Queen of Procrastination

I’m writing this from the bus heading to Marseille. Sorry it has been so long since I have updated. I have been overwhelmed with school. We have had so many projects this past month or so. Starting off with Art History, we had to choose an artist (painter, sculpture, or photographer) that we liked the best. We then had to present their life to the class… the entire 45 minute class. It took a couple of weeks to get through the entire class. I chose Mark Rothko, he was an abstract artist between 1920-1970.

                Anyways, I never posted about my February break to Paris/Germany.

Paris:
Most of you reading this know that I, Magnolia Anne Cumby, am beyond obsessed with Paris. I adore that city more than anything. So, the 5 days we spent there were magical. Normally when the school takes us on trips we have very guided and strict itineraries that we have to follow. However, for Paris, the school basically let us roam free. It was magical. I was in absolute heaven. When we got there it was pretty late at night, our hotel was perfectly placed near the bastille which is just a few metro stops away from the Eiffel tower. There were a million awesome restaurants surrounding the hotel, so my friend Akhir and I wandered around to find the cheapest and coolest place to grab a café. We went to this little café that seemed pretty popular. It was absolutely freezing so I bought a hot chocolate…. This was basically pudding. It was so rich and thick I pretty much drank the entire thing with a spoon. Khi got a mocha, which, according to her, was also magical.
                The next day, I went to the Eiffel tower with my other friend Natalie. Before that we were supposed to meet up with the school at the architecture museum right in front of the tower. I had no idea where the museum was before going. I was just following my friends because they seemed to know where they were going. We walked up from the metro into Paris and I was overwhelmed with the beauty of all the buildings and cafes that surrounded the museum. I went to explore more and when I turned the corner, I was blown backward by the most amazing view of the Eiffel tower. I died… it was amazing. The sun was positioned right behind it so it was being silhouetted on the horizon and I just could not stop looking at it. I honestly could’ve sat in that court yard all day and stared longingly at the city, the tower, the people and everything about Paris. The atmosphere there is so interesting. I didn’t really talk to the people, but it didn’t matter because it’s too beautiful to not love it. Natalie and I then quit the group after looking at the museum and walked to the Eiffel tower. We got there just in time to our tickets because just after we bought them a huge crowd of people came. I’m sure it would’ve been much more crowded if it was summer because it was so cold the entire time we were there. When I return in June, I’m 100% that my mom, Taylor, my aunt and I are going to have to wait in a long line. Anyways! Natalie and I walked up all the stairs to the tippy top of the tower. We took a million pictures. But then Kat called us (one of our friends) telling us to wait because she was coming too, Natalie and I spent more than 4 hours on top of the Tower because we were waiting so long for Kat. It was awesome. I loved it so much.
                The metro trains are from every époque imaginable. Paris apparently has the oldest metro system in the world. And when you go, you can see it. Some trains are super fancy and chic with automatic doors and big windows. Others, however, are very old and you have to press a button or lift a lever to open the doors. It’s really interesting to see.

Germany:
                I have a friend, Raph, that went to my old school, Miller, a few years back and he moved to live with his mom in Germany. His mom and his step dad own a really nice B&B in this cute little village in the middle of the Alps.The people that stay there are normally interested in skiing and snow sports because the B&B is perfectly located right next to a ski resort and in the winter is buried in snow. I’m not kidding, when I stepped off the train I fell into a few feet of snow. The last time I was there it was hot and summer-y, we went bike riding and I sped down one of the steep mountains and flipped over the handle bars, knocked myself out and broke my collar bone. So, seeing the snow made me a little nervous…. Who knows what disastrous accident could happen.
                I flew from Paris to Munich and Raph was there waiting for me when I got off the train. He was going to drive to pick me up, which would’ve taken a 2 hours, but since there was so much snow, it would be safer to take the train. We spent over 7 hours on that train. We had to transfer a couple of times. But when we got to a station a few minutes from Raph’s place, the train froze. The ice got in the engine or something and it totally froze. We waited for a good 2 hours before it thawed out.
                We finally made it to his car which we had to unbury, and then we drove about 5 minutes up and down BIG mountains until we got to his house. His step-dad, Charles, had made us homemade miso soup which tasted like it was soup from the gods.
                For the rest of the week Raph and I pretty much played his video games because his room is hooked up. I mean, the ENTIRE room has wires strategically running everywhere, he attached his computer to this huge plasma screen… he plays a million video games a day. I failed at basically all of them. Every once in a while I’d actually win a battle, but Raph was being nice.
                One time I went cross country skiing with Raph’s step-dad, Charles. It was so much fun. I was so bad at it, but Charles was really patient with me. I was falling and sliding all over the place. It was so hard!  I really want to do it again though; it’s one of those things that once you get used to the movements and find your rhythm you can do it for hours. Not without consequences though because the next day I was super sore and had bruises all over from falling so much.
               

