Almost birthday-ness! And vacation!

Hi! Chelsea here.

It’s the end of February, and I can’t think of ONE single thing to say. Everything is normal…this month has gone by way way too fast. Hm. And now we’re on vacation again. (yes, again….they have too many vacations here! I like school!)

I really feel…in love with here. I loovveee my friends and my family (though I can get annoyed at times…normal). Noemie was in the hospital this week, because she had an operation, so Marie, Julie, Laurine, Laetittia and I visited her on Thursday and Friday afternoon after lycee. Noemie is really fantastic—when we saw her yesterday at the hospital she was doing great! And I met her mom and sister (her sister looks a lot like her!) The hospital isn’t too far from lycee, but we ended up running up the hill to catch the school bus in time! (I bet we looked pretty ridiculous). Friday was the birthday of a guy named Keea in my class, so Celine brought saucisson to eat in perm (study hall), and some of the girls brought crepes and soda to eat during histoire. We spent pretty much the whole day snacking…but it was pretty funny, Allisen wrote him this legendary birthday card (comparing his eyes to grenouilles and telling him not to worry because love always starts with a dispute…etc.) J’adore ma classe des filles.

I went skiing another time with the UNSS at lycee, and it was great! Charlie and I were the only people who didn’t know how to ski very well, so we went with Madame Barbier (my P.E. teacher) in the morning, and Charlie went on some of the bigger pistes later, I stayed with Madame Barbier! I’m a whole lot better now though, I can stop, turn, you know, do the things that are kind of necessary for skiing. I only fell ONE TIME! And Madame Barbier taught me to go without the funny pole thingies, and it’s really a lot better like that. (Papa, we can go when I get back?)

It’s also my birthday pretty soon (2 and a half weeks!) and the group is coming over to stay at the chateau, and we’re going to watch horror movies and have general fun, the weekend after. Miyu and Victoria may also be coming to visit me next month.

I’m at a complete blank. I have no idea what to say. At all. I feel like I should be able to spew out some thoughtful reflection about my almost 7 months here….about some difference between the Americans and the French. But no, I’ve got nothing. Yesterday I went running with Marion, and we got into a conversation about my first day in France. She was in Australia for 3 months during the summer, and she talked about how she only said “Huh?” for about the first 2 weeks. I remember the train to Brive in August…It was me, Victoria, Miyu and Marton, tired and nervous. Victoria was talking a mile a minute. I listened mostly, and I had a stomachache. I think Marton was the calmest of all of us. The train stopped, we took our bags, and headed outside. Fred was there to greet us, and Helene was there with Pauline and Louis. I kissed them bonjour, but they didn’t say anything, and I didn’t either. We headed to the car, and I think Helene must’ve asked me if I wanted to put my suitcase in the trunk…but I didn’t understand. It was complete silence in the car on the way to the house. The only thing I could think of to say was “C’est jolie ici!” hehe…awkward!

Things have changed a lot since that first day. I’m trying to imagine the day I leave. This year has gone way too fast. I only have 132 days left!! Not fair!