English,Names and Updates

So I have been in France for about three months and still some things never cease to amaze me. First, I have no idea why I was thinking about this today,but I realised that for some reason people here never find it wierd to use some random words in english. For example, instead of saying the french word for stop most people will literally say, "Stop" in english. And the road signs here are still stop signs and not "arreter" (to stop) signs. When I tried asking my host mom about it she said she wasn't exactly sure why things are like this but they are. Oh well not all signs are like that the exit signs say "sortie"(exit) and things like that. I just found it interesting though i am not exactly sure why I was thinking about it today and not two months ago.

Then at school today I was also thinking about why the teachers here don't bother to learn all of their students names. We have been in school for more then one trimester (we don't go by semesters here) and still most of the teachers look at the list of names and seating charts almost every time they call on a students name. Or at least it's for the students who don't go an cause trouble or drill holes in their desk all the time(no seriously some kids here do that). Also while I am thinking about it the students here don't seem as motivated about school. I thought with the BAC(the huge test at the end of high school for those of you who don't know much about the french school system) everyone would be studying harder, and I have heard that my class seems to be the only one where that isn't true, but I am not so sure. Most of the time instead of raising their hand to ask a question a student will just say "Madame" or whatever title fits. I personally find it a little annoying because it makes things more difficult to understand the teacher, but oh well.

Then if I haven't said so before. I hate my two hours of sports here. I have been running outside in 0 degree weather, and one of the times it was raining and the teacher said, "You have to adapt to the weather because I am not changing my plan just because it's raining or cold." On the bright side,  I think by the time I return to the states I will hardly ever be cold or complain about going outside in PE.

Finally, this past weekend I went to a concert in Strasbourg for a female vocalist named Veronic Dicare, who is a Canadian imatater. So we heard songs normally sung by many well known French, American,and Canadian singers. Personally I liked it and she was actually very good at imatating and half the time I could have said it was like the real thing. The other half I normally had never heard the song before so I wouldn't be able to say or not. And then lastly Happy Thanksgiving this week everyone! I hope your vacation is good(I am still stuck going to school)! I will attempt to create some sort of Thanksgiving meal for my family here so I am hoping that it turns out decent at the least.

Last week of Break

Okay just a really quick update since I have to go to school again tomarrow after our two week break. This past week I spent with another AFS host family who were all really nice. They took me to Trier(Treve) Germany the first day so we could explore the history, and I got to see the old cathederals and buildings there which was awsome. I also thought it was wierd and I don't know if I've said it before, but immediatly when you drive through the boarder you are pretty much over whelmed with german(which personally I don't understand at all). But it was really cool, and luckily for me and my family they speak english really well, so I got a little break from french.=) Then the next day we went to Metz(prounounced mess) which is the capital of the Lorraine region of France. we just took a little tour of the city and talked about the history and when we got to the cathedral it was HUGE! And the french seemed really proud that one of the Popes came to visit it at one point. But it was a  beautiful builing that was constructed from the start of the 14th century and up to the early 19th century. What also suprised me about it was that they clean it all year round because by the time they clean the whole thing they have to start over again. Then we went to Thionville and out to a movie called the Plan Parfait (Perfect Plan) that featured a well known french comedian Dany Boon, and for my fellow classmates, yes the same person we saw in one of our french films last year. And I am proud to say that I understood most of it=). Then finally we spent the last day in Luxembourg in the city of Luxembourg. It was great. I don't have much to say about the city itself, but we saw the Grand Dukes palace and went shopping in three or four different districts/neighborhoods. All in all a good week and I start bright and early tomarrow with two hours of running outside in the cold for P.E. because apparently it's normal to run in winter here and not when it's nice outside. Oh well=)

Hi everyone,

First, I want to say that I am sorry I still don't have pictures...the website is not liking me alot at the moment, so I will put most of them up on facebook, and I sincerly apologize to those of me who arn't friends their. I will try my best to get it to work soon.

Secondly, there's only one more week of break and I am excited. I will be heading to Germany and Luxembourg with another host family from AFS because my host parents work the whole time and thought it would be boring to sit at home alone all week. It's a little wierd though seeing as I just got back from Germany for the day yesterday because we drove two hours to go to a huge indoor heated pool resort called Titisse Neustadt. It was really cool because it's a new facility and there are three completely different pools. One of them is pretty much a sauna, the second you feel like you're on some tropical island, and lastly my favorite was an amusmant one with 21 different waterslides, a giant wave pool, diving boards...well you get the point. I have to say the whole thing was really cool, but the one part I thought was the wierdest about my day yesterday was that as soon as you drove over the bridge boarder between France and Germany(for some reason there was no customs either) was that you were overwhelmed with German, and I am proud to say that I understood nothing=) But it was really cool, and everyone we talked to were really nice and spoke in English for us, so I had to translate for my family. All in all it was a good day.

Lastly, the beginning of this last week I was in another city in France spending the week with one of my best friends Eriko, a Japanese girl also with AFS. And because her host mother is a EPS teacher we had a lot of outdoor activities. Every morning we would go hiking in the mountains when it was snowing, and we always climbed to the summit, and let me just say the views wre amazing! And it was actually alot of fun, and I don't think either of us were cold. I am also now proud to say that I climbed more then 300 meters up a mountain in two hours more then once.=) Excercise for vacation finished...Just kidding=) What was even better was at the top of the summit you could see the German boarder and the Alps mountains in the distance. We had  a lot of fun. When we wern't hiking, we practiced our french, I learned a little Japanese, and we made desserts like brioche(this really good sweet french bread) and crumbles (the same type of crumble that we have in the U.S.).

Well still hoping everyone there is good. And sadly like you guys I think I can say I am sick of all the U.S. election things. It's following me here too!! Something new on the elections is on the news every night and I get asked about what I think almost everyday. Not to mention there's even posters and some advertisements in the cities...I hate politics=p well that's all for now...
I have talked enough.