Wow! I know February is a short month, but it went fast! I had some issues but luckily, they are resolved now, and I was able to have a great month. I had a great time with my friends at school and with Rotary, French is getting easier and I'm overall still having an amazing time.
With bad news first, I did have to change my last host family. I have had some issues with them before and have put in a lot of effort trying to build a good relationship. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to work. My host family had complained about me to the district chair. Apparently, they didn’t think I was making an effort to interact with them. I found that my efforts were not welcome making me keep more to myself. My district wanted to know what was going on, and decided the situation was complicated. I wrote an email with all the details, and as a result, I was told to change families that week. While this was crazy, I am much less stressed now. My Rotary club isn't very active here and that can be difficult, but they came through for me when it was necessary.
The good news is, over the vacation I was able to go to the movies with one of my friends. We talked a lot, and I was so happy I was able to speak French and understand everything! I know I have been here for six months, but it still amazes me how fast it all goes and how much I have accomplished. I know my French isn't perfect (honestly a week ago I forgot the word for eyebrows so I called them eye mustaches) but I'm truly having a great time even if I can't be perfect.
Having many kids in the Rotary District has been great, they plan lots of events for us to do together; this month we went bowling and on a bus tour of Lille. Having the big group is great, it reminds me I'm not the only one that has these troubles with host families or just in general. We are all different but can agree on a lot and now share the same experience. It's awesome! Ups and downs are normal; I'm not worried. I'm going to continue to do everything I can and keep on learning because it's only getting better. No matter what, I have many people here that support me, and I am making the most out of this year. Georgie Street.