What Is Left

I haven't been a very loyal blogger lately. I am sorry :( But I have realized how little time I have left, and it scares me and excites me, and I am too busy with my thoughts and trying to enjoy my last few weeks to write a (grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I am forgetting English. I don't remember the word...)-- an interesting blog post with organization and structure.
On the language front:
At this point, I think I am fluent in French. Or, I guess I might say, fluent enough. :D Really the only thing missing is some vocabulary. People tell me I have a good accent, too, which makes me very happy... I don't know why that part is so important to me, but really, a good accent was one of my main goals from the start. So to anybody trying to conquer another language, I would say here are some guidelines:
1) Let people correct you-- actually TELL people to correct you. My host sisters (And just the whole family in general) have been doing that since the start, and it is soooo helpful.
2) Read! The amount of vocabulary you learn just from context while reading in another language is immense.
3) Speak... and don't be afraid to make mistakes. I was kind of lucky to have such a good French teacher before I came here ( ;) ), so I felt I had the basics down. Nonetheless, you have to make an effort to speak up and try to explain yourself even when it is intimidating. The pay-off is a faster comprehension of the language.

On the topic of leaving:
Well... the more I stay here, the less I want to leave. Especially now, since I am on vacation, obligation free and doing whatever I want with friends from school, my host family, and AFSers alike. :) But I am kind of at a lack for words. I don't know how to describe what I am feeling right now. I kind of have lost all notion of what is going on in my life. Everything is going by really fast. I only have about 3 weeks left. :( I also feel incapable of making a conjecture as to what my life will be like once I get back to the United States. Or guessing about how I have changed and what I will be taking out of this year. Sorry, but I think you will have to wait until I get back from France to hear a realistic answer to these questions.

As for my day to day life:
I got out of school one week ago! My class threw me a surprise going away party on Thursday that was super nice. They all signed a t-shirt for me, which I thought was really sweet. The next day I made them sign the French flag I had bought... hehe. This is how I dressed up last Friday:



I'm proud to be a Frenchy.

Summer has been great. I went to a fair with school friends, a little get together of AFSers, and relaxed a bit, reading the fifth Harry Potter in French. :)

Today we have the "Fête du Village" (Village party). I am not so certain as to what this entails, we shall see. Next weekend I have the last AFS weekend of the year... And other than that, I plan on going to Paris a couple times and doing more fun stuff before the 10th of July...

See you all soon!!!

I made a movie... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOetwWX8VCo

Hahaha...

Random photo? Spot the Milo!!


I have titled this blog post with the onomatopoeia of awkward embarrassed and trying to avoid conflict laughter.

Yes, I do realize that my last blog post, two weeks ago, was still talking about what happened approximately five weeks ago, on vacation. Well, I guess we have a bit of catching up to do... Oh darn.

I am sorry, world, but I have been a horrible journal keeper/blog writer lately. :O So I can't even tell you what happened in the first couple of weeks after break except for that I was enjoying myself at school and outside of school, getting together with friends, eating delicious food, hanging out with my host family, etc. etc. I made a cute little bracelet with Jeanne, one of my friends at school, and that was quite dandy.
I also realized that French school finishes like middle school for those who are in Seconde... as in the last two weeks have pretty much no tests or anything, and everything is a giant party with pointless classes and lots of skipping (shhh don't tell!). I have already finished MPS-SVT, SVT, and Math classes. That's it, no more for the rest of the year (Meaning till Friday of next week... hehe). I am liking this school system... although I am sure I wouldn't have had I been in Premiere (AKA Bac).


Hey look, a cool photo of us in front of the cantine (That is the cafeteria...)

Ahhhh I am not writing very well today.

Last weekend we re-moved Manon from her apartment to the house for the summer and it was pretty fun. We ate lunch at the house of a family friend of theirs which reminded me uncannily of a house in the mountains of Colorado that I used to visit... (That means you, Nana and Mac!)

These last two weeks have really just been a bunch of fun. I am living it up here! I guess it really is the truth that May and June and July are the best months.

This whole experience has been hard, but so wonderfully awarding. I would never give it up.

Today I had my last test in French class, and Physics/Chemistry. I also had an exposé about my life in France and my feelings in Spanish class, and it went pretty well. It was in Spanish. :O I didn't think I would be prepared, but I guess it worked out in the end.

I finish school next week on Friday, and I don't know if I am ready... Tomorrow marks my ninth month here, a fact that scares me so much! I don't know how to take it. I only have six weeks left to enjoy the awesomeness that is France.

France, I will never forget you.

-Carly

Vacances-2!

So, I will now skip to the fact that after Noirmoutier and a day of rest (kinda... I was in the car for six hours of that "rest" day), Lithia, a fellow AFSer came to Normandie to see me and so we could go to Paris to explore together!

But first, feeling a need to show her the Normand side of life, we took her to Giverny on Wednesday. It is so beautiful...

I took a picture of a flower!
... Actually, I took a LOT of pictures of flowers.



