Don’t Correct Your English Teacher
So yesterday, just chilling in my English class (which I always feel awkward in, because if my teacher is wrong, or I think she’s wrong, I never really know if I should correct her, but I learned that it should be never yesterday), when my English teacher starts saying “to legitimate” (which really no one says, I didn’t even think it was right, turns out it was) so I raise my hand and say (politely keep in mind) “I think it’s to legitimize” and her response is this “well, I was right yesterday (I thought ice floes was spelt ice flows), so that means I’m right today.” I really wanted to say something about how impeccable her logic was, or ask her if she wanted a cookie, but I kept those thoughts to myself. So I thought everything was cool, but the rest of class was kind of awkward. Then, right before my next class, I get told I need to go see the Proviseur (aka principal). Turns out my teacher had told him what happened, so he freaked out and yelled at me and this was basically the extent of what he said (which was in French, so I didn’t understand all of it) “it’s not your place to correct your teacher, you speak American and she speaks English. If our school system doesn’t convenience you, I can show you the door.” So I kind of tried to explain that I was just trying to help, but basically I just said sorry. I really wouldn’t have cared if she had just come and talked to me and been like “hey, don’t correct me” (especially because at the beginning she said “oh you’ll be a great help this year”). So anyways, I went to her later and said sorry, so everything should be fine.
But overall yesterday wasn’t all bad. I played volleyball at lunch with some kids so that was fun (they are all really good), and today I went to try to visit St. Chapelle (a cathedral by Notre Dame) but I missed the last entrance by seriously a minute. I then walked around Notre Dame (which I hadn’t before) and found that there’s a really sweet park around back of it, with extremely pretty views of both the cathedral and the Seine). I walked around there for a while, took pictures, got a baguette, and sat and read The Brother’s Karamazov. It started raining so I just under a tree sat and listened to some music, and it was pretty relaxing. Oh, I also visited the Deportation Memorial (for those deported to concentration camps by the Nazis) and it was really well put together and powerful. That is all.
Brent
Friday, September 29, 2006
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Rollercoaster
The title of my blog is how my friend Tyler and I have chosen to describe an exchange. A roller coaster of emotion. This blog is evidence of that.
Yesterday was fun. In my Physics class we had “class elections” and I somehow (and by somehow I mean I raised my hand as a joke) got entered into the vote. All the other candidates got up and talked about how they would be a good attaché between the students in our class and the teachers, and then it got to me. I didn’t really think it was necessary to give a speech, but the masses started chanting for me to do one in English. So I got up and rattled off something about how they shouldn’t vote for me because I wouldn’t really have any idea what to do and that I wouldn’t be able to communicate their wants to the teachers. I don’t really know how much they understood, but someone asked me if I’d be able to organize a Ski trip to Colorado, and I said I probably could (psss…I lied) so that probably tilted a couple more votes my way. Turns out I tied for last in the election, but I guess the fact that I tied for last means that the kid I tied with needs to work harder at his electioneering or I have a God-given ability to charm (like my friend Evan). I’m leaning towards the first.
Today sucked. After school I went to the extreme south of the city (takes about 30 minutes of travel) for the 3rd week in a row to renew my visa. Everything was going great, not too much waiting, all my paperwork was fine (3rd times a charm…well, not always), and then I was finishing up and got told to go make my medical appointment. I guess just by luck of the draw (or God likes do throw me curve balls or something) the only 3 dates for the medical visit are during my trip to Germany. I asked probably 30 times if they were the only dates available, and I guess they are. I tried calling my host dad (because he is a doctor for the prefecture of police, who does the medical checks) but he didn’t answer, and they really didn’t care that my host dad was the doctor for the prefecture of police. I told them I couldn’t change my dates (which really I can’t because my host parents are going to be somewhere else when I’m gone and I can’t just stay at home). And they were like “do you want the appointment or not” and I was like “it’s not a matter of wanting, I can’t” (and this is in French remember, and my voice is raising continually because of the intense frustration mounting in my body). So I called my host mom and she said that I should just not take an appointment and my host dad would call and figure everything out. So I did that, but basically all my time there was lost, as I’ll either have to go back after my vacation or next week with some type of document saying I have a medical visit. My host dad emailed some high up person today so he should get back to him tomorrow. So everything should work out, but if you could just pray that it does in fact work out that would be FAN-TASTIC!
Hopefully tomorrow is the really relaxing part of the roller coaster where they bring you refreshments and a nice water bed to sleep on. I don’t know on which roller coaster they do that, but I hope it’s the one I’m on tomorrow.
Brent
The title of my blog is how my friend Tyler and I have chosen to describe an exchange. A roller coaster of emotion. This blog is evidence of that.
Yesterday was fun. In my Physics class we had “class elections” and I somehow (and by somehow I mean I raised my hand as a joke) got entered into the vote. All the other candidates got up and talked about how they would be a good attaché between the students in our class and the teachers, and then it got to me. I didn’t really think it was necessary to give a speech, but the masses started chanting for me to do one in English. So I got up and rattled off something about how they shouldn’t vote for me because I wouldn’t really have any idea what to do and that I wouldn’t be able to communicate their wants to the teachers. I don’t really know how much they understood, but someone asked me if I’d be able to organize a Ski trip to Colorado, and I said I probably could (psss…I lied) so that probably tilted a couple more votes my way. Turns out I tied for last in the election, but I guess the fact that I tied for last means that the kid I tied with needs to work harder at his electioneering or I have a God-given ability to charm (like my friend Evan). I’m leaning towards the first.
Today sucked. After school I went to the extreme south of the city (takes about 30 minutes of travel) for the 3rd week in a row to renew my visa. Everything was going great, not too much waiting, all my paperwork was fine (3rd times a charm…well, not always), and then I was finishing up and got told to go make my medical appointment. I guess just by luck of the draw (or God likes do throw me curve balls or something) the only 3 dates for the medical visit are during my trip to Germany. I asked probably 30 times if they were the only dates available, and I guess they are. I tried calling my host dad (because he is a doctor for the prefecture of police, who does the medical checks) but he didn’t answer, and they really didn’t care that my host dad was the doctor for the prefecture of police. I told them I couldn’t change my dates (which really I can’t because my host parents are going to be somewhere else when I’m gone and I can’t just stay at home). And they were like “do you want the appointment or not” and I was like “it’s not a matter of wanting, I can’t” (and this is in French remember, and my voice is raising continually because of the intense frustration mounting in my body). So I called my host mom and she said that I should just not take an appointment and my host dad would call and figure everything out. So I did that, but basically all my time there was lost, as I’ll either have to go back after my vacation or next week with some type of document saying I have a medical visit. My host dad emailed some high up person today so he should get back to him tomorrow. So everything should work out, but if you could just pray that it does in fact work out that would be FAN-TASTIC!
Hopefully tomorrow is the really relaxing part of the roller coaster where they bring you refreshments and a nice water bed to sleep on. I don’t know on which roller coaster they do that, but I hope it’s the one I’m on tomorrow.
Brent
Monday, September 25, 2006
A Day of Wonder and Excitement
Today was great. Me, Victor (Asian), and Gabriel (puffy cheeks, got his wisdom teeth taken out this weekend) went to McDonald’s (second time since Saturday…yay for globalization), then went to Parc Monceau (this sweet Park we go to) and hung out in the grass for an hour. It was a really nice day, and I tried to retan my feet (I wore my Chacos for the first time today and realized how quickly you can lose a tan). It was very relaxing, and also very fun to hang out with my friends.
So I told myself this week I was not just going to come home and sit in my room because, well, I live in Paris and there’s a lot to do. So I decided to visit a Museum with paintings of Paris and stuff about Paris. I rode the Métro for about 40 minutes to get there, because it was kind of far away, then I got there and realized that all the city museums are closed on Monday, awesome forethought Brent. So then I took out my trusty map and found my way to the National Archives of France, which I figured would be open, which it was, but only for 20 more minutes. So I used their bathroom and kindly left. I then decided to walk to Ile de la Cité (the island where Notre Dame is located) to visit the other cathedral on the island (St. Chapelle), which I found out was also closed. So great day of walking around aimlessly, but walking around Paris and taking pictures definitely beats sitting in my room, so I’d say I’m going to continue to do that.
That was my day, I bought tickets to visit Tyler today. Lovely. Can’t wait.
Brent
(oh, the 3rd picture is my school, if you’re wondering)
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Weekend
School on Saturday should be banned, especially P.E. that is located no where near the place you go to school. Actually it wasn’t that bad. We did shot put for a little bit, did some weird long jump stuff, and I guess I have to decide which one I want to specialize in or something, because they choose what their best at because their grades count for their big end of the year test. So I don’t know which one I’ll choose (I think I can also choose running 500 meters 3 times), but it kind of hurts my feet to run because I only have my Pumas (no I told you so’s Mom!).
After me and 2 guys went to get some McDonald’s, which was amazing. Grease is good every once in a while, and it reminds me of the U.S (although they lack a dollar menu, or even a Euro menu for that matter).
