Some people have asked me if there's any good french music...
here a few couple of songs I like, and probably most people reading my blog wouldn't like them:
Coeur de Pirate - Comme des Enfants (this is my favorite song in french - for like the first two months it was always on the radio. youtube it - it's really good even if you don't understand the lyrics. the singing is not technically french - she's canadian)
Coeur de Pirate - Printemps
Coeur de Pirate - Ensemble
Tom Frager - Lady Melody (it's in French mostly)
Ocean Drive - Without You (perdu sans toi) - it's in English and French
those are all recent. but I like La vie en Rose by Edith Piaf, too, even though it's really old
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
The French is Getting Better
Okay so I forgot to mention this... but like a week before Halloween I had a dream in French. It was pretty cool, I don't remember it all, but I know I said "Bonne chance" which means "good luck", so hopefully that's a good sign.
And also, I can understand my history class sometimes which is good. I took my first test in France on Tuesday, it was in math and of course I chose that day to forget my calculator, so I had to try to figure out like "4.5 percent interest rate, 10000 euros to start with, how much money do you have after 2 years? after 10 years?"... hahah, not good, but the test would have been ridiculously easy if I had remembered my calculator.
On Monday in one of my English classes, we were doing presentations on Shakespeare. I read something about "A Midsummer Night's Dream" outloud and I think maybe like one person in the whole class besides the teacher could understand what I was saying. I guess Americans talk fast too.
Today (Friday) I only had school until 12 because both my Physics teacher and my Biology teacher were absent, and in France when the teacher is absent, they don't get a substitute so you just get to leave.
Ludivine told me that my French has improved, so that's good. Now that I think about it, my French has definitely gotten a loooot better... I couldn't understand like anything anyone was saying at first.
I'm reading the last Twilight book in French... I've already read the first Harry Potter book in French. It was super easy... Twilight is a bit harder, but whatever.
Okay, that's all for now... Bon Weekend!
And also, I can understand my history class sometimes which is good. I took my first test in France on Tuesday, it was in math and of course I chose that day to forget my calculator, so I had to try to figure out like "4.5 percent interest rate, 10000 euros to start with, how much money do you have after 2 years? after 10 years?"... hahah, not good, but the test would have been ridiculously easy if I had remembered my calculator.
On Monday in one of my English classes, we were doing presentations on Shakespeare. I read something about "A Midsummer Night's Dream" outloud and I think maybe like one person in the whole class besides the teacher could understand what I was saying. I guess Americans talk fast too.
Today (Friday) I only had school until 12 because both my Physics teacher and my Biology teacher were absent, and in France when the teacher is absent, they don't get a substitute so you just get to leave.
Ludivine told me that my French has improved, so that's good. Now that I think about it, my French has definitely gotten a loooot better... I couldn't understand like anything anyone was saying at first.
I'm reading the last Twilight book in French... I've already read the first Harry Potter book in French. It was super easy... Twilight is a bit harder, but whatever.
Okay, that's all for now... Bon Weekend!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Handball! But at Least the French are Happy
Yeah, so for those of you who don't know, last night was like a really big deal in France because there was a soccer game between France and Ireland that France had to win in order to be in the World Cup. This type of thing doesn't happen often because normally France has no trouble qualifying for the World Cup - last time, they almost won it. So France won the game, but probably shouldn't have. Thierry Henry, France's best player, made the most obvious handball I've ever seen in my life and as a result, France scored a goal.
Even though it was pretty unfair to Ireland, I'm glad France won. I think a lot of people here would have been bitter if they had lost, and the World Cup really wouldn't be the same without France.
So anyway, last Saturday I went to Deauville for a Rotary thing. Deauville is this town on the English Channel that is famous for its casinos and annual international film festival. In the morning there was a big Rotary conference, and all the exchange students in our district had to be there. It was held in the movie theater of a super-fancy casino. Outside the movie theater there was a poster for a Johnny Depp movie, so Rebecca, Jessica, and I were taking pictures with the life-size Johnny Depp. Then there was a really big lunch; it was duck as the starter, which I did not eat, then really good fish, and apple cake for dessert. The bread was really good, too.
After lunch, Rebecca, Jessica, and I went shopping. We walked out of the casino and I was like "OMG, THERE'S A RALPH LAUREN STORE!!!!!!!!!!!!" and I was soooooo happy because like two weeks before I had checked online to see where in France there were Ralph Lauren stores and it said only in Paris and Cannes, so I guess the site was wrong. So of course, the store was closed for lunch, as were Louis Vuitton, Hérmes, Burberry, and most of the other stores (they were ALL designer brands). But then like an hour later they reopened, and so we went in Ralph Lauren. It turned out to be a major disappointment because everything was like twice as expensive than in the US, and you can buy the same things online for like half the price and have them shipped to France and they'd still be way less expensive. I'm not exaggerating; a polo shirt that I liked was 11O € in the store, which is like 150 dollars, but online you can buy the same exact shirt for 65 dollars and pay like 20 for shipping to France, thus saving like 65 dollars. So I didn't buy anything there or in any other of the stores, since every single one of them were trés trés cher (very expensive). Pretty much no one bought anything. But Rebecca and Jessica and I got to pet these two little Yorkie dogs with diamond collars that were in Louis Vuitton (their owners were a really rich couple who were actually buying things in Louis Vuitton, and not just keychains).
