Clochette and Vacances!

Today is my second full day of Vacances de Toussaint, now I have ten days to sit around. I think I will probably spend my ten days wisely, sitting around a little, sleeping in a lot, and doing things with friends (both French and exchange students). Today is my rest day, then I'll get on to planning out my week.

I babysat again Saturday night, I've done it three times now. I'm lucky to have neighbors that go out a lot, and a host sister that is too busy with studying to take the jobs. Babysitting is a nice way to get around the Rotary work rules- I don't need a work visa, so its fine. The past few times have been rediculously easy, the first time the kids was fluent in English (as well as French and Dutch), and the second time the kids were already asleep when I got there. Saturday night I arrived, and to my horror, the four year old boy was still up. It wasn't that it was very late, it was just that I dreaded actually having any interaction with the kids (his baby sister was already asleep). I didn't want to have to talk to him, what if he got scared and I couldn't calm him down? What if he needed something and I couldn't understand? It actually turned out to be a lot of fun, the boy was great. His mother proudly annouced that he could count to ten and say his colors in English and left the two of us watching Peter Pan 2 in French. I was actually getting into the movie, and hoping he wouldn't start to talk, when I noticed he keep sneaking little looks at me, then turning his head away fast. He ended up coming over and sitting next to me on the other couch, we had some Disney fliers that came with the DVD and we looked at them together, I said the names in English, he said them in French. For the ones he didn't know he asked me to read the names in French, sometimes I'd read one and he'd be like "No! I wan't you to read it in French!" and I'd tell him that I WAS reading it in French. Then afterwards he'd finally get it and go "OHHHH, (perfect french accent of disney movie name)". It was fun, I also learned that Tinkerbell is Clochette in French.

I thought I had the French school system figured out until yesterday. Yesterday my family drove to some friends' country house about an hour away to have one of those big, long, formal French meals everyone always talks about. I'd tell you what all the food was, but I wasn't really sure. There was the appetizers, a salad course, main course, cheese, then cake. After dinner the adults bounced up and cleared the table and said "lets go for a walk!" The kids (me, Marion, and two boys one a year older than me and another in his early 20s) declined. The older boy showed us pictures of his school, Polytechnique, which is THE best sciences school in France. I think Napolean founded it. This is where I got confused. I asked Marion how high his Bac scores had to be to get into that, and they said, oh, its not the Bac that gets you in there! (The Bac is a series of extremely difficult tests you take at the end of Première and Terminale, the grades determine everything- where you go to college, if you stay back and try again, what you do with your life (pretty much). Only 80% of students graduate here). Now I learned that it doesn't always go straight from the Bac to university. If you are REALLY, REALLY smart, you go to Prepa. Two more years of school- intensive prep for college, you need to score highly to get into it, you can't just decide to go. Very few kids go, which is why I never even heard of it. At the end of Prepa you take more difficult tests, and if you do well, you get to choose what school you go to. If you don't, its the end of the line, you need to start over or just go get a job without university. And this boy chose to go to the best school, which also PAYS him to go there. Last year he didn't pay for his room or food and got 450€ a month (like 500 dollars), this year he needs to pay for those things, but he gets 800€ a month. So why is it that in the US we all struggle to pay for college, and here the colleges hand you money?