The Good Way To Celebrate Christmas

If there is one thing the French truly know how to do, it is eating.  Christmas Eve dinner consisted of:
Appetizers: Shrimp, oysters, pringles, SNAILS!!!!
2nd Appetizer: Shrimp soup- Yumm!!
Dinner: Quail, carrot, and something else
Dessert: Beignets, fruit salad, nougat ice cream
All over the course of about 3 hours.


After dinner, we played a dance game on the PS3. Valerie's family was there; her parents, and her sister with her sister's family.





Dinner was so much fun and it finally finished around 1 AM Christmas morning. We all went to bed and Gabriel woke us all up for presents at 9 AM. Valerie gave me a scarf and a matching hat and mittens. It was a lovely Christmas morning which I celebrated further by going back to sleep. I woke up around 11 and got ready to go to lunch. We went to a family friends house and thus began the longest lunch I have ever had, it was a lunch to envy those of the Shire.

Appetizers: Crab cakes, mini sandwiches, other assorted appetizers
2nd Appetizer: Foie gras (duck patée) sort of cat foodish, served with bread
3rd Appetizer: A fish thingamabob with gravy
In between courses: Strawberry sorbet with some kind of alcohol
Entree: Quail, beans, the equivalent of funeral potatoes
Cheese!
Fruit and beignets
Dessert: option of strawberry ice cream, chocolate, or chocolate nougat.
 Finished off with more fruit!

The meal lasted a total of 5 hours, yes, I said 5 HOURS, and afterwards I felt as though I wouldn't need to eat for the next century! The feeling only lasted until lunch the next day.

Jump forward to today, the 27th of December, one month before my departure.  I went and visited my friend Fathima for her sister's 10th birthday party. It was very fun! We ate lunch with our hands, played cards, had cake and opened presents. It was an overall perfect day!

Merry Christmas!

For Christmas this year, I will be in France (if you didn't already know.) I will be celebrating in Besancon with my host family. Tonight, Christmas eve, we are having a small party with the rest of my host family's family. I have purchased gifts for everyone and I am very excited to open presents tomorrow morning. I am pretty sure I will not receive any presents except for maybe my host mom but I love watching everyone open theirs! I plan on having a second Christmas with my family when I get back to Salt Lake, which is only 34 days away! I cannot believe how long I have been here, yesterday might as well have been my first day of school in France. The best thing about being on vacation at the same time as my friends in the United States is that I can now Skype more often! I have now Skyped my parents and two of my three best friends. Skyping is the best present ever! Anyways, happy holidays!

It's Christmas Vacation!

This week should have been stressful but I never really felt it. I had a take home test due Monday, 10 hour long school day on Tuesday, pop quiz on Wednesday, big history test on Thursday, and to top it all off, I just finished my french test this afternoon. Somehow, even with all of that, the week flew by. Probably because now, I am on vacation! Two weeks of pure fun which I plan to thoroughly enjoy. I am hoping to go to Strasbourg for a day but that isn't set in stone. I will spend Christmas here, in Besancon with my host family, and I am hoping to celebrate new years with some girls on my soccer team.
After the vacation, I only have three weeks left in France. Three weeks! I am finding it hard to describe how I feel about that; happy, excited, sad, scared, nervous, relieved, I guess it is a mix of all of them.

There are only four days until Christmas but I am not quite feeling the spirit. No snow, no Christmas carols, no setting up the tree with my brother and sister, no delicious packages from my dad's work. It will be a new experience for me to not have Christmas with my family but that will just be postponed to January 27th. I have many things to be grateful for this holiday season; France, friends, a nice home with a nice family, delicious French food :) Also, until google just informed me otherwise, I thought grateful was spelled "greatfull" but turns out I was wrong, even in France I am learning English!

School is going absolutely amazing, I totally understand math, French is getting easier and I have successfully memorized all of the figures of style. History is really interesting because I just learned about WWII from Europe's perspective.  German class has just taken a turn for the better! I wrote an entire page about myself in German during class today. I showed it to the teacher and she was very impressed, my friend Ardi told me that most of the students in the class probably couldn't write as well as I had. I'm not sure I believe him but it was a nice compliment all the same. Overall, my teachers are very nice! They are always really helpful and they are all very impressed by how hard I am working.

