Back to English

Today was decent. I found my Latin class this morning! They were in the other building again, but the lady in the CPE told me the room and everything, so I was able to find it. I didn't do anything except doodle in my notebook, though. That was a longg hour. :/

Afterwards I had French. We worked on an essay-type outline thing (I really don't know how to explain it) with a partner. I felt kind of bad for the girl I was working with, because I really did not do much. I managed to go through the extract of Manon Lescaut and underline the phrases that described the "utopia," but that was about all. She did most of the work & I mainly just copied.

After French was Histoire/Géo. Today we started talking about World War 1. As with WWII, it's interesting learning about this stuff from another angle. A lot of the fighting took place around this area. It's kind of neat to be learning about it.

It is a B Week, so after two hours of histoire, it was time for Ed. Civiq. Jurisdiq. Soc. haha. I don't know exactly what that translates to, but it's something with the government. Today we tcontinued talking about the layout of France's 5th Republic and took some notes. Nothing overly exciting took place there.

Finallyyyy it was lunch time! I ate fries, colliflower & sauce, steak, yogurt, and a chocolate filled pastry. We finished eating and talked for a while. Then we left the cantine and hung out outside until it was time to go to class.

Since TPE is finished, my SVT teacher decided to hold class at that time today. Everyone had 2 hours of biology. Wooohoo. We got our DS back, and I didn't get a gradeee :(! My teacher just did what my French and History teachers do; she corrected my French. I really really really want grades. I just want to see how my work adds up compared to everyone else. I want to see where I would fall and I want to view my progress as the trimester goes on. It's kind of disappointing after I do the work and don't get any credit for it :/! Anyway, during class, Sabrina and I just played some games on the back of my test. We took a couple notes, but most of the time the teacher just talked.

Last class of the day was French again. We worked some more on the project and then Valentine was chosen to present hers. We took notes on that and then class was over.

I was to take the bus home today, and that didn't arrive until 6, so I spent an hour in the CDI with Sabrina and her sister. We were originally going to do my math homework, but neither of us really knew what we were doing, so that didn't happen. Instead we just talked. Some younger kid came over and asked where my accent was from. He guessed Germany! hahahaha! We told him that wasn't even close. Then Sabrina's sister told him I was African. HE BELIEVED THAT and walked away. hahahaha! xD

At 6:10, I found my bus and rode it home. After a eating a snack, I went up to my room to do my math homework. Again, I didn't succeed at that. This time I painted my finger and toe nails while listening to my ipod. How productive? lol! I came down for supper and then decided I'd better get on here and update this before I head to bed. I'm really tired again, today :/

Tomorrow's Poissons d'Avril!! I've got a few things planned, but I will let you know how that goes tomorrow :D!

Bonne Nuit!
<3Miranda

Je vais essayer écrire en français aujourd'hui.

For those of you nonfrench speakers, you can try the translator on the right hand side of the screen. If that doesn't work, you can use freetranslation.com. I've used that one before, so I know that translator works decently.. at least majority of the time. I'll try my best with spelling and stuff for you so that it works, but if I make a mistake or you have questions, you can leave a comment or email me or something and I'll explain (in English :P).

D'accord. Aujourd'hui j'ai pensé que j'ai été anglais complementaire à 10h00, mais le prof n'était pas là! Il a dit ça la semaine derniére, mais j'ai oublié ce matin. Mais c'est pas grave. Je suis allée au CDI avec Sabrina. Je sais plus qu'on a fait, parce que j'était très fatiguée ce matin. haha. Désolé! Juste avant 11h, nous sommes allées au bureau pour chercher ma carte bus. La dame a dit ce matin que il faut que j'aie ça pour prendre le bus. Le conducteur ne regarde pas les cartes, mais c'est mieux si j'en ai une.

A 11h, Sabrina est allée au chinois et moi, je suis retournée au CDI. Je ne suis pas arrivée à trouver quelqu'un dans ma classe, donc je suis restée tout seul. J'ai ecrivé une lettre à Valerie et j'ai écouté mon ipod. A midi, j'ai marché au théâtre. J'ai encore regardé aujourd'hui. Demain il y a un festival du théâtre et les éleves qui vont faire ça ont joué aujourd'hui.

Après théâtre, j'ai mangé dejeuner à la cantine avec Sabrina, Marion, Virginie, Laureen, et Maxim. J'ai mangé une salade du pâte, le boeuf, du purée (pomme du terre), les carrottes, et une tarte du chocolat noir :)! Miam miam!

En suite, Sabrina, Maxim, et moi nous sommes assis sur un banc dehors et nous avons parlé. C'était un bon journée. Toute la semaine il ferra beau! Jeudi il va faire 18°C! Je suis contente pour ça! Mais, j'aimerai bien avoir les vêtements pour l'été. Je n'ai pas encore les courts ou les joupes! Il faut que je bientôt les achète!

Nous avons eu le cours de physique à 14h30. J'ai reçu mon examen de DS aujourd'hui, et j'ai eu la marque 2,5/15!!! hahahahaha! Mais, j'ai que repondu à 4 questions, donc c'est pas terrible.... J'ai passé le reste de la classe parler avec Sabrina.

L'autre prof de l'anglais n'était pas là aujourd'hui non plus, donc j'avais une autre heure pour rester. Sabrina et moi sommes allées au CDI et on a parlé avec un autre garçon. (Je ne me souviens plus son prenom.) Ils ont écrit quelques expressions française pour moi pour apprendre. haha. C'était drole. Il y a une expression en français pour "On y va" et c'est "Roule ma poule!" hahaha!

A 17h, Sabrina et moi sommes allée à la classe de français. On a ENCORE parlé de Manon Lescaut! J'en ai marre de ça! C'est chiant! On a commencé avec un deuxieme extrait et on a fait des notes. C'est pas très interessant. :/

Après l'école, j'ai trouvé le bus sans Vincent! Et je ne me suis pas trompée! A la maison, j'ai mangé un petit gouter et mententant, je suis sur l'ordinateur! haha!

Mais, à demain!
Vous me manquez!
<3Miranda

I can't think of a title.

Today I slept in a little. I forgot it was cinéma day, so I layed in bed for a while and then took my time getting ready. Just before 10:30, my host mom called up to me to see if I wanted to go to a movie today or not. Luckily, by that time I was nearly ready, so I quickly finished up and made it on time. Today we saw "La Premiére Etoile." It's a French comedy about a black family who doesn't have much money, but the dad agrees to take the kids on a ski trip anyway. Haha, it was funny. I actually understood about 80% of the movie! I even got a lot of the jokes :D!

After the movie was finished, we ate lunch. When everyone had finished, I went up to my room and worked on my homework. This weekend I had a short verse of a poem to memorize for English (which was pretty easy since there is a lott of repitition.); a map of France with rivers and mountains and things drawn in for me to label (and then color) for Histoire/Géographie; and then math. I finished both the geography and the English, but I don't have math until Wednesday, so I decided to put that off. I'll probably make Sabrina help me again ;D!

This afternoon, Thomas and his family came over. Anne and Thomas were both anxious to hear about Fargo and the flood and my house & family. I told them my parents said my house would be okay and my family didn't have to evacuate. Then I played stamps with Lou-Marie for a little while. After we finished our picture, I talked with Anne some more. My host mom brought out some petite choclate eclairs and little cream-filled balls for snack! A little later, they all left and my host mom and I went to visit Grandma. After a short visit with her, we stopped by Annick's house. She served us refreshments. I tasted a little bit of the champagne with berries. It was alright, but like I said before, I'm not an alcohol person. I only had enough to taste it.

We came home and Pierre was watching cartoons, so I decided to go on the computer a little bit before we eat supper. Tonight I'm going to bed right after we eat. I'm tiiiired!

à demain!
<3miranda

Lille!

Today was fun. I feel kind of guilty sitting here telling you about how great things are going when half of you aren't even in your houses anymore. Today the flood was on the news on every channel. I heard a report on the radio, too. On the TV, though, I saw some footage of the houses and everything and AHHHHHHH! I'm so worried for youuuuuuuu! Please stay safee! I really wish I could somethinggg! :(

Anyways, my day went well. I had DS this morning, and the subject was English (as well as Spanish or German, but I'm not in either of those, so I just had English). For the first time, I was able to respond to every question thouroughly. I wrote a tonnnn, too. I didn't mean for it to seem like I was trying to be a jerk and show off how good I am at English, I was just really excited to know the answers AND know how to respond!

After school, my host mom picked me up and we went to the ATM so I could get some cash for this afternoon. We came home and ate lunch. Then I got ready to go to Lille.

At one thirty, Hillary, Marina, and I met up with two AFS volunteers at the gare. The five of us drove to Lille together. The ride only lasted a little over a half hour. After parking, we got out and walked around the city a little. We met up with another AFS volunteer outside of a café near the Voix du Nord building. Then we took a little tour of the Old Quarter of the city. It was super pretty! There are a ton of artists there. Some of them have studios you can look into and watch as they paint. It's really cool! The city's arcitechture is really pretty as well! I took a bunch of pictures, which I am currently trying to upload. It wasn't really the nicest day out, so after walking around for a while, we went to this hugeee indoor mall. There were 4 floors of clothing shops, and we chose to go to the grocery store! lol! I FOUND OREOS THEREEEEE! Ahh! I bought 4 boxes! hahaha! I also bought a bag to put them in, because you don't just get those with your groceries. It only cost me 10 cents, though, so it didn't set me back too much. haha. I was SO SO SO excited to find Oreos, though! You have no idea! At my house back in Fargo, we ALWAYSSS have a package of those around, and I haven't eaten one since my mom sent some for Valentines Day!

Anyways, after that, we met back up with the adults and another AFS guy from New Zealand who is on a year-long program. The seven of us went to a café for a drink. We also filled out a little survey thing about how we've been doing so far and how we like our families and schools and everything. I think I am the only person who has not been homesick at all, yet. I kind of wish I could just get it done and over with, because I'm sick of wondering when it's gonna hit me. When it does, though, I hope I get lucky like Hillary and it only lasts a couple days. I don't want to waste much time wishing I was back home, because I'm sure when I finally do return, I'll wish I was back here. I've already decided that I want to live here. I'm not sure exactly when or for how long, but at some point, I will move to Arras.

