Carnival and other various madness

Well, the title's a bit misleading. I think Carnival was the event of the week; otherwise, things were fairly quiet. Since the day-by-day format seems to work fairly well, I'll roll with it.

Monday:

Honestly...not a whole lot. Mondays are the hardest day of the week since it's one of two days where I have classes until six (the other is Friday, so I don't care as much)...even in English it was a grammar day, so I sat and doodled while the rest of the class worked. I feel like the scale is unevenly tipped, since oftentimes they get little exercises as homework that would be kind of useless for me to do, but then again, who am I to complain about having less homework?

Yeah, so that was the long way of saying 'nothing of note.'

Tuesday:

My first test in French, in History/Geography, which I'm hoping went okay (I won't know until after the break). I understood all the questions and knew how to answer them; I just don't know that I expressed myself effectively in answering. But the teacher seems quite nice and I think he'll give me some leeway for still learning the language. I aced the map section though-- it was a rough schema of the major transportation lines in Europe. I overdid it the first time when we had to draw one for homework, so for the test it was cake.

Oh, and it appears I have a part in the 'Portes Ouvertes' for Theater-- I get to welcome the audience and give a brief summary of the skipped parts of a play that we're only playing a couple of scenes of. So I'm involved, and speaking, which is most important. Speaking as part of theater, even so little, helps me know exactly what I'm doing wrong when I'm speaking French, so I think it was a good idea even apart from just wanting to take it up again for the sake of taking it up again.

Wednesday:

I found out this day that I'll be going with my theater class on a trip to England in May. We'll be going to the Globe once and seeing at least one theatrical performance every night. Five days. I'm ridiculously excited, even though it's months away. England has been on my places-to-go list pretty much since I started reading; I think half or more of my favorite English-language authors are British. So, yes, looking forward to that!

Thursday:

CARNIVAL.

We missed all the morning classes, all the way until two in the afternoon. After changing into our costumes, we listened to a few of the school's garage bands play for about an hour before there was the grand defilé-- I hesitate to translate this as 'parade' since it was more like a fashion runway than anything else, for individuals and groups. 

The whole school gets really into it; even the teachers get dressed up. There was one group of teachers who went as the Three Musketeers, another group who went as...some seventies thing (I missed the reference), and the English and Math teachers dressed up as ridiculously exaggerated versions of the other. There were some pretty good student groups too: some blue aliens (complete with spaceship), the Disney cast (Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy), the Simpsons, a pair of dead rockstars (their makeup was too fabulous for words)... 

There were also some costumes there that reminded me that I'm not in the US anymore and 'PC' doesn't quite exist in the same incarnation (several students dressed as stereotypical Indians), and a couple that just made me think (a contingency of boys dressed in drag-- why do we laugh? What exactly makes it so funny? And why wouldn't it have the same effect if a girl came dressed in a suit?). But overall, fabulous fun and wonderful pictures for future blackmail--um, I mean fond memories, of course. That's what I said, right? If you want to see them, send me an e-mail-- for privacy reasons I'm not posting them on Photobucket. 

Other than Carnival, Thursday...Math is going to kill me before the end of the year. Yep. That's about it. Oh, and I wrote a piece for English class in French about As I Lay Dying while the rest of the class was taking a reading comprehension test. It was interesting considering I haven't read As I Lay Dying yet. (I wrote a summary of an article (which was in French) about how the novel was an author's inspiration to truly begin writing).

Friday:

There was a bus strike, so most of my teachers for the morning couldn't make it to school. Susan's father drove us an hour later, which meant I got to sleep in. A very agreeable way to start. And then I spent the rest of the morning vaguely researching expressions of solidarity in the US for a project for ECJS (Social Studies, more or less). I say vaguely because the rest of my group wasn't there due to the bus strike, so I flipped through the New York Times and a couple of history books and then realised, when I started counting New Mexico references in the text, that I wasn't really working anymore. And then in the afternoon we played Hangman and Scattergories in Math, since half the class was gone due to the strike. Afterwards was Italian, where we kind of did work but not really since half the class was gone, and then that was it. We played cards for an hour waiting for the bus to arrive, and then we went home. A very relaxed way to end. 

Saturday:

After getting up an entire hour and a half later than normal, I proceeded to do pretty much nothing all day. I took a long walk in the morning, which was beautiful in the park because it was misty and cool and dead quiet, and then went into the town square in Mettray to buy a baguette for lunch. I realised as I was halfway home, walking with the baguette under my arm, just how perfectly French that was. In the US, you wouldn't walk down any street with a baguette. It just wouldn't happen. You can't even get real baguettes in the US to start with (no, the ones they sell at the supermarket do NOT count). It's little things like that that I love, and am going to miss when I come home. 

