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!
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