Friday: School was fun, because everybody was uber excited about the upcoming break. In Literature, I got an assignment to read the play Dom Jaun (in English) and write an essay in French(of course). Unfortunately the book store wont have the book until Friday (tomorrow) .So when I get it, I'll have to read like crazy. Then school ended (schooools out forever...okay, a week and a half,but still ,woot!). Every two months of school there's is a twoish week break, I'm pretty psyched about that! Friday night we had raclette for dinner. Raclette is basically amazing. Each person melts there own cheese and pours it on to potatoes [pomme de terre(apples of the ground)] and various meat , very good.
Saturday afternoon we drove to Hyers(the city where Claude's mother lives). She fixed an amazing dinner(no surprise there) and we stayed the night. Sunday morning I woke up and got ready to go to the island, Porquerolles (where the exchange students,their 'families', and Rotarians , were meeting).The plan was to leave at 8:30 to make the 9 o'clock boat. At 8:20 me and Marriet (my 'grandma') were the only people up, and I finally asked her about it. She woke the rest of the family up because we,(mostly I), was worried we wouldn't make the boat. Yzabel reminded us that the time changed at 1 am...opps. I felt kinda bad, but I(like to) think that they were getting up soon anyway. Kinda embarrassing... At the real 8:30 we left for the dock. On the way we saw flamingos! No big deal to everyone else, just some flamingos hanging out in that marshy area near the road! (P.S.:It's not even summer, its October...and there were flamingos!) I didn't get to see them too close up, but it's all good. We got to the port and I met up with the other exchange students. It's cool because, even though we've only met once before, i feel like were good friends.The boat ride to the island was about 5 minutes. The island was incredibly beautiful. Click here for some general info. I'll also post some pictures. There was lots of cool stuff, like a windmill and an old fort. At then end of the day we went back to "mamie's" place and ate dinner, then drove back to Les Arcs.
Monday/Tuesday: Hung out around the house mostly, Went shopping both days with Yzabel, Cannel, and my "cousin" who's staying here a couple of days. Monday Yzabel bought me some awesome Homer-shaped slippers!
Wednesday: Around 11 me and a rotary friend , Katelyn made plans to meet in Toulon. I took the 12:14 train and met up around 1:20. It was a slower train, but nice. It was a really fun day. Katelyn and I took the bus to the mall...slightly difficult at first. We got on the bus and waited for the mall stop...but it never came. Turns out we took the bus that went in the completely opposite direction of the mall..oh well, we got there eventually. We hung out with Katelyn's friend, ate lunch at McDonalds in the mall, and walked around the awesome city. It was a really fun day. I took the train home...
Funny/embarrassing/crazy story: The train left like 10 minutes late. At a stop 10 minutes after the planned arrival time i got off the train, i couldn't tell what stop it was, because it was really dark, and my car was pretty far from the town sign. I asked a lady if we were in Les Arcs and she said no. I quickly went to the train and pressed the button to open the door. As I was pressing the button...the train began to move. It was rather movie like, me trying to open the door while the train was starting to depart, it moving faster and faster, and me trying (more desperately) to open the door, walking along side the train...then running.... crap... I explained to the lady(who was now looking at me with a concerned face) that I got off too early and was an American exchange student. She told me that there was another train in an hour (the last). I called my host mom and told her what had happened. She looked up the schedule and told me that the next train would be there in an hour. If I understand correctly the platform is far from Pignans (the town), so it was kinda creepy. The building was shut up, had one light and I was the only person there. On top of that it was starting to get foggy. I kept thinking of scary movie scenarios . It all worked out though! I got on the next train, and finally made it home.
My parents didn't seam to upset, I think they understood, which was good. We ate dinner and had crepes for dessert, which cheered me up. Nothing like nuttella on a thin pancake burrito!
Some more questions