Late Late Late Night!!!!

Wednesday I got done with school at 11! I love here how if your teacher isn't here you just don't have class! You would only get a sub if your teacher was gone for more than a month! It was funny trying to explain to Amel the cruelty of American students to subs! :-) For lunch, we got Chinese food! And then I worked at the office for 3 hours!

On top of that, I babysat that night! It was a tad difficult because well... my French is still a work in progress! Haha it was still pretty easy! I watched a movie and was kinda falling asleep but the parents got back at 1 am! Haha but luckily for me when I got back to my home, they said I didn't have to go to school next day! Nicolas might have had a tad bit too much to drink! I thought it was hilarious! He was blasting the music at 1:30 in the morning! He asked what classes I had the next day and I said swimming and he said "Okay you need to swim in the pool for two hours tomorrow." I said it was way too cold! He said "No! I could go right now!" I said I would love to see that and he went and got his bathing suit on and he ACTUALLY did it!!! He jumped into the the 20 C/ 68 F water! He is crazy!!! There was a frog in the water too! Haha later he started talking about how much he loved Lady Gaga. It really was very fun! He was passed out asleep on the coach! Snoring too!! He went to bed at 3 am! He had work in the morning too! Then me and Marine watched Step Up 2! Haha I slept for a bit in the chair... but it was quite uncomfortable! So I got all ready for bed at 7 and then went to sleep which took a while becaue it was bright out. I slept until 3 but got woken up a few times but some work going on outside! Haha it was great!!! :-)

Still clutching the Iphone!
Can never be too sure of thieves!!!

Marine is ALWAYS so happy!!

I finally got her to smile when I told her
 I was putting these on the computer!



Haha it was much too late!!!



Evil English Teacher!

Well... Tuesday in my English Reinforced class we got our tests handed back. I saw a lot of things marked wrong that shouldn't have been! Normally, I would just take the slightly less than perect score and just deal with it! The score wasn't bad but number 1-it was the principle of it and number 2-I think being on my "own" has made me more assertive! I think this teacher hasn't really liked me from the beginning! She's British! And they all think we ruined the English language! She is kinda a fake nice!

Anywho... I went up to her at the end of the class and simply just asked her what was wrong with my test! She starts going off into this spew in her ridiculous British English! "You are UTTERLY wrong!"! She couldn't even say why! Just that I was wrong! She is the one who started beoming arguementative and confrontational and I wasn't gonna take it! I even asked her if she was grading me harder because I know English and she just wants to prove I don't even know my own language! She didn't deny it! She just said "Well I know your English isn't perfect" and I said well "Duh and I'm sure yours isn't either!"

 Finally, she just kicked me out of the class! Haha that was the first time I've ever been kicked out of a class! I may have picked a battle that I shouldn't have but I refuse to be her American doormat no matter how many times she kicks me out of her class!!! When I was talking to some friends, I said "I want to throw lemons at her" and they taught me the French expression- "I want to throw rocks at her"! Both so true...

A La Plage!!!

Marine went to ride her horse for 8 hours! But the rest of us went to the beach!!! It was a perfect day! :-) I learned a little bit about Napoleon on the way there! The weather was amazing! Sunny with a slight breeze so it's not too hott! :-)

I wasn't planning on getting in the water! First off, because I thought it was freezing! And secondly, because when you are covered in water, it is instant adhesive for the sand which didn't sound too fun to me! But once the kids found out I didn't want to get in, they started chasing me up and down the beach and eventually into the water! It kinda turned into tag and it was super fun!!! But very exhausting! The water actually felt really good! The first shock was the worst! Haha I love playing with the kiddos but when they get to be too much, I hang with the adults! Haha it's like the best of both worlds! Just like Hannah Montana... :-) I swam pretty far out so I felt like I got my exercise for the day! Then I just collapsed on a towel! I got a little bit tan, read my book, and just got to chill!!! Good day :-)


This is Carter! He is quite the funny kid!

Sohpie! Also known as "Chica"! Haha :-)




We was climbing on this railing almost the whole time!
He kept saying "I'm a monkey!!" :-)



One Month!!!

September 26th... Do you know what that means??? I've been here for a month!!! Yupp it's true! :-) Everyone was saying the first month would be the hardest but it was quite enjoyable for me... I don't know if I'm the exception of if it just hasn't hit me yet maybe in the 2nd month! I don't know! Because I do miss everyone...yeah... but it really is so amazing here!

 Before I came, I would always think of what it would be like to actually be here and after one month... well I do have to say that dreams aren't always reality for better or worse but in this case, it definitely exceeded my expectations! I am so happy here :-)

As far as school goes, minus some crazy teachers and classes that bore me becaue I understand very minimal French, it is going great! I've made some friends! I'm getting the hang of things!

