Czution: Beware of Typos

I am typing this post quickly and I am typing it on a French keyboard, which I have kind of gotten the hang of, but not entirely, so I'm putting this typo disclaimer at the beginning of my post...

Forst of all, France has a new President, or they will as soon as he is sworn in; François Hollande is now le Président de la République. It was great to be able to witness another countries democratic process, and if I had the time I would go into details- suffice to say that there are aspects of the French political system which I really like, and there are also aspects of the American system which I perfer. In anycase, I was really lucky to be here on an election year!

I also am now able to announce that I really like opéra! I had a field trip yesterday with my school itlanian class to the Paris Opera, the Opéra de la Bastille, which is about the epitome of opera culture (second only to the Russian Bolshoi in size, we were told on our tour). I had never known anything about opera besides the stereotypes which can be seen in Bugs Bunny cartoons... but after watching Cavalleria Rusticana (a story of love, revenge and murder in rural Sicily lasting one hour) and Pagliacci (again a story of love, jealousy and passion, but this time within a travalling italian circus- possibly an inspiration for the novel Water for Elephants?- lasting an hour and half); I have been converted as a fan of opéra. Of course, you don't get to go see the opéra in Paris everyday either, so big props to my school's library and Italian teacher who organised the  trip and managed to get us tickets to the shows and places to take the tour of the operahouse.

This weekend I have the second-to-last Roatry weekend, which will be a lot of fun, but include some of our first good-byes as exchange students (besides the southern hemisphere kids we farwellled in December). So as I head towards the end this are just getting better and yet going faster as the time goes by!

Le Printemps de Bourges

Literally translated to ‘the spring of Bourges’, this music festival was one of the best and most memorable experiences of my year so far! We braved the weather, which was a disheartening drizzle that I can still see outside the window, and spent the week listening to music in every form

On Monday, traveling with the special permission of the head of our Rotary district, a gaggle of girls arrived at my friend’s house for the festival. These girls are fellow exchange students “des pays lointains” (from far-away countries) as my host sister put it, and come from: Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Sweden, and Illinois. I slept over with them on Monday night, and since their French hostess had to work during the vacation, I acted as their local guide. We had lunch at the house before leaving to explore the festival on Tuesday. While some cordon-bleu was being heated-up for the lunch in the kitchen, I was kidnapped by two forebodingly eager girls (Swedish and Mexican, just for anyone keeping track) and told that I was about to undergo a make-over. After about an hour of being attack with strange and unknown instruments (will somebody please explain the use of clear mascara to me? of eyebrow-definer? or anti-wrinkle foundation for an 18-year-old girl?) and the accidental melting of at least one plastic comb, my hair was straight and my maquillage impeccable. We left after eating did our first tour of the festival, browsing the stands which carried the same genre of hippie-inspired products that you will find at most US outdoor festival (think Whole Earth for those of you from Davis). However, most US festivals don’t have nearly the same number of crêpe stands (mmmm…I highly recommend a crêpe à la crème de marrons, or with a sugary chestnut spread, gooey and hot on the inside).

Tuesday evening I had a Rotary dinner- this dinner was special because it was a theme dinner sun by a member of the club with a passion for old French songs. When I arrived, I was surprised to find The Artist- style false pencil mustaches drawn onto most of the male members’ faces. Even my ever dignified councilor allowed his wife to draw a mustache on his upper lip. I heard a large number of old songs entirely now to me, and was pleased with myself to have actually recognized two of them! This meeting was also my one big chance to give a presentation on my life in the US and on my exchange year. The first five or so slides went swimmingly, my club appreciated pictures of my hometown and family, and smiled at my commentary; but when I got the second part I realized that I had actually put up the wrong version of the power point! Worse than that, the rough draft that I was displaying behind me was not only completely unfinished it contained the humorous and sarcastic comments which one bored Australian girl had filled on my slides. I turn around the find the following commentary blown up on the wall:

“Grace a Rotary je… (Thanks to Rotary I…)

·         Peux faire l’equitation (Can do horse-back riding)

·         Peux faire le scuba-diving (Can go scuba diving)

·         Connais une fille australienne TROP COOL. (Know an Australian girl WAY COOL.)

·         Connais aussi des filles qui viennent des autres pays. Meurgh. (Also know girls who come from other countries. Meurgh.)”

