Xmas Photo's!

Here's a few photo's we took on our trip to Rennes plus a few other Xmassy bits and bobs:

Here's our shiny Xmas tree...

Eliot's festive train decor...

Very Christmassy looking isn't it?

Me and Eliot eating a few hot dogs...

Rennes 'Marche De Noel'...

The Opera House, all lit up!

The Mairie has a swank home that's for sure!

Some nice lights...

The Opera House again...

Here is the nice animation show they projected up onto the Mairies...

A Robotic Teddy Bear? Okay...

Some nice writing...

The Electricity bill must be through the roof!

Wouldn't want to live there!

This is called 'Tartiflet'. It's  ham + cheese + Potatoes + pepper

Me looking at one of the stalls.

Here's Eliot chomping down on a rather delicious Hot Dog!

Me and Eliot looking happy.

Notice the hat? 

My Report: First Trimester 2011 (September - November)

So another Trimester is over, and what a long few months it's been. Sure it started off a bit shaky (as with every year) but I think things got gradually better after the first month. Here's my first Report in 3eme: 

Click on the image for the bigger version. Oh wait, can't read French? Here's a handy translation that I made earlier, complete with my personal opinion on every subject:

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French: 12,01/20

Teacher: Mme Thomas

Comments: Overall it's very good and your work on memorisation is excellent. Timothy has progressed in a way that is truly remarkable. Good level of comprehension as well as good method application. So continue and felicitations on your good Results.  

Class average: 11,73/20

Highest Score In Class: 15,44/20

Lowest Score In Class: 7,35/20

Personal Opinion: I'm really proud of myself with French this time, and at the start it was definitely one of those subjects where I focused all of my time and effort on getting the best results possible. And guess what? It worked! I mean sure it's only two points ahead of what I would normally get, but for me being an English native this Result is really quite impressive. It's mainly just about squeezing that extra 10% out of every Test.

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History-Geography: 14/20

Teacher: Mme Morvan

Comments: Very good work, continue.

Class Average: 10,63/20

Highest Score In Class: 15,25/20

Lowest Score In Cl M/ass: 6,08/20

Personal Opinion: I'm a bit disappointed by History this time, and this was completely down to me being a bit too cocky with some of the argumentative paragraphs and in hindsight, a lot of it could have been refined and more detailed. In short, I made a few mistakes this time. The Teachers notation has gotten a bit stricter as well this year, so maybe that played a part into it as well. The good news is that I'll almost definitely improve over this minor mistake and I'll be damned if I don't see another 18/20 in this Subject on my next Report.  

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Civic Education: 15,50/20

Teacher: Mme Morvan

Comments: (same as before) Very good work, continue.

Class Average: 10,70/20

Highest Score In Class: 15,50/20 (me)

Lowest Score In Class: 5/20

Personal Opinion: Same comments as before really, but this time I got a few extra points on the augmentative paragraph so I have a slightly higher score. 

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English: 18,92/20 

Teacher: Mme Rouxel

Comments: Very good work, both in writing and oral work. So continue likewise! 

Class Average: 14,52/20

Highest Score In Class: 18,92/20 (me)

Lowest Score In Class: 11,96/20

Personal Opinion: Well considering I'm English, this shouldn't come as a surprise! I think this is the one score that  we know won't change this year... 

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German: 14,51/20

Teacher: Mme Guillermic 

Comments: Good work and good participation in Class.

Class Average: 12,31/20

Highest Score In Class: 18,20/20

Lowest Score In Class: 7,33/20

Personal Opinion: Boring lessons aside, German has (for the most part) been quite easy. And with a Class as disruptive as this it's a wonder that I can understand anything! I feel like my work in German has been quite solid this Trimester. 

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Maths: 14,32/20

Teacher: Mme Le Merlus

Comments: Thanks to some serious work and good understanding/listening in Class, Tim has obtained satisfactory Results. He must continue his efforts.  