                The Marseille trip is looooonnnnnggg over, it was a month ago or something. I have yet to post this because I am the queen of super laziness. We have 3 more days of SYA and then it officially summer. (I'm officially a senior!!!!) My last day of school was Friday, and I get my SYA diploma on Tuesday. I’m currently in Redon, which is about 45min from Rennes at my host aunt’s house because my host family left me to go to a music festival. I couldn’t go because I’d be all alone and they didn’t want me to get bored. So, I’ll stay bored in a small town far away from Rennes during the last weekend, when I should be hanging out with my French friends. But, ça va, I can’t win them all. En plus, I’m here for an extra two days so there is plenty of time to see them. I’ve posted pictures of Marseille and my independent travel to Nice on facebook, go check them out. If you’re not friends with me then just add me. I’ll hopefully post another post soon about Marseille and Nice, because it was the best of all the vacations. Sorry for being a procrastinator these past couple of months.

La Premier Jour du Reste de Ta Vie

First off,

I falled down stairs :(
I was going to do my laundry and... and... I slipped and fell. I can tell you, scariest thing EVER. How my pinky down is the only thing suffering is beyond me, I did every acrobatic trick I could think off as I was falling. My foot, my ENTIRE foot was the size of a football, the above picture was taken after the swelling went down a bit. I thought my pinky toe was broken, but it's just badly sprained and very angry at me.


On a happier note!
IT SNOWEDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Snow in France!! I've seen snow in America, Asia and Europe! It makes me happy, it wasn't that much because it hardly ever snows in Rennes. So, when it does, it's a VERY big deal. There were kids all over the place, trying desperately to create snowmen with the little amount of snow they were given, and throwing dirty snowballs. It was so cute! The pictures are taken from my window.

Speaking of snow, my friend Cole and I went iceskating on Saturday, it was interesting. Neither of us are any good at skating, but with Cole's determined personality and my clumsiness, we were quite a sight. Le Blizz is the only patinoire in Bretagne (I think that's right), there are two rinks, a small one and a large one. Whenever Cole and I go, we always use the small one because it's got kids and inexperienced people; we don't have to worry about being run over by experts. So, we were stumbling around the little rink, and I looked over at the large rink with a jealous eye to see what the older kids were doing... what do I find? A huge crowd of people in the centre of the rink watching something. I went to Cole and told him we were missing some kind of party, so we got up the courage to change rinks. Best.Idea, there was a group of boys break dancing on the ice, the were flipping, spinning, jumping, dancing, flying and just all around swagging. It was amazing. I wish I had my camera so I could film it. It was the coolest thing ever.

Quick side note:
I've been blaring this song for the past 30 minutes.
I <3 kpop.

As for the title of this blog, La premier jour du reste de ta vie is a really good French movie, it's really funny. You should check it out. I didn't get to watch the whole thing because it was midnight when it started, but what I did watch was awesome. Oh, that reminds me, my host family has never seen the movie La Guerre des Monde (War of the Worlds) with Tom Cruise, and we watched it last night. They were jumping out of their seats. It was so funny, they were so scared!! I know now not to show them horror movies.

OHH!!! So, as you might've already noticed, I'm kind of a Korean lover, and I've been watching Korean movies inbetween French stuff. If you want to enjoy a magical movie and cry your eyes out check out A Moment to Remember. Such an amazing movie. I know plenty more if you liked that one, let me know and I'll give you other suggestions.

Must do homework now, I'll post again soon!
xx

Future

So, i have officially read 230 pages of Suzanne Collins Hunger Games in French...without a dictionary. I must say, I am very proud of myself. I remember when I started it, it took me 30 minutes to read one page because I was so lost in the vocab and the grammar. I came to the conclusion that it's better to read and only look up the words that seem important, otherwise I'll be finished with the book in 10 years. It helps that I've read it in English, so if I get lost in the grammar, all I have to do is get the gist of the sentence and figure out what's going on.

Moving on...

