my heart goes "thump,thump"

hi, im starting to stress out.
the next 10 days go like this:
tomorrow-pack my suitcases,do all my laundry after school (5PM)

saturday,sunday:leave at 9AM to go off with my 1st host parents to basse normandie whoo. not.

monday:move to new host family in st.aubin sur scie AKA far away
(no more waking up late and walking to school :( )

tuesday night: dinner that WILL last til midnight

wednesday night: ROTARY as always

thursday after school: leave for toulouse. possibly on a train by myself because no one can take me. PS- I'VE NEVER RIDDEN A TRAIN, LET ALONE BY MYSELF.

thursday continues til monday morning..

can we say NON-STOP
helpppppppp

la france, je t'aime.

Vraiment, Je t'aime. Mardi=greve. Mercredi= Je penser il y a un greve, mais non.. trop trop malade= gros mat(shhh) Jeudi= Gros greve est Vendredi= ecole :(

D'accord I'm done writing in French. I'm really, reallly bad at writing but I'm starting to actually take notes in school. Just for fun..and maybe to get a good grade on my math test to reassure myself I still have brains. There was school on Monday. I had gymnastics, and I was doing handstands and cartwheels galore, including prancing around like I actually enjoyed it. Little did I know, that would make me ache in every part of my body the next day. Hahah. Wow. I got to school Tuesday morning and there was a choice: 1)Greve(protest) or 2)If you want to go to class, you can go. Needless to say, no one went to class. I walked to the hotel and found myself spending quality time with my normal 'grand cafe' and CNN. Wednesday I thought for sure there wouldn't be school so I took my time with waking up and ended up waking up at 11AM. My host mum called me off school and said I was 'sick' because well, obviously there was school but I completely missed it. Cool. I decided to get myself out of my normal lazy/comfort zone and made myself go hang out with my friends. Yeah, I literally had to force myself because I'm so comfy just sitting reading and/or staring at the wall here. Or drinking the entire coffee pot while listening to the radio. Sounds good,right? I went off to Juliette's house to chill with Juliette,Margo,and Charlotte. We watched Gossip Girl in english and sat around and ate crepes and I felt right at home. Honestly they are so much like you girls. Thursday, huge manifestation all through-out France. No school!#% AGAIN. I love France for this, and the communists in my school that organize it. Next week, no school Monday or Tuesday. AHA! and break starts Friday which cracks me up. BTW, KNITTING HAS FOUND ME AGAIN. I went to a craft store with my host mum, who is definitely crafty, and I found this beautiful cheap German yarn. So I'm knitting again. I have so many things to keep me occupied here now. Knitting, currently reading Influence by Mary Kate& Ashley Olsen. Honestly so good, so inspiring. BTW, I got a love letter in the mail today. I have a secret, well not-so-secret admirer. Right in time for Valentine's Day.
Bisous,
C.

“Rich and Jobless”$$$

I’m sitting here bundled up in sweaters outside on the patio of the Thiret’s house in Perpignan,France, The tip of southern France. The backyard consists of a swimming pool, and then there’s the lake that leads to the Mediterrean Sea. The neighbors have astro-turf for grass. We ate outside today because at lunch time it was sunny and warm and so pleasant compared to the temperature in Normandie. Their son, Jerome and his lover/girlfriend came to visit because they live actually in Perpignan.. We actually are in Baracades or something of that nature. Now.. Jerome and Rosa are what you can classify a “perfect couple”; Gorgeous, funny but proper, stylish. I don’t envy them as I normally might have, I mean- a boy that can truly dress good? Come’onnn that’s why I came here. There’s a lot of French boys that can dress themselves amazingly here. I don’t know what it is, “The French Touch” as Jerome says.But D&G buckled dress shoes, D&G jeans, turtleneck, blazer, black big lunettes du soleil. That’s classy. I admire them a lot, even though they both are jobless, but when someone can be jobless, and still maintain their class? That’s a truly well-maintained, admired person. Regardless of the fact that Jerome’s dad has money, while being jobless too, its just amazing and astonishing to me. When I picture someone job less, I picture the American people I know well either A) living in their parents house watching tv, eating KFC B) homeless on the streets C) living in a grimy,dirty crap apartment living off of Ramen noodles and/or living off of our wonderful well-care system and shopping in Wal-mart. So, this is something new to me. Jobless but have a good house, nice Scooter, smokes cigarettes, eat well, drink well, dress well. Hm. I don’t understand it but I’m so for it

