Sunday Service

Since the Rotary is a Christian based organization, there was a church service this morning. I must say that it was the most attention-grabbing, eye-opening church service that I have ever attended. The reason for that is not because today is All Hallows Eve, but that the Pastor was Canon White, who is the Vicar of Baghdad. Yes, Baghdad as in Iraq, the troubled country. So troubled is this country, in fact, that this Vicar travels day and night surrounded by thirty-five guards. However, despite the depressing situations, his congregation has over 4,000 members. This is so large that he has services on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. He was so incredibly motivational. He told us that ninety three members of his congregation were murdered last year, yet his church is one of the happiest places in the world. In addition to serving the church purpose, he and his team give medical, dental, and pharmaceutical care along with blankets and packages of food each week. The cost of maintaining his church has gone from 600 dollars a year to over 150,000 dollars a month, yet he has always made the quota. Unfortunately, when a man from the audience asked him whether or not he believed peace could ever return to Iraq, he confessed his great doubts and lack of hope to that.

Three other motivational speakers from this morning included Anne Blight and Craig Hammond from the Starfish Project, helping people to overcome their stutters. They showed a video of Craig's first day with them and how debilitating his stutter really was. Three years later, Craig stood before us and gave a perfectly eloquent speach, taking in deep, sharp breaths before each phrase to prevent the stammer. The progression was truly amazing.
The other woman was Lady Catherine Meyer who spoke to us about how Fate had affected her life. Her two sons were abducted from her by her ex-husband, and she was unable to see them for ten years. They are now reunited, but she has created a charity PACT for the awareness of parental abductions.

I was sad to leave. I think that one of the things (besides the people, of course) that made this weekend wonderful was that alongside the lovely English architecture, all of the trees were beautiful colors and gave the atmosphere a refreshing autumn feel.

Happy Halloween, by the way!

It's All Very British

Yesterday morning's conference speakers included middle school students who spoke about their Interact club at their school, the Canterbury Rotary Club who discussed the successful hospital project in Ghana that they recently accomplished along with four other Rotary clubs and various donators, Frances Allen who discussed the "Inner Wheel" of Rotary, and Peter Burkhill.

The last man, Peter Burkhill told an amazing story. He is a pilot for British Airlines and about three years ago, on a flight from China, both his engines died about a minute from the landing in England, but they did not send off any warning signals until thirty seconds before hand. He discussed his experience there, which involved a lot of quick thinking, but concluded with a successful crash landing that saved every life on board. He wrote a book that I am going to blindly promote here, based on the fact that this man was a wonderful speaker, the topic was fascinating, although dreadfully frightening, and that he is George Clooney's look-a-like. It is called "Thirty Seconds to Impact" and I would at least suggest to check it out of the library and skim it.

After Mr. Burkhill's presentation, a Rotary panel came and sat on the stage for what was called a debate, but which I would rather characterise as a pre-planned interactive questionnaire with the audience.

Once the session finished, I decided to explore the town of Eastbourne for an hour or two, so I walked along the boardwalk, which was beautifully adorned with twinkle lights and which served as the base for some beautiful and charming buildings that made me feel that I needed to be carrying a parasol. The water was a beautiful sea green. Not like the North Carolina coast that can be compared to the Rio Plata of Argentina where you have to guess the color: is it brown or orange or green? This water was truly a lovely shade of bluish green. Once I stepped off of the pier, I tried to walk along the water's edge, but the sand was not actually sand; it was pebbles, and rather large pebbles at that. So, I walked along on the sidewalk. After going along for a ways, I became distracted by a church tower in the distance, so I crossed over a few roads, took a few pictures of the church and began to head back to the conference. If you're wondering why the Rotary let me walk around the town without a chaperone or even a buddy, I'll just sum up the basic reasoning by writing that this is a town for retirees mainly. I do not thing that the crime rate is through the roof.

I arrived back at the theater just in time for Richard Stilgoe to present the Orpheus program that houses and habilitates disabled children. He was wonderfully charismatic and the program, which teaches the disabled how to live independently, appears to be very effective. At the end of his presentation, three of the Orpheus students came on to the stage and sang for us. They had wonderful voices, and at least half of the audience was moved to tears.

In the Friendship House, the dEBra foundation gave me a butterfly pen to add to my jacket and the Westgate and Birchington Inner Wheel Club gave me a free Dessert Cookbook! Yum!

Mrs. WIlton and I returned home, let the dog, Shawnsey, go for a walk, and then I tried a mince meat pie. I must reveal the truth: mince meat does not actually contain meat in it! In fact, it is a dessert, like a tart! It is delicious and the filling tastes rather like homemade apple butter with raisins and some other dried fruit in it. It tastes like fall and winter.

Around six thirty Liz and John dropped me off with their son, his wife, and their two children, Mimi and Ben. We joined in a procession, with most people carrying flaming torches (it rather reminded me of the introduction to Histoires et Reves d'Artois) leading up to the most humungous bonfire. After we watched the bonfire burn down, a brilliant fireworks display erupted behind us. When I returned home, Liz and John had not returned from the black tie Rotary banquet and ball to which I had not been invited (also which they later told me had mediocre food and a not-so-good band). So, I ate a typical English dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding (more of a bread than a pudding) and thouroughly enjoyed it while watching Friends on the television.

