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). 

We walked way up above this little town to a panorama site to take pictures of the Loire. 

Benjamin fixes his new car. 

After our walk I went with Benoit and Catherine to take a closer look at Saumur's castle, it was really impressive. 

On the third day (the day after Christmas) we took another long long walk, we drove out into the country, parked the car by a vineyard, and walked down to the Loire, where this picture of my hose sisters and I was taken. After that we drove to an abbey. 

Vineyards! Lots and lots of grapes! 

I thought it was pretty cool that we could see the spire of the church through this wall, all perfectly lined up. 

My host family walking inside the Abbey of Fauntevraud. We didn't go inside the building except to go the giftshop. The Abbey has been around since 1101, and was led by abbesses, not abbots, for hundreds of years. Four of the daughers of Louis XV were educated here. Last year I did a report about Eleanor of Aquitaine, and used pictures of her tomb in my powerpoint presentation. I looked around and saw all these pictures of her tomb and realized that the tomb was here at the Abbey. Last year when I was making the powerpoit presentation I had no idea I would ever BE in these places. 

Another picture of the abbey. 

A picture of part of the Abbey of Fontevraud. I took it through a fence, so it isn't fantastic. 

Joyeux Noel!

Too much took place in my four days at Saumur to write a blog entry about it- you'd get very bored. I'll put little discriptions of each day here, then post pitures and discribe whats in them.

Day 1: Christmas Eve, left at 7:30am, arrived in Saumur at 3:30pm. Sat around, ate food, went to a bookstore, sat around more, got introduced to lots of people, went to an incredibly long and strange mass at 8pm, got home at 9:30, spent a half hour to 45 minutes deciding how we were going to handle opening all the gifts (xmas gifts for 25 people=nightmare), opened gifts, got a mini iPod!!!!!!!!!! cried a bit with joy, ate dinner (11pm), decided I hate foie gras, but pheasant is ok, 10 people leave at 2am, bed at 3amish

Day 2: Christmas Day, woke up at 11am, ate breakfast and realized that two showers for fifteen people is not a good thing, sat around, watched part of Les Choristes, ate a huge lunch (oysters, salmon, etc), walked in a nearby town for a couple hours, played with toy cars and pellet guns, went back, sat around, ate dinner, talked to my parents, played monopoly trader (extremely confusing game), talked to my parents and our friends again (but accidentally hung up on them, sorry), went to bed

Day 3: Woke up late again, got even more frustrated with the showers, sat around, played cards, ate another big lunch, walked in another nearby town for several hours, came back, sat around, ate dinner, watched Harry Potter on tv, went to sleep

Day 4: Woke up, ate, left at 8am, arrived in Annecy at 4pm.

and thats it!

Luge!

I'm very tired right now, so this will be short! Yesterday I went up to Manigod, this tiny town about 30 min from Annecy to spend the night at my friend Eric's house with a few other exchange students. He goes to school in Annecy, and lives all the way up in the mountains, its quite a major commute, but its gorgeous enough up there that its definetly worth it. I just found out that I was supposed to be living up there, which weirds me out- I feel so lucky I ended up down by the lake, where it's easy to get to the city. As we ate lunch Eric and his host mom started talking about us going and riding luges. I got so excited, and then I realized that luge is the word for sled in French. Early in the afternoon we set off with sleds towards a nearby mountain. We scrambled up the snow covered hillsides for a few minutes and then stopped, ready to sled down. Then his host mom was like, "Why are you stopping? I'm going further." We ended up climbing up the mountain for a good 25-30 minutes, then sledding down the whole thing- it was a lot of work to get up there, but so worth it! The rest of the night we hung around and played many, many games of cards. In the morning we babysat his host nephews, who were adorable. I had a great time, it amazes me that that snowy wonderland is so close to where I lived. As we were walking back from the sledding mountain I realized that I was in the Alps, in France, and I LIVED there. The Alps were magical mountains I read about in Tin-Tin, not actually a place I'd ever see. I'm so lucky.

Four months ago today I left Seattle, time moves so fast. Tomorrow I'm heading off to Saumur with my host family for Christmas! Its a looooong drive. Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel!!

I went for a walk yesterday- it was too cold to run (it snowed some in the morning)- and took a bunch of pictures of my neighborhood. I'm not going to be living here much longer! I move Dec 29th.  

The waterfront at Menthon, yesterday was really foggy and cloudy 

The sunset last night 

The Menthon dock- there are ferry boats that circulate around the lake, you catch it here. At the end of the summer when the public beach is closed everyone swims here. 

The harbor (empty of boats for the winter) at Menthon.