Just a Few Things

Hello :]

So nothing really big has happened but there have been a few funny little things, plus I've been told if I blog more then Dad will too, so here goes!

Yesterday I went to my second Rotary meeting and it was quite different than Rotary back in good ol' Portola. First off it literally is a bunch of old guys in suits, I don't think there is an actual dress code but needless to say I never go without my blazer (even with it I'm under dressed). Secondly they are not near as obnoxious (used in the best possible way) as the Portola club, for example there is no welcome song...sigh. Though they do joke around with each other, I never get the jokes of course, I just know they're joking around because someone will say something and everyone else will laugh. All of the members are super nice and very welcoming. But enough about the people, to the most important part! The food. Oh my goodness, it is amazing! So when we first get there there are some hors d'oeuvres and drinks out, and the members mingle for about twenty minutes until the bell is rung to signal that lunch is ready. Then it only gets better! All the tables are completely set with two bottles of water (one bubbly one flat) and three bottles of wine. Then we are served the first course, yesterday it was like a sort of shrimp dish. I ate the whole thing, and I don't like shrimp! Then the server brings out the main course, oh my gosh delicious, yesterday it was a shish kabob with different kinds of meat, a salad, a baked potato, and some garbanzo beans. But it's still not over after that! Then it's dessert, yesterday it was a crepe served with ice cream and chocolate sauce (but it's actual melted Belgian chocolate, oh so much better than Hershey's chocolate syrup!) And then, yes I'm still not done, this is followed by an espresso. Needless to say I love going to the Rotary meetings!

So besides that here are just a few things that have happened:

-I had my first Belgian waffle! Dear Lord :D It wasn't even just the delicious waffle, it had banana, ice cream, and chocolate sauce on it!



-My English teacher corrected my English, and she wasn't even right. She had passed out a paper on Anne Frank and we had to read it, then she gave us another paper with phrases from the text and we had to make sentences out of them. I quickly did it in English and then she told me that I could do it in French as well and she would correct it for me at the end of class. At the end of class I gave her my paper, and when I got it back I was surprised to see that she had not only corrected my French, but my English as well! So the phrase was "in 1942 (or close to that date anyways)" so I wrote, in 1942 Anne Frank and her family went into hiding, she changed it to say "went INTO THE hiding PLACE." Huh?
Another thing in English class, she corrected a boy who said that on the weekend he liked to go to the movies (?) apparently that's "American" and incorrect...? So of course I was a little annoyed at that but she redeemed herself by saying that there were a lot of English dialects and she had to focus on teaching only one, so that phrase wasn't wrong it just wasn't the type of English she's teaching. However, taking English as a second language does have it's up sides, I'm learning a lot about our language that I never knew before, like where it comes from! It's a rather interesting history, I suggest you check it out :]

-I'm really allergic to something here (I don't know what it is) but randomly my hands/neck swell up, get really red, and start to itch. It's pretty miserable :/ Mano is looking into getting me some allergy meds for it.

-Today was a beautiful sunny day (about 71 degrees out)and hardly a cloud in the sky, definitely reason to celebrate! :D Especially since this weekend it was so cold I was wearing my winter coat and scarf!

And now very quickly, a little bit about the French. Thank goodness, I think I can see a bit of progress! :] It's definitely easier for me to express myself, and understand what is said, though people still need to talk to me rather slowly. Yesterday I realized this is because I need to translate everything into English (not word for word but just sort of re arrange things so they make sense to me), like when they are talking to each other, I actually recognize a lot of words they're saying but if I stop to think of what they said by the time I get it all figured out in my head they're way ahead in their conversation and I don't know what they're talking about anymore. This is much better compared to when I could hardly tell when the words ended!

Alright I just got invited to go look at a prospective house with Mano (for those of you who don't know my family is moving to a nearby town in January/February)Talk to you soon! :D