This Will Be My Last Post For A Couple Days

Tomorrow morning I'm going to Paris, and am pretty sure I'm not going to have access (or a chance) to get online. I'll only be there until Saturday night, so I should have lots to report again on Sunday. I'll get help getting my pictures up then, too.

Yesterday we didn't go into town as planned, because my host mom's meeting ran late. Instead, I just worked on my homework. I decided instead of reading today, I'd take all my underlined words from the previous 10 pages and look them up. I only got through about one notebook page of them before it was time to leave for Thomas's house, though. I kept finding other words on the page and reading through random definitions and such. I learned a lot of phrases! If only I could actually remember everything! I wish I had a brain like a sponge. That would be incredibly helpful. Hah.

We spent the rest of the day at Thomas's house watching movies, painting pictures, and in light of Mardi Gras, we also made crêpes! I ate 4 this time. (What a cuchon :P!) One was spread with Nutella, one with honey & butter, and the other two with butter and sugar. Mmmmm! I ♥ crêpes!

After Anne came home, the three of us came home and ate dinner. Then we talked for a good couple hours. We talked about a million things. I even got complimented on how well I have been speaking French lately! :D I can't believe almost a month has gone by already. That seriously went wayyyy too fast for me. July is going to be here before I know it. :/

Today Hillary is going to come over for lunch, and then around 2:30, we're going into town together. Hillary is another girl from the US who's staying with a family about a twenty five minutes or so away from me. I'm almost a little scared to speak English all day. I don't want to lose my French... but it's just too tempting! :P

When she leaves, my family and I are going to prepare for tomorrow's voyage. I'm pumped to ride the train again! I wish the ride was longer. It's so fun! Then when we get to Paris, we will be meeting up with my host mom's friend (who lives there). Tomorrow afternoon, Pierre has an appointment at a "massive" hospital. It's just a yearly check-up thing, though-- nothing major to worry about. The next day, we're going to climb the Eiffel Tower and possibly take a boat down the Seine (if time permits). Then on Saturday morning, we're headin' back on the TGV again :D! I swear to you, I could ride that thing all day. It's the funnest way to get around. It reminds me of taking the subway in New York or Chicago. I loooove it. Fargo definitely needs one that runs down to Texas or something. That'd be awesome.

Saturday night, I'm going to a video game night with Simon, Vincent, and whoever else decides to come. I really don't know, but my host mom told me I could invite Hillary and she could spend the night afterwards. We'll see what goes down. I'll update you on all this stuff on Sunday (or Monday).

Until then, all of you have a good rest of the week!
Talk to you later!
-Miranda

PS-I've heard that my comments aren't working, and I don't know why. Hopefully they'll start working again, soon, but if you need to send me something you can do so by emailing me at- missmirandamari3@hotmail.com

And Chelsea- I forgot to mention that I got your letter. hahah. Thankssss :D!


EDIT: I have the time, and since I won't be on for a few days, I figured I might as well fill you in on today.

Hillary came over around noon for lunch, and after eating, my host mom left to take Pierre to the kino? or something? Hillary and I went up to my room and talked about a million things. It was so nice to talk in English again!

Around 3, we went into town and went into a few stores. All I bought was my Twilight book, a postcard, and an apple filled croissant. We spent about the whole afternoon walking around the town and taking pictures and just talking. It was a great, tourist-y, kind of day. Hah.

After Hillary's mom picked her up, my mom took me home and I started packing for tommorow. Our train leaves at 11AM, so not overly early, but I still want to be all ready to go tonight. She also got us tickets to see Cleopatre :D! That's a musical currently showing in Paris, and it's supposed to be really good! I'm excited for that! Hopefully I can understand it!

Not much else to report, though. I think I'm going to get off and finish packing. Then probably get to bed. Have a great next couple of days everyone!
<3

Be brave. Even if you're not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference. -H. Jackson Brown

It's Early, Not Much To Say

I posted rather late in the evening yesterday, so there isn't much to say about that, either! Althoughh I should tell you that I watched one of those FBI TV shows after supper last night, and for the first time, I was able to follow it the whole way through. Granted, I didn't understand every word spoken, but I knew what was going on & that's quite a step forward for me! I'm also starting to find it getting difficult to write entirely in English on here. I keep wanting to throw in French words & phrases. One time, I'm probably going to try writing this entirely in French. That will be a ways down the road yet, but I can see it happening. Those of you who don't understand it can feel free to translate it with the box on your left.

Moving on, though. Aroma therapy is seriously one of my favorite things in life. This morning, I woke up with a really, really sore throat, so I rubbed some 'aroma therapy for cold and flu' on it, and it's almost all better :D! I also can't believe how stupid I was for not bringing any cough drops! I packed pretty much every other kind of medication you can imagine, but no cough drops! That just makes me a million times more grateful for the aroma therapy. :)

Today I'm not going to be home much (thus the early post). In about a half hour or so, my host mom is taking me to the store to get my phone recharged up because I received a text that says I'm runnin' low. Pierre also told me that we're going shopping for anything else I want to buy. To be honest, I'm really not in a shopping mood. Even though I feel like I have very little to wear, I'll probably just get Rica her alarm clock and then my Twilight book and be done. I've got to be in the mood to run around and try clothes on and all that, and I just haven't been. I don't even really know what stores are good, so that doesn't help either. Awh well. I will just keep working with what I've got.

This afternoon, we are going over to Thomas's house to babysit Romane, Lou-Marie, and Lilian. I don't know how late we'll be out, but it sounds like most of the rest of the day. It should be fun, though. Those kids are adorable.
If I do get a chance, I'll edit with anything interesting that takes place, otherwise I'll talk to you again tomorrow!

Bon Journée!
-Miranda

Time does not change us. It just unfolds us. -Max Frisch

La Première Jour De Vacances

I guess vacation for me technically started Friday after school, but today was my first real day I would have had school, so the title fits.

Yesterday I had another one of those LOL moments. I went into the kitchen to help my host mom prepare for the family to come over, and after setting the table (correctly!), I was instructed to peel the carrots. Hah. I don't know what I was thinking, but for some reason I thought I had to peel the entire carrot down to the center! I took the éplucher and started to peel the carrot. I got it all the way down to a little flimsy stick before my host mom noticed and started laughing at me. She reexplained to me that I only needed to peel the outside layer off and leave the rest. Ooops! Although she happened to have a recipe for my mistake carrot, so that worked well. I did manage to get it right after the second set of instructions, though.

After that, Pierre and I peeled and cut fruit for the fruit salad. I really suck at peeling fruit, too, but I managed to make it work. And the pieces were supposed to be bite size anyway! As we were finishing up, Simon (my older brother) and his wife, Claire, along with their kids, Lola and Marius, arrived. They were followed by Thomas and his family. Then finally, Annick and Grandma came a little while after them.

While my mom finished cooking the food in the kitchen, the rest of us gathered in the living room for refreshments and drinks. There was a big motorcycle race going on in the North on the beach, so we watched a little of that on TV as well. When the food was done and the little kids had eaten, all of us older people went out on the veranda for the first course. It consisted of 3 different things: a bowl of shredded carrots; a salad of tomatoes, eggs, and corn; and a mixture of different veggies in a sauce. I tried a little of everything (except the tomato), and it was all really good. The second course, aka the main course, came next. This one was made up of green beans and a casserole that consisted of mushrooms and some kind of meat. After that came the cheese course. There were four different kinds of cheese, and I tried three. One of them was Camembert(?), which was my favorite, and I don't remember any of the others' names. Sorry! The important one to remember is Camembert, though. I don't know if I'm spelling that right, but it's relatively close, I think. After the cheeses came the fruit salad Pierre and I made, and finally, my favorite part, the ice cream! There were seriously a million different things to chose from. It took me a while, but Annick finally convinced me into the chocolate pastachio ice cream bar. I think I discovered a new favorite flavor. If you ever get the chance (I don't know if they sell it in the States) TRY PASTACHIO ICE CREAM! C'est trèsss bonne!

Right as I finished my ice cream, Claire, Laure, and their mom arrived to take me to the theatre. They are a really friendly group of people. There wasn't much silence in the car or on the walk to the theatre or as we waited for the show to start. We talked the entire time, and during the show when I didn't understand something, either Laure or the mom would explain it to me between scenes. Because of that, I actually understood what was going on about 75% of the time. (That's pretty good.) At the beginning I was slightly lost, but by the end, I was honestly able to laugh at some of the jokes!

After the show, they took me home. Their mom talked to my mom, and I was invited over for lunch the following day. Once they had left, we ate dinner, and then I went upstairs to bed. My host mom was really tired from entertaining all day, and Pierre insisted that everyone go to bed, so I chilled in my room for a while and SMS (text) messaged a few people from school. Eventually, I got tired and went to bed.

This morning I got up, got ready, and then tried reading my book! That went decent... I guess... I underlined every word I didn't know in pencil, and it actually didn't seem like as much as I had thought it would be! I only got through a few pages, but hey! It's better than nothing! I can comprehend the sentences individually, but I can't put them together and make sense of what is going on. It's really frustrating. I'm hoping that gets better with time, but for now, it's driving me crazy.

About an hour or so into my book (and only like, 5 or 6 pages), Claire and Laure came over to get me. I walked with them to their house, where I spent the afternoon playing games like battle ship, guess who, wheel of fortune, taboo, checkers, and a couple others I don't know the names of. It was really fun! I had lunch over there, too. It was a rrrrrrrreally good noodle dish, with lasagna noodles (I think) rolled with meat inside of them, and they were in a tomato sauce with cheese and perhaps a veggie as well? I don't remember exactly. After that, I got cheese again. This time I tried all four kinds presented. One of them was Camambert again, and another one reminded me of something you might be able to find in the United States. There was one other reallyy strong one, and then the fourth one was made with goat's cheese. They were all pretty good, but I'd still put Camambert at number one on my list. I got another fruit salad today, and tried kiwi again for the first time since 2nd grade. I decided that it really is pretty good! I probably wouldn't go out of my way for it, but I would eat it again.

I recently got home, and soon I'll be eating again. This meal won't be too big, since it's just Pierre and I tonight. I think we're having pasta and something else. I'm not sure exactly. Before my host mom left, she also told me that Marion from school called, and I'm going with her to play laser tag next Tuesday. I'm assuming Sabrina, Laureen, and Virginie will be there as well. Probably someone else, too, so that the teams are equal.

