My Six Months In France

I didn't forget

2009-08-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

I've just been a terrible procrastinator and putting this off because, "I can do it whenever now that I'm back." But I really need to force myself to finish this before I forget. I dunno if it even intrests any of you anymore (and i really don't care), but I'm going to write as much as I can remember. Let's go back in time about three weeks...

Friday night was my last night in Roclincourt. I went out with Amandine, Antoine, Pierre-Antoine, and Simon to the Baobab Café. After a couple hours, we walked around Arras a bit and then went back to Roclincourt. We walked Amandine home and then went on a little tour of Roclincourt By Night. haha. We spent an hour sitting in the WW1 English Cemetary just talking and stuff. Then we took a walk past the taxidermist's place and checked out all the dead animals in the windows. My bus stop was just across the street, so we went over there and hung out a little. Then they walked me home and it took about an hour for us to say goodbye. I came inside and got to bed around 3AM.

I got up Saturday morning at about 7:15AM. After taking a shower, I came back up to my room to finish getting ready. I heard familiar voices coming from outside my window, and when I looked out, Antoine, Pierre-Antoine, and Simon were hangin' out on the sidewalk across the street. My host mom let them inside, and after I'd finished getting ready, I came down to the kitchen and talked with them as I ate breakfast. They gave me a CD with a million pictures on it from the past 6 months. We had to leave at 8 to go to the trainstation, so I said goodbye to the guys one last time, and then Fanny (who'd arrived while I was out the night before), my host mom, and Pierre took me to the trainstation. We found the train and stood outside saying goodbye. Then they helped me get my four pieces of luggage loaded on and I found my seat. Reneta (Argentina) and Alex (New Zealand) from St. Pol on the year-long program rode the train to Paris with me. I waved goodbye to my family for the last time at 8:35AM as the train pulled out of the station and headed south towards Paris. We arrived at Paris Nord less than an hour later. An AFS lady met us there and took us to a corner of the station where a bunch of people were gathered. We had to wait there until there were enough people to fill up a bus. We took that to the university-like campus we were spending the night in. After checking in, Renetta and I ate lunch together. Then we sat in the grass and talked for a while. Buses of people came in all morning and early afternoon. We were put into groups, mainly based on country. That said, my group was composed entirely of Americans. That pretty much ended the French for us. Our volunteer really didn't give a crap that we were speaking in English, and after doing 2 or 3 five minute activitis, we talked for the rest of the afternoon. It was the biggest waste of time ever. Supposedly this was an orientation for readapting to your home country and stuff, but we didn't do much of anything. It was basically just a talk about whatever thing. We were served a snack around 4:30 and then given room assignments based on departure times. I was with 3 other Americans in the dorm-like room. We had to board the bus at 7:15AM Sunday morning. As much as most of us didn't want to, we had to attend a talent show that lasted until almost 11:30. None of us got to bed before midnight, and the next morning came very quickly.

Sunday morning was a bitch. Wake-up call was at 6AM. We forced ourselves out of bed and got ready for the day. Then we found all our luggage and met up with the rest of the Americans downstairs. We walked to the bus (which was UPHILL) and I about died. I was pulling two suitcases behind me: one was 55lbs and the other was about 40. Then I had a big handbag on top of the small one and I had a messenger bag in front bouncing around and bruising my knees. It was not a comfortable walk. When we finally got up the neverending ramp, we loaded our junk on the bus and then rode to the airport. I used that time to catch up on a little sleep. Walking through the airport wasn't any better. Although we didn't have a terribly long way to go before I got rid of my two suitcases. One of them was 3 or 4kg overweight, but the nice man at the counter did not charge me for it. Once everyone checked their bags, we got time to eat breakfast. The AFS France people said goodbye to us at that point. We weren't all alone, though, because there were two American volunteers flying back with us. They led us through security and then we found our gate. On the way back, I watched two French movies, L.O.L. and Coco Avant Chanel. I also read my blue book I had everyone write in, listened to music; and watched the airplane travel across the ocean on the screen. When we got to NYC at 12:30 local time (only two and a half hours after the depart xD), everyone (but me) checked out with the AFS volunteers and either met up with their parents at the airport or found their connecting flights. There was another AFS lady from NY waiting for me outside the baggage claim, and after everyone had figured out where they were going, she took me to the hotel. It was the same one as last time, and the same rules applied as well; we could not leave the hotel. That kind of sucked. My flight wasn't until 5PM the next day. She told me she was only responsible for me until I checked out of the hotel the next morning at 10AM, so if I wanted, I could wander around by myeself for awhile. That would have been great, except for the fact I'd have all my shit with me, and walking around New York would have sucked! Anyway, we went to our rooms and got settled in. Then she and I went down to the convenience store next to the lobby and bought some snacks. I had oreos, chips ahoy cookies, a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich, and Hawaiian punch. We went back up to her room and watched Evan Almighty. My jetlag kicked in around 4 and I didn't wake up again until 5. At that time, we went to the restaurant and had dinner. Afterwards, I said goodnight to the AFS lady and we each went to our rooms. I would have gone to bed right away except for the fact that MY MOM CALLED! I was so excited to talk to her. My grandparents were at my house, too, so I got to talk to them for a little while. I didn't hang up until I'd talked to everyone for a good hour or two. I think it was almost midnight by the time I got to bed. haha. After being gone for months and spending the whole day around people talking about how they'd be seeing their families later in the day and how excited they were, all you really want to do is see your own. The whole "I could spend an entire afternoon alone wandering around NYC" thing doesn't even sound appealing anymore. My mom looked up earlier flights for me, and we found one at 11:30AM. I decided I'd switch my ticket tomorrow morning at the airport, so I'd be in Fargo by 4PM instead of 10:30. When I finally got off the phone, I fell asleep almost immediately.

I had my alarm set for 8:30AM, but I woke up Sunday morning for the first time at 4AM. I managed to fall back to sleep, but after waking up again at 7, I got up. Needless to say, I was almost all ready for the day before my alarm even went off. I watched some TV and waited for the AFS lady to come get me around 10. She checked us out and we had the bellboy call a taxi. When the driver showed up, I said goodbye and thanked the AFS lady for everything, and then I was on my way to LaGaurdia. I got to enjoy another day of pulling my luggage around. Thankfully this was the end of it, because I was starting to have some pretty sore muscles and some nice bruises on my legs. The lady at the check-in counter was not the nicest, and she treated me like a dumbass for not knowing how to use the machines, but whatever. I eventually figured it out. She told me how to change the time of my flight and all that crap, and that left me with a half hour to get through security and find the gate. The security line was moving terribly slow. I talked to the people behind me and found out they were on the same flight as me, so at least I wouldn't have missed it alone. That made me feel a little better. We made it through in time and I walked with these people to the gate. We had to board almost immediately, and I didn't have a seat assignment yet, so I had to go to the desk and get that figured out. They put me in the LAST seat on the plane. That really sucked. The engines were sooo loud! But whatever, it was nice to be going home. Unfortunately, we were delayed about an HOUR because of catering issues. We finally just left with only water on board, but no one really cared. A million of us were going to miss connecting flights if we left any later. As it was by the time I got off the plane, I had 10 minutes to run all the way across the Minneapolis airport before my plane left. That did not happen. I got to the gate, out of breath, and saw some other people from the NYC plane there, too. We'd all missed the plane by 5 minutes. I was on standby for the next one at 4-something. That gave me 2+ hours to wander around the airport. I called my cousin from a payphone (since it was a local call) to tell my mom I'd missed my flight and would be home later. Then I got a massage in one of those massage chair things since my back hurt so bad. After that, I found a Godfather's Pizza and had lunch. The airport was pretty dead. I decided to find my gate after eating, and I spent the rest of the time sitting there, listening to music and playing games on my ipod. I was the very last person to board since I'd been on standby and we were waiting to see if someone showed up or not. Lucky for me, that person did not, and I got to get on the plane. I spent the whole time on the edge of my seat, excited as hell to see my family. I almost turned to the guy next to me and told him I was going to see my family in less than an hour. I figured he probably didn't care, though, so I kept my excitement to myself. When the plane started landing, I looked out the window and for the first time, I realized how flat Fargo really is. I could see for miles, and not even one bump was in sight. I didn't even recognize this place. When we finally landed. I was the first person out of my seat pulling out my bags. I still had to wait in line to get off and dammit those people took forever! I came off the plane and looked around for my parents, but it was my dad who saw me first. After finding the source of my name, I ran toward it and gave everyone hugs. We found my luggage and then I was honestly just excited to go home and sleep. It was around 6:30, though, and no one had eaten supper, yet, so I was dragged along to Johnny Carino's. Then I went home and went to bed. My room was still in the process of being redone, so my bed was set up in the room next door.

Since I've been home, I've been pretty homesick for my other home on the other side of the world. I've gotten the opportunity to talk to most of my friends quite a few times thanks to MSN and facebook. I've also talked to my host mom, Sabrina, and Annick over the phone and gotten a letter from Sabrina in the mail. My packages have all arrived safely, but haven't completely been unpacked. I've gotten to see majority of my friends already. I went to the release of Harry Potter the night after I got back (and fell asleep in the middle of it!). Then Sydney came to town, so I spent an entire day with her for the first time in almost 3 years. I had a little coming home party and put together a photo album with 450 pictures. After that, both of my parents went out of town and both of my brothers and I were sent to Grandma's. Rica came and picked me up unexpectedly Wednesday afternoon and then Thursday we went to the Metro Station/Mayday Parade/Mitchel Musso concert at Playmakers. That was awesome- probably one of the best concerts I've ever been to. I just wish we wouldn't have gone to the Chinese buffet right before. That caused a little bit of stomach discomfort. lol. I spent the rest of the week with her. We spent our entire day Friday watching movies. We watched 9 and a half total: Juno, August Rush, The Land of Women, Mamma Mia, Rumor Has It.., Music and Lyrics, License to Wed, Over Her Dead Body, two others I can't remember, and then we fell asleep during The Heartbrake Kid. Rica dropped me off at home on her way to work on Saturday morning. My mom, Bryce, and Zach came home later that afternoon. I started reading Twilight in French that day. So far, so good. While I don't know every word, I know what is going on. It helps that I've already read it in English, too. My dad came back from Alaska yesterday, and my mom left for Houston again last night.

But anyway, who cares about all that? I thought I'd catch you up on my life since I've been back, but that got kind of long. Sorry. I've been in Fargo for 3 weeks now and I still would just like to go back to France. It was great seeing everyone again, but damn do I miss everything and everyone I left behind. Over the past 6 months I not only grew physically, but also very much so personally. When I left back in January, I was planning on improving my French and learning about the French culture. In reality, I learned a hell of a lot more than that. I learned how to integrate myself into a family, a class, and a community of strangers. By successfully doing so, I gained hundreds of new friends and a second family. I became a much more independent person and I learned how to ask for help when I need it. I developped self confidence in a way I don't even know how to explain. Then on the side of all that, I also greatly improved my French and learned a good deal about the French culture. If there is anything I regret, it would be not choosing to stay the entire year. Hopefully one day, I will get the opportunity to return and see everyone again.

I had a great time updating this blog and I know it got long sometimes, but overall I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. Have a great rest of the summer. I'll see you at the end of the month :)!

<3Miranda

French quote of the day comes from the film, Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis: "On pleure deux fois quand on va dans le nord, quand on arrive et quand on repart" That translates to: "We cry two times when we go to the North [of France], when we arrive and when we leave."

If being an exchange student or hosting one intrests you, go ahead and check out afs.org or another exchange program website. If anyone has any questions, feel free to email me at missmirandamari3@hotmail.com.

J'EN AI MARRE

2009-07-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

This is time number TWO because Internet Explorer is terrible. I wrote it out two twice but both times i got an error, and to be honest, i do not have the patients to rewrite everything i just wrote again! I will come on again tomorrow and rewrite what I entended to post today. hopefully internet explorer will be working well!
sorry.

bye.
<3Miranda

HOME

2009-07-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

I just want to let you all know that i got home tonight and everything went well. i cannnot staaaaaaand this keybored since the letters arent in the same spot and it is driving me absolutely insane, so after my french keybored is hooked up tomorrow i will get back on and write about my return. I'm sorry, but i hit the backspace button with almost every word i type and it is way too frustrating to try and write out a couple paragraphs this way.

A DEMAIN!

<3Miranda

2 Days

2009-07-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

Actually, this countdown is off since I'm not coming home Sunday like everyone else.. but whatever. It's not that big of a deal.

This morning, I got up super early (well, for being summer I'd consider 6am early) and after we were ready, my host mom and I went to the aérodrome to meet up with the hot air balloon pilot. There were two other people going up with us; 5 in the basket total. We drove to another nearby town to take off so that the wind would push us in a nice direction. It took about an hour to get setup and get ourselves up in the air. Once we were up, it was really easygoing, though. The basket didn't swing around at all, and we took the balloon up and down to different altitudes and it was great. The wind pushed us toward Cambrai, so we got to see the edge of Arras and then some smaller towns, as well as a ton of countryside. The fields here are like picture perfect. They're what North Dakota pretends it has; the colors are bright greens and golds and a mixture of the two, and they look like quilted squares from above. I took a million pictures. haha. One funny thing I need to point out is that when we turn on the flame, it makes a loud noise that makes every dog in town start barking and every cow and horse and deer and every other animal run away from us. It was really interesting to see that lol. Around nine, we came down in a dirt field and since the wind had picked up, we landed sideways. That was really fun, to be honest. The basket tipped over and we all held on to the handles inside. The light people were in back and the heavier people were in front so that when we fell on top of each other, no one got squished.

When I came back home, I took a shower and got ready for the day (since I really didn't do much this morning) and then got on my suitcases and boxes. Romane came over again and my host mom left for work with me in charge. They were not allowed to go down to the big yard without me, so they nagged on me from one til four to go with them. It drove me insaneeeee! I tried to give them something else to do and keep them busy, but nothing lasted more than five minutes. I painted Romane's nails and Pierre read a little, but ahhh! It was so hard to get my shit together with them telling me to do things faster or do it later or trying to help and putting things all over the place. When my host mom came home, I was pretty much done, so we went to get some stuff for my parents. Then we came back and Anne was there to pick up Romane and Simon was there along with all the kids. We all talked for a while and Romane and Pierre took me into the other room for a 'private meeting' and told me how much they are going to miss me and how glad they were that I came. Then it was time to go, and I said goodbye to Anne, Romane, Lilian, and Lou-Marie. Claire showed up at that point and she stayed with Simon, Lola, and Marius a little longer. When they left, the took Pierre with to drop him off at a birthday party. I said goodbye to everyone and then they were gone. Saying goodbye is getting a lot easier. After my going away party, things have started just kind of drifting past me. I've said goodbye over a hundred times and it doesn't even hurt much anymore. I knowww I'm going to come back one day and see a bunch of these people (or I hope so), I just don't know how soon that can be. I can't worry about that, though, because if I do, I will just make this a lot harder on myself. I'm also REALLY happy to see my family back home again! And my friends, too :)! I talked to my mom and Bryce the other night and that really made me excited to return. Unfortunately I have three days of transition time, and that is going to kind of suck. I wish I could just go right from my host family to my real family. I don't need a reflection meeting and fill out a survey in Paris; I'll reflect on my own.

Anyway, tomorrow morning my train leaves at 8:35AM. I am going out one last time tonight and I'ma make the most of it! Fanny gets in at 10PM tonight, too, so I'm excited to see her again! I'm gonna make the very most of the time I've got left; I can sulk during those next three days!

SEEEE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
AHHH<3333!

LOVE YOU!
-Miranda

Word of the Day: décoller = take off

3 Days

2009-07-09T13:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, I found a little time tonight, so I will give you a brief update on today's events.

This morning Romane came over to be watched. She and Pierre played a game downstairs and I spent all morning working on my suitcases and boxes. Then at just after 2, I took the train to Lille to meet up with my penpal from 9th grade, Manon! She and her friend, Lison, met up with me at the train station and then we walked around and had a drink at a café and talked. That was great being able to finally meet up with her. We went back to the train station just before 5 so I could get my train ticket home, but there was a long line and we didn't have the time to wait in it, so we found a guy with a French credit card and asked him to use the machine to get my ticket (since my card didn't work) and I paid him back with cash. That ended up working out really well. Manon and Lison helped me find my train and then they went back to Armentières. Now, this trip should have only taken me 40 minutes, but since I don't know how to listen, it wound up taking me almost 3 hours! The announcer started talking when we got on like normal and announced the places we were stopping and I didn't pay a whole lot of attention since this is pretty basic stuff. Unfortunately I missed the part where she said people going to Arras had to switch trains at the Douai station! I ended up taking the train all the way to Cambrai, then I got off and called my host mom to let her know I was running late. haha. She told me to see if I could get a ticket back to Arras, and if not, she'd drive the hour and come pick me up. I got really lucky, and after explaining my situation to the guy at the ticket counter, he gave me another ticket that would get me back to Douai and then to Arras, and I didn't even have to pay a second time! I had about five minutes to get onto the train to Douai, and then I sat at Douai for over a half an hour waiting for my connecting train. In that time, I bought a snack from the vending machine. I was sitting in the middle of a bench, with plenty of room on both sides of me for someone else to sit down, but this guy insisted that I move over to the far side of the bench so he could have his space. That was kind of rude, I thought, but I moved anyway. I made it to my next train and got off at Arras and found my host mom in the parking lot, laughing at me. haha. I had a pretty good laugh at myself, too. It was bound to happen sooner or later that I screwed up with the trains.

When I got home, I went back up to my room and packed until supper. After eating, Pierre and I went on a walk around town and I took pictures of things and places I frequently talked about on here. Simon saw us outside his house, so he came out and talked with us, followed by Arlette a little later. We talked a little bit and then continued our tour around town.

Tomorrow morning is finally the hot air balloon ride. We have to be there at freaking 6:45AM! And since it is already past 11PM here, I should probably get my butt upstairs and get ready for bed.
I'll try and write again tomorrow, but it will be another busy day & night!

See you sooooooooon<333
-Miranda

Acronym of the Day: TER = Transport Express Régional = a train that travels within the region.

4 Days

2009-07-08T11:09:00.000-07:00

It ended up raining, so the hot air balloon Monday night was rescheduled for Thursday night. Hopefully it's decent weather :)! Yesterday, I spent all day getting ready for my going away party, and then it started at 7 and went til around midnight. People got up and talked about me and I started crying. Then I had to get up in front of everyone and say a couple things, and I was somewhat prepared for this, so I had a little speech planned out, but when I got up there, all I got out was the beginning before I started crying again. Then I got a couple more things out and that was it. I took a few other people down with me, though. After that, people gave me tons of gifts, including lots of jewelry (since it's small and packs easily). Simon made me this awesome I <3 Roclincourt tee shirt with pictures on the back, which was great. Then we had picture time and talk/hangout & eat time. It was really nice to see everyone and talk one last time. I got people to sign my book and had my school pictures and some pins sitting out for people to take.

Today I got up kind of late, and then started packing. Today is really the only day I have time to do that. Tomorrow I'm going to Lille to meet up with my penpal, Manon, and then tomorrow night is the hot air balloon ride. Friday Annick and Eileen are coming over, Luc might be coming into town, Fanny is coming up from Perpignan, and I'm going out with Simon, Pierre-Antoine, Antoine, Elise, and possibly a couple other people one last time. Then at 8:35AM Saturday morning, I say goodbye to my host family and Roclincourt/Arras and take the train to Paris, where I have a little meeting with all the AFS exchange kids who are in France. Saturday morning, the US kids all get on the plane together and fly to NYC. Everyone except me has planes home the same day, but since there was no afternoon flight to Fargo, I'm spending the night in New York and flying home the next day. As you can see, I'm gonna be pretty busy up until I get home, so if I don't get on again til I get home, you now know a little overview of my schedule. I'll write a little reflection or something when I get home, too, to close this blog. I hope you've all had a good time reading it from time to time (or daily) and I will see you soon!

<33333333Miranda

Word of the Day: un château d'eau = a water tower

6 Days

2009-07-06T01:49:00.000-07:00

So I don't have a whole lot a time because Pierre wants to get on after me and then I need to go get ready for the day, but overall the last 2 days of the Main Square went well. Yesterday was my favorite day as far as the music went. We started out with some hippie-like music from Michael Franti & Spearhead. Then moved on to Jusin Nozuka, who I really enjoyed. After that was Katy Perry! That was followed by Duffy, then Franz Ferdinand, who was probably my favorite group of the night. After they were finished, Lenny Kravitz took the stage, and last was Moby. Last night was even more packed than the first night with Coldplay. Between 25,000 and 30,000 people showed up. Over the course of the 4 days, there were about 85,000 spectators! So they had a pretty good turn out.

Today is going to be pretty busy itself. My going away party is tomorrow night and I don't know an exact number because I didn't do a good job of marking down who was coming, but I gave out 85 invitations and nearly everyone is showing up, plus some parents that I got to know really well, so we will see. I have not had time to plan anything, and I dunno what my host mom has put together, but she is not the most organized person in the world, so hopefully we can get things sorted out today and tomorrow morning. Although, this afternoon I was invited over to Laure and Claire's house from 2:30 to 6. Then, if the weather is decent, my host mom and I are supposed to have a hot air balloon ride tonight. I'm really looking forward to that, but I'm really nervous my party is going to suck since we've got nothingg so far and only 24 hours to get it all together.

I probably won't get on the computer tomorrow.
à mercredi!
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: un montgolfière = a hot air balloon

8 Days

2009-07-04T01:12:00.001-07:00

Last night wasn't quite as great as the night before, but the weather was much more agreeable. It was kind of a rap/techno night, with one French rock group (Phoenix) who was pretty good! Then Lily Allen was fun, but after that it was just rap and some techno, which is ok in small quantities, but I can't spend a whole night listening to it. We had Ace Out up first (in place of Sebastien Tellier who for some reason was not there). Then Phoenix, Lily Allen, Kanye West, and the last group we stayed for was Yusek. The people I was with are not at alllll rap people, and during Kanye West's performance, François actually pulled out the newspaper and started reading it. lol xD! To make it even better, we were against the border of the walkway coming down from the stage, so there was no one pressed up against us and you could clearly see what he was doing. THEN! Kanye came singing downnn the walkway and fans were pushing at us, but he didn't even look up from the paper. ahhaha! It was great. Kanye has a really hot head, too. He's got the "I'm a bigshot" type ego, and it really annoyed me. First, he told the security that if he saw one camera or cell phone, he'd leave the stage. That didn't work at all, because everyone already had them and there are over 10,000 people there, so that is a little hard. Then, when he was walking down the middle, he had people around him pushing hands away and he didn't touch anyone's hand or even awknowlege the fact that there were people on both sides of him. He was also the only artist to not even say "Bonjour" to the crowd. I dunno him personally or anything, but he doesn't seem like the fan-loving kind of singer. Then after him, it turned all techno and everyone jumped around like a rave. It was kind of fun, but like I said, it's not something I could spend until 5AM listening to, so we left after an hour and I got home around 1.

Today is the Aérodrome Festival, then for the Main Square, we've got Placebo, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, Gossip, Ghinzu, Expatriate, and Crookers. I'll letcha know how all that goes tomorrow :)!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY YOU GUYS!
:D!
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: un arc-en-ciel = a rainbow

9 Days

2009-07-03T03:25:00.000-07:00

Down to the single digits. Wow, I cannot believe it. Anyway, to quick catch you up on what's been going on so far this month: Thursday after I left off, I went into town with a bunch of the girls from my class at school. We walked around, talked, had ice cream, and then went to a café. That evening, I went on a bike ride with Pierre, Antoine, and Pierre-Antoine. I really did not want to go after my last experience with a 'nice, easy trip,' but Pierre got mad when I wasn't going to do it and so I wound up biking again. This time wasn't as bad, though. We went just outside of town onto the *paved* route through the fields. Most of this was either downhill or flat, and Pierre-Antoine adjusted my gears for me ahead of time, so I didn't have them screwed up. After that, we all hung out in the big yard next to the military cemetary in town. That was when it hit me how soon I was leaving, and that came as kind of a shock. After talking for a while, we went down the street to Pierre-Antoine's house and helped him trim back the bushes into rectangles. :D! Then Pierre and I came home for supper and I was going to get back on to finish my blog afterwards, but the Internet wouldn't connect for me.

Yesterday was really busy. I got up and got ready for the day, and then went to a park with Antoine, Pierre-Antoine, and Simon and we took some senior pictures for me. That was really fun, and we got off task a ton, so really, I don't have that many actual pictures I could use- losts of them are ones where I'm talking or laughing or someone is creepin' in the background or making a face or something like that. haha :D! We had a good time with that. We went into Arras afterwards and found places we could hang up ads and leave fliers for the Aérodrome Festival in Roclincourt this weekend. Around 1, we went to a kabab place near the train station for lunch. A kabab is a sandwich with a bunch of different kinds of meat chopped up inside and a sauce of choice. That sounds kind of strange, but it was pretty good! That was served with fries and a pop or water. We then stopped by the radio station that Pierre-Antoine works at and talked to some guy. I got back home just before 3, and was supposed to meet Maxime and François in town at 3:30, so I had to hurry and get my stuff together for the night. My host mom and Pierre were in Lens (another town a little ways away), so Antoine offered to give me a ride back into town. I got to the Beffroi (the meeting place) a little after 3:20, and then got a message from Maxime saying they'd be late. I hung out inside and cooled off (since it was burnin' up outside yesterday). Then when everyone got there, we went got our 4-Day pass wristbands and went through the waiting line & security just as the first band started playing. Concerts here are thankfully not quite as squishy as ones in Fargo. For the first group, people could sit down and some people even had big blankets spread out comfortably. We were a little to the left side of the middle and not too far back (considering how many people there were), so it wasn't too bad. I just hate being short, because there are always a million tall people in front of me and I have to find little gaps between necks so I can see the stage. François put me on his shoulders for a while during Amy Macdonald, but people behind me got really upset, so I got down. It was nice being able to see for a while, though! And later on during the Ting Tings, tonsss of people were up on shoulders, and even more during Coldplay, so I dunno why I had to get down! The four bands that played last night were M.Ward (from Oregon), Amy Macdonald (Scottland), The Ting Tings and then Coldplay. It was kind of fun, because all the people tried to speak a little French. The first two introduced themselves in French, but then said everything else in English, so I got to be the translator for the people around me. Then the Ting Tings had a sheet of paper to read for a fun introduction and Coldplay actually knew enough French to speak throughout the performance in a mixture of French and English. It was insanely hot out, and after running out of water, I went to go get some between The Ting Tings and Coldplay. People had been getting more squished together with every band, but it was still possible to move around, so I figured it would be ok. WRONG! I got out fine, found out the concession stand was all out of every kind of drink except beer, and then, disappointed, I started my way back in until I couldn't move any further. I ended up next to some English speakers, so we talked for a while, and then Coldplay came onnnn :D! From the spot I was in, I could see almost nothing at all. I even had a hard time seeing the big screen for a while because of all the tall people. Two guys in front of me were really nice, though, and during Viva La Vida, they each took one of my feet and lifted me way up into the air and I took a video and it was greattt :D! That was probably the hilight of my night. Then, during the last song (before the encore), a bunch of confetti butterflies were shot out and they caught some for me. After the concert, was over, I met back up with François and Maxime and they took me home.

Today is day two of the concerts, and the line-up is Sébatstien Tellier, Phoenix, Lily Allen, Kanye West, and Birdy Nam Nam. Then afterwards is another set of concerts called 'Behind the Square.' I dunno if our wristbands get us into that or not, but if so, the artists playing are Late of the Pier, Yuksek, Busy P, Sebatian, and Boys Noize. If we get to stay for that, I probably won't get home until around 6AM. Then I'll have to get up around 8:30/9:00 for the Aérodrome Festival tomorrow. Then another round of concerts. That'll be busy. haha. That said, I don't know if I'll get on tomorrow, but I'll try and squeeze in time somewhere.

à bientôt!
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: Un écran = a screen

11 Days

2009-07-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

Today it hit me that I leave next week. That was really a shocker, too. I've been living here for 6 months, knowing I'd leave sometime, but that was always a ways off. Even when the days were down to the 20s, that still seemed like a ways off. Now, when I realized that it's next week that I leave, I seriously almost started bawling. It happened to hit me when I was with Pierre, Antoine, and Pierre-Antoine sitting around in the field, too. But anyway, I'll backtrack a little.

London was great. It was uncomfortably hot and my host mom and I both have very sore feet and legs from all the walking we did, but we made it. It was really fun, and for only being there two days, we saw tons of stuff. I'm not going to go through everything, because I'm honestly really not in the mood to even be writing, so I'll tell ya about it in a week if you want.

Today I went into town with

SORRY.
SUPPER TIME.

TTYL.

<3Miranda

14 Days

2009-06-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

So I have exactly 2 weeks before I'm back in the States. That really is not sinking in at all. It hasn't even sunk in yet that I'm never going back to school here with all those people, and that ended 2 weeks ago! I'm sure once I get home, though, that all that will

But anyway, after the parade yesterday, I went with Simon, Antoine, Amadine, and her little brother Guillaume to the fair in St. Laurent. We walked around and then went on a couple rides. I almostttt played a game for a goldfish, but if I won it, I wouldn't be able to bring it back with me and I don't know how much my host family would want it. lol. After that, I went out to eat at a restaurant with my host mom, Pierre, Annick, and Eileen (Sam's girlfriend). Around 10, Simon, Antoine, his sister, and her boyfriend came to pick me up to go to the bon fire at St. Laurent. I'm not kidding you, the wood was piled tee-pee style about as tall as 3 men standing on each other's shoulders. There was a tonnn of wood and it was all lit up at 11. Then everyone danced around the fire and music played and there were people giving out fire sticks (which Simon, Antoine, and I all took). It was quite the party. After a while, we got kind of bored and the volcano of fire shrunk quickly, so we went across the street to the fair again. We took a little tour around and bought SLUSHIES! That was the first time I'd seen one in France, so I had to get it. Around 12:30, I was dropped off at home and I went to bed around 1.

Today I slept in and thought I was going to be holding everyone up, so I got myself ready in the 5 minutes that I had and then ran downstairs. Both Pierre and my host mom were still getting ready themselves, so things turned out ok. I still have not even once made anyone late here! There have been a few times it's been close, but there's always someone who is running much later than I am, so it doesn't really matter. It was around 10:45 when we finally got out of the house. We went into Arras for the last day of the "soldes." Today, most of the stores put things out in the sidewalks and have super low prices and everything. I bought myself some makeup and then a DVD. We didn't really have enough time to spend clothes shopping. At noon (or around there), we went to Acq to see the rummage sales (which are all done on the same day at the same time on the same street) and then my host mom met up with some people for the 'aparatif' at the Sale des Fêtes. After a glass of champagne and a little talking, we left for Maroeuil where Lilian, Lou-Marie, and Romane all go to school. Today was their open house, so we ate lunch, played some games, and watched each class perform a dance.

Tonight I'm going to be packing my suitcase again because tomorrow at 5AM, my host mom and I are leaving for Lille, because our 'Chunnel' train to England leaves from there around 7AM. That said, you will not be hearing from me tomorrow, and probably not Tuesday night after I get back, either, but I should be on again sometime during the day Wednesday. I'll talk to you then! And bon retourn French travelers. I hope you guys had a great rest of the week :)!

