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Published: March 15th 2010
Bonjour tout le monde!!!
Hello everyone!!!
This is my blog for both January AND Febuary! Enjoy!
January was a hectic month. One of my best friends went back to Australia, we started school again, Rotary had another reunion AND I changed families. School here reminds me why I hate(d) high school. Here, they work as hard as we do in the Universities, but they get 2 weeks of vacation every 6-7 weeks. A nice plus
To start the month: Laura went to the hospital. At the New Years party, she was pushed by another exchange student and he fell on top of her. She scraped her knees really badly and sprained her left knee, but waited another two days before she complained about it. Her host family waited with her in the ER for 5 hours. They wouldn't admit her until she could prove that she was European. It made me a little worried about what would happen if I had to go to the hospital. I would have to go to one that isnt so choosy on whether someone is European or not. Her insurance covered it and she got to skip a week of school. Lucky girl.
As for Nick, (another good friend of mine whom I hope to visit in his home country) he went back to Australia. He had a bike accident just before we came to France ( he was already here because on the other side of the equator its different), and he has some scars (and two pins in his face) from that incident. Maybe one of the funnier people I have ever met so far in my life, he always has a story and is not afraid to speak his mind. He has made a couple of the people in our district angry with him because of his frankness. He is cool though. He left the 16th. I had just changed families, so I couldn't see him off at the airport.
Speaking of that, my new host family is amazing. There are three children as well. The oldest, Maude (20) attends a University in Metz. She's exactly like the sister that I have always wanted but never had. The next, Mattieu (18) is in his first year of the University of Nancy. The youngest, Thomas, is in Australia at the moment. He is 17 and I have his room. It's
The walk home
I walk home from school now. Its not far. This is the streetpretty big, and nice even though the walls are covered in soccer players. Both Maude and Mattieu come home on the weekends. My change in families is a change for the district as well. It's a bit different from what they usually do. When I arrived in August, I was told that I would have 3 families, but mid-September, my "second" family said that there would be problems taking me, so I was then told that I would have two families. When Bernard Schaefer (YEO of the district) heard about my family-less-ness, he immediately went looking for a second family, because he told me that it wasnt fair for me if I only had two. So, he found me a second host family, but the catch is that they are not associated with my club. In France, that just isnt done, and its the first time my district is trying it. Normally, when a student makes an exchange, there is a club that sponsors them. That family will then host a student who is hosted by the same club. In my case, my club is Millionième, but Thomas' club is different. First time for everything I suppose. My host parents
are the BEST. My host mom, Maryse, works at a hospital as a pharmacist. My host dad Thierry works at the main post office in Metz, the capital of my region. They collect stamps and enjoy watching TV in the evenings. My first week was very much all about settling in. Thank you Thomas for your room 😊
On the 21st of the month, the teachers of my school were on strike. Not all of them, just the ones who wanted to participate. And as my luck would have it, ALL of my teachers were there. I was told that there usually are a lot of strikes once spring starts. I will cross my fingers and hope for the best.
On the weekend of the 23rd and 24th, I went skiing in the Vosges. The Vosges are a group of large hills (not quite mountains) just before the Alpes. We drove (early in the morning) and it took us about 2 hours. We all met at a very old church, where the stones were from Ireland. There was a tour guide who had a funny accent. Not everyone in our district SPEAKS English, but most of what he
My district
District 1790 Lorraine said was in English. After the church, we went to a building called the
tour de la liberté. It was a very modern structure with fin-like attachments sticking out from all sides. We walked up the spiral staircase and took some picture of St. Dié from the top. After that, we went down one level and all sat and listened to a presentation about Louis XIV. Well, 'listened' may not really be the right word, because after the first ten minutes, everyone was bored out of their minds. After what seemed like an eternity but was really only and hour and a half, we went across the street to the city hall. There, we learned that St. Dié is where they held the origional map of the world as it was when North America had just been discovered and is where they first named America 'America'. Every October, there is a huge festival of geography. People from all over the wold come. Its a big deal 😊
THen we had lunch and free time. We love free time. We goofed around alot and took pictures and had fun. When the time came, we all piled into the cars and
Snowman!
Bonhomme de Neige! headed towards Gérardmèr. We stopped a ways before the city for a
dégustation 'tasting' of wine, cheese, bread and chocolate; all the good French things. We learned the "correct" ways to eat these foods and how they are made, etc. We all had a good time, even if we were all really loud and got yelled at.
