3 Days Before Christmas??

Pictures:

1) Snow!!

2) Macaroons (with holes:( , they will be better next time!)

3) Three of the Seven Dwarfs at the Marché de Noel

4) Marché de Noel

5) Temple of Cheese (!!!) at the Marché de Noel

It is now the 22nd of December. It really doesnt feel like it. We havent been doing many Christmas-y things yet. Today I am planning on making sugar cookies for Christmas Eve at Champagny, because they are the most traditional thing I can think of other than gingerbread.

Sophia came got to Lyon on Saturday and stayed up until Last night (Monday night). It was fun, we watched a lot of movies, in French and in English. We watched The Da Vinci Code, National Treasure Book of Secrets, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Happy Feet, and then we went to the theater and saw Avatar:) We also played a lot of card games and went to the Marché de Noel.

Last night Ingrid invited me to dinner at her house. Chloé and Claire also came, and we ate dinner with her mom and two brothers. She made 'mustard noodles' (translated into English) because we had already eaten it one at Chloés house, but it wasnt very good because we were missing some ingredients and were pressed for time, so Ingrid wanted to make it for us to show us that it can be good. And it was! We played fooseball ('babyfoot' in French) and a card game called Cums, I got home around midnight.

Tomorrow we leave for Champagny to get there one day before Christmas Eve to help set up. There will supposedly be 28 people this year, all staying for three days in one house. Then we come back to Lyon on Saturday. Stay here for a day or so and then head up to Groix (small Island in Bretagne) for New Years.

Merry Christmas and Happy News Years everyone!!!

Vacances!

Christmas vacation is here!! I have 16 days to eat and not do homework :) So after Tuesday, I was pretty excited about the blocus...and the fact that we maybe wouldnt have school for the rest of the week. Too bad that didnt happen. There were some kids standing in front of the school on Wednesday, but not doing anything. Then Thursday there were more kids, but they werent keeping kids from going into the school...they just booed when people entered!! Then Friday the big gate was open (it was previously not open because the school authorities were afraid the kids would go in and set trash cans on fire, etc. like they did last year!) which meant blocus was officially over. Now, the reason for the blocus. Every year (this is what I understand, which may not make it completely true!) right before Christmas vacation, the French school authorities decide they need to change something about how the school is run. They dont vote, so if they kids decide they dont like what the authorities want to change, they strike, stand in front of the school and sometimes become very violent. Last year the whole school was shut down the week before vacation because a bunch of kids (some even came from other schools) stood infront on my school (Lycée Lacassagne) to protest, and they were so violent there were 10 police cars there. It was from this story that I got excited, thinking we might get an extra week of vacation. This year, the kids were striking because the authorities want to cut out the class of History/Geography in the Terminale year (senior year). They were also going to fire teachers who were getting ready to retire, and not hire new ones. I am not sure yet if this has passed, or if the blocus worked. So thats the blocus story.
On Wednesday I took a math test which I later got back and received a 1/20...oh well, I already have all my math credits I need to graduate from West:) Then we had gym, though the teacher decided we could do whatever we wanted, so I played soccer with a bunch of other kids for the first time in a very long while!
On Thursday, I read my paper on why I decided to come to France in French class infront of the class, and my French teacher read the one about my life in Alaska. It started snowing when we got out of school. Then Justine texted me later that night saying 'its amazing, everythings white, it never snows like this here!' so I excitedly ran outside to find there wasnt even 1/8th of an inch of snow on the ground!! Haha, I guess our definition of 'everythings white' is a little different!!
Friday we didnt do much in any class except Chemistry/Physics. We watched a movie for two hours in English class called Mississippi Burning. It was about the racism in Mississippi in the middle of the 1960s. Then we had two and a half hours of Chemistry/Physics which we took a quiz and I got 2.5/4!! Which is actually not bad at all, most of my friends got 3/4. Then in TPE we disected a mouse :( to look at the symmetry of the organs. In History/Geography we watched a play made up of a bunch of smaller plays for the first hour that kids from Terminale year did. Then for the second hour we watched a very old movie I didnt understand for about 10 minutes, then played hangman. Last night (Friday night) Laura, Michel, and I watched Ratatouille in French and then I slept in until 10:30 this morning!! It was wonderful! This afternoon I am going to Place Bellecours to pick up Sophia (another US exchange student with AFS) so she can spend a couple of days here in Lyon (she lives in a small town near Grenoble) with me.

Blocus!!!

So, today, blocus happened. But I will get to that in a moment.
Sunday night we baked the macaroons and they tasted good, but the shells have a lot of little tiny bubbles in them and are not perfectly smooth like those bought at a bakery.
Yesterday (Monday) we had all our normal classes including (for my group) the english assistant, where we watched the movie Elf. Then we (Ingrid, Olivia, Laurie, and I) went to Justines house where Anne-Sophie, Justine, Chloé, and Claire already were because they didnt have the english assistants class. We ate lunch there, consisting of zucchini crumble and chocolate cake. It was really, really good!!
Now for the blocus! I am currently using my cell phone for my morning alarm. Unfortunatly though, last night my phone died while I was sleeping and then, obviously, didnt go off this morning. Laura and Claire left without waking me up, and I woke up on my own at about 7:40 which was too late to arrive on time for the first hour of school, so I was planning on arriving for class at 9:00am. On my way to school, I met Chloé and Claire walking back towards the bus stop I had just come from. They had told me that there was blocus at the school, and couldnt get in. Blocus, in French, is when the students stand in front of the school and push anyone away who tries to get by them. In my opinion it was pretty stupid, because there is a huge fence around the school and if you really wanted to go to class, all you have to do in climb it. So I went back to Chloés house and talked and then ate lunch. Then at 2pm we decided to try again. Though there were still people standing in front, and it was really cold (about 25F :) ) so we decided to just go home. On the bus home, I received a mass text saying there would be blocus all week!! Though its not for certain, and I think we have to go everyday just to see, it would be exciting if we get three weeks of Christmas vacation instead of just two!! :)

*Il Neige*

On Thursday I had a full, normal day of school. Though Friday was a different story; I had just three hours of class when I normally have 7 1/2 -8 1/2! I had two hours of English class starting at 8 in the morning, and then one hour of history from 4pm-5pm. It was a wonderfully relaxing day! In between english and history class, I went over to Chloés house and hung out with her, Claire (the new exchange student) and Ingrid. We watched Little Miss Sunshine and made lunch of noodles with a mustard sauce (it was a little strange, but good) and an omlet. In France, no one thinks omlets are for breakfast, always for lunch, and maybe for dinner. It was nice to be around someone who didnt understand the conversations!:) It made me realise how far I have come since the beginning, even though people keep telling me, its hard to tell until I see someone else in the same situation...if that makes sense.
Saturday I took the Bac Blanc du Français from 8am - 12pm. For the first two hours I read and translated into English the two texts that were given to us, and then the questions. Then I read back over everything and noticed some of the questions asked for three answers from the three different texts....I searched the page and still found just the two I had seen in the first place. Then, down at the very bottom in the center of the page, was the start of the third text which then was finished on the top of the page at the right. I figured out I had been trying to understand the whole second text with the last part of the third text tacked on to the end. No wonder it hadnt been making sense. After that, I sort of lost my gung-ho attitude about doing the very best I could and writing all my thoughts down on the paper to get the best grade I possible could. So I tried to answer the questions, though I ended up only writing two small paragraphs, and left a big space inbetween incase I magically found the answer to the other questions. So, when I was all done, there was only a small paragraph on the top of the first page, and when I turned it in, the lady looked at me with gigantic eyes and asked me what I was doing. I told her I was an exchange student, and she promptly said 'oooooohhhhhhhhh', and smiled :). I have two more Bac Blancs (one in each of the next trimesters) so I will hopefully improve even more over time, and when I take my real Bac de Français, maybe I will receive an okay mark! After that, I went out to lunch with Laurie, Justine and Adam (who is also in our class) and then spent the rest of Saturday with Laura and Claire at the house. Michel is still at Groix until Tuesday night.
Today I got up semi-early again and went to the mall (again) with Claire and Laura because they needed to Christmas shop. We got there right as it opened and there was hardly anybody there! Then we went to an outdoor market for artistic objects and then the Marchée De Noel which was a lot bigger and had more interesting things, in my opinion. There was a place called the Temple of Cheese!! :) Then we came home and ate lunch, and then Claire and I tried making macaroons (French macaroons, not American) though they needed to sit for a while, so they still havent been baked. Then I made chocolate chip cookies for Claires school, because they are having some sort of bake sale to raise money for the kids to go on a field trip. Then....(this is the most exciting piece of news I have).........IT SNOWED!!!! :) Not a lot, not even so we could see it on the ground, but we could see it falling and it was pretty!
Tomorrow after my short day of classes I am going over to Justines house because she wants to make Zucchini Crumble for us....(yes, like Apple Crumble, but with zucchinni).

