December 5, 2004

I just thought I write everyone to say HAPPY HOLIDAYS and let them know how and what I've been doing.

France is still fun, although there are definetly negatives and positives to it, not to mention, holidays are always difficult. My November to December host family is really nice, so that helps. We're going to Northern France for Christmas.

School hasn't been extremely fascinating or anything, we just finished the first trimester, I got 12,5 on my report card, which is about the equivalent of a B minus in the American school system, so I'm pretty proud of myself.

My days are pretty routine, I go to school a quarter till 8, get done at 6 pm, go swimming at the pool, go home, eat dinner, do homework, sleep, repeat. On Wednesday, we only go to school till noon, so sometimes, I'll go with a friend to the movies, or last week, my friend and I took the bus to Blois and went Christmas shopping, that was fun! I just got a medical certificate from a doctor here, so I can participate in a sports club that meets for a few hours every Wednesday afternoon, and we just randomly pick which sport we want to do that day, depending on the weather, how many people are there, and how much energy we have and stuff. Saturdays, I usually meet the other exchange student in town and we go swimming or walk around town or something like that, just to have a little bit of independence from school and house and stuff. Our town is really small, and the public transportation is pretty crummy, so it's hard to do stuff, especially since she and most of our school friends live in towns outside of Romorantin.

My French is starting to get pretty fluent, although the French are quite harsh, I think, especially my host dad, about my French, and there are several people in school who make fun of my accent or laugh at me in front of the class if I mess up when I'm speaking. It's kind hard to ignore after a while. Also, I was all excited after going to the doctor's because I lost 6 kilos since I arrived, and when I told my Club YEO, she told me it would probably be best if I lost some more before I go home. Yeah, so they French can be pretty rude.

I have made some great friends at school, though as I said, most live far away. Next weekend, though, on girl invited me over to her house, so that should be fun, and on Wednesday, I'm going to see the second Bridget Jone's Diary with another friend. On the fifiteenth, I'm going to be on the radio, explaining how Americans celebrate Thanksgiving and why and things. That should be interesting. For Thanksgiving, my family in the US went to Florida to see my brother, I was sad not to get to go. I made pumpkin pies for everyone, and most everyone liked them, I spent SIX hours cooking. YEESH. I never realized how much work it was, especially since I had to use real pumpkin, they don't have canned pumpkin here!!!

I'm SO thrilled to be going to Denmark next year, my Rotary district in the US approved it, I'm excited to get to do another year of exchange. And to learn Danish, that'll be awesome, not that I speak any at the moment, but I'll worry about my French now, and my Danish come next year. My parents and little siblings are coming to France for spring break in April, and afterwards, I'm going on the Euro tour, I'll go to Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, other parts of France, and Spain. Then, I'm going to England for five days with my school. Then, I go home a month later. I won't know where HOME is anymore!!! =) For my 18th birthday, March 20th, I'll be in Paris, with Rotary, meeting all the other Rotary exchange students in France for the year. What a great way to celebrate, I think!!! And this Thursday, I'm going to Paris with my history class to the Musée d'Orsay. That will be great, I love art, and they have a lot of famous paintings there.

Happy Holidays to you all, grosses bisous,
Aimée Katrina Shaw