à mercredi,
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: Barbe-à-papa = cotton candy

15 Days

2009-06-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

I didn't write yesterday since I was super busy, but I'll try and brief you in the few minutes I have here.

I got up and took my time getting ready for the day. During the afternoon, Simon came over with Marius and Lola. Marius has started walking now, so he was all over the place. Then after he left, my host mom, Pierre, and I went to my band concert. I played at the very end, so it was kind of a long wait, but at least I had some people to talk to. Afterwards (like with every event), refreshments were served and I saw my French teacher, so I talked with her. Then I talked to some of the people from my band and then Simon. When we came back, I had one hour to eat and get ready to go out "en boite" (aka: night clubbing)! I really had no idea what to wear, but I eventually figured something out and it turned out to be ok. Antoine, Pierre-Antoine, and a couple girls I didn't know showed up to pick me up around 11PM. We went to a discotheque called "Le Lagon Bleu" which was about a half hour away. Normally, I am not a dancer, but this was superrrr fun!!! We met up with some other people when we got there and then danced until around 4AM. I didn't get back until 5, and then went up to bed and actually fell asleep in my clothes. haha.

I woke up this morning around 12:30 and hurried to get ready. I went with Antoine, Pierre-Antoine, his dad, Amadine, Simon, and Jean-Marie to St. Laurent to walk and hand out candy in the parade of giants. We took the giant along too, of course.

SORRY GOTTA GO.

à demain!
<3Miranda

17 Days

2009-06-25T11:01:00.001-07:00

Salut!
I got back a little earlier than I thought, so I'm able to write again. It was soooooooo good to see everyone :D! I had a pretty good time speaking English again, too! Surprisingly, I hardly screwed up at all and threw very few French words into my sentences. I'm finding it a lot easier to switch back and forth between the two, which is good, I suppose. It was kind of annoying when I'd get on the phone with my parents, turn around a half hour later and speak English to my host mom. haha.

While I was with the group, I got to see the War Memorial, D-Day Beach, American Cemetery (which is actually owned by the US), and Point Hoc(?) in Normandy. Then I rode with them to Paris, and on the way, we stopped in Giverny to see Claude Monet's house and gardins. That was really pretty! When we got to Paris, we walked around a little while and went through a couple stores. We went to the café on top of one of them and it gave us a really nice view of the city. I said goodbye at the Champs Elysées and Johnson went with me by subway to get my stuff from the hotel and help me find my train at the station. I got back last night a little before 10PM.

Today I slept in super late. I got out of bed around 2PM and then got myself ready for the day. Just before 4, my host mom dropped me off in town because I wanted to go shopping. Yesterday until Suday are the big sales nationwide. They only come two times a year, and nearly everything goes on sale in about every store. They're often between 30 and 50% off so you can find really good deals. I found tons of stuff, but again I had sizing issues and things here do not fit me well. I found some long shorts that work as capris, though! So I got a couple bottoms. Then I found this yellow shirt that I absolutely adore. I got a few other tops, too, and then my host mom came and picked me up around 7. Now I'm back at home waiting for supper to be done. :)

à demain!
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: les soldes = sales!

21 Days

2009-06-21T08:56:00.001-07:00

Bonjour!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!
:)

Yesterday, I spent the whole day helping Anne, Thomas, Manuel, Marion, and Nicolas (who came up from Perpignan as a surprise for Thomas) prepare for Thomas's party. I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail on that because I don't have a ton of time, but I pretty much just went with Anne to pick up some of the food she ordered, helped with food preparation, and then set tables in the backyard. My host mom came to pick me up around 6(?) and we went back to the house to get ready. We returned for the party around 9, and there were already tons of people there. The 'aparatif' was served as everyone talked. I didn't know hardly anyone, so I just kind of wandered and talked to people my host mom was talking to for a while. Then we ate and afterwards there was dancing down on the patio. Simon and Anne led the sketch with the nasty furniture later on. I got dragged into doing it, too, so that was interesting. lol. I was so tired by that time I didn't even really understand what was going on, so I just kind of stood there. haha. We stayed until about 2:30AM, after the melted Camembert was served with baguette.

This morning, I slept in until 12:45! We were supposed to go back over to Thomas's house at 1:00 for lunch. haha wooops! I got up and took a quick shower and got myself ready by 1:15. It turned out to be no big deal that we were late, since everyone was tired and just kind of sitting around the table and eating leftovers. Marion and Nicolas left at 2 to catch their plane south. We hung out a little longer and talked. Then we got cold, so we went inside for the 'café.' We played a little MarioKart on the Wii, and then came home around 4:30/5:00. We're taking a little break, and then around 7, I'm going with Antoine and I dunno who all else, but I'm assuming Pierre-Antoine and Simon into Arras for the Music Festival! There are tons of local bands playing all over the streets all night long. Vincent's group is playing, so we'll probably go listen to them for a while. Then I have no idea how many other people there are, but I've heard it's a bigg thing, so it should be fun. The only issue is that I'm still kind of tired, so I hope I've got the energy to for another late night.

If I don't get the chance to write tomorrow, I'll talk to you again at the end of the month! I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon for NORMANDYYY :D! And I'ma see all you French kids from Fargooo :D! Then I've got less than 24 hours before I leave for England, so I dunno if I will have time to write between the two, so don't worry if you don't hear from me until July.

à la prochaine!
<3Miranda!

Word of the Day: L'été = Summer

23 Days

2009-06-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

Salut, tout le monde!

Today I got up and went to schoooool :)! My class had the math portion of their Bac from 8-9:30. I went around 9 so that I could get in and go to the CDI or something for the half hour that remained, but when I got there, the doors were not open. Since school is over for the Lycéens, the doors didn't open on the hour. Bryan was hangin' out waiting for Amélie (he is going to "redoubler," so he isn't taking the Bac this year), so I hung out with him for a while and we talked. A few other kids came and we talked for a while and waited for the doors to open. 9:30 rolled around and no one came out. They held them inside until 10:00, so we got an extra half hour of waiting time in. When everyone came out, I said hello and talked with my class and they said that overall, it went pretty well. After about ten or fifteen minutes, Sabrina, Mary, and I went into town. We went to Promod, and I found a milllllion things that I wanted. hahaha. I tried a ton of stuff on, but I still am not very good about finding my size. They are marked a few different ways, and it's really confusing. I will try two things on that are marked the same size, and one will fit and the other won't. The really frustrating part is when they don't have anything one size smaller, so then I'm outa luck completely, and that ticks me off. I ended up buying only 3 tops. I was reallyyy close to buying a fourth, and then just having the straps shortened when I get home, but it was kind of expensive anyway, so I let it go. I already have two other tanktops that need to be fixed before I can wear them without showin' off my chest to the whole world. lol. Anyway, Mary left for the Mediateque so she could do some studying, and Sabrina and I went to Miss Coquine's to look for shoes. I found theee most comfortable & the cutest black flats ever for 10€! That made my day. I originally went in to get a white pair, but I couldn't help buying those, too. haha. A little after 11, Sab and I went to Le Furet and she looked for a Father's Day gift for her dad. Her mom showed up and they picked out some CDs and stuff, and then she left with her mom. Since they were going past Gambetta, they offered to drop me off. My host mom was going to meet me there around 1, so I accepted the offer. Although, when I got there, I sat down and looked at the time and realized it was only 12:20. I walked back into town and got myself a tuna sandwich and cherry coke for lunch. I sat down on the steps near the Furet, and ate. Then, when it was closer to 12:45, I started back to school. My host mom picked me up and brought me home. They hadn't eaten lunch yet, so Pierre and my host mom ate and I sat there for the conversation. Afterwards, Pierre and I started painting the ugly furnature for Thomas. Pierre got sick of that and went with my host mom to the Mairie. I just finished up, and now I'm going to go join them.

I'm not sure if I'll have time to write tomorrow, but I will try. If not, expect one more entry Sunday, and then I'll be off to meet up with my class Monday early afternoon :D!

à la prochaine!
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: Les meubles = furniture

24 Days

2009-06-18T08:30:00.000-07:00

The cooking class last night was really fun. We didn't get recipes, but there really wasn't much of one. We tips on how to cut the veggies, then cut the meat and everything else. Then we put the peppers and onions and garlic into a kettle and let that cook with salt and peparika. The meat was baby lamb. That was cut up and then put aside for later. We cut a crust to place on top of the meat, and then made leaf chips out of basil leaves for a garnish. After that, we made a caramel sauce and chocolate sauce for the dessert. We made the appatizer out of some crunchy bread-like dough and peparkia, and rolled that up & cut thin rounds. Then we placed them on a pan and inserted sticks to make lollipops. Those went into the oven and then we worked on the dessert. We took really thin circles of pie-crust like dough and rolled the chocolate into that. Then we folded it and cut the edges to make it prettier. Those went into the oven after the appatizers, and then we took a break. It was Alain's birthday, so we all celebrated with some nice champagne and ate the appatizer lollipops outdoors on the patio. After finishing up that and talking, we went back into the kitchen to cook the meat. It was fried with butter and some other stuff (salt..? I don't rememeber). Then we learned how to 'present' our food on the plate. There was a rectangular cookie cutter for the veggies. Then mini sponges for any drips. After that, the meat was added and followed by a basil leaf chip and a sauce. It was so pretty! It looked like something you'd see in a cooking magazine or something! The next part was probably my favorite: we got to eat. :P! The nine of us (Luc, Alain, Claire, Simon, Thomas, Anne, Elodie, Cédric, and I) went out to the table (inside this time since the sun had set), and our food was served to us. Normally, I'm not a huge meat person; I just eat it because I have to, but this baby lamb was SOOO good! I would honestly eat it any day, any time. Ahh! It was cooked PERFECTLY. The veggies were reaallyyy yummy, too, as was everything we ate! I even wiped my plate clean with the bread roll (something I've never done before, but is typical of the French). After we were done eating, we talked for a while. Then we went back into the kitchen to make our dessert plates. First, we sprinkled cocoa powder in a diagonal line across the plate. Then we made a design with the extra chocolate sauce from earlier. After that, the crêpe-like dessert was placed on top along with a scoop of vanilla ice cream along side. We ate that and mmmmmmm :D! It was delish. We talked awhile after eating, and I got home around 11:30/11:45 last night.

This morning, I woke up and fell back to sleep a million times before I finally got up. I did not sleep very well last night. When I finally did get up, I got myself ready and then worked a little more on my room. I got sidetracked after a while and painted my toe nails. Then I looked through my history book and packed a little for next week. Then my host mom and I went to a thrift store to look for ugly furnature for Thomas's birthday. He wants money for nice furnature, but instead, a group of us is going to rent a little moving truck and dress up and then unload tons of ugly crap. xD! We found a few things, including 2 blue folding chairs, another blue chair, an aquarium screen and old wood things we can use as legs for a table. We decided we're going to paint all the furnature blue so it all kind of matches. It's going to be really funny xD! But anyway, now I'm at home and my host mom is at the Mairie. Pierre is still sick, so he's hangin' out in front of the TV.

I'll talk to ya later!
à+
<3Miranda

Word of the day: La Mairie = the city hall

25 Days

2009-06-17T03:09:00.000-07:00

Today I'm feeling better. I finally got a really good night's sleep, and for the moment, my stamina is pretty much back. I've decided that I am just really behind on sleep and then I have a sinus issue, but I started taking Benadryl and that has been helping. So yeah, do not worry, I am going to be fine.

Yesterday, after I wrote on here, I went to Decathlon to look for excercise equipment with my host mom. We found a couple interesting machines, but didn't buy anything. Then we did a little grocery shopping before returning home. I sat around for a while after that, and then Pierre and I started a game of Monopoly: Nord-Pas de Calais Edition (aka- my region) :D! My host mom had a meeting, so I made the pizza she left out and we stopped our game to eat supper. For dessert, I had both coconut and pistachio ice creammmm :)! It was so yummy. If I could, I would honestly stock up on French ice cream and bring it back with me. It's soooo good! But anyways, after eating, Pierre didn't feel well. Actually, he didn't really feel too great all day, but it was worse after supper. We quit our game of Monopoly and he went to get ready for bed. My host mom came home a little later. I went up to my room and a little later, I also went to bed.

Today, I got up and felt soooo much better. I got myself ready and then worked on cleaning up my room and packing stuff up. I figure I have to take advantage of this week, because it's the only real free time I'm going to have until two days before I leave. I actually don't even have much free time left this week. I'll give you a little breakdown of my remaining time here.

This afternoon I'm going to the award ceremony for my class for winning a concours. Then this evening, I'm going with Thomas, Anne, Claire, and Simon to a cooking course! We're going to learn how to cook some real French cuisine :D! I'm really looking forward to that! :D! Tomorrow, my penpal from 9th grade might be coming to town to meet up with me, but that's not for certain. Friday, I'm going to school because my class has an hour and a half of math for the Bac, and after that, I'm going to hang out with them. Saturday is Thomas's birthday party, and then Sunday is the first day of spring, which means a nationwide music festival :)! Monday afternoon I leave for Normandy to meet up with my class, and then I stay with them until the 28th. Five o'clock on the 29th, my host mom and I are leaving for London and comong back the 30th. The 1st is a day for relaxing. Then the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th of July would be the Main Square concerts. On the 4th, there is also a fesival at the Aerodrome, so that day is entirely packed. Then I get the 6th to get things ready for my going away party on the 7th. The 8th and 9th are for packing up anything I haven't managed to squeeze in my suitcases yet, and then the 10th I leave my host family. I stay in Paris through the 12th, when I leave for New York City. Since there are no planes that go from New York - Fargo the afternoon of the 12th, I have to spend the night in a hotel in NYC and then the 13th of July, I get home. That time is going to go by SO fast. Ahhhh!

à bientôt!
<3Miranda

Phrase of the Day: n'imoprte quoi = it doesn't matter/whatever

OK! I just have to edit this, because thee coolest thing just happened. Well, it doesn't sound exceptionally cool, but it made me super happy! I went to the concours award ceremony thing, and since only 4 other people from my class, plus my history teacher was there, I had to go up and accept the award with them. They gave us a big stack of nicee stuff on the Holocaust and history of that time period and stuff. We got our picture taken a million times, and then had to talk with the press. I didn't say anything, and kind of just hid myself behind Rafaël, Audry, and Fiona, but the guy saw me anyway and asked my name to put down. I wasn't going to give it since I honestly did not do anything, but my teacher and Sabrina nodded at me, so I said, with my best French accent I could get out, my last and first name. Unfortunately, he still heard the accent, and then my teacher explained that I was American and everything, and that was kind of embarrassing since I was here accepting award for a big French history project.. But anyway, we went into the yard of the Prefecture afterwards for refreshments, and took a million more pictures. Then we looked at a bunch of the prize stuff. There was a pack of 3 DVDs on Auschwitz, a book on French heroines of the time period, a kit with a bunch of scans of letters and journal like stuff from someone in a concentration camp, a book on the WW2, and then a HUGE book on French history. Since there were 5 things and 5 of us who showed up, everyone decided to each take one. I felt really guilty about taking something, because, like I said, I didn't do a thing for this. My class had been working on it since the beginning of the year, and I arrived to watch Sabrina put the final touches on it before it got sent in. Everyone insisted I take something, though. So I told them to take what they wanted and I would take whatever was left. The book I ended up with was the giant French history book! It weighs like, 10lbs, no lie, and it covers everything from prehistoric times to modern day France, complete with color pictures and everything! I could not be more excited about this! The only thing that's going to be a little tricky is getting it home. The size of this thing is going to really be inconvenient- but I will find a way! Ok, I have to get ready to go to that cooking class, but I just really had to share that with you. :D!

à demain,
Miranda

26 Days

2009-06-16T06:05:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much of anything worth writing about today. Even if I did, I probably would not write much because I am so tired the muscles in my arms are tingly and numb. I am so tired and so frustrated and so freaking tired of being sick that I don't even know what to do. I really just want to see a doctor who speaks English so I can be sure and get my message across and don't just get jacked up on tons of meds. Uggggggh. If it weren't for my lack of energy, I'd probably go upstairs and lay down right now, but I really don't feel like it. I'm too lazy to go up two flights of steps and find my room.
:(

On the bright side, I looked into train tickets and everything today. The only thing standing in my way from meeting up with my class next week is my parent's permission, which I've already gotten by email and phone, but they need to sign a written form with AFS. So yay!
:)

Nothing much else to write. I think later today, we might be going shopping and then I dunno. I really hope I don't have to do too much walking, though. I am not in the mood. I'll write again tomorrow, hopefully.

à demain.
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: Voyager = to travel

27 Days

2009-06-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

I'm really not in a very good mood today. I don't feel very well and I'm super tired, even though I slept like a rockk last night.

Yesterday after I left off, we went to Thomas's house. During the appatizer, Pierre-Antoine called and said they were desperate for people to be in the parade with the giant. I said I'd go, so right after the main course, my host mom took me over to the Intermarché parking lot in St. Cathrine. There were 5 of us total; Pierre-Antoine, his dad (Gille), Arlette, and another girl named Laureen. We walked, two of us pushing the giant & three of us giving candy to little kids, from 4 to 6 - up- and downhill. I got to do some giant pushing when we were going uphill, and oh boy was that ever fun. haha. At the end, everyone stopped in a field with a basketball court and had sandwiches and ice tea. Then, one-by-one, every group that was in the parade was presented. We had to wheel Albert (the giant) across the basketball court and take a picture, then bring him back up onto the grass. After that, we got to wheel him back to the starting point and load him in the trailer to bring back to Roclincourt. It was fun, but at the end, I was really tired. To add to the situation, it was a really hot and humid day yesterday, so that was really uncomfortable. For supper last night, Annick came over. She brought fries and hot dogs. That sounds great, but I've eaten so many fries in the last week that I really was not in the mood for them again. I wasn't very hungry either, so I ate a few and then a hot dog and then sat there until she left. After that, I went up to bed.

When I got up this morning, my host mom was already at work and Pierre was at his 'stage' (internship?). I laid in bed until about 11:00 listening to music. Then I got myself ready for the day and started cleaning my room. My host mom came home just before one and took me to the Aerodrome café for lunch. We met one of her friends there, and the two of them worked on planning the air event in July. I just kind of sat there and ate. lol. I didn't even follow the conversation much because I was too tired. I really was not even that hungry, but I forced myself to eat my beef & sauce and the pasta as best I could. At 2:15 or so, we came back home. I went up to my room and worked on boxing up a bunch of stuff I no longer need here. Pierre came home around 2:30 and after that, my host mom went back to work. I got tired and stopped packing boxes and instead went on the computer. Voila. That's my whole day so far. I'm planning on laying down for a little while later, because I feel like crap.

à demain.
-Miranda

Word of the Day: malade = sick.

28 Days

2009-06-14T02:49:00.000-07:00

It still feels like I have forever here, even though I really don't. I ended my last day of school, mainly unphased. To me, it feels like one of those 2 week vacations; I know I'm not going to see these people tomorrow, but I feel like I will be seeing them again soon. I don't know why it's so hard to accept the fact that I've already seen a lot of people for the last time. Whatever, I'm glad I'm not all depressed and sulking around. That would be worse.
I realize I haven't written for a couple days. Sorry, I've been lazy. haha. I also apologize for my lack of writing skills and my weird sentences. I've been told by a few people that my writing skills are getting kind of sucky. lol. The sad thing is that I really can't come up with better words to write. My English is seriously regressing. Haha. Hopefully it'll come back quickly after I get home. I don't want to fail English next year! lol.

Anyway, Friday all I had was Latin and then two seperate hours of English LV1. Our Latin teacher took us to the CDI and I just talked to Claire, Justine, and some other girl. Then I went into town with Florent, Stephanie, Sabrina, and another guy named Maxime (I now know 3 Maximes). We walked around and took pictures. It was alright, but I was so tired that it kind of went by in a haze. When it was time for English, Sabrina and I went back to school. We watched the first hour of 'A Fish Named Wanda.' Since the teacher put it in English, no one really understood what was going on and there was a lot of talking. After class, a lot of people went home for the day. I said goodbye to a million people and then went back into town, this time with Sabrina, Joy, and Amélie. We went to Subway and had lunch. :D! Afterwards, we met up with Wendie and walked around some more. We went to Monoprix and the post office and the Furet. Then Sabrina and I went back to school for English. The others skipped class since it was the last day. I probably would have too, just because EVERYONE had pretty much already left, but I really wanted to go since it was the last day I'd ever really be in class there. Sabrina was nice and came with me. Rafaël and Julie were the only other people that showed up. One of the kids form my theatre class, Josellin(sp?), came in to join us since no one was in his class, either. This time we watched a different movie. It was a documentry on the Columbine and the OK Bombing and other 'American Tragedies.' I found it really interesting. Rafaël brough snacks and drinks, and Julie had candy, so we all snacked on that. Our teacher is retiring after this year, so we all wrote a little note and gave that to her at the end. At 4, Sabrina and I met back up with Wendie, Joy, Amélie, Alice, Alexandra, and Amélie's friend, Emanuelle, in the park by Lycée Robespierre. We hung out there for an hour, and then at 5, I said goodbye to everyone and went back to school. My host mom came and picked me up and we went to a town called Cambrai to see one of Luc's plays. It was really complicated, and I honestly did not understand it very well, but at the end, Luc explained it to me and it made sense. We got back home, ate supper, and then I went to bed pretty soon after that.

Yesterday, I got up and went to school around 8. Sabrina and I went really far into town. I'd never walked around that area before, but it was really pretty. We bought a croissant and two petits pains aux chocolat at a boulangerie. Then we sat on a bench by a statue and ate them. After that, we walked back towards the school. We went to the Beffoi, and I made Sabrina go up to the top with me! Normally, the stairs are blocked off or there is a sign that says that you can't go up, but this stairwell did not say that, so we went up. There were two floors and then a little stairwell that went up the tower a little. All that was on both floors were offices and government rooms. The view out the window was nice, but the tower itself is really a lot prettier on the outside. After that, we went to Lycée Carnot (across the street from Gambetta) for Italian. That was fun :D! I actually do know how to say a few things in Italian, now. Ho fame = J'ai faim = I'm hungry; Sono americana = Je suis américainne = I'm American; Ho un cane = J'ai un chien = I have a dog. Anyway, after class I caught the bus home. I spent almost all afternoon at the elementry school in town for their open house. The kids of different age groups each did a presentation, either singing or dancing, and then it was mainly a social thing. There were a couple games, but those were for the little kids. Pierre insisted that I play them, though, so I got to do a little bowling and then a marble roll and a shuffleboard type game with plastic bottle caps. At 5, the thing was over and we went to the shoe store for Pierre. Then we came back and my parents called!! I talked to them all evening. At 8, we ate supper outside. It was really nice out. There was a hot air balloon about a block away trying to get up, so after eating and talking, we were all going to go check that out and see what's up. Just as we were heading out, though, JAEDA CALLEDDDDDDDDDDDDDD! :D! I stayed back and talked with her and got details about meeting up with the French kids! We still don't have everything figured out, but I know most things now, so that's nice. She said she would talk to Johnson and then call me back in the morning. I told my host mom what she all said and asked if I could go for the whole week, and she has no problem with it, so YAYY!

This morning, Jaeda did call me back, but she didn't really have many answers for me, so she'll call me back later on. I'm SOO EXCITED thoughhhh! ahhhh!!!!! :D! After talking for a while, I got up and got ready for the day. In about 10 minutes, we're going to Thomas's house for lunch. Then later on today we're going to go to St. Cathrine (a town practically connected to Arras) for a parade or something.. I don't know exactly what, but the Roclincourt giant will be there, so yeah. I'll let you know how everything goes tomorrow.

à bientôt,
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: une cloche = a bell.

31 Days

2009-06-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

I have only got 15 mins, so I am pretty sure this is gonna get cut off in the middle. I'll try and get as far as I can, though. This morning was the Counceille de Classe. That's where two representative students and all the teachers who have a student in our class get together and talk about each one and decide whether or not they will move onto Terminale or retake their Premiere year. Sabrina and Valentine are the representitives from our class who go and act as everyone elses' voices. That was from 8-10, so I didn't have histoire. I instead started with French. BEfore class started, Sabrina and Valentine read off the trimester grades and the teachers' comments of each student in front of the class. I really didn't expect to have much to hear, but I guess they spent a long time talking about me and how well I've progressed with my French! I also have an awesome grade! I rank FOURTH in my class of 32 kids! No lie! My "moyenne" is 13,77! Sabrina is number one, Jeremy is number two, and Marion is number three. I didn't have a grade for French or for biology because those teachers didn't grade any of my papers or tests, so that wasn't counted in, but I have at least something graded from every other course. English really brought my grade up. Although Marion has a better grade than me in Anglais Comp. It doesn't really matter, though. I had my last hour of that class this morning. lol. Anyway, all we did after that in French was talk about some of the texts and review a few things for the Bac.

After French was math. No one had any motivation to do anything today. This was their last day of math class in their entire lives. The L kids don't have to take it next year, nor in college! The teacher tried to teach us a lesson, but very few people worked. I wrote the first story problem down and then quit.

From noon until one I completed my last hour of Anglais Complementaire. We played games today, so nothing was too bad. He still gave me a hard time about 'forgetting my English so I can't speak it with anyone anymore' and some "subtle" crap like that. I don't care, though. I could not be happier to be done with that class. And I will never see him again, either.

Finally, it was lunch time. I ate with the girls and then we went to the CDI. We went on the computer and Sabrina showed us photos of her birthday party (back in February). Then I gave Sabrina some of mine. It was not an overly exciting hour.

The second hour off, I went into town with Sabrina and I bought my school supplies for next year. I loooove the stuff here, so I figured I'd stock up a little. ;D! I have only got 8 effaseurs, though! I'm scared I'ma run outa those! Sabrina told me she would send me some if I need them througout the year, so that was somewhat reassuring. lol. I got a couple movies, too :)!

From 4-6, we had our last two hours of French. We talked for the first hour about reviewing for the Bac and she handed us clean copies of the texts we've studied recently and all that. Then we had our Goûter! I brought chocolate chip cookies and everyone loooved them :)! My teacher asked for the recipe, but I don't have it memorized, so I couldn't give it to her :/! She signed my yearbook, though, and I invited her (along with the rest of my class) to my going away party on July 7th. I made invitations for that last night since I won't be seeing these people much after school gets out. The goûter was great! I tried tons of foods and cakes, and took a million pictures (actually, majority of them were taken by other people). Then Bryan and Jeremy started arm wrestling, and Sabrina insisted that I face the winner. They kind of tied, so Bryan said he'd face me. We sat there foreeeever and then Nicolas jumped in and helped me and I won! lol! Then a million people started arm wrestling and I had to verse a million people and ahh! My arms are sooo sore! haha!

After school, I hung out with some people from my class and waited for the bus. Then I came home, at a banana and got on the computer. Very soon here, (when my host mom gets home), I'ma go recharge my cell phone! Yay!

I'll ttyl!
<3Miranda

32 Days

2009-06-10T06:12:00.000-07:00

Exactly one month from today I will no longer be with my host family. One month from Friday and I will be on the plane to New York. One month from Saturday and I will be in Fargo. Ah! It hasn't really sunk in yet how little time I have left and how quick it is going to go. I'm in this phase where nothing seems like it is going to change and my life feels as if it is going to remain like this, surrounded by these people, living in this house in this town in this country, speaking French, for a longgg time. I don't know why I can't realize the fact that everything is changing again in a month's time. Honestly, I can't even believe it is the end of the school year, and here I am in the middle of June.

Anyway, today was not a whole lot more exciting than yesterday. I am sorry, my blogs are getting really boring. Since we're on the last week of school, we don't do anything in class, so not a whole lot is worth writing about. This morning I took the bus to school because my host mom wasn't able to drive me at nine. I spent that hour in the CDI with Sabrina. Then we had math. We had an assignment to do, but since the grading period has stopped, no one was motivated at all and no one did anything. After class, I went into town with Wendie, Amélie, and Joy. We walked around and talked, and I bought a MAXIpain du chocolat! That's like, a giant petit pain! I don't even want to knowww how bad that was for me, haha. After that, we went to the movie theatre to check movie times. I was invited to a movie this afternoon, but since I have music, I had to decline the invitation. We went back to school around 11 and I met up with Sabrina and Marion, who had just finished Chinese. We went into town and I bought a CH'TI phrase book and a couple other things at the bookstore. Then we walked around some more before coming back to school. I found Camille (the one from Roclincourt, not from my class) and Oranne, and we waited for the bus together.

When I got home, I hung out with Pierre a little. When Spiderman came on, I decided to get on the computer, lol. My host mom made lunch and we ate around 1:30. Then I got back on the computer to check the chocolate chip cookie recipe. Tomorrow is my last day of French, so we are having a "Goûter" (like we did in theatre). I'm planning on bringin' some chocolate chip cookies to share for that :)! Pierre is at the Kiné right now, and my host mom has a thing and then is going to pick up some ingredients after she picks Pierre up. Hopefully I'll have enough time to make them before music tonight. I'm adding my new CD to my ipod right now, and earlier I uploaded a bunch of pictures to my album on myspace, so if you have me added on there you can check those out. I also finished up the poems from Mother's Day that Arlette asked me to type out. One of them I can't print out because I don't know who it is by, but I'll give her the other one tonight :).

I really don't have much else to say.
Have a good flight tomorrow, French travelers :D!

à demain
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: Demander = to ask

33 Days

2009-06-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

Today I had some issues getting up. lol. I slept in an extra half hour! Thankfully, I forced myself to hurry through my morning routine and caught the bus. In Latin this morning, I doodled. Claire even let me use her markers, so today my stuff is all colorful! lol!

In French, we took notes on a text. Nothing new there. After that, we had history/geography. Before class started, Sabrina wrote a big message on the board from the whole class to me saying how everyone is going to really miss me next year. I honestly almost lost it. I didn't see that coming at all. Awhh. I am going to have THEE hardest time leaving here. It is seriously the weirdest feeling ever. I described it to Jaeda as a feeling of both ecstacy and depression at the same time. I'm SO excited to see everyone back home again, but at the same time I can't even think about having all the people I met here out of my life. It's going to be a lot harder than coming, mainly because I knew from the day I left that I would see Fargo and everyone in it again. When I leave here, I cannot be 100% certain that I will be back and that I will be able to see some of these people again. Anyway, I will save the rest of that for Friday when school's done. We spent the whole 2 hours of geography drawing a map of France. And honestly dude, the map had to be PERFECT. You had to use circle rulers and straight edge rulers and write straight and color perfectly and holyyy crap! It was just for us, so I did a 'good enough' job (which most of you Americans would probably consider an A+ lol) and called it quits. Then we had an hour of ECJS. We spent that watching the first half of a documentary on how Man is destroying nature and the world.

At 1, it was lunch time! I ate lunch with the girls and then Sabrina and I went to the CDI and goofed around. At 2, we had another hour of history so that we could watch the second half of the video. Then we had another French class in which we finished up taking notes on that text.

After school, I went back to the CDI with Sabrina and went online. Now I'm at home and just hangin' out for the time being. Hopefully I will have more exciting news to share with you tomorrow. haha.