We left for the country home at around 3, and nothing too exciting happened but I do have a pretty funny event to recount. So I love going to the grocery store and following my host dad around picking out cheese/wine, because he just has some innate knowledge about those 2 subjects that I’d like to acquire. Right now in France they are having this big wine sale called “Foire aux Vins” which is during the grape harvest where they have sales on all last year’s wine to get ready for the new stuff. So they had some bottles open, so my host dad showed me the finer points of some different wines, and I guess he hasn’t bought a lot of wine in a while, so in perfect Miles fashion (“ooh, it’s on sale, I’ll get 7”…kind of like that time at Sam’s Club where my Dad bought a golf club set for my brother, who, as a rule, only plays golf when Haley’s comet is flying overhead, which is to say not often…but who am I to complain, I get to use them…wow this was a long, unstructured tangent) we left with 5 cases of wine (6 bottles each) and the guy helping us gave us two pretty much full bottles of 15 Euro wine. Let’s just say the grocery bill was almost 400 euros…kind of intense. But I did get to drink some good wine this weekend, sleep and read a lot…but that’s pretty much it.
Thanks for tuning in friends,
Brent
School on Saturday should be banned, especially P.E. that is located no where near the place you go to school. Actually it wasn’t that bad. We did shot put for a little bit, did some weird long jump stuff, and I guess I have to decide which one I want to specialize in or something, because they choose what their best at because their grades count for their big end of the year test. So I don’t know which one I’ll choose (I think I can also choose running 500 meters 3 times), but it kind of hurts my feet to run because I only have my Pumas (no I told you so’s Mom!).
After me and 2 guys went to get some McDonald’s, which was amazing. Grease is good every once in a while, and it reminds me of the U.S (although they lack a dollar menu, or even a Euro menu for that matter).
We left for the country home at around 3, and nothing too exciting happened but I do have a pretty funny event to recount. So I love going to the grocery store and following my host dad around picking out cheese/wine, because he just has some innate knowledge about those 2 subjects that I’d like to acquire. Right now in France they are having this big wine sale called “Foire aux Vins” which is during the grape harvest where they have sales on all last year’s wine to get ready for the new stuff. So they had some bottles open, so my host dad showed me the finer points of some different wines, and I guess he hasn’t bought a lot of wine in a while, so in perfect Miles fashion (“ooh, it’s on sale, I’ll get 7”…kind of like that time at Sam’s Club where my Dad bought a golf club set for my brother, who, as a rule, only plays golf when Haley’s comet is flying overhead, which is to say not often…but who am I to complain, I get to use them…wow this was a long, unstructured tangent) we left with 5 cases of wine (6 bottles each) and the guy helping us gave us two pretty much full bottles of 15 Euro wine. Let’s just say the grocery bill was almost 400 euros…kind of intense. But I did get to drink some good wine this weekend, sleep and read a lot…but that’s pretty much it.
Thanks for tuning in friends,
Brent
Friday, September 22, 2006
Almost One Month
Tomorrow will mark one month after I left home. Kind of crazy. It feels like it’s gone by pretty fast, but everyday goes by kind of slow…but I think that’s how life is in general.
I’ve been doing great lately, the guys I’ve been hanging out with are awesome, and I haven’t been sitting in school slitting my wrists. I think I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll be here for the next 9 months whether I like it or not, so I might as well make the most of it.
Today I spent about 3 and a half hours in 2 different cafés (one at lunch, one after school) with my friends. I think I’m going to die of second-hand smoke…so I think I might as well start smoking so at least I can control my own destiny. Completely kidding, I have no desire to start smoking…don’t worry.
I’m going to the country home again this weekend. I’m kind of sick of it to be honest, because the last 2 weekends I’ve been invited to do things, and I never can because we are always in Normandy. Although it is relaxing and I get to read a lot, I’d like to hang out with my friends more than just at school and a little bit after. But I guess we aren’t going up next weekend so that’s good.
Signing off,
Brent
Tomorrow will mark one month after I left home. Kind of crazy. It feels like it’s gone by pretty fast, but everyday goes by kind of slow…but I think that’s how life is in general.
I’ve been doing great lately, the guys I’ve been hanging out with are awesome, and I haven’t been sitting in school slitting my wrists. I think I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’ll be here for the next 9 months whether I like it or not, so I might as well make the most of it.
Today I spent about 3 and a half hours in 2 different cafés (one at lunch, one after school) with my friends. I think I’m going to die of second-hand smoke…so I think I might as well start smoking so at least I can control my own destiny. Completely kidding, I have no desire to start smoking…don’t worry.
I’m going to the country home again this weekend. I’m kind of sick of it to be honest, because the last 2 weekends I’ve been invited to do things, and I never can because we are always in Normandy. Although it is relaxing and I get to read a lot, I’d like to hang out with my friends more than just at school and a little bit after. But I guess we aren’t going up next weekend so that’s good.
Signing off,
Brent
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Four Weeks
Let’s just say today was…interesting. I got up in a good mood, as I found out last night that I am able to travel during my break in October to visit my good friend Tyler who is living in Deutschland (aka Germany). Otherwise I would have been sitting with my host parents as they renovate this barn thing they just bought…not my idea of fun. So I was pretty happy to be alive and pretty happy to have made it to the milestone of 4 weeks. My happiness would change later in the day.
I was also happy because I only had 4 hours of class today, as I got out an hour early to go have lunch with my rotary club. This is when my trouble’s started. I had been planning to go to Porte Dauphine (a metro stop, and where Rotary actually meets), but I thought I remembered my rotary guy saying Place Dauphine. So during my philosophy class, I was looking at the map, just to make sure I was going to the right place. Turns out there’s a Place Dauphine on Ile de la Cité (where Notre Dame is, middle of the city) and Porte Dauphine (very west end of the city, again, the place I was planning on going to before I decided to check). So I, at the last moment, decided that it was Place Dauphine. So I traveled for probably 20 minutes on the Métro to get there, only to find that there was no Rotary Club, as the Rotary Club was at Porte Dauphine. I had walked a good way to get the Place Dauphine, so I had to walk back and navigate through one of the biggest Métro stops in Paris to get on the right line and go to Porte Dauphine. Once I got there, I realized I actually didn’t really know where they met, I just knew to get off at that Métro. So I decided to try the Pavillion Dauphine (kinda sounds like Place right?), but started going the wrong way, stepping in dog crap, said some bad words, and turned around. Pavillion Dauphine was the place I was searching for, and I entered 40 minutes late sweating profusely. Luckily I was the youngest person there by probably 30 years, so the welcome people knew exactly who I was.
Rotary in Europe is a little different than in Fort Collins. Basically it’s the rich, old man’s club. There were maybe 5 women, every man was in a suit, and I seriously thought the guy next to me was going to die sometime during the day’s presentation. The sign at the welcome table said lunch was 57.50 Euros (around 70 dollars), so I felt pretty good about eating for free. Except it seems somewhat ironic that, in order to receive my monthly stipend, I have to come to a monthly meeting and eat their expensive food. Maybe next time I’ll just forgo eating and ask for 57.50 in cash or check. Or maybe not. I felt extremely awkward eating (as my table manner’s aren’t exactly up to par with upper class Paris as of yet), but the food was great. It wasn’t the most exciting time of my life, but it was good to eat expensive food for free and get to meet and talk to my rotary guy. I also came home 80 euros richer, which isn’t something to complain about.
Next adventure. I went, again, to renew my visa. I was sure I had everything this time, as I went through and checked everything. So I traveled for probably another 40 minutes to the extreme south end of the city. This time there was no line, so things were looking up…that is until the lady told me I needed some more originals that I didn’t have with me. Awesome, you know what lady, I’ll just come back next week. I LOVE SPENDING MY WEDNESDAYS TRAVELING ACROSS TOWN FOR NOTHING…MAYBE I’LL MAKE A FREAKING CLUB FOR IT. So that made me kind of angry (I didn’t really yell that though, it might be hard to translate into French), but the day didn’t end too bad. Leo (the brazilian exchange student) and I hung out again, so it was good to see him and talk to him.
Let’s hope tomorrow will be a little more mellow.
Brent
Let’s just say today was…interesting. I got up in a good mood, as I found out last night that I am able to travel during my break in October to visit my good friend Tyler who is living in Deutschland (aka Germany). Otherwise I would have been sitting with my host parents as they renovate this barn thing they just bought…not my idea of fun. So I was pretty happy to be alive and pretty happy to have made it to the milestone of 4 weeks. My happiness would change later in the day.
I was also happy because I only had 4 hours of class today, as I got out an hour early to go have lunch with my rotary club. This is when my trouble’s started. I had been planning to go to Porte Dauphine (a metro stop, and where Rotary actually meets), but I thought I remembered my rotary guy saying Place Dauphine. So during my philosophy class, I was looking at the map, just to make sure I was going to the right place. Turns out there’s a Place Dauphine on Ile de la Cité (where Notre Dame is, middle of the city) and Porte Dauphine (very west end of the city, again, the place I was planning on going to before I decided to check). So I, at the last moment, decided that it was Place Dauphine. So I traveled for probably 20 minutes on the Métro to get there, only to find that there was no Rotary Club, as the Rotary Club was at Porte Dauphine. I had walked a good way to get the Place Dauphine, so I had to walk back and navigate through one of the biggest Métro stops in Paris to get on the right line and go to Porte Dauphine. Once I got there, I realized I actually didn’t really know where they met, I just knew to get off at that Métro. So I decided to try the Pavillion Dauphine (kinda sounds like Place right?), but started going the wrong way, stepping in dog crap, said some bad words, and turned around. Pavillion Dauphine was the place I was searching for, and I entered 40 minutes late sweating profusely. Luckily I was the youngest person there by probably 30 years, so the welcome people knew exactly who I was.
