une semaine

I have been bad, I know...I did so well at this writing thing for all of maybe 4 days. I have some major catching up to do.

Here it goes, a week in review [from right where we left off :)]...

January 5: Day 2 of school at la Perverie went pretty well. The students were really nice to me again and I made some friends. Most of my newly forming relationships are built on mutual amusement-- they get a kick out of the fact that I am the wierd mute new kid, and I get a kick out of how disastrous our conversations are...perfect. :) My chemistry lab partner and I literally just sit there and laugh while arguing about which is the more authentic spelling of carbon/carbone? We will never know....

January 6: A good day. I was getting a little down on myself after my disastrous first couple of days trying to speak to people, but today I was in a little better mood. My new friends taught me all the french swear words I could possibly need to know and then some. I didn't fall for the "When the teacher walks in call her -this-" though...but it was a good effort on their part, I will give them that. School gets out at 12:00 on Wednesday for me, so I spent the afternoon relaxing and watching DVDs with Constance...good stuff.

January 7: Tried the cafeteria food today. I miss you Chef Ron! If anyone out there is reading will you pass the message on to him. I didn't realize how much I love our food until now. Today was really icy...its been COLD! Below freezing...thats all I know...I would give you details but the centigrade/farenheit thing is kind of blowing my mind. It has snowed a bit, but nothing sticks here. The combination of the cold and my presence, has been a treat for Capucine and Constance because we keep getting car rides to school in the morning instead of walking. Sometimes I think I would prefer to walk ;) Here the roads are tiny, the cars are tiny, the roundabouts are plentiful, and the speed is fast....add it all up and you have insane motion sickness.

January 8: VENDREDI! Amen. A good day, but really hard. (How to describe it?-- I have been reading a lot of biology books since I have been here and I feel like one of the patients in that book written by a neurologist...my brain is totally overstimulated and I can't process anything correctly. Thats the best I can do to explain, haha.) I turned into that exchange student today. The one I thought I would never be. Yeah, I went to the wrong place and Capu had to come find me. I followed some friends to lunch when it turns out I had told Capucine I wanted to go to English class with her....we had lunch twice today ;) After school, Capucine and Constance took my French pop culture education into their own hands with the help of youtube. I'll pass this on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbDBAWdx4eg&translated=1 The song is called "Ca M'enerve"....the best way I know how to translate it is: "It drives me crazy"...the song is kind of a joke, but its really funny because you hear the expression a lot in daily conversation and the kids always laugh with eachother by singing the phrase instead of saying the words.

January 9: Two words: LES SOLDES...or the SALES. After Christmas sales are crazy here...shops aren't really open on Sunday so EVERYONE, and i mean EVERYONE, went shopping today. It was insane. There were moments when you couldn't even breath you were packed in so tightly, but it was a lot of fun. It snowed again! :) Tried an oyster today. Not as bad as I thought it would be...I literally could taste ocean for the rest of the day, even after brushing my teach repeatedly after lunch, but still not as bad as I expected, haha. And in case you were wondering...Clue is literally the universal game. Just add a -do to the end: CLUEDO, and you have the french version.

January 10: Aujord'hui...finally up to date! Good day. Woke up super late after some crazy wierd dreams, but things went uphill from there. We went bowling today which was super fun. We played two games, the first I did really well in, I was winning until the last go-around when Christophe got a spare. Just to put it in perspective that game I was close to winning with a final score of 77...we are hella good bowlers. One game I think Constance's final score was a whopping 18. Fun times though, thats for sure. Watched Public Enemies in French tonight (GOOD movie) before helping Constance with her English homework. They teach England Engish at school, so the French accent combined with the British accent she is trying to achieve is absolutely adorable. It is funny though because some words they teach are just a little bit different and the expressions they try to use are SO ENGLISH! :) It's fun to help them though. I correct everyones English papers at school...its kind of a relationship of mutual understanding--I do your English homework for you, and in exchange you speak slowly to me, help me learn French, and make sure I enjoy school...in my opinion, its a fair trade ;)


In conclusion, you are now completely up to date. That is, if you made it to the end of this essay. If so, congratulations...maybe take a break from staring at the computer screen and eat a pain au chocolat (or something). Love you all.