Last Post

I feel like I owe my blog a final post. I am back in the United States and it feels like I never left. I spent two days in Paris alone and flew home on January 27th. I arrived to my parents and two of my best friends waiting at the airport. I quickly re-adapted to the US life and was in school the very next day. I was perfectly fine and had no jet-lag until one week later. I left school early and immediately went to sleep until the next day where I slept until dinner. I immediately dived back into soccer and school...
France was an amazing experience and I am so glad to have spent five months in such an amazing city with so many amazing people.

Spoiled, spoiled girl

Today (Tuesday the 22nd) was my last day of school in France! It was a long Tuesday which was perforated by lunch, a free period, and a small party in Science Projects. Before going into the gory details of today I have to start by telling the story of Monday the 21st. It all started with an absent history teacher.
No teacher, no class, which meant my day started off pretty darn nice. Skip past two classes and we arrive at English, party time! Many people brought treats including cupcakes, cakes, cookies, candies (wow! desserts all start with C!) People brought drinks as well.

After English I had lunch although I was already full. P.E. came next and we did African dancing and soccer (although not at the same time) we then had another small party with chocolate cake. 

I am a VERY spoiled person. 

My amazing day of feasting with friends was not yet over; I haven't even gotten to my amazing soccer party yet!

There was a TON of food and it was all so good! Someone brought these delicious chocolate- I don't even know what to call them but they were heavenly!

Chocolate Thingamabobs

Have I already mentioned just how spoiled I am? My soccer team gave me two new jerseys, three photos and a Sochaux keychain. The pink jersey is an official Sochaux goalkeeper jersey and the other jersey is an official French national women's team jersey.

BOTH WITH MY NAME AND NUMBER!!!

The girls on my team beautifully modeled the jerseys

After gorging ourselves on cookies and galettes, we went and watched the recording of our last futsal tournament. My coach gave very in depth commentary and he had a lot of positive and negative things to say about me. It was very sad to know that that was the last time I would be with my team. I will miss my soccer teams; high school and club.

Rewind a bit to Sunday and we arrive at my soccer tournament. This tournament was with my club team and it was from 2 to 6 PM. I wasn't quite at the top of my game, I guess snails wasn't the best pre-game meal. We finished fourth out of eight, the bottom spot to advance to the next round which takes place on Sunday the 27th while I am flying back to the United States! After the game my team gave me two presents; a jersey and a signed team picture.

I love my teams so much and I am so thankful they allowed me to play with them. I will miss them very much and I will never forget them.

Article

I promised you a translation of the article on me so a translation you shall have! This proved to be the perfect chance to demonstrate my French and my ability to translate without using Google Translate as a crutch.

• Rachael Ainsworth, a talented goalkeeper

Rachael Ainsworth, an American in the Goal of a Women's Team

Jean-Philippe Schroter, coach of the women's team at ERN has appreciated his luck in landing a goalkeeper, made in the USA.

In the 11th grade at Pergaud high school, Rachael Ainsworth immediately joined the women's team at her school, she is shown above.

Henceforth she signed with ERN. This beautiful girl of 1.82 m quickly seduced her coach and teammates.

She reassured her defense with determinant saves. She is very happy at ERN, where she was immediately accepted. 

It is her first time in France.

Unfortunately, she will return to her city, Salt Lake City, Utah, before the end of the season. She will be missed and will leave for the U.S. rich with a beautiful experience.

Nicest article EVER! The only error in the paper is my last name; Ainswocth which is probably my fault with mixing up the French alphabet. Also I miscalculated I am only 1.80 meters.
I have now been in the Newspaper twice as well as on my club's website and my high school coach is also writing an article on me. It is fun being the only American at my school, possibly the only American teenager in the city!

School, Paris, Airplane, Home and then BED

Guess what? I am going to Paris! I will be in Paris for one afternoon/ night before flying back to the U.S.. I am so excited to see the Eiffel Tower as well as to be on my way home and even closer to sleeping in my own bed; only 13 days away! These days are going to pass by so fast! I have the rest of this week of school and then next week there will be a couple of small parties. There will be a small party in English and Sports on Monday, followed by another party on Wednesday. There will also be a party with my club soccer team although I am pretty sure there will be more drinking than at my school parties. Oh la la, I am really going to miss France. The rest of this week of school, half a week of partying, one day in Paris, and then I shall be off! 