I am all out of money. I spent all the money I saved up over the summer on my ticket to Korea, so now I'm completely penniless. Luckily, I bought my tickets for February break in November before going to Korea. But, after going to Germany this break, I'm pretty much stuck in Rennes for the next 3 months. We have one break in April and my friend and I want to travel around France because we bought these youth cards for the train that gets us a discount on tickets. However, it's still expensive, I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off. We are just going to have to find REALLY cheap hostels.

I just finished the SAT. 4 and a half hours of my life... I either really failed it, or kinda did. I guess I'll find out when the scores get here... I hate how this one test basically determines my future.

Speaking of futures, I'm so lost at the moment. The year is almost over, and I'm not ready to go back to the States. I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do, and I have aucune idée.... I never realised how scary real life can be, and I'm not even starting it yet. It's like I'm standing on the border between my world and the real world. What I mean is, look at me, I'm a 17 year old girl living in France and I've got the whole world at my disposal. I don't want to restrict myself to following everyone thinks I should be doing. What if I'm not ready to start college? What if I'm not done seeing the world? Sure, there are study abroad programs in college, but they don't normally start until sophomore year. What if I want to do something next year? I feel as though my whole existence revolves around seeing the world. I want to experience the full of it, while I'm young. I want the world to throw me into some sort of amazing adventure.
We are reading Dubliners by James Joyce in English and all of the stories that he has written are basically about dreamers only dreaming. Or seemingly adventurous people being trapped by society. I don't want to be stuck in Dublin forever. I don't want to live vicariously through other people like Little Chandler in Joyce's A Little Cloud. Good story by the way, you should read it!

Not a very cheery blog post, but it's been a stressful month. I'm happy break is coming!

xx

The Moment

Whenever you hear or read something that talks about learning a different language, it always says something about how one day they woke up and just realised they understood. I've always said that I can understand, but not without concentration. Well, I've had the moment.

My friend Akhir and I were at this amazing restaurant called Vino et Gusto. When we sat at the table the waitress came and heard us speaking English, she asked in French where we come from. We answered America, and she asked the simple question that always gets me excited "Vous comprenez le français?" Yes, yes I do. After we said yes, she jumped into a story about how her and her daughter created this restaurant and everything is homemade, we can have one plate from the buffet and one desert for just 9,90E. She said it all in French. And it didn't even sound strange or foreign to me. It was just natural.

Everywhere I go, I hear conversations and words and just understand them as if I've never had any difficulties. I can go up to someone with ease and ask them something without being scared of not understanding the response. I'll be honest, I've still got a loooooonnnggg way to go to fluency, but I'm making progress. The only thing holding me back now is English.

I need to stop speaking English.

It needs to leave my brain.

I'm trying very hard to speak just French, but it's so hard when everyone at my school is speaking English all the time. Some of the people are sadly not as dedicated to learning French as the others. I just need to refuse speaking English for the rest of the year. I can understand everything with ease, it's just the speaking that's killing me now. I can get my ideas across and make sense, it's just not perfect.

I went to the Air France travel agency today to talk about cheap tickets to Italy for April break. I spoke in French, the agent didn't even try to speak English, I guess he just knew that although my French isn't amazing, it's still understandable.

Galettes. Bigger than crepes, not as sweet an made with different flour. The first time I had a galette, I was at a small restaurant. I didn't really like it too much because it was too buttery and fatting for me. However! My host family made galettes last night.... they used the original recipe that the people of Bretagne used in the 17th century. An it doesn't have any butter and it's made with water instead of milk and (if the family was rich) one egg. Because way back when Bretagne was the poorest department in France, however these days it's one of the richest because of agriculture.

I have a lot of homework that needs to be done, I'll post again ASAP.

xx

Korea!

Yummm, I sat on the floor when I ate this, I felt cool!

Bonnie and I at the palace!
These are the weird rice cake things at the cute cafe
The note that I wrote at the super cute cafe!
Keith's red scarf!
This is the tree in the really cute restaurant we went too.
Keith and I went to a Buddhist palace.
This is a different cafe, were my favourite kdrama (Korean TV show) was filmed.
The architecture in Korea is so cool!
First delivery in Korea!

Sorry! I haven't been posting a lot lately. I'll try to get better. But I went to KOREAAAA over Christmas break. It was the most amazing break ever.

