4 Days

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

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

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

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

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