Merci Marie

Saurday night it ended up being just Ingrid and I going to the Fete des Lumières. Chloé, Justine, and Olivia couldnt make it/ had seen it too many times before for it to be exciting. So, we took the metro to Place Bellecour and walked around. The holiday is really on the 8th of December, but it has become a more commercial holiday in past years, so people generally start celebrating the weekend before the 8th. There were a lot of stands a Place Bellecour selling small glow in the dark objects. Also a lot of stands selling kebabs, hot dogs, tacos, crepes, waffles, cotton candy, and warm wine. I ate a sugar crepe, my first in France!:) We walked down Rue République and into some smallar side streets to see the abstract lights people had put up for display. Some were just spiraled colored lights hanging from trees, and others were lights in the shapes of trees all in a bunch, etc. Some of the streets were so packed with people it took us half an hour to walk one block! We got out of the crowd and walked down the Saone river to Vieux Lyon where we watched a movie that was being projected on to the Church of Saint-Jean. The movie was about the construction of the church, and showed someone drawing the plan for the church, then people constucting it, sort of the history behind it. Then we watched a man drink alcohol and blow on a stick of fire which then flared up, which was not very impressive, but the heat from the fire was nice:) Then he started swinging fire balls around which was more interesting. We finally caught the metro home with a boy from our class, Alexys, at about 11:30pm.
Sunday I went to the mall with Laurie and her friend Elise. And then Sunday night I went to see the fireworks with Claire which were set off behind the Fourvière Basilica. They were pretty, and I tried to capture in on camera, but the really bright ones just show up as white blobs on the screen. For dinner that night we ate snails that were left over from a party Michel and Claire had hosted the night before.
Monday was pretty normal. Though for dinner I ate calf tongue..
Tuesday morning Michel left for Groix. Groix is a small island (5.72 square miles!) in N-W France. Michel and Claire have a small house there, and will be going there after Chrismas to celebrate the New Year. I guess there is a little bit of house work that needs to be done before they go up for New Years. Tuesday was also the actual Fete des Lumières. On the way home from school, we could already see people putting up candles in their windows. The history behind this celebration started in 1643 when the plague hit France, though Marie (mother of Jesus) saved the town from becoming infected and to thank her, all the residents put up luminons (candles) in their windows. One church is also illuminated in different colors with a big neon sign that says 'Merci Marie' next to it. Tuesday night, Aliane (I am still not sure how to spell her name, though she is the godmother of Victor, I think) came over for dinner and we lit about 50 candles and put them up in windows all over the house.
Wednesday I had school, then dance. Pretty normal, though I did study 8 pages of notes for a biology test I had today. It went pretty well I thought, though I didnt write more than a page during the entire hour.
Today I met an Australian exchange student who is going to stay with Chloé for 6 weeks named Claire.
Tomorrow (Friday) is usually my bussiest day of the week, starting from 8 until 6 with only a half an hour break for lunch. However this particular Friday I am only going to have 3 hours of school!!! From 8-10 am and then from 4-5 pm. This is happening because my chemistry/physics teaching is going to be absent, and we dont have TPE (prep class for the bac). However, on Saturday I have a four hour 'Bac Blanc' which is a practice test for the Bac de Francais I will take at the end of the year.

Pictures and Pigs Blood

The first two photos are of pigs blood and apple compote:)

The third is of my friends and Laura at Thanksgiving dinner

top left-right: Laura (host sister), Justine, Anne-Sophie

bottom: Me, Ingrid, Chloé

The fourth picture is of everybody at Thanksgiving dinner

going around from left-right: Chloé, Ingrid, Claire, Marie-Pierre, Aliane (sp?), Michel, Justine, Laura.

The fifth picture is of the table before we ate dinner:)

__________________________________________________

Thursday night I ate pig blood for dinner. Though it wasnt just blood, it was a little bit of meat with a lot of blood wrapped in pig skin. Thankfully Claire cooked it, and didnt make us eat it raw! We ate it with apple compote which made it taste a lot better.

Friday not much happened at school. Théo came over for dinner, we had a cheese quiche, spinich in a white sauce, and poivron (a special French vegetable which I dont know the name of in English). Tonight I am going to go to the Fete de Lumières with Ingrid, and maybe Chloé, Justine, Alexys, and Antoine.

Tomorrow I am going to Part-Dieu with Laurie (its a big mall) to buy a scarf for winter and a bag for school, because we dont have lockers and have to carry everything around with us and my current bag is slowly falling apart:( Tomorrow night I am going to the Fete de Lumières again with Claire, Michel, and Laura to see the feux d'artifice (fireworks). They normally dont have fireworks for the Fete de Lumières, but this past year it rained on the 14 of July (sort of the equivilent of the US' 4 of July) when they normally set off firworks, so they couldnt set them off. So, they kept them for tomorrow night!:)

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

So, the first trimester of the school year is over. I do not know what my grades are, because I lost the little paper with my password to look them up on the computer...but maybe that isnt such a bad thing!:)
Tuesday another bus strike started, so now the buses come at strange times and when there is an electric moniter telling you how long it will be until the next bus, sometime the number of minutes goes upwards instead of down! However, I got to school on time and had to do an oral presentation in English class. Everyone had to do it at one point or another, and we were supposed to choose something current, though by the end, people were just choosing things that interested them. So I chose the Alaska Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. I had recently recieved a post card from Joe and Lena in Nome, and on the front was a picture of a musher and his team finnishing the race in Nome! It was perfect, so I brought it in to class to show the other students what it looks like, since I wasnt sure if they would understand my description. It went fairly well, but Chloé told me afterwards that I had talked too fast, and she hadnt been able to understand everything..oops:)
On Wednesday, I took a two hour math test on barycenters, which I didnt really study for at all. Then two hours of badmitton, and then took the bus home. I ate lunch with everyone and then tried to study for a physics test I have tomorrow, but I didnt understand. So then I started texting with Ingrid and she told me there was no dance that day for her(she has the same teacher but not the same class), but she wasnt sure about me. So I walked to the studio and the door was locked. So I walked back on the street where all the shops are in Montchat just to look at everything, and I noticed the popular stores here are not exactly the same as in Anchorage. On this one street (which I walked on for about 5 blocks) there are at least 7 bakeries, 6 banks, 4 furnitures/ decoration stores, 3 little grocery stores, 3 washers/drycleaner places, 3 eccentric clothes stores, and a smattering of other types of stores (flower shop, butcher shop, tabaco shop, etc.)
Today I had two hours in the morning free (8-10) because the SVT teacher was absent (though I found out later not for the whole day) so I went to Lauries house with her. Then we had one hour of French class where the teacher handed out the small essays we wrote (well mine was small, everyone elses was about four + pages:) ) (another note: all students handwrite all their essays here, no one types anything, that I have seen so far) and talked about Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, or Little Red Riding Hood. Then I had 1.5 hours of SVT T.P. which is when we do experiments. Today we smashed two different types of leaves on to one piece of paper; leaves from plants that had been grown in the dark, and leaves from plants that had been grown in artificial light. Then we put the tip of the paper in water for 20 minutes and when it was done, the color from the leaves had been sucked up by the water further up the paper. Then we had 1.5 hours for lunch, today it was meatballs which tasted sort of funny, and mashed potatoes which werent bad. Then I also ate bread, cheese, and a piece of fake apple pie. After lunch I had two hours of chemistry T.P. where we did an experiment with acid and bases and I have no clue what else. The Chemistry and Physics teacher is a nice person, but a strict teacher, so I dont really have much fun in that class because no one has time to explain things to me and I dont understand what she is talking about. Then I had an hour break where I went to the CDI (library) and did pretty much nothing. Finally, I had one hour of History and Geography and then I finished and came home. This weekend and a little bit of next week (the 5th - the 9th) is the Fete de Lumieres in Lyon. I have asked people a bunch of time what exactly it is, but they mostly respond with 'oh its this thing where everyone walks around and looks and the lights of the city'... I guess I will find out. I am going with Ingrid, and maybe Justine and Chloé Saturday night.
I have a Bac Blanc soon (the 12 of Dec.) which is where we get up early on a Saturday and take a practice test (that actually counts in our final grade) for four hours. It is in French about the French subject (that is the only bac I will be taking this year because I am in Premier Sciences). So, I guess I will see how that goes as well. After that though, Julie (host cousin) invited Laura and I to a 'crepe party' at her house. I think she said that only us and Lola and Sinon (other host cousins) will be there this time. So I cant wait to eat some crepes:)

