So, I haven't posted in a while, but really, I don't have much to say besides that we are on break (!!) and that Christmas was three days ago.
So, Christmas. What was it like in another country?
Well, not much different, and still very fun. :) Because my host family's family lives close enough to get together often, we celebrated TWO Christmases! It was a good experience. The first was the 24th at night, with Claude's side of the family, and the second was with the other side, on the 26th. So the 25th was actually just a day of relaxation from the constant entertaining and all that. :D Kind of funny in retrospect... I got a couple presents that I love!! One of them being a large map of the world. It is on my wall right now, and makes me so happy!
Aside from the festivities, not much has been going on lately... The language is coming along very well, although I am still going very slowly in the French Literature part of things. :P
Rethinking things... I may move up to Premiere as I was planning to earlier in the year. We shall see, we shall see.
Oh, and I want to mention that I have started back up again with this website called the 365 project. It is a year of photos, one per day. I will try my hardest to keep it updated, but that didn't go so well last time. XD Nonetheless, I shall make an effort to keep it going.
www.365project.org/cbh
I think... Hmmm let me check on that. :) Yep, it is that url.
So, happy holidays, all!
Joyeuses Fêtes!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Quick~Rapideee!
So, I just wanted to mention so I don't forget to put it into the next post, Sarkozy visited our city today, to go to a factory on the outskirts of Vernon. Cool stuff... :] Well, talk to you later!
OH!!! I met an American that is working as a teacher's assistant at our lycée today, too! So much cooler than the first part, obviously. Pshhh. But really. I AM SO HAPPY :D:D She lives in Sacramento! And has some friends in LG. So yay.
OH!!! I met an American that is working as a teacher's assistant at our lycée today, too! So much cooler than the first part, obviously. Pshhh. But really. I AM SO HAPPY :D:D She lives in Sacramento! And has some friends in LG. So yay.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Pinball, Debates, Escalade, Super-lunches, Crazy French Wordsss, and Dreams.
Hey all! Great week :D
It has continued to snow slightly, so a lot of people can't get to school if they take the bus. This makes it all the better for those of us who have to go to school, though, cause half the teachers aren't there and half the students aren't there, so all the better. =] I have started to get to the point now in which I totally can understand what's going on in my classes, even French. French not so much as history, science, math, and ... English, but still I am starting to be able to follow what he is teaching. I am really kinda impressed at the capacity of the human brain to absorb so many words and concepts and all that jazz in a new language. Hooray!
Anywhooooooooooooo-
"He's a pinball wizard there has to be a twist, a pinball wizard and uh blahblahblah something something lalala. How do you think he does it??!! I don't know..." Yay for incomplete song lyrics.
Well, did I tell you that my host family has a *drum roll* PINBALL MACHINE?! <--- interrobang for added punch! Well, they do, and from the first moment my eyes met it's metal surface, I knew that one of my goals for the year would be to conquer it. Believe me, playing pinball with a real machine is about twenty times harder than on the PC... =/ But I have trained with a master, named Eric, also known as host dad, who has taught me many tricks to gain the skills needed to maîtriser the thing that they call "flipper." Yes, yes indeed. My best score is 1,933,920. Just in case you wanted to know.
Today in school, I had a session of my generally bi-weekly class ECJS. I don't know what that stands for. No matter! Well, we had our first debate today. Which is awesome because ever since I read that article in the Mercury News many a year ago in which the French 5 students from such and such high school held a debate in French, I couldn't really stop thinking about it. Even yesterday, I am pretty sure there was a moment in which I questioned whether I could debate in French. Well, I guess that was answered this morning. Yes. I can debate in French. I can mess up all of their verb tenses, make the wrong assumption about a false-cognate, subsequently embarrass myself and PWN the alternate team all at once. But yes, I can debate in French. And have a lot of fun doing it, too. What was the topic, you may ask? "La télévision reflet-elle la société?" Which means, if you haven't already guessed, Is the television a reflection of society? Well, I got put on the POUR team (for), against my wishes to argue that "life is unscripted" and such nonsense with the CONTREs (against). However, once I was set to be on one team, I became a raging machine of fury and attempts at making myself understood and blathering and burgle urgle gurgle kind of like in this here sentence. But néanmoins (that should have gone in the CRAZY FRENCH WORDS section, it means nonetheless), as the against team tried to make the original question all convoluted and such by saying "in fact, the society is a reflection of the television, ha ha ha," I managed to get out the fact that if it is a reflection, it doesn't matter who is reflecting the other, they are exactly the same. Then the debate stopped... So yeah, good experiences we should all have. Try debating in another language, it is jolly good fun.