I am so very happy it is vacation and I am very excited to experience all the new things there are for me in France during these last few weeks. I am sad that there is only about a month left until I have to leave this beautiful city and all of its very nice inhabitants. These last four months have absolutely flown by!

Soccer Surprise!

The absolute comfiest chairs

Yesterday was pretty darn awesome. My soccer coach had us all meet at the locker room at 4 o'clock after school (or during school for some of the girls). After meeting, we went walked out to the front of the school and got on a bus. Mr. Barbaux never told any of us where we were going, we only knew we wouldn't return until 10 PM. The adventure had begun! We drove for almost an hour and by that time the sun had set. We arrived in Montbeliard and soon pulled into a movie theater parking lot. As it turned out, we were going to the premier of a film; the legit premier- with all the actors and directors. The film is called "Comme un Lion" and it is a story about a 16 year old boy from Africa who is recruited for Paris' soccer team but when he arrived in Paris, he found out that Paris didn't want to let him on the team. He was alone, penniless, and homeless in Paris. Long story short; he found his way to Montbeliard where he joined a club team by walking onto the field and joining the practice. Eventually, he joined Sochaux and went on to beat Paris in a match. It was a very good film and it was fun to watch the movie and then play "spot-the-actor." After the film, there was a complementary food array as well as wine and other assorted drinks.

Taking pictures with the cast :)

 After the movie and snacks, we went to dinner. We went to the absolute nicest, classiest, oddly expensive restaurant: McDonalds. 

Most expensive McDs' menu I have ever seen

I'm lovin' it!

Finally, we got back to the high school at 11:15PM which was far too late for my preferences. Today I had a 10 hour school day and about 7 hours of sleep.

Me in all my almost 6 feet glory

Okay, maybe it is just me but I think this picture is pretty comical. These girls are all my age... and a head shorter than me. This picture is from the Strasbourg game.

My Week

          This week was pretty standard, except my history teacher was absent for the whole week which meant no history class. I had a test on Monday in math and a test on Tuesday in German. I left the math test feeling really good about myself and, if you read my last post, you will know that I did really well. In fact, I got the best score in the class!  I think I prefer the French grading system because it shows how hard a class was as well has how well you did comparatively. The lower the average for the class, the harder the class was, and if you are above the average, that demonstrates how well you performed.

          Thursday I only had courses from 8-11:30. At 11:30, I left school and headed straight to the mall to do some Christmas shopping. I managed to find a gift for my host sister, my younger host brother, and my host mom. I have yet to find a gift for Pierre, I am thinking the book, the Hobbit... 

Yesterday, I went on a mission for my dad; I visited 5 different car dealerships and asked them for the kilometers per liters for their biggest, smallest, and average size cars. It was quite a challenge to ask for the data in French but I succeeded! For one of the cars, the mileage was 61 miles to the gallon, while in the same car, sold in the U.S. was about 40 miles to the gallon. Correct me if I got those numbers wrong dad!  I left for my expedition to the dealerships after lunch and shortly after I started feeling car sick on the bus. I felt like that for the whole day until I finally figured out I had food poisoning :/. I feel a lot better now but I am still committed to my bed for the day. 

Succeeding in Math :)

Right now I really should be working on my homework for English but I just had to tell everyone the amazing news! I got a 17/20 on my math test, the best in the class. The average for the class was approximately 12/20. Although, my day was dampened by a 3/20 in German, anything better than zero is good enough for me.  Now I really have to work on my English assignment.

Side note..

Quick note, here is a link to an article that I just found. It is in French but it is about me! It is the absolute worst picture of me but that is what happens when you have your photo taken after a two hour soccer practice.  Article on me!!