The Reason for the Bonfire:

On November 5th, 1905, a man named Guy Fawkes attempted to hide several cases of gunpowder beneath Parliament. He was caught, tried for treason, and executed (hung, drawn, and quartered). Later, to commemorate the event and warn others against the serious crime of treason, the British hold bonfires over which they burn effigies of Guy Fawks.

www.rhymes.org.uk/remember_remember_the_5th_november.htm

The Room Mix-Up

When we arrived at the hotel Friday evening, John asked some man where I was supposed to go. The man told me room 331. I went up to the third floor, passed room 321 that had a lively group of people in it, and knocked on the door to room 331. A woman answered and I politely asked her if there was a Rotary function going on in her bedroom. She replied, telling me that she spoke no English, only Polish and German. I asked if she spoke French or Spanish. The answer was no. So, I turned around and knocked on room 321. They had no idea who I was or where I was supposed to be, but this particular Rotary club welcomed me heartily. They were a rowdy bunch; consequently, they were also loads of fun! Pretty soon, I had an invitation to join them at dinner at Mr. Hau's Chinese restaurant.

I must say that an English Chinese meal is delicious. It was five courses all together. We began with fried seaweed, egg rolls, and a type of fried chicken for appetizers. Then we had a corn and crab meat soup followed by more appetizers. For this round of appetizers, one took a pancake (flat sugarless crepe), drizzled plum sauce on top, stuck in a handful of sliced cucumbers and/or onions, and stuffed the rest of it with Peking duck before rolling it up into a mess of delicious Chinese goodness. Next, we finally got around to the entrees (American entrees, mind you. In French, an entree is the same thing as an appetizer.) that included fried beef, chicken, tofu (which I discovered tastes a lot like eggs), rice with peas, corn, and ham, and an assortment of vegetables. Dessert was displayed marvelously with a carrot carved into a crane in the center of the dish, surrounded by fruit kebabs and fried apples.

Not only was the food superb, so was the company. I never felt left out for one moment of the evening. Madison is somewhat of a rare name in England, so I was called Meredith a few times, but I like that name, too, so it didn't bother me. I was also nicknamed, "the American cheerleader" because apparently I look like I would be the type of girl who cheerleads.

The man who sat next to me on my left was the Club President and the man who rescued in the hall when I had been wandering hopelessly lost. The man on my right used to race Ferrari's and other sports cars, and now owns a business (which he has recently downsized to thirteen employees and moved out of London) that makes and restores chandeliers for homes such as Buckingham Palace. We all talked and laughed, and for a much longer time than we were supposed to, for we were an hour late to "Rotary Last Night of the Proms."

What I saw of the Rotary Proms was absolutely magnificent. We arrived just as Kathryn Jenkin began to sing "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady. She wore the most beautiful purple evening gown and had an amazing voice. Of course, the theater was packed, so the only seats left were in the very front row or the back of the third level. We chose the back. The rest of the performance included Clifford Lister, an opera singer, the Sussex Symphony Orchestra, and Heathfield Choral Society. Part of me wishes that I could have seen more, but I did have such a great time with that Rotary club at our Chinese dinner. At the end of the performance, the orchestra played two patriotic English songs and all of the audience sang along and waved the British flag. Peter, the Rotary club of Sittingbourne Invicta President, admitted to me later that he thinks the Americans are still by far the most patriotic in his opinion. It was funny, though, because he tapped the man in front of him on the head (on purpose) with the tip of his flag, but he didn't respond at all. Two women turned to Peter and said almost at the same time, "No sense, no feeling." How clever of a saying is that!

My British Host Family

If people are judged by how they treat their dogs, then Liz and John Wilton must be two of the nicest people. After all, they are welcoming me into their home, with very little prior knowledge about me. After I admitted that I knew virtually nothing about this trip and staying with them, they revealed that they knew so little about me that they thought I was Hugues's daughter. Liz reminds me a little of my math teacher in the face. John, when talking to his dog Shawney, speaks in third person, referring to himself as Master and Shawney as just Dog, and does not use articles. It is quite amusing to listen to him talk to her.

They live in a charming house in the most adorable town right outside of Eastbourne called East Dean. We stopped off at their house briefly in between Rotary events, during which time Liz showed me my room and fed me tea with tomatoes, cucumbers, and a potato, all marvelously displayed. John is a true gentleman; he opens and closes all the doors for me, and will not let me lift a finger, even to carry a plate to the kitchen. He also, apparently, does not like to be called Sir and prefers just John.

Welcome to Sunny Eastbourne

To reach England from Vermelles, France, drive one hour to the coast on the English Channel, take the ferry for an hour until you reach Dover, England. From there, drive two hours to the west, and you have reached Eastbourne.

Great Britian welcomed me with giant cliffs and gray skies on Friday afternoon. I have discovered now that the grey does not even phase me now. The cliffs were impressive and beautiful, and the ride from Dover to Eastbourne was filled with rolling, green English hills and pastures inundated with sheep and splattered with cows. We also passed through the town that invented the television.

Hugues, his wife Natalie, and I arrived in Eastbourne around noonish. After a delicious lunch (for Hugues and Natalie, fish and chips; for me, vegetarian lasagna), we headed over to a Rotary meeting. Let me preface this next part by writing that before that afternoon, all I knew about this trip was that I was coming to England and that I was being kindly hosted by a woman in a town somewhere between Brighton and Eastbourne. So, I walked into the Rotary meeting , embarassed, wearing jeans. Thankfully for me, someone had left our nametags at the hotel where Natalie and Hugues are staying, so I had time to change into suitable pants and my Rotary blazer when we went to fetch them.

