The Untitleable Post

Three times. I have changed the date of this blog for the third, and hopefully last time. It went from a “th” to a “st” to finally February 22 “nd”. Looking back up through my Word document I had a mini heart attack when I saw it’s been nearly a month since my last update. Then I smiled because I’ve been pretty busy that I didn’t even notice how much time flies here.

Although I’d like to think there are people rioting in front of my parent’s house in Northfield due to the fact that I’ve been neglecting my fantastic blog and that’s the reason my mom and dad are urging me to update it, I think it’s in my best interest that I step down from that pedestal…

I am at that point in my exchange where my French life is way more relevant than my American life:

Although this is where Voldemort is beating Harry, it has no significance to my sentiments towards France and the USA!

There are times where I forget that there are people who actually want to know what I’m up to and the only means of communication we have is through my blog. In my defense, it’s quite difficult to blog about the majority of what my life is like here because I can’t take up your time laughing about this one time that this one friend said this one hilarious thing in French even though it might have been a highlight of my exchange. You see? But I will try my best as always.

Since Madge seems to be a favorite I will treat you guys to some fantastic stories. The first, as hinted, involves how Madge was stuck behind a motorbike on our route home. While we were going down the road between Roquebrune and Puget we ended up behind this puttering motorbike that would not move over to the left side so we could pass (he was just enough to the right that we couldn’t pass him, and yes, you had to be there to understand). I mean, honestly, you’re already risking your life by riding a motorbike here, why not follow the code as well. Meanwhile, there was a noteworthy string of cuss words spewing from Madge’s mouth as she tried to get as close to his tire as she could with the front of the bus in order to make him realize how ticked off she was. Luckily I was sitting in the second row that day, all I needed was some popcorn. After about five minutes we turned off to go to the first stop and the motorbike continued on. Just as we were pulling away from the bus stop Madge looked up to find the lever to pull the doors shut. Puttering past us on the road that intersected the road we were on was none other than the motorbike. It’s really too bad that I couldn’t have recorded the groan-swearword mixture of noises that Madge made because it would have been epic movie material.

On our way to the third bus stop there is a sharp turn. Taking into consideration how small the roads here are and the fact that we are in a huge coach bus and not some smart car, I’m amazed this didn’t happen earlier. While making the turn this particular day Madge took it wider than usual causing her to bump into the stop sign. Instead of backing up, which was impossible, she just inched along, budging the sign ever so slightly so that it is now facing the other direction.

My host mom took me skiing a week after I first went skiing in Auron and this time we had the chance to go with my wonderful neighbors! Even though it was glassy, and we ended up skiing down the Alps in a snowstorm I had a great time. I will probably remember falling more than the majority of skiing that I did because it probably looked incredibly weird when I gave up trying to get up and just moaned while doing a starfish down the mountainside. At one point I even got two feet away from falling off the side of the mountain altogether but my poles stuck in the ice behind me and I was able to properly wipeout. And, as usual, I slept almost the entire three-hour drive home.

These are the Alps, baby!

My host parents also took me to see the performance of “Swan Lake” in Marseille! I had the chance to meet a close family friend and see my two host sisters who joined my host mom and I at the performance. It was fantastic. When we exited the theater I couldn’t help but whip out my dance moves for a brief moment just like when I came out of the movie theater after watching “Mission Impossible,” pretending I was a secret agent…

Earlier this month I went hiking to the top of the Rocher de Roquebrune for the second time. The first time I went to see the three crosses was my second day here and it has always held meaning for me.

Me, Malou, Emma, Eléa, and Jim

Ladies and gentlemen, that is the Mediterranean

As for school, I didn’t necessarily have to take the Bac Blanc’s but I wanted to challenge myself and be able to look back and say, “Ha! I did that, just like my classmates.” Each day for a week I had a test in each subject. In total I tested for twelve and a half hours even though I’m in my equivalent of my junior year. My classmates and teachers were astonished that I was doing the tests but I was so proud and determined to complete every single test. I feel bad for whoever has to correct them.

For the past month or so some of my friends planned a surprise party for our friend, Caroline. She is incredibly sweet and patient with me and deserved an amazing eighteenth birthday party. We ended up having a surprise birthday party for her and dressed up as celebrities and movie characters. After dancing until three in the morning, singing, playing Just Dance 4, and presenting Caroline with all sorts of random gifts, we finally went to sleep. It was perfect and I absolutely love my group of friends.

Me as Marilyn Monroe, Clara as Daphne, Caroline as Amy Winehouse, Fiona as Tal, and Amandine as a butterfly (?)

I had the shock of warm weather last Saturday where I ended up in a tank top and a one-arm tan. It’s amazing how the mood changes immediately and the smell of spring is so evident. My host mom had me help her make marmalade before lunch by scrubbing the oranges and cutting them into morsels to be cooked down. I went to my Canadian friend, Tina’s house and came back to find that my host mom wasn’t as happy with her marmalade as usual. Don’t worry, Tina and I got to go to a woman’s house and pick more oranges to try again.