Oh, and I learned how to cook these delicious scallop-like things called "noix de St. Jacques." I'm trying to learn little recipes to take home, and this so far is my favorite by a huge margin. It's incredibly rich and probably takes about ten years off your life, but it's so good that it makes up for it entirely. And it takes less than fifteen minutes to make. It's my kind of recipe. 

Sunday:

A friend of Catherine's dropped off her puppy for us to babysit during the vacation. He's a little boxer named Darwin, and is precious and a puppy and is helping greatly to relieve my angst of being pet-less. It's just a shame that I'll be gone most of the time he's here; I'm leaving for Paris on Wednesday, so it's tomorrow and the next day that I get to spend with him and that's it. His owner comes home this Saturday. I took walks upon walks today with him all over the place, including at the market, where he did his best to try to jump on all the mothers carrying their young children... I also made flan again this afternoon, which worked out this time and actually tasted like flan and not rubber. I think next time it might be good with apples in it, if I can find a recipe for that. I served it for some more of Catherine's friends, a florist at the local market and his wife from Ohio, who came over for dinner this evening. We talked about from everything from the lack of good cheese in America to the evils of television to the declining standards of art and parenting in general. And it was decided for me evidently that I need to keep coming to the local market so that I can fall in love with some French boy there and stay here forever (that's what happened to the florist's wife). ...I let it go. Some things just aren't worth the pain of explaining, especially in a second language with people you don't really know.

So that's the week. Wednesday I leave for Paris, so my next entry will be just after coming home; therefore, you should expect some good stories then. In the meantime, it's eleven -thirty here, so I'm going to bed. Wishing you all well, and until the next!

Week the Second

My projection from last week appears to be correct, since I'm here writing to you another week on in this adventure. The highlights, day-by-day:

Tuesday:

Quiet day. Long, but overall quiet. The big event is trying to explain what a screwball comedy is in French ("You can just translate literally if you're having trouble...."-- tell me, my readers, can you explain 'screwball' in English, even?). The reason it came up is because we were reading in French class the director's note about the opera we went to Wednesday evening, and he mentioned that it was being presented in a modern context, in the vein of the American screwball comedies of the '30's. So the teacher naturally asked me to explain...

Oh, and this also marks my first time acting in nearly three years. It's more difficult when you don't know the lines. Just for future reference.

Wednesday:

Since the opera isn't until seven, Armand, Sandra, Coralie, Rachel and her boyfriend and I go to the movies. 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' subtitled in French. It's a movie I'm fond of for several reasons, not the least of which are the memories I have of the people I've seen it with (Amanda!), so it was nice to see it again. It was interesting to watch the subtitles; you really lose a lot of the nuance of language and dialect. Translating art is a difficult job, especially when it depends on wordplay... (I've heard that Terry Pratchett was translated into French; I want to find a copy of one of the translations just to see how they even tried to do it).

Anyway, after the movie we split up for dinner. I went to the Kebab with Armand and Simon (who was in town for the opera but didn't see the movie with us) and had a cheese panini and another one with Nutella for dessert, and everyone else went to McDonald's. It always makes me sadder for some reason to see people at McDonald's in France. I feel sometimes like they're getting the worst of American culture over here, all the pop culture stuff without the alternatives. Speaking in terms of brands, restaurants, music, books, everything. And it's a shame, because a lot of the things I'd like to introduce them to don't seem to have been translated or are difficult to find or both. Just have to make more of an effort, I guess. Translate them myself. Oh, god, I'm trying to imagine translating Geek Love into French now...it's weird enough to explain in English...(Ayden and Fanny will know what I mean). 

So, after dinner was the opera, 'Il Viaggio a Reims' (The Voyage to Reims). I'm going to call this my first real experience at the opera, because the first time I went it was outside and raining, so we left after the first act. (It was 'Don Giovanni,' if you're curious). But this was spectacular. I never really appreciated the power of the human voice until that evening, with the soloists singing so loudly, without a microphone, that I could feel it under my skin as clearly as hear...it was incredible. And also quite funny. The screwball comedy update really suited the opera well, I think. Overall, a great evening. We got home at around ten-thirty and I was completely exhausted.

