Argh, buying shoes is always difficult, a tiny bit annoying, and did I mention annoying? But trying to buy shoes in french, is almost impossible!!  I resent the fact that I have to take sport at school here. 

Other than the whole.. sport… thing, everything is good. School is different and stressful, but I’m kinda getting over that. I can’t get over the weirdness factor of having to stand up until a teacher says you can sit down, but I think that maybe here it’s good manners. I’ve been trying to change my timetable from German to any other subject that period, and that’s been.. challenging.. partly because trying to say/understand something even remotely related to that is not something they teach you in high school french, and also partly because it’s never been a convenient time for the guy who changes your timetable. But I’m getting over that. 

I’m rather tired- I had a fantastic weekend! I went to Luxembourg, which was AMAZING, like I’m honestly in love with it-the city was beautiful! All the buildings were beautiful! I especially liked the shopping street there- it was gorgeous, and packed full of people! After living in a small town for three weeks, it felt good to be in a city again! I had an Orangina outside, sitting in the sun with my host family, while listening to a brass band. Cliche, but amazing. And I did some shopping too, which was good :) 

On Sunday, I saw part of the Maginot Line- I think it was called Fort Fermont, and it was like a little town, 30 feet underground! Parts of it were a bit creepy, like the prison cells, and the elevators were pretty gahqwertyuiop but it was an awesome experience! Underground, it was really cold and damp, but it was really interesting to see how the soldiers lived and such during the second world war. It was much more different to how I expected it to be- I think it was maybe over a kilometer wide, and it had it’s own electric train, which I thought was pretty snazzy! There were so many tunnels- it would have been so easy to get lost forever in there!!! I also went to a wonderful castle, which was near to the fort- It was so beautiful! 

Tomorrows Wednesday, so I only have two classes at school. Yay! I might go and get coffee with my friends after school, so I’m looking forward to that! :) 

Oh, what a week. What a crazy, wonderful, absolutely mental, weird week this has been. I guess I’ll write a bit about school, and how.. wacky that is for me. 

In short, I’m exhausted. School here in France is really hardcore- I go to school from 8.00am till 5.00 or 6.00 pm most days- the days feel so short because I’m at school for so long! In New Zealand, I only used to go to school from 10.00am till 3.00pm!!  

So, yeah, school. I was at school for only two days this week, and somehow it’s managed to feel absolutely mental! On Thursday, figuring out what to do with my absence notes, and my note so I didn’t have to do gym class was pretty challenging.(communicating in broken french to a few friends is never easy!) But once that was done, it was just another day I guess- I had more subjects than I would have liked, but at least four periods of them were in English, which is weird for me, but it’s alright. But at lunch time, I had to go and get a slip of paper for the cafeteria, and I’m sure it took an hour, for the woman to take the names of what seemed like the maybe 10 people there? Yeah.. ahungry, tired, bitchy and sick Erin wasn’t impressed. After lunch, and 2 english classes I had gym class, which involved me sitting on the ground in the boiling hot sun, watching people run. I felt sorry for them though- it looked pretty hardcore! 

Thursday night, and I was in bed straight after dinner- waking up at 6.00am is never easy! 

Friday was a bit easier though- I only had four classes, however annoyingly I had to stay at school from 8.00am till 5.00pm. But for some reason, on Fridays I have a problem with my timetable, which is rather annoying- I didn’t turn up to half of my history lesson, until the teacher sent someone to find me, because he’s decided to just change things around, from what I can tell. Pourquoi Moi?! (WHY ME?!) And so then, when I got a new timetable, I have an unfortunate timetable clash, where I’m now supposed to be in science and history at the same time. Isn’t that fantastic. Now, I have the problem of trying to explain all of this to some unfortunate teacher. 

Weirdly, in every first class I go to, (in this case, Physics) all the teachers get you to write on a piece of paper, your name, your date of birth, your address, your parents jobs, if you have any brothers or sisters, and some stuff relevant to the subject. I don’t really understand the purpose of it, but it’s different here I guess. 

Apart from all the crazy, my school is really cool- the teachers are usually really nice when they find out you’re an exchange student, and there’s always someone who’ll show me where my next class is. Everyone’s been asking if I’ve been okay, since I was at home sick for three days, which I thought was really kind. 

My host family have been wonderful as always. I’ve been invited to watch the All Blacks V.S France World Cup rugby game at a friend of my host parents.  I’m not sure if I’m gonna go, because I’ll be the only one cheering for NZ.. It’ll be awkward when NZ wins, but I’m not gonna pass the opportunity to dress all in black! 

Today, I’m off shopping! I’ve been looking forward to going shopping for ages, so hopefully I find some cool stuff!! =]