This Rotary meeting, I soon discovered, was the conference meeting for District 1120. (It is pretty much the same thing that I went to in Wilmington for District 7680 last spring before I came to France, complete with the House of Friendship and everything.) The speakers at the Rotary meeting included two men who spoke about Prostate Cancer, an Ambassadorial Scholar from South Korea, a man who discussed Rotaract, Andy Garland a BBC Kent radio show host, and Cheryl Baker who used to be a member of the 80's band Bucks Fizz. Mrs. Baker, who spoke last, sang for us; it was beautiful, and she shared with us a story about one of the band members who had a stroke due to blood clots in his brain, introducing the charity Headfirst.

Grow-Light

I was supposed to go bowling with Thomas, Michael, and Michael's host family, who happen to be my fourth host family, but when we got to the bowling arena, the boys announced that they didn't want to go bowling with a bunch of little kids. (Michael's host sister who is eight had some friends with her.)
Instead, the guys decided to help me look for a grow-light. No, I am not growing any plants in my room; it's for me. It may sound stupid, especially for someone like me who is not depression-prone, but for someone (again, like me) who has come from pretty much non-stop sun and eighty degree weather to a cold, gray, and rainy environment, I'll do anything to prevent the winter blues, especially in the fall. Besides, I came to France to have fun and be happy! Note that I said this is a preventitive measure; I'm not actually feeling down-in-the-dumps and I hope to keep it that way.
So, we went into a giant Home Depot type store, but nobody there could help us, and we couldn't find it ourselves. For the time being, we gave up on the grow-light and decided to walk around Auchan, a Wal-Mart sort of store, and apparently the biggest Auchan in the world, or at least in France. There, I bought a cool fountain-type pen and sixty ink cartridges to go in it, shampoo, the type of pen that I had when I was five that clicks with four different colors (they're super popular here), colored pencils, and a dinosaur coloring book to occupy my periods of Permanence (when we can't even talk) at school.
We left Auchan and were walking around inside when Thomas said, "Hey, look! Want to go pet some puppies?" I think Michael predicted my reaction because he groaned and gave Thomas a "What were you thinking; we won't leave that store for a year" look. I was overjoyed, at least! I love puppies! After fifteen minutes or so, the guys ditched me and went outside, expecting, I'm sure, that I would follow them shortly after. I didn't. Instead, I went upstairs and looked at the fish. When they joined me a few minutes later, we saw the lizards and figured that a light for a lizard would probably suffice or work even better than one for plants. The man who was trying to sell it to us kept asking us for what type of plant we were using it, so he could get us the right one; consequently, we had a long period of awkardness trying to figure out how to explain that it wasn't for a plant. In the end, I think I bought the right product, a 75 W Basking Spot Lamp, because on the back it reads, "Stimulates natural behavior through UVA rays."
We drove back to Emily (Michael's host-sister)'s friends' house where we ate Babka and Pain-Sec, two Polish cakes that were delicious! The former tastes like pound cake and the latter like apricot pie.

The Social Network

Yesterday I met up at the Lens train station with Michael, Jacinta (Australia), Jacinta's host brother Paul, and Thomas (Rotary rebound who went to Michigan last year). I bought a 12-25 card for fifty euros that is supposed to give me a fifty percent discount on any train ticket (not international) that I buy for one year! In Lille we bet up with a gaggle of Rotary exchange students and went to see the new (for France, at least) movie The Social Network about the guy who invented facebook. It was great, one of those movies that I could see multiple times. I actually feel like I would need to see it a few more times to understand most of it because the movie was so fast paced and a good deal of the technical jargon went right over my head.
After the movie we walked into a bookstore that surprisingly had a vast collection of English litterature. Then we bumped into another group of exchange girls who had been shopping and all went into a cafe to hang out and catch up.
Talking, I learned that some English man stranded on an island created the first sandwich, and that it's not called a "man purse," it's a "european shoulder bag."

You Say Potato, I Say Pomme de Terre

I went on a walk this afternoon on the trail behind the house when I saw a mountain of potatoes. It was probably double my height and the length of fourteen or so cars. I don't think I would ever have seen a hill of potatoes in Charlotte, even if I went looking for one. It was pretty comical looking.

C'etait la Guerre...???

Michael revealed to me today his inner competition. I think the only reason he told me about it was because it apparently no longer exists. So, at the beginning of the exchange, he had his heart set on speaking better French than me. He told me that the first day when I went up to him and said, "Hi," he turned around and asked the guy beside him to confirm that he defininately spoke better French than I. I had said "Hello" in English. According to him, he gave up trying to beat me after the weekend at Mont Saint Michel, and he also said that he has come to the conclusion that our French speaking skills are pretty much on par.
I was sort of disappointed that he hadn't told me before hand because I told him that we totally should have had a French-off!

Are Ice Cream and Woolen Scarves Contradictions?

