Joyeaux Noël et Bonne Année!

We had our theater "performance" at noon on Friday. It was, as I expected, horribly lame, but! I think that some of the kids who are a little more serious about theater are beginning to accept me into their group. My little part was singing "Cry me a river" and the teacher made me sing it 3 times in different areas -- kind of annoying since is was OMG SO HUNGRY and the cafeteria was trying to close, but still, it was ok because people clapped and stuff and normally when we tried to do anything people laughed or just stared. It was really that lame. I asked and apparently next semester 15 of the 30 of us will be doing a real play and the other 15 will continue with the stupidest clown unit of life. The teacher picks who gets to do what. Hopefully I'll be lucky... yeah, cross your fingers for me.

After one of the lamest science classes I've ever had (followed only by the lesson where we got punished for singing), Christmas vacation began!!! On the 24th (Saturday) was the first part of the Christmas festivities. Christmas Eve = la Reveillon (I have no clue if it is masculine or Feminine or if I spelled it right, so yeah, thats the general idea of the word). Geneviève and I made a christmas tree out of cardboard (there might be pictures on my picture site by now, I'm really not sure if I'm gonna be too lazy tonight, but in any case there will be soon.)We had a ridiculously expensive meal -- Fois gras, A seafood that I forget the name of, various vegetable products, and BUCHE DE NOËL!!! Omg so tasty. And Fois Gras is one of the nastiest things I have ever tasted, animal cruelty aside. After our meal we waited up until midnight to open presents and I taught camille hand games like 'Ms Mary Mack' and 'Mailman mailman do your duty' and the cup game that I learned at Westminister Woods in elementary school. We had a killer time. However, the soirée was ruined by Ben, who decided to sit there, reading his fantasy novels, not talking to anyone and being a bastard in general and pissing me off until midnight when he said "Its midnight, give me presents" to which I said "You're really pissing me off and your attitude doesn't make me want to give you any presents" and then he said "then fine, don't give me any" and then his parents told him to go to bed and that we'd do presents in the morning. Ooooh he can piss me off SO MUCH and its worse than if he were my real sibling because I do have to restrain myself just a little bit.

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!! There were a buttload of presents 'under' our christmas 'tree', and the cat was freaking out and rubbing herself up against everything. I got some suuuuuper gifts from both my real family (can you say tartine cookbook?!?!) and from my family here, including a cd of some music that is always on the radio that I really like and a giant stuffed hippo. Around noon we went over to Christphe's parents' house for the even bigger Christmas meal, where we, finally, ate our roadkill sanglier!!!(boar) I totally forgot it was roadkill until my mom reminded me over the phone. This is the kind of meal where you start out by eating way too much, then they tell you that there are 13, oh yes, 13, desserts, including another BUCHE DE NOËL!!! (again, possibly there are pictures by now) So, we stuffed ourself and chilled with the family.

Yesterday (wednesday) we didn't have a lot to do, so Geneviève and I called her mom to see if she wanted to go out walking for a bit. She called back a few minutes later in tears -- their dog had be hit by a car. I must say, it was kind of awkward for me, because she was crying a lot and then I was home alone with the crying grandma because camille wanted to be at gross boyfriend's house RIGHT NOW... so yeah, she showed me all her plants and explained the entire story of Jesus to me when she showed me her thorn of crowns plant. Apparently because I wasn't raised Catholic, I don't know anything about Jesus. I tried to explain that my family is Protestant and she just continued on her Jesus for Dummies kick. I was pretty stoked when Geneviève came back. We did end up walking for a long time and it was pretty ok except for the fact that it was fricken cold;

I forgot to say that it was -6C° on CHristmas morning. MINUS SIX!!!

My family got the Bellons all ipods for christmas, and let me just say this has been ipod week. I have spent so many hours trying to explain how to upload, download, import, and unplug these silly ipods... its not even funny. And Christophe still hasn't even tried because he is still working like crazy.

Tomorrow Camille, Geneviève and I are going to a Hammam, which I guess is like an Arabic Spa. I'm pretty stoked.


Yeah, I updated! How cool is that!

Happy New Year to everyone!!

love kendra

(if my english has started to deteriorate, please please forgive me... the spellcheck is in french, and therefore finds every word I write to be misspelled)

PICTURE UPDATE OH MY GOODNESS HOW COOL!!

to your right.

(even better, now most photos have captions!!!)

Part 2!!!

I got my report card the other day, and what a sad day it was for Ben. I got better grades than him in every single subject, including sports and french. Yeah, sadface. Even bigger sadface that he is only passing sports...

Grades!!! if you care!!! With comments!!!

English - 18/20
French - 10.6/20
Italian - 12.6/20
Math - 15/20
Bio - 8/20
Physics/Chem - 14/20
PE - 18/20
History/Geo - 10.5/20

We're not graded in theater, which I guess is good because I have no idea what they'd grades us on.

Speaking of theater, we have our "performance" (emphasis on the quotation marks) this friday. This basically means that we have people doing scenes and monologues and me singing, and all of us doing this weird step thing and this horrible horrible dance we learned between noon and 2pm over and over again until people feel like throwing things at us. I'm totally looking forward to it....

So yeah, I'm only not passing Bio, but considering the average grade in that class is a 9, I'm chill. The teachers also give us pretty harsh comments about the class and us personally. I'm gonna take a picture of my report card/comments and I'll post it when I do my next big upload.

Today and yesterday were red. This may mean nothing to you, but this is the devil's sentence to me. Basically how we pay for electricity is on a system of colored days. Before 6am and after 10pm is always cheaper than during the day. Blue is cheap, White is semi expensive, and Red is when we don't use electricity if we can help it. This means no heating, very few lights, no computer, no tv until 10, etc. The worst is definitely the no heating part, because they choose for it to be red when the temperatures are below freezing. Always. What we do is we light a fire, and everyone is in the main room all evening long. This can be good or bad depending on the mood of everyone, as you might imagine. Yesterday was good for a while and then suddenly everyone was in a hellishly bad mood (quite possibly caused by ben's bitchiness) and I went to bed early. Tonight I was planning on uploading more picture to my picture site, but since there is no computer usage during red days (at least not the amount of time it would take me to upload all of those pictures,) I'll put 'em up soon. This week I swear. What I have is a couple of on-the-bus-on-the-way-to-a-play-before-my-batteries-died pictures, one of the view at school in the morning, and a bunch of our run through for the "performance". I wish we did a real play... better yet a musical.

