Classic High Schooler's Life of School and Fun... But in France

As I write this, I have to admit I am quite tired. I've been getting back into my night owl nature and just not getting enough sleep. If I have learned one thing in these past two months, it is that french is a much more enjoyable language to the brain when your brain is not yelling at you to get to a quiet place to sleep. I did have a very busy week last week so my lack of sleep was not just thanks to reading and watching YouTube (vlogbrothers are great by the way). Last Tuesday I had to wake up at six o'clock a.m. to catch an early bus to get to school thirty minutes early so that I could go on a day trip to Nantes with about forty other students from various art classes within my school. It was about a two hour bus ride to spend the morning walking around, learning about the public art and interesting architecture within the city. Then we sat in a park for lunch and had a classic french lunch which consisted of an apple, a little thing of cheese, some sort of sugary bread thing, a water bottle, potato chips, and a baguette sandwich which only had butter and ham on it. I really love the simplicity of most of the meals here, even the ones my host dad serves at my house. I do, however, really want Chick-fil-a, basically all the time. Paige if you're reading this, be prepared to see me at work a LOT this summer (For those of you who don't know Paige, she is my friend who works at Chick-fil-a). Anyways, for the second part of the day we went to this kind of odd place with a lot of old robot animal machines in which you could ride and I found it a bit strange to be honest. It did have some cool elements and I'm glad I saw it anyway even though it wasn't really my kind of art. The bus ride back was fun. I introduced my french, australian, and japanese friend to my guilty pleasure of putting peanut butter on oreos! Everyone thought it was going to be extremely disgusting for some reason but once they all tried it they quickly changed their minds. We got back to the school at about 18:00 which is one hour and twenty minutes later than the usual time I am finished with school on Tuesdays. Mondays and Thursdays are my toughest days because I am at school from 8:05 (9:05 on Mondays) until 17:40! Which is 5:40 p.m. for all of you who don't know. I don't know why the school day is so long. Not only that, but the classes are mainly all just lectures on whatever we are learning. It is painfully boring. Sometimes I'll try to write down some thoughts in class but most of the teachers are very strict and won't allow phones, food, books, or even water! Yes, you heard me! I am not even allowed to stay hydrated during class. I really don't understand why but oh well, the teacher has to look at the board at some point. I try not to fight the system too much, but I have to say, they make it so darn tempting. I've given up trying to ask because I've never received a satisfactory answer. I'm just going to leave it at I really miss Vista and I'm going to really try my hardest to never complain about it! Even though things here in France have never been better and my more carefree attitude has been helping an enormous amount with my overall mental health, I still miss my friends and family a lot. I just wish they were here with me. I feel like I might be saying that a bit often here in my blog posts but well it's what's on my heart a lot. However, going out with friends and getting closer to people here is what makes my homesickness practically disappear. On Friday I went out to get dinner in downtown Rennes with my friend, Joel. Seeing the city at night was a whole new experience, all the shops were closed and the streets with the restaurants and bars were lit up and there were a ton of college students and young adults. It was so lively! Definitely a fun experience! Next weekend, all of the exchange students at my school were going to go together to a popular city by the ocean (I forgot the name), but our local ordinator canceled it because he was too busy to take us. I was really looking forward to it too. That means I'll probably just go exploring in the city again with a friend! I need to get out next weekend, because with the exception of Friday night and my run on Sunday, I didn't get out of the house at all this last weekend! I got a lot done still but my family was surprised because I usually go to the store or to downtown almost every Saturday. Until next week! Bisou!