Welllll, I think that's about it! J'écriverai encore demain!

A tout allure!
-Miranda

We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same. -Carlos Castaneda

Sorry!

I won't make this a habbit, I promise. I was just really busy yesterday and didn't have a chance to get online!

First of all, yesterday I woke up, got ready, and after eating breakfast, I went with my host mom to drop Pierre off at his weight lifting class. Then the two of us went to the market in the Petit and Grand Place. You can seriously buy anything there! It's huuuuge! The entire Petit Place is filled up and so is a good half of the Grand Place, plusss the road connecting the two. I saw everything from fresh meat, fruits, veggies, and flowers to langerie, sewing supplies, DVDs, and matresses! It was crazy! All we bought, though, was some roasted chicken, potatoes, and onions for lunch and then some fruit.

An hour or so later, we went to pick Pierre up from the gym. When we got home, we ate the stuff we'd purchased and then I watched another of Pierre's dance performances. He gets really excited about those, even though we have to watch the entire couple hours for him to appear for like, 10 minutes, max. haha. I don't mind though. I just sit there content with my thoughts when the dances start to get uninteresting.

At 3:00, my host mom and I went to what would have been my band concert. She didn't make me bring my flute since I'd only played the music twice and told her that I sucked. Ha ha. Instead, we just watched Vincent (her friend's son, and Simon's younger brother). It lasted for almost 3 hours. No lie. Four bands played and it got super long. Most of the songs of one of the band's were like 3 or 4 movements each, so that got reallyyyy long. I figured out that I am in a jazz group, though. That's probably why the music is so difficult and it has symbols I've never seen before. Hah. That all makes sense, now. My band was the last to play, and after the conductor had introduced everyone else, he pulled me from the audience and told everyone to welcome the new American girl to the band. I was slightly embarrased. I didn't see that one comingg! Ha ha. Consequently afterwards, I talked to a bunch of people. Most of them approached me in English and started introducing themselves. No one expects me to know any French! I did meet up with Alicia from my class at school, though, and talked to her for a while. When she left, I joined my host mom with some of the people from my band and their parents. I wound up with an invitation to a theatrical performance today with Claire, and then Nathan's mom invited me over any time I want. She told me that Nathan would be more than willing to go to the cinéma with me or anything I wanted to do. I kind of felt awkward, because it seemed like people felt sorry for me or think I'm really bored or something. It's nice to get out, though, and my host mom and Claire's mom have the whole theatre thing set up, so I'll be going to that later today. Hopefully it's relatively easy to understand. Lol.

After everyone else had left, my host mom and I stayed to help do the dishes. (There were refreshments after the performance.) Once that was finished, we came home to find Thomas, Romane, and Pierre waiting for us. Thomas had tried to fix my host mom's broken stove, but I guess it needs to be replaced altogether. Then they looked up movies for us to see. We decided on Volt (or Bolt in the US) because it was appropriate for 7 year old Romane, and I'd already seen it in English, so I could follow the story without being completely lost.

Once Thomas had left, the four of us ate dinner and then headed out to the theatre. It was MASSIVE. I took a couple pictures to show you! They are a little blurry, but it still gives you an idea of what it looked like. There are 2 floors to this place. You walk into a huge lobby on the first floor. Just ahead, there is a giant concessions counter where you can buy snacks and your tickets. Then you go up the escalator to the guy who rips your tickets and tells you where to go from there. The theaters themselves are really nice, too. The screens (at least in ours) was the size of the UltraScreen in Fargo, and I would easily be able to sleep in one of these seats. They're sooo comfy!

The movie was pretty good, just like the first time I'd seen it. A few differences I noticed were that the voices were in French (obviously), but the end credits read Miley Cyrus and John Trevolta, even though they were neither acting nor voicing the parts! I thought that was a little stupid. In my opinion, the French person doing the voiceover should get the credit. The movie animation itself was usually in English, too. At the very beginning when they showed a close-up of the collar for the first time, it read "Volt," but every time after that, if you looked closely, it said "Bolt." The signs in the background were still in English, too. One of the main songs in the film had been translated into French, though. I think that's about it as far as differences go..

When we dropped Romane off and came home, it was late and everyone started getting ready for bed. I didn't really think it was a good time to jump on the computer, so I hope you forgive me. :P

The other night, though, at dinner, Pierre goes, "Miranda, when you leave in July, I am going to cry. So is my mom and Lou-Marie and Lilian and Romane etc. We are going to miss you." Ahhh I don't even want to THINK about leaving!! That, I already know, is going to be a millllllion times harder than it was leaving Fargo! I just replied, "Me too!" and then Pierre goes, "Before you leave, we're going to have a big party with all of the people you meet while you are here, right Maman?" She nodded. That will be fun. I'm sure I will bawl my eyes out at that, but it will be greattt to see everyone before I leave. I'll get contact info from everyone and I already plan on coming back. I'm going to miss it here, so much!

Today Thomas and his family are coming here for lunch. I think Annick and Grandma are coming, too, but I'm not really sure. I just know that lunch is here this weekend. After that, I'm going to that theatre performance. I don't remember exactly what time that is, but I'm sure my host mom does. I should probably get off and help get things ready for the afternoon.

Bon Journée!
-Miranda

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. -T.S. Eliot

Where Do I Even Begin?

I guess we'll just start with yesterday morning and go from there, like normal, but I suggest you grab some popcorn and pop and get comfortable, because this is going to be longggg! I'll try and condense it as much as I can, for your sake and mine.

First off, yesterday morning I took the bus to school like normal. I was told by some classmates the day before that there was going to be a protest and the buses wouldn't be running, but nothing out of the ordinary happened, so I dunno what that was about. Vincent rode the bus again, yesterday, too, so I sat by him and let him listen to my ipod with me. This doesn't really pertain to him necessarily (because he wasn't singing) but I loooove listening to French people sing English songs! Most of the time, they don't know all the lyrics, so they make up words to fit, or they hum or mumble little sections. ha ha! And even when they do have the words right, the accent is still present, so that makes it really amusing, as well!

Moving on. I got to school and started my day with Histoire. Since we've switched topics now, I really don't understand a lot. I mainly just try and read Kévin's notes and copy those down as best I can. It's a little frustrating though, because besides having messy handwriting, he also covers the paper with his hand as he writes, so I'm trying to copy the notes, but his hand covers them and ahhh! I didn't get any of the 'Conclusion.' I suppose it's really no big deal because the notes aren't going to do much for me anyway.

Between Histoire and Français, I pulled out my Jelly Bellies and a few Oreos and shared them with some people in my class. They all seemed to like them, and I had nooo problem getting rid of the icky jelly bean flavors. :P In Français, we got a piece of paper with what I think were song lyrics on it. We were supposed to answer some questions or take notes on them or something, I didn't get that part, so I just sat there and underlined all the words I didn't know. I plan on looking them up in the future.. whenever I get around to that.

I literally smiled/laughed my way through math. I understood nothing. And by that, I seriously mean nothing. There were graphs with wavy lines intersecting all over the place, and symbols I didn't know and all the notes were in French. So, I just sat there, feeling more stupid than I did on the first day. hah. It made me laugh. I turned around to see if one of the Jeremies understood, and they were playing a game of Hangman. That looked wayy more fun than math, so I joined them and played until the end of the period.

After math was a class that I could understand- Anglais Complementaire! I'm not overly fond of my teacher (he actually kind of creeps me out, to be honest), but I was happy to understand what was going on. Before class started, though, I got some bad news. My teacher informed me that I was absent on Monday morning and demanded to know why. I told him it wasn't marked on my schedule, which was the truth. He told me to mark it in from 10 to 11. Now I don't get to sleep in as late anymoreee! Zut! :( For the rest of the class, we watched a video and filled out a worksheet on Martin Luther King Jr. It wasn't overly difficult, but it would have been nice to watch the video in English rather than in French. I mean, we are in English class, rightt?

I finally got to eat lunch after English was over. I went to meet the Jeremies in the foyer (foseball room), but they told me they'd already eaten, so I went with Alexandre and a couple of her friends this time. It was a little weird. She has a thing with picking out boys she doesn't like, and then sending them SMS (text) Messages and stuff. The other girls laughed and laughed and I was just like, Ummm okayyyy. Hah. That's not really my thing, I guess. I found Sabrina sitting with Marion, Virginie, and Laureen a few tables away, and when the girls I was sitting with got up to leave, I went and sat with the others. They were nearly finished eating, too, so the five of us went to the library. We played a game that supposedly determines your destiny. I dunno, one girl asks another a question, and then tosses up a bunch of pieces of folded paper with various answers on them, and the girl who was asked has to chose one and read it. It was kind of dumb, but at the same time, really amusing.

It's kind of funny. Virginie has bright red/orange hair, like the old Lindsay Lohan; Marion has dark brown hair; and then Laureen has almost white blonde hair, and they all hang out together. It kind of makes me thing of those "There was a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead" jokes. Ha ha. Then Sabrina's sandy brownish blonde hair and my blonde hair kind of wreck it. I dunno why I find that so interesting, but everytime I see the three of them walking together I think of that. :P

Two hours later, I had my last class of the day- another dose of Français. This time all we did was watch a movie called "Ridicule." I'm not sure what exactly was going on most of the time, but oh well. No big deal, I guess.

After I got home from school, I basically just did Latin. And then I did some more Latin. After that, I ate a dinner and worked on Latin once again. My host mom helped me for a little while, and then we both gave up and went to bed. I made a mistake, yesterday, though. I told you it was 11, and it was actually only 10:00. The clock is set up on a 24 hour scale, so I had to do some math, and you all know how bad I am at that! hah! It sure could have been midnight for how tired I was, though!

This morning I took the bus again. As I left the house, something that I never thought would happen in real life actually did happen; a rooster ca-ca-doodle-doo'd!! Seriously!! Granted, it wasn't right at daybreak, but it was right as I started walking, and I thought that was the funniest thing ever. I listened some more when I got to the bus stop, and noticed how many birds were actually chirping. It honestly made me feel like I was in the middle of the jungle. I can't even tell you how many different chirps I heard.