I can assure you, as I assured my Rotary club, cheeks blushing, that the real finished product was actually quite polished and nice. In fact, I usually take a great deal of pride in my presentations and public speaking. So as the chuckles spread throughout the room, and my hasty excuses left me PowerPoint-less, I finished the presentation on the fly. I hope I still communicated what I wanted to say; which was what great experience this year has already been for me and the many ways it has changed my outlook on life and hopes for the future. Thankfully, I have a Rotary club with a good sense of humor and at the end of my impromptu speech; I was told that at the very least, they knew that what I said came from the heart and wasn’t over prepared. The accompanying grins told me that while my presentation was perhaps not the most successful ever given, it did not go entirely unappreciated. 

After the dinner, I left to head home and sleep at my host family’s house, early the next morning I took the bus back to the house where my exchange friends were staying. Making my way from the bus stop to the house through the rain and wind, made the hour seem all the earlier (as a teenager on vacation I have every right to consider 9:30 early). This arrival time was due to the limited number of buses from the village where my host family lives into town- and so when I arrived at the house, finding all the girls still sound asleep, I simply set out my battered umbrella to dry, kicked off my shoes and crawled onto the same blow-up mattress I had slept on Monday night. Few hours later, we were ready to start the day.

Wednesday afternoon was sunnier than on Tuesday and so we had a lot of fun enjoying the outdoor stands and concerts, until we met up with Louison for our concert that night. We all went to go see Revolver, Izia, Dionysis and Shakaponk. I did not know any of these bands before going to see them and they ended up being an energetic mix of rock and techno which kept us dancing the whole concert. I didn’t stay with the girls because I had planned on meeting up with two of my best friends from school ahead of time. We had a ton of fun, but when the last band’s lights display finally proved too much for us, we moved to the court yard outside and ended up talking philosophy over hot crêpes until the concert let out. I met up with the girls, who were ready to stay out longer, and listen to the open concerts which were all over the town, but the steady drizzled and my slight shivers motivated me to leave with the group who was heading home early.

This was a good decision as that meant that the next day I was in form for another afternoon of festival going and second concert, just as large as the first that night with my second host sister. We saw four bands play, the first two I don’t remember the names of but the second two were Sue Lahsue and Charlie Winston. They were less rock than the last night’s concert but even more incredible. My ears were ringing for hours afterwards. I slept over at my second host family’s house after the concert and the next morning got up early once again to say good-bye to the exchange group before they headed to the train station. During all this time, changing houses and sleeping over, I realized how lucky I am to be welcome so many places. I also received this text message from my host mom, all in good humor:

“Be Careful! During the Printemps there are a lot of exchange students who disappear… But they reappear afterwards!! Lol!”

So you can understand why, after a final tour of the stands for souvenirs and my first Pad Thai lunch in nearly nine months, I was pleased to head home to my host family Friday afternoon. It was a pleasure to sleep in my own bed. (Actually, in the fold-out couch next to my bed, which my host sister is sleeping in while she’s home from college on vacation. But still it was still nice).

So that was the end of my action-filled week… or was it? No, because Saturday night I was up and away once again to go and see Dracula, the musical, touring in the near-by city of Orléans! My second host sister, host mom and I had bought the tickets months ago and we were ready to see the show. This French musical was truly incredible, not only was the story nicely adapted from Bram Stocker’s book, the costumes and decoration made for a fantastic and totally absorbing atmosphere. The singing was impressive, but the dancing- especially the pas de deux between Dracula and the heroine, Mina- had the ballet side of me practically drooling for the entire musicale. I wish I could dance like that- no, actually I wished I could just have the privilege of watching other people dance like that all the time, because it must me a lot of very hard work. In any case, the three of us really enjoyed the musical, and I slept at my second host family’s house once again after we got to Bourges late that night. Sunday I had breakfast, caught up on the latest episode of Glee with my host sister and then had lunch with my second host family, before heading home once and for all for the vacation.

Monday, May 1, I got to participate in a French May Day tradition. I’ve always known that the birth flower for the month of May (my birth flower) is the lily of the valley but I never knew what it looked like. Well now I’ve got a vase of it, called muguet in French, in front of me and if my nose weren’t stuffed up, I’m sure that I would be able to smell it from across the table. The First of every May, it is traditional to go look for muguet in the woods, and the first sprig brought home spring good luck. As May 1 is also the French Labor Day, everybody was off of work and we went out in full force, even the grandparents and uncle who had come for lunch. Unfortunately nobody thought to tell me that it was only the first sprig which was lucky, and I left my good luck muguet in the woods somewhere when I cut the stem to short. So I suppose if my good luck is lacking in the near future, we’ll know why… Actually, we were lucky to find any muguet at all since it’s been such a cold and rainy spring and it wasn’t blooming yet. In addition all the creeks which wind through the nearby wood were going in full force, and by the time we had courageously persisted in our trek across marshes and over (or in several of our cases, unintentionally through) rushing brooks, our shoes felt a few kilos heavier in mud. But in the end persistence prevails and we came triumphantly back to the car- where the grandparents, acting on their wisdom, had long since returned- clutching spring bouquets of muguet in our fists. It was a good day.

