ok so i havn’t writen in a while soo here it goes..

In the past few weeks I have been really busy between school, hanging out with friends, travelling and studying so I havn’t had much free time and I feel like the time has been flying by so quickly! At the end of October it will already be 2 months that I have been here! I have heard that this will be the quickest year of my life and now I see why!

School really does not seem to be getting any easier for me.. I still hardly understand the teachers and I’ve basically been doing terrible on all my tests. I get soo frustrated when everyone else around me is doing well and I’m pretty much failing. It’s not good for my self esteem. Even math, which I understand, I don’t do well on because the questions are worded differently and they do things in a different way here. Like for example, they use commas instead of decimal points, they use they metric system, and just in general they learn things a different way then I’m used to. However, on the other hand, when there are no tests or grades involved, school is fun. All my classmates are really great and I feel like I’m becoming closer with them everyday. I have begun to get into the normal routine and ways here and feel like I’m fitting in more. Another plus is that I only have 1 more week until our October break which I am really looking forward too!

I have also been traveling & doing alot with my host family the last few weeks. They have taken me to beautiful town called Albi, probably 1hr-1hr30 from Toulouse, where they showed me a gorgeous old cathedral, took me on a tour of the city and even to the Toulouse Lautrec museum (he was born in Albi I believe). Last week, we went hiking in the Pyrenees Mnts which was breathtaking! We hiked for about 4 and a half hours up a mountain and slept over in a refugee with a bunch of other hikers. We even saw some wildlife too. However, on our hike back down the mountain, it was cold and rainy rainy rainy (not fun), and we were all soo sore the next day because our bodys were not used to all that activity. It was quite an experience though and it was so cool! This weekend I saw three performances and went apple picking. These were my first shows here and I happened to see 3 in one weekend, lucky me!! The apple picking was really cool too.. We went to this farm with all different brands of apples to choose from. From there, we took big cartons and filled them with the apples we wanted right off the trees. I probably tasted like 10 different types of apples today which were all delicious. And next week, during my school vacations, I think were going up near Bordeaux and more towards the Atlantic side of France which will be tons of fun!

As I have already mentioned, I went to 3 plays this weekend. One on Friday night with my class which was a tragic comedy type of show, one on Saturday night with my family which was the really cool acrobatic circus type thing, and then one this morning which was a musical. They were all great, not that I really understood them haha but from what I could follow they were super cool. But one really weird thing I noticed about them all is that at the end you applaud for like 15 mins, no joke. The actors don’t just bow once, more like 15 times. You think they are done but then nope, they bow again and you keep on clapping. I couldn’t help but to laugh on Friday when nobody stopped.

I have also tried alot of interesting food here in the last few weeks too. On top of tasting all the different wines France has to offer, I discovered something better, “Le Vin Chaud” or hot wine, is possibly the best invention ever. I noticed on a menu for the fist time and I asked my family what it was. They were surprised that I have never heard of it and so we all ordered one. What we got I was not expecting at all. It was basically a huge hot soup bowl of wine with some different spices. SOO DELICIOUS however I drank almost the whole thing and was super tired after that..not a good idea. I have also had cassoulet, a delicacy of Toulouse, which is a stew of different meats and beans and is delicious, and many other things which I can’t remember the names of. And yesterday I went to this huge supermarket with my host mom to see the differences in foods between France and the US but the best part is there was an American section where I found peanut butter, finally!! Haha I was soo happy.

Although I am having an amazing amazing experience here, there are some days when I’m sitting in class and wondering why I am doing this. It’s so frusterating when you don’t understand a language and don’t get what is going on, when everyone else around you is talking and you just nod your head, pretending you know what is happening. However, I know with time the langauge will come. Right now I know I just need to stick thru it because I am having the best experience here and it is well worth it. And besides I would much rather be here then back in PA.

Ok I’m going to “attempt” to do some homework..

A bientot!