The tasting was followed by a quick trip to the hostel. There, we were given 5 minutes to settle and change clothes to go skiing. We exchange students of district 1790 have a joke about our Rotary district. At the beginning of ANYTHING we do, they are like "its okay, we have time, dont worry". And then ten minutes later they are like "Hurry up! You are taking too long!!" Therefore, we all decided amongst ourselves that we would give ourselves 10 minutes to find our rooms, open our suitcases , change into our ski gear and get back downstairs to the cars. Of course, certain (extremist) Rotary members thought that 10 minutes was too much and told us we had 5. We ended up at an average of 15 minutes because one of the cars wouldnt start. Go figure. NOT our
SNOWBALL FIGHT
It was intense fault! We eventually got to the equipment rental place, and it took another 20 minutes or so to get everyones equipment together and ready. We all got to the ski hill without incident. There were several
pistes (hills) from very easy to black diamond. I found out that almost everyone there hadn't been skiing before. Laura and I went on the harder hill with René from Chile. He was pretty good. He said that there are a lot of mountains in Chile and he goes skiing often. I went down a few times but then I fell and hurt myself. We were there for two hours. Many people were bruised, but no one broken from the experience 😊
We ate dinner quite late, around 22.00 (10:00). The food was "tradtional mountain food". Some of it tasted really funky, but was otherwise okay. We ate dinner while still in all of our ski clothes, so all of the pictures of me from that dinner involve suspender snowpants :D. We got back to the hostel, but like most teenagers, we didnt sleep until about 2 AM. I gave back massages to at least 10 people . My arms hurt afterwards. And
of course, there was a lot of talking.
The next day we awoke at 8AM in order to eat breakfast and get ready for our day. We packed everything back up and put it all in the cars. We then drove out into the mountains and started to hike up and over. This was not ordinary hike however. This was SNOWSHOEING. But not the old-fashioned kind. These were brand-new, heavy-duty plastic stnowshoes with toes made of metal. We all got a pair of ski poles and headed up the mountain. We stopped two or three times to take a break and rejoin the group, and take pictures, but otherwise, two uneventful hours later, we arrived at the "resort". It was like a large house next to a ski hill. There were actually quite a few people there, but the place was inaccessable by car. They let us all know that on the way up. We ate lunch and then all ran outside. They gave us 45 minutes of free time, and we inteded to use it! We had a long snowball war and the Spanish speakers won, while the Asians and Americans had to accept defeat. When we all
Morning Sunlight
The next day in the Vosges. I liked it. agreed that South and Central America are the best (and the most violent) snowballers, we all forgot about the war of snow and built a snowman. In French its
Bonhomme de neige or litterally "Gentleman of snow". After we took pictures, we all strapped our snowshoes back on to our wet, tired, aching bodies and headed back down the mountain. IT was a lot easier going down, but it still took over an hour. And it started to snow really hard. We got back to the cars, removed all our gear, and said our goodbyes. We had two hours to drive home. We all slept in the car because it was warm and we werent. We saw most of the others on the Spain trip, so no worries.
The following weekend, quite unexpectedly, I went BACK to Gerardmer because my Finnish friend's (Laura) councellor has a house there. Also, it coincided with a film festival that happens every January. It was a "fantasy" film festival, so we saw a few strange movies. However, the great thing about film festivals is that they are all in original format. I went with Laura and Carla, and since they didnt really want
Waiting in Line
My second weekend in Gerardmer. We were waiting in line for the HORRIBLE Sweedish movie to see movies in Russian or Swiss (even though they DID have French subtitles, and though we DID see one in Sweedish), we saw 5 moves in a day and a half. Four of them were in Englsih. We saw "Predator" from the 80's with Arnold Schwartzenegger, "Halloween 2" also from the 80's, "Metropia" a new film, and very strange, "Détour" a Sweedish film (and really bad), and "Parasite" from the 90's. Laura's councellor didn't want to see American films with us, so in a very European fashion, left us by ourselves to do whatever we wanted in a city we barely knew. It was fun though. In between films we drank hot chocolate in a café, and watched a rediculous amount of snow fall. They got at least a foot while we were there, with more coming all the time. We walked everywhere because there were four separate theatres, all very close to each other. When we got bored with the city, we went to the house (more like a cabin) and played cards, listened to Charlie Winston (really popular here) and danced in the kitchen while making pasta. I bought a sweatshirt for 15€ and some new gloves!