Rotary in Europe is a little different than in Fort Collins. Basically it’s the rich, old man’s club. There were maybe 5 women, every man was in a suit, and I seriously thought the guy next to me was going to die sometime during the day’s presentation. The sign at the welcome table said lunch was 57.50 Euros (around 70 dollars), so I felt pretty good about eating for free. Except it seems somewhat ironic that, in order to receive my monthly stipend, I have to come to a monthly meeting and eat their expensive food. Maybe next time I’ll just forgo eating and ask for 57.50 in cash or check. Or maybe not. I felt extremely awkward eating (as my table manner’s aren’t exactly up to par with upper class Paris as of yet), but the food was great. It wasn’t the most exciting time of my life, but it was good to eat expensive food for free and get to meet and talk to my rotary guy. I also came home 80 euros richer, which isn’t something to complain about.
Next adventure. I went, again, to renew my visa. I was sure I had everything this time, as I went through and checked everything. So I traveled for probably another 40 minutes to the extreme south end of the city. This time there was no line, so things were looking up…that is until the lady told me I needed some more originals that I didn’t have with me. Awesome, you know what lady, I’ll just come back next week. I LOVE SPENDING MY WEDNESDAYS TRAVELING ACROSS TOWN FOR NOTHING…MAYBE I’LL MAKE A FREAKING CLUB FOR IT. So that made me kind of angry (I didn’t really yell that though, it might be hard to translate into French), but the day didn’t end too bad. Leo (the brazilian exchange student) and I hung out again, so it was good to see him and talk to him.
Let’s hope tomorrow will be a little more mellow.
Brent
Four Weeks
Let’s just say today was…interesting. I got up in a good mood, as I found out last night that I am able to travel during my break in October to visit my good friend Tyler who is living in Deutschland (aka Germany). Otherwise I would have been sitting with my host parents as they renovate this barn thing they just bought…not my idea of fun. So I was pretty happy to be alive and pretty happy to have made it to the milestone of 4 weeks. My happiness would change later in the day.
I was also happy because I only had 4 hours of class today, as I got out an hour early to go have lunch with my rotary club. This is when my trouble’s started. I had been planning to go to Porte Dauphine (a metro stop, and where Rotary actually meets), but I thought I remembered my rotary guy saying Place Dauphine. So during my philosophy class, I was looking at the map, just to make sure I was going to the right place. Turns out there’s a Place Dauphine on Ile de la Cité (where Notre Dame is, middle of the city) and Porte Dauphine (very west end of the city, again, the place I was planning on going to before I decided to check). So I, at the last moment, decided that it was Place Dauphine. So I traveled for probably 20 minutes on the Métro to get there, only to find that there was no Rotary Club, as the Rotary Club was at Porte Dauphine. I had walked a good way to get the Place Dauphine, so I had to walk back and navigate through one of the biggest Métro stops in Paris to get on the right line and go to Porte Dauphine. Once I got there, I realized I actually didn’t really know where they met, I just knew to get off at that Métro. So I decided to try the Pavillion Dauphine (kinda sounds like Place right?), but started going the wrong way, stepping in dog crap, said some bad words, and turned around. Pavillion Dauphine was the place I was searching for, and I entered 40 minutes late sweating profusely. Luckily I was the youngest person there by probably 30 years, so the welcome people knew exactly who I was.
Rotary in Europe is a little different than in Fort Collins. Basically it’s the rich, old man’s club. There were maybe 5 women, every man was in a suit, and I seriously thought the guy next to me was going to die sometime during the day’s presentation. The sign at the welcome table said lunch was 57.50 Euros (around 70 dollars), so I felt pretty good about eating for free. Except it seems somewhat ironic that, in order to receive my monthly stipend, I have to come to a monthly meeting and eat their expensive food. Maybe next time I’ll just forgo eating and ask for 57.50 in cash or check. Or maybe not. I felt extremely awkward eating (as my table manner’s aren’t exactly up to par with upper class Paris as of yet), but the food was great. It wasn’t the most exciting time of my life, but it was good to eat expensive food for free and get to meet and talk to my rotary guy. I also came home 80 euros richer, which isn’t something to complain about.
Next adventure. I went, again, to renew my visa. I was sure I had everything this time, as I went through and checked everything. So I traveled for probably another 40 minutes to the extreme south end of the city. This time there was no line, so things were looking up…that is until the lady told me I needed some more originals that I didn’t have with me. Awesome, you know what lady, I’ll just come back next week. I LOVE SPENDING MY WEDNESDAYS TRAVELING ACROSS TOWN FOR NOTHING…MAYBE I’LL MAKE A FREAKING CLUB FOR IT. So that made me kind of angry (I didn’t really yell that though, it might be hard to translate into French), but the day didn’t end too bad. Leo (the brazilian exchange student) and I hung out again, so it was good to see him and talk to him.
Let’s hope tomorrow will be a little more mellow.
Brent
Let’s just say today was…interesting. I got up in a good mood, as I found out last night that I am able to travel during my break in October to visit my good friend Tyler who is living in Deutschland (aka Germany). Otherwise I would have been sitting with my host parents as they renovate this barn thing they just bought…not my idea of fun. So I was pretty happy to be alive and pretty happy to have made it to the milestone of 4 weeks. My happiness would change later in the day.
I was also happy because I only had 4 hours of class today, as I got out an hour early to go have lunch with my rotary club. This is when my trouble’s started. I had been planning to go to Porte Dauphine (a metro stop, and where Rotary actually meets), but I thought I remembered my rotary guy saying Place Dauphine. So during my philosophy class, I was looking at the map, just to make sure I was going to the right place. Turns out there’s a Place Dauphine on Ile de la Cité (where Notre Dame is, middle of the city) and Porte Dauphine (very west end of the city, again, the place I was planning on going to before I decided to check). So I, at the last moment, decided that it was Place Dauphine. So I traveled for probably 20 minutes on the Métro to get there, only to find that there was no Rotary Club, as the Rotary Club was at Porte Dauphine. I had walked a good way to get the Place Dauphine, so I had to walk back and navigate through one of the biggest Métro stops in Paris to get on the right line and go to Porte Dauphine. Once I got there, I realized I actually didn’t really know where they met, I just knew to get off at that Métro. So I decided to try the Pavillion Dauphine (kinda sounds like Place right?), but started going the wrong way, stepping in dog crap, said some bad words, and turned around. Pavillion Dauphine was the place I was searching for, and I entered 40 minutes late sweating profusely. Luckily I was the youngest person there by probably 30 years, so the welcome people knew exactly who I was.
Rotary in Europe is a little different than in Fort Collins. Basically it’s the rich, old man’s club. There were maybe 5 women, every man was in a suit, and I seriously thought the guy next to me was going to die sometime during the day’s presentation. The sign at the welcome table said lunch was 57.50 Euros (around 70 dollars), so I felt pretty good about eating for free. Except it seems somewhat ironic that, in order to receive my monthly stipend, I have to come to a monthly meeting and eat their expensive food. Maybe next time I’ll just forgo eating and ask for 57.50 in cash or check. Or maybe not. I felt extremely awkward eating (as my table manner’s aren’t exactly up to par with upper class Paris as of yet), but the food was great. It wasn’t the most exciting time of my life, but it was good to eat expensive food for free and get to meet and talk to my rotary guy. I also came home 80 euros richer, which isn’t something to complain about.
Next adventure. I went, again, to renew my visa. I was sure I had everything this time, as I went through and checked everything. So I traveled for probably another 40 minutes to the extreme south end of the city. This time there was no line, so things were looking up…that is until the lady told me I needed some more originals that I didn’t have with me. Awesome, you know what lady, I’ll just come back next week. I LOVE SPENDING MY WEDNESDAYS TRAVELING ACROSS TOWN FOR NOTHING…MAYBE I’LL MAKE A FREAKING CLUB FOR IT. So that made me kind of angry (I didn’t really yell that though, it might be hard to translate into French), but the day didn’t end too bad. Leo (the brazilian exchange student) and I hung out again, so it was good to see him and talk to him.
Let’s hope tomorrow will be a little more mellow.
Brent
Monday, September 18, 2006
A Colorado Day in Paris
Today was a very good day. I had history first, with a new teacher as our old one seemingly disappeared last week and was replaced. We were talking about America in the 1950s including our form of government. I attempted to explain, or rather summarize in a sentence, the Electoral College system. This was somewhat difficult to do in French, but I think I got the point across. I got the feeling they think the Electoral College is the dumbest thing ever created, but I didn’t really have the French capacity to explain how and why it was created. It’s kind of funny, because when I speak in class (which is not very often) everyone kind of turns around and looks at me and it’s kind of intimidating.
I found out I didn’t have my next class (Philosophy) so I decided to take advantage of the light rain and go to Sacré Coeur (the white basilica, also known as my favorite monument in Paris) and listen to some music, get wet, and overall contemplate life. It was great.
Lunch was really fun, me and Victor (the nice kid who sits next to me), this really funny kid named Gabriel, and 3 of the girls I’ve been hanging out with (Marion, Rosa, and Tilla) went to Rosa’s apartment and made lunch. It’s kind of in the sketch part of Paris (Pigalle, on Montmartre, lots of sex shops, where I got off on the wrong metro stop to go to Sacré Coeur earlier in my adventures) but her apartment is on the 6th floor and has an uh-mazing view of Paris. We made some pasta, or I should say Victor made some pasta and it was really good. It was great having some other guys there with me, because sometimes it’s kind of awkward when I just hang out with the girls alone.
