I’m baaack!

Originally posted on the 10th of October 2010 (I was too lazy to copy-paste until now)

School

I knew I was going to be busy this school year, but oddly enough, all I’ve done since going back to school is:

• go to school
• do homework
• eat
• sleep
• go to school
• do homework
• watch TV
• a little bit of reading
• a teeny tiny bit of writing
• do more homework
• go to school some more
• go to ONE party
• sleep
• sleep
• go to school

Notice what pops up a lot on this list?

I guess it’s understandable I’d have a lot of homework–I AM in my before last year of school… But school is so much more tiring this year, and even though I haven’t had THAT much homework, I’m always tired, so my free time goes to waste.

Oh, and as it turned out, there are people in my class I know, namely Naomi (http://greyperception.wordpress.com/), a very good friend of mine. But because of circumstances, we only have normal maths and sport together. Wanna know these circumstances? I’m sure you do. Here they are:

1. We’re not in the same Physics/Science group
2. I take Spanish LV2, she takes Italian LV2
3. I chose Italian LV3, she chose HIDA (history of art)
4. I chose maths as my specialty (different from the other maths), she chose HIDA
5. While I’m in normal French class, she’s in FLE because she doesn’t speak fluent French (for those of you who don’t know/forgot, I’m French and go to an International school in France)
6. For English, History and Geography, we’re in different groups

What else can I tell you about school? Oh, there are 3 guys in my class. That’s two more than last year. Of course that’s only for the, well, “core class”, I guess you could call it, which is 1ereL1, meaning Literary 11th grade 1 (there’s 2 Literary 11th grade classes).

Movies

• 7  days: Boring.
• The Godfather: Enjoyed it.
• Life of Brian: Loved it, especially the end.
• City of God: Now this one… This movie was MIND-BLOWINGLY GOOD. I HIGHLY recommend it. The actors were unknown/had actually lived in such conditions, so the acting is perfect. It could have been a documentary. And despite having many scenes where kids kill other kids, those are not the most shocking. The most shocking, horrible scene is when one character shoots two little kids in the foot. Just writing that sentence is making me feel sad and horrified again. And this is coming from someone who must have seen at least a hundred horror movies. Oh, and if you’re wondering, I watched it in the original Brazilian Portuguese (with French subtitles) which makes the movie much better than if I’d watched in the dubbed French. Dubbing should be illegal–usually the voices sound so fake because they’re not truly acting; all they’re doing is speaking, they’re not also running through the forest like the real actors were, climbing a tree, etc.

Books

• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: I started this book in January and finished it in September. I read it on and off for NINE months–does that give you ANY idea of how well written the book is? Nabokov’s prose is beautiful and vivid, but what truly made it difficult for me to read the novel is Humbert Humbert (hereafter referred to as “HH”) who, by the end of the book, is completely insane, unstable, unreliable. And you could think that HH is the one with the power in his relationship with Lolita, but she’s the one who manipulates him. Recommend it.
• Fang by James Patterson: Guilty pleasure, enjoy the story and certain character but not the writing. Dialogue is mostly cheesy or immature for characters of those ages. Entertaining nonetheless.
• Third book I’ve read recently gets its own paragraphy thingy.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Wow.

Summary from Amazon (UK):

Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don’t exist – almost.

Characters

• Ty: At first, you hate him, just like Gemma does, then as she learns about his past, the way his father never cared about him, the way his mother abandoned him, the way he ended up living all alone at the age of 11, you feel sorry for him, you understand why he is the way he is. And at the end, when Gemma is confused about her feelings for him, so was I. You know you should hate him, but he never truly hurts Gemma.
• Gemma: I read a one star review of this book on Amazon that calls Gemma boring, and I actually have to agree with them on that one. (They say the whole book is boring–that’s where I disagree.) Based on what we find out about her as kid, I’d say she’s interesting, but maybe as a teen she wanted to blend in, be accepted and liked, so she stopped being herself. But I suppose one thing I can say in her favor is that she tries to escape several times and even when she realizes she cannot escape, she’s alone with him in the Australian Outback with the nearest town VERY far away, she doesn’t give in to Ty. She could have easily given up, completely given up, she could have spent her entire time crying (she does spend some time crying–I mean come on, she’s away from her family, her friends, her home and everything she’s used to), but she doesn’t.

 The word “fuck” in this novel

It was so nice to see the word be used in the book. Most of the time, writers are afraid to use it, but people say “fuck” when they talk, especially people like Ty–he kidnapped a girl, he’s not going to say stuff like “Gosh darn it” or “Frick.”

I, for one, say “fuck.” But I know not to say it in front of teachers, extended family members (I say extended because in my house, around my parents and my siblings, almost anything goes), strangers, etc. But “fuck” is just a word–kids reading it in a book won’t become juvenile delinquents just because of it. Nor will they become juvenile delinquents if they start swearing, or swearing more often.

If you believe this, well…does that make me a juvenile delinquent? Because I get good grades, never ditch school, have never stolen in my life, never smoked, never done drugs, never had sex or even kissed a boy. So I’d say that if you firmly believe swearing leads to bad behavior, you might need to rethink that belief of yours. Ditto if you believe novels in which characters do bad thing influence people, because I’ve read books such as “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess, everything by Ellen Hopkins, “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, etc.

Writing

I have written, I kid you not, 667 words since the 1st of September. Pathetic or what? So I’m thinking of using NaNoWriMo to help me finish writing The Way Wars Are Won, just like I did with Kenna’s Choice. It’ll be the kick up the butt I desperately need.

England: Day 6, we go shopping

Movies (SPOILERS)

• Panic Room: Good. Although they were some moments when the mother and her daughter were SO stupid, but it's to be expected in thrillers, I suppose.
  
