June 2

Cassandre woke me up, and I took a shower. I was getting a little bit better with the handheld showerhead, but not much. For breakfast I ate bread and butter and Chocapics. We walked to school -- Cassandre's mother couldn't drive us. It took fifteen or twenty minutes, I think, but the town is very pretty and I enjoyed the walk. It was cold, but though I carried my sweatshirt I didn't put it on as I didn't want to stop to do so.

Jeanne, Melissa, and I went with D-D and Pierrot to art history class. It was two hours long, and the subject for the day was realism. I took notes, but I didn't know how to do it in the French style so I did it like I usually do. The class was interesting enough and I would like taking an art history class if my school offered one. Jeanne and Melissa, on the other hand, were both very tired and at times nearly fell asleep. At one point, Melissa took out her makeup, but the art history teacher asked her in French to put it up.

Third hour I stayed with Jeanne, Melissa, D-D, and Pierrot; we all went to math class. The class was studying box and whisker plots, tables, and percentages. I understood the class and it was very easy. Later Cassandre asked me during what grade such subjects would be studied in the U.S., and I wasn't sure. Anyway, I enjoyed doing the math even if it was easy. Jeanne and Melissa got on the internet with the teacher's permission. At the end of class, the teacher asked if the next day I would like to go to a math class for kids in terminale ES (kids in the equivalent of 12th grade who want to go into the fields of business, economics, and the social sciences), and I said yes.

After math class was history with all of premier L (the class with our 17 partners) and the five Americans, plus Madame. We watched a very short video about WWI and then we analyzed a propoganda poster from the U.S. We used a method similar to SOAPSS to do this. This activity wasn't very interesting, but I was surprised to see so much symbolism in just one poster.

For lunch, we all ate together -- a typical meal of the Picardie region. The first course was la ficelle picard which was very good. It had cheese, ham, mushrooms...yum. The second course was duck, potatoes, and brocolli. The duck was good, as were the potatoes, but the brocolli was not. (But then, I don't normally like brocolli.)
To drink, there was water and cider -- yes, an alcoholic beverage was served at school. This surprised me (and the other Americans). I drank a little bit of it, but it was carbonated, so I finished my half glass and drank water for the rest of the meal.
Third course was okay cheese and baguette. The final course was two bavarois pastries, one raspberry and one apricot. I liked the raspberry pastry but not the apricot one, though I wasn't too fond of the texture in general.
I was seated near Elodie, Perrine, Lea, Pierrot, and Melissa, so I talked to them during the meal.

At 2:00, the Americans, the French history teacher, and the French French and Latin teacher left the school to go to Cantigny. We stopped beside a field, and the French history teacher explained the battle of Cantigny. I had done research on this while I researched my soldiers because my Oklahoma WWI soldier died at Cantigny. Then everyone except Madame, whose leg was hurting her, went into the forest to see the remains of a trench.

When we went back to the car, we were all singing...Sound of Music, Do Re Mi, and Alouette.

Not very far down the road was a monument to the U.S. First Division. It had an eagle on top who wore the Big Red One patch. Those of us who had adopted a soldier in the Big Red One found our soldiers' names -- I found both Joe R. West and Henry Sierzycki. Melissa and Cate left poppies by the monument, and then we drove on to the main town of Cantigny.

We then went to the house of the current mayor of Cantigny. He had two cannons from WWI, one German and one French, and a lot of grenades. He told us about finding these grenades each time he just wants to dig a little garden, about living with the war even after 90 years. We climbed over a fence into a field with cows to see the remnants of a castle. At the mayor's house, we looked through some books about Cantigny and World War One while drinking water and apple juice. On the back of one book I saw a quote from the Gettsyburg Address that I showed to Madame -- it explained perfectly why she wants to honor the Oklahoma soldiers buried in France.

We then went to another monument, a newer one, only two years old. The statue was of a soldier in the Big Red One, and it was very realistic. Also, the 1 on the statue was actually in red marble -- a real big red one -- which impressed me. The soldier also wore the Purple Heart...
Next was the Cantigny museum, which is in the garage of the former mayor, who is 92 years old. There were all sorts of objects, photos, and books there, so the museum was interesting though tiny.

After that we went back to the high school, where all the kids were just getting on the buses.
For dinner, Cassandre, her family, and I ate quiche and what was left of the spaghetti. Also, for dessert there was creme brulee ice cream which was excellent.

I called my mother and we talked about math, about my teacher's blog, and about my day -- just like normal. (During the school year, she asks me how my day was, class by class.)