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 :) 

A Kermesse and Chinese Food

So Saturday afternoon I went to a little festival-ish thing at Mailys and Sophie's school. It was called a Kermesse. It was raining earlier that day but it stopped later on! :-) There were games for the kiddos and as food goes, there was my favorite- crepes!!! It was dang delicous! I've had crepes before but this was a legit French crepe with the always delicous Nutella! And along with that- french fries! It was a fun afternoon :-)

Later that night, we got Chinese food! It just seemed a tad ironic to me... Haha but it was delicous and all in all it was a fantastic day!!! Oh and on the way there I learned the game Sophie and Mailys made up! It's kinda like "Slug Bug" but it's with these!

SMART CARS!!!!

You see one and you punch the other person and say "Smart Fart"! Haha it gets kinda obnoxious because there is A LOT of smart cars!!! Haha they are pretty convenient though because parking here is not the funnest thing in the world!

I'm Exotic!

So another week of school complete!!! Not understanding what most people are saying gets kinda old after awhile and each day feels pretty intense let alone a week. I'm glad I made it 2 weeks already! I'm not on a plane home...yet... Haha ;-)

School has been alright... French class is killer! They sit there analyzing philosophy and reading books while I am there thoroughly confused!  And I don't know if you have ever had to listen to someone speak a different language for long periods of time but it gets majorly boring and I'm usually falling asleep within the first 5 minutes. I have to draw to keep myself awake and once I am conscious enough, I'll look up words with my handy dandy French-English dictionary! :) And once I start falling asleep again, I will write letters to my family and friends or just draw again! If my pen is moving, it creates the illusion that I'm actually working when in reality, I have no clue as to what is occurring! I'll ask Amel sometimes "What are we supposed to be doing?" and she'll just say "It's too hard for you. Just draw!" She said it's even hard for her and she speaks French so for mean that means it ain't happening anytime soon!

History/Geography is rather dull too! Because the teacher just gets up and starts blah blah blahing about who knows what!!! Well... I guess everyone else in the class knows but me! Anyways, the teacher is kinda crazy! She gets really passionate about history! Like she'll say pretty harshly "...if you don't know that, you're stupid!" and so on and so forth.... It's kinda funny for me because I can only guess as to what she is referring! I'm kinda interested to see how they perceive America and also world events through the eyes of the French. Because every country wants to be the best!!! Would a French person ever teach "And then we surrendered because we were chickens..."??? Of course not! They'll turn it into a way to make it look like they are the hereos... as would any other country. But I think we all really know who the hero ALWAYS is...USA! USA! USA! Haha just kidding but seriously :-)

Again my favorite class is definetely English! I have to read articles and answer questions in English... I don't exactly need to be the brightest crayon in the box to figure that one out! On Monday, I had to answer the questions "If you were to live abroad, what would you miss most about your home country?" Haha!!! I just said "I'll tell you exactly what I miss...blah blah blah" :-) But now there is all this pressure to speak all fancy and educatedly (Obviously that is difficult for me) :-) so I have to pull out my "secret weapon vocabulary"! Haha when one of my English teachers calls roll, she'll always be like "Alyssa hello! How are you today?" And she'll just call everyone elses' names! And the teachers will always call on me for every single question!  Uhh hello...I'm not the one who needs the practice here!!! Amel says it's because "I'm exoctic" Haha I tell her "I think you mean foreign... Exotic is like parrots, islands, flowers, and pineapples." Haha she's like "No you are exotic" :-) Haha I will help some people with their English :-) so at least I'm good for that!

Thursday was a pretty good day! I was supposed to have PE in the morning from 8-10. The bus was going to pick us up to take us to the pool. I was not even close to prepared for swimming. I didn't have a one-piece bathing suit, a cap, or goggles so I most likely wasn't going to swim anyway. But yeah for me! The bus never came! Haha so I had 2 hours to burn! There is this other American at the school. He's from California so I went with him and some of his friends to the beach. We went swimming in the sea!!! Haha how cool is it that just down the street from my school there is a beach! So I went swimming in the Mediterranean Sea and got ice cream! Seriously, only in France!!

That night I had this French tutor... He is abolutely crazy! Haha first off, you should have seen his clothes! They were really tacky and cheap suits. I think it would be the equivalent in the US as a BARGAIN at Goodwill! Now that's bad!!! And his English was not super good because normally he teaches kids English from French. Everthing he did I could have easily done myself. I can learn French and ask anybody around me about how to pronounce it! And he would say I made mistake when I know for a fact I did it right! He's like you didn't do blah blah blah and I would say "Heck yes I did"!! He wouldn't do any lesson under 2 hours and that's just too long to have to sit there and learn French... plus it was expensive. That was my last lesson so I kinda jerked him around a little. It's mean I know... But hilarious!!! He would say things in English wrong and I would be like "What are you talking about???" even when I could understand where he was somewhat getting at. For example, he was talking about how the French alphabet sounds differently than the English one but he said it's spelled differently! I was like "No it is spelled the exact same!!!" Haha :-) And I would say "I know this why do we have to do it" etc... At the end he was like, "Why aren't you your normal self today?" and I said "Well how do you not know that last week wasn't my normal self and today is normal because you've only met me twice!" And he said "Well maybe you just had a bad day" And I said "No I had a fantastic day today!!!" Haha he said I wasn't motivated! Haha I came from my nice little life in the US to here just to learn French! How's that for motivation????