• Valentine's Day: Good. Better than I expected. Did NOT expect Julia Roberts to be the little boy's mother. I admit it: I teared up. And a lot of people are saying Taylor Swift's acting was horrible, but I honestly thought it was supposed to be cheesy and bad. If not: WOW. Scary.
  
• The Sixth Sense: Amazing. Yes, I know, it's taken me THIS long to see it. Whatever. My favorite line is: "They don't have meetings about rainbows."

Books (SPOILERS)

I finally finished reading "A Clockwork Orange" and all I have to say is: wow. Go read it if you don't mind books where the protagonist is evil.

(Warning: He doesn't give a shit about the law--he murders, steals and rapes. Other warning: Anthony Burgess invented slang for the teens called "nadsat". It takes a while to get used to.)

I saw the movie AGES ago, so I already knew what it was about. The one major difference is that chapter 21 of the book is ignored. Apparently, Stanley Kubrick wanted a realistic ending. In the book, Alex changes and wants to be good. In the movie, he goes back to being evil.

Anthony Burgess is really good: you end up rooting for Alex, even though you know what he's done. Time and time again, people betray him: his friends, his parents, strangers. And this makes you feel sorry for him.

Shopping

• Boots: I got girly stuff like a tangle teaser, moisturizer, etc. That's it. No clothes, no shoes. Couldn't really find anything...
  

Writing

Wednesday: 1110 words.

Thursday: 250 words. I'd like to write more, but I've got to wake up early to go to the Natural History Museum. Ugh.

Something that I realized at the hairdresser's (my mom got a haircut, and yes, as you would expect, it rained later on. But we had umbrellas) is that I have foreshadowing in chapter 6 for the thing that's revealed in chapter 18. This was NOT done on purpose, because even I had no idea that Fabienne was [deleted] until chapter 18. But this description in chapter 6 now makes more sense. I love when that happens. (And no, it does not happen very often.)

Total: 39858=53%

Day 3 of traveling: not so bad

Wake up at 8, go to ferry, breakfast, get on ferry, two hours to cross the Channel, lunch, and finally, at 5 pm, THE PENTHOUSE.

It is awesome. Lounge, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, dining room and access to the roof as well as the garden (where there's a ping pong table and a trampoline and a swing set thing and mokey bars). Also: my siblings and I got the big bedroom with the carpet. (Our reasoning for us needing it: there are three of us and it's a bigger roomer.)

Tonight, we plan to watch Death Proof, for the second time, while eating popcorn. :)

Lunch: Man, there is SUCH a big difference between waiters/waitresses in England and the ones in France. Here they're very friendly and stop by every so often to ask if everything's okay. In France, they don't do it nearly as often, and when they do, they're very cold and distant. Or, if you want to use a different word, professional.

But those friendly waitresses made our lunch much more relaxed and enjoyable.

My sis, bro and I chose to have traditional bangers and mash. Delish.

Oh! We got a satnav. We chose "Sean" to give the directions, the Irish male voice. I had no idea that satnavs worked that well. In movies and TV shows, people using them always get lost no matter what.

Day 2 is not over yet: only 3 hours spent in car with family

This morning, I got to wake up at 8! And then we only had 3 and a half hours in the car! *sigh* I also read more of "A Clockwork Orange" and wrote 700 words. And it's only 5 pm.

One thing we've noticed about the houses here, and everything else really, is it all looks so much like The Netherlands. Which makes us miss The Netherlands even more.

Most people might think all of France is more or less the same, and I kinda thought it was too, but being in the north of France makes me realize the big difference between here and the south of France. The houses are different--brick instead of... I actually don't know what our house in the south of France is made of--and there are canals. And we even saw a windmill.

Anyway, tomorrow we take the ferry. We'll leave at midday, and two hours later, at 1 pm, we'll be there. Nope. That's not a mistake. England is an hour behind France.

Writing

Like I said, I've written 700 words, but now it's almost 10 pm and I haven't written anything since 5.

I probably won't blog again until tomorrow 5 pm, so here are today's numbers:

• Total wordcount: 37205
  
• Chapter 18: 3853 words
  
• Percent: 49,61 (almost 50%!)
  
• Words written since the 11th of June (first day of holiday): 10 800 (that's 308.5 words per day)

Just need to figure out some dates of births for 3 characters, as well as when they became vampires, otherwise nothing makes sense.Ugh. Gonna be complicated.

Day 1 is over: was spent in car with family

You can just guess how much fun that was.

• 6.30 am: Wake up
• 9 am something: Leave. Finally. Mom had planned to leave at 6.30. Ha!
• 12 ish: Lunch. Waiters ignore us most of the time. I have pizza and didn't realize until much later that what I thought was tomatoes, which I don't like, was actually the chorizo, which I do like. Result: I appear stupid to my siblings. They take advantage and mock me. Evil little siblings... Also: My day wanted to pay; the waiter finally acknowledged my dad then told him we have to go the reception. Why couldn't he have taken the time to tell us that 5 minutes earlier, when my dad started trying to get the waiter's attention?
• After lunch until we get to the hotel: In car. Little bit of arguing. Sleeping. I read more of "A Clockwork Orange", finally, and I love it. Amazed that Burgess could invent a whole slang. A slang that you get used to after a while. Then we play a French game called "Baccalaureat" until we reach hotel.
• From then on, we spend time unloading car. We have to make 3 trips. This is normal for us. Yes, I truly needed my laptop bag, my suitcase, my handbag, my vanity box and my pillow! And my iPod dock.

So here I am, at 7 pm in the hotel room writing this. In an hour or so, we'll be off to the restaurant. Today's writing goal: 500 words. Can I do it? Well, luckily, tomorrow doesn't involve as much driving as today, so we don't have to wake up extremely early. So hopefully. Wish me luck!