Rugby insaneness!!!

Hello. I have now done 3 full days of french high school. Yay! Math and science will be easy since I al 2 years ahead, but, to say the least, todays physics class was a tad bit different than Mr. Plattner's. The teacher just told everyone to take out a piece of paper and we then spent 1.5 hours taking detailed notes, just listening to here talk, nothing written on the board. After class I borrowed a classmates notes to see how much of the diagrams and notes I'd gotten and I was pretty impressed with myself for this 4 page dictée. Spanish is difficult since the teacher speaks very quickly, but she's really nice. Everyone laughed at my accent when I had to read aloud =(. But to me, it sounds like some of them are native spanish speakers; it must be easier if when you're french. But English class today was hilarious. It was after lunch and Sarah and I could not stop laughing the whole time. People's accents, including the teacher's, were so funny and the questions we were doing in the book we funny too. Sarah wrote the answer to one of the questions down, passed it to a girl in our class, and then she raised he hand and read it, perfect grammer and perfect answer. It was funny. In French class we will be reading lots of Flaubert and Maupassant and romantics this year, and since I'm in the Lit section we have to read more books. The first book we have to read is Dangerous Liasons by de Laclos, then its Don Juan.

So the rugby world cup is here! We went to friends house and watched France lose to Agentina (in Paris) on Friday night, but on sunday France plays here in Toulouse against Namibia. Toulouse is the heart of french rugby and its club team, Stade Toulousian, is who the majority of the national team plays for. US lost to England on saturday in Montpellier and it looks like South Africa, Australia and New Zealand are the favorites as always. The womens world cup of soccer starts today in China, but France didn't make it so there's no news. I like the sports coverage here. We also wathced Itlay and France tie in soccer, for the qualifications for Euro 2008, the 2nd time they're played since the world cup. The gymnastics world championships were in Stuggart this weekend so we watched the 15 year old American win! yay! Euro basketball chamionships are now too and France shouls win since they have the 2007 NBA MVP playing for them. So yesterday we drove an hour to Ax-les-Thèrmes in the Pyrenées and went for a nice hike (pics included). Its so awesome to live so close. It was so beautiful too. They said on a clear day you can see the Med Sea, but I guess it wasn't clear enough. I just found out that my 2nd host family lives in Centre-Ville Toulouse, walking distance from school, so thats exciting, I'll get more city living experience. I can't wait for this weekend....the first Rotary weekend with all the other exchange students!

Later, Love,

Liz