Soixante-trois

Hello everyone! I am quite tired at the moment and not really motivated to write on my blog (I'm going to go take a nap afterward!) so maybe this is going to be shorter than normal. I feel like since I'm coming home so soon anyway and will see most of you soon after, it's less important to keep you all informed about my life here, so that's why lately I've maybe been less descriptive and everything in my posts.. I hope this doesn't bother you too much!

Well, this will be my third-to-last blog post, if I continue to write on Sunday afternoons as I generally do. Can you even believe that? I'm coming home so soon.. (eighteen days! Not that I'm counting or anything, haha.) I have lots of mixed feelings about coming home, but the positive ones definitely outweigh the negative ones. It's almost a problem how exciting it is that July 16th is approaching. Every few hours I will think about how soon it is and get really jittery and a little nervous. In a lot of ways, I'm feeling now the same way I was feeling 11 months ago, when I had approximately eighteen days left before leaving Minneapolis: nostalgic, excited, sad, happy, nervous, etc. I guess in a lot of ways I've come full circle.

This last week in school was really boring.. I had my last tests of the year, in history (I got a 5) and math (5.3.) I also got my chemistry test back (4.4) and the grade for my history presentation (6!) The teachers had to enter all their grades in the computer by Wednesday, which means for the last five days of school they can't give us tests or grades. We started watching movies in English and German, and next week we'll watch in French, math, geography, and probably chemistry and/or biology too. So basically it's really boring and pointless going to school (except to see my friends of course!) A couple of the teachers are still trying to teach us but we are like zombies when they start saying anything intelligent, and no one has any motivation to try (even the teachers seem lazy.) At least there are only three days left this week and then we're free!

This weekend was pretty cool. There was the annual braderie in Romont, which is like a little festival that everyone goes to, with booths selling items and food, maybe some music, and a carousel for the little kids. Mostly it's an event for the locals to get together and to see everyone they know from the area who maybe they wouldn't otherwise see.

Friday night I went with Bernard, Béatrice, and Andréanne to eat dinner there. We also walked around and saw a lot of kids in our class and talked to them, but unfortunately it was rainy so it wasn't that lively.. everyone was telling me that normally the crowds were shoulder to shoulder, but this year there were way less people. I think we left around 20h00 or 21h00.

Saturday I had a pretty busy day. I woke up around 9h00. For lunch I ate at the house. Then afterward I went in the car to the braderie at 13h30 to meet up with Margaux, who was getting off her shift making crêpes to raise money for the camp she goes to (or something like that.) We walked around and saw a lot more people we knew.. since it was during the day and not raining there were a lot more people and little kids. She had a really nice idea of taking pictures of me with all the monuments of Romont, so we did a tour of the town.. she's going to make me a CD with those pictures, the ones she took when we went to Lac Noir in February, and some she had taken of our class and friends at school. After this I ate a chocolate crêpe and she ate some ice cream. It started raining really hard around 16h00 so we had to take shelter under an awning. At 16h30 the rain let up a bit and I went to the station to take a train to Fribourg, and Margaux walked home. I went to Sakshi's house afterward.

At her house her house parents were home so we took an apéro together, and then ate dinner and dessert. We ended up spending from like 19h00 to 22h00 eating and talking with her host parents (who are really nice) just about how our years went, amongst other things. I speak French better than the last time I went there so I was able to answer their questions about my experience here, my culture, and my life in the US a lot better. After we finished eating and talking Sakshi and I went to watch TV and talk.. I think we stayed up until around midnight or 1h00.

This morning we woke up around 10h00 and ate a brunch (bread, cheese, ham, jam, nutella, orange juice, coffee, etc.) at around 11h00. At 13h30 I took the bus to Fribourg, and it took me forever to get home because there are hardly any buses on Sundays and I had to wait around a long time (so I drank two coffees and read a book.) I got here around 16h00, and now I am just hanging out. I don't usually like Sundays because it means there is school the next day, but I am ready to get this week over with and start enjoying my summer vacation!