Oh, by the way, if any of you French travelers have any questions before you go, I'd be glad to answer them for you! Just leave a comment and I'll leave my response on tomorrow's post :)! One thing for everyone, though, PACK HAND SANATIZER. I have gone through so much of that it's crazy. Almost no public place (and some people's houses) do not have handsoap. Also, Tide-to-Go comes in handy. Those would be two little things I'd reccomend you toss in your suitcase.
Bon Voyage! & à bientôt :D!

<33333333Miranda

Word of the Day: l'emploi de temps = schedule

34 Days

2009-06-08T02:24:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know I've been kind of slacking off with my posts and I will try and get better. I would hate to have done a really good job in the beginning and then just stop at the end.. that's what usually happens to me when I try and keep a journal of my trips or whatever, and I'm not going to let it happen this time! I never finished talking about Friday, nor did I get back on to make another post on Saturday, but I'll quickly brief them, as well as Sunday for ya.

Friday, the only really cool thing worth noting is that I went to the really pretty park I wanted to get my senior pictures in for the two hours Parcours used to take up. Sabrina and I took senior-like pictures with my camera, so even though I don't think they'll be decent enough quality to use for the real deal, I still have the pictures I would've like to take there. I'm going to try and find someone with a really nice camera and get them to take good ones for me, because they turned out cuuuuute :)!

Saturday, I came to school and went to Italian again with Sabrina and Camille. I really like that class. The teacher is really chill and laid back, and I think we do more conversational talking than we do reviewing Italian. I bought a big boquet of flowers for my host mom while I was in town, too, becase Sunday was Mother's Day here. Then, in the evening, I had a band concert! haha! Our jazz group had to play for the town Mother's Day event. This is kind of a funny story. I was running late and so when I got there, I hurried and put my flute together. My host mom gave a little speech and then introduced us. We started playing, and I could not get any sound to come outt! I couldn't figure out what was wrong, and I tried to fake it as best I could, but since I was so preoccupied trying to figure out what was wrong with the flute, I don't think I did a very good job with that. I dunno if anyone could really tell, though. In the end, I realized I forgot to pull the cleaning stick out of the flute before I put it together. ahah. Woops. Afterwards, I talked with a bunch of people and hung out in the back by the elementary school. Pierre, Pierre-Antoine, and some other people explained how everything was set up in the classrooms when they were younger and that some of the books we could see on the bookshelf were the same and it was fun. Just before 11, I went into town for "The Longest Night" visual arts festival in Arras. It went until 3AM, but we didn't stay the whole time. We went to see Luc and Alain, mainly. Originally, I was going to go with some friends, but since my cell phone is out of credit for the moment (I'm going to refill it tomorrow), we couldn't keep in touch, so that didn't work out. Luc, Alain, Pierre, my host mom, and I went to see some art, and then we watched a little silent movie in the back of a trailer.

Sunday was both Mother's Day and Election day. Unfortunately, I have to go to theatre, so I will tell you all about that later.
And I willll be back on today; I won't leave you hanging like I did Saturday.
:p!

Haha, Valerie. What were you doing upppp?! But anyway, I didn't have theatre and instead went out with Alice and Wendie. We met up with Joy and Alicia and then talked for a while. After that, I returned back to school to meet up with Sabrina, Marion, Virginie, and Laureen for lunch.

Okay, well I got a little ahead of myself there, so we're going to back up a little. Yesterday was Mother's Day, so since my host mom had to be at the Mairie all day for the European Elections, I had Pierre help me clean. My host mom always wants to clean up, but she neverr has time, so we planned on doing it for her. As nice as it would have been to do the whole house (or even just the whole main floor), it was not possible to do it all in one day. We decided to attack the living/dining room first, then move on to the other rooms if we had time. We cleaned the junk off the main table, and then moved all the knick-knacky things off the other surfaces and put everything on the table. We used a surface cleaner on everything, and then went through the junk and things that were on the table. I organized all the bookcases and cleaned a small one out completely. That one was instead filled with knick-knacks. At around one thirty, my host mom came home and we had lunch. She asked us if we could unstack the dishwasher and tidy the kitchen up a bit this afternoon. So, we took a break from the living room and did the kitchen. I did the dishwasher and Pierre took care of all the crap on the table. Then he did the counters and I cleaned out and organized majority of the drawers. They were insanely messy, too, so I was pretty pround when they were done. I didn't get to all of them, but I got the main ones tidied up. After that, we went back to work on the living room.

At a little after 5, my host mom came to get me to bring me to see how the elections worked. When you walked in, there were fliers of each party/group running and brown envelopes. You could grab as many fliers as you wanted, and then you go into one of the two voting booths. You stick the flier of the group you want to vote for into your envelope, and then throw the others in the garbage inside the booth. Once you've closed the enevelope, you exit the booth and go to a long table in the middle of the room. First, you give your national identity card to Arlette so she can varify you are who you say you are. Then, Jean-Luc checks to see if you are on the 'Eligable Voters List' and once he finds your name, you drop your envelope into the giant box and sign next to your name on the list to say you voted. At 6:00, the polls closed. 353 people out of seven-hundred-some eligable people in town voted (a little over 50%). Eight conseil members split into groups of four and sat at tables with the envelopes. One person would open the envelope, the next person would read off and sort the fliers, and two people would keep tallies (so that they don't mess up). If an envelope contained more than one different flyer, it was invalid. It was also invalid if the envelope was empty or had something other than the official flyer inside. If the envelope contained two or more of the same flier, it still counted, but only once. After all the votes were counted and all the paperwork was done, my host mom read off the results to the people who'd come to see how things turned out. If I remember right, the 'Gauche' party, the 'Vert' party, as well as a few others, did really well. We will have to wait and see how things turn out nationally.

After that was over, I went back home and helped Pierre finish up the living room. When my host mom was finally allowed to go inside, she was shockeddd at how awesome of a job we did :)! I'm pretty proud of how much we accomplished, too. I wish we would have taken a before and after picture- same goes for the kitchen. My parents will NEVER believe me! haha.

Anyway, today I got up and came to school at 10 for Anglais Complementaire. Kozimor is just going to irritate me right up until the end. I recorded the first 10 minutes of class today, just so that I can show you the way he talks when I get back, because it is impossible to describe. Unfortunately, it stopped before he got angry with me for not talking in English much with my classmates. He had asked me how I was doing and then he started asking me about when I'm leaving and what I'm going to do before I leave and all that. Then he asked Wendie what she thought about me being in her class. That was kind of a jerky question, I thought, because it really only leaves the person to respond in one way or be really rude. Anyway, after that, he asked Wendie if she spoke in English with me often outside of class. Wendie was kind of hesitant about telling him no, so I thought I would help her out by telling him that I told people I was here to learn French and they did not need to speak English with me. He took that completely the wrong way and got all over my case for being selfish and not letting the other people take advantage of having me here. I was so taken aback by what he said that I stopped arguing for a few seconds. Then I just wanted to yell in his face! He was going on and on about how I don't need to speak English all the time, but I should talk with my friends as much as possible in English and that way they can get better with their English, too. He asked me if I understood what he was saying, and I said yes, but I told him that I was sorry, but I'm not here to teach others English (I wanted to say that that was HIS job, but I held my tongue). I told him that I worked hard to get myself here and I wanted to get as much out of it as I could, so I need to speak in French. I told him that I helped people with English if they needed it (which is true), and that I talked English in English class, but I'm not going to speak it with my classmates in a conversational setting. He then replied that I should have, because I can speak French at home with my host family and he is sure that that would have been plenty. The whole class was thankfully on my side and people kept blurting in things on my defense. Sabrina said that if someone wanted to improve their English, they could go on a program like mine to the States or to England (since it's not that far). He had a reply for everything, though. What finally ended it was when Alice said "It's too late!" Thank God for that. The conversation really pissed me off. I have never ever met a teacher like him before, and I really hope I don't meet another. Thankfully I only have to spend one more hour of my life in his presence on Thursday, and then, never again! :D!

Okay, I apologize for my constant rants about this guy, but I don't think I've gotten through one class period where he hasn't done something really jerky or something that's really pissed me off. After class, I came to the CDI while Sabrina had Chinese. Then I went out in town with Wendie and Alice since theatre is finished. I bought a chocolate filled croissant and ate that before coming back to school at one. I got there a little early and the doors weren't yet open. Saloua, Parine, and Justine were waiting outside, too. Saloua had a bunch of markers and 'tatooed' Parine's arm. Then she asked if she could do mine, too, so I let her. She wrote "I <3 GAMBETTA" all the way down my forearm and onto my hand. lol. When the doors opened up, I found the girls and we ate lunch. Now we have until 4:00 to chill. There's no more science, so after the first hour of English LV1, I have an hour and a half to hang out before the second hour of English LV1. Then I end my day with an hour of French.

à demain!
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: faire le ménage = to do housework

37 Days

2009-06-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

I have only 10 minutes before I go to the "conseille manicipale" so this is gonna be quick. I had Latin this morning, the French, followed by a short pause which I spent with Sabrina in the CDI. Then we had English. We continued talking about a text, and then class was over and Sabrina and I went around school taking pictures. I wanted to get pictures of different places around school before it's over. Awhhhh! I can't believe I only have one week left with everyone :(!

But anyways, at one, we met up with Marion at the cantine and then found Virginie and Laureen at a table. We all ate together, and then Sabrina went with Marion into town, and I went to the CDI. I had a really bad stomach ache, and was not in the mood to walk much.

SORRY! GOTTA GO.
Okay, today I've got some time, so I will finish up.

I went to the CDI for a while and then went outside and sat on the benches with Wendie, Joy, Alice, and Alexandra. At the end of the hour, Sabrina came back and all of us went to English again. This time, we got our grade averages for the trimester. I didn't have one in French or History/Geo, so I didn't think I'd get one in English either, but I did! I have an 18.6or7something. Haha, everyone was like "That's ittt?! You don't have a 20?!" :P! I know majority of you don't have any idea what that means, so I'm going to attempt and explain the French grading scale to you.

The French are graded on a scale of 1-20 (1 being terrible and 20 being outstanding). The average is 10, so if you have anything from about 1-9, that's not very good; 10-13 is normal; 14-16 is really good and anything over 16 is awesome. All the tests, assignments, and final grades are ranked on this scale. There is no such thing as FERPA, so the teachers read off trimester grades in front of the whole class. I noticed the average person has an 11.something or 12.something this trimester in French and English (I didn't hear the history ones). The highest grade in French was a 16.something, and the second highest grade was a 15.something. In English, the highest grade after mine was a 15.something. Each number and decimal really makes a difference, and it's nearly impossible to get a 20. I honestly don't know if they even give those. Even on assignments and tests teachers are just as hard. To 'get' their Bac, students need at least the average (10). If the don't score high enough (or if their grades aren't very good), they have to retake the whole year over again. That is a lot more common here than in the States. There is a girl in my class who is on her third time around her Première year, and after that, she still has to get through Terminale.. :/! Then I believe there are a couple other people in my class working on their second year.

Most of the students here have much better work habbits and better attitudes toward school, though. You don't find people who come to class, put their head down, and sleep; they all pretty much take notes and listen. If people don't plan on working in class, they skip it (which does happen frequently with some people). People here generally put a lot more time and effort into their assignments and tests/essays (DSs). They are required to put a lot more detail and write a lot more than Americans in order to get a decent note. You can't just slide by with the bare minimum. On DSs, you need to have an outline, an introduction, a 'problematique' (question you will answer in your paper), a 2-3 paragraph body discussing that problematique(with transition sentences and all), and then a conclusion. It's not written exactly the same style as I'm used to, though. In French, (normally) you can choose between a Commentaire, a Disertation, or an Ecrit d'Invention. All of those are written with the same general essay format, but each one has its style and different requirements. For example, in a commentaire, you read the extract and you write what you know about it. You create a problematique from the text (I've never been very good at those, because they can't be too general or 'easy.') and then you just write about it and what you understood. In a Disertation, you get a topic related to the extract, and then you write about that and you come up with outside examples. This one reminds me more of an American essay. Your problematique relates the text you read to something else (for example, How does this extract demonstrate the qualities of classicism? or something like that). This is a little harder, but it kind of depends on the topic and the text. It helps if you really like or dislike the reading, because you can come up with a better arguement. The Ecrit d'Invention is your creative writing. The format isn't quite as strict and usually is the most lineant with grading (although, not by a whole lot). You get a topic that is related to the text, but you don't actually write about the text, you just write your own work that is in the same style or somehow relates to it. This can either be really hard or kind of easy, again depending on the topic.

But anyway, I'm out of time so I've gotta go. I will update you on my day later on.
BYE!
<3Miranda
Word of the Day: redoubler = to repeat a grade

38 Days

2009-06-04T10:12:00.000-07:00

Today was fun, and different. This morning, I didn't have history, so school didn't start until 10. That allowed me to sleep in, which was really nice. My host mom had a hair appointment, so Pierrette's son took me to school. I swear I thought I was going to be late. He was late picking me up and he was slowww on the road. I got to school at 10:03, and miraculously, the doors were still open. I pushed my way through the crowd of people and made it in JUST in time. Then I went into the courtyard and found Wendie, Joy, Alice, Alexandra and a couple other people getting ready to go to class. I cannott believe I made it on time, but I'm pretty happy that I did. You know, I have not been late even once in the morning here (except the first day, I guess, but that doesn't count). That's awesome for me. It's probably because I usually take the bus, so I kind of have to be on time. At home, I've got major motivation issues in the morning. lol.

Anyway, French was my first class. We talked about the same extract that we started talking about a week ago. Then we got our Le Parfum essays back and hah! That was embarrassing. I got 2 questions somewhat right. It's not like I had a grade, though, so there was not a whole lot written on my paper.

After French, we had math. Today, we spent the whole hour drawing a square with other squares inside it and little images inside those.. it was one of those things were you can rotate the image and it looks the same.. I dunno. Mine kind of sucked. Nobody took it too seriously, and lots of people blew it off altogether. haha. I did actually work, but I didn't finish. It really doesn't matter because it's not due for a grade.

Since Kozimor wasn't there, we did not have Anglais Complementaire today :D! Instead, Sabrina and I met Marion at the cantine and went to lunch. After eating, we went to the CDI until one o'clock rolled around. Marion had class and Sabrina & I went out into town. We went to the Furet and I bought a CD, a DVD, and a French keyboard with all the accents and everything on it. I plan on hooking that up at home, so my family can look forward to relearning the key placements ;D! I got some birthday cards and postcards at Brunet's next door. Then Sabrina went back to school and I walked to the train station to meet up with Mary and some other people. She invited me to her house today for a little birthday party. I got to the station early, and no one else was there yet. I really had to go to the bathroom, so I went inside to look for one. I ended up PAYING to use the one inside the café. That was kind of annoying, but I really had to go, so I guess it was worth it.

When I went back outside, Alexandra was there. Her and I waited, and soon Mary showed up, followed by Amélie, Joy, and Wendie a little later. I gave Mary a birthday card and an "Je suis aimée" pin (because the lady at Helzberg Diamonds sent me with over a hundred of those things!). Then we all walked together to Mary's house, which wasn't too far away. Inside, we got a little tour. Her house is really nice, and it's super old and there's a history chart of all the people that have lived in it and everything. It's really cool. We spent majority of the time in the kitchen/dining room. We took a million pictures and listened to music and Mary tried to teach me the Michael Jackson moonwalk, but I stubbed my toe really bad (and it still hurts) so I quit. lol. She blew out the candle on her cake, and we all had a piece. There was also candy and ice cream to munch on. To drink, there was ice tea and a drink kind of like Sprite called "limonade." We stayed at her house until 4:30 or so, talking and just chillin' out.

When we left, Alexandra, Mary and Amélie went one way, and I went with Joy, Wendie, and Alice to walk around town. We went to a parfumerie for a while and smelled tons of different parfums. Then we walked around for a while. We went past the city library, the museum, and then stopped at the cathedral and hung out on the steps. Just before 6, we started back to school. I found Sabrina waiting for me on a bench outside the school, and talked to her until my bus came.

Back at home, I had a snack and went up to my room to unload my bag. When I came back downstairs, my host mom surprised me with tickets to London the 29-30th of June!!! :DDD! It's just going to be her and I, since Pierre has no intrest in going. He'll be staying with Simon. Then it was time for Pierre to go to the dietician, so my host mom and him left. I used that oppertunity to get on the computer, so voilà!

à demain!
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: Un anniversaire = a birthday

39 Days

2009-06-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well, if yesterday was a bad day, today was completely the opposite! I can't say I was the most enthusiastic when I forced myself out of bed this morning, but my day has definitely improved. I had math this morning to start out. All we did was go over the corrections of our DM. I got an 8/10 on that, by the way, thanks to Sabrina ;D! There's really not much to share about that class.

Then I had my last theatre class. Since it was the last day, we had a "Gouter" and everyone was supposed to bring treats. My host mom sent me with two bags of cookies, coconut maccaroons, some fruit cake muffin things, and I threw in a couple packages of Oreos, too. Other people brought crêpes, brownies, fruit cake, lots of different cookies, and candy. To drink, we had a choice of fruit juice, coke, or a carbonated lemonade-type drink. I tried tons of different stuff, but I really liked the crêpes and the maccaroons. The gouter lasted for the first hour of class, and the second hour was spent watching the Terminale kids rehearse their scenes that they'll be performing for the Bac. Instead of doing that (since I've seen them all a million times), I went with Wendie and Alice to the CDI and watched them run through a scene that they want to do next year.

When class was over, I went outside and waited for my bus. I found Sabrina, her sisters, Virginie, and Laureen. We talked for a while, and then they left. I didn't have to wait too much longer until my bus showed up. Today I also started getting people to sign my 'yearbook.' It's started to sink in that I'm getting near the end of my stay here, and I'm not going to some of these people ever again, and others not for a very long time. It'll be weird going back home and leaving people I've spent pretty much every day with for the last 4 and a half months. I honestly wish school wasn't so close to over, because after that, I probably won't see much of my friends from school. Everyone lives far apart, so doing things with people who don't live in your town gets kind of hard to organize. That would be one thing I really dislike here.

But anyway, after school, I came home to a package waiting for me!! It was from Rica and my mom! That really made my day. I opened the package in my room and found enough hand sanitizer to keep me going for another 6 months. lol. The really awesome part was underneath all that. Rica sent me a Sing It Loud tee-shirt from the concert, WITH autographs and my nameee on it! PLUS the CD with all the band's autographs and my name written on that, too. :D! I got some of the Sudhian issues, too, as well as a French Valentine (that's a little late :P!) and a bunch of other things. As soon as I finished unpacking everything, it was time to eat. I had to take my inhaler and ughh. I suck with medicine. I'm the kind of person that sits there forEVER with it in front of me, just staring at it, not wanting to take it but knowing I have to.
*Sorry. I had to go to music*
Anyway, I had to take the inhaler, and it took me foreverr to force myself into it. I hate medicine so much. And I have so effing much to take. I really don't think all of it is necessary. I'm going to try and just take the nasty pill and then one of the nasel sprays and if I don't feel better after that, I'll take the other stuff. I really don't feeel that bad anymore, it's just irritating to cough up flem and have slight trouble breathing and a stuffy nose. I feel like I could get over it myself, though. I don't wanna load up on meds if I don't have to.

Once I finally got done with the inhaler, I brushed my teeth and headed to the Coiffure! Yeahhh, I got my hair done today! I got my hilights redone and then trimmed and layered my hair. It was really nice to get that done. :)! That took up a good chunk of my afternoon. When I came back, I read the Sudhian issues Rica sent me, and I found a Valentine's shout out to me from Valerie! Thank you for that :D! Then I listened to my Sing It Loud CD with Pierre. After that, I got online. Then I went to music and now I'm back at home.

I'll write again tomorrow.
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: les meches = hilights

40 Days

2009-06-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

Well today really sucked. I was so tired last night, I failed to hear my alarm when it went off. My host mom woke me up a quarter to seven, and I had a half hour to take a shower and get ready. I did manage to catch the bus, thankfully. When I got to school, I had Latin, and since no one from my class was standing around talking today, I went right up to the hallway outside the Latin room on the second floor. Claire and Florient were there, so I talked with them. Justine showed up a little later and joined the conversation.

In Latin, I wrote the first draft of the introduction to my "yearbook." I tried to explain what it was and what I wanted people to do with it and everything. That took me majority of the class period, and after I finished, I just sat there and listened to the teacher babble on about some commentaire the kids were supposed to do.

After that was French. I copied Sabrina's notes at a relaxed pace, and kind of slept through class. All we did was talk about the extract the entire hour and take notes. Nothing too interesting happened.

Following French was two hours of History. We continued talking about Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin. While I really do find that kind of interesting, I was too tired to pay much attention. I got all the notes down, but during the half hour that we watched a movie, I rested my eyes a little. lol.

When history was over, Sabrina and I went to the CDI. I taught her how to use hotmail since she's kind of a newbie, and then we looked at old pictures on my MSN Space. lol. I hadn't been on there since 8th grade, so that was kind of fun.

We had lunch with the girls at 1. I almosttt got chicken nuggets again, but they ran out two people ahead of me. :/ I was forced to take the fish, but that ended up being pretty good.

After lunch, Sabrina and I went to the park by Lycée Robespierre. We layed under a hugee tree and talked and listened to music. My cell phone is out of credit and my host mom took it so that she could try and figure out how to recharge it, so for the time being, I am without my phone. We had to watch the time on my ipod. Sabrina read my introduction page that I wrote in Latin, and she made the corrections. I had a throbbing headache, so I took some tylonal, and then it was time to head back to school. We had another hour of history today since we won't be having class on Thursday. That was pretty exciting. How many of you have gotten the oppertunity to sit through THREE hours of history class in ONE DAY?! I'm sure you're all pretty jealous of that :P! I honestly do like history class, but even two hours at a time gets long.. the third hour (even though there was a nice break) was unbarable. And next week, I can look forward to FOUR hours, since we will have ECJS along with it.

After history, I had another hour of French. It was during this hour that I had a really proud moment. My teacher handed back our DSs from two Saturdays ago, and although I didn't have a note, she told left tons of good comments. She also said, in front of the whole class, that no one mentioned that one of the poems was written with an acrostic style EXCEPT Miranda. Hah. That was a great moment. I got to feel pretty smart in FRENCH class-- and that neverr happens! I also got a "Bien" on my poem that I wrote. I'm actually pretty proud of that, too. When I was taking the DS, I thought I'd end up chosing the commentaire or the disertation, because I didn't think I'd be able to write a poem in French that both used the litterary elements and made sense at the same time. I did, though! And it even rhymed! I'll write it for ya. I have to put it in French or it doesn't sound as good, but you can translate it or something if you want. :)! Also, I know I made a couple mistakes, but oh well.

Il est un ange
Qui aime bien faire le menage.
Après elle nage,
Elle fait le linge,
Et dans sa chambre, elle range.

Il est aussi un singe
Qui fait jamais le menage.
C'est sale, chaque salle,
Et il besoin de les range,
Car sa maison, elle resemble un orage.

And there you go. My beautiful work of French poetry. Some of the stuff is kind of weird, but we had to use different litterary things. 'Ange' and 'Nage' are composed of the same letters, but they are in a different order. Then 'sale' and 'salle' sound the same, but mean different things. And then you have 'linge' and 'singe' that look relatively similar. So that was the hilight of my day.

After school is when it got nasty. I got done at 5, and usually I would hang out with my friends until 6 and catch the bus home, but since I have been feeling worse instead of better, my host mom insisted on taking me back to the doctor. I waited for her outside, and not very many other people were around, so I just stood there by myself. Some kids kept looking at me and talking, and it really didn't bother me, but one girl came up to me and asked me if I was lost because I looked like I didn't know where I was. I told her I was just waiting for my host mom to pick me up. As usual, after I started talking, she heard the accent and started asking me questions about where I was from and all that. When I told her that I've been in France since February, she told me I speak French really well. She told me about Carla (the American that was a student here until mid February) and said that she was supposed to be here all year, but got frustrated and wasn't learning any French, so she left early. I guess she was really shy and only talked to people who spoke English to her because she didn't understand really any French. I'm reallyyy thankful that I didn't end up in the same situation. That would have made this unbarable!

Anyway, my host mom finally showed up and I said goodbye to this girl (I forgot to get her name). She took me to the doctor and we were in and out in about 10 minutes. He listened to me breath and cough again, asked me what was different than last time, and then perscribed me a freaking million things. He never said what I have, but I think I've got a sinus infection along with my ongoing resperatory infection. I have not one, but TWO things I have to squirt up my nose. One of them I have to take twice a day for 2 days, and the other one I have to do twice a day for TEN days. Then I have an inhaler that I'm supposed to do twice a day for a wholee month! It has cortizone in it, so I have to be sure and rinse my mouth out really well afterwards. I dunno what cortizone is, but I'm guessing it's not very good for your teeth.. lol. Then he gave me cough drop things for my throat. And finally, (and worst of alll) I was given antibiotics. I have to take one tablet daily for 5 days. That doesn't sound so bad, but since I can't swallow it, I have to chew the thing. It tastes so effing terrible that I honestly almost puked. The flavor stuck in my mouth through a full glass of grape juice, another glass of water, a slice of bread, and a few bites of pizza. Then the taste was finally gone enough to bare. The only thing that REALLY sucked, was that I'd only taken HALF of the pill; I still had another half to go! This time, my host mom ground it up and shoved it in a glass with some grape juice. It took a while, but I eventually got myself to drink it. It tasted NASTYYY, but I got the flavor out a little faster this time-- I didn't need the slice of bread. hah. Thennnn we loooked in the glass and unfortunately, it didn't dissolve well in the grapejuice, and the chunks of medicine were all at the bottom. I was forced to down that disguisting crap a third time!! Ughh. I have never taken medicine so terribly tasting in my entire life. Never ever. I don't know HOW I am going to get four more of those down. I STILL have the flavor vaguely in my mouth, and I took it a little over an hour ago! ick ick ickk! Not looking forward to taking that again. I haven't yet taken the inhaler, since that can cause you to feel nausiated, and I already get that feeling with the pill. The first nasel stuff was supposed to make my nose run, but it didn't work. My host mom said it's because the stuff is jammed too far up there, and it'll take a while to come down. Great. I am so tired of being sick. I wish I could just get all better really quick so I could enjoy the time I've got left and not feel so tired all the effing time. En plus, I hardly even have timee to catch up on sleep. errg. Well, if I can make it through this week and next, I'll be able to sleep in. :)

As for all of you, I hope finals are going well!
Happy End of the School Year!
<3

à demain!
-°Miranda

Word of the Day: Reposer - to relax, take it easy.

41 Days

2009-06-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, have I got a lot to write in a half hour. I really want to get to bed by 10 since I have school tomorrow and I'm exhausteddd! To catch you up quickly-
Saturday, I ended up going to Italian class from 10-12 with Camille and Sabrina. We didn't make the appointment for my senior pictures because I forgot to figure out a date with my host mom. So I will hopefully accomplish that early on this week. Italian was great! It was at the other high school across the street, and they were reviewing things from the very beginning. I copied down the months, numbers 1-20, regular verb conjugasions, and the irregular verbs or "être," "faire," and "avoir" in Italian. I honestly feel like I understood more in that class than Latin, and I've never taken an Italian class before in my life. I got invited back next week, too, so I think I will continue taking Italian. :)! But after that was over, I took the bus home and helped Pierre get things together for his party. We went to the store and bought a bunch of food and stuff, and then came back and got it all together. People started showing up around 3. The first to arrive was a friend from Pierre's class (Robin) and his family. He has a host sister named Nist who is from Thailand. I met her once before, but I don't know if you guys remember. She's friends with Marina (the Brazilian) and they're both in the same class at the Lycée in Béthune. Anyway, she invited me to Calais with her, Marina, and some other friends from school on Monday since it's a holiday (Pentecôte). Her host parents suggested that I spend the night with them Sunday in Béthune so that I don't have to get up insanely early and drive there. As we were talking, other people arrived. Nist stayed, but the parents left after working things out with my host mom. I helped Pierre distribute all the animal masks we made for this big event, and then he played some French Lion King music and we all danced. Well, not all of us danced.. I didn't really, and nor did Nist, Robin, or Romane. Benoît did a little, and Pierre-Antoine got pretty into it, but other than that, it was mainly just Pierre. We played a game in the backyard and took a bunch of pictures. Then my host mom called that to a stop, and we had cake and opened gifts. Afterwards, Pierre-Antoine, Antoine, Nist and I went to the Mairie to see the "Under 18 Town Coucil" meeting. Just as we got to the door, the kids came out; the meeting was over. haha, what timing. Christelle explained what the kids did, a little, and what I got was that any kids under 18 in the town who want to change something or have a suggestion to better the community can attend the meeting. It's a way to give the younger people a voice, too. I thought that was a neat idea. We picked on Arlette a little, who was outside gardening, and then returned back to the party. Nist's host parents were there, so she and Robin headed out. Then Benoît left with his dad. After a little talking, Pierre-Antoine and Antoine headed out, too.

Saturday night was also Marius's first birthday party, so we went over to Simon and Claire's house for a bbq. We were kind of late arriving, but still got there before dinner, so no biggie. lol. Marius has gotten sooo big since I've seen him last! He's got tons of hair, too! He is just finishing up getting over the chicken pox, so there were a few scabs left on his face and scalp. I've never had those, and now that I'm more than 9 years old, I hope I never do. It kind of worried me a little to go to his house, but we were outside 90% of the time, so I think I'm safe. Pierre got a Wii for his birthday from the family, so we went to set that up. We played Wii Sports until dinner, and then afterwards Romane and Pierre played some Mario Kart. I spent majority of the time talking with the other people outside. There was Annick (who will nottt leave me alone about my being sick and being homesick and everythinggg! And that is really getting to me.), Thomas & Anne and their kids, and a couple friends of Simon & Claire and their two boys. It wasn't a large crowd, but we had a good time. I was reallyyy tired by the end. Originally, I was going to go to a discotheque with some people from town, but I postponed that to a later time because there was no way I'd have made it. I was nearly falling asleep at 9:00, and I doubt I would have even made it to 11 if I'd've gone out. So then, after a nice, long bbq, we headed home.

Sunday, I got up kind of late. Pierre had already left with Thomas to drop their dad off at the trainstation. I got ready for the day, and then came downstairs to find Claire, Simon, Lola, and Marius already here for lunch. My host mom had run out for a bit, so I set the table and got things ready as best I could. Then I talked with them for a while. Annick came a little later, followed by Anne & Thomas, Romane, Lou-Marie, and Lilian. We all ate lunch together and then I got my stuff ready to go. My host mom drove Pierre and I to Robin & Nist's house near Béthune. We went swimming in their pool with their brother, William, their cousin, Benoît(not the same one from the party), and Marina. We had chocolate chip cookies, raspberry smoothies, apple pie, and sparkling soda for snack later on. Then my host mom and Pierre took off and I stayed with Nist and Marina. Benoît left shortly after for work. William, Robin, Marina, Nist, and I played a few card games. Then we ate dinner and played another card game with the whole family. Then we played a round of Scrabble before heading up to bed.

