Easter = Paques

Friday night we went to a dance preformance again, though this time it was more like a 7 person circus. It was really cool though, they built a stage that tilted in all directions and did their acts on that. We went out to dinner afterwards with two of Michel and Claires friends, who Laura and I had met before at Groix.

Saturday I spent the day with Sophia, the other American who lives in Millery, about 15 km from Lyon. She came by bus and we went shopping for some shoes for her and then got lost walking to a movie theater. We asked about four different people for help and they either just kept sending us in circles around where the actual theater was, or we didnt understand them. We eventually got there and saw Alice au Pays des Merveilles (Alice in Wonderland) in 3D. After the movie I tried to take the 3D glasses I had to pay 2 euros for home with me, but usher made me give them back.

Yesterday I spent the majority of my afternoon trying to write an introduction and conclusion to my groups TPE presentation which is tomorrow. We all got together after school today and finished our powerpoint presentation.

Tomorrow is supposedly Michels birthday, but he doesnt believe in celebrating birthdays, so Im not really sure what were going to do...

Yesterday we had a time change, so now our clocks are one hour later. It doesnt make it easier to get up in the morning, but its nice at night when it stays light longer.

This weekend is Easter, and in France, they get Easter Monday because Christianity is widely practiced in France, so we get Monday off from school! So Michel and Claire always to go a certain ski resort during this holiday. Its actually a ski resort on a glacier, so were going there this weekend and there is a type of lodge on the top of the glacier where were going to sleep.

Ants = Fourmis

Friday I made brownies during my three and a half hour lunch break and took them to school for all the kids in my class. After school, Ingrid and I walked with Chloé to the gym where she does gymnastics three times a week, and it happens to be the same place where Ingrid and I take dance. Then Ingrid and I walked back towards Rue de la Balme.
That night, Claire and Michel took Laura and I to a contemporary ballet preformance, the dancers were actually American. Afterwards, we decided to go to a new (to Claire and Michel) restaurant, La Tâche, we got lost for about half an hour, when we finally ate it was about 11:45 pm. The restaurant served charcuterie, cheese, and wine, and that was it! It was really good!

Saturday morning I woke up with a bunch of ants crawling in my doorway and at the base of the wall next to the door! We swept up the ants and then sprayed a product, now I just find dead ants who made it about a foot away from the hole.
That afternoon, I went shopping with Ingird to find some more pants.
Saturday night I watched a rugby game on tv with Michel, it was England vs France. Michel told me France calls people who play sports from England 'roast beef' because they turn pink/red in the sun.

On Sunday, Claires mom and Théo came over for lunch. We drank champagne outside to celebrate the first day of spring, though they opened the champagne before someone realized we had something to celebrate... In the middle of our meal it started pouring rain, but let up just in time for me to going biking with Ingrid and Chloé to the movies to see a French movie called L'Arnacoeur.

I have started reading Harry Potter in French. It takes me about half an hour to read two paragraphs because I decided I am going to look up every single word I dont know, and then reread everything to understand!

Winter is officially gone...for Alaskans. I went to school in a t-shirt this morning, but everyone else I saw was still wearing their winter coats and scarfs...

France is currently having regional elections, my region is Rhône-Alpes. There are 22 regions in total. I went with Michel to vote yesterday, though it was similar to the way Americans vote.

Chaussettes = Socks

Tuesday Michel told me why everyone here wears shoes in the house: they believe wearing just socks ruins them more quickly and makes white socks dirty, so they either wear shoes, slippers, or go barefoot.

Tuesday after lunch and inbetween our two hours of French class, we sat in the sun outside the school and talked. It only got a little bit cold when the wind blew, otherwise it was almost like Spring!! I taught them American games, like Down by the Banks of the Hankypanks :)

Michel took Mamadou to the vet, they said shes hurting because of a disease, not because of a cat fight. I disagree, there is no way she could get that hurt overnight from a disease she has suposedly had for a while now. Were giving her anti-inflamatory stuff right now, and if that doesnt make her better...I dont know.

Today, Laura went to Turin, Italy. Just for the day! She went with her Philosophy class. Laurie and Anne-Sophie went also, but left last night and they are staying until Saturday, and they went to Venice. I think its cool how you can just hop on over to another country for the day :)

We found out today that the niece of Claire and Michel, and her fiancé will get married on the 10th of July, the same day Laura and I leave Lyon...so that should be interesting.

I just got back from dance class where we worked on Thriller by Michael Jackson (French people say Triller :) ) and were starting to create the costumes for our dances, so I need to find so things for that soon.

