*dance party*
Comment me with congratulations.
24 September 2008
In Which Rayla CONNECTS TO THE INTERNET AT SCHOOL!!!!
Just thought I'd give you all the heads up...I JUST CONNECTED TO THE WIRELESS INTERNET AT SCHOOL!
22 September 2008
In Which Rayla Finds Using An Americqn Keyboard Difficult...Wait...What? I've Qdjusted To The French Keyboard Alreqdy???
So remember how I was complaining about the French keyboard being hard to use and how they switched around all the letters? Well, I was just trying to access my email at school (where we have "normal" keyboards) and I type gmail like gmqil THREE TIMES. Incindently (M. Brochu's favorite word!) I gave up, and instead came to my blog to report my amazing spontaneous adjustment to the French keyboard. Yay!
I had a weird dream last night. I dreamed that I was trying to speak French but I couldn't remember how to say anything and kept speaking in English by accident. It was very vivid. What a memory for my first dream in French.
Sigh.
I spoke up from this dream feeling a bit crappy, and I found myself being annoyed by how dark it was in the morning.
But after history and litterature it's all good.
Uchenna is reading over my shoulder.
Au revoir tout le monde!
I had a weird dream last night. I dreamed that I was trying to speak French but I couldn't remember how to say anything and kept speaking in English by accident. It was very vivid. What a memory for my first dream in French.
Sigh.
I spoke up from this dream feeling a bit crappy, and I found myself being annoyed by how dark it was in the morning.
But after history and litterature it's all good.
Uchenna is reading over my shoulder.
Au revoir tout le monde!
In Which Rayla Spends A Significant Amount of Time Arranging Her Room And Making A Schedule On Her Wall With Mini Notecards and A Lot Of Patafix
Today has been a super chill day. I woke up around noon and ate lunch (leftover roti which I put in the microwave for too long, along with some bread). After that, my host family departed for some type of track and field race that my host brother was going to be in (he was really hyper beforehand, running around the house singing, I hope he saved a little energy for the race!) and I stayed home due to an incredible amount of homework I had. I thought it was going to take a long time, but I finished my two problem sets for Pre-Calc relatively quickly (the work in math is getting easier, now that I'm actually starting to remember it). I then proceeded to do my language homework, and it involved lots of using the français/anglais dictionary. Finally, I opened up "Le Louvre" to read five pages for Art History, when I got distracted by all the crap all over my desk.
So, to started clearing everything off my desk in a very systematic way, organizing stuff, etc. Very soon, all was arranged. I then remembered how yesterday I had come up with the idea to decorate the currently blank walls of my room with postcards and cards. So, I got a couple of postcards I bought at St. Malo, and the cards my parents and grandparents sent me, and affixed them artistically with Patafix. (Patafix is this cool yellow sticky stuff that you can use to stick stuff up. It's like this consistency of Silly Putty, and much easier to use than tape! It also doesn't rip the paint off the walls - major plus!) So, I had kind of decorated (I still need more postcards, send me some if you go anywhere cool! Or whatever, just send me stuff!) Coming off this artistic rampage, I was then struck by the notion to create a large schedule on one of my walls so I could know which classes I had which days. So, I found the pile of notecards left behind by the girl from last year, and started cutting them into specific sizes, writing the class names on them, and patafixing them to the wall. It all turned out very nicely, and I am happy that I can look on my wall and see what classes I will have each day. I hopefully will be able to memorize my schedule soon, but right now I absolutely do not have it memorized. Wheeee!
My awesome schedule is on the same wall as my desk, and it was absolutely amazing, except I discovered that my final class on the day on Friday was obscured by a bunch of books lined up on the desk (hello people, this is not a bookcase!) So I went about the task of relocating the books from the top of my desk to the bookshelf under my desk. Now it all looks very awesome.
Anyway, that's what I did today. Yesterday I was out with friends (Maggie, Kelly, Katie) all afternoon (or most of it) and we had the best crêpes and galettes ever for lunch! And then yesterday evening me and my host family went to a dinner party. This party was pretty big, and kind of like exchange student central. We had two other families there with SYAers, and then another family who had a student from New Zealand. For dinner we had these amazing sausage things. It was cool.
Anyway, I have school tomorrow and all. I should probably go read The Sun Also Rises.
So, to started clearing everything off my desk in a very systematic way, organizing stuff, etc. Very soon, all was arranged. I then remembered how yesterday I had come up with the idea to decorate the currently blank walls of my room with postcards and cards. So, I got a couple of postcards I bought at St. Malo, and the cards my parents and grandparents sent me, and affixed them artistically with Patafix. (Patafix is this cool yellow sticky stuff that you can use to stick stuff up. It's like this consistency of Silly Putty, and much easier to use than tape! It also doesn't rip the paint off the walls - major plus!) So, I had kind of decorated (I still need more postcards, send me some if you go anywhere cool! Or whatever, just send me stuff!) Coming off this artistic rampage, I was then struck by the notion to create a large schedule on one of my walls so I could know which classes I had which days. So, I found the pile of notecards left behind by the girl from last year, and started cutting them into specific sizes, writing the class names on them, and patafixing them to the wall. It all turned out very nicely, and I am happy that I can look on my wall and see what classes I will have each day. I hopefully will be able to memorize my schedule soon, but right now I absolutely do not have it memorized. Wheeee!
My awesome schedule is on the same wall as my desk, and it was absolutely amazing, except I discovered that my final class on the day on Friday was obscured by a bunch of books lined up on the desk (hello people, this is not a bookcase!) So I went about the task of relocating the books from the top of my desk to the bookshelf under my desk. Now it all looks very awesome.
Anyway, that's what I did today. Yesterday I was out with friends (Maggie, Kelly, Katie) all afternoon (or most of it) and we had the best crêpes and galettes ever for lunch! And then yesterday evening me and my host family went to a dinner party. This party was pretty big, and kind of like exchange student central. We had two other families there with SYAers, and then another family who had a student from New Zealand. For dinner we had these amazing sausage things. It was cool.
Anyway, I have school tomorrow and all. I should probably go read The Sun Also Rises.