I got invited to a new years eve party!!! It is with some girls in my class who I've been trying to be friends with, so I'm pretty stoked about that.

I found this book on american culture in the library, and there are parts of it that are oh so good that I had to rip them out. Since I'm on the school computers (re:red days), I can't very well take out ripped out pages of a book from their very own collection, so for now, you're just going to have to imagine the brilliance until the governement decides that its warm enough to not charge us a fortune for turning on appliances. This book has made me realize why they think American society is the way they think it is -- because this is the only book on america, it was written by a french man living in New York in the 70's. 'nuff said.

As far as the Harry Potter game goes, you guys suck. I got two responses... Jessica won with 13/20 and heidi had 8/20 and she admitted that she only did it so I would write her an email. If you guys still want to play, you can, but seriously!!

I am told that people read this. I don't think I believe it.

It is 11:11 and I am fricken hungry. Nothing is open in this forsaken town until noon, and sometimes not until 2. Lame.

French girls are starting to look all the same with their tight pants and ridiculously fashionable jackets, their thick scarves, sweepy bangs and overly layered and high-lighted hair... It is freaking me out just a little bit.

That is all for now I guess?

<3 kendra

Ok guys, lazer tag is officially my favorite sport. We played for my host-cousin's 11th birthday, and let me just say, I kicked their 11 year old butts by almost double. (This includes Camille and Ben too, so yeah, pretty much I rock)

Speaking of sports, I'm definitely not in PE right now, just because I really don't want to be and Camille is home today, so I am too. I know, be jealous.

However, on the OMG French is really difficult scale, I had a 4 hour essay test for French class on Saturday. I wrote 8 pages and almost killed myself. There are three questions on the written section of the French baccalaureat (which I'll be taking at the end of the year by the way) and you have to answer the first, and then you get a choice on the second. The first question was something along the lines of "What makes the connection between the reader and writer in published 'private correspondence', and what were the causes that inspired these people to write these letters" and the second was "Do published letters have meerely a historical significance"

Yeah, bow down before my french skillz.


Christmas is coming. Weird!!!

This is my last week of school before my next fatty vacation. Hopefully this one will be siginificantly better than the last. I'm thinking it will be since I know people's phone numbers and have completely mastered the bus system.

Ok, I have to take a shower and stuff because although I may be able to skip out on PE, I do have a history project meeting that I have to be there for. I'll write more later, so wait with bated breath!

and never ever spell that kind of bated 'baited'

love!!!
kendra

We wish you a merry christmas, We wish you a merry christmas, We wish you a merry christmas, and a happy new... OH MY GOD IF THE CHRISTMAS MUSIC DOESN'T STOP I'M GOING TO KILL SOMEONE!

Hi everyone.
Yes indeed, the music hasn't stopped yet. At least the crappy street market has disbanded for the weekend, and has taken with it the screeching radios, but seriously -- everywhere you go you hear not only Christmas music, but really bad English Christmas music sung by french people.



The weather here kinda freaks me out. It isn't "cold" per say -- its in the 40s most of the time, so it is chilly, but not really COLD cold, but the wind. The wind killsssssssssssssss. I do say though, I seriously prefer too cold to too hot.

I am feeling really rambly with nothing to say...

OOoh! I participated in French class without being asked! The teacher was really proud of me and there were little whispers all around the class. It gave me serious warm fuzzies.
It is now second trimester, so my teachers are starting to expect work from me and Cecilie.
My science classes are such a joke. Half of the class starting singing last Friday during Physics and the teacher made them write "Je ne chantrai pas en cours" 200 times. (I will not sing in class)

I never thought stuff like that actually happens... I thought it was only the stuff of Saturday morning cartoons. (recess anyone?)

My hands are coooooold!!!


Guess what time it is?
It is definitely time to play a Harry Potter related game.

Here are the rules: Match up the French Harry Potter term with the English one, email it to me (if you post it as a comment people will copy your answers!) and I send you back your results. Who ever gets the most right gets... an internet high five! That and everyone who tries gets a happy, long, and rambly email personally written for them by me! How cool is that! (very very...)

Ready?

French
le Vif
Tom Elvis Jedusor
Cognard
Mimi Geignarde
Pattenrond
Gazette des sorciers
Mangemort
Détraqueur
Serdaigle
Pré-au-Lard
Poufsouffle
Crockdur
Fumseck
épouvantard
Poudlard
Portoloin
Beuglante
Londubat
Moldus
Rogue

English
Bludger
Tom Marvolo Riddle
Moaning Myrtle
fawkes
Howler
Boggart
The Daily Prophet
Muggles
Hogsmeade
Dementor
Snape
Longbottom
The Snitch
Deatheater
Crookshanks
Fang
Ravenclaw
Hogwarts
Hufflepuff
Portkey

Sweet! Ok now, don't cheat!

As you might have guessed from this silly silly game, I have re-started re-reading HP6 in French and this time am significantly more successful! I've already read about 250 pages (I know, how colameol am I?)

So! That is everything I have on top of my head (other than hair... Oh sweet jesus, forgive me for that joke) and yes. Have a ridiculously wonderful week.

Love kendra

Blog Product

Happy December! It is suddenly a whole lot less cold than before… because that makes sense as winter comes on. (or, you know, not at all) Still hasn’t snowed yet, and I must say that I’m really hoping it does. I’ve never actually seen snow fall, and I think that it would definitely be worth the freezing temperatures… at least for a bit.

Today was the end of the first trimester at school and I am proud to report that I am passing French high school! As far as me being excited about getting 10/20s and things like that, I feel like there is something I should explain about grades here. Teachers grade ridiculously hard here. 10/20 is a decent score, even for the French kids. A 14 is a really good score. An 18 is a really really amazingly good score. A 20 is impossible except for in math where you can do something unarguable perfect. (A good example of this is my 18/20 oral score in English. I have no clue how that woman grades.) My “conseil de classe” is sometime today. This is a meeting with all of my teachers and the two class representatives, where they talk about whether we try hard enough or not, and then they write down all the remarks they make and send it home to us and our families. That is another thing about the crazy hard grading -- not only do teachers read everyone’s scores out loud in front of the class, they also write things like “your child obviously do no work at home and has never ever tried in my class. I will make sure that they are held back this year.” Or “Your son/daughter should not be on an academic path as they clearly do not have the mental prowess to perform in my class.” Yeah, it’s tough. I am REALLY happy that my grades don’t count this year. Christmas holidays start on the 23rd. Oh my heck! What is that? The good part is they last until January somethingth.

