Accrosport Outcast

                                                Lycée Vincent d'Indy

When I last opened my blog, I realized my number of entries has been decreasing from month to month. I feel kind of bad because it's not like I'm out of things to write, it's just I've been too lazy to write them. (I've really been too lazy recently to do anything; college apps included.) Now that it's the start of a new month, I'll try to write a little more frequently!

Yesterday, my gym class started a new sport: Accrosport. This is my new least favorite sport in the world. I arrived at the gym and figured we would be doing gymnastics because there were all the rings and bars and bouncy floors and such, but boy, was I wrong! Apparently, Accrosport is a series of human formations such as pyramids and graceful poses and such. Since I'm about as graceful and poised as an elephant in a tutu, you can imagine my dismay for the sport. The class started off by doing "stretches." (If stretches include moving your wrists from side to side, doing backwards somersaults, and moving your hips around in circles, I guess we'll stick with that term.) It was the oddest thing I'd ever seen, and if I had brought my video camera, I totally would have taped it.

After limbering up a bit, everyone broke off into different groups to start doing the formations. I was placed in a group with none of my friends so it was quite awkward and the two hours passed unbearably slowly. Mostly, I stood there and watched everyone else making all the strange balancing formations. Just to add to the awkwardness of the whole story, I would also like to point out that French boys are weak. I know that most French girls are ridiculously short and tiny, so I was already one of the biggest girls in the class. Anyway, there was only one guy in the class who was able to lift me up. And I am not that huge. They all need to start going to the gym to lift some weights and stop rolling their hips around in circles if you ask me.

At the end of two torturous hours, the gym teacher announced that in the next couple weeks, we would all have to pick a song and choreograph a dancy-like routine complete with lifts and whatnot. Fun! I left accrosport with an ulcer and mat burns on my knees.

This past week, I had a lot of nice talks with other exchange students. Carolina, a Brazilian who lives in Aubenas (30 min. from Privas), came over for a sleepover. Girl talk and chocolate were definitely the focus of the whole visit. I also spoke to Pruthvi (India) and Lana (Australia) in a long Skype conversation yesterday. The other exchange students really turn into your best friends on a year abroad, and since they are really the only ones who understand exactly what you're feeling, I feel much less freakish after telling them all my problems.

The one thing I feel guilty about since I began school in France is how I treated the exchange students back in Norwich. I was never mean to them, but I never really made an effort to be a good friend to them either. I was content with all my friends, and now that I'm alone for a lot of the school day and every weekend, I wish that someone would make the extra effort that I never made. And I really think that it's just one of those things where you have to be in the shoes an outcast before you truly know how you should act. My opinions on a lot of things have changed since I've been here, and although it's not easy being the loner, I'm so thankful that I've been able to understand this viewpoint because of my year abroad.