Well learning French... I feel like I should be so much more ahead but I think I'm just getting impatient! I have to just let time take care of it as well as do my part. I just have to remember that one day I will think about this time and laugh. Now, I'm kinda stressing about it so sometimes I just have to take a breather and remind myself why I wanted all of this :-)

At the beginning, it felt like a vacation but after a month of settling in to routines etc... It feels like home! And it is for about another 9 months that I know will be just as great as this past month! And they go by quick... so I have to enjoy the now!

Marine's Back!!!

So Marine has been in AZ for about a month and a half! But she was missing home too much so she got to take a week off of school! Come here for 2 weeks! And then go to San Diego with my family for a week after that! Crazy!! She arrived Saturday night and we all went to pick her up at the airport. I'm sure she was really happy to be back in her native France.

Yeah for me! She was able to come with a lot of stuff for me!  My wonderful and loving mother went to the store 3 time to get it all!!! It felt like Christmas! :-) I got a lot of needs- running shoes, some make up, bathing suit, clothes I forgot, books, medicine, cute scarves, my patriarchial blessing, and some transformers! But best bestest of all, my mommy got me loads of American candy!!! We sure know how to make some wicked junk food!!!  :-) I was simply in heaven! Thanks again Mommy!!! Haha I know I'm 16 and I still call my mom "Mommy"!!! Haha

These is my "Secret American Junk Food Stash" which I might have to change because the kids found it!!! :-)
Not so secret anymore!!!

 Most missed junk food: Reese's- These were never really my favorite but my sister, Bri, absolutely adores them so they totally remind me of her; Sour Punch Kids and Swedish Fish- Remind me of my brother, Jer; Hot Fudge Sundae Poptarts- I had these all the time Freshman year after my brother, Josh, introduced them to me; Gum- I so so so miss American gum; and finally, PEANUT BUTTER M&MS!!!- These are for surely my biggest craving right now! Peanut Butter in general actually! I never especially liked peanut butter but when I came here I realized how American it is! It make me feel at home! Peanut butter and honey toast or with peanut buter and nutella! It tastes like Reese's!  :-) So with my new obsession of peanut butter when I got these peanut butter M&Ms, I was tripping! When something like chocolate and peanut butter combine it is simply perfection!!!! My mom even added some See's chocolate which is crazy good!!! Some stuff Marine said "We have that in France" and I would just tell her "No! It's better in America!" Haha :-)

Saturday, Cannes, Abby

After getting a good nights sleep after going to bed at 3 am, Abby and I set off for Cannes! We took the bus and went straight to the beach!!! Had to work on our tans! It was a beautiful day and I was totally enjoying but it only lasted for about a half an hour because Abby has a really short attention span.


My grandma likes carousels!
So I always try to take pictures of them!

 So then we went to the only really real fast food restaurant in France- McDonalds!!! The employees have to speak English and it is actually really funny to listen to!



McDonalds!!!

 Abby and I had a great lunch and just started walking by all the stores!



Only a few of my friends would understand this!
But I was laughing hysterically when I saw the name of this store!

 We saw the big place where they have the Cannes Film Festival! My parents have been right around there so that makes me happy!

In May, this place will be packed!

Strutting it out on the red carpet!


 Lots of designer stores with fashions that seemed rather bizarre to me! :-) Haha after Abby's endless begging, we went to Haagen Dazs!!! My dad absolutely loves their Dulce de Leche so I got this little number just for him...well except I ate it!!!



1 scoop of Vanilla, 2 scoops of Dulce de Leche,
 hot caramel, whipped cream, and toffee bits!
Amazing!!!!!


There was this crazy guy just walking around talking to himself and he was just rather odd! I managed to
 take a picture but it's not very good!

So bizarre!

Then we saw this guy doing this really awesome sand sculpture thing!!! Check it!

A Belgian Dinner

I finished school on Friday at 6! I was thorougly exhausted and by the time I got home it was 7:30! That night we went to dinner down the street at their friends' place. They are Belgian! Haha Belgians are kinda the dumb blondes of Europe but they seemed normal to me! Amel said it was just an act :-)

Leone is really nice! She's 14 but she acts much older. She is very energetic and she like to speak English with me while I speak French. During dinner, she was trying to explain this holiday that's on her birthday. It was very comical with her lack of English vocabulary. This is about the jist of it- "You know Jesus is dead. And when he goes to the sky, that's my birthday." I couldn't stop laughing! I would act all surprised!!! "What do you mean Jesus is dead???" Haha and she kept saying "Let me start over!" and she would always start the same way! "Jesus is dead"! Haha and it got funnier and funnier!

