blue ink #16 - (How to Make Memories)

The keys were jingling. Dangling on her right, a mesh of silver bells. The almost-cheerful sound didn't quite fit the gray pavement we were standing on, much less her. Not very tall, waring a somewhat dull overcoat and other dark-colored garments which were almost too dull to remember. Which is why I don't. Black curly hair tightened back into a greasy pony tail, though her hair wasn't actually that shiny.

And then her face. Perhaps the most animated part of her, being able to sometimes make various facial expressions, though somehow still with an intense and severe air. I watched a few feet away as another teacher came up to ask her something, and she nearly bugged her eyes out, pulling them tight and wide and exaggerating her mouth, as though it were a daily exercise. This only lasted a few seconds and then she barked a few French words out in her constant melancholy tone. I got the feeling she didn't really like her job.

Turning back to us, she lifted up her left hand and with a bored expression, glared at her nails briefly and returned them to her pocket. Her face looked almost like a toad, actually. Or maybe some water creature. Dark skin, grave expression. I noticed a slight glint in her eyes as she then drew in a breath and parted the thin lips of her mouth.

She yelled a firm French sentence to the lot of us. Drew in another breath and yelled further orders. It wasn't such an aggressive yell; there weren't many of us. But then she inhaled again, still with that dark look and then my ears seemed to already ache as though knowing she would now unleash her fiery French dragon shout. But no, it was a false alarm and she remained at the same volume.

We then hesitantly lumbered up to etude, where most of us had 3 straight hours. Which actually I don't really mind, except that I'm missing an English class. And I was rather looking forward to it.

Man, time goes by fast. It's already Friday. And then it'll be Monday and I'll have to start the grueling week all over again. Sigh. But then it'll be Friday again. And this'll continue for only 15 more weeks. Or so.

I can remember back in those late 2008 months and looking at a calendar thinking I'll never get to "Mars" (French for March). I mean, it was like another planet. But then here we are.

You know, everyone keeps saying (talking) about how I'll remember this in college and later and life and all that, which is true of course unless I get memory loss or something. But then it occurred to me that, like, I had a lot of "power" right now. Well, you guys do too. Because it's like.. I'm living in the present, naturally, but knowing it'll be the past. But think about it. So, I'll look back on this year especially (probably) and I know it'll pass, so..

I mean I guess it's hard to explain. But it's almost like... controlling your memories. Controlling your past. But because of the present. Uh oh though... this is sort of sounding like 1984. But not really because I'm not changing the past. I'm not deleting it. I'm just sort of living in the present, future and past at the same time.

Take, for instance, me writing this blue ink. I'm imagining myself blogging about it in the future, knowing I probably will. I am still writing it though. I still am. But it'll pass; it'll become a memory. I know, I am aware and conscious that what I'm doing RIGHT NOW is actually the past. But also the future because you will probably read it. You're not reading it RIGHT NOW. But, ha ha, you are if you are, and right now is now. But when you read it, it'll be... then. I will have written it. It will have passed. But I'm still the only one reading it right now.

So, maybe it's bad to live life knowing things will just end, but it's easier to go through hard times like that I think. And it works everytime.

Lift up your hand or something. If you're reading this, and decided you would in fact lift up your hand, then you know it'll be next; the future. So, (if) you're doing it- the present. Then you put your hand back down and it's the past- seemingly at the same time as the present. Impossible.

And then of course, even as you read this you know it'll end and then it does and it's almost like you didn't. Those next sentences are memories.

Yup. "Once"-in-a-lifetime-experiences, for ya, eh?

(See? You finished reading. This is the past.)

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Turns out I accidentally skipped English class; the teacher was there. Woops. But it was a complete misunderstanding and only like 8 people showed up. Whatever. It passed.

blue ink #15

As it turns out, Madame Martin isn't here today or tomorrow. And if you didn't know, she is my Spanish teacher. I literally jumped up and down when Jess told me. I haven't done a blue ink in a while, you know? Geez, the etude teachers need to chill. Whenever they start yelling violently or glaring with fiery passion (those are pretty much the only modes- they hardly ever "smile"), I just sit there all calm and content, thinking, "man, you guys need to seriously listen to some Jason Mraz or something..." I imagine they do have quite demanding jobs. Having to deal with the effects of impatient, annoying, immature kids surrounding them. But still.

Today you can't really see the mountains, replaced with a grey smudge on a window of inspiration. Which isn't to say grey isn't inspirational. Anyway. I'm excited because break is soon and I ordered 8 awesome, cool CD's on amazon which should arrive in like a week or so. I sort of messed up 6 of them because I made them deliver to the Physics Department at the U of M. But somehow we'll get them I suppose. And since you're so interested, I'll tell you guys which ones I ordered.

Ben Folds Five- Whatever and Ever Amen, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner and Naked Baby Photos

Ben Folds- Songs For Silverman

Red Hot Chili Peppers- By the Way and Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Rolling Stones- Hot Rocks

So yeah. It'll be great. I have no idea how I'll bring all of my CD's and new stuff home though, because my suitcase(s) were already pretty full when he came, but yeah... they could be magical carry-on. 

SPEAKING OF going home, Jamuarmy is nearing to a close, which then leaves me (us) with a mere 5 months left! And February is about half break, so that should go fast. Then there's March, 2-week break in April and the home stretch in May and June, both of which contain a few long weekends. Looks good to me.

Sometimes I get nostalgic over here. The weirded-out attacks are way fewer and I guess my brain is just set on this ending, like really set on it, but for some reason that concept seems weird. I keep playing over different scenarios in my mind, keep counting down the days, keep writing and thinking, keep holding on to old memories of life back there. And since I sort of like it here now, it is a considerable amount more pleasant and going pretty fast.

But since I somehow always get rambling on that self-centered subject, I'll change for both our sakes. Or just stop writing altogether. My next class is SVT, which I don't like much. We got a sub, a very short-, black-haired guy with thin side burns and a bit of a five-o'clock shadow, who'll stay till about April who seems alright. He talks a ton, and often forgets I don't speak French. I get tired of his rambling, which even though is in a different language and therefore easier to tune out, makes me want him to just shut up and speak English so my brain can actually understand what the crap he's talking about. I like having my brain understand things. My brain likes that too, I suppose.

I think I have a sort of curse. Because of this whole thing. The curse is basically, that my brain will have this reflex or habit to often times translate things I read, things I think and just.. things into French. Or at least sort of comparing the two languages. As I have mentioned, my English spelling and vocabulary is sometimes hesitant. It actually doesn't happen much in English classes, but when it does it's incredibly annoying. Maybe useful in some sense, and it will probably fade once I won't hear French about 7 hours a day. 

Ugh. The East won the NHL All-Star Game. Whatever.

I wonder what I'd say if someone asked me what "all this writing" on this paper was.

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I forgot to mention a few things. I had a most interesting Tuesday, because my sport teacher wasn't there. Which meant 3 free hours in the morning. Which meant I could go play hockey. It actually wasn't all that fun because, well, of the usual reasons I guess. I don't think I got enough sleep, so I was especially slow. Excuses, excuses. Sigh. I just wish I could play with people that didn't have deadly slap shots, could skate at least 2 times faster or that made me feel like a.... like a measly kid compared to their height. Or that didn't try to make plays, pass to me (but in a way I was grateful for that) or just... offer... encouragement-ness. But I guess sometimes you gotta be tough. It was just a practice.

So after hockey, I of course took a shower and all- if I didn't, it would have been the most ultimate hygienic fail. And I got a pastry. I should really eat more... French like things. I mean seriously. What the crap am I going to eat when I get back home?

The Host is turning out to be awesome. But even I need a new perspective break after reading that. Just part of being human, I guess. Which is pretty much the whole point of the book. 

I'd really really really like to see and know what other people thought of me, and basically everything. People just need to be frickin' free. One guy once said death was the ultimate freedom or something, because that's when a lot of people just leave a note (say) what they really think. 

blue ink #14 (big bags, strikes, gripped-regions and nobody knows where we go)

Hey hey!! My French teacher is on strike so I have an hour of etude! Sweetness. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention- the teachers are going on strike... something to do with the government working them too much or like... not enough classes for special needs or something. This school (and maybe French schools in general) is already known to have teachers just disappear with no explanation, so I guess I'm getting the full cultural experience! That class was pretty useless anyway because its rather hard... I don't really even get anything. Well, sort of. But yeah. In front of the school, there were high schoolers painting signs and resting them against the gates. It was sort of cool. Must have something (everything) to do with the strikes. They were in French, but I think maybe I got what they said. Something about all coming together. My dad brought up the fact that this school was a lot like Community, with students being allowed to go outside and stuff. It'd be cool to get into Community.

