Musée d'Orsay and others :)

Let me first start off by saying i love having a long term visa and a school card because i am considered a resident of France which means I get into almost all the museums for free :) life is good. Today i went to Musée d'Orsay which is filled with impressionist art. I loved it. The art was beautiful. There was van GoghMonet, Manet, Cezanne, and beaucoup plus. My friends and I have been trying to fit all the indoor stuff in now (like museums and what not) during the winter so we don't freeze :) even though it hasnt been too cold lately. Anyway here are a few photos I took in the museum before (and just a few i discretely took after) i saw the sign telling me cameras were interdit.
After the trip to the museum we were starving so we made our way to the Saint Michel district and went to a little creperie :) My ham and cheese crepe hit the spot.

In the same district, Jack and I found "Shakespeare and Company" which was a super cute English bookstore. We were sooo excited. We bought David Sedaris's "Me Talk Pretty One Day
" to share. (mom, i know what you are thinking--- why am i buying english books when i am in France and why am i not having the full French experience... c'est ca? haha but we were just so excited to see english books again we had to cave a little!!!) Its about when Sedaris moved to France and was learning French so I think it will be really funny :) Plus, that store is amazing. It is exactly what a bookstore should look like! It was weird though being able to speak English with the ladies working.... I would catch myself answering back in French. It is really weird when that happens....
Et voila :) J'adore tourjours Paris. I am so lucky. Its a dream come true living here. I am so happy!!!! oh and sorry about the random french words but they were the first words that came to me and i am too lazy to go find and change them into english again.
♥
em

mon Noël francais.

My first French christmas was amazing :) In fact, its not that much different from Christmas back in the states. Christmas Eve was spent cooking for the big dinner that night- I made a buche de Noel with the help of Isabelle. It is a rolled cake that is the traditional dessert of Christmas. It was really yummy.

We went to church that night which was freezing because they didnt turn the heat on... we were like ice cubes. After church Patrice's parents and sister came over for dinner. We ate and ate and ate and ate... :) we had escargots, shellfish, and foie gras pour our first dish. Then we had some sort of fowl with apples and raisons for our main course, then cheese and then our dessert. It was good :) We also had a little christmas exchange that night with Patrice's family. Before going to bed we all had to put a pair of shoes under the tree because one of the French traditions is that Santa puts the presents next to your shoes so in the morning you know whos are whos. It was funny :)

The next morning (NOEL!) we woke up at like 10ish and then opened our presents. One difference I noticed is that everyone opens their presents at the same time. there isnt any "All eyes on [so and so]" like in my family. My family was so nice and gave me really nice gifts. I got cookbooks and a personalized journal and lots more. oh and a 5 KILO JAR OF NUTELLA! hahaha that is about 11 pounds.... definitley will need some help eating that.

After opening presents we had a little breakfast of toast and jam and nutella and then we went into paris because Amandine had a horseback riding lesson (talk about dedication!). After the lesson we went to the Champs-Eylsees to visit the Christmas market and the ice sculture display. It was really beautiful and surreal to be in Paris for Christmas.

It was a really really nice Christmas and was only a little hard for me to be away from my family. It didn't feel 100% like christmas since it wasn't the same traditions and I wasn't with my family, but it was still a great christmas :)

The next day was ANOTHER christmas!!! This time with Isabelle's family. Her mom loves christmas and every year plans a themed Christmas party. This year it was Christmas around the world and the colors were red and white. Everyone had to cut out a picture of a person from a different country and make a little ornament to hang on the tree and bring a dish from another country (We brought american cookies and brownies). There were more presents there too! It was really nice of everyone to include me :)Also, my family surprised me with a candle to blow out for my 4th month in France. I had completely forgotten with all the christmas stuff going on. I can't believe its already been 4 months. wow.

Yesterday was yet another little Christmas, this time with my 2nd host family. We ate lots of desserts and exchanged more gifts. They gave me a bag full of French specialties and a really nice pen set (one is a plume which i can use for calligraphy!) to use in my new journal! it was so nice!

I am so thankful for the amazing christmas I had and for my 2 amazing French families. With the Gabelotaud's we were talking about how funny it will be to have all 3 of my families together when my family comes to France. The language barrier will be the funniest :) But i think it will be cool to because the French will be able to use their English and mom will be able to use her French (john too! haha)
Anyway, I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas!!!! only 4 more days until 2011! wow!!!!

xoxo♥

Ice skating + Lady Gaga + Notre Dame

This might have been the best two days ever :) It started off yesterday bright and early with ICE-SKATING ON THE EIFFEL TOWER!!!!!! when i heard about this i could not believe it... on the first floor of la tour eiffel there is an ice skating rink which is free! all you have to buy is the 3euro ticket to go up the tower. It was like a dream. We went early so we avoided the line and the crowds. i just kept thinking, "wow, i am really ice skating right now in the Eiffel Tower in Paris... how many people can say they have done this?" Its moments like that where I feel sooooo grateful and where i realize how lucky i am.

After a bit of skating we went up to the second floor of the tour eiffel and then hit up the christmas market across the street. i LOVE les marchés Noel! I know i'm going to miss those once christmas is over! They are so fun and festive.