Friday I got out by noon and as per usual Friday tradition I took a nap right once I got back! One week of French school makes me one tired girl! That night I went to a class at the gym called Body Pump. You lift weights along with music and such but me... lifting weights... not a good idea... Haha first off, I have no arm strength whatsoever! I do cross country, soccer, and track. Not many of those involve having buff arms! Second of all, the class was obviously going to be in French. I had gone to the biking class there and that wasn't so bad because I had done cycling classes like it in the US so I knew relatively what was going on. But I had never experienced anything like Body Pump. When I was getting my stepping block, I dropped the bottom blocks and it went all over. I caused a little bit of a commotion (I think France has made me really clumsy because I do stuff like this all the time... Trip on chairs or even on my own feet and I randomly drop things for no reason etc...) so that was a good start. During the class, I had to watch Pascaline the entire time because I was totally clueless! I would just laugh most of the time! I was like "Wow I stink at this..." Haha and I had very small weights but still... It's the day after and I am sore like no other!! :-/

Sam had to have a little surgery on Friday. Somehow, he had gotten a tooth stuck in his ear!!! Crazy! Right? He had fallen asleep with it and it got in his ear and the skin started to grow over the tooth! Uhh... it just makes me cringe! So he had to be put under anesthsia. Poor kid! I can imagaine how not fun that would be!

 Trying to learn a new language has to be one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had! It's not something you can just learn really quick!! It takes time and I've just kinda learned to go with it and soak it all in. I get kinda impatient sometimes like "Can I please just learn this language already???". I just wish I could wake up tomorrow and speak French no problem. Unfortunately, that's not very realistic... I actually have to work!!

~Oh and by the way I added pictures to my previous posts so go check them out :-)

Recharging

For me this weekend was mostly recharging my wearied spirit from school. Haha starting with a nap Friday right when I got back from school :-) I was really tired and a whole weeks worth of not understanding anything had kinda taken it's toll!

 Saturday, we went to ITALY! Haha :-) I saw Monaco...

Monaco

We didn't go very far past the border but I was in Italy! I love how it is so easy here to just go for an afternoon drive to a different country!! :-) On the way there, the kids and I did the "don't breathe in the tunnels" game which got kinda challenging because there were a lot of tunnels! We went by the beach which was absolutely gorgeous! And we got gelato!:-) It was my dad's birthday so I had some pistachio gelato just or him! :-)

Italian beach

Sophie, Me, Sam, and Mailys

Then we went to this little village on a hill which had very very very weird bathrooms! I took pictures! YES! It's a toilet! You put your feet on the squares and squat! So disgusting!! I don't know who ever thought this was an efficient way to go to the bathroom!

Bathroom technology at its Worst!

I tried a fig for the first time which actually was delicious and sweet. Then, I slept on the way back. That night they had some people over for dinner so it was chill. I got to talk with Stasha! Well... at least when Marine wasn't trying to talk to me! Haha :-)

On Sunday, we went to a picnic in this park. It was very fun! They had desserts set up on the table so I had dessert and then I ate my lunch which was a baguette sandwhich with cheddar cheese!! Americans love their cheddar! It's vey expensive here which I thought was hilarious because in America you can by it by the ton! You can get cheddar in all shapes and sizes! Including squeaky cheese and cheese in a can!!! Haha :-) I got to talk with Stasha more! I think this gets more and more true but I don't think I could have done this without Stasha and her family! I love her kids! Abby, Sophie, Samuel, and Carter! They are adorable :-) When we got back, Abby and I watched Modern Family! One of the best shows ever! Sunday night, I did my homework while Abby watched Click which is hilarious! Then we went to her house where we had pasta for dinner! Gotta love pasta! :-)  I think I'm ready for a whole nother week at school! :-)

Mi Familia!!!

I miss my family so much especially since they went to Overgaard last weekend! They were celebrating my dad's 50th birthday! When I saw the pictures, I was really crying! My parents, Jer and Kee had flown in from Colorado, Bri was actually going on this trip, both Joshs (my brother and Bri's boyfriend), Marine, Laney, my best friend- Lindsay, and her family (which is really my 2nd family). So you really couldn't get better company than that! They played games, ate ice cream, and went horseback riding. I could just imagine what it would be like if I was there! Endless laughter, movies, being crazy, staying up late, and an all around great time! For me, I don't get emotional about being gone until I see some fun thing going on that I know would have been a great memory for me but I'm not there to experience it for myself. I am in France making memories of my own :-) It's a good thing I don't get too homesick or I would be a wreck!

If any picture could describe my family, I think this would be it!
We're crazy and I just don't think we would be good at being anything else but crazy...

