The End = La Fin

My last week in France was a good one. I had no time to think as I was busy everyday getting ready to leave. I had a mini pool party with my friends and finished up the memory book with Laura for Claire and Michel- which they really liked!

Saturday morning we were supposed to leave at 6am, the bus was late and we left around 7:30am. We got to Paris around 3pm after stopping twice on the way. We had a mini group meeting at the hotel in Paris where we talked about our feelings on leaving/returning. For dinner that night, we went to an AFS house in Paris that had a huge backyard and had a barbeque. We left around midnight and the next morning all the US kids left for the airport at 10am.

The airplane left at 3:30pm Sunday and we got to NYC at 5:30 local time. I found mom and said goodbye to the other AFS kids. For dinner we went to see Michelle (my Alaskan friend who was taking a ballet class in NY) and ate with her and her two roomates.

Monday, mom and I left at 3:30 pm heading to Portland for a layover and then on to Anchorage.
We got to Anchorage around 12:30am and found dad and Anna.

Since I've gotten home, I havent done much. I saw my friends and some of my relatives. The first time I see someone, they ask me 'How was France?' Other AFS kids tell me they get so annoyed by this, I just think its a silly question because most people are satisfied when I say 'It was really great, yeah it was fun' with a smile. I understand why people ask this, becauses they cant really ask anything else until they have details to ask questions about, but if they really wanted an honest answer they would have to sit down on the couch for a week while I told them about it.

Since I'm back in Alaska, my blog has officially come to a close. Thank you for reading my posts throughout the year!

Sincerely, Erin

Les orages = Storm

We just had two weeks of beautiful weather. Then Saturday we had a thunder and lightning storm all night. Today its back to being beautiful but extremely hot. When its warm, its about 90 or 95 degrees.

Last weekend I had my dance performance, which went well.

Last week I went shopping, the summer sales started. I went swimming almost everyday...multiple times to counter the heat. Laura and I have started a memory book for Claire and Michel, so we printed pictures and now we need to put it together by Saturday!

We went to a party Friday night for some friends of Claires who are moving the the Beaujolais region of France.

Yesterday I went to Sophias house in Millery, which is about 45 minutes from Lyon, for a going away party but I had to come home early because today I got up at 5:30 to take my oral exam for the bac de francais at 8:00am. I met Olivia outside the school because she was taking it too, along with other kids from our class. The teacher picked Dom Juan for me, and then I had half an hour to prepare. I read, explained and answered a question about the text, then she had 10 minutes to ask me anything she wanted about the text. I think I did pretty well, she said "c'était une belle réusite" which means I did a good job :)

Tomorrow I invited my friends to spend the day here, swimming, eating, etc.

This week I need to finish everything! (And pack!!)

Silk = La Soie

Im on my second week of summer vacation. The first week I did pretty much nothing! It was rainy and cloudy and I stayed inside and studied for the oral test for the bac de français.

Friday I make two chocolate cakes and some coconut balls for Claires party on Saturday.

Saturday Laura and I went to see L'Agence tous risques (The A-Team) at the movie theater and then came home and said hello to people at Claires party.

Sunday I went to an exposition of a French artist called Ben, he writes phrases in black-and-white, they eventually go on pens, stationary, etc. Its really 'in' with the highschoolers here, but the expo was really boring. It was pretty much the same thing for all three floors, luckily Ingrid felt the same way so we just buzzed through it!

Monday was the written part of the bac de français, it was really long...4 hours...and suprisingly I stayed for all four hours (youre allowed to leave after one hour), longer than any of my friends!

Tuesday morning I went to the marché of La Croix Rousse. La Croix Rousse is famous for two things, being on a hill (a very steep one) and for being a very big area that produced silk a long time ago, now there are just lots of stores that sell silk. The marché was about 10 times bigger than the one in Montchat. It runs down the main street, on one side, clothes and house-hold goods are sold, on the other its veggies, fruits, cheese and meat.