This morning, I got up at 7:45 to start getting ready. I did nott feel very well. In fact, I feel more like I have bronchitis now than I did a week ago. And it shows up the day after I finished my meds, too! Anyway, we left an hour later for the train station, where we met up with Marina and the other girls who were going to Calais with us. There was Julie, Elise, Madeline, and Lili (I don't remember her real name, but that's what everyone calls her). When our train arrived in Calais, we walked around for a while and took a bunch of pictures. We went past the Beffoi, a bunch of memorial statues, and the beach. Supposedly, on a nice, clear day you can see the cost of England accross the Channel. I didn't see it today, though. Then we spent nearly two hours trying to find transportation to Cité Europe ('the biggest shopping center in Northern France'). Since it was a holiday, nothing was available. We found a tourist building and the lady hooked us up with twoo taxis. Unfortunately, the maximum number of people a taxi can take is 6 people, and since we had 7, we needed two. At the mall, we ate lunch at McDonalds. Then we hit a few shops (NafNaf, H&M, Promod, and a fancy dress store). I got a pair of sandals at H&M, because I am really sick of not having any to wear. I was told that the French do not wear flipflops, so I didn't bring any, but they actually do- just not as often as Americans. After our time was up, we took the taxis back to the train station and caught our train back. I stayed on the train after everyone else got off at Béthune and continued on to Arras. My host mom and Pierre came to get me there, and we came back and had dinner. Then I got on the computer and voilà!

Monthly Progress Report: This month has for sure felt the longest. After I got sick, I kind of lost it. I did try and work on my pronouns and learning the gender of the nouns better, but I don't feel like I did a very good job with that. I've noticed my English is getting really bad, though! My sentences are formulated really weird when I talk, and I have trouble getting out what I need to say comprehensively. I gave 2 people directions and asked another lady (who was English)for directions in English, today in Calais, and wowww was that weird. It's turned into a natural thing to speak French all the time, and after trying to actually communicate with people who speak English, it felt really strange. You're all going to have so much fun mocking my terrible English when I get back. lol. My writing on here even kind of sucks compared to what it used to be. Next month, I basically just want to make it through healthy and happy. I want to enjoy it as much as I can before I have to leave. This is my last full month here, and I've gotta make the best of it and do anything I haven't done yet that I wanted to do.

à demain!
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: le manche = the Channel.

43 Days

2009-05-29T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't get to writing yesterday, but I've got a good chunk of time now, so I'll catch you up.

I had two hours of class right away in the morning. The first one was Latin and the second was French. I doodled my way through Latin, and didn't do a whole lot in French, either. After those two classes were over, I was on break until 4:00 since my English teacher was gone.

Sabrina and I went into town from 10 to 1. We walked around and went into a couple stores. I bought a hardcover notebook for my "yearbook" that I plan on having everyone write in, and then I bought Pierre's birthday present. I also found a Twilight audio book!!!! I plan on listening to that while following along with my French version of the book! Yay! That will be a fun thing for the plane ride home :)!

We got hungry, so we found a boulangerie and each were planning on getting a "petit pain au chocolat" (aka a chocolate filled croissant). The particular boulangerie we stopped in had a special; 3 petits pains for 2€. Sabrina and I were both really hungry, so we got 6-- three for each of us! lol! We went to the Beffoi (a cathedral looking building that isn't actually a church or cathedral.. I don't really know what it is, but I do not believe it is a religious building at all) and ate our bag full of chocolate croissants inside on the bench. While there are tables all over the sidewalk in town, you can only sit on them if you are eating at the restaurant they are in front of. Otherwise, the workers get really irritated. So anyway, after that, we found Camille. She was looking for capris, so we went along with her to a few stores, but didn't find anything she liked, so an hour later, we went back to school. Sabrina and I found Marion, Virginie, and Laureen waiting for us by the cantine. Neither of us were very hungry, but we went through the line and got a little to munch on anyway.

After lunch, Marion, Sabrina, and I went to the CDI. We talked with each other and a little with Florent as well. At 3:00, we met back up with Virginie and Laureen, and went to the park by Lycée Robespierre. We passed our last hour of freetime there, laying in the grass and relaxing in the shade. It was really hot out yesterday, so the shade felt great.

At 4, we had Parcours. This was our laaaaast day of Parcours for the year! Wooh! That means I am now done with my science classes, parcours, and DS! Theatre is done Wednesday of next week. I'ma have so much free time :D! Anyway, we spent the two hours of parcours watching a theatrical piece on video. It was something by Ionosco and it made fun of Americans a little. lol. I thought the piece itself was kind of lame, although I'm pretty sure I wasn't alone with that opinion. After watching some of that, we watched a video with the crew talking about stage setup and effects and all that. I pretty much slept through that, too, along with the rest of the class. lol. At the end, we watched a few of La Fountain's fables. Those I actually find entertaining, so that wasn't so bad.

I got home from school around 6:30, and Thomas, the kids, and Pierre from Perpignan (my host mom's ex husband) were there! He had just gotten into town and had stopped by with Thomas (who he is staying with) to say hello. They didn't stay long, and after they left, I helped Pierre with his birthday party again. Then I we ate, and after supper, I went online and looked up Senior picture information. Then I went to bed!

This morning, I got up and came to school, even though we don't have DS anymore. Sabrina and Camille have Itallian from 10-12, so from 8-10, they hang out at school. I decided to come and hang out with them. lol. I'm also going to try and book an appointment for my Sr. photos. Then at noon, I'm taking the bus home and probably will be really busy helping Pierre since his party with his friends is this afternoon. That said, I dunno if I'll be able to write again today or tomorrow (since that's the actual day and it's going to be with the whole family), so hang in there until Monday :)!

à+
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: être aveugle = to be blind

***and this was posted Saturday morning, not Friday night...

45 Days

2009-05-28T11:24:00.001-07:00

Today was another bad day. I am tired and didn't feel well all day, and that made me really crabby and then homesick, too. I'm so worn out. I really want to miss tomorrow since I've only got an hour of Latin and then French right away in the morning, and in the afternoon I have 2 hours of Parcours (which is the longest class you could ever sit through) at the end of the day. It would be the perfect day to miss, but I already missed Monday and Tuesday, and we don't have anymore DS, so no school on Saturdays. We also have Monday off next week, so I really don't want to miss tomorrow if I don't absolutely have to. And besides, I need to buy Pierre a birthday present since his birthday is on Sunday. I was going to do that today, but no one wanted to go into town with me and I didn't feel like going alone.

I don't remember my day very well since I let it go by in a haze, but I'll try and recall as much as I can for you guys. It started out at 8 with histoire. We talked about Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin and watched a video. The video was actually an English one, but it was dubbed in French, which was insanely annoying when someone would be talking in English and the French person would talk over the top of them. It's really hard because I try to listen to both languages at the same time, and then neither one of them makes sense. lol. I kind of tuned out the video and instead copied Sabrina's math homework. I figured since I had the time and she offered it, I might as well do it. haha. I'm going to have TERRIBLE study habbits next year if this attitude follows me home!

French was next. We talked about nothing of intrest (a couple different extracts from who knows what books). I copied Sabrina's notes at a comfortable pace. It was honestly just something to keep my occupied, because it's not like I'm going to be doing anything with them anymore; there are no more DSs and I can't take the real Bac, so whatever I do is just for me. That hasn't worked very well as a motivator lately. I just do things in class to keep myself busy, and if I don't finish, I don't stress over it. We did get our DSs back from a couple weeks ago today! And guess what! I FINALLY got a grade! I had to write a little message on top asking for one, but I did!! And it made me super happy. I got a 10, which I guess is more than a lot of the other people I talked to. :D!

After French was math. We handed in our DMs and then talked about reflections and translations and all that stuff. He handed out some pictures of examples and that's all we really did.

The last class before lunch was Anglais Complementaire. We started out class with him asking me why I was gone Monday. When I told him I had a 'bronchite,' he replied "Bronchitee?!! That isn't English, is it?!" I said it wasn't, but I couldn't remember if the translation was "walking pnemonia" or "bronchitis." He started babbling about them, but nothing he said really made sense, so I rephrased what I said into a question. He didn't seem to understand, and instead just nodded and said "Yes, so that is no fun." Then with lots of expression and leaning forward in his desk, he goes "I hope you don't die!" The way he said that absolutely stunned me. What a jerrk. Here I am in a foreign country without a single member of my natural family and he talks about this resperatory infection possibly killing me! I dunno how many of you remember, but that was one of those top fears I had when I left; getting seriously sick and/or dying away from home. Now, I know that he was joking and that "bronchite" (whether it happens to be walking pnemonia or bronchitis) is NOT going to kill me, but seriously! UGH! I was so stunned my mouth literally fell open and I just stared at him with one of those "I can't believe you just said that!" faces. That really irritated me. Anyway, after he assured me that he is able to joke, we moved on. We spent the hour listening to an interview in English and filling in the missing words on a worksheet.

Finally it was lunch time. Unfortunately, I overate and got a terrible stomach ache that stuck with me for the rest of the day.

After eating, Virginie, Sabrina, and I went to the CDI. I was hoping to go buy Pierre's birthday present during this time, but neither of the girls would go into town with me, so I sat in the CDI. We didn't even do anything interesting. I spent an hour with Virginie listening to music on my ipod as she wrote down songs/artists that she liked. Then my other hour of free time was spent with Claire(from Latin) at the computer. She's working on a story that she wants to publish eventually. It's already got 22 chapters and seventy-some pages! I tried going on the Internet, but the server was down and I couldn't connect. Claire and I ended up just talking the rest of the time.

I had 2 more hours of French from 4-6. We got our anthologies back, and I was really, really disappointed when I didn't have a note. I spent a freaking weekend+ on that thing, and all she did was write "You were really good to do this project" or something like that. I swear, trying to get notes (grades) on my stuff for History/Geography and French is like trying to get a rock to bleed. I learned I have to write "Donnez-moi un note svp" on top of all the stuff I want grades on. I figured by now it would just be expected and I would be treated like an actual French student, but NOPE! Unfortunately, I learned the trick too late, and there are only, like, two weeks left of school :/

By the time school ended, I was really not feeling well and that put me in a terrible mood. The one day I can't wait until the bus arrives, it comes late. Then I get home and take my meds. I'm allll done with one of them! Unfortunately, the one I finished is the one I don't mind taking. The nasty amoxicilline pills take me up until Saturday morning. Thankfully that isn't too much further away, though! Anyway, afterwards, I was going to go on the computer, but Pierre got really crabby and insisted we work on his birthday party some more. Dude, we've been working on it almost constantly since February, and I cannot WAIT until it is finally over with on Saturday/Sunday! I originally explained to him that I was really tired and wanted to check my emails first, but he started talking to himself in the other room, and he was really upset. That did not help my mood, but I went and played his little game anyway. He could tell I wasn't very happy, then, and after a while, he let me free. lol.

Now it's time to eat, so I'm gonna go.
And Desperate Housewives is on, and I don't want to commit a crime and miss an episode! lol!

à demain
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: un morse = a walrus.

46 Days

2009-05-27T12:50:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling better today. And because I'm feeling better physically, my morale is up, too. I'm not quite as homesick as I was the other day. So that's good! At least we're moving in the right direction :)!

Yesterday, I stayed home from school again. This time, I was in my own room at home alone, so I didn't have people talking to me and babying me all day long. It was really nice and I felt really good by the time Pierre and my host mom got home. I read through some of my AFS info that I got in like November or December, and found a thing on culture shock. Dude, I honestly was able to check off nearly every box. ha. The good news is that there are things in there for ways to get through the whole thing faster, so I'm hoping it won't last very long. Like I said, I'm already feeling a lot better today. I read the first half of my first month in my journal, too, and holy crap did I do a good job! I have almost every minute and every thought recorded! I knowww it's gotten worse. I kind of wish I would have kept it consistant and stayed that awesome of a journalist. I still think I do a decent job, but after reading that, it was very obvious that I've been slacking off and have been writing with a lot less detail. I apologize, but it's honestly hard to remember everything that happens and every thought that goes through my head during the day. Especially because they are not necessarily new and exciting anymore. A lot of things happen every single day, and I don't really write about them anymore, because that would get boring to read. So I suppose that's one of the main reasons my journal entries have been getting less detailed.

After spending some more time listening to music and laying around, I got up and got myself ready for the evening. There was a "neighbors party" for everyone in Roclincourt to get to know people better. I guess a lot of people have recently moved into town, so this worked out well. At first, I was kind of a downer and I really hardly talked to anyone. I just watched Simon, Vincent, Jeremy, and some other kid play fooseball. Then I went to sit down and eat with Annick (not my aunt, but the one who works with my host mom) and talked with her, her husband, and a few other people. After that, my host mom brought me over to another table and introduced me to the old mayor and his wife. They had me do a little presentation on Fargo and compare some things to France. That went pretty well, and I had a few easedroppers. They were girls a little older than me, and we ended up talking for the rest of the night. They invited me to a discotheque Saturday night, which honestly, I don't think is really my thing, but since I haven't been to an actual discotheque yet, I figured I'd go along just to see what it's like. I'll let you know how that goes. lol.

Today, I went to school. I had a helluva time getting my ass out of bed, but I made it to school on time just the same. I had math first, and we went over some problems and practiced some crap. We have homework due tomorrow, but I'm really not in the mood, so I'm not going to do it tonight. lol. It's not like it really matters. I have a decent grade in that class, actually. It's above the average by a few points. (Here, the grading scale is a lot different, and I don't feel like explaining it, but my grade in math is pretty decent. I think I have a 12 or a 13, for those of you who understand it.) And since I am not getting any credit for this math, I honestly have no motivation to go spend a few hours on homework. I'm sorry. lol.

After math, I had theatre. We just talked and then Wendie, Alice, and I went to the CDI so they could find a book. I went on the computer a while and then went back to the theatre with them around 11:40. I talked with Mathilde and Jane for the rest of the period. Mathilde is going to the US for the year next school year, so we talked a while about that.

When I got home from school, I cleaned my room. Ohh man did it need cleaning, too! There was crap all over the place. I spent all afternoon on that. I threw everything I no longer need into a corner, and am going to be sending that home sometime within the next month.

Pierre wanted to go over to Arlette's, so we spent from 3-4 at her house playing playmobile and talking. haha. She showed us her baby chicks, too, which were really cute :)! There are 2 light colored ones and 5 grey and black ones. When it was time for her to go pick up Vincent, Pierre and I headed home.

I had music class at 5:30 or so. That was alright. My air support really sucked thanks to the bronchite, and so that made playing a little difficult, but whatever. I made it without passing out! lol.

After I was dropped off, I went back and cleaned my room some more. Then I got sick of that and came downstairs for some computer time. My host mom has a meeting tonight, so she made crêpes for supper before leaving.

I think I caught you guys up. I feel like I've been doing a really bad job lately, so sorry about that. I'll try and get back into the swing of blog writing now and keep you updated daily.

à demain
<3miranda

Expression of the Day: Je parle anglais comme une vache espanol. = literally- I speak English like a Spanish cow. aka: I suck at English.

48 Days

2009-05-25T09:29:00.001-07:00

...is way too long.
I decided to write again today because i have nothing else to do. I didn't go to school. When I woke up this morning, my head was throbbing because I was still SO tired. After trying to get up a few times and having my head spin around in circles, I gave up. Annick was supposed to be giving me a ride to school, so I called her and told her I didn't want to go because I didn't feel well. She insisted on taking me to her friend who is a doctor, so she came to get me anyway. I threw on some clothes quick and when she arrived, we drove into St. Laurent.

The doctor's waiting room was kind of small. There were chairs around the outside perimeter filled with people waiting to be seen. The walls had a few health related posters hanging on them. In the middle, there was a table with magazines, but there were no toys for little kids or anything. There were three doctors who shared this building, and they didn't have receptionists or nurses. The doctor comes out to get the patients him/herself, and then brings them back. We didn't wait too long, and when we were called back, we sat in front of a big, expensive looking desk and talked to the doctor a little. Then he took me back into another room that resembled what you'd find at the clinic in the US. He checked me over and asked me questions, and decided that I have "bronchite." That is either walking pnemonia or bronchitis, i don't remember the translation exactly. He also said I had a "spasm" in the middle of my chest, and that's why it hurt so badly. He said that could either be related to the bronchite or alergies. Normally I don't have allergies, but since the air is filled with some types of pollens (or whatever) that I'm not used to back home, it could still be possible. Also, the weird thing is that I don't have much of a cough. I've had both walking pnemonia and bronchitis plenty of times before, and I've always had a hacking cough with it. The doctor ordered some labwork, too, so I had to go get my blood taken! :(! I'm sure most of you know how bad I am with that. lol. He gave me a patch to put on beforehand that would numb my arm, though, so that helped a bit.

I spent the rest of the day laying on Annick's couch doing nothing at all. I honestly didn't even sleep that much. Annick came over and talked to me constantly and asked me if I was feeling better, needed anything, etc. It really kind of annoyed me. At home, I ususally just get left alone and if I need anything, I yell for it. Annick kept asking me about missing home and stuff, too, and that is seriously the lasttt thing I want to talk about. It's an acheivement when I can keep myself from thinking about it for more than 15 minutes, and the way she kept bringing it up actually made me start crying. I was so embarrassed. I can't do this anymore, you guys! I'm sick and I want to be at MY home on MY couch with MY mom bringing in my medicine when it's time to take it! Speaking of which, I have to take 2 tablets dissolved in water for my fever three times a day for three days AND a crushed amoxociline pill dissolved in water three times a day for 5 days. And I'm sure you can imagine how delicious that all tastes. Ugh. I hate being sick. I hate being homesick. I hateee this! I can't go to school tomorrow, either, so I'll probably get back on here. I have nothing else to do. I will probably be at my house in Roclincourt, though, because Annick has to work tomorrow. I'll keep you updated.
But like I said yesterday, I don't want people worrying about me back at home. First of all, worrying about me 6000 some KM away is going to do absolutely nothing for me here; it's only going to effect you. Secondly, I've got medicine and I'm going to be fine in a few days; there is no reason to worry. I'm just going to be really pissy until then because I decided I really hate being sick and away from home at the same time.

We haven't heard the results from my blood samples, yet, but are supposed to find out later tonight. I will let you know if anything else shows up.

à plus.
<3Miranda

Words of the Day: un medcin = a doctor; le medicamo = the medicine.

49 Days

2009-05-24T12:36:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm really homesick. I am not in the mood to write at all. I'm honestly not in the mood to do anything but freaking sulk around in my room. I haven't let myself do that yet, but damnnn i will have to give in soon. Thankfully, last night I spent the night at Hillary's host family's house in Diéval. We talked from 8 until 1 in the morning, and that helped a lot. Now that I'm back in Roclincourt, though, I can't keep my mind off of home. It is absolutely terrible. Saturday, I followed my host mom around on her errands like a zombie. She called Hillary's family later in the afternoon and they set up the sleepover for us. Unfortunately, Hillary has to leave next Tuesday to take her SAT. She didn't get in to the session in Paris, so she has to go home early so she can take that. So we won't get to have another American night.

Today I slept in til 11, then we got up and took a walk around town. She lives in a town of about 200 people, so it's basically in the country. They have 3 dogs(and puppies on the way), 3 cats, 2 chickens, and 8 horses. After lunch, we called Raenetta and she came over. We hung out in Hillary's room and talked some more, and then went on another short walk before I left this evening. Oh, and btw, I ate pig stomach for supper the other night.. and it was actually not bad. I didn't know what it was before I ate it, thankfully, because I probably would have puked. lol.

I never did go to the doctor, and I don't plan on going tomorrow after school. I told my host mom to cancel the appointment. I feel a lot better, and the fatigue and muscle aches are just because I'm really stressed out right now. Hillary said she had the same symptoms right before she got homesick, too, so I don't think I need to see a doctor. I may need to take a day off from school, though, just because I am REALLY tired and sore. Every muscle in my body has just given out- my neck, back, and shoulders especialy. Nobody has any reason to worry about me, though. This is normal, so don't send me a million emails or lose sleep over me not feeling up to par. Normally, this lasts about 2 weeks, so I should be better before long.

I dunno if I'm going to be writing again for sure tomorrow or not, because I seriously have no motivation whatsoever. Nothing happened to me, I'm just being lazy if I don't write again for a while. I'll talk to y'all again soon, though. If you want to talk, don't hesitate to send me an email. I'll probably get to that before another blog entry.

à+
<3Miranda

Phrase of the Day: J'en ai marre! = I'm fed up!

50 Days

2009-05-23T04:51:00.001-07:00

Fifty days to go. Ugh. I've gotten to the point where I am actually looking forward to the return. I'm not saying I don't like it here, but I'm really ready to leave. I've learned enough French for my satisfaction, and I've successfully integrated myself in the French culture. Now I'm ready to be done. I miss my old family and my old friends and my old school and my old house and my old food and my old life. These next 50 days are not going to go by fast enough. :/

Anyways, I apologize for my idiocity yesterday. I'm not going to rewrite everything, but I'll give you a short summary.
Thursday, I didn't have school because of Ascension. After I got up, Annick and I went to pick up Grandma on the way to a pizzaria in the Grand Place. There, we waited for my host mom and Pierre to arrive. Annick was friends with the workers there, so they were as much apart of our conversations as we were. I ate spaghetti with penne noodles, and that really made me miss Valentino's. haha. The sauce was really similar to the stuff they have, and I haven't eaten that for so long! For dessert, I had crème brulée and peacan ice cream. That was quite delicious as well. At 4 that evening, my host mom, Pierre, and I went to the Casino d'Arras for Pierre's dance performance. That went from 5 til 8, so it was kind of long, but it was really good. We had the French version of McDonalds, aka Quick, for supper.

Yesterday, thanks to the Oral Blanc, I only had 2 hours of actual class. They were both English LV1, too, so it really was a good day! lol! My teacher has also started getting my name right; she no longer calls me Melinda. The first class started at 11. About a third of the class didn't show up (since we had almost no school), so all we did was finish up the worksheet we started Monday. After that, we played a little game. I'm too lazy to go into details on that, sorry.

For the first hour of break, Sabrina and I just went to the CDI and talked. At one, we met up with the others and had lunch. Then Marion, Sabrina, and I went back to the CDI. I went on the computer while the others studied. From 3-4, Sabrina and I had our second English class. We did another short worksheet and then played Pictionary.

From 4-6, Sabrina and I went out into town. We bought a big bottle of Orangina Indien (orangina with grenodine) and shared that. Then we went to Promod and I bought 2 tank tops. :)! We browsed through Pimkie and a toy store, too, but didn't find anything else. We spent a while sitting on the bench in front of the Theatre d'Arras, and then started walking back towards the school. I bought an eyelash curler along the way. lol. It was thee hardest thing ever to find one of those! And the one I did find was the last one in stock! Back at school, we talked as I waited for the bus.

Last night, I went over to Vincent and Simon's house for a Wii night. That's going to have to wait, though, because I've gotta go.
Sorry I keep doing this to you!!!

51 Days

2009-05-22T05:39:00.000-07:00

I apologize for my laziness the past couple days. I have not been in the blogging mood and even now, I'm forcing myself to write something for you guys.
Wednesday, I spent from 9AM to 9:45PM at the Theatre d'Arras. We had rehearsal all day and from 7:30 to 9:30 was the show. I didn't perform my piece, but I did participate in the Finale at the end with everyone. That went a little different than planned, but I don't feel like trying to explain it all, so we'll have to talk about that when I get home. The day was long, but I ended up getting to know a lot of people in my class much better. Before the show, I got my relaxing aromatherapy stuff out and I am pretty sure that everyone in my class took it. lol. It was kind of funny since everyone was sitting around backstage sniffing their wrists like drug addicts. haha. Afterwards, Annick picked me up and I went to her house for the night. She said she has unlimited international calling, so she insisted I call home. I did, but no one answered, so I just called my mom on her cell phone. We talked for a while and then Annick tried talking to her.. haha. She said she was going to try and talk in English, but instead she just talked really slow in French, hoping my mom would understand. Lol! My mom knows, like, Bonjour, at the most, so I don't think Annick was very successful. haha.

Thursday is going to have to wait, because I've gotta get to class. I'll finish up when I get home, maybe. I'm going to the doctor tonight, so I dunno if I'll have time.. If not, you'll get an update tomorrow.

à bientôt!
<3Miranda

UGH!!! I am so dumb!
I just spent an hour typing the rest of this out, but the computer was slow and I restarted it before pasting my post in a Word document, and lost everything. SORRY! I don't have time now because I'm going over to Simon's for a Wii party. :)!
I'll try and redo it tomorrow.
Bye.
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: un bouchon = a traffic jam

54 Days

2009-05-19T09:45:00.000-07:00

Well, this morning, I did something I haven't done in a long time; I fell back to sleep after my alarm went off. Last night, I reviewed my French until midnight, so I didn't get to sleep very early. I managed to get myself ready pretty quickly, though, and caught the bus.

I didn't have Latin today, since my Latin teacher is also a French teacher and therefore had orals to listen to. Instead, I spent that time in the CDI with Sabrina, Virginie, and Camille, and we reviewed for the oral.

Today was the only day this week we had French class. The first hour was from 9-10. Since over half of the people in our class went yesterday, we didn't spend any time reviewing. All we did was take notes on the last excerpt of Manon Lescaut. I really wasn't very concentrated, though, because I was anxious about the oral. I didn't get all the notes finished, but whatever.

After French, we had histoire. I tried taking notes as best I could in there, but again I was preoccupied with the oral. After the first hour of class, during the break, I left to go take my oral examination. The teacher came out to get me and put me at one of the three desks against the far wall. There were other people in there at the same time. All the people working on the written part were facing the wall. The teachers had two desks together, face to face. My teacher asked me which text I wanted to do (normally, the students don't get the choice). When I told her The Misanthrope, she actually laughed a little. She was shocked that I picked that because it's relatively hard to understand. I had my notes for that memorized almost word for word, though, so I figured it wouldn't be too hard. She had me take out a piece of paper and my text, and then I got 30 minutes to work. I wrote everything down that I could remember, which was quite a bit. I even remembered lots of the important lines from the text, so I went through and underlined and highlighted the stuff that corresponded to what I was talking about. I did forget a couple things, but nothing too major. It took me just under a half hour to finish. I reread through what I wrote down and then studied the text itself a bit. To be honest, I really don't understand the text as well as it sounds like I do on paper. I just remember what lines correspond with what notes and the things that were written down on paper. I guess what I'm trying to tell you is that I knew what I was saying, but I never would have gotten that out of the text by myself.

My teacher allowed me a little more than 30 minutes, even though I didn't really need the time. Then she called me over to the desk facing her and we started the oral portion. First, I read the scene. Well, I started to read the scene, but my pernounciation was bad, so she stopped me and we read through the first few lines together. She would read a phrase and then I would repeat it, focusing on my accent.

After that, we got to presenting my written notes. I started out by presenting the scene and it was written by Molière in 1666, and then went on to derive the word 'misanthrope' (mis= negative prefix, anthrope comes from the Greek word, anthropus, which means 'man' and therefore misanthrope = someone who doesn't like man). After that, I gave a little background information on the play (since this was a scene in the middle someplace). Then I went on to talk about what happens and the quotes and litterary stuff and everything I wrote down. It honestly went pretty good, I thought. She didn't write a thing the whole time I was presenting, so I don't know if she graded me or not, but I really hope so. When I finished presenting my notes, she said I did a good job. She commented that I have a really decent accent when I read slowly, but as I get faster, the accent gets worse and worse. Fortunately, she understood "every word I said" while I was talking, so that was good. Then we started talking about school and France and me. She asked me when I was leaving, and then asked me if I thought 6 months was too long, and I think she actually expected me to say 'yes' to that. She never asked me to take out my complementary texts for questioning, so I brought up the subject myself. Normally, the students are questioned on these texts that go along with the main texts in a sequence. She asked me if I could explain one of the texts to her, and I basically regurgitated what Sabrina explained to me earlier. It was a fable, so consequently there was a moral. She asked me what I thought it was, and I replied with a kind of lame answer, but it worked. After that, she asked me if I wanted to go through the other 2, but I didn't understand those two very well, so she explained one of them to me, and then our time was up. I thanked her for listening to me, said goodbye, and then left.

My history class had ended at the same time, and it was just down the hall, so I ran into everyone. After answering to a million people that my oral went well, I found Sabrina. We went to the CDI with Camille and helped her study for her oral in one of the study rooms in the back. She'd forgotten her binder with all her texts, so I gave her mine. It's not like it makes any difference since none of the texts have any writing on them or anything.

At 1, we left to go eat lunch. Sabrina and I found Marion, Virginie, and Laureen, and then went to the cantine and ate.

Around 2, Sabrina and I went back to the CDI and looked up senior photos online. I really want to get mine done here, but I honestly have no idea how it all works. And since they don't do yearbooks or senior photos in France, no one here is able to help me. We found some stuff online and I successfully explained to Sabrina what a senior photo is. Afterwards, I checked my email and surfed around online a little until we could leave the building at 3.

Marion, Sabrina, Narine (Sab's friend), and I left school on the hour. We went to the France 3 (a TV station) studio so Narine could pick up her internship form for the summer. Then we went to a photographer's place and asked them if they could do my senior photo. Thankfully Sabrina understood what it was, so she could explain to the lady, because she had noo idea what I was talking about. After she somewhat understood, she asked me where I wanted it done, and I told her the specific park. She said that they couldn't do it there because it was too small and didn't work or something like that. Ugh. That really disappointed me! There is this park about a 10 minute walk from school that is absolutely gorgeousss! I went there one afternoon with Sabrina when we didn't have class.. I wrote about it, but I don't know if you guys remember. There's a pond in the middle, and lots of big trees and willow trees and hills and ducks and a little duck house in the middle of the pond and in the background are some old buildings and AH! It's like, theeee perfect location! The lady said there was another park in town (half hour on foot from school) that has water and it's really pretty. She said they do a lot of wedding photos there, so I should check it out and maybe think about that. I'm hoping to go on Friday during the 3 hours in the afternoon when we don't have class. Sabrina doesn't know if she's allowed to go that far from school, and has never actually been there before, so she's not so excited about the idea. She said we will see, though.

We walked around town for a while, killing time. We ran into Pierre-Antoine, so we talked with him for a little while, and then returned to school at 4 for French. All we really did was finish up Manon Lescaut (finally!). At the end, she told us that the lowest oral grade was a 5/20, and the highest was a 19/20 (which is an AMAZING grade!). She didn't have all of our grades, since Camille hadn't gone yet (her teacher wasn't there when she went to take it, so she's going tomorrow), so we have to wait until Monday.

After school, Sabrina and I went to the CDI and found Virginie. We talked with her a little, and then I went on Google Maps and found directions to the park. I printed those off and a map, so if we do go, I doubt we'll get terribly lost. Arras isn't THAT big of a city; it's smaller than Fargo!

At 6, we left the building and talked for a little bit as I waited for my bus. When it arrived, I got on and came home. My host mom is now at the Mairie and Pierre is at dance until 8, so I've got the house to myself for the time being. (Actually, I think I misheard her.. it's 8:04 right now... she might have said nine. lol. I don't remember.) Either way, you're caught up on my day, so I'm gonna get off of blogger.
I'll write again tomorrow! ...or actually, I dunno, because I have theatre from 9AM to 9:30PM, so I'm not sure if I'll have the energy to write, but perhaps!

bisous!
<3Miranda

Phrase of the day: Je m'en fous = I don't care.