Well anyway, I got to school and met up with Justine and Claire (not the same one from theatre). The three of us then walked up two flights of stairs to Latin. That class is another one of those that I can laugh through. I probably could be in Chinese and understand more. I am just starting to be able to tell when my teacher switches from speaking French to Latin, and then back. Most of the time, I'm totally lost. She called on me today to read some of the text, but I realized I had the wrong text and so she settled with the girl next to me- Thank God! I also realized that I had translated the wrong stuff. Haha. Just my luck, huh? We were supposed to translate the stuff I didn't have. I don't care though. I really want to try and drop that class. It is wayyy too advanced for me, and being taught in French really does not help.

I had Français after Latin. All we did was discuss the movie and then get our assignment for over the vacation. All I have to say is HOLY F*CKING SHITTT. I have to read a 100 and some page book, THENNN I have to write a paper that is supposed to be 5 or 6 pages long discussing different concepts and themes in the book, as well as a little about the author. The only part I think I will be able to do well will probably be the part where I have to pick 5 words from the book I don't already know and write the deffinition. Hah. I could probably fill all 5 pages with words I don't already know in that book. I guess I paid for the book, so I get to keep it. I'll be sure and show it to y'all when I get back. I know you will probably all want to borrow it, too, because it looks like quite a fun read! Hah (sarcasm for those of you who didn't catch that)!

I had a one hour break after Français which I spent with some classmates in the library. I looked through my French book (from the US) and ahhh! I wish I could just look at the page and just know all of the tenses and vocab and everything I don't already know! There is so much and I cannot even explain how helpful it would be to know a lot of that stuff. If you guys get through all of that this year, I'm going to be completely lost when I get back. No lie. I will probably be able to speak conversationally and stuff no problem, but when it comes to all those tenses... I'm going to have problemsss. I wish I had more downtime here so I could try and teach myself! There's just so much! Some of the other students at my table wanted to look at my textbook. They thought it was really funny and especially liked the cartoon things. It's pretty basic stuff for them, I suppose.

Following my break was Anglais. At the beginning of class, Sabrina and I had to give our presentations on women voting. She talked about France and I talked about the United States. It went pretty well, I suppose. I tried to talk slow and articulate each word so that the class could understand. Sabrina said she did, so I'm assuming most of the others could, too. I got my first grade (mark) of the school year, too! I received a 19 on my presentation, as did Sabrina. I don't really know exactly what that means, but Sabrina was thrilled, so I'm assuming we did well. The rest of the class was spent listening to a recording and filling in the blanks on our paper. I had a fun time with that.

When Anglais was finished, I got to eat. I ate with Sabrina and the others again. It was pretty fun. I had fries, chicken nuggets, pasta salad, and a piece of chocolate pie. Mmmmm! Favorite lunch so far, I think! I even got all French and ate my fries with a fork! I still ate pretty fast though, and I ate with Ketchup. I don't know howwww the French people can eat so slowly! They seriously cut their chicken nuggets into about 5 or 6 pieces. I cut mine in half and that was plenty small for me! It took me about 20 minutes to finish my food, and the others took literally almost 2 hours. I was hungry again by the time they finished. Sadly, with the way the French cafeteria is set up, you can only get so much food, and you can only go through one time per day. That is the one thing I would change, I think.

After lunch, Sabrina and I went back to the library and talked for a while. I dunno, I guess we just kind of hung out and joked around and stuff. Nothing too interesting to report. About an hour later, we had English again. This time we watched Sleepy Hallow (with Johnny Depp!!), but it was in French with no English subtitles or anything, so I had trouble following it. Most of my class was talking, anyway. I had brought my photo album of Fargo and my friends & family to school because Alicia really wanted to see it. In particular, she wanted to see the picture I had of Obama. I had to say his name about 5 or 6 times just so that the others could hear "Barack Obama" said with an American accent. haha. Anyway, during the film, my photo album got passed around nearly the entire class. Everyone was shocked that I had a locker at school and that South high was so modern inside. They also liked the pictures I had of West Acres and the City Hall. Here, all the "mairies," or city halls, are really old and probably were some of the first buildings in the towns. In Fargo, the city hall has like a million windows and looks muchhh more modern than any building here. I kind of wish we had a cool old building, though. They're really pretty :) I think they are much more appealing to look at than a bunch of windows.

My final class of the day was Parcours. Today didn't go as well as it did 2 weeks ago when I last had this class. The teacher mainly just lectured and went through some papers. I knew the name Victor Hugo and his Les Misérables, but that was about all. After the first hour, we had to switch rooms, and then that room didn't work for some reason, so we had to switch again. It was quite tiresome walking all over the place. I hate all the stairs in that school!

My host mom and Romane came to pick me up today. I'll have to admit, it is a little embarassing at this point when she walks up to me and my friends to pick me up. I'd rather her just call me or pull up close so I can see the car. Today she also wanted to know who my friends were, so I had to go through and explain all of them. After that, we finally left. When we got to the house, Pierre and Thomas and Lou-Marie and Lilian were all there waiting for me. Anne came a little later. We hung out for a while and the kids played and ate some candy. Once they left, my host mom went to tidy up her office and get a few other things in order and Pierre went to watch Pokémon, so I seized the oppertunity to hop on here. Since then, Pokémon has ended and my host mom has returned home and started making dinner. I should probably get off and find something else to do, because I have been on here for quite a long time.

A demain!
Vous me manque!
<3Mirandaa

Success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get -Anonymous

I Have So Much To Say

But unfortunately LATIN took up 95% of my night, and the other 5% was spent eating dinner. Now it's like, 11 o'clock, and I really need to get to bed, but I can't miss a day on here, so I thought I'd drop a line. Everything is fine and I promise I'll fill you all in on today's events tomorrow. I just spent a frickingggg million hours translating TWO SENTENCES of the Enied. How pathetic is that? Granted, the sentences were long, but still! My host mom for some reason had a Latin-French dictionary, so that was helpful, but I had to look up every single word! And then, the word order in Latin is all screwed up, so I had to figure that out, and also, the dictionary gives you the infinative of the verbs, so I had to try and get that right, too! Thank godddd my host mom was nice and helped me! The 2 sentences took up 5 of the 30 lines I was supposed to do for tomorrow. Hah. I tried.
But now it's bedtime! I'll have a nice, longggg entry tomorrow for you, I promise.

Goodnight!
<3Miranda

Another Short Day

Mercredi=Favorite day of the school week.

My day started off at 9h00 with math. It wasn't too overly terrible today. Mainly, we went over the test that most of the students took two Saturdays ago (in the Devoirs class) and then went on the computer and 'tested' formulas in Excel. I didn't really know what I was doing, but Sabrina helped me figure it out.

After class, I hung out in the courtyard with a bunch of people from my class for a while before going to theatre with Alice and Wendie. In class, I noticed the girl who had yelled "Hey American Girl" across the cafeteria at me yesterday. Ha ha! I think I forgot to mention that. It kind of surprised me because I had no idea who she was. Today I learned that her name is Claire, and she's in her Terminale year.

We had a speaker from the 'spectacle' showing at the Arras Theatre talk for about half the class. I didn't comprehend much, except a couple words here and there. After he was finished, my teacher told him that I was an American girl learning French (i don't know why), and he looked at me and went "You're Welcome!" Ha ha ha! I really don't know what he was trying to say, so I just smiled at him and nodded.

I spent the second half of class looking through scene books with Alice, trying to find something easy for 2 people. That was not an easy task, but eventually we found something I think I can do. The two of us went into the back section of the room and read through it a couple times before class ended.

When I got home from school, there was a package waiting for me on the table from my family. It contained some Latin notes and a book (thankkk god!), my calculator, and then Valentine's Day candy and stuff! I shared the food with my family, and took the rest to my room. Thanks, you guys! I'm really in need of Latin resources. I still have that translation to do, and that book will hopefully have at least a few words in the glossary.

For lunch we had salad, turkey in some kind of sauce, rice, green beans, and of course, bread. For dessert, I ate a pistacchio & chocolate ice cream cone! It was really good!! Funny story, though. As I was eating it, a big piece of chocolate fell down my shirt and holyy crap was it cold and uncomfortable! I didn't want to reach down and wipe it out in front of them, though, so I had to sit there and let it melt into my shirt. Ickk. Now my white shirt is all full of chocolate and I'm out of tide-to-go! :/

This afternoon, I went with Pierre on a walk through the village. This time I brough my camera with, so I took plenty of pictures to share with all of you. I'm going to put them up over the vacation, for real this time. I'll have plenty of time the first couple days, so I'll have Pierre help me, if I have to.

Then we drank hot chocolate and watched another one of Pierre's dance performances on DVD. About a half hour into it, though, he had to leave for something. I don't remember what it was. I do know that after that, I have to go to MUSIC again! Ahhh I suckk at flute! It's kind of embarrassing being the oldest person in the flute section and being the worst player! Ha ha! Thankfully it is only once a week, and after this week, I get a 2 week break! Pierre also has dance tonight, and my host mom has 2 meetings. Whewww! What a day!

A couple more slightly interesting facts about life here in France that I thought of today:
-People park on the sidewalk. Sometimes they pull all the way onto it, while other times they're still half on the road. It's kind of annoying when you're actually trying to walk on the sidewalk.
-At school, we sit outside of the classroom in the hallways until the teacher arrives to open the door. It's like this between every class, not just at the beginning of the day.

Well I will update again tomorrow!
Bon journée!
-Miranda(:

EDIT: Because I'm now home alone, and don't really know what else to do, I'm going to update you on my evening.

Shortly after I got done posting this entry earlier, Pierre came home and the two of us went to Pierre Antoine's house for a game of Scrabble and a snack! It was really fun! Scrabble was a little more difficult in French, but I've decided it's an extremely effective game for learning vocabulary. My most impressive word was probably "moyen," but I learned other words from what the Pierres laid down. I had a really good time.

Unfortunately, that was short lived because I had to leave for music. Tonight at music, though, I played a lot better as well. I remembered to remove the cleaning cloth from the middle joint when putting it together, and was actually able to play the songs decently. I learned everyone's name, although I honestly don't remember them all. I know the girl to my left's name is Claire, and the girl on my right's name is Manon. They are both 12, although Manon looks like she's about 10. Seriously, when she stood up next to me, she didn't even quite come up to my shoulder!