Korea is very formal. Bowing to your elders is crucial and being polite and discreet is necessary. When I arrived, the first thing I saw was my boyfriend, Keith, waiting for me outside of customs. He lead me to his father, I was very nervous about meeting Keith's parents so I'd been practicing the phrase that Keith gave to say to his parents for weeks, which was basically a simple sentence thanking them for letting me stay with them.
경영오빠 집에머물게 해주 셔서감사합니다.
After bowing and thanking his dad, we got in the car and drove an hour or so to Keith's apartment, the drive was amazing. My dad once asked on a family vacation in Cambridge how could one tell that we were in a different country because everything was in English, I looked around and said the pound sign for the money... well not only is there the won sign in Korea, but it's very obvious as well because everything is in Korean and there are little Asian style buildings everywhere. it was amazing, I kept telling Keith in the car: "Keith! I'm in Korea! I've never before been to Asia!! I'm in Korea!!"

When we got to his apartment, Keith's dad had to leave for work, because it was only 8 in the morning. So, Keith and I got my bags out of the trunk and said goodbye to his dad and walked to his apartment. His mom was downstairs waiting for us. I bowed again and said hello, she came up and hugged me. We got on the elevator and went to the 14th floor. All the apartments in Korea have, other than a keyhole, and keypad.. the code is the key. Of course, once we entered there is a designated area for taking off your shoes. Keith's puppy Somang (meaning hope) was excitedly waiting.

She.is.so.cute.

Keith and I decided that it was best not to venture that day because we were both very jet-lagged, so we stayed in with his mom and watched movies and ate delicious food. Keith made me ramyun, which was magical. For dinner we ordered some bulgoggi and kimbab and some kind of omelet thing that had rice in it... it was all superb.

The next day we started a little late, I slept too much. So, Keith took me to the mall near his apartment. It's called the Coex mall. It's huge. I bought some ridiculously cute pens.

After that, the days went by way too fast. My best friend Bonnie came, and I went t stay with her, but she had classes everyday (because Koreans study ALL the time), so Keith would hang out with me during the day and Bonnie and I would chill together at night. But I did everything:

--I went to N-Seoul Tower for Christmas with Keith, because Christmas isn't really that big a deal in Korea. While we were there, Keith bought us a little magnetic box to write on and put on the wall at the tower, and it'll stay there for the next year! Then Keith can go get it, so we can keep it forever.

--Keith and I went to the movies, and let me tell you, the movie theatre in Korea is enormous and the coolest thing I have ever seen. They have caramel covered popcorn for crying out loud!!!! And the seats are HUGE and red and comfyyyy. Plus, when you buy you're tickets you get to choose where you sit, so you know for sure that there will be enough spots for you and you're friends!

Speaking of choosing where you sit... Seoul, is the most organised city I have ever been to. Not only do you reserve seats for the movies, but the metro is so organised!! Let me tell you... So when you are waiting to get on the metro you wait in line, not because you have to, but because it was mutually agreed to wait in line. There are two lines, one on either side of the door and then there is an empty space between the two lines, for the people that are getting off the train. And then when you're on the train there are three seats that NO ONE ever sits in, because it's for the elderly people, I went to go sit in one because I was tired. But Keith practically ripped my arm off to keep me away. It's reserved only for elders.

Which leads me to my next point. Korea is very formal and polite. There is a specific way to speak to people who are older than you. And in Korea they have specific names for example, Keith is older than me, so I call him 오빠 (obba, which means brother) but only younger girls call older boys obba. Take Bonnie for example, since she is younger than Keith whenever she talks to him she has to call him obba and speak to him formally.
언니 (ani)- youner girls to older girls
누나 (noona)-younger boys to older girls
형(hyung)- younger boys to older guys

--One day, Keith was being very secretive about where we were going. We were at the mall and I was getting very curious... I had told him earlier that I wanted to do everything Korean, big mistake. Guess where he took me? Karaoke.... it was so embarrassing, I don't even want to blog about it. I'm holding a grudge against him for the rest of eternity.

--When you go to downtown Seoul there aren't any tourist shops, but that doesn't mean that Seoul doesn't have tourist shops. Seoul basically has roads dedicated to just tourist shops, I went to a couple a streets like this with Bonnie, my best friend, and there were hundreds of stores selling traditional Korean merchandise, the cheap and the good. There were stores selling the tourist-y stuff, like tee-shirts and socks (Korea has THE CUTEST socks ever!), and other gift-y things.