Later that day we drove up to Paris with Claude. Lithia and I stayed at my host-grandma's house at night. Such a nice offer! Altogether, we were there for 4 days, and saw quite a bit of stuff... here is a little list for ya:
-Eiffel Tower, which never ceases to make me feel like a tourist.
-Saint Germain Des-Près
-The Opera House
-The Galeries Lafayette
-St. Lazare
-Notre Dame and bopping around Ile de la cité
-The best falafel... near the Place des Vosges
-Louvre!
-La Grande Mosquée
-Le Jardin des Plantes
-Sacré-Coeur
-Moulin Rouge
-Panthéon
-Rue Mouffetard (If you go to Paris, go here. Just do it. Pleaseeee.)
-Champs Elysées
-La Défense/Grande Arche
-Long métro rides... that I love.
-A really fun experience

So yeah... So much stuff :D
It was an amazing experience to be able to walk around Paris with a friend just doing whatever we wanted and shopping to my heart's desire... I now feel independent and slightly knowledgeable of Paris. Anyone need a guide? :) I am open!

Here is a photo from the Eiffel Tower!


Notre Dame...


And the rest in another post!

Procrastination

I have procrastinated for this blog post cause I knew it was going to be a long one...

There isn't enough space to write all of the amazing stuff that has been happening recently... :D

Well, where did we leave off? I think it was during the vacation... So, after we got to Noirmoutier, we had a few days to hang around, go to the beach, sleep, sleep some more, eat, and pretty much do whatever well pleased us. It was great! Here is a picture of the beach when the tide is out...



And here is what all the houses in Noirmout look like!



Don't mind Eric... :)

Anyhow, then we traveled back home on the 23rd or 24th... I forget. And I took that day to prepare for my trip to Paris with another AFSer from New York that would start Wednesday.

Tuesday, Lithia arrived. We picked her up from a train station in Paris and came back home. Tuesday afternoon was just for relaxing...

More later! It is tedious to upload photos... so I will do multiple posts!

<3
Carly

SPRING

Hey everybody!
Right now I am on Spring break for two weeks. We are completely filled up! It is amazing and relaxing and wonderful. I figure I HAVE TO write a blog entry before all of the intricate details of this two-week-period of awesome leaves my memory.

Well, first of all, last weekend, I went to Paris with Claude and Pia and Manon. We went around shopping and visited Montmartres, which has a gorgeous church called the Sacre-Coeur. The acoustics in that cathedral are so amazing I don't even know what I would do if I had the chance to just sit in there and play music and sing. Also, I got the chance to see Jess, a fellow AFSer who was here for the fall semester program! It was so great, we walked around the neighborhood in Paris that is home to the Galeries Lafayette and The Opera House. We went up to the top of the Galeries Lafayette and talked and took some pictures. I am so glad I got to see her, because she lives in Pennsylvania... not exactly too close to Cali.

Anyhow, Monday was my only "rest day." I packed for our trip to the west coast (of France), and I also got to see a Californian who works at our school. She actually just finished her contract as an assistant to the English classes. Good stuff. =) She's super nice, and we had plenty of things to say because the last time we got together was in December, I believe...

Tuesday we were off to Noirmoutier to spend time with the cousins, and along the way we stopped at the Chateaux de la Loire. Pretty much, there are about 15 castles that are near the river Loire. We visited a couple the first day (Tuesday)- Chambord, the largest of tthe Chateaux de le Loire, and Cheverny, where Hergé (Who writes Tintin) got his inspiration, then we slept at a super cute town called Blois. At Blois, I ate till I was going to burst at a adorable little restaurant called "Au Coin d'Table." A hamburger, of all things, and a moelleux au chocolat (drool). I didn't take an apetizer, but had a bite of Pia's, a goat cheese toast-thing. So delicious... and I don't even like goat cheese that much. If you ever find yourself in France in a town called Blois, you won't regret eating there. Then Wednesday we went to a town that I forget the name of to see the house where Leonardo Da Vinci died in, and it was super fascinating. Still Wednesday, we went to see a castle called Chenenceau, which was built across the river a bit. The lighting was awesome in that castle. Pia bought bubbles from the gift store to our disdain ( :) ), but I have ended up using almost all of them because bubbles are just really fricking awesome (!!). Finally we ended up in a town called Chinon to sleep, and we saw the castle from afar, but didn't get up the courage to go take a look at it cause our castle intake for the past couple days had been enough for a long time... So we went shopping instead. I bought some presents for people and a shirt for myself. And that night, I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I ate in a good Tex-Mex restaurant in France. :O You don't know how long I waited. But we found one in this little town called Chinon... Ok, well, in reality it was only good, but I have not had Mexican food for such a long time. :) It was worth it.

Thursday we drove to Noirmoutier, and now we are here, relaxing and sleeping and some more shopping... :| Although I am mostly buying presents. Although I did buy myself the most amazing backpack ever. =) I look like an explorer. Ok, anyhow. I am going to stop buying things, now, cause next week the AFSer I roomed with who is living in the South of France is coming to stay with us and I am taking her up to Paris for four days. Luckily we won't be paying for a hostel at least- my host grandma lives close to the Metro, and she has offered to take us in! I will have to eat cheap and abstain from buying anything other than metro tickets and passes into museums. ;)

So yeah, through all of this I have no idea how I am going to find a way to do my homework etc., but you know what, homework comes second to me. Second after life experiences. And that is how I think it should always be.

Have a wonderful week everybody! I shall try to update my blog next week while we are in Paris. :D

À bientôt