55 Days

2009-05-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

Today I was really tired. I didn't feel too well today, and when I got to school, Sabrina made me go to the nurse. She didn't do anything for me except tell me to see a doctor, so that wasn't much help. She wanted me to leave school, but I didn't want to, so I told her I would come back if I got worse, and I never did. :P

We were a little late for Anglais Complementaire, but who really cares? My teacher was a little crabby about it and almost made us go back to the nurse to get a pass to come into class, but Sabrina explained that we left just before the final bell rang, so we were off the hook. We didn't do shit in that class. We started out with a little quiz, in which I totally bombed since I didn't study at all & I had no idea how to translate a lot of these terms into French. Then he went over the corrections for that comic from last week, and that was it. I got a 13/20 on that, by the way. I dunno how that worked, but whatever. Sabrina was reviewing for her oral, which was later on in the day, and he got really mad. He came over and asked if she was working on her French, and she said yes. Then he took her paper and gave her a ZERO! He said that the oral is not meant to take up his class time. Then he finished going over the questions and talked about how that comic really was saying that nature no longer exists and that people are distorted and no longer see anything except through a TV screen. Now honestly, how many of you could figure all that out from that comic? (I posted it a few days before if you scroll down). And for those of you who could, would you be able to do it in a foreign language?! This guy is insane.

After Anglais Comp., I went to the CDI and worked on some things for my oral, then I surfed the Internet until theatre at noon. The theatre itself was actually being cleaned, so we weren't able to have class in there. The teacher had us all go into the Post-Bac room in the back of the CDI. We just talked. I didn't get to perform my piece at all and consequently told my teacher that I do not feel ready to perform it in front of a crowd on Wednesday. She let me off the hook without any arguement, but still wants me to go with on Wednesday from 9AM-10PM to help with the set and all that. Neither Wendie nor Alice are going to be there, so I'm hoping I don't get too bored. I don't know a whole lot of other people in my class very well.

It was finally lunch time at 1. Sabrina and I only had a half hour before Anglais LV1, so we quickly ate with Marion and Laureen. Virginie had already eaten and was taking her oral, so she wasn't with us. I still didn't feel very well, so I didn't eat my dessert! It was really good apple pie, too, but after eating my yogurt, I felt really icky and couldn't bring myself to take more than a bite of the pie.

In English, we got our DS back from last week. I got an 18.5/20 because I made a tonn of spelling errors. haha. It's kind of surprising how much I've regressed with my English. The better I get at French, the worse I get at English. We went over the corrections for that, and then started a worksheet before class finished.

It's an A week, so I had SVT next. Sabrina was taking her oral at this time, so I sat by Wendie. We just continued talking about the male reproductive system. I really don't have anything else to say about that. It was a longgg hour and a half.

Afterwards, we had another hour of Anglais, LV1. We went over some more "Dirty Words" and got a thing called "Why is a beer better than a MAN" to even out the playing field. lol. It wasn't quite as good as the other one, though. This one wasn't quite as mean and the puns weren't quite as clever. After we finished going over that, we worked on that worksheet up until the end of class.

There wasn't French at the end of the day because of the orals. All the French teachers have to assess the students, so Mme Dejagheare was busy with that. Sabrina and I went to the CDI and she helped me review for the oral. We went over most of the main texts I have and she explained them to me. My notes that I took toward the beginning are terrible, so she gave me hers and some things on the authors to help me study tonight.

After school, I came home and ate a snack. I'm planning on spending the rest of the night reviewing, because I've got a LOT to memorize!
I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

bisous!
<3miranda

Word of the Day: l'infirmière = the nurse

56 Days

2009-05-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

Today, a little after 11:30, we left for my host mom's brother, Jean-Paul's, house in St. Omer. It was about a 45 minute drive. When we got there, I met him and his wife (forgot her name), and then another lady (I'm assuming this is his wife's sister) and her 20 year old daughter, Anne, arrived from Calais. We all ate lunch together and talked and then looked at pictures of the States. Jean-Paul and his wife have a son and daughter in law who live in Miami with their kids. They come to France often and will actually be flying in on Thursday, so my host mom said we're going to try and see them. After that, went on a walk around town. We passed the cathedral and went through the city park and it was really pretty. It rained on us a little, but we didn't get that wet. When we got back from our walk, we were offered a drink and they had Dr. Pepper! They brought it with them from the US when they went to Florida, and still had a few cans, so I took one! They don't have Dr. Pepper in France. It's just Coke, Pepsi, Orange and Yellow Fanta, Sprite, and occasionally Cherry Coke. There is a French drink called Orangina which has really grown on me. It's like a soda orange juice with little bits of pulp and everything. I didn't like it the first time I had it, but now I'm quite a fan. After our drinks, we left for Roclincourt at around 5:30.

My host family is so interesting. My host mom has a gay brother who is a playwright and lives in Paris with his boyfriend and has a production opening up in Canada in September. Then there is Jean-Paul who is a professional artist and has expoditions and artwork all over his house. It's really good stuff, too. His website is http://www.tartar.fr/ if you wanna check it out. My host mom herself is the mayor of the town I live in. Then I have a cousin who is schizophrenic and my adopted host brother has down syndrom. My older host brother has twins and so does Jean-Paul's son. And to top it off, we have a cat with three legs. I seriously don't think I could have landed in a more diverse family. It's really neat. I'm not saying my family at home is boring, but we don't have quite the same setup as I do here.

I have got reviewing to do before the Bac Oral, so I'm going to get off and do that.
à demain!
<3Miranda

57 Days

2009-05-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

This morning, I was like a walking zombie. I am SO tired. I got myself ready for the day and luckily caught the bus on time. At school, I had 2 hours of DS from 8-10. This week, the subject was history, and the DS had two subjects. You could pick either the Russian Revolution or WW1. I chose the one on WW1. That one had a lot of shortish answer questions over a few documents that followed (and when I say short answer, I don't mean one or two sentences.. it's more like one or two nice sized paragraphs!). The other subject was entirely essay, and I really don't know enough about the Russian Revolution to write an essay.. lol. I understood majority of what I read (or I think I did), and I was able to write a nice amount for each of the 6 questions. I think I should get a decent grade, at least for me. The last question really confusing, though. I didn't really understand what a "synthèse" was, so I just wrote a little summary over everything. It wasn't very long, but my sentences were nicely written.

Anyway, after school, I hung out with a bunch of different people from my class and waited for my host mom. When she picked me up, we came home and I helped Pierre with his birthday party planning. Then we ate lunch and Pierre got ready for dance. I went with to drop him off, but when we got there, he realized he'd made a mistake. He didn't have dance rehearsal today! We went back home and he changed before we went to a sports store. Pierre got some new dance clothes. Now I'm back home chillin' out. Tonight we're going to a band concert in Mt. St. Vaast (which is a town nearby). It's not the group I play with, but Vincent is in this one, and since my host mom and his mom are like, BFFS, we're going to go watch him. It should be fun, though. :)!

I'll talk to y'all tomorrow,
<3miranda

Word of the Day: Garer (garray)= to park

58 Days

2009-05-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

Latin was my first class today, and, like normal, I didn't do anything. The class was really small today. There were only about 10 people there. The Première ES and S classes were both on field trips; the ES was at the beach for science, and the S was in Paris for something. Then there are Terminale kids who are also in German, and that overlaps with Latin on Fridays, so they go to that instead. I noticed today, though, that there is a kid who really closely resembles Robert Pattinson. I've never paid a whole lot of attention to many of the other people in that class, before. Usually I just sleep or doodle or write crap in my notebook.

Anyway, after that, we had French. Again, we spent our time preparing for the oral. We went over sample questions for each text and discussed that some.

Then we had an hour off. Sabrina and I went to the library to do some research on all the authors of all the texts that we have. Luckily, I don't have that many since I arrived in February, so I only have to memorize a short biography of 6 authors. Honestly, I still think that is going to be a lot of work, but everyone else has even more. I don't know exactly how many, but there were 6 in 3 and a half months, so there have gotta be quite a few.

When our hour was up, we went to English. All we did was finish going over the questions from the story we started last time.

Then it was lunch time. Today, it was just Sabrina and I since everyone else was out of town. After we finished eating, we went back to the CDI unitl it was one o'clock on the hour and we could leave school. Our friend who had been in the CDI came with us (I forgot his name. haha. Woops.). He hadn't eaten yet, so we went to Subway! I unfortunately, was not hungry after having just eaten, so I didn't get my turkey sub. :(. I did get a cookie and a Sprite, though, because if you don't get something, you can't hang around in the restaurant. Valentine and Benjamin were also there. Benjamin spilled his glass of pop, and then Valentine went and spilled hers, too. There was pop EVERYWHERE. They tried cleaning it up with napkins and tissues, but eventually had to go get one of the workers to mop it up. lol.

Our friend had class at 2, so we started back just after 1:30. On the way, we went into Monoprix so I could get a binder of page protectors (i don't know what else to call it) for my French texts. I also got some new effaseurs since my others are all worn out. I'll buy a tonnn of them before I leave, too, because I have never seen one in Fargo, and I do not know how I am going to live without them. It's ingenius. I never have to write in pencil anymore, because pen erases just as easily! I'll demonstrate this wonderful invention for you when I get home. :)!

Anyways, after stopping by the school, Sabrina and I went clothes shopping for the second hour. I found 2 shirts at a store called Promod. I found some really cute white jeans at Pimkie, too, but they were wayy too long. I've had the hardest time ever trying to find the appropriate size jeans. I finally found out my waist size, but I can't find pants with short inseams! They're all way too long and the leg stretches way out past my feet! haha. I'll keep searching, but I'm hoping it will be warm enough soon for me to just look for shorts and skirts and not have to worry about jeans.

At 3, we had English again. This time, we translated part of the story into French. Then we got a worksheet that I still am shocked by. I'm not saying I didn't find it funny, but it would have NEVER passed at a school in the Sates. I'm pretty sure the teacher would be "dans la merde" if they had a worksheet like this in their class. It was full of slang, dirty expressions that we had to unscramble and make into logical phrases. They were things like "to be pissed off" and "this is pure BS! (only not 'BS')" and lost of other ones I'm not going to put on here since I dunno who all reads this exactly.. lol. Then on the bottom was the real shocker.

The title itself would be enough to keep it away from South High: "Why is a beer better than a women? Below are 15 reasons why." We had to fill in the blanks with the puns, and ohhh my god was that dirrty! I'd have to admit that they were pretty good, though. lol. I'm debating whether or not to type them out for you or not.. I think I will, but if you don't want to read them, skip the list.
1. A beer doesn't get jealous when you fancy another beer.
2.When you go to the pub, you know you can always pick up a beer.
3.A beer won't get angry if you come home with beer on your breath.
4.You don't have to wine and dine a beer.
5.If you pour a beer carefully, you'll always get good head.
6.Hangovers go away.
7.When you've finished with a beer, the bottle is still worth a few pence.
8.You don't have to wash a beer before it tastes good.
9.A beer always goes down easily.
10.You can share a beer with your mates.
11.Beer is always wet.
12.You always know you're the first person to pop a beer.
13.A cold beer is still a good beer.
14.You can have more than one beer and not feel guilty about it.
15.You can enjoy a beer all night long.

Okay, those of you who skipped the list can start reading again, and those of you who read it, well, I warned you :P! That was a fun class period. xD!

Today we did not have Parcours, so after English was over, the day was finished. I hung out at school with Sabrina, Gaëtane, and Alicia in one of the empty classrooms for students to chill in. The plan was to focus on the oral and get all my stuff organized and in my new binder of page protectors. Then the second hour, we were going to walk around town again. Well... that didn't go exactly as planned. I did wayyy more talking than working, and I got almost nothing accomplished at all during the first hour. It was really fun, though. Then Gaëtane and Alicia left, and Sabrina's sister came in. We talked some more, but I eventually got my binder all organized. I practiced reading through a couple texts, too, because when I take the oral, I have to read the whole text aloud to the teacher and I'll be graded on it. That's going to hurt me if I don't read through them all a couple times over the weekend.

After school, we went outside and I hung out with Wendie, Alice, Joy, Sabrina, Bryan, and a few other people from my class who were still around. We talked until my bus came. I actually nearly missed it! Thankfully Sabrina saw Vincent get on, so she told me and I had to run a little to catch it before it left. ha. There were only 4 people on the bus after school. lol. I thought that was kind of funny. Usually there are around 10 people or so. I dunno what happened with everyone else. haha.

Anyway, I got home from school and Pierre was already at dance rehearsal. My host mom was home, but she was getting ready to go back to the Mairie to finish up her work for the day. I got on the computer until an hour later, my host mom took me with to go get Pierre. After we got home, I made some photocopies of some of Sabrina's texts I need for the oral and now I'm currently in the process of retyping another one. I can't make a copy since it's hilighted all over, and I can't use that one because the copies in my binder have to be blank and can't have any markings on them.

But I'm going to get back to that and then study my history a little. I have a DS tomorrow over the Russian Revolution and the first World War, and I have a lott of dates to memorize.

à demain!
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: du sang (pernounced like 'song')= blood.

59 Days

2009-05-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

This morning started out with geography. We had to label the regions of France on a map. I got 4 right- Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Britagne, Normandie Basse, and Corse. lol. I had Picardie on there, too, but it was one too low, so I can't count it. It didn't really matter, though, because we went over the answers together a few minutes later. Then we talked about the breakdown of regions, departements, and communs. After that, we focused on the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region (where I am). This region is the 4th largest population wise (there are 22 total)! From the way people talk about it, I had thought I was in an underpopulated, North Dakota type region. lol.

After hitoire/géo, I had my first hour of French for the day. All everyone did was organize their binders some more and get texts together for the Bac Blanc Orale next week. I talked with Sabrina for a while, since she was finished, but then she went to help someone else, so I entertained myself with a pen and paper for the rest of the hour.

Math started out with nothing of intrest (finishing going over the DM), so I found some fun stuff on my calculator to play with. lol. Then we took some notes on "Algebraic equasions with two variables." The example was: x+y=10; with what numbers could one replace x and y? haha. We had a little story problem, too, but there wasn't enough time to solve it before class ended. Zut! :P

In Anglais Complementaire today, Alice started off with a little vocab oral. She did really good on that, and the class gave her a 19.5 (yeah, the class decided her grade). Then we had to do another worksheet on this cartoon:

Only, when we looked at it, the caption below was way off to the side and it wasn't in italics or anything, so it wasn't overly clear that the guy changing the tire was saying it. No one in my class got that, but my teacher insisted that it was easy! There were quotation marks, so that obviously means someone had to be talking! When the class argued it further, he did what he always does and asked me, "Miranda, it's clear that the man is talking, is it not?" I said that I thought it was the author, but he misunderstood me and thought I said 'father.' Everyone argued a little more and then I said that if the father was the one talking, he needed a speech bubble. My teacher (who is always right) said no. You can have cartoons where the speech is at the bottom of the page or at the side or on top or wherever you want. I've seen it on top and bottom before, but I've never seen it off to the side.. and if it's seperate from the character, it's still outlined in a bubble-like box! It's not completely on its own floating around on the side of the paper. Whatever. Sabrina put her two cents into the 'discussion' and my teacher turns to me, "Sabrina is often complaining, yes?" I looked at him with a 'wow. I can't believe you just said that' expression, and said, "Umm No..." Then he goes, "I say that now a little because she complains now a little" or something weird like that. Then the arguement struck back up and lasted right up to the end of class. But since he is always right, he still didn't give in. That'll be a wrong answer for anyone who wrote it.

Mkay. I'm done ranting, sorry. After that class was over, Marion, Sabrina, and I ate lunch. Virginie and Laureen had already finished class for the day, so they went to McDonalds and then I dunno, home maybe? After lunch, Marion had class, so Sabrina and I went to the CDI. She worked on her French thing and since I already turned mine in on Tuesday, I killed some time on the computer. I Google Earth'd Fargo again. And I went to the school webpage to see what's new. My daily planner login doesn't work, lol. I tried that once! :P. Hopefully you all had fun at Spiritacular today. :)! I saw that was on there. Then I checked my email and BS'd around.

Our break ended at 4, when it was time for 2 hours of French. The teacher talked for a while at the beginning, but then we had a little over an hour to work on our binders again. I talked with Sabrina some, and then I flipped through the pages of my binder a million times. My teacher came over to me and asked me if I wanted to try taking the Bac Blanc Orale. She said she would add me to her list if I wanted (everyone presents in front of a French teacher, but it's not necessarily the same one you have for class). I of course said yes, and I will be taking my Bac Blanc Orale on Tuesday, May 19 at 11h15 with Mme Dejegheare (sp?) in room 60. I have to bring my binder full of clean, organized texts and the teacher will pick one out for me to present and give me a 'problematique.' I get 30 minutes to write up a commentaire and answer the 'problematique' supported with examples from the text. Then I have 20 minutes to talk. Ten of those minutes will be spent presenting my commentaire and during the other 10, my teacher will ask me questions on 'complementary texts' that go along with the one my commentaire is on. That might not be a hundred percent correct, but that's what I understood. I will let you know exactly what happens next Tuesday after I've taken it.

After school, it was raining really hard. It rains quite frequently here, actually. I've never really mentioned that before. I've noticed we usually get one week of nasty rainy weather and then the next week is sunny and hot. So if that holds true, next week should be nice :)! Anyway, I came home, ate a snack, and got online. We're going to be eating supper shortly, so I'ma get off.

I'll talk to you tomorrow!
<3miranda

Expression of the Day: Il pleut comme une vache qui pisse! = It's raining really hard.

60 Days

2009-05-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

Today was alright. Sabrina had her "Journée d'Appele" at the Mairie, so she wasn't at school today. I don't know exactly what that consists of, but when you're a certain age, your town's mayor calls you and you have to go to the Mairie for the day and do some stuff. If you don't go, you can't take your Bac or something like that, so it must be pretty important.

I moved over a spot and sat next to Joy during math. We talked a little, but being in the front center spot makes it a little difficult to get away with. I mainly doodled on my DM as we went over all the answers. I got a 10 on that, by the wayy :)! That was the one Justine and I worked on in the library a week or so ago. The one I did yesterday is for tomorrow. All we really in class was go over that, so there isn't a whole lot to share.

In theatre, Alice had a note that said she wouldn't be at the performance next Wednesday. We don't have school that Thursday beacuse of 'Acsension,' so she's going to be out of town. The teacher was pretty pissed about that. She had a piece with Wendie and one with me. I honestly do not feel ready anyway, and nor does Wendie for hers, so really, there is no major problem. The teacher really wants me to do mine, though, since "that's what I want." She asked Wendie if she could replace Alice in my scene, but I'd already told her I didn't mind not doing it, so Wendie insisted there wasn't enough time to get it all prepared. The teacher was ready to give in when a girl in the front, Barbara, volunteered to work with me. My teacher asked me if that would be okay, and I told her that I don't think I will be ready by next Wednesday, but she told me I can work on it and we will see. Sooo, class went on and I went through the text with Barbara a couple times. She's really good at theatre, so we got some ideas for the scene presentation down and modified the text a little bit. I'm feeling a little bit better about the scene, but I still don't want to present it in front of a crowd of people. I'm still too focused on getting the words out right to act. I don't want tomatoes thrown at me while I'm on stage. haha. I have two more days to go through it, though, so mayyybe it will get better. We'll see.

After the bus dropped me off after school, I hung out with Pierre while lunch was cooking. We got some stuff ready for his birthday party, which is at the end of May. When we finished eating, we made the invitations on the computer. Now he's at the kiné and I'm home alone. I'll probably talk on line a little longer and then work on some French until music at 5.

à demain!
<3Miranda

Oh, and thank you, Sarah!! :D!

Word of the Day: un péché (payshay) = a sin

61 Days

2009-05-12T05:18:00.000-07:00

In exactly 2 months, I will be on my way home. I'm excited to see you all again and everything, but I really wouldn't mind staying longer. The time has gone by soo quickly. I can't believe I've been here 4 months. That sounds like forever, but it feels like nothing.

Anyways, sorry I didn't get to finishing up my day last night, I'll do that when I get home from school today. Right now, it's about 2:20 and I don't have class until français at 4. We just ate lunch, and now Sabrina is working on her French anthologie (and I really should be, too).

This morning I had Latin. I just wrote a page of BS in my notebook, since there was nothing else to do. The teacher didn't have enough copies of the text, so I was the lucky person not to get one. It's not like it really makes a difference, though, since I don't understand anything.

After that, I had French. We just talked about the Oral, and the teacher told us our day, time, and teacher we would be presenting in front of. I wasn't on the list, so I won't be doing that. It doesn't bother me, though. We've done 2 practice orals in class, and I haven't been able to successfully get one together either time, so I probably would just waste the teacher's time if I took the Orale Blanc.

After French, I spent 3 hours in the history room. That happens every other week, and I always dread it. We get breaks every hour, but the time still goes by soo slowly. We finished up talking about the French crisis in the 1930s during the first two hours. The third hour is actually another course, but it's in the same room with the same teacher, and the material is often really similar, so it might as well be the same thing. We talked about the Nord and Pas-de-Calais region of France and our teacher spent a good half hour telling us how to color, key, and label a good map. We have to do one of Nord Pas-de-Calais for the next time we have this EJCS(?) class (which is in 2 weeks).

After that, it was lunch time, and now I'm in the CDI. I really should finish up my anthologie, though, so I'm gonna go. I'll get on the computer at home and finish up yesterday's, as well as add anything of intrest that happens later today.

à tout à l'heure!
<3miranda

Word of the Day: un frisson (free zo)= a shiver

62 Days

2009-05-11T10:13:00.000-07:00

Last night, I had thee weirdest dream. I dremt I was on the TGV taking a shower (there aren't even showers on there), and I took too long and when my stop came, I ran off the train and forgot all my luggage and everything but the clothes I was wearing and the towel wrapped around my hair. The train left and I was stuck at the train station with some people from my class. We were supposed to catch another train, but it was running late, so no one was doing much of anything. I told a security guy at the train station that I left my luggage on the train, but I couldn't remember the train number or where I was coming from, so he couldn't do anything to help me. Then my alarm went off and I woke up. That was the first dream I've actually remembered in a longggg time. There was a little more to it than that, but it's too complicated to type out. I don't remember everything perfectly, either, lol.

Anywayyy... I started my week off with one of my favorite classes (LOL) - Anglais Complementaire. We went over our worksheet from last week, and then talked about nothing of intrest. haha.

After that class ended, I had an hour off. I ran into Laureen and Virginie, and they didn't have class either, so they helped me with some of the questions I had on the French project. We didn't finish that, but at the end of the hour, I had theatre, so we had to quit.

In theatre, Alice was back from Sweeden, so we could work on the text together again. Wendie came with us and the three of us went through the text once and then talked about Sweeden. haha. Alice had a great time, but she said she had a hard time understanding the language. Sweedish is a mixture of German, English, French? and some other languages (I don't remember exactly what). I learned a few words from Alice- Hey= hey. Heyo= bye. Caca= cake. To(?)= thank you.

After theatre, I met up with Sabrina and we got our food before finding Laureen, Virginie, and Marion. Marion told us about her experience in Sweeden, and it sounded like she also had a good time.

Since it's a B week, we didn't have Anglish LV1 at 1:30. Sabrina and I went to the CDI instead and she helped me work on my French. Again, we ran out of time before I finished, but she said we could print what I had and write the last little bit in pen. We took my stuff to the color printer, and it took foreverrr, so the librarian told us he'd give it to Sabrina's sister (who was in the library as well) when it was all done printing and she would give it to us during the break between classes. That worked out well, and after sitting through an hour and a half of physical science, I got my papers. All we really did in physical science was go over our Bac and then

°finishing up from where I left off yesterday,

then in science, we did a worksheet. We had English LV1 after that, and since we chose to skip out on DS Saturday, we had to take it today. It was longgg and I don't think anyone finished. I know I didn't! I had the 6 point essay left at the end, so that'll knock me down quite a bit, but I don't really care anyway. When English was over, it was time for French. There was a speaker the whole hour who talked about universities and things to think about and all that. It was kind of interesting, but I was too tired to pay attention the whole time, so I missed quite a bit when I zoned out. Because of the speaker, our teacher told us we could turn in our anthologies later on in the week. Here, they are really laid back with due dates. If you ask for a reasonable amount of extra time (even if you had two or three weeks to do something), the teacher usually gives it to you without punishment. I really like that. That allows you to do a really good job with your stuff, and you don't end up rushing through at the end just to get it done.

After school, I came home to an empty house. Pierre was at dance (they have a performance next week, so he has it a few extra days) and my host mother was at the Mairie. I got on the computer, cranked up my ipod, and chilled out. haha. My host mom came home and I left with her to go pick up Pierre (and that is where I left off yesterday). We came back home, ate dinner, and I worked on some French stuff. Then I went to bed.

***

Today, after I left off, nothing overly exciting happened. I had French, but we just organized papers and got "complementary texts" that we didn't already have to prepare for the oral. From 5-6, I worked on my math homework with Claire (from Latin). Then I came home, ate a snack, worked on French a little, and then ate supper. Nouvelle Star (like American Idol) is on TV now, so I'm going to watch that!
BYE!
<3

Your word of the day is on today's post. (:

63 Days

2009-05-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

Today after I was up and ready, I washed the lawn chairs with Pierre and helped my host mom prepare for the family BBQ. Around noon, Thomas and his family showed up. Then came Annick, Luc (who just got back from Canada), Grandma, Mme Noël, and Samuel (Annick's son). We ate the appatizers and Luc told us about his trip to Canada. He was there for the month of April working on a play he wrote. It's going to open on September 1st, so if anyone is in Quebec during that time and feels like watching a French play, there ya go. He didn't stay long since he had to get to a rehearsal at the theatre in Arras, but he will be at Pierre's birthday party at the end of the month, so I'll find out more about this play, then (including its name. haha).

The rest of us went through all the other courses as normal, eating either a hotdog or a mexican steak-looking thing off the grill for the main course. When we finished, I played with Romane, Lou-Marie, Lilian, and Pierre for a while. That really wore me outt. I am going to sleep so well tonight. haha. Everyone left around 6, and my host mom, Pierre, and I went over to see Simon. He wasn't there, but Claire, Lola, and Marius were. We visited with them for a little while, then returned back home.

I'm getting my Main Square pass tomorrow, so I'm superr duper pumped for that!!! I'm going to go all 4 days (July 2,3,4,5), so I'm gonna see Coldplay, Lenny Kravitz, Placebo, Katy Perry, and a bunch of other groups that I do not remember.. I'm really looking forward to that :D! I guess on the 4th of July, there is a little festival at the aerodrome (a tinyy airport outside of town), and my host mom gets to ride in a hot air balloon and told me I can go up with her if I want! That will be a very eventful week. I'm excited. :)! Oh, and if any of you French travelers know the dates you'll be in Paris, I need to know as soon as possible. My host mom keeps asking me so she can plan a trip, but I dunno yet, so when you guys find out, someone should comment me or send me an email (missmirandamari3@hotmail.com). Thank you! I'm reallyyyyyy excited to see you all, too! Hopefully I do alright talking in English.. haha. I can type it fine, but when I try and talk in English class, my sentences are completely mingled up with French. It takes a lot of concentration to get them out right. lol.

Ummmmm, I really don't have any other news to share today. I'll talk to you again tomorrow!
<3Miranda

Word of the Day: une coccinelle (cock seee nell) = a ladybug

64 Days

2009-05-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

ahh j'en ai marre!
I've been working all day on my French project looking up words from each book extract that I don't know... and believe me, there are quite a few in each one. On average, I'd say there are about 10 words in each 15-20 line extract and there are 7 total, so I spent my afternoon looking up 70 words in English and again in French for an official deffinition. From 4-6, I took a break and went with my host family to a movie. It was a French film called 'Romaine Par Moins 30.' It was about a girl whose fiancé surprised her with a trip to Canada, but when she found out, she was really upset because she hates the cold. On the plane, she heard a lady talking about it crashing, so she freaked out and told her fiancé how upset she was to be going to Canada and went on about some other things, too. They split up at the airport and she was supposed to fly back home that night, but a bunch of stuff happened and she wound up getting herself married to some guy she didn't even know the name of and yeah... it got kind of wild. I understood majority of the film, but to me, the movie just stopped; it didn't really end. Or maybe it did, I just didn't get the punchline. lol. That was seriously all I did today.

Yesterday I was a little busier, though. When I was up and ready, Annick came over and we all had lunch together. Then we talked and around 3, Annick left and my host mom & I went to a flower display. The Roclincourt giant was there, along with Pierre-Antoine, Antoine, Simon, Amadine, Arlette, Gille (Pierre-Antoine's dad), and a few other people I didn't know. We didn't stay long, but I got to talk for a little bit. Afterwards, my host mom and I went into Arras to an indoor garden show. My host mom bought plant bulbs for her garden, and then we looked around some before leaving. We stopped over at Thomas's house and visited with everyone. Then we came back home and I helped my host mom start cleaning the veranda. That is going to take quite some time to finish. There are a million toys mixed together in different bins and a lot of them are dirty and/or broken, so we're going through all that stuff and reorganizing everything. Supper came around, and as we finished up eating, Simon came over to see if I wanted to go to a café with the group that night. I hadn't been to a café with them since February and my host mom was cool with it, so I said yes. Fourty-five minutes later, he, Antoine, Pierre-Antoine, and Amadine came to pick me up. We went to the same café as the first Saturday I was here. If I remember correctly, it's called the Boabob Kfé (or something like that). We hung out and talked and I had my usual coke with grenodine this time. I got home around 12:30 and everyone was already sleeping, so that is my excuse for not blogging. I got a really good-night's sleep last night, though! I slept in until almost 11 this morning!

But I should really get back to work. It's already 9:20PM and I would like to finish my French tonight. Tomorrow we're having a big BBQ with the whole family, so I won't have much time. I'll try and get on and write a blog post, but if not, I'll talk to you Monday!

au revoir!
<3miranda

French Word for the Day: ébahissement = astonishment. (That was one of the words I looked up recently. lol)

66 Days

2009-05-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day of school for the week! Since tomorrow is D-Day, we don't have school. We were supposed to have DS on Saturday, but everyone was complaining to my English teacher (since that's the subject this week), and she agreed not to give the test.

I had history to start out with for 2 hours. We had a test on the Presidents of the 5th Republic and their dates in office as well as the layout of the French government. I got the president stuff right (since there are only 5 of them. haha) and I filled in the boxes of the different parts of the government alright.. but when it came to the written questions, I don't think I got more than one right. hahaha. We'll have to see how it turns out. After that, we finished up our notes on the Russian revolution and began talking about the crisis in France in the 1930s.

French was next, and all we did was review texts for the Bac Blanc Orale. We were left to work on our own or with a partner or two, so I worked with Sabrina and Marion. I don't really have much else to say about that.

After French I had math! Once we handed in our homework and went over a couple things, we started talking about Algebra! haha! It's like, basic algebra, too, so I felt really smart when I already knew how to do everything!! I'm really excited for this chapter. lol. We had a couple homework problems, and I finished those in Anglais Complementaire, which was my next class.

In Anglais Complementaire, we got another picture and had to answer questions about it. This time, it was a picture of the earth with a "pressure cooker" squeezing it. I had never seen one of those before, but my teacher explained that it's a piece of equipment used to cook meats and veggies and other foods really fast by heating it up and compressing it. I dunno what else to say, but he told me I should buy one and bring it back to the States for my family. haha. I'll have to think about that one....

