In Which Rayla Speaks Jovially About Beaucoup de Trucs, Including Weather

 

Happy Halloween all! Sorry, but I am 100% positive that this latest post will not be available for your reading pleasure on the actual day of Halloween (oh darn!), but none the less, I am here – living, breathing, and existing – on Halloween! Boo to you! They don’t really celebrate Halloween in France. Well, not very well at least. It’s one of those extremely American traditions that French people secretly think is really cool and desperately want to copy, but alas cannot because they can’t just go changing their entire culture (at least not all at once).

It’s true though, there are elements of American culture that French people admire ridiculously much. In some ways, I’m found that they wish they were American. Halloween is one example. Another good one is the French teenagers obsession with Converse (you know, the basketball shoes?) Total. Obsession. Seriously, ask any SYAer what their host siblings favorite type of shoes are, and not only with they know exactly (which is pretty bizarre, who goes around talking about their favorite shoe type?), every single one of the them will say “Oh, obviously, Converse! Isn’t that your host sib’s favorite too?” Answer: YES. So yes, it’s cool to pretend you’re American in France. In general, Americans are cool. Here’s the paradox: American’s are also idiotic, ignorant, arrogant, and frivolous. Yet, French people like us and want to copy us. That makes sense right? NO.

Seriously, if anyone in the world was a hypocrite about anything, it might have to be the French and their strange American love/hate relationship. It’s kind of funny though; me and Kelly were talking about this exact same thing the other day. Apparently, Americans are the stupidest and more ignorant people ever. And yet, tons of French college students still flock to the US to go to college. Some French kids would kill to go to university in the US. Seriously. They want to come really really badly. Next up, Americans are ugly and have no fashion sense. Yet, Converse are literally everywhere and French teenagers wear Abercrombie hoodies despite the fact that there aren’t actually any Abercrombie stores in France (well, maybe one in Paris, but I don’t think so. I think they buy them online, it’s so weird.) Our American government is corrupt and unjust, yet our election news is huge here. Explanation? No clue. C’est bizarre, je dis. Très bizarre. Actually, it’s not bizarre. It’s just French.

Another funny Frenchism I’ve discovered, now that I mentioned the election. The general French population has some funny ideas about Obama/the election. I discovered this the other day when I was talking about politics with my family the day we got back from the Loire Valley. I said that everyone thinks Obama is going to win because he is way ahead, and my family said “obviously” and then they said “blah blah blah MORT…DEAD!”

Silly me, I thought they were saying that it’s too bad that Obama’s dead. Now, you have to understand, I actually had been out of town ignoring world news for the last four days, so it isn’t out of the questions that I would have totally missed something like that. But basically, I was thinking, “OK that sounds utterly ridiculous” but I was still a little upset that we didn’t have internet access at home because I really really wanted to go on CNN. com just to make sure my world wasn’t crumbling around me.

Anyway, I survived thinking that Obama might be dead (I wasn’t actually that worried, you see) and the next day I was sortir-ing with Maggie and Lucie in République and I just randomly burst out: “Hey, Obama isn’t dead right?”

Lucie laughs – a laugh of comprehension! Yes! – and says that her host family thinks that Obama is going to get killed too. I was like, WHAT? And then she explained this to me:

Apparently, there are many French people that believe in three absolute truths of the US election.

1)   1. Obama will be a better president than McCain.

2)   2. Obama will win the election.

3)   3. Obama will be assassinated by crazy racists.

I find this to be ridiculous. Have they no faith in America? We’re the land for the free and the home of the brave and the melting pot of the world, not to mention that we have the freaking Secret Service to prevent presidents for getting killed. It’s not like it would be that easy to just take out Obama. I mean seriously. And we’re not that racist either! Look French people! Obama’s in the lead! What does that say about how “racist” America is?

Anyway, very funny and interesting. Whoo culture!

Oh freaking Lord, it is SO cold here. Apparently global warming is hitting us really hard this year, because it’s supposed to SNOW next week. No joke. SNOW. S-N-O-W. Cold cold cold. It gets dark and it gets down to like five degrees Celsius, which in case you need a refresher on none stupid American temperature measure…THAT’S ONLY 5 DEGREES ABOVE FREEZING. It’s cold, yo. Very cold. Yesterday when we were hanging out in Rennes, me and Maggie and Lucie were literally hopping from restaurant to restaurant just because walking around aimlessly deciding where to go was out of the question unless we wanted to freeze to death. So we tried a new kabob place (two thumbs up) and after that went straight to Café Candiot where we stayed for maybe an hour and a half and then went straight to get crêpes. And somewhere along the lines we stopped in Galleries Lafayette and Maggie actually bought a beret because it was so cold out and her ears were cold. Yeah. Cold.