My Weekend And A Glance At My Week

I had a great weekend. Saturday I went and saw the new Twilight movie. I have no problem admitting that I have read and enjoyed the books, and have seen and tolerated all of the movies. I use the word "tolerated" for the movies because something about Kristen Stewart's acting just bugs me, the good news is, Twilight was dubbed over in French and I definitely prefer the dubbed voice of Isabella Swan. Enough about the movie, let's talk about the popcorn. When my friend Sophie asked me if I wanted popcorn, I was like YES. The French have an uncanny ability to take American things such as KFC and turn it French. They did the same thing with popcorn. Instead of butter (Sophie looked at me like I was insane when I suggested it) they use sugar. They must cook it in sugar because the sugar is melted into the popcorn. It is really tasty, although it was a bit weird to not be eating classic buttery theater popcorn in a movie theater. 

That was my Saturday, and my Sunday was even more fun! I went snowboarding! Well, Pierre snowboarded and I mostly went down the mountain on my butt. J'ai mal au fesse! We went to Metabief, which is right on the French-Swiss border. There is truly something amazing about dismounting a chairlift (without falling down,) looking left and seeing Switzerland, looking right and seeing France. I had so much fun today and I am very thankful to my host family for taking me with them! 

Switzerland!

This school week promises to be just as good as last week. I don't have my first period tomorrow morning so my day starts at 9 instead of 8. Then, Wednesday, I have school from 9:30-12. My short Wednesday is followed by another short Thursday (from 8-11:30.) Another super short week! I only have 5 weeks of school left and I can tell they are going to pass by in a blur. 

Snow!

The French have an amazing system. Working is not their first priority. Whenever there is an excuse to not work, the French use it. Right now it is snowing outside, there is about 2 inches of snow-fort, snowball ready snow. Two inches and everything seems to stop. In fact, things actually stop. I went to school this morning, had one hour of math then I went to history; the teacher was absent, then German; the teacher was absent, went to the bus stop; no buses showed up. On my walk home I found the buses. They were stopped mid-drive in the road. It looked like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie, all the vehicles stopped and deserted by their drivers. The only thing I have to do today is one hour of French class from 3-4 PM. No school Wednesday, total of two and a half hours of class yesterday, two hours of class today, BEST WEEK EVER.

Lycee Pergaud vs. Strasbourg

Well, we lost. 

The half time score was 1-0 and the final score was 5-0. I was in goal the entire time but I had no chance of saving any of them. My team never even had a shot on goal. The game was mostly played in front of my goal. Even when my drop kicks would clear the heads of the other team's defense, it only stayed at the other end of the field for about 15 seconds. I played really well and my coach singled me out a couple times in his end of the game speech saying how well I played and how I stayed positive. The other team was clearly better than us, they clearly wanted the win more than us, but my team fought hard and that is why I love them. The three hour bus ride home was somber for about the first 10 minutes then all chaos seemed to break loose. My friend, Camille, tackled me but then fell onto the floor where she was promptly stuck between the seats. After that there was an episode of stealing each others' socks... And then Juliette and Julie got into a water fight with my water bottle. The water fight led to a more interesting episode of stealing each others' shirts. Juliette's shirt was soaked so she enlisted the help the girls around her to steal Julie's nice, warm, dry shirt. Meanwhile, I was stuck under the seat having my right sock stolen and my left foot tickled. Oh man, let's just say it was an interesting bus ride. 

All in all, a fun day with a disappointing loss. I was hoping to be the champion of France! 

It is Tuesday and it might as well be Friday

Oh man, amazing week! Monday was a blur, Tuesday went by oddly fast for a ten hour school day, and tomorrow, no school! Tomorrow I have a soccer game in Strasbourg in the region of Alsace. We will be leaving at 8 in the morning and returning a full 12 hours later. The game is kind of like state cup except for it is for the whole country. If *ahem* when we win, we will proceed to the next round and play against the top team from a different region. I will be playing goalkeeper even though there are 3 other non-injured goalkeepers. I am very nervous for this game! 
After my no-school-Wednesday, I have my most-of-my-teachers-are-absent-Thursday. My morning will start at 9 AM because my English teacher will be absent, then I will have two and a half hours of courses, finishing at 11:30 AM. Friday is normal except my day will be cut one hour short because my French teacher will be- wait for it- absent. This week already feels like it is over and it is still Tuesday!
After this week, I only have 5 more weeks of school, five! That is all! This is absolutely flying by! 
Wish me luck for tomorrow and hope I decide not to write a play by play!

