mmmm I love chocolate

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Bonsoirrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope everyone is FANTASTIC!!!!

The lack of sleep and intense Oral Practice and screeming kids in the background have left me a little slap happy! I'm so exhaused I don't know what to do with myself haha! It's only 7:30! MAA!!

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful. We had to be up at the crack of dawn dressed in layers to keep warm. We left around 7:30am to head to this little village. I can't remember it's significance though because I failed to pay attention due to the beautiful scenery!!! Sorry!!! Anyways, it was about -2 degrees. (not really...but still) I took some great pictures of the water and the village itself was so cute and quaint. I love places like that. The entire time we were there I just kept wishing we had something like this back home. We were surrounded by mountains and the views were just incredible.

After the tour of the freezing, unknown village, we went to lunch! As usual, the lunch lasted about 2.5-3 hours. I thought it was great. We started with a salad with ham and cheese and a delicious dressing, then had cheese fondue with ham and potatoes, then had a cheese plate, and then dessert wich was a fruit tart, some kind of chocolate ice cream, two types of marangues (sp?) and an apple dessert wrapped in a puff pastry, and finally coffee. I also basically ate an entire baguette of bread and some lovely red wine. ( Mom--you would have loved it...it had great legs!! 😉 )

Good thing we had a bit of a drive after that so we could all recover from the food coma we were in! Our next stop was this amazing chateau where Toussaint L was held after liberaiting Haiti! It was so neat. We had to bring coats because even though it was in the 70s outside...we were at the top of the mountain and absolutely FROZE in the chateau! We then went for another bus ride and found out we were going to climb a mountain! Luckily we took ski lifts to the top but noone told us what we would see. As we were on our way up the ski lift and were able to see over the trees, we all literally gasped. To our left, past all the green and brown mountains, were the beautiful Swiss Alps. I couldn't believe it. I've never seen such a beautiful view of mountains before. They looked like they went on forever. The white tips of the mountains just kissed the light blue sky. It was unbelievable. Of course, no picture i have will do them justice...but I took them anyway. 😊

Needless to say, after a long day of touring an exploring, I was exhausted. Dinner wasn't until 9:00...so after I ate, I called mom and dad super fast and went to bed.

Today was good...normal. We had intense oral practice again and were given more work. I'm a little overwhelmed! There aren't enough hours in the day. I get up everyday at 6:45am...leave the house by 7:45am...start class at 8:30...home around 7:00....have dinner until 9:00 - 10:00. By the time i'm done with dinner, I call home and then it's time for bed! I have about an hour to do homework, e-mail, facebook, and all that jazz...then it's off to bed I go! It's definately intense! But I wouldn't change it for the world. 😊 After class today, we had a little extra time so Levi, Teri, Zack, and I went to a cafe for some wine! FABULOUS!!!!

OH MY GOODNESS! I almost forgot!!! So as many of you know...I am a proud chocoholic! I thought chocolate would be great to bring back to the States! Well...if I'm going to do that...I have to make sure it's good. So today I bought my first pack of chocolate! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!! Delicious!!!!!! Don't worry, I'll be testing a lot more!! I wouldn't want to bring home bad chocolate!!! 😉

Miss you all...

Bisous!!!

Alana

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Photos

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The little village...:)

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Me with the Chateau!!!

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Mes amis...Jackie et Teri!

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The beautiful Swiss Alps :)

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BONJOUR!!!!!!!!!

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WEE!! Going back down on the ski lift!!

Comments

[grandma]

I love chocolate
Wow!!! You know how I eat the chocolate in the dishes at your house!!! I'll be waiting for some when you get home!!! The pictures are great, and I am sure you are having the time of your life!!! Hugs and Bisous!!!xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

[Jennifer]

:)
Alana!! Hi! France looks beautiful!! :) I've had some french chocolate at a friends house, it was amazing!!! I miss you! Love, Jennifer :)

[Amanda]

I'm so glad you are having a fantastic time Alana! We miss you here in the States but you are going to grow so much as a person over there! Now I just have to save up some money to buy a plane ticket to come visit you!

[Madame]

Bonjour
Hi Alana, It's Madame. I'm going to try this again. I commented on the "dog poop" blog, but I don't think I did it correctly so I'm trying again. What I did tell you was that the same thing happened to me the first week I lived in France and I learned to walk with one eye looking down at all times. They love their dogs over there!!!! I am so enjoying your blogs. Thanks so much for including me. It is such a thrill to have a former student going through similar experiences in France that I had. You are bringing back a lot of memories to me as you create your own. You are so right, the Alps are absolutely breathtaking, aren't they? And the chocolate? It's the best, you just can't get it here. I do miss the chocolate. I'm so proud of you and how hard you are working on becoming a better speaker. I think that now you understand how hard it is as a language teacher over here to develop our students' speaking abilities. It requires so much time and effort which we are not given. You really have to live it, don't you? Take care. I look forward to hearing more, and I hope you get this this time.