Class Average: 14,54/20

Highest Score In Class: 18,49/20

Lowest Score In Class: 11,06/20 

Personal Opinion: This Trimester has confirmed what I already know: I'm actually very good at Maths, but thanks to a lot of stupid why-didn't-I-see-that! mistakes it ends up bogging down the overall score. I had this problem for most of the Trimester but thanks to a few incredible (almost perfect) scores in the last month I managed to really elevate my Score by a few points, and I think I've finally overcome my stupid errors. I feel that I should also compliment our great Teacher Mme Le Merlus for really helping me in this subject. I have really high hopes for Maths next Trimester, and so far so good...

___________________________________________________________________________________________

S.V.T: 9,40/20

Teacher: Mme Gandon-Desbois

Comments: Overall insufficient, you've got to improve particularly in the studying of documents or Timothy must be more rigorous.   

Class Average: 10,22/20

Highest Score In Class: 15,40/20

Lowest Score In Class: 7,20/20

Personal Opinion: Now granted I've never been that good at S.V.T but this time things have really hit rock bottom. Why? Well the chapter on DNA/Chromosomes/genes was extremely complicated and I think the Teacher could have done a better job explaining it to us. Even after studying the subject intensely in my room I was still a bit hazy on certain details. I'm not saying my low score was entirely down to the way we did things in Class but if it was a different Teacher I would probably have received a better score. And the suppose the subject 

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Science: 16,50/20

Teacher: M. Begoc

Comments: Very good start of the year. Continue likewise.   

Class Average: 14,60/20

Highest Score In Class: 18,22/20

Lowest Score In Class: 10,67/20

Personal Opinion: Science has always been one of my strong points, in fact it’s probably one of my most consistent lessons quality-wise, never straying off the 15-17/20 bracket. This is mainly down to a great Teacher that really makes sure that we all know exactly what’s coming to us when the Test hits. Everything in the Test is stuff we viewed in Class (no trick questions ect…), and everything is written down right in front of us. Really all you have to do is learn it and you’re set. 

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Technology: 13,20/20

Teacher: M. Bastide

Comments: Overall satisfactory. You've got to further deepen the answers to your questions.  

Class Average: 14,09/20

Highest Score In Class: 18/20

Lowest Score In Class: 7,80/20

Personal Opinion: Technology has always been a Top Subject for me. This time? Well the score isn’t as high as I would have liked. You have to understand that around 75% of the Results in Technology are (like English) a collaborative effort now, so most of what I do isn’t evaluated, it’s the team as a whole that’s being evaluated. And to be honest my Team is a mess! There are two other people in my Team and one of them is EXTREMELY opinionated and of course me being the less…shall we say aggressive of the bunch tends to be the one who’s opinions often get snubbed. I don’t even get the chance to pick up the mouse most days, so I tend to write stuff down a lot on paper and get the Teacher’s approval when he does the rounds of all the groups. Now do I think that the Result above would be better if it was just me on my own doing the work? Not really, because I tend to lack the proper formulation of certain phrases (in Technology you have to be precise when it comes to wording, so because of my limited vocabulary in the language I’m immediately handicapped here), I do fail to grasp certain notions about the subject and overall this year has been harder than the previous years. But perhaps if I’m in a group that is more collaborative we could all contribute and garner a better score? 

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Art: 16,50/20

Teacher: M. Riallin

Comments: Very good first Trimester, the work is applicated and and serious. Felicitations! 

Class Average: 13,89/20

Highest Score In Class: 16,50/20 (me)

Lowest Score In Class: 11,50/20

Personal Opinion: Art is consistently fun, creative and Overall just a real pleasure for me. I can’t praise this lesson enough, and the creativity it demands from you is extremely stimulating. More often than not I find to many idea’s to choose from, it’s picking the best one that’s the tricky part. Or in a few cases I just go ’WHAT THE HELL’ and decide to do all of them! Clearly my passion and overall creative drive in this lesson has paid off.

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Music: 19/20

Teacher: M. Jouet

Comments: Excellent results. So continue likewise. 