This is the second time this week that I saw my bus stop buddy! I took the bus into Lens around noonish today to meet Michael at the train station. At 1h30 we took the train to Lille where we met up with Darpan and Veda (from India), Emma (Finland), and James (Australia). It rained all day, which was sort of a bummer, but we still had a great time. We spent the first half of the afternoon searching for a ginormous scarf for Michaelin the EuroLille shopping center. When we saw some random French guy wearing one similar to what he was searching for, I couldn't help it and I asked him where he had purchased it. We then went to Jules and found the exact same one, which is strange because the French guy told me that he had purhased his last year.
Next we took the metro one stop to get ice cream and then got on the metro again to go to Subway. Michael and I could only stay for nine minutes at the Subway stop because we had to get back to the train station. Our train left at ten minutes later than it should have, at 5h40, but we all survived the wait, don't worry. In the train station, I saw a man with a legit pig nose.

Hi Ho..It's Home From School We Go

Yesterday was the last day of school before Halloween Vacations! It's great! I haven't gotten a day off for Halloween since lower school, let alone a full ten days!
In school I didn't have to take the quiz in French, I had a free period, we didn't do any work in Economy because Mme. Braun berated the class about work that I didn't have to do, we worked on a dialogue all Spanish class, and we learned about Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in History. Just kidding, we talked about the evolution of movies, which included the first Disney picture of Snow White. Then, we watched half of a movie that we will finish after break.
Last night, I went to a dinner with Christophe and Sabine (Heloise wanted to stay home) celebrating one of Sabine's collegues' retirement. It was in a restaurant that doubled as a discotheque. I think it was a theme night, too, because all of the music that they played was American disco music. The meal was another long one. We arrived at around 8h15, socialized a bit, and sat down at around 8h30. The food was good, but it was super rich. They served a ham and cheese crepe topped with an egg and more ham and mushrooms covered with cream and a chocolate banana crepe. I also learned that cider here is not apple cider. The main part of the meal didn't arrive until 10h45, and dessert didn't arrive until 1h00 AM. Needless to say, it was after 2h00 AM when we got home.

Don't Make Fun of Me!

I saw my bus stop buddy today! I'm so glad that nothing had happened to her. She told me that she has not come the past few weeks because of all of the protesting. She thought that the buses would not come and did not want to be without a ride.
I was made fun of twice today for being American.
The first was by a guy who I had never met before. Apparently, he talks quickly to begin with, but when he discovered that I was from the US, he ran together a bunch of gibberish in lightening speed. (I asked the girls who were with me later if he had actually said anything, and they told me he hadn't.) Then, he started speaking so slowly that I had to let him know that I wasn't stupid.
I didn't hear what the second boy said, I just know he said something that wasn't nice and wouldn't repeat it when I asked him what he had said.

Bob L'Eponge

I spent last night at Hugues' house because of the Rotary meeting. This time he was unable to drive me to school, so I had to ride the bus with Claire, his daughter, instead. Something else I learned from last night's Rotary meeting: this is probably the largest strike in France since 1995. That being said, the bus did not come to pick us up this morning. Thankfully, two of Claire's friends had parents who had not left for work yet and who could drive us to school. We waited for their parents in their living room, and they turned on the television. They tried to find a typical French show to show me, but all of the songs on MTV were in English, and we ended up watching Spongebob, aka: Bob L'Eponge!

Made in...Where?

Writing about China made me think back to the weekend at Mont Saint Michel where I found a pin on the ground. I picked it up and flipped it on the back. Of course, I expected it to read, "Made in China." Everything is made in China. Surprisingly, this didn't. Instead, it read, "Far Far Away..."

Yes, China, you are far far away. I'm on to you and your new secret ninja code-name!

Chinese Rotary

Last night I went to the usual third Tuesday of the month Rotary dinner meeting. The topic of discussion was China. M. Crapet gave a wonderful presentation about his trip, the society and culture he witnessed first-hand, and Chinese relations. Apparently, France is exceedingly jealous of the relationship between China and the US.
It's funny because I have often thought (even before last night) that the United States from a French point of view is comparable to China from an American point of view.

Presque Parfaites

Today, Mme. Braun shared a wonderful belief of hers with us:

"students are perfectable!"

I like this.

No Strike for You!

So the strike that started last Tuesday is still going on today. The French are serious about their picketing. Apparently, even the school children participate in the strikes and skip school to participate. However, today I received an email from Hugues explicitly stating that I was under no circumstance to take part in this traditional custom of highschoolers that would be both enriching and enlightening, educating me on the French culture!

(I'm totally being sarcastic here, by the way.)

La Piscine

This afternoon, Sabine took Heloise and me to Roubaix, about forty-five minutes away. There, we went to a museum called La Piscine. It is named after a pool because it used to be a pool.

It was magnificent!! Not only that, but there was a Degas exhibit going on, too!

The Ants Go Marching One By One...

Field trip!
I woke up this morning with an upset stomach. :( Hoping it would pass, I went to school anyways. I was really excited because today we went to the town of Fourmies (a fourmi is an ant) on a field trip! The bus ride was two hours long to get there, and I actually fell asleep on the way. It wasn't awkward, though, because a lot of other people did, too.
In Fourmies the bus drove through the town as a man from the museum guided us and told us of the town's industrial history. We then toured the textile museum.
After lunch we got back on the bus and watched the first half of the movie "Around the World in 80 Days" while we drove to the next town. There, we had another tour of a smaller museum where we learned about Godin and his town. We were planning on staying longer than we did, but there were traffic jams or something of the sort, so we left early. We finished the movie on the bus ride back to school, but I fell asleep again, so I don't really know what happened.
I'm still not feeling very well, but we had yummy carrot soup for dinner, so I'm hoping that will help my stomach a bit.