Thursday:

PE in the morning again, but this time it didn't rain, luckily. There was also Math, where my brain nearly exploded again, and English, where I gave a short presentation on the differences between the French and American education systems (it sounds so formal, but really it I was just comparing Bosque to Vaucanson and it spiraled from there). I am now the class's dictionary of Americanisms. Which is funny, because I use a good few Britishisms at home. Including the spellings, sometimes. On Thursdays, students do freewrites in English, so I do mine in French. The teacher gave me back mine from last week and said she couldn't believe I'd only had one and a half years of French, so I was overly pleased with myself for the rest of the day.

Friday:

We went to the movie theater in the morning to watch a series of short films. The first two were interesting, the last three were second-rate. The two that I liked were: 1) a documentary of Times Square, edited to create a high level of tension that really wasn't there (utterly fascinating), and 2) a surreal story about an abusive father and his relationship to his family, and how his daughter changes him (literally). The third actually was kind of interesting-- it was an animated feature of an interview between a girl and her mother about her mother's life in Russia, but I'd seen the animated interview in a different context and done much better, so it dampened things for me.

Apart from that, theater, where I got back my analysis of Genese No. 2 with more impressive comments (why, yes, I am a little vain, thanks for asking...), Math again, Italian (work with the subjunctive, which was interesting considering I don't even know the indicative), and English. This time in English we listened to an old Madonna song ('Papa Don't Preach'), and the teacher promised to lend me a Sherman Alexie book. And I was berated for asking for homework (I found it unfair that the rest of the class had an assignment for the weekend and I didn't-- it was a little workbook thing on vocabulary that would have been kind of pointless for me-- so I thought I'd even the score). I think English is rapidly becoming my favorite class, even if it does feel kind of strange to speak English in the middle of a day of French, with people I'm used to speaking in French to.

At home, Catherine taught me to make a little dessert with apples that I can't remember the name of. It was good, though. I'm enjoying my forays into French cuisine.

Saturday:

After a late lunch, I went into town with Maeva and a few of her friends. I found a Neil Gaiman book in town at the English-language bookstore (The Graveyard Book)-- it wasn't the one I was looking for (Coraline), but I got it anyway since I hadn't read it and ordered the one I was actually looking for. We did a tour of downtown, went into the city cathedral, which was gorgeous (including the crypt), and saw a group of women protesting something outside of the Fnac (I think it was the commercialization of Valentine's day-- no one there really seemed to understand it, though). I also found some chocolates for my parents and a couple of books of poetry by Apollinaire (again for myself), who we've been studying in French (the specific poem we just finished with is online here, in French and English: http://www.pierdelune.com/apollin4.htm). I'm really coming to love Apollinaire; I found the poem we read in French utterly beautiful (it was stuck in my head for days afterwards. Yes, I get poetry stuck in my head), and then my interest was piqued further by the fact that we have the same birthday. So now I have 'Caligrammes' and 'Poesies Libres,' and I've read the first few pages of the former and am enjoying it immensely. 

Oh, and on this day I also received a package from Sophie (my aunt in Paris) with more photos and the text of a play by Moliere that we're going to see when I visit during winter break.  So I have a lot of things to read. Pas trop depaysee, moi (not feeling too far from home).

We also went to a crepe party in the evening put on by Lea's tennis organization, which was nice. 

Sunday:

A quiet day. I made some calls, did my homework, lounged, went on a few errands with Catherine. I made tortilla soup for them, but it really isn't the same when eaten with Gruyere and a baguette. There's still one more packet left, so we're going to search harder for tortillas, cilantro, and a different cheese, or just go without next time. If any of my readers have a suggestion for a substitute for cheddar that might be found in France, please let me know! I also attempted to make flan, but it burned and was rubbery because we didn't add enough milk. But we ate it anyway. Because we're cool like that. 

And that's it. This week is the last before the two-week winter break. On Thursday there's a carnival at school where everyone is dressing up; I'll be sure to bring my camera. If you're curious, I'm going as the ultra-Francaise, complete with beret and baguette. That's the major event, but I'm sure there will be other things to recount by next Saturday. 

And more photos online, always at http://s711.photobucket.com/albums/ww120/bleumarten . I'm trying to figure out something to link it at the side of the page, but I keep forgetting because I'm lazy. 

Until next week! Ciao, and bisous a tous.

Yay, pictures!