--At one of the tourist streets Keith and I found this really cute restaurant called Misslee Cafe. And I'm not kidding when I say this restaurant was adorable. It's a really quint restaurant on the second floor of a small building, and when you walk into the door, the first thing you see is a tree absolutely covered in rectangular strips of paper. The walls were covered by these papers too. Basically, one can write whatever they want on these papers and hang them where ever they please. I looked at a few, some people would write long stories, others would draw pictures or wishes. It was a really cool idea.
While I was there Keith and I ordered, in his terms, "very Korean food". First, we ate these foamy, puffy, rice cake things covered in sesame seeds (no idea what it's called), then the waiter brought us a thin box with a lid, Keith picked it up and shook it like there was no tomorrow and then opened it. Inside, there was a mixture of ham, rice, kimchi and egg. It was really good, I'm not a HUGE fan of kimchi, but I can eat it. After eating what I like to call the "Lunch Box", Keith ordered sherbet, which I thought was pretty normal...
this. thing. was. massive. It was pretty much a small cauldron of green sherbert with the craziest stuff mixed in. It had nuts, kiwi, peaches, tomatoes, red beans, bananas, chocolate covered rice chex (yum!), mochi and a whole ton of other things. I'm proud to say that Keith and I polished that cauldron off without any problem.

--Keith took also took me iceskating, indoors of course because it's colder than cold in Korea. But we pretty much got kicked out because we weren't wearing gloves, and it's a rule that you have to wear gloves. Silly, but true. I was surprised by how well Keith could iceskate. It was very amusing to watch.
Also in the same building as the iceskating rink there is an indoor amusement park could LotteWorld, or something. It's huge! And all the rides are so cute and fun. Keith and I went on the Crzy Loop, which is just a circle that you spin around on... funniest thing ever. Keith hates going upside down, the words that came out of his mouth on that ride... hilarious. It wasn't even that scary (no offense, Keith). However, he got his revenge by taking me to the haunted house... not funny at all.

-- So, in Asia there are these photo booths that the teenagers go to. But it's not like any photo booth I've ever seen. After choosing backgrounds for your pictures and taking them, you go into another booth and decorate each photo with cute stickers or words. Afterwards you choose a layout for printing based on how many people there are and then it prints teeny little pictures!! It's so cute!!!! I did this three or four times with Bonnie and Keith.

-- Cat Cafe. I really don't need to say anything else. It was, by far, the mostest amazingest bestest perfectest place ever. There were CATS. CATS IN THE CAFE! ...speechless. My heart exploded with fuzziness.

-- Bonnie and I went to the palace Gyeongbokgung which is thousands of years old. It was amazingly beautiful. But it was also very cold, so we didn't stay long. But the palace was built in 1394....which is exaclty 6,000 years before I was born.... yeah, I feel pretty insignificant being only 17 and all. Bonnie and I took a lot of silly pictures with the actors being traditional guards. It was fun.

Speaking of cold, the hottest it got in Korea the entire 2 weeks I was there was 4 degrees Celsius, which is 38 Fahrenheit. It was ridiculous. I did not pack for the cold, and while Keith and I were at the tourist street, I was freezing to death. So, I stole Keith's scarf, which helped tremendously. However, Keith became cold, he literally made me run to the nearest store that sold scarves so he could buy a new one. The store was pretty close, so out of breath we entered and grabbed the first scarf we could find. It was a big, thick, red scarf for 30,00₩ ($30). Keith didn't hesitate because it was below 0degrees. The funny thing is 2 minutes after we bought this expensive scarf, we came across other stores that were selling scarves for only 5,000₩ ($5)... Keith regrets nothing, the red one is a nice scarf and we both were warm. Morale of the story: if you plan on going to Korea during the winter season, pack very warmly and bring enough scarves for the family.

Here are some of my favourite Kpop (Korean pop) songs:
Clazzi's This Is How We Feel
Super Junior's Mr. Simple
2NE1's I Am the Best
10cm 죽겠네 (basically anything by 10cm is amazing)
Big Bang's Love Song
CNBlue's Love Girl and Love
There are a million more... if you want some more, just ask! I know plenty.

and if you want to watch a cute show, Flower Boy Ramyun Shop is amazing.

That was the longest blog post I have ever written, I've been working on this for the past 3 days. I'm sorry that I have been so lazy about blogging. I'm going to start a weekly posting binge starting now. Chaque vendredi il y aura un nouveau blog. Promise!!

2 mois.

I'm in France. How weird is that?!