After we finished talking at the café, it was getting late, so we said goodbye to the New Zealander and the AFS volunteer in Lille and then made our way back to Arras. At the gare, I talked with Marina's hostdad a little. He complimented me on my French. I actually got THREE compliments today on my French :D! That made me really happy. I can really notice my progress, too. Speaking French is seriously becoming second nature to me, now. Sometimes I'll be talking and I won't even have to think about what I want to say in English, first. The right words will just come out in French. It's kind of cool when that happens, and I hope that by the end, that will happen more often than not. I'm pretty proud of myself and how much I've learned. I just wish I could speak it when I get home, too, because I'm afraid I am going to lose it just as fast.

Anyways, I got home around 7. My host mom told me that there was a vendor selling fries and burgers in front of the town hall. Pierre and I went to go check it out and ended up buying 3 things of fries and 2 burgers for supper. MmMmMMM That was goood! Afterwards, I spent some time watching the news on TV with my family. I again saw Fargo and the flooding and everything. My family urged me to call my family back home and make sure everything was alright. My phone card just died, but I gave my family my phone number for here, so they can call me sometime :)! I'm sadly all out of phone card minutes.

It's getting late, though, and tonight we are setting the clocks ahead an hour, so I'm going to lose an hour of sleep :(!

à demain!
&stay safe :)
<3miranda

See Below For Today's Blog

These are just some photos. I figured out how to make a slideshow with my photobucket pictures, so VOILA!

What a Rebel :P

This morning, Justine wasn't going to be in Latin with me because she had to present her TPE, so I was on my own. I knew where to go, so I wasn't worried. I went up there at about ten to 8. I didn't see anyone. I hung out in the hallway until 8, and when still no one arrived, I went back downstairs and found Sabrina. She and I figured there wasn't class today or something, so I went to the CPI and hung out there for the hour. I later found out, however, that class was in the other building today. Haha. I have no idea why it moved so far away, but oh well. It's not like I do anything in that class, anyway. I probably learned just as much hanging out in the CPI. I really don't know what happens now, though. I don't believe detention exists here. People skip class all the time and I don't think there's really a punishment for it? I dunno. I'll probably find out soon, but I don't think I'll have to worry much since it was kind of just a misunderstanding.

French, then, turned out to be my first class of the day. We read a couple excerpts on love/infatuation and then related them to Manon Lescaut. That was a little above me, but I tried to keep up as best I could.

During the hour break after French, Sabrina and I went to the CPE to see if I could take the Bac. The lady still didn't know for sure. She called someone and they said it was highly unlikely because of how late it is, but they will know Monday (hopefully). I have to check back next week. Gahhh! I reeeeeeeally want to take the infamous Baccalauréat! Since I'm in the 'L' class, I would get to take not only French, but also Science and Math this year, since next year the "L" kids do not have those classes. I knoww I would not do well on that, but it would be so fun to give it a shot and just see what it's like! I hope I get that oppertunity!

English (the good one) was next. We did a couple worksheets and talked a little. I have decided that this is my favorite class. I can actually participate and do not feel lost hardly ever. My teacher is also really good about letting me be and doesn't call on me everytime someone else gets an answer wrong. I feel a lot more relaxed in that class. It's also nice because I can talk or doodle when I don't feel like listening. In the other class, my teacher is right in front of me about 85% of the time. I'd have to say the material is overall more interesting in Complementaire English, but I prefer being in regular LV1 English.

At noon, I went into town with Joy, Alice, Wendie, and Alicia. Alice went to her house and Wendie went to her grandmother's. Joy, Alicia, and I walked to the little street between the Petit and Grand Place where there was a SUBWAY! Ahhh! I was all set to order my turkey 15cm sub, when I remembered it was Friday! Dammittttt! I thought about getting a tuna one, but figured I would probably be eating that for supper tonight and I'm not craving it thatt much. I ended up settling with just a double chocolate chip cookie. The restaurant smelled just like it does in the US, though. It made me soo hungry!

Thankfully, at 1:00, I went back to the school and ate with Sabrina and Marion at the cantine. There, I was able to get my fish, along with rice, mushrooms in a sauce, chocolate pudding, and a chocolate filled pastry. After lunch, Sabrina and I went to the CDI where she finished her project for a history concourse. It's reallyy cool! She created a journal of a guy who lived through concentration camps. It was complete with real black and white pictures on photo paper, old-looking paper, drawings, etc. It was really well put together.

At 3, I had English again. This time, we talked about the Passive Voice. It was interesting to learn English that way xD! I talked to my teacher a little bit, and I guess in France, elementary students learn French the same way we do in Fargo. They learn each conjugasion and tense and everything like that, whereas in English, you just kind of know it, I guess. Or at least I don't remember writing out all the tenses and stuff. It was kind of weird talking to her though. I didn't know wether to speak in French or English. I decided on English since that's the language she was talking to me in, but had a really hard time with it! I ended up speaking in majorrrr franglais! haha! I don't think I got one sentence out entirely in English. Hah. I'm a little scared to go home and be surrounded by English again 3 and a half months from now. Be prepared to learn French, everyone! haha! I can absolutely gauruntee it will slip out often.

After English I had Parcours. Today, the teacher for the "Excellence" group didn't show up, so we were all togther. My French teacher was the one leading the class today. She handed out a long play. We read through a couple scenes together and then we split up into groups. I was with Justine, Marine, and Julie. Each group got a scene to act out. We rehearsed for the rest of the class today, and next week we will perform them. Sadly, I only have two very short lines. I would have liked to talk more, but my teacher assigned my part, so whatevs. I can live with it.

I took the bus after school today! It was raining like madd outside while we waited! Marion had an umbrella, so I joined about 5 other people under that. It didn't help a whole lot, though, since I was on the outside. When Marion had to leave, I joined Vincent and a couple of his friends under the roof by the doorway. The bus arrived about 10 minutes after 6:00. When I got home, I watched some TV with Pierre & my host mom. Then Pierre and I ate a snack and after that I jumped on the computer.

Thomas called a little while ago to say that he saw a report on TV about the flood in Fargo. You guys are famous all over the world! I really hope it all turns out alright! I wish I could be there to help, but since I can't, I'm going to promote sandbagging. If you haven't gotten your ass out there, yet, GET MOVING! If you can't lift a sandbag, hit the gym first :P! That means you, too, Zach! ahaha! Seriously though. Keep me updated. Let me know if people actually start evacuating or what happens with all that.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to write tomorrow or not. I have school in the morning (D.S. in ENGLISH this week!) and then I'm going to Lille in the afternoon with AFS. I'll try and get on when I get home tomorrow night, though! If not, I'll be on again Sunday!

Au Revoir!
<3Miranda

Another day down.

Last night, I made my first call to the US. I called my dad on his cell phone to wish him a happy birthday. My phone card only gave me 17 minutes, so we didn't get to talk for that long, but I got to hear a little about the flood and sandbagging and all that.

This morning I straightened my hair. I haven't done that for a long time, either, and I realized how longg my hair has gotten! It's getting close to the length it was when I donated it last year! I might have to try getting a haircut in French. haha. That scares me a little, though. I'll probably make a mistake and tell the Coiffure I want it all shaved off or somethingg. hahaa!

First class of the day was Histoire/Géographie. That went alright. We finished up talking about different regions and then got some homework for next week. It's just a map that you have to color and label, so I'm actually able to do this correctly! haha!

After that I had French. We got our DS exams back and I got a "C'est bien" on top! We graded them ourselves, though, and I had mine set up totally weird, so I didn't get to find out my mark :/. I had just a couple errors as far as grammar and syntax went so, in my opinion, I did pretty good!

Mathhh was next. I understood nothing. I tried to follow the notes the teacher was writing on the board, but I eventually lost intrest. Mary threw a piece of eraser at me, and I threw it back, but missed, so I tried again with paper. This time, though, I didn't realize the teacher was looking and he saw me. Hahaha woops! He just told us, "Eh! Stop this instant!" He says that a lot, though, so it didn't bother me a whole lot. I just felt stupid for not paying attention before chucking the paper. Haha.

Last class of the day was Anglais Complementaire. UGH. Today we looked at an ad about drinking and driving. He asked some people if the image was a photo. Everyone said yes, including me. He said "I don't believe it is" and I blurted out "I DO." hahahaha! I back-talked to that guy! hahaha! He irritates me so much. He didn't catch what I said though, and I tried to cover it up by saying "What is it, then?" He told us it was a PICTURE, not a PHOTO. It had been created on the computer. (It was a broken wine glass as a stick shift in a car.) That really pissed me off. What a dumb question. Anyway, when he would ask us questions about what the ad was portraying or whatever, I would automatically want to reply in French. I feel as if no one would understand me when I talk in English and it is just weird! Talking in English feels foreign.

I thought it was a "B" week, so I told my host mom to pick me up at 6 (because I would have had French again at the end of the day). I ate lunch with Sabrina and then we hung out in the CPI for a while. Everyone was preparing for their CPE presentations. There were people presenting all day today and tomorrow. CPE is a component of the Bac. The students worked together in groups on a bigg project on a topic of their choice. They had to create visual aids and a speech and basically an entire lesson on their topic. Their speeches were memorized (I believe), and each student had to talk for TEN MINUTES. I listened to Mathilde, Kelly, and Jane practice their speech while Sabrina and Sherley polished up their powerpoint. Marion and her group members were in the CDI as well. They did their project on tornadoes. Sabrina's was on Nuclear energy and Mathilde's was on Cloning. It was really interesting. Did you know the FDA in the US is okay with us eating cloned meat?!! I seriously think I'm going to go vegitarian. That is disgusting.

Anyway, Sabrina presented her project at 3:30, so during that time I went on Facebook!! :D! I spent quite a bit of time on there, and then Justine, Gaeta, and Nicolas came into the CDI. I joined them at a table and talked with them for a while. When Sabrina returned, I helped her figure out a topic for her English Concourse. She wanted to do something with Native Americans, so I suggested Sacagawea. We found a little information on the internet and then it was time to go.