And the night couldnt have ended better---- I GOT TO GO TO LADY GAGA'S CONCERT!!!! it was so amazing. She is sooo strang, but that's what makes her amazing. She had the kookiest costumes and played all the songs i love and she was actually really inspiring too telling us to never give up on dreams or never think we aren't good enough or pretty enough. She was wonderful and from what I say really down to earth too (which was super surprising since she seems so gaudy.) At the end of her show she got choked up saying how grateful she was for all of her fans and for the opprotunity to be able to show the world that its okay to be different. It was so nice. I never ever expected it from her.... and then to close the show she threw her custom-made ARMANI (!!!!) high heels into the crowd because supposedly its a tradition for dancers to throw their shoes if the audience was amazing that night.... she sais "mr. armani is going to kill me for this" Wow. i can't even explain how awesome it was....

After the concert the two girls and I stay at a Youth Hostel in Paris since it was safer than taking the trains at night. Then today, I went to Notre Dame with Sophie, Milton, Pascaline and Pascaline's church group. It was sooooo gorgeous! I was happy I got to go inside and got a tour! They had a really beautiful nativity seen in the cathedral which was really artsy. I liked it a lot.

I can't describe how grateful I am for everything I am getting to experience :) Even on days where not much happens I still feel lucky to even be in France. As amazing as these past two days have been I am looking forward to my day of recooperation tomorrow:) My feet are absolutely KILLING me.... i walked SOOOOOOOOOOO much.

anywho, im exhausted!
xoxo,

em

le foie gras.

I wish I could say that today i made foie gras, but that wasnt exactly the case haha. Today, Patrice and I went to the Gabelotaud's house for a lesson in making foie gras ( foie gras is a really famous French christmas dish involving the duck liver. its very similar to pâté). I started off making some, but got a little grossed out by working with the liver so Patrice finished the job. (notice how i haven't used "haha" yet.... seeing as i have been getting complaints...... thanks mom and katie....) Anyway, it was really interesting how it is made. Foie gras isn't my favorite dish I have tried but its not bad... I'm just not a big fan of pâté.
Anyway, i have a full few days ahead of me including a Lady Gaga concert and ice skating on la tour Eiffel!!!! so excited.
grosses bisouses,
em

Les Vacances! :)

J'ADORE LES VACANCES :)
My vacation started with a Friday afternoon spend in Paris with my darling Maria. We did a bit of shopping and then that evening met up with Mia and headed to Croissy Sur Seine to watch our friend Jack in a play! He's an american and he was in a French play! We were so proud of him :) (plus i was super jealous because he has an amazing accent and it made me miss theater so much!!!) The play was really funny. i loved it. Anyway, after the play we walked to jack's in the snow which was beautiful with the christmas lights. At jack's we had some tea to warm up and then stayed up really late just talking and what not. The next morning we all woke up at around 12:30 hahaha.... (not too strange for me ) We had a nice breakfast of croissants and pain au chocolat and tea. it was so nice. That evening the Lasserres and I went to Patrice's parents house for a birthday dinner for his sister and dad. It was really nice! We ate soooooooo much! hahaha first we started with a crap spread on bread, then we ate oysters and shrimp, then foie gras, then racelette dish, then salade, and then cake! hahaha. i had to use some moderation to make it through all the courses :) but worth it!
and then today was a really relaxing day because it snowed a lot last night we just stayed home. we had freshly squeezed orange juice and fresh bread for breakfast! life is good.... and then for our afternoon snack Amandine made waffles. yummmmmy :) i love that half my blog is filled with me talking about food.... wow.
Well, there you have it!
gros bisous!

tartiflette! miam miam :)

A great day topped off with a delcious dinner :) Isabelle made a tartiflette tonight and it was soo yummy. Cheese, potatoes, bacon, onions.... yum! I'm just packing on those kilos.... hahahaha. I try to avoid the scale as much as possible. Anyway, school was a little tiring today and i'm not sure why because I started at 12 hah. I had two hours of badminton which was fun even though I am now currently the worst in the class.... (seriously, today we had a competition and I ended up being ranked 8th out of 8 hahahaha) Go me! However, yesterday I had a rock climbing competition and I got 3rd out of the girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its that awesome? I'm not sure exactly how many girls were there, but I would guess somewhere around twenty :) It was super tiring though.
Oh and by the way, yesterday I learned that I can't read english anymore.... I was in my english history class and the prof asked me to read outloud and it was like I was in 1st grade all over again... I had to follow along with my finger and I couldnt read fast. It was terrible. And then when I got to the number 25,000 I FORGOT HOW TO SAY IT! I started by saying "vingt-cinq...." but then i realized what i had switched back to french so i can to hurry and search for the english word. boy oh boy. Also, when French people talk to me in english i automatically always respond in french... im not sure if i already said this, but one day in my class my friends asked me if i would talk to them only in english for a few minutes so they could practice and so I said yes of course. I started out speaking english, but then I automatically switched back to French when I answered them... they had to keep reminding me to speak English. I dont know why that is because when I speak to the other americans or my family on Skype I don't switch over the French haha. The life of a foreign exchange student I guess! Its kind of cool though :)
Anyway, ONE MORE DAY UNTIL CHRISTMAS VACATION!!!! (not that i've been counting hahahah)
bisous,
em

'Tis the season....

C'est presque Noel!!! :) yay! I cannot believe it! I've definitely been getting in the holiday spirit by playing tons of christmas music!!! love it. Oh, and I found out that the names of Santa's reindeer are not common knowledge here. hahaha i was curious to see if they had French names instead, but the Lasserres' said that they had never heard that the reindeer are named :) we ended up looking it up on the internet and French names exist but no one ever knows them.