I was walking around town this evening, around 18:00, it was already dark. The walk was normal, I knew the street I was on, I knew the next right would take me to Sainte-Anne and the left to the park. I was used to it. Or so I thought, as I was walking to the fork of the road preparing to take the right to my bus at Ste Anne, I looked up. There, right before my eyes, was a huge French flag being illuminated by spotlights. It stood out from the dark sky behind it, waving proudly in the French wind. I have yet to have the awe-ing moment or realisation that I'm studying in France. But there are moments, like this, that suddenly come and scream in my ear--TU ES EN FRANCE, TU PARLES LE FRANCAIS, TU CONNAIS LA VILLE, TU AS DES AMIS FRANCAIS , ET TU ES CONTENTE! I just stopped and stood in the middle of the cobblestone rue, staring at the flag with a big grin on my face--I'm in France, I speak French, I know the town, I have French friends and I am happy.

I find myself more often talking to my friends in French, it doesn't really bother me when we switch back and forth between languages. En fait, je remarque à peine. I'm beginning to realise that I can understand what people are saying to me without really concentrating. I just understand them.

It has been two months. It doesn't feel like it at all... I've become so used to the life here, the days are just flying by. I feel like I just arrived, but more than 50 days have already passed. If it keeps continuing like this, tomorrow will be the 31 of May and I will be packing my bags and heading home.

I'm taking it all in, one day at a time.

xx

Amsterdam!

I'm back in France! Yesterday was a very long day-8 heures dans une voiture pleine. Naturally, I slept the entire way.

I bought my host family crazy clog slipper things because I thought they were hilarious. My host family thought the same thing.

While I was in Amsterdam, I basically just walked around all the time by myself. I would wake up every morning and leave the apartment and walk for 5-10 hours until I was tired or it was time for dinner. It was amazing. Amsterdam, is so beautiful. The architecture is very different than in France, but it still holds that wonderful European style that I have always loved. I spent a bit way too much money for my taste, but je ne regrette rien. The apartment was beautiful and in the center of everything, so it was easy to walk everywhere. Which leads me to another one of my not-so-useless-but-still-pretty-useless moneyspending stories: I wanted to see the Anne Frank house. My host family told me that there is always a huge line to wait in if you want to see it, but it's still worth it. The only problem was I had no clue how to get there. So, I created a master plan. I had seen a lot of canal boat tours in front of the apart and I knew one of them stopped in front of la maison d'Anne Frank, so I went to the nearest ticket counter and bought a day-pass for 20E because I figured after Anne Frank I could go to some of the other stops that the tour offered. I got on the boat and it was very nice. There was an audio tour of interesting attractions that we passed and it was a beautiful warm day. The first stop was Anne Frank. I got off and walked to the house... what do I find? A huge line that goes down the entire block. I spend a few hours in the line before entering the house, which was so amazing and heart breaking. After I was done with the tour, it was already pretty late and I had no time to go to any of the other stops with my day-pass. But, how do I get home? ...I walk of course, Anne Frank's house was literally like 2 blocks away from my apartment. There was no point in me buying that 20E day-pass... oh la vache.

I go back to school tomorrow, I have to say, I'm kind of relieved. I really missed Rennes and I am so happy to be back.

xx

Comment on dit frites en anglais?

We are on our toussaints vacation right now, it lasts about two weeks. The first half of the vacation SYA took us to tour Loire Valley and all it's magical chateaus. It's hard to believe that it's been so long since I arrived. I remember sitting in my apartment in DC counting down the days until France, and now it seems that the days are counting to the end. Obviously we still have 7 months left, but almost 2 months have past. I feel like I've only just arrived. I hate that the time goes by so fast.

Back to the vacation. We took a long bus ride to tour chateau after chateau. After this well-educated vacation, I have come to the conclusion that I need a chateau. Here are some pictures of our fun adventures:

For each of these trips we stay at an Ibis, which is basically the French equivalent of a Holiday

Inn. My friend Crispin told me that he was going to start watching a movie with his roomie, I wanted to join. So, I went to his room and went to collapse on the bed with a graceful leap.Graceful, it was not. I missed the center of the bed entirely and unfortunately landed only on the beam. It snapped. I was laying on the floor with splinters in my self-esteem laughing. How is it that I break a bed?? Needless to say, the profs were having difficulty figuring out this anomaly as well. The beds are really tiny and cheap and another student had already broken one too. The profs were already very angry because the other students were begin very loud. So, me telling them of my accident did not help their attitudes. The sad thing was that before my

mishap, I was sitting quietly in my room reading.