Escalaaadddeeee! So, did I tell you that last trimester we did gymnastics? Well, this semester we are doing... drum roll- indoor rock climbing!! I have to hand it to our school, they have a massively awesome *set* of gymnasiums. Notice that they have more than one... And it seems to be normal, in fact, for a high school to have a bunch of different gyms! Well, here, they have at least one for gymnastics, and one giant one for badminton and rock climbing. The rocke climbing doesn't take up much floor space, just vertical space. There are twelve (or something like that) climbing walls and we are all in groups of three, we switch around climbing, assuring, and checking everything. It is so much fun... Except that at the end of the trimester when you actually get a real grade for how well you do on the final exam-y thing.
Moving right along-- So, today=repas de noel=coolest thing ever=giant feast like lunch for christmas time! Right after gym class, we shimmied on down to the cafeteria, and waited in the much larger than usual line to get food. So normally, French cafeteria food for me is like "OH EMMMMM GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE," but today, it was like "OH MY GOLLY GOLLY GOSHES LAWD ALMIGHTY I THINK I HAVE DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN, YALL" based on the amount of food that they offered and its rather better than normal quality. First, a cafeteria lady gave us each a platter thingy with a gold colored liner, a little bread and the choice of coca cola or minute maid. :O Then you got to choose an appetizer, your dessert (ice cream cookie type thingy or other unidentified one), and your yogurt or cheese. And then on top of all that, you got your entree. Hooray! Potatoes and meat. It was cool. And all of the table had tablecloths! Classy! So yeah, pretty much an awesome lunch.
Crazy French WORDSSSS. Actually, I only have one right now. Cause I forgot the one really really long one that I wanted to mention. But this crazy french word is a version of "created." Because sometimes there is an extra s or e is necessary or something like that to agree with the subject that the action is being done to. Anyhow, this word is "créee" Yes. Three e's. Holy buttocks! That's a lot of e's. That rivals the awesomeness of the word bookkeeper. <--- Although that has three doubles, so I think we've got them there. Anyhow, if I remember any other awesome words in the future, I shall be sure to mention them.
Finally, I wanted to talk about dreams. I don't mean dreams as in "I dreamed I had a third arm and three people were pulling on me in different directions" type dream, but as in what I want to accomplish in my life. Pretty much, I have completely different and more numerous dreams than I have ever had before in my life. I feel as though coming here has really expanded my horizons in life, and I would be content doing so many things with the rest of the time I have here. It is a cool feeling. At the same time, there are so many things I now want to do in my life, some of which may not be possible! Alas, "you can't always get what you want. But if you try some times, you may find you get what you need," and I am sure I will eventually!/already have?
Finished...
LOVE!
Carly
It has continued to snow slightly, so a lot of people can't get to school if they take the bus. This makes it all the better for those of us who have to go to school, though, cause half the teachers aren't there and half the students aren't there, so all the better. =] I have started to get to the point now in which I totally can understand what's going on in my classes, even French. French not so much as history, science, math, and ... English, but still I am starting to be able to follow what he is teaching. I am really kinda impressed at the capacity of the human brain to absorb so many words and concepts and all that jazz in a new language. Hooray!
