Luis is having the time of his life! 

November 26, 2004

Hello Everybody its Luis from France!


    Today is the 25th of November, which means that I
have been here for exactly 3 months...exactly 3 months, and
I've been having the time of my life, no not in school...So
how about I continue on from my first report, since I never
really had a real second month report. I wish I had the
internet so I could look over what I had written last
time...oh well.
    So about 2 months ago we had a field trip with SVT
(Biology) to Le Puy which is a huge area with tons of dead
volcanoes, we visited different sites which was alright, but
it was really boring since I coudn't understand anything the
teachers were saying, and all I did was draw what they told
me to, not very pretty pictures...On the way back my friends
started teaching me french words, mostly all the curse
words, that was pretty fun, I know basically all the curse
words now, even though I cant pronounce some of them right
and they laugh at me hehehehe. After the trip me and about 5
other friends went to a "FREE" concert in a small pub were
they played 100% Led Zeppelin, they were really good, and
they played all the good songs, and when they played Whole
Lotta Love, the guitarist played the solo, and it was
amazing...he was so good, and I got to stand right next to
him and see him play, amazing. I'm not sure if I've said
this before, but I'm also taking guitar lessons, those are
really fun and I'm learning a lot, I can't wait until I can
play like Jimmy Page or Jimi Hendrix.
    I'll just skip to Ocotber 8th, my birthday, nice! I
didn't really do anything that day and we didn't celebrate
anything either, but it was fun because when I arrived to
school my friends gave me a bunch of PAMPLEMOUSSES!!!
(Grapefruit) which might I add is the coolest word I have
ever seen, and they all had little designs on them and stuff
written on them , is was really cool. Sunday was the day we
celebrated my birthday, we invited all the other families
I'm going to stay in, so I got to meet all of them and the
other exchange students who are at there house right now,
one of the girls is from Alaska, and the other is from
Brasil, which was cool since I could speak portuguese for
the first time in a really long time. Two weeks later I went
to my third party, and the first party that I actually knew
everyone, it was quite fun and very tiring, and it's fun
because I can act more like how I'am when I know everybody
else, we stayed up almost all night talking, listening to
music, etc... I wish I we had these kind of parties over in
Florida, there awesome, expecially the birthday parties
here, there not like blow the candles, YAY! there like
normal parties were you dont even say happy birthday. Oh
yes, before I went to this party I went to Paris with my
family for 4 days, we stayed at my host uncles house I guess
I could say, which was just outside of Paris. The first day
I was there I got to see the Eiffel Tower, it was a pretty
exciting view, its a shame I didnt get to climb it, but the
lines are huge, over 2 hours wait...The next day we went to
the Louvre, boy that place is big, didnt even get to see 1/4
of the whole place, at least I got to see the most famous of
them all, Mona Lisa, me and my brother managed to get all
the way in the front, it was pretty cool, we took lots of
cool pictures, which I will send when I get fast internet
access once again. The third day we spent the whole day in
Versaille, a beatiful place, the gardens are wonderful, and
I heard its the biggest castle in the world, and It was
pretty big, oh yes and all of this was free, thats what I
like about France there are a lot of free things for
students its really cool. The fourth day we didn't really do
anything just a day to relax mostly.
    November 5th, me and my family went to our city's
library to watch a tribute to The Beatles in A Cappella,
they were extremely good, I filmed most of the thing, not
very good filming since I wasnt sure if I was allowed to
film or not and I was sitting in the front row, so I had it
hidden under my arms hahaha, you can at least hear the songs
though, which is good enough for me. The next day was my
first rotary meeting in France, I wish they had done this as
soon as we got here, it was so good to meet all the other
exchange students, we've planned so many things together
already, we have gone to a Brasilian concert
for "FREE"(truly awesome) it was two different bands, one
was more Gilberto Gil, Caetano Velozo (Not sure if you know
them), and the other one was more electric dancing kind of
music, even I went to the stage and started dancing, and Im
not much of a dancer haha, Im not kidding... We also went to
another concert, but that was Classical Music, they were
really good, but it just wasnt my style of music and I got
really bored on that one. Just last weekend me and 5 other
exchange students went to a party together, we all had to
take the train to get there, that was probably the funnest
party I've have ever been in, and the house was huge (5
stories).
    This Saturday most of us exchange students are going
to watch a soccer match in the stadium, I can't wait! Go
LYON!...Right after Im going to celebrate my friends
Aliénors birthday, shes gonna turn 13, thats right shes only
13 and shes in the same grade as I'am, she is really cool,
never thought I'd come to France and have one of my best
friends be so much younger than me, I think thats really
cool.
    So ummmmmm school, basically like anywhere else in
the world, but imagine that, plus the fact that you dont
understand basically anything that is being said, now that
becomes really and I mean really boring, thats why I count
the minutes until school is out so I can just go hang out
with my friends and talk about stuff, that is really fun,
and time passes by so quickly. What I do love about school
here is that when our teacher is sick or she can't come to
school for some reason, we don't get any substitutes, so we
don't have that class at all, and sometimes theres days were
I only have school for 2 hours, I love it!!! Oh yes and I
also love the fact that my teachers dont give me any grades
since I don't really understand whats going on, I only get
grades in English, Sports, and Spanish, and I got 6,5/20 on
my Spanish test, and I was really happy, expecially since
its my first year taking Spanish and some other students
didn't get any better. French, my french has gotten much
better than when I got here, and I can basically understand
everything, its just a little hard to find the words to
talk, its kind like Spanish to me, I understand all of it
but I cant speak it, and next month im going to start taking
some French courses at the Aliance Française, I hope that
will help me even more.
    I start winter vacation December 17th and the last
two days of school I'm going to rent a Santa Claus costume,
and wear it to school (Mark..thanks...I miss you), thats
gonna be fun, not so sure about going to the metro with it
hahahaha, its gonna be hilarious, and all my friends agreed
to wear a Santa Claus hat, gonna be an amazing two days, I
have to make school more fun, the school here is to boring
and nobody does anything fun.
    Well I guess thats all I can't think of right now,
but I think thats all anyways...I hope...and I will send all
the pictures, TONS OF PICTURES, when I get the fast access
again, just wait!

Happy Thanksgiving to all !!!

Love you all,
Luis


I want to take this time and tell all my friends back home
that I miss them very much!

Mark, Amanda, Geraldine, Jen, Daniela, Travis, Jose, Jeff,
Fernando, Kakao, Arthurzao, Papai, Mamae, etc etc
etc....!!!!!