Enough of that, I'm in Amsterdam now!!! My host sister goes to school here and my family wanted to take me to see it! My host family left Saturday before my school trip, so I had to spend a couple nigths with my friends because I didn't want to stay home alone. I went on the school trip and when we got back on Wednesday, I stayed at my Math prof's house. Thursday morning I got up super early to catch my train to Paris! I arrived there just in time. I had to run a grab a taxi because my train to Amsterdam was at a completely different station. I got in a

taxis, and I was really tempted to tell him to take the scenic tour through Paris, so I could atleast soak up some of it. But I didn't need to. The train station was rigth in the heart of Paris

and when we pulled out of the parking garage, the Eiffel Tower was right in front of me. My heart literally skipped a beat. The sad thing is, I could have cried. This city has such an impact on me. I really wouldn't have minded if I missed my train an had to stay in Paris. The taxis ride was amazing. I drove through so many little Parisian streets and witnessed the life of the people

who inhabit that amazing city. It was amazing. When we arrived at the next train station, I paid my driver and hopped on the train to Amsterdam. It was a long ride, but I finally made it! And the apartment that my host family rented is beautiful!!

The cool thing is that everyone in Amsterdam speak English, so the first thing I had to do for my host family was ordered them some French Fries because they didn't know what to say. It was really fun.. I feel so cool being able to understand two different languages!!

I'll post again soon!

xx

L'école

I guess I never really explained my classes and how school works.

Basically there are like 60+ students in the entire program, and we all took placement tests to determine our level in French and math. They are 2 levels of French I and II. Level I is for the meilleur éleves and they study a lot more Literature and work less on learning grammar. Level II, were I am, is dedicated to expanding our vocabulary and speaking skills. Level II still takes Litt. but not as often as level I.

So, the school day is created for each individual student and group. Each level is divided evenly into groups--IA, IB and IIA, IIB--for scheduling purposes. I'm IIA, so all of my classes are with the rest of the people in IIA. Except for math, math gets mixed up according to math skill. I'm in pre-calcI and there is a pre-calcII and a pre-calchonours as well as ABCalc and BCCalc.

Classes are:
CESF(culture et société Françaises-Taught in French)- which is us just learning everything we need to know about France and it's culture..... the prof is hilarious.

Histoire(Taught in FRench- French history... I'm really surprised by how much I love this class, our prof is crazy.

Histoire de l'art(French)- Art and architecture... I love this class the prof is so funny!!

Litterature(French)- French literature

English(English)- Is just a basic English class.... the prof is so smart and crazy, I really enjoy this class

Langue(French)- grammar class..... I love speaking French

TPL(French)- it's a pronunciation class, each group has it once a week

Math(English)- I love our teacher, she is so young and smart and she's super fun

C'est tout! Je vais faire mes devoirs!

PS below is me reciting my first essay in French. We were supposed to do it in class, but they prof only chose certain people to recite. I worked really hard on it, so I wanted to share it with you! Excuse my pronunciation... I was reading too fast.

xx

I Miss Hugs.

These should be the last of my attempt to show Taylor my outfit for the first month.

Since it's been awhile since I posted (sorry!), this is going to be a fairly long and choppy post. I'm just going to write all the experiences in short paragraphs.

I swear, these people here think we have amazing stories to write about. For English we have to write an anecdote that we think helped shape us into the person we are today. And if writing that in English isn't hard enough, French Litt. wants us to write a extremely funny or extremely dramatic story (en français) that has happened to us while we've been in France... I have plenty of stories to write about for Litt, but the prof has extraordinarily high expectations AND she wants us to present it in class.
Her requirements:

-5 minute long presentation.
I don't think any of my stories are long enough!

-Must speak flawless French, the grammar and the accent.
....

-We cannot use "Il y a (there), faire (to do), ça (that) or chose (things)"
That's been easy so far.

I'm just going to ask my host family to just sit with me and help me write this, because writing and speaking is going to extremely difficult. As for English, I thought it was going to be easy because it only has to be 500 words, but my story is finished with only 286 words. I have nothing else to say, so I'm just going to create another draft and see how that goes. Anyways, for English, I'm writing about my near-death experience in Germany and for Litt. I'm going to write about the strange day I had shopping with Eilidh (one of my SYA friends) and some old man.

I'll post both stories when they are completed.

I just wanted to show off my amazing note taking skills IN FRENCH. I was never a big fan of history, but I love history this year, my prof is so funny. I love him.

