Bref II

Well here I am again, two months later from my last blog. So as you can all imagine, a whole lot has happened. I need to make this "Bref" again...

Bref. Two months have passed. Tonight I leave for my much anticipated bus trip to Paris and Barcelona. So. So. So. EXCITED!!! January and February were two very cold months. I've learned a lot. I've eaten a lot. I've made new friends. I've traveled around. I've had fun :) I shopped! In France, they have major sales all over the country during the month of January. I went to a sketchy town called Roubaix with the Guisnets and Clothilde. I found some sweaters. Somebody broke a window of the Guisnet's car while we were there and didn't take anything :P I had my first galette des rois. A galette des rois is cake thing with a little prize in the middle. If you get the prize, you are the "king" or "queen" and you get to wear a paper crown with pride. I slept over at Sophie's. We had a galette des rois. I was the queen. I ate over at the Damelincourts. We had a galette des rois. I was the queen. I went to some church party with my host family. We ate a galette des rois. I was the queen. See a pattern here? Usually you're only supposed to have one galette des rois per year. Oops. Anways, I ate at McDonalds for the first time in my life. Haha yeah I know it's weird me being American and all. First hamburger in Cambrai, France! I went to Lille with my host family and we went to a bike store where you can try all the bikes out there in the store. I almost crashed. I helped my host sister build an Eiffel Tower out of leaves and branches for her art project. I hate superglue. I went laser-tagging in Lille with all the other exchange students! So much fun. I really suck at laser-lagging, though. I came in 19/21 almost every time. It was awesome to see everyone again. We had so much to catch up on. There are two new Australian exchange students in our district. I slept over at an Indian exchange student's house. We went shopping in Lille together. Then I went shopping in a giant super mall with my host sister. I kind of sort of LOVE French fashion. Zara is one of my magasins préférés. I made brownies for my first host family with my neighbor Laura. She is really sweet. I got an enormous care package from my parents #thankyousomuch. In sports, we're doing acrogym– pyramids and dance steps. Absolutely no exercise but it's fun. I performed Bruno Mars' "Marry You" with my group in front of the class. We celebrated Murielle's birthday. It was nice and simple. I bought a new coat. I went swimming with my host sisters at the local pool. A word about that... did you know that it's against the law to wear swim shorts to the pool?! Boys have to wear Speedos. Girls can not wear swim shorts. The French authority people are scared that the shorts will fall off and everyone will be swimming around au natural haha. And it gets better– everyone has to wear those ugly uncomfortable swim caps. So basically we were all looking pretty horrific at the pool with our one-pieces, swim caps, and googles. Lol. There's a giant toboggan there. We went on it at least ten times. The pool is really really really deep. In sports later on in the year, I'm going to have a unit of swimming so I'll be going there more often. I took my BAC blanc oral exam (a practice test for the real BAC). The teacher asked me questions about two poems and I had to analyze them. All in French, of course. And guess who scored an 18!!! Me! Whoo! An 18 is a really really good grade in France. I was shocked and very proud. I also took a BAC blanc test for physics and science. Ha, didn't do as well on that one. Now we're in February... I learned that it is illegal to own a turtle in France. We went on a lot of walks. I went to Rotary dinners. I slept over at the Guisnets for a weekend. It was amazing. I love my future host sister Marie-Michelle. We went shopping and had a blast. We bought stuffed animals and DVD's together. Because we're that cool :) Then we saw a 70's music concert the next day and were the only ones cheering. Normal. I got another care package. My mom had sent me Chanel perfume. #somuchlove. I've started singing. In music class. In front of other people. I sang a song with a microphone in front of my class. Not joking. It went well. We had to turn a classical song into a pop song. We took Beethoven's "Letters to Elise" and wrote our own lyrics. I was in charge of that because we wanted to write them in English. I had always been scared of singing in front of other people because I have a really bad ear for when I'm in tune or not. But now I'm more confident. It was actually really fun :D The next weekend I went to Marie Damelincourt's surprise 18th birthday party and slept over afterwards. It was really fun. Marie was floored when she walked in and found 30-something people waiting for her. SURPRISE! We ate so many delicious aperitifs. We danced. We laughed. It was great. Then the other day I went on a fabulous outing with my host family. We went to Touquet. My host mom grew up there. We ate at a stereotypical American restaurant called the Buffalo Grill. It was hilarious to see red leather booths, pictures of cowboys and Indians, Arizona scenery, and hearing country music on the radio... in France! It was yummy. I ate bison. Then we went to the aquarium! I really love sea animals. I really really do. It was an awesome aquarium in Boulogne called Nausicaa. We saw jellyfish, enormous fish, sharks, crocodiles, penguins, turtles, and seals. The seals were so intelligent. Lucie (my host sister) made motions with her arm and the seals actually followed her like they were dancing. It was great. My camera wasn't working so I didn't get to take any pictures :\ I bought some pins for my Rotary jacket. I ate frog legs this month. Currently there is a mess of clothes on my bed ready to be jammed into my suitcase for Barcelona. I will do my best to try to write a blog afterwards and tell you guys all about my trip! First, Paris here I come! :D