18 September 2008
In Which Rayla Talks About Crepes and Classes
Hey guys! I'm so sorry that my blog has been updated really irregularly, but I want you to know that I'm still here! And I'm still posting, so come back and be entertained by my silly French antecdotes.
Speaking of that, let's recount some things that happened during my week in France:
ON THE FRENCH SCHOOL SCHEDULE/CALENDAR...I'm kind of in heaven here with this awesome school schedule. At first, it sounds really hardcore to go to school until 5:00, but I actually really like it. It's not a solid block of school, I get one or two free periods per day, which really breaks it up and not seem so long. And free periods are so fun! It's super easy to find someone to help you with your homework (like when I seriously needed someone to show me how to graph on my calculator), because everyone on free period hangs out in the common room and plays cards (some people even play Bridge, it's a little intense), OR, even more fun, we go to get pain au chocolat or crepes at the boulangeries and creperies near school. It's actually a really smart schedule, having classes last longer in the day, because then we get more vacations! And being able to go off campus during the day is unbelievably convenient. I love it. LOVE IT!
ON CREPES...So, yesterday, about six of us (we all seem to find ourselves hanging out with different people depending on what we're doing, it's very varied) went to get crepes. Last week, me, Ashley, Uchenna and Alex discovered this amazing creperie/cafe, and had the best crepes ever. Therefore, we had to drag more people there today! It was really fun. I'm in love with crepes.
Speaking of that, let's recount some things that happened during my week in France:
ON THE FRENCH SCHOOL SCHEDULE/CALENDAR...I'm kind of in heaven here with this awesome school schedule. At first, it sounds really hardcore to go to school until 5:00, but I actually really like it. It's not a solid block of school, I get one or two free periods per day, which really breaks it up and not seem so long. And free periods are so fun! It's super easy to find someone to help you with your homework (like when I seriously needed someone to show me how to graph on my calculator), because everyone on free period hangs out in the common room and plays cards (some people even play Bridge, it's a little intense), OR, even more fun, we go to get pain au chocolat or crepes at the boulangeries and creperies near school. It's actually a really smart schedule, having classes last longer in the day, because then we get more vacations! And being able to go off campus during the day is unbelievably convenient. I love it. LOVE IT!
ON CREPES...So, yesterday, about six of us (we all seem to find ourselves hanging out with different people depending on what we're doing, it's very varied) went to get crepes. Last week, me, Ashley, Uchenna and Alex discovered this amazing creperie/cafe, and had the best crepes ever. Therefore, we had to drag more people there today! It was really fun. I'm in love with crepes.
17 September 2008
In Which Rayla Becomes Infuriated With The Idiotic Technology On USB Drives. GRRRR!!!
So guess what, guys. I was trying to update my blog and upload a bunch of entries that I wrote over the weekend and stuff, but they're all in a word document saved on this USB drive, and THE IDIOTIC WINDOWS COMPUTERS WON'T RECOGINIZE IT!
And the most annoying thing is that it recognized the SAME USB last week. Why not today? WHY NOT? Freaking idiotic windows. Die, die, die.
So yeah, I wrote you some lovely entries and stuff, but unfortunately you might have to wait a bit until I can actually post it for you. I apologize profusely.
Grrrr.
Die Windows.
And the most annoying thing is that it recognized the SAME USB last week. Why not today? WHY NOT? Freaking idiotic windows. Die, die, die.
So yeah, I wrote you some lovely entries and stuff, but unfortunately you might have to wait a bit until I can actually post it for you. I apologize profusely.
Grrrr.
Die Windows.
21 Thing You Didn't Know About The French That I've Learned In Less Than Two Weeks
21. They iron all their laundry, including jeans and maybe even underwear.
20. They eat pureed potatoes, not mashed potatoes. This side dish has quite a weird texture, and tastes very strongly of butter.
19. They buy new, fresh bread every day, and eat it at every meal.
18. They use actual glass cups and plates and metal silverware in their public school cafeterias.
17. They call credit cards “carte bleue” – Blue Card. Mine literally is blue, so it’s pretty awesome.
16. They get out of school at lunchtime every Wednesday, so basically you get a half day every single week.
15. Judo is a popular sport.
14. The official symbol of France is the rooster. This came about because, in Latin, the word for “Gaul” – the ancient people of France – and the word for “rooster” were the same.
13. Some of their beaches get the highest tides in Europe (St. Malo, Mont St. Michel), and during low tide, you can walk really far on the beach towards the ocean without ever touching water.
12. They put potatoes, shrimp, and some other weird stuff on their pizza.
11. They still respect the tradition of the whole family eating dinner together at the same time, no matter how much homework anyone has to do.
10. Their bathrooms are actually two separate rooms – their’s a room with a sink and bathtub/shower, and a totally different room with just a toilet. Sometimes the toilet room is not next to the real bathroom, meaning you have to walk to the kitchen to wash your hands.
9. Their school day goes until 5:00 pm, and starts around 8:00 or 8:30. They get about an hour for lunch, and free periods throughout the day, depending on their schedule. We have this same type of school day at SYA.
8. There are 60,000 college students in Rennes.
7.They listen to all our music, watch our movies, and their magazines feature a lot of our celebrities.
6. They have a fixed price on bread; meaning no matter where you buy a baguette it will be the same price. I think this may also be true for crossaints, though that doesn’t really make sense. They always cost 0,85 euro though!
5. Speaking of bread, it’s freaking amazing here. Forget cheese and wine, eat as much bread as you can if you ever come here, it’s simply glorious.
4. They don’t only wear their clothes multiple times before washing then (a good idea for saving the earth!), a lot of them wear the same clothes two days in a row. I’ve noticed this with my host family, and some of the other SYAers have too. I guess it’s less outfits to pick out!
3. Crêpes and galettes are very different. Though they are both really thin pancakes with stuff in the middle, a crepe is made with normal flour, and often has a bit of sugar in the batter. A galette, on the other hand, has no sugar in the batter and is made with buckwheat flour. It’s a specialty of Bretagne, and they often have cheese, ham, and eggs in them. There are a lot of varieties though.