Its currently Sunday morning. I went outside when I woke up and you can see the snowy mountain tops, while the sun was glowing and the lake was glittering in the sun. Absolutely gorgeous. I’ve been in the mood to write lately. Clearly I haven’t exactly explained my situation over here, I’ve basically just been throwing my thoughts onto this blog when I’m supposed to be informing you of all that’s going on over here. I guess I get a little side-tracked in my thoughts sometimes. Right now, I’m staying with Eric and Isabelle Thiriet. Isabelle is friends with my 1st host mum, Claudine and they decided that they would take me with them on Christmas break as a short exchange. I was sick at the beginning of break when they were supposed to come get me-I had some god awful stomach flu that woke me up at the crack of dawn to stick my head in anything that was accessible at the moment to puke in.. which ended up being my bathroom sink- sorry! Missed out on nothing really, made my way to recovery while my host parents Phillipe and Michelle were busy entertaining by laying on the couch drinking Diet Coke and not eating.. Claudine (1st host mum) came over because she’s a nurse and Michelle was really scared I was really sick, so Claudine searched me and gave me a check-up in the comfort of my own bed. She thought I caught the disease that flows around Dieppe. In Dieppe, there is some disease that’s only in Dieppe, why I don’t know, but every year everyone gets vaccinated at school because its deadly.. And I didn’t get vaccinated because they go in intervals and I missed the first 3. I don’t have the disease thank god. I don’t even know what it is but kids galore die from it. The Holocaust of Dieppe, I guess that’s what I’ll call it from now on.
Now I don’t want to really describe every place that I went on this vacation, but I’ll give the outline. First couple nights, stayed in Mont Saint Agnan (town outside of Rouen) in their apartment,went to Gontot for Christmas (their country house) in La Compagne, went to Isabelle’s mom’s house in Basse-Normandie, visited a castle and went to the American cemetary for WWII and Omaha Beach,etc. Went back to Mont Saint Agnan for New Years, left for Perpignan and was in the car for 11 hours.. I think since I’ve got here I’m slept in a total of 30 different beds/ bedrooms. I can almost swear on that. Its annoying changing houses and packing up my luggage all the time, living out of my suitcase, but I’m getting damn good at it.

“Open up your mind and see like me”

I woke up this morning> im in gontot. In the country. I feel like Maire Antoinette when she moved to the country house. Watching the sun rise. Waking up with the sun is the best feeling. And right now, im content with france. I havent been to school in 3 weeks and last night we decided that today we’re leaving to go to celebrate new years in the south with their son, and we’re staying at their other house in the south. So, I’m skipping school for a week and I will then not be in school for a month! that’s what I call a break. I have no money left on my phone, no internet and frankly, I’m ok with that. I think I am happier when I don’t have internet. I actually dose myself in French and speak only French, and that’s really good for me. I don’t compare my exchange life with everyone else and look at everyones Facebook photos and dream about being home and going to Starbucks as usual and wanting to kill myself in that wretched Boardman High School. I don’t care about it at all. I forget about that life when I don’t have the pleasant internet to tear me back and forth between France and Ohio. The last school break when I went to the Pryenees I didn’t bring my computer, I talked all French and I came back and spoke French to people at school, my French really improved. So I know my French is improving. Although my French is still greatly lacking, I understand just about everything. The only problem is- I block it out a lot because its tiring. But when I do pay attention; watch out- I understand everything your saying whether you want to believe it or not. Tomorrows the beginning of 2009, and please let this new year be amazing,amazing,amazing! And to everyone, Happy New Year!#% So I’m in France.. And this morning I was already thinking about where I’m going to go next. During college I want to study abroad. Where? I don’t know yet, but I know that after this experience I’m going to want to go live in another country for sometime also. To learn yet another different language? I don’t know. I’m still working on this one. And a different continent? Obviously I’m a little globe trotter, but theres so much to see! And I want to see it all. For the people that have never traveled out of Ohio, have never seen the world or experienced a different life, get out there. Make it possible, however you have to do it because it will open your eyes to a different universe. It will change your mind, shape it.


PS- I’m scatter-brained right now, and I apologize.. I drank 5 cups of this strong French god-like coffee and I’m bouncing around; inside and out.

PPS: These blogs will be delayed. I’ve been writing on Word Processor until I get internet. And when I do get internet, I can never get it on my computer so I don’t update. So I’m pretty sure these will be 2 weeks delayed..

Love,C

Les jours Tranquille

Now it’s just about Christmas time. I received packages from my mum, dad and cindi already. These were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G to me just so you know. Reese’s Christmas trees? I never thought I would miss those so much. The New Harry Potter book, The Tales of the Beedle and the Bard (I’m so happy and open to read any English books I can find, and that was a good read), my beloved Frye boots are sososo good to me they keep my feet nice and warm and are definitely me. Etc,etc. The rest of the contents consisted of:
Bath and Body works shower gel, Burts Bees, Pedicure Set(AKA nail clippers and such), room fragrance, NYLON(that unfortunately I let my English teacher borrow and I don’t think I’ll ever get it back), Jim Morrison t-shirt, CANDY, gifts for my host parents, a talking card (that was my mum’s voice! So cute), slipper socks, Frank Sinatra Christmas CD (dad, my host dad LOVES frank and we listen to him all the time), and so on. All I can say is THANK YOU,THANK YOU,THANK YOU.