After school it was really sunny (hence the title of my blog, as it was raining in the morning and then beautiful in the afternoon), so I decided to walk home. Again, listening to music is my favorite thing to do when I’m by myself. I was just content to be alive, looking at the leaves gather on the ground, and I realized fall is probably my favorite time of the year, not too hot, not too cold, and b-e-a-utiful. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I actually live in Paris, and I’m not just dreaming or on a vacation. Today was a good day.
Brent
Today was a very good day. I had history first, with a new teacher as our old one seemingly disappeared last week and was replaced. We were talking about America in the 1950s including our form of government. I attempted to explain, or rather summarize in a sentence, the Electoral College system. This was somewhat difficult to do in French, but I think I got the point across. I got the feeling they think the Electoral College is the dumbest thing ever created, but I didn’t really have the French capacity to explain how and why it was created. It’s kind of funny, because when I speak in class (which is not very often) everyone kind of turns around and looks at me and it’s kind of intimidating.
I found out I didn’t have my next class (Philosophy) so I decided to take advantage of the light rain and go to Sacré Coeur (the white basilica, also known as my favorite monument in Paris) and listen to some music, get wet, and overall contemplate life. It was great.
Lunch was really fun, me and Victor (the nice kid who sits next to me), this really funny kid named Gabriel, and 3 of the girls I’ve been hanging out with (Marion, Rosa, and Tilla) went to Rosa’s apartment and made lunch. It’s kind of in the sketch part of Paris (Pigalle, on Montmartre, lots of sex shops, where I got off on the wrong metro stop to go to Sacré Coeur earlier in my adventures) but her apartment is on the 6th floor and has an uh-mazing view of Paris. We made some pasta, or I should say Victor made some pasta and it was really good. It was great having some other guys there with me, because sometimes it’s kind of awkward when I just hang out with the girls alone.
After school it was really sunny (hence the title of my blog, as it was raining in the morning and then beautiful in the afternoon), so I decided to walk home. Again, listening to music is my favorite thing to do when I’m by myself. I was just content to be alive, looking at the leaves gather on the ground, and I realized fall is probably my favorite time of the year, not too hot, not too cold, and b-e-a-utiful. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I actually live in Paris, and I’m not just dreaming or on a vacation. Today was a good day.
Brent
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Normandy, Volume 2—A French Wedding and Mont St. Michel
*Warning, this is kind of long*
Friday, right before we left, we realized that the Citroën (the car that we usually take to Normandy) had bad breaks, so we loaded up into my host dad’s little Peugot (2 door, my backpack was in between Louis and I in the back, with a whole bunch of crap shoved in the trunk), and drove to the Country Home to spend the night. We stopped by Pizza Hut and I learned my new favorite French phrase “A Volonté” and it means “Free Refills”!!! So it was pretty joyous to not have to religiously guard my sips of Coke, I could freaking down it and no one could do anything about it. I felt American again.
We woke up the next morning at 7ish, ate Tartines (which are little toast like things, but I eat t
hem everyday before school so I am starting to hate them) and left to go see the Bayeux Tapestry in, where else but Bayeux, Normandy! The tapestry was cool, it’s kind of weird seeing something made in the 11th century (for those of you who don’t know, it recounts, among other things, the Norman conquest of Britain), and since I love that time in history it was fun to learn about things I didn’t know before…which I guess is the definition of learning, but you get the point. We walked around Bayeux, which is a really cute little town with a sweet Cathedral and a cool river running through it. We ate at a Café and sat next to a Quebecois couple who were very nice, and we had a good conversation with them. Their accent is hilarious. I never noticed it that much, even when my good friend Jeffrey and I were in Quebec, but having the parallel of my host parents and the Quebecois really made it come out. I could understand most of what they said, but it seemed like I suddenly understood a lot less when they spoke directly to me, kind of made me feel stupid.
We then went to our Chambre d’Hôte (houses in the country side in which the homeowners rent ou
t rooms like a hotel), and got all snazzy for the wedding. Not gonna lie, I was looking pretty hot in my suit (as always), as we rolled up to the cute little church where the wedding was being held. (See picture for both my hotness and the church). The wedding was a little unorganized (but I guess since my amazing sister-in-law Alyssa wasn’t running it, I couldn’t expect much), as in the Groom forgot something at home and drove home like when the wedding was supposed to start. It was also long, pretty boring, and pretty catholic. Although it was nice to hear 1 Corinthians 13 (which is read at almost every wedding) read in French instead of English, it didn’t feel so overused.
It lasted 2 hours, and then the real party started. We all drove to this big Mansion/Chateau type place close by, stood outside for about an hour as the Bride and Groom pulled a Miles family and took pictures in front of the steps with basically every combination of people they could (except, of course, me), although there were far fewer people taking pictures than at Miles family functions. We finally made it inside, only to eat hors-d’oeuvres for about 2 hours. I had some champagne and talked to a really funny, and old, guy named Ray. He’s from Massachusetts and is retired here with his wife, but speaks no French. So we talked in English. He’s just one of those amazing old guys who knows basically everything about everything, let’s you know fun facts about everything he knows about, and actually speaks to you as if you weren’t 5 years old. I also talked to a funny French man (in English, as basically everyone there just spoke to me in English, but I was really tired so I didn’t mind) who loves America. He told me that his parent’s generation was extremely thankful for Americans, because “without them, we’d be speaking German right now.” I thought that was very powerful, and very against everything we hear in America about how the French hate us. Although I haven’t heard anyone praise George Bush, everyone listens to American music, eats American food, watches American movies and TV shows, speaks English, and wants to visit New York. They dislike our government, not us. Remember that.
Anyways, I’ll get off my soapbox. We then moved in for Dinner, which took an obscenely long time, and I got the immense privilege of sitting at the kid’s table, which means I didn’t get to indulge in Wine or Champagne at dinner L. It was pretty awkward, although Louis’ cousins who were at our table were nice, and they knew where Colorado was because one of them loved the Denver Nuggets. I left once, went to the bathroom and then fell asleep on a chair outside. I came back in and everyone was dancing. It was hilarious. Watching half-drunk, middle-aged French people dancing to 80’s music is a memory I’ll never forget. I actually joined in for a little, and it was immensely awkward but really funny, and I had to cover my mouth because I was uncontrollably smiling at how awkward it really was. I had some more champagne, went outside, fell asleep on another chair (I was really tired). I then came in, sat down on a chair and half watched people dance and half went in and out of sleep. We left at 2 in the morning, almost 11 ho
urs after we left our hotel.
Wow I’ve written a lot, I’ll keep Sunday short. We went to Mont St. Michel, which is this big fortified town with an amazing Church on an island in the middle of the Sea. When the tide comes in, the water surrounds it, but the tide wasn’t in today. My host mom used to go there all the time, so she gave me the whole history and it was very interesting, but I’ll save you from that. I loved getting to walk through a legitimate Medieval village, sometimes it’s just crazy thinking about what people were doing on the same street 500 or 1000 years ago. We somehow randomly ran into the Canadians again, so
we had lunch with them and it was very nice. We had the special Mont St. Michel omelettes, but they kind of left something to be desired. I guess there’s a big secret about how they make it. We then went and saw a museum with a lot of old manuscripts from Mont St. Michel. In short, I loved Mont St. Michel, it was amazing and beautiful and old. Definitely my favorite thing I've seen so far. We drove home. I’m done writing. I’m sorry to write so much.
Love and Miss You All,
Brent
*Warning, this is kind of long*
Friday, right before we left, we realized that the Citroën (the car that we usually take to Normandy) had bad breaks, so we loaded up into my host dad’s little Peugot (2 door, my backpack was in between Louis and I in the back, with a whole bunch of crap shoved in the trunk), and drove to the Country Home to spend the night. We stopped by Pizza Hut and I learned my new favorite French phrase “A Volonté” and it means “Free Refills”!!! So it was pretty joyous to not have to religiously guard my sips of Coke, I could freaking down it and no one could do anything about it. I felt American again.
We woke up the next morning at 7ish, ate Tartines (which are little toast like things, but I eat t
hem everyday before school so I am starting to hate them) and left to go see the Bayeux Tapestry in, where else but Bayeux, Normandy! The tapestry was cool, it’s kind of weird seeing something made in the 11th century (for those of you who don’t know, it recounts, among other things, the Norman conquest of Britain), and since I love that time in history it was fun to learn about things I didn’t know before…which I guess is the definition of learning, but you get the point. We walked around Bayeux, which is a really cute little town with a sweet Cathedral and a cool river running through it. We ate at a Café and sat next to a Quebecois couple who were very nice, and we had a good conversation with them. Their accent is hilarious. I never noticed it that much, even when my good friend Jeffrey and I were in Quebec, but having the parallel of my host parents and the Quebecois really made it come out. I could understand most of what they said, but it seemed like I suddenly understood a lot less when they spoke directly to me, kind of made me feel stupid.We then went to our Chambre d’Hôte (houses in the country side in which the homeowners rent ou
t rooms like a hotel), and got all snazzy for the wedding. Not gonna lie, I was looking pretty hot in my suit (as always), as we rolled up to the cute little church where the wedding was being held. (See picture for both my hotness and the church). The wedding was a little unorganized (but I guess since my amazing sister-in-law Alyssa wasn’t running it, I couldn’t expect much), as in the Groom forgot something at home and drove home like when the wedding was supposed to start. It was also long, pretty boring, and pretty catholic. Although it was nice to hear 1 Corinthians 13 (which is read at almost every wedding) read in French instead of English, it didn’t feel so overused.It lasted 2 hours, and then the real party started. We all drove to this big Mansion/Chateau type place close by, stood outside for about an hour as the Bride and Groom pulled a Miles family and took pictures in front of the steps with basically every combination of people they could (except, of course, me), although there were far fewer people taking pictures than at Miles family functions. We finally made it inside, only to eat hors-d’oeuvres for about 2 hours. I had some champagne and talked to a really funny, and old, guy named Ray. He’s from Massachusetts and is retired here with his wife, but speaks no French. So we talked in English. He’s just one of those amazing old guys who knows basically everything about everything, let’s you know fun facts about everything he knows about, and actually speaks to you as if you weren’t 5 years old. I also talked to a funny French man (in English, as basically everyone there just spoke to me in English, but I was really tired so I didn’t mind) who loves America. He told me that his parent’s generation was extremely thankful for Americans, because “without them, we’d be speaking German right now.” I thought that was very powerful, and very against everything we hear in America about how the French hate us. Although I haven’t heard anyone praise George Bush, everyone listens to American music, eats American food, watches American movies and TV shows, speaks English, and wants to visit New York. They dislike our government, not us. Remember that.