Thanksgiving and week before

OKay, so I have been super busy and havent found time to write, actually j'ai eu la flemme (I was too lazy:) )
Friday (the 18th) I went to New Moon with Olivia and Justine and two other girls I dont really know. Here they call it Twighlight 2 or Tentation. It was in English with French subtitles. Then on Saturday I woke up early to go the the small Montchat market with Claire (I also realised a couple days ago I have been spelling it Monchat, when its really Montchat..oops!) I really like the market because everything is fresh and its like a little piece of the country in the middle of a big city:) That night Michel and Claire went to a party and Laura and I stayed home and ate a dinner of ravioli (but with the flower of a courgette (zucchini) in the middle) freshly bought from the market that morning, and watched the Davinci Code (in English because Laura had never seen it and wanted to understand it). Sunday morning I wrote a french essay on the life in Alaska, and then we (Claire, Michel, Laura and I) picked up Claires mother and drove to a small town called Anthon to eat lunch at a restaurant that serves grenouille (frog). It wasnt bad, but we ate off the bones and there were bones of the frogs spine and that was a little gross. Other than that it was good, the restaurant was the Rhone river, thought the scenery wasnt extremely beautiful because the day was pretty grey.
Monday I had three classes and then went to Lauries house to eat lunch. We started to watch Seven Pounds (an American movie with Will Smith) but it stopped working about half an hour in. So we watched tv and talked and Anne Sophie came over after a little while.
Tuesday, there was supposed to be a teacher/student strike so some of our teachers didnt show up, but we were prewarned. Early Tuesday morning someone sent out a mass text saying there were riotors in front of the school, but we I got there with Ingrid and Chloé, nobody was there. It was dissapointing:( Because 2 of my teachers werent there, I ended up having 3 hours for lunch, so Ingrid Chloé and I came back to my house and ate lunch and then went over to play a game at Ingrids house (she lives on the same street as me) which is similar to the Wii, but she left the camera thing in her moms car, so we played babyfoot (fooseball) until it was time to go back to school.
Wednesday I had four hours of school and then came home for lunch. After that, Michel left to visit a friend who is sick near Marseille. I went to the store and bought some things for Thanksgiving. Though I ended up making evaporated milk and puréing my own pumpkin for pumpkin pie. It turned out good though, I am eating a piece right now:) Then I went to dance class and we finished learning the dance to Men In Black and started another one. I have never seen Men In Black, so I think I should probably watch it soon!
On Thursday, I had school, but my Chem-Physics teacher was absent so I ate a kebab with Ingrid and Alexys. A kebab here is not the same as in America. Or at least not what my vision of a kebab is. I think of a long wooden skewer with meat, cheese, maybe fruit poked onto it. Here, a kebab it a ginormous pita pocket filled with lettuce, onions, tomatos, and shredded meat. Then we went to Ingrids house and played the Wii-like game. It was cool because the camera (she had forgotten the other day) hooked onto the tv and then we appeared on the tv and played in the games! Then I called my parents because it was Thankgiving morning in Alaska!! They told me they had just gotten snow, while here there is no chance of snow for a very longgggggggggggg time. Normally it snows once or twice a winter here, though someone told me that it didnt snow at all last winter! Luckily I am going into the Alps for Christmas, so there will be snow there! It was strange going to bed knowing my family was going to be celebrating Thankgiving soon, and then wake up and know that it was over. It was like I had missed the whole thing twice; once by not physically being there, and again by not being awake while it was going on!
Friday I had a full day of school and then I went to buy sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner, because I hadnt had any luck finding yams. I went to a small épicerie (veggie and Fruit shop, I think) and asked for sweet potatoes. The lady then asked me if they were for Thanksgiving. I told her yes (though a little confused, because no one here celebrates Thanksgiving) and that I am American. She then laughed and said 'I know!!'...I had forgotten about my accent:)
Saturday I pretty much cooked all day:) Though Claire helped me a lot! I made the pies first thing in the morning (pecan, pumpkin, and chocolate cream). For the crust, I used all butter, because apparently shortening doesnt exist in France, so they gave me a little trouble, but they were fine in the end. Then I made stuffing (farce in French), sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, mashed potatoes and gravy (which was not lumpy fyi Uncle John!:) ), the turkey of course, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Everyone really LOVED the rolls, they thought it was hillarious we eat bread that doesnt really have a crust on it! We ate at 9:30 pm because when I told Claire we normally eat Thanksgiving dinner at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, she said non, non c'est pas possible! (no, no thats not possible!) Haha, no one ever eats dinner here before 8 pm. Justine, Ingrid, Anne Sophie, Chloé, and the god-mothers of Victor and Théo ate dinner with us, and we finnished at about 11:30! It was very differnt than in Alaska, but a good experience. Though next year, I will be extremely happy to make some pies and be done!!
Sunday (yesterday) I slept in til 11 and then tried to understand my math homework (barycenters, and now derivitives) but I didnt get very far. Then we ate a lunch of leftovers and biked to an art exposition. It was of dinner ware, jewelry, furniture, baby clothes, just lots of random booths. They had some cool stuff, but everything was really expensive. Then we biked to a movie theater and watched Vincere which was about the first wife of Mussolini. It was all in Italian with French subtitles. It was easier to understand with the subtitles in French, than with just people speaking in French because I could read the words and look at the actors' actions and pretty much understand the entire story. Then we came home (though it was raining so Claire picked us up with Michels car) and ate dinner in front of the tv and watched another movie. Though this one was not as serious; Le Diable S'habille en Prada (The Devil Wears Prada) :)
Today I went to school for four hours and then came home and ate a lunch of Thanksgiving leftovers with Laurie because she really wanted to eat Thanksgiving food but wasnt able to come on Saturday. Then we watched part of Seigneur des Anneaux (Lord of the Rings). We now have less than three weeks until vacances de Noel (Christmas vacation)!