At one o'clock, I was done with classes for the week! Sabrina and I met up with Virginie and Laureen in the cafeteria and we ate together. Afterwards, we went to the CDI so Sabrina and I could work on our French things. GOOGLE TRANSLATOR = TERRIBLE for any of you cheaters out there. haha. My topic is on novels where someone recollects a love story. I decided to use an extract from Ethan Frome, and since I couldn't get it in French, I translated the page using google translator. I thought I would run it past Sabrina just in case it had a few mistakes, and NOTHING made sense to her. haha. We went through it sentence by sentence and translated it so that it made sense. Three o'clock rolled around, and I was going to go into town to get some things, so I left with Virginie and Laureen. Sabrina chose to stay behind and work on her French. Our first stop was the post office. We had to take a ticket and then wait for a million years. As we were waiting, Virginie bought a cherry coke from the vending machine. I guess that's a new thing in France, because neither of them had ever tasted it before. Like most French people, they opened the can and smelled it before taking a sip. I don't know why, but French people seem to be interested in smelling everything. In physical science, our teacher takes the flask around so everyone can sniff the concoction. The other day at the craft show, the lady passed around all the different bottles of things for us to smell them. I find that kind of amusing. lol. Anywayyy, getting back on track, after I bought my stamps, we went to a store called "Miss Coquines" where Laureen bought a pair of jeans and Virginie got some shoes.

Virginie had to go, so we walked back to the school for her to meet up with her ride. We passed an ATM machine on the way, so I took out some cash so I can buy my Main Square pass over the weekend. We said goodbye to Virginie, and then went back to the CDI to find Sabrina again. She worked at the computer for another half hour, and then we finished up translating the Ethan Frome text. At the end of the hour, we left school again (with Sab this time) and I bought a small binder of page protectors for my French project. Then we went to the Furet and listened to music for a while. Laureen's boyfriend arrived at the train station just before 6, so we walked with her and then Sabrina and I went back to school to catch the bus.

Now I'm at home, and I'm going to get off since I've been on here for a while. I've been trying to find a decent proxy that will let me not only view the facebook homepage, but also long innnn to facebook. If anyone has some suggestions, let me know. Thankss :)!

à demain.
-miranda

67 Days

2009-05-06T07:16:00.000-07:00

Today I went from a really great mood to a really pissed off mood. We'll start off with the good part at the beginning.

I got up and got ready, and then had some extra time, so I made Wendie a birthday card since it's her birthday today. At 9:00, I had math. We got this huge assignment to do for next week, and worked on that the whole hour. Sabrina and I worked together, but we didn't get very far, lol.

In theatre, Wendie and I read through my text a couple times, and then the teacher wanted to go through it with us since she hadn't even heard me read it, yet. She had a really difficult time understanding my accent, so she made me read insanely slow reading each word one-by-one concentrating on the articulation and pernouncing everything the best I could. There were a few things I really sucked at saying, so she changed my lines and we rearranged some of the parts. Honestly, it sounded good to me, and no one else has difficulty understanding me (at least no one's said anything or made me repeat things often), but whateverr. I have to continue to read s u p e r s l o w l y until she says otherwise. That's seriously a lot easier said than done. Now that I recognize all the words and everything, I want to read at a normal pace, but I have to force myself to slow down. It does make me focus more on the pernounciation, though, so I can't say it's pointless. It's just a little frustrating.

After that comes the hilight of my day. Wendie and I went off to practice a little on our own and she was trying to help me get my pernounciation down. We spent forEVER trying to get my 'R' to come out, and after talking about it and trying a million times, I got it!!!! I had always thought it was a harsher roll than it really is. It helps to think of it like an 'hhhh' sound with a tiny bit of a roll to it. I dunno how to explain it exactly, but you basically start out by making the 'hhhhh' sound and then you add the hacking sound (for lack of a better term) to it and voilà! For now, I can only get it out when I talk at a slow to moderate pace, so now I've gotta go back to the beginning and slow down in conversation again. That kind of sucks, but hopefully it won't last too long and I'll be able to pick up speed pretty quickly. We attempted to work on my 'U,' too, and I can make the right sound only about half of the time. I'm going to continue to work on that as well, and hopefully by the end, my American accent will be gonee.

Anyway, after school I came home and had lunch. Afterwards, I started working on my French 'anthologie' (which is taking FOREVER) and got 2 out of the 8 pretty much finished. I was in the middle of the third one when my host mom wanted to take me to a lady's house for a craft show (I don't really know how else to describe it). I left the computer with my stuff up and went with my host mom. There was a lady there who does all kinds of crafty things with napkins and paint and furnature and vases and pots and tons of stuff, and she was showing them off and explaining how it was done, and then you could buy kits and paint colors and all that so you can do it yourself. My host mom bought a kit to do one of her little tables out on the veranda. It's supposed to arrive in about 10 days, so I'll let you know when we actually do that. It was interesting to see this lady's presentation. All of her stuff was awesome. I don't think I could get the same results no matter how hard I tried. haha. When I came back home, I went to the computer and EVERYTHING was closed out. The Internet sites with the extracts, the three documents (only two of them had been saved!!), everything was closed. I know Pierre had to have done it, too, because he was the only one here and the two documents I changed slightly since the previous save were saved over, but the other one was completely deleted. I'm assuming he just clicked 'Yes' for all the messages that popped up when he clicked the X, because they would have been something like, "Save changes before exiting?" (yes) and then "Are you sure you want to exit without saving?" (yes). That reallyyyy pisses me off! He asked me at lunch if I could help him put music on his MP3 player, and I told him I would after I finished my homework, so I think that when I left, he tried to do it himself and closed all my documents. gahhhh. I wish he could have just minimized them if he reallyy felt the need to get on the computer. I also wished I would have thought about that ahead of time and saved my stuff right before I left. I learned my lesson the hard way, and now I've gotta restart the 3rd one and then do 5 to 7 more.

Damn. I've gotta go to music, now. I forgot about that. I'm going to be up late tonight! -.-

à demain.
-Miranda

French Word of the Day: Enregistrer = to save

68 Days

2009-05-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

This morning started out with Latin. I didn't even bother to listen in that class and mostly just reviewed the summary my host mom wrote me of Le Parfum. Right after Latin I had French. We had a "reading quiz" over the book. However, it was NOT a quiz! There were 8 questions and they all required in-depth responses. The summary I had hardly helped me at all. After I finished, I waited quietly until class was over.

Next I had two hours of history. Before class started, a lady came in to see if any of us or family members had traveled to Mexico or the United States over the vacation. Luckily, no one in my class had left the continent, so I don't think I've got to worry about catching the pig flu. I don't know how much it's changed, but as of Sunday, there were only 2 cases in France and they're both people who traveled to Mexico, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe. Don't worry :P

When class started, we talked about the Russian Revolution and, no lie, we listened to the Rasputin songgg!! hahaha! It was even in English! My teacher had the French lyrics up on the overhead for everyone to follow along. We took notes majority of the rest of the time. I'm getting a lot better at that. I can catch a few things as she says them, but I fall behind quickly, so I still rely on Kevin's notes. I have gotten a lot faster at writing, too. I don't have to look a million times per sentance anymore and can usually figure out what the illegible words are without having to ask. Class ended with a short video.

Then it was lunchtime. Marion is still in Sweeden (I said Switzerland yesterday, but I guess it's actually Sweeden), and Laureen had some meeting thing at the city hall all day, so it was just Sabrina, Virginie, and I. We talked for a longg time, and then at 2, Virginie had Phy Ed. Sabrina and I went to the CDI so she could work on her French paper and I was going to go on facebook, since I haven't done that for weeks, but IT"S BLOCKEDDD! The school got a filter and it blocks faceboooook! :(! That really makes me mad! I get tons of email notifications that I have wall posts or messages or friend requests and whatnot and I won't be able to see any of that for a longg time, now. Thanks a lot, Gambetta.

Since I couldn't do a whole lot on the computer, I went over to a table with Justine and she helped me with my math homework. She didn't know how to do 2 problems, so I left those blank, but other than that, I finished! That felt good to get that done!

I had French again at 4. Since a bunch of people hadn't finished the quiz, the teacher gave us the class period to finish that up. Those of us who were already done could either work on our material for the Bac Blanc Orale or rewrite our Bac Blanc Français questions and essays without faults. I chose to rewrite my essay since I honestly don't even think I have all the papers for the Orale. I don't know if I want to take that. It's one thing to BS something on paper, but when you have to try and do that in front of someone who's scoring you, it's a little trickier. Like I said, I don't think I have all the materials either. It's over a bunch of scenes from "Phèdre" (along with a million 'complementary texts'), which my class has been talking about since the beginning of the year. If I decide I want to take the Orale, I can get all the photocopies I'm missing from my teacher on Thursday, but I dunno. We'll see. Anyway, I mainly just sat there rereading the text over and over because I honestly had no idea how to respond to the questions. I understood what the question was asking, but I could not comprehend the text well enough to answer it. My teacher told me I should skip that and go right to the essay, and I should also switch from the 'dissertation' to the 'ecrit d'invention' because it would be more interesting for me. I wrote the title and set my paper up, but that was all I had time for before class was over.

My bus doesn't come until 6:08, so I had an hour to hang out with Sabrina and Virginie. We left school and went to the 'librairie' (bookstore), where we read through some fun books and talked. The time went by fast and before we knew it, it was almost 6:00, so we returned to school. My bus came and I went home. I ate a snack and then watched some tv with Pierre before getting online.

Until tomorrow,
-Miranda<3

A little French for y'all: "faire exprès" = to do (sthg) on purpose ("ne faire pas exprès" = to not do (sthg) on purpose).

69 Days

2009-05-04T10:09:00.001-07:00

Today I was in a really good mood. It was nice to see all my friends at school again. I woke up before my alarm went off and layed in bed until it finally did at 8. After getting myself all ready for the day, I had some extra time, so I started to empty the dishwasher. I didn't finish before it was time to leave, but I got a good start. My host mom took me to school at 9:45 for Anglais Complementaire. That class was as wonderful as always. We went over the questions from our oral quiz before the vacation. He asked one girl what the name of the type of drawing was. She said it was a cartoon. He told her it was not a cartoon, then he did what he always does and turned to me for the answer. "What would you call this at home?" he asked me. "A cartoon," I responded. I honestly was not trying to be a brat, but he asked what I call it at home and that is the honest answer. He was a little upset with my answer, but he added "You mean you would call it a cartoon strip. You could also call it a comic strip." I didn't want to argue, so I went along with that. Maybe in England they do call them cartoon strips. He said it was not simply a cartoon because there was more than one picture. They weren't in seperate boxes in a strip, though, so therefore I would consider that a cartoon. Whatever. I made a spelling error on my paper, too, and he pointed it out in a 'haha I knew that and you didn't!' kinf of way that ticked me off. It went like this: *pointing at my paper* "Is that how you would spell humorous?" (I had spelled it 'humerous') "Uhh, no. But I'm not perfect. I do make spelling errors..." "Yes, yes. I'm sure you do." The last thing that kind of stood out in this class today was actually at the beginning. Sorry this is out of order. He was asking us what we did over the vacation and there were a couple girls who had gotten really tan and said they went to the south and all that. Then he turns to me and goes, "You are not tan. What did you do over the vacation?" I told him that I went south, too, and then he wanted to know WHY I did not get a tan. ha. I wanted to be like, 'Oh, because I hate the sun and decided to stay inside the whole time.' but instead I just told him that where I was it was cloudy. Hah. I dunno why I didn't tan! Probably because I didn't lay out and bake all day long! Lol. That didn't really irritate me, I just found that kind of funny.

Next I had a break which I spent in the CDI. After that was theatre. Alice is in Switzerland doing an exchange for two weeks (the schools do that often here with a couple different places), so we couldn't work on our text together. The teacher told Wendie to take her place since we have our big performance here in May and I've only gone through this text once. My lines are not memorized or anything. I can read through it well, but I don't understand everything I'm saying, so it will be a little difficult to act out. Hopefully everything will be worked out before the end of the month.

I only had a half hour between theatre and Anglais LV1, so I ate a quick lunch with Sabrina, Virginie, and Laureen (Marion is in Switzerland, too) and then went to class. We did a translation worksheet and then went through the Bac Anglais that everyone will take next year. We got a sample text and questions and the teacher told us how to go about it and our time limits and everything. We had a while to read it silently. Noo one understood the story. There were weird names and some complex vocabulary terms and I can see how it would be challenging. Now that my French is overall pretty decent, I was able to summarize it for them. I actually had fun doing that. Haha. It doesn't sound overly amusing, but really it was! I like translating English into French for people. :)!

Normally, since it is an A week, I would have had SVT, but since we didn't have school the Monday before the vacation, we missed SPC, so the groups switched and I had SPC this week to make up for it. I LEARNED SOMETHING INTERESTING TODAY! haha! I dunno how many of you already know this, but the reason we put salt and/or sand on the roads in the winter is because it melts the snow (obviously). The interesting thing is that it does this by changing the snow into "saltwater" and therefore changing the temperature of the freezing point of the water, because saltwater freezes at a different temperature than regular water! I didn't fully catch the sand part, but I'm pretty sure it's the same deal. I also answered a question in class today! We were going through the names for when a solid changes to a liquid and a liquid changes to a gas and all that stuff, and most of the terms were pretty close, so I went ahead and guessed sublimation for the change from a solid to a gas- and I was right! :)! The rest of that class went by kind of slowly, though. The teacher did a little demonstration with the temperature change of water with ice and salt and i don't even know exactly. I mainly just talked with Sabrina, Jeremy, and Rafaël during that part.

After that class, I had Anglais LV1 again. We continued with the practice Bac again. A some work time had passed, my teacher called on me to read the passage. I was a little smarter this time and read slowly so everyone could follow along. After that, we spent the rest of class going through the questions. One thing I keep forgetting to point out is that my teacher calls me Melinda allll the time. She's not the only one, either. Madame Noëlle calls me Melinda sometimes, too! And it's happened other times, too. I don't know why Melinda seems to be confused with Miranda, but I answer to both, so it doesn't really matter. Madame Noëlle usually gets it right now, and I've corrected my teacher a few times, but she doesn't usually remember, so whatevs. I don't care that much. I just find that kind of strange.

The day ended with French. We talked most of the period about plans for the week and things that were coming up and whatnot. Then we got our Bac Blanc back! I GOT A 3/20! hahahaha! It was a different teacher that corrected our papers, and she actually thought I was French. She asked my teacher afterwards and said afterwards that I did a really good job for being a foreigner. Granted, everyone else had something around 10, but I lost most of my points because I didn't follow the format correctly and because I took a lot of things directly from the text and didn't write enough in my own words on the question part. I'm still pretty content with myself, though. A three isn't great when you compare it to everyone else, but I'm satisfied with it. :)! We have to rewrite our essay section and make all the necessary corrections and turn that in at a later time. I'm not sure exactly when that's due, but Sabrina said it will probably be sometime next week.

After school, I almost missed my bus. I couldn't remember exactly when it came, and decided on 6:18 instead of 6:08, so I wasn't watching for it. Ooops. Luckily, the stoplight was red, so when I caught sight of it, I ran up and the driver let me on.

When I got home, I ate a snack with Pierre and watched some TV. Then I got myself online. Same old stuff, there. Since I was gone, I never did my monthy progress update or set goals for this month, so I'm going to do that quickly. I've gotten a lotttt better with my pronouns! They come out naturally now, and I don't have to think about it everytime I want to use them. 'En' is the only one that I still have a little trouble with. It can be used in a few different ways, and I've got most of them down, but I don't remember all of them. I don't use 'lui' and 'leur' much, either. I'll have to review thse for next month. My others are honestly pretty good, though. I've always had trouble with pronouns, so I'm really happy with how well that came along. This month I reallyyy would like to work on getting the genders of nouns right. Normally, I just guess and hope I get it right. People understand either way, so I never really cared much. Now that I've got a hold of the other, more important, grammar stuff, I can work on those. We'll see how that comes along by the end of May.

It's time to eat, so I'll write again tomorrow!
bonne soirée!
<3Miranda

French Expression of the Day: Ce n'est pas grave! = It's no big deal/ Don't worry about it!

70 Days

2009-05-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

I'm back!!! I got home about an hour ago, and I'm really tired. It was a 7 hour train ride, with a train change at the Charles de Gaule station in Paris. I didn't sleep at all, but I triedd! I ended up just reading a magazine I bought yesterday and then just listened to my ipod.

Anyway, the trip went really well. Personally, I thought the weather was nice, but everyone told me that it was cold for the south. I don't know exactly what the temperature was (because I really suck at guessing), but it was warm enough for me to wear shorts comfortably two or three days! It only rained one day (Tuesday) when we were in Spain. The only thing that kind of sucked was that it was really windy. When we went to the beach, the sand blew so hard that it hurt my legs.

The beach itself was really pretty, though! You look one way and you see the Mediterranean Sea, and if you turn around, you get the Pyrenees Mountains. It's like, the perfect place for my family to go on vacation (hint hint ;D); you get the mountains for my dad and the beach for everyone else. haha.

While I was there, I met my my host mom's ex husband, (Pierre), his wife (Céline), their kids (Laina, 10 and Mathis, 7 or 8?). I also met my host sister (Marion), her husband (Nicolas), and their kids (Sarah, 4 and Charlie, 8 mos), as well as my other host sister (Fanny) and her boyfriend of 3? years (Hugo). They all live in towns around Perpignan, so I got to see them often.

My week was spent mainly chilling out with that massive family taking walks up and down the beach. There are lots of people that sell things along the sidewalk and a couple fair rides and games and stuff like that. My host mom, Pierre, and I went to a castle one day and took a tour of that. I took about a million pictures of that thing! It was so cool! I've seen tons of castles from the road before, but that was my first time entering one.

On Tuesday, we went into Spain to do some shopping and walking around. It took us foreverrr to get through the border, even though the gaurds don't do anything but watch the vehicles drive by. We got into Roses at about one o'clock and ate lunch at a café. There wasn't anything overly authentic, so I just ate spaghetti. After lunch, we went to go shopping, but almost alll of the shops were closed until 4 or 4:30! In Spain, they take the afternoon off for a "siesta" in some towns, so that kind of sucked. After walking around a little while, we decided to try another town. We drove to Girona, but it was pouring rain, so we didn't even get out of the car. We stopped in a town near the border called La Junctia (or something like that) and I went crazy. haha. First of all, in Spain, things are much cheaper than in France because of some tax or something like that, so my host mom wanted to go to a parfum store and buy parfums for herself and her daughters and Annick and i don't even know all who. Anyways, I, of course, went with and I decided I'd buy one, too. They weren't exactly what I would call "cheap," but they were less expensive than I've ever seen designer parfum so I figured what the hell, I'll pick out one bottle. Well, I had thee hardest time deciding between the new Dior J'adore stuff and this Angel stuff, so after sniffing until my head hurt, I bought them both. hahaha. I figured I will probably not be able to buy either of those parfums again (or at least, not for a longg time), so I might as well take advantage of the situation. The parfumerie was really all we had time for, so we went back to our "bagalo" (our rental moblie home) in Canet (just outside of Perpignan). We went back into Spain again on Thursday, but this time stayed just on the border. The town itself, Le Perthus, is actually half in France and half in Spain. It wasn't rainy this time, so we got to walk walk around more and do more shopping. I didn't make any other big purchases, though. Other than that and visiting the family (and the family visiting us), we didn't do much else. It was really just a chill week. I had a great time, though! I wish I would have gotten a little more of a tan, but I'll live. HAHAHAHA! That reminds me of a little story.

Hugo, Pierre, and I were sitting on a bench while Fanny and my host mom went to the ATM. Pierre goes, "My legs are like a polar bear with all the hairs." I missed the last part, and I assumed it was referring to the color, so I go, "Me too!" They both look at me and then at my legs and Hugo laaaaughs and then askes me if I understood what Pierre had said. I replied yes, and then told him that my legs were white like a polar bear. He cleared up the hairy part for me, and then I got it. haha. I got a pretty good laugh out of that, too. I dunno. It might be one of those 'you had to be there' moments, but we found it pretty funny.

A couple other quick things.. I tried mussels "à la crème" one night. They were good for a while, but I was served an entire pot full, and after a while they got kind of blahh. May 1st was the "Fête de travail" so no one had school and most people didn't work. Basically, it's a national vacation day. It's also the day when people give flowers called "mugets" to their friends. Fanny and Hugo brought me, my host mom, and Pierre some. They smell sooo good! ah! I wish they could have come with us on the train, but they probably wouldn't have lasted. We ended up dropping them off at Big Pierre's (my host mom's ex husband) house this morning. It was kind of a thank you for letting us use one of their cars all week.

I think that covers most everything, in short. I have school again tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. My host mom read my book and wrote up a summary for me, because I just couldn't read the damnn thing. My host mom said the vocab is really tough and it's written in an old style. I'm assuming that's kind of like the stuff we read in "Old English."

Anyway, it's late, I'm tired, and I have to get up early-ish.
à demain!
<33Miranda

Word of the day: Le sable = the sand

78 Days

2009-04-25T04:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was planning to get on the computer after supper, but StarMania was on TV and it was supposed to be awesome, so I watched that with my family instead. It turned out to be a bunch of famous singers performing different songs and then talking about them and stuff. I dunno, I didn't recognize any of the singers but Gregoire. It was entertaining, though.

To fill you in, yesterday morning I worked on my French a little. Then after lunch, Pierre and I played in the backyard for a while , before going over to Pierre-Antoine's house. There, we helped him trim the bushes and then we just talked over a glass of Coke. His dad gave me a cool pen with the Arras symbol on it, and his mom gave me a really good smelling flower that is usually given on May 1st. I don't remember what it's called, but I think it started with an M. Anyway, after we came home, I started getting my clothes together for packing.

Today, I slept in and then packed. Our train leaves tomorrow at noon, so that's all I've been doing so far. haha. I'm going to try and take my small suitcase instead of my huge one, so I've been folding and rolling and stuffing things in every little space possible. Once we get to Perpignan (or actualy, a smaller town a little ways away), we're staying in a mobile home, so I can take everything out of my suitcase. It only has to fit in there on the way down and then again on the way back! lol!

The rest of the day will be spent packing and shopping for things we need. I'm not sure how long we will have, but I'm going with my host mom around 2:30 or so and I'm hoping to find a pair of sunglasses. I was an idiot and didn't even think to bring a pair with when I left Fargo in January. It doesn't really matter, though. If I don't find a pair today, I'll buy some when I get down there or when we go shopping in Spain. Supposedly, things are pretty cheap there because they don't have as much tax or something like that.

And if I need to state the obvious, I don't think I will have computer access, so don't expect another post until May 3rd or 4th, depending on how tired I am. Also, I'll probably have a hell of a lot written in my journal at the end of the week, so I'm not going to type it all up. I don't have that kind of time or patience. haha. I'll probably just hilight some of the main points and leave it at that.

Have a good rest of the month everyone!
I'll talk to you laterrr :)!
<3Miranda

Phrase of the Day: "Train train quotidien" = A French expression meaning the same thing day after day. I learned that one from Pierre-Antoine's dad yesterday.

80 Days

2009-04-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

I have tan linesss! I didn't notice until last night, but I got a little sun at the beach yesterday! woooh! Unfortunately, I'm still pretty white. haha. That will hopefully change next week, though!

Anyway, today I slept in a while. Then when I did finally get up, I took my time getting ready. Pierre and I hung out for a while, then Pierre-Antoine and Antoine stopped by to get the key from my host mom to the city warehouse. Pierre and I went with them to the warehouse to see the giant. I think I already explained this, but at some point in May, the giant will come out and there will be a little festival thing and whatnot. I'm not exactly sure what all goes on, but I will let you know when the day comes. Anyway, back on topic, we went to the warehouse and the giant's neck was broken. haha. They ended up pulling his head off and Antoine put it in his trunk. They're going to fix it up and then bring it back and reattach the head at a later time.

Pierre and I returned home and I read one whole page of my book (made a lot of progress there, huh? :P)! haha. I honestly am not motivated enough to read this thing. It's way longer than Manon Lescaut and I just don't feel like it! I know I'm not going to finish it and I don't really care how far I get. Besides, I would rather spend my time doing other things. When I have downtime, I normally plan on reading, but end up doing some pages in my French workbook or listening to music instead. I don't care about some smelly town and some insane mother. The French curiculum is no more exciting than the English one in Fargo. All the literature is so dry. ugh. It makes me not want to read more than it gets me interested in reading. haha. But I'll be done ranting, now. At around 6, my host mom and I went over to Thomas's house to watch the kids. Romane just got Zoo Tycoon and was busy on the computer the whole time. I played with her a little, but Lou-Marie had a tonn of energy and was insistant on tickling me. I got her pretty good, though, and then she was even more wound up! haha. Anne and Thomas weren't gone long, and when the returned, my host mom and I returned home. We ate supper in front of the TV because Desperate Housewives was on (and we can't miss an episode of that!). Then I got on the computerr.

Tomorrow I don't think we have any plans. I'll let you know what happens.

au revoirr!
<3Miranda

French Word of the Day: une(?) poussette = a stroller

81 Days

2009-04-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

I got up this morning and started getting ready at around 8:00. Somewhere around 10:00, Pierre, my host mom, and I headed north! Our first stop was at the beach of "la mer du nord" which I am pretty sure means the English Channel. We met up with Simon there, and he showed us the way to their campsite in a town called St. Cécile. He, Claire, Lola, and Marius are camping out there, so we paid them a visit for lunch. After eating, they joined Pierre, my host mom, and I at Berck, which was only about an hour away. This week in Berck, there is a huge international kite festival on the beach. We watched the kites from the road for a while, and then I went to meet up with the AFS crew. We had a "meeting" today. I really don't know if I can even call it that, because we basically just got together and talked & played a ball game on the beach. The adults didn't even come with us. Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked, but I got a few of the kites!

Anyway, after playing a tag-like game with the volleyball and talking a ton, we met back up with the adults for snack. The get together was pretty much over, so my host mom and I said goodbye and met back up with the others on the beach. While I was away, Thomas and his family had arrived. Romane was digging a huge hole (trying to get down to the water) and Lola, Lilian, and Lou-Marie were throwing handfulls of sand back in. Romane asked me to help her, so I did, and I got sand thrown all over my hair and down my shirt and pants and everywhereee! Ickk. That was uncomfortable for the ride home! Speaking of which, when the time came to leave (a little before 7), we made our way back to the car and headed out. The kites were almost all taken down for the night, so everyone was leaving at the same time. That caused quite a traffic backup on the road. I noticed a sign that read ARRAS: 91KM soon after getting on the road, and an HOUR later, the traffic started getting better and I saw a sign that read ARRAS: 89KM! That should give you an idea of how slowww we were moving! It was crazy! Like I said, though, about an hour later, the roads started clearing up and we were able to move at a normal speed. When we finally got home, we ate a quick supper and then my host mom & Pierre went to watch TV and I got on the computer. I really would watch TV, except I still can't understand it! I don't know exactly why the TV is so much harder than in person or on the radio, but in order for me to comprehend some, the volume needs to be super loud. That's why I think I'm okay when I go to movies in the theater. I can hear all the syllables and articulation and everything better. I sometimes have Pierre turn up the volume here, but he doesn't like it loud, so whatever. I'm not a big TV show person anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

Tomorrow should be pretty relaxed. I get to sleep in again, then the only thing planned is shopping in the afternoon. We're going to buy things we need before going south to Perpignan on Sunday.
I'll update you tomorrow!
<3miranda

Oh! I almost forgot! In the car today, I got a really cool idea! Well, it's not really that original or anything, but I decided I'm going to have a French word/phrase of the day at the end of my posts for now on. That way, when I come home and I am speaking franglais like maddd, you might be able to pick up on a couple things! haha.

Today's word: un cerf volent = a kite.

82 Days

2009-04-21T10:49:00.001-07:00

First of all, yesterday I spent the entire afternoon at Orane's house. Her sister took some pictures of us in their backyard, then their mom went to print those and the rest of us started scrapbooking. Normally, I suck at that kind of thing. I have no eye for arranging colored paper and photos with stickers and stamps to create something pretty. I've only scrapbooked a couple times previously and those pages are nothing to brag about. Not going to lie, though, yesterday I did an awesome job. I'm pretty proud of what I did. I'll have to admit, I didn't come up with the idea by myself (I found an example in a book), but I reproduced it really well! I used the pictures I took in Normandy of the sailboat races and made a circular design with them.. I don't know how to describe it exactly, but if you want to see it, I can show it to you when I come home. Just ask :)!

Today, I started my book for French class. It's called, La Parfum. So far, I've got one chapter down and all that has happened is that the town and everything in it smells. Then a baby was born and his mother didn't care about him. She was just determined to find a fish or something.. she spent everyday with a knife in her hand searching for this fish. Haha. I don't know if I understood that right because it sounds really bizzare, but than again, it's one of those old books and those tend to be a little weird.. Anyway, after I got my ass outa bed around 11:00, I got ready and ate breakfast. It wasn't much later before Romane came over. Pierre and I were going to watch her this afternoon. After eating lunch, we played spies. That game lasted the entireee day. I forget how creative little kids are. We had a bad witch and a good witch who lived in different trees in the backyard. Our headquarters was located in Pierre's room. He had a bunch of spy things for us to use, so each of us had a gun, and sunglasses, and Pierre and I each had walkie talkies. Romane and I were always together, so I shared mine with her. I also had a toy camera and a little container for all the evidence and little things we found. We had a clubhouse in the back corner of the backyard, too. We went in and out of the house chasing up and killing the bad guys. The mean witch, of course, was their leader. The nice witch was on our side and she gave us potions for when we were injured and warned us of the other witch's evil plans. Haha. It was really fun, actually!! I miss being a little kid! I used to play games like that all the time! lol! I don't have as much energy for that anymore, though, and playing all afternoon (from one to six) got really tiring! lol!

We took a short break around four to have a snack. We made verrines with fruit, cool whip, nutella, chocolate chips, coconut, almond dust, etc. In mine, I started with bananas at the bottom, then added a layer of nutella. After that, I added strawberries to a couple (there weren't very many) before adding a nice big dallop of cool whip! I sprinkled on some chocolate chips and added coconut and almond dust on top of that. Daayum was thatt good! I would definitely recommend trying that sometime!

Anne came to get Romane around 6:00. After that we took Pierre to the kiné. We waited there with him until he finished. Since we've come home, nothing overly interesting has happened. Tomorrow we're going up north by the English Channel to a town called Burck. I don't know if that's how it's spelled exactly, but I'm pretty sure it's close. There is a kite festival going on right now and we're having our AFS gathering there. Our families are invited this time as well, so my host mom, Pierre, and Thomas's family will be coming with. I heard that Pierre-Antoine and Antoine are going too, but they aren't with us, so I dunno. We'll probably see them, though.

j'écrirai encore demain soir!
bisous!
-miranda

83 Days

2009-04-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

Today is the half-way marker. I've been here 83 days and I have 83 left to go! Time has been flying by soo fast! July will be here before I know it. :/!

Anyway, today I feel a lot better. There is a tiny bit of tingling left on my fingers from the "oteille(?)" plant and my muscles in my legs and shoulders are still a little stiff. Other than that, though, I feel pretty good! This afternoon I am going to go to Oranne's house and scrapbook with her. I didn't have any photos printed off, so this morning I went with Oranne and her mom to a kiosk in the store. Oranne and I both printed our photos. I got 20 prints and it only cost me €5! We looked at electronics for the hour while our photos were being processed. I found you an alarm clock, Rica! I would have bought it today except for the fact that Oranne pointed out the pluggg! It's different here, so unless you have a converter, it won't work in the States. Do you still want it?