Geneviève is doing a lot better, and still has until next Friday off of work.

I’m kind of sick of what we’re doing in Theater class. We’re doing “clown exercises” which are all fine and good for a while, but after two months of them I get really tired of exaggerated emotions. Once in a while I’d just love to do something normalish. A scene that we get more than 15 minutes to work on? Anything? No… I guess not. Instead we get to wear clown noses. I don’t much like clowns.

I really hate masculin/feminin rules and Vousvoyement/Tutoiment (informal and formal ways to say ‘you’ (and for those of you that speak french, I think I spelled them wrong... oh well)). It makes life a lot more difficult. Today I accidentally tutoi-ed a teacher, and while she knew that it was just a mistake and not a lack of respect issue, two girls (who lately have been OMG pissing me off) were like “AHHH KENDRA!!! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DOOOOO NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” and I was like “um… chillax people, sometimes I make mistakes,” but they kept looking back at me all shocked-like and my face got all red. I know the rules, it is just when I’m in the middle of speaking sometimes I forget. The other thing that absolutely kills me is, well I don’t know how to describe it, so I’ll write it like this;
English Translation – (1) “Nevermind” (2) “You are nice”
French Familiar – (1) “Laisse Tomber” (2) “Tu es sympa”
French Polite – (1) “Laissez Tomber” (2) “Vous êtes sympa”

Ok! Explanation. Number 2 has the article in it, "you," “tu,” “vous,” there you go. When I have the article there, I can conjugate the verb after it with pretty much no problems. However! When the article is dropped, (re: example 1--nevermind, as opposed to never-you-mind) I completely forget to change from familiar, which I use with pretty much everyone in my entire life, to polite, which I have to use with teachers and people who work at stores and things.

Don’t worry if you didn’t understand that whole thought. I’m not so sure it made sense.

The Christmas season has officially begun. This can be seen (and heard!) every weekend by the flashing lights hung EVERYWHERE and the obnoxiously loud Christmas carols that screech out of radio things hung on every streetlamp.
ahhhhhhh!!!

For anyone who knows my sincere appreciation of “the Christmas season,” you know what kind of pain this puts me in.


As far as reader interactivity, I feel like we need some on this blog. SO! Either tell me something to take a picture of and to put online (does not include teachers, sorry, mr pirate man will have to be an end of the year treat) or tell me to describe something in detail. This might also help my ridiculously rambling style of writing that pretty much seems to go nowhere.

And on that note! That is everything I can think of to write about for now!


Love you guys,

Kendra

Why I am awesome, reasons 1-10

Why I am awesome
reasons 1-10
By Kendra B.

1. Because I got a 10/20 in Italian and she graded me on the same scale as the rest of the class.
2. Because I think I am passing all of my classes.
3. Because I am feeling very nearly bilingual.
4. Because I have magical powers that let me eat Nutella all the time and not get ridiculously fat.
5. Because I have eaten spicy food 3 times here in France (and I mean spicy by my standards)
6. Because I have friends at school who asked me for my number so we can hang out (OMG THIS IS HUGE)
7. Because I was totally on top of things and remembered to get a present for Camille for her Birthday tomorrow.
8. Because everyone in my class may hate each other, but as far as I know, nobody hates me.
9. Because I can start conversations with people I've never met and actually have them think that I'm not ridiculously stupid.
10. Because I'm definitely living in France.

Ok! Now that I am finished with that ego boosting and arrogant list, I will grace you all with the random, slightly boring everyday comings and going of my life.

My history teacher, Mr I-dress-like-a-pirate,-have-a-huge-underbite-smoke-a-pipe-am-a-communist-and-have-horribly-black-tooth-sized-spaces-between-my-teeth Gavois, and one of the girls in my class got into a fatty argument during a test. They yelled at each other for about 45 minutes. It was pretty durn awesome as far a standing up for student rights goes in my opinion, because he is a ridiculous man who should not be in charge of students. In other history news, we had a test on all of the countries in Europe. GEOGRAPHY PEOPLE! We don't do this kind of thing in America as far as I know. I'll take a picture of my lovely map when I get it back and I'll put it online for you all. I think that those Eastern European countries might just have killed me, because no matter how much you study, there is a point where Slovakie and Slovenie just look the same. (oh yeah, all the country names were in french too, which means that places like Sweden become Suède and Czech is spelled Tchéque.)

I went to an H&M with Geneviève and Camille. It was semi disappointing because I wasn't with Rachel and Ana, there wasn't killer pizza across the street, and we didn't take BART, but still people, it was H&M. I bought a black sweater with grey stars. (note to Rachel and Ana, this is the same sweater that I almost bought in SF but then didn't because the lines were too long. I ended up paying stupidity tax for it here, because the prices are exactly the same only in Euro. Thought you guys might like that...)

My jar of peanut butter is safe and sound. I eat it with everythign, but I am the only one who does. All the better in my opinion.

I was really gross cough-y sick this weekend, and went to a French doctor (quite illegally mind you) for the first time. This being France, I was prescribed 4 different kinds of medication. I am feeling much better now that I am not coughing up my Pneumos (<---- silly word that I think means lungs) every 5 seconds.

Life is going pretty life-y as far as I'm concerned. It kinda sucks that I wasn't able to see everyone who was home on Thanksgiving, but oh well.

Christmas will be semi sad.


LOVE!!! To everyone in the 650 and scattered around the country.

Kendra

Ohhh, bloggy goodness!

Yesterday was 3 months. That freaks me out; It totally doesn’t feel like its been that long at all. On the other hand when I think back to when I arrived it feels like that was a long time ago.

Thanksgiving is coming on quick. Its going to go completely unnoticed here if my predictions are correct. I wish I could go home just for a weekend to chill with my homies. Christmas is going to be really weird here I think. I wish I could hear about everyone’s new college life.

I keep having really strange dreams that take place in San Bruno but are in French. I had a dream last night where I was talking to Miriam, my boss at Peet’s, and she was asking if I could fly home to take over a shift and I told her that I would. HA! No way.