When I got home after school, I ate a snack and talked to Pierre a little.
Now I'm going to go help him with some texte thing. haha. I dunno, but he asked me for help, so BYE!

<3miranda

Haha!

I just noticed the title of yesterday's post! Hahaha, I guess I forgot to finish typing that. I can't even tell you what the last part is supposed to say, because I have noo idea! lol!

Anyways, I got a little extra sleep this morning since my first class wasn't until 9. That was nice, but I'm still tired! haha! Today in math, we did some tables on the calculator. It was kind of funny, because my calculator is in English so when we were told to press "Fenêtre," I had to find the "Window" button. haha. I managed to follow the lesson though, and didn't get lost at all today! I even got my table figured out before Sabrina :P!

After math, I had théâtre. Alice and I read through the scene a few times, and then Alice pointed something out. We realized our scene is a little.. uhh... probably not so appropriate for school (at least at South!), but it's not really something obvious, so it's not that big of a deal. It's actually kind of funny xD! The teacher confirmed what Alice had thought, and told us we could look through other scenes if we wanted. We did, a little, but didn't find anything better (and still relatively simple), so I dunno what'll happen. I think we're just going to stick with the slightly inappropriate one for now.

At noon, my host mom picked me up from school. We came home, ate lunch, and then I hung out with Pierre and she went to work. Right now, Pierre is at the Kiné and my host mom is working. Thomas just arrived to instal our new oven (the old one broke). Then around 5:30 tonight, I have band. Pierre has dance, too, at 7.
That's really it, but before I go--

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!
I miss you!
:D

à demain(:
<3miranda

There wasn't really

Today I got up a few minutes later than normal. It wasn't a big deal, though, because I still managed to catch the bus. When I got to school, I started the day with Latin. Sarah wasn't there today, so I sat in the back with Justine and Claire. Like normal, though, I was lost the whole time and ended up just doodling.

French came next. All we did was talk about Manon Lescout and take more notes. I swear I think we will be doing that until the end of the year! We've spent about a week talking about the same TWO PAGES! I dunno how much more in depth we can go with those! Haha!

After French was two hours of Histoire/Geographie. We started class by getting our quizzes from last week back. My teacher didn't give me a note (grade), and instead just corrected my French and wrote on the side how many points I would have earned for each question. If it would have counted, I would've had a 7.5/20! Haha! After that, we did some geography. We basically just talked about the pros and cons of different regions in France (industrial, agricultural, etc). It was kind of interesting. I'm getting better about keeping up with my notes, too! My vocabulary is getting better, so I don't have to at the same word a million times to get the spelling and the accents right. I'm getting a LITTLE better. :)! We had a break half way through and then watched a litte film.

At noon, I was done with class until 4:00. I spent the first hour in front of the school, talking with Sabrina and some guy who's in Post Bac. Then Sabrina and I went to go eat lunch with Marion, Virginie, and Laureen at 1:00. An hour later after everyone was done eating, Sabrina and I went to the CPE office. We talked to the lady to see if I could take the Bac Français or not, and she still didn't know, so I have to check with her again on Friday. I did, however, get my Carnet today! That's a book that every student has containing your schedule, absence/tardy slips, space for your parents or teachers to write notes, etc. I was pretty happy to finally get that! I GOT ON FACEBOOK! I showed Sabrina a bunch of pictures that were on there and added some people from my school and all that. I tried to join my school network, too, but then it kicked me out of the South High one! That was irritating! I switched back to South and then it wouldn't let me rejoin Gambetta, so whatevs. I'll figure that out some other time.

Just before four, we left the CDI and made our way to French. This time, we spent the whole hour rewriting the little extract from the book we've been talking about in the other character's perspective. I got 5 sentences down. Everyone else had multiple pages of The extract (like I said earlier) is only a front and back of a page. I don't know how everyone could stretch out their stories so much! The end of class came, and people were complaining that they weren't finished, so the stories are now due on Thursday. Hah. I dunno what else I can write, so I think I will just have to rest with my short paragraph.

I was done with school at 5:00, but my host mom didn't come until about 6:00, so I hung out and talked with Sabrina, Marion, and Virginie for a little while. When I got home, I ate a snack and then got online! Tonight my host mom is at a meeting, so Pierre and I are holding down the fort. haha. I'm going to try and get to bed kind of early tonight.

Until tomorrow,
-Miranda

OMG!

I heard that you guys are having flood waters higher than 1997!!! I hope all of your houses are safe from the water and no dikes break this time! Someone should keep me updated. I don't really know a whole lot.

Anyway. My day wasn't overly fantastic today. I'm really tired, and if I don't get a good night's sleep soon, I'm going to start getting bitchy. I don't want that to happen, but we eat supper so lateeeee! It's like 9 by the time we're done! Then I go up to my room, get ready for bed, write in my journal, and don't get to sleep until 10 at the earliest. Then in the morning I have to wake up at 6 (normally)! I need a good 12 hour nap. haha. Maybe I'll take advantage of Wednesday afternoon.

I did get to sleep in a littttle today, though. My first class was Anglais Complementaire at 10. I had a quiz on Martin Luther King. That went pretty well. During the middle of it though, my teacher goes, "Is anyone finished yet?" No one was. He looks at me and says, "This is really easy, isn't it?" I didn't know how to answer that. I kind of felt like a jerk saying yes and an idiot saying no. If there were people in my class who were having a hard time with it, I didn't want to say it was a piece of cake and make them feel stupid! On the other hand, I really did find it pretty simple and I think my teacher knew that, and lying by saying No would probably irritate him. He'd then probably be a big enough jerk to go make me tell him what was hard. Then I'd have to make up something. Ugghhh. My teacher is so inconsiderate of everyone else in my class. No wonder there is always a third of the class missing! Anyway, he kept asking me and rephrasing his question until I finally answered with a nod. After the quiz, we got a worksheet with pheonetic sounds on it and then words to place next to the different sounds. Now, I have an American accent and he has a British one, so I made a million errors with the sounds! He told me that I needed to try and use the British one, too, since that's the English that is taught in that class. I have until Thursday to finish up the worksheet. The rest of my class is having just as much trouble with it, though, so I don't really care if I suck.

After that, I had an hour break. I originally was going to go into town and get something to eat for later (since I had a class at noon), but we got to the doors at 11:02 and the lady would not let us out. Whatta jerk. We even explained that there was not another oppertunity for us to eat, but she would not let us out unless we wanted to be late for our next class (or something like that). We hung around outside in the yard for the hour. It was not a nice day. The wind was blowing like crazy and the sky was grey, but the foyer was closed for cleaning and the CDI was also locked up, so there wasn't much of a choice. My theatre teacher happened to pass by us, though, so Wendy and Alice talked to her and explained the situation. They got permission to skip theatre to go eat. I really needed the time to work on my text, so I gave Alice some money and told her to buy me something that would fill me up.

At noon, they went out to eat and I went to theatre. I went over my lines with Janet a couple times, but we kind of got off track and talked about other things for majority of the class. Oops! Haha.

I had a half hour between theatre and English L1 (different than earlier). I ran into Sabrina and Marion who were going to eat at the cantine, and decided to go along with them. I figured I would save whatever Alice got me for later. I ate a plate of pasta salad, spaghetti, and a piece of chocolate pie :)! We finished within the 30 minutes (surprisingly) and then Sabrina and I went up to class.

In English, we went over our quizzes from last week. I got a 16/20. My problem was that I translated the words differently into English, and while they would still work, my class hasn't learned the vocab that way so she could not accept it. I'm totally fine with that, though. It makes sense to me, and I didn't know the words in the first place, so I didn't expect to get that part perfect. I just guessed on the translations, for instance one of the words was "Percevoir" and I took the word appart and wrote down "To forsee" instead of the correct answer, "Predictable." After that we just did a worksheet on things like tenses and sentence structure. I found that kind of fun :)!

After English I had SVT (biology). I never finished that homework last night, but whatever. We just went over the answers today and then took notes. This is the 5th time I've studied the reproductive system. Haha.

I had English L1 again after SVT. We just did more worksheets and translated some sentences and stuff. It was kind of fun, but I got lost on the translations from French to English. haha.

My last class of the day was French. That went alright. I handed in my thème which I finished up last night :). My teacher wasn't in the best mood today, and gave a bunch of people in my class detention because they skipped Parcours last week. After a short lecture, though, we continued talking and taking notes on Manon Lescaut.

After school, I was supposed to take the bus home, but Vincent finished school earlier and had already left, and I didn't know which bus to take, so I ended up calling my host mom to come pick me up. When I got home, I ate the ham sandwhich Alice bought me for lunch. I really hope I don't get sick from that, but it was reallyyyy good and I couldn't just throw it away! haha!

That's pretty much it, though! A demain!
<3Miranda

I'm Still Feeling Tired and Lazy.

It didn't help that I didn't get home til a little after midnight last night, either, but it was really fun, so I don't care. I went to a Bak Folk dance thing at the Salle de Fêtes in one of the neighboring towns and learned a lot of traditional French dances. It doesn't sound like something someone my age would be into, but it was fuuun! There were a lot of older people, but Simon, Antoine, Vincent, and Jocelyn were there as well. I tried a bunch of different dances, and actually did alright! There were a coupld dances that you switched partners for, and some of the older guys got really into it. One guy added a million twirls in and I seriously got dizzy and nearly fell over. Another guy turned me so fast that my feet came off the ground and I was flying! hahahaha! That guy kind of scared me!

This morning I got up kind of early (9:00) so that I could go on a walk around town with my host mom and some of her friends. They're currently working on the town's budget for the year, so that involved taking a walk and deciding what needs to be repaired, updated, cleaned, etc. On the walk, my host mom pointed out a hole in the sidewalk that was all roped off. She told me that in November they found 2 soldiers from the first World War down there! I guess an electritian was digging a hole and ran into a femur. They obviously then conducted a search and found two more femurs, which indicates that there were for sure 2 people there. They found some other stuff too, but I don't really remember it all. Anyway, that was big news in November.

