am the equivalent of a junior at St. Joseph, my school. In France, when you become a junior you pick a track that determines your classes. You stay on the track until you graduate. The three tracks are L, language, ES, economic and social, and S, which is science and math. I got placed in L because it is the smallest class and they had two exchange students with them in the beginning of the year. The first week was really fun and interesting; everyone in my class is so nice and helpful! 

That week I left after lunch on Friday to go to Winchester, England with my family to visit family friends. We flew into London then took a taxi to Winchester, which was about an hour and a half drive. We were in Winchester for two and a half days. Winchester is the old Capitol of England so there is a lot of history in the city. While there I saw where Jane Austen lived and died, King Arthur's round table, a really old and pretty Cathedral, Winchester College and Winchester Castle. We left that Sunday to go back to Toulouse but our flight ended up being canceled because of snow! We ended up taking the Monday morning flight into Lyon then renting a car and driving about six hours to Toulouse. The car ride was so beautiful and a great way for me to see France. 

Winchester Cathedral

Me, Lea, Emma and Sarah

Jane Austen's House

King Arthur's Round Table

The next day was Tuesday, and Lea went to school and Nadia and Pierre went to work but unfortunately I don't have school this week because there are exams. That day I went over to Anne's house and had lunch with her and her son. After that we drove him to school and then went to the supermarket. This supermarket was huge! It resembled Costco but it was way better!  They had a huge wall of cheese and there were definitely over 100 different types. After that we went and picked her son up from school and went back to her house for hot chocolate and a chocolatine. A chocolatine is a flaky pastry wrapped around two bars of chocolate. It's amazing! 

The next two days I went shopping in Toulouse with Eva, who is a German exchange student who goes to the same school as me. 

Tomorrow starts a two week official school vacation and I leave for the Alps in a few hours!!

Au revoir!

Countdown

18 days until I am on the plane to New York
19 days until I am with all the other AFS Students at our Pre-Departure Orientation
20 days until I am on the plane to France
21 days until I am in Paris
22 days until I have my first full day in France
23 days until I am with my new family in Toulouse

As you can see those 6 days will be super busy but I am so excited for each day!

I have been emailing my host family more and they told me our schedule for the first month. The first week I will be going to school but on that weekend we are going to London! They have some friends that live there, so we are taking a little vacation! Don't worry though- their friends are french- so I will still be speaking French. Then I come back and have another week of school before a two week vacation! The first week, we are going skiing in the Alps! The second, we are just staying in Toulouse. I am so excited to explore the city on this second week! 

My host sister,  Léa also told me that with her school she is going to Chicago in the spring. It would be so cool if my parents could go down to Chicago for a day and meet her!

  Léa sent me this for New Years!