1st day of school

So, this is me on my first day of school, which was last Tuesday. I thought I'd take some time to talk about the school I visited in France.

The first class I went to was English and it was completely in English! This was very nice for me because I hadn't seen Maureen or Matt for a while and I got to say whatever I wanted in English-and the teacher made me. I had to repeat some things because they couldn't catch it and the teacher wrote down some of the more "difficult" words I used, like the word "ignorant." 

The next class was like chemistry or something. They all kept telling me that their teacher was crazy. He seemed okay to me. We did paper chromatography, which I had done before but not this way. It was cool that they use the same symbols for elements so I knew that thaey were sticking their hands in Potassium permanganate. Yikes! As far as I know, most permanganates are not to be messed with...I think. We had to wear lab coats but no gloves or goggles. Weird.

Then I went to SVT which is like natural sciences. We talked about the consequences of using fossil fuels and also air cycles/currents. It was so cool. I love biology and I totally understood what the teacher was talking about. Afterwards, we looked at microorganisms under a microscope. Pauline's friend Luca was talking to me when he should have been doing something else and the teacher's like "I can speak English too." Lol. Luca couldn't believe I didn't know a certain band...I don't remember the band now. 

English and SVT were like maybe an hour long and science was double so it was about two hours. Pauline is a "boarder" because she lives kinda far away; so she lives in the dorms at the school. The halls looked just like an older American high school and the classes were about the same. the class size was kinda small and everybody knew everybody else. It was definitely a cool experience.

Eternoz

I spent some time in Eternoz while Pauline was at school. Every night, the others would come over for dinner at JJ's house and then we would go for a walk. Matt asked Hermance what tickle was in French. After a bit of hand gestures, we learned that instead of "tickle tickle", you say "gilley, gilley." I'm not sure if that's how it's spelled but it sounds like "gill-ee." It came in handy when I was at the first communion party. There was a little girl who liked to be tickled and I'm glad I knew how to say it.

After dinner, Hermance was very hyper and she would chase Matt. It was fun to watch them. When Matt wanted her to stop he'd yell "Arrête! Arrête!" which I heard oh too often.

Notice Hermance's face. She seems to be very photogenic. LOL. Actually, I noticed that a lot of the French people weren't very photogenic at all, or maybe they just don't smile as much as we do. IDK.

What lovely flowers!

This was my attempt at the sunset and clouds, but everyone was one the move. You can also see the Franche Comte bell tower. We walked on this road each time we went for a walk and the first two times, there was a group of guys sitting in a parking lot area thing. They would like stare at us and so when we passed them again on the second day, we all followed Matt in a straight line and sang a song with like snapping and stuff. They prolly thought we were very weird, to say the least.

Because it had been raining, there was a small stream that went along the road. So cute.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but the sign says Eternoz and is like crossed out. It means that you are leaving the town. In other words, keep driving and you are in anti-Eternoz.

Oh how I loved the luscious green foliage.

The sunsets lasted forever and were so beautiful with the clouds. Matt noted when we were in Paris that the clouds are FRENCH clouds. Oh, didn't know there was a difference.

Adelaide and Matt, what dorks. LOL

This was the city building or something like that.

Right next to the church was the cemetery. Most towns had this. Any what's cool is that each family stays in the town their family is from, for the most part. So, the cemetery is filled with a bunch of ancestors. For example, Madeleine said her family has been in Eternoz since the 1700s. Wow!

This was a totally posed shot but it's cool with the reflection. It would have looked more candid if he was closer to us on the side of the puddle. Oh well! Actually, me and Matt were like "It'd be so cool if we did our senior pictures here." Too bad we never did, but it really would have been cool.

Again, I loved the trees.

There were so many pastures. Sometimes it looked like Kansas but the sunsets over the hills, reminded me that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

These cows were like super happy cows, but weren't from California. In this picture, they were all walking in a straight line. not sure where they were going, but no one was leading them. Another day, they were like chasing each other down the hill. I've never seen cows so happy before!

Been a while...

It really has been a while since I last posted anything and my excuse is school. And you may notice that I haven't even started school yet and my response would be that I have summer work for my AP classes. I will promise something good for tomorrow - lots of pictures and stories. I just need to finish Crime and Punishment first.

The things I ate in France

I realized that I haven't posted much about food, which is like the thing I get asked about most. So, here are pics of all the things I ate in France that I managed to get a pic of.

I ate a vegetarian gyro 

from a vegetarian Greek place near Notre Dame. It's funny. Our Chinese food is like their Greek food. It's everywhere in the city. Oh and say hello to Meghan's foot.

I ate Flam 

which normally has bacon on it, but for us veggies they put a bunch of veggies. Underneath the veggies was a thin flat and crisp flatbread with cream.

