In the last 5 days...

Friday for half of the school day we ended up going to a small town, having a "picnic" in a gym with a sort of talent show, then taking a walk through farm land and apple orchads and to a spot overlooking the sea. It was really beautiful and the weather was perfect for it. We ended up just sitting and talking in this field for a long time and then went back to school. It was really nice to not be in class though.Friday night I went to a soiree with my host sister which was a lot of fun and I ended up talking to everyone. We had pizza and cake because this week has two of my host sisters friends birthdays! We danced and sung to English songs, it was a good time. Saturday Sarah and I went to St. Malo with my host dad for the tennis tournment. Saturday was beautiful out and we ended up watching the semi finals of the singles and the finals of the doubles matchs. The Open GDF Suez de Bretagne is a pretty big competition with 100,000 Euros prize money. Nice right?

Anyways that night I slept at Sarahs house and in the morning we got up at 6 in the morning to get on a bus to go with the Rotary of Dinan to a Monastery for the morning which was very pretty but ended up being a bit long for my liking, especially since it was all Latin and French. For lunch we went to a resturant and we were served quiche with mushrooms on the side I ended up eating it all and about 5 pieces of bread because I was still hungry and then they brought out the main dish. I did not know there was a main dish so I was almost full by the time this came out. This consisted of a huge piece of ham, potatoes, more mushrooms, and a steamed carrot. It was all good but I was so full I ended up eating only about half of it.

Then it was time for dessert, this I will show you a photo of because it was so good and so hard to describe. The bottom was a fruity sort of thing and the thing on top tasted like caramel and the sauce tasted like creamy melted caramel icecream. It was so good.

 After lunch we hopped back on the bus and drove furthur to some Ruins of the Romans. Since France is a lot smaller in land size than the USA people would just build houses on top of the ruins not thinking they were anything special so this Roman town is now partly a new town but with ruins scattered around. For example, in the middle of the town we went inside this newer looking church and they ended up having half of the floor taken out and it is now a place for tourists because their is an old roman "wash room"  

Inside the museum

under this church. We saw one of those really cool ampatheaters that the romans use to watch people being killed in for fun. It was pretty intresting. My next host sister which is Sarahs host sister right now, Marina, likes photography also so I let her borrow my camera and she ended up getting some really cute pictures of Sarah and I! It was nice to actually get to be IN the pictures this time! The only down side of this trip was that I ended up having a terrible cold show up and so I did not feel the best but I tried to not let it stop me.

Monday was rough, I ended up going to school but I was very sick. I would blink and next thing I knew I was drifting asleep. At one point in the day, I was so cold I had my sweatshirt and jacket on and I wished I would have brought more clothes and then the next moment I was taking it all off and using it as a pillow. I was tired so I ended up going home at lunch and sleeping the whole 2 hours of lunch. I ended up eating a quick something and hurrying back to school. When I got to school the bell had already rung and I was late for class so then I had to hurry up the stairs which only got me lightheaded. But by the end of the day I was feeling better.

Tuesday was awesome. Sometimes I really like the French school system better. If your teacher is not their you don't have class. So if your teachers go on strike for smaller classes, you also don't have classes! To bad they did not choose to strike every Friday right?! So I ended up going out with my host sister and hung out with her friends for the afternoon in the park.

The weather started getting cold here but now it has warmed up to 80 degrees! It is suppose to get to 90 something in Rennes this weekend. Summer is finally in Bretagne! Oh and only two months of snow, which I am in a way looking forward to because last year in those 2 months school was canceled 5 or 6 times because of the snow. A lot of people from my school travel by bus a long ways to get to school because my school is a pretty well known private school and so if it is snowing the buses apperently can't drive. That is kind of humerous saying because where I am from it snows a ton and school is only canceled if it is either really really cold or a lot of snow falls and the snow plows don't have time to clear the roads.

So this is funny let me translate:

The tennis player in a white skirt is like a cricket in a kilt but better.

Marinas photos

Thanks Marina!

The kids table



Amphitheater ruins







I survived!

Lived. Thrived. Survived. in a Foreign country for one month!
In one month I have done so much! I flew to France, saw a glimpse of the effile tour, been to the city of Rennes AND St. Mal two times, took a beautiful boat ride along the shore near St. Malo, Dinard, and a lot of other really pretty towns, met so many intresting and wonderful people, switched families, started school, made friends, went shopping, played tennis, and most importantly improve my French!
It is such a confidence booster and amazing feeling when I look back in the last month. At the begining of the month, I hardly understood anyone and if I understood it was because people spoke very slow and pronounced things very clearly. Now people can speak normally and I usually understand most if not all of what they are saying, I also can respond even though my grammer is not very good and I have developed a new skill of talking around a word I don't know or describing the word. I am looking forward to the months ahead of me in France and I am proud of what I have acheived in a month.