Class Average: 15,14/20

Highest Score In Class: 19/20 (me)

Lowest Score In Class: 8/20

Personal Opinion: Music has been a bit ’meh’ this time. Personally I preferred the previous Teacher to Mme Jouet but oh well. We had one Test this Trimestre, ONE. It’s a damn good thing I got a 19/20 in it then! 

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Sport: 10,50/20

Teacher: M. Radenac

Comments: His level in athleticism and in table tennis is average. Good participation in lessons. Timothy must continue his efforts in the second Trimester.  

Class Average: 13,54/20

Highest Score In Class: 17/20

Lowest Score In Class: 10,50/20 (me)

Personal Opinion: To put it simply: ME NO GOOD AT SPORTS! And that surprise Test on the muscular groups (which literally came OUT OF NOWHERE) didn’t help my average either!

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Overall School Life Score (attitude in Class ect…): 20/20 (As always, the perfect student!)

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Overall School opinion on this Trimester: The Results are satisfactory apart from S.V.T. Timothy shows that he is very serious and invested in his work. He must continue his efforts. Felicitations from the Conseil De Class - Mme Le Merlus


Bravo Timothy! - Mme Philippe
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Overall Personal opinion on this Trimester: While the first Trimester is always a bit dodgy I think it’s still a commendable effort. The lessons that I normally suck in (Maths, French) have actually showed real progress whereas my best Subjects have fallen off the radar quite a bit (History, Technology…). But the good thing? I KNOW I can do better in those other subjects, whereas previously I thought Maths and French where a lost cause. Now…not so much. Just think what would happen if I boosted up my scores in History, S.V.T (hopefully), Sport (depends on the ‘sport‘) and Technology like last time? I daresay it would blow all my previous reports out of the water! So yes, there is a lot of potential to do better. And you know what, I’m going to try my hardest to reach that potential. 
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Overall Score: 14,41/20 So while it’s a point down from what I normally get (thanks S.V.T), it’s still good. I’m rank 4th in my Class if you’re wondering.    
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This Week In School: City Des Metiers

*PHEW* Another long, tiring Week of School is over. You all know the drill by now, so I'll skip the short introductory paragraph that I normally do and just move straight on to my weekly recap of what went on: 


Maths: MORE GOOD NEWS! The latest Test results are in and I've got a 7/8 on one Test and a 16/23 on another. Wow, these brilliant Maths scores just keep rolling in don't they? The latest Test last Wednesday went well to, but then again considering my Results in this Subject have been pretty much all over the place since the start of the year who knows? Apart from the Test nothing much really happened, we did a few more problems and completed our chapter on equations. 


S.V.T: Ugh, just when I think S.V.T is getting better, it gets worse. Despite being only one lesson into our new subject the Teacher YET AGAIN pulls a surprise Test out of her ass. To put it simply, I could have not been more caught off guard. Even though the Test was relatively easy the fact that I had not looked at (or even thought about) what we had done a Week ago was just adding to my panic level. So yeah, I failed at it HARD. And the biggest disgrace? Because we're so closely sat next to each other in class, every third person has to move to the back of the Class to do the Test so as to avoid copying. Me, being the middle man had to relocate as well, but I only took to a book to rest my paper on and my pencil case (the Teacher said we only needed a pen and a piece of paper). Well guess what? One of the questions on the surprise Test asked us to calculate the real life size of a bacteria...and I couldn't have done it without my ruler and calculator! Now that's just not fair, especially since we were told that we only needed our pencil case! Sure you could argue that pencil case meant 'just your general equipment' but a quarter of this Test was VITAL to needing a calculator and a ruler! I CALL BULLSH*T! God am I pissed off with this Teacher, not to mention the boring ass subject. Oh but what's this? Another Test next Week? ANOTHER chance to redeem myself?! *SIGH* I'll do my best. 


Science: Moving on from that last rant, I got a 15,5/20 on my last Science Test, which is good but I hoped to get a few more points on one of those last questions. Now we're looking into how a nuclear power station works, so that should be interesting. It should be noted that 30mins of our lesson on Friday was cut short due to an 'intervention' by this Catholic organisation that specialises into finding homes for the poor and the elderly.  All together now: 'AWWWW!'  