Anyways, I’ll get off my soapbox. We then moved in for Dinner, which took an obscenely long time, and I got the immense privilege of sitting at the kid’s table, which means I didn’t get to indulge in Wine or Champagne at dinner L. It was pretty awkward, although Louis’ cousins who were at our table were nice, and they knew where Colorado was because one of them loved the Denver Nuggets. I left once, went to the bathroom and then fell asleep on a chair outside. I came back in and everyone was dancing. It was hilarious. Watching half-drunk, middle-aged French people dancing to 80’s music is a memory I’ll never forget. I actually joined in for a little, and it was immensely awkward but really funny, and I had to cover my mouth because I was uncontrollably smiling at how awkward it really was. I had some more champagne, went outside, fell asleep on another chair (I was really tired). I then came in, sat down on a chair and half watched people dance and half went in and out of sleep. We left at 2 in the morning, almost 11 ho
urs after we left our hotel.Wow I’ve written a lot, I’ll keep Sunday short. We went to Mont St. Michel, which is this big fortified town with an amazing Church on an island in the middle of the Sea. When the tide comes in, the water surrounds it, but the tide wasn’t in today. My host mom used to go there all the time, so she gave me the whole history and it was very interesting, but I’ll save you from that. I loved getting to walk through a legitimate Medieval village, sometimes it’s just crazy thinking about what people were doing on the same street 500 or 1000 years ago. We somehow randomly ran into the Canadians again, so
we had lunch with them and it was very nice. We had the special Mont St. Michel omelettes, but they kind of left something to be desired. I guess there’s a big secret about how they make it. We then went and saw a museum with a lot of old manuscripts from Mont St. Michel. In short, I loved Mont St. Michel, it was amazing and beautiful and old. Definitely my favorite thing I've seen so far. We drove home. I’m done writing. I’m sorry to write so much.Love and Miss You All,
Brent
Friday, September 15, 2006
And a French Wedding it will Be…
So yesterday was a pretty good day overall, I went to lunch (McDonald’s…yummy) with two really nice kids. The one that’s really becoming a pretty good friend is Victor. He speaks English pretty fluently so he helps me out sometimes, and is really nice and inquisitive. I liked being able to talk to them, as they asked a lot of questions, and I felt my French speaking improving a lot.
But, that is not very exciting. What is exciting is that I’m going to Normandy this weekend to a wedding. We are sleeping at the country home tonight, then going to visit Mont St. Michel tomorrow (it’s the really famous castle thingy that has the tide roll in and out around it), and then the wedding is on Sunday. I’m pretty excited to sight see, as well as discover what French weddings are like (I’m assuming a lot of champagne). So I will update Sunday and let you know how it was!
Brent
So yesterday was a pretty good day overall, I went to lunch (McDonald’s…yummy) with two really nice kids. The one that’s really becoming a pretty good friend is Victor. He speaks English pretty fluently so he helps me out sometimes, and is really nice and inquisitive. I liked being able to talk to them, as they asked a lot of questions, and I felt my French speaking improving a lot.
But, that is not very exciting. What is exciting is that I’m going to Normandy this weekend to a wedding. We are sleeping at the country home tonight, then going to visit Mont St. Michel tomorrow (it’s the really famous castle thingy that has the tide roll in and out around it), and then the wedding is on Sunday. I’m pretty excited to sight see, as well as discover what French weddings are like (I’m assuming a lot of champagne). So I will update Sunday and let you know how it was!
Brent
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
The Day
So for the second time this week, I got up an hour earlier and needed and went to school. I guess I don’t have the omniscience that most other people in my class had to know that my history teacher would be absent again (or maybe it’s cause I didn’t know that “jusqu’à nouvel ordre” means “until further notice,” and I actually read that a couple of times the day before on the board they have for absent teachers). It actually turned out to be pretty good, I hung out with some really nice people, talked about French politics, American fashion, and French stereotypes of American (and vice versa). I also taught them a swing dancing move they were not aware of. I learned there are basically 3 versions of Americans that the French think of…1. The cocky “I can do whatever I want American.” 2. The Fat, Obese American. 3. The Texan (aka Jeff).
After school, I went to get my visa extended. This required me traveling for about 45 minutes after school, waiting in line for about an hour, and then realizing I needed my actual passport, whereas my papers from rotary said I only needed photocopies…so it was basically a waste of time to go all the way down there. Actually, it wasn’t, because it brought me into the southern part of town, where the really cool Brazilian exchange student that I met at the welcome weekend lives. We hung out, ate, walked around, and saw the amazingly funny movie Little Miss Sunshine. I laughed harder than I have in a long time. It was great to have some good company, and to be able to talk to someone in English and not feel awkward. I am really tired. So I am going.
Brent
So for the second time this week, I got up an hour earlier and needed and went to school. I guess I don’t have the omniscience that most other people in my class had to know that my history teacher would be absent again (or maybe it’s cause I didn’t know that “jusqu’à nouvel ordre” means “until further notice,” and I actually read that a couple of times the day before on the board they have for absent teachers). It actually turned out to be pretty good, I hung out with some really nice people, talked about French politics, American fashion, and French stereotypes of American (and vice versa). I also taught them a swing dancing move they were not aware of. I learned there are basically 3 versions of Americans that the French think of…1. The cocky “I can do whatever I want American.” 2. The Fat, Obese American. 3. The Texan (aka Jeff).
After school, I went to get my visa extended. This required me traveling for about 45 minutes after school, waiting in line for about an hour, and then realizing I needed my actual passport, whereas my papers from rotary said I only needed photocopies…so it was basically a waste of time to go all the way down there. Actually, it wasn’t, because it brought me into the southern part of town, where the really cool Brazilian exchange student that I met at the welcome weekend lives. We hung out, ate, walked around, and saw the amazingly funny movie Little Miss Sunshine. I laughed harder than I have in a long time. It was great to have some good company, and to be able to talk to someone in English and not feel awkward. I am really tired. So I am going.
Brent
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
A Great Day to be an American
Today was a good day. It all started with me going to the wrong philosophy class. I guess there are two, one (at 8) for the kids who take German and another (at 9) for the kids who don’t. I got up early and went to the 8 o’clock one, but that meant I got an hour off to lay on a park bench and listen to music…which was very relaxing, as it was a beautiful day in Paris today. It also meant that my friends actually acknowledged my presence, and I got to hang out with them again today. I don’t really know what happened, or if I was just overreacting, but I think that yesterday it was more of me being mad so avoiding them then blaming the avoidance on them. So after they asked me what I was doing in the wrong Philosophy class, I actually made an effort to talk to them, and it worked out very well. Especially because we had 3 hours for lunch…
My history teacher was gone again today, so the 2 hour block of his class before lunch was gone, so me and my friends (yes, no parentheses today) bought two pizzas and went to one of the girl’s apartments and ate it. It was very good pizza, but I longed for some Positano’s and some free refills of pop. We played a card game where you thought of words that started/ended with certain combinations of letters, so it was fun (and frustrating) to test out my knowledge of French…I ended up losing, but I’m okay with that now.
Then I had 2 hours of Specialized Math, but I don’t think I listened to more than 5 minutes of what they were doing. I read some Harry Potter and daydreamed a bit. As I said, it was a beautiful day so I walked home and listened to some more music. I’ve noticed since I’ve been here how much I love music, and how it complements my mood. Good days are definitely better when they have a soundtrack to accompany them.
Brent
Today was a good day. It all started with me going to the wrong philosophy class. I guess there are two, one (at 8) for the kids who take German and another (at 9) for the kids who don’t. I got up early and went to the 8 o’clock one, but that meant I got an hour off to lay on a park bench and listen to music…which was very relaxing, as it was a beautiful day in Paris today. It also meant that my friends actually acknowledged my presence, and I got to hang out with them again today. I don’t really know what happened, or if I was just overreacting, but I think that yesterday it was more of me being mad so avoiding them then blaming the avoidance on them. So after they asked me what I was doing in the wrong Philosophy class, I actually made an effort to talk to them, and it worked out very well. Especially because we had 3 hours for lunch…
My history teacher was gone again today, so the 2 hour block of his class before lunch was gone, so me and my friends (yes, no parentheses today) bought two pizzas and went to one of the girl’s apartments and ate it. It was very good pizza, but I longed for some Positano’s and some free refills of pop. We played a card game where you thought of words that started/ended with certain combinations of letters, so it was fun (and frustrating) to test out my knowledge of French…I ended up losing, but I’m okay with that now.