Rotary dinner

Last night, Tuesday night, Sarah and I were invited to a rotary dinner with our host sisters. It was a bit scary walking into the dinner because I did not know anyone except Sarah and my French was the worst of anyone in the whole room. Before going in to the dinner and all throught the dinner I had to keep reminding myself to not use "Salut=Hi" or "Tu=The informal way of saying you" since tu and salut is what I use normally with people my age and with people I know such as my host family. Everything with speaking turned out fine for me and the people were very nice. I understood most everyone and if I did not understand something I would just shake my head and it worked every time.
The meal was a bit confusing for someone who is not very food educated. I had 2 forks, 2 knifes, a spoon, and 3 glasses. We started with a fish and potato dish, then had rice and something that remind me of stir fry, then we had a lemon marangue personal petite pie for dessert, and we finished with an expresso. I have never really tried an expresso so I decided to take one, I tasted it and did not like it and then I put sugar in it and still did not like it. So I stopped drinking it and now I consider that 2 of the 3 times I have to try that. Since I tried it with and without sugar. If your not familiar with rotary they have a rule that you must taste everything 3 times before you say you don't like it, so expresso is 2 tries down and one to go!
It ended up being a very nice evening, I got to see my first host family again and I even got to meet my 3rd host mom! She is Scotish so she speaks very good English but she can also speak French so it was a strange mix between us speaking French and English. The meeting started at 8 pm and did not get done until close to 11 pm so once I got home I went to bed since I had school at 8 the next morning!

3 weeks, 2 days!

Today is 3 weeks and 2 days in France! Time is flying by! I really am enjoying my time here, of course, as all exchange students I am having my ups and my downs but overall I like it a lot!
It is starting to be chilly here in the morning! Luckly, only 2 months of snow and it does not get as cold as the Upper Pennisula, ever. I don't miss the cold.
School I think I pretty much have the hang of things down and I really enjoy the food in the lunch room and sports class. School is very long here though, today I did not finish until something like 5 45 pm! It is not to bad though because Wednesday I finish at 11 and Friday I start at 9! Every Friday we have 2 hours of tests. I have a feeling I am going to fail a lot of them, since when I get tired I stop paying attention and draw or practice my French and Spanish I have not even tried to listen because I know I won't understand. In the USA we have it so good, people should never complain about school there. We get so many days of fun, you have plenty of options for classes and you have a lot of freedom. So that being said school here takes up a lot of my time, especially since I have been trying to do some of the homework and it lasts a long time. Though Wensday I took a walk and was a 'tourist' in my own town! I even discovered how to get on a bit of the wall surrounding the city! Also Wensday night I played tennis! It was nice to play but I was terrible since I really have not played a lot like I usually do. Also its on 'carpet' courts and indoors so it is a bit different to play on.
This weekend is going to be a lot of fun, I am going to St. Malo for a tennis tournment and I am going to a
 ?monk monistary? with rotary!
My french is improving! Many people have commented on how I understand a lot better also when I tried to get the voice message off my phone the first time I had no idea what the voice was telling me, all I knew were the numbers this time when I called I understood enough of what she was telling me to successfully retrive my message! It was also a nice reward to finally get the message after getting daily text messages telling me I had a message.
On the first and second of October I am going to Mont St Micheal! This time I am going with all the exchange students in my district! I am looking forward to it a lot!

Things I am longing for: 

Reeces PB cups, Reeces PB cups, Reeces PB cups!


Other random things on my mind: My RYE officer sent me a very cute email, Thank You! I am glad some people are keeping up on my blog and that your interested in my exchange! It actually, kind of, convinced me to write now, even though it is late and I have school tomorrow!
And school tires me out so much since it is long, in a different language and I try to speak a lot with my classmates, I usually go to bed at 8 or 9!

So sorry that this blog is all over the place, I know it is, today I think I am a bit scatterbrained, maybe because I am tired?

A plus tard!
Cassandra

My new house

Walking through the city wall on my way to school

On the wall

Bretagne Flag

The outside of my school, yes, it is a tourist attraction.

They obviously don't want anyone escaping.

My school on left, on the right there is a very good icecream shop!

On another piece of the wall

My town

The A is for "amateur" If you have been driving a year or less you have this
Same concept in Canada but not in the US!

Stop is proper French.

My road!

Differences, Update.

 

So Mont Saint Michael was so much fun. My host sister, Stephanie took Sarah, the other exchange student in my town, her 14 year old host brother, Alessandro, and me to the mountain. The "Mountain" which is more like one big random hill next to the ocean, is in Normandy but there is a river and it sort of surrounds Mont Saint Michael and on one side of the river is Bretagne and on the other is Normandy, yet it is considered Normandy. It is so beautiful.