Anywhooooooooooooo-
"He's a pinball wizard there has to be a twist, a pinball wizard and uh blahblahblah something something lalala. How do you think he does it??!! I don't know..." Yay for incomplete song lyrics.
Well, did I tell you that my host family has a *drum roll* PINBALL MACHINE?! <--- interrobang for added punch! Well, they do, and from the first moment my eyes met it's metal surface, I knew that one of my goals for the year would be to conquer it. Believe me, playing pinball with a real machine is about twenty times harder than on the PC... =/ But I have trained with a master, named Eric, also known as host dad, who has taught me many tricks to gain the skills needed to maîtriser the thing that they call "flipper." Yes, yes indeed. My best score is 1,933,920. Just in case you wanted to know.
Today in school, I had a session of my generally bi-weekly class ECJS. I don't know what that stands for. No matter! Well, we had our first debate today. Which is awesome because ever since I read that article in the Mercury News many a year ago in which the French 5 students from such and such high school held a debate in French, I couldn't really stop thinking about it. Even yesterday, I am pretty sure there was a moment in which I questioned whether I could debate in French. Well, I guess that was answered this morning. Yes. I can debate in French. I can mess up all of their verb tenses, make the wrong assumption about a false-cognate, subsequently embarrass myself and PWN the alternate team all at once. But yes, I can debate in French. And have a lot of fun doing it, too. What was the topic, you may ask? "La télévision reflet-elle la société?" Which means, if you haven't already guessed, Is the television a reflection of society? Well, I got put on the POUR team (for), against my wishes to argue that "life is unscripted" and such nonsense with the CONTREs (against). However, once I was set to be on one team, I became a raging machine of fury and attempts at making myself understood and blathering and burgle urgle gurgle kind of like in this here sentence. But néanmoins (that should have gone in the CRAZY FRENCH WORDS section, it means nonetheless), as the against team tried to make the original question all convoluted and such by saying "in fact, the society is a reflection of the television, ha ha ha," I managed to get out the fact that if it is a reflection, it doesn't matter who is reflecting the other, they are exactly the same. Then the debate stopped... So yeah, good experiences we should all have. Try debating in another language, it is jolly good fun.
Escalaaadddeeee! So, did I tell you that last trimester we did gymnastics? Well, this semester we are doing... drum roll- indoor rock climbing!! I have to hand it to our school, they have a massively awesome *set* of gymnasiums. Notice that they have more than one... And it seems to be normal, in fact, for a high school to have a bunch of different gyms! Well, here, they have at least one for gymnastics, and one giant one for badminton and rock climbing. The rocke climbing doesn't take up much floor space, just vertical space. There are twelve (or something like that) climbing walls and we are all in groups of three, we switch around climbing, assuring, and checking everything. It is so much fun... Except that at the end of the trimester when you actually get a real grade for how well you do on the final exam-y thing.
Moving right along-- So, today=repas de noel=coolest thing ever=giant feast like lunch for christmas time! Right after gym class, we shimmied on down to the cafeteria, and waited in the much larger than usual line to get food. So normally, French cafeteria food for me is like "OH EMMMMM GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE," but today, it was like "OH MY GOLLY GOLLY GOSHES LAWD ALMIGHTY I THINK I HAVE DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN, YALL" based on the amount of food that they offered and its rather better than normal quality. First, a cafeteria lady gave us each a platter thingy with a gold colored liner, a little bread and the choice of coca cola or minute maid. :O Then you got to choose an appetizer, your dessert (ice cream cookie type thingy or other unidentified one), and your yogurt or cheese. And then on top of all that, you got your entree. Hooray! Potatoes and meat. It was cool. And all of the table had tablecloths! Classy! So yeah, pretty much an awesome lunch.
Crazy French WORDSSSS. Actually, I only have one right now. Cause I forgot the one really really long one that I wanted to mention. But this crazy french word is a version of "created." Because sometimes there is an extra s or e is necessary or something like that to agree with the subject that the action is being done to. Anyhow, this word is "créee" Yes. Three e's. Holy buttocks! That's a lot of e's. That rivals the awesomeness of the word bookkeeper. <--- Although that has three doubles, so I think we've got them there. Anyhow, if I remember any other awesome words in the future, I shall be sure to mention them.