English: Next Thursday there's going to be a language competition and the winner wins a trip to England. The theme is around social networking (sites like Twitter, Facebook ect...) and to prepare us for the contest the Teacher is making sure we all know the vocabulary like 'Tweeting' or 'Skype Calls'. Naturally I am well versed in the language of the Internet so the Test should be a hoot right? I might even win! But I suppose it isn't really fair on the other French students so I wonder if I am eligible to win? I guess we'll just have to wait and see...


Technology: Did another short Test this Week on /5 points which went well. Other than that we just sort of hanged around and did nothing while the Teacher was assessing our work. 


Sport: Basketball and Football this Week, I think I preformed admirably in both so yeah everything was okay. Although someone did kick the football in my *COUGH COUGH* groin area when I was in goal, so that wasn't really appreciated! 


Cite Des Metiers: On Tuesday we went to a job finding centre called Cite Des Metiers (which literally translates as 'City of jobs'). We were supposed to be meeting with various professionals from certain sectors of the industry but due to some scheduling error they couldn't come so instead they showed us their flashy media room, which was filled to the brim with computers and boasted a database which contained all the necessary information on over a thousand jobs, based around 25 different job domains. You had to pick a job, research it and write all the info down, so basically it was just like your average D.V.3 lesson but with better equipment (I ended up picking language teacher as it probably seemed the one most suited to me). So yeah it was an enjoyable morning I suppose, better than what we would have normally got lesson-wise (English, Music, Technology, Maths).   


French: I thought the subject was alright again this Week, but I do get completely lost when the Teacher starts talking about grammar, she might as well just be talking to a brick wall made out of confusion. The comprehension Test on Friday was mediocre, it was based on an extract from the famous Book 'The Pianist' by Wladyslaw Szpilman. It was the first comprehension Test were I actually understood nearly every word that was written, so that felt nice to know.  


Geography: One of the best subjects of the Week simply because of the topic 'American Culture'. Do you know what we're studying now? American movies and T.V shows! What an interesting subject for once! Well okay we didn't really study an Americain film but we're looking at how the film industry affects the rest of the world (i..e Box Office receipts, high grossing movies in international territories ect...). So basically it was everything that I specialize in and am an ultra-nerd for. I did feel embarrassed though when the teacher started reciting the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time, and because you had to put your hand up everytime you had watched a high grossing film my hand was getting really tired by the end (much to the bemusement of my Class, who until this point had no prior knowledge of me being a movie geek)! Although while I didn't point this out at the time, it should be noted that the Teacher made a MASSIVE mistake with one of the highest grossing movies on the list: She put Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl at the No 5 spot, when in reality it only grossed around 700 million (which is a lot, but not highest of all time a lot by Hollywood standards!). It should have been the more recent instalment Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides which grossed 1.043 Billion dollars! Again I feel like an ultra geeky nerd right now!  


D.V.3: I'm actually a bit pissed off with the Teacher this Week because he forgot to tell us to bring in our forms that we did on Tuesday (the one detailing the job that we picked) and then asked us to create a 2 minute speech about said job without either our papers or the internet at hand (the glossy new laptops that the College has just bought can't access the internet for some reason)! So guess what? Because he forgot to inform us I now have to do the thing as bloody homework for next Week! CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS OUTRAGE, I COULD HAVE DONE THIS IN CLASS IF YOU HAD JUST REMEMBERED TO TELL US TO BRING THIS THING!!! So yeah, pissed off. 


German: Studied an article on where the Hamburger came from in German this Week. You know the drill: BOOOORING!


Art: Having just finished my previous oeuvre, the next project is to use three of the five silhouettes that were given to us and draw them in a scene which makes sense. So the shadow silhouettes are: a kid jumping up in the air with his arms stretched out, a guy lying down clutching his leg, a guy in a walking movement, someone doing a shrug motion with his shoulders and the last one is just a plain silhouette of a guy clutching his head with his hands. Oh and I also forgot to mention that the one with the guy clutching his leg is considerably bigger than the other four! Any idea's guys?   