It gets dark here earlier too. It’s not too dark right now, but even when the sun is up it’s cold and gray. California cloudless skies are very far off.

I’ll keep you updated about snow. If it happens.

Oh by the way, I bought Grey’s Season 1 in FRENCH! It’s so amazing I love it. It’s annoying how all their voices are different though. And that one episode where in the English version Ellen Pompeo had totally lost her voice is normal in the French version! I was like, why does this voice sound normal? It’s supposed to be weird and nasally, I’ve seen this episode at least 10 times and every single time the voice was weird, and you’re telling me that it’s normal now? Really? Really?!

I sent out a bunch of postcards from the Loire today. If you get one, yay you! If you don’t get one and feel very strongly about it, leave me a pointed comment and I’ll be sure to send you one in two weeks when we’re at Mont St. Michel, d’accord?

Tout le monde, bisous de France!

(Don’t eat too much candy now, little childrens!)

In Which Rayla Talks Randomly About Packing, Literature Class Weirdness, Umbrellas, and Dr. Mamour...

Katelyn told me to update my blog. OK, Katelyn, I will!

We're all very excited for the Loire Valley trip which starts TOMORROW! At 8 am! in the morning! Ack! But anyway, I packed my bag yesterday, upon suggestion of my host family... [...]

SCENARIO: Rayla walks in the door, just arriving from school/Café Candiot

Rayla: Bon soir!

(Bisous exchanged)
Dad: Bon soir!

Mom: Bon soir!

Rayla: Blah blah blah.

...Random Conversation...

Rayla: Something that amounts to: "LOIRE VALLEY TRIP TOMORROW! O-M-G!"

Mom: Yay! You should pack!

Good advice. Very good advice. :-D

So, I packed all my stuff after dinner, and ended up filling up a complete suitcase. I started out with a strategy and gameplan, choosing outfits, etc. but ended up thinking of other stuff I needed (What if it's really cold? I'll need my hoodie!) and throwing in more clothes until I had basically an entire mix and match wardrobe. Wheeeee.

In other news besides the Loire Trip, which starts tomorrow did I mention(!), I've decided that Culture (CESF) is my favorite class. I love all the stuff we learn in that class, because it's super interesting and strangely helpful (you never think you'll need to know the French word for "people old enough to vote in an election" but strangely, you do...all the time) and I feel like I learn more vocabulary there that I actually use than any other class. Not to mention our class discussions which are actually pretty good...and in French! Plus our culture teacher, Pascal, is really awesome. We're all sad that he's not coming on the Loire trip with us. Dommage...

As for my other classes, I think they're going pretty well. The first quarter ended today (no matter how much we try to deny it, our year is like...a quarter over...did I mention that I'm trying to ignore it?...impossible I say, we just got here!) and we'll be getting our quarter grades after vacation I think. In littérature, we're reading King Arthur in French. It's really intense and requires extensive dictionary use, but I'm surprised how much we can understand. Plus, just imagine all the useful vocab that I'm absorbing by reading about medieval Arthurian shenanigans...I know at least five words for "war" now, along with different ways to say "knight", "dead bodies", and "illegitimate child". ...Pretty funny, if you think about it. I don't know how to comment on how delicious my dinner it, yet I can analyze in detail and in French the metaphors in poetry, discuss the philosophy of Rousseau and comment on the fact that King Arthur had an affair with his half-sister... That's the funny thing about learning French literature.

We're learning about poetry in English and reading this textbook (photocopy!) about poetic stuff that's called "Versification." Any AHS Sophomore English Honors students of last year, or many years past I'm assuming, I would just like to say that Versification is reminding me freakishly much of Poetics, except it's not in Old English. Yay for that! We discussed "The Road Not Taken" - the best poem ever! - the other day, and I basically found out that all the analysis I have ever done of that poem (i.e. Guy takes road less travelled, and it makes all the difference...) was totally not right because he DIDN'T take the road less travelled...they're actually travelled the same... Anyway, we analyzed that and that was awesome, but now we're talking about meter and stress and feet and poetic forms, wheeeee. Apparently, today we're analyzing The Raven though, as our special "Halloween" class. Should be fun.