In France it seems as if a lot of people love Lady Gaga, so we listened to her for most of the way there and Britney Spears for most of the way home. I don't love Lady Gaga but I definately enjoyed Alessandro singing and dancing to her. Haha!

That night was the night I changed famlies. I had an amazing time with the Alix family but I was also excited to know my new family. The next day my new host sister, Hortense, took me shopping with her friends in Rennes. We took the bus, which takes about one hour to get to Rennes and then we went shopping, I did not buy a lot but makeup was cheap so I bought some, I bought a pair of plain pearl earrings, and a new pair of shoes. The shoes were definatly a splurge, but they were cute so who can blame me?! Her friends were really nice and I had a fun time in Rennes.

On Saturday I played tennis at the Club in Lehon. It was a lot of fun and I am now going to start playing on the girls tennis team! I will play Wensday evenings for practice!

Tuesday I started school! Wow. Crazy. So on the first day I only had to go to school for 2 hours. 2 to 4 pm. The first thing they do is seperate everyone into classes. I ended up being with no one I had already met. When I had to speak French infront of everyone my face went completly red and everyone was staring at me. The 2 hours of class were a lot of rules, papers handed out, and a lot of me not really understanding.

The second day things were a little better, I ended up talking to the girl next to me and she was nice. I only had to go to school for 4 hours hours, 8 to 11 because well it is Wensday and most people get the afternoon off on Wensday and then I got off at 11 which was an hour earlier than most of the the other students.
The third day, today was pretty good! Things seem to be getting better, I sort of understand the swing of things and I have slowly began to meet people with my poor French skills. Everyone here seems to be pretty good at waiting for you to speak and stuff. I had English class which is about the best thing ever. I finally had an advantage and I got to speak English which was a nice change. Spanish was a complete joke, I did not even pay attention but I wrote the numbers 1 to 100 in French and the girl next to me corrected all my spelling mistakes! I don't think she liked Spanish class either... Then we had lunch and I ate with Sarah, it was kind of confusing but we did it and the food was good for school food. We had real plates, silverware, and not to mention real food.

So now to mark down some differences:

(This is not meant to say either way is wrong or right, its just simply different)

1. In school you change classes BUT you always change with the same people, if they have different classes than you it is because they are taking more hours.
2. The kiss thing, its not a myth. They do it for hello and goodbye, all ages. Even some of the boys will do the kisses with eachother
3. One of my favorite differences, the boys here care about what they look like just as much as the girls, and no they are not gay. They shop for their own clothes and actually put together their outfits.
4. People here smoke a lot. It is definatly a cultural thing. I think in the USA now it is considered almost shameful. If you do smoke you usually smoke away from people unless they smoke too.
5. Stores and Restaurants that sell alchol or cigarettes will sell to anyone because they want the money. Also I don't think that it is illegal to smoke the cigatettes or drink the alchol if you can obtain it because they do not hide the smoking or drinking. In fact people my age and younger smoke right in front of the school doors.
6. People are very respectful of their teachers here.
7. Atleast my school here is very strict, no gum, no cell phone, no ipod. If you have a cell phone or ipod out its gone for the rest of the year. Unlike in my town in the States, one day for the first time, one week for the second.
8. MOST things here are made in France, in USA MOST things are made in China or foreign countries.
9. If you want to be lets say a doctor you MUST be in S for you premier and terminal years.
10. You must use pens on tests and most people just use pen for everything, also its a plum pen. USA its mechanical pencils.
11. School is not a bunch of fun here, school is for learning, not to socialize, not to have dances, ect. You can do that on the weekends and outside of school.
12. Meal times: USA 12 and 5 France: 1 and 8 or 9 pm. Also food preparation time.
13. Toilettes! You have 2 buttons... Also public toilettes, you get your own little room, sometimes the girls and the boys share a bathroom, also no toilet seats. Also toilettes and bathtubs are ALWAYS seperate
14. Boxer swimshorts for boys are considered dirty, you must have a tight swim suit here.
15. I think socks are less commenly worn but maybe not.
16. Gym class, in mine you got seperated into 3 groups depending on what you wanted to do for the year. I chose Handball which I heard is like soccer with your hands, 30 minutes, which is run for 30 minutes, and CO which is like orentering or something!
17. Car brands, size and shape of cars. Bigger is not always better here. Well with gas at something like 14 dollars a gallon bigger is not really practical.


Hm. That is all I can think of right now... I will probably make another list later. Sorry for spelling and grammer mistakes they happen when you don't use your English everyday. Also when your computer tells you every word you write is spelled wrong because it thinks in French.

Sarah and I

We went to the market to buy our lunch before

We are cute.

My new room

My new bathroom

The toilet. It is always seperate.