Then I had 2 hours of Specialized Math, but I don’t think I listened to more than 5 minutes of what they were doing. I read some Harry Potter and daydreamed a bit. As I said, it was a beautiful day so I walked home and listened to some more music. I’ve noticed since I’ve been here how much I love music, and how it complements my mood. Good days are definitely better when they have a soundtrack to accompany them.
Brent
Monday, September 11, 2006
The WeekendSchool…Saturday…what? Who invented this anyways? You think they could find a couple extra hours during the week for P.E…like maybe take away some of the 8 HOURS OF MATH I HAVE DURING THE WEEK…but this is France so they don’t think of stuff like that. Anyways, it wasn’t that bad. I just want you to think it was bad so I can gain your sympathy. We just went to the gym, which is in the basement of the school (oh and no bleachers) and listened to someone talk about who knows what then we got in groups for P.E. I chose Athleticisme (like track and field stuff I think), Handball, and Badminton. So it
should be pretty fun, I could have taken basically Dance Volleyball Fitness, but I realized I need my friends to make that at all exciting. I went to the Café with my “friends” who didn’t really talk to me or actually acknowledge my presence in any way. So I left school feeling kind of down, but it was great to go to the country home for the weekend.I slept and read a lot, so it was very relaxing to be in Normandy. We went to another one of those Flea Market things, although this one was freaking massive and more commercialized I felt. I was proud of myself though, because I saw a Haribo candy stand with a whole bunch of good looking candy (kind of like a mini Bulk Barn) and I walked by a couple that were like 2+ Euros per 100 grams while stifling my urge to buy candy. Then I found one for 1 Euro per 100 grams, and I indulge
d in the sweet goodness of candy. Oh, what presents patience brings. I had a lot of personal reflection time over the weekend, and I decided that it really didn’t matter what my “friends” did in regards to me. It was I who had to make the effort and branch out to people that I could actually have a conversation with, and who I could work on my French with. So I left feeling pretty content with life…there was a beautiful sunset and I listened to Newcomer’s Home while driving at dusk (which is my favorite) through pretty Norman towns.Today at school was much, much better. I just told myself that I was going to be in a good mood and try to talk to as many people as I could. I could definitely feel the difference in my attitude from Thursday or Friday…it made it a lot easier to concentrate in class and school wasn’t as boring. I took a hint from Kyle and made the effort whenever I could to speak about whatever I could, while trying not to hate the fact that I sounded stupid or couldn’t pronounce some words. It worked out very well, and I spoke today in French more than I have probably since I’ve been here. It was also good thing this weekend because I realized this year needs to be more about me learning French, and that God’s laying little things down that I need to pick up, so I’m trying to find little lessons throughout the day that God’s trying to teach me. So right now, I’m pretty content, and doing a lot better than Friday, which I think was just the day that I realized this isn’t a vacation any more, and that I need to make the most of the time I have here. Love you all.
Brent
Friday, September 08, 2006
Blah.
Today was not one of my best days of being alive. I guess 4 hours of Science and 2 hours of Math can help do that to a person. I pretty much wanted to kill myself in all my classes, I played a lot of calculator games, and read Harry Potter in Math. I kind of had to pay attention in Biology because we were working in partners, physics I paid attention probably half the time, and math not at all because we are doing stuff I’ve already learned so I can’t really bring myself to focus.
Although I am very happy to have friends, today I just felt kind of awkward and kind of like a burden. I just kind of stand there while they talk, and since I can’t follow everything they’re saying I can’t really jump in on the conversation. I also don’t really know what to say when I’m walking with one of my friends alone. I hate those kinds of situations anyways (like the “I kind of know you” stage where you don’t really know what to talk about), so you can imagine that it’s must worse in French. It’s just kind of awkward and I really long for good, old friends that I can have a real conversation with. “Awkward social situations build character” so maybe it’s good for me…anyways I’m trying not to worry too much about it, I’ve only been here 2 weeks, I have a solid 9.5 months to become fluent/jump in on conversations. But I did spend like 3 hours at the Café with my friends (didn’t really talk too much, but it’s good to listen, cause when my listening improves then I can speak more etc.) and I’m going to the country house this weekend, which should be very relaxing and reenergizing, as I am very tired. Although, school is not done for the week as I have 2 hours of P.E tomorrow. YAY!
Brent
Today was not one of my best days of being alive. I guess 4 hours of Science and 2 hours of Math can help do that to a person. I pretty much wanted to kill myself in all my classes, I played a lot of calculator games, and read Harry Potter in Math. I kind of had to pay attention in Biology because we were working in partners, physics I paid attention probably half the time, and math not at all because we are doing stuff I’ve already learned so I can’t really bring myself to focus.
Although I am very happy to have friends, today I just felt kind of awkward and kind of like a burden. I just kind of stand there while they talk, and since I can’t follow everything they’re saying I can’t really jump in on the conversation. I also don’t really know what to say when I’m walking with one of my friends alone. I hate those kinds of situations anyways (like the “I kind of know you” stage where you don’t really know what to talk about), so you can imagine that it’s must worse in French. It’s just kind of awkward and I really long for good, old friends that I can have a real conversation with. “Awkward social situations build character” so maybe it’s good for me…anyways I’m trying not to worry too much about it, I’ve only been here 2 weeks, I have a solid 9.5 months to become fluent/jump in on conversations. But I did spend like 3 hours at the Café with my friends (didn’t really talk too much, but it’s good to listen, cause when my listening improves then I can speak more etc.) and I’m going to the country house this weekend, which should be very relaxing and reenergizing, as I am very tired. Although, school is not done for the week as I have 2 hours of P.E tomorrow. YAY!
Brent
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Another Day in the Neighborhood
2 weeks today. Kind of weird…feels a lot longer than that. That may be good, as I feel like I’ve already improved so much in French…or bad because I may find that I will miss home a lot more than expected. But I guess I’ll wait and see.
Today was an awfully long day at school. I commenced with an hour of Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish. I think this is one of the few times since I’ve been here that I’ve actually been excited to finally hear someone speak French. I don’t speak Spanish…so that could make for a long year. I’ll leave it at that.
Next I had English with my crazy teacher who tells everyone to speak up but who herself talks like she’s in church. I feel really awkward in the class because I feel like I have to do everything correct and speak perfectly, but at the same time I don’t know how much I should correct my teacher and tell her that, for example, “fighting hunger” is perfectly okay and no one says “fighting famine.”
On to biology, which was an immensely boring two hours, and then three hours of math. Three hours is an ungodly amount of math for one day…not to mention I have two more hours tomorrow. The first two hours I experienced the joy of spacing out completely, but the third hour we started doing derivatives; of which I took thousands last year in Calculus, so I was happy I understood something, but I still didn’t really pay attention.
Anyways, that’s my day.
Brent
2 weeks today. Kind of weird…feels a lot longer than that. That may be good, as I feel like I’ve already improved so much in French…or bad because I may find that I will miss home a lot more than expected. But I guess I’ll wait and see.
Today was an awfully long day at school. I commenced with an hour of Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish. I think this is one of the few times since I’ve been here that I’ve actually been excited to finally hear someone speak French. I don’t speak Spanish…so that could make for a long year. I’ll leave it at that.
Next I had English with my crazy teacher who tells everyone to speak up but who herself talks like she’s in church. I feel really awkward in the class because I feel like I have to do everything correct and speak perfectly, but at the same time I don’t know how much I should correct my teacher and tell her that, for example, “fighting hunger” is perfectly okay and no one says “fighting famine.”
On to biology, which was an immensely boring two hours, and then three hours of math. Three hours is an ungodly amount of math for one day…not to mention I have two more hours tomorrow. The first two hours I experienced the joy of spacing out completely, but the third hour we started doing derivatives; of which I took thousands last year in Calculus, so I was happy I understood something, but I still didn’t really pay attention.
Anyways, that’s my day.
Brent
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
La Deuxieme Journée
7 AM…not the best time to get up in the morning, but that’s what time I was awoken this morning to get ready for school. I commenced the day with history…which is by far my favorite class. My professor is hilarious…and I can actually understand a good portion of what’s happening (I think probably because I’ve already studied the material). I actually attempted to say something aloud in class today, and the words came out of my mouth not unlike someone falling down a flight of stairs. I was proud of myself though…for actually speaking aloud in class (in French), but it’s annoying knowing what I want to say and having it come out with the sentence structure of a four year old.
I…hate…physics. English or French, doesn’t really matter, I just don’t like science in general (funny how I’m in the scientific track of my high school). Anyways, I understood about as much Physics as I did Math yesterday, so I kind of tried to copy what the girl was drawing off the board but then it basically turned into me coloring my schedule in for two hours.
Then philosophy, where we sat for two hours and picked apart a paragraph from some philosopher named Spinoza (that even the French students said was written awkwardly and hard to comprehend). I actually understood a lot, and tried, again with great valor but not so great of an outcome, to explain a point that was inside my head. Two hours is just way too long for a class to be, so by the end of the first hour I just kind of stop paying attention.
Today was a “half day” which meant getting out at 1 instead of 4ish. This fact is funny because last year I started school at 7:50, had an hour for lunch, and got out around 1:10, I guess that shows a great disparity between our schooling systems. I don’t think French students really get senioritis.
I went and hung out with my friends at Parc Monceau again today. We played cards, which was fun because I’m starting to get a hold of the Tarot game. Sidenote: if you want to impress Europeans, learn how to shuffle and bridge a deck, they really have no idea how you do it and it also provides entertainment in watching them attempt to shuffle the cards. Anyways, that was very relaxing then I came home and ate more than I have in my entire life. That is all.