Jeudi

Something about today was just perfect. I don't think I ever stopped smiling! My teachers would give me weird looks like "what are you smiling about" and I would have no idea! I am absolutely loving France, it is perfect. I am playing soccer with two teams and I love both of them. I managed to get pretty good grades last trimester and overall, life is pretty good. Today during soccer it started hailing. Normally, this would be a real downer but it was only a light hail, almost like snow, and it coated the soccer field with a small layer of white. It wasn't very cold, there was no wind, and I made a snow angel on the turf. All in all, a perfect Thursday.

Conseil de Classe

Today I had my conseil de classe or "class council." The class council is the French way of a parent teacher conference, only, without the parents and all the teachers and all the students at once. Everyone is situated around a circular group of tables with the teachers on one side and the students on the other. Then, one by one, in front of the other students, each student's grades are discussed, I was the first student. The conseil de classe has a sort of tribunal feel; with the elders either chastising you or complimenting you. My teachers all had very positive things to say about me, my homeroom teacher told me congratulations on my grades. It was very intimidating and I felt bad for all the students who were the recipients of negative comments. I think I prefer parent-teacher conferences.

Grades

I am currently screaming with excitement in my head right now. Today, I found out my grades for school. I got an...I wish Blogger had a way to do a drum roll... 11.2! Now, if you live in the United States, an 11.2 means nothing to you, in fact you would assume it was a fail because it is an 11.2/20. But it is not a fail!! The average grade for my class was an 11.2 just like me! The 11.2 is an average of all my grades for classes. My worst class was German (no surprise there) and my best was English (hehe). I am very, very happy with my grades and I will upload a photo of my transcripts with my notes from teachers.
Everyday something happens and makes me think "today is the best day ever" but then something happens the next day, and the next! Ah man, these remaining 2 months are going to be way too short!

Challenge Orange

Saturday night, I went to the Sochaux versus Nice soccer game. It was a pretty good match! Sochaux lost 1-0 to Nice. Before the game, me and 5 other girls were in charge of holding the flags representing the two teams. We walked out on the field with the players and stood behind them as they were introduced. Then we sat front row and watched the game! At this point, I hadn't eaten for 8 hours and I had played a soccer game, I was very hungry. About ten minutes before the end of the half, we left our seats to go get ready for the Challenge Orange. We were split into two teams; white and black. I was on the black team. At half time, we ran out onto the field with me in the lead, I ran to my goal while the other girls stayed at the half line. Then, one by one, the white team dribbled up to the goal box and took a shot. I saved 9/10 of the shots. I was feeling pretty darn good! Black won 6 goals to 1. We ran off the field, changed back to our normal clothes,  and returned to our seats.
For dinner, I ate an "Americain" a burger with fries. The French eat a lot of french fries! Except, they call them frites (pronounce freetes).  I returned home around midnight and went to bed immediately. Saturday was so much fun! It was the perfect adventure. I am so glad that I got to have that experience.

Badabadabingbadaboom

I am tired so this entry will be short. These last couple weeks have absolutely flown by. Wednesday, my soccer team went to a sort of day tournament, a whole day of soccer and no school! It was perfect! Tomorrow I have plans to sleep in, go to my club soccer game at 3 PM, then go see a pro soccer game; Nice vs. Sochaux. There are no words to describe how unbelievably excited I am because during the half time I will be playing on the field doing the "Challenge Orange." Youtube video of challenge orange If you want to see an example of Challenge Orange, you can click on that link. I will be playing goalkeeper and I am simply ecstatic! 
On another note, I got a 10/20 on my history test! The lowest score was a 3/20 and the highest was a 17/20 which means I am right in the middle! It was an essay on the role and the characteristics of the Franche-Comte (my region.) The fact that my teacher even graded the paper instead of writing "no note" means that my French has improved, a ton.  Big day tomorrow so I should probably get some sleep! I hope everyone had a great turkey day, mine consisted of a late night dinner after soccer practice... Lasagna and a pudding cup. Badabadabingbadaboom bye

Improvements :)

