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!
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Sunday, September 17, 2006
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
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.
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.
Friday, September 08, 2006
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...
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...
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
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
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
Monday, September 04, 2006
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.
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.
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