Grève!

Since last week, there's been a huge stike (grève) in the whole country of France.  It's about the retirement/social security reform.. The government's changing the retirement age from 60 to 62, and people are just not happy at all.  The manisfestations (demonstrations, basically) are not every day, but there's been about 3 or 4 of them.  Here's what happens:  the bus system is all out of whack, as in less buses than usual and at random times.  Also, there's a big march/parade in the afternoon through downtown, with people yelling things and carrying signs and all.  Other consequences of the strike: the Cité des Arts where I take an art class on Friday evenings is closed, the city library is closed (both of which annoy me very much!) and there's a higher likelihood of vandalism and general craziness in town.  For example, today when I was coming home from school, I had to avoid the staute of elephants (right in the center of downtown pretty much) because there were people all over and we could smell the remains of some gas, I think tear gas, in that area.  Don't worry everyone, I was safe and all!  I was with a boy from my class, and we avoided the big mess.  Also, I go to a pretty boring private schoo:  In front of the public schools, there are riots a lot during the strike, where the kids use the strike as an excuse to light trash on fire in the street, and generally do bad things.  There's police teams with helmets and shields!  Public school teachers also go on strike, so they don't have school usually when this is going on.  Remember though:  that's not where I go to school, it's a ways away.  In my school, we don't even hear the parade when the manifestation starts.  Pretty peaceful, as far as high schools go.  

Hope everyone had a good homecoming week/is enjoying the football season!
 

Eggplant!

Hello!  I just had to pop in and let the world know.. I made eggplant casserole last night!  With my American measuring cups that I got in my package!  They measure things in grams or liters here..  But anyways, I made eggplant casserole!  I know my family at least is appreciating this fact..  It turned out good, not exactly like normal (a different cheese), but good.  It only cooked about 20 minutes in our oven.  And between 6 people, (host grandparents are visiting) we ate the whole thing!  They liked it. 

In equally exciting (but in a different way) news, last weekend I had a YFU weekend with the other exchange students in this region.  It was really great to see everyone again!  We spent most of the time just talking to each other, which I liked.  We were there Saturday overnight til Sunday, and Sunday we ate the desserts with our lunch-everyone had brought a dessert from their home country.  I brought scotcheroos!  The desserts were so good, but I think everyone ate too much.. too much sugar, but sooo good!

St. Gervais and the Markets

Hello everyone!  It's been a busy week.  Last Thursday through Friday I went to St. Gervais with my class for a philosophy seminar.  The guest philosophy speaker was probably really intellectual about philosophy, but I hardly understood anything he said.  It was a good time to be with my classmates though and get to know people better.  We also saw some cool Baroque churches from the 1700s and a newer church that was full of artsy stuff.  I gave an oral report about the history of stained glass, which I think people understood.  St. Gervais is known for being really close to Mont Blanc, which is the highest mountain in Europe and covered in snow all year.  Blanc=white, it's very logical!  So anyways we got to see the really pretty mountain.  We also visited a place where 'sisters' (the religious kind) live and people can go there to relax, go to religious sessions led by the sisters, etc.  We had a few hours of Q&A with the sisters about their beliefs and life, then ate supper.  Supper was really good, and lots of food!  First course was a soup, like chicken noodle but without chicken or noodles.  That leaves basically broth and veggies.  Next we had spaghetti and lettuce salad, which was awesome.  Spaghetti, I missed you!  Then we had cheese or yogurt, then a fruit mix (like fruity applesauce).  It was delicious!
 
Last weekend, I went to two markets: the normal one on Saturday morning to buy fruit, veggies, cheese, and meat; and the Braderie to buy..anything!  The market was cool to see all the different types of fresh food-very cultural as well!  The Braderie was awesome.  Think of it like a high class flea market that happens twice a year, that is with actually good, new things that you would want to buy, all over downtown.  We're talking about LOTS of vendors!  Clothes, purses, shoes, books, jewelery, makeup, pretty much anything, and for a good price.  I got some clothes :)  And there was lots of cool food too.  There's 'barbe à papa', which means Dad's Beard, which is..cotton candy! I had a kebab, which in French means a bread shell filled with rotisseried meat mixed with onions or something.  It was pretty good but hard to eat! 
 
Au revoir!

Continued!

Bet you didn't think there'd be pictures, huh?  Well, here they are!  These go with the post before this one.

Who new that the sound of the mountain was actually cowbells??

That's my city, obviously.  And it was a game day, obviously!



This is that spinning bouncy house thing at the fair.

Almost 3 weeks in??

"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."  -Bertrand Russell

Hello everyone!  Let's see.. where to start.  I've been in school two full weeks now, and overall it's been a good experience.  I manage to understand nearly all of the history and most of the philosophy.  English is good too.  It was my favorite class for the first few days, but now my favorite is history.  We're studying the Cold War, which included a lecture on American culture :) which was interesting.  Since I studied the Cold War at the end of last year and I consider myself kind of an expert on American culture, so far it's going good!  As for literature.. the rest of the class read the Odyssey, by Homer, over the summer.  So I'm playing catch-up and trying to understand the teacher's really fast lectures on the Trojan war and I have no idea what else.  But it's getting better.  To summarize, school is sometimes hard but usually manageable.

