Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Here I am, back in Seattle. Its a little bit of a shock to me back, but everythinghas gone very well. My flight was very long, and my last plane was delayedthree hours, so I got in around mignight instead of 9pm. I've been spendingmy time unpacking, reading Harry Potter, seeing my friends, and watchinglots of American TV, which is SO MUCH BETTER than French TV. Now that its 'week #2' back home, I've had to start making my life normal. I'm going tobe babysitting several times a week for a family, which is going to get mesome money, but I'm also looking for a "real" job. One of the strangest thingsabout being back home is that not much has changed, my life seems the sameas before, my friends and my town seem aged a bit, but not much is different.I suppose I'll notice more distinct changes after school starts and everythings settled.
I miss my friends a lot, and I miss speaking French. Its unbelievableto me that everyone is talking in English, it gets quite confusing. All inall, life is going good.

I'm ending this blog now that my year is over, if you ever have any comments or questions, email me at futura1187@hotmail.com.

My mom has posted a bunch of pictures from our trip on her blog if you'd like to see.

Thanks for reading!

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Today is my last day in France, and I am very depressed.

This past week has been fairly busy, its been a great "last week". On the first day back I sat around with my parents with nothing to do, and in the afternoon, my friend Gilles saved me from dying of boredom by coming all the way to Menthon, where I was staying, to meet my parents and go to the beach with us. There were lots of fireworks at night too. The next day was Bastille Day, which was a lot of fun for me. I went to a party at my friend Maxime's house. He lives way out in the country and we played badminton and had a big fire and burned their schoolwork from last year. The next day I went in town a bit with my friend Amandine, and then I missed the bus home and had to spend some hours in town with 5 euros and nothing to do. Once I got home I packed up some stuff and finished things that needed to be finished. My friend Colombe spent the night, and there was also an American boy visiting my host brother this week, so everyone has been talking in English. Yesterday, I spent the day in town with my mom, doing my last day of shopping. We bought cookbooks and clothes and all sorts of stuff. I also got to meet my friend William and say goodbye. We ate dinner at my first host families house last night, and I had a great time. Their daughter who was in South Dakota was back, and I was happy to talk to her and Marion. Today I came to my house, packed up with my mom, cried a bit, and am now sitting in front of the computer. We should be going water skiing this afternoon and then ill sit around and mope a bit more. Tomorrow at 11am I'll be on the plane.

What a great year.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

trip

I'm back in Annecy! Sorry for the lack of posts as I traveled around Italy and France with my parents, I managed to find computers several times, but never had the energy to write about all that was going on. Heres the (brief) review of our trip... or what I can remember of it

day 1: Train to Paris. got there and it was pouring rain. Our hotel had the best location ever... top floor of a hospital across the street from Notre Dame. Its a secret place, not expensive at all.

day 2: Walked to the Louvre in the morning. Spent the rest of the day shopping, walking through places. I climbed the tower at Notre Dame with my mom as well, and in the early evening we climbed the tour d'eiffel. The weather was super hot... but out hotel had a/c.

day 3: met up with my penpal, Camille, who lives in northern France in Lille and her parents. They drove 4 hours to see us! We went to Montmartre (where Amelie and Moulin Rouge take place) and saw the Sacre Coeur then took the metro to the Champs-Elsees and walked around. It was really too hot, we all got burned. I also went to Shakespeare and Company bookstore at night and walked to the Luxembourg Gardens and Parthenon.

day 4: Musee d'Orsay. I loved that museum, I really like impressionism. Mom and I went to Le Marais in the afternoon and shopped, my dad did something. At night we met up with my host sister, Emilie, who lives in Paris for dinner. It was fun to see her and hear her talk in English.

day 5: flight to Rome. Kinda a stressful flight, Ryanair is cheap, but not convenient. Il faisait trop chaud. In the afternoon I left my parents and went to my friend Flaminias house. I was so happy to see her, she was an exchange student at VHS the year before last. The two of us sat around in her hot hot hot apartment and she studied for huge tests she had to take and we gossipped quite a lot.

