I'm only human and that's my saving grace

Okay, so the picture above is of Kayla's arm. My self portrait on Kayla's arm. THAT is what Kayla and I do in music class (called chant choral here) and I just thought I would share because I love it!!!!!!! <333333

Anyhow, tomorrow as I have no school (only monday and tuesday left of school aaaaah!!!) and loads of free time (although I will be busy doing homework for canada, yuck) I will blog and give you a complete update. So look for that tomorrow.

Ciao until then,
Jane

ps - ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE WWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Lucy in the sky with Diamonds

So, it's the end, or the very near the end end and I find myself thinking. "Wow Jane, thinking, don't overreach yourself!" Or should I say "Janie" as my friends at good ol' JCI have taken to calling me, thus the wonderful name change on facebook for those of you who have facebook and were a little "is Jane going insane?" Donc, here is a photo of Jess and me that I love and wanted to share with you!! I felt immensely cheery when I first looked at this photo so I want to try and "share" that feeling with you before I launch into my blog. So, hopefully it worked. Here goes:

I feel like being near the end it's the time to "tell all" and be completely honest about stuff that I've kind of held inside. So, for starters I always felt insecure until now about the fact that I blogged so much and Emma so little. I always felt like Emma's absence from Canada (meaning her lack of communication with Canada) meant that she was having a better time than me and I didn't want to think that way. But now I feel like so much happens to me (thank you everyone for making it happen, je suis blessed) and if I didn't blog the way I do I would forget most of it and so I feel like my blogging is justified and I can sleep peacefully at night. On that sleeping note, since Morocco I have slept through entire nights and I no longer wake up seven bajillion times and toss and turn for hours!! Wonderful breakthrough, I just wished it had happened early because I am feeling way less tired and very energetic and positive, except for Friday morning because I went to bed way too late for my own good! Ah well. Things happen.

Now, just a quick chick note: They still are not born!! I think they are doing this just to spite me, oh we know how much Jane wants to see us and love us and ooh and aah over us so we are going to refrain from being born just to make her sad =( it's really a good thing that I have other things to occupy my time. Now, on to the other things.

Today is my first soccer game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am really excited because at 1 o'clock today we have a rendezvous at the Hippodrome (where I practice and some of the matchs are held) and then at 3 o'clock we play in Morremoiron (sorry I am not sure of the spelling) about an hour away from Cavaillon. Superbe!! Anyhow, that is not all -I have a soccer tournament on Tuesday too, all day and there is no school and apparently there is a party at Jenny's Monday night and then Wednesday I am heading to Avignon afterschool with Kayla and maybe meeting up with Madysin (Do you remember her? I blogged about her, she was the one Alex and I shared a room with in Paris, I didn't know where she was going near Avignon but it turns out that she is in Avignon so I invited her to our Wednesday shop and see the bridge day so maybe I shall get another chance to see her. Who knows. All together it has been a good week ending and yesterday's three hour history class was quite interesting.....