For the second week of vacation, so far I’ve been very much a homebody, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been completely unproductive. So far I’ve made homemade banana bread, apple pie and chicken noodle soup (with homemade stock) for my host family, all to success. I also took advantage of the sunshine yesterday to go for a run and to finish La Promesse de l’aube and the French translation of Slumdog Millionaire out on the porch. Today, Friday, is my host sister’s day off of work (though she works Saturday) so we took the opportunity to walk to pick up the family’s car from a garage in a nearby village. It may be a good idea to mention that my host sister is 21, and therefore has her driver’s license, even under the French requirement of being 18 to drive. The country roads were quiet and the fields are speckled with buttercups, and we got to the garage, which is owned and operated by a family friend, in just 45 minutes. Learning that the tank was just about empty, we just barely made it to the gas station, where it cost no less than 111€ to fill up the tank. And we complain about our gas prices…

As I’ve currently got a slight cold, tonight I plan to curl up with a cup of tea. My host family tells me that I probably caught cold while out walking around in the rain last week, or tromping through marshes on Monday. It’s a good thing that they’re fans of tea- as I’m writing this I’m going through about my fourth cup today. It’s hard for me to believe that I only have a month left before I leave for the Eurotrip and a whirlwind of travel before saying my good-byes and leaving in July. I plan to live these next few weeks here to the maximum, but at the same time I have trouble wrapping my mind around how fleeting my time left here is.

-I apologize for the lack of pictures. We can’t figure out how to connect my laptop to the Wi-Fi, so it’s harder for me to add the pictures in later when I’m on my host family’s computer. In any case I hope that my post was sufficiently long and sufficiently descriptive to make up for it!

Bonjour again

Hello everyone, it’s been a lot long than I meant since I’ve posted something here. That just means that my life here on exchange has been going so swimmingly that I 1) have no time to blog and 2) it feels so natural that I forget to document and share my time here.

Since I’m not sure what I’ve done since my last blog (probably a lot, as it’s been a while) I’ll just put out some catch-up information. I changed to my third and final host family about a month ago, though I had a lot of trouble leaving my second family I absolutely adore my third as well.

Last Saturday my host mom and I went to go see a château, the château which Hergé based Captain Haddock’s mansion off of in Tintin, which was absolutely wonderful. On Sunday we went for a 6 mile hike around the country side, which was organized by the local school and went to see the new Miyazaki movie at the artsy movie theater here in town. A friend of mine from school came along and after the movie we bumped into her Russian teacher, who convinced the two of us to stay for the next movie showing, a Russian movie called ‘Elena’. They were both very good movies, and it was a great day.

This week is the biggest week of the year for my town, because it is the week that they put on a nationally known music festival. I am going to two concerts, and staying at my friend’s house who lives closer to town. She was on exchange last year and had the idea and generosity to invite six exchange students in our district to come stay at her house for the festival. If the rain lets up it should be a pretty amazing week with all the excitement and outdoor stands and concerts downtown. And if the rain doesn’t let up we’ll still manage to have fun anyway! This Saturday, after the other girls here head back home, I will be headed to Orléans with my second host sister to see ‘Dracula’, a French musical which is touring. It should be spectacular.

Tonight I have a Rotary dinner and I will be giving my end of the year presentation, talking about the US and my experience here in France. I’m in the middle of finishing up the PowerPoint, and going through the photos is already making me nostalgic- and I haven’t even gotten home yet.

Since I’m on the subject of pictures, here’s one of me with my second host family. We’re on the top of the Dune of Pila, which is the largest sand dune in Europe. We visited it when we were in Bordeaux.

I should also note that while the Spain trip was canceled due to scheduling conflicts with the host club in Spain, my host mom was extremely excited to learn that we can leave that weekend to visit Mont Saint-Michel  and the beaches of Normandy. I will also be going on the Euro-tour with Rotary in June and get to visited an incredible number countries in an incredibly short amount of time. I guess I’ll be seeing most of you soon- but hopefully not too soon!