Anyway, last Sunday we decorated the house for Christmas! I loved it. I just loooooove Noel. And then today at school was the famous Christmas Dinner at the cafeteria. It was interesting hahaha. I tried foie gras! I was really scared to try it, but it turned out to be not too bad. I think that the foie gras we are going to eat for Christmas will be even better since its not cafeteria food hah. Also, in my French class we had a little Christmas party :) We listened to music and ate and decorated the room. It was fun and reminded me of elementary christmas parties. Rotary has pre-warned all of us that Christmas is the hardest time for exchange students because the holidays are about being with family and its when the homesickness really kicks in, but so far i am doing really well ! :) I truely am loving France. Of course I miss everyone and its a little surreal that I won't be home for Christmas ( i don't know what i am going to do without Gramma Joan's gumdrop bars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or mom's sausage ring!!!!!!!!!!!!), but I am really looking forward to experiencing a different country's Christmas! It will be really interesting to see the different traditions.

Bon... C'est tout :)

bisous!!!!

emm

what a great weekend :)

Another saturday spent in Paris :) its becoming a ritual now... but why not, right? anyway, a bunch of us Rotary kids were going to go ice skating the Eiffel Tower (yea, there is totally an iceskating rink on the 2nd story of the eiffel tour! how awesome right?) but unfortunetly it doesnt open until the 15th of december, so another day :) Instead, we visited the christmas market on the Champs-Elysees and then the one in front of la Tour Eiffel. I love christmas markets now! Sooo much yummy food and goodies. It was a really long day on our feet though haha. The best day of my part (still love this, fam..) was seeing the Eiffel Tower all light up and also twinkling! It was absolutely magical. At night, for 5 minutes on the hour it twinkles. So pretty......

That night after Paris, I went to Aurelien's 18th birthday party (my host brother in my 2nd family).
It was fun :) I got to meet his friends who were all really nice and actually talked to me! haha.

xoxo,

em♥

Dîner-spectacle: la Légende de Buffalo Bill!

I just got home from La Légende de Buffalo Bill at Disneyland! It was dinner and a show :) It was really cool! It was pretty much all in english which was really odd to me since it was a show in France... but i guess it made more sense being in english since it was about Buffalo Bill and cowboys. It was like taking a little trip back home to the west hahaha, except a little more extreme. We all got cowboy hats and for dinner we had chili, cornbread, and ribs! It was so exciting haha. Extremely American. Mickey and Minnie and some of the other characters were there too. Disney always makes me happy. We went with the Galpin family. They are so fun and nice. I really like them. It was also really cool to see Disney at night all light up! What a great show :) My host family is so nice to take me to do things like this. I am truely enjoying myself here! J'adore la France.

♥ bisous,

em

Lille pour le marché noël + snow day!

coucou!

Yesterday, Rotary took us all to Lille (a city in northern France) to visit a marché noël (christmas market). It was so much fun! It really got me into the christmas spirit. Christmas markets are really common in France. They are like a little flea market, but all christmas stuff like decorations, food, and presents. There were so many delicious pasteries and yummy hot drinks. I tried so many different things haha. When in France..... right? I also bought some really cool wool socks and mittens. :) they will come in a lot of handy I think. We had the whole day to do what we shopped a lot and rode this really big x-mas ferris wheel. It was so cool! We were able to see all of Lille. It was a perfect day. Much better than going to school :)

There wasn't any snow in Lille, but when we got back to Paris there was a lot! Tons of trains were stopped and so it was a little difficult to get back home, but I made it :) I walked home from the gare in the snow and it was so peaceful with the snow and the pretty lights. I love snow. Anyway, today we had a snow day (well, school wasn't canceled, but the buses werent working so most people stayed home. )! It was really really nice outside. Sunny, but with snow so I went and played in the snow with my friends who live in neighborhood. We went to the park right behind my house and had a snowball fight, made snow angels, and went sledding. It was so nice :) I felt like a little kid again getting exciting for the snow.

♥

Let it snow♥

It snowed quite a bit today, but it has pretty much all melted by now. This afternoon though the snowflakes were huge! I have never seen snowflakes that big before- even in McCall. It was crazy. I guess its not normal for it to snow that much here and especially not this early. Anyway, today was a good day :) which was surprising because it was a tuesday haha. But this afternoon the photographer who did a presentation for us a few weeks ago, came back and took portraits of all of kids in my French class. We also all had to bring in a photo of us when we were little to put next to the recent portrait. I think its going to turn out really cool. We are also each going to write something about ourselves to add to the project. I'm excited to see how it turns out. Also, big accomplishment on my part--- I finished the first Harry Potter in French! :) I know that it isnt that surprising that i understood it since i have already read it in english, but still I had forgotton a lot of parts in the book and i still understood those parts :) so yea im proud of myself. On to the next one!
It was a little weird today because I left for school in the morning when it was still dark outside and then when i was done with school it was dark outside... not too fond of the super long school days, but i got a little treat on the bus ride home because the town square of Vaires was all decorated and light up. There was a huge christmas tree all light up and a bunch of other little Noel displays around. I loved it. I love this time of year! Even though I can't believe its already this time of year. wow.
well, thats all for now!
xoxo,
em

surprise party & rotary rendez-vous

It was a good weekend :) Saturday night a bunch of my friends met up in Antony for Mia's surprise birthday party that her host parents threw for her. It was soooo fun :) she was at gymnastics when we got there so we decorated the house really quick and then surprised her! she got a little teary-eyed and was speechless. It was perfect. I think it really meant a lot to her that her family did that for it. Then we all stayed the night at her house. We played a game called "Times Up" it was really fun and challenging because we played it in French. There are a bunch of words written on scraps of paper in a bowl and we are split up into teams. The first round its like Taboo... You try to describe as many words in the bowl as you can in 30 seconds for your partner to guess without saying any part of the word. The second round you can only say one word to describe and the third round is acting it out like charades. Hard in French, but still super funny.
Aujourd'hui, we had a Rotary get together with all the French students who want to go on exchanges next year. Each country had to do a little presentation and then we talked with the families and students, answering any questions they had about exchanges. I was really proud of my french today :) I was able to answer a lot of questions! yayyyy!
donc, voila :)
xoxoxo emily

badminton!

