What the Crêpe?!

This post is titled as such because I taught a friend how to say “What the crap!” but she couldn’t say the “r” part and it came out as “What the crêpe!” I just thought that was adorable.

                  I thought I’d maybe catch you all up on what I’ve been up to on the day the world apparently ends. Hopefully I get it done before 21.21… So I know that the custom is to apologize for not posting in a while, but like I said from the very first post, I it’s a wonderful indicator that I am up to my ears in adventures.

                  At this moment I will exercise my amazing sentence structure but I swear it’s 100% true: During the past month I’ve done a lot of really good things. Let’s start with changing host families for two weeks, shall we?

                  While my host parents, Simone and El Hadj, went to Senegal to visit family I went to my neighbor’s house for two weeks. It was perfect not only because I take the same bus, I know the area, and it was literally a five minute walk, but I also got to stay with one of my best friend’s family. Clelia and I basically sang, played guitar, chilled with her rabbit, laughed until our ribs hurt, and watched movies or stayed up talking all night until her mom banged on my door. It was a blast! My temporary host dad and I talked about anything and everything and I was able to practice defending my arguments French-style. The thing I have enjoyed the most about being here in France is that I’ve been more up to date with current issues, I have had to defend my opinions, and remember so many details which is extremely difficult for my awful memory…

                  My second host family and I went to Clelia’s (host sister) concert at the school where we danced and sang along to songs from four bands at the high school. After the concert my history teacher, M. Bourgeois came up to my host parents and said how great I was and luckily was cut off when he started to mention that I nod off in class. In my defense, history in French is interesting but my brain gets tired after about half an hour of just listening and in French, no less. It’s the only class.

We also went to see Christmas lights and ate at an Italian restaurant in Saint Raphaël where I had some delicious pasta, bread, and appetizers with a berry sauce. Yum! I was even told to bring my flute out to play “Stairway to Heaven” while Clelia and her guitar teacher played the guitar part. It was fun to live with another family but I definitely missed my familiar schedule at Simone and El Hadj’s.

This basically describes our relationship. We're really attractive.

We went to a little stream to take pictures :)

                  During the beginning of my time at Clelia’s house I went to Nice to meet up with the other exchange students in my district. It was December 1^st, which marked the debut of the Christmas market and lights all around the city. No matter how I try to describe Nice it will never amount to what it was truly like. However, I can give you some pictures so you can place yourself there even so:

left to right: Charlotte (USA), Gabi (USA), Tina (Canada), Eamon (Canada), Hannah (USA),  Paulina (Colombia), Hyesoo (South Korea), ME!

You know, just going on a ferris wheel at night in Nice :) 

Skating with Paulina and Tina

We kind of laughed when the little kid fell but in our defense, he fell SO MANY TIMES! Plus, the guy in the CLASSY white shirt was an American from Virginia and he looked a lot like Mr. Sandberg - so weird.

                  A few weeks ago we received our grades and I was surprised to see that I did well! Honestly, I work harder here than I did in the States in terms of trying to actually learn the information. That’s not to say that I didn’t study back home (by the way, I always hesitate typing or saying “home” because honestly, I have two homes now.) but I’ve redefined what it means to learn for myself. In the US I believe that we skip over details way too often and although we can get the gist of the lesson, little facts matter just as much. We also get defensive about our grades especially when they’re read out-loud. Here they are presented to the entire class but they understand that grades are individual and that maybe a little healthy competition will make everyone work harder.

                  The comments I received from teachers were basically that I work hard, I’m enjoyable, I’ve made enormous progress, I’m motivated to speak in a language I don’t completely understand, and that I enjoy teaching my classmates about my culture. Out of thirty-six students Victor, Lucas, and I got “félicitations” meaning we are doing the best we can do and we should “keep up the good work.” I’m pretty proud. Not only do good grades make you feel all warm and fuzzy but working hard this year was the best decision I ever made. My classmates and I can relate to each other on grades, complaining about homework, and questions on the lesson solely on an educational level. At this point, which I’ll explain why in a moment, my classmates and I are pretty tight.

                  Since I’m on the subject (even though there is so much more to tell!) I will tell you about one of the best days I’ve had here in France. For my Christmas gift from my family I asked if they could send me any little American trinkets for my classmates and friends at school. First I gave a flag and Reese’s peanut butter cup to Madge (oh my gosh you guys will not believe the stories I have about her!!!!! I think I’ll do a separate post, it’s just that important) and she hung it up amongst her random holiday decorations obscuring her view. So now my flag is right next to Madge and you guys can probably imagine how happy I am. I love Madge.

                  Next I asked to give my classmates gifts in the beginning of my two-hour long Economics class with Mme. Flin. Luckily my teacher is extremely nice and loves me so of course she was delighted as were my classmates. They wouldn’t stop saying “merci” and “I feel American” and “you are so nice!” But the best part was when they gave me a gift I will never forget. Mme. Flin said, “Maggie has been very generous with all of you, is there something we can do for her?” They sang a French Christmas song to me and I almost cried. Then during class I saw friends making me a card and passing it around which was so incredibly heart-warming.

Johanna, Nathalie, and I posing with American stuff

I am happy to report that I have become so close to my classmates that I have done bisous with every single person. Going from closed-off, serious, and silently curious, I am always invited to eat lunch or hang out and we have some class inside-jokes.

1.     I can’t wait for my mom to meet all of my friends

2.     How am I ever going to be able to leave????!!!!!

Extra Christmas stuff from school:

·       I gave a little American flag to Didier the gatekeeper. We’re pretty tight.

He's in the background behind Johanna, Paloma, and I. DIDIER!!

·       I had 72 or so mini flags and gave all but seven away, I don’t have many pennies, and there are no more bracelets, stickers, tattoos, candy canes, or Reese’s. I was named Santa Claus for the day.