Genevieve is home now and is off of work for a month. Christophe pulled something in his back and can’t get up for a couple of days. Ben has a cold. Camille pretty much is living at her friend, Lise’s, house this weekend. We have a hospital going on at the house with both parents sleeping in the living room and Ben up all night hacking coughing. Gross.
Hope that wasn’t too much information, but for serious, I fear that I will be next.

Speaking of injury/sickness, Nisha, the Thai exchanger, broke her leg playing basketball. Party.

I got my receipt for my demand for my Carte de Sejour. This means that all of my papers are in order and I’m legally allowed to be in the country (sweet, since my visa has now expired) and that now I have to wait for another paper telling me when my state mandated doctor’s appointment is. This would be the equivalent of the opposite of a party. I’m probably going to get my Carte halfway through my stay here. Silly French government.

In happy blog related news, this blog is apparently on the Hampshire website. HOW COOL IS THAT?! (really) So yes, hi to any random Hampshire people who stumble upon my blog. You should totally go to Hampshire if you like learning. AND!!! If you decided to take a year off in between high school and college they’re really chill about it and they save your scholarships if you have any. Pretty durn awesome. Plus you’ll get to meet me… excellent.

I hate history class with a passion. I got yelled at the other day for asking my neighbor the meaning of an apparently very important word for the lesson and he fuh-reaked on me for talking. I had some very insolent comebacks prepared in my head, but considering that this is French high school where you can get fatty punishments for being insolent I held my tongue.

The church service has just ended and the stupid bell Will. Not. Stop. Dinging. Oh.my.god.stop.now.it.has.been.going.on.for.like.10.minutes.

*Ignoring*

My hands are cold like usual. I am seriously not prepared for winter. And then after having thoughts like that I think about how I am choosing to go to college in Massachusetts where it is a buttload colder than here. Nice.

It is still dinging.


Peace out.


Love Kendra

AHHH!! Forgive me! I know I suck for not writing! (goal to self = write more)

*commence blog*!!!

Ok people, French school is officially kicking my butt as of this week. I have a book of letters written by some random Marquise to read and a full fatty essay to write… hand write. They don’t type anything at all here. And that is just for French class. Considering that I have 9 other classes, yeah, swamped.

As far as politics goes; Yay for Democrats taking over both houses! I must tell you guys it was kind of a hassle getting any news over here. I actually didn’t find out anything about the elections until Wednesday night here. I’ve been talking politics with Christophe a lot here and let me just say that I still have absolutely no clue exactly how the French system works. I do know that they’ve run the government 5 different ways so far (5 republiques) and that some people are pushing for a 6th change.

The Hawaiians all left last week and we had a party at Manon’s house with, holy mother of Jesus, spicy food. I almost died I was so happy. Ooh!!! In other food news, I definitely bought Jiffy Peanut Butter yesterday and I am oh so excited. They all think that it is disgusting – freaks. Cecilie and I tried to go to the Mexican restaurant, but considering we went at 10:30, it was kind of closed like everything else. Sadness. Hopefully I’ll be going there this week because I don’t have Theater class. AND! I tried the Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant in Mallemort… meh… it was ok, but next time I’m ordering spicy and regular rice.

Jeez, I had a lot of food news!

Genevieve is in the Hospital following her surgery. She had some sort of cyst-product, and although she is in pain right now, she’s doing a lot better than even yesterday. It is really sad to see her in the hospital though. She’s scheduled to come home this Wednesday-ish, but not do much for about a month.

On a completely different note, I am totally almost caught up with Lost. I’ve been downloading episodes on Limewire and watching them on the family computer. The 6th episode is downloading right now as I type. By the time you read this I will hopefully be caught up. I think that it is pretty much the suckiest thing ever that they’re postponing the rest of the season until February... What is that?!?!

TV here blows. We have 5 channels, 6 if you count Canal + (the pay channel) which is unblocked from 4-7 on Weekdays (Will & Grace is definitely on from 4:30 to 4:55). Nearly all of the TV shows here are as bad as, if not worse, than the worst American TV. Not even kidding. Examples: (1) Star Academy – This show is like American Idol, except for NOBODY on the entire show can sing and they all have really bad hair. This plays every night and sometimes episodes are as long as 3 hours. (2) Jour J – A really annoying man with an overly expressive face talks about moments in the history of music, stars and television. Unfortunately, episodes repeat segments frequently and the actual segments have nothing to do with the titles… I don’t really understand this one. (3) Random game shows that don’t even deserve to have names – Think ‘game show network’ but with really old people and even crappier prizes.
The only thing worth watching ever is ARTE, a channel on the 5 made for both France and Germany that has relatively interesting programs in the evenings.

Christophe just walked in with fresh bread, (ooooooh yeah) so I’m gonna break my fast with some tasty tasty french product.


Love kendra


p.s. NEW PICTURES!!! The link is to your right.

Hey hey hey people!

I went with Christophe to his work last Friday, which pretty much consisted of getting in the car obscenely early in the morning and driving around Aix going to different Bakeries and Patisseries asking them what supplies they needed. Being that I am the wonderful and charming (HA) person that I am, this excursion also included lots and lots of free pastry product and a full warm loaf of bread right off the oven. Oh yeah.

PICTURES!!! at photos.yahoo.com/kendrabechtel

Other than that...
I didn't get to go to the party Friday, which was kind of sad but oh well. This Tuesday Manon, her Hawaiian (Allison), Cecilie(for a little while) and another kid who lives in Mallemort who's name is Antoine, are all going to have a pseudo Halloween party. I say pseudo because none of the French are willing to dress up, and I don't really have a costume, so its going to go something like this: Manon, Antoine and Cecilie all as themselves, Allison as Hawaiian girl (she brought a hula skirt or something?) and me as KENDRA WITH SCARF and possibly tights!!! ooooh ahhhh exciting.

Nothing compared to my brilliant costumes of years past -- sock monster anyone?


On a completely different note! Geneviève and I planted vine/tree type plants in the garden to cover the walls. They are really small and silly looking right now, but if they decided to like us and grow they should be really pretty next spring.

People have been asking me for my address a lot, so here it is, once again:

Kendra B.
13 la cour Marius Taché
13370 Mallemort
France

I think I'll put that in the side bar ------------------------------------------------->
there
and the picture address too




For now everyone, I think that is all. Not a whole lot going on here, trying to keep on talking and staying upbeat. It really is nice to get letter/emails from home so thanks SO MUCH to the people who have written to me.


party on wayne, party on garth

love kendra

I know, I know, I’ve been bad; I haven’t blogged in over a week. Apologies all around.

