Midnight snack of nesquik chocolate milk, and cream cheese and bread. Yum!

1.15.13

So, I haven't written anything in a long time, and this is only just a little thing, but here you go! I just changed host familes this past weekend, so that was exciting! I made a snowman today with my host dad. The pictures on facebook. It was so much fun!! I got a lot of cool stuff for Christmas, so that was fun. I got a box of chocolate all for me! I also got a collectable scarf for the Olympic Lyon team from their first tour. It’s awesome! That’s pretty much it. I have tons of homework now that I can understand everything, but it’s not all bad. I introduced the cake in a box to my families. They have the same thing in France, but supposedly it tastes disgusting. I don’t know personally, I’ve never tried it, but they love the American way!

Halloween at Walibi, Les Avenieres!

    On Tuesday  I went to Walibi. It's an amusement park smaller than the size of Canobie. It doesn't have huge rides, but they're still fun. I went with one of my friends, Lauriane, my sister, Lucille, one of her friends, Elisa, my little cousin, Marie, and my mom. It was Halloween themed! There was a Labyrinth, a Monster cars, and a Haunted House. The Labyrinth was really fun, more for the kids because it was straw and it was outside, but I loved it. I went with Elisa a bunch of times, and it was really fun to pretend to be afraid of all the really fake monsters. We would run to the monster knowing it was there, and then run away and hide in a corner. The monsters are allowed to touch you, so it was so much better!! One of them had a mask of a man eating a baby's head, and he kept chasing us, and pretending to eat Lauriane. It was so funny! Then the monster cars wasn't that great because there was a huge line, and then the actual thing was only five minutes. There was a monster in one of the cars though, and he kept chasing Lauriane and I, so it wasn't all bad! The Haunted House was amazing!! My mom stayed outside with Marie because she's only 8, and she was to scared to go. Because I was the american in the group, and the oldest, the others thought I would be the best to go first. Because of my experience I guess. Anyway, we go in, and they put you in one of three doors. We went twice, and the first time, we went in the third door, and the second time we went in the first door. They were both pretty much the same thing. It was so much fun the second time, because Elisa screams a lot, and it's so much more fun when she screams, because then I scream, and it was just really fun :) . I got my face painted to, that was cool! I'll post pictures. Anyway, that was really fun! And then yesterday, on Halloween, I went out to the movies with some of my french friends. We saw Paranormal Activity 4. You don't have to be 18 or over to see R movies, so the theater was filled with kids. Three of my friends couldn't get in because there was no more room. After that, we went and hung out at my friends house. It was really fun :D 

The girls didn't want they're picture taken

There was a short 3D film

Skull!

Last Saturday, we went to a restaurant for lunch. Le Canard Pressé. It was really good! 

I ate Froie Gras for the first time. I love it!!

There was newspaper clippings like so, all over the walls. 

Grilled Salmon. It was delicious! 

This was one of those chocolate cakes that had the gooey center. 

And this is how much I like it. :)

The bathrooms at the restaurant were like hotels! I mean, they were nice!!

The Weather...

It is currently 24°F out right now, and it's not even snowing!!! What's up with this! I'm not complaining that it's below freezing, I just wish that when it is below freezing, there's snow outside. On another note, today we're having some neighboorhood friends over for lunch, and I'm making dessert! My mama's apple crisp. It's so yummy! I hope it turns out okay. I'll post a pic when it's done.

Some pictures :)

Here are some pictures since the last ones. I'll try and put captions on most of them.

Crêpe night!!

I ate mussels for the first time at crêpe night... It was actually kind of good  :|

I went out to dinner with some exchange students who are also at my school. From top left to bottom right: Carlin (US), Joao (Brazil), Elias (Venezuala), Hessel (The Netherlands), Sam (Australia), and Miranda (Australia).

My first meeting with my Rotary club! The meetings are the last monday of every month. The dinner's really good!!

They had yellow, purple, and red cauliflower.. Strange, I know.

Before...

After. It turns out they like to smother their cream puffs with cream. This one was coffee flavored :)

This coffee was smaller than my palm. And I have small hands.

Photobomb scale: 6

Photobomb scale: 10

This is the view only 1/8 of the way up the mountain on the 17 km walk. 

The lunch afterwards was really good!

2 months in!!!

