Ma soeur est russe! (My sister is Russian) :-)

Well...my my my! On saturday, I went to the Old Village in Mougins where we had dinner which consisted of assorted cheeses & sausages and bread! It's a good thing I like cheese or I don't know what I would do! And I discovered I really like goat cheese :-) Haha I even tried goat cheese that had truffles in it. Truffles are the mushroom like thing that is native to France and is mucho expensive just by the way! Anywho, it was very delicious especially after an okayish weekend which I spent trying to forget about the fact that I had to go to school on Monday... But I felt better once I found out I'll have a tutor for my French for a bit... the sooner I learn the better! Plus I have the greatest mom ever who knows exactly what to say to calm me down! And talking with Dave & Stasha! To sum it all up, I'm here to learn French and if i fail, it's chill well kinda... I hate failing but if I fail, I can make up for it with online classes/ have a full sched. senior year. Because in so many ways, I will be ahead of a lot of people. This experience is worth it. There are always a million reasons not to do something! But the joy is in the risk! I shouldn't stress myself out for no reason! Just live it up!

Yesterday, we went to an old village called St Paul which was great! I got car sick on the way there :-/ So I had to wait for that to pass and then I got to really take it all in! It had an amazing view! These old villages never cease to amaze me! :-) We got ice cream and I had a somewhat random experience there! I was walking out and this lady just came up to me and said "I want pistachio" in French! I just said "Pardon" and went past her but they told me later what she said. I was thoroughly confused! :-) Haha Stasha gave me a little French lesson last night. I'm glad I have someone that can explain French to me in English!! It makes so much more sense! :-)

St Paul

Gotta represent NY! Haha :-)

The beautiful view

So today was my first day of school... Gee Whiz! I was scared going in but it ended up being a great day! Haha I went from two extremes: terrified out of my mind and having one of the best days ever! I started at 9 today but I usually start at 8. When I saw Amel she gave me a hug which I thought was funny because they usually kiss on the cheeks. I like hugging! It's familiar to me!  Haha my first class was francais!!! I'm scared for that class because we are going to be reading books that are in French and writing things in French... Pretty much you need to know French for this class :-/ Haha just gotta take it one day at a time! When she was talking and I had no idea what she was saying, I would just start laughing sometimes because I was like "This is ridiculous!" Haha :-) Next up was espagnol. I had to sign up for another language even though my other language in the US was French! So I guess I'll be learning Spanish on top of French! Kinda difficult seeing as it goes from French to Spanish but for me I have to take it a step further Spanish to French and French to English! Ay ya ya ya! Amel told the teacher "If you see us talking, it's because she doesn't understand and I'm helping her" so we pretty much got free reign to talk! Haha

Next, we had a 3 HOUR LUNCH! At Higley, we had 25 minutes! Haha I loved it! :-) But I only get it every other week on Monday! My other days are 2 or 1 hour lunches! Amel and I walked around Cannes and she showed me around! And I got lunch at McDonalds! They employees need to be able to speak English to work there so I ordered myself even though I was going to have Amel do it. And the girl was like "Repeat. Repeat" when I ordered. Haha kinda funny! I met some of her friends! We had some good talking! I'm so happy! She is so nice! She doesn't smoke, drink, or party like most everybody else! I really don't know what I would do without her! I would probably be crying! She speaks enough English to where we can communicate realy good! And she teaches me how to pronounce etc... and once I learn French better, I'm going to help her with her English! I really can not believe my luck! I found a best friend for the French school on the first day!!! :-) I think she is the only reason I had a good day!

So after lunch, we had English class! Haha which I absolutely loved! She's the kind of teacher where she speaks English first and then asks what she said! And I was just thinking 'I know exactly what you mean'! Haha :-) And she was asking people what they do to practice their English (like American movies...) and she asked me and I really wanted to say "Well... I have American friends. I like American music. I watch American movies." But I didn't think of that until later so I just told her I was American :-) She's British and I don't know how much she liked me! Cuz the British think we ruined the English language... Pshaha!!! If anything, we improved it! ;-) She thinks I have an American accent and that she'll ask me to say things to see how I pronounce them! Haha you never think you would become "the model" of an entire country! I gotta represent my USA!!! Sometimes you kinda wonder if you are disproving or proving stereotypes... Haha :-) I think I'll like that class! Especially since translating from English to French will help me with my French! Because Amel would write the French and English! So it helped me out to look at her paper and copy it down! Oh and guess what my homework is! I need to write 5 WHOLE SENTENCES in ENGLISH about what I did over the summer! Yeah... I don't know about this class! Who do they think I am???? American or something????? It's going to take all I got to figure this one out! Haha :-)

Last class of the day, Chemistry! Oh la la! She gave us homework that was due today but obviously I didn't do it because I couldn't understand it! :-) She seems hard core! I don't think she's messing around! But I did not care that I didn't do my homeowork because it's chill!!! We had to do this lab-ish thing about water! And for chemistry, we need lab coats like you would see in a movie! It's hilarious!!! :-) I don't think the teacher liked me very much! I hit my leg on the desk and started laughing... And I tripped on my stool and started laughing... So I just think that she thinks I'm an idiot American! Haha at least I only have her every other week! :-) I mostly had to copy from Amel because most of the time, I didn't know what was going on! Well it seemed like it would be so easy for me if it was in  English!!!! Haha good thing it's easy! Because I can't learn the subject when I'm focused on the language!!

After that class, Amel and me hung out in the courtyard for a bit! She was helping me with my French mostly with my pronunciation! I was counting and she told me to say 190 but I just thought she said 90 and she just started lauging because I said it wrong!  Haha she was having me just talk in French and we were talking about hair color and so I wanted to tell her "My sister is a red head." And red head for a female in French is "rousse". So I tried saying "Ma soeur est rousse" and Amel gave me a kinda confused look so I told her in English what I was trying to say and she just started lauging! I had totally butchered it! I had said "Ma souer est russe" which means "My sister is Russian" and she knew I was not one bit of Russian! So it was hilarious! They sounded the same to me! And then trying to determine the difference was very difficult! I could never say it right twice in a row! Haha I was getting frustrated! For her in English, it's 'bear' & 'beer' or 'beach' & a bad word that starts with a b! Haha they sound different to me! I guess it's just what you're used to!

I took the bus home! I had to wave down the bus because it didn't stop so the driver got mad at me! But yet again, I don't know what he was saying! :-) I read my book on the bus which was quite delightful! And walked a little home! I said "Bonjour" to this lady I passed on my way home! I felt very French! She gave me a big smile and said the same back! I was like "YES! Nailed it!" Haha :-) I was happy for the rest of the night! It was absolutely postively completely totally and majorly a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-) And I feel even better now because I got my blog completely updated! :-) Took a while but I'm all caught up!