This is the day, this is the day that the Lord did do…

These last two days have been a lot better than the last weekend. Yesterday I talked to my principal, told him I was sorry I was lazy, and told him that I was going to work harder. He was nice in talking to me, so that was a relief. That’s basically what I needed to get all that I was worrying off my chest so I was happy to have that over with.

Oh, also yesterday I only had 3 hours of school, so that was also a bonus.

I realized paying attention for an entire day in a foreign language is tiring, as I found out today after school when I fell asleep reading.

Today I scored some points (hopefully) with my head teacher, the one who talked to my host mom. I decided to bring my book to class (actually it was the wrong book I think), and she needed a book, and with my new strategy of not sitting in the back of class, I was able to let her use my book. Score number 1. Second, we started talking about the nucleus of an atom, and right after we started talking about it I looked up the word (it’s noyau in French), and directly after that she was like “let’s see…Brent…what’s in a nucleus.” I felt maybe a little spite in her voice, maybe a little “ha, let’s see if this stupid American knows anything.” My first response would have made the response “no” if that had been here thinking, as I said electron (I was thinking of an atom, I mean how long’s it been since I’ve thought about that stuff) but then I quickly corrected my thinking and answered the question. Therefore, I felt as if I proved a little something to my teacher about my new work ethic (although I honestly understand very little in that class). Score number 2. I think I just need to score a little every day to dig myself out of the hole I started with her.

I also had a quite funny (well, actually it wasn’t that funny) conversation with this kid who asks me constant questions about America, but is actually really nice. He started of (in French, bien sûr) saying “do you have a lot of blacks in your high school” and then in English said “a lot of n******.” I told him he shouldn’t say that, and he said “why, all the rappers say it.” So I was then forced to explain to him the finer aspects of the N-bomb and how being black, you are able to say it, but if you want to keep living, then as a white person you probably shouldn’t say that in the presence of black people.

The other day I met a really nice American on the bus. I was basically on top of him as there were a lot of people, and I heard him speaking English to his friend. Now, I usually don’t do this, but I got up a little courage and said “hey, I couldn’t help but hear you, are you American?” His response was “yeah, are you?” I responded “yes,” and his very genial response was “good for you.” (I think he thought I was just a dumb tourist…but I was still very glad to have become acquainted with him!)

Brent