I opened up a Photobucket account where I'll be depositing all my pictures from now on. So, the link is:

http://s711.photobucket.com/albums/ww120/bleumarten

Quick entry on today:

It was Monday, and it was an ending-at-six day, so everyone was more or less exhausted by the end. I contributed to the discussion in French and made sense (unlike my last disastrous attempt in History/Geo), which I was proud of myself for. We went to a rehearsal of the opera we'll be attending on Wednesday during the afternoon, so I got to skip Italian and English. It was interesting to watch it being performed without costumes (just not quite what you're used to), and certainly quite fun. At the end, there was a brief Q&A session. Two highlights: the cast was composed of over a dozen nationalities, from South Korea to Russia to the US to Italy, and there was one girl in the audience who asked whether or not they were supposed to be in costume or not (it was really obvious that they weren't-- jeans and casual dress. Not exactly opera wear). And during the afternoon before Theater I hung out in the CDI (the library/computer center; I forget what the acronym stands for since everyone just calls it that) with Julie, Apolline and a few others and we had fun pronouncing things terribly in each other's languages ("Ahn-gleesh!" "Wee, je parle trez byen luh fran-say"). And... that's about it for highlights. It's late, so I'm going to bed.

'Til the weekend!

La premiere semaine

'Ello, 'ello, I'm back again. I've survived the first week of French lycee, so I'll go day by day and give you the major events.

Tuesday:

The morning passed well enough, French literature and History/Geography. After lunch, we got early because the Theater teacher took a snow day. (In France, when it snows, the schools don't close but the buses won't run, so if your bus doesn't run you're not obligated to come). In the fifteen minutes it took to figure out that she was absent we stood around outside the room singing Disney songs like 'Hakuna Matata' in French and English. It was fun. I got flowers for my rendition (I believe it was Julie that had brought them for her scene).

Wednesday: 

We had another fabulous music exchange this morning during the récré (short for 'récréation, which is kind of like an elongated passing period. It lasts fifteen minutes instead of five, so you have some time to hang out). The Beatles, the Yeah Yeahs, ABBA, Tori Amos, Iron and Wine, Joe Dassin, and Edith Piaf, among others, and, of course, Disney (Mulan, the Lion King, Peter Pan, Brother Bear. Bilingual, as usual). Since school gets out at one on Wednesdays, I went into town with Armand and Susan for the afternoon. They took me to the old part of Tours and we went around to a couple of shops. First, a cool little indie record store, which was fantastic not only for what it sold but also for being fabulously modern inside of a centuries' old building (or, at least, a building that was impersonating very well being centuries'-old). After that, a little English-language bookshop, where I pointed out all the books that I'd read or heard of (the list would be too long for this blog). Armand and Susan had only heard of a few of them. It's interesting what aspects of American culture you find here and which ones you don't: One Tree Hill but not A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Angelina Jolie but not Maya Angelou. But then again, it's the same thing with France in the US, I think. I'm finding little things every day that surprise me.

After the English bookshop we went to a French one, where we looked at books on cinema and the Loire valley (the latter for my benefit). After that, we went to a larger chain that's comparable to Circuit City, only bigger and with books, called Fnac. We looked at more books on cinema and music and we had another game of 'Have you heard of/seen this?' with movies and TV shows (Greatest disappointments: 'Deadwood' is even less popular in France than it is in the US (but somehow I'm not entirely surprised by this), and 'Little Earthquakes' wasn't included in a book of the 500 greatest albums of all time). It seems that all the French students know American pop culture better than I do, which is funny and kind of embarrassing at the same time. 

And that was more or less it. As we walked to the bus stop Armand and I listened to 'Downtown' on his Ipod, which was fun because of the 'Lost' reference and also because we were walking downtown. All in all, a great time was had by all. I'm looking forward to the next time already.

Thursday:

PE first thing in the morning. We took a bus to a track some fifteen minutes away and ran laps in the rain. It made my PE class at home seem pathetic, where walking to Starbucks was our final and we cancelled in the case of weather... I also had my first Spanish class, where my head nearly exploded between three languages. However, it's Spanish at a lower level than what I'm studying at home, so I think things should work out okay. And it's only two hours a week. Also my first math class, where my head nearly exploded again. It seems to be similar to a STAM course, so it's fairly simple math once you know the tricks, but when people try to explain the tricks to me in five seconds in French it just...doesn't work. Hopefully things will work out. Hopefully.

Otherwise, things went fairly well. In English we talked about teenagers and cliques, and I got to try and explain the concept of the preppie. It's really strange to speak English at school, since I'm used to speaking French there, as well as to listen to my classmates speaking English...But it's a pretty relaxed and fun class, so I'm enjoying myself. 