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Hi everyone... just a post to say that I haven't forgotten about you and that I'm doing really well! I don't seem to find the time to write, but now that I'm on vacation (or I will be as of tomorrow at noon) I should get around to playing catch up in the next couple of days. In short, since my last post I have:

• Seen Versaille and seen the cemitary 'Pere Lachaise' where the tombs of Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison and Balzac can be found, among others.
• Spent a week skiing in the Alps with a school trip, where I not only made new friends but also really improved my skiing ability. The Alps are truly magnificent.
• Playing in my first rugby match. We won 3/4 of the games we played.
• Spent a week at school
• Tried my first kebab (this is not a shish kebab, but rather a form of street food sold all over the place here, which is basically a grilled bun stuffed with meat. It was good)

In less good news, last week while we were in the mountains we got some really sad news from our friends at home at school. One student was stabbed by another in the parking lot, and died as a result. It was apparently the tragic end of a deal gone wrong. This is the first time that something like that has happened at this school and so the entire student body and administration was in shock for the days following. So please try to keep the victim, who would have turned 18 a few days after his death, as well as his attacker, who is an 18-year-old looking at 30 years in prison, in your thoughts. I didn't know them, but thinking of their families makes me realize that no matter where in the world, really tragic things can and do happen.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Here we are playing catch-up again; it looks like I have about a week or two’s worth of news to share with you.

Monday, January 23, was another normal day at school. Tuesday I had my weekly Rotary dinner and my counselor passed off the ski clothes which his daughter-in-law gave him to lend to me. This is the same daughter-in-law who I stayed with in Paris and her thinking of giving him the ski clothes I will need for an upcoming school trip to the Alps was beyond sweet.

On Wednesday nothing much interesting happened except that I finally managed to play a decent game of volleyball. Five months in and the effort appears to be paying off- I was quite proud of my not-appalling performance.

Thursday was where my week started getting interesting. I missed school for the day to shadow my host sister at her high school. Her high school if far larger than my own, with several thousand students and an immense Gothic Chapel dominating the main quad. It used to be an abbey before it became a girl’s boarding school and then a modern high school, and when we arrived the sun was rising behind the chapel. It was an impressive image to start the school day off with. I sat through her philosophy class, gave a presentation and spoke in English during the English class, had lunch with my host sister and her friends and then followed them to one of the school’s lab rooms. My host sister is specializing in biochemistry (all French high school students choose a specialization in junior year), and so we had two hours in the lab after lunch. It reminded me strongly of the university labs which my dad worked in for so long, especially since all students were required to wear lab coats, including myself. I had trouble following the technical talk, but found the multi-colored strains of E. coli which they had produced to be very impressive. After a break, we had another two hours of biochemistry theory in which I mostly spent literally trying not to nod off.

On Friday I was excited for the weekend to start because that night we picked up a friend of my from the train station.  An American friend from back home who is studying in Scotland, she spent part of her January vacation in Paris with another friend of hers and then came down to Bourges for the weekend.  When we picked her up from the train station we had about an hour of panic since she had missed the train she was planning to take. With a cell phone that turned out not to work in France, she had no way to tell us that she would be coming on the next train from Paris. Luckily, we were there, hoping that we would turn up so when she can through the doors the hug I gave her was probably as much relief as it was just being excited to see her.

After dinner it was late enough that we went right to bed- though not right to sleep, considering that it had been a goof five months since we’d seen each other, we ended up talking for a little bit longer than we meant to before turning the lights out.

Saturday morning we were up fairly early for school. I made my friend a classic French breakfast, we juggled my host family’s single bathroom with shower times (as usual), and then were out the door. I treated her to my favorite new way to get to school- walking. It’s a long walk, but a nice one and you even get to see some horses in pastures right in the middle of town. It’s really cool the way that Bourges has preserved green space in the way that they have.

After getting to meet my friends (at least those who also have class Saturday morning), some of whom attempted to speak English, though not all, we sat through the first hour of class. It think that it was interesting for my friend to experience a French high school class, but the second hour of lecture in a language that she doesn’t understand seemed a little bit unnecessary. So during break after the first half of class, we walked out to where my host mom was waiting to take my friend to the Saturday open-air market. I love this market, even though I’m usually in school while it takes place, and so they got to do the grocery shopping from all the stand selling everything from fresh fruit to more varieties of cheese than an American can comprehend.