Speaking of English, we just finished reading our second book of the year "Winesburg, Ohio" and I have to say, it was amazing. First book I've read for English and actually enjoyed in a really long time. It's very dark though. Very very dark and depressing. Grotesque, one might say...

(Kelly says it's not that depressing. Sorry Kelly, I think it's depressing. It's filled with stories about people who are empty and twisted inside.)

So today, me and Maggie went to the creperie for lunch, and I had this amazing crepe with chocolate and coconut creme and it was AMAZING! After that, we wandered around looking for a contact lens case because Maggie needed one, and we were extremely upset to discover that even at the big grochery store they have NO CONTACT STUFF! None! Quelle dommage! I swear, it's the stuff you don't expect to not be able to find that France seems to not have. We also had a funny incident where Maggie grabbed a random umbrella in the store and went to pay (because it might rain in the Loire Valley, you know?) and then she found out that the umbrella actually cost 20E and it's a really crappy umbrella that will probably break tomorrow. That was surprising/unhappy/really funny. Oh! And I bought French TV Guide because it has Patrick Dempsey aka Derek on the cover (you know, brain surgeon from Grey's?) You know they translate "McDreamy" as "Dr. Mamour" in French? I don't like it. McDreamy is not the same thing as Dr. MLove. No, translator people. Just...no.

Well, this blog entry is getting really weird. I don't know if I'll be able to update over the break, but I'll post again for sure once we return to school!

Love you all! Bisous!

Rayla's Crêpe Eating Advetures!

How any crepes can one person eat during nine months in France? Place your bets, let's find out as we trace Rayla's crepe eating adventures!

First, some terminology.

crêpe - it starts out with a really thin pancake-like thing, and then you fill it with delicious stuff like chocolate, fruit, or Nutella. It's amazing. (By the way, just for the record, it's pronounced like creh-puh [rhymes with Jonny Depp's last name] it is NOT a craype!)

galette - like a crepe, but made with buckwheat flour and no sugar, and filled with ham (jambon), cheese, eggs, and sometimes other stuff. It's a specialty of Bretagne.

nutella - an amazing spread with peanut-butterish consistency, made of hazlenuts and chocolate. Very European, very delicious. Great in crêpes.

----------------------------------------------------------


1) Sept. 4, GALETTE ENCOUNTER! Rayla enjoys a delicious, home-made galette complet on her first evening with her host family.

2) Sept. 10, AU CHOCOLAT. Rayla, Uchenna, Ashley, and Alex discover the amazing crêperie right off the bus line at République. Rayla eats an amazing crêpe au chocolat.

3) Sept. 12, AU CHOCOLAT. Rayla and Maggie wander around near school during a double free period until they finally discover an adorable crêperie. Yummy chocolate crêpes!

4) Sept. 14, AU NUTELLA AT ST. MALO! Rayla eats a Nutella crepe with her host family at St. Malo.

5) Sept. 17, PARTY AT THE CREPERIE! Six SYAers go down to the crêperie at République for a tasty snack. Rayla gets chocolate again.

6) Sept. 19, ST. MALO CREPES AGAIN. On the school trip to St. Malo, Katie, Maggie, Lucie, and Rayla enjoy delicious nutella crêpes with powdered sugar.

7) Sept. 19, MORE CREPES TODAY. Rayla and Katie enjoy their second Nutella crêpe of the day at the Crêperie Ste. Anne after we get back from St. Malo.

8-9) Sept. 20, CREPES FOR LUNCH. Rayla & Co. enjoy a yummy lunch of ham & cheese galettes and nutella crêpes.

10) Sept. 24, CREPE/GALETTE COMBINATIONS. Rayla splits a galette jambon/fromage with Jackson, and then splits a crêpe au chocolat and a crêpe beurre sucre three ways with Jackson and Ashley. This comes out to 1/2 + 2/3 of a crêpe, which comes out to 7/6. Which is about 1.

