Woohoo! Looks like I'm staying the year!

I can't believe that I forgot to mention this in my last posts. On Friday night, I found out that I extend my stay here to a year! Woohoo!!!!!!!! It's so exciting! :) A long story short, I only learned recently whether I could extend my stay here as there were complications with the regulations of my exchange program and with my visa. I will not be with my exchange program this second half of the year. Instead, I'll be studying as an independent student under the care of my host family. Hearing this news is so relieving and it's amazing that I have the opportunity to continue my life in France.

The weekend went back too quickly. Monday was... a Monday. Not much really happened in Philosophy. My foot fell asleep so during the break I walked around the room during the break to regain feeling. When my friends inquired what I was doing I explained that my had fallen asleep. They looked at me strangely. I realized that I had forgotten that this was an English expression. The expression in French is "avoir les fourmis dans les pieds (ou les jambes)" meaning to have ants in the feet (or legs). Later during the day, the school told all of the exchange students in Terminale and me that we will be taking the science portion of le BAC. I already knew that I would be testing in French literature. The good news- my notes on the BAC don't matter...AT ALL. :) The bad news- just because my scores don't matter doesn't get me out of taking the exam...Zut. 

Today, I had only three hours of school! I had history for two hours. Then, the gym teacher was absent so I didn't have gym class. (It's not like in America where if the teacher is absent the school finds a substitute. Here, if the teacher is gone, you don't have class.) Since I didn't have gym class, this meant that I had a 4 hour break for lunch. Since we didn't have anything else to do, Olof and I walked to my house where we made croque-monsieurs and croque-madames. (A croque-monsieur: a hot ham and cheese sandwich. A croque-madame is a croque-monsieur with a fried egg on top.) We also made some chocolate chip cookies. In France, a "cookie" means only chocolate chip cookie. All other types of cookies are called "biscuits". However, don't get this confused with an American biscuit, (which is pronounced the same, but pronounced differently). It goes like this:

French: English

un cookie: a chocolate chip cookie

un biscuit: every other time of cookie

un biscuit américain: a biscuit 

Aren't they beautiful?...That's because they were made with 250 g of butter! (That's a TON of butter!) 

My host dad and sister, Elise, also happened to be home for lunch. Somehow we got into the conversation about the capital of Wisconsin, Madison. Gilles and Elise thought that this was super funny because "The Madison" is a name of a popular line dance here. It's similar to the "Cha-cha slide" in that everyone knows the steps to the song. I have never heard of the dance or of this song so Gilles and Elise put on the music and danced around the dining room. Here's the music below:

Like the cowboys? Yes, the French adore cowboys. 

After our four hour break, I went back to school to go to my European history class. It's in english and the professor talks really slowly. It's nice to take a mental break for an hour. However, it's not easy! The French school system is very centered around memorization. There is something in every class that you need to memorize whether it's vocabulary, equations, or dates. At first I found this really frustrating as I've never understood the importance of memorizing little details when they don't apply to everyday life. Now, I understand the importance of memorizing vocabulary. Learning another language, it's necessary that you memorize vocabulary. There isn't any way of getting around it. That being said, I still don't understand the importance of the learning the exact dates of historical events. I can understand memorizing years, but trying to remember the month and day is beyond me. (Which is why I choose not to memorize them anyway.) 

 Mathématiques

Économiques 

If you actually can understand what I have written you will find that I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about. :) 

The reason I've posted a picture my homework is because I wanted to show the difference. Here, the handwriting is always in cursive. Also, it is very neat (that's not just me). Everyone uses white out here, because you only write in pen. It's rare that you write with a pencil. Finally, because I've actually started doing my homework. I used to never do homework here because the teachers never asked for my work, but now the teachers are treating me like another student so I have to do it. 

Although this means school until the end of June, I'm thankful to have the opportunity to stay here for the rest of the year. This is going to be a good 2013! 

-Becca

*Shout out to Jed Gorlin! Happy Birthday, Dad! I love you and miss you so much! Have a good one. :)