The Wednesday before that was November 11,which was the day that WW1 ended, so we didn't have school. I went with Sophie, Aubrée, and Romain to see "2010". It was pretty good, I think. It's about "le fin du monde" (the end of the world).
Tuesday night, I went to see "A Christmas Carol", the new one with Jim Carrey. It was to raise money for Rotary; all across France Rotary was having special showings of it. I thought it was going to be like "the Grinch" - with real people. But it was all animated, and since it was dubbed in French, it wasn't Jim Carrey's voice. It seemed okay; a lot of the Rotarians didn't like it because it's a kids movie.
Okay, that's about all for now.
au revoir!
Even though it was pretty unfair to Ireland, I'm glad France won. I think a lot of people here would have been bitter if they had lost, and the World Cup really wouldn't be the same without France.
So anyway, last Saturday I went to Deauville for a Rotary thing. Deauville is this town on the English Channel that is famous for its casinos and annual international film festival. In the morning there was a big Rotary conference, and all the exchange students in our district had to be there. It was held in the movie theater of a super-fancy casino. Outside the movie theater there was a poster for a Johnny Depp movie, so Rebecca, Jessica, and I were taking pictures with the life-size Johnny Depp. Then there was a really big lunch; it was duck as the starter, which I did not eat, then really good fish, and apple cake for dessert. The bread was really good, too.
After lunch, Rebecca, Jessica, and I went shopping. We walked out of the casino and I was like "OMG, THERE'S A RALPH LAUREN STORE!!!!!!!!!!!!" and I was soooooo happy because like two weeks before I had checked online to see where in France there were Ralph Lauren stores and it said only in Paris and Cannes, so I guess the site was wrong. So of course, the store was closed for lunch, as were Louis Vuitton, Hérmes, Burberry, and most of the other stores (they were ALL designer brands). But then like an hour later they reopened, and so we went in Ralph Lauren. It turned out to be a major disappointment because everything was like twice as expensive than in the US, and you can buy the same things online for like half the price and have them shipped to France and they'd still be way less expensive. I'm not exaggerating; a polo shirt that I liked was 11O € in the store, which is like 150 dollars, but online you can buy the same exact shirt for 65 dollars and pay like 20 for shipping to France, thus saving like 65 dollars. So I didn't buy anything there or in any other of the stores, since every single one of them were trés trés cher (very expensive). Pretty much no one bought anything. But Rebecca and Jessica and I got to pet these two little Yorkie dogs with diamond collars that were in Louis Vuitton (their owners were a really rich couple who were actually buying things in Louis Vuitton, and not just keychains).
The Wednesday before that was November 11,which was the day that WW1 ended, so we didn't have school. I went with Sophie, Aubrée, and Romain to see "2010". It was pretty good, I think. It's about "le fin du monde" (the end of the world).
Tuesday night, I went to see "A Christmas Carol", the new one with Jim Carrey. It was to raise money for Rotary; all across France Rotary was having special showings of it. I thought it was going to be like "the Grinch" - with real people. But it was all animated, and since it was dubbed in French, it wasn't Jim Carrey's voice. It seemed okay; a lot of the Rotarians didn't like it because it's a kids movie.
Okay, that's about all for now.
au revoir!
New Address/Host Family
Bonjour everyone,
I moved in with my second host family two weeks ago. Here is my address:
2 rue St Lazare
27200 VERNON
My new host family are the Ferrands; the parents names are Sophie and Stephan. I have three host siblings, but the oldest, Caroline, is in Australia on exchange for the year. At home there is Aubrée (14) and Romain (12).They are really nice, so I think this will be a good next two or three months.
I moved in with my second host family two weeks ago. Here is my address:
2 rue St Lazare
27200 VERNON
My new host family are the Ferrands; the parents names are Sophie and Stephan. I have three host siblings, but the oldest, Caroline, is in Australia on exchange for the year. At home there is Aubrée (14) and Romain (12).They are really nice, so I think this will be a good next two or three months.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Les Vacances de Toussaint
Bonjour tout le monde!