I always think of a million things to write in here during the day, but when I finally make it to the computer, I have forgotten all of them:)
So Tuesday I had an oral test in Euro-Anglais which is the physics-class-in-english and before that test I had a 1/12 for the entire trimester because the teacher counts the times that we talk in class (because the class is for progressing in English, not really to learn a subject) and I wasnt talking because I already speak English and didnt want to take up the other students time to talk. However, the teacher informed me that I have no excuse and should be talking all the time, so on Monday I talked a lot, so hopefully I have a better grade now. I went to Lauries house for lunch and ate cauliflower and brought some fudge for her. Her brother (I think he is ten) was home too because he is sick with the swine flu. Then I had to write an essay on if I think litterature reflects real life or not in French class. The teacher also gave me an essay topic to write about, 'How I feel about life in Alaska', so I will do that this weekend. I also learned Tuesday that it is completely normal to throw trash out the window. Somebody in my class threw gum and then paper out the window!! When I asked him what if it hit somebody, he said it was the french way and they should be careful where they walk!!:)
Today I had two hours of math. Right now we are studying barycenters and I dont understand anything. All the teacher says is vecteur AB plus vectuer MG égal (=) vecteur PA...ect. I have no idea where she gets all these letters from, I think she makes them up:) Then I had two hours of badmitton, which was fun. Then school was over and I came home and ate lunch with Laura (who has been sick for two days), Michel, and Michels friend Gilles. Claire went to Paris for the day to attend a teacher workshop. After lunch I tried to start that French essay, but only wrote down a few ideas. Then I went to dance class, and this time, there were more kids there my age. Its pretty cool, we are actually learning a dance and the teacher is really nice. I think we are preforming the dance(s) (maybe we will learn more than just one) at the end of June. After dance class I rode home with a bike I borrowed from Michel, in a tanktop, and its the middle of November!! It has been super warm here lately, about 55 or 60 degrees F, I think is what 13-16 C translates to. This weekend hopefully I will be able to complete the list of ingredients I will need for Thanksgiving dinner, and then have Claire look at it and see if I can find all of them.

No Title

After Armistice Day, Thursday and Friday were long school days. Yesterday I got up late and went to Carrefour to look for Thanksgiving ingredients with Laura, while my host dad went biking, and my host mom went to the theater for 11 hours!-(Though I am not really sure why). I found marshmallows and that was about it! Though I wasnt looking very hard because apparently, that is the place to be on a Saturday afternoon-there were so many people there you could hardly walk! Last night I made fudge with the marshmallows I bought, (I guess I will just have to buy more for the sweet potato cassarole:) )though it didnt turn out right, maybe because I couldnt find the evaporated milk, though my family said they liked it.

Today, I got up and tried doing some homework, though didnt get any done. Then my host dad asked if I wanted to go biking with him, and (stupidly) I said yes. We started off from our house at about 2:00 pm, so no driving this time, and then found what is probably the one dirt trail with rocks in Lyon...not sure why he likes those so much! But, again, the view was really pretty. The trail went along side the Rhone canal, and then on the way back the actual Rhone river and a really big park with huge trees sporting really pretty, colorful leaves. We got back after dark at about 6:00 pm. Along the way, we stopped at Michels brothers house. The whole family was there (Michels brother, his wife and their three kids). The youngest kid is a girl and only 15 months old, she is super cute!! Then they have a boy whose about 5 or 6 and another girl whose 10. I also found out that the 6 year old boy can speak better French than me!:)
I actually started this post yesterday, but didnt have time to finish it, so now it is Monday. Today I started school at 9:00 because our first class is a 'demi-groupe' class, which means only half the class attends it, and then the next hour the other half of the class has the same class with the same teacher who teaches the same subject, seems like a waste of time to me, but we changed the group who stars first this week, so now I get to wake a little later each Monday. Or at least until we change again. So the first class I had was math, then french, then math again, and then the English assistant. Then I came home and ate french toast and nutella for lunch:)

Armistice Day

Today is Armistice Day in France. We dont have school, and most people dont work, though some large stores are open. Armistice Day (aka Remembrance Day) became a national holiday to remeber the armistice treaty signed between France and Germany at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month (11:00am on November 11) in 1918. This day is celebrated in the US also, though known as Veterans Day.
Last Saturday, I woke up too early to take the train to a small town called St. Etienne for the AFS day. This time, the Rhone Alpes Region of AFS kids was split in two because there are about 35 people total. The other half of the kids went to Grenoble. First, we walked through an old coal mine, had lunch in a different building that one of the parents had prearranged for us, and then went bowling. It was fun to talk lots of English and see how everyone else is doing. Most people were fairly happy, with just minor problems with their host families. One girl from Switzerland is getting ready to leave (in two weeks), because her program is just for three months! Then Laura and I took the train back to Lyon and the bus back to our house. Saturday night we at a TV dinner, though no, not one of the frozen ones, we just had dinner in front of the TV because there was a movie on that Michel wanted to watch, though I forget the name and what it was about:). Sunday I slept in until about 10:30 which is pretty late for me here, though in Alaska it would be really early:) Then I went to a movie with Michel and Claire which was very strange, even for a French movie. Michel told me afterwards that he had no idea what had happened:) Then I called my parents in Alaska, and then went to sleep.
Monday, I had a math test, though halfway through it my stomach started hurting really bad. I finished the test and went to an hour of French and then decided I better go home (the only classes I had left that day were one more hour of math and one hour with the English assistant, which I figured I could miss). So I went home and slept, and when I woke up, I felt completely normal. Which was good!
On Tuesday, yesterday, I had a long day of school. Its strange because when I get out of school at 6:00 its dark outside. Last night we watched a movie about Alaska my parent sent to my host family. My host parents really loved watching the whales swim and parts of the glacier fall into the ocean, though my host dad did ask if we milked caribou in Alaska, like cows!:)
Today, I slept in a little and then had the intention of having a really productive day...so far (is 5:00 pm) that hasnt really happened:) I wanted to make french toast (haha irony!) for breakfast today, but we were out of bread (its a French persons worst nightmare) and my host mom quickly went to the store to get more, but I just decided to eat cereal. Then I read one of the little books in a little kids comic series called Max et Lilli, and then my host mom took Laura and I shopping at a store called Kiabi. I bought a pair of new pants (because two of my old pairs dont fit anymore!) and a sweater.Then we came back and had a big lunch of chicken, a cheesy potato dish, bread (of course), chocolate mouse (made by my host mom), and a apricot and pistachio tart which my host dad bought somewhere earlier today. Then I tried to study for a chemistry and physics test I am going to have on Friday, but I didnt understand any of my notes, and now I am on the computer:) I have also started researching recipes for Thanksgiving dinner which I will make for my family on the 28th (saturday) because I have 10 hours of school on the actual day of Thanksgiving, which doesnt leave much room for cooking dinner! I have not looked in the biggest food stores yet, but I have not found key Thanksgiving ingredients in the smallar ones in Monchat, such as pumpkin purée for pumpkin pie, jello powder for a jello fruit salad, marshmallows and brown sugar for the yams, etc. Maybe this Saturday I will have time to go to a large grocery store to look for all the yummy processed food I need to buy to create my Thanksgiving dinner!:)

No more vacation

These past two days have seemed super long. 8:00am to 6:00pm both days, but now the weekend is here!
Thursday I took a SVT test I didnt know I was going to have, so Im pretty sure the grade it horrible. I got my French test back, I got a 7/20, not bad...:). I played with the liver of a pig in SVT with Laurie. Today I learned about the indigenous people of Australia and Canada and how the government treated them a long time ago (they took half caste and quarter caste children from their families for 'their own good') in English. I had two and a half hours of physics and chemistry which, if you ask me, is WAAAAAAAAY too long, I have a really hard time sitting still and pretending to be interested in what the teacher is talking about, especially during physics because I dont know anything about that subject. My history-geography teacher is back too! No more beaver!:) She told us why she was gone for so long: she was really sick and was in the hospital to get two organs (not sure which ones) surgically removed. Even though she went through all of that, and doesnt look like she feels really great, she is still really nice and I think she is my favorite teacher.
I have sort of been slacking on my promise to recount the food we have been eating (because it is such a large part of the culture). The truth is, we dont always eat something homemade or new, so I stopped for a while because I didnt want to keep repeating things. So, my host mom will sometimes buy frozen couscous at Carrefour (the large walmart store, which she recently told me she detests because its so large and hard to find things in:) ) or frozen brocoli or celery purée, which sounds disgusting, but is really good when heated up and spread on bread.
In Italy we ate a LOT of pasta and pizza. That was pretty much the main thing the restaurants served, though you could definitely find meat, I prefered ordering different types of pasta, and because I dont speak Italian, it was always a surprise to see what I ordered. Though it was all very good. I was somewhat disappointed because I think Rome and Florence have such a great population of tourists, there are a lot of tourist fast-food places, and the real Italian home-cooked-meal places are a little more difficult to find.
Back here, we have been eating pretty much the same, lots of lapin (rabbit:( ), llooots of bread, the other night my host mom made a pot of smooshed squash which was very good, poulet (chicken), salad, cheese. Also, the school where my host mom works has a special program for kids who want to cook, so every now and then, she will buy something of what they have made and bring it home for us to eat. Tonight it was a tarte au pommes (apple pie), though they have also made quiche and other dishes.
Tomorrow I am going to a museum and bowling with other AFSers. I am excited to see them again, but not excited to be getting up at 6:30 am on a Saturday morning. Its almost 10:00pm now, so I should really go to bed!

