September 21, 2004

WOW, what a weekend. I went to the first district Rotary overnighter. That was gobs of fun. There were people from different countries - girls from New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Canada, Mexico, and US - boys from Thailand and US. It was an awesome weekend and it was wonderful getting to know everyone. My close friends from the weekend are the boy from Thailand, the girl from Canada, Nicole, a girl from the US, Katie, the girl from Chili, Camila, and the girl from Mexico, Deborah. We had a blast this weekend, and the five of us girls were joined at each other’s hips. We gave each other some much-needed hugs since the French don't really do hugs - just cheek kisses. The French students who went on exchanges last year were there. Actually, only about half were. Céline, the girl who went to the Ohio district last year, wasn't. But they were fairly cliquish, and not very friendly with the inbound students. Some were very nice, though. I walked off every single baguette I ate this weekend (which trust me, it was a LOT, since it was the only edible thing at each meal ((youth hostel food isn't the best))) We walked the hour to the hostel, 45 to the activity (I'll write about that interesting experience in a moment), 2 1/2 hours AT the activity, 45 minutes back (at 1 am) then 5 hours around Beaurgency the next day.

The activity? A CORN MAZE. What a way to get rid of your exchange students for a while!!! j/k =) It took my group two and a half hours to find the exit!!!!!!!!!!! Only two of the six groups found the exit, us being one who did =) and everyone else went out the "emergency, I want to give up the maze" exit. I'm just too stubborn to give up. I would've slept there before giving up. As of now, I HAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEE CORN, and I NEVER want to see it again. HMMM that’s a problem. Seems that I'll be going home to OHIO. There were also people dressed up in costumes in the maze, whose job was to hide in the corn and leap out and scare us. And trust me, they did a great job. And others who ask you questions and if you give the right answer, will tell you the next set of directions to get to the next part of the maze. PROBLEM. We couldn't understand the questions, let alone give answers. Actually, we didn't even know that that was the person's job till we got OUT of the maze. Oh well, quite an interesting experience. There was also a group of French people in the maze (college age) who heard us speaking English, and decided to wait around the corner and jump out and scare us!!!. Which, by the way, they did FIVE times. There was also a person, with a group of people visiting the maze, who gazed (not creepy stared) but gazed at me for about two minutes while my friends and I were resting on a bench, until his friends decided to keep going. I kept asking him questions in perfectly comprehensible French, but he didn't answer me. And yes, they did speak French. HMM? Maybe I'm just that fascinating =) We all crashed, obviously, once we got back (I think that was the point)

The next day, breakfast at nine thirty, and eleven to four, we wandered around the market. There were stalls to buy cheese and bread and wine and fois gras (canned goose liver) UCK. And you could stop, buy a glass of wine, drink it, and keep going. There were people dressed up in 1850s clothes, who waltzed at 2 and karate demonstration at 3. A group of guys (cute I might add) asked us to have drinks with them... darn, that was about ten minutes before we had to meet the rest of the group. =( We saw some statues and a church and a famous tower in the town and learned the story of the black cat. There's a bridge just at the outskirts of the town that crosses the Loire, the widest river in France. The story goes that the devil told the townspeople that he would build them a bridge overnight, and in return, the first to cross the bridge belonged to the devil. The town agreed. The next day, the Mayor himself shows up, and brings with him a calico cat. He sends the cat across the bridge, and once it reaches the other side, follows. When he gets to the other side, the cat was black, and was forever the Devil's cat (hmm... no wonder there's that "black cat" superstition) We went back to the Youth Hostel with Angélique, a girl who went to Canada last year, and my future host sister (in April, May, and June). My future host sister’s parents drove us back to Romorantin. On the way I met her grandparents, who were very sweet, and next weekend, her parents are taking me to a theme park. Sounds like fun to me!!!

School today wasn't tough, I only had two hours of French. Friday's are the worst days. I have eight hours of classes, with only an hour break for lunch half way through at noon and a break an hour before my last class. Tomorrow, I have gym again - more badminton - YAY! Ok, not really, it's not my favorite sport, but I did pretty well last week for having never really played. I won two of the three games I played. And we didn't even finish the last game. Class ended half way through.

Well, I hope that satisfies everyone's curiosity as to what I've been doing lately. Other then that, its just going to SCHOOL. Which gets rather redundant. There's a girl here with another exchange program, EF, from Norway, who's in my class. THANK GOODNESS for her; she's my sanity saver. Her name is Marte. My French is doing great, although it's still tough to understand people quite often. And I still get "translation headaches" and my first French quiz was on Friday, over a French autobiography, Lambeaux. Though I haven't gotten it back yet, I know it DIDN'T go well. It is getting easier to talk to people, and I understand most of my classes and the conversation my family has at dinner and in the car. I hope to hear back from all of you, and hope you tell me what's going on with you as I'm pretty disconnected from everyone there. Write Soon!!!

Bisous,
Aimée Katrina Shaw