Joyeux Noël!

Hello again!  Bet you didn't expect something else this fast.. but a lot has happened and I just happen to have the time to tell you about it!  Let's see.. I left off on Christmas Eve, no?  We got to my hostmom's parent's house just in time to change clothes for the 'midnight mass', which was actually at 8:30.  There was a story  about a wall that opened up to let everyone enjoy the garden inside that I didn't quite understand, but overall it was an average Christmas Eve service!  It was weird that I didn't recognize/know the songs though! 

After,  we returned to the house and started the meal (it being nearly 10 at this point).  First was the apéro, which I believe I've mentioned before, aka the appetizer.  Then we went to the table, where the presents were waiting for us before we ate a succession of dishes: including the foie gras (a specially prepared liver, usually of swan or duck that doesn't taste at all like normal liver), then a meat and vegetables, then cheese, then a clementine, then the Buche of Noël (a log of cake and chocolatey goodness).  We stayed at the table a long time, eating and talking, and the night ended for me around 1:30 or so.  The adults stayed even longer!

The next morning was strange for me as a Christmas morning.  I slept in longer than I ever have before on that day-10:00!!  There was no rush at all to do anything, since we had opened the 'Santa' and family presents the night before.  PS, Santa presents are the same as presents from Mom and Dad-kids don't get something from Santa and something from the parents!  Anyways, spent the morning hanging out in the house-little tiny breakfast, cleaning from the night before, etc.  At noon we had another big meal, even though there was a lot less people (my host aunts/uncles/cousins had left before I woke up).  After eating, we headed to my host mom's brother's house. 

We spent that afternoon and evening there:  there were 7 little kids aged 3 and 1, so that was fun!  But the adults also spent time hanging out in the wine cellar and talking or playing cards.  Of course around supper time we ate!  This time a soup and sandwich type meats, then cheese and dessert.  I had a good time there talking and joking with my hosts!

The next day we said goodbye and moved on to my host dad's family, about an hour away near the town of Angers, which I'm told is 'la plus belle ville du monde', the most beautiful town in the world.  Spent another afternoon around the table, and into the evening playing games and talking.  We ate a lot and I tried some new stuff.. in addition to a terrine of salmon, something like shellfish (don't know the name in English but it's what lives in shells when the shells are in the ocean!), and jigot which I found out later is a type of lamb.  It was all really good!  A few highlights of the day were when we all gathered around the computer to talk to my host brother who's in the US, and then when I in turn skyped my family.  My host family came in to say hello to everyone back home, it was really cool! 

The next few days were spent with family- Papy and Mamie (grandparents) in particular, but also with the others!  One of the afternoons I went with my host mom, aunt, and cousin in downtown Angers to shop.  The downtown's really big and has plenty to see!  I got a coat so now I'll be much more stylish/French in the cold.  Believe it or not, not everyone wears ski coats all the time like back home!

I also got to see the Château d'Angers-the city's castle.  It was cool but a completely different look than Chambord.  Angers has a castle from the Middle Ages, so it's older and was more 'functional' as a fortress than as a royal palace.  The little streets all around it were even more beautiful though, all paved in stone and looking like they came right out of a movie.. which is not entirely false, as they did make a movie there!

Pictures coming soon!

An American in Paris

Joyeux Noël everyone!  Hope everything's going good where you are.  Let's start with the last Friday of school:  Fête du Lycée, or School Party/Festival.  The main event was a concert all afternoon long in the gym.  The students did stuff but also the teachers!  Including my philosophy teacher who was dressed up as a member of ABBA and danced with some of the other teachers.  We also had lunch made by the teachers, and plenty of dessert brought by the students!  It was sweet!  If you look on my facebook, I'm tagged in a newspaper clipping picture about it!