We came home for lunch, in which the two Americans were introduced to the specialty of horse sausage, which is actually very good. After lunch, as my host family was all busy for the afternoon, we went into town with my Icelandic friend was also free for the day (and speaks English). Our plan for the afternoon was to accomplish two main goals: explore the sights or Bourges and taste all the pastries possible. We managed to do a good job of this and by the time we caught the bus home, the three of us had seen the Cathedral, the medieval houses with modern shops inside, the Palace belonging to a prominent medieval citizen, and several Renaissance-era mansions. We had tasted: a gallete à frangipane, a pain au chocolat, a gauffre à la confiture, some chouquettes and finished with tea and coffee inside a café when it started to drizzle at the end of our tour. It was also a lot of fun to finally introduce two friends who I knew would also get along great.

That evening we were hardly hungry for dinner, but we still managed to eat it, including the normal cheese course at the end, which is a French specialty not to be missed. I noticed during this time, that it has actually become more natural for me to speak in French than to respond in English. There were multiple instances when I was playing translator between my host family and my friend that when she regarded me in bewilderment I realized that I had spoken to her in French without even realizing it. That evening, my host parents were at a concert, so the two of us watched the movie ‘Billy Elliot’ with my host sister. It is an excellent movie. I was glad that my host family and my friend got along so well. I’m so lucky to have fallen into the hands of people who are so open and kind enough to open their doors like that. Luckily they enjoyed hosting my friend just as much as I enjoyed seeing her and gamely attempted to speak in English whenever possible!

Sunday we went to a winemaking region not too far away from Bourges called Sancerre. Though it was cold and a lot of the tourist-season shops were closed it was still a beautiful town and area. On the way home we stopped in a village which specializes in artisanal pottery and saw some beautiful works of porcelain art.

Once home, we enjoyed another French meal, delicious as usual, and a subtitled episodes of the TV show Vampire Diaries, which my host sister is a fan of. I just found out that my friend, now back home in Scotland is equally hooked on the show.

Monday morning we were up early to take her to the train station. It was great to see someone from back home- I was worried that her visit would make me homesick, but if anything it made me realized that my life here and my life back in the US are not mutually exclusive. I also realized in playing the tour guide just how much I’ve learned and grown since I’ve gotten here.

This past Monday was bitingly cold the entire day- and that night when my host mom came through the door with her hat tight over her ears and her cheeks bright and rosy she announced that it was snowing! Fat flakes were falling outside the window through the light of the streetlamp, and some of them were even sticking. I’ve been waiting for it to snow since before Christmas, and the dusting was got on Monday was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in Bourges since I’ve been here.

Tuesday morning when I walked (briskly!) to school, the neighborhood was glittering with the sunlight on the snow. Though it had melted by the end of the day, it was -5°C (23°F) today with snow possibly predicted in the next couple of days.

My schedule this week has been extremely nice as the rest of my class is taking the bac blanc this week- a practice test for their exams at the end of the year. Since I didn’t have to take only of the tests, I’ve had hours off of school, and on Wednesday I didn’t have to go to school at all. Instead I stayed home and churned out a project which I probably wouldn’t have gotten the chance to finish otherwise. I have a lot of cool things planned in the months to come! It’s been a while since I spent a decent amount of time doing schoolwork; a really strange feeling for me, but I can’t say that I haven’t been enjoying it.

Today I didn’t have to go to school until 2:00, making a nice end to a relaxing week perfect for drinking large mugs of tea and coffee!

All the Lastes Happens and Travels

In the time since I’ve last posted, I have done some pretty cool stuff. Like, for example, last weekend I went Paris to attend a ceremony under the Arc de Triomphe relighting the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

On Friday after school, I got on a train headed for Paris. It’s about two hours from Bourges to Paris by train so I was lucky to have a good book to keep me occupied for the trip. I am not, technically speaking, allowed to travel on my own but my club made an exception for this trip (considering that it was a Rotary member who invited me).

When I arrived at the Paris train station, I was picked up my counselor’s son and his wife. They live in the middle of Paris, and are a music producer and online marketer respectively. They are some of the brightest, friendliest people I’ve ever met- they not only took me in while I was in Paris, they showed me more of that beautiful city than both of my previous trips combined!

After leaving the train station, we dropped my things off at the apartment, which was remarkably well organized considering they had moved in five days ago. (In fact, I got to see their new place even before my counselor and his wife). We went on foot to go get a late bite to eat at a restaurant on their street called the Escargot. While I did not try escargot there, I did have frog legs. It honestly was pretty good and did taste like legs from a very tiny chicken. Frog legs are not really eaten that often in France, considering they are awfully small for being about as good as any other type of meat. But since I’m foreign, I get to try all sorts of interesting different specialties that aren’t usually eaten. We also had some delicious foie gras and a beef entrée. (Cultural note: In France, ‘entrée’ refers to what we call ‘hors d’oeurve’ in English. I have yet to hear any use of the word ‘hors d’oeurve’, despite it’s being a very French sounding word. Here, the main dish is referred to as the ‘plat principal’, which means, very poetically, ‘main dish’.)

