The French book I'm reading now, Claudine à l’école, by Colette, is about students at a French school, and I'm really hoping it's not really like that. Basically, so far, Claudine has had an affair with her English teacher, Mademoiselle Aimée Lanthenay, made the headmistress jealous, begun to terrorize the English teacher's little sister, and just acted unruly in other, more normal, ways. I just read this one sentence yesterday where the headmistress said: "...vous ne valez pas chacune la corde pour vous pendre !" (You're all not worth the rope that would hang you!). So, that line plus the other things that happen in the book are making me think that French school is a little "different." But, at least I don't eat my school supplies like la grande Anaïs. She eats erasers, pencils, crayons...that can't be healthy. Anyway, I have to say I love this book! It's hilarious! Colette also wrote Gigi, but I think the next French book I'm going to read before I leave is Cyrano de Bergerac or Nadja. Probably Cyrano.
So, counting today, just 21 days until Paris! But I have to say, all this Christmas stuff was very inconvenient. It made it hard to send a Christmas card to my host family and a CD to the director of my program. I hope New Years isn't that inconvenient, but it probably will be because we'll be cleaning and cleaning and cleaning...