Now Pierre is at dance and my mom is at a meeting. I've got about an hour to do whatever. I remembered one other interesting fact for you on the way home from music! There are 2 different colored license plates: yellow and white. I don't really remember what the significance is, but it has something to do with the date they were issued, I think. I dunno, I just kind of thought that was different. gah! J'ai faim! I think I might go up to my room and snack on some Oreos for a little while, then maybe read my French book or something and expand my vocabulary a bit. I don't really have anything else to say anyway.

Have a good rest of your day :)

CHELSEA: I'll be expecting that in about a week then! :) Hahaha, no, I'm not wearing them right today. I did the other day, though!

In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back. -Charlie Brown

I'm Really Tired Today

So consequently I don't remember many details of my day. Maybe once I start writing, they will come to me, but as of right now I'm even having trouble remembering what was today and what was yesterday.

I do remember that last night for dinner, I was served what looked to me like undercooked hamburger. I ate as much of the brown meat as I could, then went for the light pink stuff, but I just couldn't get myself to down the dark pink part in the center. When my host mom left the table to get something and Pierre was occupied with his food, I quickly shoved the remaining meat in my paper towel. ha ha! I managed to do all this, and get it in the garbage without anyone noticing (I think)! I seriously would have eaten more if I could, but I got food poisoning from undercooked hamburger in the past, and I reallyyyy did not want to go through that again.

I got up kind of late this morning, 6:25. I usually try and get up by 6:15 on my early days. I quickly showered and got ready, but was still late getting out the door! Fortunately the clock in the kitchen is about 3 minutes fast, so I didn't miss my bus!

When I got to school, it was still dark outside, which didn't help wake me up at all. I hate winter for that reason. I miss seeing the sun! Here, I go to school before the sun rises and finish after the sun starts to set. It's depressing. At least I get to walk around outside during the day a little between classes. Although usually it's rainy or at least cloudy and grey outside, so it's not really that great. I can't wait for spring!

Latin was my first class of the day. I really dislike this class. C'est trèsssss dur! I honestly don't have a clue what's going on at any point during the class. To make things worse, I have to do a translation from Latin to French for Thursday, and I don't have a Latin dictionary, nor do I know more than a handful of words in the story, sooooo that's not happening! Ha ha! I will look it over again and tryyy, but I doubt it will go very well. We are supposed to mark different functions of the words, too, but I haven't a CLUE what that is about, so I'm not going to be doing that at all.

My first French class of the day was just after Latin. Today was not as progressive as last week Friday. I copied notes and just kind of sat through the class. I really didn't even listen very well. But we are now talking about Arrias again, which I don't understand why. Seriously, the piece of writing is 18 lines long, and we've spent about a week on it- and I have 2 periods of French a day sometimes! I don't know how much more there is to discuss! I did find it interesting that I had to PAY for my homework today, though! Yeah, f'real! It cost me 2€ to get my book that I have to read over the vacation. I don't know what the book is yet, but I've heard from other students that THEY think it will be hard, so that's pretty much a sign that it will be nearly impossible for me. hah. We'll give it a shot, though. Afterall, I payed for it!

After French came two hours of Histoire. I got my test back, and instead of grading it, my teacher just went through and corrected my French errors. She told me I did very well with my French, though, so that made me happy! We started talking about the end of the 3rd French Republic today. Unfortunately, that subject isn't as familiar to me, so I have a harder time following along. She didn't write much on the board today, either, so Kevin just kind of let me copy his notes.

Once history ended, I had a new class in the same room with the same teacher. I don't remember what it was called, but my teacher gave us all a copy of the article about the guy who came to speak.. I think I told you about that yesterday. Now I have 2 copies; an original and a photocopy! Then we got a big sheet of paper with stories and then a couple questions to answer at the end. I just kind of made up stuff and copied random sentences out of the passages. Hopefully it flies.

Finallyyy it was time for lunch! This morning I only had a small slice of bread and a glass of water since I was running late, so I was STARVING. Sadly, the food today wasn't quite as wonderful as normal. We were served this stuff called "Coosh coosh"(?) and it looks a lot like rice, so that's what I was expecting it to taste like. WRONG! Coosh Coosh (i have no idea if i'm spelling that right) tastes VERY different from rice! It's not really bad, but it was not what I was expecting. It is also not very filling, and the only other things I had were a container of chocolate pudding and a Belgium waffle with sugar for dessert. I sat next to Alexandre today, and all she did through the whole lunch period was point at random guys in the cafeteria and ask my opinion on them. It got kind of annoying, especially because none of the ones she pointed at were even good looking, so she got kind of irritated with all my "non" answers. Ha ha!

My next class was TPS. That's the study hall class that I don't understand. I asked my teacher today what I should do, and she told me that everyone else was working on projects, and had been since September, so I couldn't really do much. She told me to go to the library and do other work or read a book. Sooo the library was exactly where I went. I didn't really know what I was going to do, so I sat at a table, pulled out my iPod, a pen, and a sheet of paper, and wrote Rica a three page letter about absolutely nothing. I don't know exactly where the "Poste" is, so it may be a while before I actually send it. I will as soon as I figure it out, though! Sydney and my family also have letters on the way, FYI. If anyone else wants one, I have 2 hours every Tuesday afternoon to write you something, so hit me up with your address or something and I'll write you something. Although, like I said, I don't really know when I'll be sending them.

Toward the end of class, a girl named Amélie came and talked to me for a while. She invited me to a party over the vacation, but I don't know how badly I really want to go to this one.. None of the people I've been talking to much are going, so I think I'm just going to tell her I'll be out of town (which might even be true). We went up to French class on the 6 floor, again. I seriously should count how many steps I have to walk up every day. If I do the math, I think today I went up something like 365 steps while at school today. That's a really rough estimate, though. It was probably a little more than that.

By the time French started, I was so tired! I really didn't even take that many notes at all. I mostly just sat there and waited for class to be over. Nothing too interesting. After class finally did end, I walked to the front with Jeremy and we talked for a while until my host mom arrived.

Tonight I really hope we eat an early dinner so I can go to bed early! I don't start until 9 tomorrow, so I do get to sleep in a little, but I'd really like to go to bed early, too.

à demain!
-Miranda(:

PS RICA-it was the cold & flu stuff. And no, I haven't gotten your clock because I haven't really been shopping yet, but I will do so over the break, hopefully! I'll send it with your letter :P

All know the way. Few actually walk it. -Bodhidharma

Random Information

Today I don't start until noon, so I've got a little down time. This isn't going to be very long, I don't think, because it's still early in the day and not much has happened since I wrote last night. I basically just ate dinner, watched Pride and Prejudice with my host mom, and then went up to bed.

I forgot to mention yesterday, though that I was in the paper! It wasn't an article on me, but that guy from the holocaust that came to speak at my school had an article about him in the paper, and I was in the audience. My host mom cut it out for me so I can bring it home to show everyone. ha ha.

Anyway, instead of talking about my day, I'm going to tell you some of the differences in daily life I've noticed and haven't mentioned yet.

First of all, at intersections, they are circles. When you want to turn left, you have to go right first around the circle until you get to the left turn spot. It kind of makes one dizzy at times, but it can be kind of fun, too.

Another thing I've noticed is that when a French person eats fries, they use a fork! I really can't get used to that. I like using my fingers so I can scoop up some ketchup before putting the fry in my mouth.

The French also talk in third person a lot. By that, I mean they say "on" or "one" a lot. Some examples are phrases like "On y va" and "On va manger" etc. (For you nonfrench speakers, that means, litteraly speaking, "One goes there" and "One goes to eat.")

When I watch TV, I also notice there are fewer commercials. They interrupt the show MAYBE once. I think there are usually just commercials at the end of each show. They don't come on very often.

Although when you do get a food commercial, I've noticed that at the bottom reads something like "For good health, you should get such and such amount of excercise" or "you should eat so much of a certain kind of food" then that's followed up by "visit mangerbouger.fr for more information." haha!

The digital clocks show the 24 hour time. So like, you will look at the clock at 2PM and it will say 14:00. The anologue ones, however, only go to 12 like they do in the US.

People here often wear an outfit for 2 days at a time. I don't really have a problem with that except for the fact that I don't think deoderant is overly popular here, so it kind of starts to smell...

In the house, there are no smoke detectors. I think this is mainly because there is a fireplace in the house, so if there were smoke detectors, they would go off every time we lit a fire.

As far as foods go, I have not seen peanut butter, Oreos (except in my McFlurry at McDonalds), or many flavors of pop. People ask if you want a Coke, and just a coke. I asked someone if they had Pepsi, and they had no idea what I was talking about. I've only seen Sprite and Mellow Yellow at one café. Otherwise it's justt Coke. Fanta also just comes in Orange. There is no purple or red flavor or anything like that. Just orange.

At the grocery store, you must go to the cart spot in the parking lot to get your cart. You also need a coin thing to unlock the cart, and when you return it, you get your coin back. The carts are also impossibleee to control! They don't just go forwards, but sideways and any other ways as well, so i bumped into everything! Ha ha! My host mom offered to take the cart instead, and I gladly let her.

They also don't have people that bag your groceries. You just put the groceries into your cart and walk out of the store like that. Then you load them, one-by-one, into the trunk. Sometimes, my host mom has a couple bags back there so that you don't have to take them OUT of the trunk one-by-one, too.

Ummm... I can't really think of anything else off the top of my head. I wish I could just blog things as I think of them, because SOOOO MUCH goes through my head on a daily basis it's insane! There's no way, no matter how hard I try, that I can remember to put it all on here for you! I've done a pretty good job with the main points, but holy crapp it's hard to remember everything! Especially when I'm tired! Ha ha!

Gahh, I still have an hour before THEATRE starts! I wish I could just skip that and go right into English. Even though I don't really like that class either. My teacher is soo stern! One girl asked her if she would speak slower last week, and she turns to me and goes, "Miranda, do you think I'm speaking fast?" I really didn't know what to say to that, so I just looked at her. She followed that up with, "We don't sit there and ar-tic-u-late everything we say, do we?" I just said, "I suppose you could if you wanted to..." She also says "SHHHHHH!" every couple minutes or so. It's really annoying. The class does talk, granted, but not that badly. She could easily ignore it if she wanted to.

I'll see if I can write again later, but I don't really feel that well today, so I might just go to bed early and update you tomorrow with today's activities. Does anyone know what to do when you aren't feeling well at school and need to come home early? Do you just call for a ride and leave? I know this isn't going to help me today, but for future reference, if you could let me know that' de great... if any of you DO know, lol.