After the delicious dinner, we walked back to the apartment and went to bed. I had to be up early to go to the Paris Hôtel de ville or city hall. We walked to the Hôtel de ville, which truly is the best way to get to know a city, I saw so many magnificent buildings and places, that I can’t even name them all (I do remember the Centre Pompidou, which is the Paris museum of modern art with some of the craziest architecture I’ve ever seen. Its eclectic fountain, which is usually surrounded by a crowd, was completely clear of people and easy to admire that early Saturday morning). However, after this weekend, I can actually recognize them for what and where they are.

The ceremony I had been invited to was organized by the Veterans Association of France, which was why it was given enough importance to take place in some really amazing places which are not usually open to the public (like rooms in the Hôtel de ville). The President of the Veterans Association is a member of my Rotary club here in Bourges, though he spends a lot of time working in Paris, and he was the one who invited me to the event. When the couple who was hosting me for the weekend dropped me off, we were all wowed by the magnificent décor on the inside. The outside is impressive enough, complete with an immense ice skating rink in the main square during the winter.

The first ceremony I attended was in honor of about fifteen teenagers who had won a contest for a piece of art which memorialized the veterans who had died in France during the first or second world wars. They were awarded their prizes, and several speaking addressed the crowd, including the General of the French Army.

It was certainly a nice ceremony, though it lasted for about three hours. By that time, I was ready for the lunch which was served right afterwards in an adjacent room. I was seated at a table with several veterans, their wives, and one 15-year-old contest winner. It was, as usual, an absolutely delicious five course meal. Thanks to the formal dinners I’ve attended here, I have become totally adept at knowing which fork to use.

After lunch, I was taken under the wing of the son of the Rotarian who invited me, along with his wife.  A bus took us along with everyone else to Les Invalides, which is another incredible Parisian landmark, made visible by its gilded-gold domed roof. It was built at the time of Napoleon I, as a hospital for the soldier who fought for him. It is still a building dedicated to veterans of France. We attended mass in the chapel of Les Invalides, where this live choir and organ sent chills down my spine.

As we left the mass, I was able to get of picture of some of the dignified veterans in uniform in the courtyard, each holding their own flag.

We then were bussed to the Champs Elysées where we window shopped at Louis Vuitton and got a warm drink at the Café George V. When we saw the tips of flags marking their way through the crowd, we knew it was time to go and join the group for the final ceremony of the night. Following along behind the uniformed veterans, we waked straight down the middle of the Champs Elysées, moving towards the Arc de Triomphe.  For those who don’t know the Arc de Triomphe is surrounded by what is probably the biggest and most frightening roundabout in the entire world, so tourist are usually forced to take an underground route to reach the arch itself. You could tell from the police men stopping traffic and the sound of honking behind us that walking down the middles of the Champs Elysées is not something one gets to do every day.

My always friendly and helpful guides for the day took this picture of me.

As for the ceremony itself it was extremely touching, I was standing just next to the flame when the General of the French army helped the youngest contest winners, a young boy and girl in about 7^th grade, to relight the flame. When the flags dropped in memory for the fallen soldiers, my eyes got teary. It was something about the silence in the middle of all the sounds of Paris and the light of the single flame which somehow seemed so far away from the glowing skyline.

On the way the hotel in which the final dinner was being held, the man who sat down next to me on the bus starting talking with me, and I found that he was the mayor of a town not too far from Bourges, Neuvy-sur-barangeon. I was actually just in Neuvy-sur-barangeon and when I told him that I was going to be there next weekend, he invited me to the Ceremonie des voeux on Friday night. This is a ceremony in which the mayor wishes all the citizens the best for the New Year and for 2012. Unfortunately, I was not able to go, but I thought that it was a really exceptional invitation nonetheless.

When we got to the hotel, we were all happy to warm up after having been outside on a fairly bitterly cold day. The dinner was an expansive buffet, which was very good. I got to meet some of the teenagers who had won the contest, and we had fun together. I got some good recommendations as for war memorials and battlefields to visit, as they had all recently been to various sites as a part of the competition.

