Me, Jessica (Bermuda), and Astrid (Australia) in Valloire. 

The last exchange students to leave had some time to kill, so we made ourselves into a rotary wheel and had a girl take our picture from the balcony. 

Rainydays

Another normal day. I had English, two hours of French, Spanish, lunch, then History. I'm actually starting to try to pay attention in classes like French and History that I used to daydream off in, cause now, if I work at it, I understand. I've always loved history and its just as interesting for me now, I really want to know what the teacher is talking about, but I don't always catch what he's saying. It gets frustrating. French lit is much more difficult, but now I'm trying to at least have a general idea of what the literature we are reading is focusing on.

I ate lunch in town with three friends. I love eating lunch in town. Up until a month or so ago I had only eaten in town a few times, now I'm going at least once a week. An hour and a half is more than enough time to walk anywhere in the city, pick up some food, find a cafe or someplace to sit, and spend a good 45 minutes talking and eating before we go back to school. There are so many choices! I can eat chinese food, or get a sandwich (the only one I'll eat is saucisson et buerre- salami and butter on a baguette) or a kebab or go to Quick or to Chez Barnabé and buy something there. We usually go to Chez Barnabé, because of all the choices. I'm a little irritated with them though, because in order to get a stamp on my Chez Barnabé card I need to spend 3.80 euros, and pretty much every meal comes up to only 3.50. I must finish the card- I need to get a BarnaCadeau before the end of the year! We ate in Bonlieu today (Bonlieu is similar to Westlake, its the meeting place in the city, it houses the theater, library, and a few store, and has clean public bathrooms and lots of steps to sit on and eat lunch), which is where kids usually eat lunch if its not summer (in which case you eat on the Paquier, a big huge grassy park thing right next to the lake and across the street from Bonlieu).

I'm not going to school tomorrow, I'd have only one hour of English, and that seems a little useless. Tomorrow is the festival for St. François de Sales, the patron saint of our school. Everyone gets out at ten so they can go to mass at 10:30 if they choose. I myself will be sleeping in for the first time since Dec 30th (well, I've slept until 7:30 three times, but the others were only 6:30) and then I'll be heading off for my second Rotary weekend at Valoire. Its been raining the past few days, I'm sure the snow will be great for us to go snowboarding/skiing!

Et il y a neige

Finally! The first snow since December! It rained like crazy all day yesterday and then finally started snowing in the evening, we got about an inch down by the lake, so the mountains most likely got a ton, I'm excited to go snowboarding this weekend. The snow is perfect too, nice and pack-y, great for snowballs. This detail was not passed over by the kids at school. Whenever you don't have a class, you are supposed to go to étude (study hall). The étude for première is in the lycée building, its a nice long room filled with lots of desks in rows, one wall is all windows. As I was in étude today a group of boys kept running past the windows slamming them with snowballs. The 80+ kids in the room were laughing like crazy, it was a nice break from the monotony. Then, later, after étude, people stood outside and threw snowballs down the première hallway, as far as they could go. Between classes the halls are jammed with kids, talking, waiting for teachers, etc. The sky was raining snowballs, everyone was screaming and laughing and picking them up and throwing them. My class was the last to go into class and when everybody else had left we could see that the floor was soaking wet and covered with melting snow.

Another day of snowboarding behind me, and I forgot my camera. Sorry. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in sight, mountains all around. I'll definetly remember it next weekend when I go for my winter Rotary weekend at Valloire. It'll be nice to see all the exchange students again, plus the new batch of Australians, South Africans, and New Zealanders(?), Kiwis, whatever. Today was great, I really think I've improved in the past few weeks, I'm not fantastic, but really the thing I need to work on the most is just going faster, the rest of the people I go with are all very fast. Another thing I need to conquer is the rope tow. I hate that thing. I CAN'T DO IT! I try and try (seriously, I went like 5 or six times today) and end up falling everytime. Its so embarrassing. I'm gradually getting better at it, when I first tried I was on my face in a second. Now I get about halfway up the run and crash and burn. Its difficult on the snowboard, but I still think it shouldn't be THIS difficult. Something is wrong with me.

Back to school tomorrow, and I'm happy about it. I'm always happy to go to school now, though I know I'll have to sit through hours of boring classes in a language I still struggle with (mais c'est mieux!! J'espère que j'arrive à comprends bientôt), its the times between classes and at lunch that I can hang out with my friends that is so great. And I have photography tomorrow, which is nice because its a mix of classes so I'll get to be with some friends who aren't in Première L. Maybe we'll have more than four cameras for the thirty kids this time.

The chairlift (and Mt. Blanc on the right). 

Caroline, my new host sister, putting on her snowboard. 

Anne getting ready to go down a run. 

More pretty mountains at Flaine. 

Snowboarding up in the Alps. Way up high. 

The sunset on the way home from snowboarding on Sunday. 

Eating fondue at Zara's goodbye party. 

Me, Zara, and Amondine at Zara's goodbye fondue party. 

Le Grand Bornand, New Years Day 

Snow in Annecy! I heard this doesn't happen often, so I got a picture. This was several days after we got snow in the city, so it melted a little 

My new bedroom 

All my stuff, I know it doesn't look like a lot, but trust me, it is. 

I had such a great weekend. It was very busy, but so fun. On Saturday after school I went with my friends Colombe, William, and Hugo and ate lunch at Quick. Quick is sorta like the French McDonalds. After that we all took the bus to Hugo's and played video games and hung out, which was really fun. Its been a while since I've been able to just sit around with friends and relax, I've missed that and I'm glad I'm finally at the point where I can start doing it over here.