That evening, we went to the theater to watch Genèse No. 2, which was...interesting. Even the French students had trouble following it. There were three characters: a narrator of some kind, God/a psychiatrist and Lot's wife/a schizophrenic patient in an asylum. And it gets stranger from there. Instead of curtains there were these semi-transparent reflective panels, behind which musicians were playing, and on the floor there were screens where little films played at certain points. The actors often spoke very fast and about fish that prostitute themselves (I'm serious: I asked afterwards to see if I'd understood correctly) and what's exists if nothing exists... Even still, I loved it for being so strange. We had to do an analysis of it the next day in class, and even though I only halfway understood it I wrote more than almost everybody else. Evidently my habit of going way over the limit writing-wise in English is holding over into French. My teachers had better beware...

So, continuing Friday:

Apart from the theater analysis, there was also more math, more head-explosion, finally figuring out my schedule, and two hours free because both the English and Spanish teachers were absent. And I got a cell phone. Mostly for if I'm trying to arrange something for the afternoon from school or for emergencies. It's funny to have one here, since I barely use mine at home. 

Saturday:

I got up early and took the train to Paris to spend the weekend with my aunt once-removed, Sophie. We went to a local patisserie/boulengerie and bought some croissants and a pain au chocolat aux amands, my favorite pastry in the world. It started snowing in the afternoon, so we decided to take advantage of the bad weather and go to the Musee d'Orsay. It was fabulous to finally go after hearing so much about it; even apart from the works of art the building itself was just beautiful. I took a good few pictures-- none of the paintings, because I feel like they speak for themselves, but of the architecture. I also took pictures with my crane with some of the statues (for those of you who don't know the project: I found a little paper crane by the Santa Fe Peace Monument, and I've been taking its picture everywhere and writing poems about it, to be collected in a larger volume at some point. I've already collected a short version for Art credit and published it under 'Something That Could Happen.' If you didn't see it in your local bookshop, it's because there are only two copies in existence, one of which belongs to Bosque and the other to my mom). By the time we finished with the museum, it was nearly dark, so we went home and had raclette to help warm ourselves up. With ice cream for dessert, of course. We also watched a Woody Allen movie (Sweet and Lowdown), which was fabulous (but can Woody Allen ever be unfabulous?). 

Sunday:

I got up the latest today that I have in six months (ten o' clock), had a breakfast of croissants spread with Nutella, and then we headed out to Sainte-Chapelle. Despite not being religious, I love visiting old churches. They remind me that objects can tell as many stories as clearly as books do. I took more pictures with my crane, holding it up to the stained-glass windows. We walked over to the Jardin de Luxembourg for lunch, and on the way we stopped over at a little flower and pet market (I'm not kidding, that was the real combination. They even had ferret kits), as well as at Notre Dame. There was a service going on as we walked through, which gave the visit a different dimension. The priest was giving the mass over a microphone, and I tried to imagine what it was like when the church was first built, and it was just one person speaking, their voice filling the entire space...

We had crepes for lunch and sat in the garden to eat them, which was lovely. There were bunches of fat little sparrows who crowded around our feet and jumped up and down begging for little pieces. I have pictures of them, too. We were going to have sweet crepes for dessert, but Elizabeth (my cousin), who was on roller shoes, tripped and scraped herself up pretty badly, so we went home and had the crepes there instead. Sophie taught me how to make them and, even better, how to flip them up in the air from the pan. All I need now is the proper machinery and I'll be able to make them at home. I bet that type of pan can be found somewhere (start searching now!)... The afternoon we stayed in and read, wrote, made little bead creatures and listened to Norah Jones and Alanis Morisette. At seven Sophie made me some more crepes for me to take on the train and then we headed out for the station. I saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up really briefly, but unfortunately I didn't have time for more than a glimpse before my train left. And now I'm back, and writing this.

So, all in all, a whirlwind of a week, learning all manner of new things and making new friends. The language is coming slowly but surely: if we think of language as like train tracks, the switches are getting so smooth now that I barely have to stop and think to understand. Speaking is another story, but I get a little better every day. Slowly but surely. I've learned to smile and laugh when I make mistakes rather than get frustrated. It gets you farther. 

So, it's late, and I have school tomorrow, so I'm definitely going to try to work out the photo thing tomorrow afternoon once I get home. I'm sorry for the delays upon delays...but the pictures are coming. And you won't be disappointed.