Let me tell you about the length of this dinner! We got there at around 8:30! We just chilled for an hour maybe an hour and a half and then ate dinner and that took a while so I was already tired to begin with but by then I was dead exhausted. I fell asleep on Leone's bed and got woken up to leave at 2:30!!!!! Yes 2:30 AM!!!! CRAZY!! I know French dinners are late but I thought this was a tad excessive! Plus it was freezing! I wasn't expecting to be out in the early morning hours so I was of course not properly dressed! By the time I got home, I got in warm clothes and went straight to bed! :-)

"The American"

On Thursday, the swimming coach wasn't there so for the second week in a row so I didn't have swimming. Haha I'm pretty lucky becase I hadn't done my math homework so I used that time to work on it with the help of some really nice people I met from my class. Once one person started talking to me then their friend would talk to me and then their friend and so on... Haha so this kinda started the domino effect. They all said they were scared to talk to me because they thought their English was terrible. Haha I think their English is better than my French. They will speak to me in English and I have to speak French and we correct each other as needed. It actually has been rather helpful.

 At the beginning of school, I thought everyone thought that I was weird because nobody would really talk to me. I now know that's bcause they were all scared. I thought I stuck out like a sore thumb! I would just miss being able to blend in but now I'm just kinda the center of attention. I'm just "The American" which I'm okay with cuz it's true! Haha but now they are so excited for me to be there! Everybody wants to talk to me and be my friend. It's kinda fun! They are all so nice :-)

Pop Quiz!

I have no idea why the font on here is so different but I couldn't get it to change!

On Monday, I had a history pop quiz! Gee whiz! It was oral so we had to write down the questions and I didn't understand anything she said at all! So I would just kind guess if I could but mostly I just put question marks! Haha :) and I just spent the whole time bolding the question marks so it looked like I was doing something! 



This is my test!!! Notice the varius questions marks!



And the back!

I felt like the teacher needed some kind of explanation so I left this little note at the end of the test. 

I don't know.
I am from the United States.
My French is terrible.
I didn't understand a lot.

Haha we got our tests back on Wednesday!!! And guess what my score was!!!!!

1 out of 20

I have never been this excited about completely failing in my life!!! Me, whose still trying to learn French let alone learn history in French, got a 1!!! I know that's like a 5% but guess what! Even some people who speak French did worse than me! They  only got a half a point! I was quite proud of myself! 

Brilliant Idea!!!

So Wednesday Nicolas had a fantastic idea which was this! I save up money so I can go back home for my February break! I'll have two weeks there! Because Elena is really missing me and now she'll have something to look forward to! If I do end up going though, I don't think I would tell a lot of people. I planned on not seeing them for a year and it would be too hard to have to say goodbye all over again!

It was my first day working in his office. He is a doctor and all I had to do was scan papers to save on the computer for 3 hours.The only difficult thing was the keyboards are a tad different in France than in the US so that took some getting used to! So it was really easy work but great for me becaue this is how I'm gonna pay for my ticket home! I just hope the ticket isn't crazy expensive!!! $$$

Very French Lunch

Wednesday was a half day as usual! Nicolas picked me up after school and we went out to lunch to this place called Park 45 with Pascaline, Mailys, and this lady that I didn't know... It was close to the beach and it was a beautiful day! The lunch was so so so French!

 I was so mad at myself that I didn't take my camera. Because Cannes is a very touristy place, the waitresses have to speak...well attempt to speak English. Haha it was hilarious! Well... first off she asked me if I had any questions about the wine. I guess I just looked older. I would even have to correct her English sometimes. And then she thought I wouldn't understand what a tart was so she said apple pie!!! Haha everything was quite delicious though! They start with this "mouth amuser" or something like that! It was this liquidy spinachy thing and this little cheesy and bacon crumpet! Appetizer was this mushroom soup with ham and an egg yolk covered in something! It's hard to explain (again I wish I had my camera) I was kinda scared to eat this but it ended up being quite fantastic! Haha I had duck for the first time which I actually really liked! It came with this cooked fig and mango! Amazing! :-)  Dessert was the before mentioned apple "pie"! Haha :-)

Evil History Teacher!!!

 Tuesday in history, my teacher finally figured out I was American. It started with her getting mad at me because "I don't write. I don't take notes." Amel stuck up for me- "She doesn't understand she's American"! So the teacher says to me in English "Too difficult for you" and I just nod my head thinking 'Well... duh!!!' Haha but the whole class was totally on my side! They all thought she was "like Lady Gage" or "hypocrite" and a bunch of other things like that. This teacher really is scary! She looks freaky too! She just randomly yells about nothing! She doesn't mean to be funny but everyone can't help but laugh.