Yesterday we had an Auswichtz (sp?) survivor who is 85 years old come in and talk about his whole being in the concentration camp experience. He also told us about the time he had to kill a friend because he was dying and it would take about 24 hours of suffering so he had to put him out of his misery. Some parts I didn't understand but for the most part I did and it was really interesting. He showed us the ink number on his arm from his days there and then explained about the daily routine and all sorts of horror stories and how he was upset because not one of the movies made today accurately represents the camps, it is all really glorified and inaccurate and that makes him upset. He also went on about how disgusting English porridge was (the first meal he had when the Allies rescued him) but how nice the sugar in it was, and then he kept pointing at us and saying Canadians rescued me, Canadians like your Canadian comrades and making everyone turn around and stare at us and Kayla and I started laughing and giggling (you know the way you do when you are really nervous? Well it was like that) -not good. The lunch was also pretty good too for a change, porc and potatoes (although the recent lack of veggies at lunch has been disturbing) and then we had music class, my second last in France and in highschool since I quit music. It was crazy. First, Kayla and I were in a crazy mood so we drew all over each others arms (playing tic tac toe on our hands as well) and then we taught Simon the whole This is his face game, you know the one where you write this on your fingers, a face on the palm of your hand and then scribbles on the palm of your other hand? Well, Simon understood after awhile but thought we were insane because we were laughing so hard we were crying and then I accidently drew the face on Kayla's hand upside down so I changed it to be nostrils (the two lines that were eyes) and the mouthline became the egg shaped head (the head ressembled mr. potato head in the end) and I added a body and it was really ugly and crazy. Then when we had to stand up and sing this guy started waving his lighter around to the slow songs which made Kayla and I delirious (before he stopped and got in trouble) and then Max, who has a sweater that is covered with zippers that you can unzip -thus taking apart his sweater, spent the rest of the class fighting to keep his sweater on as Bastien and Simon spent the time trying to get it off, and pissing the hell out of the guy sitting in front of me who had the lighter because he was not in a good mood =( oh well, I was in an excellent one. THEN, because of the stupid train strikes (I'll love the TTC for the rest of my life) I was stuck at school for three and a half hours after my classes ended so I hung out with Jamie and we compared all the stuff that had changed with our families and friends in Canada while we were gone and we were quiet for a minute with awe because honestly? You may not realize it because your living it but so much has changed in such a short time. Already:

1 - Emma's rat Ice Cream died
2 - My one friend now has a boyfriend (finally, that took nine million years)
3 - My sister's boyfriends family met my family and now I am going to meet them, which means that they are serious (which I kind of already knew).
4 - My little sister got bumped up to a AA hockey team (I think, still not sure) AND changed schools.
5 - My ANCIENT sister auditioned for universities which means shes growing up, which is weird because this is her last year "at home."
6 - My dog has gone from normal sized to anorexic as my family -traitors- got her clipped.

So, just a little dose of what has changed at home while I am gone, there is more but my craptastic memory can't remember any more for the moment. Nowing me it will probably come back to haunt me at later moments in my life and I shall be like, oh yeah that was what changed, better yet, soon I shall be living the change. Oh yeah, my other friend is also now running for President of the student council. Weird.

Anyway, thats all I have to share with you this morning. I'm now going to go shower and indulge myself with some trashy magazines courtesy of ma mère and then think about soccer soccer soccer which is soon soon soon. Speaking of soon, Canada is soon and the more I think about it the more I feel confused and weird and uncertain about it.

ciaobella,
Jane

Vids

FYI I have changed the error that is the third scouts de france video, by accident it was the same as the English presentation but I have changed it and it now actually is the third scouts de france video

Videos that I have had for awhile but never ever bothered to put up. Seriously, the process takes nine freaking hours!!!


SCOUTS DE FRANCE VIDEO 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-GHoP5MmEs

SCOUTS DE FRANCE VIDEO 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4TLzfosnYA

RANDOM SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3flkF2SWIU

MARION'S (A FRIEND) AWESOME ENGLISH PRESENTATION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sypIVZ3Nw2Q

SCOUTS DE FRANCE VIDEO 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzHtL7RdL44



Still no chickies, ah well, bientot j'espere. Ok, adios until tomorrow amigos when I shall write a new about this week. Until then, happy two weeks (although je crois que technically it's YOU who should be saying it to ME!!!) ciaobella