I can't believe that when I came back I'll go straight to high school. Scary. So that means I'll have culture shock (again), then have to get used to a new school. Whatever. I should actually do some work... not much to write about really anyway. Oh there was hockey but I'll add that after I guess.

Later, guys.

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They took down the signs by my lunch break, but some people had painted in blue on the pavement YES WE CAN! and some other message in French above it. Zach only had like one class because of the strikes. 

FLE was a ton of fun. We were talking about the passive forms and stuff. According to M. Besson, the French hate to use "on" which is the passive form or something... sort of like "nous" (us) except we don't really have it in English. But I seem to think the French use it a lot. Hmm.

English was also fun- we had to make an adver-tiz-ment (that's how they pronounce it in Britain) to sell some chocolate. Our group was hmm, but there were some very funny jingles. We all cracked up rather hard. And we all got chocolate at the end. It was pretty good.

Ah, hockey... I missed the running warm-up, but didn't get killed. Tina wasn't there (the Canadian captain) but the other guy was. I guess I did o....k..... on the drills, but still need to improve improve improve. Which I guess is why you have practices. We did this one drills where you skate across the rink, stopping on the lines at the sides, and then at the end you get a pass and shoot. So guess what. I missed the friggin' pass. It was RIGHT to me. And of course I had to be the last one, so the WHOLE TEAM saw me miss it. But I didn't care really. Because I mean, just.. just whatever. That's sort of my theme here. And so then we did it again, and I really tried to get the pass, 'cept the guy flipped it up so I couldn't see it and missed it AGAIN. Argh. 

Needless to say, I am not the best at hockey. It's fun, it really can be quite fun. But see, it would just really help if I was with teammates at my same skill level, or at least a little closer. 'Cause I mean, being intimidated and over-challenged and just.. I dunno is not the most fun. Sure, it makes you try harder maybe but like... ugh.

On the way home we listened to the English radio. They played some ok music and stuff. It was nice to listen to your brain's language and not have to try hard to understand. They had a story about this Russian author Vladmir Nabokov, who I had never heard of before. It was interesting!

I have two huge tests on Monday- FLE and Spanish. Spanish is whatever and FLE is yeah ok. 

There were police officers and a detective and a dog checking out this building, because apparently the kidnappers/etc might be in the area. So like, holy crap, man! 

New favorite Coldplay song: God Put a Smile Upon Your Face

blue ink #13

So guess what. No sport today! It's also raining. I was worried I'd be late this morning even though my dad drove me because he was going to hockey. The car just had to stop before a roundabout. But then he got it to work. Then after the bell rang, my classmates and I waited around for like 15 minutes until people decided she wouldn't be here. Turns out the guy last time was a sub- the real teacher, Madame Lacaille, broke her knee or something. And it also turns out I don't need two pairs of shoes! Bonus. And Claire said we stop wrestling after Christmas. Which means I'll only have like... 3 or 4 more wrestling lessons. Awesome.

Ugh but apparently the teacher is here but she's coming late. So I might have gym after all. Stupid system they have here. I could be home right now, sort of, except Olivia said I wasn't really supposed to and I'd "have to go discreetly". Gee, what a vocabulary, I thought.

I actually kind of like etude. Tuesdays are sort of terrible though because my lunch is only an hour, which means I race home and hastily gobble foodly items. Of course, I have about the same amount of time as I did at Slauson, but its not already made and all that.

Anyway. So I just got handed the name sheet thing where you have to write your name, class and whether you're normally in etude or not at this time. I tried passing it to the guy next to me but he said he already got it. No one seemed to.. have any interest for it so I just put it on an empty desk behind the guy next to me. Great... plan.

I've had Ben Folds/Five songs stuck in my head. Which is good. Right now its You Don't Know Me. ...or a cardboard stand-up and paint me (paint me) anything (anything)...

Just a random fact- OMG what is it with me?!?! My English spelling is messed up! I keep putting "e's" on the end of words. That wasn't the fact. The fact is that this is Day 139 and then there's only like 30 days till the break and then when I come back I'll be a little more than half-way. And also this my 45th day of school. I'ma study some FLE. Il est huit heures quarante.

Je fais

tu fais

il fait

elle fait

on fait

ca fait

nous faisons

vous faites

So I got yet another book to read- an autobiography by Martin Johnson, who's this famous English rugby guy. We have to read an autobiography for my English class. It's actually pretty good. He drinks a lot of beer it seems. It's weird though- they spell curb "kerb". So... different.

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We have a new student in my FLE classes. She seems pretty nice... black hair, an almost stern face (but she smiles) and she has one of those like... fashion-type bags. She's from like Ecuador, but knows English pretty well. It was funny though 'cause when she first talked to M. Besson, Franz was like, "but she doesn't know English". I muttered, "...French." And then she said "Uh, yeah I think I know English," She's in troisieme (9th grade) but knows about the same amount of French as we do, maybe a little less. 

M. Besson seemed just plain delighted to let us introduce ourselves. We went around the room saying our name, class, age and what we liked. When it was my turn, I stood up and preceded to say in an almost painful French accent: "Eh, je m'appele Amelia, et j'ai treize ans... je suis en clase quatrieme G..." I was about to sit down when M. Besson asked me what I liked. "Uh, j'aime la musique," He asked me what kind- moderne, classique,... and I said the Beatles. At first he couldn't tell what I said but other people caught on and told him. Then he asked for my favorite song, and I thought. I kept thinking Hey Jude, but that seemed too... generic. I said I liked all the songs at first, then chose You Never Give Me Your Money. That's a really good song.

On the way home, I had organized with Zach to walk home with him. This might not seem like such a big deal or whatever, and it isn't, but its just... well, me and Z aren't the closest of siblings. I said hi to him and he said hi back. We sort of have a... habit of not normally saying hi to each other, but when one of us does the other either says hi or at least looks in the others' eyes for perhaps a second, or even might just mutter a "hmm". Zach rode his bike while I walked, and he actually rode alongside me. Mostly it was just awkward silence. I thought a lot, though. And what I was thinking about, you may ask? I was actually thinking about this blog post. I tend to plan out the writing in my head before typing it. Yup, that's right, folks, I actually spend time on this thing. Sure, I don't really go back to revise it, but some of those really long posts can take 2 or 3 hours to type up, so after all that work I just want to click Publish Post and be done with it. 

I saw a puddle ahead of me so tried jumping over it. Turns out water is slippery. So I slipped. And muttered a "eeeugghhh." and noticed my jeans got dirty and my knee smarted and felt weird. I saw no reaction in my brother, he acted as though he might not have seen it. We're a shy bunch. At least with each other. Zach actually asked me to wait for him though, which was like the longest sentence he had said to me since like ever probably. We probably saw about... oh, 300 words a year to each other. Mostly just grunts, half-hi/hello's and maybe the occasional smile, like when we're with Erez and Oren. Actually, that's the thing- when I'm with E and O it's like he's really my brother. I talk to him like I actually know what kind of music he likes, persay. 

Being the good sister that I am (that's half-sarcastic), I actually waited for him to put his bike away. I don't know if he'd do the same for me. He didn't say thanks. Not even a grunt, which would sound along the lines of "tah-n" or "hmm" or even "*cough thans". But whatever. I was "late"; I could've been in the apartment by now. Normally I'd have ran home, with thoughts of Maniac Magee running through my head. But whatevz.

My mom wants me to get a cellphone. I have probably mentioned this. Oh and it was almost creepy- Jess said that last Friday she went with her friends before FAT to the Hyper Champion (the place that got robbed) and they saw the security guard and his dog there, who would be killed the next day or something. So she was probably one of the last people to see him. Gee.

Somehow my posts become somewhat long. Agh, I just feel like talking a lot. I want to talk about this and- see? Ok ok. Jess asked if there were any good American schools for sports. I raised my eyebrows and said an exaggerated yeah. Yeah. She's quite sporty.

So I had my trumpet lesson today too... it was ok. My teacher has several trumpets; the first lesson he had a C one, then he had like.. something else and this one he had a Bflat. I have to play Getting Better and Get Back and this duet Bossa Nova. Not too bad. I think I've... sort of gotten worse. Well, I think I'm just not at my best. But there's reason for that. I should shut up. I think a lot of this in my head, and then tell myself to shut up there. And then I put it here, and all youse guys have to listen to me jamble and jarb. Gah. But then its like- ok I will save that thought for a different post. 