Last weekend was a busy one.  Saturday morning, my host family and I drove up into one of the mountain, where we hiked an hour both ways to the top.  At the top, there's this huge cross that looks over the town.  The view, and the trail to get there, were amazingly pretty.  Although on the trail, I was mostly focused on my feet because it wasn't an even path and it went up and down a lot, with lots of rock to maneuver over.  After the mountain, we came home and ate. 

Then I went to the Fair of Savoy to meet up with a couple girls from my school.  We walked around, and that was pretty much it.  It was a little like a state fair, but with more vendors and less 'stuff' to do (like shows or magicians, etc.)  There was only vendors, a judo demonstration, and a spinning bouncy house.  (Picture a slow tilt a whirl, with a jumpy castle on it instead of metal seats!)  The other, main attraction was the exhibition, this year focused on Japan, which was actually pretty cool. 

When I came home from that, I went almost immediately to meet my ride to a Christian youth group.  It's made up of teens/college students from lots of different churches in town.  It was interesting and fun.  I'm going to continue to go there Saturday nights when I don't have other things to do.  At the end, there's always cake. Yum.  I love cake! 

Sunday noon, we went to a picnic at the tennis club.  Lots of good food there, too!  It was partly a potluck, but the families mostly ate things they had brought for themselves.  The dessert was shared though, and it was awesome!  Fig pie (which is good), chocolate cake (brownie cake), and cake of Savoy, which is a light yellow cake that is sugary and very very good. 
If you haven't guessed, the area I live in is called the Savoy region, fyi. 

Also Sunday, I went to the movies with some girls from school.  We saw Tamara Drewe, which is a British movie.  It was in English with French subtitles (their idea, not mine!), and since it was kind of a 'specialty' movie, it was in a small theater.  Seven rows, no previews, no ads before the movie, no popcorn.  The movie was okay.. funny at times but the characters weren't very likeable!  Maybe it's a British thing.  Who knows? 

That's all for now.. A plus tard!

First day of School!

"Nothing grieves a child more than to study the wrong lesson and learn something he wasn't suppose to." - E.C. McKenzie
This didn't exactly happen to me as in the quote, but I was almost in the wrong class!  Here the Premiére (Junior) class starts in the morning the first day, and the Terminale (senior) class starts the afternoon.  So this morning Lou took me to school and we went inside to try to talk to someone about my complete lack of a Spanish level sufficient to be in 3rd year Spanish (what the 1éres do).  It was a mess and we waited for people who weren't coming, but finally we found someone who was able to tell me "No, sorry I can't help you with your 1ére Spanish problem, but it doesn't matter because you're in Terminale!"  So we left.  We did some errands around town and then had to go exchange my 1ére books for my Te books (you have to buy schoolbooks here)  Originally I had been given the list of Te, but we thought it was a mistake and so bought the 1ére books instead.

Anyway, after waiting around a few hours and eating lunch, Lau took me back to school and we still couldn't find a person to talk to, so she left and I sat with some girls I met yesterday in an assembly.  There was a lot of quick French that I got the main idea of, then we went to classrooms by class.  The Te L (litterarie, it's my division of the grade, we mostly study French Litterature, languages and Philosophy) are a class of 30, containing 4 exchange students: me, Mexican and Brazilian boys, and another American girl.  In class we got our schedules of classes (it changes every day) and wrote down some important dates in our calendars.  Maybe an hour or two later, school was over!  I talked to someone about my Spanish class (turns out I don't have to take it), and then..

I walked to Centre Ville (the downtown area) with the other exchange students.  We walked around and looked at stuff and spoke French.  It was overall a good day! 

By the way.. my class schedule is excellent.  No math or science all year, and 3 days I start school at 9.  Wednesday I have 2 hours of class and the day is over.  Monday I have about 2 hours for lunch!  :)

A plus!

I never travel without my diary.  One should always have something sensational to read on the train. 

Oscar Wilde

Hello from France!  I arrived in Paris Thursday morning and stayed in a hotel there until Saturday afternoon, mostly in a hotel with the 70 other exchangers in France (7 Americans).  There we spoke a little French but nearly everyone had better English than French.  It was cool meeting people from 30 countries!

Then I took the train to my Chambéry, where my host family lives.  They speak nice and slow for me, so I can understand quite a bit.  Salomé, my host sister helped me unpack and they showed me around the house.  My room has its own little balcony.. It's awesome!  Here's what I see looking out the door:

The next day we went to help a friend move to a house 200 km away (very close; we carried a few things there by hand!)  That afternoon we went to the tennis club for a bit to watch and meet friends.  I made my first French friends there.. 2 girls, aged 3 and 6.  They made dirt tea for Salomé and I and stuff like that.  Little kids are the same everywhere I think:   :)

This morning I slept in a bit; then the girls of the house went to play tennis for a while.  It was really hard!  This afternoon we are going to downtown to buy school things and see the school.  Salomé's also, because she's changing schools.  C'est tout pour maintenant!