2. A long time ago, Bretagne was actually Petite Bretagne. The people who lived there and eventually became part of France came from Grande Bretagne – Great Britain.
1. Their dinner parties last way too long, sometimes until one in the morning.
By the way, just for the record, French people are also in no way mean, bitter, grumpy, unfriendly, or only in the business of ripping off unsuspecting tourists. I think anyone who has actually been to France can tell you this just as well as I can, but seriously, Americans need to get over themselves and stop creating ridiculous stereotypes about the French. They’re all entirely false. For example:They do smile, but not at every single person they see.They don’t all sit around drinking wine all day long. My family never drinks wine at home.They don’t all smoke! Most of the kids at SYA have non-smoking families. They don’t smoke in restaurants usually, except maybe outside.They aren’t mean and grumpy. In fact, most of them are rather cheerful.They don’t wear berets all that often.
There’s always exceptions to the rule, obviously, but it seems that most of our perceptions about the French are horrible skewed.
(PS: If you’ve heard any rumors about French people riding bicycles down the street with a baguette under their arm, it’s totally true. I saw someone doing this the other day. In case I had forgotten I was in France or something, people walk past me carrying baguettes all the time. It’s rather humorous.)
20. They eat pureed potatoes, not mashed potatoes. This side dish has quite a weird texture, and tastes very strongly of butter.
19. They buy new, fresh bread every day, and eat it at every meal.
18. They use actual glass cups and plates and metal silverware in their public school cafeterias.
17. They call credit cards “carte bleue” – Blue Card. Mine literally is blue, so it’s pretty awesome.
16. They get out of school at lunchtime every Wednesday, so basically you get a half day every single week.
15. Judo is a popular sport.
14. The official symbol of France is the rooster. This came about because, in Latin, the word for “Gaul” – the ancient people of France – and the word for “rooster” were the same.
13. Some of their beaches get the highest tides in Europe (St. Malo, Mont St. Michel), and during low tide, you can walk really far on the beach towards the ocean without ever touching water.
12. They put potatoes, shrimp, and some other weird stuff on their pizza.
11. They still respect the tradition of the whole family eating dinner together at the same time, no matter how much homework anyone has to do.
10. Their bathrooms are actually two separate rooms – their’s a room with a sink and bathtub/shower, and a totally different room with just a toilet. Sometimes the toilet room is not next to the real bathroom, meaning you have to walk to the kitchen to wash your hands.
9. Their school day goes until 5:00 pm, and starts around 8:00 or 8:30. They get about an hour for lunch, and free periods throughout the day, depending on their schedule. We have this same type of school day at SYA.
8. There are 60,000 college students in Rennes.
7.They listen to all our music, watch our movies, and their magazines feature a lot of our celebrities.
6. They have a fixed price on bread; meaning no matter where you buy a baguette it will be the same price. I think this may also be true for crossaints, though that doesn’t really make sense. They always cost 0,85 euro though!
5. Speaking of bread, it’s freaking amazing here. Forget cheese and wine, eat as much bread as you can if you ever come here, it’s simply glorious.
4. They don’t only wear their clothes multiple times before washing then (a good idea for saving the earth!), a lot of them wear the same clothes two days in a row. I’ve noticed this with my host family, and some of the other SYAers have too. I guess it’s less outfits to pick out!
3. Crêpes and galettes are very different. Though they are both really thin pancakes with stuff in the middle, a crepe is made with normal flour, and often has a bit of sugar in the batter. A galette, on the other hand, has no sugar in the batter and is made with buckwheat flour. It’s a specialty of Bretagne, and they often have cheese, ham, and eggs in them. There are a lot of varieties though.
2. A long time ago, Bretagne was actually Petite Bretagne. The people who lived there and eventually became part of France came from Grande Bretagne – Great Britain.
1. Their dinner parties last way too long, sometimes until one in the morning.
By the way, just for the record, French people are also in no way mean, bitter, grumpy, unfriendly, or only in the business of ripping off unsuspecting tourists. I think anyone who has actually been to France can tell you this just as well as I can, but seriously, Americans need to get over themselves and stop creating ridiculous stereotypes about the French. They’re all entirely false. For example:They do smile, but not at every single person they see.They don’t all sit around drinking wine all day long. My family never drinks wine at home.They don’t all smoke! Most of the kids at SYA have non-smoking families. They don’t smoke in restaurants usually, except maybe outside.They aren’t mean and grumpy. In fact, most of them are rather cheerful.They don’t wear berets all that often.
There’s always exceptions to the rule, obviously, but it seems that most of our perceptions about the French are horrible skewed.
(PS: If you’ve heard any rumors about French people riding bicycles down the street with a baguette under their arm, it’s totally true. I saw someone doing this the other day. In case I had forgotten I was in France or something, people walk past me carrying baguettes all the time. It’s rather humorous.)
14 September 2008
Reading List For SYA France 08-09
In English this year, we will be studying:
Autobiography: A Reader For Writers by Robert Lyons
Othello by William Shakespeare
Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
Along with various other excerpted work and “a good deal” or poetry.
13 September 2008
In Which Rayla Signs Up For An Activity And Waits An Excessively Long Time For The Bus
Exciting news: today I signed up for my activity! I decided to take art classes, and I found one that meets on Wednesdays after school, which is perfect since I had nothing to do on Wednesdays after I get out of class at 10:30 in the morning.
Me, Lucie, and Maggie actually went to the activity center yesterday just to ask them if we could try a class next week, but they told us that the class we want – Dessin/Art Graphique – only had 3 more spaces and we should sign up if we want to take it because otherwise someone else will take the spot. So, we decided to come back the next day (today) and talk to the teacher of the class and then sign up. I took the bus up to Rennes to meet Lucie at 10, and I found her after a little waiting around. We just went in and talked to the teacher and then signed up. I’m really excited that I finally chose my activity, because I was starting to feel like I would never find one that I wanted to take and that worked with my schedule! I’m really happy that I have Lucie in the class with me, that should make it more fun. I hope we can make some French friends, too! (I’ll keep you posted.)
