La Greve

So I first want to say  to Madame Lund that you were completly right when you told me that I would most likely experiance a time when the French went on strike. The next two days here in my region of France at least there's a train stike so only one train runs in the morning and only 2 or 3 at night which is both good and bad for me because I take the train to school and back every day, so I get to sleep in a little more because the train in the morning is later then my normal one and my school understands and doesn't count me late or absent. I do have to say though it's a little annoying that I have only one or two to choose from when coming home since I finish at a different time every day of the week. Oh well my host mom told me that winter seems to be the season for stikes( Le greve) and my host family jokes around saying it's similar to a sport for the three groups of people who go on stike most often.(Teachers, the trains/public transportation and doctors suprisingly) So I will probably get to experiance more then one.

Also the second thing here is that this past Sunday my family took me to what they called a "fois" in a town nearby called Mirecourt and basically its a lot of little shop/stall things similar to what we have at the state fair with slightly different foods and it's more like shops rather then activities. I am not quite sure how to explain it, but Pascaline said that for some reason it's really popular for kids around my age though I wasn't too thrilled about it so I am not exactly sure why...Oh well it was an interesting experiance, but maybe I didn't like it so much because I stood for an hour at this one place and we had some guy talking really fast and he just gave away the most random stuff for around the house. For example, I got a notebook and my host mom got a new pan and other things for around the house and my host dad got a new tie and such...you get the point. Oh well it's just different=)

 And finally, since it's Wednesday today the week is half way done and that means I have a two week vacation starting after school Friday!!! I'm excited because I will spend part of it at my friend Erikos house(another exchange student with AFS) and for the second week I will be staying with a different family to go see Luxembourg and Germany=) Other then that there's not many new or interesting things here, but that mean I may be getting more used to life in France and luckily for me I think my language skills are finally improving a bit.

AFS Weekend=)

So this past weekend I had my first of 2 AFS weekends and all I have to say is that it was awsome! We went up to a log cabbin in the forest to go hiking and meet with all of the other AFSers in the area. It was great meeting with my friends Eriko(from Japan) and Celine(from Austria) who I met in Paris.( and hopefully on the two week vacation coming up at the end of the month I will be able to stay with them to hang out more) And when we all went hiking I have to say luckily for us the weather was great but it was wierd at the same time because everytime on of the adults in our group saw a mushroom we all had to stop walking, look at it, and maybe take a picture or 2 after talking about it. I don't know if it's a French thing to like mushrooms alot because my host mother loves them too but I get a lot of mushroom things here, but I have to say that it's not a bad thing. Then the food was great too and what else was great is that there were mini meetings for each student with our mentor to discuss any problems or concerns. But I have to say that it was nice to know that they let me tell them when things go wrong and to know that they are there for me=)

Another thing this past week was our school delegate elections. We had people in our class volunteer to represent our class similar to how the student council works in the United States and we just wrote the names of the person we wanted to be elected on a piece of paper. And we voted about 3 times till one group had the majority and then we have two different people who will help the teachers with grades and tell the administration any concerns and things our class has that they would like to fix. other then that there's not many new things in France except I went to the theater for the first time to see Taken 2 and I was feeling really proud of myself because I understood almost the whole film=) I actually find it easier to understand movies then normal conversation. I am not sure if thats because the movie has an actual story and the conversation isnt just random and about what ever or if it's because my french has just improved that much. Oh well last thing is that I want to apologize for not writing as often as I would like. I keep telling myself I will do it tomarrow but then I never have time and tell myself Ill do it the next day and the cycle starts over=p Oh well I hope everyone in the states is well. I miss you guys.

Random update

Hello everyone!!!

So in about two or three days I will have officioally been in France for about one month.=) Wait one month!?!?!? what happened during that month and how did I only find time to write like three messages? i was planning on writing more often i guess I am just always busy.

So this past weekend was interesting. My family and I went searching for little stars. Yes you heard right little stars. During the day in the liddle of a field. It was actually really entertaining. So basically what it is is that there is a huge field where these minerals grow that are literally star shaped and they arnt huge so you really have to search. And so we went looking for this mineral and I can now say I have like 30 little stars in a jar in my room=)  and yes that is a picture of me looking for stars=)  (and again i want to apologiwe because I have like twenty photos I want to put on but that seems to be the only one thats working because I didnt take the photo. why is it technology doesnt want to work only when I am involved?) 

Other than that, school is going well I and i am still noticing little differences such as the fact that every student has to stand up behind their desk before class until the teacher says that we can have a seat. and and all of the test scores and assignment scores are out of 20 and all weighted about the same (not that i am doing too too well on them since I dont understand everything) but its going alot better.  And guess what? I found two exchange students from another program who talk to me at lunch and we talk every once in awhile and its great sharing experiances. I just cant believe its over in about four months. anyway i hope all of you back at home are well=)