see me as I really am I've got flaws and sometimes I even sin

Français, that is what I am becoming. Alors, today was my first day back at school and it was not the best. First, it was raining insanely on and off was annoying. Second, I got to school for 8 am to find out that my two hour gym class was cancelled and I had until 10 to do absolutely nothing so I went to the library only to be told that the computers were all broken (does anything ever work? It seems like a day is either good or all bad) and to top it off because Ceilidh (one of the Canadians in my class) left it's just Kayla and I and Kayla didn't show up. Then at lunch I had to eat by myself (standard Wednesday lunch) but it was just not a good day for it because I was already in a crappy mood. The days only redeeming quality was that it marks two weeks to my last day (I try and I try and I try to not be so happy -honestly I am sad too sometimes=( ) and that I had started back at school which means my days are not slow, tiring nothing days that make me feel homesick. Mais, I managed to finish my French book report (translating it from the English rough copy and all) so I felt very proud of myself it pretty much means that I am done all my Science, French, History and Spanish (Friday Spanish should be done) homework and all I have left is Math and English which are taking a litte longer, so I feel pretty good. It was interesting being back and I'm excited for soccer tonight. AND my game this weekend, life is definitly great right now -especially with the baby chicks to be born any day now- and even though this morning was a little low I am feeling positive and happy and CHEERY!!!!!!!!!!! So, cheerio. ciao. toodles. a bientot. Je vous embrasse très fort et a la prochaine!!! <3>

April Showers (there have not been many) bring May flowers ANDDDDDDDDDDDDD CANADA!!!!

So my dear friends and avid readers and picture-lookers,
TODAY is MAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! And I come home in 16 days if you don't count the day I fly (I refuse to since I leave at 10 pm YOUR time yuck!) and tomorrow I start school again!! So, the last couple days have been interesting. Saturday we rolled in around 7 am after spending the entire night in the car and then the whole day I was tired and organized my room and just lounged about thinking about how close and yet so far away I was. It was not the greatest day
=( Sunday I worked and read and just chilled out and enjoyed French food again and yesterday (Monday) I did a lot of my homework and got a little homesick because it was the first time in awhile that I had talked to a lot of people in Canada and it just kind of made me a little sad. Anyway..... The baby chicks should be born any day now and here is an interesting (but kind of gross so don't read it if you puke easily) story. Sylvie went to collect the eggs Sunday (three of the chickens are covering (Don't know what the term is) their eggs to make them chicks but the rest just lay eggs and leave so we still collect those) and saw a bunch of eggs BESIDE (close beside) the chickens who were covering and assumed those eggs weren't being covered so they were just normal and cooked those for dinner. At dinner (we happened to have a large number of people over as guests) we had soft boiled eggs and two people found an ittty bitty baby chick body skeleton thing in their eggs because apparently the chicken covers the egg and then sticks it beside her and then covers it again, which is weird but the whole thing was rather gross and fascinating. So, thats my fun little story. Anyway, ciao toodles and talk soon!
<3 Jane

Morocco Pïctures

So here are the pictures that I took with captions as promised and as soon as Alix loads her's (and the videos) on to the computer I'll set up those in albums and as soon as Hervé and Chantal send me there photos I shall do the same. Love you all tons, NINETEEN DAYS!!!!!
Gros Bisous,
Jane

Morocco Part 1 (MY pics)

http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2386&l=cd059&id=504021617

Morocco Part 2 (MY pics again)

http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2387&l=a9ff7&id=504021617

Morocco (April 14th - April 28th)

Everyone looks wrecked after two weeks of cold, drip-drip-drip showers, sleeping in tents and driving endless hours on deserted, rocky, bumpy roads. All of that and all I can say is I would give anything ANYTHING to have that kind of experience just once more in my life. This picture was taken last night when we stopped for dinner near Grenada, Spain and listened to Sk8r Boi by Avril Lavigne. FYI our "restaurant" was an old Spanish gas station. Talk about atmosphere!!!

So, this blog is going to be a day to day summary as I wrote a day to day log throughout the trip and I will try to make it as interesting as possible.......

Friday April 13th - We left the house at 6:30 pm and after making one return trip (Philippe forgot his shorts on the kitchen table) we were off, we arrived in Spain around 9:30 and were at Barcelona around 11. After a bumpy, fast, sleepless night we arrived in Grenada, Spain around 6 am where we met with Hervé and Chantal, our companions in their own four wheel drive. We took the ferry around noon and arrived after crossing the Gibraltar (sp??) in Algeciras (or maybe that was where we started in Spain?) and arrived at our first destination of Chefchaouen on Saturday April 14ths. We walked around the markets and bought a towel (I forgot mine so my first shower was with a tshirt, just to tell you, not the best method) and ate and slept, everyone being pretty tired from our overnighter. To top off that wonderful first day (I hate that day so much because I was tired and didnt really enjoy it, the only good moment was driving through the African mountains with my head out the window and feeling truly at peace) I lost a flip flop which I never regained. MY FAVOURITE!!!!!!

