No Substitute Teachers!

Yeaaahp! That's for real! When I went back to school yesterday for my second 'period' of Français, our teacher said that she would be absent tomorrow (today) and apparently the Anglais teacher is sick, so we would not have those classes. That leaves me with just Latin from 8 to 9 and then Parcourse (nooooo idea what that is) from 4-6 in the late afternoon. My host mom decided that since I was probably really tired from my long day yesterday and I would just have one class in the morning, that I should sleep in and skip Latin. That would also save her from having to pick me up an hour after dropping me off. So this morning I got up around 10:00, took a shower, ate breakfast and hopped on the computer. No one else is home for the time being, so I really don't know what to do. I slept a good 12 hours last night, which felt wonderful, but I'm honestly still tired. I didn't realize how worn out I was.

What else? Yesterday Français went by kind of in a blurr. I sat by the same girl and copied about 3 pages of notes down on a story that was like three fourths of a page long. It had to do with beauty and a princess and her mom wanting her to have an education and be virtuous. That is all I got out of the two hours of class. During break, though, some kids invited me to go to the cinema with them after my Latin class in the morning, since we didn't have class. I said maybe, because I didn't really know if I could or not. And I won't be going I guess, because I didn't go to Latin! After class ended, the teacher came up to me and apologized for not writting many notes on the board for me. She also asked if I understood much. I replied honestly and said that I understood very little. I told her it would get better, though. She agreed and then I headed out of the room with a girl named Amelie. We walked to the main entrance building together and she talked to me in Englishhhhh :D! She tried explaining the story we read in class a little, which was nice, although she couldn't tell me much detail.

My host mom found me at the entrance and took me home. She had a meeting to get to, so she quickly made spaghetti and ham and then went on her way. The spaghetti was just that, spaghetti noodles. There wasn't tomato sauce like I'd expected. Pierre smootered his noodles in ketchup, and then expected me to do the same, but I just couldn't do it. Ha ha! I realize I'm American and all, but I don't think I would have been able to eat ketchup with noodles. Instead, I chose to sprinkle some cheese on them and eat it like that. For dessert, I had pastachio pudding, which I'm usually not overly fond of, but I would deffinitely eat this stuff again! It was really good :)

After dinner, I went upstairs to my room and got things ready for today. I listened to my ipod and wrote in my written journal and then went to sleep around 10. Nothing too exciting, ha ha.

A few quick notes about things I've noticed so far:
-There are 3 ways to flush a toilet (that i've noticed so far): 1)Step on a foot pedal 2) Push down a circular thing on top of the tank 3)Pull up a circular thing on top of the tank.
-The stop signs still say "STOP," not "ARRET" or anything in French.
-The French people love Obama. Like seriously a lot. If you're coming this summer on the French trip, a good host family gift would be a book on Obama with a lot of pictures. I brought something like that and it was like, the coolest thing ever. My host mom shows it to everyone or tells them about it.
-A photo album with pictures of Fargo (and all the snow!) and family & friends is another good gift.
-French people don't use their hands very much in conversation. Everytime I start to raise a hand, the person I'm talking to thinks I want to shake hands, so they motion to do the same. It's been a little awkward sometimes. Ha ha.
-NEVER EVER EVERRR say you are excited about something. Everrrr. Ha ha ha ha! It does nott mean the same thing in English. For you French class kids, it's similar to saying "Je suis chaud."

That's all I can really think of. Today I don't really have any plans other than class from 4 to 6. I'm really liking the French school schedule :)
Oh!! And I should mention that my host mother reallyyy wants to buy me a "portable" (cell phone), so we might do that today. I really don't know if I can text/call you people in the States on it, though, so we will just have to see. Don't get your hopes up too high. I think this is mainly for me to be able to stay in touch with my host family and friends here in France. I'll write more once I get it and know the details, though.

A bientot!
Vous me manque! (i think?)
-Mirandaaa

**Ohhh wow you guys! I just checked my hit counter at the bottom of the screen and TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY FIVE PEOPLE??? Wooooah! And i set it to count unique visits, too, so it doesnt count you every time you refresh the page or something!!!!! That makes me feel pretty cool! :D

EDIT:
Okay, so my host mom just took me out to lunch with her friend from work. It was my first time going out to a restaurant, so she ordered for me the same thing she was getting, plus a coke. It turned out to be steak & fries. Now, I'm not really a steak eater, but I managed to do alright. Although I really, really suck at cutting. My first piece was a little on the larger side. It wasn't huge, but it was apparently bigger than it should have been. I spent like an entire minute chewing it. Then I tried to swallow and I STARTED CHOKING! I seriously didn't know what to do and I couldn't breathe. My host mom and her friend were deep in conversation and didn't really notice me shoving my fingers in my mouth trying to get the food dislodged. I think I'm actually pretty grateful that they didn' see that, because it would have been an awkward thing to try and explain. Thankfully, after trying to swallow a million times, the chunk of steak went down. I followed it with a huge gulp of Coke. Then I was really shakey and my head was spinning and I was just frantic. I tried not to show it though and go on like normal so that the adults wouldn't question me. I ate a lot of fries for a while, and then went back to the steak, cutting such small pieces that I probably could have swallowed them whole.

At lunch, the lady talked to me a little bit, too. When she found out I played the flute, she got really excited and told me she used to as well. Then she told me about a youth orchestra that is on Wednesday afternoons. I told her I didn't have my flute (because i really dont want to play in an orchestra) but she told me that wasn't a problem; she had one for me to use! "Ohhh great," I thought, "I'm just getting to enjoy all of my favorite things while in France." I am hoping my host mom will have forgotten about this by next Wednesday, but unfortunately she seems to have a pretty good memory. :/ Soooo we will see how that goes! Ha ha!

A slight problem has arisen with my eating habbits, too. I really don't eat that much during meals in America, and the French eat like a million times more than we do. I normally eat nothing for breakfast, a few things for lunch around 11, and then a little bit for supper at around 5. Sometimes I get a snack in around 7 or 8, too. Here I eat a small breakfast when I get up, a lunch larger than I'm used to a little after noon, a snack around 5, and a supper which is also larger than I'm used to around 7:30 or so. They have several different foods out and expect me to eat a lot of each thing. I can hardly fit in a little of each thing, and I almost never have room for dessert. My host mom thinks she isn't cooking the right foods, and I tried to tell her that I am not a big eater in the first place, but I dunno how well I got that message across.

Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself. -John Dewey