Sorry!

I won't make this a habbit, I promise. I was just really busy yesterday and didn't have a chance to get online!

First of all, yesterday I woke up, got ready, and after eating breakfast, I went with my host mom to drop Pierre off at his weight lifting class. Then the two of us went to the market in the Petit and Grand Place. You can seriously buy anything there! It's huuuuge! The entire Petit Place is filled up and so is a good half of the Grand Place, plusss the road connecting the two. I saw everything from fresh meat, fruits, veggies, and flowers to langerie, sewing supplies, DVDs, and matresses! It was crazy! All we bought, though, was some roasted chicken, potatoes, and onions for lunch and then some fruit.

An hour or so later, we went to pick Pierre up from the gym. When we got home, we ate the stuff we'd purchased and then I watched another of Pierre's dance performances. He gets really excited about those, even though we have to watch the entire couple hours for him to appear for like, 10 minutes, max. haha. I don't mind though. I just sit there content with my thoughts when the dances start to get uninteresting.

At 3:00, my host mom and I went to what would have been my band concert. She didn't make me bring my flute since I'd only played the music twice and told her that I sucked. Ha ha. Instead, we just watched Vincent (her friend's son, and Simon's younger brother). It lasted for almost 3 hours. No lie. Four bands played and it got super long. Most of the songs of one of the band's were like 3 or 4 movements each, so that got reallyyyy long. I figured out that I am in a jazz group, though. That's probably why the music is so difficult and it has symbols I've never seen before. Hah. That all makes sense, now. My band was the last to play, and after the conductor had introduced everyone else, he pulled me from the audience and told everyone to welcome the new American girl to the band. I was slightly embarrased. I didn't see that one comingg! Ha ha. Consequently afterwards, I talked to a bunch of people. Most of them approached me in English and started introducing themselves. No one expects me to know any French! I did meet up with Alicia from my class at school, though, and talked to her for a while. When she left, I joined my host mom with some of the people from my band and their parents. I wound up with an invitation to a theatrical performance today with Claire, and then Nathan's mom invited me over any time I want. She told me that Nathan would be more than willing to go to the cinéma with me or anything I wanted to do. I kind of felt awkward, because it seemed like people felt sorry for me or think I'm really bored or something. It's nice to get out, though, and my host mom and Claire's mom have the whole theatre thing set up, so I'll be going to that later today. Hopefully it's relatively easy to understand. Lol.

After everyone else had left, my host mom and I stayed to help do the dishes. (There were refreshments after the performance.) Once that was finished, we came home to find Thomas, Romane, and Pierre waiting for us. Thomas had tried to fix my host mom's broken stove, but I guess it needs to be replaced altogether. Then they looked up movies for us to see. We decided on Volt (or Bolt in the US) because it was appropriate for 7 year old Romane, and I'd already seen it in English, so I could follow the story without being completely lost.

Once Thomas had left, the four of us ate dinner and then headed out to the theatre. It was MASSIVE. I took a couple pictures to show you! They are a little blurry, but it still gives you an idea of what it looked like. There are 2 floors to this place. You walk into a huge lobby on the first floor. Just ahead, there is a giant concessions counter where you can buy snacks and your tickets. Then you go up the escalator to the guy who rips your tickets and tells you where to go from there. The theaters themselves are really nice, too. The screens (at least in ours) was the size of the UltraScreen in Fargo, and I would easily be able to sleep in one of these seats. They're sooo comfy!

The movie was pretty good, just like the first time I'd seen it. A few differences I noticed were that the voices were in French (obviously), but the end credits read Miley Cyrus and John Trevolta, even though they were neither acting nor voicing the parts! I thought that was a little stupid. In my opinion, the French person doing the voiceover should get the credit. The movie animation itself was usually in English, too. At the very beginning when they showed a close-up of the collar for the first time, it read "Volt," but every time after that, if you looked closely, it said "Bolt." The signs in the background were still in English, too. One of the main songs in the film had been translated into French, though. I think that's about it as far as differences go..

When we dropped Romane off and came home, it was late and everyone started getting ready for bed. I didn't really think it was a good time to jump on the computer, so I hope you forgive me. :P

The other night, though, at dinner, Pierre goes, "Miranda, when you leave in July, I am going to cry. So is my mom and Lou-Marie and Lilian and Romane etc. We are going to miss you." Ahhh I don't even want to THINK about leaving!! That, I already know, is going to be a millllllion times harder than it was leaving Fargo! I just replied, "Me too!" and then Pierre goes, "Before you leave, we're going to have a big party with all of the people you meet while you are here, right Maman?" She nodded. That will be fun. I'm sure I will bawl my eyes out at that, but it will be greattt to see everyone before I leave. I'll get contact info from everyone and I already plan on coming back. I'm going to miss it here, so much!

Today Thomas and his family are coming here for lunch. I think Annick and Grandma are coming, too, but I'm not really sure. I just know that lunch is here this weekend. After that, I'm going to that theatre performance. I don't remember exactly what time that is, but I'm sure my host mom does. I should probably get off and help get things ready for the afternoon.

Bon Journée!
-Miranda

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. -T.S. Eliot