I started the badminton section in my sports class :) haha its amusing. Although I noticed that the students here take PE classes a lot more seriously since they arent graded by participation like in the US. They get tested on their skill in the sport! So here i am just doing it for fun while the rest of the class is worried about their technique and such haha. That's probably why I am the worst in the group at it. hahahaha :) but thats okay! I enjoy it :)
Also, in english class I started doing the exercises in French because doing them in english is a little bit pointless... so today I had to write a few paragraphs on the question "Do you think rich people are lucky?" I was so proud of myself for being able to do it in French. Even though I know it was probably elementary school writing and had a lot of mistakes, I think its good for me to try and write in French even if its not perfect. If I don't try I won't learn, right?
After school, I took a hot bath since I was freezing all day (!!!) and then just hung out around the house. My school day tomorrow is super awesome--- I only have 3 hours of classes and 2 of those hours are Calligraphie :) oh how I love not having substitutes here.
anyway, off to bed!
bisous,
em

la neige.

we finally got snow here in Vaires. I loved looking outside my window and seeing all the houses and trees covered with a thin layer. Its starting to feel like the holidays already! i can't believe its already december. crazy... I not a huge fan of the cold, but I do love wearing the scarves, hats and gloves and drinking hot tea or chocolate! :)
Today at rock climbing we had a mini competition between the 4 of us that showed up and I got 2nd :) haha woohoo. 1st first the girls (seeing as I was the only one... but ill still count it hah)
In other news I lost my phone..... story of my life :( this morning when I was getting on the bus the driver told me that I dropped something, but when I looked down I didnt see anything so I just thought I missunderstood... turns out i didnt. I think my phone fell out of my backpack into the snow when i was getting out my card to get on the bus... Wish I would have taken more time to look around this morning when the driver told me that! next time I won't second guess my comprehension skills haha.
gahhh.
well, bonne nuit!!!
em
p.s. sorry im not posting everyday anymore. I just feel really repeatitive now that I am getting into a routine and I don't like how every post says school was fine today... yada yada yada. haha :) i'm doing you guys a favor and saving you from boring entries!

harry potter :)

last night I finally saw the 7th harry potter! gahhh i had been waiting for it forever! i was so excited :) and it was soooo good. i was very impressed. Also, i am getting really far in the first book in French so i am proud of myself. I'm becoming a little too obsessed with harry potter i think, seeing as i am writing a whole blog entry for it.... haha :) new subject- school today was good. My french teacher was absent today so I started at 10 which was really nice. The food in the cafeteria today wasn't good... but for dinner we had the thanksgiving leftovers so that made up for it. nothing like pumpkin pie to brighten your day! well, i'm going to go read (in french! woo hooo!) sorry this entry was boring. ha
love,
em

Thanksgiving in France

"Thanksgiving, c'est un truc bizarre que les américains font pour Noel...?"

I heard this quote on the TV here the other day. It was some young French girl's response to what she thought Thanksgiving was. ("Its a weird thing the Americans do for Christmas") i loved it. Well, i know you are all dying to know if I, previously known as the worst cook in the world, was able to pull off a Thanksgiving dinner for my French families and the answer is YES!!!! i did it!!! i am so proud of myself :) And the food was surprisingly good! (Shout-out to Gramma Net for all her help!) I made a few things in advance like the pies and such, but then the rest I made that afternoon with Solene (my 2nd host sister). It was a lot of fun actually. We ate the dinner that night instead of in the afternoon which gave me a lot of time so I wasn't stressed at all. It was so cool to be able to share this little piece of my culture with my new families here. And i think they enjoyed learning exactly what Thanksgiving is.


and at the end of the meal everyone gave me a "Diplome de la Meilleure Cuisinere" where they had each written a little thank you message to me. It was so nice :) I'm so glad I was able to bring Thanksgiving to France : )

xoxo,
emily

pumpkin pies :)

happy thanksgiving everyone :) i made two pumpkin pies today to prepare for my French thanksgiving this saturday! I think they turned out well. At least they look yummy and smell good! So we'll see. After I pull off this meal I'm going to feel like a master chef. haha
Well, sorry for the short post, but thats all my exciting news for the day hah.
enjoy your thankgiving dinner! Eat a little extra of everything for me :)
♥
em

faire les courses

Got all my shopping for Thanksgiving done! tomorrow I am going to make the pumpkin pies :) we are having our Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday since we don't get out of school for it here haha. I'm getting excited :) hope all goes well...
I am very proud of myself too because I thought I was going to be really homesick this week since all my friends are home from college and all my family is together, but I'm actually doing really well! :) i am truely happy.
Today, school was pretty tiring. I had a two hour test in math which wasn't very fun... I had a slight headache towards the end of the day, but it wasn't too bad. For dinner tonight we had a quiche :) It was really good.
Just another day in my French life :)
xoxo,
emily