On Sunday I got back from Brittany - I was there a week for fall break, which they call "les vacances de Toussaint". I had 12 days off school, which was nice even if it is kind of random. So I went to Brittany, the northwest region of France. We were in the southern part of Brittany, so it wasn't very cold for the most part, and it was sunny most days. I was really happy because there are actual palm trees in Brittany, so it really felt like vacation. However, it was too cold to go swimming. We did go to the ocean three times. Most of the houses and buildings in Brittany are white with blue shutters and gray stone trimming. They are really pretty.
We were in a town called Crac'h. The house had no computer or television, so that was rough. Also, I couldn't call home because my cell phone can't make calls to the USA. And there are like no pay phones in France. Maybe there are a couple in Paris, but I haven't seen any yet.
On Saturday, the day before we left Brittany, we went to a town called Auray. It was really pretty and had some shops, so I went shopping for a little while. Since it was Halloween, I bought some M&M's. I also bought a t-shirt. There were some kids trick-or-treating around the town, but Halloween is not a really big deal in France I guess.
Today, I went to Paris with Marie-Violaine, Similien, Léonie, and one of Similien's friends. We left at like 9:30 so that traffic wasn't quite so bad. On the way there, Marie-Violaine asked me if I knew who the mayor of New York City is. Only I thought she was asking which ocean was close to NYC, since "la mer" means "the sea" and "le maire" means "the mayor". They are pronounced the same except for the le/la difference. So I accidently told her that the Atlantic Ocean was the mayor of New York, hahaha.
When we got to Paris, we took the subway to the Musée de quai Branly. It's a new museum that was built in the late 1990's and it's right next to the Eiffel Tower. So I got to see the Eiffel Tower up close again. The Musée Branly is a museum with all these old tribal artifacts from all over the world. Like 3000 of them. It was interesting, but tribal artifacts are not really my biggest interest.
After we went to the museum, we were either going to go in the Eiffel Tower or to the Champs-Elysees; they let me pick. I picked the Champs-Elysees since I wanted to shop a little bit and the weather wasn't good. It rained all morning and in the afternoon it was cloudy and gray - not the best weather to go to the Eiffel Tower in my opinion. We walked to the Champs Elysees and passed the houses of Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent, so that was cool. They are where the designers actually design the clothes; they aren't the same as the stores. So you can't go in them.
Then we got to the Champs-Elysees. It is well worth going to because the street is so pretty. It's lined with trees and French Flags on both sides, and at the end of it is the Arc de Triomph. The Arc de Triomph is waaaay bigger in person than I always thought it was. I thought it was kind of small, but it's realllly big.
The shopping on the Champs-Elysees was a definite disappointment. The stores are either ridiculously expensive, or really junky souvenir shops. There are no H&Ms or any reasonably-priced stores, and even the designer stores were a major disappointment. There is Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, Cartier, and Kenzo Paris, but there was no Burberry, Ralph Lauren, BCBG, or Marc Jacobs stores. I went in Louis Vuitton, which was packed with tourists who were just going in there to say they went in there. So I went out of it after like ten seconds, and Kenzo Paris was right across the street. So I was like, "okay, I'll go in there". It didn't look crowded but I thought there would be at least a few tourists in there who were just looking around. Well, I was wrong. I walked in the door and in the front part of the store there were like ten employees just standing there, and there was no one else in the whole store. So I walked into the second part of the store to just look at the clothes, and a saleslady came up to me right away and was like "Are you looking for anything in particular?" and I said "No, I'm just looking, thanks", but she didn't walk away. Instead she stood there while I looked through the hangers on one rack, and when I paused for like a milisecond to look at one shirt, she picked it up and was like "Oh this is new, you can wear it with this (she picked up a hanger with a skirt on it) and then you can also do these jeans which are very cute, and this jacket here goes with it...". And I was like "seriously are you ever going to leave me alone?" because even if I had absolutely loved any of the things she was telling me I should buy, the least expensive of all of them was the shirt which was like 160 euros, so I couldn't have spent that on one t-shirt. Talk about high-pressure sales! I guess tourists don't go in there; probably the only people who do are really rich. So I guess I would not recommend going in Kenzo by yourself unless you want like 10 intimidating salespeople to stare at you while you're trying to look at clothes.
After that, I walked down the street and was trying to find a Gap - anywhere that sold clothes for under like 150€, but I didn't have much time left, so I went to Starbucks and got a tall iced mocha for 4€. Starbucks in Paris must make a fortune because it was sooo crowded. Then I walked up close to the Arc de Triomph and took a couple of pictures. After that I went to meet up with the Crestanis, and we took the subway back to the 6th arrondissment where we parked.
It was 6 p.m., so the traffic going out of Paris was horrible. It took like thirty minutes to go 5 miles, but once we got pass the suburbs it was okay.
Okay, that's all for now!
à bientot!