My counselor’s son came to pick me up after the dinner, which finished around 10:00. My day was not yet over, however! I spent another two hours walking swiftly, haphazardly with him through the streets of central Paris. I saw a huge part of the city by night- the lights along the Seine, the courtyard to the Louvre empty of all visitors. It was really during this was that I started to recognize places that I had already seen before and I gained a whole new perspective to the city. Every corner we turned held something amazing- an average looking castle (yes, this is a place with that many castles and similar buildings) turned out to be the prison where Marie Antoinette was held. Notre Dame, the Paris opera, the Grand Palais…

By the time we finally came home the ankle which I had twisted the week before was starting the hurt again, but I hadn’t even noticed until we got back to the apartment.

The next morning, I wrapped up my ankle, and we set off for a day tour of Montmartre- by scooter. This is a misleading term, because a scooter in France is, though unlike an American motorcycle, far more capable than the electric scooters we imagine. (Those are referred to motos). Having been lent a leather jacket and gloves for wind protection, I also donned a helmet which had a built in walky-talky with its pair, so that my counselor’s son and I could talk while riding. His wife had her own scooter so we all made our way together to Montmartre.

Perhaps it was the lack of traffic on Sunday morning, but I honestly found that riding a scooter with a Parisian at the wheel was far less terrifying than being in a car with non-Parisian trying to navigate traffic. Not to mention that we spent at least half the time we would have in a car, being able to zip through most of the traffic and park on the sidewalk.

Montmartre is a beautiful neighborhood of Paris, and it was a beautiful day. Here, I’ll just put in the pictures I took of the street performers on the steps of the Sacre Coeur (a beautiful basilica overlooking the rest of Paris) and the other sights I saw.

The Sacre Coeur

This Statue was just a statue- until he started moving!

We heard the opera music from far away but didn't know it was these two until we turned a corner. They were very good- the sign said members of the Paris opera



We got lunch with a friend of theirs, who recommended the burger at the restaurant we went to. Now, I have been really pretty good about eating French food while I am here- really taking advantage of the opportunity- but it’s been nearly five months since I’ve had a real burger so I caved in an ordered one. It wasn’t bad- but I do have to say that it wasn’t like a burger from home, either.

That afternoon the scooter tour continued for another hour or so, before stopped at the bakery on the way home. They not only introduced me to Paris, but also to several new and absolutely delicious pastries. After our snack, I got my bags ready and headed to the train station. We said good-bye, I said thank you about as many times as I could, and two hours later I was back home in Bourges.

I don’t have much to say about the week in between; because I’ve got to write about my last weekend before my laptop battery dies.

So yesterday, Saturday, I quite luckily didn’t have any class in the morning. This was a good thing, since with Rugby practice the night before, I didn’t have time to pack again for this weekend.

At noon, I got my stuff together and went to two of my friends’ house for lunch. One of them is a friend from school who will be leaving with Rotary to spend next year in Brazil, and the other is my American friend (also with Rotary) who her family is hosting for the next three months. Their (host) mom drove us to Neuvy-sur-barangeon, the same town I was invited to last weekend, to a large hotel in the Sologne, a nice forested area of our region. There, we met up with all of our friends who are in France from other countries, while the expectant outbound students went to informational meetings and got paperwork done. There were also a good number of French students who had already spent a year abroad, including my friend who was in Peru last year.

I always love meeting up with the other Rotary exchange students, and though our Australian and Argentinian friends had left, we did get to meet one new Argentinian girl in the district (the southern hemisphere’s exchange schedule is different from the northern hemisphere). We treated to a tour of an astronomical research facility which was not too far away from the hotel, a delicious dinner where we met up with all the French students again, and then a dance with a DJ that only finished at 1:30 am. It was honestly an absolutely awesome way to spend time together and to meet all the new people who will be leaving next year.

This morning, we had an early wake-up with breakfast at 8:00, and spent the rest of the morning hanging out/ ironing out paperwork for visas and the Europe bus trips. We left too early at 11:00, when my host mom picked up the three of us who had car pooled together.

I came home, made myself a cup of tea and spend the first afternoon I’ve had in a while relaxing and writing this up. I hope you enjoyed reading it because I certainly had fun doing it!

The End of the Holiday Season

Finally a moment to write! I’ve settled in with my new family here, but in the free time I have, I try not to spend too much of it on the computer but rather with my host family. Which means that I’m getting a nice break from the Internet but also means that you guys end up with fewer exciting new stories about the strange foods I’ve tried (escargot since that last time I’ve written, which was delicious, and my school cafeteria’s take on chili which was… mysterious. But I still give them props for trying to cook something Mexican, even the French version of American texmex).