One of the best parts about leaving in January is that almost every single store in France is having a sale. I went to the mall on Saturday and I splurged just a wittle bit. One of the jewelry stores was having an amazing sale and the sale included clip-on earrings! Yes, it is true, I am sixteen and I do not have my ears pierced but who needs to pierce their ears when they have the coolest collection of clip-ons ever thanks to my grandma. I even found clip-on Eiffel Tower earrings! My life is complete; I can go home now. 

Tomorrow is a Tuesday and Tuesdays are absolute poop-in-the-pants. The day itself feels like two full days of school. Bright side of tomorrow is that I have already survived 17-ish Tuesdays and I only have one more to go! Albeit it is only 9PM, I am really tired à cause de  my two hours of soccer practice this evening. 

Au revoir tout le monde! à bientôt!

p.s. An article on me showed up in the local newspaper today and it was fun to see how many of my friends told me about it. One of my friends even cut it out and gave it to me. I will post a picture and a translation of it later but right now; I SLEEP.

19 Days

Well, the two week vacation has finally ended. Yesterday morning proved to be quite challenging as far as Mondays go, but somehow I managed to get myself ready in time to start school. Monday passed rather quickly (including soccer practice) and all of a sudden it was Tuesday! Tuesdays are the worst day of the week; school from 08:00 all the way to 18:00 with only 1 hour for lunch. One upside to today was that I had SVT, my teacher is really nice and she is even planning on throwing a small party with food on the Wednesday before I leave. I was planning on making January the 18th my last day of school and then just hanging out for the last week but I can't turn down free food! I am very excited to be coming home at last! In 19 days I will be sleeping in my own lovely, comfortable bed accompanied by two space heaters also known as dogs. I am really starting to miss my family because I am letting myself think about them more and more. I imagine my mom waking me up with a cup of coffee in her hand and my dad sitting at the island eating eggs with me. I will definitely be sad to see the end of my first adventure in France but all will be better when I can drive myself to school in the morning with a full belly, meet up with my friends and fully understand my classes.
Although tomorrow is a late start and early finish, it still promises to be a long and exhausting day. 2 and a half hours of school followed by lunch, then 2 and a half hours of outdoor soccer training with my high school team and promptly followed by another 2 hours of futsal with my club team, finish off the day with a late dinner and sleep. The reason I explained all that is because it is past 11 PM and I have SERIOUSLY got to go to sleep. Goodnight!

Dijon

Archaeological Museum 

Today was absolutely awesome! I went to Dijon and toured around the numerous Churches and Cathedrals. The train fare was really cheap and it was only an hour. I went to a couple different museums all of which were housed within buildings where the architecture itself was more interesting than the actual museum exhibits. I am pretty exhausted after today so today's entry will be mostly pictures, sorry about that.

Mini Arc de Triumph

One of the many cathedrals

The stain glass windows are phenomenal

A large park in the middle of Dijon

Another museum piece

A red telephone booth!!

I couldn't even get the entire cathedral in the picture

Happy New Year!

It has been a fairly long time since my last entry, in fact, my last entry was last year! For New Years I hung out in my room and celebrated with a pudding cup and my friend Hannah on Skype. All my plans were cancelled last minute which left me home in my room on Skype. The funny thing is, I am totally fine with my quiet night in. It will make next new years in SLC just that much more fun and the Carne Asada will taste even better!
I am planning on going to Dijon tomorrow but my plans are still subject to change. I have a feeling that most of my friends in France will be hungover for the next couple days (given by the photos on Facebook) so whatever I do, I do it alone.
I have decided to give up on my desire to go see the Hobbit in France and I shall instead plan on going with Hannah when I return. I also plan on DRIVING to the movie theater :D. With less than 27 days until I am back in Salt Lake City, I am doing everything in my power to make these days count. The one thing I know I will not be able to do is see Paris. That thought still make me very sad but I just have to remember that I am only 16 and I have plenty of time in  my life to explore more of Europe. 
I know I am being overly redundant but I am so excited to be home! I am excited for  my bed, my car, my family, my friends, FOOD, my kitchen, the ability to fully understand school, but mainly, I am excited for my bed; my comfortable, soft, fluffy, warm, big bed. 


Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention that I went snowboarding the other day. It was very fun and I spent most of the time on easier slopes due to the extreme lack of snow. At one point, I lost my camera, at another point, the binding on my board broke and one of the pieces came off and I had to search for almost 30 minutes before I found it. Once I found the missing piece, I went to the chairlift operator and before I could say anything he asked if I wanted my camera back... Apparently I had been described to him beforehand because I had never talked with him before. I ended up downloading because of my broken binding. It has always been a dream of mine to download and I always wonder what it would be like to just never get off the chairlift. 

My host mom and I

Note the lack of snow...