Tuesday night I had a rehearsal for my dance performance this Sunday.

Wednesday I had my last dance class.

Yesterday I went to place bellecour with Sophia to find Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Marie-Pierre had told me she had found some there once. I found it!!! Lots of American products are really hard to find here, I needed it because tonight Im making an American Dinner for Chloé and Ingrid. There is a tv show here called Un Diner Presque Parfait (An Almost Perfect Dinner) and for the show, there are five people who each host a themed dinner and are judged on the atmosphere, food, etc. We decided we were going to do that, so tonights my turn. Im making salad (not too hard), hamburgers (they don't really have buns in France so I made my own) with all the good toppings: lettuce, tomato, pickles, cheese, bacon, ketchup, mustard, onions, etc. with REAL french fries, Claire showed me how to fry them. Then for dessert a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting!

I have 2 weeks left in France and waaay too many things to do!

L'escalade = rock climbing

Tuesday night Eliane and Marie-Pierre took Laura, Victor and I out to dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant where every tuesday you can eat as much pasta as you can.

Thursday was our last French class for the year, at the end the teacher (who speaks 5 languages, but not english) tried to have a conversation with me in english. She told me all the english she knew she had learned from the internet just because I was a student in her class!

We skipped history class and bought smoothies :)

Friday was the very last day of school for me ever at lycée lacassagne! In English we had a debate with the subject being homosexuals, I was surprised to find half the class was really against gays. In chemistry-physics, we actually worked for an hour and a half and then watched a little kids chemistry animation film that explained atoms and molecules, etc. In history we had a 'goiter' (snack time). I made snickerdoodles. Then I went to Italian class with Ingrid and we ate some more :)

Through out the day everyone (teachers and students alike) all kept asking me the same questions, when am I leaving, what am I doing next year, am I excited or sad, etc.

On Saturday I had a 'dance recital', though it was more like 5 people dancing in the street to Thriller :) But fortunately, thats how it was supposed to be. I was the only one from my dance class to go, but Ingrid, her friend, and two women from the adult dance class came too. The point of it all was to ease tension between Villeurbane (an area on the outskirts of Lyon) and the 6th district of Lyon. Villeurbane is a poor area, the 6th district is rich and apparently they have some sort of 'war' going on. So we, along with other stands in the street, bands, etc, were stationed in-between the two areas and danced. Once there was a crowd, we asked people to dance with us, though it was mostly little kids, everyone else was too self conscience.

Right after, Claire picked me up and we headed to l'Ardèche for the last half of the AFS weekend which was being held about 2.5 hours away in a town called Les Vans (south of Lyon). It was fun, I went rock climbing Sunday morning with Sophia, we belayed eachother, trading off between climbing and belaying. The two guides were pretty trusting! Afterwards, we were waiting for the bus to pick us up and take us back to the camp site and decided to wade in a river.

Sunday afternoon, we drove back to Lyon with Ingrid (a girl from Norway) and stopped at a store called The Palace of Candy and Nougat in Montélimar! Apparently Montélimar is THE town in France for buying nougat.

Today is Monday and I am on summer vacation! I already tried studying for the back de Francais...but its so hard! I am currently trying to figure out Le Pouvoir des Fables de La Fontaine. Ill get there eventually...

Pictures

1) Cloud with golden lining taken from a moving car!

2) River where we waded after rock climbing

la dernière semaine = the last week

Last Saturday I made pavlova with Ingrid from a recipe Claire left for us before she went back to Australia.

Sunday was Mother's Day in France. We had a big lunch with both Claire and Michels Mom, Michels Dad, and Michels niece and her husband and three kids. We ate very 'typical' food according to Claire, steamed, cold asparagus with a sauce, goat meat, very small potatoes fried on top of the stove, cheese, and chocolate cake!

That afternoon I started to work on my French bac, Claire explained the text, Le Héron (a type of bird, same word in English), to me.