I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell

I know, right now you can't tell

But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see

A different side of me

I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired

I know, right now you don't care

But soon enough you're gonna think of me

And how I used to be

Me

(Unwell by Matchbox Twenty)

"blue ink" #12

So... this ain't etude but I'm writing. My french-french teacher didn't bring our cahiers for this class so we can do whatever. Well, I'm supposed to be doing something in French but the only thing I have is French math. Hey, I could try writing a blue ink in French! Yeah!! No. Well, maybe. The key word would be "try".

Je joue la guitare. J'aime la guitare!

They don't seem to have "calluses" in my English-French dictionary. Ah well.

Stuff wasn't much different going to school (there wasn't a considerable increase in noticeable parents, etc) except that my dad drove me because he was going to hockey practice afterward. And then my mom and dad are organizing a schedule sort of to pick me and Z up and walk home everyday. Zach isn't too thrilled about having to walk home with "his sister". Heaven forbid, right? I don't mind really... walking alone sort of sucks... and not just because of the kidnapping.

J'aime a recevoir (receve?) les lettres. Les style plumes sont... non, les stylo plumes ecrire avec plaisir...

that last one probably didn't make any sense... I'm trying to say that fountain pens are fun to write with. They don't really have fun as an adjective in here... oh maybe. Ils sont drole... maybe that's right.

Ow. My back is like spazzing. Agh! It's like... throbbing below my neck sort of in the middle. Stop that! Grr. Probably from lugging around such a heavy backpack all the time.

Hey, the French word for fuss is remue-menage. Masculine. And woah now, they even have the F-word in here and how to say certain sentences involving it. Hmm.

Ma mere... a embeter.

That has like zero grammar I bet. I was trying to write "my mom has been ticked off". 'Cause she has. Like about the kidnapping and stuff. And Zach is like seriously hating it over here- he's overworked. 

Ha, Emma just looked over at what I was writing. She made a face and said, "ok...". See, that's the problem when you write... stuff.... during an actual class. If the teacher comes over... hmm. Well, I have worked on some French. J'ai travaille a la francais.

My accent needs serious work. I need a big(ger) vocabulary. But I already feel more confident, or at least better with French nowadays. It's cool.

Geez, my French teacher can sure write fast. And neat, not to mention. She seems pretty cool... wears like mascera or something sometimes. Knows some English. She talks to me in French, which is great except when I'm just utterly confused. Which tends to happen often. But then she might explain it slower or talk some in English. She once brought a bag with "I [heart] NY" on it. And one with Black Sad, which I looked up on the Internet. Seems pretty cool.

In case you don't know what that is, I will save you a trip to Google. That is, unless you want to know more or whatever. So its like a comic. Originally in Spanish I think, but they translated it into French and maybe some other European languages. There's a cat and he's like a detective. Characters are animals. Yeah.

So, yesterday while waiting for FLE, I started saying in an annoyed tone to no one in particular, "Ugh there's no break for Thanksgiving!" No, I already knew I was in Europe and they don't have that over here, but still felt like "ranting". Jess of course didn't know what it was and we had one of those "make fun of the other culture because its weird/different" things, which are sort of fun. My explanation of Thanksgiving was when "there were Native- Americans and then the colony dudes came over and they are some food. And grew corn! And give thanks." Jess (in a sarcastic, mocking tone: "Oh yeah, here if I give you my thanks will you give me thanks... I mean, what the heck!?" She found it pretty funny. "But we eat lots of food! It's awesome!" Then Jess continued in that same tone, "Oh yeah, here I'll give you thanks and lets eat some food!" Ha ha... ha.

And then also I found out that Earl and Franz, who are two brothers around my age who I saw when we took the tests and who are in my FLE class, are in the same situation as me.

Me: So are you guys going to stay at this school for like ever?

Earl (or maybe it was Franz): Like, in terms of years?

Me: Yeah.

E/F: No, we're only staying a year.

Me: (raises eyebrows) Oh! Me too! How come?

E/F: Our dad works at CERN.

Me: Omigosh! My dad too!

E/F: Which experiment is your dad working on?

Me: LHC. Yours?

E/F: Hey, our dad's working on the LHC too.

Me: Omigosh cool!

E/F: Yeah.

Me: It really sort of sucks living here though, doesn't it?

E/F: Yeah, but I heard school is really hard back there where my friends are.

Me: Oh.

E/F: Yeah, but its only a year and then we can go home!

Me: YUP!

I don't think I'll go to FAT Friday tonight.. sumo wrestling dain't seem that wonderful and I have stuff to do. Plus, its not really.... the funnest thing ever.

It's starting to get pretty "cold". It'll suck not sledding with Anthony and Erez and Oren at Slauson.... sigh. But then again, I get to SKI in awesome MOUNTAINS.

Je suis fatiguee et tres faim, mais la vie c'est tres bon! Perhaps I say that too much. Nothing wrong with liking life, though, is there?

Emma looked at my paper again. How rude! She just made a "uh... you're weird" face. I guess I'm sort of used to that.

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So you guys. I'm sort of really pissed again at the school. I literally FAILED my english math test. Which is like... scary. 12/30. But, before you start saying I suck, remember that I miss HALF the lessons. Which sucks. And like... ugh. But I mean, I don't really care. I'll learn what I miss, sure, but just... just... just whatever. I can't believe I have three math classes and none of them are what I need. And then I have to have a fourth one. Take a huge test at the end. Or, I suffer the consequences of not being with my friends in high school math. Which would suck. Which would really stink. This stinks. This sucks. But wait- that doesn't mean I'm all depressed. Not like you guys care ha. But I don't care really. See, well just nevermind. It seems like this is a long enough post already. I missed some points on that Spanish test 'cause I said some French stuff, which proves how learning two languages (and sort of three) can screw with your mind. Not that fun. But hey, I've still got my guitar, trumpet, this blog and my wwwwwwwwwernderful (wonderful) friends back home. Yeah that's right, I miss you like hell.

P.S. Anthony- you were wondering about what you said. So here I'll translate.

I said:

I love writing this blog.

I love life.

I love you.

(That is, unless I don't know you very much).

Probably only about 40% is grammatically correct, but hey I tried.

blue ink #11

You know what occured to me Well, before I get into that- this is my first paper in a new package! The other one ran out. It was really tattered. The new one is quite thick and nice 'n fresh. They have 200 pages. Anyway, I noticed that I hadn't really been paying attention to like... French culture much. Stuff like going to cafes, reading a (French) newspaper, just walking around town, etc. You know, I've only been to a cafe like once over here this year. I really should go to more or something. I guess it's just 'cause school takes up everything.

I actually want to try reading a French newspaper or something. Reading newspapers is actually pretty cool. And not on the Internet either- a real bunch of paper with ink.

Yesterday I was going to write in sciences physiques like I did that last time but the teacher asked if I wanted to try taking the test so I took it. It wasn't that bad. I didn't understand this one question so I left it blank. It had something to do with like perfume and a door or something. And then the last part was filling in the blank, but that was (too) hard for me in French. But I did learn the material (pretty much) so HA.

Ugh some kid put a big wad of gum on the back of my chair in French (the class I had before) so now my Strong Bad hoodie has some blue goo on the back. And to think- that was in someone's mouth. Uugggghhhh.

Dude I'm so tired. I stayed up till 11:30 chatting with my friends. It was worth it, though, 'cause like ten people got on. I'm also really hungry. I think I should just eat a bigger breakfast. Our cereals are so boring though- Corn Flakes, various forms of meusli and like... Special K.

First trumpet lesson tonight. I'm excited, sure, but I hadn't practiced for 3 days and I'm still sort of sick. But I'll just practice a little before. Trumpet is pretty awesome.

Yay the Rays won. So I might try to watch some games... or at least follow the scores. It's actually somewhat hard to follow American sports over here- I have to like majorly go out of my way to and I often forget about it.

It's la semaine de l'Europe (Europe week) at this school and they put up some flags and stuff. Yesterday I was talking to Jess and said, "Europe is a big continent," but was about to say "country". I should read now.

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On the way home from school, I walked with Claudia. She's in my FLE class and knows English, Portugese, Italian and is learning French. Wow. It was really cool to walk with someone- totally under-rated. I laughed a lot. And at school I told Jess and people that my iPod was named Melvin because I had brought it to school. That was cool. Walking by myself like sucks. But that was really cool.

I had 3 hours of FLE today, which is now like the best class. The lessons reminded me of a lot of band, because Monsieur Besson got side-tracked a lot (but not in a bad way) and he was in a good mood. One of his mini-lessons was like how we can understand something we'd never learned before because humans make connections. It was cool I guess. And he needed my cahier (notebook) for some reason, so I don't have to recite this one thing. Cool.

