School vacation : Vacances Scholaires, Happy Birthday : Bonne Anniversaire, Oatmeal : L'avoine

Sunday night Marie-Pierre and Aliane came over and we ate leftover cold meat from lunch and mayonais which they were really excited to eat, apparently it is a normal sunday night dinner. Monday was Théos 21st birthday (which isnt a big deal here, its the 18th birthday here thats the big one) and Claire was working late, so she asked me to make the mayo sauce and a cake for him. I made a really big mayo sauce from scratch and then added other ingredients into it in different bowls. I made one with a bunch of ketchup and a little mayo, one with some onion, parsly, and cornichons to make a tartar-type sauce, then one with a bunch of pepper, and another I forgot (all were Claires ideas), and they were all really good! Then I made a brownie cake. Claires mother came over, which made six of us, but Laura felt really sick so she went to bed right away. Birthdays here are done a little differently. We start by drinking Champagne in the living room (starting from about the age of 13 or 14, I think) then presents are handed out, then we eat dinner, and then we eat cake. Tuesday I got a geography test back, 7.5!!!! In addition, the teacher swore to me she graded me like everyother student in the class :) Then she told us our average for the trimester, I have a 9.2!!! (all the grades are out of 20, which sounds bad by American standards, but its actually fairly good here, at least for me :) )
I was also wrong about it getting warm, it got colder during the week and snowed a bunch, though it never stuck :( No snow days for us. On Wednesday I had an unusually long day, a two hour math test in the morning, and then no swimming because La Printemps de la Jupe (organization for the equality of men and women) came back. We watched a documentary and listened to some of their staff talk again. Then we had two hours for lunch and then had another two hour math test! How horrible. Then I didnt go to dance and took a nap instead :) And then went for a walk in a different part of the neighborhood that I have never really been to. Thursday was ok, we were supposed to have a class picture (they dont have school pictures for each student here, just one of the entire class) but for some reason it was canceled. Every time a teacher brings up the Bac in class (the huge test everyone takes at the end of senior year) it shocks me because they still have a year and a half until they will take it, though at least one teacher talks about it everyday, giving tips on how to take it, or something. Everyone talks about careers differently here too, people think you should study and get a job in the subject you are the best at in school, rather than what you love to do and what makes you happy as is usually the case in the US when deciding on a career. Friday we did practically nothing in school all day. We watched a really sad movie in English class for two hours called The Wind That Shakes the Barley. It was about the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War 1919-1923. There was a lot of killing, torturing, and decieving. Then we had 2 and a half hours of Chemistry and Physics where we took a test for 2 hours and then took notes for the last half hour, the teacher doesnt believe in ever slacking off, even before the break :(, then ate lunch and had our last session of TPE for the entire year. Good news: I will now have 2 and a half hours for lunch on Fridays, instead of just one half hour. Bad new: we have to present our project to the class (consisting of about 100 other students) and a panel of judges. We all have to speak about our subject for 5 minutes. Crap! :) The good news for this bad news is that my grade wont affect the others in my group, because it is individual grading. Then we had one hour of history and geography with the whole class, where some groups presented what they thought of a document we had analysed ealier in the week, but there wasnt enough time for my group. Then we had the last hour with the half group where we watched a movie. Then I walked to the bus stop with Ingrid. Though we were almost there and saw both the bus 25 and 28 drive past us (the only ones that go near where we live) so we ran to the next stop, but got there just as it left :( It was cold and the bus wasnt going to come for another 15 minutes so we went into a grocery store to warm up and look for oatmeal. They dont regulary have it in grocery stores here. Everyone thought I was crazy when I told them it is really go in chocolate chip cookies. They told me that here, its only for horses! Yesterday was also Lauras 18th birthday! Claire and Michel left to a go a friends house for the weekend, we will have a family celebration in Champagny next week, and she is going to have a party when the break is over. One of her friends came over and watched a movie, Dare Devil, with us. Tonight Chloé and Ingrid are going to come over and spend the night, Laurie was going to come too, but her dad just came to france from Portugal, so shes going to spend some time with him. One of Lauras friends with AFS just came over too. Tonight I am going to make crepes and a salade lyonnaise :) and maybe some cookies with oatmeal if I can find it in the store! Monday Laura, Michel, and I leave for Champagny until Sunday. Claire will join us on Wednesday because she has some work to do. Then we leave on Tuesday and take the train to Paris for three days and then spend the rest of the vacation here in Lyon.