Our activity center – Le Centre Culturel Colombier – is only a short bus ride from school, which makes it really convenient. Plus, it’s right next to a shopping mall (actually, you have to walk through the mall to get to it), so there’s lots of food places (not to mention awesome stores), like…right there. It’s the ideal location because after class we can hang out at a café or get gelato or eat delicious donuts filled with Nutella. Me and Lucie were also both excited that there’s a dry cleaner in the mall, because we both have jackets that are dry clean only, and really had no idea where a dry cleaner was. Viola! Perfect location!
Our art class is a kind of general class – we get to do drawing, painting, and a few other things, plus we also go on field trips to visit art expositions in Rennes. Sounds amazing, right? We went to buy art supplies after signing up for the class, and I think we’re pretty much ready to go! Our first class is on mercredi and I’m excited.
Oh my gosh, after we bought art supplies though, my trip home was so annoying! Since it’s Saturday, the buses run less often, and I arrived at the bus stop all ready to head back to my host family’s house – but then the next bus wasn’t for an hour! Oh là là! Boring. I eventually got home though and had a delicious lunch with lots of bread. (Yum.)
Speaking of bread, the bread in France is amazing. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat sub-standard American bread again.
Me, Lucie, and Maggie actually went to the activity center yesterday just to ask them if we could try a class next week, but they told us that the class we want – Dessin/Art Graphique – only had 3 more spaces and we should sign up if we want to take it because otherwise someone else will take the spot. So, we decided to come back the next day (today) and talk to the teacher of the class and then sign up. I took the bus up to Rennes to meet Lucie at 10, and I found her after a little waiting around. We just went in and talked to the teacher and then signed up. I’m really excited that I finally chose my activity, because I was starting to feel like I would never find one that I wanted to take and that worked with my schedule! I’m really happy that I have Lucie in the class with me, that should make it more fun. I hope we can make some French friends, too! (I’ll keep you posted.)
Our activity center – Le Centre Culturel Colombier – is only a short bus ride from school, which makes it really convenient. Plus, it’s right next to a shopping mall (actually, you have to walk through the mall to get to it), so there’s lots of food places (not to mention awesome stores), like…right there. It’s the ideal location because after class we can hang out at a café or get gelato or eat delicious donuts filled with Nutella. Me and Lucie were also both excited that there’s a dry cleaner in the mall, because we both have jackets that are dry clean only, and really had no idea where a dry cleaner was. Viola! Perfect location!
Our art class is a kind of general class – we get to do drawing, painting, and a few other things, plus we also go on field trips to visit art expositions in Rennes. Sounds amazing, right? We went to buy art supplies after signing up for the class, and I think we’re pretty much ready to go! Our first class is on mercredi and I’m excited.
Oh my gosh, after we bought art supplies though, my trip home was so annoying! Since it’s Saturday, the buses run less often, and I arrived at the bus stop all ready to head back to my host family’s house – but then the next bus wasn’t for an hour! Oh là là! Boring. I eventually got home though and had a delicious lunch with lots of bread. (Yum.)
Speaking of bread, the bread in France is amazing. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat sub-standard American bread again.
12 September 2008
In Which Rayla Experiences Her First Full School Day, Lasting Until Past 5:00 (Or, As The French Say, 17h00)
I just have to tell you all that my time so far in France has been amazing. I love my host family, I love the other american students, I love Rennes (I even know how to use buses really well now, without getting lost!), I even love my classes, so this is looking good. Yay.
Today was our first full day of school. The first class starts at 8h20, and my last class (English) finishes at 16h45. There's actually a class after my last one though, although I have free today. Not true every day. I'll true to give you guys my [complicated] schedule once it's actually finalized. But really, school is great. All my classes and teachers seem great. Today we had French Language (Langue), double history (Histoire), French Lit (Litterature), lunch, Art History (L'Histoire D'Art), Math (PreCalculus), and English. Art History was especially a surprise, because I teacher is amazing and hilarious, which should be awesome. I was already excited to take Art History because I never would have been able to take it at Arcadia, but yeah...JP is the cooles[t] Art History teacher ever, as far as I know. (Yeah, we all actually do call him JP, his full name is Jean-Philipe...too long!) Langue was also very fun. English is going to be amazing. We actually get to do (drum roll please, Aracdia honors students...) legitimate creative writing (get this!) on a regular basis. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. Plus, we're doing a seminar style/Harkness discussion based class. Kind of the best kind of class, if you're Rayla. It goes without saying that I'm excited. [And PS, Katelyn: We're reading Beloved!]
Yesterday, mercredi, was a short day (it always is), with the last class of the day getting out around noon. I, however, do not have class during the last period, or even the period before, effectively (and actually) making my school day on Wednesday end at 10h30. And get this, I also don't have a class first hour! So my school day is 2 classes, and an hour and a half long. It's kind of cool and also kind of sucks, but it leaves lots of time to relax in the middle of the week, which seems like it will be nice. Yesterday, me and Ashley and Uchenna found out that all of us get out at 10h30, so we went to get lunch and the took the bus downtown and school supply shopped, window shopped, went to a cafe, went to get crepes, and generally wandered around Rennes for a good part of the afternoon. It was really pretty awesome.
Well, I have to go now because classes got out and I want to see if anyone's going anywhere. I'll post again soon, I hope. In the meantime, amuse yourselves by reading the various entries I just uploaded.
Au revoir et gros bisous de France!
Today was our first full day of school. The first class starts at 8h20, and my last class (English) finishes at 16h45. There's actually a class after my last one though, although I have free today. Not true every day. I'll true to give you guys my [complicated] schedule once it's actually finalized. But really, school is great. All my classes and teachers seem great. Today we had French Language (Langue), double history (Histoire), French Lit (Litterature), lunch, Art History (L'Histoire D'Art), Math (PreCalculus), and English. Art History was especially a surprise, because I teacher is amazing and hilarious, which should be awesome. I was already excited to take Art History because I never would have been able to take it at Arcadia, but yeah...JP is the cooles[t] Art History teacher ever, as far as I know. (Yeah, we all actually do call him JP, his full name is Jean-Philipe...too long!) Langue was also very fun. English is going to be amazing. We actually get to do (drum roll please, Aracdia honors students...) legitimate creative writing (get this!) on a regular basis. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. Plus, we're doing a seminar style/Harkness discussion based class. Kind of the best kind of class, if you're Rayla. It goes without saying that I'm excited. [And PS, Katelyn: We're reading Beloved!]