Thing have been pretty chill… Manon’s Hawaiian and all of the other Hawaiians arrived on Sunday afternoon. I met them at school on Monday and OMG do they not speak French… they’ve only taken half a year of French… ever…

Yeah

SO! That is what I’ve been up to the last few days… furiously translating for 8 excessively chatty 15 year old Hawaiians and the rest of the French speaking world who have all miraculously and simultaneously lost their English skills. It’s kinda like a party. The really good thing about this is I’ve come to realize that I can speak French. Before I was only focusing on the things that I couldn’t do because everyone around me could (hello?! Mother tongue anyone?!) but as soon as I’m surrounded by clueless and ridiculously loud Americans I start realizing that I am not far from fluent. Yes I make mistakes ALL THE FREAKING TIME, but!!! I can translate!!! And everyone on both sides understands (or seems to understand) me. It has been a really big ego booster, which I totally needed.

Vacation starts today! How sweet is that? We started school 6 weeks ago and we already have a 2-week vacation. SUH WEET! That is how sweet it is. I’m gonna go to a party for all the Hawaiians this Friday and I’ll take pictures and post them. I’m also going to go with Christophe to his work one day next week (he works with all of the Bakeries and Patisseries in Aix-en-Provence) and I totally take pictures of that too. OOOOH tasty.


This is pretty much just for Rachel and Kim, but I’m totally on a John Mayer kick right now and have been listening to him nonstop for about 3 days. Thought you’d love that.

Write me comments or emails people! I’d love to know that people are actually reading this!

Love to everyone

Kendra

Yesterday was bizarre, so here is a recap:

Ben decided to leave like 45 minutes before the bus, and I refused to go with him so he could smoke with his friends, so I actually got to get ready for school calmly. It was awesome. I get on the first bus and we start 'a truckin', and then about 10 minutes later we stop. dead stop. for 45 minutes. Apparently there was an accident right in front of us. SO I get to school 40 minutes late, of course I have a big in class essay in french at 8 for two hours, and get my retard slip signed (late slip.. but the tops of the pages say "retard" in really big letters because that's how you say late in french) and try to manage a decent dissertation in french in an hour and 20 mins. Then I get to Italian and My prof asks me to give a fricken' ORAL PRESENTATION IN FRONT OF THE CLASS. I almost peed myself I was so nervous and I still failed even though I studied my butt off. This is probably due to the fact that I don't know really how to use the imperfect subjunctive tense in French, so trying to learn it in Italian is kind of useless and since this was the first time that I'd actually spoken Italian, i thought I did pretty good. I said something along the lines of "Article... speaks.... about.... girl... singer... named.... christina delà... songs are many... songs are poetry... end" after Italian I realized that I was done with school because my English teacher never shows up and that means that I never have class, but only when it's really inconvenient.* There was this kid putting on a one man show where he made fun of a famous fat french cook woman who cooks on TV and a singer. I didn't get it... at all. I'm finally doing an activity!!! I found out that there is a bus right after the theater class ends, and I met a bunch of the kids in the class, and they're really nice, so we're going to eat together tomorrow in Salon and then I am going to my first theater class in french in France!!* *run on sentence (written the next day post theater class, i.e. today)

I TOTALLY DID A MONOLOGUE IN FRENCH!

I know, how cool am I? (The answer is really really by the way)

The teacher, who's name I didn't catch, was kind of pissed that I showed up for the first time a month and half after school started. (Granted this class is only one time a week, so I only missed like 4 classes. Not good, but still lady, its not like I missed a lot. The class was super easy to follow.) After she yelled at me and I filled out a form about why I wanted to be in the class, she was nicer. She gave me a monologue to do during the class and we did theater games (nearly Identical to the ones we did at cap, but in French) and then practiced monologues. I memorized about half of mine, and then we all did them in front of the class. Most of them sucked a lot, but the teacher(s? there's another woman who watches but everyone calls Michelle) liked mine. :D! yay!

On the bus ride home I got into my first big argument FOR the US in pretty much my entire life. It was crazy. The thing is, people here try to argument like so:

them-- "So, all Americans are pretty much the worst people ever and they all love bush and the french are pretty much the greatest people in the world... just so you know"

me-- "yeahhhh, and you know this how?" (I need to know their arguments so I can demolish them in my next sentence. This is how I operate people, get with the program)

them-- "well in Charmed the people all live only for themselves and their money, so all Americans are like that right? And also, your rich people live all by themselves and we have no ghettos and poor people live right next to rich people."

me -- " wow you're really wrong. (insert my brilliant examples that I am only able to come up when I'm angry or frustrated) and that is why I never lose an argument. end"

them -- " uhhh in school they tell us that Americans suck"

me -- " So they must be right, if they told it to you they must be correct?"

them -- *head explodes*

me -- *does the debate victory dance*



Yeah, sometimes I think I'm pretty damn cool.


missing you guys and my language skillz like WOAH!

love kendra

I have found a faster method of uploading photos, and therefore, you get more of them

http://photos.yahoo.com/kendrabechtel

enjoy. I hope that works. I'll be putting up pictures as I take them, but for right now there is the Patrimony festival that happened a month ago, and soon pictures of kids from my class and my birthday party product.


I've been informed that my misadventures in Italian is absolutely hilarious, so I'll share my progress in this endeavor.


Marie è francese? Si (accented i), è francese.

Sei Americana? Si! Sono americana!

Pieu leggere un giornale italiano? No, non pieo leggere i giornali italiani! <-- verb prendere is spelled wrong and conjugated wrong. I need to study.


YEAH! marvel at my langauge skillz.

(meanwhile, the rest of the class is learning subjunctive, so in all reality I still suck)



I really miss understanding everything easily.

Omg guys, guess how old I'm going to be in 2 days... yeah... 18

I know, creepy right?

In other news -- We watched a scary movie last night (Amityville Horror?) and although I didn't think it was all that scary, Camille got freaked out and wouldn't sleep by herself, so she stayed in my room last night.

I am super tired now because she moves A LOT when she sleeps.

I totally have 100 percent in English. Sweet.

My Italian teacher gave me the first year book and has decided that thanks to this book I will be able to be at the same level as the rest of the class in January. That is totally not going to happen, but at least I have homework and will have tests that I am capable of doing. On my last Italian test I totally answered on of the 8 essay questions and my answer was nothing but a list of the "sports" that I remembered in Italian that looked like english with 'il' added at the beginning:

Giovanni participici il bici il skates il minigolf.

something like that. It is totally not even a sentence.