Before I was leaving for vacation with a different family(which I’m currently with them), my host mum gave me an unexpected little present- Dior Black Out Mascara. Little, but it meant a lot to me. She knows me so well already, and its amazzzzzing.

For the first two days on vacation I stayed in Isabelle and Eric’s apartment in Rouen. As I’ve talked about Rouen a lot of times, its one of my favorite and most visited cities. I decided to go to town and buy myself some Christmas presents (Sad, I know). I found my favorite vintage shop- Les Roses Aux Vents and I was immediately in vintage heaven. I found, an amazing teal blue Louis Vuitton sack. Tassle pulls, good size, 80euros- VENDU. It is a tiny bit dirty, but I honestly prefer it that way. Its vintage, and it obviously has a history. So I’m in loveeeee. I also bought a vintage shirt for summer. Its completely vintage, I can’t really explain it but it was a perfect find. That’s one thing I love about this place, finding French vintage all over Rouen there’s little vintage shops. The game of hunting down the perfect shirt is my sort of sport.

There wasn’t much for me to do in the appartment during the day- or at night also. Isa was working and Eric was doing whatever, so I just sat around. So the next day when they asked me if I wanted to go into the city, J’ai complement agreeable “OUI”. So I had absolutely nothing to do in the city yesterday, so I decided to buy a huge pile of French gossip magazines (and I found a Teen Vogue) and set myself down at a Café and read away, and occasionally people watched. This is when I feel completely French (without the fact that I was reading English), but sitting next to French people, drinking my tiny Espresso, Ahh. I love the city, I love watching the French boys pass, tuffing away at their cigarettes with their pea coats and scarves.

Today, I’m in the country house. Its cute, in the middle of nowhere, and there’s no disturbances of any sort. We are celebrating Christmas here, there’s a little tree and the family of Isabelle and Eric are all arriving tonight. Its good that I’m away from the internet here. I think I’ll be a little bit more unaware that I’m not home for Christmas this year. I kind of like to push the idea out of my head for the fear of me being overly-emotional with a family I barely know. But their son is off in Argentina with Rotary, so they understand how it is. Their daughter went to the US years ago with Rotary, and their other son is stuck in the south, away from the family. So I guess with that outlook I’m currently in the best situation I can be in for Christmas over here. Enjoy the Snow everyone, listen to those cheesy Christmas songs for me.

Merry Christmas
Joyeux Noel, Bonne Fetes! -Christina

"tous en greve mardi 16/12- 8h30 devant ango"

Currently I'm sitting in the lounge of the Mercure Hotel. It's Monday, 11 AM. I should be in school, but I got there and all the entry's were blocked. Hahah. There's protests that have been going on for the past two weeks at all the schools in France. Little Nicolas Sarkoz decided to reform all the schools and remove art classes, theater, etc. Basically any options. He felt there were "unnecessary" and is also booting out about 50+ teachers at each school. Needless to say, everyone is pissed off. Its normal here for students to rally and protest...and of course I wanted to join. I told my host mum I was going to protest with my friends Thursday. The response I was given...
"That's forbidden, it's not your place,
you aren't French..."

So today, as much as I wanted to blockade the school with all the students and teachers, I ended up sitting in the Hotel of my host dad drinking coffee and reading all the magazines I've already read. But I'm content, no school tomorrow and Wednesday also and the 2-3 week Christmas break starts Friday!#


This weekend I ventured to the Discotheque, 'L'Excalibeur' AKA- dance club. It was fun, I danced like mad all night and it was 'Neige' night so there was soap bubbles everywhere as artifical snow. Soooooooooooooo fun.


Miss you all.
Christmas is going to be weird. Really weird.
I'm leaving Saturday morning to go on vacation with
a family I sortof/kinda don't know at all. Mentioned
them before.. I was inlove with their son that left for Argentina for exchange. But, I'm visiting Omaha Beach and all the American beaches from D-day and the memorials. I'll take pictures and post them, I promise.
]








Here's a couple of pictures:
1-3 My 2nd house! Its gorgeous.
4) Me in the Mercure Hotel, being bored.


Gros Bisous,
C.

ecoutez,s'il vous plait!<333

everyone and anyone,


i am asking, please to send me money for christmas!
give it to my mum or dad pleaseeeee, im begging you.

im a poor foreign exchange student that's
freezing in this bitter cold winter in france
and i need to buy a super warm coat,gloves,boots,
socks,sweaters,etc because i keep on getting sick
because im so cold.

it really would be much appreciated.
christmas is going to be really weird
this year.. i feel like it doesnt even
exist over here.



bisous, love you all<333


christina




PS-
mum, try emailing me sometime-
it would make me feel a lot better.