Anywayss, after receiving our pictures, Oranne's mom dropped me off at home for lunch. I'm going back in about 15 minutes for the scrapbooking part. That should be less demanding than the bike ride, I hope! haha. Hopefully this doesn't come with any surprises.

I'll let you know how it all goes tomorrow.
Bon journée!
<3Miranda

84 Days

2009-04-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

I didn't write yesterday, and I appologize, but after I tell you what I did, you will understand why!

The morning was alright. I completed a few lessons in my French workbook and then hung out with Pierre a little. At around two o'clock, Oranne came to pick me up for a "nice" bike ride. I'm really not a bike person. Prior to this, I hadn't been on a bike in yearsss! In fact, I don't even own a bike anymore! I expected it to be a nice, easy ride so I thought I could give it a shot. I figured it would be a good way to get to know people. Oranne didn't tell me to bring anything, so I was stupid enough to leave without even a water bottle. We went to her house where I got a bike to use. Then we went to meet everyone else at Kamille's house. Everyone was dressed in sweatpants and layers and had backpacks full of snacks and water bottles. I felt like I was getting in a little over my head. There were nine of us total, and after everyone had arrived, we started out. My calves were burning after the first half hour. Almost everything was uphill. It was terrrrrible! We took a short break. I could barely walk. Meline gave me some of her water and then we started out again. After consistantly going up, I couldn't take it any longer. My English started erupting from my mouth and I was swearing like you don't even know. I don't think many people heard me, but Oranne picked up on it. We took another break and everyone had snacks to share. Well, everyone except me. I still got to eat, though. I just felt bad for not getting the memo and bringing something to share. Anyway, after that, Oranne told me we were not even at the half way mark yet. That really pissed me off! She told me we were getting close, but would probably not be there for another half hour or so. To make things worse, we went onto a dirt trail. It had rained yesterday morning, so this trail was no longer dirt, but mud and goop and puddles and it was just nasty. My bike tires got clogged and I had to get off my bike to push it through. There was muckk sprayed all over my back and up my legs. My seat got mud on it and therefore so did my ass. There was mud in my hair and on my face and I don't think there were many places that weren't spattered with crap. Ugh. It was horrible. If I would have known the way, I would have turned back right then and there. I actually debated calling my host mom and having her pick me up. I just didn't know how to describe where I was. We were in the middle of a feild of some kind of crop far out of town. I was dyinggg I hurt so bad. My legs, my arms, my shoulders, my chest, my ass (because of the seat!), everything was burninggg. I haven't done much of any excercise in a long time, so this was quite the workout. It made me realize how out of shape I am. Well, actually, at the next pause, Oranne checked my speed gage thingamajig and asked me why I had it set at 3 and 8. I had thought that the higher numbers were for going uphill and the lower numbers were for going downhill; I guess it's the inverse! I about strangled someone when I found out I'd been working 8 times as hard as necessary! Gahhhh! I seriously thought I was going to dieeee! We had been going uphill almost the whole way, tooooo! I am sooo dumb. I can see my dad laughing right now as he reads this, but it is nott funny!!! I could hardly breathe!! After the halfway mark, I got everything straightened out and things got a little better. It didn't help that I already felt like dying, though. We continued through the mud for another couple hours. Then we walked our bikes up a steep grassy hill and took another break. This break lasted about a half hour or so. I thought I was well rested until I couldn't stand up. haha. We only had about an hour and a half left and most of it would be downhill, so that was motivating. I'd have to say I actually enjoyed that hour and a half, too! We went through a town called Vimy where there is a monument dedicated to the Canadians for aiding the French during WW1. There are also a bunch of trenches and they were all fenced off because there are still explosives underground that haven't been found! When we finallyy got back to Roclincourt, I learned that we had biked 35KM! I don't know exactly how many miles that is, but I think it's somewhere around 20? It felt like wayy more than that! Anyway, I dropped the bike off at Oranne's house, said goodbye, and then walked home. It wasn't far, but it took me forever to get there. My hair, skin, and clothes were filthy, so I took a shower and changed before going to the fair with Pierre and my host mom. Going up the stairs to my room was a struggle, though. I nearly had to stop in the middle and catch my breath. Then on the way down, my thighs gave out and I fell a little! haha. That's embarrassing.

A half hour later, we went to the fair. Unfortunately, that meant a lot of walking. My host mom promised we wouldn't stay too long. Pierre and I went on one ride. It was okay, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I'd have been in the mood. Then we played a few games. I shot a BB gun at balloons that were blowing around in a cage thing and I popped all of them but 1! That wasn't worth a prize, thoughhh! You have to get them all or you get nothing. We played a couple other games and Pierre ringtossed himself a portable radio. That was the only thing we won, though. After that, we went to the fair restaurant for supper. I TRIED ESCARGOT! And I liked it, a lot :D! It took me longer than a minute to get the first snail out of its shell, and it really did not look appatizing, but it tasted yummy! I ate all 12 of them, and would definitely order that again. The next thing on my list is "cuise de grenoille" (aka frog legs). Needless to say, when we got home I was so tired I went straight to bed. I took some tylonal for my muscles, though, because I was expecting to be stiff today.

This morning, my throat and chest (as well as my butt and legs) were killing me! I actually was still having a hard time breathing and every move I made felt like a workout. Hah. I really overworked myself yesterday. For lunch today, Thomas and his family, Simon and his family, Annick, and Grandma all came over. I helped my mom with the meal and I made the "verrines." I don't know what that translates to in English, but they are little glasses with different things (like salad, tomatoes, tuna, a sauce, etc) piled on top of each other in layers. Since Thomas's kids weren't here for Easter, we had another egg hunt :)! Pierre and I hid the eggs and candies in the yard and I unfortunately stuck my hand into a bad plant. It made my skin burn and gave me puffy white blotches on my fingers where I'd touched it. My host mom put vinegar on it and then I washed my hands with cold water. She said the pain and spots would go away on its own after a while. That was at one. It's now 7:30 and my skin still tingles. The spots are gone and it doesn't burn as bad, but it is still uncomfortable. Although with how bad the rest of my body hurts, it really doesn't make that big of a difference.

After all the kids had arrived and the candy had been scattered about, the hunt began. I took a couple pictures and will post those maybe Thursday? I have plans tomorrow and Wednesday, so we'll see. I haven't got the time right now. It didn't take long before everything was found. The kids ate their lunch and then I served my verrines. They were pretty good! I made a few different kinds, but the one I ate had pears on the bottom, then tuna, lettuce, and a sauce on top. I don't really know what the sauce was because my host mom made it, but it went really well with the rest. After the kids were done (and two glasses were broken), the rest of us ate. It took the rest of the afternoon to get through all the courses and to finish talking and whatnot. After everyone left, I got on the computer.
Et voila! That's all for today!
a demain!
<3Miranda

86 Days

2009-04-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

This morning, I got up a little bit earlier than yesterday, but moved much slower, so the bus was already at the bus stop when I arrived. Just as we pulled away, Justine called me and told me we didn't have Latin this morning. She was going tell me yesterday afternoon (since I don't go to Latin Thursdays), but she forgot. It was kind of bad timing, but it was nice news to get all the same. A Latin-less day is a good day :P! I passed my off hour with Marion and Sabrina in the CDI. Then I had Frenchh. We got assigned a book to buy & read over the vacation called, "La Parfum" and we also have another assignment. I forgot what the term is, but we have to find TEN different exerpts from different novels that follow a theme which relates to Manon Lescaut. She gave us some examples of things to chose from, and I chose to look for excerpts from novels where someone retells a love story. We have to basically introduce each excerpt (author, dates, novel). Then we copy/paste the excerpt onto a Word document and star the words we don't know and then define them at the bottom (that could get a little lengthy xD). Finally, we chose one adjective to describe the hero(?) and explain why it fits. That sounds like a fun way to spend vacation, eh?

After French, I had another hour off before English. We went to the CDI and I had Sabrina explain how the French paper worked (since I was a little confused). She also helped me organize my binder since we are turning them in after the break. Then we basically just talked until the hour was up.

In English, we got our DS back. Not to brag or anything, but I got a 19.5/20! That made me pretty happy :)! We went over the corrections for that, and then had the remaining 15 minutes to talk amongst ourselves. The funeral for the teacher who died earlier this week was this afternoon and my teacher went to that, so she cancelled our afternoon class. That left me without class from noon until 4.

Sabrina and I returned to the CDI after English and found Maxime there. Sabrina saw someone else she knew, so she went to parle with her and I stayed and talked with Maxime. He went through my ipod and criticized a lot of my French music (especially La Marseillaise(sp?) haha)! We got onto the topic of the Main Square Festival and he told me he was for sure going all 3 days. Now that I found someone else who is going, my host mom will let me goooooo :D! I'm excited for that!! I hope there are still tickets available!

At 12:30, Sabrina, her friend (Narine), Maxime, and I went to eat. Today was much better than yesterday. Things were back to normal in the cantine and I actually had some choices. I decided on pasta salad, a chocolate pie, and rice with beef & sauce. Marion showed up a little after 12:45, followed by Laureen and Virginie shortly after 1:00.

At 2:00, Sabrina, Maxime, and I left school. Maxime went home since he didn't have any other classes today, and Sabrina and I went shopping. Finally. I bought a tonnn of stuff. I actually got some clothes! I bought shorts, a skirt, a new belt, a tshirt, and a tanktop! I decided that I really needed that stuff for when I go South next week since I have very few summer clothes. I also got a new bag for school (more like an oversized purse, since thats what nearly everyone uses here), a pencil pouch, and a bunch of new school supplies. I think that's it...? Oh! Wait! I also got myself a French workbook for elementary kids. I figured that would be good practice xD! Anyway, I came back to school with a pretty big load. It was a little awkward carrying all that to class, but whatevs. I just had parcours.

In parcours today, we just worked on our French assignments in the CDI. I found 8 of the 10 extracts I need! I think my foreign author is going to be Edith Wharton, because Ethan Frome works really well for this assignment. The hard part is finding a 15-20 line extract (in English or French!). I found a few quotes that were 5 lines long (at most) on the Internet, but that won't work. I wish I could find a copy of that book somewhere; the school library didn't have it. I might end up screwing that and finding another French author. We will see.

Two hours later, my day was over. I rode the bus home and then ate a snack with Pierre. After that, I hung out with him a bit and then took all my purchases up to my room! I took my things out of my old bag and put them in my new one. I also got my pencil pouch together and put away my new clothes. Then I wrote out a birthday card ;D! Sabrina was going to help me with translate the message inside (since it's pretty long), but that didn't happen and I won't see her again until after the vacation, so I have to do it myself. I can't wait until May to send out the card. Haha, that would be wayyy too late. I'll just have to do it the old fashioned way and look up the words in my dictionary. I honestly haven't had to do that for a long time. When I don't know what something is, I usually just have someone explain it to me using words I do understand.

Anyways, after getting my crap organized, it was supper time. It wasn't until after eating that I got on the computer. That's alright, though, because I can sleep in until noon tomorrowwwww :D! Ahh! I am so very happy about that! The only thing I really dislike about having two weeks of vacation is that you don't see anyone from school. In France, kids can't drive solo until they are 18. Since most everyone I know is 16 or 17, none of them can drive places alone, yet. Everyone also lives far away from each other, so you can't walk either. That said, you really don't spend much time with your classmates outside of school. That is one thing I really dislike. I wish there was an efficient way for young people to get places. There are trains and buses, but for some reason, people only take those to and from school. Parents are the main source of transportation when it comes to recreational activities, and majority of them (or so I've noticed) don't like driving far (which to them is 15+ minutes).

That's really all I've got to say for today. I'll write again tomorrow night, if I get the chance! We're going back to the fair :)!

Bisous!
<3Miranda

87 Days

2009-04-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

Today started out like crap. I get closer and closer to missing my bus every day. Thank goodness tomorrow is the last day of school before the 2 week vacation so it won't be much longer before I can catch up on sleep! Because I was so tired today, I was crabby all morning. It didn't help that it was really warm in the classrooms, either. Being overly hot and being overly tired are the two things that tick me off the most, and it's pretty bad when the two are combined.

For the full two hours of history this morning, we watched a documentary on World War 1. I managed to stay awake majority of the first hour and kind of paid attention, but by the second hour, I was out. I rested my head on my hands and fell asleep. Haha. I woke up a few times throughout the film, but it was still nice. The down side to that, though, was that in my next class, French, I wasn't really awake yet. Before class, my teacher asked me a question and I responded "Ouais" instead of "Oui" and I guess that's rude; it's like the "tu" and "vous" thing. I didn't catch it until I heard someone else who was in the back say something like "someone needs to tell her that one uses 'oui' and 'vous' with the teacher, not 'ouais' and 'tu!!" I don't know who it was, but they said it in a really rude tone and it really pissed me off. That did nott help my mood much. When class started, we had to write a commentaire on a fable. She gave us the "problematique" and we had to use that to write our commentaire. I was so drowsy and preoccupied with what had taken place at the beginning of class that I couldn't concentrate at all. I didn't even get more than a few sentences of the fable read. By the end of the time period, my paper was still blank. Sabrina was chosen to present her commentaire in front of the class (this is called "une orale"). Then everyone else handed their papers in, except me (since I didn't do anything).

Thankfully after French, I had a period off. My math teacher wasn't there today, so I went with Sabrina to the CDI. She informed me that we had an orale in Anglais Complementaire today, too, so we reviewed for that a little. I worked on my British accent. I met a girl named Sarah, too, and talked with her for a while. Gaetane was sitting at our table, too, and I heard she's pretty good at "Ch'ti," so I had her write down some phrases for me to learn. "Ch'ti" is a type of French accent. It's kind of like a hic accent to us, I suppose. Mainly the older people speak it and the newer generations make fun of it. I don't know a whole lot about it, but that's my understanding. I'm going to try and learn a little bit, if I can. haha.

I had Anglais Complementaire at noon. By this time, my mood had improved a bit and I was a little more awake. After Kozimor asked a few people how they were feeling and why they were feeling the way they felt, we started our oral examination. He handed out a cartoon and a worksheet with questions on it. We were to interpret the cartoon and talk a little about it. This oral was a relief compared to the French one. I actually succeeded in answering everything fairly thouroughly. Saloua was the lucky person chosen to present. After she was finished, class was pretty much over. I checked my phone since someone had messaged me during class. It was Marine telling me that Hillary was in front of the school! I told Sabrina that before lunch we had to go out and say "Hi." We went to look for them, but Hillary had already left. We went back into the school and met up with Marion at the cantine.

Lunch today was not fabulous. It reminded me of Lunchrun C the Friday before Christmas vacation back at South High; there was nothinggg to eat! There were 2 yogurts left and the people in front of me took those. I got one of the last desserts, and the entrée bar was pretty picked over as well. What really disappointed me, though, was when I got my main dish. They were serving fries with either chicken nuggets or fish in a sauce. I was really looking forward to the chicken nuggets, but the person JUST in front of me got the last onessssss! Ughh! I had to settle with fish. It wasn't bad or anything, but I haven't eaten a chicken nugget in foreverrr! That really irritated me!

After lunch, things got better. Sabrina and I went into town to buy the school supplies I found on Tuesday. However, as we were walking into the downtown area, we came across Marine and Jeremy. Marine told me that Hillary was with one of her friends and I was to call her cell phone if I got the chance. I did so right away and Hillary was at the Befroi with her class. We had five minutes before they left, so Sabrina and I booked it on over! I got there and couldn't find her anywhere. I was standing in the middle of the crowd looking for her when she came up behind me and grabbed me! I let out a louddd scream! haha! She introduced me to some of her friends and I introduced her to Sabrina. Then I talked to her history teacher a little. He was pretty chill and gave Sabrina and I permission to tag along with the class until we had to go back to class. We walked around the Petit Place and then the Grand Place and through the fair and then continued down another street. There is another girl in Hillary's school who's from Argentina. She's been here since August and her accent is so good that Sabrina actually thought she was French. She said she had almost a perfect southern French accent. I don't remember her name, but she was at the AFS reunion in Feburary and will be at the next one which is actually just next week Wednesday. Hillary won't be there, though, because she is going to the Czeck Republic to see her best friend who is on an exchange program there. Hillary and I talked mainly in French, not only so the others could follow the conversation, but also because it felt more natural. Toward the end, we did speak for about ten minutes or so in English, but that's all, I promise. Ten minutes out of an hour and a half is pretty good in my opinion.

At four, we had French, so a little beforehand, we said goodbye to Hillary and the Argentina girl (I forgot her name :S) and headed back to the school. This French period was two hours long and we spent it writing another commentaire. This time there was not an oral afterwards; it was just a written commentaire. The text was an extract from Manon Lescaut (imagine that!) and I was awake enough by now to do some work. I think I did a fairly decent job, too. I had the front and back of one sheet and half of a second sheet filled up. It wasn't just BS either! I had to read the text a few times (and have Sabrina explain a little) before I understood it, but I eventually found a problematique and got an outline down. After that, most of the work had been done and I could write my commentaire without much problem. My conclusion was really sucky, but other than that, my paper went well (for me, at least)!

After school, I took the bus home. My ipod battery was dead, so I spent the ten minute ride in silence. When I got home, things went like normal; I ate a snack and then got on the computer. Now I'm going to get off and chill with Pierre.

à demain!
-Miranda<3

88 Days

2009-04-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

I went back and finished yesterday's post. I put in three *** where I left off so it would be easier for you to find your place, if you were reading that.

Anyway on with today! I didn't have math today! And I don't have it tomorrow either! Today my theatre teacher got the theatre kids out of class because we had a speaker thing (I'll go into that later), and tomorrow my math teacher won't be there! Yayyy! A whole week without math! :D!

The theatre thing wasn't really a whole lot better, though. A lady came in (the same one who spoke to us a couple weeks ago) and taught us about marionettes. That sounds kind of interesting, but it was so strange! I did not like the activities at all. We started out by getting in a circle and going around, saying our names and making an action. That wasn't too bad. Then, we had to go around again and repeat everyone elses action & say their name before we did our own. That sucked. I made a mistake on the second person, and it did not get better after that. Unfortunately, I was closer to the end than the begining, so I had quite a few people to get through. I had a harder time with everyone's name than their action. People had to keep reminding me, and it was kind of embarrasing. Afterwards I knew almost everyone's name, though! The following activities all had to do with our hands. We had to animate our hand and give it a personality. That was so strange! The first task was to create a scene where your hand took control of itself. We had about 5 minutes to come up with an idea and then she called on people to present their scenes. Thankfully, I did not get called! The second excercise was the same deal, but instead of losing control of our hand, our hand became a character and we performed a scene with it walking around on a table. Once again, I did not get called on. And merci beaucoup! I hadn't the slightest idea what to do. We spent the last 15 minutes looking and playing with a real marionette puppet. It wasn't on strings or anything, but it was interesting to watch people make it walk around and jump and all that.

When the three hours were up, I went out front and waited for my host mom. I found Virginie, Laureen, Marion, and Sabrina right away. Sabrina had my math homework and my math portion of my Bac Blanc (like I mentioned before, FERPA doesn't have any meaning here). I GOT A 9,5 OUT OF 20 ON MY BAC!!!!! That made me super happy! To most of you, that probably sounds terrible, but it's actually almost at the average. I lost most of my points because I didn't show my work. It was simple crap like multiplying single numbers or calculator equasions, so I didn't think we had to, but whatever. It was a half a point for the correct answer at least. After Sabrina and the others left, I found some other people from my class. They had grades like 6, 5.5, 8, and 10, so I am reallyyyy content with my grade!

I talked with Marine, Justine, and a "10th grader" from the school across the street named Anthony. Then my host mom arrived and took me home. After eating lunch, Pierre went to get his hair cut and I got on the computer. He's home now, though, and wants me to help him with something, so I've gotta go.

A Demain!
<3Miranda

89 Days

2009-04-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

Ahh! I have suchh a headache today! It's put me in a really crabby mood, too. EVERYTHING is tickingg me offf! I need to get some sleep tonight!
Anyway, right now I'm at school. It's a little after 5 o'clock and I just finished my last course of the day, Français. My bus doesn't get here until 6, so I have a little downtime for writing. I'll pick up where I left off yesterday and see how far I get before the hour is up. Also, I don't have my journal with, so I'm going off of memory.

SATURDAY : I woke up early since I was sharing a room with little kids. I think Lilian was the first one up at 6:00. I fell back to sleep a couple times, and finally got myself out of bed around 9:30. After breakfast, some people who live in England arrived! They have been living there for 2 years, so I was told they knew English pretty well. The dad and the kid only spoke a teeeny bit of English to me. They told me I could speak English with them if I wanted to, but I never did. I can't even explain the feeling when I talk in English. It's soo weird. It feels so foreign to me now. I can still do it, obviously, but it doesn't feel natural. Anyway, we all went on a walk around town. There was an animal pond thing with ducks, swans, geese, etc in the water and goats and sheep in a fenced in area along side. After that, we came across a playground where we stopped for a bit. Then we moved on to an ampitheatre type area. There were some neat little houses built around the cement platform and benches on a hill for watching. Then behind the stage there was a lake. It started raining really hard, so we hung out in one of the huts and waited for it to pass. As we continued on, we found a waterfall which flowed into a stream which led to a lake. Then we turned onto a road and ended up back at the cabin. As the day went on, more and more people arrived, including a couple people my age. Simon was 14 and Lucie was 16. That was nice, because all the other kids were 12 and under, I think. Most of them were probably around 4 or 5.

Okay, I really am having issues remembering what I did on each day. Everything has kind of meshed together in my head, so I'm just going to quick summarize the rest of the trip. If you want to know more details, talk to me when I get back or send me an email & I will review my journal and respond.

Basically, one of the days, I helped Thomas and Nicolas make sailboats for the kids to race in the river. They were made out of plastic bottles, branches, and then some white fabric-y paper stuff for the sails. We went back to the river and the kids had a race. After that, a few people around my age arrived, Lucie (16) and Simon (14). We hung out the rest of the weekend together. We spent a lot of time playing ball outside with the little kids. We had another sailboat race another day (Easter, I think?). This time, Lucie, Simon, and I made something to race with, too. It took us about 5 minutes to throw together. A plastic plate was the base. We added two plastic cups to the side of that to trap air and keep it afloat, and then on top we had a cork covered with a flower for decoration & extra floatation. Ours ended up working really well and moved super fast! We passed all the little kids' boats in no time and would have come in first place easily, except our boat broke on the way down the little waterfall at the end... haha. We gathered up the parts and fixed it up for the second round, but by the time we got it in the water, the first place boat was too far ahead to pass. Ummm.. what else? ...Easter was not a whole lot different than Easter in Fargo. After breakfast, the kids got ready to go on an Easter egg hunt in the yard. In France, there is a bell who hides chocolate eggs all over the yard, not a bunny. Also, the candy is not inside plastic eggs; it's just the chocolate eggs who are hidden. When all the candy has been found, the kids throw it all in the same bucket and shared it. *** That prevented the bigger kids from hoarding all the chocolate. After the egg hunt, most of us went to church. Majority of the kids stayed back at the house with the few adults who didn't go. The service didn't hold my attention long enough for me to comprehend what was being said (although I have that same problem in English), but I'm pretty sure he just told us the Easter story. The inside of the church was interesting, though. You walked right into the back of the main room; there wasn't a foyer. The pews were made out of old wood and they had gates on the ends. There was a large painting on the wall behind the alter, and there were different sculptures of Jesus and the cross hanging down from the ceiling and on the side walls. The room was not very big, and I ended up sitting on a bench along the side wall with Anne and a couple other people. At communion, there was just bread, no wine. We greeted everyone with kisses instead of handshakes. Those are the only real differences I noted, though. After church, I think it was then when we made sailboats with the little kids back at home.. I dunno exactly. By lunch time, there were 80-some people at the cabin!! We ate in the dining house in the backyard since it was larger than the dining room in the cabin itself. The rest of the weekend was mainly spent playing ball and taking walks. We had a little soccer game Sunday evening and I met another kid my age named Gregoire. Lucie, Simon, Gregoire, and I had our own room the last night, and it was on the top floor so we weren't woken up by the kids in the morning. The ride home was long. I let Romane play games on my ipod, and she played until the batterie died. We still had another hour after that, so I played with Lilian a little. We dropped Mme Noëlle off at her house in Maroeuil (another village around the Arras area), and then I went back to Mt. Saint Eloi with the others. My host mom picked me up from Thomas's house that evening. I don't remember anything after that.

Today I had school again. I nearly missed the bus this morning because I was soo tired! I had Latin first, then French, followed by 2 hours of history and an hour of some class in the same room with the same teacher. I don't remember what it's called, but I only have it once every other week. We talked about the 6 presidents of the 5th Republic today. The onlyyy one I didn't recognize was Valéry Something. We have a quiz on the 6 presidents and their dates in office next class period (which isn't until after the vacation). I three hour break after that. Sabrina and I ate lunch with Marion, Laureen, and Virginie, and then left school. I wanted to buy envelopes (so I can finally send out my letters that have been sitting here for everr) and blue ink cartrages for my fountain pen. We went to a store called Monoprix (which is kind of like a Walmart), and found what I needed. Then we went up to the register and when I went for my money, it wasn't there! I forgot I took it out to bring with over the weekend! Luckily we hadn't gotten through the line yet, so I saved myself a little embarrasment. Sabrina and I went and put the stuff back and then left. I'm hoping to go back Thursday during our break. After that, we still had 2 full hours, so we went to a gorgeousss park! I decided I want to try and get my senior pictures taken there. It's got a really nice pond with tons of ducks and a few williow trees and hills and rocks and a bridge and ahh! I love it. After our time had passed, we made our way back to school. During the recreation time before class started, Wendie came up to us and told us that a Post-Bac teacher had commit suicide! I am assuming it had just happend, but it didn't take place at school. I don't really know a whole lot of details. We had French class, and after that, I went to the library and wrote the begining of this. After I got home, Pierre and I ate snack. Then we talked for a while until my host mom came home. She took us out to eat at a pizzaria with her friend, Pierrette. The pizzaria was located in the Grand Place in Arras, and there also happens to be a fair going on, so after eating, my host mom took Pierre and I on a little walk around that. Pierre and I played bumper cars three times, and then played an arcade game where you put your coin in and try and push the other coins off the edge up front... I don't remember what the name of it is in English, but I think they have one (or used to have one) at Chuck E Cheese. Most everything else was closed since it was late and a weeknight. We might go back Saturday. It wasn't until about 10:30 when we finally got home! I went right up to my room and got ready for bed.

Sorry for not finishing yesterday, but I did not have the time. I'm going to make a new post for today, though.

90 Days.

2009-04-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

I'm Back! ...and I have a lottt to tell you guys! I really want to get to bed early tonight, though, since I have school tomorrow and I didn't sleep a whole lot this weekend. I'll write a little about each day, but I'm not going to go into a tonn of detail.

FRIDAY : At school, I had Latin, French, and one English LV1 class. At the end of French class, we had a class photo!! That made me super happy, because they don't have yearbooks here, so that kind of makes up for it. The class photo was just with the 301L1 kids, though. It's not like in Frago where you get 500 people together for a picture. I left school at one o'clock (just after eating) to go home and pack and then left with Anne and Thomas. I sat in the way back with Romane. In the middle row sat Madame Noëlle, Lou-Marie, and Lilian. Then up front was Thomas behind the wheel and Anne riding shotgun. The trip to four hours. On the way, we watched a few DVDs including "Il Etait Une Fois" (Enchanted), "La Soldat Rose" and a little of "Le Roi Soleil" (French musicals). I really only paid attention to Enchanted. I spent a good chunk of time looking out the window at the scenery. The style of the houses is different in Normandy. I took some pictures and will try & post them later on this week. I also saw a few castles! They were much smaller than I expected a castle to be! I expected a castle to be huge and have a bunch of towers like in the movies, but the ones I saw only had one tower and a little piece of building attatched. The landscape itself was also different. It varied quite a bit, but there were a lot of hills and trees and stuff. It was interesting to look at; it wasn't just farmland. We were then first group to arrive at the "gîte" (for lack of a better term, we'll have to translate that to 'cabin'). I helped unpack everything and then Anne's cousin, Nicolas, arrived with his family. We all went on a little tour of the place. The house has 2 floors of bedrooms and bathrooms, plus the main floor. I counted 12 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms total!!! After figuring out where we were going to sleep, I helped Madame Noëlle make crêpes! I helped her with the batter, and then after making a couple, she left me to make the rest by myself! I did not do the greatest job spinning the batter in the pan, but in the end, they tasted just fine. A few other people arrived that night and after eating and a little conversation, I went up to bed.

I appologize, but I have to stop there because my host mom needs to use the computer and I am going to go to bed.
I will finish up tomorrow. :)
Goodnight!
<3miranda

94 Days.

2009-04-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

Today was longggg. At 8:00, we started the Bac Blanc Français. We were given FOUR hours to answer a complex question and then respond to one of 3 topics. I chose the "disertation." Originally I was planning on doing the commentaire (since I've got the format down), but I couldn't comprehend the text it was on, so I did the disertation instead. It was the only topic I (kind of) understood. I managed to fill up one page front and back, plus the front of another! I was really proud of myself, since that's how much the other students usually write for their DS on Saturdays. Then I looked around the room and saw that most people were working on their third or fourth page! I'm still content with what I did get done. I am starting to wonder if I answered the question correctly, though.. I think I may have misunderstood it. Ha. Oh well, some teacher can have a good laugh at my paper while they correct it. :P

After an hour and 20 minutes of waiting, the session was finally over. We had a two hour break for lunch. Everyonee was at the cantine at once, so Sabrina, Virginie, Laureen, and I hung out in the CDI for a while until the crowd died down a bit. After we had finished eating, Sabrina had a headache, so I went with her to the nurse. Then it was time for the "L" (me) and "ES" kids to take the science portion of the Bac Blanc. The "S" trac kids take that one next year. The "ES" people only take the life science portion this year, and we (the "L" kids) took both the physical and life science tests today. We were given an hour and thirty minutes to complete both parts. I responded to all but one question on the biology test, so that went alright. The physical science was another story. haha. I used over half of my time on the biology one, so the physical one was rushed. On top of that, I didn't understand a lot of the material, so that made it even harder. I ended up just guessing and BSing a lot of answers. I didn't finish the whole thing, though. I missed about 5 or 6 questions. :/ It's better than my physical science DS though! haha!

When that was done, we had a half hour (?) break. I went with Gaetane to the 4th floor and bought an Orangina to drink. :)! Then I chatted with Mary, Justine, Jeremy, and Rafaël. We reviewed a little for the math portion, and then break was over. The "L" kids are the only ones who take their math this year. We got an hour and a half to work on the problems. I managed to finish, but I knoww I got a lot wrong. I didn't respond completely to one of them because I had no idea what it was asking, and then there were a few others I didn't have any idea how to do. I just BSed a number and scribbled it down. I don't really care; I hate math. haha.

Our day was finished at 5:30. I talked with Mary, Alice, Joy, Fiona, Julie, and Sabrina until my bus arrived at around 10 after 6. Oranne and Camille rode the bus today, too, so I talked with them for a little bit. When I got home, I ate a snack and then attempted to pack my suitcase a little. That didn't go to well, though. I hardly got anything packed. I'll probably save that until tomorrow just before Thomas comes to get me ;D!