Sunday me, my host mom and sister left for Paris.  We stayed there with a friend of my host mom, about 20 minutes from downtown Paris by train.  It was awesome!  Saw lots and lots of touristy stuff, and did a good bit of shopping too!  I'll get some pictures up later hopefully, as I'm not chez moi right now.  Anyways, Paris.. Got to see Montmartre, the Sacré Coeur, Notre Dame, Les Halles (Shopping!), the Champs Elysées, the big stores like Printemps and Galeries Lafayette with their Christmas lights and windows, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay (museum of 1800s-1900s art), and of course the Eiffel Tower.  The day that we went to the Eiffel Tour it was really really cold-so cold there was no line at all to go up when there's usually an hour or two wait, and we could only go up one floor because the other levels were closed.  The big 'oops' of Paris came when my host sister took us to a store called Abercombie.  It was supposed to be AbercRombie as in the clothes store, but google maps suggested Abercombie, a store for old ladies!  It was pretty funny.  Paris was cool because it was so easy to get places either walking or with the Metro.   And the shopping-let's just say there's a reason Paris is the fashion capital of the world! 

Since the end of my school I've been in serious French mode.. yes there was touristy stuff in English in Paris but I've been thinking a lot in French and it's French French French.. One night coming home from Paris on the train my host fam. wanted to talk English, and I had more trouble than them because I kept mixing in French words!  It was bad..  I also had trouble when I first started talking to family on Saturday, don't know if you guys noticed but it wasn't a very good English day!  I also had an akward moment when we were visiting a chateau in the Loire.. there were Asian tourists who said 'Sorry' for being in the way of my picture, and I responded.. 'C'est pas grave' which is obviously French.  The next time they said something I responded in English and it felt really weird! 

That leads me obviously to the Loire.. The morning of the 24th we picked up my host dad from the train station and drive a long time towards the East.  We stopped at the chateau Chambord, which was amazing, and then to my host family's family for Christmas Eve and a week long visit that is still in progress.. but that's a story for next time! 

Bye, Love you all!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

Hello everyone!  Hope you're doing well.  If you hadn't guessed from the facebook pictures, yes, it snowed here.  Quite a lot actually!  I didn't have school the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, so I stayed the night at a friend's house Tuesday night.  We discovered in the middle of the night that it had snowed quite a bit, and then again the next morning we had an amazing snowball fight!  It was around 60 cm.. almost knee high!  School got cancelled Thursday, and with a few (2) teachers gone, I only had one hour of class on Friday.  Also, while walking downtown with some people from my theater class, we got filmed by France 3, the regional tv channel.  They interviewed us but that didn't show on tv, just us walking in the snow.  I didn't see it, but some people from my class saw/recognized me on tv!  Over the next week the snow melted and it rained a lot.  That was interesting-uck.
 
What else is new..  yesterday I made Christmas cookies with my host sister, because it can't be Christmas without there having been Christmas cookies. They turned out really good, even though they were depressingly all frosted the same color-no food coloring.  I took them (pretty much the entire batch) to school and shared them with my class, other friends, etc. and now they're all gone!  Gonna have to make more.  In short, the cookies were generally loved by all! 
 
Tonight Dad gave my host family a virtual tour of the store by skype.  It was awesome!  Way confusing to 1, try and translate slightly technical meat processes, and 2 to go back and forth between French, English, French, English, Franglish.. Ahh!  But it was cool. 
 
Have a great week, Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was a good one for me this year, I hope for all of you too! Thursday I was in school all day and didn't even get to eat any turkey, but I did go to a meeting about my trip to the country of Turkey!  That counts as my share of Turkey for the day I guess.  That night I skyped with the whole clan-everyone who was at Great Grandma's house for lunch (7 hour time difference) and that was really cool.  When I got off the phone with them, it had started to snow!  It was perfect:  Thanksgiving day over, onward towards winter! 

Friday I had school, but I managed to enjoy black Friday a teeeny bit by going shopping in the afternoon with some friends.  It counts as black Friday, since it was morning in the US, right?  :)  Speaking of school friends, everyone was fascinated and greatly amused by the tradition of the US president pardonning a turkey. 

Saturday was a long day.  I got up early to go ice skating with friends, but the rink ended up being closed.  We walked around in the snowyness for a while and got hot chocolate instead.  That afternoon, from after lunch until around 6 or 7 at night, I cooked and cooked..  Some of the time was spent on the phone coordinating the arrival of the stuffing for the turkey though, which was stressful.. Long story!  Anyways, in the course of the afternoon I made eggplant casserole, homemade (actual pumpkin, not from a can!) pumpkin pie and homemade rolls.  That evening I went with my hostfamily to an exposition (exhibit hall with vendors) on.. food!  Specialty food, like fancy wines, cheeses, desserts, spices, etc.  When we came home, I stuffed the turkey which was much less complicated in the end than anyone expected.  The big surprise was when I took the turkey out of the fridge, not having seen it yet, and.. a turkey head was staring back at me!  Definitely didn't see that one coming.  Imagine, if you will.. a turkey, ready to go in the pan.. with it's head.  According to my host mom (who cut the poor turkey's head off before cooking it), the head is a mark of freshness of the turkey we bought. Hmm.