Well that's this Week over, I suppose Overall it wasn't all that interesting. But at least there's only one Week left before the Holidays! And after that? IT'S CHRIIIISTMAAAS! 

This Week In School: I've Found My Subject For HDA's!

UPDATE: Yep I know, I'm two Weeks late on this one. Sorry? 


Yes, I've finally got my act together this Week and found out what I'm doing for Histoire Des Art's. It was genuinely one of those 'EUREKA!' moments actually, and I feel a bit stupid for not finding it earlier. In other news I've finally got my Results for this Trimester (although not the full report yet, that'll be coming shortly) and I wasn't exactly on fine form Wednesday/Thursday thanks to a headache, a cold AND a leaky eye problem! I'm fine now though, really:


Music: This Week we had 50 minutes to find out everything we could about one of Pablo Picasso's masterpieces 'Guernica'. Failure to find anything would result in a big fat 0/20, so naturally everyone had a dogfight over who would get to use the Internet first (there were three computers between the fourteen of us, so those who were left out like me had to use the College's library to find out all the necessary information). For those of you not fimiliar with 'Guernica' here's a helpful picture that I found using Google Images:

   
Despite looking like it was drawn by a bunch of five-year-olds (come on be honest), the message behind it is quite powerful, it's supposed to demonstrate the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. Anyway I managed to find nearly everything in the 50 minute time slot, it was just a case of finding the right encyclopaedia. So do I win a prize for completing the task? Not exactly but I'll probably be seeing a shiny new Result next Week. Overall I found Music this Week to be very interesting, but why we're studying a painting instead of a song I don't know! EDIT: Apparently they're training us for Histoire Des Arts. 


English: It's triple evaluation Week. First one was me reenacting that scene from 'Day After Tomorrow' where the Tornado's basically just rip the crap out of Los Angeles:

The second one was a simple comprehension Test about a rich business guy who has moved from New York to live in the country, so he can 'go green'. Why he was motivated to do so was not explained, I mean you don't see a rich banker living the life in NYC retiring to the country and start recycling every day do you? In the third and final one I had to write a fake email about a woman called Ruth Helen Perry who wanted to apply for a job application (an environmental correspondent for the Washington Post). You had had to detail her job/life experience, why she wants the job ect... Your average easy peasy English Test really. Naturally I'll get 10/10 on everything.


Geography: Still studying America. This Week we've mainly looked at the modern farming techniques that the country uses as well as the high population levels and where the main industrial regions are located. It was interesting I guess, but I still prefer it when we're doing History.  


Sport: More basketball, like THREE hours of it in total! It was an extreme workout I can tell you. My Team didn't lose one match though, and because I haven't really sucked at it so far I think basketball is probably my least-hated form of Sport so far, simply because I'm O.K! My poor legs though, my poor, poor legs...


Technology: One lesson this Week (we was off on Friday you see, another national holiday about something I think) and it was basically EXACTLY the same sh*t as the previous two Weeks. Guh, Technology has gotten really boring recently, and my mediocre Results so far are NOT brightening by mood.


D.V.3: Still working on that Diaporana (although progress is VERY slow now), and thanks to my partners cold (and inability to see reason) I too had had the case of the sniffles by Thursday, as well as a sore left eye that just kept watering in Class like EVERY five minutes! 


