The past week and a half

Yah, so I've definitley been neglecting my blog! Its just that everything is happening so fast! Everything is just so amazing, and I'm not hiding out in my room all day so I don't have tons of time to kill anymore, quiet the opposite actually. So I will try to tell you everything that has happened in the past week and a half.


Everything that happened feels like its so far in the past now, and that is where I want it to stay!I don't remember what I put on my last post so I'll tell you a little bit about what it was like to leave.


First, after my evil ex host mother found out that I was leaving, my life turned into a nightmare,she was yelling at me all the time and saying all these really mean things. Half the time she was just trying to provoke me into saying something equally as rude, so all I ever said was "ok". I'm serious it was like this:


"You know you really hurt me, you're not a very nice person!"


"ok"


"This is not a hotel you can't just stay in your room all the time!"


"Ok"


"I'm so sick of you sitting around and eating our food!"


"ok"


I basically just stayed in my room and cried all day everyday until I left, it was really horrible. I was set to leave on saturday but I couldn't wait that long, everytime I left my room she would say or do something really mean and it pretty much just scared the heck out of me. I called my mom in tears and she told me that I needed to call Nathalie and ask if she could come get me. But my mom was busy and she couldn't talk very long. So I hung up with her and called Nathalie who just tried to assure me that everything was going to be ok and that I could wait until saturday. Then I called my dad, because I really couldn't just sit there. Nothing could discract me, I was completely freaking out and scared out of my mind. I called him and talked for a long time, I really just didn't want to hange up. He said that it was rediculous that I had to stay there, they were being really horrible.


That night it only got worse, I called Nathalie again after dinner only it was pretty late. My host mom had been so terrible at dinner, I just ran to my room. Then she called my host mom who then gave the phone to me when she was done talking to Nathalie and Nathalie said she was coming to get me the next day.


Then I had my last day of school, I took pictures with my friends and said good bye, I was really sad. All my best friends there lived in the bording school part, they day before they sneaked me in to show it to me.


When Nathalie came to pick me up it was really awkward at first, I got all my suitcases out of my room and by the door, but then my host mom offered her something to drink so we all had to sit down while they make small talk! My host mom handed me a letter from her and a little gift bag and another letter for my new host family. In my head I was like NO WAY am I giving them that letter! They talked FOREVER and when we finally finished and were standing by the door ready to leave my host mom kept bringing up really stupid things to talk about and I'm serious, we stood there for like half an hour, it was like death!


When we FINALLY walked out the door, my host mom and host brother walked us to the car and then watched us drive away you should have seen the look on her face, she is seriously evil. I think I will have nightmares about her for the rest of my life!


I loved Nathalie's house and her family. I had already met them once before when they took me to Paris with them. She had twin boys who are about 8 and a daughter who is 10. I basically played with her kids all night until we went to bed.


While I was there Nathalie got an email from my new host mom saying that she wanted my number because she wanted to talk to me that day. Nathalie decided it was better to call her since she probably wouldn't get the email right away. I was so nervous to talk to her, I figured I probably wound't understand what she was sayingbecause my french sucks so bad! It was actually really great. She just said that they would be there at the train station the next day to pick me up and that she was excited to meet me! It made me so happy, I was just smiling all night!


The next day I was super amazingly nervous! I would be traveling all day alone and my suitcases were litterally too much for me to handle because I have more stuff now. Plus it didn't help me that my mom told me that I should be careful because thieves and pidifiles pray on young girls like who are traveling all alone. THANKS MOM!


First I had to take a bus because part of the track was being repared. I was a nervouse reck the whole time, it was about an hour long. When we got to the station it was pretty small. There was a long flight of stairs going up in order to get to the trains. I stood there with my 3 suitcases that I had barely managed to get into the stating in the first place (you should have seen me, it was pathetic). I looked around there were not security gards I could ask for help or excalators or elavators or anything. On top of that, how was I supposed to know which train! I was totally freaking out. I just stood there in udder dispaire not knowing what on earth I was going to do. I nearly burst into tears.


While I was standing there looking pathetic I cought the eye of a man who was standing near me. He came up to me and in a very non creepy way offered to help me. HE WAS AN ANGEL! I seroiusly don't know what I would have done if he hadn't helped me, the whole situation was so terrible! He helped me all the way up the the stair case,and then all the way down the other side under the sign that said PARIS. I said thankyou a million times and then he wished me good luck, and left. He walked away a little bit and then stood there watching me load me suitcases on the train which wasn't very difficult, and then dissapeared.


Once one the train I wasn't sure what to do with my suitcases. It depends, some trains you can just leave them by the door and thats like normal, but this train was a little different, it didn't seem like a long distance train and so I wasn't sure. There was a mini compartment with an man sitting in it right near the entrance where I was standing so I decided to ask him.


"ohhh no, you can't leave your suitcases there, they will get stolen! But you can put them in here with me, I'll watch them!"(this was in french of course)

Yah right!

He saw me about to say no and before I could reply, he said, "well you can sit in here with me too!"


No thankyou!


I did manage to find a seat with room for my suitcases next to an old lady doing a sudoku. Again I was a nervous reck the whole hour and a half ride to Paris. When the train stopped I was again having trouble and the old lady who had been sitting next to me came and helped me! And let me tell you, she wasn't so old after all! She was really nice and we chatted for a while until I found a good spot to wait for the person from YFU who was going to meet me. I said thankyou so much, and she wished me good luck too and went on her way. Less than a minute later the person from YFU found me and he was really strong and took the two biggest suitcases.

