Jeudi

Something about today was just perfect. I don't think I ever stopped smiling! My teachers would give me weird looks like "what are you smiling about" and I would have no idea! I am absolutely loving France, it is perfect. I am playing soccer with two teams and I love both of them. I managed to get pretty good grades last trimester and overall, life is pretty good. Today during soccer it started hailing. Normally, this would be a real downer but it was only a light hail, almost like snow, and it coated the soccer field with a small layer of white. It wasn't very cold, there was no wind, and I made a snow angel on the turf. All in all, a perfect Thursday.

Conseil de Classe

Today I had my conseil de classe or "class council." The class council is the French way of a parent teacher conference, only, without the parents and all the teachers and all the students at once. Everyone is situated around a circular group of tables with the teachers on one side and the students on the other. Then, one by one, in front of the other students, each student's grades are discussed, I was the first student. The conseil de classe has a sort of tribunal feel; with the elders either chastising you or complimenting you. My teachers all had very positive things to say about me, my homeroom teacher told me congratulations on my grades. It was very intimidating and I felt bad for all the students who were the recipients of negative comments. I think I prefer parent-teacher conferences.

Grades

I am currently screaming with excitement in my head right now. Today, I found out my grades for school. I got an...I wish Blogger had a way to do a drum roll... 11.2! Now, if you live in the United States, an 11.2 means nothing to you, in fact you would assume it was a fail because it is an 11.2/20. But it is not a fail!! The average grade for my class was an 11.2 just like me! The 11.2 is an average of all my grades for classes. My worst class was German (no surprise there) and my best was English (hehe). I am very, very happy with my grades and I will upload a photo of my transcripts with my notes from teachers.
Everyday something happens and makes me think "today is the best day ever" but then something happens the next day, and the next! Ah man, these remaining 2 months are going to be way too short!

Challenge Orange

Saturday night, I went to the Sochaux versus Nice soccer game. It was a pretty good match! Sochaux lost 1-0 to Nice. Before the game, me and 5 other girls were in charge of holding the flags representing the two teams. We walked out on the field with the players and stood behind them as they were introduced. Then we sat front row and watched the game! At this point, I hadn't eaten for 8 hours and I had played a soccer game, I was very hungry. About ten minutes before the end of the half, we left our seats to go get ready for the Challenge Orange. We were split into two teams; white and black. I was on the black team. At half time, we ran out onto the field with me in the lead, I ran to my goal while the other girls stayed at the half line. Then, one by one, the white team dribbled up to the goal box and took a shot. I saved 9/10 of the shots. I was feeling pretty darn good! Black won 6 goals to 1. We ran off the field, changed back to our normal clothes,  and returned to our seats.
For dinner, I ate an "Americain" a burger with fries. The French eat a lot of french fries! Except, they call them frites (pronounce freetes).  I returned home around midnight and went to bed immediately. Saturday was so much fun! It was the perfect adventure. I am so glad that I got to have that experience.

Badabadabingbadaboom

I am tired so this entry will be short. These last couple weeks have absolutely flown by. Wednesday, my soccer team went to a sort of day tournament, a whole day of soccer and no school! It was perfect! Tomorrow I have plans to sleep in, go to my club soccer game at 3 PM, then go see a pro soccer game; Nice vs. Sochaux. There are no words to describe how unbelievably excited I am because during the half time I will be playing on the field doing the "Challenge Orange." Youtube video of challenge orange If you want to see an example of Challenge Orange, you can click on that link. I will be playing goalkeeper and I am simply ecstatic! 
On another note, I got a 10/20 on my history test! The lowest score was a 3/20 and the highest was a 17/20 which means I am right in the middle! It was an essay on the role and the characteristics of the Franche-Comte (my region.) The fact that my teacher even graded the paper instead of writing "no note" means that my French has improved, a ton.  Big day tomorrow so I should probably get some sleep! I hope everyone had a great turkey day, mine consisted of a late night dinner after soccer practice... Lasagna and a pudding cup. Badabadabingbadaboom bye

Improvements :)

Right now, I feel no different in my ability to understand, speak, or write French. But then I look back to when I arrived in this beautiful country two and a half months ago and I realize just how much I have improved. Upon my arrival in France I could barely hold on a simple conversation such as "Hi, How are you" because everyone seemed to be speaking a mile a minute. I could write in French but it was VERY garbled, often to the point of being incomprehensible. I walked around with my pocket dictionary and my little European translator machine thingamabob. I didn't talk to anyone and no one talked to me. I didn't understand how to greet the different people; should I shake hands with the guys and do the "kiss-kiss" thing with the girls? Or should I just wave and say hi? I still don't know exactly how to greet people in every scenario but I no longer look like a blundering idiot/ tourist. 

Now, looking back, I realize that I have come a long way. I understand all of my classes and it is often like they are in English. I have fun conversations with my friends, I can make jokes and although I don't always understand right away, I can understand their jokes too. When I write in French, my overall grammar is pretty darn awesome but I still miss the small things such as when to use “cette” versus “ces” or “cet”, the French have based the majority of their grammar on the way phrases sound which means that some of their rules have no explanation and I just have to guess. My professor of Francais (Language Arts) told me today that I have improved a lot in my writing. She said that my first essay was nearly incomprehensible and that the one she returned to me today was very, very good comparatively. My teachers don’t give me a grade (no note) for my written essays because I often miss what they were looking for… It is hard to find the deeper meaning of a scene in a play I barely understand.

My best class is English, for obvious reasons. My 2^nd best class (oddly enough) is German. German is the one class where my teacher has never given me a “no note” (although I have received one 0/10.) I really like my school but I still prefer SLCSE. The classes are all lectures and the lack of projects and group work, make for very boring classes. All of my teachers (except for my history teacher) are very nice and often ask me how I am doing.