Right now, I feel no different in my ability to understand, speak, or write French. But then I look back to when I arrived in this beautiful country two and a half months ago and I realize just how much I have improved. Upon my arrival in France I could barely hold on a simple conversation such as "Hi, How are you" because everyone seemed to be speaking a mile a minute. I could write in French but it was VERY garbled, often to the point of being incomprehensible. I walked around with my pocket dictionary and my little European translator machine thingamabob. I didn't talk to anyone and no one talked to me. I didn't understand how to greet the different people; should I shake hands with the guys and do the "kiss-kiss" thing with the girls? Or should I just wave and say hi? I still don't know exactly how to greet people in every scenario but I no longer look like a blundering idiot/ tourist. 

Now, looking back, I realize that I have come a long way. I understand all of my classes and it is often like they are in English. I have fun conversations with my friends, I can make jokes and although I don't always understand right away, I can understand their jokes too. When I write in French, my overall grammar is pretty darn awesome but I still miss the small things such as when to use “cette” versus “ces” or “cet”, the French have based the majority of their grammar on the way phrases sound which means that some of their rules have no explanation and I just have to guess. My professor of Francais (Language Arts) told me today that I have improved a lot in my writing. She said that my first essay was nearly incomprehensible and that the one she returned to me today was very, very good comparatively. My teachers don’t give me a grade (no note) for my written essays because I often miss what they were looking for… It is hard to find the deeper meaning of a scene in a play I barely understand.

My best class is English, for obvious reasons. My 2^nd best class (oddly enough) is German. German is the one class where my teacher has never given me a “no note” (although I have received one 0/10.) I really like my school but I still prefer SLCSE. The classes are all lectures and the lack of projects and group work, make for very boring classes. All of my teachers (except for my history teacher) are very nice and often ask me how I am doing.

I am still so glad I am on this adventure; I love my city and all the people in it. 

Ode to the iPod

Dear iPod,

We have been through a lot together. It took me almost a year to be able to afford you; I babysat every Sunday thinking of you. I can tell you how, when, where, and why each of your dents has occurred. Each dent has a story. Like the time when I was at BYU French Camp and I was goofing around boasting about how indestructible you are, and I dropped you. That was how you got the dent right under where your camera would have been if you were a newer generation iPod. That particular dent destroyed your tilt sensor,making it very difficult for me to "shake to shuffle" but I loved you all the same. The next dent made the lock button virtually unusable except if I pushed it really hard,but I still loved you. Now I have gone and done the unspeakable; I have cracked your screen. I had already put a little crack in the corner when I knocked you against the corner of my dresser, but now your screen is really, really cracked. The screen even gave me a splinter! But I don't blame you; I blame the bathroom floor which was your screen's ultimate demise. I taped your screen back together but I feel in my heart it is almost pointless. You will never be the same. Never again will I be able to stream YouTube movies on your perfectly clear screen; never again will I be able to clearly read an email without having to zoom in just to decipher the words behind your befuddled screen. I am so sorry. The good news is that you still work. I can still play music, watch movies, and read emails. I can still play games as long as they don't require the tilt-sensor. You still travel with me wherever my life takes me; French camp, school, France, school in France, etc. 

You have kept me alive on this adventure. You have connected me via IM’ing and Facebook to my friends and family in the US. You have received over 600 emails from colleges, over 4,000 from Facebook, and over three years’worth of SAT questions of the day. But, the thing I am most thankful for is your music. Your capacious 64GBs has allowed you to have a vast library of almost 7,000 songs, as well as your Genius, your knowledge of genres, albums,artists, compilations, playlists, and your ability to directly download songs from iTunes. Your music, dear iPod, is your most amazing feature. Your music has carried me through my many "genre fads" such as pop music, boy bands,techno, dub step, hip-hop, rap, R&B, country, folk, rock, the list goes on. 

One thing I have found while on my exchange is that music is my best comfort. Music has memories, feelings, can change your whole mindset, and affects your whole day. While in France I have had cravings (yes cravings) for different genres. I have dawdled in folk, rap, and most recently, rock. I have used your vast libraries and geniused great hits such as Living on a Prayer to compile the most amazing playlist full of Journey, Queen, Bon Jovi, and so many others. I have turned up your volume and have come very near to ruining my hearing for the rest of my life. 

