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!
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!
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