Brent
7 AM…not the best time to get up in the morning, but that’s what time I was awoken this morning to get ready for school. I commenced the day with history…which is by far my favorite class. My professor is hilarious…and I can actually understand a good portion of what’s happening (I think probably because I’ve already studied the material). I actually attempted to say something aloud in class today, and the words came out of my mouth not unlike someone falling down a flight of stairs. I was proud of myself though…for actually speaking aloud in class (in French), but it’s annoying knowing what I want to say and having it come out with the sentence structure of a four year old.
I…hate…physics. English or French, doesn’t really matter, I just don’t like science in general (funny how I’m in the scientific track of my high school). Anyways, I understood about as much Physics as I did Math yesterday, so I kind of tried to copy what the girl was drawing off the board but then it basically turned into me coloring my schedule in for two hours.
Then philosophy, where we sat for two hours and picked apart a paragraph from some philosopher named Spinoza (that even the French students said was written awkwardly and hard to comprehend). I actually understood a lot, and tried, again with great valor but not so great of an outcome, to explain a point that was inside my head. Two hours is just way too long for a class to be, so by the end of the first hour I just kind of stop paying attention.
Today was a “half day” which meant getting out at 1 instead of 4ish. This fact is funny because last year I started school at 7:50, had an hour for lunch, and got out around 1:10, I guess that shows a great disparity between our schooling systems. I don’t think French students really get senioritis.
I went and hung out with my friends at Parc Monceau again today. We played cards, which was fun because I’m starting to get a hold of the Tarot game. Sidenote: if you want to impress Europeans, learn how to shuffle and bridge a deck, they really have no idea how you do it and it also provides entertainment in watching them attempt to shuffle the cards. Anyways, that was very relaxing then I came home and ate more than I have in my entire life. That is all.
Brent
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
First (Real) Day of School
This morning I woke up at 7 (earliest in a while) and hopped on the bus at around 7:30 to go to school. I was supposed to have 2 hours of Philosophy, but the first “hour” consisted of three guys speaking to a class of about 150 (for all of you to whom I showed pictures of my school, it was in the intense classroom with the really straight rows and books and little black board) for about 20 minutes. We then hung out in the outdoor commons-type area till our actual philosophy class started. My professor is really nice, she basically told me all I have to do is sit and listen and maybe take some notes. I am going to try to do as much as I can, but right now there is only so much I can do with my knowledge of French.
Then I went to English class, which I was really excited for because I was going to be able to understand EVERYTHING. Turns out the teachers kind of a jerk face…like we all introduced ourselves (I started…weird how much more outgoing I am when I know the language…sometimes I feel like a different person when I’m only speaking French) and she pretty much interrogated everyone for more information (except for me). She also doesn’t get the fact that teenagers giggle about stuff that isn’t that funny to older people, and she asks us why we are giggling because there’s “nothing to giggle about.” Then the class pretty much turned into her asking them what they thought about a picture of a protest in our book, and after each response she would kind of give me this look and ask me what I thought. Kind of annoying…I mean I know I’m the only fluent speaker in the class but that doesn’t mean I’m an expert on every subject that we could talk about (even speaking English is weird because I don’t do it very often).
I then proceeded to my History and Geography class, which should be very interesting because I have a really funny professor…and I love history. We start from 1945, so it was interesting to hear how World War II (or it’s aftermath) is taught in Europe as opposed to in America. From what I could understand it seems like my professor is very intelligent and not a pinko-commie-socialist as you might expect a French social studies teacher to be. The only problem is the fact that the class is 2 hours long, so I took a 20 minute respite in the middle of class and read my English book, which was nice because I didn’t have to strain my brain to understand everything.
Next I found out what eating “a la cantine” was like in France. The cantine is their food court thingy and it brought me back to the years of hot lunch in elementary school…with really mediocre tasting food. All I wanted was to hop in my car with my friends (or actually someone else’s, because we all know gas is expensive) and go to Chipotle…but that is a false hope that will not happen for the next year. I’m so glad I know people though, it makes it so much easier. I sat with my friends (from yesterday) at lunch, as well as some other guys I met that are in my class. The French system is working out great for me (taking the same classes with the same people) because the kids in my class are extremely nice and accepting. I met a lot of new people today, and everyone is really, really great (and patient with my French).
The class I dreaded most was last. Math. I thought maybe I would understand more in this class because you know like numbers are universal…no. I understood barely anything. Names of numbers, like integers, prime, even etc. are different and my little pocket dictionary helps me not with figuring these out. There is a word we used like the whole class and I still don’t know exactly what it is. I started taking notes but decided it was a wasted effort so I stopped, and kind of fell asleep for a second. My teacher came up and asked me why I wasn’t taking notes/if I was taking the bac (their big college placement exam) at the end of the year. I told her no, and I got the response of “oh, okay,” although I did try after that (still, no comprehension).
After school I went to the café with my friends (it seriously is such a relief, and feels so great to say that I have friends). I declined the 4 dollar coke and instead got a class of water, and we played a card game called Tarot (no, not tarot cards, we weren’t divining our futures or anything like that) which was very hard because first of all the cards and names of suits are different, and the explanations I got I could understand a little of (it’s like learning Hearts in a foreign language). I discovered it was a little bit like Hearts with teams…but I still don’t really understand it. One amazing (or so I think) thing happened there though; they played the Sufjan Stevens Come on Feel the Illinoise! CD at the café so I had some familiar music to listen to in a unfamiliar place. How crazy is that…an artist not even really well known in America (for those of you who don’t know, he’s the one making a CD for each state) being played in a Café in Paris. Crazyness. Sorry this is more than you really needed to know. I’m really tired. Foreign school is very tiring to every aspect of your being. Goodnight.
Brent
This morning I woke up at 7 (earliest in a while) and hopped on the bus at around 7:30 to go to school. I was supposed to have 2 hours of Philosophy, but the first “hour” consisted of three guys speaking to a class of about 150 (for all of you to whom I showed pictures of my school, it was in the intense classroom with the really straight rows and books and little black board) for about 20 minutes. We then hung out in the outdoor commons-type area till our actual philosophy class started. My professor is really nice, she basically told me all I have to do is sit and listen and maybe take some notes. I am going to try to do as much as I can, but right now there is only so much I can do with my knowledge of French.
Then I went to English class, which I was really excited for because I was going to be able to understand EVERYTHING. Turns out the teachers kind of a jerk face…like we all introduced ourselves (I started…weird how much more outgoing I am when I know the language…sometimes I feel like a different person when I’m only speaking French) and she pretty much interrogated everyone for more information (except for me). She also doesn’t get the fact that teenagers giggle about stuff that isn’t that funny to older people, and she asks us why we are giggling because there’s “nothing to giggle about.” Then the class pretty much turned into her asking them what they thought about a picture of a protest in our book, and after each response she would kind of give me this look and ask me what I thought. Kind of annoying…I mean I know I’m the only fluent speaker in the class but that doesn’t mean I’m an expert on every subject that we could talk about (even speaking English is weird because I don’t do it very often).
I then proceeded to my History and Geography class, which should be very interesting because I have a really funny professor…and I love history. We start from 1945, so it was interesting to hear how World War II (or it’s aftermath) is taught in Europe as opposed to in America. From what I could understand it seems like my professor is very intelligent and not a pinko-commie-socialist as you might expect a French social studies teacher to be. The only problem is the fact that the class is 2 hours long, so I took a 20 minute respite in the middle of class and read my English book, which was nice because I didn’t have to strain my brain to understand everything.
Next I found out what eating “a la cantine” was like in France. The cantine is their food court thingy and it brought me back to the years of hot lunch in elementary school…with really mediocre tasting food. All I wanted was to hop in my car with my friends (or actually someone else’s, because we all know gas is expensive) and go to Chipotle…but that is a false hope that will not happen for the next year. I’m so glad I know people though, it makes it so much easier. I sat with my friends (from yesterday) at lunch, as well as some other guys I met that are in my class. The French system is working out great for me (taking the same classes with the same people) because the kids in my class are extremely nice and accepting. I met a lot of new people today, and everyone is really, really great (and patient with my French).
The class I dreaded most was last. Math. I thought maybe I would understand more in this class because you know like numbers are universal…no. I understood barely anything. Names of numbers, like integers, prime, even etc. are different and my little pocket dictionary helps me not with figuring these out. There is a word we used like the whole class and I still don’t know exactly what it is. I started taking notes but decided it was a wasted effort so I stopped, and kind of fell asleep for a second. My teacher came up and asked me why I wasn’t taking notes/if I was taking the bac (their big college placement exam) at the end of the year. I told her no, and I got the response of “oh, okay,” although I did try after that (still, no comprehension).
After school I went to the café with my friends (it seriously is such a relief, and feels so great to say that I have friends). I declined the 4 dollar coke and instead got a class of water, and we played a card game called Tarot (no, not tarot cards, we weren’t divining our futures or anything like that) which was very hard because first of all the cards and names of suits are different, and the explanations I got I could understand a little of (it’s like learning Hearts in a foreign language). I discovered it was a little bit like Hearts with teams…but I still don’t really understand it. One amazing (or so I think) thing happened there though; they played the Sufjan Stevens Come on Feel the Illinoise! CD at the café so I had some familiar music to listen to in a unfamiliar place. How crazy is that…an artist not even really well known in America (for those of you who don’t know, he’s the one making a CD for each state) being played in a Café in Paris. Crazyness. Sorry this is more than you really needed to know. I’m really tired. Foreign school is very tiring to every aspect of your being. Goodnight.