Yesterday, mercredi, was a short day (it always is), with the last class of the day getting out around noon. I, however, do not have class during the last period, or even the period before, effectively (and actually) making my school day on Wednesday end at 10h30. And get this, I also don't have a class first hour! So my school day is 2 classes, and an hour and a half long. It's kind of cool and also kind of sucks, but it leaves lots of time to relax in the middle of the week, which seems like it will be nice. Yesterday, me and Ashley and Uchenna found out that all of us get out at 10h30, so we went to get lunch and the took the bus downtown and school supply shopped, window shopped, went to a cafe, went to get crepes, and generally wandered around Rennes for a good part of the afternoon. It was really pretty awesome.
Well, I have to go now because classes got out and I want to see if anyone's going anywhere. I'll post again soon, I hope. In the meantime, amuse yourselves by reading the various entries I just uploaded.
Au revoir et gros bisous de France!
07 September 2008
In Which Rayla Experiences Some Awkwardness
I slept until 2 pm today, but I don’t know if my host family noticed this fact. You see, they went to the marché [...] because apparently knocking on my door did not wake me from my slumber. I felt kind of bad about that, but it didn’t seem like a big deal to them. I hope they are just writing this one off as the delayed effects of jet lag or something.
I played darts with [my host brother] again today (I did yesterday too). The dart playing one is my nine-year old brother and he is very cute and funny. [...] I like all my family, but I think they want me to talk more and stuff. I solemnly swear that I am going to talk lots at dinner. I’m surprised that they haven’t brought up politics yet, apparently a lot of other SYAers families brought it up on the very first day.
I think we’re supposed to figure out the bus route to school, today. I also need to buy a cell phone, which I think we also might be doing today. “Think” being the key word.
I miss my other SYAers.
I played darts with [my host brother] again today (I did yesterday too). The dart playing one is my nine-year old brother and he is very cute and funny. [...] I like all my family, but I think they want me to talk more and stuff. I solemnly swear that I am going to talk lots at dinner. I’m surprised that they haven’t brought up politics yet, apparently a lot of other SYAers families brought it up on the very first day.
I think we’re supposed to figure out the bus route to school, today. I also need to buy a cell phone, which I think we also might be doing today. “Think” being the key word.
I miss my other SYAers.
06 September 2008
In Which Rayla Intentionally Wakes Up At A Reasonable Hour And Eats Some Tartines
I planned to wake up today at 9:30, so I diligently set my alarm. It went off, and I just kind of lay there but I heard literally no sounds, so I decided to go back to sleep, because presumably no one was awake. I woke myself up again at 10:15 and got up even though I still didn’t hear anyone. Breakfast was already laid out on the table, so I ate some tartines avec du beurre and tried reading the labels on some of the other food.
My watch has been doing this weird thing, beeping on every hour. I tried to turn it off but no matter which buttons I press it still beeps! This is very annoying and I cannot really explain it. I’ll have to go online and see if I can figure it out on Monday, because I really don’t like to be alerted as to every hour.
Did you know that they have Wii in France? I was playing MarioKart on the Wii with my host brother last night. And another little known fact about the French: they stay up way later than us. We usually eat dinner around eight or nine o’clock, and [everyone] stays up until midnight on the weekends.
My bus/metro route to school is pretty easy, but also pretty complicated. I have to take the 72 but from Auditoire (across the street from my house), to Henri Fréville. Then, I switch over to the metro (Rennes is so high-tech for having a metro, I love it) and go either to Sainte-Anne or République. If I get off the metro on Sainte-Anne, it’s a ten minute walk to school. If I go République, I switch to another bus (argh!), the #10, and get off on Duchesse Anne, which is around the corner from my school. I plan on taking the route through République tomorrow, because I really don’t know if I can remember the walk over from Sainte-Anne. Hopefully I won’t get lost.
My watch has been doing this weird thing, beeping on every hour. I tried to turn it off but no matter which buttons I press it still beeps! This is very annoying and I cannot really explain it. I’ll have to go online and see if I can figure it out on Monday, because I really don’t like to be alerted as to every hour.
Did you know that they have Wii in France? I was playing MarioKart on the Wii with my host brother last night. And another little known fact about the French: they stay up way later than us. We usually eat dinner around eight or nine o’clock, and [everyone] stays up until midnight on the weekends.
My bus/metro route to school is pretty easy, but also pretty complicated. I have to take the 72 but from Auditoire (across the street from my house), to Henri Fréville. Then, I switch over to the metro (Rennes is so high-tech for having a metro, I love it) and go either to Sainte-Anne or République. If I get off the metro on Sainte-Anne, it’s a ten minute walk to school. If I go République, I switch to another bus (argh!), the #10, and get off on Duchesse Anne, which is around the corner from my school. I plan on taking the route through République tomorrow, because I really don’t know if I can remember the walk over from Sainte-Anne. Hopefully I won’t get lost.
In Which M. Brochu Parle Longtemps (Orientation Day)
I woke up today at 8:30 in the morning, because we have orientation å l’école! Waking up was surprisingly easy, and I didn’t even feel tired most of the day. (I consider this a gift from The Gods Of Jet Lag Prevention and knock on wood whenever I think about the fact that I’m not tired yet. So far, it’s worked.) [...] At 9:15 and our orientation started! Exciting.
Orientation is kind of like the first day of school at Arcadia High, when all the teachers give you the class syllabus, read the rules, and tell you what to expect, except today we didn’t only talk about one class, we talked about SYA as a whole, and we talked about what to [expect] inside and outside the classroom.
