~A la Seconde~
Second week is underway. And I am finally starting to understand what is going on around me. Last week was... well I'm glad its over, it was impossible to understand anything, as my entire program is in french. I have been in Late French Immersion for two years, and while that has helped, I have also realized how little french I speak. As of Thursday last week, things have calmed a bit. My classes have settled too. You don't really have to speak in ballet or contemporary classes, so that is a relief as well as the fact that my teachers are absolutely amazing. I am (sort of) making friends who are mostly italian but some french. My roommate is English speaking; she also doesn't speak french. BUT because she is a year younger she isn't in my class, so we decided to switch rooms so I'll be rooming with another girl from my class, also international, and not french speaking. It is hard (if not impossible) for us to communicate because she speaks japanese. I should go now, so...
Travel Time!
I took a plane from Vancouver to London a few days ago, and after a long and slightly stressful journey I'm finally in Europe! I said goodbye to my family at the airport, went through security, and boarded the plane. The flight was long and tiring, and I didn't manage to sleep. At all. :( So I arrived in London, ready to crash. I got lost trying to find Immigration multiple times, before finally finding it. The border officer asked a lot of questions before deciding he wanted to talk to my grandparents (who were picking me up) before letting me through. He wanted to make sure they were there, which is... whatever. But then I was brought to the detaining room, while he tried to get a hold of my grandparents. The detaining room is pretty terrifying, especially for a 12 year old travelling alone, considering the people that are generally in it. Generally scary people. And of course, my grandparents couldn't hear their cellphones going off, multiple times, and my mom wasn't answering my (illegal) texts to her. So I waited almost an hour in that room. Finally, my mom got a hold of my grandparents, who of course were there and waiting. And I got a hold of her. The border guard talked to my parents and made sure that they were my parents and were telling the truth. Nothing like watching a border guard grill your parents over the phone in a detaining room! So they finally let me through, and I got lost again trying to find the baggage carousel from Vancouver. When I found it, mine was the last bag going around, as everyone else from my flight had already gotten their bags and left. After that, I found my grandparents and they took me back to a friend's place in London, a beautiful, huge, Victorian style house. We went out for dinner at my favourite restaurant in London, and then went home and crashed. Yesterday we went out for coffee in the morning, and in the afternoon we went into Downtown London, visited the Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet School, did some shopping, ate dinner, then went to a broadway style performance. Today we are taking a flight from London to Nice, where in the next few days I will move into my school in Cannes.