Monday, our French teacher gave us a DM for Friday so I worked on that, I just got it back today and she gave me a 14/20!!!! Which is a realllllllly good note! :) But I did work on it for at least 5 hours!

Last week was sort of a strange week, for some reason, there were lots of teachers absent. On Thursday I had only 2 hours of class whereas I normally have 7 1/2.

Friday I invited Ingrid and Chloé to eat dinner at the house because Claire, Michel and Victor were all going out. We ate croque monsieurs à l'ananas, which is a type of grilled sandwich made with industrial bread, grated cheese, ham, and in this case pineapple.

Saturday four of the youngest cousins came over to plan a song and choreography for Fannys wedding (one of the oldest cousins, who is getting married the day Laura and I leave Lyon). We went swimming in the afternoon, I was in shorts and a tanktop next to the pool when Remy did a cannon ball right next to me so I was soaking, so I went swimming in my cloths :). We ate crêpes for dinner and then went swimming again at 11pm.

Sunday, Claire and I made Clafoutis aux Ceries which is a type of baked dessert that turns out sort of like a giant, puffy crêpe with cherries.

Today was my last Monday ever at Lycée Lacassange! Tonight is our conseille de classe which is a meeting between the principal, all our teachers and two delegates from our class to talk about everything thats happened during the third trimester (grades, behavior, etc). After the conseille de class, no grades can be changed. Lots of times, students don't even go to school for the last four days because the teachers cant do anything about it. My friends, however, are good students (unfortunately :) ) so I will be going to school with them for the rest of the week, except maybe EuroAnglais which is tomorrow from 8-9 am and a very useless class, all we do is watch movies in English about outerspace, and Im sure no one will be going.

This afternoon I bought bread at the boulangerie (bread store) and then was really hot from walking so I went swimming!

This weekend is the last AFS weekend in Ardèche, but I will only be going to it for the last half because I have a dance performance Saturday afternoon, we are going to be dancing to Thriller by Michael Jackson, so I need to find a 'death' costume to wear.

La campagne = The country (side)

Last week on Wednesday Claire had to work late so Michel made dinner...we ate salad, shrimp, cheese, and strawberries :)

Thursday I was sick, so I didn't go to school. Michel made dinner again, we ate radishes, asparagus, and a salad of cartilage from a calf's foot...

Friday I got my history test back, I got 8,5/20! And for the SVT bac blanc that I took a while ago, I got 4,5/20 and the teacher wrote on my paper that I wrote my essay like a child!

Saturday morning I went to the country side with Ingrid, her mom and Chloé. Ingrid and her family have a house in Propières. We hung out around their house and walked around a little bit. It was really sunny and warm. We came back Sunday afternoon.

Monday was a holiday for lundi de Pentecôte, which is a religious event. I helped Claire cook and I wrote down all the recipes :) Victor went into the hospital for heart surgery in the afternoon. It wasnt critical, from what I understood, he has always had a problem, there were one too many electrical connections on his heart and if you excercice too much, your heart can beat too fast which can be dangerous. So, they detached an electrical connection and now he should be fine, he came home yesterday afternoon.

All weekend it was warm for the first time in a while, it was really sunny. Tuesday I went to school in shorts and a tank top all day, and I was still too hot.

Yesterday I got 20/20 in gym class for running and afterwards, Ingrid and I went to the Part Dieu.

I put up a picture of cherry trees when they were blooming earlier this spring, I think I may have even said that we have cherry trees. While I knew that, I didnt even think they would actually produce cherries because not many trees produce fruit in Alaska. The other day Michel told me I could pick cherries if I wanted to, so I went and looked and there are actually cherries!! Its so cool! Yesterday afternoon I picked a bowl full of cherries and ate them :)

Today I finished school at 12:30 when I normally finish at 6pm because some of my teachers are absent, and we switched things around a little bit to be able to go to a presentation about a university. It was really boring, they spend half the time telling us there werent enough girls at the school and not focusing on what the school actually offered...I still dont know. I have noticed (we have gone to presentations like this before) that lots of universities here in France offer study abroad programs, and they really push them on students, lots of times they are mandatory.