The rules were definitely a big chunk of time (no drinking, no smoking, no drugs, no lying), as were our personal introductions (“Hi everyone, I’m _________, and I’m from ________________ and go to school at _________________. My host family is la famille de __________________. I like to do _______________ and __________________.”) A lot of the rest of the time though, the teachers and director, M. Brochu, talked about what we can except from SYA. We talked about classes (7 classes, each class four times a week), and our school building (remember the gate code?), cubbies, mailboxes, bus passes, lunch cards, Rennes (“It requires a certain amount of…euu…street smart. ‘Tis an urban environment!”)
The best part of the whole day though, was when the teachers were talking about where we can study during our free periods, and our art history teacher (in a very French accent) interjects “There is a couch also, downstairs. But it is not for lovers!” Hilarious.
Lunch was interesting, we all walked to lycée St. Vincent, a local public high school, where we can get lunch for free. (Whee!) The food was, well, very French. And their cafeteria is really pretty! Plus, all the plates and cups are glass, and the silverware is actual metal! Me and the other SYAers like slyly [or not so slyly] watching the French students. We were noticing their effortless fashion sense the most. Anyway, after awhile we kind of got shooed away by a teacher, explaining to us in rapid French that if we were finished we should put away our trays because it was getting crowded.) We even managed to walk back to school without getting lost!
Orientation continued until about 5:00, but I’ll spare you the details because it is quite dull (orientations often are.) In summary, we have placement tests for math and French on Monday and Tuesday, and classes start officially on Wednesday. I’m actually really excited for classes to start up, because I want to have some kind of routine to fall into. I like routines apparently.
The other SYAers seem like…really awesome. Most of them are very outgoing, but not overly so, which makes complete sense; I mean, they did sign up for a year abroad and everything. I think we’re all really excited to be here, which is awesome. I can tell a lot of us are going to get along.
P.S. Cheeking kissing is really not that hard. Seriously. I think we should adopt this custom in America.
Orientation is kind of like the first day of school at Arcadia High, when all the teachers give you the class syllabus, read the rules, and tell you what to expect, except today we didn’t only talk about one class, we talked about SYA as a whole, and we talked about what to [expect] inside and outside the classroom.
The rules were definitely a big chunk of time (no drinking, no smoking, no drugs, no lying), as were our personal introductions (“Hi everyone, I’m _________, and I’m from ________________ and go to school at _________________. My host family is la famille de __________________. I like to do _______________ and __________________.”) A lot of the rest of the time though, the teachers and director, M. Brochu, talked about what we can except from SYA. We talked about classes (7 classes, each class four times a week), and our school building (remember the gate code?), cubbies, mailboxes, bus passes, lunch cards, Rennes (“It requires a certain amount of…euu…street smart. ‘Tis an urban environment!”)
The best part of the whole day though, was when the teachers were talking about where we can study during our free periods, and our art history teacher (in a very French accent) interjects “There is a couch also, downstairs. But it is not for lovers!” Hilarious.
Lunch was interesting, we all walked to lycée St. Vincent, a local public high school, where we can get lunch for free. (Whee!) The food was, well, very French. And their cafeteria is really pretty! Plus, all the plates and cups are glass, and the silverware is actual metal! Me and the other SYAers like slyly [or not so slyly] watching the French students. We were noticing their effortless fashion sense the most. Anyway, after awhile we kind of got shooed away by a teacher, explaining to us in rapid French that if we were finished we should put away our trays because it was getting crowded.) We even managed to walk back to school without getting lost!
Orientation continued until about 5:00, but I’ll spare you the details because it is quite dull (orientations often are.) In summary, we have placement tests for math and French on Monday and Tuesday, and classes start officially on Wednesday. I’m actually really excited for classes to start up, because I want to have some kind of routine to fall into. I like routines apparently.
The other SYAers seem like…really awesome. Most of them are very outgoing, but not overly so, which makes complete sense; I mean, they did sign up for a year abroad and everything. I think we’re all really excited to be here, which is awesome. I can tell a lot of us are going to get along.
P.S. Cheeking kissing is really not that hard. Seriously. I think we should adopt this custom in America.
05 September 2008
In Which Rayla Is Claimed From The Orphanage
After arriving in Rennes (arrival requiring a seven hour plane ride, going through customs, baggage claiming [extensive process], and five hours of riding in a bus), we’re finally here, at our beautiful school! I’m seriously not kidding though, this school is beautiful. It’s a big, old brick house with a totally awesome French-looking roof. It’s a nineteenth century private home, and I get to take all my classes here for nine months. Surreal, I’m telling you. I’ll attach some pictures of our beautiful school so you can marvel at its beauty.
Anyway, we’re here! We unloaded all our luggage (which is a lot of luggage!) and are waiting for our host families to pick us up. This waiting is a fairly unnerving process; a bunch of people we don’t know, but have heard about, are coming to meet us in person, chit chat in another language, most likely attack us with French/European customary cheek kisses, and – best of all! – take us to their house to live with them for nine months. Most of us who hadn’t really gotten nervous yet were definitely beginning to feel a little on edge.
It’s at this stress-filled, extremely exciting, and continually surreal time that I’m talking with a few other SYAers, and someone says, “Does anyone else feel like we’re at an orphanage or something, waiting for our parents to claim us?” This totally insightful question is greeted with lots of laughter and agreement. “That’s exactly how it feels!”
Anyway, we’re here! We unloaded all our luggage (which is a lot of luggage!) and are waiting for our host families to pick us up. This waiting is a fairly unnerving process; a bunch of people we don’t know, but have heard about, are coming to meet us in person, chit chat in another language, most likely attack us with French/European customary cheek kisses, and – best of all! – take us to their house to live with them for nine months. Most of us who hadn’t really gotten nervous yet were definitely beginning to feel a little on edge.
It’s at this stress-filled, extremely exciting, and continually surreal time that I’m talking with a few other SYAers, and someone says, “Does anyone else feel like we’re at an orphanage or something, waiting for our parents to claim us?” This totally insightful question is greeted with lots of laughter and agreement. “That’s exactly how it feels!”
04 September 2008
In Which Rayla Attempts To Connect To The Allusive "Free Public WiFi" At The Hilton, But Fails (Darn.)