Bref. Time passes by way too fast.

I honestly can't believe that I've been here for six months now. It really feels like only seconds have passed by. They say times flies, but really... time just disappears between days and weeks and months on an exchange. It makes me incredibly sad just to think about going home and leaving all these people that I love behind. I haven't really gotten the blues here yet, homesickness wise. I have felt low and a little lost, but not in the sense of missing home. I miss my family and friends, but not the actual thought of America. I think the reason is that I've made myself a new home here. I'm 99% comfortable with the language and everyone pretty much says that I'm fluent. I don't really know what fluent is but I feel just about as comfortable with French as with English. (Sometimes I mess up my English grammar :s) But written French is a whole different story. French grammar is extremely hard.

So far I've made so many good friends here, had so many great memories, and lived so many adventures... it makes the thought of leaving so incredibly hard and sad. My return date is June 17– way earlier than I had wanted. But I don't really have a choice. But instead of thinking about the future, I'm going to concentrate on this bus trip in less than 24 hours. Viva Espana! Olé olé olé! A bientôt, bisous mes petits gens.

Because Marie-Michelle and I were in a tire store :)

At our concert.

Forever <3

Bref

I've started watching this new French T.V. mini-series called Bref. It's about some guy who talks super fast about his day with lots of insignificant details and then sums it up with... Bref– then he adds a statement. Here's the link to the show. Watch an episode or too (they're really short) and you'll see what I'm talking about. You won't understand anything, but it's just to get an idea of the show.

http://www.canalplus.fr/c-divertissement/pid3848-c-bref.html

I was really surprised the first time that I watched it because I understood everything that he said. Although he speaks incredibly fast, he speaks very clearly so it's actually way easier to understand than the Simpsons– that show on the other hand is very hard to understand.

So why am I talking about Bref?

Because I am going to imitate his style in an attempt to catch you all up on what I've been doing for the last month and a half or so. It might turn out really well or might just fail. While you're reading, please imagine that I'm saying all of this in a very fast voice like one of those commercials that have way too much to say to fit into a thirty second time frame. All right, let's try this. And......... go!