Raiponce ♥

I just got home from the movie theater where I saw "Raiponce" (english title "Tangled"). It was Disney's take on the story of Rapunzel and it was soooo cute :) Disney movies make me so happy. Plus, I understood ALL of it!!!! well, not all the songs, but everything else! I was sooooooo happy!
School was okay today- in my French class we had a photographer come in and show us some of the work he has done. It was really cool. (Katie, I wish you could have been there- you would have been inspired!) One project he did involved taking black and white really close up and personal photographs on all the his family members. They were really raw photos but I loved them. The people weren't trying to be beautiful- and thats what made the photos beautiful. It showed all their imperfections and all the details of the face. And then next to the portrait he put a picture of them as a child which was cool to see side by side. It was really neat. I want his camera...
Anyway, thats my day :)--- need sleep because tomorrow im going thanksgiving shopping!!!
xoxo,
em

l'hiver arrive...

its getting really really cold over here in France! (but after seeing that its snowing in Twin already I'm glad I am here.) I definitely need to knit another scarf and some hats though! or buy them :) i get chilled to the bone. But hot baths after school help warm me back up. anyway, it was really hard to wake up for school today after a pretty tiring weekend, but i managed. My history teacher was absent today so my class just chilled in the library for an hour. Also, I got back my math homework today and i got an 18,5! whoot whoot! Everyone was jealous :) except, i took a math quiz today and i didn't finish in time so probably not going to get a very good score on that one (not that it matters haha). well, thats about it for the day!!! :)
love,
emily

Noyon♥

I had another Rotary trip this weekend- this time to Noyon, north east of Paris. It was fun :) Saturday we caught the train to Noyon, toured an extremely old cathedral, learned a dance thing we had to do that night at a Rotary Gala and walked around Noyon a bit. That night we had to work at a huge Rotary fund-raising gala; selling champagne and raffle tickets, talking about our exchange and country, taking coats, and other random jobs. It lasted until 3am!!!! but thats normal for French parties haha. The Rotarian in charge of the gala brought all of us exchange students bottles of champagne to share, which was funny since we were at an actual Rotary event. But even though it was super super tiring and my feet hurt from walking around all night, it was still fun :) (I took a little nap in the coat-check closet at like 11:30 which made staying up til 3am more managable haha) Also, when I talked with guests at the event they told me my French was really good so I was soooo happy! It was really nice to hear. I can tell I'm making a lot of progress and I can only imagine how much more I am going to make in the next 7 months! Anyway, after the gala we all stayed with host families in Noyon. My family was soooooo nice! and their house was beautiful. When we got home it was really late, but they kept the party going haha. We stayed up another hour talking with them and listening to Mamma Mia songs while they had some more champagne haha :) The this morning, we woke up at like 9ish and had breakfast with the family. During breakfast the dad brough down his laptop and we all (there were 3 of us staying there) showed him where we lived on Google Earth. It was fun. It was really nice because they seemed genuinely interested in us.

After breakfast we met back up with all the exchange students and we went and toured Chateau Pierrefonds. It was beautiful!!!! I couldnt believe it. It was just in a town. Imagine looking out your window and seeing a huge castle haha. It was really cool. Then after our tour we had a really long lunch and then took the train back home. It was a really nice weekend. I love the other exchange students :)

well, back to my routine tomorrow!

em

rire :)

oh dear. today english class was hilarious... well just for me but still. I was very close to having a laughing attack, but luckily i was able to stop myself... First of all the teacher passed out an excerpt named "One Night Stand". Can you believe that?!?!?! It was really about a one night stand! haha and so you can only imagine how hilarious i was when we got into analysing it and talking about what was happening... When the teacher asked the students what was going on in the text, everyone was trying to put it as appropriate as possible like saying "they were together" or things like that, but she kept saying they were wrong until one student yelled they were "MAKING LOVE!" oh my goodness.. i just lost it. especially with the girl's french accent- it was hilarious. But the prof still didnt thing that was right because love wasnt involved so she just came right out and said they were having sex. It was just so unexpected from a high school English class. I couldn't believe we were really sitting in class talking about one night stands... oh dear. haha and then when trying to pronouce the word "cheating" one girl in my class said "shitting." It was so funny, but of course i was the only one that realized what she said so I was laughing to myself. It might have been the funniest class i've ever had... But still- out of all the texts we could be analysing why this one? who knows... anyway- that was the highlight of my day. Tonight I am staying the night at the Gabelotaud's because early tomorrow morning Milton and I have to take a train to Paris and then we are meeting up with the other exchange students and going to a town called Noyen for the weekend. It should be fun :)
a dimanche!
em

le bac et l'anglais...

so i would just like everyone to know that passed one section of the bac today :D well, it was the sports part so it had nothing to do with brains but i still feel cool anyway :) It was a really good day- not for any reason in particuliar, but it just was. Lots of laughs. I like my class- they are really nice and funny. Oh today in english class the teacher asked me to read a fairly long passage outloud so the class could hear my accent and the intonation i use. She always stressing the fact that when reading english you must change pitch and tone and i had no idea why until today- My friends told me that when reading outloud they always speak in a monotone! Its that funny? I asked even if they were reading something with dialogue or exclamation points and yupp same tone no matter what. I found that very very interesting. No wonder they thought it was cool when i read haha. it must be so different to hear! Oh when i was reading the passage i made two mistakes (i said "looked" instead of "looks" and i can't remember what the other was) and my teacher had to correct me. i said "je n'arrive pas lire en anglais!" (i can't read in english anymore!) and everyone laughed haha. but really, its hard to go from speaking french all the time and then reading english outloud! of course i still can but my brain has to switch gears and thats the hardest part. Good thing the students just listen to hear my accent and that doesnt take any work :) But my bad english today, my french was pretty good :) i noticed that i have starting talking more with everyone and im not self concious because i know that if i dont try i wont learn! I love speaking french :) even when its super frustrating i still love it.
miss you all!
em

conversions.