S.V.T: This Week we looked at the different types of bacteria/virus'. It was a fun little game where we all split into teams and had to associate a disease with the right type of Microorganism. It should be noted that I got the most answers right out of my group, which admittedly only consisted of three people that were only half awake at the time but that's still some form of achievement. Out of memory I got E. Coli, Streptococci  


Histoire Des Arts: So I was watching this BBC 2 Documentary about Tintin with Dad one night back in October, and seen as the programme was deconstructing the first Tintin comic 'Tintin In The Land Of The Soviets' which detailed the horrible tyranny of the USSR I suddenly thought to myself  'Hey, could that count as a Histoire Des Arts subject?' Hmm let's see:

1. It was made during the 20th Century *CHECK*
2. It's either a film, comic, building, song or painting *CHECK*
3. It applies to the theme 'Art, Country, Power' *CHECK*
4. It demonstrates the time it was set in, and takes a political viewpoint against a certain subject *CHECK*
5. It's something I'm interested in/ have a lot of passion for *CHECK*


So with all the variables covered, I revealed my idea to the Art Teacher during a scheduled Histoire Des Arts lesson this Week and guess what? IT PASSED! So I basically get to showcase a Tintin comic for Histoire Des Arts (and if you're not aware I was an avid fan of Tintin when I was young, and still am in some respects). I'm quite frankly relieved that I didn't have to resort to picking some lesser known French painting that was made in 1943. *PHEW* Well that's one problem sorted, now I've got to sort out what I'm going to do for my internship (GOD HELP ME!).  


Art: Want to know what the objective for this instalment of Arts Plastiques was? Represent your life...In one image the size of a square postage stamp! So I set about creating a nice circle in the centre of my square and divided it into two (each part representing a part of my life), I then drew the Eiffel Tower on one end of my circle and Big Ben on the other (complete opposites, GEDDIT?), and then just filled each half circle with moments from my past. I had several other ideas about what to do as well, like one where it was this big congo line which started with me as a little kid aged 3 and then finished with me aged 15 (the passage of time being marked by the considerably taller versions of me as time went along of course). Other idea's included floating clouds which represented certain memories and the small square being filled to the brim with objects from my past (like a sign which says ROMA and my *SNIFFLES* Snoo-Snoo...WHAT?). As you can see I was clearly having fun with this task, and I'm looking forward to next Week.


French: This Week we finally finished seeing the film 'Un Secret'. The film centres primarily around this sickly boy called François who in 1953 finds out from a neighbour that his family's Jewish. François was brought up like a catholic you see, and his parents (both physically perfect in every way) supposedly came from a catholic family as well so you can see how things were a bit confusing for him can't you? Anyway I should probably tell you that when François was a kid he invented an imaginary brother for himself, a brother who was much stronger and more adult than him, someone he could hide behind and pour all of his emotions into (because he was so frail, and his parents are so physically exceptional he thought he was regarded as a disappointment). Well it turns out that his (Jewish) Dad was previously married to another woman, and they had a kid together called Simon before WWII. But the Dad Maxime was rather attracted to Hannah's sister Tania (who let's face it, were meant to be together) and Hannah (feeling inferior) got a bit suicidal and had herself and her son Simon deported away by the Gestapo to Auschwitz...thus rendering the relationship between Maxime and Tania impossible by being a complete bitch about it. Yeah, it get's quite complicated if you try to explain it. The film then ends with a much older Maxime and Tania committing suicide by jumping off a balcony...lovely. It was definitely a tragedy-fuelled film, and for the most part I thought it was okay (the suicidal urge that the ex-wife Hannah had was a bit out of nowhere though). I mean WTF? Just because he fancies another woman DOESN'T mean you should kill yourself and your 10-year-old kid! 

German: I wish I could just eliminate this subject from my timetable to be honest, it was just SOO boring now, I swear it was the closest I've ever come to just falling asleep in Class. But if you must know, we were studying a document on a Student Exchange/correspondent programme. We then listened to three teenagers give a description of their exchange and had to tick the corresponding box on the questionnaire that the Teacher handed to us. So yes, boring. CAN WE PLEASE MOVE ON NOW!


Maths: I think I'm really hitting a high note now, rarely does anything in Maths pose a problem for me now. The endless string of samey-wamey exercises do get grating after a while though. 


So that's it for this Week then. I probably should add that in ATP my Maths Teacher gave me a slit of paper with all of my Results for this Trimester on it. I won't say anything yet other than the fact that I rank 4th in my Class and my Overall Average for the Trimester is 14,41/20. Of course the full report with all the details on it will be posted shortly - Tim.