So what I really was trying to say here was... Please don't die! I love you so very much and I need you! I need to listen to your audio books on long car rides, I need your genius playlists, and I need you; cracked screen and all. 

Love your owner,

Rachael

Best day ever! And no, I am not quoting Tangled.

Today was simply phenomenal. I woke up thinking to myself "It is Friday, you should go to the mall or maybe the pool," and I ended up not doing either of them. I went flying with my SVT (Science de la Vie de la Terre) teacher. It was... indescribable. I soared over the land supported only by a parachute. I saw the world moving below me, the sun shining right in my face. I soared over the river, over fields, over small villages, and over the Citadel. I smiled and laughed, exhilarated by my newest adventure. And it was free! Apparently the French are so excited to show their generosity towards Americans that they often leave off the charges (my soccer is also free "no fee for the American".)

 

 

 

 

After flying, I stopped at a bakery on my way home and purchased an unknown pastry. Custard+chocolate+cream+other unknown ingredients= AmAzInG.

After flying and the pastry, I figured my day was just about over, but I was wrong. My host mom had two tickets to a concert. I went with my host mom's nephew (he was related somehow.) It was a really cool show! It turned out to be a rap concert but there was a full on band playing. You had the guy rapping, the piano, a couple guitars, a bass, and drums. Oh, and the lighting just made it that much cooler.

So, all in all, my day was pretty much fantastic. Flying, food, and a rap concert.



P.S. here is a link to a video of my take off and landing http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=KOBhL9qWSco 

Europa Park

On Saturday, I went to Europa Park; an amusement park with different sections based on the different countries of Europe. It was so much fun! I went on loads of rides and took a TON of pictures (I chose my favorites to put on the blog.) We packed a lunch which consisted of baguettes, ham, hot dogs, and capri suns. The whole park was in uber Halloween-mode with decorations everywhere and people in costumes walking around to scare you. It was amazing how scared people were of the costumes! A little fake blood and all the girls were squealing and running away.


I don't know these guys but I thought their photo was pretty classy

Mad skills!

 

 

Today (be warned; it's not my best writing)

     I am going to try and keep this short; today I went to the mall and I went ice skating. While I was on the bus heading to the mall, I looked to my left and I saw something that made me actually laugh out loud (which is always awkward when you are riding the bus alone.) That something was a KFC. A KFC in France?! Next to it was a Buffalo Grill... Something strange is going on...
     Ice skating was really fun. I ended up starting a conversation with a guy and we skated for the next hour, just talking about school and differences between France and the US.
     I took the bus home (the number 1 Chateaufarine) and by a really random coincidence, I ended up being on the same bus as a guy I had talked to the last time I had ridden the bus (I had asked him about Halloween.)
     So, this was me keeping it short! and now I am going to make it even longer!
Tomorrow I am going to Europa Park! I am so very, very excited! It is in Germany so I will be needing my passport :)
     Last thing- I promise- this is definitely a non sequitur but, I have always enjoyed audio-books which is why I am so extremely thrilled about finding all 7 of the Harry Potter audio-books on YouTube!
     Okay, now I really have to go to bed.

Base Nautique de Bellecin

My soccer team is the best group of girls ever. They are always happy and someone is always tackling someone else. They always find ways to include me in conversations and not a minute goes by where I don't feel included. They talk in garbled English and then make fun of each others accents. On Thursday and Friday, we went on a "team bonding" trip. I don't know if it was specifically for bonding but it really was fun! We golfed, rode bikes, did archery, there was even a dance club above the cafeteria! We also stopped by the dam and took a team photo. All in all, it was a really fun weekend!

Voyage to the Citadel

Just a couple notes before the photos:1st: There is a zoo in the Citadel 2nd: The Citadel is on a mountain pressed in on both sides by the Doubs river3rd: There are many, many museums hidden within the rooms of the Citadel4th: I apologize for the weird format of the pictures, Blogger wasn't being very nice 5th: Today was an amazing adventure :)