Just finished with a vacation to the North of France and finished with Christmas. It was different. People eat to much friggin chocolate I think I am going to die. Met the host families family. Super nice but kind of awkward. Because I said Hey how are you I am the replacement daughter hows it going. A bit bizzare but pretty nice. Went to the Louvre, not the the real one but the younger red-headed cousin look-a-like of the Louvre in the north. I am having some feelings about missing my friends and family in america, but I can get through this. So pretty good vacation so far can't wait for the rest.


btw. I have an irrational fear of becoming a hobo.

This week was quite eventful. It was the holiday of Saint Nicholas. It's like Christmas but different. The story, I think, is that some butcher captured these kids and chopped them into little pieces. And then Saint Nicholas came and saved the three children and turned the butcher into bad santa, Pere Fouettard. And if you are a bad kid he hits you with a stick. harsh. So that was cool and we went to this church and we sang the same song 60 times and broke a world record. It was so long. And I felt like my arms were going to fall off because I was holding a banner. It was so cool but really long. And last piece of info is that I didn't have school on Friday because of the snow!! It was wonderful!

Today was an almost perfect day. At first I was feeling a bit homesick but I am awesome now. Made some new friends in the canteen :) and talked to the person who rides the bus, which is a big step. I was talking myself in to when would be the perfect moment for me to talk to him but then he came up to me. Sorted. I gave another presentation and we talked about the differences of cheese and bread in the US. We also played pop culture Jeopardy, I won. Given I made the test but... P.S. the french don't know who Aretha Franklin is???? Well today pretty good. It was also probably the coldest day in my life and if it gets any colder I think I am going to die. I'm a boss in English as usual and I actually officially start PE/sport tomorrow. Stoked. Also nervous. Signing off. By the way since the clock is back an hour I finish school in the night time. If I take the bus at 5 or 6 it is night dark night. It is bizarre but I kind of like it. I stare out the window and I pretend I am in one of those movies where the main character is down on their luck and they take the bus "wherever it takes" them. Or the beginning of a really good movie where a person gets rich but starts on the bus with the bums. Not that there are bums on the school bus. Okay now I am signing off.

It is my first week without Anna and it is going fine. But I am very stressed about school. There is a controle that we take home and I don't understand any of it and I am scared that I am going to fail the class and be in a bad place for senior year. It sucks when you can't understand a single word of your homework even after you have translated it. So yeah not the best feeling in the world right know.

Vacation

I’m on vacation right now. We are in the middle of nowhere and there is no Wi-Fi. Which is like no food. I think I might die. I never realized how dependent I am on the Internet. Let’s just hope a mass power outage never happens. Ever. I missed California a lot this week because it was Halloween. And my host family and I didn’t do much. I missed dressing up and getting diabetes from all the candy. You know what the saddest part was. I downloaded “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and I watched it in my room alone. Yeah that sucked but I am okay now. It’s my birthday Wednesday the 14^th of November and I am super pumped. I also bought this postcard and it looks like the Hogwarts Express that was cool. Speaking of Harry Potter, no Internet has given me the chance to read my books that I brought, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. (p.s. Lupin is a bamf) Also I have found out some really merdey (I know that isn’t a real word but I didn’t want to curse because my parents read this) news. Apparently all the rest of the Rotary weekends with all the inbounds in my district are canceled, because of some bad choices that were made at the last weekend. Which sucks ass. Because I am really close with all of my fellow inbounds. They are my true friends here. So to not see them makes me really sad. I also hate the fact that the Rotarians may never trust all of us again. Which is horrible. It feels like when you ask your parents if they are mad at you and they say, “no, we are disappointed in you.” That is like the worst thing a parent can say. It’s like ahhhh crap they are disappointed, not mad, disappointed. It is like them saying, you can have cake but it can only be 20 year old fruitcake. And it pains me that the Rotarians are disappointed in all of us. And even though not everyone did something bad it makes me sad that everyone is getting punished. That said, I understand why they are doing this. And I respect their decision. But it still sucks. So this weekend has been quite a roller coaster ride of emotion. But I am stoked for my birthday. Ok, that’s it.

Hey, sorry I have not posted for a while but I am going to try to post once a week now. Everything is going amazingly! Everything is so much fun! I love all my new friends from France and around the world. I honestly think that has been one of the things that have made my exchange AMAZING so far. I recently got a 20/20 on my English test! Score. But I guess I am supposed to do that. Oh well. Also today we had a 3 hour seminar on the cautions of driving drunk. We had to put on these special glasses, that made you seem drunk, and then you had to walk a course and count by your x2 tables. Lets just say I failed epically and I should brush up on my time tables. Today was a good day, and I am getting pumped for my 16th birthday!