Telephone

I answered the phone today! I understood the person on the other line, and they understood me!!! They were asking for my host mom, who was not home at the moment. Just a little piece of exciting news:)

Italy Pictures

The first picture is of Laura and I at the Roman Colosseum, then the Pantheon, Vespas!, an Italian meat shop, and a bridge in Florence.

Italy

At 8:30 Sunday (the 25th) morning, my host parents, Laura and I headed to Florence, Italy, in my host dads car. We actually got to sleep in a little later than I had anticipated because France has a time change too, and I think all of Europe does (or at least the countries in the European Union). We stopped around 12:30 for lunch at a small Italian town, the restaurant was called Trattoria Del Peso, everyone was served the same thing. That 'same thing' however, consisted of 12 courses! No joking, the meal took three hours. There were also two plates, one bowl, three forks, two spoons, one knife, and three glasses. Throughout the meal, we were served five wines, two were white, one was red, one was a 'cleanser' wine which was EXTREMELY strong and called grappa, and the last was a 'cooked' wine which was sweeter and a redish brown color. After lunch, we continued to drive to Florence and arrived at about 9:00 pm. The hotel we stayed at was called Accademie, and was very nice, though it was like a maze to try to find our room!
Monday we ate a complimentary breakfast at the hotel, then walked through a church, a museum, the climbed up 400 something staires to the top of Campanile di Giotto and took some pictures of the city. Then we walked through about church-turned-museum place, ate some gelatto and returned to the hotel. We went to dinner at a restaurant called Zà-Zà.
Tuesday we first went to a museum, but learned we needed reservations, so we made them for the afternoon, and then went to a really cool authentic Italian market. I bought some Italian olive oil and dried herb seasoning for pasta for my family in AK, though they will have to wait to eat it until July:) Then we walked around in a large chuch and then went back to the same indoor market for lunch, then ate some gelatto, then went to the museum we had previously made reservations for. Side note: my host dad really REALLY likes history and all things that tell it (such as museums, churches, etc.) after about the third church and museum, I think my host parents figured out I dont exactly LOVE them. So Claire said that if I finished walking through the museum early, I could wander around the city by myself and make my way back to our hotel by 6 or 7! So I walked through the museum, though I have to admit I didnt really read the signs much, just looked at the sculptures, and then wandered (and got a little lost:) ) through Florence, and eventually found my way back to the hotel. Then the others werent back yet, so I did some homework. When everyone else got back, we went to a restaurant called La Lampara.
Wednesday we got up and headed straight for Rome. We stayed in a large apartment located a little to one side of the Tiber River. It only took about two hours to drive to Rome, so the rest of the day we walked around the area called Old Rome, and we walked through the Pantheon! Then we ate dinner at a restaurant called Cul De Sac, which is apparently known for their wines, which is why my host dad really wanted to eat there.
Thursday we went to the Vatican! It was a little more exciting to me because I had actually heard of it before, unlike the other museums we had walked through. We first went to St. Peters Basilica, and then to the Vatican Museum which led us into the Sistine Chapel. Then we ate lunch at a pizzaria and then walked up 560 staires to the top of the Cupola.
Friday we went to the Roman Colosseum, ate lunch, then went to two churches, then ate gelatto, then went to another church.
Saturday, we took the train to a beach on the Mediterranean Sea. The beach was really close to the road and it wasnt very pretty because you could see bilboards, etc. The air was cool and the water was cold so we didnt stay long. I brought back a bag of sand and some shells though:) Then we ate lunch and took the metro-bus part way back, but stopped at an ancient sea-port town that was pretty much in ruins. Not many of the brick buildings had roofs and most of the upper parts of the walls were missing. Then we went to an Italian sausage/cheese/pastry shop and I bought some very Italian noodles (the man told me they were very Italian!!) Then we went to a restaurant called Marios, where we were serenaded by a goofy guy playing the guitar and singing.
Sunday we were on the road by 8:30, stopped twice for gas, bathroom breaks (though they say pee-pee even for adults here:) ), and to eat, and made it back chez nous at about 6:40 pm.
Today I slept in because we dont have school again til Thursday, and tonight Laura and I are going to a party our host cousin is throwing and then spending the night at her house.

TWO WEEK VACATION!!!

Yay!!!! I have a two week vacation now and its not even Christmas yet!!! I could definitely get used to this.


Anyways, I think I wrote on Monday. So, Tuesday, I went to McDonalds for lunch with Chloé and Laurie. It is different here. For one thing, they call it McDos, and another 'McDos' has cake here! And espresso. But that is just in the front of the very fancy McDonalds (no bright red and yellow colors here, just nice dark browns and greens) in the back, there is a person who takes you order, and then you walk up to another counter to get your food. In literally 10 seconds. They must be familiar with the lunch rush, because that was FAST food.


On Wednesday, I had a control (test) in math, and since I dont have math class after wednesday in my schedule, I thought I wouldnt know the grade until I got back from the vacation. For some reason, one of the kids got a hold of all the math tests after the teacher graded them and handed them back to everyone, guess what I got? I GOT AN 11 OUT OF 20!!! YAY! Needless to say, I was very excited. Whats more, the teacher had to know that I didnt copy because I got a better grade than the person I was sitting next to when I took the test!:)
After the control, I had a 'presentation' in acrosport. My group consisted of four people and we made three figures. That was my last class ever of acrosport, because after the break, we move on to badmitton.
After school Wednesday, I had my first dance class. I think it was suposed to be modern jazz. I actually knew someone in the class (the whole class consisted of four other girls and one teacher:) ) Her name is Lisa, she is a friend of Laurie and I had met her before. The class was fun, and I think I will sign up for the entire year.

Thursday the bus to school was late in arriving, and I got detention again. Though I dont mind because that means I dont have to listen to one of my teachers talk for an hour. Another girl in my class, Jennifer, was also late, and we started talking. The CPE guy (the same one who told us earlier to stop working when we had a free period) came over and yelled at us for talking and told us to get to work....he is one strange man.
The chemistry-physics teacher was absent that day, so I went to Lauries house for lunch.
Thursday night, I watched a movie with Claire called Coupe de Foudre à Notting Hill (in English it is just Notting Hill) with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. I was too tired to watch all of it, so I ended up going to bed half way through it:)

Yesterday (Friday) I had two hours of English, two and a half hours of Physics and Chemistry, the half an hour for lunch, two hours of TPE, in which we searched online for symetry in the human body, in French, so it was a little confusing for me, but I learned some new words. The I had one hour free, so I went to get birthday card for Claire because it was her birthday yesterday. Then one hour of History and Geography and then I was done! Though every Friday, half our class has a second hour of History and Geography, so Ingrid and I waited for Chloé and Justine because this week it was their turn to have the second hour. We played word games in French to widen my vocabulary, and then some kids found out I was from Alaska and came over to ask me so really weird questions. When Justine and Chloé finished, we went to a boulangerie to get pain au chocolat to celebrate the start of the vacation:)
For Claires birthday dinner, the guests included the godmothers of Théo and Victor, another friend of Claires and Théo. The godmothers and the other friend only stayed for appetizers, and then Claire, Michel, Théo, Laura and I ate a dinner or oysters (Claires favorite), JUMBO shrimp, uncooked salmon, potatoes, and a chocolate cake with passion fruit syrup, it was all really good. Though I didnt really like the oysters, I think they take some time to get used to.
Today, I went to the supermarket and walked through the small Monchat market, I just cant get over how cool it is!!:) I still need to pack, and then tomorrow we leave at 8:00 am by car headed for Florence, Italy.

