Blah, Blah, Blog.

Bonjour!  Est-ce que vous comprenez le français?  Moi aussi.  Je desire vivre en France un jour.  Et aussi, je veut comprendre sept langages. Je prende un coure de français à Meramac Community College. C'est une bonne classe!  Nous lisons les petit livres en français.  Ils sont romans pour apprendre le français, mais ils sont vraiment romans. Par example, nous avons lu Le Planet des Singes.  L'original est ecrit en français par Pierre Boulé.
Je se rendra à France c'est may!  Il est palpitant!  Ma soeur est en Angleterre pour elle étudie à Oxford cet année.  A son ecole, les étudiants va à Oxford ou Cambridge pour son troisième année.  Ma famille va à Angleterre et va vu un peu de l'Europe.

This isn't perfect french, but in general, it says:
Hello!  Do you understand french?  Me too!  I want to live in France one day.  And also, I want to know seven languages.  I take french class at Meramac Community College.  It is a good class!  We read little french books.  They are novels for learning french, but they really are novels.  For example, we read The Planet of the Apes.  The original is written in french by Pierre Boule.
I'm going to France this May!  It is exciting!  My sister is in England because she is studying at Oxford this year.  At her school, the (honor) students go to Oxford or Cambridge for their Junior Year.  My family will go to England and see a little of Europe.

17. Seventeen

Sometimes it feels like I am seventeen and a half and have nothing to show for it.  These people had done amazing things at seventeen:

Howard Carter

At seventeen, Howard Carter had begun his career in Egypt as an archaeologist.  His job was copying wall scenes and inscriptions inside tombs.  Seven years later, Carter became Inspector-General of Monuments in Upper Egypt.  He found King Tutankhamen tomb, the greatest Ancient Egyptian discovery.

King Tutankhamen also made his start at a young age.  He became Pharaoh at nine, but he died at eighteen.  I'm not in favor of dying next summer...

Robert Downey Jr.

Robert Downey Jr. had lived by the time he was seventeen.  His father was an actor, writer, producer, cinematographer, and director of underground films, and his mother was an actress. Downey had his stage acting debut at age five and his second at age seven.  At ten, he was living in England and studied classical ballet.

At seventeen, Downey dropped out of school and moved to New York to pursue a successful acting career.

George Washington

 George Washington's mother wanted him to join the Navy.  He was then fifteen.  Mrs. Washington soon found out the hardships on board Navy ships and dropped the idea. Lawrence, Washington's brother helped him find a job as a surveyor for Culpeper County through connections with the affluent Fairfax family. It was a well paying job that allowed Washington to know the country. With only an elementary level schooling, he became the first President of the USA.

Julie Andrews

Julie Andrews started her fabulous career very young.  The child of musicians, she began to sing with them at the age of ten.  At twelve, she had her professional solo debut.  A year later, she became the youngest solo performer ever to be seen in a Royal Command Variety Performance, at the London Palladium.  At seventeen, she was considerably famous for two years worth of work on BBC radio comedy show Educating Archie.  She then led an exceptional career on Broadway and in Hollywood.

Natalie Portman

Natalie Hershlag (stage name Natalie Portman) is the perfect example of someone who pursued her dreams while also pursuing education.  Her first major movie roll came at seventeen; she played Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.  She skipped the premier of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace to study for her high school final exams.  The same year, she co-authored two scientific papers that were published in scientific journals.  At eighteen, Portman turned down all new acting offers to go to Harvard University to pursue her bachelor's degree in psychology. 

"I don't care if [college] ruins my career," Portman has said. "I'd rather be smart than a movie star."  Turns out, she is both.

HRM Queen Victoria

 Queen Victoria was still Princess Victoria at seventeen, but just barely.  Her uncle, King George III was ailing.  Victoria was his heir, and he promised to live until her eighteenth birthday to avoid a regency.  He kept his promise.  Victoria was Queen.  At twenty, she proposed to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.  Her reign, 63 and a half years, was the longest of any British Monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history.  The time of her reign is known as the "Victorian Era".