I made a few French friends! Finally!! SYA had signups for this meet-and-greet at a French school. So, I signed up for it, and while I was there I talked to this one guy and we exchanged numbers and we've been texting ever since!!!!!! We haven't been able to meet up because he is always extraordinarily busy with basket ball (yes, he's athletic). But what I love the most is that he speaks French!! And all 125 messages that we've exchanged are in French!!!

So, I went out yesterday with my friend Crispin and I only had 10E on me, so I decided to go to an ATM and get some cash. So, I found a BNP, which is the sister bank of BOA, and went to the ATM and put my card in, typed in my pin and chose the amount of money I wanted to withdraw. Well, instead of giving my money, the ATM decides to "withhold my card at the request of the bank". Like, what?! J'étais tellement en colère. I called my dad and he called the bank a million times and worked it out, so I'm getting an emergency replacement card ASAP. THANKS DADDY, LOVE YOU!!!!! But, the not-so-funny-but-ironic thing is that was the exact same ATM that my friend used last Saturday to withdraw money and guess what? It took his card too. Oh la vache... I thought it was safe to use because he walked away from the ATM for a while, so I just assumed it took his card because he left it unattended. Stupid machine.

I bought new shoes, a new shirt and two new pants for under 50E! All of it is so cute!

<--These are maxi pain au chocolats... so.good. Eilidh and i both had one they are literally bigger than my face.


Oh, I realised that I don't really miss the US all that much. But the thing I do miss are hugs. I was never a touchy-feely person so, I didn't give very many hugs... but now that I'm in a country that never hugs, all I want to do is hug people. I just want to walk down the streets of Rennes with a sign that says "Free Hugs" just so that people will hug me. Maybe, I can make France realise that hugs are awesome!

On Friday my adviser had a little advisory party at her apartment. It was ridiculously fun. She's only like 28, so she's really easy to talk to and she's so funny. The entire school is trying to find someone to hook her up with because she doesn't have friends yet because she doesn't speak French. She was with SYA: Vietnam last year, so this is her first time in Rennes. She's just as new to the city as we are. But, at her apartment, we all basically ate junk food for about 3 straight hours, then we had epic heart to hearts. She's the math teacher and I swear, she's like the smartest person ever. I never would have imagined that she was that amazing at math. She's a great teacher!

Also, as of Wednesday, I have been here for a month. 8 more months to go. I don't like that. I want to stay here forever. I love everything about Rennes. I have yet to be homesick or sad in anyway.


This post is awful, I'm sorry! I need to start posting regularly so this doesn't happen again.

xx

J'adore Ma Famille d'Accueil.

I really cannot explain how much I love my host family. Ils sont très amusant et incroyable. They are just so understanding. We will be at the dinner table and I am stumbling trying to speak decently (I'm sure I sound like Tarzan though: "Me. Eat. Now." "You.No.Like?"), but they understand easily and help me say it right. C'est bizarre parce que I am more comfortable speaking French with them than I am with my other friends who are on the same level as me. I'm not embarrassed to jump into a conversation and fall on my face trying to explain difficult things. Everynight, without fail, I go downstairs and sit at the table in the kitchen and do my homework while my host dad cooks, and I tell him about my day and he helps me with my French homework and I help him peel potatoes or carrots. It's really fun, it's my favourite time of the day. And when Valerie comes down to eat we will talk for hours! It really is the best.

Anyways, I just had to say a quick something about them. They are truly amazing.

Also, I had a very exciting experience talking to a random stranger. I was walking down the ally that my school is on and this woman was walking towards me and she asked "est-ce que tu habites ici?" and I immediately understood and without even thinking answered "Oh, non, je vais à l'école", she mumbled something about needing a toilet and walked away. I know it doesn't sound that impressive because it was such a petite conversation....but je ne pensais pas en anglais. I understood her French, I didn't do any translating an when I answered I didn't think about conjugation or word placement.... I just said it.

I have noticed that I understand French better when I'm not trying to translate everything, I just have to learn the words. For example, when someone says "je pars" I don't think in my head "(Je=I) + (pars=partir=to leave) = I am leaving" I simply think of the action of leaving like I do in English. It's difficult to explain, but easiest way to say it is I am beginning to really comprehend the language.

I'm sorry, I've been so bust lately I haven't been able to post. I'm going to post about the first school trip this weekend.

xx

PS Remember the clock I bought? Well, I was messing with it today and it does, in fact, have an alarm! So, it wasn't a waste of money!