volunteer = bénévole

Galette de Roi with AFS initials on them.

The AFS weekend went well. We got to the train station by bus, and figured out how to use the ticket machines. The ticket machines only take credit cards, but not US credit cards, unless you have an updated version with the metal design on the front side of it. I only have the magnetic strip, so Laura used her card, and I payed her back. We found other AFSers in the station and grabbed a quick lunch at a stand. Even when you buy food at a stand it is good in France! They use real baguettes to make their sandwiches, along with good tasting cheese and ham. We took the train to a small town and then met up with other AFSers there, along with AFS volunteers (bénévoles! :) ) who drove us to the smaller town of Anjou. It was the same town we first went to, to meet our host families, and also for the 1 month meeting. We spoke french almost the entire first night, though around 10pm everyone started getting tired and spoke franglais (english and french, it just sounds better combined in french). There were also french kids there who are planning to go on an AFS trip in the near future. There was one girl from my class, Bérenise, there who is planning to go to Japan next year. In the morning, 6 new AFS kids arrived to join us who will be staying the remaining 6 months. The kids who stayed for the first 6 months left this past weekend on Saturday night. Sometime in the middle of Sunday, my AFS liaison found me and gave me my blue sweatshirt I lost at the same building at the after-the-first-month meeting!! It was very exciting, though I decided to wash it and not wear it today because I have no idea where it has been for the last four months! Before we left on Sunday, there was a talent show, which was mandatory for the AFS students. My group sang Frère Jacques (are you sleeping, are you sleeping, brother john, brother john, etc) in five languages. Other groups sang songs in Spanish, did traditional dances, or a skit about the first day in a new country as an AFSer (not understanding anything people say to you, etc). Then we ate dessert all the parents had brought with them, and then went home. Today I had classes like normal and should have gotten out of school at noon. Though my Physics/Chemistry teacher has decided that we dont understand Physics (which is definitely true for me!) so we are now having an extra hour everyother week when we dont have the english assistant. I think I would understand a lot better if we didnt take notes on everything. When I take notes, I am concentrating on that, and not on understanding the material. I got a french 'essay' (I only wrote about half a page..) back today, the teacher was impressed though, she told me she liked it, and wrote 'bien' on it, which is like saying well done. Tomorrow I have a two hour english test, wednesday I have a two hour math test, and thursday I have a two hour SVT test. So I should probably study a little bit!