Finally, I wanted to talk about dreams. I don't mean dreams as in "I dreamed I had a third arm and three people were pulling on me in different directions" type dream, but as in what I want to accomplish in my life. Pretty much, I have completely different and more numerous dreams than I have ever had before in my life. I feel as though coming here has really expanded my horizons in life, and I would be content doing so many things with the rest of the time I have here. It is a cool feeling. At the same time, there are so many things I now want to do in my life, some of which may not be possible! Alas, "you can't always get what you want. But if you try some times, you may find you get what you need," and I am sure I will eventually!/already have?
Finished...
LOVE!
Carly
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Hooray! Three Months and SNOWWWWW
So, good week, guys! It was just a normal old week, but since I enjoy school, it was fun. Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday were the same old thing, except with one difference. There were patches of snowish-type-substance on the ground and I was really excited! Excited because of two main reasons:
I have never lived in a place where it snows before
When it snows "a lot," the buses don't come! Yes, I know you are thinking... Well, that doesn't seem all that great. HOWEVER, here, when the bus doesn't come in the morning, you aren't expected to go to school... Yep.
So all of Wednesday I was hoping hoping hoping that Thursday would bring snow. And it did!! I woke up at the normal time, just in case, and right as I looked out the window I saw a wonderfully white winter wonderland. Everything was covered in a small (but substantial) layer of snow. Hooray! Pia and I decided to stay home, and it was great! I went outside in the morning and just ran around for a while... and then we watched some TC, I did some homework, ate lunch, Pia and I went for a promenade through our little snow covered village, and that' pretty much it. A good day...
Then, Friday we decided it would be best to go to school. I started at nine thirty, luckily, so I had an extra hour of beauty sleep. It was a good day. I only had school from nine thirty to three. And then I had yoga!
Then this weekend, I had a great time with an AFS friend! Jessica came and stayed at my house Saturday/today, and next weekend I shall go to her house so we can go to the AFS walk around Paris together. So yeah, a good week :]
As far as the language goes, I feel so much more confident now, it's great!! I hope I can finish the year without an accent.
yay! A plant in the backyard!
The neighborhood! :]
Monday, November 29, 2010
Music Evolution.... why not. :D
So this week or so has been pretty cool. I went to a foir (fair) one weekend, and I saw HP 7 (AGHHHHH!!!! :D:D:D:D) and went to Rock music only party thingy with Pia the next. School is good. And when I say good, I kinda mean awesome... Like it is a (for the most part) enjoyable challenge.
And guess what!!!!? (inversed interrobang...) Our "conseil de classe" was Friday night. That means that the class representatives got together with our teachers and talked and shiz like that, and they gave out each of our individual "moyennes" or average grades. Yeah, I found it kind of weird, too. You get one grade for everything at the conseil de classe, but at the end of the year you still get a full report card.
*Giant unnecessary brag alert*
So this morning I found out my moyenne. I was super surprised and happy to hear that not only did I have a 12.5 (which is like a B), but also that I was a good one point above the rest of the class... the average for the class was 10.94... And I was graded in all of my classes except for SES(Economics) and French. In addition, you also get a little side note from the teachers and out of all thirty people, 3 were given the highest one, "Felicitations!" (Congratulations!) And to my surprise, I got that as well. :) Bear in mind I definitely didn't have the third best grade in the class, but I think the teachers took into account the language barrier. XD So anyhow, whoa... Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself today. However, I didn't go around shouting it out like am doing right now. I kept it confined to my little brain and just smiled throughout the day. And then, in my last class of the day, we got back our math tests... and to just top off the already great "journée," I had received a 17.7! Hoowayyy :) Ok I shall shut up now and get back to stuff that is pertinent.