I ate pizza

which was a typical lunch for most of the students in Paris. Me and Meghan would share our lunch each day and take turns paying for it. This cost us about 7-8 euros which is about $8-9.

I ate Italian

from the food court in the Louvre. You choose what size of plate and then you get a certain number of items. It was okay and not as good as it looks. Notice the tiny bottle of vinaigrette on the top left. It was so cute!

I ate Nutella and coconut crepes

from many street vendors. It was a cheap and fast snack for anytime.

I ate veggies and rice

from a restaurant near Notre Dame and Eglise St. Severin called Lodies. Very decorative and tasty.

I ate chocolate mousse

at Lodies. Very tasty again.

I ate a cheese sandwich

that we got from a corner store vendor after climbing the Eiffel tower. It also had tomato and lettuce. And Meghan and I split it in half again, but it was so good and simple. We came to realize that simple lunches with a light soda (like Sprite) suited us because it didn't give us a tummy-ache when we started walking again.

I ate goat cheese

from a fromagerie near the Moulin Rouge. It was the first time I sort of had a conversation with someone in French at a store. I shared with everyone at dinner that night. (Not a very good pic though.)

I ate some weird pastry cheese filled type thing

at dinner. Strange but very good and flaky.

I ate veggies, rice and scalloped potatoes

(again), and no, the potatoes do not come in a box. :D

I ate a lollipop

that I got in a chocolate store. Very pretty!

I ate French fast food

which included a Comte cheese sandwich and french fries. So good and so satisfying.

I ate veggies and potatoes

(again). These potatoes were special because they were like the best potatoes ever!

I wish I ate here.

I ate a tomato and mozzarella panini

before walking down the Champs Elysees.

I ate a popsicle

from a store that is strictly for frozen foods.

I ate veggies and potatoes within a crepe 

which was very strange. There were too many mushrooms and the fried egg broke so I didn't really like it.

I ate apple and currant pie

homemade by Madeleine, the sweetest woman in France. This pie was amazing, btw! Best pie ever.

I ate strawberries

picked straight from the garden. I've never had anything so juicy and sweet before. Strawberries here in America will never be the name.

I drank wine.

Actually, I just sipped some at the First Communion party. It tasted like wine here, but then a gain, I'm not a huge fan of alcohol.

I ate potatoes, salad and a box of cheese

called a Boite Chaude. It was pretty good but I just couldn't bring myself to eat the rind of the cheese.

I ate meringue

which I don't really like. It's too sweet and the egg whites just kinda throw me off. The sad part is, it's everywhere in France. This lucky duck belonged to Adelaide.

I ate straight from the garden

which is something i haven't really done before. My grandpa has a garden but I used to be so picky that I didn't like vegetables. But now, I can't get enough of 'em.

I ate little chocolate bullets

on the plane. It was a gift from JJ's sister-in-law I think. Very tasty.

I also ate (but didn't get a picture of) ratatouille, veggie pizza, potato soup, fast food pasta, ice cream, bread*, cheese, salad and mand more things that I can't even remember.

I didn't eat escargot, eclairs^, meat and not a lot more. I really did try to taste almost everything.

* Funny story. Just before writing this, I went to the farmer's market to get some baguettes from La Baguette which is a bakery and cafe that really does have some good french bread. There were some people from France behind me and I got to speak French to them. I told them I spent one week in Paris and two in Besancon with a penpal. They asked about the French bread here and I told them that French bread from the supermarket is not French bread. I was so proud of myself.

^ I didn't even get a picture of the eclairs that we had once for dessert. I had a bad experience after eating a bunch of then once so now I can't even look at them, let alone take a picture of them.

Everyday Beauty

I think I already mentioned how beautiful it was in the countryside. And I love that they see this all everyday. Kind like how we see Pikes Peak everyday and sometimes forget to notice its beauty.

A lot of houses have roses like this just growing like crazy. 

They don't have a scent but are so pretty to look at.

And, a lot of the houses are like super old, or look super old and cool. The rocks seem to be so brittle but they have held up a house for some time. Pretty cool and amazing.

I'm sure I already put these pics in but here they are again. We would pass this castle each time we went to Besancon. I would totally love to have a castle in my backyard, or just down the road. It's so picturesque, these pictures could be wall papers.

I absolutely loved the stunning views of the city. The pink rooftops reminded me of a renaissance town in Italy, not that I've ever been to Italy, but I know it looks like that in like, Florence or something. 

And it's really cool to think that some of these buildings were actually built back then, before the United States was even conceived.

The Citadell was really cool to see each time. I just wish I had gotten the chance to go to the top like the others. There's like a zoo up there and a Holocaust memorial and museum.

Oh, the lush, verdant, sylvan lands. (Go vocabulary!)

Oh how I wish I was here today!