today after school i took on the task of converting all the Thanksgiving recipes into grams since that is what the French use to cook. It was a little difficult keeping it all straight but I am fairly sure I did it all right (at least i hope since if not the meal will be ruined haha) Tomorrow i need to go through the kitchen and make a list of everything i need. Thanksgiving is a big project! I have a new-found respect for everyone who has made it. (Thank you Gramma for making it for my family all these years! ) Its kind of fun to have as a project though. Anyway, school is going well. Still don't like waking up early, but who does? I have two tests tomorrow- one is history anglais and one in math... The two subjects that I will be expected to do well in! the pressure's on. I have no idea what to expect from the history controle and history is not my favorite or best subject so it should be interesting. And math i hope i can understand the questions! if not- oh well :D how i love being able to say that... "Oh test today? i'll try my best and if i fail- oh well!" Its nice to not have the stress of school this year since last year was brutal! Last year I had so much homework that this year was MUCH needed. Sorry I dont have any exciting stories today haha- just another regular day in France :)
♥
em

les champs-elysees

first let me point out how crazy it is when i see that i have already published 71 blog entries while i have been here... and i have been in France even more days than that! wow. it probably wont hit me until its over haha. it still just feels like a dream... Today, I went to Paris with Mariana et Milton. It was fun, but the weather wasn't very nice... Its getting pretty cold here and is raining a ton. Anyway, we went shopping on the Champs-Elysees (well, more like window-shopping) and then visited l'arc de Triomphe. When we were walking down the street it hit me again that I was actually out shopping in Paris on the Champs-Eylsees. Its truely unbelieveable. For an afternoon snack we indulged in some crepes :) we are becoming so French. Anyway, school tomorrow :( haha.
xoxo,
emily

raclette!

For dinner today, the Lasserre's had a couple over and we ate a dish called Raclette. it was soo yummy (here i go again talking about food on my blog...) How it works is there is a stove type thing in the middle of the table and everyone has an individual dish of cheese that they heat up on the stove thingy. (sorry hard to explain...) the when the cheese is soft and melted you pour it over potatoes and meat. delicious :)
Also, for lunch- my friends and I found this americanized french restaurant in Paris (i know you are all thinking why would i want to eat in an americanized restaurant, but after living in a new country for almost 3 months you would understand haha) anyway, I had this delicious chili dog and then we all split a huge dessert- there were 2 cookies, a brownie, and a slice of apple pie all topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. It was perfect :) expect we devoured it in under 2 minutes.... hahahaha we're terrible.
I can't believe how much i talk about food on here... hah i should probably stop that...
anyway, im off to bed---
♥
em
oh p.s. in one of my earlier posts i mentioned a saying from a commericial that my friends just loved having me say--- here is the link to the commercial... (you can hear his extremely thick american accent.... which supposedly i also have... damn. )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDyHMhJDv90

phew!

so i was very worried today going to my calligraphie class that my teacher was going to tell me that i couldn't take the class anymore since there were too many students, but instead she told me that i was welcome to stay in the class no matter what! and there are two groups in the class since there are so many students so the groups alternate weeks, but she said that i can come to both since im such a good worker and because she can tell that i like it :) im very happy! i still dont know the verdict of my french class but i will find out on monday i believe...
oh and we got another seeing eye dog for the weekend. she's cute. but she makes me miss Luckster...
anyway, im off to sleep!
emm

USA!

today patrice, isabelle, and I went to the Thanksgiving store in Paris! it was so funny because I never thought I would be excited to see things like Twizzlers, Reese's, Campbell's soup, Dr. Pepper or Cheerios haha :) it was just to see familiar things i suppose. like taking a little trip back home. Plus I found pretty much all the stuff I'll need for making the thanksgiving dinner so thats a relief. and now i know that if i ever get homesick I can just pop over and buy some Poptarts or Oreos to cheer me up haha.

Today was a good day (mainly because we didn't have school!). I woke up to freshly squeezed orange juice and fresh croissants. I'd say its the perfect way to start a day. It was really rainly all day...actually all week, so after going to the store we just lounged around. It was nice.
Anyway, school tomorrow. Lucky its an easy day for me :) another half day.
well, better rest up!
♥ em

yay half days :)

i just love half days. and i love how 3 out of my 5 school days are half days :) thank goodness.
today, my class took a class photo which i thought was funny. it reminded me of being in elementary school again, but i guess it makes sense since we are with the same group in all our classes. my class is goofy so we all wore hats and glasses for our picture. Everyone was sooo excited to dress up for the picture and they thought it was soooo funny that they were wearing hats and glasses. I couldn't help but think about all the dress-up days we have in the high schools in the US. The French students would go crazy seeing the different outfits if they think that wearing hats and glasses is pushing the limit. :D
anyway, in other news- I raised my hand and explained a whole math problem today during class! i was soo proud of myself :) and everyone understood me too! i think that shows some progress. I feel so smart in my math class because we are doing the same thing i did in calculus last year and so i'm the only one that understands it. everyone asks me for help. i love it. One thing that i think is sad about the math classes here is that they aren't based on level. Everyone takes the same classes and at the same pace. I think that would be really hard for the students, especially because they are so fastpaced here that if you get something down you will be lost for all the years to come. its too bad... a lot of the students are struggling right now because they are trying to cram in so much before the bac. i feel bad for them!
rock climbing went well today. I learned how to repel all by myself which was cool. well, thats about it! :)
bisous,
em