Just before one, my host mom, Pierre, and I went to Annick's house for lunch! Luc was in town for the weekend, so he and Grandma were there, too. We hung out by the TV and ate crackers, nuts, and little ball things while we waited for the meal itself. Annick gave me a cookbook! It's got 50 entrees, 50 main dishes, and 50 desserts in it, as well as an intro on place settings, table decor, and how to put together the perfect meal. I was pretty excited about that! I really wanna cook, now! The pictures look soo yummy :)! When lunch was done, we ate a veggie pie thing, turkey slices, and potatoes. For dessert, Annick made a cake thing with a little trinket inside. Whoever finds the trinket in their slice gets to be king/queen for the day and wear a crown. It's usually a holiday that's celebrated in January, but since I missed out, Annick decided to recelebrate it today. I don't know if she planned it or not, but I was also the lucky finder of the angel. I got a crown and supposedly the angel will bring me good luck :D! The cake itself was delicious, too. ;)

After lunch, Annick showed me around her house. We went into her little garden in her backyard and she gave me some daffodils for spring! I made quite the haul today! Haha! We left shortly after that, and after putting the daffodils in a vase in my room, I started my homework. I have biology and French homework this weekend. The biology wouldn't be that bad since I've already studied the reproductive system a million times, except for the fact that I don't know what the questions on the worksheet want me to do exactly. I'll have to have my host mom help me after dinner, or if not, then I'll ask Sabrina tomorrow during a break. I managed to get a half page written for the first question of my French theme, too, but I don't understand the second question, so I'm going to need some help with that, too. Anyway, that's how I spent my afternoon. I didn't finish either of the two subjects, but I got a little bit done on each.

For dinner tonight, we're going to be eating crêpes! After that, I'm planning on finishing up my homework (or at least getting as far as I can) and then going to bed! I'm exhausteddd! The good thing about Monday is that I don't start 'til 10, so I get to sleep in a little :)

I hope you all had a great spring break!
I miss you!
<3Miranda

Sorry about yesterday.

I meant to go on after school like normal, but there was an anti-virus thing screening the computer. Afterwards, I was really tired and went to bed instead.
I still feel lazy and don't really feel like updating, but whatever. I'm not going to cut you off. I'll fill you in briefly on yesterday's events, and then we'll move on to today.

I had Latin first, and I understood an entire sentence of the text! That's good progress for me! haha! After that was French. We just took notes on Manon Lescaut, nothing too exciting happened there. When French was over, I had an hour pause before English. I mainly just hung out in the yard and talked to people. English was decent. I don't remember what we did when because I had it twice yesterday, so the events kind of run together. At one point though, we got back the letters we wrote earlier this week. I not only had mine read in front of the class (which was kind of embarrassing), but also got a 9.5 out of 10 on it! I made one formatting fault, one grammar fault, and one spelling fault. Not bad, haha! When English ended, we had a three hour break before English round two. In that time period I ate lunch, talked with some people from my class, read a magazine in the CDI, and met with Mr. Marccusi (the headmaster) to see if I could still register to take the Bac Français. I will have that answer for you on Monday. At 3, I had English again. Then I finished my day with 2 hours of Parcours. During the break, the teacher came to talk to me. Parcours is taught by different teachers all the time, it's kind of a review class that gets you ready for the Bac. I don't really know how else to explain it. But anyways, the teacher asked me where I was from and when I told her North Dakota, she seemed like she knew where it was (which is shocking), so I asked her, "TU connais?!" The class burst out laughing, but my teacher went right on answering my question, so I didn't realize what I'd done. She didn't seem bothered at all (thankfully). Later on, Valentine told that story to Sabrina (who had been in the bathroom) and that's when I figured it out. I addressed my teacher informally, which is nottt polite at all. Thankfully, though, my teacher wasn't offended. I was really embarrassed though, and apologized after class. My teacher told me that French students make the same mistake sometimes. They'll be talking and forget they're talking to a teacher and sometimes "tu" will slip out. She's another history teacher in the school, and offered to help me with things I don't understand, if I want to bring them in. For now history is alright, but I might take her up on that later on. That ended my school day. On the way home, I stopped at the store with my host mom and then at the post office to mail a couple birthday cards.

TODAY! Finally. haha.
I went to school this morning for Devoirs (or DS). This week the subject was science. We had one test for physical science and another for earth science/biology. The biology one went overall really well. I answered almost every question and was able to write more than one setence majority of the time. On the contrary, the physical science one was terrible. I only answered 3 questions! hahah! Everyone was talking about how hard it was, though, so that makes me feel a little better. After school was out, I hung around with Marine and Justine. We went into town for a while and Marine bought a tshirt for her boyfriend's birthday. After that, we hung out and talked. My host mom came and picked me up at noon. When I got back, we ate lunch. It's a really nice day out, so after that, I went with Pierre to the field to play some ball. Tonight I'm going to go to some folk dancing thing at the town hall. haha.
Right now, though, I'm going grocery shopping with my host mom, so I've gotta gooo!
Bye!
<3miranda

Le Grève

That's basically a general protest. The government is cutting back on the amount of teachers and salaries for a lot of professions in general suck, I guess, so that leaves a lot of unhappy people. Those people, then, protest by not doing their job and as a result, a lot of people couldn't get to school. The trains were limited and a lot of the busses weren't running. The cantine wasn't open for lunch and the CDI (library) was also closed. Some teachers, although none of mine, participated in the protest, too, and didn't show up.

My bus was running, though, so I took that to school. For lunch I brought with me a loaf of bread, peanut butter, nutella, a bottle of water, and a knife. I had history/geography for the first two hours today, and there were only about 15 people in class. We did some geography today and discussed the layout of Arras. It was pretty interesting, actually! I wish we had geography like that in Fargo! It would help me find my way around and I'd actually know where things were! lol!

Next, I had French. Only about 8 people came to that class. People kind of got bored and left school or skipped classes they didn't want to attend. We didn't do a whole lot in class, just looked over some papers. There was a protest on the road and I watched the entire thing out the window. Sabrina was right next to the window, so she took some photos for me :)! Hah, quick story for you all. I said "beaucoup" with some bad pernounciation today, so what I actually ended up saying was "beau cul" aka: nice ass! hahaha! Woops! Sabrina got a good laugh out of that one.

After French was math. This time we gained a few people and had a total of 12. Sabrina was chosen to teach the lesson (basically go over the homework), and I UNDERSTOOD! After she explained everything, I was able to see where everything was coming from! I volunteered an answer and got a "plus" for the day! Actually, everyone who showed up got a "plus," haha. I think math is my highest grade, though! I got a 15 on that homework from over the break (thanks to Sabrina), then today I got my plus! I dunno exactly what that means, but it's good. haha. If you're bad or disruptive, you can get minuses as well, which aren't good.

After math, I had anglais complementiare. There were only 5 other people with me! Today wasn't so bad, because I got to go with Sarah, the Canadian assistant, and we just talked and then played a game. I noticed it's starting to get harder for me to speak in English, though. Sarah would ask me to rephrase something or explain something, and it took me a while to formulate a sentence or come up with another way to say it! I kept wanting to talk in French!!! It was like when I came back from Peru and I spoke Spanish for the next few months! ..except my French vocabulary is a little more extensive than that. haha. By the end of class, I was doing pretty good, though. I met Sabrina in the hallway and started blabbing away in English. It took me a little while before I realized what I was doing. She just stared at me with this blank look on her face. haha. I do not transition very well.

After that, I didn't have another class until French again at 4. We had three hours to do whatever. Sabrina, Marion, and I left school and ate lunch by the fountain in front of the old church/cathedral. They both tried my peanut butter (and liked it :P) Afterwards, we just kind of hung out. We went to the librairie and I got a couple things I needed. We also ran into a couple other people; Florian and his friend. They hung out with us for the rest of the afternoon, since they were just killing time, too. We didn't really do much other than talk and walk around, but it was fun!

We returned to school for two hours of French. It was basically just a work time for our themes, since hardly anyone was there. I read through a couple of the texts and underlined the words I didn't know. Sabrina then explained, acted, or drew out explainations for them to help me understand! Haha. The rest I'm going to look up in my dictionary this weekend. haha, during our break, I went to the bathroom, and MY BELT BROKE! No lie, it just tore in half!!! That really pisses me off, but it kind of made me laugh at the same time. I didn't see that one coming! At least it was at the end of the day, so I only had to sit through one hour of French with my pants falling down. Hah.

After school, I came home and had a snack with Pierre. Not much news there. I'll talk to you again tomorrow!
<3Miranda

I Lost The Game.

Thanks for that, Rica :P!

School started at 9 this morning with math. I didn't get it at first, nor did Sabrina. Jeremy explained it and then Sabrina understood, but I still didn't, so she tried explaining the formula to me. I sat there and stared at what she did for a few minutes and BAM! It came to me! I understood math for the first time today! It was a great feeling! Haha! That is, until we moved onto the next formula. Hah. We're continuing that tomorrow, so hopefully I'll catch on :)!

After math was theatre! Some kid came in and told my teacher she was supposed to be suprevising a Terminale class while they took their Bac Blanc, so she left. The headmaster gave us permission to stay in class and go over our scripts. I read through mine in both French and English with Alice. Then we went through it one time where I read in French and she read in English. That was interesting.

School finished at noon. I met up with Sabrina, Laureen, Virginie, and Marion. We waited in front of the school together. I saw Justine, Marine, and Jeremy, too, so I talked with them for a while. They all left, but Saloa was still around, so I talked with her until my host mom arrived.

I spent the afternoon hanging out with Pierre. Around 4, my host mom and I took him to the Kiné, and the two of us stopped at the pharmacy. We picked up something (I dunno what it was) and then stopped at Thomas's house for a bit. Today it was super nice outside. I think it got to almost 70, no lie. It was deffinitely in the high 60s!! Anyway, the kids were playing in the backyard. I helped Romane clean the playhouse a little bit, and then my host mom and I left to go pick up Pierre.