Our presentation for TPE got pushed back to the 30th, so we have an extra week, which is good because we havent divided up the topic yet and Im going to need some time to create what is supposed to be a 5 minute speach. Though if I talk really slow, which shouldnt be a problem, I probably wont have to say much at all! :)

After this week, we have three more weeks until the next vacation!!! Time flies here :)
Fyi, it was supposedly 19 degrees celsius here today (67 degrees fahrenheit!!!)

Les Hiboux = Owls

(Les Hiboux is a text we are studying in French class right now, and at first I didnt know what a Hibou was so the teacher tried to draw a very strange looking creature on the board, which I later found out was an owl :) )

The second week of school after the vacation went fine. I got my TPE presentation date, Tuesday the 23 of March! Luckily, I we dont have enough time to have a practice presentation so I will just be presenting in front of several judges, not a hundred other students too!

Mamadou (our cat) had a 'lovers spat' (thats what Michel is calling it) with a neighbors cat, and I think she may have broken her leg, so shes going to the vet tomorrow

Michel left on Thursday to go skiing for the weekend, hes going to Greenland in April to do a real ski tour, I booked his tickets because everything was in English..so I really hope I got the right flights!
Claire went to a friends cabin this weekend because Laura had her birthday party yesterday, even though her birthday was the 12 of February.

I got a 10/20 in geography and a no-grade in math because my answers were so bad....whoever said math is easier than a writing subject in a foreign country was sorely mistaken.

I used paragraphs this time because somebody (sister Anna) pointed out to me that my writing is usually just a big blog and hard to read. So I hope this is more readable now :)

Traduction = Translation

Ok this is what I said last time:
So this week was really great! My history teacher was absent all week, meaning I had three hours for lunch on Tuesday! Tuesday morning, I lost my keys and I didnt have time to look for them, so i had to jump our 7' fence twice! Once to go to school and once when I came home for lunch, though luckily Michel found my keys before I left again. Tuesday evening, Aliane, Marie-Pierre, and Théo came over for dinner because Aliane and Marie-Pierre had just gotten back from Argentina where they met up with Victor traveled with him during his summer vacation from school.
Wednesday, my gym teacher was absent, so I finished at 10am! I went to dance for the first time in a month, but I didnt miss a lot, we havent finished our dance to Grease, so we have one and a half dances down in about 6 months, and we have 5 more to go in three months...I dont think well get there. Right now Im working with a group of girls and were making up a dance by ourselves.
Thursday I got my SVT test back, I didnt get a grade because it was so bad :( I guess I should study a little bit more next time. In TP in chemistry, we did something with a battery that I didnt really understand, then I finished school at 4pm because the history teacher was absent. I decided to walk home because I didnt know the way and I though it would be interesting. I didnt get lost either, and I think it might even be faster than the bus...
Today I had English and chemistry/physics. Two and a half hours of chemistry/physics is unbearable! But luckily after that I was done for the day because we are done with TPE and just have to present it now, and my history teacher was still absent. Then I caught the bus home with Ingrid and then she came over because her brother had her key. After lunch, I made a chocolate cake from a French book of Claires. It was good :) Michel left in the afternoon to go skiing in the mountains in the south of France with some friends. This weekend Claire and I are going to make macaroons again and try to make them better than the last time!
Other things: it was nice and sunny this week, but really cold (its funny how its only been about 35/40 degrees and I still think its really cold!) I am also sick, each time I turn my head upsidedown, it really hurt, and unfortunately we did that a lot during dance class on Wednesday. Also, something I found interesting: on Thursday morning Ingrids mom took us to school and somehow we started talking about weddings, and they told me that in France, people can only get married in a place called 'la mairie' (mayor) which I think is the mayors office, and they cant have their wedding in a church or another place. They can have a after-party there, but not the actual marriage.
Thats what I wrote last time, since then, Claire and I made macaroons flavored pistachio and chocolate. Pistachio is like the gourmet French dessert color and flavor right now. I think they taste a little weird, but they dont have any holes in them like last time!!

Bonne Chance! = Good Luck! :)