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Saturday morning I got up early to call my parents for a chicken noodle soup recipe. I decided it was a pretty Amercian recipe and fairly easy to make. I went to the small Monchat market with Laura to pick out ingredients. I bought two onions, five carrots, and a large bunch of celery, and it only cost around 2€50! Maybe everything isnt really expensive here..
When we got back to the house, I made chocolate chip cookies, with REAL chocolate chips this time (not just a cut up chocolate bar) and then took the bus to Grange Blanche to meet Laurie and Chloé to go shopping. Chloé ended up having too much homework, so Laurie brought along a friend, Leah. Leah was really shy or something and because I couldnt speak French fluently, she pretty much didnt talk to me. She would ask Laurie questions about my life, and then Laurie would just repeat them to me in French...she is the second person whose done that to me so far! I dont know, maybe I intimidate them somehow:) Anyways, I bought a 'manteau', or peacoat, which turns out not to be very warm, as I wore it this morning, but its pretty and I like it. Friday evening, I made the soup with Laura and Sophia (she was able to come after all!). Then Ingrid, Justine, Laurie, and Chloé came and we ate dinner and talked until midnight. I was very tired by the end.
Sunday, Claire, Michel, Laura, Sophia and I drove two hours to the Alpes to climb a mountain. I originally asked what the name of it was, but Michel said it really fast with a strong french accent, so I really have no clue what it is. We climbed the mountain with two friends of Claire and Michel. The hike was tough, but 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 times better than biking with Michel:) This time, I was the second to reach the top, and the first down! Claire and Michel didnt make it to the top, but we met them on the way down. And this time, I remembered my camera!!! The final altitude of the climb was 2,660 meters which translates to about 8,727 feet. We obviously didnt start at 0 altitude, but I think it was about 1,500 meters where we started? I may have misunderstood. We started the climb at 9:45 and ended at 4:00. It actually hurt worse coming down, because my toes smashed against the front of my shoes. We got back to the house about 6:45 and Sophia's host mom came to pick her up soon after. Then Laura and I ate dinner and went to bed at about 8:30 because we were so tired!:)
This morning I had one hour of math and then a two hour break because my French teacher was absent. I went to Lauries house with her and Olivia to finish some geography homework and then started my math homework. Then I had another hour of math, and one hour of 'English Assistant' (I cant remember if I already explained it or not, so I will) which is when we have class for an hour with a person who doesnt speak French and their first language is English. The teachers name is Katie and she is from Vancouver I think. She is about 23 years old and is here to learn French because she wants to be a French teacher. That was my last class of the day. This week is my last until the two week vacation, but it is not the end of the first trimester. Now I will go get my camera to post pictures:)

Long week

Its been a while since I last wrote. Thats because I normally write on Wednesdays, but wednesday was my birthday and I didnt have the time to write:)



Before I write about my week, I have another interesting fact: people here actually say Oh la la (or sometimes just Oh la (I think its the manly version:D)), however, they dont say it when they are happy, like I had previously though, or when they are in awe. They say it when they are frusterated or fed-up.



It has been getting colder here, and fairly windy. About 35-45 degrees fahrenheit, depending on the time of day. Apparently, the French dont believe in heating buildings much; both my house and school have been about the same temperature as outside! I only brought one pair of thick socks, so I havent changed my socks in three days:). Haha, tomorrow though, I am going shopping with Laurie, Laura, and Chloé and I and going to buy slippers and warm sweaters!



Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful, just school and home and sleep.

Wednesday was my birthday. I had four hours of school; two of math, and two of acro sport, where I learned we will have to present our four and two person figures next week, and that also marks the end of acro sport (yay!), next up is badmitton, which I think will be a little more fun. After school, I came home and ate lunch with my host parents and Laura. Claire then told me where I could find a supermarché (super market, grocery store) to buy ingredients to make an american style cake, because she had a lot of work to do that afternoon. That was just fine for me, I have missed baking:) So I decided to make a recipe from my Grandmas cookbook which is called Johns Easy Chocolate Cake. Yes, it is easy if you are in the US using cups and teaspoons, but here, all they use are grams. So I translated it as best I could, and set out for the supermarché. It is about 5 or 6 blocks from my house, and I found and bought everything all by myself! When I got home, I realized that 'sucre poudre' in not, in fact, powdered sugar, but granulated sugar. So, I had to go back to get some 'sucre glace', (powdered sugar). The cake turned out fine, I didnt set a timer because I have no clue how, and so I overcooked it a little, but everyone really like it. The 'everyone' who came to dinner, was my host parents, Laura, Théo, Théos girlfriend, the godmother of Théo, and the godmother of Victor. We had cheese stuffed redpeppers for appetizers, and then meat for dinner, with four different kinds of sauces my host mom made, it was delicious. The meat was uncooked, completely (but just at first;)), it was really interesting, because Claire set a electric griddle in the middle of the table and put just a little bit of salt on it. Then passed around the plate of meat (beef, duck, and fowl), then everyone just stuck their piece of meat on the griddle and let it cook as long as they wanted. I thought that was a pretty nifty way to make everyone happy with their meat. Afterwards, we ate cake. Since we couldnt find any birthday candles, they lit seventeen small round candles and set them on a plate. Claire took pictures, so I will upload some later. I received a livre de gateaux (dessert cookbook) from the godmothers of Victor and Théo, perfume from Michel, and a Tshirt with the saying 'les temps de ceries' on it, which means, 'the time of the cherries' which is a very well know saying and has historical roots, but I didnt understand the full explanation. It was late when I got to bed Wednesday night, about 12:00 am, which is the latest I have stayed up on a school night yet. Usually I just go to bed right after dinner because I am so tired:) Over all, my birthday in France was a very fun and memorable day.
On Thursday, it was pretty much just a normal day. Though at lunch, we were sitting next to the line of students waiting to get their trays and I heard a girl talk. The strange thing is, I could actually understand her, so I got really excited! But just then, Ingrid turns to me and says, 'do you see that girl over there?' (the same one I could understand) 'she is an exchange student too', and I asked her how she knew, she said it was because she talked so slowly and had such a strange accent!!! There goes my happy moment:) Anyways, I actually have been able to understand more and more in class and even when my friends talk rapidly, just not everything yet.
This evening, my host mom made a yummy pot of seafood, there were very small shrimp (the size of my pinky), normal shrimp, octopus, some smushy white thing I didnt understand the explanation of, and it was all in a really yummy sauce. I asked what the sauce was made out of, and Claire told me white wine and crème fraiche, and then stopped. I asked her if that was all, and she said no, but didnt say what else, so maybe its a secret, I dont know. Then we ate green beans with a red sauce. Then fromage, and then some Alaskan Polar Bear Kisses. Because, today I got my birthday box from my parents:D!!! It was very exciting. I got a 72 oz costco size bag of chocolate chips and when Claire asked it if was so big because it was for the whole year, all I could do was laugh:) I was finally able to tell her that my family goes through one of those in two weeks, but I dont think she believed me! I also got a necklace, cards (thank you to everyone who wrote in them), other candy, and pictures!! I showed my host family the pictures and they were very impressed with the Alaskan wildlife (a moose in my front yard) and the scenery (the moss hills and blueberry bushes at my cabin).
Tomorrow, I am having a small party with my friends from school and hopefully one AFS student, Sophia, whos host mom my host mom is talking to right now, trying to work things out because she lives in a different town. My host parents said they are going to go to a movie and dinner, while I have my party. For the party, I am going to make a American dinner, though I havent really figured out what yet, and dessert. Chloé said she would also bring some dessert, which was supposed to be a surprise but she said it in French really fast and though I wouldnt understand, but I did:) (I told you my french has improved!). Sunday, my host family is hiking up a mountain. I was told it is four hours to the top, we will have a picnic and then three hours down. It is a two hour drive each way. I was also told I didnt have to go, but that 'say no to nothing' voice in the back of my head told me I should go:) So, I am going, along with the AFS student (hopefully) who will spend the night because of the distance between towns, I think, though my host mom is STILL talking to her host mom! Anyways, I will do my best to NOT forget my camera this time, take some victory pictures when I get to the top, and post them later. Now it is late and I am tired, so I should go to bed, if anyone has any idea on a easy American meal, I would love to hear them. I think I will check this in the morning before going to the store to get ingredients. Please leave a comment, I need ideas:)

Picture Difficulties

Sorry for the picture captions on the blog post below, I tried to get them under the picture, but it isnt cooperating.