I have a big Spanish test on Thursday, but whatevs. I'll study sure but like i said, Spanish is not in high priority. It's just so annoying to have. I wish I could switch out.

Trumpet lesson was good. We were like 15 minutes late, after asking some people taking a break outside to smoke where this place was. It was a smallish building with really cool murals on 'em. The teacher came out to meet us. He seemed cool. Short black hair, slightly short. He knew English pretty well, but I had to explain a few vocabulary words. He said I should play louder. We played scales and Norweigan Wood, as well as Hey Jude, at which I was not very good at. But I hadn't really practiced it. I would play B flat instead of B natural, which is a common mistake. But I think I did ok. And he was a pretty pleasant guy. He was playing a C trumpet (we use B flat back in the States) so the fingering is all a-jumble-donk. But he could play pretty well. He plays in some opera. So, that was fun.

Ugh the Cross thing is tomorrow. But I can probably run ok. I think it's only like a mile or less. Last time I ran a mile (1600) was in 6th grade track and I got like 2nd to last place. But I had a cold. Eh. But yeah. And it's so annoying, because its the first two hours in the morning so it just misses me missing Spanish (as in, I don't have to skip Spanish). Ugh. Oh well.

I found out last night that my MyAccess acount had been deactivated. MyAccess was this thing for Language Arts class where we write persuasive essays and stuff. (It was really... ugh/stupid). But yeah. Whatever.

I really need to work on that documentary.

You guys should really check this out. It's QUITE funny. (Thank you Becca).

blue ink #10

I just had gym ("sport"). For two hours. Sigh. And guess what we're doing- wrestling. Isn't that just great?? I mean, I love playing tackle (American) football and all that but wrestling for me is just like... er eh no. First we waited in that place (next to the Lycee and near the L building) and the teacher (who was actually here) called our names and stuff. Then we entered the sport area through this gate and walked with a few other classes of kids. It was first thing in the morning so a slight layer of fog floated near the fields, creating an almost eerie hat. We passed this soccer-like field with reddish power and some more fields. I talked to Claire, Olivia and Emma about the class a little bit. I asked if you could forfeit, and you could but Claire said that'd give you a lower grade. So nevermind. But according to Claire, wrestling is so fun. I could see why she felt that way- she's quite tall, confident, strong and somewhat violent.

A big grey building loomed as we argued about saying fish and chips, French fries or crisps. It was somewhat amusing.

We entered the bleak building and I noticed on one of the outdoor billboards that they did Aikido. So cool. We were let in in groups of like 10 people each and had to take off our shoes in the hallway. I went with Emma. I had only brought one pair of shoes so I brought that with my change of clothes.

I hadn't really liked gym at Slauson, and I can't say this was much better. The locker room was smaller- a square room with benches on the side, white walls and some bathrooms around the corner. I changed in a shower stall.

After changing into my red "Central" running shorts and Red Wings shirt, we all went into this large room that had some blue and red mats covering the entirety of the floor. Large posters of Asian guys hung on the wall. It smelled somewhat like sweet pretzels. Sweat. The teacher talked to us about such and such. He had short black hair with very thin and small sideburns. Looked pretty young. He was pretty nice I guess.

So he went through the rules and stuff and Emma and Claire told me what he was saying. He also informed us that next Wednesday we all had to do this cross country thing/race... and I think we're GRADED on that. I mean, what the heck? Graded on running 2 hours to benefit hospitals or whatever? He also handed out these pamphlets that we could fill out to donate/get money for running or something. I didn't get one though.

Emma was my partner. It was somewhat awkward, and she beat (pwned) me several times on the drills, and I pretty much stank. We did stuff like pushing each other out of an area, picking each other up, etc. Wasn't that much fun. And then before all that we did these running around drills sort of like what we did in band where you have to get in groups of 3 or whatever and have a consequence for being the one left one. On the exercise where we had to pick someone up, I was left by myself sort of. And had to do 6 push-ups. Which wasn't even bad at all. I mean, I really don't want to brag or anything, but those 6 push-ups were not... very hard for me. I overheard one of Joey's friends say something like, "yeah well she's an American so..."

Finally, after humiluating myself a lot and taking in that eughaduge smell for 2 hours, we could go. Apparently I need to have 2 pairs of shoes for some stupid reason. Like, we have to have different shows for Ping-Pong or something. I don't think I'm even doing Ping-Pong. What the heck. I also walked away with a bad rug burn, which really smart.

So gym is all year and I think we do wrestling for half the year. Ugh. At least it's only once a week. And we have to be graded on almost everything. Frankly, I've already got 2 hours of hockey a week which is so much better. Sigh.

Dude I'm hungry. Short lunch today, too. And three hours of FLE. Geez. I'll try to work on that documentary a lot. This school is annoying.

Oh yeah and hey it was cool yesterday- Bridgitte (someone in my FLE class) came up to me yesterday and we talked for a bit. She's Canadian. From Toronto. And she said her family might stay here permanently or move somewhere else French-speaking if they don't like it here. God. I would hate that. I mean, just one year in plently. Already almost too much.

Chester is a dog.

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YOU GUYS GUESS WHAT.

My mom told me we found a trumpet teacher for me! One of her close friend's from Quaker meeting daughter is a French Horn player in the Geneva Symphony Orchestra and she was looking around. So the teacher (François Seigneur) is French but knows some English. The lesson would be Sgt. Geny, which is pretty close. I can't wait! I hope I get the lessons on the weekend, but Wednesday could work. The French Horn player (Julia) said she found him "quite pleasant" when she talked to him on the phone. So cool.

Dang, the day goes by so fast. It's already pitch black outside and 7:30. I did my HW luckily and should work on that Doc. Just till July 4th... then boom I'm out. But first, till October 24 and we'll go to London and see Wicked and take lots of pictures and see England and take a huge, much-needed break from this heck and I can have some fun.

And yo, check THIS gnarly-ness out.

blue ink #9

The walls are painted in thirds, pink on the bottom, grey with random painted pictures of people in the middle and yellow on the top. You can play pool in here, as some people are doing. And play connect 4 and just talk. I'm writing, as you can see. The French teacher wasn't here so I have 4 hours of etude.. AGAIN. But that's not bad. 2 tests tomorrow. I studied some. I can also read and write. A kid (the jerk in my musique class who was also flicking paper wads in etude) just came over and randomely looked at what I was doing. Then left.

Some people are listening to their iPods. Joey, I notice, has a green one too. The pictures of people painted on the wall include the head of the Statue of Liberty, Marylin Monroe, Jimi Hendrix?, a car, a butterfly, a cat, a futbol player, snowboarder/skateboarder and a few more.

It's foggy today. I love it when it's like that-rainy, wet, dark, gloomy, depressing, bleak, grey, foggy. It's so awesome!!

Ooh, there are also comic books and you can play cards. I'm sitting by myself here. It's the second hour of etude. And there's a French movie poster. The movie is called Russian Dolls I think.

This year I have to basically just "pick my battles". I am not going to pass every class (and that's ok) and have too much work to do. Thank God I have trumpet. It's a great stress reliever. I try to practice it everyday after school, even with the amount of HW I have. It's awesome.

11 months of school. Only 10 now. And with breaks, that's 63 days off, so really only 8 months. AND Wednesdays are half days, so 31 half days are only 15 in a half days. So that's like 7 in a half months. I think I can make it. Each time I walk home from school= one less day. Just one day at a time.

I'm going to read. The pool game seems to be creating lots of excitement.

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I could've gone home for those 4 hours of etude. Ugh. But I'll do that next time. In the first FLE class, we got a sort of moral lesson, which reminded me of Ms. Smith's band lessons. I was tested on yesterday's lesson, at which I stank. But he gave me an 18, which I so didn't deserve. Then he started to talk about how FLE is pretty much first priority, and the other stuff doesn't matter until we learn French and stuff. And how we have to learn the lesson. Monsieur Besson (FLE teacher) is pretty cool and relaxing, until you start fiddeling. Quinn was playing around with his watch, so M. Besson like spazzed. As in, he yelled at him. After M. Besson does that kind of stuff it's always extremely quiet. Quinn at first just said, "Pardon" in a surprised/it's not my fault sort of tone. Then he yelled again, and Quinn actually talked back to him, saying "Geez!" I thought that was a really baaaaad idea but Monsieur Besson didn't take out his battle axe, thank goodness. I think he's just under a lot of stress or something.