Sunday April 15th - We packed up and had a breakfast of croissants and pain au chocolat and then headed through the mountains. I had a yummy Sardine tajin for lunch in Zoumi but that whole meal was annoying because we were the only girls out in the village so we were stared at, whistled at and mocked in Arabic (I know this because one man was kind enough to translate). The lunch was good though, it was tomatoes and spicy oil sauce and lemons and sardines and potatoes and I loved it!!!!!!!!!!! We arrived in Fes that night though and had brochettes for dinner (after a long hassle about where we would sit to eat the brochettes!!) and fell into our beds at our second camping residence.

Monday April 16th - I ate an early breakfast of nutella on bread and then spent the morning with the adults in the "medina" in Fes (Justine, Aurore and Alix elected to stay behind) and ate really good strawberries and oranges (which I am addicted to now, no more clementines for this Canadian! Stock up mumma pls) and then watched the whole animal skin drying and cleaning process, which was interesting, if not smelly. We had a yummy tajin (AGAIN) for lunch and then drove through the forest. We got lost several times and debated giving up and sleeping with the adorable monkeys, however in the end the rain convinced us to drive to Midelt and find a hotel. We had yummy chicken wing like things made of pig and then played rummy (every freaking day now) until we fell asleep in our hotel which was crawling with ants and had no hot water or heater!!!!!

Tuesday April 17th - Big day!!! I had a freezing shower which I repeated about a zillion times on the trip and ate sugar and bread and a hardboiled egg (rhyming is cool Jane you loser) for breakfast. We then drove through the death hills (swear to god I thought I was going to die, that whole ride I was like I can't die until I see my family CANT CANT CANT WILL NOT REFUSE TO and miraculously enough I didnt) We ate in a mountain village and almost got blown away by the wind after that and screamed loudly to French Celine Dion, which is much more tolerable than English Celine Dion. Finally tired of watching endless processions of kids ask me for pens and candy I bought candy and began tossing it out the windows (WOW Aurore has bad aim) We stayed that night in a tiny hotel in Agoudal (it hailed and this year they lost 150 children to the cold, I cried a little) and ate a weird chunky soup which caused me to spend the whole night up with Alix who puked her guts out (the first of many times on this trip) We played spoons and I did some science homework and drank mint tea and tried not to count the days (In the end I was successful and stopped couting).

Wednesday April 18th - Emma turns 14 and Rebecca turns 12!!! Happy Birthday my pretties!!!! Today I climbed up to the salt mines and looked around aand then spent pretty much the whole day in the car before arriving at the desert!!!!!!!!!! It was more rocky than sand, I'm told Tunisia is where you go for the sand deserts. Anyhow, we stayed at Le Petit Prince and were serenaded with nice music, got our first hot showers, had the best tajin of the whole trip and then ated oranges and banana with cinnamon for dessert and watched The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in French. What a day!!!!

Thursday April 19th - A pretty interesting day as well. We played in the sand dunes in the morning and then showered again and hung around some jewellery stores. We then drove out into the desert and wound up deserting our plan of going farther in when we came across a Swiss man and his German wife stuck in the desert and spent two hours gettting them out with the help of a creepy Moroccan guy, three wide eyed Belgium motorcyclists and a guy with a tractor. It was an interesting culmination (sp?) of countries. We didn't get that much sleep that night though because some Moroccan people hung around our tents and creeped us out a lot. But we had pasta, which was a nice change for tajins and brochettes and that was nice!!