So, until tomorrow!

School and....Stuff

Hi,

So by the time I had the time to write yesterday, I was way too tired to even try writing anything. But this way, you get to hear about my first day of school. Aren`t you lucky?

Yesterday we were divided into separate groups for vans to the train station; mine got up around six in order to catch a train at nine (I know; I was saying, `really?`too). The AFS volunteer at the station gave the four of us tickets to Orleans, and we were rather unsettled by this because only one of us was going even close to Orleans, and for one of us Orleans was almost in completely the wrong direction. But everything worked out; we got off at the station we were told to get off at, and an AFS volunteer met us almost immediately, followed closely by the members of our host families. Catherine, Lea and one of their neighbors in the grade below me named Marie-Eva were there (Camille will be at the university until April). We played some board games and walked around Mettray during the afternoon; that evening, they had a little party so that the neighbors and some of my classmates could meet me, which was really sweet of them to do. They had a good number of questions about New Mexico and the US in general; everyone seems fascinated when I tell them I can drive, and moreover that I drive myself to school. Oh, and when you hear about the French kissing each other`s cheeks when they meet each other-- it`s utterly true. When someone arrives at a party, they have to kiss everyone there. On the bus, everyone who knows each other kisses good morning. If you find someone you know in the hall at school, you kiss hello. I shouldn`t be surprised by this, but it`s just not what I`m used to (rather like the keyboard I`m typing with). Some people try to shake my hand since they know I`m American, and that just confuses me more, since I`m expecting them to offer their cheek and not their hand...

Anyway, school:

I got up at six-thirty this morning to go out and meet my bus while it was still dark and cold and raining (it actually snowed a little today). One of the neighbors in the grade below me named Jean walked me there, where I saw some more familiar faces from the party and felt better about things. One of them, a girl named Suzanne, decided she was going to be my mentor and showed me everything, which was a good thing: I was almost completely lost during some of the discussions of the schedule and etc. We worked that out during the first period over coffee: I`m following the Litteraire track, which means that most of my classes are in the language/literature/social studies category (two hours of math per week-- whoo!!!). I`m taking French literature, History/Geography, Spanish, Mixed Math (I`m told that since all the Litteraire people are in it that it`s pretty easy; I`m keeping my fingers crossed), Phys Ed (obligatory all three years in high school, but only for two hours per week), something called `scientific instruction` (which evidently translates into physics and biology, alternating every week. Another two-hour deal), a Social Studies, Theater/Cinema (the `heavy` track; five hours per week), and in place of Latin, I`m doing Italian...at level two (I think it should come fast, though, with my Spanish, French and Latin... I hope. But it seems really fun: they`re doing a study of opera right now, so we`re going to the opera next week as a class, which I`m looking forward to).

...You know, reading over that, it sounds a thousand times worse than it is. But it really isn`t as terrible as it sounds. The eight-to-six schooldays are definitely going to take getting used to, but I can follow the class material pretty well as long as my attention doesn`t wander (students talk as much during class as in the US and it is even more distracting when you`re having trouble understanding the language), and the day only goes until four on Tuesdays and twelve on Wednesdays, so I think I`ll survive. Besides, I`m guaranteed sucess in at least one class: English.

English is obligatory for all students, so I couldn`t opt out for being a native speaker, but after attending the first class today I`m glad I didn`t. The students were really excited to have me there, as was the teacher (who was really nice, and really funny). They made me a little video where they all introduced themselves, and it was really sweet, as well as funny: there was another Lost fanatic in the class (`I always watch the subtitled version, because the dubbed version sucks`), another person who loved tomatoes, and evidently more psycho-killers than you`d first be inclined to think (I think someone found psycho as a synonym for crazy, and the usage caught and spread like wildfire). And it seems I`m just as much of an oddity here as in the US: they all think I`m crazy for liking Proust and Baudelaire, and have heard of none of the things I read or listen to, while I keep disappointing them by saying, `No, I don`t really like Akon/MTV/Tom Cruise/etc`(I seem like a real idiot because I don`t recognize the French pronounciations of the American names a lot, but I usually get it when they repeat it and express their amazement, because everyone in the US knows X, right?).

So, yes. In short, thanks to Suzanne, who I clung to like a lost puppy, I survived my first day attending a real French lycee and am actually looking forward to tomorrow.

Dinner is soon, and I don`t really have much left to say, so from now on these are going to become a Saturday or Sunday evening thing (afternoon for you all). So, a bientot!