I keep thinking about going home. And then it occured to me that I guess I did really miss home. No time to throw the football hardly. I don't hear the crowd every Saturday. I can't walk a few blocks to Sweetwaters, or pointlessly walk around downtown with Becca, Athony, Nick and Sam till we decide that was extremely pointless so we eat at my house. But I haven't gotten to the point of like... actually throwing rocks places. I can live/deal with it. But it's hardly living. Just one year, man. Then everything's going to be awesome. Ok.

blue ink #8

Well this is different. I'm in sciences physiques (chemistry) and the other students are taking a test. The teacher said I didn't have to take the test because I don't speak French. That is both bad and good. I didn't learn the material really BUT that doesn't mean I can't. I'll study/learn with my dad at home and he can test me on it or something. And I mean, it's just less stress for me not to take it.

I have an hour. I could study. I could read. I could write. Dang, someone wanted to ask a question just now but the teacher just shook her head. Hmm.

My mom says that me and Zach are doing something that's as hard as college. I doubt that. It is quite hard, but manageable I 'spose. Somewhat. I just wish there was more of a school/free time balance. Because getting home at 5:45 just doesn't work for me. Slauson started. It's 2:45 (8:45). Mondays aren't actually that bad. In FLE, the teacher was surprised and a biggish deal about my birthday. He also asked "what kind of creature is it?" after studying my Strong Bad hoodie. Now he knows it's Strong Bad, a chatacter from a website. It didn't seem like anyone had heard of him in the class.

You know, it always smells like glue in here. Tables have cold white tiles and sinks.

Ugh we have HW. Lots of it- the teacher just wrote it on the board. 4 problems. Oh and CRAP. I am behind in algebra. I am so screwed. My friends can do these really complicated equations but I can't. I doubt I will pass the Algebra 1 test. That sucks.

I'm going to read now. I started a new book- The Tiger in the Well by Phillip Pullman. It's quite thick and pretty good. That Phil is quite a good author.

I'm rather self-conscious, you see. I'm the only one not taking the test and the teacher (who seems to have taken a slight dislike for me) stares at me form time to time. Sigh.

I talked to my mom about going home plans at lunch. School ends on July 4th. Can you believe that?? Almost a full calendar year of school! At least we sort of get more breaks than in A2. We'll leave after school ends, which means we're actually staying about 366 days. Ugh. And then we might go to Uncle Carl's wedding. Well, we will go but it might be like right after school gets out. Which would mean I see my family before friends. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Don't get me wrong- family is very awesome, but after spending a year in a foreign country then more plane rides to a different state, into a formal situation... well, you can see what I'm getting at probably. But anyway. First thing when I get back- sleep if it's late I guess, but first I will call my friends. And I want to see them. See, I get so happy thinking about all this. Can't can't can't wait! I think I can do it. Hehehe. Hahaha. Ok I'm done. And then let's see... I'll have about 2 months till high school starts, which means 2 months of parties and hanging out with friends. As I said, it's so pleasant to think about.

Right! (That's what my English teacher says all the time.) On to reading.

blue ink #7

Sigh. Well, actually it's not that bad. I'm in etude again for four hours because the gym ("sport") teacher wasn't here again. This is liek the 3rd straight week. But I mean, its four hours to read, write and do HW and that doesn't hurt. It even helps. SO yeah. I think I heard somewhere that fountain pens are easier to write with, but this one is like stiff. I don't plan to write a ton like last time because sore hands smart.

I'm excited to see Wicked. That will be so cool it will like... hurt. (That's one of my expressions that doesn't really make sense.) But yeah. And Abbey Road will be interesting. (Wow- walking across a street- so intriguing! I know) I sure hope there aren't loads of tourists or people when we're there because I don't really want to walk across with them. So selfish, I know.

Dude I need a haircut. It's like seriously long. The bangs are almost down to the tip of my nose. This is the longest my hair has been like ever I think. I'll get a haircut on Wednesday I think. It might turn out to be a disaster though if the hairdresser doesn't know English and isn't nice.

8:17. My friends in Ann Arbor are still sleeping. Another 6 hours till they start school. Wish I was still a golden bear... my new school has no mascot. No school colors. No sports really except there are like clubs or something.

I mean, I guess this isn't so bad- living here. But like I said, I'll just get sick of it. I cannot wait to come back- to see my friends again. Oh, and you guys remember when Erez and Oren told me I was going to really really miss my friends and all that? Yeah well so far it hasn't been bad like at all. I mean, I miss you guys a lot, sure, but it's not as if I can't... live with it, you know? I can deal. I think. I don't think it'll get as bad as they say. I mean, it's been almost 3 months and I've survived.

So anyway. I'ma going to read for a little.

Wait. Before I forget, Simon come up and talked to me for a little bit this morning. So amazing, I know. I was just writing down the HW I still had in my planner when this tall figure loomed over and said, "sup" I said sup back and he said he liked my Strong Bad hoodie. I said thanks and stood up. He moved his headphones away from his ears and asked what class I had. I told him gym and he said, "Ooohhh sucks for you" in a nice way. As in, not meanly. I was just like yeah and he said he had to go. The reason I found that so.. unusual is because I'm an 8th grader and he's a senior. So, it seems like that'd be a little... weird/uncool for him for do that. But then again, we're both new people in this foreign country and foreign school and we don't know many people. So anyway. Back to reading.

Yeah I'm back. It's 10:10. I'll study a little FLE then read. It's not a bad book.

blue ink #6 & illegal finish line

Omgee it's another blue ink! French math teacher is sick or something so I have a free hour. Youguysyouguysyouguys- you guys!! I got an awesome idea for the blog!!! So my dad was noticing the playlist and stuff, and brought up the idea that I could record my own music and put it on! And then I thought- "hey, I could do a podcast!!" My dad brought over this recording device so I can talk to you guys about everything now. It's so great. I already have a name and logo for it. It's called Bligadesh BlogCast. (BBC without the English accents!) Bligadesh is a word I made up a while ago, and it means like weird, random, whatever, etc. and yeah. And the slogan thing is "Your source for yeah and yeah!" 'cause I'll talk about like... yeah and yeah. Which means basically, in my personal dictionary, just whatever. I'll try not to be boring of course.

So anyway. Can't wait to do that! I'll probably do them every week or so.

This morning was ok. In French I did FLE work and have to practice an oral presentation for English class. I got some English math HW too. Ugh. But hey it's Friday! 3-hour lunch and I only have one class after and it's fun- so yay.

Michigan plays Wisconsin tomorrow. I'ma talk aboot that on the blogcast. And stoof.

I brought my iPod to school today. Only listened to 3 songs about. It's cool. Smells really nice outside, and the tree leaves are starting to explode.

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I got to leave etude 30 minutes early. There wasn't anyone home and I didn't have a key, which really sucked. I read my book near the door while listening to Simon and Garfunkel. It sucked. I had to wait almost an hour before my mom finally came. She was on a walk. I still had 2 hours for lunch. I checked-a my email, did math HW, listened to music and yeah. Art was fun. I'm drawing a picture of a banana, apple, eggplant and mushroom. And maybe a carrot. I laughed a lot in art. I've had pretty... amusing experiences in art classes. Take 6th grade at Slauson. Ahh. Goosd times. Anyway. I have that darn Spanish test on Monday, but whatever. And sort of a lot of HW. Not tooooo bad though. Should be a good weekend. Oh and GO BLUE!!! They just had to make the game at 3:30, which is 9:30. So it'll end at like... 1:30 am? I dunno. But GO BLUE anyway. I might blogcast (new word I think) today. I'm really excited about it. Hope it doesn't suck. And that you guys like it. I'll keep the playlist, but not make it auto-start. And, of course, if you guys ever have any ideas for the blog or blogcast, or anything really, like music, just comment or email if you know my email. It'd be awesome. Thanks.

Hail to the Victors, man. Them BADgers are goin' down. (I hope/doubt, but I'm a loyal fan, ok?)

blue ink #5

Daaang. Dang! Sometimes life freaks me out. Like, seriously. So I was supposed to have 2 hours of gym today first thing but I didn't really know where to go and stuff. I went inside ('cause normally I wait outside for the bell) and tried to ask Joey. He was playing a somewhat violent pushing game, so I had to say his name a few times before he noticed. He said we meet near the Lycee and he pointed. So ok. Then I stood around, worrying sort of because this was my first gym class and I didn't really know what to do. Then I noticed Jess standing near the lockers and went over. I said hi and asked if she had gym now. She wasn't but showed me where to go and just said I should follow Joey. Well, first she asked Joey if he had gym and he said "maybe" which Jess translated to "yes". So I just followed Joey. We met up with his friends and one of them was talking about the world's smallest PC or something.