Just before 6:30, I left for my music class. That went well. I got complimented on how well I speak French twice :D! I forgot my key, though, so when I got dropped off at home, I couldn't get in. My host mom was dropping Pierre off at dance. Luckily it was a nice evening, so I wasn't the least bit cold. I tried calling her on my phone, but for some reason I couldn't get the call to connect. I didn't have cery good service, which is kind of weird. I haven't ever had a problem with that before! It wasn't really a big deal, though, because I only ended up waiting for 5 minutes. She told me that the side door was left open, so I could have entered that. Haha! Oh well. I know that for next time, though!

After we picked Pierre up from dance, my host mom had to go to a meeting and Pierre & I ate dinner. I had a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich along with the other stuff :D! Tomorrow there's a "grève" (which I will explain tomorrow), so the cantine won't be open. Therefore I'm going to bring my peanut butter, nutella, bread, and a knife, and Sabrina and I are going to make sandwiches for lunch. She's never had peanut butter (nor has anyone else I've talked to), so I told her I'd bring it along tomorrow. :D! I'll tell you all about the grève and explain what it is tomorrow. For now, I'm gonna go!

I miss youuu!
<3miranda

I totally forgot it was St. Patrick’s Day until just now!

And ironically, I wore green today! hahahahaha! What are the chances of that?!

Today I got to school, went up to my Latin class, and NO ONE was in the hall waiting. In fact, there was no one on that floor at all! I went downstairs and wandered around the yard until I found a couple people from my class. They told me we didn't have class today. I have no idea why, but the important part was that I didn't have to sleep through a Latin class today. Hah.

Instead, I hung out in the yard with Sabrina and Virginie for a little while. It was another nice day and I didn't wear my coat today! All I had over my shirt was my Columbia sweatshirt, and I was comfortable. I think it reached 60°F again :D! I love the weather here, although I can see the summer getting really hot :/. After a while, though, we decided to go up to one of the empty classrooms to hang out. Joy, Wendie, and Valentine were in there, too. We all hung out and talked for a while. Sabrina had the second semester grades for the entire class. Like I said, here that's not really a private thing. I couldn't resist checking it out. My name was on the list, but I hadn't a single grade! Haha, I really didn't do any work to hand in the first couple weeks, so that's probably why. Although I did do an oral presentation in English, so I should have had a grade for that, but oh well. I don't really care.

At 9:00, I had French. We notes on the book we read over break. Sabrina taught me how to format them "right" (they set their notes up different). That is all I remember. Hah, sorry. I was (and still am!) really tired!

After French, I had two hours of History. I had a quiz today to start out with! It was 20 points and I for sure got 3! Hahaha! There is a good chance I got a little more than that, though. I answered all but 3 questions. After that, we just talked and took notes. We did a short worksheet, too. I had to answer a question today, and I didn't know how to say "1,4" so I just said "un" then made a comma with my finger in the air and then said "quatre" haha! Unfortunately, that was the wrong answer anyway, so that was a lot more trouble than necessary. Oh wellll, I learned that a comma in French is called a "vigale" (or something like that).

Next, I had an hour of Ed. Civiq. Juridiq. Soc. which is something like government, I thinkkk. I only have it on B weeks, so this is my second time around. It's in the same room as history, so that kind of sucked sitting in there for 3 hours straight. We talked about the 5 French Republic a little bit today, and then did a worksheet.

FINALLY it was lunch time. I this was my only break of the day; just one hour for lunch. Laureen was gone today, so it was just Sabrina, Virginie, Marion, and I at the table. I had rice with a beef sauce and then strawberry yogurt and a dark chocolate pie. :)

After lunch was TPS with the history teacher. This class normally goes for 2 hours, but everyone has already finished their projects, so only one hour was used on practicing presentations. The students have to present their projects in front of an admin next week. Any points over 10 go toward extra points on the Bac. So for example if you got a 13, you would get 3 points toward the Bac, but if you got a 9, you wouldn't get any points. Most of the people didn't practice a whole lot though, and instead there was a lot of conversation. After I wrote Jaeda a letter, I joined in on that, too. Haha. The second hour of class was spent on MORE history! I really don't mind history, but three hours of it in one day is a little much.

I ended the day with a second French class. We went over the book some more, and in the beginning, Sabrina and I just talked a lot. Then my teacher asked me a question. She asked what state New Orleans was in. I honestly could not remember for a little while! She thought I didn't understand her question, so she rephrased it, spoke slower, and then said, "State," in English. hahaha! It finally came to me and I was able to answer, "Louisianna!" Lol. I spent the rest of the class copying Sabrina's notes (and talking a little :P).

School was over at 5 for me today. After my host mom picked me up, we stopped at Grandma's house to visit. Grandma forgot who I was exactly, and asked where I came from and how long I was staying. About five or ten minutes later, she asked the same questions again... and again. haha! We didn't stay too long, and after we left, my host mom and I went grocery shopping. SHE BOUGHT PEANUT BUTTER! For those of you who don't know, that's an American thing and is about as popular here as Nutella is in the States. It only comes in little containers and Skippy is the only brand. We got a few other things as well, and then checked out.

When we got home, Samuel (Annick's son) was there visiting with Pierre. After unloading the groceries, we talked for a while and then he left. My host mom has a meeting tonight (and every night this week), so Pierre and I are chillin' out. He's watching cartoons on TV, so I thought I'd hop on the computer for a bit. I can only take so many cartoons, lol, and he's got an entire schedule planned out. When my host mom is home, she makes him change it to something else for me, but I usually can't comprehend much anyway, so there really is no point.

That's pretty much it for today!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
<3Miranda

I Hate Thinking Of Titles

This morning, I thought I started school at nine, so I got up at 7:15. I was all ready to go by 8:20! I thought I had ten minutes to hang out and find something to do, so I checked over my schedule for the day. That's when I realized my first class started at 10! Ah! I could have slept another hour!! After flipping through the channels and finding nothing to watch on TV, I jumped on the computer for a bit. Jean-Micheal (the repair man whose wife died last week) came over for a little bit and talked with my host mom. Evidently when he went to get her ashes from the crematorium, they gave him the wrong ones! They got it all sorted out now, so no worries. That's a pretty bad mistake, though! I'd honestly be pretty pissed if that happened to me.

But anyways, I got to school and sat outside for a while until the doors opened up. Then I went to ANGLAIS COMPLEMENTAIRE. Ick. We were talking about Martin Luther King (still), and my teacher goes on and on about how Obama being elected marks the point in time when MLK's dream came true. I really wanted to state my opinion there, but I didn't want to seem like a smart ass. Personally I think that MLK's dream was to eliminate racism entirely, and I know that it still exists. While Obama becoming elected president is a huge step, it doesn't mark the end of racism. I don't think there is a set point when the dream will come true. That's a process that takes decades, not something that happens with one specific event. I dunno. I disagreed with a lot of things my teacher said. I also am starting to question his English skills. He has a stronggg British accent, and I thought he was a native English speaker, but I really don't know anymore. He talks most of the class in French and when I ask what something is, he attempts to explain it to me in French. When I still don't understand, he tries again in French. Usually I get the gist of what he's saying, but I think it would make more sense for the English teacher to speak to me in English when I don't understand something. Whatevs. I don't really care, anyway.

After that, I had an hour break. I went into town with Valentine, Alice, Wendie, and Joy. We mainly just walked around, but Valentine bought me a pastery with chocolate and pear slices on top. It was reallyyy yummy :)!

We returned to school and met up with Gaeta. She, Wendie, Alice, and I went to thèâtre. Since the Terminale class has their practice Bac test this week (Bac Blanc), we were the only students there! My teacher ended up getting my script in English for me, but I think that's just going to be for a reference. I think I can try this in French, especially now that I know exactly what's going on. Gaeta and I watched Wendie and Alice perform their scene a few times, and then class ended.

I found Sabrina waiting for me by the cantine, and the two of us grabbed lunch before joining Virginie, Laureen, and Marion at a table. Today I had a chicken patty, fries, pasta salad, and a sugar donut :)!

Since it's a B week, I didn't have English at 1:30, so I hung out with the rest of my class outside. It was a gorgeous day! I seriously think we reached 60. The sun was shining and there was no wind. It was perfect. My entire class was outside in the yard. A bunch of us sat on the grass for a while and played "Action où Verité" (aka Truth or Dare). After about a half hour, though, some lady came out and told us we couldn't be on the grass, so we moved to the area with the trees and flowers. It's kind of complicated to explain the setup of the yard. I dunno if I have a picture of my school in my Photobucket album, but I'll search after I finish, here.

We continued to talk until just before 2:30, when we went to Physical Science (another favorite class of mine :P)! My teacher looks kind of like Mr. Volk (the Latin teacher at North), so I expected him to be really chill and fun, but he's super strict! I forgot about that! I only have him once every other week, so this was my second time in this class. I sat in the back with Sabrina and we talked most of the time. I laughed while he was talking and he got annoyed. He asked me "Isn't that right, Jensen?!" haha. I really wanted to be sarcastic and shoot back "Yes, I believe you did that correctly," but I want to stay here through July, so I just nodded. Later on, we started talking about the dangers of anti aging creams and how they are illegal in France. Then he started talking about how a lot of people use them in the US. He asked me a few questions that I needed him to repeat and reword like a million times before I understood. Haha, I basically just told him that, yes, a lot of people use anti aging creams in the US and they are not illegal. I didn't even realize they were dangerous! Haha, I guess I'll just live with wrinkles when I grow old :P!

That class finally ended and then we got to English. I didn't listen at all in that class, either. Again, Sabrina and I (and Joy a little) just talked and goofed off. All we are doing in that class is talking about the story we read last week (still), so I'm alright, there. It's nothing too difficult.

After English, I had French. Today we finished up the notes on the scene we read last week, and then filled out a worksheet thing. Sabrina and I talked some more. Haha. I really was not very productive today, as far as schoolwork goes, but I utilised my French quite heavily ;D!

After school, I talked yet some moreeee and then my host mom came to get me. I really wish she would not park the car, get out, and come find me everyday. I think that if she pulled up, I would be able to recognize the car and find her. It's a little embarrassing :S. I just don't know how to tell her that. Ahh well, I guess. I'll figure it out eventually. On the way to the car, we saw my biology teacher. I guess she lives in the same town as me, so she and my host mom talked for a bit.