It was Anne's birthday yesterday, but since we didn't get the chance yesterday, we went over tonight to wish her a happy birthday. We drank a little champagne, ate some puffy cracker things, and talked. Mainly we discussed tomorrow and how the weekend is going to play out. I'm going with them to Normandy tomorrow afternoon until Monday. Anne's side of the family is having a reunion there, and we'll be staying in a large cabin together. They invited me along to watch the kids. That said, I don't know if I will have Internet time (or access!), so I probably won't be on for a few days. I'll do a good job writing in my written journal and then type that up for you when I get back. :)!

Bon week-end!
et Jouyeux Paques!
<333Miranda

95 Days.

2009-04-08T12:26:00.001-07:00

Today wasn't really anything special. It started with math at 9 this morning. The lesson was actually really simple and I was able to do the work on the board without any problem! That's definitely a first! haha! After class, Marine handed in her homework from last week (since she was absent) and I slipped mine in there, too. I hope he doesn't notice and corrects it anyways. If not, oh well I guess. It's not like it was that hard to copy the answers off the answer sheet.. haha.

I had two hours of theatre starting at 10. The theatre itself was occupied by someone else, so our class was held in a room I'd never been in before in the front building. This room was fairly large with a nice sized window overlooking the front of the school. There were lots of chairs and a projector screen was pulled down in the front. It looked to me like a staff meeting room. But anyway, I spent the beginning of class watching Alice and Wendie rehearse their scene. After they'd gone through it a coupld times, we went to track down my teacher to get the book with my scene. There is a professional comedian who comes in and works with us on Wednesdays, so my teacher sometimes leaves the class for a while. We seriously spent a good half hour trying to find her. Once we did, she told us Morgan had the book. She said Morgan was in the CDI, and after we found her, we should bring the book to her in the staff room and she'd make us photocopies of the text. Alice, Wendie, and I went to the CDI as directed and looked for Morgan. There are a tonn of "work rooms" to look in, and we could nottt find her! I think it took about 10 minutes before we opened the last door and found Morgan inside. After we finally got the book, we took it to the staff lounge back in the front building. My math teacher was in there (yipee.) and he told us he hadn't seen our teacher. That sent us running around some more. We looked and looked (and spent a long time running between buildings in the rain) and eventually we gave up and went back to the classroom. Alice, Wendie, and I talked for a little while and FINALLY our teacher came in. We gave her the book and she made us the copies. By the time we were finished dividing up the monologue into two parts, Alice and I only had a half hour to read through it. That was plenty of time in my book, though. I was ready to get out of there.

My host mom came and picked me up after school. When I got home, I ate lunch and then watched "Fargo" with Pierre. I dunno why everyone likes that movie so much! I thought it was really dumbb! Anyway, after that, Pierre went to the Kiné and I went up to my room to review a little for the Bac Blanc tomorrow. I didn't accomplish a whole lot, though. Instead, I spent my time looking through my old pictures on my camera and listening to my ipod. Lol, very productive. That's going to get me a good score on my test tomorrow, for sure :P!

After Pierre came home, I went downstairs and had a snack with him. Then Nathan and his mom arrived to take me to music. I was too tired to put a whole lot of effort into that today. I basically sat there and played half asleep.

When I got home, Pierre was getting ready to leave for dance. I got a little computer time in while he was gone, and then went with my host mom to go pick him up. We just finished eating, and I didn't write my blog last time I got on, so I thought I'd do that quick before I go to bed.
Wish me luck on the Bac Blanc tomorroww!
Goodnight!
<3Miranda

Oh, and yes, Zach, the Pokémon cards were in that package. I gave them to my host brother and he was really excited. He told me to tell you that you are "très sympa!" and "Merci beaucoup !" I'm also supposed to give you a big "la bise" when I get home, so be expecting that ;D!

96 Days

2009-04-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

This morning when I woke up, I had a terribly sore throat! I think I caught the cold my host mom and Pierre both have. I've got cough drops now, though, so it's all good. :)!

Latin was first today. Before class, I hung out with Florian, Justine, and Claire in the hall. Florian insisted I tell some American jokes, so I told the only one I could think of- "Why did the chicken cross the road?" hahaha. No one found that very funny, but I explained it's probably one of the most well known jokes in America. Lol. After that, Florian told most of the jokes. One of them was really long and it took a ton of explaining before I actually got it, but it was kind of funny. I would tell you all, but I don't remember the whole thing, so it won't really make sense :/ sorry. In class, I actually was able to comprehend what was going on a bit. I understood almost completely one of the stories my teacher told! I didn't understand any of the Latin, though. ha. They were chopping up the sentences with lines and marking little u's on top of vowels and crazy stuff like that. I dunno what any of that means. I've never done that in English Latin before. Oh well, no biggie. My teacher doesn't expect anythingg out of me, so whatevs.

I had French next. We talked about the elements of theatre literature and read a couple examples. It was not overly exciting.

After French came 2 hours of history. We continued talking about World War One and ended at the part where the Americans come in to play. Then we watched a film, talked about that a little, and class was over.

My only other class today was French from 4-5. History ended at Noon, so that gave me lots of down time. I spent the first hour on facebook in the CDI. Sabrina and Justine were both in there, too, but they were working on homework and I didn't want to distract them. haha.

At one, Sab and I met up with Marion at the cantine and had lunch. Today I had potatoes in a sauce & shredded carrots for my entrée; pasta with a white sauce containing chunks of ham and cheese sprinkled on top for my main dish; and a chocolate mousse brownie for dessert :)! We sat on the top level of the cafeteria today! I love eating up there. It looks pretty much the same as the main level, but I think it's just the fact that it's different to be upstairs. I dunno. We don't have an upstairs in our cafeteria back home, so I find it cool! Laureen and Virginie found us a little later.

An hour later, Marion, Virginie, and Laureen had class. Sabrina and I went to the CPE and FINALLY the lady was there! We asked if I could take the Bac, and she said no. Unless it was a mandetory thing, it could not be arranged. That kind of disappoints me, but I can take the Bac Blanc (practice Bac) on Thursday this week, so I can still kind of see what it's like. After that, we went back to the CPI. I had Sabrina try and teach me how to write a commentaire, but it didn't work out so well. I didn't really understand the text extract and that made coming up with a "problématique" (a question you will spend the whole essay answering) awfully difficult. Sabrina then went on the computer and I looked through a book on theatre elements (the topic of the Bac Blanc Français). Gaetane came and sat down at the table with me, and she reviewed her SVT while I went through the theatre book. Afterwards, I had her help me with the commentaire. The two of us got a lot further. We found TWO problématiques for me to chose from and I finished my whole introduction by the time our free period was over. I still don't feel exceptionally confident with writing a commentaire, but I'll just do what I can. If I don't succeed, it doesn't matter!

At 5, I was done with school. My host mom said she'd come and pick me up, so I waited for her out front. Not many other people were leaving (they either had class or were hanging out in the CDI), so I sat and listened to my iPod while I waited. Marine, Justine, and Jeremy showed up a little later and hung out with me for a bit, but then they had to catch their train, so they left. It wasn't much longer though until my host mom arrived and brought me home. I ate a nutella/peanut butter sandwich and a small piece of sugar pie for snack. Then I started watching FARGO: The Movie! :D! I'd never seen that before, and Thomas had a copy, so he let us barrow it. I didn't finish it this afternoon, though, because Pierre had something on TV he wanted to watch, so I will finish it up tomorrow afternoon.

Short day tomorrow!
:D!

bon soirée!
<3Mirandaa

97 days

2009-04-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

Today was decent, I suppose. I got to sleep in until 8:30 today, which was nicee :)! My first class was Anglais Complementaire at 10. We went over that pheonetics worksheet from a couple weeks ago. Hah. I did terrible. My teacher kept reminding me that this was BRITISH English taught in the classroom and my American accent did not work for what we were doing. He kept sayings about people who picked up American accents because they would listen to music or watch TV in English, and that was not what we were learning. He made me say a few words with my accent, and then would repeat it like he already knew. He would tell the class, "Yes, yes. 'WORD HERE' is how you would say it with the American accent." I realized that that is the difference between my two English teachers; one thinks he knows everything and is not willing to admit when he learns something from me and the other one kind of uses me as a helper when she isn't sure about something or has me tell how I would say a certain expression or phrase in American English. She's actually willing to learn from me, and I don't like to seem like I know it all or anything (because I soo do not!), but I like being able to help out like that when I can. It makes me feel kind of smart (and I haven't gotten that feeling a whole lot. haha.)!

After English Comp., I spent an hour in town with Alice, Wendie, and Joy. I ate a "petit pain au chocolat" while they ate lunch. Afterwards, we returned to school for Theatre. Jane and I found a new script today! It's actually a monologue, but my teacher is going to cut it up into two parts so I don't have as much to say (and so I am not alone!). Other than talking, that's really all I accomplished in that class today.

I ate a quick lunch with Marion, Virginie, Sabrina, and Laureen, and then Sabrina and I went to Anglais LV1. First off, we recited one stanza of a poem from memory. It was pretty simple. The first stanza (the one I chose) went like this:

I can change the world
With my own two hands
Make a better place
With my own two hands
Make a kinder place
With my own two hands
With my own
With my own two hands

After that, we got a hand out with a couple poems about growing up. Then weee had to write poems about growing up! haha! I suckk at poetry! Luckily, we got to work with the person next to us, so it wasn't quitee as bad.. lol. Class ended before we finished, though, and it was time forrr--

SVT. That class is not overly exciting. We're still talking about the reproductive system and I'm a little bored with that. I talked with Sabrina a little to pass the time. I don't even remember what it was we talked about, but whatever. It kept me from falling asleep.

After SVT, we had Anglais LV1 again. We finished up our poems and then read them aloud. We voted on our favorite and Valentine & Marion won :)! Their poem was put on the wall. Then we got some more handouts and read through those & did a worksheet. We finished class a little early, so our teacher let us play pictionary. It was in French, so I didn't do wonderful at guessing a lot of the things.. haha. That was fun anyway, though.

The last class of the day was French. I honestly can't tell you much about that class because I didn't really listen today. I drew a little in my binder and talked with Sabrina, Nicolas, and Gaetane. We did get a big handout, though! That had something to do with the thème we wrote at the end of March.

After school, I took the bus home and when I arrived, their was a package waiting for me on the table! It was from my mom, and it had tons of Easter candy and a couple Seventeen magazines that she'd received in the mail for me. I read through those and shared the candy with my family. Then I hung out with Pierre a little before we ate dinner. After dinner, not much has happened. I basically just got myself online.. haha.
I'll write again tomorrowww:)

Bonne soirée!
<3Miranda

98 days.

2009-04-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

This morning I slept in 'til around 9:30/10:00. That was awesome. haha. After I was ready for the day, I ate breakfast with Pierre. My host mom was out grocery shopping, and she arrived shortly after we'd finished. I helped her unload everything from the car and put it all away.

Before going to Thomas's house, Pierre and I made cakes. I made one out of the "chocolat" book Annick gave me and Pierre made one out of his own collection of recipes. My recipe was actually for double chocolate cookies, but I didn't feel like rolling out balls for the cookies, so I made it into a cake. I also added in some of the chocolate chips my mom sent me :). If she reads this, she should send me another package. ;D!

An hour later, we left for Thomas's house. Annick, Madame Noëlle (Anne's mom), and Cathrine (Anne's sister) were already there. Since it was another nice day, we all hung out in the backyard until the meal was ready. I don't remember what it was called, but we had some kind of traditional French meal where you melt the cheese in a machine thing in the middle of the table, and then you drizzle it over potatoes and meat. I tried a little red wine, too. That was strong stuff today! It kind of burned going down! hah! I only had a tiny bit of that. Next up was salad with an oil dressing. Then for dessert we had a choice of fruit salad, Annick's apple pie, or Pierre's cake. I had a little piece of both the apple pie and Pierre's cake.

After eating, we went back outside and sat around the picnic table. Anne brought out my cake and coffee. I didn't drink anything, but I tried my cookie cake, and it was delish. Everyone else liked it, too. They told me that when I go with them to Normandy next weekend, I'm supposed to bring along a dessert, haha!

We took a walk around town after everyone was finished with their coffee. The kids fed bread to some horses we came across. I think they belonged to some friends of Anne and Thomas. On the walk I also saw an old castle. There was a big brick wall around it, so I couldn't see very well, but it was cool. I wish I would have brought along my camera! Oh well, I'm sure we'll go on a walk around Mt. St. Eloi at least once more before I leave.

Once we got back from the walk, we spent the rest of the afternoon around the picnic table in the backyard. Anne brought out some more drinks (this time it was Coke, orange juice, and beer), but I wasn't really thirsty so I didn't have anything. I did eat a little more of my cake, though ;D!

We came home around 7:00 this evening. I went up to my room and worked on my practice commentaire (to prep for the Bac Blanc), but I didn't get very far since I didn't understand the text. I'm going to have Sabrina help me with it tomorrow during a break. A couple hours later, I went downstairs for dinner. I only ate a little bit tonight since I'm still full from lunch! lol!

But now I'm going to finish responding to emails and then get to bed!

à demain!
<3Miranda

P.S. Mus- I haven't replied to your facebook thing because I can't get on facebook unless I'm on the computer at school. Sorry. I will be sure and do so the next time I sign on, though.

99 Days

2009-04-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not looking forward to leaving by any means, but that gives me a post title every day. haha.

Today was busy. It started out early with school from 8-10AM. Today our DS (test) was over a recent géography lesson. I am super happy to tell you that I did it correctly this time!!! I wrote an actual essay in French on the different "milieux" of France! (Sorry, I can't think of the appropriate word in English for translation.) I created an outline to start out with. Then I wrote an introductory paragraph, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion!! Granted, it wasn't the same quality work I would do in English, but I'm really proud of what I managed to accomplish :D!

After school, my host mom picked me up and took me back to Roclincourt where there was a bicycle race. It had started at 8:30, but I got to watch cyclers cruise by for the last hour or two. I hung out with Simon, Emodine, Pierre-Antoine, Antoine, and some other folks from the village in front of the "Salle des Fêtes." They were selling refreshments and there was a "Guess the weight of the basket of fruit (or veggies)" contest, as well as a chance to win a boquet of flowers or a chicken. The town's giant was out, too. That's kind of a complicated thing to explain, but in short, each town around here creates a giant for the Festival of Giants wich is sometime later this spring (I dunno exactly when).

The race was really interesting. Each time a cyclist came by, a motorcycle arrived just ahead of him, and then a car(s) would follow him. The number of cars varied from one to 7 or 8! Normally, they had a spare bike or tires on top. After all the cyclists had come by, there was a short parade type thing and the cars threw out candy and pamphlets and other stuff. I got a tourism guide to Arras and some candy.

When the event ended just before noon, I helped clean up a little bit. Simon gave me a couple of the balloons that had been used as decorations. I later handed those off to Thomas's kids. My host mom returned to see how things were going and to pick me up. Today there was an open house at Pierre's school, so we went to that for a little while. Then we quickly stopped at home to drop Pierre off, and my host mom and I went to the after party at Mt. St. Eloi for the cyclists and people involved with the whole deal. I met Miss Artois-H(something), and talked with her for a while. A guy had insisted on getting a picture with the two of us, too, so I'll put that up for y'all when I get a chance.

After mingling a bit, my host mom and I made a quick stop at Thomas's house (since we were in town) and gave the kids a couple things from the parade (including my balloons). Then we returned to our house for lunch. I watched a little TV with Pierre afterwards, and then got ready to go out with Annick. She arrived at 3:00 to take me into town. Our first stop was the librarie (a bookstore), where I got 5 cookbooks with different subjects. I chose crêpes, bread, potatoes, and chocolate. Since we had bought 3 from the same collection, we recieved a cookbook on verrines for free :)! I'm really excited about that! I am going to make you all dinner when I get back, if you want :D!

Our second stop was at Phildar (i thinkk?), where I picked out the color material I wanted for the scarf Annick is making me. I chose black, basically because it goes with everything. I was debating on the white, but I already have a white scarf, so I decided to go with the blackk. We walked around town for a while. I saw my French teacher out with her kids and said Bonjour to her. Then we went into a few other stores. Annick wanted to buy me a purse, too, but I told her that it wasn't necessary. She'd spent plenty on me already. I did allow her to buy me a "petit pain au chocolat" on the way back to her house, though. That was really, really good. It was still a little warm, so the chocolate was all melty and the flaky part of the croissant was soft. :)

Back at Annick's house, we each had a drink and talked for a while. Then we went up to her room and she showed me her clothes she was going to give away. I took a few of those off her hands, as well as a watch. Then she showed me her shoe closet and holy crap. I think she has more shoes than Rica's mom! The closet is stuffed full of shoeboxes. She told me she has 60-some pair shoved in there!! I found that pretty incredible. She has a million handbags and tons of jewelry, too. When we had finished looking at everything, we went back downstairs and Samuel arrived. He talked to us for a while and waited around until my host mom and Pierre showed up. Then he went to get cheeseburgers & fries from the "Frite Maison" for dinner. After everyone had finished eating, my host mom, Pierre, and I went back to Roclincourt. When we got home, we saw Vincent, Arlette, and her husband (forgot his name) at the fries shack, so we said hi and talked with them for a little bit. Then we came home and I got on the computer and voilà!

Tomorrow we're going to eat lunch at Thomas's house. :)
I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow evening.

à demain!
<3333Miranda

By the way, if you click the link where it says "other AFS blogs," MY BLOG comes up on the AFS pageeee :)!

100 Days To Go

2009-04-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

& they are going to go by way too fast!

This morning I got up kind of late. I'm not really a morning person here anymore. When I wake up, I don't jump out of bed and start getting ready right away, just because I get to go to school again. That's kind of worn off. Don't get me wrong or anything, I still looove being at school here, but the excitement has faded a bit. It's turned into just a normal part of my day.

At school I had Latin first hour. I got to the hallway outside the room a little earlier than normal, so I talked with Florian, Claire, and Justine. When the teacher arrived, we went into the room and that began my hour of complete incomprehension. lol. Every day in Latin is like my first day at school all over again; I don't understand a thing. I didn't even bother to bring my Latin notebook today, since I've only written, like, three pages in it the whole time. Most of that isn't even Latin; it's drawings. haha. Instead, I got out my math homework that was due yesterday and worked on that a little (with the help of the answer sheet ;D)! I got bored of that pretty fast, though, so I went back to doodling.

After Latin, Justine and I went up to the 6th floor for French. Once again, we talked about Manon Lescaut. We started another outline thing for an "Orale" on the third extract. I worked with Sabrina and Camille since Marion (the girl next to me) was catching up on some of the things she missed yesterday. We did not get a whole lot done. I don't think anyone did, though. Hah. There wasn't really a whole lot of time to work after we finished taking notes, so we'll probably continue that next week.

Once French was over at 10, I was done with class until Parcours at 4. Sabrina and I went to the CDI. I finished up my math and then finished up my letter I started writing Valerie earlier this week :D! Then Sabrina signed me on a computer and I got on facebook a little bit. At noon, I went with Sabrina and Alicia into town. Alicia bought herself lunch, and then we went to sit and talk by the fountain by the church. I brought my yearbook today because Sabrina wanted to see it. We looked at that and I explained the different clubs and homecoming and prom and all that stuff. They thought it was the coolest thing that there was so much to do at school. That is one thing I do kind of miss though. I wish they had clubs or activities for students to join, or school dances! That would be fuuuun :D!

At one o'clock, Sabrina and I returned to school and met up with Marion at the cantine for lunch. Virginie and Laureen joined us a little while later. Ugh. Lunch today was not one of my favorites. First of all, I was going to get some pasta salad stuff, but the girl in front of me finished it offffff! That kind of irritated me, but it was worse when there wasn't any yogurt either, so I was forced to pick something off the salad bar. I tried this veggie salad stuff, but I didn't like it very much, so I didn't eat much of that. I also found a small bone in my fish today, and after that I couldn't get myself to eat anymore of it. Needless to say, I didn't eat much and was still hungry when I left. >.<

After lunch, Virginie and Laureen went to class and Marion, Sabrina & I went back to the CDI. Marion worked on her homework for an hour and Sabrina and I talked about her English Concours project. When Marion had finished, the three of us met back up with Alicia, Virginie, and Laureen. We left the school again and this time we went to a park by Lycée Robespierre (another high school in town). The weather was once again really nice today (although not quite as warm as yesterday). We sat down on a grassy hill and talked, took pictures, and picked daisies :)! There are miniature daisies growing here like dandilions in Fargo. It's so cute! I love daisies :D!

When the hour approached 4:00, we headed back to school for Parcours. Today we were with the teacher I addressed as "tu" again. Hah woops :S! We reviewed Chapter 6 of the geography lesson to prepare for the DS tomorrow. She asked me a couple times if I understood, and when I would reply no, she would reexplain it to me. ha. It was nice, but I was kind of embarrassed for stopping the rest of the class (although I don't think they cared much). During the break, she sat down with me and went through the notes I'd copied during history class. She made a few corrections and then made me tell her what I understood and didn't understand. Then she'd explain the things I didn't know. After the break, she had me read a little box on the review worksheet. I read with an accent (obviously) and she tried to help me fix it by having me read it over and over and repeating the "R" words after her until I got close enough to call it good. haha. I reeeeeeeally exagerated the R the first time I repeated and the whole class laughed. It was pretty funny, though. Sabrina said it sounded like a German accent. haha. After that, a few people around me tried to teach me how to make the R sound. I STILLL CAN'T DO IT! I tried and tried. Then we gave up on that and they started having me say different people's names with my American accent. Hah. That was a little easier :P! Anyways, Parcours ended at 6. I met up with Vincent outside the school and took the bus home with him again.

At home, I reviewed a little more history for tomorrow. I really want to do well on my DS (or at least decent)! Then I ate dinner and got on the computerr :)! I'm gonna hit the sack now, though, because it's getting pretty late and I'm tiiiiired!

à demain!
<33333333miranda

I'm in a good mood today

2009-04-02T11:22:00.000-07:00

And that's really strange considering how tired I am! I had a really strange dream last night that woke me up, and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep after that. I got up just shortly after 5. Since I had the time, I went ahead and straightened my hair again today :)!

My first class was Histoire/Géo, where we continued to discuss World War 1. The first hour was spent taking notes and talking, and for the second hour, we watched a film about fighting in the trenches. I tried to pay attention to what the narrator of the film was saying, but that took too much concentration and I ended up just watching the pictures.

Next was French. I worked with Sabrina and Camille on an outline thing. We got a little off topic and really didn't get a whole lot accomplished. haha, woops. It didn't matter though, because we didn't do anything with this outline. I don't really understand what the point of it was, but whatever.

After French, I had mathh. I didn't feel like copying Sabrina's homework, so I didn't have my homework done today. For some reason, I was in an awesome mood, though. I volunteered to hand out the worksheets to the class. Hah. That didn't go so well. There were 4 worksheets in one pile. I originally tried to sort the different worksheets out, but then my teacher said I should give everyone the first worksheet, then the second, etc. I started doing that, and then came to the middle section and those people already had worksheets! I guess Saloua had been passing the stuff out, too on the other side, so that was confusing! Then I realized there weren't enough of the 4th worksheet. It was a mess. Rafaël told me he could take care of it, so I handed him the remaining stack of crap and sat back down. haha. I couldn't concentrate at all today. Instead, I daydreamed, talked, and ate some Oreos :D! The teacher gave us all of the answers to the homework on those worksheets, so I'll probably copy those down sometime before next week and hand that in. I guess I can still get credit for my homework if I do that!

There was no Anglais Complementaire today, so I went with Sabrina to find Marion in the CDI. She was working on some homework, so Sabrina and I hung around until she was finished with that. At about 12:20, we went to the cantine for lunch! We found Virginie and Laureen at a table, along with Claire and Florien from my Latin class and another guy. Florien and this other guy told me a million stories I don't feel like repeating and then made me tell them some jokes in English. haha. Then they left and it was just Virginie, Laureen, Marion, Sabrina, and I. They ranted about a few of their teachers the rest of the time, but since I didn't recongnize any of them, I kind of tuned that out.

After everyone was done eating, we went outside and sat in the grass! I think it got to the mid 60s today! I don't know exactly, but it was sooo nice! We sat there and talked and took some pictures. A while later, Marion had class and the rest of us went into the CDI. At 3, we decided to leave school and go on a walk. We stopped at a couple stores and Laureen bought some make up. Then we walked to the gare because Virginie needed a bus pass or something like that. It was getting late, though, and Sabrina and I had class at 4, so the two of us walked back to the school.

At 4, we had French again for 2 hours, this time. Surprisingly, the time went by relatively fast! My teacher handed back our thèmes, and the class graded their own. When she gave me mine, she sat down in the chair next to me and asked me what I wanted to do. We went through it and corrected my French mistakes together. Then I asked her if she could grade it because I really wanted to see what I earned. My format was set up muchhh different than everyone else's, so it was hard to grade, but my teacher did as I asked anyway. She gave me a 10/20! To most of you, that probably sounds terrible, but the system here is a little more harsh. 10/20 is pretty average. A lot of people had 12 and 11, so I felt pretty good about my score! :)! After that, we got a THIRD extract from Manon Lescaut! ahhhh! That book is seriously going to take us until the end of the year to get through. I really hope we stop with the third one! We discussed it a little and then class was over, so we'll continue with that tomorrow morning. There's something to look forward to! haha!

After school, I caught the bus home. Vincent rode today, so I talked with him on the way. Pierre was on the computer when I got home, so after eating a snack, I went up to my room and cleaned it up a little bit. Each day my room here starts to look more and more like my room back home. I'm hoping it never gets to be quite as bad as that, though. I want to be able to sleep in my bed, here ;D!

It's time for dinner now, though! We're havin' crêpes tonight :D!
I'll talk to you again tomorrow!
<3Miranda

Poissons d'avril!

2009-04-01T10:41:00.001-07:00

It's pretty similar to the American holiday, except in France, they also stick paper fish on their friends' back. Last night, I found some cute fish on the Internet, so I cut those out an brought them to school along with a roll of tape. I was expecting it to be a bigger event than it turned out to be, though.

I got to school and waited outside with Marine. When the doors opened up just before nine, I went to math. I played that coin joke on Sabrina, where you trace the coin with a pencil and then tell the person it's impossible to balance it on their nose or something like that and after they try, it leaves a trail of lead on their face. That was successful! haha. Math itself was boring, though. I didn't really understand what was going on today, and we were sitting right in front so I couldn't even talk much :/!

After math, I stuck a few of my fish on people's backs xD! hahaha! That was kind of lame. I didn't manage to get even onee on without the person noticing. I was also the onlyy one participating in the whole fish thing. lol. I think it's mostly for the little kids, but I never got to do that when I was little, so I decided to get all into it today. haha.

My theatre class played a prank on the teacher today. Instead of going into the theatre like normal, we went upstairs above the theatre and stayed there until the teacher came looking for us. haha. After that, we went downstairs and had a speaker from the theatrical production in Arras last night. I guess my whole class went to that. I dunno if I was supposed to or not, but I never got the memo. Whatevs. The lady talked for the whole 2 hours and I was terribly bored. If I concentrated, I could get the gist of what she was saying, but I was too tired for that. Instead, I just sat there and daydreamed majority of the time. Hah.

When school was over, I attempted to find the bus by myself again. Sabrina, Marion, Virginie, and Laureen waited with me until their rides came. After that, I was on my own. I only remember 2 people that ride my bus, and neither one was there today. A few buses came and left, and they didn't have signs or anything on today, so I was afraid I'd missed mine. I was about to call my host mom when Oranne (the girl in my town who's going to the US for a year) came up to me. I was so glad to see her! She was waiting for the bus, too, so I hadn't missed it yet! haha! When on the way home.

After eating lunch, I watched a little TV with Pierre and then went upstairs to my room to take a nice, longgg nap. Unfortunately, by the time I finished eating and got upstairs, it was already 2:00. It took me a while to fall asleep, and then I had music at 5:30, so I had to get up around 4:30. I only ended up with about an hour and a half of sleep. That was not nearly enough for how tired I've been lately, but it still felt good. I wish I had a day of the week I could sleep in really late. The only day I don't have school is Sunday, and at 11:00 we either go to a relative's house for lunch, have people come over, or go to the cinéma. Monday was great until I had that English class added in at 10. Whatever, I guess I will just have to hibernate during the vacation at the end of the month! haha.

When I got up from my nap, I watched a little of Pirates of the Caribbean with Pierre. Just before 5:30, Nathan's mom showed up to take me to music. There were a lot of people gone today, so our already small group was even smaller this evening. Hah. It worked out, though.

After I got home, I went with my host mom to take Pierre to dance. Then a little later, I went with her again to pick him up. We ate dinner and then I got on the computerr.

I suppose since it's the end of another month, I will update you on my progress. I kind of blew off working on the accent, but, with the exception of the R and the U, I picked up the "northern accent" pretty well, anyway. Sabrina told me that if I get the R down, I won't sound American at all anymore. My speed has gotten much, muchhh better, too. I don't speak slow anymore (unless I'm trying to put together a really complicated sentence or something,) and at times I've even been told I speak fast for a French person. I don't have to think about what I want to say in English before I say it in French every time, either. There are some phrases I say that are completely automatic, and with those it would probably take me longer to think of how I would say it in English first. Also, the whole "la bise" thing isn't awkward anymore. That kind of took me a while to get used to. It was weird kissing people I didn't even know. It has kind of grown on me, though, so I no longer feel awkward about it. The only frustrating thing is that I'm short, so instead of kissing cheeks, I often end up kissing chins. haha. That kind of sucks. I've changed a bit physically, too (unfortunately). I've been breaking out and gaining weight, and I kneww this was going to happen, but dammit I was hoping I could somehow avoid it! I really don't wanna come back a chunker! :/ When we had our little get together with the AFSers on Saturday, the weight topic came up. Everyyone has rounded out. That's a really common thing for exchange kids because of all the change and stress and everything, but it doesn't make it any easier to accept. I think I will be okay, though, as long as I don't gain a whole lot more. The other thing that's kind of bugging me are my hilights. They've grown out a lot, and while my naturaly hair color blends in decently, I can still notice it. I'm really nervous about trying to get them redone in French, though. I don't want a miscommunication, there! haha! That could be bad. I also have no idea how much it costs, and I don't want to waste a bunch of money on that.

Soo, for the month of April, I'm going to try and work on pronouns! I've started using the 'le/la/les' and 'lui' a little, but I could use some practice with those, and I really need to work on the others. I'm also going to work on learning my colloquial French expressions. My class made up a long list of ones for me to learn. haha. That will be fun. If I get to it, I'll try and work on my "R" a little, too, but if not, I'll save that for next month. I've decided that my accent really is not as important as learning the language itself. If I talk like an American well then it's because I am an American, so who cares. The accent will come after the more important stuff. Physically, I don't really know what I can do. I'm just going to hope that I don't gain anymore weight. haha.

It's getting late, though, and I really need the sleep, so I'm getting off.
à demain!
<3miranda

Back to English

2009-03-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-27T12:42:00.001-07:00

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

What a Rebel :P

2009-03-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-21T07:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-03-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-17T12:18:00.000-07:00

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