Claire, Olivia and some of my other classmates came and soon clumps of people formed around two teachers. Then I heard my classmates groan and didn't know what just happened. Turned out our gym teacher wasn't here, so we have 4 straight hours of etude. When Joey told me this I pumped my fist and said, "Yeah!" This was awesome! For me, anyway. Claire and Joey called their parents with their cell phones, 'cause apparently we might have been able to go home. That would have been great- get another hour or so of sleep and relax. But no- we have etude till 11:50.

So the point I'm trying to make here is that I guess things really do go OK. But for some reason, my first reaction to things, or the first thing I think/do is worry. I try telling myself it'll be OK, and I do and it helps, but I guess it's just that I can't see how it will be OK. It just seems so... like it's not going to be OK.

So anyway. Here I am, sitting on this chair with my pen and paper. Joey said this was the worst class. Eh. Maybe for him it is. This is frickin' awesome. I get to write a ton and have time to study for geographie. But there is like no way I am passing that test. I have to label continents, oceans, some cities, climate zones, forests, rivers, some countries and mountains and stuff. AND memorize some history about kings or something. Like, I'm trying to study for all that but I have to do like extra because it's in a different language. Argh. It's hard. I studied a little before I started writing this and I'll do some more later.

I want to be outside. It was nice. A little windy with crisp air. Makes me feel better. It's a blue-steel day but there is some sky-blue and the sun came out earlier. This is the type of and time of day when you should be writing/think outside and laying on the grass near your friend. Both with hot chocolate included. Sigh.

Claire has a bad cough. She's also wearing that OSU sweatshirt again... ugh. But she's like majorly coughing/blowing her nose. A ton of people are sick now. It sucks. But besides that, Fall is actually a pretty awesome season. Probably my 2nd favorite. I mean, what with the crunchy leaves, trees erupting with colors, recreational activities and smells, this season is like... just asking for poetry. It is quite inspirational.

Hey, this is a first- this is the longest "blue ink" I've written so far. Cool. Lots of typing today. But I get out earlier than yesterday- 4:40. But I have a crappy lunch- only one hour. It would've been way better if I had all of the morning classes first, so then I had like a 3-hour lunch. Oh well.

Everyone just like left. You might wonder why I am still here writing. I still have 2 more hours. So yeah. Oh wait, 3 more. Boo-yah!

I am now the only person in here except for the teacher. It's rather... weird. But she hasn't said anything to me and I don't really have anything else to do. Plus, it's not as if I'm doing something bad.

"Hey-Amelia!" I quickly looked up. It was Megan. "You're here all by yourself," I replied, "Uh yeah" as Megan and the two other girls from yesterday came and sat down. Then the teacher told us to move up, so I re-located to the 4th desk down, sort of in the middle. Some of my other classmates came in too.

I guess I'll study a little more. It's only 9:01. I also don't know where some of my cities are. But I guess it'll be OK. I'll pick up this pen in like 10 minutes. Not like you guys will notice.

It hasn't been 10 minutes, but I just remembered I had a spelling test today. Shizzz. But it shouldn't be that bad. Miscellaneous. Possession. Unfortunately. I think I'll do pretty well. But oral ones are heard. Argument. OK. Now for geographie.

Did you guys know that IVe millenaires av. J.-C. was the naissance de l'ectriture? Birth of writing. And also at 496 Clovis got bapteme- ed. Wow. that was a looooooooong time ago.

Where the crap is Shanghai?! I can't find it on the map in my planner. Ugh. I can't find Le Claire either. Oh well. I can use the Internet. Only 2 in a half more hours. I only have one English class today. I have math and Spanish like everyday. Except, Friday is no Spanish. At least tomorrow is a half day. That so rocks.

Last night I stayed up till 10:15 chatting with 4 friends. It was worth it. I cracked up a lot. But today I have to go to bed early-ish because I'll get like 7 hours of sleep the next day because of hockey practice.

I could read my book. I'm getting close to the bottom of the back page now. It's 9:22. I've been writing for about an hour. Wow. Ugh some jerk is throwing wads of paper around. And he made a weird noise. Woah, I just heard Megan say like, "I {f-word} you," then laugh. They certainly like the F-word here. I have physical science HW but didn't bring the books, and I don't really understand it. It's due Monday. The girls next to me are also throwing paper. What the F? Such a waste of trees. And therefore more dead Polar Bears. Sigh.

Fountain pens are cool. I got this one like 2 years ago in the US. It's a greenish-yellow with black stripes and like a dog theme. Obviously I'm using blue ink right now. *Stretches fingers and legs... I'm tired. But slightly happy. School doesn't suck so much.

Weird. There's some like... grown man in this class. He has light side burns, a mustache, glasses, is big and has dark skin. Maybe he like majorly fell back? Woah I need a

second sheet. Dang. This is going to take awhile to type. I hear whispering- low raspy voices like many small stones falling on other stones. Paper rustling-ripping and being written on. The kid in my music class with a mohawk has a small wad of paper on the desk behind him and his fingers are in formation to flick. He glances around, trying to look casual and looks at the teacher to make sure she isn't looking. His fist now covers the paper... he gets ready to flick... glances again and bang. The white ball of paper hit the chair and bounced to the floor with a firm tink-donk. He has a creepy smile. The teacher didn't notice. Yo, now he moved his tongue around in his mouth as if perhaps pretending he's making a spit ball... nevermind.

It smells slightly like stale, fingernails, paper and fake wood. My hand is seriously screaming so I'm going to read my Garth Nix book for a little. It's 9:39.

Now it's 10:13 and I'm in the library. I read some of my book but then the bell rang and I had to go outside. As I walked through the door, my nose immediately felt a light blue and bleak wind; coldness. I kept walking, treading on the grey gravel and becoming more alive, the thin yet powerfully not warm September wing bleeding through my jacket. I went to the middle of the pavement with lines and looked at the sky. Yellow sun poured like never-ending lemonade out of white-tipped, pencil-lead colored clouds. I saw a plane in the distance, the sky was like an ash-tray, yet troubled with the smile-inducing blue color. Suddenly I was out. Well, I wanted to get out; I felt caged in at this school, so bleak and foreign. The windows were black, revealing nothing. I needed to be somewhere else. Out. In space? In Ann Arbor? In a void. But yet with. I wasn't in the Lycee International of Ferney-Voltaire for a second, as I stared at and got lost in the ground. But then I was. There was a black bird flying clumsily. Another airplane took off. I was standing alone while middle school kids talked in French and English and laughed, dotted all over the paved campus. I could feel a part, a sort of blob in the back of my mind that was in that other place. Yet the rest of me returned, and perhaps had never left, when Fauzi said my name.

I forgot to tell you guys about Fauzi. He's new, from Sweden and is pretty nice. Short, sort of curly black hair and his face seems to almost always be in a somewhat saddened, innocent, curious and lost expression. He asked me about etude and stuff. He knows pretty good English and plays ping-pong very well.

The sun sneezed, spreading yellow light (goo) over the pavement, as if igniting the grey. But with the light, it also created dark shadows. Then the bell rand and the clouds acted as a tissue.

I lined up for etude and Jess came with some of her friends. She said hi to me first. Then they started to talk about some guy that had apparently fainted and his heard stopped beating. It happened like just now and people had just crowded around him. He didn't die though. Then Jess did this cool thing with her hand. "Hey- that's cool," She laughed and I tried doing it. You link your fingers and then sort of swerve them under and up. Then we lined up for CDI (the library) and they called our names to come in. I'm sitting next to Jess. She's cool. She played field hockey in Holland.

She's borrowing my calculator for her English math HW. I told her about how some guy brought a home-made bomb to Slauson. She was surprised.

Gosh my hand is sore. But tomorrow I don't have any etudes so I'll get a break I guess. This is my 4th side, 2nd page. Lots of typing. But it'll be fun I guess.

No one's asked what/why I write. Pretty much everyone here now is reading. I'm hungry. Only about an hour and a half till lunch.

I suppose I'll just read now. The rest of the day should be OK. I'm so glad it's only a year here, 'cause this school can really get to me. I'd get so tired of it. But after this, school's going to be hard. But then again, after this, school will seem easy. I can just imagine myself grinning vibrantly in my classes because I get to hear, read and speak ENGLISH.

And I am so visiting Ms. Smith and Slauson. That's like second priority after friends. Go Golden Bears.

Mmk I had to write again. It's 11:15. I'm in the library again- we had to leave it, then go to etude, then went back up here. I'm sitting with Jess again- we talked a lot.