Bref. I haven't written a new blog for a long time. But I've done a lot of things in the meantime. Lots of adventures. Change. Sleeping. Eating. Friends. School. Outings. Trains. After Thanksgiving I had a sleepover with Manon and Sophie at my house. We were planning on watching a lot of chick flicks. We only got through one because we were too busy laughing and talking. Ever since then Sophie and I have hung out a lot. I've slept over. She's slept over. We baked. We Skyped– yeah, I know we're neighbors. We climbed some fences. We danced. We sang. We talked. We laughed like fools. We ate. We baked some more. Good times. I went to a gorgeous cathedral and a Marché de Noël with my three host families. We took the Taiwanese exchange student along with us. We ate churros and wore Santa hats. Then Christmas vacation finally came around. I slept over at Sophie's. I slept without socks on. I caught a cold over the night. Merde. Then I slept over at the Damelincourts for two nights. I love that family. They are so so so nice. Their mom is an amazing cook and wanted me to taste classic French dishes. So guess what I ate. ESCARGOT!!! Snails! And then frog legs! Mmm. The snail garlic sauce is really good. The texture of a frog is in between a fish and a chicken. The next day their mom wanted us to eat out in town at the local friterie (the French fry shack). French fries are a specialty in the North. Bienvenvue Chez les Ch'tis. We had "L'américaine" (the American). Why is it called that? It's a huge steak sandwich covered, bathed, smothered, blanketed, drowned in French fries. I like to eat French fries– but not three pounds of French fries. The grease went everywhere. It's not something you can eat with class. I wanted to give the leftovers to a homeless person. The girls laughed. Apparently the homeless people of Cambrai aren't nice. They just want cigarettes and booze. Sad. A lot of French fries went to waste. But it was a necessary dining experience. Then Céline and I met with Bettina and Clémence in town. Such sweet girls. We talked, laughed, window-shopped, tried on expensive perfumes, and drank hot chocolate. The time passed way too fast. Early the next morning I hit the road with the Raux for our Christmas destination: Clermont-Ferrand. The capital of Michelin tyres. It's somewhere in the middle of France. We stayed with their friends for four days. It was an amazing Christmas. It's incredible how close you can get to people that you've only known for a couple of days. We ate an enormous fish on Christmas Eve and opened presents at midnight. And then we played a whole lot of Just Dance on the Wii. I was really bad at first, but then I dominated after four hours of constant boogieing. We stayed up until five in the morning. On Christmas day, we ate. We ate foie gras, salmon, turkey, cakes, potatoes, brownies, etc. We ate and ate and ate and didn't do much of anything else. Amen. I had made a joke saying that we had to climb a mountain the next day to work off all the weight that we had probably gained. I didn't think anyone would take me seriously. But my joke hadn't been a joke in their ears. When they had said that we were going on a "walk" I had pictured a little stroll into town to look at the pretty Christmas lights. Nope. We climbed a mountain. That had a pathway covered in ice. But it was so beautiful at the top, it was totally worth it. The clouds hung over the valley and the sun was in the middle of setting behind the mountains. It was so gorgeous; it took my breath away. But I was also feeling asthmatic at that point so feeling breathless was quite easy. Going down was harder than going up. We were in the dark. And there was ice. Not a great combination. But we made it down safely and had lots of good laughs along the way. At one point I was on all four clinging to a rock and Xavier's hand. So much for the "good boots" I had worn. This journey bonded us all in a way. Sometimes you just have to climb a mountain with someone to get to know them. We returned home the next day. We dropped Anne-Soizic off at the train station. She took the TGV. I had heard stories about that crazy fast train, but never expected it to be SO incredible fast. It's pretty scary to watch something the length of the Empire State Building fly past you in six seconds flat. Heaven forbidden that a squirrel runs in front of it... The next day Sophie came over to the house. She helped me pack my things for my next host family. Yep it's that time already. FOUR MONTHS. Time has flown by like no other. We had a lot of trouble packing. A lot of trouble. I came to France with two large suitcases. I moved to my next host family with two bulging, overstuffed suitcases and five million other bags, shoes, coats, and purses all over the place. Light packing for light shopping? I wonder how many bags I'll be carrying back with me to Seattle. So then the next day... I changed host families. Part two. Chapter two. My time with the Raux was really wonderful. Yeah we had our ups and downs, but overall I feel so lucky to have spent time with them. They gave me so much and we have lots of great memories. It was sad saying good-bye but this is just a new page. A new adventure! A new family! I have siblings now :) And a very large bed and a sink in my room. Sinks in bedrooms are quite practical, you know. So after getting used to everything and all... New Year's came around. C'est la fête! :D It was a really fun night. Good memories. I was at Marie-Michelle's house with her friends and Clothilde. We danced the night away. We ate crêpes. We blew off firecrackers. We frolicked around in the haylofts at midnight. We were young and wild :) We slept for two hours. Here's to 2012!!! :D 

Bref. I love France.