11) Sept. 25, THE ALWAYS-CLOSED CREPE PLACE IS OPEN!!! Katie and Rayla ditch the St. Vincennes café and end up at that creperie that is always closed, and it was actually open! Rayla enjoyed a crêpe au chocolat.

12) Sept. 26, HAPPY B-DAY CREPE! Maggie and Rayla have a double free and go to that cute creperie again. Crêpe au nutella this time!

13-14) Sept. 27, CREPES FOR LUNCH. Maggie and Rayla eat crêpes for lunch during our shopping expedition (in which I accidentally drained my bank account, oops!) Galette jambon et fromage, and several hours later, un crêpe beurre sucre.

15) Sept. 29, CREPES FOR LUNCH. Kelly and Katie and Rayla go to the crêperie that's never open and speak French the whole time. Meanwhile, I also eat a galette jambon fromage et un crêpe au chocolat.

16) Sept. 29, APRES L'ECOLE. Maggie and Rayla get crêpes after school. Au nutella.

17-18) Oct 4, AT OUR FAVORITE CREPERIE.

19-23) Oct 9, TOO MANY CREPES! AHHH!

24-25) Oct 11, Creperie Ste. Anne

26) Oct 13, Creperie Ste. Anne

27-28) Oct 17, Creperie That's Never Open

In Which Rayla Unintentionally Uncovers The Secret To Good French Bread

You've probably heard me all raving about French bread. And how good it is. And how superior it is. And how my bread eating has turned me into a bakery snob who will most likely die when she has to return to the US and eat disgusting processed, sliced bread. I shudder at the thought.

Obviously, I love French bread. But I found out something really awesome today, guys. Seriously. I was sitting in culture (CESF) and we were talking about décentralisation and people who work for l'État...and I discovered the secret. The secret behind good French bread.

Want to know the secret? Ha! You have to listen to my long winded story first! Here goes:

(Kelly commented on my "lovely discreet suspense." Yes, I know, I'm a horrible blog tease. Get over it.)

So...it's culture class, our second block of CESF for today, and we're all talking about décentralisation and how France has a school system that requires you to take tests to enter certain professions and stuff. And Lilly asks, "so what happens if you don't pass any of the concours? What do you do then?" And we're all like, wow that would suck...hmmmm. Then Pascal points out that, heuresement, not everyone works for the state. "Oooooooh!" So then we start throwing out ideas of things you could do that aren't controlled by the state. You could open a store for example!

And then I say it. "On peut ouvrir une boulangerie!" (You could open a bakery!) Of course I just assume that this conviction is totally right. After all, a bakery (boulangerie) is a type of store right? Well...Pascal definitely hesitated. Then....the secret of French bread, unintentionally, was revealed:

He said: "Mais, pour ouvrir une boulangerie et faire le pain, on dois avoir un diplôme."

And there was a moment of agreement, where we all nod our heads in agreement with why boulangerie isn't really a good example...and then a second later we're all like: WHAT?!?!

It's true, guys. In order to open a bakery in France, you must have a college diploma. Seriously. I was sitting there laughing with everyone else at how ridiculous it seems, because college-educated bread makers just seems a tad ridiculous and is without a doubt the funniest thing I've heard all week. Pascal told us that, yes, it's a little ridiculous, but hey..."No offense, but our bread really is better than your bread in the US."

Word, Pascal. Word.

In Which Rayla Learns About Castle Architecture In Art History

So I was sitting in Art History today, and it's the period before lunch so we're all dying of hunger and generally antsy, but JP (our art history teacher) was teaching castle architecture today (in preparation for our trip to the Loire Valley) and it was actually really intense and interesting. The best thing is, he puts pictures of beautiful castles up on the screen and then points out all the different military purposes of all the parts, and then says stuff like, "Oh, and we'll go and see this next week."

Seriously. It's totally intense. Like, we're learning all these terms and the evolution of the castle and characteristics, and it's all for a purpose - to take a trip and see if for real. Our trip to the Loire Valley is less than two weeks away, and it's so hard to believe that in about ten days we'll be looking at medieval castles in REAL LIFE instead of just looking at pictures on the screen. It's just so cool! I can't wait to go on the Loire Valley trip, castles are so amazing. Plus, it just makes art history seem so important to learn it and then live it. Seriously. I heard on the SYA videos how students say that they learn about stuff and then go out and see it for real, but I didn't realize how unbelievably cool that is until I actually got hear and JP started saying "look at the draw bridge over the moat...très utile! And we'll be able to see this in person next week!"

