Easter Monday is upon us! That means that all of France has work or school off and everyone gets to sleep in till 10:30. Okay, maybe not as late as I did but you get the point. I’ll start off my talking about my week though. Monday was a normal day besides the season finale of the Walking Dead! That was really exciting for me. I’ve rewatched it about four times throughout the week on my computer. Also last weekend the clock moved an hour forward so now the sun is out until around 8:30 p.m. but it doesn’t rise until about 7:20 so that means that Tuesdays and Thursdays I have to walk to my bus alone in the dark. At least my flashlight is going to good use! Another thing that is thankfully not going to good use is my lunch card (in a way). I still eat lunch but I’ve been really good about not getting bread, a baguette sandwich or sugary dessert, so I am proud of myself for that. Also, on Tuesday, We started watching the play, Dom Juan, which is quite difficult to understand, it might be the old-timey French way of talking or just that they are practically shouting the whole time. I’m not positive but I feel happy when I do understand even one sentence of dialogue. Wednesday was a particularly good day! It was April first, the exact halfway mark of my program (86 days down and 86 more to go!) and also I kept seeing little paper fish on the floor because instead of April Fool’s, they will tape little fish to your back. I didn’t get any taped to me as far as I know. In my MPS class we just listened to presentations on how milk or yogurt is made and a lot of students made their presentations at least somewhat interesting, and sometimes funny, to listen to. Then, in my art class, we started working on a new project. Embarrassingly, I’m still not sure as to what we’re working on but we just watched Youtube videos the whole time and talked to this new kid from Brazil, so it was a good class to me. I forget how to spell his name but it is pronounced like Johaa and he’s sixteen. His french is already pretty good but he’s also in France to play soccer with some team in Rennes. We take the same bus to Republique after school, where I catch my other bus and he catches his train so I got to chat with him for a little longer about Brazil and everything. Once I finally got home I ate lunch with Natalie and Maxent for the first Wednesday in weeks. Then went for a really long run on this new route that’s really pretty. I don’t even need to run with music because it is just so peaceful and has a lot of trees and open fields. I know this is now going to be one thing in which I’m really going to miss. I’m glad I got a good run in before the next four days happened…
Thursday is just automatically the hardest day because it’s my longest day at school. My math teacher wasn’t there in the morning which means that if I had known that she wouldn’t have been there, I could have slept for another hour but instead I had to sit in Perm (permanence is the room which is where students go during their off periods to work). My Geographical History teacher did let us out an hour early from school so that was a pick-me-up. However, when I got home I got hit with a really awful headache. You know the kind that feels like a knife in the side of your head? It thankfully went away in time so that I could still get a reasonable amount of sleep. Friday had another good thing happen! Our EPS teacher was gone (which is P.E.) so we didn’t have to go to swimming for the fourth week in a row, so I just sat in Perm for that two hours, I had some friends from another class there so I hung out with them. Also, Friday was bol de riz day and eventhough I was on a good healthy-eating streak, I wasn’t feeling like eating a bowl of rice. I’m not really sure why but you had to get a special ticket to be able to go to the other cafeteria (called Fast). Which is what me and my friends had. I was a little moody to be honest. It was just one of those days where I would have rathered been curled up with a good book and not have to pretend like I was interested in all these details about the different rowing clubs and the different kinds of boats and everything that goes along with that. Sorry, but come on, we’ve all been in one of those situations. I’m just being real here. This was all before lunch, too!! After lunch I had physique, maths and Francais. I had a big test in physiques, but had absolutely no idea what was going on. On the maths test, however, I feel as though I could’ve maybe scored a passing grade! Go vecteurs! Then I got home that night, hung out, ate a yummy dinner and went to Faustine’s friends orchestra concert when it hit me. I got an awful stomach ache and knew I had to go home. The place was only about an eight minute walk from my house so I told Faustine and I walked home alone. That was not a fun walk to say the least. That whole night was not fun… to say the least. Saturday, I mainly spent just sleeping and skyping my friends and family. It’s very hard being really sick when you don’t have your mom to help you. My family did make me a sick-friendly dinner on Saturday. That made me feel really a lot better just knowing that they did that just for me even though I could only eat a few bites. This is yet just another way I’m learning independence in a way I didn’t know I was going to.
Yesterday was Easter Sunday, I went to the local church with my host dad and Faustine. The church is 108 years old. From looking at it from the outside, it’s age wouldn’t surprise you. The inside of the cross-shaped church is a whole different story. It was all smooth with white stone, very clean, very heavenly looking. I wonder if anything is original on the inside. The stained-glass windows seemed a little too clean and polished to be original. I wish I was able to take pictures. I will try to do that sometime in the next three months. Easter wasn’t a big ordeal like it is in the churches in America though. It seamed as though most of the people arrived on time and just left right when service was over. Not much staying to mingle from what I could tell. We did get chocolate eggs with a princess inside and some family from Natalies side came to visit (normal occurrence), co besides church and the chocolate eggs, it was normal Sunday. I Skyped my twin sister for sometime that night. Her and two of my really close friends (one who lives in California) are who I talk to the most. It’s still hard not hearing from some people when you thought and/or when they said they would but that’s just another thing that I have to get used to as an exchange student. A lot of people say they would email me at least once a month and when that doesn’t even happen it just a way of telling how much someone wants to be apart of your life. It’s hard and it’s not fun to realize that but what I’ve been telling myself when things are exactly going my way is,” I’m not in heaven yet.” Assuming that I’m even on the list to go to heaven in the first place. Overall it was a good week because I’m improving on my French so much and Faustine just keeps showing me over and over again how great of a host sister she is. I’m very lucky to have been placed in this city and host family!
Funny thing just happened. I’m sitting in my living room and the family just walked in, looked at itself in the reflection of the black glass door thing for the T.V. table for about ten seconds, then kind of whimpered and walked away… I hope that dogs can’t have self-image issues.. that would make me really sad but I think she just got confused. She’s a strange little creature but such a snuggle-bug you can’t help but love her. Also I just noticed that my family has the newest True Grit movie. Christa, if you are reading this, I thought you would be pleased to know of that little fact.