I hope you succeeded reading that Bref-style. For some thoughts... it was kind of strange to be away from my family for the holidays. But I didn't feel sad because there were so many wonderful people and opportunities around me. It just felt different like I had stepped into a different place by accident. I didn't know any of the people that I had been with before and since Christmas is usually spent with family, it was quite a change. And then again, I imagine it's even harder for the Raux's son in Taiwan because they don't even have Christmas over there! It's crazy how different cultures are across the oceans.

So to sum up, I'm going to make 2012 fabulous and unforgettable. I wish the same to all of you. A bientôt, much love, bisous.

Camera, lights.... PICTURES!

At Amiens cathedral

I can be quite saintly if I want to ;)

Churros!!

 

Making brownies :)

Cookies Sophie and I made

Yeah we melt gummy bears by candle light. It's what the cool kids do ;)

ESCARGOT!!!

SNAILS!!!

Looking cool. With Céline.

Yep, there is a sandwich buried somewhere under there...

Cambrai's local Christmas reindeer.

Christmas!! :) Ho ho ho

Christmas cheese. Ahhhh

The hiking crew

So pretty <3

Monument at the top

When the sun had almost set

When the sky is on fire

Christmas Market/decoration center plaza

Christmas 2011 group!

Allé! Chez les Robalos!

New Years :) In the haystack... I'm on the ladder.

2012!!!!

The City of Lights

How many people can answer the question «So what did you do last weekend?» with: "I went shopping in Paris!"

Well... I can!!! Yes, Paris was incredible and beautiful. But I definitely left with a different impression than I did the last two times that I’ve been there. Paris just seemed less magical and romantic to me this time. It didn’t feel like the city where artists, lovers, and adventurers come to discover the world and themselves. The streets didn’t feel like they were dusted with some undiscovered mystery. It sort of all just felt like a tourist trap; a Disneyland; a city meant to be gazed out through a camera lens. A city filled with Asians on tourist buses.

I know that sounds really bad, but it is still a beautiful city– just different. It’s extremely crowded (I know I went during one of the busiest weekend of the year, but still). The stores are outrageously expensive so I didn’t buy a lot of things when we shopped. It started out sunny, but then later it rained and the skies turned gray. The first time that I went to Paris was at night when everything was illuminated so it really felt like a magical city. This time everything seemed a little less surreal with raindrops in my eyes, gray skies above my head, and frantic shoppers suffocating the limited space on the streets. I don’t know if Paris could be a city that I would want to live in. Maybe for a short time, but I don’t know if a permanent residence would be possible for me. There are so many other cities in the world, but I always thought of Paris as the dream city to live in. People call it the heart of culture, of light, of France. But who are these people that said that? Was it the lonely painter on the side of the Seine? Or the dreamer writing stories in a local café? Or the poet seeking inspiration? Or the child with the Eiffel Tower glimmering in their eyes?

As for the rest of the people that might have said that, they must have been rich.

One can’t realistically live in Paris without a lot of money. Sure one can play the artist game for awhile, but eventually one needs food and clothes and fun. If you have money, Paris can be extraordinary. But if you don’t, it might just be a lot of traffic, tourists, and cold skies. I was disappointed in that aspect of losing my perspective towards Paris as the magical city I once thought it was. But you know, it was still an amazing day. It was one of those days I won’t forget here. You can’t forget Paris, even with the tourist overload. It’s still Paris. Yeah, that word has a lot of class. Buying a shirt in Lille has way less significance than buying the same shirt in Paris. So... that’s why I bought the same shirt that I saw in Lille, in Paris :D

First stop: Galeries Lafayette :D I was surprised at how much freedom we got. Benoît (our Rotary president) told us to meet up in two hours, stay in pairs, and then just let us go.... Wild! No, not really. We broke off into groups. I stuck with Rachel (American) and Miwako (the Japanese student). It was fun, but not very successful as far as shopping goes. Everything was outrageously expensive. Outrageous! There was an enormous Christmas tree underneath an absolutely breathtaking dome that we awed and goggled at for awhile. And then we amused ourselves by looking at all the stuff that we couldn’t possibly afford. A simple sweater with five buttons? 200 euros please. A ridiculous feather boa made of crow feathers? 3, 500 euros? Like I said, Paris is a city for people with money. If you want to be stylish, that is.

