Friday the Thirteenth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AU REVOIR!
-Miranda

As knowledge increases, wonder deepens. -Charles Morgan