I'm getting off-
Au Revoir!
-Miranda

PS RICA: That aromatherapy stuff really does (so far) work for what we had hoped it would work for! hahahaha!

EDIT: I'm feeling better and home for the day, so I figured I'd update this now. Otherwise tomorrow, you'd have to read two days worth of information since I've got school right away in the morning, and that would get really long.

I got to school and had to wait to get into the building for a while. I figured out that the doors are only open at certain times, (on the hour, I think). A lady (the one that yelled at me) opens the door and students can enter. If someone needs to get in at another time, they have to buzz you in. Only adults can do this. I don't know why it's set up this way, and find it rather stupid, but whatever. I'm glad to have figured it out.

Theatre was alright I suppose. The teacher talked majority of the time, and this time there were no performances, so she noticed me and asked if I was really supposed to be in theater. Then she asked what I was planning on doing if I couldn't act out a French script. I really didn't know what to say to that, so Wendie stepped in for me and told the teacher something. She then decided on letting me sit around today, and on Wednesday, she would have an easy script for me. Joyy. I hope it is SUPER easy. I mean I don't really mind memorizing some French lines, but comprehending the scene and knowing how to ACT the part is going to be quite a challenge. Especially since I suck at that to begin with.

I had an hour and a half break, since English at one thirty is only on A Weeks, and it's a B Week this week. I went out walking around in town with Wendie, Joy, Alicia, Alexandre, and another girl I don't know the name of. After walking around for a while and going through a few stores, we returned to the school and went into the foseball room. I played a few games of foseball with Jeremy, Jeremy, and Rafael, and then we had to go to Physical Science.

This was the last class I was the "new american girl" in. The teacher was kind of scary. I sat down, I guess before I was supposed to, and he came by and told me to stand up! He said a few things and then told everyone they could sit. We had to do some experiment thing, I don't know what the purpose of it was, but whatever. Sabrina was sitting next to me, so she did most of the work. During the lesson, she also tried to teach me how to correctly pernounce the French 'R.' I was having a lot of trouble getting it correct, but eventually managed to say the words "Marron" "Miranda" "Sabrina" "Vert" and a few others correctly! I reallyyy want to break my 'American accent.' I dislike it, although a lot of people here tell me they like how it sounds. I was getting pretty decent at my French by the end of the period, but unfortunately then I had English.

I've found it to be rather difficult to transition back and forth between French and English. It kind of sets me back, because I start to make progress in French and then I have to go and switch back to English again. Today I really did like that class, though! We talked about a few boring subjects, but then read an article about how some researchers did an experiement and found that boys are falling behind at school, but are ahead in everything else. It said that since boys were leading in the Internet age and like to take risks, innovate and experiment, it was the school's fault, not the boys'. It also said that after school, boys tend to be more successful than girls in the workforce. My teacher went on to talk about how this implies that guys are typically more brave and girls are more cowardly. I had a lottt to say about that! I talked for a good minute or so, rather quickly (oops) about how I thought it wasn't a gender thing, but rather varied from person to person. Some boys are cowardly while others are brave and the same goes for girls. Then I said that society expects boys to be braver and more assertive, so therefore they are able to pull ahead in the workforce much more easily than girls who are doing the same amount of work. The workforce is simply sexist. I guess I talked a little too fast, and so my teacher made me stand up, face the class, and repeat what I said, slower and more articulate. I still felt kind of bad, because no one understood what I was saying except for my teacher, but I had a strong opinion on that! I couldn't pass up participation in that class discussion. It really irritated meeee!

I also got homework in English. It's my first homework assignment so far! I was expecting to come home with a bag full each night, but so far, so good! I've had less homework here than I did in First Grade! Anyway, my teacher asked me if I would speak for about 2 minutes or so on women's right to vote in America. I have no idea what that really means, but I'll just BS something. I'm not graded on it or anything, she just wants me to talk about it on Friday for some reason. Sooo right now I'm (or am supposed to be) Googling women's rights and all that stuff. Fun stuff, let me tell ya!

My French teacher wasn't there today, so school ended at 5 instead of 6. My host mom brought me home and I ate a couple chocolate chip cookies, bread, and hot chocolate with Pierre. My host mom had to leave for another meeting, so now Pierre and I are just chillin' at home. He made me make him a hot chocolate (for like the millionth time) and I made HIM promise to make ME a hot chocolate tommorrow. I'm kind of getting sick of his laziness. Everytime, lately, when we are sitting in the living room watching TV and he needs something from the kitchen, I have to be the one to get it. I'm not going to be able to put up with this a whole lot longer. I mean once and a while, sure, or if I'm getting something for myself and he wants something too, I'll get it, but I told him I was going to do my homework and he told me first I needed to make him hot chocolate and bring it to him in the living room. Gahhh! Oh well, tommorrow he's the chef.

I really should probably work on this homework a little. I will écriver more tomorrow!
-Miranda

Be daring, be different, be impractical. Be anything that will assert imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the common-place, the slaves of the ordinary. -Sir Cecil Beaton

Reunion!

Today's post will most definitely make up for yesterday's short post, as I have a lotttt to say!

First of all, yesterday after my host mom came home, we went to Thomas's house to bake chocolate chip cookies. On the way, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some ingredients, but I had to wait in the car with Pierre so I didn't get Twilight. We got to Thomas's house and started baking right away. The kids helped me, along with my host mom and Anne. It was a little complicated, but I had translated the recipe into French before I printed it off, so that helped. They don't have chocolate chips here in France, and my mom's package hasn't arrived yet, so we had to break up chocolate bars. My host mom found grated chocolate & coconut mix at the store, so we added that to one batch, too. It worked out pretty well. In all, I think we made around 30 cookies! Everyone looved them (not surprisingly) and Anne kept my recipe.

Around 6 or so, Pierre, my host mom, and I left Thomas's house and went to McDonalds! We went through the drive through, and instead of pulling up to a window, there was a lady standing outside taking orders and punching them into a machine. I had a cheeseburger, fries, fanta, and Oreo McFlurry. For the record, they don't put ice in your drink. I kind of found that interesting. You can also order alcohol at McDonalds, here. My host mom got a beer, and it bubbled over the lid and got all over my jeans! Ha ha! Thank goodness I have my Tide To Go! :D

We ate our McDonalds at home in front of the TV. After the news, we watched a show called "N'obliez pas les paroles" or "Don't forget the lyrics." That was enjoyable. At about nine fourty five or so, Antoine, Pierre Antoine, Simon, Elise, and Emadine(?) (the girl from the Giants Association last weekend) picked me up to go out. This was quite the event, let me tell you. We went into Arras and parked. Then walked for a good 10 to 15 minutes before getting to a place called the Loft. A security guy was at the entrance asking people's ages as they walked in. I got boosted up to 18 for the time being.

Inside I immediately felt underdressed. You seriously have no idea. Everyone was wearing sparkly tank tops and cute party clothes. Since it was a Saturday, I wasn't dressed up by any means, and I had assumed we'd go to the same place as last weekend, so I didn't feel the need to change before going out. I was wearing a hoodie, cami, jeans, and tennis shoes. Hah. We gave a guy at the counter our coats and bags before heading through another set of doors into the main room. It was pretty dark, with small lights and then a bunch of colorful ones by the dance platform. As you walked in, there was a bar in front of you. To the right there was a walkway and on the other side of that was a couple couches and arm chairs. The dance platform was just behind the bar. Thank God we continued on past that to a large section, more well lit, with dozens of billiard tables. Against the back wall were small tables and chairs. We got ourselves a table of each. I played three or four games, my team losing all of them. The first one was me and Elise vs. Antoine and Emadine. Both of us kind of suck at the game, but I had a couple really nice, lucky shots! The second game was Filles vs. Garçons. The filles lost terribly. Ha ha. The last game was pretty close, though, and I think Simon and I would have won if I wouldn't have hit the damnn 8 ball in! We only had one other ball our color on the table, and I just had to miss it, bounce the cue ball off the side, and hit the 8 ball in. Ohh well, though. Ce n'est pas grave!

This morning I got up at 9 or so and after getting ready for the day, went grocery shopping with the family. Unfortunately, we went to a different store and I didn't see Twilight theree! So I still don't have the books! I did, however, see another series of books, and got one of those for Zach! I know it's in French and everything, but I know he'll eventually be able to read it. hah. I'm not going to say which one though, because I'd hate to ruin the surprise. ;)

After grocery shopping, we stopped at home to drop things off and pick up my cookies. Then we headed on the road for St. Pol, where the AFS meeting was to be held. It was only about a 25 minute drive, if that. The scenery in the country side really isn't much different than driving through Minnesota. There are a lot of open fields and small towns. I'd have to admit that it looks more like spring here than winter, though! There is nooo snow on the ground at all, and it's even green in some parts.

We finally got to the restaurant in St. Pol, at around 12:30, where the gathering was held. Everyone in this area who is on either a year or semester program came with their families. I saw Hillary, Marina, and another girl from Germany right away and talked with them for a while. It was greatt being able to catch up and stuff! We all talked in French quite a bit, too! Granted, not all the time, but the girl from Germany knew very little English, so French was more effective. There were some other people there on the year long program, too. I didn't really talk to them much, but I know a couple people were from South America and there was one guy there from the United States.

We had a little discussion and introduced ourselves and then finally, it was time to start eating. All I ate to start out with (thankfully) was a few potatoes and some other stuff that kind of looked like rice, but wasn't. It was kind of shocking when I put it in my mouth.. lol. I have no idea what it was. I sat by Pierre, Hillary, a girl from Ottowa, the German girl, and Hillary's host siblings, Charlotte and Alia(?). Charlotte was really talkative and friendly. I talked to her a bunchh, and Hillary too, of course.

The second course was cheese, salade and fruit. I think the cheese was called Canambar, and ohhhhh god is it yummy! My first slice was just a little square and Hillary and I both decided that we needed to get more. When I went up the second time, I got a piece the size of a small slice of pie. I ate some of it with bread and some of it plain, and it was superduper delicious both ways. We talked and talked and talked some more, then it was time for desserts. Everyone of the exchange kids had to make something from their native country. We had to get up and explain it a little (in French) to everyone before we could eat. I basically just said, they're called chocolate chip cookies and are very popular in the States... ummm... They're basically just cookies with chunks of chocolate in them.. some of them also have coconut... and I think that was it. You could definitely tell who the people that had been there for a few months already, because their French was muchh better than us newcomers'.