Friday April 20th - The desert is not the funnest place to sleep if you like to sleep in. We were woken up by the sun and Philppe at 6 am and were plagued with more car troubles!! We had to help a car start and then spent an hour stuck in a hot place with no shade when Hervé and Chantal's tire went flat. STUPID STONES!!! We arrived at our camping that night where I was waylayed by a Moroccan who decided that he liked me and gave me his email address, offered me free internet use and then hung off me for pretty much the whole time at the camping, it was very creepy I tell you!!!! Anyway, I got an email (however brief) to my mum which was nice. And I bought to nice silver necklaces with stories (history to them) and slept in Zagora where we had our second hot showers, which was very nice after spending that night in the desert with all the sand and dust and SCORPIONS!!! eugh.....

Saturday April 21st - Gave me my first good, decent, wonderful sleep in ages. And although creepy guy still hung around I had fun and spent the afternoon watching Spiderman 1 and 2 in the car, got me all revved up for Spidey3. Anyway, the day was nice and we slept in D'Ait Ben Haddou where they filmed parts of "Gladiator" and our server looked like John Travolta in Grease and made me laugh and laugh and laugh and I couldn't stop. It was nice!!!

Sunday April 22nd - I climbed to the top of the tourist attraction in D'Ait Ben Haddou which tuckered me out!!!!! After we drove into the mountains and we ate lunch at a nice mountain village and then arrived in Marrakech that night and walked around being all touristy in the evening until 10. People kept trying to get us to eat dinner at their place and it was funny because we told one guy we had already eaten and he patted us on the stomach and said but your so skinny and you should eat twice, which made us laugh.

Monday April 23rd - ANOTHER WARM SHOWER!!!! Anyway, we hennaed our hands (Chantal took pictures of that so when I get those I'll put them up) and it will last (should last) until I get home in Canada and it's pretty cool. We shopped and walked around the Soukh which is like a crowed bunch of streets where they sell things cheaply (or expensively depending on what you want!!) We had ice cream for lunch and then I watched Hercules all afternoon in our slightly air conditioned room because it was boiling out. That evening we had the worst seafood I have ever eaten for dinner and I wanted to gag it was so greasy, but it was still a nice break from tajins and brochettes.

Tuesday April 24th - We drove all the way to Azilal today and did some more scary hills that were so bad I had to get out and walk half the way because I thought the car was going to tip over. After that we ditched camping plans and stayed in a nice hotel and ate pasta for dinner and did absolutely nothing (except leave the portable dvd player and mini tv there!!! Although they said they're mailing it!!!) Walking home from the restaurant though I was "stalked" by two creepy Moroccan dudes. So while most are very nice and hospitable, some are just downright creepy.

Wednesday April 25th - We left Azilal (Chantal and Hervé parted ways for the coast) and we went through some gorgeous hillsides (atleast twenty of my pictures are from that ride!!!) and had yummy ham sandwiches for lunch by a nice waterfall and some gorgeous scenic routes. We arrived in a nice mountain village that evening and stayed in a tiny "home hotel" where we all slept in one room on mats on the floor and ate yummy couscous and soup. The owner's daughter Ptisam (sp?) is 2 and a half and she followed me around and touched all my things and then had a pillow fight with us but it took awhile to earn her trust because I don't speak any Arabic except for Salaam (hello) and Belak (watch out or something like that).

Thursday April 26th - we hung out around the market in the little mountain village (with all the goats) before leaving and arriving late in Chefchaouen (again! we did a little loop de loop) and waking up early to head home Friday. We arrived this morning at seven am where I had a bowl of cereal with milk, which I havent had in two weeks and then a yummy salad at lunch and I showered and cut my nails and washed every inch of me and changed into fresh clothes for the first time in five days and I AM CLEAN!!!

THAT, ladies and gents is my story. It is my two weeks in Morocco but it has significant gaps which are hard to write but easier to tell, so next time you lay eyes on me (soon I hope!!!) ask me if you want and I will tell, but my hands are sore from typing out emails and messages and now this blog and I am finally feeling the effects of not sleeping last night. So................a bientot as I excuse myself to go repose a little. The pictures for Morocco will be up soon I hope, but probably not until tonight or tomorrow because I am going to write captions and stories for each of them and that cannot be rushed!!!

Gros Bisous from your avid "no longer mia" blogger,

Jane