As well as giving out grades, the representatives also give us a little summary of what they all talked about. It was interesting enough and killed some class time, so hooray :). At that same time we also got our school photo forms. There isn't a legitimate yearbook here, but if you want you can purchase a kind of class yearbook, which just contains you and your classmates. I am totally buying it. It is the closest I will get to its American counterpart. :P I was surprisingly satisfied with my photo, and the class photo is the funniest thing you have ever seen. I think me and two other people are actually smiling. It kind of makes me wonder if I wasn't supposed to smile.. D: But my French teacher's and Falfi's and Tommy's faces just make me feel the need to own that awkward photo... hehehe.
So yup... that was all for today.
Anyhow, moving on to random things I have noticed lately or forgotten to mention:
-You can overpass school buses in your car here. :O
-Sirens sound different
-Their school bell is ten seconds of blaring hellish noise
-There was a snow like substance on the ground today in patches, so HOORAY!
-Uhh... I have cold, to put it in the french form.
But I guess I should explain why I called this post "Music Evolution."
Well, I was thinking last night about the fact that I have had some very distinct phases of music listening while being in France. And i think if you go ahead and think a little deeper after reading it, you will kinda understand.
First month:
At the very beginning it was kind of a mélange of everything. But there was some Muse, some Cranberries, and a bunch of random playlists I made over this summer.
Then it morphed into A LOT of Sara Bareilles: Not happy chappy Sara Bareilles, but stuff like "City" and "Between the Lines" and "Winter Song." Especially "Winter Song." Hehe... look up the lyrics.
Started listening to Radiohead. Mostly just "Karma Police" and "Let Down"
A little bit after that:
RADIOHEADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD.
OK Computer (Album), to be precise. And The Bends. Both really good music to just put on and get absorbed in, given you like that type of music.
Sara Bareilles slowly withering away.
Very small phase of James Taylor. :( Not good to listen to when you are thinking of home, but he's so good. :/
The past two weeks:
I still listen to Sara Bareilles and Radiohead when I feel like it, and still really appreciate their music and songs, but I have also started a new phase.
COLDPLAY! :D
Coldplay is great. Their music is wonderful and they have so many different types of songs. So it isn't only their marvelous first album, Parachutes, but also their other, more upbeat stuff.
So yeah. I don't know if that was interesting at all, but there you go.
And that is all I've got for now.
-CARLY!
P.S. If you have any sort of topic you would like to know about or read about on a daily basis, feel free to chime in on the comments section.
So I have heard that the comment thingy is kinda a hassle... so, without further ado, I presnt to you "Carly Houk's How to use the comments section": Click on the button below the post that say "___ comments," Type your note in the comment box, choose a profile (meaning you have to have one of the profiles they have in the dropdown box) Click post. Now you will be refreshed onto the same page with one of the robot-detector thingies (That means the word that they tell you to type). Type in the word, and then click post again. Now you should see your comment. Hooray! :D I hope that works. If it doesn't, I would say leave a comment, but you can't. So, well, can't help you there... *Awkward face*
Edit~ I totally forgot to mention thanksgiving! Well, I guess that is because it isn't celebrated here... teehee... (Did you know that the french expression for dotdotdot- real word for that by the way is ellipses- is "trois petits points" hehe. Three little points.) But anywhow, I made popovers, but that was it. :) A very different thanksgiving indeed.
And guess what!!!!? (inversed interrobang...) Our "conseil de classe" was Friday night. That means that the class representatives got together with our teachers and talked and shiz like that, and they gave out each of our individual "moyennes" or average grades. Yeah, I found it kind of weird, too. You get one grade for everything at the conseil de classe, but at the end of the year you still get a full report card.