When I got home, I ate a snack and now have some computer time while Pierre watches his cartoons. I'll update again tomorrowwww!

-Miranda

(I forgot to title this. Sorry!)

I'll start with where I left off yesterday, since I wrote pretty early.

Pierre and I went to Arlette's house. She got out her Playmobile stuff for Pierre. We went through that and talked. Vincent and some of his friends have a band and were downstairs practicing. I went down there for a while and listened to them. They mostly played American classic rock stuff, like ACDC, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, etc.

After that, we went to the Playmobile Exposition, where we met up with Thomas and his family. It was alright. There were a bunch of gigantic models in the center, and around the outside people were selling sets. We didn't stay too long, and afterwards, we stopped by Thomas's house for a bit. After a snack and some talking, we returned home.

For dinner, Annick met up with us at a restaurant. It was a steakhouse place called Buffalo Grill. I had a cheeseburger and fries :P! To drink I had a cocktail (without the alcohol) and then a coke. Dessert was great. I really didn't have room for it, but I somehow managed. I ate a platter with a bunch of different French desserts, like crème brûlée, profiterole, a brownie with a white sauce, and then caramel ice cream. Goddd that was delicious!

This morning, I woke up a little before 7 and never fell back to sleep! I might actually return home a morning person! hahahaha! I just kind of hung out today. We didn't really do much. I looked over some French materials and listened to music and hung with Pierre a little bit.

Now we're gonna go play some ball, so I'll update again tomorrow!
Salut!
<3miranda

I Never Thought I Would Say This.

But I can honestly say I love going to school. It what gets me out of bed in the morning. I truly love my class. Here, you have one group of kids who are in all of your classes, so you get to know each other really well. Everyone talks to everyone, and it's just great.

That said, I went to school today, on a Saturday, to try that Devoirs class (and to see everyone). This week the subject was French. We had two hours to read a few lines and respond to two things. The excerpt was from Manon Lescaut, the book we read over the break. That was nice so I at least knew what was going on! I got to the two questions, though, and I didn't comprehend either one of them. I read the exerpt again a couple times. Then I decided to disregard the directions and just summarize what I comprehended. I figured what the hell, it's better than sitting for 2 hours and turning in a blank sheet of paper. I got a nice size paragraph down! Then I moved on to the next part. It had you copy down roman numerals and take notes on an aspect of the story (i thinkkk). I just wrote down each character and then wrote a few things about them. It wasn't wonderful, but I'm pretty proud of my attempt. In the end, I'd filled up the front of a sheet of paper and a couple lines on the back. Everyone else had at least three or four pages full, but I still felt pretty good about my full page.

My host mom came to the school a little after 10. She found me and then we went and FINALLY got my text books! I have multiples for some classes. For instance, I have (no joke) FOUR books for Latin class alone! No one seems to bring them, though, so I think they are mainly just used as a reference at home.

Once we'd accomplished that, we picked up Pierre to take him to the gym. While he was there, my host mom and I went and bought flowers for her pots. The store also sold animals, so we looked at those. They had fishhh :D! They weren't saltwater ones, but it still made me happy! After buying the flowers and dirt, we retrieved Pierre. Then we came home and had lunch!

This afternoon, I'm going to go with Pierre to Arlette's house. I'm not sure exactly why (Arlette is a friend of my host mom's), but whatevs. He wanted to go and say Hi or something. Then later on, we're going with Thomas's family to a Playmobile Exposition. Tonight for dinner, Pierre, my host mom, and I are going out to eat at a restaurant in Arras with Annick. I'll update you on all that stuff tomorrow.

A tout à l'heure!
-Miranda

Another Friday the Thirteenth

And another good day!

Today when I got to school, there was a lady in a wedding dress walking around with a sign. Wendie explained to me that she was looking for a husband or something! hahaha! That was bizare!

It didn't start off wonderful, though. I had Latin at 8:00 this morning xP! I didn't even bother to take notes today. It was just a "wake up" class. Haha.

Next I had French! The teacher called on me todayyyy! It was really fun, though, because she articulated everything she said and it was an easy question: Who are the three characters in the play? I had to look, but I managed to answer alright. Haha, one of the names I completely butchered, but whatevs. She understood what I said!

We had an hour to chill before English. I spent that in the library talking with Wendie, Joy, and the Jeremies. Simon came up to me at one point and asked me for the conjugation of Etre in English. That was kind of amusing, although I did it wrong. Jeremy ended up correcting it for me. Hah. I've never done that before, I don't think.

English went well, I guess. I spoke more French to Sabrina and Joy than English, though! haha! We just went over a worksheet and stuff, nothing too interesting.

There were three hours between the end of English and my next class. I went with Joy and Alicia into town for the first hour. We stopped at a patisserie and I got a chocolate donut :)))! That was delish. We went to some other place and sat down to eat and talk. Then around 12:30 or so, we headed back to the school. The doors didn't open 'til one, so we hung around outside and talked some more. I really am getting good with my french. I seriously can talk like I would back home. It's so nice! I really missed joking around with people. You have no idea how quiet I was for a while. It was scary. Haha. Lately I have been able to keep up with conversation better, too. I followed almost the entire thing at lunch today, and was only lost for a tiny bit! That was super cool.

When the doors finally did open, I went and found Sabrina. She was in the CDI (library) working on her French homework. After she finished, we went and ate lunch with Marion, Laureen, Virginie, and today Claire, Valentine, and her boyfriend as well. That was fun.

After lunch, we hung out and talked in the foyer. I talked with Marine, who I haven't really spoken with much before. She's really nice, though. I got her MSN, so I talked with her again a little while ago. Jeremy, her, and I went up to English, round two, just before 3. This time, we had to write an apology letter. It was from a daughter who had left home after a huge fight with her mom. I translated a million phrases in that class. It was kind of fun helping out like that. I felt smart for the first time in a while! hahaha!

After English was Parcours. I guess I am in the class with all the smart people (I don't know HOW that worked out), but today the topic was Spanish. Since I don't take Spanish, I went with the other class and went over some French material. The teacher mainly talked for the first hour. Then we had a short break, and the second hour, I explained how our school works. Joy had asked me, so I drew a little diagram with the required courses, then the electives, and explained them. My teacher came over to see what I was doing, and so I explained it again. We talked for a good fifteen minutes or more. She's really nice. To be honest, all of my teachers have been great. Not one of them has been a jerk about how little I get done in class or how terrible my homework is.

Finally, the day was over. I took the bus home with Vincent, because my host mom was at the funeral for that one lady. That went alright. When I got home, I ate a small snack of bread and orange juice and then hopped on the computer. Now, Pierre and I are going to add more songs to his MP3 player (and mine!).
:)

Talk to you later!
<3Miranda

I Need Your Input!

Read on for more info.

Today started out with Histoire. I've started getting really sick of copying notes I don't really understand. While I understand the subject and the main points, the detalistic things are still incomprehensible. I haven't really minded copying notes until lately. It's gotten really tiring, especially because I can't keep up because the kid next to me writes with his hand covering half of the paper! It drives me nuts! I usually don't finish all of them, but whatevs, it really doesn't matter.

After class, my teacher came and talked to me. She asked me how my French was. The kid next to me replied for me and said that I spoke really well. I really don't think it's that good, but I said that it was better than when I arrived. She asked me if I would mind talking in front of the Terminale class about the American view on the rest of the world. I didn't understand at first, so she explained to me that the rest of the world sees America as the greatest and most powerful and she wanted to know if we felt that way about ourselves as well. Personally, I think China and Japan are more powerful than us, and I don't think of myself as "better" or "more powerful" than any other nation in the world. Sooo this is where I need your help. My opinion is simply mine. I don't really know how you view the world or your place in it. I'm asking you, my fellow Americans, what you think. PLEASE leave me a comment or email me- missmirandamari3@hotmail.com with your input. I don't know exactly when I'll be doing this, but I'd like to hear your opinion now so that I am prepared! I told her that I didn't feel comfortable talking in front of the entire Terminale (Senior) class, yet, but when I got a little better with my French I'd give it a shot.

French was next! Unfortunately, I do not remember that class much. I was really tired this morning and everything just kind of went by in a blurr. All I remember is that we talked about a text. I don't know exactly what it was, though. Sorry.

Following that was math. That class is seriously the biggest joke. No one, and I literally mean NO ONE pays attention. Sabrina was doing her French homework, Jeremy and Jeremy were playing hangman again, Joy and some other people were throwing things across the room at each other, Alicia was eating an orange, Camille was taking pictures on her phone, and the rest of the class was talking. Hahahah! The funniest part is that the teacher has no idea. He thinks everyone is listening. He's got his back turned most of the time writing on the chalkboard, and as soon as he turns around, everyone appears to be listening (for the most part). It's great. I just kind of sat back and took it all in for a while. xD

Since it's an A week, my last class of the day was Anglais Complementaire. My class talked for theeee longest time in French and everyone was laughing and I wanted to understand, but I couldn't! It was quite frustrating! I heard my name a few times, too. Sabrina tried to explain, but it wasn't working out. Hah, oh well I guess. After class, I waited for Sabrina while she talked to the teacher. She was going to be doing a presentation or something and comparing Martin Luther King and Obama. The teacher told her that I would help (witch I will gladly do), but he explained the entire thing to me in FRENCH! He's an Englishhh teacher, c'mon! haha! I understood majority of what he said, but still, it would have been a lot faster and easier to just do it in English.

Sabrina and I then went to the cantine to eat with Marion, Laureen, and Virginie. Today I had rice with fish in a sauce, crab & pasta salad, and a chocolate eclair. I finished in about 20 minutes. It took everyone else a good hour, though. I seriously do not know how one can eat that slowly. There are 3 things to eat: the dessert (or 2), the main dish, and if you didn't take a second dessert you can take a salad instead. It's not an hour's worth of food. Lol.