I am still so glad I am on this adventure; I love my city and all the people in it. 

Ode to the iPod

Dear iPod,

We have been through a lot together. It took me almost a year to be able to afford you; I babysat every Sunday thinking of you. I can tell you how, when, where, and why each of your dents has occurred. Each dent has a story. Like the time when I was at BYU French Camp and I was goofing around boasting about how indestructible you are, and I dropped you. That was how you got the dent right under where your camera would have been if you were a newer generation iPod. That particular dent destroyed your tilt sensor,making it very difficult for me to "shake to shuffle" but I loved you all the same. The next dent made the lock button virtually unusable except if I pushed it really hard,but I still loved you. Now I have gone and done the unspeakable; I have cracked your screen. I had already put a little crack in the corner when I knocked you against the corner of my dresser, but now your screen is really, really cracked. The screen even gave me a splinter! But I don't blame you; I blame the bathroom floor which was your screen's ultimate demise. I taped your screen back together but I feel in my heart it is almost pointless. You will never be the same. Never again will I be able to stream YouTube movies on your perfectly clear screen; never again will I be able to clearly read an email without having to zoom in just to decipher the words behind your befuddled screen. I am so sorry. The good news is that you still work. I can still play music, watch movies, and read emails. I can still play games as long as they don't require the tilt-sensor. You still travel with me wherever my life takes me; French camp, school, France, school in France, etc. 

You have kept me alive on this adventure. You have connected me via IM’ing and Facebook to my friends and family in the US. You have received over 600 emails from colleges, over 4,000 from Facebook, and over three years’worth of SAT questions of the day. But, the thing I am most thankful for is your music. Your capacious 64GBs has allowed you to have a vast library of almost 7,000 songs, as well as your Genius, your knowledge of genres, albums,artists, compilations, playlists, and your ability to directly download songs from iTunes. Your music, dear iPod, is your most amazing feature. Your music has carried me through my many "genre fads" such as pop music, boy bands,techno, dub step, hip-hop, rap, R&B, country, folk, rock, the list goes on. 

One thing I have found while on my exchange is that music is my best comfort. Music has memories, feelings, can change your whole mindset, and affects your whole day. While in France I have had cravings (yes cravings) for different genres. I have dawdled in folk, rap, and most recently, rock. I have used your vast libraries and geniused great hits such as Living on a Prayer to compile the most amazing playlist full of Journey, Queen, Bon Jovi, and so many others. I have turned up your volume and have come very near to ruining my hearing for the rest of my life. 

So what I really was trying to say here was... Please don't die! I love you so very much and I need you! I need to listen to your audio books on long car rides, I need your genius playlists, and I need you; cracked screen and all. 

Love your owner,

Rachael

Best day ever! And no, I am not quoting Tangled.

Today was simply phenomenal. I woke up thinking to myself "It is Friday, you should go to the mall or maybe the pool," and I ended up not doing either of them. I went flying with my SVT (Science de la Vie de la Terre) teacher. It was... indescribable. I soared over the land supported only by a parachute. I saw the world moving below me, the sun shining right in my face. I soared over the river, over fields, over small villages, and over the Citadel. I smiled and laughed, exhilarated by my newest adventure. And it was free! Apparently the French are so excited to show their generosity towards Americans that they often leave off the charges (my soccer is also free "no fee for the American".)

 

 

 

 

After flying, I stopped at a bakery on my way home and purchased an unknown pastry. Custard+chocolate+cream+other unknown ingredients= AmAzInG.

After flying and the pastry, I figured my day was just about over, but I was wrong. My host mom had two tickets to a concert. I went with my host mom's nephew (he was related somehow.) It was a really cool show! It turned out to be a rap concert but there was a full on band playing. You had the guy rapping, the piano, a couple guitars, a bass, and drums. Oh, and the lighting just made it that much cooler.

So, all in all, my day was pretty much fantastic. Flying, food, and a rap concert.



P.S. here is a link to a video of my take off and landing http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=KOBhL9qWSco 

Europa Park

On Saturday, I went to Europa Park; an amusement park with different sections based on the different countries of Europe. It was so much fun! I went on loads of rides and took a TON of pictures (I chose my favorites to put on the blog.) We packed a lunch which consisted of baguettes, ham, hot dogs, and capri suns. The whole park was in uber Halloween-mode with decorations everywhere and people in costumes walking around to scare you. It was amazing how scared people were of the costumes! A little fake blood and all the girls were squealing and running away.


I don't know these guys but I thought their photo was pretty classy

Mad skills!

 

 

Today (be warned; it's not my best writing)

     I am going to try and keep this short; today I went to the mall and I went ice skating. While I was on the bus heading to the mall, I looked to my left and I saw something that made me actually laugh out loud (which is always awkward when you are riding the bus alone.) That something was a KFC. A KFC in France?! Next to it was a Buffalo Grill... Something strange is going on...
     Ice skating was really fun. I ended up starting a conversation with a guy and we skated for the next hour, just talking about school and differences between France and the US.
     I took the bus home (the number 1 Chateaufarine) and by a really random coincidence, I ended up being on the same bus as a guy I had talked to the last time I had ridden the bus (I had asked him about Halloween.)
     So, this was me keeping it short! and now I am going to make it even longer!
Tomorrow I am going to Europa Park! I am so very, very excited! It is in Germany so I will be needing my passport :)
     Last thing- I promise- this is definitely a non sequitur but, I have always enjoyed audio-books which is why I am so extremely thrilled about finding all 7 of the Harry Potter audio-books on YouTube!
     Okay, now I really have to go to bed.