La Tour Eiffel
Amy, Sara, Emma. USA, Finland² They are so warm! We left on Sunday and got home around 8. All in all, a very exciting weekend.
FEVRIER
Here in France, the month of Febuary is much the same as in Wisconsin. Febuary brings the most snow, and is usually the coldest. THATS a laugh. I dont think it ever dropped below 10°F , and when we got an inch of snow they closed school!! If the public buses dont work, then students cant come to school. In that case, they close the school and make everyone go home. Somewhat rediculous. During one week I had only two days of school because two days were snow days and one day was the BAC blanc (like the ACT prep) and I didnt have to go to that. A very boring week, all told.
La fête de Saint Valentin "Saint Valentine's Day" isnt as celebrated here as it is in the States. People mostly just hang out at their boyfriens or girlfriends house. Me? I went to Doris' house. Neither of us have boyfriends, so we decided to celebrate together 😊. Laura came, but Carla couldnt because she went skiing in the Alpes. We ate
crêpes Road Construction?
One of those arts nouveaux things in Paris. Looked cool. brazilliennes or brazilian style crepes. It was really fun, but we had to call the party quits early because of a snowstorm. Not a snowstorm by Wisconsinite standards, but there was a decent amount of snow.
SPAIN/ESPAGNE/ESPAÑA
The Spain trip was from the 17th to the 24th of Febuary. The way I need to tell it, i actually started on the 16th. Laura Turkki came to my house to sleep. We went to bed early, planning on getting up at 5 to catch our train at 7. The alarm however, didnt work, and we woke up at 6:30. We were both extremely thankful that we had everything prepared the night before. We didnt eat breakfast, but my host mom was all set with tin-foil wrapped crêpes from the night before. We boarded our train at 7:00 on the dot, but like most French things, the train was late, so we didnt leave the station until 7:10 or so. It was my frist time riding on the TGV. TGV stands for
le Train de Grande Vitesse or "the Train of Great Speed". By car it usually takes three hours to get to Paris. By TGV it is an hour
Capital
Frozen water, captial building, cool photo. Took it from a moving bus. Not too shabby. and a half. Not too shabby. It didn't FEEL like it was going faster than the trains I usually take, but oh well. The US will probably never manage this amazing feat of engineering, because it is too expensive and we decide to spend it on other things. Oh well to practicality.
We got to Paris around 9 and met up with the people from our district and the people from a couple other districts. We had to put all of our stuff on our coach bus and head to another station. There are 4 major train stations in Paris.
Gare l'Est, Gare du Nord, Montparnasse, and
Gare de Lyon. It took us about an hour to pick up everyone. Total we were about 40 students from 17 different countries. There was ONE open seat on the bus and we used it for "changes". When someone wanted to change places but we arent supposed to actually stand up on the bus.
The first day was all "Hi I'm ____ from ____. I live in (city and region in France)". We had 10 students from Mexico and 10 from the United States. Over half of the bus was from
Futuroscope
I like this picture. That big golfball thing is an Imax theatre. the Americas! The first "stop" was the Eiffel Tower. A small tour of Paris was in order. we walked PAST many things, but we didnt actually go IN. Sometimes we drove by them but we didnt even get out of the bus. Sort of disappointing, but I had already seen all of those things before, so they weren't QUITE so magical as if I had seen them for the first time. That and it rained. We drove ALL afternoon and into the evening in order to get to our first REAL stop on the trip: FUTUROSCOPE. Not really as cool as it sounds. I think that if you are older than maybe twelve it isnt really that great. There were certain things that were really cool, like the films in 3D and the films where the chairs move (4D). For some reason, when we went, the theme was oceans. Almost all of the movies we saw were about ocean wildlife. We stayed at the hotel for the night and the next day we spent in the park. The coolest thing we did was go to a ride called
Danse avec des Robots "Dance with Robots". We had a guide, so
Light Show
This is where the light show is held at night we didnt really get to go off on our own and do what we wanted. That was kind of a bummer. There was a really cool light show late in the evening that we saw. It was a lights and water show. The theme was "trouvez la note bleue" or "find the blue note". Sort of a kids thing, but it was rather enjoyable. We headed back to the hotel, which was right next to the park, and talked late into the night before going to sleep.