French is starting to kick my butt. I have major homework that I've already done twice incorrectly.

I'm gonna go have some nutella now. mmm tasty.

More pictures

Manon, my friend here, is going to be hosting a Hawaiian student at her house for 15 days at the end of the month. Apparently said Hawaiian doesn't speak much french (that is where I come in handy) and I'm excited so I thought I'd share.

end

Another Picture!!!

This is after I fell.
Sadface.

PICTURES!!! FINALLY!!!

My School. OOOOH!!! and Homework!!!




Unfortunately, It takes like 10 minutes to upload each image. That definitely makes me cry a little on the inside. THEREFORE! pictures will be uploaded sparingly until I find a better way to make this work.



Other than the fact that my handwriting is becoming obscenely neat and the fact that my school exists, not a huge amount has been going on here. School is becoming increasingly hard as the assignments are moving from "write your name and the profession of your parents on a half sheet of paper" to "analyze the tone of this 15th century French poem in an essay due tomorrow".

a bit of a jump if I do say so myself.



I have a fancy schmancy cell phone, because apparently thats the only kind that exists now. It is super pretty and takes pictures : Voila photo

http://www.digitalstore.cl/Telefonos/fotos_grandes/motorola-razr-blue.jpg

beauty.

My number is 10 digits long. I can't call out of country with it as far as I know (the instruction manuel is definitely in french).

For now, that is all.

Hello to all…

The computer has been down for a couple of days (try a week) so here comes UBER UPDATE!!!


Friday: Rained incredibly hard, I waited for my bus in the pouring rain for 30 minutes. I was pretty much soaked all day long. Other than that, nothing much to report.


Saturday: Patrimoine Festival


I totally took pictures, and now they won't go on to the blog. Unfortunately this is a problem I'm going to solve another day.



Basically, all of france celebrates being French on this weekend. Mallemort decided to do this through song. Yeah…


Sunday: Drove around with Christophe and Genevieve for 2 hours and took pictures of crosses. It was odd. Other than that I relished the fact that I didn’t have school.


Monday: One month since arrival anniversary. Had a pop quiz IN ITALIAN. (failed by the way, but not as much as some of the kids in my class which is really really sad) Ran in PE. Sucked.


Tuesday: My amazing French skillz were marveled at at the dinner table when I said a complex sentence (oh yes, multiple subjects AND verbs) and didn’t make any mistakes. That made me really happy, and then kind of sad because I realized how happy we all were and all I did was ask Benjamin to write down his schedule so I didn’t have to wake him up early when he starts at 9. I got to play piano at school today… first time in a month. There are a lot of kids that play in the Cafet (little area with fooseball, snacky snacks, tables, and a piano) and most of them OMG suck.


Wednesday: SUPER SADFACE DAY!!!!!! Warning.

I totally take back the statement that I like riding bikes. Ok, I like riding them, I really really don’t like falling really hard while going down hill super fast after riding like 15 miles already. Yeah… I’m cut and bruised up for serious. Hardcore status.

Yeah I know, you wish you were me.


Thursday: Totally didn’t go to school today because I really couldn’t move. I gave myself a treat and watched Bruce Almighty in English without subtitles because I was WOW tired and pissed off at life for having made me fall. Really really sore all day long. Party over here…


Friday: Hobbled to school. Did an in class essay in French from 8-10. That is officially the worst paper I’ve ever written in my life. My grade will be, um, interesting? 2 hours of History – kill me now. He was having a hard time speaking for some reason and kept mixing up letters, making him say things like Jupon and Rassie instead of Japon and Russie, or Les crises lourt and les crises cons… that one was funny. After a while Mr.-I-dress-like-a-balding-pirate-gavois threw his hands up in the air and exclaimed “C’est une festivale!” (like a festival of mistakes, which totally exist. I went to one the other day. It was fun…) Cracked up about something ridiculous and stupid with Manon at lunch which was really nice. Until yesterday I hadn’t had uncontrollable laughter about ridiculous things since mom left. I am still sore. The most annoying part is that my elbow is super messed up on the outside so I can’t rest my arm on anything when I’m sitting down. Oh how tiring.


Today is Saturday. Nothing has happened yet.


I'm trying to read Harry Potter HBP in French because I gave up on Les Liasons Dangereuse. Words like Snape(Rogue) and Hogwarts (Poudlard) are different and confusing.


yay internet!

Definitely big news... I had my first epic experience in France last Thursday. EPIC!!!

Story time: On Thursdays, I have 4 hours free between classes, and Natasha and Elodie, who are totally mes copines, invited me to eat lunch at Natasha's house and then I could help them with their english presentation and they'd proof my french essay. Sounds simple enough... we catch a bus to Natasha's house at 12:15 and are there before 12:30, and Elodie and I play with her dogs and cat while Natasha makes us lunch. (She insisted that we stay out of the kitchen.) So we start eating lunch and Elodie makes the mistake of asking what the dark-ish spread on our toast is, and Natasha says she'll tell us after we finish it. My stomach instantly turns... And now I have to finish it, because I've started eating it and it doesn't taste bad, so we finish... yeah it was pidgeon tripe. *gag!* Anyways, we watch a movie, do our homework, and leave her house at 3:20 to catch the 3:45 bus in order to get us back to school before 4; our class starts at 4:10. At this point I am totally chill, these girls have the same bus mindset as me, and we're gonna be fine! Wrong. We get to the bus stop, wait, and wait, and wait, and by now it is 3:50 and the bus still hasn't shown and so we freak out a little and start walking. (remember, this is 10-15 minutes away from school on bus... so we walk, and then we run a bit, and then we run some more, and then we get lost, like you do when you absolutely need to be somewhere 5 minutes ago. So we're wandering around and our French teacher and her husband drive by... so we run yelling after them. Natasha explains our situation and they drive us to the base of the school. We run up the hill to school (this is all in 85-90* weather mind you) and up two flights of stairs to get to the attendance office so we can be marked late and let in to our class, but its closed, so we run back down the two flights of stairs, across the court, down another 3 flights of stairs, and start looking for our classroom in Bulding B. We finally find it and walk in, dripping sweat and panting and our whole class, including ms british english teacher, CRACKS UP. So we explain and everything goes over well in the end, but still... crazy day.