She's staying here probably 10 years or even permanently for her dad's job. She might go to the Geneva International school which speaks English. She also sort of wanted to come here- she already had a friend. We were talking about how the teachers yell and stuff and Jess was actually a little more... non-optimistic about it than me. I was the one to say "chill"; first time for everything. Then she told a story about how the cool musique teacher talked to her one time in the class. He said like (in French), "Oh you're from New Zealand- that has a lot of cows," and Jess said, "Um no it has lots of sheep..." and then the teacher baah-ed. Ha ha. It's so awesome to talk to friends. Jess actually wanted to walk, sit and talk with me. I only have one class with her today. She's pretty cool. Nice British accent.

I only have about half an hour, and only 1/3 of the page or so left. This is like a new hobby or whatever. I like it. The library has a bunch of posters- there's one of Matilda, Indiana Jones, the 6th HP and Tintin, to name a few. The chairs are "wood" with bluish-purple plastic/metal legs. Lots of tack boards, some old black Dell desktop computers, blinds pulled 2/3 of the way down. There's a little corner with a few couches and magazines behind me. I think there's even a metal detector after the door. Interesting.

Someone's phone went off. My parents want me to have a cell phone. I'm not like... really excited about that. I mean, it's oo kay but just another electronic to take care of. A lot of my friends have one. In fact, I guess everyone in that "hang out at Amelia's porch" group except for Oren and I. Ah, and let's see... it's 5:30 AM there. So most of (all of) you guys are probably asleep. Then you get to go to wonderful Slauson! That wasn't sarcastic. Have fun, guys. But by the time you read this it will have passed. And my day will have too. I'll write about that when I get home. So far, life is a-pretty-pretty goosd.

blue ink #4 & illegal finish line

Yo. It's 11:06 on a Monday and I'm in etude. I would have been in math right now but they moved that to 4:55 for some odd reason and now I have another etude. Sigh. But I'm just so happy that Becca is reading my blog again. That is very cool. I sort of have homework- finishing my independent French, reading, studying georgraphie or Spanish and yeah. But it helps to write. It's fun. Except for the irking aftermath of a sore right hand. Perhaps I can write some poetry. They have a different teacher in etude that I haven't seen before. Looks younger, tan, and brown hair flowing over and around her neck. Seems like an OK teacher.

I wore jeans today. It's sort of chilly. Not many kids here wear shorts now. And I'm also wearing my Strong Bad hoodie, which is cool. For some odd reason, I didn't bring one of my Slauson sweatshirts. Ugh. I so should have. I guess people really do grow because the last time I wore the Strong Bad hoodie it was quite large. But now it fits better. Hmm.

I've been thinking (considering) about bringing my iPod when I walk to school. It's about a 15 minute walk maximum and might help me like... not be so... lonely or whatever. But then again I could lose it or whatever.

As I walked past the "school buses" (they use big grey tour buses), there was this kid leaning over the side of the sidewalk and he coughed and some pancake-batter-like stuff came out of his mouth. I could hear the barf splatter on the ground and quickly looked away. Behind me some girls said eww and whatnot. And of course I had to play it over and over again in my mind as I walked to my class. I tried thinking about dogs. Chester is a dog. I haven't talked to him in a while. I should send them an email or something soon.

Gosh my hand is sore. I have about 20 minutes till I go home for lunch. Technically, I only have an hour for lunch, but I don't really care if I'm supposed to go to etude. I mean seriously. I'd rather just do my homework or whatever at home.

Lots of coughs. I'm not sick really, but I might have the beginnings of something related to the cold. Last night we had chicken soup, which was really, really good (my mom made it). I almost cracked up into my spoon as I was eating when I remembered (I'm smiling now too) talking to one of my good friends and she said she wasn't good at flirting. Crap my pen just ran out of ink. But luckily I had another ink cartridge. Now the letters are really blue. Anyway, so then my mom asked what was so funny and I said, "nothing" with a grin. Ha. My friends are funny.

In geography I sat next to Quinn, who also doesn't know much French and is new. He's British. And pretty nice I guess. But I learned then that two confused and lost people don't make one non-confused and not-lost person. Instead, it makes a...

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I had to leave etude then. This is the "illegal finish line" because I didn't write this part in pen. But yeah. What I was going to say was that two lost and confused people make two even more confused and lost people. Also in geography, we had to write definitions and notes and stuff, but the problem was I can't really tell what the teacher is saying in French or write it down. So when she said the start of a phrase for me and Quinn (she was standing behind us and exaggerating it), I was quite off. It sounded like she was saying "different" but she was saying "defende". Eh oh well. I had to do a lot of that guess work. Like in Spanish, the teacher was also telling us stuff to write, and I just had to guess. Spanish was awesome. I sat next to Jess again, and we were confused. She's pretty confident and seems like a good student; she tried answering where something/someone was but was wrong. I didn't even like know the question. And then it was also funny, because (I'm started to laugh now) the teacher, who's short with strawberry-blondish hair and a crooked nose, had to use a large ruler to turn on the TV. Jess mentioned this to me and we had to cover our mouths from laughing. And then the TV wouldn't turn on because she had to plug it in. It was very funny. Ha ha.

Today was actually pretty good. Clare was wearing an OSU sweatshirt, which was gross. I asked her about it before math and she said yeah she was a fan. I expressed my dislike for them and we started one of those "No actually OSU sucks-" "no Michigan does" etc. things. Claire is like way taller than me, so she hovered above me saying, "Oh yeah?? Well you're short and Michigan sucks!!" we continued that after class. Olivia said she was "on my team" and I wanted to give her a high five, but didn't get the chance. After school I walked out of the school with Claire, Olivia and Megan. (I'll talk about Megan in the next part.) and I brought up the fact that Michigan beat OSU 57 times, whereas OSU only won like 42 times. So ha. And then as we were walking out Claire explained to Olivia that we were talking about American Football. I said smugly, "The only football," then Megan brought up that old fact that it's stupid to call it that 'cause we don't even use feet. I replied to that, "Well Americans are just weird," and Claire was surprised I would say that as an American. So I explained to Megan that Bush was... and she understood. But yeah.

I got a 3-hour lunch today. It was flippin' sweet. After that etude with the 4th blue ink, I got to go home early and then had like 11:30-1:40 of free time. (*Pumps fist) And I got to walk home with my dad and Zach because they told him to go home till they call him back. He's gone to school like 5 times, not in the right class. So now he'll be in the right grade. Yay. I actually didn't get that much done, but I did finish my math homework. I should have practiced my trumpet. Then etude was full and I noticed Megan, her friend and this other smaller girl who had sat with and helped me in math sitting in the lobby thing. So I went over there and talked. It was a very interesting experience. At first they talked in French and then Megan was like, "Now it's important to be polite for guests," meaning the two other girls should speak English. So they did. Megan was like, "Oh fuock," and then looking at me, said, "that's English," They seem to like the F-word here. Megan told some story about how the doctor people at pharmacies aren't supposed to tell anyone else the patient's problem. So then this patient person whispered to the guy, "I have a constipation problem," and then the doctor person said, (Megan said this in a loud, loud voice:) "Hey, I need some constipation medicine over here!" and we cracked up. Then the lady from the Vie Scolaire came over and told us to be quiet. Then the smaller girl told some story that made like no sense and was like two sentences. After this Megan said, "Oh.. ok. I like your story..." and it reminded me so much of Becca and Anthony that I almost like... died. Not really. Ha it was funny. Then I walked with them to my next class, which was awesome. Megan told some story about how they were in some restaurant and Megan's mom yells out, "Megan, stop touching my {a-word}!!" Ha ha. I laughed a lot. I was happy. Ha ha! Anyway. Megan has brown hair that's sort of fluffed/curly on the sides and she has a tannish face. She knows some English, but I think is French. I make lots of friends. Well, no. But yeah. And then also she asked me if I "loved anyone in the class" to which I of course I said no. Then she asked if I was ever going out with someone. I groaned inwardly. I said no again. I was wondering when the kids here would get to that.

I felt so accomplished today. Practiced my trumpet, cleaned my room, did some homework and blogged. Blogging is almost the replacement for a writing class or whatever. Oh and by the way, if you're looking for a better vocabulary, interesting thoughts, to learn some stuff and "broaden your horizons" or whatever, check out this blog. Seriously, folks, that is a must-read.

My mom recently discovered YouTube and I find her looking at stupid videos about people that think CERN is like... in ca-hoots with Satan. This movie is pretty funny- the guy is so off. It is not true. My dad is against me putting it on here, probably because it is against his experiment, but guys seriously- this is not true. It's funny, ok? Well, in a way yeah.

This is not real.

