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!