Donc, cette semaine était trop bien! Ma prof d'histoire était absente tout la semaine, ça veut dire que j'ai eu trois heures pour le déjeuner mardi! Mardi matin, j'ai perdu ma clé et je n'ai pas eu le temps de la chercher, donc j'ai sauté la barrière deux fois :) Une fois pour aller au lycée et une fois quand je suis rentré pour le déjeuner, heureusement, pendant mon déjeuner, Michel a trouvé ma clé :) Mardi soir, Aliane, Marie-Pierre, et Théo, ils sont venu pour le dîner, parce que Aliane et Marie-Pierre, elles sont revenu d'Argentine où elles ont vu Victor pendant ses grandes vacances d'été. Mercredi, mon prof de sport était absent, donc j'ai fini à 10h! Je suis allée à la danse pour la prémière fois dans un moi :) Mais, je n'ai pas raté beaucoup des choses. On n 'a pas fini la danse de Greece, ça fait une danse et demi qu'on a fait, on a cinq danse encore de apprendre, je ne pense pas qu'on va arriver. Mais maintenant, je travaille avec un groupe des fille et on fait notre danse tout seule.Jeudi, j'ai eu mon control de SVT, le prof ma donné un non note, peut-être je doit étudier un peu plus pour le prochain control... :) En TP de chimie, on a fait quelque chose avec un pile, je n'ai pas tout compris...J'ai fini à 16h parce que la prof d'histoire était absente. J'ai décidé de marcher chez moi parce que je n'ai pas connu le chemin, et je voulais prendre un peu de l'exercice. Je n'ai pas été perdu non plus! En fait, je pense que c'est plus vite que le bus, parce que le chemin est plus direct. Aujourd'hui, j'ai eu les cours d'anglais et de chimie/physique. Chimie/physique pour deux heures et demi est insupportable! Elle nous a donné une petite pose, mais c'est horrible quand même! On a fini le TPE donc je ne l'ai pas eu cet après midi, et ma prof d'histoire était encore absente, donc j'ai fini à midi et demi juste après chimie/physique. Je suis rentré et puis Ingrid est venu parce qu'elle a oublié sa clé de sa maison, donc elle a attendu chez moi jusqu'à son frère est rentré. Après mon déjeuner, j'ai fait un gâteau au chocolat d'un livre français de Claire. C'était bon :) Michel est parti cet après-midi d'aller au ski dans les montagnes. Ce week-end, Claire et moi, on va faire des macarons ensemble et on va essayer de les faire meilleur que la dernière fois.
Autre choses, il faisait beau tout la semaine, mais il fait froid aussi :( Je suis malade, chaque fois je fait tourner ma tête, ça fait tellement mal, et on a fait ça beaucoup pendant le cour de danse mercredi...
Aussi, j'ai trouvé ça intéressant. Jeudi matin, la mére d'Ingrid nous a conduit au lycée, et on a parlé des mariages, je ne me rappelle pas pourquoi...mais ils m'ont dit qu'en France, tout le monde doit avoir leur mariage dans l'endroit de la mairie, ils ne peuvent pas avoir leur mariage dans un autre endoit. S'ils veulent, ils peuvent avoir une fête dans une église ou quelque part autrement, mais ils ne peuvent pas avoir leur mariage là.
Bon, je sais que ce post n'est pas en français parfait, mais vous voyez que, au moins, j'ai appris quelque chose depuis je suis arrivé!
Je vais écrire la traduction bientôt, je vous promets!

Le Printemps est là! = Spring is here!