·       While giving bracelets to close friends three guys who were friends of the girls came and asked if they could have some. I knew that I had more friends to give them to but in the spirit of meeting new people I gave them each a red, white, and blue bracelet and they literally freaked out.

·       On Thursday we had the infamous Christmas meal which consisted of fois gras, smoked salmon with a little bit of caviar, chicken with mushroom and baby onion sauce, a potato gratin, asparagus wrapped in a slice of bacon, chocolate mousse cake, and a package of chocolates to take home.

·       Yesterday I was eating with friends when I saw our principal and I had to talk to him about something important (I’ll explain in a little bit) and was surprised to find that he was excited to talk to me. He said that I was a part of their school and I was having a great year just based on what he’s heard from teachers and by looking at my grades. Mme. Flin, my Econ teacher, came up to us and put her arm around me and said, “Did you know that she gave every single person in the class a Christmas gift?” and he was like, “Where’s my gift?!” I was willing to give him a penny and a little flag but he said laughed and said it wasn’t a big deal. Here’s my big news:

I’m going to Barcelona, Spain in March!!!!! Since I’m in Spanish class and they do an annual five-day trip that had two open spots I decided it wouldn’t hurt to get all the information and see if I could go. After getting the approval of my parents, host parents, and rotary youth officer for my district, my principal was the last person on my list to get the okay. This is when he said there would be no problem whatsoever because as far as he was concerned I was just as much a part of the student body as everyone else. J

Last weekend I had a wonderful few experiences. The first was with my rotary club where I was invited to the Christmas dinner at a gorgeous vineyard in Roquebrune. Being slightly underdressed and the youngest one there by about twenty years or more was no problem at all. I had the honor of meeting some amazing people, dancing with them (yes, I got down and boogied), ate some really good filet mignon, polenta, and chocolate mousse cake with crunchies on the bottom mmmmmm….. I was also chosen to pick the winning ticket for a raffle that turned out to be the woman sitting next to me who invited me to her house to meet her daughter! After dinner, Anne-Brigitte, the president of my club in Fréjus, gave me a Christmas gift to open on Christmas day! I am so excited and it was so nice of her to think of me! While getting a ride home from a Rotarian I mentioned how I enjoy how the French keep their traditions of eating together, making everything from scratch, and never snacking. After mentioning that I’d like to learn how olive oil, wine, pastries, and cheese is made here the Rotarian told me he would set something up for me. Apparently I will be going to his sister’s vineyard on the Island of Porquerolles, a bakery, and somewhere they make olive oil. Can I add on to what Vicki Dilley said to me? “Always say yes and it never hurts to ask questions.”

The next day (last Saturday) I went to a Chinese buffet with my friend Caroline and then we took the bus to Fréjus to meet up with friends. There was a Christmas market with mouth-watering smells coming from churro, donut, and crêpe stands, steam coming off of cups of hot chocolate, and little kids laughing while going on the carousel and taking pictures with Santa.

Me, Caroline, and Nassin in Fréjus under an old olive tree

The Christmas market

Eating Chinese with...

Caroline

Caroline, me, and Amalia

Then on Sunday I woke up early to catch a 7:50am train headed for Nice and then Monaco! Ladies and gentlemen, Maggie has left the country. All of the exchange students in my rotary district came together minus the other American in my town and we had a great time! We were able to visit a church with a relic, the castle, the changing of the guards, an aquarium and museum, the port, the Christmas market, and the Monte Carlo. Holy cow. It’s absolutely gorgeous there, but it’s tiny. We even saw a yacht owned by one of the richest men in the world, no big deal. One thing that everyone must try, though, is Italian hot chocolate because it’s like drinking liquid chocolate it’s so thick.

Me, Hannah from Corsica (USA), Tina (Canada), Hyesoo (South Korea), Paulina (Colombia), and Fifi (Indonesia)

I just don't understand this blue guy... they had some interesting decorations at the Christmas market...

The castle

A port in Monaco!

Changing of the guards

You guys have no idea how hard it is to blog right now. I’ve never been happier especially because I love my friends at school and I’ve done some amazing things in the past few weeks, but it’s hard when you don’t know the people! So I’m sad to think about how at this point in my blogging the stories have way more depth than they seem to have. Even though that means that I will have fun telling all sorts of stories when I get back, I know how much harder it will be to leave than it was to come here.

Here’s a huge difference in education for you guys – we watched an episode of Two and a Half Men and FRIENDS in English class. Of course I was laughing my butt off by myself especially when I thought about what they were actually learning. Oh well, my classmates thought it was funny when they didn’t understand but I was cracking up. At one point I had to describe tator tots as pieces of potatoes in a certain shape that you bake in the oven… good ol’ tator tots.

I still rock at handball here and my new nickname is Spiderman because I’m just that awesome. The girls on my team are not very aggressive when we start playing but once we get a few goals they have an enormous will to win. With me as goalie and the other girls figuring out a strategy we beat the other team 11-2. One day when it rained outside we had to do gymnastics instead. It wasn’t like, “Here! Go do some summersaults and jumping jacks,” it was more like, “Now get on the bars and start to swing, hang, or switch hands and then go to the balance beam and do a routine.” WHAT?! Let me just say that I was determined to flip around the bars so much so that my arms hurt for days…

Nathalie, Johanna, and I after handball

                  Honestly, this post could go on and on but I’m relieved that I could catch up with what has happened in time to write a Christmas post and the best Madge update ever, playlist included. I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and holiday break!

Gros bisous, joyeux Noël, joyeux fêtes, paix,

Swaggy Maggie (the nickname has stuck as you can obviously see from this picture taken by a friend…)