The next day was a LOT of bus time. Almowt the whole day, with a stop for lunch. We arrived at our destination around 4 in the afternoon. The name of the city is Carcassonne. Carcassonne was built in the 700's by the French people in an attempt to make the Spanish angry. At this point in history, Spain controlled the entrance and exit to the Mediterranean. There is a river in France that flows from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, but because it is so close to the border, it has been fought over for centuries. Carcassonne is a fortress-like walled city situated right on the river. It (in ancient times)
La belle
Me, in Carcassone provided aid to French ships trying to get to the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, and attack enemy Spanish ships. We were given a few hours of free time, which we used to walk around the old part of the city and take some pictures. We drank some hot chocolate and bought souvenirs (French word) before getting all of our stuff and headed to the
Auberge de la Jeunesse (Youth Hostel) that was situated in the center of the old city. Not everyday does one sleep in an ancient fortress. We had dinner, and then a small party in one of the "party" rooms provided by the hostel. Just some music from various people's iPods. Otherwise we watched the Olympics and cheered our home countries on! That was fun.
Again, the next morning was more driving. We crossed the border into Spain right before noon, and we stopped in a city named Girona. It was very pretty. We were given three hours of free time, so we walked around until we found somewhere cheap to eat. Thankfully someone in our group spoke Spanish (THANK YOU Maria-José!) and so our orders were given with only minimal questioning looks. We almost all
Sign
I have no idea what it says, but I think its in Catalan. In Girona pronounced Spanish with French accents, so they thought that we were all French. It was funny. Then, a group of us decided to litterally get lost in the city. I remember that we played hackeysack in front of a church, but after that, we walked around for two hours trying to find our way back to the bus. Thankfully we arrived on time and had only been scared for a few seconds, when we almost were attacked by some BIG DOGS.
That afternoon, we stopped for good in Lloret del Mar. A very tourist city, it went: hotel, club, hotel, bar, club, hotel, hotel, club. Something along those lines. We all got out of the bus and threw everything in our rooms (4 star hotel: not bad, Rotary!) and went down to the beach, which wasnt far from the hotel. We all got pictures by the sea (the Mediterranean) and then took off our shoes and ran through the sand. Bad idea. It wasn't really 'sand', more like small rocks. It was Febuary and the water was FREEZING! We stayed and played frisbee for a while and then set off and got lost in the downtown area. We all
This is Barcelona
The first picture I took of the city. On our way to the Picasso museum got back to the hotel and ate dinner. It was a buffet. Very nice, besides the fact that I probably gained two pounds just from that. That night, we all went to the discotheque that was in the basement of the hotel. It was cool because it was only exchange students. We had picked a hotel that had only old people AND a discotheque! We went to sleep early the next morning...and woke up around then too....
In the Northern part of Spain, they do not speak real Spanish in everyday life. They speak Catalan, the language of the North. They learn Spanish in school and they can understand and speak it, but normally they prefer not to. Barcelona is the capital if Catalonia, and everything there is written in Catalan, not real Spanish. Very confusing. The original name for Barcelona comes from Catalan: Barça. Which was the name of someone. I forgot who, but the guide told us. He had a REALLY long name. At least seven names combined, ending with his last name, Barça. The old part of the city is over 700 years old, but very pretty. Barcelona is about an hour south of Lloret del
Coloured Wall
This wall is a famous viewing point in Barcelona. It is covered in coloured bits of glass and stone. In the sun I am sure its beautiful, but at this moment it was raining Mar, so we got a little bit of sleep on the bus too. Our first stop was a Pablo Picasso museum right in the heart of the old city. It was okay, but I am not that into art, even if it is modern. We didnt have time to go to the gift shop either, so I have nothing to prove that I was there....but I DID buy a pin for my Rotary jacket! Also, I bought at least 20 postcards (for less than 10€) and I plan on sending them to as many people as I can before the next vacation, where I plan on buying even more.
One of the cooler things we saw was an enormous colored wall just outside of the city from one of the many lookout points in the hills surrounding the city. It was raining quite hard when we got there, but we got some pictures anyway, and then ran down the stairs to see the underside. The large columns of the underside hold up the wall and everything around it. There where many venders around trying to sell their items. Necklaces, sunglasses, bracelets, name it, they had it. We had to
Sagrada Familia
I think thats how you write it. The famous church in Barcelona. I have a LOT of pictures of this one... run back to the bus because it was raining too hard!