After lunch, instead of going home, I hung out with the others in the library for a while. I met some other people (although I don't know their names) who made me talk in English so they could hear it with the accent. I didn't really know what to say, so I just introduced myself. They had a kick out of how "fast" I spoke. Then I had to translate the chorus of Eminem's "When I'm Gone" song. That actually was not as hard as I'd expected. Then they left and I read a little of the French dictionary. That sounds really lame, but I actually picked up a few things. Haha. Then Laureen and Marion left and it was down to Sabrina, Virginie, and I. We talked in the library until about 5 o'clock. Then we went out in front of the school. I had another super duper good day as far as my talking goes. I really am starting to be myself again. Like, I know enough French now to joke around with people, tell stories, and recall events. It's great. Today I was able to lead the conversation for a while and do majority of the talking. I came up with an ad for this "efacer" pen. Oh my God it is the most magical thing everrrr. I love it! I will buy a million of them and stuff my suitcase full when I come back! It's a marker-like pen that removes ink like an eraser erases pencil! It seriously disappears right before your eyes-- like magic! It only works with ink cartrage pens, though, so I'm going to have to take that with me, too. I don't remember seeing those much in the States.

The three of us walked down to the post office and I bought some more stamps. This time the guy asked where I was sending the postcards, and told me it costed more for overseas. I hope the ones I already sent make it, because those were just standard stamps. You will have to let me know if you receive them (which should be soon).

When we returned to the school, Wendie, Alice, Joy, Bryan, and Amèlie were there. We all talked for a while. Then Virginie left; followed by Sabrina and then Wendie, Alice, and Joy. Bryan and Amèlie hung out for a little longer, but then they left, too. I listened to a couple songs on my ipod until my host mom arrived. She had been at the Mairie with some people making the arrangements for a funeral tomorrow. The wife of our repairman died yesterday of lung cancer. The crazy thing about that is she didn't ever smoke. The funeral is tomorrow, so I think I'm going to try and take the bus home. I'm not sure exactly how that will all work, but I will find out tonight.

I came home from school and had a couple crêpes for my snack. I spread Nutella on both and added bananas to one and coconut to the other. Both were super delicious! I have eaten so many crêpes so many different ways! hahahah! That actually reminds me of something that happened at lunch today. I didn't really understand the conversation, but I thought I heard them talking about crêpes, so I join in, "Ohhh I loooove crêpes!" Sabrina laughed and laughed, then told the others what I said and they laughed, too. She told me that she had said "crete" or something like that, which is the pokey thing on top of a rooster's head. hahahahhaaaa! Ooops!

Something I've noticed that surprises me a lot is that teachers tell students their grades in front of the entire class. They read off final grades at the end of the trimester and when they hand tests back they say your grade as they hand it to you. FERPA definitely isn't in effect here! No one really has a problem with it, but I find it really strange. I don't want people knowing my grade (when I get one)! I know no one expects me to really do that well, but still! It's just so weird having the teacher read down the list with everyone's grades.

I also need to add that I made some false assumptions earlier. I told you that one could eat and drink and chew gum and text in class. Nope! You cannot have any of those things. The truth is, most teachers simply do not care. It's not enforced like it is at South. The only teachers that will take those from you are my physical science teacher and my math teacher (when he notices), or so I've heard. Those rules, however; do not apply when you are in the hallways or outside in the yard. You can do all that stuff there. The only thing you cannot do anywhere except in front of the school itself, is smoke. That is not allowed within the school and that is enforced. Personally, that does not affect me, though, so whatevs. I don't have a problem with that. I just thought I would clear all that up for you, because I remember writing at some point that one was allowed to do all that stuff, which (technically) is not the case.

I'm getting off for the night, though. Remember to leave your opinion for my history thing, please!!!! If everyone who reads this did that, I would be really happy!
THANKS!
à demain!
<3miranda

I Decided To Challenge Myself A Bit.

The theatre teacher had the script I'm going to do in French, but not in English. She told me one of the English teachers here would translate it for me for next week. I read through it a few times with Wendie during class, and decided that I am going to leave it in French. I don't really understand what it is about, but I can read the lines and it is only 2 pages. Wendie explained my character a little bit, so I'm able to play the role a little bit. We're going to give this a try and see how it goes. If I suck, I don't care. I tried.

I got to sleep in a little today, but my alarm clock went off at the necessary time! It was about a quarter to nine when I got to school. I hung out with Justine, Amèlie, Valentine, and Jeremy in front of the school until the doors opened. Then we went to math. Dun dun dunnn.. haha! Actually, today, I knew what the lesson was about! We were taught the recursive formula!! I remember doing that two summers ago in Alg 2, but completely forgot everything but its name. I don't remember it being tooo hard, though, so hopefully I will catch on tomorrow. If not, I'll have someone explain it to me.

The only other class I had today was 2 hours of theatre. I already told you the main points of that. We went through the script a couple times and then I talked to Wendie and Gaeta and some other people from my class for the remaining time.

After school, I came home and had lunch. My host mom went back to work at the Mairie and Pierre and I put the Cleopatre CD on my ipod! Yayyy :D! I want the rest of his CDs on there, too, but we didn't have time today. A girl from my town who is going to be a student in the US next year came to talk to me. I let her ask questions, told her about some of the differences, school, families, etc. I showed her my yearbook from last year and my photo album, too. She's staying in Iowa, so I think that looks pretty similar to North Dakota. I dunno. I've never been there. We talked for a good few hours, though.

Now, I got on the Internet for a bit. Pierre is at the Kiné and in about 5 minutes, I am going to music. I'm going to get off and go get ready for that!
Have a nice day!
<3miranda

I Slept In!

This morning, my ipod did not go off to wake me up. I looked at the alarm and realized I'd set it for 5:50 PM! Merde! My host mom came up about 10 to 7:00 and woke me up! I took a shower and got ready in 20 minutes! For me, that's pretty incredible. I thought I was going to miss the bus, so I didn't eat breakfast and instead grabbed some cookie things and breakfast bars to take with me. Hah, it was just like being in Fargo again. :P

Latin went by like normal; I tuned out after the first ten minutes of jibberish. I found out that the girl next to me has studied Latin for FIVE YEARS. Hah! I am on my SECOND year and I'm in a class with people who have been studying it for fiiiiive years! No wonder I feel like an idiot!

French was next. We read some story thing and then discussed it and took notes. Then we read a scene from a play. I really can't tell you any more than that. Lol.

The next two hours were spent in History. I understand that class again! We're talking about immigration and emigration within Europe. It's really interesting to learn it from this perspective, because we just learn about American immigration. I was the example, too. I emigrated from the Etats Unis and immigrated into Europe, for now. My teacher couldn't remember my name at first and had to ask me. It took three tries before she finally understood me. This happens with a lot of people, and it gets kind of frustrating. I try to say it with an accent, but I guess that needs some work. Haha. Normally one of my friends ends up saying my name for me.

My next class wasn't for a couple hours, so Sabrina, Bryan, and I went to the snack room and I bought something out of the vending machine. I think it was a chocolate waffle? Haha, it was good though, and I was starving! We talked to some other people until about one, when we met Marion, Virginie, and Laureen at the cafeteria for lunch! Today I had a croque monsieur, fries, yougurt, and some kind of pie thing. :) :)

After lunch, Sabrina, Bryan, and I went to TPE. The class worked on their projects. I think they are pretty close to done, because a lot of people are finishing up. Sabrina gave me her math to copy :P and then I worked on the history homework a little. It went pretty well. I talked to Sabrina and Shirly and also got a lot of work done.

Two hours later, I had French again. I handed in my Manon Lescaut paper and my teacher told me that it was great! haha! I think what she meant is that she was happy I tried, not that the paper itself looked great, because it didn't. It was really messy and written in pencil because I kept making a million mistakes. hahahaah! If another student were to turn that in, I think it would have been returned immediately. Lol! We talked a little more about the scene from the play we read earlier, took some notes, and the day was over at 5:00.

I talked to Alicia while I waited for my host mom. When I got home, I chilled with Pierre and Tequila a little in front of the TV and now I'm online. Not a whole lot to report.

au revoir!
vous me manquez!
<3miranda

PS-Happy Snow Day :D! Lol, I forget it is still winter there!

Today Is The Start Of A New Trimester

It's also the last trimester, and goes until the end of the school year-- JULY 1st. Yeah, I end school in July. Hah. Quit complaining about going into the beginning of June this year, you guys :P! We do have a lot of vacation time, though. I think there are only about 14 weeks of actual school left.

I heard that last night you guys turned your clocks back. I guess we don't do that here, because all of the clocks are the same and my family hasn't said anything about it. That's kind of strange. Now we are 8 hours time difference instead of 7.

On with my day! I started school with Anglais Complementaire. No offense, but my teacher kind of irritates me. He makes me feel really uncomfortable. Today, someone said something that was not gramatically correct, and he turns to me and goes, "Miranda, would you say it like that?" I replied yes. Seriously, I would probably say "I passed time in my room" instead of "I had passed the time in my room." To be honest, I think majority of you would say the first one over the second. I don't like having to answer his questions. He puts me on the spot a lot, too, and when he asks me things, he words them so strangely that I don't always understand. Then I feel really stupid because here I am, a native English speaker in an English foreign language class, and I can't understand what the dude is trying to ask me! I reword his questions and ask them back, then he gets even more confusing. It is the most awkward class...

When that was finally over, I had a break from 11 to 12. Annick (my aunt here) invited me over to her house last night for lunch today. I met her daughter, Elodie, her son, Samuel, and his girlfriend (don't remember her name). Elodie lives up in Calais. I think over the April vacation I'm going to visit her and go to England for a little while :D! That would be funnnnn! We talked for a while and Annick fed me some potatoes and some kind of meat. I don't remember what it was called, but I think it came from a cow. It was yummy :)! Elodie brought me back to school just before noon.

Then I had theatre. That class went well today. I don't really mind it anymore, mostly because all I have to do is sit there for now. We found an easy script for me just before the vacation, but weren't able to find the book again. Now my teacher decided that she is going to get a script in English for me. Alice will take the French lines and I will get the English ones. Hah. I haven't really decided whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, but it works! I can do that! I just won't learn French that way.

After theatre, I had about a half an hour break. I went with most of the rest of my class to the foyer. We talked and hung out, and then went to Anglais 1L1 (not the same as before).