I spent the second week of break after Christmas doing practically nothing besides getting to know my new family and relaxing. I managed to make best friends with the family dog, Youpi (French for ‘yippie’, as in the exclamation of excitement). With was done by taking him for a good hour and a half long walk. Of course, I had originally only wanted to find the bus stop, but, it being my second day in the neighborhood the route ended up being longer than intended. I am now able to find the bus stop with ease, which is good because it’s still my main method of transportation to school and home.

My host dad is a fan of the cinema, and my host sister enjoys numerous American TV shows and bands. While I certainly like movies, TV shows and music, these two easily outrank my level of cultural/pop culture knowledge- both French and American. So break was also pleasantly spent by filling in gaps in my education, everything from the Ellen Degeneres show to the band Queen to Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer. We also bought tickets for Dracula, a French musical which is touring this year, and which I’m very excited about getting to go see.

For New Year’s Eve, I went to Tours with a group of exchange students. Even Dora, my Icelandic friend, came along though she isn’t with the Rotary program. We took the train, dropped our things off and then found a restaurant for dinner where we had the best crepes, both savory and sweet, which I’ve tasted so far. Just look at those empty plates!

By that time it was already fairly late into the evening (we ate around 9:00) and since the streets of the central area of Tours were full of people celebrating the New Year, we stayed out so that we were in one of the main squares when the clock struck midnight. There were no public fireworks, but the city Christmas lights were still up and 12:00 the crowd in the square sent up a cry with accompanied by flying champagne corks and bises (kisses on the cheek) from everyone we were standing next to! This is a picture of us at midnight…

After we made our way back to the apartment we were staying at for the night we got a few hours of sleep before waking up early to catch the train. We had to be sure to take a morning train since the French rail system was right in form, starting 2012 off with a strike at noon.

All in all, the rest of my vacation was nice and relaxing. After all, it’s a tough job to finish all the left-over foie gras, chocolates and Yule logs, but, then again, I’ve always been one to pitch in for the team in times of need. Needless to say, when both school and sports started up again last week, I was more than ready to get moving after the holidays. But it would appear that my eagerness, in conjunction with loss of ankle strength (four months without ballet and I’m beginning to feel it), I sprained my ankle. Three days later and it doesn’t hurt anymore, but it’s still slightly swollen so it looks like I may have to wait a little bit longer to work off than Christmas dinner.

The school week went well. There is a moment of silent solidarity among high school students waiting together for the bus to school in the rain, on the first day of school after a break. A discontented and wet solidarity, it is true, but a solidarity nonetheless.

Yesterday, on Saturday I had class in the morning, as usual. After having lunch at home I met up with a friend at the library of Bourges where we had agreed to meet to do our schoolwork together. We did succeed at being fairly productive and it was incredibly nice to be working with someone again, I always like having someone to bounce ideas off of. It was also nice to spend the afternoon with this friend who is one of my favorite people I have met through school, and since she is also a book lover the library was the perfect place for us to hang out. She also mentioned on our walk back through town an independent/used book store which she would like to show me, which will be an excellent discovery – I have yet to find a favorite bookstore here in town. Though I’m trying to balance my desire for French language books to enjoy back home with the future weight of suitcases…

After coming home I was picked up by the Rotarian family who I have mentioned staying with several times before. They are such wonderful people; I really think of them as yet another family here, so I try to spend time with them whenever I’m free.

We had dinner together, spaghetti bolognaise (everybody loves Italian food, even in France!) and then went bowling together. It seemed late to me to go bowling since we started at 10:00 but it was a lot of fun, and I even won for the first time ever at bowling during the second game.

This morning, their daughter and I went to the pool (and indoor swimming pool, it’s not yet warm enough for outdoors swimming). We had fun swimming, though our laps were more about enjoying the morning at the pool than about working out.

After lunch, they dropped me back off at home in time to start this entry. I had to leave before finishing it because my host family was having over two of my host dad’s brother and their wives to celebrate his 50^th birthday. This however, was not a typical birthday party but rather a galette des rois. This is a traditional January celebration in France, traditionally for the epiphany. A galette, a type of large pastry/cake, often with a marzipan filling, is cut in slices and whoever receives the slice with a little figurine baked into it is crowned the king of the evening and is responsible for hosting the next galette of the season. It was a lot of fun, and now that everyone has left, I’m watching Shrek with my host family as I type this. At first it bothered me that the voice actors I was familiar with had been replaced, I later found that all the big English-speaking actors are actually assigned a French voice actor who actually also dubs their work in animated films. And I have to say that it may not be the real Eddie Murphy playing Donkey but the French voice actors is doings a pretty good job of playing him.