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The Saone River

Cheese!!!! (again :) ) The yellow blocks in the top right are Comte!!

This is the Velo'v bike system is Lyon. To use, you scan a

card in the machine at right, take a bike, and drop it off at

one of the other 200 stations in Lyon!!

This is the Saone Market on the Saone River

Saturday afternoon, my host dad, Laura and I went to a museum and walked through two parts. The first was an art exhibit, the artists were children and adults who are mentally slow. Most of the paintings were very well done, to my standards I guess, but I am not really an artists. Then we walked through an exhibit which chronicled the French resistance of WWII and Hitler. It was very interesting, but long. The picture discriptions and articles were in French and English. I started reading them in French, and then in English, just to see if I understood, but then I got too tired, and just read them in English. After the museum, we met up with Claire outside of a movie theater and saw a movie called Mères et Filles (= Mothers and Daughters). It was about a young woman deciding what to do about her pregnancy, while her mother found out the truth about her parents separating during her childhood. At the end of the movie, neither of the problems were resolved, it was a completely different ending than you might have seen in the US. After the movie, we went to an Italian restaurant where I ordered noodles with a red sauce, cheese, and vegetables, and panna cotta with red fruit coulis for dessert.

Sunday we went to a larger market, called the Marché de Saone (Saone is one of the two rivers that run through Lyon, the other is the Rhone). It had all the same stands as the Monchat market on one side of the river, and then on the other, it had material goods, like paintings, jewelry, and clothing. Claire had a friend who had a painting table set up, so we met him, and she got a painting that she had previously picked out from his collection. After walking around the market for a couple hours, Laura, Claire and I had lunch at a restaurant. I had a Salade Lyonnais which consisted of green lettuce, lardon (similar to bacon), croutons, and two partially cooked eggs on top. It was really good. Then we ate ice cream at a glacier (ice cream shop). After that, we went back home. Later that afternoon, Laurie and her two friends (one named Sarah, and the other I forgot her name) came over and I gave them a tour of the house, then we walked to a park, and then back to Sarahs appartment for a snack (Sarah lives on the same street I do).

Today in school, I got a math test back. I got a 2/20 :). Not good, but still better than my Chemistry and Physics test! My French teacher was back today, unfortunately, and I handed in my petit reduction (small essay). Tomorrow I have a test in History and Geography, so I have been studying for that..though it is hard to read my notes because half the words are spelled wrong!

I have two weeks left until a two week vacation from school!!

Dog Poop

Just a strange fact: NOBODY picks up their dogs poop here, they just leave it. Even if it is right in front of your gate!

Thurday was a long day, because I ended at six for the first time all week. I got my physics test back, and got a 1.5/20! I guess it can only get better from there!:) Friday the English teacher was missing, so for the first two hours of school my whole class went into this recreation room where we studied for the next classes test, Chemistry. Even though I have already taken chemistry in AK, its a bit different here. The names of the elements for one thing, and then also the method of the teacher. I didnt understand, so Laurie spend 1 hour and a half going over all the problems with me! Though some people were studying, most were not; playing music on their ipods or cellphone, or messing with the radio in the room. So, when our crazy CPE (principle-ish position) man walked in, he saw the majority of us playing instead of studying. So this is what he told us: since most people were playing, we all had to play! And he made everyone put away their homework and folders. I didnt understand, and didnt see everyone else put away their stuff, so then he came over to me and started talking really fast in french, and I just smiled at him because thats what I normally do when I dont understand:), so then he got even angrier, until Laurie told me to close my book and put everything away! I had heard he was crazy, but never though he would forbid students to do their homework!!

Anyways, I realized that I have not been talking much about French food, and that is a big part of the culture here!! So, I think I will start writing down what I have for dinner each day, because that is the most French of all my French meals. Breakfast here is usually the same, we eat fruit, cereal (Special K with chocolate:)), or hard commercial bread with homemade jam (fig, apricot, strawberry) or butter. Then lunch at school is French, but the main course is pretty much like anyother highschool. You can get yoghurt, a dessert, bread (they have huge baskets of it!), cheese most days, fruit, and then the main course which usually is a hot vegetable and meat. You eat at tables with your food on trays, and real silverware, real plates, and real glasses (which someone breaks about once every day). Okay, dinner:

On Wednesday night, we ate whole artichokes first, we pealed them apart and dipped each individual leaf-thing in a redwine vinegar-olive oil sauce. It was my first time eating a whole artichoke, and I though it was pretty good, though the heart was the best part! Then we ate a plateful of black mushrooms (sorry for my poor discriptions and lack of knowlege, I always ask what were having, they my host parents say the name so fast, I forget it right after they say it, and if I didnt I would have no idea how to spell it correctly, I will work on that though). Like always, we ate bread with dinner, and after the mushrooms, we had cheese and/or yoghurt.

On Thursday night, we ate rabbit with mushrooms, olives, and it was all in a red sauce. Then we ate noodles with parmesean cheese, and of course, bread and cheese/yoghurt/fruit.

Last night, we ate a greek salad, though it was not really salad as I am used to with lettuce, it had a creamy white sauce (I think maybe crème fraiche) and then ground up cucumber mixed in, and then chives on top. We ate most of it with bread, and then we ate a plateful of greenbeans, which they eat a lot of here, though I am not sure if it is just because they are in season or not. Afterwards, we ate cheese and bread.

Last night, Claire told us she was going to the outdoor market that happens every Saturday and Wednesday morning. (Claire always goes on Saturday mornings, and Michel goes on Wednesday mornings). I asked what time she was going, and she told me 8:30, and would like it if I went too! So, this morning I got up and went to the market, this time, I did not forget my camera, so I will download pictures soon. I asked her a bunch of questions, and found out that they always buy their bread, fruit, and vegetables at this market, never at the grocery store. The market is called Le Petit Marché de Monchat (Monchat just one small region of Lyon), and that it continues through winter and summer alike. There were mostly small tents of fruits and vegetables, but also about 3 or 4 stands of bread, 3 or 4 stands of flowers, 3 or 4 stands of cheese, 3 or 4 stand of meat, and one stand of woven bags and carpets. Claire told me that there is a larger market where there are more stands of material items, rather than just fresh produce, bread and cheese. We got our bread first. Surprisingly, they dont buy many baguettes, though there are plenty of people walking about the streets with one or two baguettes under their arm! They buy bread with poppyseeds or nuts in it, though it is always freshly baked and crusty, not like the smooshy wonderbread in the US. Claire bought about a foot long loaf of nut bread (fact: in the french language, they do not have a word for 'nut', you have to say the specific type of nut, though I am not sure what kind is in the bread), one long and skinny (though not a traditional baguette) loaf of poppyseed bread, and then one croissant, one pain au chocolate (croissant with chocolate in it), and one brioche. Before this, I had never really known what brioche was, it turns out, that it is a very light and fluffy bread that is put in a small starish shaped pan with a little ball of dough stuck on top to bake, its good, but I like croissants better:) Then we bought lettuce, potatos, apples, avocatos, cheese, and meat. There is a type of cheese here called Comte, it is a hard cheese and it is deeeeeelicious! We also eat Brie, Camembert, and a bunch of other cheeses I have yet to learn the names of.
This afternoon, we are going to an art exhibit and then my host dad bought the movie 'Fame' so we will watch that tonight. Tomorrow, we are going biking again, though definitely ON the road this time, I told my host dad that I would never again go off road biking with him:), to a restaurant that serves frog...at least that is what I understood.

Il fait du vent!