In other news, SYA France will be taking the PSAT/NMSQT tomorrow at 8:00 am! On Wednesday! Gasp! The cool thing is that all our classes have been canceled on account of the test, so afterwards everyone is free! It doesn't seem like anyone is really stressing about the test though; I'm surely not. Mr. Pratt told us (in a funny, college counselor advice type of way) that we better not blow off our homework for our real classes to practice for a practice test. It's true though. The practice test for the PSAT is kind of a funny concept. It's a practice test for a Practice SAT...a practice test.

Loire Valley! Oh my gosh! Our first school trip! Next Friday!

In Which Rayla Eats Some Mysterious Rice

Today I ate rice in France. French rice. And let me tell you, it takes mysteriously like bread. In fact, I was realizing that the similarities between rice and bread are actually pretty startling. For example, they are both white and grain type things, and initially invented so that poor people wouldn’t starve (don’t have enough money for meat? Just eat rice/bread, you’ll be fine, you’re just a peasant from China/France!) Of course today, rice has nothing to do with being rich or poor. Most people just eat it because it's delicious! Especially if it's this French rice. This stuff is good/weirdly good, let me tell you.

Rice in France is apparently not that common, because this is the first time my host family has served it for dinner. I found it to taste like bread. The rice tasted of delicious bread. I think my host family must think so to, because they put butter in their rice. Yum. I find this to be very cool.

Food in France is really amazing though. I don’t think I will ever be able to eat American food again. The other day, my host family and I went to a [French] McDonalds. It’s better than the American ones (how odd!) but I found myself feeling a bit sick afterward. I used to be able to eat that good just fine! My stomach has turned soft by the deliciousness of French food! My stomach is too good for American foods, apparently, or so it thinks. My stomach is a French snob. Great. (JK...I love American foods? Oh well...I'll let you know in May. Haha.)

French bread is God’s gift to Earth (and I don’t mean that in the strictly biblical sense). Eating bread in France is kind of amazing. It’s fifty million times better than any bread we have in the US. Any attempted recreations of this amazing bread in the US is strictly a pathetic fail; US “French Bread” will never compare to actual baguettes purchased daily and fresh from the local boulangerie. In France, the crust is just so good. And the inside is so soft. And it’s just amazing. In fact… (dramatic noises)… “Le surface du pain est merveilleuse d’abord de cette impression quasi panoramique qu’elle donne…”

We had to memorize this really long, overly-descriptive passage about how amazing bread is. For literature. We had to memorize it and recite it. Yeah. It’s like an inside joke now at SYA.

ANYWAY… Speaking of French food, I would like to joyfully report that Rayla & Co. have officially adopted a “favorite café” and “favorite crêperie”! This is breaking news. We hope to visit both as often as possible so that the people who work there start recognizing us. It’s going to be great.

Our favorite café is just past the post office at République, on the side where not as many people go. It’s called Le Café Candiot (we were rather disappointed when we looked up ‘candiot’ in our French-English dictionary, all sly-like under the table totally subtle, and we found out that it doesn’t mean anything!), and it’s officially the cutest café ever. The walls are all painted yellow and orange and there are cool things on the wall and there are tall tables and short tables. And it has tables outside. And they have simply marvelous hot chocolate. They bring the chocolately syrup goodness to you in the cup, with the warm milk separate. You pour in the milk yourself and stir it and everything, and (if you’re really French) you add sugar too. It’s simply marvelous. They also have amazing, soft chocolate cake and other desserts, milkshakes that look amazing but we haven’t tried yet, tons of flavors of tea that they bring to you by the pot, little glass bottles of Nestea Pêche, 70 flavors of Diablos, and apparently really good coffee. The last time I went in there with Maggie, Katie and Kelly, the waiter who is always there recognized us and gave us a special table even though it was really crowded. It was awesome.