On Sunday we went with the Ski Club again, this time to a place about two hours away called Flaine. The day was sunny and clear and the view was amazing, but, once again, the snow was terrible. Even worse this time than last week cause it was kind of icy. I spent the day with my host sister and two of her friends and eventually we randomly ran into a friend of mine from school and went down a few runs with him. Everyone was much, much better than me, which was a little frustrating. I have to remind myself that after going snowboarding every week until April I'll be good too.

School's been boring and normal. Tomorrow huge sales start in Annecy- like 30-70% off- I'm going to be spending lots of money. Tomorrow is also my friend Zara's last day in France. She leaves for Australia on Thursday. We'll go out to lunch with all the exchanges and then go shopping. I'm going to miss her a lot.

I honestly wish I had something exciting to recount, but I really don't. I've been just going to school, coming home, going online, watching TV. Normal stuff. Wednesday I met for lunch with exchanges as normal. It rained today. I had straightened my hair and it got wavy again. My nex host family eats SO MUCH. I think I've gained weight since I've been living with them (which is what, a week?) I mean, people who've just known me this year say I haven't gained weight, but trust me, I have. Not a dramatic amount, maybe four or five pounds, but it feels weird and I can't wait to loose it. All the exchange students I've spoken to have told me that although they stressed out a lot before hand, they all did loose the weight they gained abroad just by adjusting back to their normal lifestyles. I hope that works for me too.

Snow!

I've been super busy recently- after changing families and New Years (which I spent with some kids up in a ski town)I haven't had much time to post.

Yesterday, Jan 2nd, I slept through my alarm (understandable, since the night before was New Years) and my new host sister, Caroline, woke me up at 6:40. We were out of the house by 7:10 and by 7:30 our ski bus left Sevrier for Chamonix. I kinda slept/rested for the ride, which was a little shorter than an hour and a half. Every Sunday with my new host family I'll be going snowboarding. We're members of a ski club that goes to a different place each week throughout the winter. In concept its an excellent idea, but it means I'll never sleep again. I have to wake up at 6:30 Monday through Saturday to go to school, and then 6:30 on Sundays to go snowboarding. This past week we went to Les Houches, which is on Mt. Blanc near Chamonix. I snowboarded for the three years during middle school but not at all for the past two, so I thought I'd be terrible, but really, I wasn't. The little group I was with consisted of my host sister and two of her friends, one of which was snowboarding for the second time ever- he held us back, not me. My host sister and I managed to ditch the other two after a while so we could actually go down more than two runs. The ski places seem so much bigger here. I mean, you go up one super long chairlift- and then there are another TWO you can go up if you choose. Also, they have many restaurants/ski bars right in the middle of the runs. After a long day of snowboarding we all ate this cake (I forget the name of it) for Epiphany, there was a little figurine baked into each cake (about an inch tall). If your peice had it, you got to wear a crown.

Today we had Activities Culturales in the afternoon, right now we're in a Module Creativité, which means we all got to sign up for different activities (dance, theater, film production, etc). We'll spend three afternoons learning about these things spread out every other week for the next six weeks. My group is photography, which I've always wanted to learn, but I don't think I'll really learn that much- they only had four cameras for thirty kids. He talked about each of them, showed us how they work, and then had us take turns taking pictures of each other. For three hours. It was a little long, we could've been done in one and a half, but we were outside in the park with our friends and though it was cold it was clear and pretty, so it wasn't terrible.

I'm not the only one who got an iPod for Christmas, my friend Colombe got a green iPod mini, and her boyfriend (another friend of mine) got a normal sized one. He thanked me because I told him to buy it in the US, where they are much cheaper, and he had somebody buy him one there. It saved him well over 100 Euros.

New Family

I've just changed families, and it is completely diarming. I was so settled in and comfortable at my last family. Everyone is very nice here, but I can tell the family is a lot different from my last one, its going to take a while to adjust. This morning I woke up and was depressed- why wasn't I in MY house? But its shaken off. I know that the change is considered a good thing, but that doesn't make it any easier! I feel smothered in French here- every word spoken is in French, at my last house I could talk to my host sister in English. I know my French is going to improve by being here.

Me and my iPod mini! 

Foie gras. (Goose Liver) I tried it, and now I never will again. 

The kids table (ages 30 and under, we had two married couples) for Christmas dinner. 

The Yule Log birthday cake for my host grandpa on Christmas. 

The street my host grandparents live on in Saumur. All the buildings in this area of the country are made out of Limestone, which is a really soft rock found in the cliffs along the Loire. As we drove down the highway next to the cliffs you could see all these houses and caves that are carved into them. I wish I had a picture! Some people still live in them. Others are used to store wine and grow mushrooms.  

My host family in front of their family house in Saumur. 

On Christmas day we went for a walk in the afternoon, we drove to a nearby town and walked through it up to a viewpoint and then down to the Loire River. 

On our walk we came across a cool (reallllly old) church. All around on the outside there were these sculptures of saints, but most of them have no heads. Benoit told me that during the French Revolution people smashed the heads off of them, having them represent the monarchs of France. 

Part of my extended family at the church on our walk. 

Me standing on a boat down by the Loire on our Christmas day walk. 

People standing around on our walk. Charlotte is holding Benjamins crutches and toy gun (she isn't a cripple, and it isn't real).