A Rather Uneventful Week

Monday I had a history test.. I wrote so little that I didn't even bother turning it in at the end. But hey, everyone else thought it was incredibly hard, and they've been speaking French since they were two, so I don't feel too bad. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Tuesday was my first day back in gym since spraining my ankle. It feels a lot better, though not 100%, and I'm going to have to be careful what I do in gym for a while. I was kind of worried about having gym again, but we ended up doing nothing. I'm not even kidding you. Nothing. You will recall the gymnastics routine that I was worried about doing, and glad that I missed. Well, actually, I didn't completely miss it. The teacher told us to incorporate me into the group, even though I can't do most of the gymnastics with my ankle, and it was all choreographed before, and I think they're supposed to film it next week. Long story short, I will maybe do one somersault, if we get it worked out. We ended up not working on the routine, because one of the other groups that was filming the whole hour was using all of the gym mats we needed, so we really couldn't do anything. I don't think I'll actually end up doing much though.

Wednesday was super boring school-wise. After supper in the evening I went to Fribourg for the second AFS stamm. It was my turn to present my country, so I did as the others had in February and talked for maybe five minutes and showed a flag and map of the US and picture of Minneapolis I had printed out. Then Carlo from Mexico showed me up by pulling out a laptop and giving an extensive twenty minute powerpoint presentation.. haha. It didn't really matter though, because no one was expecting us to give a presentation like that, he just went above and beyond. At the meeting there were two new AFS students, one from Costa Rica and one from New Zealand, who arrived here about a week ago. It was funny, because they were exactly like we were when we arrived- terrible at French. I felt very old and wise with them there. When I asked the Costa Rican where she was from (in English) and she told me, she was like "you don't know where that is, do you?" but I did know where it was (between Panama and Nicaragua!) Apparently most people, when she says she's from Costa Rica, say "is that the same thing as Puerto Rico?" That makes me a bit sad. I told her though that the only thing I knew about Costa Rica was that they have a bunch of nice beaches, because my aunt went surfing there.. After the stamm I took the train home an hour later, because the last time I was the first to leave and I didn't really get to talk to everyone I wanted. There were still maybe ten people left (out of 15 or 20) when I had to take the train, but we all kind of scattered at the same time. It felt weird to be taking the train at 10:30 on a school night, but not unsafe. I love Switzerland.

Thursday I was pretty tired.. I generally go to bed around nine or ten on school nights, but Wednesday night I think it was around midnight. In biology we had a test, and I had really studied for it. I actually think I might have gotten an okay grade! I answered ALL of the questions, which I'm quite proud of, since it ended up being like two pages of writing. Usually, either from a lack of time to develop my ideas in French, or just because I don't have a clue as to the answer, I finish less than half of my biology tests. We'll see how I really did though.

Friday was incredibly boring. In history the professor handed our tests back and then we watched part of the movie Elizabeth which we had started before. Cate Blanchett's French voice is kind of creepy.

Saturday I woke up around ten. We ate lunch, and then around one we drove to Lausanne. That's the second biggest city in French Switzerland, and the fourth biggest agglomeration in the country. The weather was lovely since Lausanne is on Lake Léman and has sort of a different climate than here, even though it's really close. There was no snow, the grass was starting to grow, and there were even little flowers blooming. It's not winter anymore!!! Béatrice, Bernard, and Andréanne went to this exposition about homes and gardens. Apparently it's sort of for people who want to renovate or build a new home, with paints and bathtubs and landscaping.. Andréanne said it sucked but the other two seemed to like it enough. While they were at the exposition for maybe three hours, I walked to and around the center of the city. There were lots of people around, and a surprising number of tourists. I bought a scarf at H&M, plus some stabilo markers and a pen, walked around, and went to the cathedral. First I walked around the outside, and then I went in and walked around the inside. It was really pretty (considered the "finest gothic building in Switzerland", according to this website I'm reading) and fairly gigantic. Afterward I went back to the exposition center to meet up with the others (it was quite a trek, and I started off in the wrong direction, but luckily I had a map.) We left Lausanne, got home around seven, and the rest of the evening was uneventful.

This morning I got up around ten. We ate raclette for lunch, and it was really super. I spent the afternoon working on the many flagged emails in my inbox and writing a letter, and now I'm doing this. That's about it. I think I may go take a walk this evening, if I don't fall asleep first.

Nothing too big is coming up in the near future. Next weekend I'll probably go see Slumdog Millionaire with Sakshi on Saturday, and then stay over at her house in the evening, if it all goes according to plan.

Only four more weeks of school until Easter vacation!