The window displays were cool in the Galeries Lafayette with strange little dolls that danced around jumbo sized present boxes, but it honestly didn’t feel like the holiday season. I really thought of all places, Paris would be a really magical place around Christmas time. But... it was sunny (for awhile) and cold and felt like it could have been in the middle of October or March. I really think it’s the Christmas music that gets me in the spirit. Christmas is in exactly one week and it really really really doesn’t seem like it. Not at all. I love this season usually, but it just doesn’t feel like the apple cider/jolly music/generous/puffy coats/Starbucks frappuccino kind of season. Where did Christmas go?

We went into Zara later (one of my favorite French stores!) and I bought a nice cardigan. Then we met back up with the others later and had lunch. When they mentioned lunch in Paris, I don’t why, but I pictured escargot in a restaurant like the one in the movie "Ratatouille". Silly me. We went to a cafeteria styled restaurant that had plastic trays and already-made-self-serve food. We didn’t have to pay for it so it was really nice of Benoît and all... but still. I had a Croque Madame with fries. So fatty and greasy, but filling. Not exactly fine French cuisine, but hey– it was a free meal on our part.

Then after lunch we took the metro down to the Champs Elysées where they had their first ever Marché de Noël (Christmas market). Again, Benoît let us run free for two hours with the destination point at the Arc de Triomphe. We went into the Disney store and almost got trampled by the plushie crazed tourists. Hmm.... and I saw Starbucks! (!!!) I have so many great memories in that place. I miss it. I didn’t get anything there though because of the lovely one million person line. Then I bought some presents in Yves Roches. I personally think it’s quite classy to buy someone a present from Paris, but hey that’s just my opinion. I think a big part about visiting Paris is afterwards being able to say that you were in Paris. It’s the reputation and the name that people awe at. When you’re actually there for a lil’ visit you spend all your time taking pictures to prove to everyone that you were there. Not to mention that you spend all your money buying souvenirs (I <3 Paris) or clothes that you could probably buy much cheaper in a different, less classy city.

Okay– Paris is amazing. Don't get me wrong, I love it. But it’s not a family city. It’s an old city for the young. Or the very very old who still sit in cafés beneath the Eiffel Tower with their berets, drinking wine, and talking about the times before the Internet and when eating frogs was normal... Ah, vive la France. But I could totally go for another shopping weekend there. I need more time to explore and discover the city. One day just isn't enough.

After our second burst of shopping, we went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. (!!!) It was really really cool. I actually didn’t even know that you could go up to the top before we did it. I also never thought of how you had to get over to walk around it because if you know anything about traffic, the traffic around the Arc de Triomphe is horrific. If there’s an accident, it's charged at both cars because there's no way to show proof. It’s like a wild race between cars that two competing five year olds are controlling. Unfortunately it started to get stormy and rainy at this point of the day. Allison (my American friend) and I were late when we arrived and when we stopped before the traffic circle we looked at each other and thought: «Uhh.... Do we run?» Silly us. There was an underground passage-tunnel thing that goes under the traffic circle and right up to the Arc. Yeah, if that didn’t exist the tourist population in Paris would dramatically decrease. Because they would all be Crêpes à la Triomphe. <--- Sorry, I thought that was funny.