The Almost Course

This is the second week that my bus stop buddy has not been at the corner. I miss her and hope that nothing has happened.
I went to school for nothing. Everyone in my grade and the grade below me was supposed to run around two kilometers for some national once-a-year sports requirement. Since we were so numerous, we would have run at the soccer stadium in the center of town. However, like always, there was a strike going on.
When I got to school, all of the girls were herded like sheep into the gymnasium where we all changed into sweats. Once we had all gotten out of our school clothes, a teacher came in, told us that the run was cancelled, and made us put our clothes back on before we went back into the main school courtyard. Since no one had planned on the strike, everything from there was all mumbo-jumbo.
Normally, my class would have had English the first hour, so my homeroom teacher rounded us up in our normal classroom where we waited for the English teacher to arrive. While we were waiting, Mme. DeGroote had her three-year-old son with her, and he talked to us a little bit. Mme. DeGroote told him that we could all sing a song together and told him to ask us if we liked the same music that he liked. Of course, being three, he responded by asking us, "Do you like the same music that I like?" It was the cutest thing ever! In the end we discovered that he likes Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga, but we didn't have time to sing because Mme. Meilan our English teacher arrived then. For the rest of the class, we played hangman with English words.
The next hour we had Perm, but for some happy reason, we did not have to be silent. The final hour, we all went again into the gymnasium. Usually, if we don't have a class last hour, we can leave campus, but apparently the strike was too "dangerous" for us to leave. The sports coaches provided us with equipment, but only the boys really played any games.
At least the whole day wasn't a total waste because when I arrived home, I had a care package waiting for me from Dad! Thank you!

Coucou!

I played peek-a-boo when I was sitting in the bus this afternoon with a girl inside her home. She poked her head inside her curtains, I smiled at her, she retracted her head, and then peeked at me again a few seconds later.

I found the perfect quote to describe days like today:

"Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty-his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure."
~Aldous Huxley

Who am I?

In Pastorale today we continued the self-evaluation that we started last week. Once we had finished writing about ourselves, the teacher had us write our names on blank pieces of paper. These pieces of paper were then passed around the room and two groups of three people each had to write something about the person whose name was on the paper.
This is what my peers said about me (in French, of course):

• Super gentille
• Super sexy
• Intelligente
• Agreable
• Timide
• Un peu a l'ecoute

The New and Improved High-5

I learned how to do two spin offs of the regular high-5 this weekend.
For the first one, you tell someone to give you a high-5. Then, when they're about to hit your hand, you ball your fingers up into a fist, except for your thumb, and they end up hitting the pinky end of your fist. You're then obliged to shout, "turkey!"
I'm pretty sure for the second one, both participants in the high-5 need to know what's happening. Otherwise, both will just end up looking like a major goober. For this one, both high-5ers begin, acting like a normal high-5. Then, as the hands are about to slap together, they both curl their fingers, and retract their hands in a wave-like motion. This one is called the jellyfish!!

Recovery

For some insane reason, I had a lot of difficulty falling asleep last night. Taking that into account and combining it with the lack of sleep I got this weekend and my non-existant voice, I asked Sabine to stay home today. So, instead of falling asleep in class, I slept in bed all day. I feel so much better now, eventhough my voice is still equally as hoarse as before. Christophe says that I hibernated. It seems I have more in common with bears than I thought.

It Made My Life

We woke up yesterday morning at 7h00. Needless to say, we were not happy campers about the fact that we had had less than four hours of sleep. On the other hand, we were all super excited about the fact that there were so many of us exchange students at Mont Saint Michel.

After breakfast we walked from camp to the church. We saw that yesterday, where there had been a parking lot, and a little bit further where we had gone on our hike in the mud was all completely covered in water. Everything surrounding Mont Saint Michel but the road on which we were walking was nothing but water. The best part of the walk there, though, was seeing the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine.

Once we reached the actual mountain (I think I can call it that), we climbed all the way to the tippy top. Actually, I tried but couldn't find a way to the tippy top, but I went as high up as I could go. Once we had reached the top, Rotary gave us an hour to explore. First I walked around the church with Olivia from the US; then, we met up with Jess from New York (not the city) and Valentina from Chile and began our descent.

On the way down, we passed so many doors. Jess and I tried to open some, but all were locked. At one point I saw a door with a sort of button near it and shouted, "Hey, look! This one has a doorbell!" Of course, then I pushed the button at least five times in a row, not expecting the door to open. I screamed when it did open and a woman dressed in a nun's habille walked out past us and in the opposite direction. After we got over the initial shock, we could not stop laughing.

We kept on walking until we reached a part of the church that looked similar to a castle with steps leading up to it. Valentina and I started to climb them, but then we reached a ledge. Instead of turning back, I stuck my foot in a crevice in the ledge and hoisted myself up on to the top. Valentina followed suit while Jess and Olivia looked on, still giggling about the nun incident. Valentina and I hung out up there for at least fifteen minutes during which time Olivia and Jess left and some random man berated us for climbing up so high.

When we got down, Valentina and I didn't see anybody else from our Rotary group, so we began walking around aimlessly. We walked all over and even went in to mass even though the sign requested no visiters during the service. About the time we entered the church for the service, we realized we were lost. This was surprising because even though Mont Saint Michel looks big from the outside, on the inside it feels so small and easy to navigate. We eventually found our way back to the entrance where we saw three exchange students from the US inside a gift shop who told us that we were supposed to have met at the bus tweny minutes previously. We arrived back at the buses just in time. We also had spoken in Spanish the entire time!