day 6: met up with my parents in the morning and went to the Vatican Museum and St. Peters. In the afternoon I walked them all around Rome and we saw the Trevi fountain, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, and the Parthenon, amongst other things. Then I went back to Flami's house.

day 7: Flami and I were woken up by her cellphone... two guys from my school in the US were calling to say they were in town (they wanted to stay at her house). We went and picked up Sam and Bobby and went swimming in the pool at Flamis apartment. Did I mention how hot it was?? Really hot. In the afternoon Flaminia had plans so Bobby, Sam, and I walked all over Rome together for hours and hours. We got very tired (and they hadn't slept in 30 hours) but had such a fun time. I was so happy to get to see them and talk to them.

day 8: Early, early, early train to Florence. I had stayed up late talking to Flaminia, so I only got about 2 hours of sleep. We got to Florence by 10:30ish and went to the Uffizi at 12. It was beautiful at first, but I got burnt out really fast. After two hours we went back and crashed at the hotel. We slept through our 5pm reservations at the Accedemia. Oops.

day 9: climbed up the Duomo, which was pretty impressive. Then we saw another museum, the Bargello, which was very nice as well, but by this point in the trip I was getting museum fatigue. The afternoon my mom and I spent shopping and then we finished out the day relaxing in the courtyard at the hotel.

day 10: trains to Vernazza. Vernazza is on the Cinque Terre, which is filled with American tourists. It was so beautiful, a tiny town right on the sea. Our hotel was actually a little apartment, so we had this beautiful rooftop terrace. I sat around a lot, read a little by the water, and relaxed.

day 11: We decided to hike the 90 minutes to the next town, Monterosso. We had heard it was a hard hike... but it was even harder than I thought. And it was in the sun. There was a beautiful beach in Monterosso though, and we had a great time. Then we had to walk back, and this time it was in the afternoon, when the sun was even hotter. I nearly died.

day 12: Train to Villefranche-sur-Mer, a town right next to Nice on the French Riviera. Afternoon spent on the beach, then we had dinner in town.

day 13: Toured through the Villa et Jardins Ephrussi de Rothschild, an AMAZING mansion near Villefranche with acres and acres of beautiful gardens. Spent the afternoon on the beach again.

day 14: Took the bus to Monaco, which was beautiful, clean, and super luxurious. We walked all around and looked at the Yachts and houses... its astounding that people LIVE like that. Mom and I toured the Palace. Prince Albert is coronated or something this week, so they were decorating everthing. Dad went back to the Hotel and Mom and I took the bus to Eze, this town on top of a mountain, the veiws were great, and on top of this mountain-town was an exotic garden filled with cacti. Then I went to the beach again.

day 15: Woke up to a huge thunderstorm with lots of hail. The hotel courtyard was nearly flooded. We took the bus to Nice and walked throught the market and explored the beach. Most shops were closed because it was a Sunday. Beach in the afternoon (imagine that).

day 16: left Villefranche and rented a car in Nice. We drove up to Aix-en-Provence for lunch and looked around there for several hours. Then we drove to Gap. A friend of my mom married a Frenchman and now lives there with him and their two young sons. In Gap we saw a little concert at a Chateau and spent lots of time sitting around and talking.

day 17: relaxed in Gap in the morning and then drove up to Annecy. I was scared to go back to Annecy... going back means going home. We stayed at my Gospel Choir directors house, my family know them pretty well because they visited Seattle for Christmas. It felt good to get back to Annecy, but I'm psychologically quite confused about leaving.

The trip was fantastic. Now here we are, in Annecy. I'm staying with my parents right now because my host family is out of town, but I'll get to go "home" to my host house tomorrow. Tomorrow is also Bastille Day in France, and my dad leaves tomorrow morning. I've hit a really weird awkward place in the exchange where I no longer live here and I'm not yet home.