Pictures:

1), 2), 3): The country side near Ingrids house

4) Me in a cow pasture

5) Ingrid and I in a cow pasture

Huit Semaines = Eight Weeks

Last Saturday Laura and I met Annie and saw Iron Man 2, and then went to a restaurant called La Rue des Pâtes (The Road of Pasta/ Pasta Street). We ate pasta and drank wine, which I thought was very different from the US, and its even illegal for me right now in France because the age was changed recently from 16 years old to 18 years old, but all the restaurants and stores dont care, or check.

Sunday I went bike riding with Ingrid. Not even 10 minutes into it, I broke the chain on the bike. Since Michel is really into biking and loves his bikes, I was scared to tell him I broke his bike! But luckily it was the cheapest bike he has, and he didnt care :)

Sunday afternoon it rained, and we wanted to go to the movies. We were going to see Greenberg, but we got there too late and the theater was full.

Monday my class had a fieldtrip for SVT. We went to the Beaujolais region and looked at rocks. It was really boring. But it was sunny for the first time in several weeks. Two minutes before we got in the bus to drive home, it started pouring. We were outside for two minutes in the rain, everyone who didnt have an umbrella got completely soaked.

Wednesday I ran 34 laps around the soccer field for gym. I ate tacos with Ingrid and Chloé, which were not mexican tacos. They were big pita pockets filled with french fries, turkey/beef, tomatos, onions, lettuce, and sauce. They're really popular with the school kids. After we had an hour of history to make up for the day of the Ascension (I will explain). Then Ingrid and I went to Part Dieu (the mall) while waiting for Chloé to get out of school.

That night, I went to a soccer game (Lyon vs. Monaco, a small country inbetween France and Italie) with Ingrid, her two brothers, and a friend of her brothers. Lyon won 3-0. There were 38 thousand people watching the game in the stadium, afterwards all those people want to use the métro. So we waited at the top of the stairs for about 5 minutes right before the game finished. Right went the game finished, we sprinted down the stairs, down the hill, out the gates and for about 4 blocks. Really, it was like we were trying to race Usain Bolt. And we still had to wait in line for the métro.

Thursday was the day of the Ascension, which is supposedly the day Jesus ascended to Heaven. Since France is pretty religious, they give the day as a holiday to everyone. Then, because parents want to take their kids on a mini vacation, they 'faire le pont' or 'make the bridge' between Thursday and the weekend, so we have four days instead of just a day off and the weekend. But since Friday isnt a holiday, we have to make up for the school we miss, and because we dont have class Wednesday afternoon, we make up the last half of Friday the Wednesday before the mini vacation, and the morning of Friday the Wednesday after the 4 days.

So Thursday I went with Victor to Claires mothers appartment in Lyon. We ate lunch there with all the cousins born in the years '91 or '92 (there are too many cousins to invite all at once, so she does it by age).

Friday, I started working on my five French texts for the bac. Michel and Claire told me that I need to talk with my French teacher to see if she agrees with what Im doing, and then she needs to sign a paper that I will be able to show to the judges the day of the bac.

Saturday I went to the marché with Claire, we went to the butchers stand and bought a rabbit. It was a whole rabbit, just skinned. He cut it up with a real butchers knife, like you see in movies.

That afternoon I went shopping (appliance and grocery) with Claire.

Then we made lemon macaroons, and then Michel, Claire, Laura, and I went to the movies. We saw Lola, a Philipines/French movie, about two grandmothers reactions to their grandsons actions (on grandson kills the other), and how the grandmothers deal with it. Afterwards, we went to dinner at Vercoquin. Laura and my history teacher was there, who is also a friend of Claire.

This morning Claire and I made tarte tatin, which is an apple tart cooked upside down, then you flip it over and it becomes an apple tart. Its a very traditional french dessert. For lunch Claires mother and Michels mother both came over.