The rest of the day was very relaxed. We went back to the hotel early and all got comfy before dinner. I learned a game that is EXTREMELY popular in France, but that no one in the US plays. It is called "Jungle Speed", and I must buy it and bring it home with me. It is a card game, and quite entertaining. We ate dinner and watched the Olympics again, each of us cheering for our countries and all quite happy to have found a channel that broadcasted the games in English and not Spanish. For some reason, however, the commercials were in German...I never quite figured that one out.
Monday was our second and last day in Barcelona. We had a guide who talked for the whole ride to the city. We ALL slept. So funny. Our first stop was the
Sagrada Familia, the "unfinished" church of Barcelona. They started it 500 years ago, and for some reason they built it very slowly, so that by the time they 'finished', the original parts were too old and they had to replace them, so the work
més que un club
I was told that in Spanish it means "More than a club". I will take their word for it... started all over again. There were signs all over saying that it was supposed to be finished by 2023. Good luck. We went to the giftshop next to the church, but we didnt go in because we didnt have time AND you had to pay. I took some pictures, and bought a pin for my blazer!
Our next stop that day was THE 'futbol' stadium of Barcelona. The Barcelona soccer team is really good and everyone in Europe knows it. There were 10 Americans on this bus trip. None of us knew this, and so were yelled at because we were being unenthusiastic. We all know more about 'American' football than soccer, so we were not as impressed! The stadium was big, yes, but a Superbowl stadium is bigger than that! We werent about to make a huge deal about it though, because we didnt want to get chased out by a bunch of Spaniards. Group picture, gift shop and back on the bus. We went to a lookout point on one of the hills overlooking the city and took pictures. Barcelona is situated in a valley next to the sea, so finding a good lookout point was easy.
Barcelona
Me, with the city of Barcelona in the background! We headed back to the hotel and got to bed very late, because we went to the disco ^^. It was nice, but the next day was two hours of early morning bus time and we finally stopped in Figueras in northern Spain. It is the city where Salvador Dali was born. We were given 2 hours of free time for lunch and then we all met at the museum. The Dali museum was constructed by Dali himself. It was an old theatre that burned down and he reconstructed it and it now holds some of his most famous works, including his body. The picture of all the melting clocks is NOT there, but you can find it in the New York Museum of Modern Art, if you are intirested. When Dali died, he gave everything he had ever made to the government of Spain, causing quite a few problems for the museum, because at any time, the government can decide to take a painting away or give it to another country. We spent a few hours in the museum and gift shop, and then all got back on the bus and drove on. We stopped for dinner and
Salvador Dali
The tomb of Salvador Dali. In the museum in Figueras it was okay, took more group pictures and then got ready for a long night. It was 8 hours to Paris, and we had a lot of driving to do. We made a quick stop in Toulouse to drop off one person and then drove all night to get to Paris. It was REALLY uncomfortable sleeping on the bus, but somehow we managed. We arrived in Paris at 8 in the morning on a Wednesday, enough time to drop everyone off at their respective train stateions. It was SO sad saying goodbye to everyone, but I know that I will see many of them again in April for the Eurotrip. We cought a train at 9:50, which meant that we (Laura and I) had to wait for about an hour. It was an hour and a half back to Metz, and we slept the WHOLE way. The tutor of Laura came and picked us up and drove us back to Thionville. After that, I had four days left of vacation, and it passed somewhat uneventfully. I ate at my host grandmas house and it was awesome (even if she makes me eat too much).
In any case, these were
My Friends:)
Emma from Finland, Laura from Finland, and Sahil from India my first two months of 2010 and I wouldnt change them for the world. Mr. Fowler has added me on Skype, so if some Thursday (that IS the day Rotary meets, right?) you guys wanna give me a call, feel free!! My parents are coming (from what I understand) the 27th of April, and should stay either until the 10th or 15th of May, I am not sure which because I have been quite...lax about being on the computer (hence the reason I havent updated in two months)...and for that I apologize. This was Jan/Feb, and I hope I can get March up as soon as the month is out! I have been rediculously occupied, I dont know WHERE the time goes! I love you all and I miss you!!!!
~Amz
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mom & dad
non-member comment
trip to Barcelona
Hello Amy, Dad and I enjoyed your blog. We hope someday you may be able to look back and realize how lucky you have been to see things others just dream about...Your trip sounds fun. We will see you on April 27th through May 9th and hope to meet some of the wonderful people in your life. Love Mom and Dad