                  This past weekend my host parents, the other American in my town, Emily, and I went to Cannes to meet up with the other exchange students in my district to do a little outing. We honestly didn’t do anything in Cannes but we took a boat to the Island of Sainte-Marguerite (My full French name!) and went to a rather boring museum containing canned goods from the good ol’ 1990’s. We had a nice picnic on the beach with white rocks and the sun warming us up which was one of the highlights. I have always loved to get together with all the other exchange students especially since it’s difficult to see each other. There are so many upcoming rotary events including one where I am going to organize a song or play for us to do as a group for the governor of our district! Bring it on.

                  Before leaving Cannes with Tina’s host family we went to Ladurée, the most famous macaroon mark in France and possibly the world. Note to self, pistachio and chocolate are incredibly delicious macaroon flavors. I spent three days in Cavalaire with Tina and her host family who are wonderful, inviting people. They have three young daughters, meaning that you either had a song from Justin Bieber, the Wanted, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, or One Direction in your head at all times. We painted our nails, slept in until noon (what?! Maggie sleeps in?!), did bumper cars, made my Grandma Goldie’s yummy brownies and burned the tops of them… but it turned out fantastic.

                  Tina has a gracious host club who let her invite me to their rotary dinner on Monday night. We both dressed up and sported our rotary blazers (it was the first time I had worn mine here in France after stepping off the plane six months ago) and made the rounds. I met so many kind people if only for a brief amount of time and I was invited to come back anytime. The future president of Tina’s rotary club sat next to me and said something very profound that I will never forget. He told me that when he traveled frequently he wouldn’t look for the similarities in a person but the differences. You might be thinking, “Well, that’s counter productive in terms of understanding someone else’s culture.” However, he went on to further explain that he would not have been interested in our conversation if we had the same way of life. He tries to find the differences in another person in order to understand and respect their culture and ideology. That is incredibly important to me because it backs up my belief that we do the things we do either because we don’t know any other way and because anything we do or say cannot be taken personally.

Manon, Tina's host sister who went on exchange to New York, Me, and Tina.

This is the rotarian I had an insightful conversation with.

Tina and I after the rotary dinner.

I will leave you with that to think about and I hope to blog at least once more before my class trip to Barcelona.

Bisous,

Maggie

Glass Half Full

For those of you who have read my blog from the beginning, write on your calendar somewhere around June 24^th to come find me so that I can give you a hug. You’ve read the equivalent of half of “Lord of the Flies”.  

                  I’m proud, sad, scared, excited, anxious, and surprised to say that I have completed half of my exchange as of a few days ago. Level up. But let’s be real for a second, I have no idea what that means. I’m not going down my checklist or waiting for the last grains to tumble on top of the mini mountain of sand in my hourglass. It does mean that my classmates are more comfortable around me (ex: showing me embarrassing pictures, letting me in on all the gossip that doesn’t relate to me, etc.) and that we are making plans to do things during upcoming breaks.

                  Tomorrow I’m waking up at 6 am to go skiing in the Alps so we’ll see how much I get done tonight considering I have epic news and the attention span of a fruit fly. It’s incredible how unmotivated I am to type and yet I’d skype the whole lot of you in a heartbeat. Let’s get on that, shall we?

                  Aaaaaaaalrighty. So I left off with psychological revelations, which makes us up to date up until the part where Tina and I chilled during the last vacation. Honestly, I just want to say that I love my situation at school right now. Whenever I go down the hallways there are so many people I have to stop and give bisous to. Yeah, that’s right, that’s ME who’s causing the traffic-jam because I have FRIENDS! What now? (side note: the hallways don’t even have lockers and they’re still so crammed that it’s like a clogged artery in there…)

I keep patting myself on the back for introducing myself to as many people as possible in the beginning of the year even though I probably seemed super awkward. However, I still say hi to every single person, attempt to remember everyone’s names, and can always find a group of people to hang out with whenever I don’t have class.

                  At this point in school my class is taking the equivalent of the PSAT, which are called “Bac blancs”. They’re three-hour-long tests for each subject and although they don’t literally count as their “ACT” or “SAT” (baccalaureate) score, it’s added onto their grade for that class. The bac blanc’s are a little different for the language courses in that they are scheduled face-to-face tests with a professor where we had to describe a given cartoon for ten minutes. Let’s just look at the sheer longevity of ten whole minutes and take into consideration of how long and uncomfortable it would be to have to speak two non-native languages. When I left economics to take my English test my classmates jokingly said, “Good luck Maggie! It’s going to be really difficult!” and laughed when I pretended to be nervous as I went out the door. Honestly, I walked in the room and declared myself American, described a picture on how the internet can easily have wrong facts and this kid who copied his information straight from a website got an “F” because he didn’t even try to learn the material and then I chatted with the professor because he asked me, “Why in the world are you here?” I had some fun when I went back to class and made a bunch of “that was awful, I just died” gestures and sat back down without a word. Everyone laughed but some people still asked me how I thought it went.

