It's Vacation Time #4

Well, I'm on to Spring Break. Being in zone 3, we are the last group to get to go on vacation. It is cool because it means that once we get back, we just have 5 weeks of school left.

The week leading to vacation was quite normal. We had a few tests and homework, but a lot of the week was spent telling us about what we need to study for our block test week when we come back. We don't have any homework during break except to study for all of the tests when we get back.

Friday, my class finished at lunchtime because our last class was moved to Thursday morning. I decided to celebrate and went out to lunch with 2 friends. Then one of my friends and I went to the movies together. We went to see the Lion King in 3D, and it was cool. Actually, I had never seen the movie(or if I had, I was too young to remember it) so it was awesome. It was really funny because there were probably about 15 people in the theater, and it was all adolescents except one adult and one little boy. So, the two of us weren't the only silly teenagers that went to see a cartoon.

On Saturday I had a handball game, and my team won against a team ranked higher than us. I even scored a really good goal, which I was excited about.

So, vacation plans. This weekend has been pretty chill. My family is doing some spring cleaning, repainting a few of the bedrooms, ect. The weather has been horrible, cold and rainy, so it feels more like November than late April, but that's ok.Then on Thursday, we leave to drive to the South and go to my host grandparent's house. We will stay there until the end of the Second week, coming back in time for the 2nd round of the Presidential elections on Sunday.

So, let's talk about the elections. Here, there are 2 rounds. In the first round, which is today, there are about 10 candidates. When voting, you go to the voting polls and take the little papers on which the candidates' names are written. Then you take a little blue envelope that says République Française on it. You go into one of the little curtain surrounded stalls and put the paper of your candidate into the envelope. Then you go to the table and show your ID card, your little voting card(which they stamp so that you can only vote once) and put your envelope into the box. You keep the other little papers and throw them away later. If you are going to be out of town for the election, you can have someone else vote for you, but it is complicated. They have to be someone who votes at the same voting place as you, and you can only vote for one other person. Let's say I'm going to be out of town. I have to decide which of my neighbors I want to have vote me, tell them who I want to vote for, and mail a special form to the voting office which officially says that I want that person to vote for me. Then when that person goes to the polls, they make two little envelopes, one with their vote and one with my vote. You can't vote by mail here. The polls in my town close at 6:00 pm and then the votes(which are all in the box) are counted. The results are sent to the city hall of the town, who then sends them to Paris for the final results. At the end of today, we will know who the top 2 candidates are. They will move on to the next round, which is 2 weeks from tomorrow. And the winner will be the President for the next five years. I got to go to the polls with my host dad today to see how it was all done. It reminded me of going with my mom when I was younger and I got to do the little punch card and get a sticker that said "I voted." And I always loved seeing the adults around town wearing their "I voted" stickers all day to show their patriotism.

So, that's what's going on in my life for the moment. I'll be sure to keep you up to date with any earth-shattering news (not that I'm really expecting anything.)