Okay, I know I havent posted in a super long time, but I had a two week vacation and was without internet a lot of the time. The last time I posted, I think I wrote that I was having some friends over that night. I make cookies with oatmeal and raisins, and some with m&ms. I made crepes for dinner and a salad lyonnaise. My host family has this cool crepe grill that you can place in the middle of the table and it has small round indents that make little crepes and everyone can make their own crepes :) We played a game called taboo (I think theres a game in English like that too, but we played in French) and watched a movie called Burn After Reading...it was really strange. The next day Laura and I just kind of hung around the house getting ready to go to Champagny on Monday. Claire and Michel got back from the mountains Sunday night. Laura and I left Lyon with Michel at about 11 am Monday and stopped to pick up Remy (host cousin). We got to Champagny around 2pm after picking up groceries on the way. I wont talk about all the days at Champagny because they were all about the same. Wed get up about 9am, eat breakfast of cereal, bread, butter, jam, coffee, tea, get ready for the day and watch some olympics (we had a hard time watching the figure skating because it was always on at about 2 or 3 am because we didnt get the channel that played the delayed games, just the channels that played them live), eat lunch about 12:30 pm of sandwiches ( baguette buttered with fresh ham) or something else. Go skiing, or just walk around the town until about 5, come back, have a 'gouter' (snack) of tea or hot chocolate with cookies or bread and nutella. Then watch the olypics or news and then eat dinner about 8 or 9pm and go to bed around 10 or 11. We played scrabble with Claires mom a couple of times and it was hard! I kept seeing words I could make in English, but I completely forgot all the words I knew in French! I went skiing twice, once at Champagny and once at Courcheval. We came back to Lyon Sunday night (we spend 6 days there) and on Monday I made bugnes with Michels mom and Claire. They were good, and pretty easy to make. They are made with a dough that is rolled super thin and then cut into strips and cooked in oil. After that I got ready to go to Paris. Tuesday morning at about 10:10 we caught the bus to the train station and caught the TGV at 11:00 to Paris. The train broke down twice (once inside a pitch black tunnel!) but we finally make it there around 1:30pm. We went to a restaurant, called La Gazzetta, straight away that Michel had reserved. It served food kind of like Iron Chef American, we ate three small entrées (appetizers) of a small slice of gourmet pizza, a soup, and a spread to eat with bread. Then I chose the fish and the a dessert of orange genoise cake and rasperry icecream. After that we took the metro to our hotel. I was surprised that the metro was so beaten down looking. Its a lot less nice than the one in Lyon, though much older too, however we were able to get around on it without any difficulty. We stayed at a small hotel called Hôtel du Nord (Hotel of the North). Claire and Michel had already stayed there at least once before. Then we went to L'Hôtel de Ville where the mayor of Paris lives. After that we went to Notre Dame but arrived too late to climb up to the top, Michel said it was best to do it a different day anyways because it wasnt so nice out (though we never did go back, and that was the nicest day we had :) ) then some guy came up to get while I was waiting for the other to finnish walking through Notre Dame and asked me to put my finger through a hole in a string. I told him no thank, but he asked me again. I said ok because there were a bunch of other people walking around, and I was bored :) So he proceded to make a bracelet by braiding the string and then tied it around my wrist, Im sure he was hoping I would pay him for it, but I didnt because I didnt ask for it in the first place :) So after that we walked along the Seine and went to a large garden area. It used to be the place where all the farmers would go to sell their produce, but eventually there became too many farmers to fit there and the government turned it into a large garden and build a giant underground mall. Then we walked around until it was time for dinner, where we went to a restaurant called Le Baratin (sweet talk) where we met a friend of Claire and Michels I really liked there dessert it was called Chocolat au fondant, sort of like fudge, but softer, more chocolatey less sugary and softer. The next day we ate breakfast at the hotel. It was several slices of baguette and a fresh croissant with jam and coffe, tea or hot chocolate. Then we went to a free museum about the life in 'old France'. It was intersting, then we went to the Louvre (but not inside) just to see it, and the walked to a restaurant to eat, and then all the way down to L'Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees. Then we walked up to Sacre Coeur and another guy asked me to put my finger through his string, so I showed him my bracelet :) Then we went to dinner. The day after that we got up and first tried to go the museum de Picasso which Michel had found in his handy dandy guide. Though, his guide was published in 2005 and didnt mention the museum was under construction. So we went to the museum of Natural History, the history of how humans evolved from monkeys, though there were a lot of real sized fake animals that werent about the evolution of humans...then we found a Korean restaurant just around the corner and ate lunch, I thought it was very good. Then we got ice cream and then went to the 'Panthéon' though its not the one in Italy. There was a really cool thing inside that proved that the earth turns. It was a solid ball hanging from a string (rope) which swung by itself and there was a large solid gate around it with numbers, and if you stayed there long enough, you could see the the swing of the ball would turn (by looking at the numbers marked on the gate). Then there was a cellar/ basement thing where we saw the tombs of Voltaire and Rousseau (which was intersting for me because we have been studying texts by them in French class), Victor Hugo, etc. After that we went and sat in a café and ate crepes (waiting for Michel to finish with the Panthéon :) ) and then went back to the hotel to get our bags, and then went to a restaurant near the train station and had dinner, and then caught the train at about 9pm and arrived in Lyon (with no difficulties this time) at about 11pm. We tried to catch the bus back to Montchat, but since it was later at night, we would have waited for 45 minutes, so we took the tram a little ways a walked the rest of the way. I think we woke up the whole neighborhood with the noise from our rolling suitcases on the road! The next day I slept in until about 11am :) It was so nice! Then I did basically nothing, but think about how much I didnt want to start my homework. Saturday I went to a movie with Michel, Shutter Island (it was in English!!!) and then ate dinner at Ingrids house with her family and watched a movie there called Le Dîner des Cons (The Dinner of Idiots) it was a old French movie about a group of guys who would host dinner parties and would invite people, whichever one of the guys invited the stupidest/most idiotic person won. It had no subtitles and I understood it!!! :) Then Sunday I finally started my homework. I wrote a four page (double spaced) French Paper on a play called Les Mains Salles (Dirty Hands) by Sartre. Today was the first day back from break, it was so loooong for me and I got out at 1 pm, I cant imagine what the other students who got out at 6pm were feeling! I finished my English homework when I got home. In Europhysique, were studying how football is like chemistry...my teacher is a little strange. Then I did my math, though not very well, and then I started writing this! All in all it was a very good vacation and really relaxing to not have to think about school work.

Its also been warm out lately, spring is here! When we went to make bugnes with Michels mom, there were tulip buds in her garden, and Claire told me they will flower in March!! Thats really weird! Claire told me we will be able to swim in the pool in May! Thats REALLY strange!

1) La Seine

2) Yummy Korean food!

3) Champs Elysees

4) Glass triangle at the Louvre

5) Notre Dame