Our favorite crêperie is called La Crêperie La Thosté, and it’s near Sainte-Anne, right by the bus stop for Champs Jaquet. It’s near the older center of town, and the buildings near it are ridiculously cute and old looking. When we walk there, we take the street approaching the cute buildings, and we’ve had many a discussion about whether those buildings are indeed the picture they used excessively all over the brochure for SYA. “Look! Rennes is cute! All the buildings are comme ça!” Well, in reality, all the buildings are not like that, but our favorite crêperie and the restaurants next to it definitely are. The crêpes at this awesome place are simply to die for. The crêpe is nice and soft, but just a little bit flaky and sugary on the edges which make it perfect. Just the right amount of Nutella, no skimping on the Nutella to save money, people! They have galettes too, and they’re really awesome. I love galettes with ham and cheese. They make my life. The crêperie is our Saturday lunch hang out, and I love it.

A few of the other places of note:

The crêperie that’s never open is right by our school and, in fact, is actually open sometimes! We wanted to try the place for a really long time but were convinced that it was NEVER open! After much suspense, failed efforts (and finally caving and looking at the sign on the window) we discovered that the crêperie actually was open occasionally! But only 2 hours for lunch! It opens at 11:45 and closes at 2. We like this crêperie quite a bit too, and obviously it’s very convenient as a lunch option when the café at St. Vincennes is too crowded to handle.

Speaking of the café at St. Vincennes, I should probably tell you about this amazing place! Oh, how silly we were to settle for the normal cafeteria upstairs for the first few weeks! Some ingenious SYAers discovered this semi-hidden mini-café underneath the school, which actually is a part of their cafeteria offerings, and therefore on our lunch card. (Sweet! Free food!) The thing that makes it awesome is that they have the best sandwiches in the world (on baguettes), Nestea, hot chocolate, and some other stuff like paninis, pizza, etc. Not to mention the beignets. They have beignets, and it makes me happy. The very strange thing about this café place is that it’s sometimes a little interesting at lunch time. Have you heard the stereotype that French people don’t wait in lines? Well, let me tell you, IT’S TRUE. If there are too many French lycée students down in the café before SYA gets there (mostly, Thursday) it’s simply a mob-scene of people cramming in to get food and elbowing you out of the way to swipe their lunch card before you. It’s kind of funny. Usually we opt for the crêperie that’s never open on Thursdays, just to save ourselves the stress. (Though we did fight the crowd a few times. I passed it off as a cultural experience, but really, it was just kind of fun. Plus, the food’s good.)

Our second favorite or other favorite café is another place at Sainte-Anne. It’s called the Café Marina, even though their mugs say Café Kimbo (a strange phenomenon that has occurred at many many cafés, their cups don’t match!) We accidentally stumbled upon this place one day and found out that they have really good hot chocolate and inside they have a TV with music videos which is quite entertaining. We like going there when we’re in Sainte-Anne, but we all like Candiot better and it’s worth the hike (cough! BUS RIDE! One stop on the 19!) to République for our amazing Chocolat Candiot and squishy choco cake. (No, I’m not going to gain 50 pounds while I’m over here! Cough!)

Somewhere that is definitely NOT of note: the poser café at République. Beware the adorable-looking French-looking café with the velvet upholstered chairs and logo’d ashtrays. It may look like an awesome little café, it is really NOT an amazing café, and NOT French. It seems Americanized. Tourist trap! They don’t give you saucers with your hot chocolate! And they give you your drinks and the check at the same time! And they don’t give you the check in a little tray! So no, don’t go to this stupid café. It’s not really French. It just LOOKS French. I think they only make money because people unwittingly stumble in right off the bus or metro. Oh well look, dear, an adorable little café that appears to be quite quaint and charming. Let’s spend money there and enjoy a nice French experience! NOT. The poser café is kind of an inside joke of ours too. We love to mock it.

You know what I realized the other day? French people eat so much bread and crêpes and stuff, this whole country would be an epic fail at a carb diet. Wow. Not that they need it. They are all beautiful.

In Which Rayla Learns The Power of Holy Graphs, Discovers That She Has Been Pronouncing The Word "Asymptote" Wrong Forever, And Other Things

So here I am. Sitting. In the grande salle. On the internet. And I'm writing you this blog because today we had the weirdest day in math ever! Everyone kept on asking questions about graphing functions f(x)/g(x) and everyone was really confused. And people talked. But I wasn't confused, etc, I was bored and played with my calculator. It can make numbers really small before it freaks out and says AHHHHHH! USE FREAKING NORMAL SIZED NUMBERS, I HATE DECIMALS YOU STUPID MATH STUDENT!