Brent
Monday, September 04, 2006
First Day of School
Today was my first day of French public education. I took the bus with my host mom, found out what class I was in, and then my host mom left and I went to class. In French school you have a main class with a “professeur principale” that you take most of your required classes with that correspond with your area of study. I am in the Scientific track, so I will take all but one of my science classes with the people in my class. Comprende? I kind of just sat down randomly near the back of the class. The teacher (I don’t think she seems very nice) started talking and the girl next to me asked me a question…I said I was American so then she asked some questions and I met her two friends who were sitting right behind us. They are sooo nice... but I’ll get to that in a minute. I went with them to get our books, of which I have 9! On top of having 9 books and a semi-ridiculous schedule compared to my senior year in America…I have to go to school on SATURDAY for P.E. What a joke. But I can tell you tomorrow how real school goes. In class we basically checked out our books and got a lot of paperwork to take home. My new found friends invited me to a Café with them and their friends (“YES!” I said in my head) and there we went.
The girls are extremely nice and welcomed me into their group seemingly without problem. They do talk extremely fast (but stop to explain things) and smoke a lot…but hey what French teenagers don’t? We spent an hour or two at the Café talking (or well I guess they were talking…I was mostly listening) and I had a 33 centiliter coke (like 11.5 oz) for over 3 Euros! Freaking Paris….so expensive. I met the rest of their group of friends (I guess there are 8 in all, 6 girls and 2 guys) when they came because not all of them go to the same school. After we were done at the Café we went to Parc Monceau (a very pretty park near the school) for a long time. There we laid in the grass and I listened some more, although there was a really nice exchange student from Spain there that I spoke to a lot in French (he speaks French very well, but he is only in France for 3 weeks). It was great to have people to hang out with…especially on my first day of school! I am so completely happy and thankful that I already met and befriended such extremely nice people. It makes me so much more excited for this year to come.
Brent
Today was my first day of French public education. I took the bus with my host mom, found out what class I was in, and then my host mom left and I went to class. In French school you have a main class with a “professeur principale” that you take most of your required classes with that correspond with your area of study. I am in the Scientific track, so I will take all but one of my science classes with the people in my class. Comprende? I kind of just sat down randomly near the back of the class. The teacher (I don’t think she seems very nice) started talking and the girl next to me asked me a question…I said I was American so then she asked some questions and I met her two friends who were sitting right behind us. They are sooo nice... but I’ll get to that in a minute. I went with them to get our books, of which I have 9! On top of having 9 books and a semi-ridiculous schedule compared to my senior year in America…I have to go to school on SATURDAY for P.E. What a joke. But I can tell you tomorrow how real school goes. In class we basically checked out our books and got a lot of paperwork to take home. My new found friends invited me to a Café with them and their friends (“YES!” I said in my head) and there we went.
The girls are extremely nice and welcomed me into their group seemingly without problem. They do talk extremely fast (but stop to explain things) and smoke a lot…but hey what French teenagers don’t? We spent an hour or two at the Café talking (or well I guess they were talking…I was mostly listening) and I had a 33 centiliter coke (like 11.5 oz) for over 3 Euros! Freaking Paris….so expensive. I met the rest of their group of friends (I guess there are 8 in all, 6 girls and 2 guys) when they came because not all of them go to the same school. After we were done at the Café we went to Parc Monceau (a very pretty park near the school) for a long time. There we laid in the grass and I listened some more, although there was a really nice exchange student from Spain there that I spoke to a lot in French (he speaks French very well, but he is only in France for 3 weeks). It was great to have people to hang out with…especially on my first day of school! I am so completely happy and thankful that I already met and befriended such extremely nice people. It makes me so much more excited for this year to come.
Brent
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Weekend D’Acceuil
This weekend was my Rotary Districts welcome weekend for all the inbound exchange students this year. We drove out Friday north of Paris to this big Villa where we hung out and slept in tents in the front yard. The “villa” is this massive house in the middle of a walled-off forest where no one li
ves at the moment. There are two more houses in the walls, but this house was freaking huge…see picture below. Anyways, all the students were really nice and fun to be with. There are 7 from the U.S, 2 from Brazil, one from Canada (sorry Aunt Ruth, not from the Soo), one from Taiwan, and one from Germany. My nickname for the weekend was “Colorado” which was esp
ecially funny when the German would say it… “col-o-ray-do.” There were only two guys (me and a kid from Brazil) so we got a huge tent to ourselves whereas the girls got to sleep five to a tent. Chalk one up to being a guy.
Basically the weekend consisted of talking, eating and sleeping. When we arrived we just hung out, ate, had a fire, and went to bed pretty late. On Saturday we got up, ate, then went to this place called Aventureland. It is basically a really big ropes course/little theme park in Normandy. It was really fun, as me and the Brazilian guy (Leo) just went around and climbed trees like monkeys and descended them like Batman. We then went
to this little meeting where we talked about the rules of our exchange (which is now the 50th time I’ve heard the rules since I applied), then went back to the villa and hung out and ate. I sat with some French kids (like 14 and 15 years old) at dinner and we talked a lot about soccer and sports. Then we played some soccer games outside (like monkey in the middle) and I learned a lot of cool soccer jargon and information about French teams and European soccer in general. They told me France is playing Italy on Wednesday in Paris for a qualifying match for the Eurocup, which should make Paris pretty crazy on Wednesday, as this is a pretty 
massive rivalry now after what happened in the World Cup. I plan on watching. It was fun to speak French with them…they are really nice kids. But then I just stayed up talking to all the other exchange students then went to bed.
I slept really well last night because this girl gave me a thermarest/sleeping bag/pillow (none of which I had the first night) because she was sleeping at home. I woke up in the middle of the night with half my body outside the tent, so that was kind of random and weird, especially since I got a lot colder when I pulled back inside and had to put a blanket on over me. There was a big pot-luck for all the host families this morning, so my host family came and I got to meet French exchange students who went out last year as well as my exchange student friends host brothers/sisters. I was excited because when I’d speak French the French people would tell me “tu parles bien français” (you speak French well) so that was a boost in confidence. I swear I had probably the equivalent of 5 baguettes and a 24 pack of Coca-Cola this weekend. It’s basically all I ate/drank…including this morning. Anyways, that was my weekend in a nutshell. It was really fun but now I’m very tired and I start school tomorrow (which should be Labor Day so that kind of sucks). But I only have to go for an hour or two with my host mom, and we’ll talk to my counselor and get my classes etc. I’m actually really excited to start and meet some people my age that I’ll be able to hang out with on a regular basis.
Signing off,
Colorado (Brent)
This weekend was my Rotary Districts welcome weekend for all the inbound exchange students this year. We drove out Friday north of Paris to this big Villa where we hung out and slept in tents in the front yard. The “villa” is this massive house in the middle of a walled-off forest where no one li
ves at the moment. There are two more houses in the walls, but this house was freaking huge…see picture below. Anyways, all the students were really nice and fun to be with. There are 7 from the U.S, 2 from Brazil, one from Canada (sorry Aunt Ruth, not from the Soo), one from Taiwan, and one from Germany. My nickname for the weekend was “Colorado” which was esp
ecially funny when the German would say it… “col-o-ray-do.” There were only two guys (me and a kid from Brazil) so we got a huge tent to ourselves whereas the girls got to sleep five to a tent. Chalk one up to being a guy.Basically the weekend consisted of talking, eating and sleeping. When we arrived we just hung out, ate, had a fire, and went to bed pretty late. On Saturday we got up, ate, then went to this place called Aventureland. It is basically a really big ropes course/little theme park in Normandy. It was really fun, as me and the Brazilian guy (Leo) just went around and climbed trees like monkeys and descended them like Batman. We then went
to this little meeting where we talked about the rules of our exchange (which is now the 50th time I’ve heard the rules since I applied), then went back to the villa and hung out and ate. I sat with some French kids (like 14 and 15 years old) at dinner and we talked a lot about soccer and sports. Then we played some soccer games outside (like monkey in the middle) and I learned a lot of cool soccer jargon and information about French teams and European soccer in general. They told me France is playing Italy on Wednesday in Paris for a qualifying match for the Eurocup, which should make Paris pretty crazy on Wednesday, as this is a pretty 
massive rivalry now after what happened in the World Cup. I plan on watching. It was fun to speak French with them…they are really nice kids. But then I just stayed up talking to all the other exchange students then went to bed.I slept really well last night because this girl gave me a thermarest/sleeping bag/pillow (none of which I had the first night) because she was sleeping at home. I woke up in the middle of the night with half my body outside the tent, so that was kind of random and weird, especially since I got a lot colder when I pulled back inside and had to put a blanket on over me. There was a big pot-luck for all the host families this morning, so my host family came and I got to meet French exchange students who went out last year as well as my exchange student friends host brothers/sisters. I was excited because when I’d speak French the French people would tell me “tu parles bien français” (you speak French well) so that was a boost in confidence. I swear I had probably the equivalent of 5 baguettes and a 24 pack of Coca-Cola this weekend. It’s basically all I ate/drank…including this morning. Anyways, that was my weekend in a nutshell. It was really fun but now I’m very tired and I start school tomorrow (which should be Labor Day so that kind of sucks). But I only have to go for an hour or two with my host mom, and we’ll talk to my counselor and get my classes etc. I’m actually really excited to start and meet some people my age that I’ll be able to hang out with on a regular basis.
Signing off,
Colorado (Brent)
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