The Routine

Hiiiii!

Guess what .. I figured out how to change the keyboard to English! So now I can write as much as I want because it doesn't take me a million years to find the stupid full stop!

It's detailed.

Things are cooling down in France - today didn't manage to break the 3 degrees barrier. I was at school for 10 hours, arriving and departing at night. If it weren't for all the eye candy, I would certainly be thinking jealously of you all sleeping in and wearing bikinis. Or budgie smugglers (Dad and Tom!!). I thought that for today's entry I would try to describe my daily routine to you.

I get up at 6:10am, having been awake for some 20 minutes beforehand. As the first one up, I try to be as quiet as possible, although this is difficult as the house is very creaky and echo-ey. I make myself breakfast (museli and tea with HALF CREAM MILK, eeeeeeeeew!!) and eat in the company of the kitten whose name is either Patouille or Peanuts, I'm not sure which. I tend to just refer to him as "Gorgeous". He sits in front of me on the table and purrs, and swats at the dangly rope things hanging from my jumper. I used to be afraid of him, but yesterday we had an awesome bonding session which involved him lying on me while I sat on the sofa and read, so now we get along fine. Anyway, by the time I've finished breakfast  the rest of the house is beginning to stir, so I don't feel bad about having a nice loud shower. I'm a bit self-conscious about my showers: everyone else in the family has this weird habit of taking two-second showers (Do you remember when Claire was in Aus, Mum, and we thought that we'd scared her with warnings about the drought because she took such ridiculously short showers? Well, it's actually normal for her!) .. so even though mine only go for about 7 minutes, it still feels super long. Also, the shower itself is very strange: It's one of those detachable ones, but the holder is very low so the only way of getting underneath it is by sitting down in the bath. And there is no shower screen, so I always get the whole bathroom wet, which is embarrassing because everyone else must have some magical method for avoiding this occurrence. Enough about the shower.

I get dressed etc. quickly because we have to be ready for the taxi which arrives at 7:15. We're accompanied in the taxi (van, really) by two other girls who go to Claire's school. The drive to Tours takes about half an hour, during which we listen to "Alouette" - the local radio station which is sort of the equivalent of Mix 101.1. Then we arrive.

The morning at school is very volatile. If I'm lucky, we have lessons. If I'm unlucky, like on Monday and today, we have two hours of spare. Obviously Claire thinks that spares are wonderful, but for me they're deathly boring because I can't participate in any of the conversations and I don't want to read or doodle or anything because I just feel that I shouldn't. This morning I sat in the same seat for two hours straight and said no more than 10 words put together. BAAAAH. Around me, the riot (well put, Sandra) goes on, and occasionally I am kissed hello or goodbye. That for two hours.

I think I've already explained about the lessons. I look forward to them immensly, even Maths, because the teacher is actually quite nice. When Claire apologises for them being boring, I can honestly reply that it's not boring at all and I really don't mind. My favourite class is, of course English. Today the teacher was in a better mood; she handed out a crossword for everyone to do (under the heading "Mysterious crossword" - referring to the topic of crime and mystery, not the puzzling nature of the crossword itself) and I was the only one who could do it. Admittedly it was very difficult in terms of language - if it had been in French we would have struggled, Smoo - but as a natural English speaker I finished in about 5 minutes. The teacher was obviously overcome by curiosity, so she left her seat and came to inspect my work: I earned a "Well done"! After that she became more relaxed - not that she spoke to me any more, but she smiled a bit and even made eye contact a few times. Hurrah for breaking barriers!

At lunchtime, we leave school and peruse the city for a suitable place to eat. Sometimes we'll romp across to the other side of the city to the other school, Descartes, where Claire has some friends - one of whom is Marion, who I like very much because she doesn't ignore me and is capable of speaking slowly so that I can understand her. Usually for lunch I'll buy a sandwich with chicken.

We have two hours for lunch, so I have to put up with a bit more spare time, and after that come the afternoon classes. These finish at either five or six in the evening (today it was six) with a fifteen-minute break in the middle. By this time the students have become even more restless and there is a lot more fighting between the boys. When the final bell goes, the teacher doesn't have time to tell everyone that they can leave - everyone is out the door in a matter of seconds!

The taxi drives us home, and then I encounter the slightly awkward situation where I don't have anything to do. Don't worry, Mum, I've been good: Though it's tempting to lock myself in my room, I try to mingle with the family as much as possible, so usually I'll grab a book and sit downstairs on the sofa while they go about their daily life around me. Sometimes, however, Claire and Christine are in a really foul mood. That's when I decide that retreating to my room is a good idea - like now!

Dinner is served at anywere between eight and nine o'clock (I die, Em!!). After the first day I learned not to gorge myself on bread and paté straight away: There are two courses after that! Yesterday Christine made Ratatouille which was absolutely delicious. I tend to avoid the cheese (I can do so politely because there are other things to eat meanwhile) but I always take care to eat some fruit when it is served. Em, as the physio expert, enlighten me: When I've already eaten my way through two courses, should I eat fruit afterwards even though I'm not hungry?

After dinner it's bedtime. This is when I can truly relax for the first time during the day. I read for a bit, but I'm always tired so I go to sleep fairly quickly. This is at about 9:45pm. I always think of you all before I fall asleep.

So there you have it: A long and possibly overly detailed description of my daily routine. Now, to answer some questions:

Smoo, my address is 1 Allée des Piverts, Azay-le-Ridea, France (I don't know the postcode, look it up). No, there are no security guards at my school, although there is an electric gate. Most people smoke, but they're only allowed to outside of school so I generally don't see any of Claire's friends smoking. I have yet to visit the canteen because I'm too cool for it.

Isy and Sah, do you even know that I'm writing a blog? I have yet to hear from you! Don't make me think that you're crap friends! Although I could never do that, not after the amazing letters you wrote for me on the plane (I haven't read yours yet, Isy, like I promised I"ll read it on Christmas). Merci beaucoup for the book, Em, I've alreay found it useful. Also loved your opening sentence. Smoo, I loved that yours went for ever and ever; from the level of literary genius I couldn't have guessed that you wrote it on the train. I especially loved the descriptions of the other people on the train, it made me laugh! Sah, your drawing ability never fails to amaze me, even if I was disturbed by some of the images!

I hope everything is going well at home. Please keep writing to me lots! I think I"ll post a blog once every three days so that I can accumulate something to write about, how does that sound? So the next blog will come on the 14th, be ready for it! That's one day before we receive our VCE results, ooooh! By the way, how did everyone go in their reports? I did well except for a B in Maths, booo. To be expected. Hui wrote some amazingly long list of the things I need to revise before next year. But lol: According to Cartwright I am "A joy"! Are you a joy, Smoo? I think so!!

Got to go now, it's dinner time.

Love you all lots and lots and lots and lots and lots!!

xx Jess xx