I have to admit that one of the best moments of the day was at the top of the Arc. It wasn’t the amazing view of the city, it wasn’t taking a million pictures, it wasn’t watching the city lights of Paris turn on when it grew dark, it wasn’t watching the Eiffel Tower light up. It wasn’t freaking out in the cold. It was when Megan (American), Miwako, and I took pictures with a huge, random Japanese tourist group. We were the last left of our group to leave, but right before we did a Japanese dude asked us to take the picture of the Japanese people. Then they asked us to be in their picture. As you can imagine, we all did the ridiculous peace sign. Asian people are the main supporters of superficial peace. But still, it was hilarious, random, and a wonderful moment between foreign strangers on top of a Paris monument. Love life.

So then we all ran through the rain, piled into the metro, got on the bus, played some of those road trip games, then chatted until we reached our dinner destination. At... wait for it........ at a gas station! Ha :O But it was a classy gas station. I had some ham and potatoes.

So voilà. Paris :D It was really fun, beautiful, and... yet, not so Christmas-y. Like I said, I don’t have that warm, winter-season feeling. Not even after seeing the pretty lights. But oh well. I went to Paris!

Here are the pictures:

Beautiful Christmas tree at the Champs Elysées

I love Zara!

Miwako and Rachel :)

Lunchtime. Left to right: Kirana (Indonesian), Aayushi (Indian), me (American), and Miwako (Japanese).

Check out that traffic! Oh, and that one arc thing ;)

On top of the Arc de Triomphe

Pretty lights of Paris: Champs Elysées

Left to right: Miwako, me, Kirana, and Kelly :)

With all the Japanese tourists that we didn't know :D

Voilà.

There is always so much to talk about and catch up on. I have so many feelings and thoughts that constantly race past my mind, but I’ve been quite busy and tired so they often swirl around in my head until they’re all but just faint memories. And then I try to write them all down again. :P Hope to write to you again soon. Bisous.

3 Months In

I hit the three month anniversary mark of being in France last week! It's incredible how fast time flies. I know I've said that before countless times, but it really surprises me when I look back and try to pick up all my memories that have all been crammed into three months. My three month anniversary day was actually the same day as Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for. Where do I start? Well, this amazing opportunity to come to France; with all the good and all the bad. My friends; the new and the old. My family; my real one and my host one(s). My home; on both sides of this world. Everyone's support. That I have a school to go to. That I have a future to look forward to. That I have people around me that I love oh so very much. That you're reading this blog. ;)
I'm not a huge Thanksgiving/turkey person but I do believe that it's a day where one can at least think about what they're thankful for. So I want to give a huge THANK YOU and a MERCI to everyone whose helped me along the way! Really, I don't know how I could have gotten this far alone.

As for the actual day of Thanksgiving, I had a really fun morning. We had our TPE presentation thing then. I didn't really know what it was or what to expect, but it turned out to be a blast. All of the students in the première (junior) class (over one hundred of us!) were in the same building (the same one I had my concert in!) and everyone presented their project to the sophomore class that walked through (so crowded!) Then I realized that it was a competition to get the most votes. Everyone started out explaining their projects in detail to people that stopped by, but in the end it was purely a competition to get the sophomores to vote. People were clever. I had joked about bringing candy to the event the other day, but almost every single table had some type of food to lure the sophomores over. I had changed groups because my other one had issues deciding on a topic... so now we're studying (it's kind of complicated, but basically...) peace and love. We're going to analyze two songs that were written in times of war and sought to bring peace, love, etc. So the girls had already made a giant hot pink poster and we had speakers to play the songs. Unfortunately, the other tables around us had music too so no one heard us. But it was like a dance party :) I found some candy and had the idea to cut up pieces of paper with "Peace and Love" written on them to hand out. We didn't do so bad with the votes. 30 something :D Because we were motivated and knew how to play the game. The other girls in our class only got like 5 votes because they just sat there expecting people to come over and ask about their historic-literary-content of their project. Um... no. Those kids wanted candy. The whole thing was kind of a mess. Animals were everywhere. Someone had brought a hamster, some mice, and grasshoppers. I think they lost the grasshoppers in the end. I really hate it when people walk up to you with a mouse in their hand and grasshoppers on their arm. But yeah, my group was L2 and we were literally screaming "L2, L2, L2!!!" to everyone. One time I shouted "Hey come here, I'm the American!" and they actually came over. Haha. We were all dying of laughter. Team power. Domination.