Susan Rice

Susan Rice. What am I?  At seventeen, I am a student.  a basketball player.  a sister.  a daughter.  nothing spectacular. I have dreams for the future, but they seem impossibly far away.

Happenings

Events and happenings in my life.  Enlighten yourself:

This weekend, my church had its annual Church Retreat.  It is an amazing and relaxing time.  We spend the whole weekend hanging out with friends, eating good food and praising God.  For the first time in several years, we held a talent show!  Our MCs definitely stole the show, and a good time was had by all.  If only it could go on for weeks...

Last night, basketball started again!  I love basketball.  I do.  We start things off with a bang; our first three games are a tournament in Springfield, Mo.  I wish basketball would last all year...

This Monday, I have my first college mid-term.  Dun, dun, dun!  I'm taking French at Meramec  Community College.  It is intense, but I love it.  Mid-terms I love less. A lot less. I wish it would be over already...

Here is a story à la Grimm Brothers:

One upon a time, there lived a man and a woman who had seventeen children.  They lived on the edge of the forest.  Each day, he had his five daughters knit him five shirts and five pants.  He would put them on, and walk deep into the forest.  When he came back, he would be wearing nothing but his underclothes and carrying chickens and geese and fish and bread and vegetables all already cooked.  Each night he would warn his children not to go into the forest.

One day, one of his daughters was sick and did not knit him a shirt and pants.  The father put on only four layers of clothing and walked into the woods.  He did not return.  The mother began to be worried when he did not show up at supper time.  By nightfall, the father had not returned.  The family went to bed hungry.  The next morning the oldest son decided to go into the forest to look for him.  By nightfall, the oldest brother had not returned.  The next day, the second son went into the forest in search of his brother and father.  He did not return.  Each boy did the same until there was only one son left.  He was wise.  He asked his sisters to knit him shirts and pants just as they had for their father.  He put them on and walked boldly into the forest.

The youngest son walked for hours in the dark of the forest.  He was glad he had on these extra layers.  It was cold!  In spite of the added warmth, he shivered. He came to a large clearing. 

On he walked in the clearing for what seemed an eternity.  His steps grew wearisome.  The sun beat on his head. I wish I could take off these extra layers.  I would be so much cooler...  His thoughts lingered fondly on the thought of releasing himself from this dreadful heat. He was about to take off his shirts when he remembered the dreadful cold of the beginning of his trip.  He contented himself with sweating.

All of a sudden, he came upon a small hole he supposed to be the entrance of a cave.  The son thought he heard a quiet brook running through the cave.  All he wanted was a drip of that water...

He stumbled into the cave.  There before his eyes was the most wonderful stream in the world.  It was gentle and cool and wide.  The youngest son sipped the water and was soon wading up to his waist in the water and then to his chest.  His clothes were starting to way him down in the water and he was feeling very refreshed, so he looked to the bank to climb out.  He was startled to realize he was much closer to the far bank then to the shore he started from.  Out he climbed.  Further into the cave he walked.

Just before he lost sight of the stream behind him, he saw before him a mountain of food.  There was every good thing you could ever want to eat, but none of it was cooked. The son was just loading his arms with raw food when out of the darkness came a huge claw, and attached to the claw was a huge dragon.  The dragon was angry.  Flames burst from its lips and surrounded the son.  The son ran like the wind for the entrance of the cave.  His clothes were on fire and the flames from the dragon was nipping his heals.  He plunged head long into the stream not caring that half the now cook food floated down stream.  In a flash he was on the other side.  He dashed to the small opening of the cave, shoved the food through and followed. 

In the sunlight, the son caught his breath.  He was startled to look down and see only his under clothes.  His many layers had been singed off.  The son gathered the cooked food and walked home.

The family once again had plenty of food, but they never saw their father or brothers again.