That class is has little harder material, but the teacher doesn't put me on the spot as often, which I like. Sometimes she asks if I would say something this way or that, but she does it when she isn't sure, not to make someone in my class feel dumb. She is a little more strict, too. Her "Shhh" is really loud, and she does it a lottt! Actually, you know what? She reminds me of the Super Nanny from TV. They even have the exact same voice/accent! In class today, we went over the tests that everyone took on Saturday (except me). It was a really strange essay. They had to analyze a cartoon about TV making you dumb. I dunno. I probably wouldn't have done too well on that to be honest.

Following Anglais was TPSVC (i think?), which is a biology-like science class. I understood enough to know that we're talking about photosynthesis. Unfortunately, I didn't understand that very well the first time I learned it in English, either. The best thing about science, though, is that a lott of the French words are really close to the English ones. It makes it a lot easier to follow.

I had a 10 minute break afterwards and spent that out in the yard with some students from my class. Then I had Anglais 1L1 again. This time, we read a page-long excerpt from a story. Guess who was chosen to read? Yeah, me. I didn't really mind, though. That was kind of fun. I haven't spoken that much English in a long time. I guess I read too fast, though, because after I was finished, my teacher told the class to reread it at their own pace so they could comprehend the story. We spent the rest of the hour answering questions about this story, which was about a woman protesting for her right to vote. The topics in that class have been really dry. I wish they could come up with something a little more interesting to put in our lessons.

The day ended with some Français. We talked about the Bac for a while at the beginning. This year the students take the French portion of this test. For those of you who haven't heard of the Baccélaureat (sp?) before, it's a big test that French students take over their last two years of high school. It's what earns them their 'diploma' and they are then finished with high school. If they fail it, they must retake the last year of schooling and try again. I'm going to try both the Oral and Written part with my class this year. I am pretty sure I will fail miserably, but I don't care. I'm not getting held back :P! It will just be interesting to see what it's like.

We also talked about the Saturday test. This week the subject is French. I really want to try taking those tests. I think I'm going to get my lazy butt up on Saturday mornings and start going. It can't hurt! This trimester I really want to actually work and get grades! So far, I haven't had anything graded except that one speech in English class. I really want to try and see what I can pull off.

After all that discussion, we read a really short (like, one paragraph in length) story called Diaphis, or something like that. Then we talked about it for a little while. All I really got was that the main guy really liked birds. haha.

I came home, had a little snack and then got online. Not a whole lot interesting has happened yet. Haha. I will talk to you all tomorrow, though! Pierre wants to show me something.

Byeeeeeee<3
-Miranda

I Am So Sore.

Everytime I move my body just hurts. I think it's from playing yesterday, haha! I am so out of shape. It wasn't like it was even that intense of a workout!

This morning at 11, Pierre, my host mom, and I went to the cinema. We saw the movie Slumdog Millionaire. That was an awesome movie, and it was in ENGLISH! There were subtitles in French, though, for the rest of the people there. I read along, too, just because it was good practice. I also found it interesting that the "New Releases" were movies like Marley and Me, Last Chance Harvey, Hotel For Dogs, and things that have been out in the States since I left. Haha, It's kind of strange knowing the ending of a movie before it comes out in theaters.

After lunch, Pierre and I played some MORE sports. Thank God we have school tomorrow! Haha, I don't know if my body could handle another day. :P Anyways, Pierre, Antoine, Pierre-Antoine, and I went to the Patonk (sp?) field and played a game. I think the American term for Patonk is Botche Ball, although I'm not 100% sure. Antoine and I were on a team and the Pierres were on the other. We won by like, 3 points. It was pretty intense. After that we played a little baseball (Pierre really likes that game), and then finished up with some football (soccer).

We returned home in the late afternoon. My host mom and I went over my homework a little and then we went to Thomas's house. (Pierre was tired, so he stayed home.) Thomas and Anne invited me to go with them to Normandy over the Easter weekend! Anne's family is all getting together there, so that should be fun. :)

Thomas also went on Google Earth, and we looked up Fargo. My new(ish) house was in a field, so we looked up my old address. Romane thought it was cool that all of our roads are straight. Here, it's a lot of circles. I showed them Discovery, Centennial, and a few other places, too. It kind of made me miss you all. Especially when they started talking about how we could look in the windows and see what everyone was doing and stuff. It kind of got me thinking. I haven't really spent a whole lot of time thinking about what everyone back home is doing right this minute. I don't think I want to start, though. It made me kind of sad for a little bit. Thomas showed me the Eiffel Tower, their house, my host mom's house, and my school from the satalite, too. That was neat.

Speaking of school... Today is the last day of February/March Vacation. Tomorrow I start back up again! I didn't finish my book, nor my paper, but I have a little bit written out, so I am just going to turn that in and hope for the best. I don't think my teacher is expecting a full essay, either, so I'm not too worried. And besides, my grades don't transfer back to South High. I don't really care if I spend more time out doing things than on homework. In fact, I'd probably be more upset if I turned down an outing and finished my paper, instead.

It is getting late, though, and I'm tired and I have to get up early! Ugh! Well, I guess I get to sleep in a little since school doesn't start until 10 tomorrow. Although, it would have started at noon if Koziman (my english comp. teacher) wouldn't have told me that my schedule was wrong. He corrected it and told me that I have class Mondays at 10 now. Wonderful. I'd rather sleep than learn English. I'm going to go to bed, though!

à demain!
vous me manquez!
<3miranda

I Hate My Accent!

I'm trying to lose it. I got out my French Sounds packet from last year and am reviewing it. Haha, I seriously brought every sheet of paper I had with any French on it... and I've kept everything since Foreign Language Survey in 7th grade! Hahaha! I decided I need to crack down and study this stuff. I want to learn as much as I possibly can while I'm here. ....Then when I come back, I'll probably lose it all :/

Anywaysss, today I got up and started on my paper. I managed to get a decent amount done, as far as my ability level sits. My host mom told me she would help me with it tomorrow. I didn't finish the book, but I guess page 50 will have to be far enough, because I don't have the time. Tomorrow is the last day of vacation. Other than the homework factor, I'm reallyyy excited to get back to school! I miss my classmates. :)

After lunch, Pierre and I hung out with Pierre-Antoine. We played a little soccer, baseball, volleyball, and threw the football around in the feild. That went pretty good. It kind of made me miss softball. I wish they had a team here that I could join.

We played outside almost all afternoon. Around 4:30 or so, Pierre and I went to Pierre-Antoine's house and had a Coke. We talked for a while, and I got to see Teddy Rosevelt (Pierre-Antoine's dad) again. :P We talked a little bit, and then the parents left to go grocery shopping. Pierre, Pierre-Antoine, and I talked for a while longer, and then Antoine showed up. He and Pierre-Antoine were going to go to a protest at the train station this evening. I'm not sure how well I understood the reason, but it had something to do with funding being cut for people who wanted to go to school to be teachers. I dunno exactly. I've noticed a lottt of people here are not happy with Sarkozy, though. Oh! That reminds me! In French class we talked about that Voodoo doll of Nicolas Sarkozy, and I saw it the other day at the store!! I really want to buy it! Ahaha!

Anyway, after coming home, I went up to my room and worked on my Nasal Sounds and my "R" and "U" pernounciation. I am determind to get those! I really think I got the "R" down. I just need to try and actually use it when I talk in conversation! Haha! We ate supper kind of late, so I haven't done much since then except chat online.

Oh, and last night, the big show was called Les Enfoirés. Basically, a bunch of people put on a show and sang a bunch of really popular songs. I recognized Toi Plus Moi (Gregoire), Viva La Vida (Coldplay), I Kissed A Girl (Katy Perry), and La Lettre (René something). It was pretty cool. It went kind of late though, and I was super tired by the end! haha!

Speaking of which, it's actually pretty late right now. My host mom just went up to bed, so I kind of feel like I should wrap it up, too.

à demain!
-Miranda

"He who has a 'why' to live, can bear with almost any 'how'." -Friedrich Nietzsche

I'm Out Of Title Ideas

Nothing exceptionally interesting happened today. I'm having a really hard time titling my posts on days like this.

This morning I got to watch La Monde de Nemo, which is also known as Finding Nemo :D! I love that movie! It made me really miss my clownfish back at home, though! :/

Once that was finished, we had lunch. Today I was good. I remembered it was Friday this time, so I didn't eat any meat. I also remembered to tell my family that I can't eat meat on Fridays until Easter. Last week I kind of forgot and had steak on Ash Wednesday and then ham on Friday. Woops! It should be good from here on out, though!

After lunch, Pierre and I went into Arras. He reallyyyy wanted to go walking around the city with me, so he finally got the chance. I'm getting really good at finding my way around in the Centre-Ville area. I can get from my school to the Grande or the Petite Place and walk around a few side streets, go to the old church, the big bank etc. I'd probably be totally lost anywhere else in town, though. Pierre and I just went into a bookstore. He bought a few books and I got some post cards. Then we went to a pastery shop and I bought myself a "pain du chocolat" and him a croissant. We walked around a little more and then headed back to Lycée Gambetta, where my host mom picked us up.

Once we came home, I went up to my room and read some of my French book and Manon Lescaut. In the French book, I read a story about a boy who catches a tadpole and brings it home, but then has to let it go again. Hah. That was kind of cute. I also read a short fable about a crow and a fox, and then a little about daily life. I thought the daily life thing was kind of interesting, because a lot of the differences it mentions in there, I've written about on my blog! I'm also proud to tell you that I am on page 50 of my book for French class. Unfortunately there are only 2 more days of vacation and I have 100 pages to go yet.. plus a paper to write. I'm probably just going to finish Part One and then start the paper. I've been underlining fewer and fewer words as I'm reading, though! A lot of the words I underline are words that I know, they're just in a tense that I haven't learned or have a prefix or something, so I don't recognize them right away.

Tonight there is some huge thing on TV with a bunch of really famous French singers. I don't remember exactly what it is called, but Pierre is super excited to watch it! Perhaps I will recognize a few people on there. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.

A bientôt :)
<3Miranda

Be not the slave of your own past- plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with a new power, with an advanced experience, that shall explain and overlook the old. -Ralph Waldo Emerson