I'm going to write more!!

Hey everyone, so I've made a resolution to write more on my blog because I know that you all want to know all about what's happening while im on the other side of the world eating cheese, cake, bread, going to school, trying to learn a lot... etc.
The past few weeks I was impossibly homesick. I was eating nutella practically out of the jar after dinner and def comfort eating - not healthy. The problem with that is that afterwards, you really dont feel that much better - just kind of sick and round. So then I realized if I want to turn my feelings and life and attitude around, I've got to do the things that I usually do at home - stay in shape, exerice, don't eat dessert every time it's offered to me...
Exericise is not a priority here in France like it is in the U.S. People ride their bike (not lately cause it's so rainy) but for the life of me, I don't understand how so many people are so skinny. Neither does my host mother. It's like they eat a meal and a good sized dessert and still have stick arms and legs. NOT the case with me.
But, something that made me feel a lot better - and also inspired me to write more for you guys is my friend Melissa's friend Melanie, who spent a year in Germany last year all her junior year. Apparently, there are a lot of exchange students who feel like they gain a lot of weight cause the food is so delicious, so fresh and you don't move around a lot. I thought when I came to France I would walk around everywhere, but I just have a short walk from the bus stop to and from school. When I get home from school I don't have the gusto to exercise - run, lift weights, like I usually do cause it's either 1:00 in the afternoon (starving!!!), 4:30 (tired in general) or 6:20 at night (dark - and a little hungry)
But seriously NOW im turning my lifestyle around. Eating slower - (savor that french food, Genevieve!!) and jogging/running more regularly. I meant jogging for 20 minutes each the past few days and I'm feeling more ready to face the world than before.

I think my host parents worry about me -well not worry, but want me to have more girlfriends, but it's really hard to have my friends over casue my good friends board at the school - so they go home during the weekend. I made a really good friend named Nour and her sister Nehja, but they are in Algeria right now. I hung out with them a lot last week - hopefully we can all hang out next week. They are super nice - funny, laugh it off when things get confused and I can be myself around them - which is a GREAT thing. Some people are really unsure when they start talking to me and I can sense it - so it's just uncomfortalbe and awkward.

School is going pretty well - I got a 12/20 on a fable I wrote in French class - Olivier got a 13 and a bunch of kids got 11s. Remember what I said before about the grading system - 12 is DECENTLY GOOD!! My other classes are also going well. In French the other day, my teacher gave us all a prompt for an essay and in the prompt there were the words utile (useful) and indisponsable (indispensable) and she wanted to know the nuance between the two words. Only me and one other kid knew the answer, but she picked me and I explained the meaning of the word indispensable to the class. It was funny, she was like "it is completley formidable that the American of the class can define a word that no one else here knows". I participated twice that class - I want to participate MORE in French class because I understand so much of what she is talking about than befoer - but I am not proficient enough in the language to fully articulate myself. Grrrrrrr - so frustrating sometimes. I feel like Ariel in the Little Mermaid sometimes - mute.
I will write more next week, in the mean time I need to do some work and lunch soon!