His name was Kevin, he was really nice. He had been an exchange student in Australia and he had also had a physco host mother. He took me to lunch because I had an hour and a half until my next train came and YFU paid for it.

The second train ride was about 6 hours long! It passed really fast. I slept a little, and I tried to read but I couldn't concentrate on anything. I was so nervous! But that was ok because I was pretty content to watch the french countryside roll by. It was beautiful! I was pretty excited when those weren't clouds I was looking at in the distance, they were the Alps! I saw TWO castles! They were both in the mountians, it was so cool!

Towards the end of the ride, I was getting really nervous, I couldnt' relax my mind was going crazy. I called my mom with my cell phone using up the little battery I had left. We only talked for about 5 minutes but it really helped, it was good to hear her voice reasuring me!

Suddenly the train began to slow down, I was looking out the window and I saw palm trees pass by! When I saw the sun setting over the mediteranean sea, I just KNEW I was going to like it here!

It was a miracle I was able to get off my train with my suitcases but I finally did, and then I stood there all alone in the dark and the train left, and then all the people left and I could hardly walk anywhere with my stupid suitcases.

But finally my family came, they'd been waiting for me in another part of the station.

The first thing I noticed about my host mom is that she actually smiles. Everything has been really great since I got here, they make me feel totally at ease. They are completely different from my last host family, they are so nice to me!

The first day of school was quite intersting as you can imagine. But not at all as horrible as my first day of school in Rouen. In fact, it wasn't horrible at all, it was a good day!
Well my host mom went in with me and took me to the principle and made sure I was in good hands (unlike my ex host mother!!). The principle was really nice, first he said we were going to look for some one in my class so that I could follow them all day. He was NOT thinking. The first girl he went up to was sitting on her boyfriends lap making out with him. They were both hard core emos too. Just my luck. Her name was Anael. She's really nice but....yah. So she took me to get my schedual and to the library to get my books and we went to our first class which was science.
This is where it got really intersting because during class while we taking notes, she was sitting there drawing a very detailed picture of a naked woman in chains! That is WIERD!
When she took me to get my books she introduced me to Nadia, who ia really nice. She's just a little bit emo so its not that bad, and in science class, thats where I met my friend Flavie. So pretty much their whole group of friends in emo and obvessed with Manga. But each class here only has like 20-30 students so you can't always pick your friends, you stuck with who ever is in your class.
On that day I had like 2 hours of nothing on my schedual and so did Nadia so she took me to the cafet with her, which is basically like a little cafe inside the school for the students, its really cool! We talked and talked, she's really nice and friendly. In french schools, there are two breaks during the day for 20 minutes, and during one of the breaks I started talking to Flavie. We have a lot in common! And the best thing is... she's a christian!!! So on thursday night she took me to church with her,and it was just like my church in america only in french! And its actually a bilingual church and the pastor is an american. I haven't met him yet but I will, I'm going with her again tonight =] And then there is a youth group party that I'm going to with her saturday night, its going to go really late so I'm going to sleep over at her house and then on sunday we going to go to Cannes.
Last weekend my family took me to Cannes and Antibes, which are so amazingly beautiful, I took over a hundred pictures just last weekend, you can see them on my facebook. Also, the second day I was here my host mom took me to Valbonne and Biot. I didn't have my camera in Valbonne but it was amazing, and you can see the pictures of Biot on my facebook also. She is so nice to take me, I really love my new family!
Both of the letters that my old host mom wrote were too difficult for me to read so I showed them to Flavie. It was really rediculous because even SHE had trouble reading them. They were written messily and used strange words. The one to my new host parents had my old host family's address and the parent's email addresses on it in two places and it just said a bunch of gibbereish, I really don't understand it. The letter to me was also a bunch of gibberish but it basically said, I tried with you but you failed me. I'm serious, thats what it actually said in one the the sentences. Even Flavie couldn't read the whole thing. Its like my ex host mom did that on purpose so that I would have to ask my host parents for help and so they would read it. And she really wants them to contact her! NO WAY. I didn't even give them the gift bag which had some home made jam in it. I don't want to eat that jam!!!!!
Another thing is that before I left I had to hurry up and wash all my dirty cloths and stuff and my old host mom never let me do my own laundry even though I prefere it. And remember how I'm allergic to laundry detergent! Yah, she used the kind that I'm allergic to, so my first week here I had hives every day! And now I can't remember exactly which cloths were in that last load so I'm in the process of washing all my cloths right now. But thats a little complicated since the washer here just broke. So I've been wearing my cloths that I don't usually wear because I don't like them very much because I'm sure they weren't in that load. But its ok, no one cares about fashion here in france except the really annoying superficial "popular" girls and no one cares about them so I fit right in no matter what I wear here.
So I'm pretty sure she washed my cloths with that detergent on purpose! What an evil bitch...
My french is like a TON better now. When I was in Paris with my friends, something just clicked. It was like the light bulb turned on, suddenly everything started to make sense! Since then I have been improving quickly. Thats how I've managed to make friends at school so fast. I can have actually conversations now, that helps!
So everything is pretty good here, I'm pretty happy. Except I've been getting really homesick. I had finally gotten to the point where I was comfortable in Rouen, and now I've moved to a completeliy different place, and even though I love it here, its not America, its not home.
Another thing that is kinda funny is that I keep having night mares that I either have to go back to my old host family, or for some reason I have to leave the new one. It sounds funny, but in the dreams I totally freak out! I had those dreams like 5 nights in a row, I am not kidding! Last night it finally stopped though.
Ok this is really long right now, I hope that I covered everything! Comment me!