We all ate lunch together before we left and exchanged as many parting bear hugs as possible. That is one thing that we Rotary students share in common: our love of hugs!

I was not planning on staying awake for the whole eight hour bus ride, so as soon as it started rolling, I put my head in Daniel's lap and my legs across the aisle and stretched across Tom (the ten year old French boy) and Ardika from Indonesia's legs. I slept that way for one hour.

When I awoke, Jess (sitting diagonal from me) was talking about Ubby Dubby, the language from the kid's PBS show Zoom. I told her automatically that I could speak it because my friend from Sylva, NC Mandy Dean taught it to me. She then asked me how I was doing to which I responded, "Myby bobotobom huburts!" (My bottom hurt from laying in between two seats.)

I learned from James from Australia that a lolly is a soft candy, a throat lolly is a cough drop, a cardboard packet is a box, and a kitchen stool is a counter. I learned from Emma from Finland that every summer, it's a tradition to wash carpets in a river, the largest city, Helsinki, only has a population of 500, and in Finland when you ask, "how are you?" you will get a long response of much more than just "fine" or "super dooper!"

For the last leg of the trip I hung out with Maxi and Martina from Argentina and talked to them in Spanish. (Argentinian Spanish, of course, complete with the -ch pronounciation for -ll and -y) Apparently, they can understand my English accent (Spanish, too) better than most of the other Americans! (I feel so special!) We three have already made plans to get together the next time one of them goes to the US or I go to Argentina because Maxi, who arrived here in January, is sadly leaving in November. It's amazing how all of the Rotary kids already love eachother so much.

So to conclude my weekend, I think I spoke more Spanish than English, and I have no clue how I'm going to be able to transition back into French! Also, remember that this was all done with barely any voice because mine quit on me Saturday afternoon leaving me hoarse and sounding silly!

Techno Rave

Yesterday morning we woke up at 7h00 to get on the road by 8h30. We still had two hours of road to cover to reach Mont Saint Michel. On the bus I got to be on the bottom of a pile of love. Daniel stretched his legs over me, then Tom came and sat on top of his legs, and then Laura came and sat on top of all of us. I am surprised that my legs stayed awake the entire time. In French the phrase is "avoir des fourmis," literally to have ants.

We arrived at what can be compared to a campground. There were dozens of cabins to house over nine districts of Rotary students. (There are usually at least 30 students in one district.) Jess and I decided to mingle, so we went up to as many people as possible to say hello. Instead of asking for names, we first asked the country of origin. I can place a face with a country now, but I met so many people that I only retained a handful of names.

We each had bag lunches that we carried from the camp to the foot of Mont Saint Michel. My bag broke, so Michael put it in his bookbag while we were walking. Everybody threw bread at the seagulls surrounding us as we ate. We all also freaked out at the possibility of having guano land on our heads.

After we ate, shoes were removed, and toes squished in mud as we began a guided tour around the land surrounding Mont Saint Michel. Apparently we walked for fourteen kilometers, but for some reason I did not think it felt that long, eventhough we walked from 1h30 to 5h00.

We took the bus back to camp. We were supposed to take a group picture at 6h30. Everyone felt absolutely disgusting. Eventhough the chaperones told us not to take showers because we didn't have time, I didn't pay attention to them and had wet hair in the group picture (including all nine districts). That doesn't really matter, though because I, like most everyone, was hdden by a country flag waving in the front. What did matter was that the boys got towels and bathrooms in their cottages, while the girls had to shower in a giant communal out-house without towels. Not cool.

We had to wait a long time for dinner because instead, we got to watch Normand folk dancers who looked to be seventy years old at the very least. The outfits were so funny looking, too. The women wore lace hats and gloves. Jess joked around saying that the song to which they were dancing was called "Swan Lace." This also corresponded to the fact that Carlos taught me how to fold my napkin into a crane!

The students from each country then sang their national anthems. Apparently, the Finland and Estonian national anthems are the same with different lyrics in different languages. All of the exchange students from amazing countries dressed up in the coolest clothes I have ever seen! My favorite was the dress worn by Azriel, a girl from the Philippines. It was blue with shoulder shields (vertical shoulder pads) covered in glitter. She looked like a beautiful ethnic Cinderella.

After dinner one of the boys from India who looked like a pirate in his native clothes danced for us in honor of the festival going on in his home country right now. We all loved it, and when he finished, we started our own dance party! By this time it was midnight and we danced until almost 2h00 AM. Surprisingly, the grinding was minimal. It was a lot of fun to learn how others from all of the foreign countries danced. The latinos are the most talented.

We didn't fall asleep until after 3h00, but Jess at least got a towel from one guy by hiding behind a tree when he went to get it.