So, my computer must be freaking out or something because it detects a wireless connection called “Free Public WiFi,” which apparently does not exist. But hey, attempting in vain to connect to the internet at least kills time before our meeting!
I’m here at the Boston-Logon International Airport, obviously located in Boston, USA, and let me tell you, this airport is BIG! Kind of like LAX, but since I’m not used to flying out of LAX, Logon is definitely kind of huge and, well, ridiculous. The good news though is that I found a Starbucks in 5 seconds flat. Plus, my flight here was ridiculously smooth – have you ever flown with no turbulence? – and we had a flight attendant with a hilarious Bostonian accent which was quite humorous for awhile. During the 3 hour and 45 minute flight – which managed to get in early – I managed to drink two glasses of water, eat peanut butter crackers, eat “cinnamon biscotti cookies” embossed with the word DELTA, be grossed out by some weird fruit the couple next to me were eating, and finish about 250 pages of my latest Jodi Picoult novel – “Plain Truth.” I actually expected the flight to seem longer, I guess it flew by (pun intended.)
I guess you could say my endless day of travel has started out pretty well. I flew from Ontario to Salt Lake City in a small plane – only 10 rows, 2 seats on each side of the aisle! That flight happened to be full of college students, specifically the Azusa Pacific University women’s volleyball team, apparently on their way to a competition or something. Then, from Salt Lake City I had a ridiculously short layover before flying to Boston, where I am right now.
Finding the hotel where SYA was meeting was a little interesting, until I tried using common sense. Wow. Go Rayla! But I eventually found it, and it’s obviously a very fancy hotel. The carpet is kind of psychedelic, but I like it. Moments after coming off the walkway, I was about to walk past this table, all the while thinking “hmm, is this the SYA table? Are these SYA people?” and this woman comes up to me and asks, “Are you Rayla?” Why, yes I am! After figuring out that I had my passport already in my possession, she said I was free to “hang out.” Yay!
Hanging out has been interesting. After wandering about for a while in this posh hotel lobby area, I saw a girl on her laptop. Inspired, I plunked down on a cushy armchair, and hence, my fruitless search for WiFi ensued. And that’s the story of how my trip is going to far (although I decided it’s not really right to call it a trip, it’s much to long for “trip” status…)
I’m sure I’ll post this a little later when I have internet access, since right now I’m writing this in an ordinary word document. Lack of internet will never stop me from rambling on this blog! Keep that in mind.
I see random people walking around…some of them look vaguely like a collection of facebook pictures I have been looking at for the last few…
(Blog entry abruptly ends; Jesse Steere came over and struck up a conversation with me, leading to lots of other people to flock towards us and expand the conversation until our depature meeting. Bon Voyage!)
I’m here at the Boston-Logon International Airport, obviously located in Boston, USA, and let me tell you, this airport is BIG! Kind of like LAX, but since I’m not used to flying out of LAX, Logon is definitely kind of huge and, well, ridiculous. The good news though is that I found a Starbucks in 5 seconds flat. Plus, my flight here was ridiculously smooth – have you ever flown with no turbulence? – and we had a flight attendant with a hilarious Bostonian accent which was quite humorous for awhile. During the 3 hour and 45 minute flight – which managed to get in early – I managed to drink two glasses of water, eat peanut butter crackers, eat “cinnamon biscotti cookies” embossed with the word DELTA, be grossed out by some weird fruit the couple next to me were eating, and finish about 250 pages of my latest Jodi Picoult novel – “Plain Truth.” I actually expected the flight to seem longer, I guess it flew by (pun intended.)
I guess you could say my endless day of travel has started out pretty well. I flew from Ontario to Salt Lake City in a small plane – only 10 rows, 2 seats on each side of the aisle! That flight happened to be full of college students, specifically the Azusa Pacific University women’s volleyball team, apparently on their way to a competition or something. Then, from Salt Lake City I had a ridiculously short layover before flying to Boston, where I am right now.
Finding the hotel where SYA was meeting was a little interesting, until I tried using common sense. Wow. Go Rayla! But I eventually found it, and it’s obviously a very fancy hotel. The carpet is kind of psychedelic, but I like it. Moments after coming off the walkway, I was about to walk past this table, all the while thinking “hmm, is this the SYA table? Are these SYA people?” and this woman comes up to me and asks, “Are you Rayla?” Why, yes I am! After figuring out that I had my passport already in my possession, she said I was free to “hang out.” Yay!
Hanging out has been interesting. After wandering about for a while in this posh hotel lobby area, I saw a girl on her laptop. Inspired, I plunked down on a cushy armchair, and hence, my fruitless search for WiFi ensued. And that’s the story of how my trip is going to far (although I decided it’s not really right to call it a trip, it’s much to long for “trip” status…)
I’m sure I’ll post this a little later when I have internet access, since right now I’m writing this in an ordinary word document. Lack of internet will never stop me from rambling on this blog! Keep that in mind.
I see random people walking around…some of them look vaguely like a collection of facebook pictures I have been looking at for the last few…
(Blog entry abruptly ends; Jesse Steere came over and struck up a conversation with me, leading to lots of other people to flock towards us and expand the conversation until our depature meeting. Bon Voyage!)
01 September 2008
In Which Rayla Throws A Bon Voyage Party...
Thank you so much to everyone who came to the "Bon Voyage" party. I think we all had an amazing time! It started out with some interesting Italian soda making/science experiements, where a few of the [weird] people mixed together...er...unique flavor combinations, like Peaches 'n' Lime 'n' Cream. Cheers! After some delicious, and some not so delicious, Italian/"French" sodas, we played Apples to Apples, the most freaking amazing game I have ever played. (By the way, I still think Lorsine got it wrong...Chunky George W. Bush all the way!) Apples to Apples was followed by the most American meal we could think of - sandwiches, potato chips and macaroni 'n' cheese! It was really delicious actually, in my opinion. What did you guys think? Anyway, after dinner, we played possibly the most exciting (and educational!) game of the evening - France Trivia! Who would have thought that some many intelligent juniors would have already forgotten absolutely everything from Modern World History? Congrats to L'Équipe d'Escargot for winning by a whopping thousand points! Who knows maybe we'll have a rematch at my Coming Back Party! Just kidding. Kind of. France Trivia was followed by a quick game of ImaginIff, which was then followed by an absolutely amazing cake [which we ate]. The loudest and craziest game of the evening was Hilarium, a ridiculous game of matching, charades and REALLY LOUD NOISES. We played several rounds of that until we were so hyper that we were probably killing brain cells from sheer speed of talking. Hilarium was the loudest, but the final [and I think best] game we played was the Gift Exchange at the very end. This slightly frightening gift exchange involved violent stealing and hoarding of the pink lotion, and best of all, the prized Burt's Bees [which I ended up getting, yay]! And that concluded the evening.