Well, somehow this got to be a looooong post. I have to go to bed soon. I got my USA Hockey Magazine today. Cool. And I'm actually not hating school now. It's pretty cool! And the physics/life science teacher said I don't have to take the tests because I don't know French. So that's less stress I guess. I'll still study and whatnot, and my mom says around Christmas is when the students start to get French. So, 3 more months. And we might go to London on the October break (that's right- I get a break for Halloween! I don't know what I'll be though).

It's getting better all the time

I used to get mad at my school

The teachers who taught me weren't cool

You're holding me down, turning me round

Filling me up your rules

I've got to admit it's getting better

A little better all the time

It can't get no worse

I have to admit it's getting better, it's getting better

Since you've been mine

blue ink #3

1:57 in etude and only one more class then another etude then I am FREE. Boo-yah! And I don't even have like any homework. I'm happy. Also, having friends is so under-rated. I'm still smiling at the thought of what just happened. As we were walking to etude, I walked with Jess and we talked. I found out she was from New Zealand, which is cool. And she only came here like a few months ago. She has shoulder-length, brownish-blonde hair that's in a ponytail. Wears Converse. In fact, it seems like pretty much every kid here wears Converse. And blue jeans. And the boys wear belts, except they still sag a few inches. (groan) God. If you're wearing a belt guys, might as well use it properly, right? Seriously.

But back to Jess. As we walked in the line, we talked about how etude was boring if you don't have anything to do. And then I added, "Yeah and then the teacher just like violently yells randomly," and Jess was like, "Yeah I know!" and did an impression. I put in, "I mean it's like- anger management?!" "Ha ha yeah I know,"then we talked about how there's so much graffiti and they just don't feel like doing something about it. There's also the F-word and someone's name (I think a teacher's) written behind the desk in pretty big letters. Huh. The F-word is probably the most commonly-used on the walls here. There's also "I love you"s and other assorted messages.

So that was cool - talking to Jess. It's always nice to complain about school or whatever with someone your age who relates. Jess also doesn't know that much French, so we relate sort of. It's cool.

Technically I have homework. But I have like an hour of etude later and it's just reading. Shizz and I have to practice my trumpet!

Uh-oh, the yelling teacher just came in. She's so subtle and... violent. Never seen her smile.

We had a math test today. It was short. But I didn't think I did too well. It was adding/subtracting positives and negatives, but the last question was this long equation that I probably did wrong. Oh well. And the teacher asked me to answer a homework question, which I did. The answer was -16. I had to think how to say 16 in French, which was slightly sad. But I didn't fail. I guess.

In French the teacher gave me this sheet that I did. It was easy. I just had to fill in "Je" or "J'" and stuff. And in English we're supposed to write about a special place near or in our house. I chose my room back in A2. I also answered some questions in class, and when asked to name the 5 senses, I blanked out on taste, but Jess helped me.

My hand is sore. It's a very bleak day. Sky is white and it rained. I'ma read some of Cider With Rosie.

Slauson like just started. Wish I was there. Oh, and you know how I said I had a long day? Well Monday just got longer- we now have French math at the end, making my school days on Monday end at 5:30, adding another etude which totally sucks. Uggggghhhhhhhh....

blue ink #2

I'm so glad I have paper here. I want, and need, to write. It's 8:23 and I'm in etude again. I'm not in the English history-geography class anymore, which was not a surprise. I was new and the class was full, so my name wasn't called. But I didn't care. To tell you the truth, I didn't really even like that class. The teacher was British, which meant she cared about perfection- straight lines and very specific ways to label a map and so forth. So now I'll have math in English. But the system is so messed up- I think I'll have two math classes. Stupid. I think my dad will tutor me for Algebra, 'cause the math here would just be a review and waste of time for me. I also want trumpet lessons, but my mom says that might be too much. Luckily Wednesdays are half days and I do have hockey practice. I have a lot of stuff I need to do. Practice trumpet (and maybe guitar) because I haven't gotten a chance to in a while. And I need to work with my dad or someone on that French homework. I think I have to prove that these short excerpts from books (one of them is from the first Harry Potter) are in first person or have a narrator or something. I have like 3 days to do it. And then I'll probably get math homework and maybe Spanish. I'm not looking forward to having 2 math classes. And also, I'll be put in a FLE class, which is for people that think French is a "strange" language. In other words, it's for kids that need to learn French. That itself isn't bad, but I'll have to be taken out of the other French-French class, but I'll still have to do the homework for the French-French class. So that sucks.

Ugh my arm is tired. This will go on my blog I bet. I sort of have homework to do, but I like just writing. I'm sitting at the very very front, the closest you could be to the teacher (my desk even touches hers). It's the bad teacher that has anger management problemos. Just a few minutes ago, she had abruptly gotten our of her chair, slammed down her pen and yelled violently at some kid(s) at the back. She like never smiles. Her face is dark. She's smallish; thin. Always grimaces. Doesn't know English. Behind me is Jess, then Claire. Then to my right are two of Claire's friends that are British I think. They're pretty nice. I overheard Claire talking about a black hole and so I thought they were talking about CERN, which they were. I joined in the conversation, saying, "My dad works at CERN," then they all went into fits saying he'll kill us all. I told them it wasn't going to cause a black hole, and they were like, "But your dad will save us, won't he?! Won't he??!!" It was somewhat amusing. Then we talked about birthdays (one of them mentioned that their birthday was soon and they wanted to live to be 13 or whatever) and they thought it was cool that mine was on New Year's Eve. Yeah it's cool.

I sort of have to go soon. I have math, Spanish and Sciences Vie and Terre, whatever that means. Shouldn't be that bad, except I don't know exactly where that science class is. And I have 2 hours of gym tomorrow. Crap. But I think school is getting a little better sort of. This is the 5th day. We've been in France for 70 days, according to my calculations.

Ok, it's 8:46 and my class is at 8:50. I'mago pack up. I'll tell you guys how the rest of the day goes/went.

Sigh. Chester is a dog.

blue ink

I could write a story from this. Well, of course I could. Stories can be anything. This is probably going on my blog. Problem is, it might get really long and it's annoying to type up written stuff. But oh well. It's 11:13 and I'm sitting at a desk in my second hour of etude (study hall). That lady from the Vie Scolaire is coming around to collect names of who's in etude right now. She looked at my name and gave me a weird look. But she's nice. I technically have homework to do, but it's in French and that would be really hard for me to do without help. After this is probably my favorite class, English. We're reading this book called Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee. It's pretty good so far I guess. Ugh these zozo's had thrown a pen at me... twice. One of them, the guy that didn't throw it, has glasses with un-combed blonde hair and glasses. He looked somewhat like what most people would call a "nerd". The other guy is shorter with a fatter face and blondish hair. They said something to me in French, I think telling me to give them the wad of paper they threw and missed with. I just looked blankly at them and turned around, holding in my insane anger and pissed-off-ness. Then the guy threw the pen at me a second time. Ugh. My left shoulder still hurts a little. JERKS. I'm bored, slightly worried. My hand is getting sore. I hope I don't get a lot of homework to do. I sort of have like 6 friends now. Claire, her friend Olivia, Jess (British) who sits next to me in English, Joey, this tall black girl from NYC (named Adja) and this other shorter black girl who sat next to me in Spanish (Carla). So it's pretty good I guess. Or at least getting better. This is only the 4th day. I have like 200+ more to go. What fun. Uh-oh, this is getting long. I predict it will get 0 comments. A bunch of kids just came in and the lady is talking to them. I don't think she's very happy about them coming in "late". I have about 15 minutes or so till I have to go. The rest of the day, I have English, a short lunch, music, Spanish and math. Shouldn't be too bad.

Happy 13th birthday, Jenny, even if you're not reading this. Yay. That last y looks like a V. Anyway. I get these "grin flashes", where I suddenly remember something happy and funny with my friends like a private joke, and then I smile really big. It happens a lot. They're cool, and yet make me sad at the same time.

Lots of graffiti here. I'm tired. I stayed up till 10:30 waiting for my friends to come on. Some of them did, which was cool. It's a lot harder to chat with them now that

I just got up and almost left there. I thought it was time to go, but then Jess told me we wait a little longer. So ok. The classes are like 55 minutes long, maybe shorter. Anyway, as I was saying, it's a lot harder to chat with my friends now that school started. Sigh. I hope Fat Friday is this week. It's like the Neutral Zone in Ann Arbor, where teens meet and hang out every Friday and eat pizza or whatever. I really want to go.

I have to go soon. I'll type this up on my blog I suppose. I'm only 3 lines down to the bottom of this paper. Ok I'm going to get ready and pack up. You guys aren't awake yet. GO BLUE! I'll how the rest of my day goes/went.