I wasn't very hungry anymore, that cheese took up a lot of space, but I decided to try some of everything. My plate was just stacked with chocolates and cakes and cookies. I don't know how I did it, but I eventually managed to get it all in. Everything was verry good! Everyone talked for a while longer, and at 5 or so, people started leaving, including us. I gave Hillary my phone number, because apparently she comes into Arras sometimes with Charlotte and Alia, so she said she'd call me and we could all go out to a café together or something. We said our goodbyes and then headed back to Roclincourt.

I should probably inform you that I got a lotttttttt of good news today. On the way to the grocery store this morning, we were talking about traveling. After this week of school, I have two weeks of "holidays." My host mom told me that she's taking Pierre and I to Paris for three days during the first week. We're going to see Cleopatre (the musical) and then climb the Eiffel Tower, I think! THEN! It gets even better! The second week, I will be going with my family to Belgium! I'm not sure what we are doing or for how long, but I'm verrry excited! Since we were on the subject, my host mom said that over Easter break, we would go visit my two sisters who live in Pepignot (or something like that) in the South of France by the Mediterranian, and while we're down there, we'll try and go into Spain a little bit!!! I thought I'd take this oppertunity to also inform my family that my French class is coming to France in June. She wants to know the dates and everything, but it definitely sounds like I will get to see youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! Unless, God forbid, I have school or something else comes up and I can't get down there!

I think that hits all the main events for today! I don't start school 'til noon tomorrow, so I will probably get on here again in the morning.
Goodnight!(or for you I guess, have a good day!)
-Miranda

Whether you think that you can or that you can't, you are usually right. -Henery Ford

Le Jour De St. Valentin, aka: Valentine's Day

Sadly, I've got no date! I was invited out again with the same people as last Saturday, though, so I'm looking forward to that!

This morning I didn't go to the Devoirs class again.. I don't think I ever have to go to that, actually. I'm not sure. Anyway, I got to sleep in! :) When I was ready for the day at around 10:30, I came downstairs and found a note on the table. My host brother was at "sports" and my host mom was running errands, so I was home alone. I spent a good chunk of that time listening to my ipod and cleaning & organizing my room. I still had my suitcases laying open and some stuff left inside, so I found a place for all that stuff.

When they came home at noon, Pierre made me read another one of those "J'apprends à lire" books. I'm actually getting pretty decent. I don't think I pernounce everything correctly, but I'm getting better.My speed is picking up, too. I still can't make the French 'R' sound quite right. Sabrina tried to teach me at lunch yesterday, and I ended up hackin' up spit! Ha ha ha!

After lunch, my host mom had a meeting and Pierre and I watched his "Danse Spectacle" from last year. It was really cute! There were these little kids in remote control costumes, and then another girl who would 'change the channel' and that's when the next group would come on. I thought that was pretty creative.

Right now I've got a little downtime. My host mom is supposed to return in about a half hour and then we're going over to Thomas's house to bake CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES! My mom emailed me the recipe, so we're going to make those! I'm really excited!

After that, we're going to go grocery shopping. You know what that means if you've been following my blog.... I'M GONNA BUY THE TWILIGHT SERIES! :D :D :D
Then we're going to eat at McDonalds for dinner! This is going to be quite the American day!

Tonight, like I mentioned at the beginning, I'm going out with Pierre-Antoine, Elise, Simon, and Antoine again tonight. Not sure exactly what we'll do this time, but I will let you know.

As for now, I've got to go!

A demain!
-Miranda

Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars. -Unknown

Friday the Thirteenth

Ironically, I had one of the best days I've had so far, as far as school goes!

It all started out with a glass of jus de pomplemousse for breakfast. Seriously, Rica!!! I hadd to have a glass when I saw that! Ha ha! I loove saying that phrase! Ha ha, but you have to pernounce the 'S' at the end of 'jus' for it to be fun!

Then I was getting my coat on to go catch the bus. My host mom opened the door and their happened to be a girl passing by on the way to the bus stop. Since Vincent wasn't riding the bus this morning, my host mom thought she should stop this girl and get her to take me to the bus stop... even though it's straight down the street. Ha ha. It was kind of embarassing, but whatever. I lived.

At school, my first class was Latin. I did not comprehend more than a couple words, but I sat by Sarah again and she briefed the important stuff for me. Evidently my class is taking a trip to Paris next Wednesday. I don't think I'm going to go though, because first of all, the money was due today, and secondly, I'm already going to Paris over the holidays in 2 weeks with my family. I don't really understand the details of it anyway.

After that, I had Français. We read a new story today. I tried to follow along as she read, but blinked and got lost until the last paragraph. So consequently, I didn't get much of the story. Althoughh! I took my OWN notes! I didn't copy off of Marion's. I did take down all the stuff on the board, but I added my own things from the teacher's lecture in, too! And toward the end of the discussion, she asked a question and I KNEW THE ANSWER! I was so proud of myself and shocked that I didn't even think to raise my hand! Ha ha! It wasn't really a hard question, but still! That's progress for me!!

Following French was a one hour break. I spent it with some students from my class outside in the courtyard and in the library. Sabrina gave me some candy that she had in her bag. I don't remember what it was called, but it was reallyy good!

At 11, I had my first round of English for the day. I've decided I don't really like that class. I takes a lott to bore me, and I find that class really tedious and boring. I hate having to write essay things!! The prompts are always so stupid! Ahh! I wish we did more vocab and stuff... like how French is taught at South. Today we looked at a propaganda poster on Fair trade and then talked about why the lady was smiling and what the poster was trying to portray. That hour went by really slowly.

Finally, at noon, class ended and I had a three hour break. I went with Sabrina, Alicia, and Bryan into the Grand Place in the city. It is so pretty! I took a bunch of pictures. While walking, we ran into Wendie, another girl from my class, and walked with her to her grandmother's house. On the way, I also ran into Pierre-Antoine and later on, his dad (the guy that reminds me of Teddy Roesevelt)! The walk was so fun! Although I nearly got hit by a car twice, tripped on the uneven stones in the sidewalk, and ran into a pole! Ha ha! My clumsiness is starting to show up again.

An hour later, we returned to school and went to the cantine for lunch. Today I had rice, green beans, an omlet, a slice of pie, and chocolate pudding, all of which was veryy good! I am seriously going to miss this cafeteria when I leave. The automatic tray dispenser amazes me every time. The only downside to this system is that you can only have one dessert. I seriously wanted like, 3 today.

After lunch, around two or so, we went to the foseball room and met up with some other girls from my class. After a while, I took out my ipod. I started playing Ms. Pac Man and asked Sabrina if she had heard of it. She said NO! In fact, none of the students had!!! I tried to teach them, but ended up switching to Bejewled instead. Sabrina played that for a little while before we headed back up to English. I counted the steps and found out that there are 10 steps for each flight of stairs, and two flights to each floor, so from the bottom to my classes on the 6 floor, I have to walk up 120 stairs! I about died when I realized that! I'm going to be in great shape by the time I return! ha ha!

This time, English was a little better... at the beginning. We did some vocab stuff and chose the correct way to write certain phrases. Then, the teacher handed out WRITING PROMPTS! ickkkk! This one wasn't overly terrible, because I kind of had an opinion on it, but still. I don't like following the format. It really confuses me!

When school had ended, I walked with Jeremy and Sabrina to the door. Sabrina had to go wait for her friend somewhere, so I stood around and talked to Jeremy and another girl (forgot the name). About 15 minutes or so later, the girl had to be somewhere. Jeremy and I walked with her to the Grand Place. I took a few more pictures. The Grand Place amazes me. It's a big square with really old, but pretty, buildings that all look identical around the parimiter. In the center, there is parking, and around the outside there is the road (out of stone!) and then the sidewalk right up next to the buildings. It's sooo cool!

After she went to where she needed to be, I walked with Jeremy back to the school to wait for my host mom. He continued on to the train station, to catch his train, since he lives 25 minutes or so out of town. A girl came up to me (Nina, I think) and started talking. It took me a while to figure out who she was, but we started talking about Latin class, and then it clicked. She asked me if I was going on that trip, and I told her I didn't think so. A little later, my host mom arrived and took me home. I had a mug of hot chocolate and some brownies, and now I'm on the computer! Ha ha! Pretty exciting, I know.

Today I should also add that I talked in French, a LOTTT. People usually talk to me in English majority of the time, so I am often tempted to reply in English. I usually just use small words and phrases in French. Today, however, I was just rambling on and on! My French was probably really grammatically incorrect, and I'm sure the syntax (word of the week!) was really out of order, buttt it was French none the less, and people understood me for the most part. I had to do a little bit of acting, ha ha ha, and I used my dictionary some, but generally I think I did fairly well. I used almost every tense I know, includinggg the subjunctive! Today was quite the progressive day for me! I'm pretty proud of myself. :)

Here are the top 5 questions I've been asked the most. Almost everyone I meet asks me at least 3 of the following. Future French travelers, take note. Lol
1. What state do you live in/Where do you come from?
(and following that..)
2. Where is that located?
I just usually say, "Très nord, a coté de Canada."
3. How long are you staying?
4. Do you have a boyfriend?
and my favorite, just because to me it's kind of a dumb question:
5. Do your family and friends miss you?
I've been tempted to reply, "No. They actually got really sick of me and kicked me out of the country. That's the real reason I'm here."

No one asks my name anymore, since that kind of got around. Also, a lot of people I don't know come up to me and just start talking in English. I'm wondering if I really look that American or if people just know who I am. Either way, it's really frustrating for me because although I understand them better (usually) when they speak English, I would prefer to be talked to in French so that I actually learn it.

I should probably get off the computer, though! I'll write again tomorrow!