And also for Thanksgiving, my English teacher had asked me to make a PowerPoint about its history and traditions. I made it, but I had no idea how many times I would have to present it! Throughout the week, I presented it to my première L class, the terminale ESA class, the première ESA class, the terminale ESB class, and the seconde F class. Phew! And I still have some more presentations next week... Luckily, they all basically understood (I talked in English) and they all laughed when I talked about the presidential turkey pardoning and turkey bowling(<-- look it up). I got to meet some new people and now know quite a bit about Thanksgiving. I think I could give that presentation by heart.

On a last note about Thanksgiving, I had the big dinner last night with all the other exchange students in Valenciennes. We had been planning it for a long time and it turned out pretty good. Most of us got there four hours beforehand to help decorate. The room looked ridiculous with red, white, and blue everywhere. It was more like a Fourth of July room gone bad with balloons and sparkles covering the tables. French people don't know much about Thanksgiving and we couldn't exactly counter the Rotary president's orders so... yeah... It was fun talking with everyone and catching up. The food was yummy, except for the turkey which was sort of like dried rubber. I loved the pies for dessert and the stuffing. Usually I hate stuffing, so that's saying something. Also, all the Americans had to make a little speech thing about Thanksgiving. I don't have much stage fright nowadays :) Here's what went down on Saturday:

SPEECH

That's all of us :)

Fourth of July?

French Candy boat. Hello pimples.

Appetizers :) Yum. Salmon on toasties

Americans!

With Japanese exchange student :) Peace.

Brownies, American apple pie, and some ice cream. We like to eat in France.

Speaking of the food... the Americans were in charge of the cooking. I had to make brownies, apple sauce, two apple tarts, and mashed potatoes. Each dish for ten people. :O Solution? I called Marie-Michelle for help. She and I stayed up until three in the morning the night before in the kitchen cooking, singing, dancing, and jamming out to music. It was so much fun and our food turned out good, except for the mashed potatoes. The potatoes weren't cooked well enough so there were clumps of raw potatoes in the mashed parts. We tried to fix it, but in the end my host mom came to the rescue... and it turned out to be mediocre. Oh well. Not all of us can be great chefs at two in the morning. Still, everyone loved our brownies and tarts.

Yes, we drew a face on that potato.

Mashed potatoes and brownies :)

Makin' brownies

What we do at one in the morning... those are potatoes. And he's a potato pimp.

Umm.... as for the rest of last week, there wasn't anything particularly special except for that I had lunch at the Damelincourts one day and it was really nice. Their mom is an amazing cook and their house is very pretty. I had the impression that all French houses were similar to mine, but they're really not. Mine is more classic and theirs is more modern. Way more modern. So we ate French onion soup, a leek tart, and a legit blueberry pie. So so so good. And their mom gave me an enormous bag of candy. It has a million tiny bags of gummies that I've been snacking on way too much for my own good. People keep giving me candy and I keep eating it <--- problem.

Oh yeah, and Sunday I went out to a town near Lille with the Rotary. It was supposed to be super cool with other exchange students from England, but it turned out to be very different than I thought... I ended up having lunch in this museum that used to be a fancy swimming pool called "La Piscine" (which means swimming pool... huge surprise there). There were a bunch of Rotarians there from the Netherlands and Germany which was cool, but not many people my age. I ate a lasagne dish and a specialty waffle thing for dessert that was amazing. Then we went on a three-hour-something tour of the museum. I hung out with my Rotary president's son the whole time. It was kind of fun, but still a disappointment for what I had been expecting.

So I'm very tired now. Good night all. It's almost December which means it's almost vacation time which means it's almost Christmas which means it's almost a new year which means it's almost time to switch host families which means that there's a lot of stuff that's going to change really soon! A bientôt et bisous :)