On Sunday I got back from Brittany - I was there a week for fall break, which they call "les vacances de Toussaint". I had 12 days off school, which was nice even if it is kind of random. So I went to Brittany, the northwest region of France. We were in the southern part of Brittany, so it wasn't very cold for the most part, and it was sunny most days. I was really happy because there are actual palm trees in Brittany, so it really felt like vacation. However, it was too cold to go swimming. We did go to the ocean three times. Most of the houses and buildings in Brittany are white with blue shutters and gray stone trimming. They are really pretty.
We were in a town called Crac'h. The house had no computer or television, so that was rough. Also, I couldn't call home because my cell phone can't make calls to the USA. And there are like no pay phones in France. Maybe there are a couple in Paris, but I haven't seen any yet.
On Saturday, the day before we left Brittany, we went to a town called Auray. It was really pretty and had some shops, so I went shopping for a little while. Since it was Halloween, I bought some M&M's. I also bought a t-shirt. There were some kids trick-or-treating around the town, but Halloween is not a really big deal in France I guess.
Today, I went to Paris with Marie-Violaine, Similien, Léonie, and one of Similien's friends. We left at like 9:30 so that traffic wasn't quite so bad. On the way there, Marie-Violaine asked me if I knew who the mayor of New York City is. Only I thought she was asking which ocean was close to NYC, since "la mer" means "the sea" and "le maire" means "the mayor". They are pronounced the same except for the le/la difference. So I accidently told her that the Atlantic Ocean was the mayor of New York, hahaha.
When we got to Paris, we took the subway to the Musée de quai Branly. It's a new museum that was built in the late 1990's and it's right next to the Eiffel Tower. So I got to see the Eiffel Tower up close again. The Musée Branly is a museum with all these old tribal artifacts from all over the world. Like 3000 of them. It was interesting, but tribal artifacts are not really my biggest interest.
After we went to the museum, we were either going to go in the Eiffel Tower or to the Champs-Elysees; they let me pick. I picked the Champs-Elysees since I wanted to shop a little bit and the weather wasn't good. It rained all morning and in the afternoon it was cloudy and gray - not the best weather to go to the Eiffel Tower in my opinion. We walked to the Champs Elysees and passed the houses of Givenchy and Yves Saint Laurent, so that was cool. They are where the designers actually design the clothes; they aren't the same as the stores. So you can't go in them.
Then we got to the Champs-Elysees. It is well worth going to because the street is so pretty. It's lined with trees and French Flags on both sides, and at the end of it is the Arc de Triomph. The Arc de Triomph is waaaay bigger in person than I always thought it was. I thought it was kind of small, but it's realllly big.
The shopping on the Champs-Elysees was a definite disappointment. The stores are either ridiculously expensive, or really junky souvenir shops. There are no H&Ms or any reasonably-priced stores, and even the designer stores were a major disappointment. There is Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss, Cartier, and Kenzo Paris, but there was no Burberry, Ralph Lauren, BCBG, or Marc Jacobs stores. I went in Louis Vuitton, which was packed with tourists who were just going in there to say they went in there. So I went out of it after like ten seconds, and Kenzo Paris was right across the street. So I was like, "okay, I'll go in there". It didn't look crowded but I thought there would be at least a few tourists in there who were just looking around. Well, I was wrong. I walked in the door and in the front part of the store there were like ten employees just standing there, and there was no one else in the whole store. So I walked into the second part of the store to just look at the clothes, and a saleslady came up to me right away and was like "Are you looking for anything in particular?" and I said "No, I'm just looking, thanks", but she didn't walk away. Instead she stood there while I looked through the hangers on one rack, and when I paused for like a milisecond to look at one shirt, she picked it up and was like "Oh this is new, you can wear it with this (she picked up a hanger with a skirt on it) and then you can also do these jeans which are very cute, and this jacket here goes with it...". And I was like "seriously are you ever going to leave me alone?" because even if I had absolutely loved any of the things she was telling me I should buy, the least expensive of all of them was the shirt which was like 160 euros, so I couldn't have spent that on one t-shirt. Talk about high-pressure sales! I guess tourists don't go in there; probably the only people who do are really rich. So I guess I would not recommend going in Kenzo by yourself unless you want like 10 intimidating salespeople to stare at you while you're trying to look at clothes.
After that, I walked down the street and was trying to find a Gap - anywhere that sold clothes for under like 150€, but I didn't have much time left, so I went to Starbucks and got a tall iced mocha for 4€. Starbucks in Paris must make a fortune because it was sooo crowded. Then I walked up close to the Arc de Triomph and took a couple of pictures. After that I went to meet up with the Crestanis, and we took the subway back to the 6th arrondissment where we parked.
It was 6 p.m., so the traffic going out of Paris was horrible. It took like thirty minutes to go 5 miles, but once we got pass the suburbs it was okay.
Okay, that's all for now!
à bientot!
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