                  And since it’s now midnight I will shed light on some of my recent experiences via bullet points:

·       Earlier this month, Emma and I went to Saint Raphael to eat pasta on the beach, take pictures, window shop, and meet up with our friend, Élea. I ended up going back home to get ready for a dinner party with my host parents which was honestly difficult to add in to the conversation, but very enjoyable.

·       I went to Nice to visit Charlotte and Gabi, who are two exchange students from the States. We shopped the amazing sales which are government mandated at certain times of the year and must be a certain percentage of reduction. Thanks Hollande :D

·       One day we didn’t have two hours of economics and ended up piling into a room to hang out and we ended up taking some lovely pictures. These are some of the nicer ones. I also announced that I will be leaving around the 23^rd of June and my class wants to throw me a goodbye party – they are so sweet!

·       Simone took me skiing last weekend in the Alps! Although at one point I was falling backwards down the mountain (haha the first time I said hill… Welch, meet your worst nightmare) and had snow flying up my back and my skis splayed out. That only happened three times so don’t worry.

·       After school on Monday I found myself alone on the bus with the one and only magnificent Madge and I decided to sit up front with her until she dropped me off. We ended up having a nice little chat and I’m not quite sure but she might have said “bisous” as I was getting off. Moving up in the world.

·       BY THE WAY THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Apparently when I heard Madge being called “Brigitte” I was mistaken. Her real name is Eileen! Even better. So on Thursday I walked to the post office to get cash and mail two letters (shout out to Aria!) when I saw Madge driving the bus to the depot. I was at a crossroads where I could have gone left and followed Madge or continue straight ahead. Because I’m a non-stalker I went left and saw Madge going towards her car fifteen minutes later. The funny thing is that I saw her right away and almost said hi but the circumstances would have pointed to my obvious stalkage. And even though this is kind of embarrassing (I had coffee that morning so I’m blaming it on the caffeine) it shows Madge’s true character and awesomeness. Clelia was sitting by me and reached out her hand for a second so I stuck out my tongue, naturally. At that same moment, hawk-eyes Madge saw me and told me, “I don’t even want to know what you’re doing with your tongue, there…”

·       There’s another story involving Madge getting stuck behind a motorbike, moving city property, having water fights in her house with her kids, and making sure they guys on the bus are well fed. Later, my good readers, but soon.

·       It snowed! I got all ready to go to school (I love school) and walked out the door only to be blinded by it’s whiteness. Emma’s mom was outside taking pictures and told me not to bother with going to school because the buses don’t work… when there’s two inches of snow. I ended up taking pictures until my Ipod batteries died and subsequently, the batteries to my camera. Emma, her brother, mom, and I hung outside the entire morning making snow angels, sliding down their hill, making snowmen with Mr. Potatohead face parts, and taking pictures. It was a fabulous day!

My "It's normal, I'm Minnesotan" pose

·       A few weeks ago I had the privilege to attend a rotary dinner where I was seated next to the governor of my entire region! He gave me a rotary banner, let me announce the menu, asked me questions and included me in conversations, and overall was incredibly sweet. Since I’m going to Corsica in May with my rotary district and he lives in Ajaccio, he told me to give him a call so he could meet up with us.

·       I’ve been teaching my friends how to play American card games like “castle” and “bs,” which they find super cool – oh my goodness, it’s American!

·       Sara, Emma and I went to Saint Raphael the other day to go window-shopping (I never paid that much attention to watches until that day. Who knew watches are more than just a few gears that make a ticking noise?) and to see the new Quentin Tarantino film, “Django – unchained” which was well-done. Go see it. Especially if you want to see Leo Dicaprio with bad teeth and over-the-top Tarantino-style fight scenes. We even ate at Sara’s grandparents’ house, which was delicious, I can’t even explain how amazing Camembert cheese and apple chunks wrapped in a puff pastry sheet is.

·       Today I attempted to take my Spanish oral exam but when I walked in the classroom my Spanish professor was like, “Maggie! Why are you here? I’m so sorry that I forgot to take your name off the list. It’s not possible for you to take this test... you don’t speak Spanish.” In a way I was disappointed but it’s so true, I don’t even know how to start a sentence. So, I was told I could leave. Woo!

·       While in Saint Raphael with Sara and Emma we saw one of their friends, Hazel, whom I found out is one of three or four people in my school that can draw pretty well. We instantly connected and we ended up meeting in the library to draw and talk today. It was one of the best things in the world to talk to someone about style, favorite things to draw, new ways of drawing, and what we want as a career.

I think I’ll stop at that so I can get some sleep and so I don’t ramble too much. After hearing from Diatou that it was the coldest day of the year today, I hope you all are staying warm!

Je vous embrasse,

Maggie