I can't believe it's already been 2 months!! The time here flies by, but it seems like forever since I've been in the States! I've really haven't done a lot since the last time. I've been caught up with friends and school. I was finally able to start taking notes in class! Well, only from one teacher because the other talks to fast. Anyway, it's an accomplishment! In Villefranche, the town with my school, there's a main road with boutiques on the sides like you see in all the movies. About 3 weekends ago, there was an outside market and HUGE sale! I went with some french friends. It was really fun! I bought a scarf for half off! And it's one of those really warm winter scarves. Lets see... One of my mom's friends came over with her two daughters whose ages were about 9 and 12. I played Monopoly and Uno with them and my sister. We had a really good lunch. It was actually a dinner/lunch because we ate at about 3. We don't eat dinner here until 8, so It was actually pretty nice. I also went to a circus! It was really cool :) There were the usual animales, but there were also camels, and seals, and these really weird animals, they looked like Braham cows. And some other weird animals. There were also cats... Cats. Anyway, that's about it. I haven't really done anything else interesting. I'll upload some pictures after this, but that was it. Today starts the two week vacation, and I've got a lot of things planned with my family. Two dinners with french people, one with my french friends and thier families, the other I forgot who; Walibi, an amusment park; two of my aunts houses; Halloween with french friends (should be interesting...); and going to a beach on the Mediterranean. I'll write a new one after this about the trips, but that's it for this one, Seeya!

9-26-12...

Today was not the best day. Not in terms of feelings, but in terms of the actual day. It started out with me missing my alarm and getting up 10 minutes before I had to leave for the bus. I didn't know what to wear, I didn't have anything to eat, and I was super tired. It was a warm morning so I wore a short sleeve shirt, light weight jacket, jeans, and Toms. I took a mini chocolate croissant to go. I went to the bus, and went to school. When I got off the bus at school, it cooled off quite a bit. It wasn't cold yet, but it definitly cool. I went to my first class, French, which was 2 hours. That was the only class of the day for me, so at 10, Camila (Brazil), Joao (Brazil), Camille, Loriane, and I decided that we would go to the foyer (the room where you hang out if you don't have classes). It was really cold by that time, and it even started to drizzle a little. In The Room (what the exchange students call it), I had to finish my science notes, because I can't copy them down as fast as the teacher talks. I didn't finish, but Joao wanted to go to the supermarket to get something to eat. It was raining then, at about 10:15. We walked down the street to the market, and got some chips. Then, we walked back. It was about 10:40/10:50 by the time we were back at the school. It was raining a little harder. Camille and I wanted to go to National Street, the road with all the little boutiques and cafés, and get some paninis to eat. The others wanted to wait until it stopped raining. I mean, it's just rain! We waited 10 minutes, and it was just raining harder and harder. We decided to just go (FINALLY!). There were 3 umbrellas, and 5 people. So, Camila and Camille shared, I shared with Loriane, and Joao had his own. We started walking, and Joao thought it would be good if Loriane had her own because she had a cold. So I shared with Joao. We were only at the front of the school when Camille decided she didn't like umbrellas. I was already wet because Joao is a tall person and the umbrella was too high for me to stay dry. So in the end, Camila, Joao, and Loriane had their own umbrellas, and Camille and I were walking in the rain. It was fun for a bit because Camille and I had a water fight to see who could splash the other more with the water from the puddles. We both ended up soaked. We got to the panini place and ordered. We were there for about an hour I think. We left at 11:50ish. Camille and I were still walking without umbrellas, and it was still pouring. We got to the school and all of us was soaking wet. I mean everything. Our jeans, our shoes (my Toms), our jackets (my shirt stayed dry!), and our hair. We were also freezing to death. I mean we were cold. Like icecubes cold. I'm not exaggerating. At all. Camila and Joao went on to wait for the buses outside (STUPID!), while Loriane went to go do sign up for swimming, and Camille and I went to The Room. It was actually warm; For about 10 minutes, and then a teacher told us she was closing the room. We went out into the hallway, and it was cold again. It was finally 12:45 when the gate opened and we went out to wait for our buses. That's when we found Loriane. There were a whole slew of buses, and Camila and Camille's bus left, and Loriane and I were waiting for our bus. We waited for half an hour in the freezing rain! The bus finally got there, and we loaded on. I finally got to my house, took a loooong hot shower, drank some hot chocolate, and here I am. It was a very cold, wet, dreary, gloomy, no good, very bad day. The morning lied.

Ramasser Les Raisins (Picking Grapes), and Other... :)