Sprinkled With Stories

I set my alarm this morning for 6h30, but it didn't go off at all. Instead, Hugues woke me up at 7h00. I still needed to take a shower, and miraculously, by 7h30 I had already taken a shower, gotten dressed, eaten breakfast, and was sitting in the car ready to go.
We met up with other exchangers from our district at the Aquarium restaurant and took a double-decker bus (Amazing, I know!) from there. I sat in the back next to Julia from Brazil and near Daniel and Carlos from Mexico, Jacinta and Josh from Australia, Martina and Laura from Canada, Darpan and Kevin from India, and Chris and Michael from the US.
For the majority of the bus ride, Laura and I belted out random American songs that we knew and were listening to on her ipod.
Carlos and Josh were talking on Facebook about attracting French girls. Josh wrote to Carlos saying that he should say, "Come to Papa" to the girls. Carlos responded, "That's not funny. It doesn't make any sense. You just said, "eat your potato." I don't get it." (Come tu papa=eat your potato in Spanish) Nevertheless, Carlos eventually understood.

About two hours into the bus ride, we stopped and visited the cathedral in Amiens. It was huge! I think that the church in Vermelles is about as tall as its front door.
Back in the bus, we drove across the world's tallest bridge before driving through Honfleur. I think we were supposed to have a tour, but that didn't end up happening.
We at lunch at Flunch, a fast-food type restaurant in France with relatively healthy alternatives. I sat a table with Spanish speakers, so I'll be glad if I don't lose my Spanish completely.
Our next stop was at a beach in Normandy where we visited a D-Day museum and listened to a lady give a history speech about the area. Afterwords we watched a movie in 360 degrees. Yes, the movie litterally surrounded us in a circle. The pre-show announcement told us that we were free to get up and walk around the room for the full experience of the movie if we pleased. Of course, I pleased. I was the only loser to walk around for the entire movie. Others joined me for short periods of time, so I was never alone. I have a new adopted brother named Tom who is a ten year old French boy and walked around with me most of the time. We actually ended up hanging out together most of the afternoon when I wasn't hanging out with the Spanish-speakers. It was really good because he does not speak a word of English.

After the 360 movie, all of the exchange students stood in a circle and played a Canadian game where we sang:
Hey there, ride that pony
Ride around that big fat pony
Hey there, ride that pony
This is how we do it
Front Front Front Front Front, my baby
Back Back Back Back Back, my baby
Side Side Side Side Side, my baby
This is how we do it.
For the first part of it, ten or so people in the middle skipped in a circle. Then they crump in the direction of the song to the person nearest them on the outer ring of the circle. Then that person on the outer ring takes their place in the inner ring, and it starts all over again. It was the wierdest game I've ever played.

In the hotel room before dinner, we played French American Idol. It was pretty awesome. We had to sing a song in French and English in front of a panel of juges. When it was Laura's turn, I was supposed to be filming, but it didn't work so she had to re-do her turn. The second go-around, one of the judges spiced up the dialogue by saying , "It says here that you have participated for the past seven years in the Special Olympics." Laura responded, "Yes, I have won three gold medals." She then proceeded to imitate a leg spasm that she kept up at random momemts throughout her songs. Her first song in French about a crocodile was met with a lack of enthusiam at her "lack" of enthusiam. For her next song, she jumped about and acted crazy, so of course she got in to American Idol!
At dinner I sat in between Tom and Josh. I quickly discovered that the back of the placemat was a coloring page. (I had been talking about buying a Normandy coloring book earlier with Tom to occupy my hours of Perm at school.) Surprisingly and disappointingly, nobody in the room had crayons. I did find a red pen, and everyone at my table took turns drawing funny faces and acting like doofuses.

The exchange student phrase of the weekend is, "Bah, ouais."

How Do You Say Brownnoser in French?

I spent last night at M. Polveche's house with Yuki and Asaki from Japan and Michael. We had an exotic dinner originating from the Antilles. For the aperative, M. Polveche had made a sort of fried ball of cod mixed with chives. The main meal consisted of rice and a curry soup with large chunks of chicken and zuchini. For dessert Huges put on a wonderful show and made bananas flambées! It was all delicious! Michael says I’m a brown-noser.

After dinner we watched a movie about Asterix and Obelix, a French comic strip about two men from Gaul, one of whom fell into a vat of magic potion when he was a baby and now has incredible strength and the other who drinks the potion for the same strength. There were innumerous references to other movies, songs, history, and the most random topics. It was quite amusing, but at around 10h30 I decided to go to bed and watch the rest of the movie another day.

My Life as an Extraterrestrial

So apparently I come from Mars because I have had such great language teachers. I think it's because my Spanish accent is an American-Spanish accent rather than a French-Spanish accent.
Yesterday in Science, Somaya told the teacher that I didn't have to take the quiz that she was giving. Now, I also do not have to take the Math quiz next Tuesday either. The great thing about this situation is that I still do all of the classwork and homework, but I will not get as discouraged as I would with failing grades.
I know now that Mme. Chanteloube, the Math teacher, knows I am an exchange student because she made the comment the other day that it is too bad that there are no pink calculators sold in France. Happily, I think this means that I no longer have to go to the board and answer questions.
The old lady sitting next to me waiting for the bus this afternoon had a beard.

La Caserne des Pompiers

Last night I went to see the fire department in Lievin with my Rotary club. I expected it to be a quick tour where we would go through the average day in the life of a firefighter. Instead, we listened to a fireman lecture for an hour and a half of everything relating to what he did. All of the Rotarians asked me if I understood everything that he said. Honestly, because it was all so technical, I didn't pay attention to half of it.

The woman who sat next to me, Sandrine was so nice. Guess what? When she was younger, she did a summer exchange with a family in Charlotte! What a small world!