The moral of this story is: do not ask what you are eating. Ever.

Today I only had an hour of french and an hour of SUPER EASY math. It is kind of the coolest thing ever to sit in a math class and be able to anticipate everything while the other around you are struggling.

Math is easier than english. Is that bad?

British makes me want to cry a little because the grammar is so weird. She keeps putting in extra words and telling me I'm wrong about things that are super correct and asking me random questions about american pop culture and looking disappointed if I'm wrong or if I don't know. I don't like it so much.

I did my first homework assignment in french. It took me over an hour. I'll put up a picture when I can. We had a good laugh because when I was correcting it with Geneviève, I read a part of it outloud like this: (translated of course) "The poet advises the young girl to profit from her youth, and therefore her beauty, by using the verb spoon which is usually used in reference to flowers."

yeah -- spoon.
I mean "pick" by the way. Pick = Ceuillir (koi-ear), Spoon = Cuiller (kwee-year) (I think its spelled like that, but it might be wrong. My spelling is SO BAD!!!)



Hilarity.


Other than that, I've met another american exchange student with super bad vibes. She isn't in my class though, so all is good -- except for sometimes she follows me at lunch and its really awkward.

I haven't been able to say awkward in so long even though I've been in about a kabillion awkward situations. It is killing me.

Things are starting to feel normal here, which I think is a really good thing.


I still want a burrito.

mmm... 10 hours of school today... that is a scrumptious thought. Bask in that for a moment. Yeah.

As far as school goes, its good, if not difficult. I'll put it this way. If you were to take your average Capuchino CP class of juniors, give them just a little bit more motivation and higher expectations from their teachers and parents and put them all in IB diploma, that would be french high school for you. Teacher don't show up, so we don't have class. I tried to explain the concept of a "sub" today and they thought it was the strangest thing they'd ever heard.

I got all 11 of my books today. They fricken cost me 120€! I hope I get it back, because I know at the end of the year I have to return them.

I got a little sad today in French class (FOR 3 HOURS) because they were going over writing technique and such, and nerd that I am I was getting all in to it, and I knew the answers, but only in english, so they all assumed I couldn't understand. I really wanted to tell her that you have to look for SYNTAX!!! only to learn 5 seconds later that the French word for syntax -- is syntax. That was fun. I have absolutely no clue what the homework is, except for that it has to do something with poems? and charts... yeah

and I don't know what my english homework is because the instructions are in french and as far as i can see they direct me to page 415 of a 200 page book. fun stuff. English class is silly though cause the teacher is british and she made me describe chips and then told me I was wrong.

The girls in my class are nice -- theres a good group of them who talk to me (and attempt to talk to Cecelie the Danish exchange student whose french SUCKS) at breaks and help me in class. They even made fun of my accent today which is good, i guess, because it means to me that they feel it is ok to joke around me. I wish I didn't sound like a hobo when I try to speak.

The cafeteria is good but strange. It kind of tastes like middle class gourmet -- like someone tried to do something really fancy on a tiny budget. (I think I'm on point with that one). I've had couscous royale and salmon product. The girls said that it is required that I try MacDo (mcdonalds) in france, because it is better? I'm taking them up on it, as much as I hate it, because I want to have someone other than Cecelie to hang out with. She is nice, but UBER clingy, and understandably so since I'm pretty much the only one who can understand her at all.

I keep seeing people at school that remind me of people at home. There is this one girl in particular who is like a tiny, girly, clean lindsay, but she isn't very nice. I don't like her so much, she makes me miss real lindsay.

Weekend tomorrow, which is kind of like Jesus and Santa and the Easter Bunny all combined.

I can no longer rely on my happy english books that I've been reading before I go to sleep (I've read over 1500 pages in the last week and a half) because I have been assigned Les Liaisons Dangereuse by October 6th, and it is gonna be hell for me.

Yay...

Whiggity Whack school schedule.

School today, pretty much da bomb. There is another exchange student (from Denmark) and she speaks way less french than me so I suddenly feel all confident. There were also a couple of the french kids in my class who were really nice and made an effort to talk to us at the break. One girl in particular, Natasha, was super nice and offered to help us around and with notes and such in classes. Yay! and! I had someone to sit with on the bus thanks to Ben introducing me to his friends.

Here is my schedule:

Monday: 8-10 = Education Physiques et Sportives (aka PE... AHHHHH)
10-11 = Italian
11-12 = English
5-6 = Education Civique (yeah... I'm pretty much not going to that class)

Tuesday: 8-10 = French
10-11 = Math
11-12 = Italian
1-3 = English

Wednesday: 8-9 = Group one French
9-10 = Math
11-12 = Group two French (I'm not sure how the group thing works, but I know that I only have two classes this day. Sweet!)

Thursday: 8-9 = History and Geography
9-10 = Italian
10-11 = Math
11-12 = History and Geography
4-5 = English

Friday: 8-10 = French
10-12 = History and Geography
2-3 = French
3-5 = Biology/Physics

Saturday: NOTHING!!!!!!!!!! oh yeah.

My "home room" teacher is my french teacher. She seems to be nice, if a little strict. She was very good about explaining things to me and Ceciliy (the danish girl) after class, and she isn't too difficult to understand.

:D

My official last day of summer has arrived! Terrifying... terrifying beyond belief.

The last week or so has been interesting, to say the least. What I've found is that at every gathering of more than three or so people, some middle aged man makes it his personal quest to make sure that I understand everything that is going on. Sure, thats nice and all, but when someone tries to explain a word to me, that I pretty much got the jist of, in their broken high school english which they are ever so proud of, it usually is a lot more confusing than just paying attention to context.

Camille and I are taking the bus into Aix today by ourselves, so I am excited about that.


I'll write about school next. Oh no.

Today is my first full day here without mom. Yesterday was ridiculously hard, but i have to say that i'm glad that it is over. There was so much sadness leading up to that moment that when it was finally over I definitely felt some relief.

Now the hard part starts. They keep saying that my french really isn't bad at all, but I seriously feel like i stutter over everything. My hat is off to all the exchange students that do this without any language skills at all... I can't even imagine.

I'm really starting to miss my friends and family now. They are so good to me here, but you can only get so close when one of you has to think REALLY HARD just to ask how the microwave works. (it was ridiculously confusing btw.)