Today was my first day, I think, of homesickness. I was sitting in SES (Social Economic Sciences) and I was thinking, wow. I miss Mrs. Green's chemistry class with Raychelle and Katie and Bradley. Then I thought about how I miss lunch with Sterling and just being able to communicate so easily with someone. I also miss my room and family. But this is just a little downer on the day. Overall I have been having a great time in France! Everything is cool. I am speaking now, which is good. I have friends, both French and not. I signed up for a dance class, which I am excited yet frightened for. My shoulder hurts like crazy, but the cool thing is I can feel the screws in my shoulder. I also miss school spirit and color. There is no color in my school in France, except for my French teacher's classroom which is neon pink. Why? We will never know. Well i am having a good time, and yeah.

Here's a picture of me eating McDonald's with Alissia from Belgium.

So last weekend I visited Ostande, Belgium. It was pretty amazing! Except for that time we were walking a lot in the rain, but I better get used to it! We went to the beach, went shopping, and went to Brugge. (I hope I spelled that right) Brugge is a very old town and it was awesome we went on a boat tour around the city. And by the way in Belgium, Ostande, they speak Dutch, which to me sounds like one of the silliest languages of all time. To me it sounds like this, "je flaben pour a graben flawjhfdbnv.khjfb.fb.dfk." So yeah, lets just say I didn't understand it. Anyway the vacation was great and school is awesome! It is going to be a good year.

I am going to Belgium for the weekend! Super excited!

Today I finished school at 1! And I also found out my parents are letting me go hang with a friend in Metz and I am super pumped! Things are going great but it is getting cold. A little. But I can do it! I also have started to understand some of things my teachers say but I am still doodling cool things because I don't understand but I think I am getting better! Also I ate McDonalds and it was good but I don't really know what I was eating, but it wasn't half bad. But the homemade French food id delicious!!!

 This is kind of late but this is the first French piece of land I saw from Charlotte to Paris

And this is Kyle. I sat next to him on a 9 hour flight, luckily he was awesome! I know this is really late but yeah.

Today was a long day in France I started school at 10 and finished at 6. It was an eventful day of boring school. All this preparation and talk about the BAC doesn't really concern me and that is boring. Lat weekend my friend Alissia visited me from Belgium. She stayed at my house and we had a good time. We went to the castle in my village which is actually quite small. And the castle is only open 2 days in the year because someone lives there. Well I will tel you more later. Oh yeah and it rained one day. I am sure the first of many cold, rainy days.

I have a friend. It is quite exciting. Her name is Sara and yep. So school is getting better and better each day! My best class is English and I think I have an A, which is good. My hardest class is probably German because I have never taken German so... yeah. Tomorrow is Friday! And every Friday I begin school at 12. Jealous? My French comprehension is also getting better and I am speaking more and more everyday! I am particularly excited for tomorrow because Alissia is coming!!!!! Yeah! She is staying over and I can't wait! She lives in Belgium and is visiting me before she goes to college. So that's cool. I also went to Luxembourg the other day. That was cool it was cool to know that one house it Luxembourg already has twice the history of my home country. Yep everything is great!

Today was another interesting day in France. So I started real school yesterday and it was kind of a big pile of merde. At first I was cool because I made some friends but then my French teacher kept yelling at us and I didn't know what she was saying I just know she was really pissed. So that was cool, but today was awesome. First of all because on Fridays I don't start school until 12 o'clock! It is the best and I had English class today. It was hella easy (luckily). I felt cool because it was probably my only class that I actually understood what was going on. I also went Thionville today. It was kind of one of the coolest things I have seen. There were cafés everywhere and cobblestone roads, only for pedestrians, and shops, and restaurants, and everything was amazing there. I can't wait to go there at the end of the month to see my fellow inbounds! Well yeah. School kind of sucks but my family is amazing so it's okay.

Today I went to the mall. There  was lots and lots of nutella. The mall I went to is like a giant Costco with a bunch of small clothing stores around it. It was interesting but cool. I bough my first book and my first piece of clothing. But it is funny to see how the American culture effects France. In the clothing stores there is hardly any writing in French on the clothes. Only English. And the American flag is a huge piece of fashion, why even the girl I sat next to in school today had shoes with the American flag on them. It was cool. I am in an English class in school... I hope I get an A otherwise the whole country of America will facepalm. Well, au revoir mes amis.

This is my blog for France now. I hope it works. So today was my first day of school. It was a bit hard but I got it. I am super happy I am here but I miss being able to understand what everyone around me is saying. On the plus side I LOVE the food here. Every meal I have had is made at home and is delicious. My town is very small and just like you would see in an old French movie. Cobblestone roads, a bakery in the middle of the town, a river flowing through the town, oh yeah, and did I mention a huge castle! I am super glad to be here and can't wait for more adventures.