oh, jeudi... haha

oh boy. school today was sooo tiring... im still in vacation mode so trying to get back in the swing of things is difficult. haha.
In my french class we got a ton of new students and my teacher said that she might not have room for me in the class anymore since I don't actually go to the high school that offers the class! Isn't that sad? but today was extra difficult with all the students in the class because it was loud and no one was paying attention and i had a pretty bad headache. Also, today we learned how to conjugate the verb "aller" and when to use "à la, au, à l', et aux" which i already knew so its a little easy for me at the moment... but i guess we will just see how it works out--- i really really really hope i don't have to go back to my original tuesday schedule with 6 hours of economics.... j'ai peur! Anyway, when i got home i took a little nap which was helpful... and tonight was the finale of desperate housewives in french so I watched that too. Well, I need sleep :) goodnight!
em

le lycee---

gah- it was really hard to get myself motivated to get up early and go to school today... after a great weekend and so much vacation school just didn't sound very fun. But it turned out to be alright (a little tiring but what do you expect?) I got back my score for my math control and i got a 16,5- which the other students told me was really good. woot woot- Its so funny here because when we get a paper handed back to us, everyone wants to know what everyone else got. Its not like in the US were you might just ask your neighbor and maybe not even them- here its like yelling at people across the room what they scored. Its like a competition! In math, we started learning derivatives which i love so i'm excited about that. I miss my calculus class and mr. honcheranko and all the other students. it was surprisingly fun. After school I came home and took a little nap because I was exhausted and then I organized all my Thanksgiving notes (thanks gramma net!). I was stressing about finding pumpkin for the pie, so i googled it and found a blog called "Girl cook in Paris" how perfect! she had an entry about making pumpkin pie in France and she mentioned a store in Paris called "Thanksgiving" how perfect right! i checked out their website and they have everything i will need. what a relief :) now all thats left in the most difficult part- shopping, and cooking... oh dear. haha :)
oh random little funny part of day- so there is this commercial here and in it the guy is speaking French with a reallly really really thick american accent. I've only seen it once, but today my friends at school were quoting it and then all of a sudden they turned to me and told me say this phrase that was from the commerical. After only saying two words of the phrase they started cracking up and saying how perfect it was... they made me say it quite a bit after that haha. glad my horrible accent could be useful for something :) even if it is just for laughs haha.
anyway- thats about it!
♥ ,
em

Paris, chez Mia, Versailles.

ah what a fabulous weekend. c'était super :) Saturday I went to Paris, comme habitude :) and it was pretty rainy so we ate lunch at a sandwich shop to stay warm and dry. I had a croque monsieur (bien sûr), une tartelette chocolat blanc et a fruit crumble (yes, i had two desserts, don't judge haha). it was all delicious. We then went to La Galarie Lafayette to look at the christmas decorations and displays already up. they were absolutely amazing!
and La Galerie Lafayette was so fun to walk through because its all the really top end stores like Chanel and Tiffany and Prada. good window shopping :) That night I spend the night in Antony, at my friend Mia's house. Maria, another exchange student who i love, also stayed over :) it was really fun. We made pizzas and just hung out. It was good to have some girl time. We had some good conversations about how weird language in general is.... hahaha I love them. Then this morning, we woke up really early and Maria's host mom took us to Versailles! There we met up with Jack and Mariana and toured the castle and went to watch this horse show. The castle was absolutely amazing. I wish I could rent it for a week and pretend I was Marie Antoinette with my extravagent dresses and such :). Everything was soooo detailed. it was amazing and since it was the first sunday of the month is was free!!!! good stuff!!!!



I am pretty worn out now thought after the weekend and tomorrow is going to be my first full day of school in over a month haha man better rest up!
bisous
em

La Comédie-Française♥

I just got home from watching L'Avare by Molière at La Comédie-Française. It was so amazing :) I didn't understand very much of the dialogue since it was in older French, but luckily I had researched the storyline before I went and I was able to follow along fairly well :) Also, the actors were very animated so that was very helpful and entertaining. I just love going to the theater, no matter what! It was very nice of my host family to take me. It was especially fun going to see a Molière piece after performing Tartuffe last year, except it made me miss it a lot haha. I want to try to find a theater showing Tartuffe this year so that I can watch it in French! I think that would be so fun :) Also, I would be able to do some comparisions--even though our production would blow theirs out of the water haha ;). Also, and added bonus to going to the theater was seeing Paris all light (is that the right spelling? it doesn't right...) up at night! It was magical... Le Louvre, Notre Dame, La Tour Eiffel, and Le Champs-Elysees all alluminated. Ah i loved it. :)
On another note--- school started back up yesterday (unfortunetly...) and everything has calmed down... there was some talk about another blockade, but it doesn't look likely at all so don't worry about me! The vacation was good for France.
Also, its a good thing that i have yahoo news up everytime i check my e-mail so that i can stay a little bit updated on the news because i got asked several times by kids at my school what i thought about the outcome of the US elections on Tuesday. I was so surprised that everyone here knew about the elections! I was sooo relieved that I had actually read about the elections and the outcome when I got asked about them. It was a good reminder that I should stay up to date on current events...
Anyway--- its pretty late and my brain is worn out from trying to understand Moliere's language haha :)
grosses bisous!
em