The good that came out of that incident was that everyone was on my side and when you have a common enemy it kinda ties you together. They would come up to me and say "The history teacher is so mean!" Haha I didn't think it was a big deal. I just kinda laughed it off but I'm glad it got me some friends :-)

Kebabs in Cannes

Sunday night was pretty emotional so Monday afternoon was a good break. I had a 3 hour lunch so I got to go with Stasha and Abby out to lunch! We got kebabs in Cannes. I dont really know what kebabs are but I think they are burrito-ish! Haha and mine had french fries in it! It was very delicious though!


I don't know why my face looks so weird!
I think I was just caught by surprise!

Later that day I had a science test! This was only the 2nd time having this class and we already had a test! I don't think it would have been too hard if it was in English because it was about the proprties of mineral, spring, and tap water and blah blah blah! But seeing as it was in French it was ridiculous! I didn't even understand the questions so my method of taking the test "Yeah 1,427 sounds about right" or "Hydrogen"! Haha I just laughed most of the time :) That's all you can do right? Stressing ain't no fun!

Orange

So after we were done with Avignon, we took a 30 minute drive to Orange! Not the color! Not the fruit! The ancient Roman stadium! :-) It's more than 2000 years old!

This was some Roman ruler and a statue of him was put there to remind everyone who their leader is! Or something like that... 

A few different views of the stadium!

Our theaters are just a tad different! Haha it's funny how we can go from this to now so quickly!

This really was how people were entertained back in the day! With just simple plays! Actors on the stage and all the townspeople crowding the stadium!  Seating was based on status in the community! The higher up in the stadium= the less prominent you were! I think I would have been front and center!!! It's kinda cool to think what it would have been like back then!

We had these audio things where you typed in a number and then you listened to information about it. It was pretty funny. I felt like I was just talking on a big telephone the whole time! I learned lots though!!!

There was like a marathon or something going on and the stadium just happened to be the finish line :-)



 Shortyly after this picture was taken, I tripped on these stairs and then later some gravely rocks! Specifically for this purpose, I learned the French word for clumsy- "maladroite"! Haha yupp that's me all right!!!



I was already having a clumsy day so when I saw these stairs I just went "Oh man"! They were so steep! I made sure to hold on to the railings the whole time! :-)







This was the old temple ruins right by the stadium!

And to end the day we got ice cream!!! As per usual.... :-)

This place was simply awesome! It was just ancient greatness! :-) Haha I hope you enjoyed all the pictures of Avignon and Orange!



Avignon

Sunday... Oh my goodness!!! Such a crazily amazing day! :) We went to Avignon! Abby came with. It was a two hour drive there and we stopped to have a picnic! I took a ton of pictures but in all honesty, the pictures don't do it justice! It was absolutely incredible! 



From the moment we arrived at Avignon,
I was totally in awe starting with
the walls around the whole city.



This was the parking garage!
I thought it was funny because it was all bright pink and
the ones in the US are just plain concrete!

The cool thing about all the places we go is that there is history behind everything and I find it very interesting! So I always am learning new things! Something new I learned about Avignon- it was once home of the popes in the 14th century deviating from its usual headquarters in Rome thus the name Palais Des Papes (Palace of the Popes).



Notice the lovely elephant statue!

The village square

Freakin legit right???



I couldn't figure out how to flip the picture :)



An old theater

My grandma likes carousels so I made sure to take a picture :-)

Lots of French flags!

Haha this man has to be one of the highlights of the trip!! Haha he was going around screaming something in French. The only thing I could understand was "LA. POLICE. NATIONALE." which means the national police of course! Abby later told me it was about how the police were threatening to kill him or some crazy thing like that!

"LA. POLICE. NATIONALE."

This was how Abby felt about that man!

Close up!!!!

This was how I felt!
I couldn`t stop laughing!!
I thought it was hilarious

I took pictures of a lot of random things because they just looked cool!

I love the old look of everything!

I thought this chapel was pretty cool!!! It is just kinda interesting with the stained glass and all... Haha Pascaline was like "If you think this is cool, wait until you go to Notre Dame in Paris!" So now I am hecka excited to go there!!!

Clock Tower

I'm sure most of you have heard about the Bridge at Avignon!!! A flood a long time ago wiped out about half of the bridge! And of course the famous song "Sur le Pont d'Avignon"!

Abby what a doll!

One of the views from the bridge

And the other side

And another!

This was the end of the bridge!
I took this picture and the whole time I was thinking
"It would suck if I dropped my camera"

Gorgeous view of the entire city
This is for surely one of my favorites!

I absolutely loved Avignon! I know it was a lot of pictures but I hoped you liked it :)