My introduction to French school was on a Thursday morning 3 years ago. I didn’t speak a word of French and neither did my father. The schools English teacher had to help him sign me up. We went through the school to the back court yard where all the other students and there parents were waiting. I went to the back of the crowed with my dad. Not to many people noticed me, and I was glad. I had never had a first day at a new school like this. The school was 5 stories and had a spiked metal fence around it.  An older lady came out with a couple sheets of paper and addressed all the people. Then a teacher from behind her came out the she started reading of names from the sheets, one by one students stepped forward and stood in front of the teacher. When there was around 20 students they all left and another Teacher came forward and this continued until the 7^th teacher came out and towards the end of the list she called my name. I stepped forward and walked through the crowd to stand with the other student. One more came after me then we left. We walked through the school no one said a word. We went to the bottom floor to the back corner of the school into a class room with 4 windows. I was last in so I sat next to the door. Every one shared a desk I was with a tall black haired boy named Maxim. He introduced himself and I introduced my self he said something after I told him my name, but I just looked at him. I had no idea what he said. The teacher then started from what I could gather to explain the school rules and our class schedule and passing out papers and a book with a picture of the school on the front and sections of color full paper that had tear out sections. She then told max something and he wrote down the number 14D on a piece of paper and passed it to me. I pocketed the note. A week later I found out it was my locker number. After three hours the teacher let us go we left the school through the front gates and then I walked home.

From then on school started every day at 8:15 but the cool thing was some time’s I didn’t have class till 9 or 10. So I got to sleep in or I could go to school early and hangout in front of the school. When I got to school I would shake hands with all my friends and I was supposed to kiss all the girls on the cheek twice but I never did. I guess they knew I was American so they wouldn’t do it. They’d just say salut. And slowly I started to understand there conversations. The girls would talk gossip and always felt safe when I was around because they thought I couldn’t understand but they were wrong I got the gist of most things. So me and my friend new all the gossip it was one advantage of not speaking French, the only other was “playing tourist” on the trains, not buying a ticket and giving them a false address in England.

My favorite part of the day was lunch. 2 hours with a three course meal, they even served wine to the teachers in the cafeteria. I would go through the line and get the main plate then a salad then a desert and some cheese or a yogurt and always a mini baguette. It was delicious. The best cafeteria food ever, they were better then any American cafeteria by far. They once served a kangaroo stew, it was stringy but good. There were certain traditions of the cafeteria I had to learn. Like to never drink from a water pitcher that was already on your table. Always sit near girls because they never eat all there food. And never steal desert from some one and actually eat it. It ends in a food fight.

My favorite class was EPS which is sports class. It was the only class I passed in my first year. We started the year with court games like basketball and hand ball. I didn’t like those games to much. But I did well and the teacher was proud of me she wanted me to play on the school team. Once I jumped to get the intercept the ball, and the girl it was heading too jumped as well. I landed first and she landed on the side of my leg and twisted my ankle. The teacher yelled at her and chewed her out, but it was my fault. I didn’t understand why she didn’t yell at me. I guess it was because I was a better athlete but it wasn’t fair.

After the first 3^rd of the year we switched to the pool. It was embarrassing because we had to wear speedos. I went to the store and bought the one that came down to just above my knees. I was shy the first time every one got into there speedos and I was the only one with a long one. I didn’t care I was happy with mine. We went to the pool and I was pretty good at swimming since I’ve been swimming since I was little. I was second best one of the girls was faster then me but I could dive deeper so it didn’t matter.  One day at swim class I forgot my speedo so the teacher went to the pool lady and asked if they had extras they did but I refused to wear it. My teacher asked, is it against your religion? I responded, no but I’m not wearing that. So in the end she flunked me. I never forgot my speedo again. The last 3rd of the year was spent on field games like football and rugby. We also had to run once a week. We did running every Tuesday for 2 hours, and Thursdays we did actual sports for 3 hours.

Through out the year I learned a lot of French made some friends and learned about the culture. Since I was held back at the beginning of the year they let me pass even though I failed. I was happy the school year was over, the best thing about the summer was the beach.