AU REVOIR!
-Miranda

As knowledge increases, wonder deepens. -Charles Morgan

Insert Title Here

I'm running out of title ideas! :/

First of all, music last night went alright, I suppose. It kinded reminded me of pep band; it was a very small group and unbalanced. There were 11 players. Of those 11, five (including me) played the flute, two played the alto sax, one on the tenor sax, one french horn, one keyboard player, and one drummer. Most of the people were a lot younger than me. The girl sitting next to me was probably around 12 or 13 years old! Even more embarrassing, they could all play like freaking professionals! I felt so retarded! The music is really challenging and I could hardly play it. Although it wouldn't have mattered if I did because the flute wasn't making any sound! I didn't figure out until about half way through that the cleaning rod was inside the middle piece, and therefore preventing the sound from coming out! Ha ha! I took that out just in time to tune. Thank God! That would have been really embarrassing to have to try and tune in front of everyone and have no noise come outt!

After "band," my host mom had a meeting that would go pretty late. She told me that I could go to bed before she got home if I wanted. I was planning on doing so right after eating, because I was exhauuusted, but Pierre told me he was scared to sit downstairs alone at night. I trieddd to convince him it would be okay and I told him I was really tired and needed to get up early tomorrow, but no; he pleaded for me to stay downstairs until my host mom got home. Sooo I sat on the sofa and watched cartoons and tv shows and eventually took a nap. Ha ha. My host mom got home around 10:30, so I was finally able to go up to bed.

This morning I woke up early, just like in Fargo. My alarm went off just before 6, and I got out of bed around 6:20. At 7:15, Vincent (the son of one of the ladies my host mom works with) came to pick me up and walk me to the bus stop. We only had to wait about 5 minutes in the cold, 20°F (approx.) weather before the school bus arrived. This bus is not the kind of school bus you'd see in the states. It's like a coach bus with big windows and nice seats and everything. It was a pretty nice ride.

First class of the day was Histoire and Geograph, and I HAD A TEST! Well, I didn't HAVE to take it, but I wanted to try. First test down, and it did NOT go well! There were 5 questions, all of which I think I understood. I took my blank sheet of paper and wrote a couple lines for each. Usually it was just one long sentence or a couple short ones. I felt pretty good about my answers, too. They seemed to answer the questions and I felt like my French was written pretty decently, too. The whole thing only took me 15 minutes or so, and this is a two hour class. I didn't know what to do with it, so I just sat there and waited for someone else to finish. Unfortunately as I looked around, everyone else was still writing... and they wrote... and they wrote... some people filled up 3+ pages! I was starting to feel really stupid and almost wanted to not hand my test in at all. I tried to think of something else I could write to add to my answers, but nothing came to me.

Eventually, after about an hour, the teacher came around and collected tests from those who had finished. There was a good chunk of the class that took the entire two hours, though! That was really shocking to me. I don't know how one could write for two full hours on five brief questions! They didn't even seem to ask for one to go into great depth, but evidently that's just assumed. I will have to remember that for now on-- elaborate on everything.

After that was Français. She had us do an assignment where we rewrote the story of Arrias in the present day. We've been talking about this story all week, so I know mainly what it's about. I'm proud to say that I WROTE MY OWN STORY! I did not copy anyone else's work! Although, I did have the girl next to me edit my writing and correct my French mistakes. I still feel pretty good thoughh! I wrote a good half page on that, too.

Following Français was Maths. How I hate that class! All we did today was take notes and do a couple excercises, neither of which I understand. We got this chart handout with the strangest symbols on it! One of them looks like an M with a short first line and a long last line.. I don't really know how to explain it. The second was a sideways and backwards P. If any of you know what these mean, I'd be happy to know.

Last class of the day was Anglais Complementaire. There is a Canadian girl named Sarah who comes every couple weeks and takes half the class, and today I got to go with that group! She speaks English with the same accent and slang as me, so it was nice talking with her. We talked about modern day art and then played Taboo. My team won, just for the record :P

I ate lunch in the "cantine" again with Jeremy and Jeremy and Sabrina. But Sabrina ended up getting lost on the way to the table, so she didn't sit with us. Today we were served pork sandwhiches and FRIES! I also took a piece of cake and pasta salad. It was all super yummy! I even got to eat my fries with ketchup, because they had it on the condiments table!! :) I was pretty excited about that!

After lunch, the three of us hung out for a while in the "teacherless classroom," where I met a couple other girls named Claire and Justine. Claire was reading New Moon!! I got to read a few pages of it, and I reaaally want to go buy it now! I can't wait 'til the next time we go to the store!

Shortly before three, all of us made our way to the theater, because a man who lived in the concentration camps and all that was going to speak to us. I was kind of excited. I remember when David Faber came to Fargo a few years ago, and I really enjoyed his presentation! The other students said this one was really interesting, too, but after he told us how old he was and where he lived, I didn't comprehend more than a couple words here and there. I really wish I would have, though! It didn't help that he talked insanely quiet. I swear the man without the microphone talked louder than he did with the microphone!!

When school ended, I went home with my host mom and then tried to get on the computer, but the Internet wouldn't connect for me and she had to go to a meeting. I instead went into the other room with Pierre and watched some TV. When the show he was watching ended, we went into his room and started planning his birthday party. It isn't until May, but this kid is really excited, let me tell you! He's got it all planned out up in his head. I didn't really understand a lot, but I know that I am going to be the photographer along with Elise, and we are to take lots and lots of pictures. He drew diagrams of where we would be standing when everyone else was doing other things.. ha ha. That will be quite the event.

To answer your guys' comments:
-Yes Valentines's Day is a bigg thing here, but only for you and your significant other. It's not like in America where kids hand out Valentines to everyone in their class or whatever. Ha ha! Everyone keeps asking me who I am going to give a Valentine to. To answer that, I have no idea. I probably won't give one out.

-I don't have my neon camis with me, otherwise I totally would! Ha ha ha! That would be great! I don't feel like people are really as into fashion as I was expecting. I think that it's probably only really a big deal in Paris and large cities. Here it seems to be kind of whatever, as long as it's dark in color.

-I took some pictures of my school today, finally, and I will try and get those up sometime soonish.

I thinkk that was all...
I'll talk to you tomorrow!
-Miranda

Sorry! No quote today! My book is upstairs and I'm too lazy to run and get it! Ha ha! I appologize!

I Love Having Short Wednesdays

I don't love the classes I have on Wednesdays.

I started off the day with math at 9:00. I sat by Sabrina this time, and she explained the worksheet to me and I UNDERSTOOD IT! Ha! I don't really get why we had to make this number pyramid thing and then graph it, but at least I was able to do it. That made math a lot more barable! We had to do some computer thing on Excel after the worksheet, but Sabrina and I ran out of time, so I guess that will have to be done tomorrow.

Now, theatre. Two other girls on the Premiere 'L' Trac are in theatre, Wendie and Alice, so I walked to class with them and found it successfully this time! I mainly just sat and listened to the girls reherse their 5 minute scene for the first hour. There is this guy in my class who kept coming over to Wendie, Alice, and I while they were rehersing. I don't know what it is he smokes, but holy crap does it smell nasty. I almost passed out when he sat down by me and started scratching his dirty, dreadlocked hair. Yuckyuckyuckk. That really was not pleasant! Wendie and Alice did a really good job with their scene, though. The second hour was spent watching people perform and get lectured for all the things they didn't do perfectly. I'm not looking forward to having to do that. I definitely am nott perfect at anything when it comes to acting, and I'm sure my French will be terrible on top of that! Ha ha! I suppose the plus side is that I won't know what the teacher is saying to me, so she could be saying flat out to my face that I suck and I wouldn't know the difference.

At noon, class was over and I went to the front entrance where my host mom was waiting. She took me home and told me that I have music tonight at 5... I think... I don't really remember. I totally forgot about that! Ahh! I wish she would have, too! Ha ha! Oh well, I just hope I'm not the only flute player so you can't tell when I screw up. Back at the house, we had lunch and then Pierre and I watched Le Roi Soleil on DVD. I didn't understand most of it, but the music was great! I remember listening to some of the songs in French class last year :) When that finished, Pierre and my host mom left, but I don't know where to. I didn't quite catch that.

Since I haven't really done so yet, and I'm sure some of you are curious, I'm going to describe my school. The buildings are pretty old and kind of make me feel dreary. There is not a whole lot of color. The hallways by the steps are painted bright, but other than that there is a lot of white. The lights are often turned off, and when one does turn the switch on, they are on a timer for only a few minutes. The sky outside has been grey with rain lately, so that makes the light coming in through the few windows just as dull. The classrooms are bare--no posters or pictures are on the walls. They have dark green chalkboards, and sometimes the tables have colored legs, but that's about it. They don't even have clocks on the walls, and that bothers me, because I'm used to looking at the clock a lot during class.

Most of the students dress in black and grey and brown, so no color is added there, either. I'd say one in every twenty five students is not wearing a neutral color, and one in every fifty or so students has either a black or dark grey coat. A lot of students smoke, too. Outside the front entrance it almost looks like there's a fire burning with all of the cigarette smoke blowing around! I don't like having to walk through the huge crowd everyday. I hatee that smell.

I already talked about the cafeteria in pretty good detail, so I'll skip that. I also mentioned a little about the bathrooms. Although I think I forgot to mention that there is only one bathroom per floor.. and I think it's a mixed gender bathroom, because when I went in, there was a guy at the sink and a girl at the mirror and another girl talking on her phone. I'm not really sure what the deal is with that, but I found it kind of interesting.

I really like the freedom that is given to students, though. From what I've noticed so far, the teachers don't care if you take out your phone during class or if it goes off. I don't think they'd be happy if you took a call in class, but they don't take it away if you send a text message or something. Another nice thing is that the computers don't have filters. Students can access pretty much anything they want while at school. You can eat before and after class in the hallways and outside, although they don't like you to eat or chew gum in class. Water is the only acceptable beverage. You don't have a locker, so you bring your coat and backpack with you to all your classes. During class most people hang their coat over their chair and the backpack goes on the floor. Although most kids don't carry backpacks. More common you see an oversized purse, a messenger bag, or I've even seen small SUITCASES! No one in my class has a suitcase, but I've seen a few rolling around outside on my way into school. Ha ha! I found that rather hysterical. You don't really need a big bag or a locker since you only have a few classes each day.

This blog post was kind of lame, but I don't really have a whole lot to say today. If anyone has any questions for me about anything, you can post a comment and I will answer them in tomorrow's post. If you don't have a blogger account and still want to post something, you can by chosing Anonymous on the drop-down menu above the comment box, and then you can just write your name at the end of your comment (or not, but I would rather you do :D).