Thanks again everyone for coming! It meant so much to me that you all came to wish me "bon voyage and bon chance!" I hope you all enjoyed your goodie bags too, especially that CD! [Sidenote: there's actually three different versions of the CD. iTunes apparently only allows you to burn the same playlist to a CD 7 times, therefore there are three different versions, but they all have the same songs except for the first song.] Here's the playlist that was on it [so even if you weren't at the party you can listen to it!], along with a little bit of commentary about why I chose each song:
1) "Madly" - Tristan Prettyman (...was actually recommended to me by a fellow SYAer. She posted on our SYA Facebook group something like, "Oh my gosh, there's this awesome free download on iTunes, download it!" and I did, and it was awesome.)
1) "Six Feet Under The Stars" - All Time Low (...is a tribute to one of my best friends in the world who couldn't be at the party, and her name is Amy. She lives in Colorado, and I've known her...for like, forever. She really recently introduced me to the awesomeness of this song, and I put it on here for all of you guys.)
1) "Dance Inside" - The All-American Rejects (...me and Nuria and Nicole once had a discussion about this song. I decided that [after a lot of debate] this was by far the best AAR song, despite the fact that it is undoubtedly the dirtiest.)
2) "Bubbly" - Colbie Caillat (...this song became really important to me over the summer. Now every time I hear it, I think of my amazing experience at SIG (aka Nerd Camp), and all the awesome friends I made there.)
3) "First Time" - Lifehouse (...well, I recently got really obsessed with Lifehouse. Much like my previous music obsessions - Snow Patrol, Twilight songs, "Your Guardian Angel"), I totally fell in love with all of their songs, but this is one of my absolute favorites, partially because it's one of their lesser known songs.)
4) "I Kissed A Girl" - Katy Perry (...too many memories of dancing around like crazy and spontaneously singing this song in the elevators of Towle Hall to leave this one off.)
5) "Best I've Ever Had" - Vertical Horizon (...I don't think that Nuria would ever expect me to base my music selections off what she listens to, mostly because we listen to such different things, but then I was downloading a ton of new music, I remembered that one time, maybe a really long time ago, Nuria was listening to a Vertical Horizon CD. I downloaded this song randomly, listened to it, and loved it.)
6) "Be My Escape" - Relient K (...you know, I never did figure out if it was "Ree-Lie-Ent" or "Rel-y-ent" K?)
7) "How You Remind Me" - Nickelback (...this is just one of those classics, at least to me, that you can't really leave off. It demands a place on this CD of self-proclaimed "awesomeness.")
8) "Sorry" - Buckcherry (...sorry I had to leave you guys! Well, that's not really why I put this on here, but still. But seriously, have you ever been listening to the radio and you just have to know what's playing because it's so awesome. This is a song that was like that for me; I love when a song just grabs you like that.)
9) "Through Glass" - Stone Sour (...another tribute to the lovely Amy, this song is something that I first heard [of all places] on her MySpace page! No joke. The funny thing about this band is that this song is amazing, yet I can't listen to anything else they sing - way too much hardcore and metal!)
10) "I'm Yours" - Jason Mraz (...this is one of those songs that everyone has heard, but they don't know that they've heard it. It's funny, every time I tell someone to listen to this song, they listen for five seconds and then they're like, "I've heard this before! Dang, where did I heard that?!" I thought it was in a commercial or something. Maybe on Grey's. Turns out it's not. I have no idea where I first heard it, it's kind of a mystery, but it's awesome.)
11) "Slide" - The Goo Goo Dolls (...you'd think that a band with a name like "The Goo Goo Dolls" would have totally weird/stupid music [and I guess the non-stupidity of their music is still debatable, but I like it!] Anyway, this is probably the best Goo Goo Dolls song, in my opinion. I kind of love it. It makes me want to sing or dance or something.)
12) "Be Like That" - 3 Doors Down (...I love this song because it's so simple, it gets stuck in your heard. But it's also a pretty awesome song. I mean, who wouldn't want to be like that? I think a lot of people would give a lot to change things about themselves, but it also begs the question, would it even do any good? Wow, sorry to get all philosophical. Hehehe. I just like the message in this song.)
13) "For The Nights I Can't Remember" - Hedley (...more people should listen to Hedley. They're pretty awesome. I found them thanks to the amazing pandora.com, and I'm glad I did. This is my favorite Hedley song, and it also happens to be one of my very favorite Twilight/Jacob songs. I just love it.)
14) "Whatever It Takes" - Lifehouse (...this song is stalking me. I already said I loved Lifehouse, and this amazing Lifehouse song seems to be following me. On the radio. On my iPod. In stores at the mall...everywhere. And I can't really complain, it's a freaking amazing song.)
15) "All Over You" - The Spill Canvas (...I think I have to thank one of my Twilight friends for turning me into a Spill Canvas fan too. This song is my absolute favorite song at this exact moment [subject to change without notice!] and I love it. Also, The Spill Canvas is a lesser known band, so if you guys like this song, you should listen to some of their other stuff too!)
So that's the playlist/CD. I really hoped you guys liked it, I took some time to choose some great songs for you guys!
The party was some of my goodbyes, but I'll also be at AHS on the first day of school (Tuesday) during lunch for the last minute ones. B-Hall if you want to talk to me!
I leave for Rennes on Wednesday, Sept. 3 at 6:00 am.
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