Once the powerpoint presentation had finished, we headed over to the garage and looked at all of the firetrucks. Apparently, one truck costs more than 400,000 Euros. (I'm using the American comma here to indicate the thousand mark, not the French one to indicate a decimal.) It was hilarious to hear the two women standing near me talk about how muscular the firemen were and how one of them had sat near the front when the fireman gave his presentation, and how she could see his abs through his shirt. Honesty is always the best policy, but I'm not sure how happy her husband was.

At dinner M. Polveche made me taste Limoncello. It had so much sugar that I could not taste the alcohol at all. It's presentation was marvelous. Someone had frozen flowers in water around the bottle, so all you could see was a giant ice cube filled with flowers.

Tick Tock

I ate lunch yesterday with Florine, Cloe, and Camille. After we ate we stood outside the school's campus where most everybody likes to hang out and talked. I noticed that Florine kept saying, "Wake up in the morning feelin' like P. Diddy." I expected her to continue and finish the song, but after she repeated the same line a few times at intervals, I couldn't resist. I went ahead and sang (it's more of a saying/chanting song rather than one to sing) the rest of the first verse. It was too tempting. Afterwords, I had to sing it at least two other times throughout the day to people who had not heard me but who had heard about me singing it. I was so embarassed, but I was amused at the same time. Eventhough everyone knows that I am American, they always still seem so surprised when I know how to say or understand something in English.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP6XpLQM2Cs

ECJS

Today was my first day of ECJS. Usually, we are supposed to have the class every other week, but the weeks we were supposed to have it before, it just was postponed.
When I entered the classroom, the teacher made us wait to sit down, then told us to arrange ourselves into groups of six. I was automatically heading to be in a group with Marie and Yamina when another girl named Marie in my class asked me to be in her group. This group consisted of Marie, Romaine, Corentin, Camille, Sophie, and me. We didn't really do anything in our group but discuss a little bit; nevertheless, it was fun to be in a different group to get to know some of my other classmates better!
So ECJS stands for Education Civique Juridique Sociale (Civic, Legal, and Social Education). I was originally told that we would learn how to become good French citizens in the class, but that's not really what we're doing. Instead, we will have three points of focus in the class this year.
The first point, which we started today, is Sects. Apparently the French definition of sects is more like the American definition of cults. The next point is the rules clearly defined by the law and work of students and of teachers. The final point is the roles of parents and grandparents.
The group into which I was assimilated today is not necessarily my group the rest of the year. Mme. DeGroote told us that our groups would be chosen at random by her. I think she is literally going to pick names out of a hat. That will be interesting, but I love the anticipation for knowing who is in my group.
Oh, and by the way, I got a fourteen out of twenty on my quiz in Francais today!

La Braderie de Lens

This morning I went on a ten kilometer hike with Sabine, our neighbors across the street, and another couple and their daughter. We started at a horse stable, walked all the way to a windmill constructed in 1400, and walked back. It took us about an hour and a half. Thankfully, it was a glorious day. We had blistering heat of 24 degrees celcius! (That's about 75 degrees in Fahrenheit.) I loved it! To top things off, the sky was bright blue with few clouds.
At around 4h00 Sabine, Heloise, Christophe, and I went to the Braderie of Lens. A braderie is pretty much like a giant flea market. Stands of clothes, shoes, food, and useless trinkets lined the streets. The traffic amongst the people was bumper to bumper. I think I saw more people today than I have the entire time I've been here. The prices for everything were great, but again, for some reason I could not bring myself to buy anything.

Les Manifestations

Today, after double-hour Political Science and double-hour Economy, Sabine, Heloise, and I went shopping in Lille.

One aspect of life in France that is almost impossible to find in the southern states of America, is the "greve" (strike). There have been at least three "manifestations" since I have lived here. The thing about these strikes that makes me laugh is the fact that it is pre-planned more than a month in advance. I don't quite see the point of striking if there is no surprise factor, but the protestors did manage to create quite a few traffic jams. The strikes are not just local, but national. I heard on the news tonight that there were over 890,000 workers who filled the streets today across France.

Neither the heavy gray clouds looming ominously overhead nor the potentially violent protestors hampered our moods. Our shopping spree went on despite the barriers! At the end of the day, though, Heloise had purchased one sweatshirt, and I went home empty-handed. I think that I have decided that I like to go shopping, but I don't like buying. I don't even know if that makes any sense.

For dinner we all went over to Christophe's mother's home and ate crepes. Heloise's ten year old boy cousin Heremy was there, too. He is as cute as a button! He smiles all of the time and has the most adorable giggle. After dinner Heremy, Heloise, and I played a game of Who Wants to be a Millionaire on a DVD game that the grandmother had. I won the million dollar question! Thank you, Lady! It was "Who was the singer who made the 1958 song Fever a hit?" Before the first possible response popped up on the screen, I shouted, "Peggy Lee!" Then, of course, the first answer that showed was Peggy Lee, and we won!

Conspiracy! Dead or Alive?

The French love Michael Jackson. One guy here named Batiste knows the words to all of his songs, can do the moonwalk, and knows all of the steps to Thriller.
Michael Jackson is idolized by almost everybody here. It's like he never died. In fact, most of the people who I have encountered honestly believe he is still living!
I have been asked at least five times by different people in different moments whether or not I believe Michael Jackson to be dead or not.
Why had I never heard of this back in the USA?