The next morning, spent lots of time in the kitchen again-doubled the recipe of the eggplant since it's generally loved by all here (here that, those who believe eggplant causes deadly diseases??)  and made mashed potatoes, which took a very long time to peel and then mash.  Let's just say we might have overestimated the necessary amount of potates purée that the French would want when confronted with all the other Thanksgiving stuff!  Set the table, cleaned up, and the moment arrived!

My American friend and her host mom were the first to arrive, and my host mom had to help her with her vegetables that didn't cook right.  She brought sweet potatoes with marshmallows and brown sugar stuff, and brussel sprouts in addition to making the stuffing.  Then came the other family who ate with us: parents and 2 kids.  We had an apéro, which is a sort of snack before the meal that's basically the first course, but around a different table and much less formal, while being more formal than the carrots we munch on before big meals in the US.  After a long apéro, we ate!  It was good; the hard work paid off! 

Thanksgiving was a good one, and I'm glad I got to share it with my host family and friends.  There's a good bit of leftovers, which is part of the tradition.  The whole weekend was definitely very educational for everyone involved, me included!

November - 3 Month mark!

Wow.. In finding a title for this post I realized it's been nearly 3 months.  I had to open a calendar and check to make sure, and sure enough, Thursday is my 3 month mark.  Wow.  Does it seem that long for you guys?  Or that short, depending on your perspective?  Three months.  Unreal.  That means I have seven left..  Here's what's coming up the next 7 months:  Around December 18th (a few weeks from now) Christmas break starts, and we go to Paris and then to visit host family's family for Christmas.  By New Year's we'll be back in town.  A few weeks later I'll have my 'half-way' orientation with the other exchange students.  A month later, I go to Turkey on a school trip :D  and then there will be a 2 week school vacation, leading into March.. then another 2 weeks of vacation in April.. and after June, I come home.  Not bad, huh?

Anyways, let's see.. what are some things that I've done this month?  I've been reading a lot, and watching TV slightly more than before the vacation because somehow, I can understand a lot lot more!  I've been to church, to cafés with people (very French, right?), cooking with friends and with my host family, and generally staying busy.  Friday night I went to the theater (the live kind) to see two plays by George Feydeau.  The actors spoke really fast (like Robby racing fast!) so I didn't really understand all that much, just the main idea of what was happening, but it was still cool.  Last weekend I bought some boots, so now I'm slightly less of an unstylish American alternating between Ugg boots and tennis shoes every day for school!  It's also handy because it's been raining a lot, so the boots are much more practical.  It still hasn't snowed here yet, though!  Today it was nice so this afternoon we went for a long walk in the mountain area.  It was nice!

That's all for now, sorry if I'm all over the place with my writing!

Edited to add:  If anyone wants to send me anything by mail, the address should have my host family's name in the top line ("Chez Mr. et Me. LAST NAME first name) Otherwise it might not get to me or get sent back to you!  If you don't know the name, you can email me or ask my mom..  :) 

Corisica Vacation

Hello everyone! Hope you enjoyed the vacation.. oh wait, you're probably in the US, where there is not a ten day vacation at the end of October! Sorry to rub it in.. Anyways, yes, the French get a week and a half of vacation at this time of the year. It was great! I spent the vacation in Corsica, a French island south of France, with my host family.  In Corsica, we visited little towns, the coast (beaches and also giant rocks) and also spent some time relaxing.. playing Mario Kart on the Wii, playing Rummikub or cards, reading, etc.  The weather was mostly really good, but it rained a few of the days.  It was really pretty there, but I won't waste time trying to describe it.. here's some pictures!

The middle of Corsica

In the North, near where we stayed

There were lots of towns with fortresses (citadels) like that.

Giant rocks.. pretty and fun to walk on!

In the South



On the way home in France, pretty fall colors!



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!