Paris, je t'aime♥

Spent the afternoon in Paris today with some of my favorite girls :) 4 other exchange students. I love them and I love how I can just pop on over to Paris when I want! its amazing. I have to stop sometimes to soak in the fact that I am actually in Paris and actually living in France. I find myself getting into such a routine here that I occasionally forget that I am here! But when I do take a moment or two to really realize how lucky I am, it just floors me. I'm very very grateful. And I feel like a true big-city girl when I just walk through the metro stations knowing exactly where i'm going and using year long card instead of tickets :) its so fun... Life is never boring when you have Paris pretty much in your backyard.
Paris, je t'aime ♥
em

lounging...

not much news to report today... haha didn't have a very productive day, but i enjoyed it all the same :) I was home alone so I just kind of lounged around. Well, I went on a run and went to the post office, so at least I did a few productive things! :) other than that my day was filled with Harry Potter movies. haha. I'm such a nerd, but i love them. I can't wait until my french gets to the point where I can read all the harry potter books without having to look up every word!
anyway, sorry for the short post---
grosses bisous♥
em

sleep :)

The soiree in Paris last night was pretty fun. It was in this latin restaurant that changed into a karaoke bar/discotheque at night. It was all latin music so I was experiencing some major language conversion... hearing spanish, speaking french, and thinking in english. It was very tiring !!!! plus it got over really late (well, i guess really early the next day haha) so I was in desperate need of sleep to help my brain sort through the language confusion. All I could think about was the clean sheets I had just put on my bed :) im so lame...But I have really come to realize how important sleep is and especially for an exchange student. My brain is working in overtime throughout the entire day, so sleep is necessary for rejuvination ha. but I am happy that I hang out with some of my friends from school, I think it was good for me even if it was really fatigant. Anyway, today I didn't do anything too productive since I slept half the day... I went on a nice bike ride and watched the 2nd Harry Potter in French :) I really like watching movies in French because I find that I am able to understand a lot more that au debut! Its a good way for me to test my progress. Well, all this talk about sleep is making me tired :)
goodnight!!!
em

Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! :)
France doesn't go all out for halloween like the US so it doesn't really feel like its Halloween, but Patrice and Isabelle bought me a pumpkin to carve so that was a little slice of Halloween from home which was nice. After I carved the pumpkin and we ate lunch we went to visit a chateau thats not far from town. It was pretty:) Europe is very lucky to have all these beautiful castles everywhere!!! There is sooo much history here. There aren't very many kids trick or treating out tonight, well its still early but I heard that not many kids even go trick or treating here... (they don't say anything like trick or treat, they just say "Do you have candy?" haha) Anyway tonight I'm going to a soirée in Paris for my friend's birthday. Its not a costume party which is a little sad, but its something to do all the same so I'm happy :) Well, there you have it!
grosses bisous,
em

a bit of a rough day...

a little wave of homesickness came over me today :( i woke up feeling a little sad and then it just kind of grew as the day went on... I went to a movie in French with Isabelle and her sister and mom and I actually could follow along with the story so that was good, but it had a sad ending and so that didn't help my homesickness blues... We were going to go back to Isabelle's parents house for dinner, but I had to ask Isabelle if I could go home because I just really sad and didn't want to be at the dinner crying the whole time... I felt really bad for making Isabelle leave but she reassured me that it was fine and it was normal to be feeling this way so that was really helpful. After an hour or so of crying I felt better... I just needed to get it all out. Poor Isabelle probably didn't know what to do with this emotional wreck of an exchange student on her couch haha. It was really weird and I don't know why it hit me today... just kind of an off-day. But I am feeling better- just still a bit emotionally fragile. I knew coming into this that it was going to be hard and not everyday is going to perfect and I am completely okay with that. Its a learning experience. I am very grateful to have a host family that cares about me and to have this opprotunity to live in France. Of course I miss my family and friends, but I have met amazing people here in France too and I don't regret doing an exchange in the slightest. Also, tomorrow is Halloween so that should be fun :)
grosses bisous,
em

Le Louvre!

I visited the Louvre today (first time actually going inside) with a few other exchange students in my district :) It was really fun! I got to see all the famous works like the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, and Venus de Milo. The Louvre is absolutely enormous and its impossible to see everything so we just sort of picked a few hallways to look through. We spend i think over 3 hours in the museum and only got one tiny tiny section of it done haha. Good thing we are here for 8 more months ;)



After the Louvre we went the le Jardin des Tuileries and ate crepes at a little cafe that was there :) We talked about how sometimes we forget how lucky we are be living in France and have the ability to go to the Louvre for the afternoon whenever we want. La vie est vraiment belle... :) after hanging out in the jardin for a bit we started to make our way to Pigalle for this standup comedy show we got free tickets too. We were running a little late so we just grabbed some food real quick to eat on the way. Eating a bowl of pasta on the metro around 7pm is not the best idea haha. The metros were absolutely packed- body to body. haha... anyway Pigalle is a very interesting (to put it nicely) part of Paris.... pretty sketchy.... but the comedy show was pretty good (from what i could understand) and I got to see the Moulin Rouge so i was happy!
well, its pretty late here so im off to bed! grosses bisous!
em