I'm starting to get the hang of the keyboard. My computer picks up the internet, but it is password protected and I'm not sure whether or not I want it in my room yet... too much of a time suck. I figure that I'll cross that bridge when school starts.

Speaking of which, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.


And the cards that Dad and Darren sent to Mom for her birthday just got here today. I can either send them back or read them to her over the phone, as you wish!

Write me an email... kendrabechtel@gmail.com , they make me happy.

I have a tan.


Yeah, that is a big question mark in my mind too.

We got back from our crazy amazing adventure to the Cote d'Azure today. It was ridiculously beautiful. I still don't believe that I'm here. at. all.

I start school on the 5th of September. I'm pretty damn nervous, but excited too. I need me some friends!

My french is... cromagnon? but improving.

I just have to say, I am OMG jealous of pretty much every item of clothing that my host mom has.


as the back of Camille's shirt says,
Smoke, Peace, and Make love

or rather... as her mom said,
Just peace!


bisous
Kendra

Today I got all of my papers together, including 4 id pictures (which mom and I walked down to the photo store and got all by ourselves thank you very much!), and mailed in my application for a carte du séjour. I also got my super nifty card that allows me to take the bus to school. I'll put up a picture when I get the time to figure out how. The only thing that sucks about the bus product is that there is only one bus in the morning, so I have to catch it at 7:25 whether or not i have class that morning. They told me sometimes I won't have class until 10 or so... fun.

Mom and I took a little tour of Aix en Provence today by ourselves. It was pretty much awesome. Tomorrow we are roadtrip-ing it to the Cote d'Azure.

Benjamin is bugging me to get off, so I'll write when we return!!

I hope you all are doing wonderfully

holy shit i'm in france

my mom and i had a good trip and are glad to be here. i'm understanding a lot more than i though i would but i'm able to say a lot less. nerves i guess. this keyboard is ridiculously confusing.

i'll write again later

yay

I'm packing up my computer now.

This is quite possibly the most terrifying thing I've ever done. Ever.


Goodnight guys, see you in a year. Remember to keep reading this and to comment; remind me how much I love you all.

Expletive...

We called the consulate -- their phones don't work.
We faxed.
They called us back.
My visa is "not approved yet".
They can't guarantee I'll have it on time.


um... kay?





So, despite that, I'm having a going away party at my house on Sunday. I'm excited about it, but nervous. I have these feelings that it is only going to cause a lot of tension even though I know that it will be fun as well... I think I'm just freaking out a little bit and by a little bit I mean a lot.

My schedule for the next week. (I [hopefully] leave in a week)
Thursday: Appointments in the morning, Coldstone 5-9:30
Friday: Peet's 3-7, Chorus Line w/ Heidi
Saturday: Peet's 1-6:45, Coldstone 5-Close (that'll be interesting)
Sunday: Peet's 8-1, PARTAY 3-when the sun comes up, but probably earlier
Monday: Glorious glorious nothing
Tuesday: Appointment at 2, Peet's from 12-5. Again, interesting, and impossible.
Wednesday: Peet's from 12-5
Thursday: Mosey on down to the airport and scoot my booty to France after a wonderful celebratory breakfast with my favorite people. Hopefully.

Here is my host family. Yay! (the picture is over a year old though, so they probably look quite a bit different)


And here is my address. How exciting. Mail me, or email me, once I'm there

Kendra Bechtel
13 la cour Marius Taché
13370, Mallemort
FRANCE






Still waiting for my visa. COME ON CONSULATE!

Lovely new smile!

Before my appointment, and after

Two weeks

Today is the two week mark. Today is also the day I get my braces off. <-- SO EXCITED!

I still haven't received my Visa. I think I'm going to call the consulate today before work.

I am freaking out about leaving -- I know that even if I weren't doing this and was going to college I'd still be leaving, but the whole thought of leaving everything familiar and dropping myself into absolute confusion seems a bit ludacris right now. Don't get me wrong; I'm insanely excited too. Excited, impatient, anxious, nervous... I don't even know.

I'm having a going away party on the 13th at my house from 3-8. I hope it ends up being fun, although at that point who knows what my emotional state may be.

Frustration and more

ARG!

story time...
When I last wrote, everything had gone swimmingly at the consulate and I foresaw no problems as far as the pre-departure bureaucracy goes. I should have known better. They called my house a couple of days ago telling me that I was missing a few papers and that my fingerprints didn't come out. I HAD THE PAPERS WHEN I WAS THERE LAST TIME!!! I'd asked the man if he needed them and he'd told me no. And they should be able to see on their computer whether or not the finger prints worked. ahhhhhh.


They promised that I'd have it in 2 weeks, so I'm expecting it probably around the day before I leave. That is terrifying.


There are far too few days until I leave and that is depressing. 27 today.

Something else that is depressing; people's spelling on the internet. It really makes a little piece of me die inside.


Rachel and I don't do well with large flying bugs. Or large crawling bugs. Or bugs in general.




p.s. I'm working at Peet's in Millbrae, mostly on weekends. Visit me.

Just waiting now

I got another email from my host family today. Apparently there will be a Danish kid and a Thai kid at the same school as me. That is such exciting news for me because I was scared I wouldn't get to meet any other exchangers. I also found another girl (via livejournal) who is going to France next year who lives in Pacifica. woot!

Braces off on the 3rd of August. ONE MONTH!

When you make people's jobs easier, you get what you want.

I just got back from the SF French Consulate -- a wonderful experience since I had all of my paperwork in order. Now I just wait for the call saying I'm approved and that I can go pick it up. This is the final piece, I have my tickets, my school, everything! Crazy stuff.

I'm leaving for Paris non-stop on August 17th in the evening with my mom, and from there we're taking the TGV to Aix-en-Provence. This is seriously a testament to how unnecessary it is to go with a company if you know a family to stay with. Mom and I calculated it today and we would have spent about $4000 (USD) more at minimum if we'd gone with a company (excluding rotary, but I was a little too late for that, and by a little I mean about 6 months, so a lot)... so sweeeet!

I've started training at Coldstone, have two interviews for other jobs this week, and am getting some pick up babysitting thanks to the lovely and talented Val Liberty (thanks by the way... you're wonderful) so my money situation sould be improving shortly.

Amazing... I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I'll be out of the country for a year.

When I go to pick up my visa (anywhere from a week to a month from now) does anybody want to have a city adventure day with me? its right by china town, so we can BART it to the Powell station.