Shopping, Side-Bangs, and Smoke

Bonjour tout le monde,
On Saturday I went with the Crestanis to a party somewhere. We stopped at a chateau on the way there, but it was closed. Then we stopped at some little village and walked around for awhile, before driving to the party. It was like an hour away from Vernon, at a really old house that was built in the 10th century. The party was kind of boring because everyone spoke French, but there was a lot of really good food there. I finally found cheese that I like in France; it was some kind of goat cheese that was really good. They had two pizzas at the party, but I didn't get any because both of them were gone in less than 10 seconds.
On Sunday I went on like a two hour walk through a forest with some other people. Then I went back home and had lasagna for dinner, except it didn't have ricotta cheese in it so it didn't really taste like lasagna.
On Monday, I went to school. The history teacher was absent until today, so I got to leave at 3:30 instead of 4:30. I walked home because I didn't want to wait for the bus, and I didn't get lost. After school I went to a grocery store to look for peanut butter, but it didn't have any. Then I went to a different grocery store, and I looked for peanut butter for like an hour, but there wasn't any. I did find hummus, coke lite, and M&M's. The M&M's cost €3.50 for a small bag, which is like 5 dollars, but I bought them anyway. I also saw Ben & Jerry's ice cream at the store for €6 for one pint, which is like 9 dollars. So I didn't buy any.
On Tuesday, I went to my second Rotary meeting. They are okay because they aren't very long, and they have Tropicana orange juice there. I didn't get to eat dinner until like 9 though.
On Wednesday, I went to school from 8:30 to 10:30, and then I got to go home because my class has TEST on Wednesday for two hours, which I think is just one big test that they have every Wednesday. Joel wrote a letter to the principal, so I don't ever have to go to test. Which means that I only have two hours of school every Wednesday for the rest of the year. On Wednesday Ludivine and another girl, Annelise, were asking me what I was going to do when I got home and I was like "faire du shopping" and they said they had to do homework, so I am lucky. I walked home from school, which takes like 35 or 40 minutes by the way, and had lunch. Then I went shopping, but of course I forgot that I'm in France, so all of the stores in Vernon were closed from 12:30 to 2:30. I walked around instead, and I saw a bunch of American tourists. Then once the stores opened I went in a couple. In one I didn't know how to say "fitting room" in french, so I walked up to one of the guys who worked there and I was like "pardon, ummmm" and started gesturing towards the dressing rooms. Right away he was like "parlez-vous anglais" so that was good. He wasn't rude or anything, I think it is only the Parisiens who are rude. Anyway, I bought a trench coat and a scarf (they wear scarves here a lot). Then I went in a newspaper/magazine store and they had People magazine in English, but they didn't have American Vogue or French Vogue, which is weird. After that I went home, then later I went to the grocery store to buy more hummus because I ran out of it in like two days (it was a small container).
Today (Thursday), I had school from 8:30 to 5:30. It was soooo boring, but I had History in English because my 'specialty' is English (some people have like German or Chinese instead of two English classes). The teacher didn't really know English that well, she just copied everything out of a textbook, but at least I understood everything. The history teacher was finally back from maternity leave, and she was talking about America being a melting pot. She picked up her pencil pouch and pulled out a pen and was like 'hispanic' and then took a hi-liter and was like 'black' and a pencil was white, I think, and then she put them back in the pencil pouch, pulled one out at random, and was like " un Americain". That was the only part of class I understood really, and I thought it was funny. Then I had french fries at lunch today, which were good. They eat french fries with a fork here and they don't eat them with ketchup. Most days I don't really like the lunch, even though it's good food, because they don't have that many choices. There is no salad bar or snack bar, and the only drink they have is water in pitchers at all the tables. The French don't really drink much; at lunch they maybe have one glass of water, and maybe one glass at dinner. Or they have wine of course. But there aren't any drinking fountains in my whole school, and no one has bottles of water. It's really annoying.
The kids at my school dress so differently than Americans. They don't wear bright colors at all, like ever. Today I looked around and EVERYONE was wearing black, grey, navy blue, or white shirts. The girls almost always wear skinny jeans. All of the girls in my school except for maybe like two or three have side bangs. It's really quite ridiculous; I've never seen so many people with the same hairstyle. They carry their books in their purses from class to class; they NEVER carry them in their arms. It's very odd. Also, pretty much everyone smokes. It is really the dumbest thing I've ever seen. At the bus stop in the morning they all smoke, and after lunch they go off school property to smoke, and after school they smoke. So instead of being addicted to bottled water like Americans, the French are addicted to cigarettes. I think that teenagers here are just always trying to look older than they are, so they wear dark colors and smoke. They are successful most of the time; most of the students in my high school look like they are juniors or seniors in college, not in high school.
I ride the bus to school every day, but most of the time I walk home. The buses are really nice; the bus to my school is like a greyhound bus, with comfortable seats and footrests and overhead compartments. The trains here are really nice, too, even though I haven't been on one yet. I walk past the train station on my way home from school, and I can see that the trains are nice.
I tried to upload pictures, but the computer is old so it doesn't have a place for cameras and iPods to be plugged in. So I probably won't be able to upload pictures for a while. So sorry everyone, you'll have to wait awhile.
au revoir for now!
Halle