The bus to Flaine! Yesterday the entire lycée went skiing and snowboarding. Some kids decided to stay at home, but the vast majority went. I think there were probably over 500 of us, we filled 12 charter buses. The weather was amazing, the snow was good, and everyone (except the boy who broke his leg) had a fantastic day.  

Chillin on the pistes 

Sophie at Flaine, waiting around. The mountains are so beautiful there- Mt Blanc in the back.  

One of my friends waiting for everyone to get ready 

Sophie and Regina on the chairlift 

Max in the bottom of a Crevasse.  

Stopping for lunch  

Chilling in the snow after eating lunch 

Sophie with a skipole.  

This is the view from my friend Molly's deck. She lives up in Manigod, a little town like 45 min from Annecy (and goes to school in Annecy everyday). If you remember, a while back I spent the night at Erics- this is where Eric USED to live before they moved. Sunday was Molly's 19th Birthday, so on Saturday most of us Annecy exchanges headed up to Manigod. We watched a Hitchcock movie, sat around, chatted, ate Raclette (yum!!!!), ate lots more, and sledded at midnight.  

Beautiful Manigod 

My gift for Molly, a chocolate pecan pie made with corn syrup she bought me in Germany. 

Molly's 19th birthday cake 

Eric sledding at midnight in Manigod (the rest of my nighttime pictures didn't really turn out, but I expected that). 

Us at Molly's for her birthday dinner (Eric, Maite, Molly, Me, Tannia) 

My Head Hurts...

because I've been studying. Something I'm not accustomed to doing this year! The épreuves communes have hit us, these nasty test things I described in my last post. Two weeks ago I took math and science tests on a whim and got a 12 and 13 (out of 20) on them. Those don't sound like good scores from an American perspective, but from a French one, they are really good. To give you an idea: I got the third highest score on the math test in the class, and the first highest was the other American. The other kids got like 6s and 4s. 13 was on the high end of the class too- I know that the science teacher was being generous, but I really deserved it, I wrote a lot in French. Since I did so well on these tests, my friends managed to convince me to take not only the english test this week (three hours long, tomorrow afternoon) but the science and math tests as well. And so I had to study. Yesterday in science class one of my French friends wrote me a note and asked me to come over to her house that night and teach her the math. I wrote back that that might not be smart, cause really, I don't understand it all too well and the French methods are different than mine. She said "Anna Rae, I got a 4, you got a 12, you clearly understand a little more than me". So last night I went over to her house for a couple of hours, the first hour we spent on math, initially she told me that if I needed to I could talk in English, but I managed to do the whole thing completely in French, and by the end she actually understood the concepts on the last test. It felt so good. I was in France, teaching a French girl math, in French. Afterwards she went over the science with me. We're doing the eye, which is something I know in English but I don't know all the vocab in French or how the definitions of certain things in French. By the end I was mentally exhausted, but I felt kinda good doing something with my brain. The tests were this morning and the math went really well for me- by teaching my friend I managed to memorize the concepts. Though my friend thinks that she still did really bad on the math test, I'm hoping she got above a four so I can feel I helped a little. The science was very difficult because it was long and required a lot of writing in French. Once I thought I nearly finished it and the period for the test was over I realized there was another two pages I had hidden under all my scratch paper that I didn't even get to. Uh. C'est la vie. At least I tried.

I heart Nutella

I ate far too much Nutella yesterday. Nutella is the most delicious substance on earth and the nightmare of all female exchange students to Europe. Its chocolatey goodness that has billions of calories (anyone know how many? I don't, its not labeled on the jar). My first family had no Nutella in the house, and this one has several jars. I love it to death. I've had to limit myself to eating Nutella only one day of the week, usually I'll just have a little on some brioche for breakfast saturday morning, but yesterday, Sunday, I not only had it for breakfast, but twice later in the day. My host dad made crepes, and its impossible to abstain from eating crepes when they are in the house. And then there was that jar of Nutella...well, as long as I'm not doing that all the time its ok. Right?

This week is sort of like finals week in the US (only we still have over a month left of the trimester) the kids have hours of test Thursday through Saturday. Last time I just took the English test, but this time I've decided/been pressure into it by my friends that I should take the math and science tests as well. So I'm beginning to (gasp!) study a bit for those tests. I've also been finding more time here and there to study French grammar and all. When I'm writing my grammar isn't half bad, but when I talk all the words/tenses/etc jumble up and spill out. Though people keep telling me how great I've been doing, and I'm really beginning to feel progress, it's still not fantastic.

Ice sculptures in Valloire. Rotary district 1780 had their big "week-end neige" this past weekend. Rebounds, inbounds, and outbounds were there, as well as our families. We spent hours gossipping about school, host families, and the five girls who have went home, ate lots of food, watched Friends DVDs on a laptop, had a talent show, and spent the next day snowboarding and skiing. For many kids it was their first time trying it out. It was really a great weekend, if anything I'd have to complain that it snowed too much (not a sliver of blue sky in sight) and it was too short! We also went for a walk and saw a bunch of ice sculptures, like this one, that had been in a big competition. 

I forget the first girls name! But the other two are my host sister, Caroline, who is going to Canada next year, and Jill, from New York. 

Eating dinner (tartiflette) in the impossibly small dining room at the "chalet". 

Maite, Izzy, and Eric at the talent show. 

Singing with Maite, Izzy, and Eric at the talent show, they really didn't need me cause the whole crowd sang along, but it was nice of them to let me sit up there. 

Waiting around to be picked up at the end of the weekend (sorry, I know this is out of order). 

Izzy (Canada) in the doorway to our room. 

Astrid, one of the new Australian girls, and I, getting ready to head out onto the Pistes. There were four new kids at the weekend. One South African, one girl from New Zealand, and two Australians, both of which arrived that day and were whisked off to Valloire. They were so tired and drained, but amazing sports. 

We spent Sunday snowboarding and skiing at Valloire. It snowed consistantly the entire weekend, which is great- it hadn't snowed since December. 

Maite waiting for us to strap into our snowboards. The snow was magnificent, but there was a TON of fog, we had no depth perception at all and couldn't see more than a few feet in front of us. Can you tell where the snow stops and the sky begins? Neither could we.