If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. -Milton Berle

Lycée Gambetta

That's my school's name, and that's where I am right now. I have no idea what I'm actually supposed to be doing and everyone I ask just says "You don't have to do it" or "Just do homework" or "You don't have to come to this class because it will be very boring." Long story short, Sabrina signed me on the computer and told me I could go on whatever I want because there are no filters. So voila! I'm posting a blog for y'all!

Yesterday, my host mom drove me to school and walked me in because I had no idea where Theatre was. She talked to a few admin people, who were of no help, and we wandered around for a while. Then we gave up and got me a lunch card for the cafeteria instead! She told me I didn't have to go to theatre!! I really like the French attitude and way of doing things! Ha ha!

In place of theatre, I went with host mom to the grocery store. We spent about an hour there, and I think we covered the entire store aisle to aisle. Ha ha. But ohh God, guess what! I found the Twilight series there-- in Frenchhhhh (obviously, I suppose)! Next time we go, I swearr to you that I am bringing my purse and buying every one of those books!

Around one, I returned to school for Anglais. I assured my host mom that I could find the class by myself, so she dropped me at the door and drove off. I walked up the steps and through one of the doors, only to have a lady start SHOUTING at me in French!! Evidently I entered the wrong door or something. I have nooo idea what she was yelling at me, but she sounded pissed! I looked behind me to see if it was someone else, but she said "I'm talking to you!" (I understood that part!) I just kind of stared at her blankly for a while before saying "Sorry" and walking away. Ha ha! I was so confused and embarrassed though! I still don't know exactly what I did wrong, but I have decided to follow other students into the building for now on. I won't open a door myself.

Some of my classmates found me and brought me to class. It was a different English class than last time... Anglais without the "Complementaire" in the title. The teacher seems pretty good, but she throws French connector words like "avec," "alors," "donc," "ensuite," etc.. into her English explanations. I found that kind of funny. She handed out the lesson for the day, and woaaah! I even found it kind of strange. We had to follow a certain format and write a paragraph on water pollution, but there was all this information on noise being a source of pollution, so I found the directions really misleading and poorly written.

That bitchy girl from the first day was sitting just in front of me, and she kept asking me questions I didn't understand. When I told her I didn't know, she thought I was really stupid for not knowing what a word was in English. I reallyyy don't like that girl. She's such a bitchh. She thinks I'm stupid for coming if I don't know French. She assumes I'm don't know anything because I can't speak herrr language. That really bothers me. It's kind of the same way in the States, though. If someone moves from another country and doesn't speak English, or speaks broken English, most people just ignore them. Some people just do it because they don't know what to say or how much that person understands, while others simply think they are dumb. I know that feeling first-hand, now, and it's quite frustrating. There is deffinitely something to learn from it, though.

After Anglais, I had a biology-like science class called TP-SVT. I've decided I really like it. There are a tonnnn of English cognates, so I understood the lesson pretty well. It was about heterotrophic and autotrophic organisms. We had to create a few different food chains out of the creatures listed. The hardest part for me was figuring out what the different creatures were in English. Other than that, science was not difficult. Unfortunately, I only have it once a week.

Following science was another dose of English. This time we were given a shorter essay topic and then we did some things with vocabulary. That was pretty exciting for me. The only problem was with the matching. I didn't know a lot in the French column, so I couldn't match the English up very well. The 'fill in the blank with the correct word' part went great though! I got all the words and forms correct! Ha ha!

I ended the day with Français. Like normal, I sat through the story clueless, and then copied notes from whoever happened to be sitting next to me. Yesterday that was Sabrina. Usually it's Marion. She's a really thourough note taker, so I have a tonn to copy down when I sit by her. Sabrina just basically copies the main points, which is fine by me. She speaks more English than Marion, so she was able to explain the story a little to me. I don't really remember what it was about, though.

After school, my host mom picked me up and brought me home. I watched TV with Pierre for a while and learned that we are supposed to have a storm tomorrow. After supper and the 'météo,' I went up to bed.

Today I had to get up earrrrly-- 6:45! Well, I guess it's later than I got up in the States, but for here, it seemed really early. My first class was Latin, which started at 8. I followed some students through the front door this time (to make sure I went through the right one) and then wandered around a little outside. One of my classmates, Jeremy, found me and brought me over to where a few of my other classmates were standing. One of them had Latin with me, so I went with her up to the classroom on the second floor. Holyy crap Latin is hard! My class was translating a section of the Aneid and picking out different parts of speech. That's wayyy above my head! I guess most of them have been taking Latin for a few years, so this is a little more advanced than my one and a half years of Latin. Plus having it taught and translated into French sets me back even more. That class is going to be a tough one. My teacher seems pretty nice, though. While the class was working, she would come over to me and speak really slowly in French so I could comprehend what was going on.

After Latin was Français again. That class went as normal. We had to do some kind of writing exercise. I kind of understood what was going on, but I mostly just copied. My teacher tried to explain it to me, but was having major trouble remembering her English. I said it was okay, and then went on copying Marion's work.

When Français was finished, I had history! That is my other favorite class. Again, because I understand it majority of the time. We talked more about the holocaust and World War 2. Then for the second hour of the period, we watched a movie. It got pretty graphic at time. I had to look away when the plow was pushing all the corpses into a huge hole and burrying them. I think that was one of the most disturbing images of the holocaust I've ever seen.

By the time class had finished, I really had to use the bathroom. Now, I probably wouldn't share this except for the fact that when I went into the toilettes, there was no toilet paper-- nor was there a spot FOR toilet paper! I'm not sure if this is normal or not, but it really made me mad! Maybe that's the reason everyone has a million packets of "mouchoires," or tissues, with them all the time! I don't know, but I guess I won't be using the toilettes at school.

I didn't have class again until 2, so I went with Sabrina and someone else (I don't remember their name) to a room I'm going to refer to as the Rec Room. There are 2 foseball tables inside and a bunch of tables and chairs for people to hang out around. I joined Rafael and Jeremy at the foseball table and played a couple games with them and a couple other people I didn't know.

A little before one, I went with Jeremy, Jeremy, and Rafael to the "cantine" for lunch. Ohh boy is this system nifty. You take your card and swipe it in front of the "tray dispenser" which then releases a tray for you. Then you get your silverware and glass (which is nice stuff, not plastic!) and continue on to the desserts & sides. You get to pick two from the dozens of different pies, donuts, yogurts, puddings, muffins, or other side dishes. I got a sugar donut and chocolate pudding. Once you pick that stuff out, you move on to the main course. A cook stands behind the cart and dishes you up a little of everything. Today that was cooked veggies (carrots and peas), macaroni noodles, and breaded fish. This is seriously real, legit food! It was soooo yummy next to South High's food--or next to any food, actually. It was like being at a restaurant! After you've got all your food, you go into the next room where all the tables and condiments are. There are TWO FLOORS to this cafeteria! I followed Jeremy, Jeremy, and Rafael up to the second floor, where we sat at an empty table. In the center of the tables, there are pitchers of water. Throughout the cafeteria, there are refil centers where one can refil the pitcher with fresh, cold water when it is empty. Ohhhh my does South High need a cafeteria like this! It's theee coolest thing ever. No lie. I would eat lunch in there everyday without complaint.

Anyway, moving on, after lunch the four of us went to a "break room" where students can go to chill when they don't have class. These ones don't have foseball tables in them and instead just have a lot of tables. It's like a classroom without a teacher. I talked to Jeremy for a while in English. This kid pretty much speaks it flawlessly. I think I found a new best friend. Ha ha! I have to talk a little slower than I'm used to, but that's fine with me!

The next class is the one I was in when I began typing this blog. (I'm at home now.) It is in the library and it's called "Travx Perso. Encardres." I have nooo idea what that means, or what one is supposed to do in that class, but I had access to a computer and nothing to do, so I blogged a little bit. My guess is that it is something like a study hall... except a lot of the students were working together on projects, which I don't understand and no one will explain to me. Like I mentioned at the beginning, they just told me "You don't have to do it," so whatever I guess. That's going to be a longgg two hours every Tuesday afternoon!

I ended my day with French, once again. God that class is difficult! Sabrina told me that most of the literature they study is even hard for the French students to understand! My teacher had the class continue the activity we had started earlier in the day. I lucked out, though! She came up to me and told me to take out a piece of paper and write about myself, when I came, how long I was staying, and what I wanted to do while I was in France. I wrote about two thirds of a page without a problem. She came over and checked my work and I only had TWOOO small errors! :) She then told me to write about the American election and my feelings about Obama. This was a little more difficult, but I scribbled down two short paragraphs and she came and checked my work once more. This time I only had ONE fault. I put "J'aime Obama beaucoup" instead of J'aime beaucoup Obama." Woops!

At 5:00PM, I was done with school for the day! I waited outside for a while until my host mom came and picked me up. She was running a little late, so Pierre called and I had my very first French phone conversation! It was really, really short, but I imagined comprehending a conversation over the phone would be more difficult than it turned out to be.

I got home and had a glass of hot chocolate and a chocolate filled croissant thing. I also had a chunk of white chocolate with coconut in it. That turned out to be really good!

My host mom had another meeting tonight, but before she left, she gave me some "Learn to Read" books in French. They are short stories with fairly simple words, and they come with a CD so you can listen to it after you read it. I read one of them and listened to it and then read it again. My host mom insists I do one a night until all the books have been completed. Each night, after I've practiced it a couple times and listened to the CD, I have to read the story aloud to her and Pierre! I reallyyyyy suck at reading, but I suppose this can only help me get better!

Tomorrow I only have two classes, MATHS (ahhhh) and THEATRE. Two classes I'm really not excited about.. although I think I'd go to theatre in freaking Swahili or something anyyy day over math. I haaaaaaaaaaaaaate that class SO SO SO SO SOOO MUCH. I feel like such an idiot in there! My teacher is so unapproachable and scary that I don't even have the guts to ask for help. Fortunately I sit right in front of Jeremy, who has been pretty nice, so maybe I can just copy off his paper again..

For now I should probably go practice reading some more. My host mom should be home soon and I really want to do a decent job when I have to read it aloud to her. I'll write again tommorow afternoon!

A bientott :)
-Miranda

PS-I appologize for how long this post got.. I'll try to stop rambling so much next time!

Tomorrow I will live, the fool does say; Today itself is too late; the wise lived yesterday. -Martial