Celia test drove my calculator on the SAT last Saturday. Apparently hers was malfunctioning due to some battery issue. Anyway, I lent (wait, is that how you spell that?) her mine and she used it. So now someone used my brand-new calculator on the SAT. Maybe it gains special SAT powers and can do math better after the first time you use it. We will see. (I don't really think it does).

Anyway, I was sitting in math. In the jardin. And it was cold. And I was thinking about why I didn't bring my coat, etc, when study Mr. Watt says "asymptote" except pronounces it correctly, unlike Ms. Crew did. He said "as-im-toe-t." Ms. Crew always used to say "as-im-toe-puh." I was convinced that he was pronouncing it wrong and was going to call him on it (being the English nerd I am), but then I looked at the word and I realized, OH MY GOD I'VE BEEN PRONOUNCING IT WRONG MY WHOLE LIFE!!! This was a major revelation and I sat there for a few minutes just taking in that fact. I mean, talk about teachers molding your future success. Ms. Crew coached me to say asymptote wrong! Had I not seen the light, I still would have been walking about saying it wrong! Think about that. Seriously!

We didn't get our quizzes back though. That was unfortunate. Though I thought it was pretty easy. Hopefully I'll ace it again. That would make my life easier.

Après math, I had English as usual, and we talked about our papers and opening papers and some "key-hole" model for papers, which Mr. Pratt emphasized is just one way to do it and we shouldn't feel restricted to write in a specific way blah, blah, blah. Except all I could think about was that that model REALLY doesn't look like a key-hole at all, it's more like two triangles and a circle. Hmmm. Interesting. I'm rambling.

Uchenna is reading this over my shoulder AGAIN. Do you remember the other time when Uchenna was reading over my shoulder? Yeah, same person. I sense a trend. Uchenna says that the trend is obviously because QUOTE "there are really like fifty Uchennas in the world" END QUOTE. Whatever Uchenna.

I got a letter from Nicole and everyone today. Thanks guys. Awesome. I may need to write back. Soon. Uchenna says I'm a bad friend, but obviously you all know that when I say I "may need to write back" it means that I WILL write back AT SOON AS I GET HOME. Go away Uchenna.

Anyway, me and Kelly are going to Café Candiot after school. It's this really cute adorable café that we absolutely love, and it's right behind République. They recognized us the last time we went in, and gave us a special table. I love their hot chocolate.

I went to a match de foot (soccer game) with my host family yesterday. Rennes totally won, 3-0. IN YOUR FACE LYON!

Signing out, au revoir et bisous!

In Which Rayla Parle En Français Très Cassé

In embracing the whole point of SYA, me and a few of my friends have taken to speaking French during lunch and after school. It's actually very entertaining. This started yesterday, when me and Kelly and Katie (my two friends in 'bleu' - SYA's highest French level [I'm in 'rouge' which is the second level out of four]) went to the crêperie that's never open and got some delicious crêpes and galettes for lunch. We decided that we would speak ONLY French during lunch and it worked out really well. It's actually not that hard when you're speaking just with other Americans because it's easier to understand them due to their limited vocabulary which is similar to yours, and the fact that they talk slower than real French people.

Anyway, I told my other friend Maggie about this glorious French experience, and we decided that we should speak only French when we went to a café after school. This was all a very good idea, but it's funnier for us because we're both in 'rouge', so we don't have that semi-pretentious "I'm good at French" confidence that comes with being in bleu (no offense to them though, I'm just saying that they all know that they are pretty good at French, so have more confidence speaking it). So we both knew that we kind of sucked (relative term, of course) so it was really funny to speak our "français cassé" (broken French). Anyway, I was dashing across the street with Maggie behind me when I exclaimed quite loudly:

"J'AIME PARLER LE FRANÇAIS TRES CASSE!"

And this French woman gave me this really weird look. It was amazing.

That's all for funny stories for now, but BEWARE, if you happen to be one of my best buds from French class last year, a very interesting letter from me will soon be on its way to you. Watch the mailboxes.

Speaking of letters, if anyone does want to write me randomly, please do! Did I mention I'm collecting postcards from everywhere and anywhere? Also normal cards. I'm putting them on my wall. I promise I'll write back!

Rayla Hylbom

RE: School Year Abroad

5 Allée Sainte-Marie

35700 Rennes

FRANCE