Oh and on top of it all, Lindsay's Dad, Easton proposed to Becca. It wasn't exactly a shock. Everyone knew it was coming sooner or later!! Becca is about one of the nicest people I know! She is always smiling :-) And she is so good for Easton! They totally belong together <3 Unfortunately, this probably means... let me rephrase this definetely means I won't be there for the wedding because it's in November! 3 days before my birthday actually! >:-/ I'm practically their daughter! Lindsay is my sister!! Gosh dang it!

What a good looking family!!!
Jaycee, Rebecca, Livvy, Easton, Lindsay, Landon, and Lyndee
Right after they got engaged!!

First Week of School= Done!!!

I had been dreading this week more than anything for the past few months and now that's its over... I can't believe it. It was a lot better than I thought it would be! I'm not focused on my grades. I just kinda go with the flow and try and learn in the process. School here is very different than American schools. Everyday feels like a new adventure because your classes are different based on the day. I usually start at 8 but somedays I'll start at 9 or 10. Wednesdays are always half days which I love! :-) I'll get out of school around 4:30 to 6 but I have a 1-4 hour lunch. On the 4 hour days, I usually go home. The campus is open so you can leave whenever you want :-) which is a nice break from being locked in everyday.

French school- Most teenagers here smoke which I think is completely disgusting. During the passing periods, they'll go out to the front of the school and just smoke a cigarette and it's completely normal. I think it's ridiculous! And I hate breathing in the second hand smoke. Apparently, even some parents will buy their kids cigarettes. It's madness! Boys and girls will share the bathroom!!! There are designated ones but I guess they are too lazy to go find theirs so we all share! It's rather odd... Haha :-) For science, we have to wear white lab coats just like on tv so I feel real legit when we are experimenting! The classrooms are rather dull because teachers don't have set classrooms. They have to move from class to class.

Math is ridiculousy easy! We were doing percentages! Like if an item costs $x and is taxed at y% percent, how much is the tax? I have been doing this for years. I just had to translate the question and it was no problem. The sad thing was most people were legitimally confused! WOW! I guess going to school until 6 isn't helping too terribly much. JK but seriously!

I don't know which is easier-math or english? In English, I have assignments like write 10 lines in English of blah blah blah. Or read this cartoon in English blah blah blah. Mostly, I'm just there to say how I say it in English or tell about America so I'm digging it! I would be truly ashamed of myself if I failed that class! It's weird because now I am one person reflecting an entire country so I gotta to represent the USA!!!

So I met another American! He's from California and he's pretty cool. We have PE together and we both chose swimming for the next couple months. He's had 5 years of French so being here has not been too difficult for him. I also met a girl from Argentina and she's only had 4 months of French so atleast one person is worse off than I am. Plus more people speak English here than Spanish.

I'm kinda scared for when tests start and when the amount of homework increases but right now I'm just enjoying the chillness of it all. Amel and I always have a great time mostly spent laughing about my terrible French! But she is so nice. She's my French best friend and I would be so lost in school without her!

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!

Just... Gotta... Learn... French....

So it has been quite a chill and uneventful week... I have been enjoying my last few days of break because it is going to get hecka stressful when school starts! I'm reading an excellent book called "The Pact" by Jodi Picoult. It's is rather sad but captivating all the same. Gosh! That Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors. Once I start reading her books, I have to legitemattely force myself to put it down! I hope to read all of her books. I have gotten completely moved into my room which is excellent. I'm starting to feel like it's my home especially with school starting! Before it just felt like a very awesome vacation. I met some really nice girls tonight who were next door. They spoke English. It always feels nice to talk like you're used to! But I just don't think it's helping me learn when I'm relying on my English! I just gotta speak French... Even if my pronunciation is terrrible and they laugh at me! Just gotta speak!!! Well first learn to understand French and then maybe I'll be able to learn in school!

Today I kinda started school. It was like the introductory thing... Like get your schedule, books, and informaton. Go over rules etc... And let's just say it was a total kick in the butt!! Geez Louis I need to learn French! It's almost dizzyng how stressed I feel! I just have to remember "Doesn't matter about grades... Just learn French!!!" So the quicker I learn French the sooner I can actually do good in class! I'm most likely going to fail at the beginning which I'm not gonna lie is kinda a new thing for me. One of my biggest abstract fears is failure. I never want to feel like I could have done better which I know is how I'm going to feel... Okay yes! I am somewhat kinda maybe a perfectionist... Haha it's both a gift and a curse!

I met this really nice girl named Amel! She really likes English and she so wants to go to America. She was real excited for me to be there. She spoke pretty good English! We could communicate pretty well. She helped me understand what was somewhat going on! She said she would help me with French and I could help her with her pronunciation etc... She is such a sweetheart! <3 And the way school here works you kinda stay with the same class all the time because you have a "major" I guess... I chose Literature which I guess is the most difficult (How will I ever do this???) So I think we will be good friends! She's really pretty too! At least I'm not going into this alone! :-) I just gotta remember "I'm Beast"! That's sounds like something my brothers would say about it!