*Giant unnecessary brag alert*
So this morning I found out my moyenne. I was super surprised and happy to hear that not only did I have a 12.5 (which is like a B), but also that I was a good one point above the rest of the class... the average for the class was 10.94... And I was graded in all of my classes except for SES(Economics) and French. In addition, you also get a little side note from the teachers and out of all thirty people, 3 were given the highest one, "Felicitations!" (Congratulations!) And to my surprise, I got that as well. :) Bear in mind I definitely didn't have the third best grade in the class, but I think the teachers took into account the language barrier. XD So anyhow, whoa... Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself today. However, I didn't go around shouting it out like am doing right now. I kept it confined to my little brain and just smiled throughout the day. And then, in my last class of the day, we got back our math tests... and to just top off the already great "journée," I had received a 17.7! Hoowayyy :) Ok I shall shut up now and get back to stuff that is pertinent.
As well as giving out grades, the representatives also give us a little summary of what they all talked about. It was interesting enough and killed some class time, so hooray :). At that same time we also got our school photo forms. There isn't a legitimate yearbook here, but if you want you can purchase a kind of class yearbook, which just contains you and your classmates. I am totally buying it. It is the closest I will get to its American counterpart. :P I was surprisingly satisfied with my photo, and the class photo is the funniest thing you have ever seen. I think me and two other people are actually smiling. It kind of makes me wonder if I wasn't supposed to smile.. D: But my French teacher's and Falfi's and Tommy's faces just make me feel the need to own that awkward photo... hehehe.
So yup... that was all for today.
Anyhow, moving on to random things I have noticed lately or forgotten to mention:
-You can overpass school buses in your car here. :O
-Sirens sound different
-Their school bell is ten seconds of blaring hellish noise
-There was a snow like substance on the ground today in patches, so HOORAY!
-Uhh... I have cold, to put it in the french form.
But I guess I should explain why I called this post "Music Evolution."
Well, I was thinking last night about the fact that I have had some very distinct phases of music listening while being in France. And i think if you go ahead and think a little deeper after reading it, you will kinda understand.
First month:
At the very beginning it was kind of a mélange of everything. But there was some Muse, some Cranberries, and a bunch of random playlists I made over this summer.
Then it morphed into A LOT of Sara Bareilles: Not happy chappy Sara Bareilles, but stuff like "City" and "Between the Lines" and "Winter Song." Especially "Winter Song." Hehe... look up the lyrics.
Started listening to Radiohead. Mostly just "Karma Police" and "Let Down"
A little bit after that:
RADIOHEADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD.
OK Computer (Album), to be precise. And The Bends. Both really good music to just put on and get absorbed in, given you like that type of music.
Sara Bareilles slowly withering away.
Very small phase of James Taylor. :( Not good to listen to when you are thinking of home, but he's so good. :/
The past two weeks:
I still listen to Sara Bareilles and Radiohead when I feel like it, and still really appreciate their music and songs, but I have also started a new phase.
COLDPLAY! :D
Coldplay is great. Their music is wonderful and they have so many different types of songs. So it isn't only their marvelous first album, Parachutes, but also their other, more upbeat stuff.
So yeah. I don't know if that was interesting at all, but there you go.
And that is all I've got for now.
-CARLY!
P.S. If you have any sort of topic you would like to know about or read about on a daily basis, feel free to chime in on the comments section.
So I have heard that the comment thingy is kinda a hassle... so, without further ado, I presnt to you "Carly Houk's How to use the comments section": Click on the button below the post that say "___ comments," Type your note in the comment box, choose a profile (meaning you have to have one of the profiles they have in the dropdown box) Click post. Now you will be refreshed onto the same page with one of the robot-detector thingies (That means the word that they tell you to type). Type in the word, and then click post again. Now you should see your comment. Hooray! :D I hope that works. If it doesn't, I would say leave a comment, but you can't. So, well, can't help you there... *Awkward face*
Edit~ I totally forgot to mention thanksgiving! Well, I guess that is because it isn't celebrated here... teehee... (Did you know that the french expression for dotdotdot- real word for that by the way is ellipses- is "trois petits points" hehe. Three little points.) But anywhow, I made popovers, but that was it. :) A very different thanksgiving indeed.
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