For the past couple of days it has been pretty windy here. Though, strangly, its warmer than before. Super warm actually, like 70 degrees. Tuesday was nice, I got out of school early because the French teacher is gone all week. Although I did finally have history and geography because we got a substitute. I guess if the teacher is gone for more than two weeks, the school hire a substitute. Our subsitute has a funny looking beard that, unfortunately for him, makes him look like a goat/beaver. He made us write our names on a piece of paper, kind of like place cards, so that he could call on us to read, I turned mine facedown so he wouldnt call on me:) Today was nice, as all Wednesdays are, because it was only four hours of school. The first two hours I took (pretended to take for the last hour) a math test that I didnt really understand, then acrosport. We have sort of moved on to circus stuff, like juggling with scarves and large ring things, and twirling a frisby disc on a wooden stick. Its actually pretty hard. After school, Laura and I went to place Bellecours to get the rest of our books (we got texts from the book shop saying they had our books). Claire didnt come with us this time, and it took us a while to understand and be understood by the books store clerks. But now, I have all my school books. Which means I should probably finish studying for my SVT (biology) test tomorrow, but instead I am on the computer. Claire also asked Laura and I if we wanted to do any extracurricular activities, so I may take a modern dance class. Now its dinner time, I dont know what were having but it smells delicious!!:)

AFS weekend

The AFS weekend has come and gone, and now I have been in Lyon for exactly 4 weeks and 1 day. Saturday morning I woke up at 8:30, for some reason it is difficult to sleep in here. I ate breakfast with Laura, and tried to start my french essay. The French teacher asked me to write an essay on my AFS experience so far. Then I packed my bag for the AFS weekend. There are two other girls who live in or very close to the center of Lyon (other than Laura and I), so one of the was dropped off at our house around 1:00 pm to catch a ride with us to the trainstation. We took the train (it was my first time on one!) to the small town of Anjou, which is about 1 and 1/2 hours away from Lyon by car. We were met in Anjou by some AFS voluteers who the drove us up to the chateau where we first met our host families. I had NO idea it was a real chateau. I thought it was just a big house and we were all going to cram into the living room to sleep. Nope. when we arrived we recieved our room assignments along with the name of our roomates. I was in room 2007. My roomates name was Isabella, from Austria. Each of the rooms had a separate toilet room and sink room with a shower. We dropped our stuff of and then went back down to the outside patio thing. This is the point in time when I began speaking English, and didnt stop until 4:00 pm the next day. It was awesome! I forgot what it felt like to actually be able to communicate and say what you want when you want! There were a lot of familiar faces and I exchanged information with a lot of people over the course of the weekend. There were about 40 AFS students total from the Collines-du-Rhone region. We all introduced ourselves and got name tags. One of the volunteers introduced herself as "I am Emeline, I spend a year in Anchorage, Alaksa, last year"(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) It was a crazy coincidence!! I talked to here later and told her that I remembered going to an AFS meeting where she did a presentation and made crepes with nutella! It was pretty cool. After that, we split into small groups and talked about how its going with our host families and school. I realized how lucky I am to have gotten such a great family and to have found friends already in school. Lots of kids were having problems with that. Then we had dinner and after that we were allowed to talk or wander around the grounds until midnight. I played games with a group of kids. The games were called ca touche: ca touche pas; ca touche pas: ca touche, black magic, and 4 is cosmic. They were all games where one person had played before, and knew the rules, and they would start spouting off numbers and we would have to figure out the rules to play. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of thinking for a Saturday night:). We got to bed by 12:30 and woke up at about 7:30 for breakfast, then we did energizers, such as let me see your funky chicken..I dont really know how to describe it, but you can find some AFS kids doing it under the eiffle tour on you tube, but Im not in it because my group was wandering off somewhere at that time, and other games like capture the flag with three teams but there is no flag. Then our host families came and brought pic-nics and we ate. So. Much. Food. I love all french food, I am going to be 50 lbs heavier by the time I get back to Ak! After we ate, the parents had a meeting, and the kids played more games. Then it was time to go home. It was a long car ride back, and I was glad when we finally made it. I finished my French essay, and then, even though I wasnt hungry, at dinner. We had quiche, which consisted of eggs, cheese, ham and bacon. It was good. My host mom also made apple tarts, but they were too hot to eat right away, and we were all tired (Laura and I because of the AFS weekend, and Claire and Michel because it was their friends 50th birthday party on Saturday night, and they stayed up til 5 am!!!) so we just ate the apple tarts for breakfast. Its normal here to eat leftover cake, pie, etc for breakfast:)
Today was a relaxing day. I had one hour of Math in the morning, which I actually finished my homework for (and it was right!!!), then I had a two hour break, it is normally just one, but the French teacher was absent today (so yes, I finished that essay for nothing!) and then we had one more hour of math and then one hour of English, though it was a new class that just started today. It is with a teachers assistant who speaks only English, she is from Vancouver, Canada, and is here to just talk to us and get us to speak more English (well not really me, but the French kids). After that, I took the bus home, ate some quiche for lunch and started this blog.

Differences

So, that math test I studdied for...I got a 2.5 out of 10! I was actually pretty happy with myself:) And today, I finished all the math homework without help from anyone, though only because I am familiar with what we are doing right now. In Chemistry today, I also got one problem right that my table partner didnt!!! It was very exciting, but once again, only because I learned it last year. Other than that, this school week was pretty normal. The bus drivers are still on strike, so I get rides to school with Chloé, her little sister, Ingrid and Laura, with either Ingrids mom, or Chloés dad. Then, because we arent on a time crunch, we take the bus home, or walk. Today after school, I took the bus with Ingrid and Chloé and then we walked into a little Papeterie to buy a cahier (small notebook) for me for tomorrows prep. bac class. Tonight, Claire has a reunion of some sort with kids who used to go to her college (middle school). Michel has a impromptu basketball game with some friends, so Laura and I are on our own for dinner:), I got home early because the professeur d'histoire et geographie was absent again. That is one difference from school in the US, here, they dont get substitues unless you go to a private school, you just end up not having class, which is more than desirable:) So, that was just one of the differences I have noticed here, and I have been keeping a list, so I will write them down so you can see too.
Keep in mind that these differences may be local, or even family customs, and may not represent all French lifestyles.
-My house has a very small room with a toilet, and a completely separate room with a sink and
bathtub
-My family eats bread at all meals, with everything, they mop up leftover food on their plate with it
-Crazy driving, 150 KM on the highway, no blinkers, swerve in and out of lanes, and sometimes drive half in one lane half in another
-Mostly stick shift cars, and not a bunch of smart cars like I though, mostly just compact cars, no trucks!
-No carpet in the house at all, very few rugs
-Everyone carries kleenex everywhere, because some bathrooms dont supply toilet paper
-They eat FAST, not slow as they are known to
-Most kids smoke before, after, and during breaks in school, and they dont just smoke regular cigarettes either..
-No clocks in the classrooms
-Dont dry clothes in a dryer, they hang them up
-Guests dont take off their shoes when they come into the house
-Most meals have courses, but for convienence, but I think I mentioned that in a previous post
-NO ONE brings their lunch to school. Everyone eats in the Cantine (calfateria), or goes home for lunch when time permits
-They have sheets on the beds, but they are wrapped around a larger comforter so it seems as though its one blanket
-The emergency trucks' sirens sound like the beginning of the happy birthday song..I know its weird
-Barely cook their meat, still oozes blood when cut
-No one does homework at school or at lunch
-Lots of kids have t-shirts with english words on them, barely anyone has them with french words
-Most school age kids use the bus for transport, lots of middle aged people use scooters:)
-Classroom doors are ALWAYS locked until the teacher gets there, and always locked when the teacher leaves
-Teachers encourage students to use Wikipedia
-They say 'donc' alot, which is the equivilent of 'so', they use it even when speaking in english:)
Okay, there is a lottttt more, but that is what I have noticed the most, sorry it is not in any kind of order, I just wrote it down in the order it was thought of.
One last thing; this weekend will mark my first month in France, and it also means the first AFS orientation. Laura and I are to meet up with another girl who also lives in Lyon , on Saturday, and take the train to where we first met our host parents, which is in a tiny village in I have no clue what area, but I will tell you when I find out. We are going to spend the night with 35 other AFS kids who are also in the Lyon, Rhone-Alps region. So that is all for now:)