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