Coucou,

Sorry for the delays…I have been soooo busy this month! It is obviously my last month here in France, so I have been trying to soak up EVERY minute that I can. In the past few weeks I have finished school, gone to Bordeaux, had a friend come stay with me, and truly learned how lucky I am to have had this experience.

On June 13th I had my last day of school, and it was both super happy and fun as well as horribly depressing. I had to say goodbye to all my friends, knowing that I would probably never see some of them ever again. But we only had two hours of class, and we fooled around and had a "pique-nique" and took a million pictures! I ended up crying after the final bell rang, and all my friends promised me that we will continue to talk and someday when I come back we will all get together and catch up.

The week after that, I went to a play with some of my friends from class and then continued to see some of my closer friends throughout the week. And then last Friday my friend Malia came to visit me for a few days. We went to a dinner party with some of my friends and visited Montpellier and Nimes. After that, I went back with her to her small town of Leogeat, outside of Bordeaux. We visited Bordeaux, went kayaking, and then visited many other small towns close to where she lived. I was supposed to come home Wednesday night, but I missed my train and ended up staying another night. On the plus side, after the past two days of trains, I would say that I have officially mastered the art of train travel!

I have 5 more days with my host family and each day gets harder and harder. For the past 3 nights, I have not been able to sleep for more than a few hours because I am so nervous and sad to leave. After six months with this family, I have become apart of it! I have 2 French sisters and a French mom and a French dad. Coming into this program, I knew I would be close with my family, but I never imagined this. I really do love them.

I don't know what I will be up to for my last five days, other than going to Emma's birthday party tomorrow at the beach. On my last full day, Monday, I am going to give my family their gifts and make them an American breakfast of eggs and pancakes! I don't like to think about the end of this journey, but I can't help but to know that it is close.

My friend Mika and I are going to Paris for the last few days of our time in France and then I am off to America!!

See you in 10 days!

Bonjour!

Since my last post, I have been very busy! Two weekends ago, my family and I stayed on Ludmila's grandpa's boat for the three day weekend. It was so much fun! We went boating in the Mediterranean and had tons of fun in Meze and Sete.

Emma and cousin Cantine enjoying the boat!

I then had another week of school, and before I knew it, it was the weekend again! This past weekend, was my last AFS weekend. All the exchange students in Languedoc met up in Meze and we had a weekend full of games, cooking, talking, and more. I have grown soo close with the others and I truly am going to be so sad to leave them in Paris on July 8th. The five of us in Montpellier, Aron, Tonya, Macarana, Iveta, and myself, try to do things together as often as we can, but for the other 5, it is hard to see them. Regardless, I have grown extremely close to all my friends and I am honestly glad to have known them.

Gabriel (Colombia), Carmen (Honduras), and me

Us host students made a real French dinner for the 30 other kids who will be going on exchange this fall and summer. It was so much fun!

Sunday when I returned, we celebrated Mother's Day and Nathalie's birthday! I bought her a bouquet of flowers and went down to the festival of Corrida de Torros. There was bullfighting in an arena, but we didn't go the show. Instead we enjoyed Spanish churro's and watched little girls perform traditional Spanish dances. After that, we went to dinner in Palavas, and we had fresh Mediterranean seafood! Super good!!

On the topic of food, I have been learning how to cook! Nathalie and I made Ratatouille last week and at my AFS weekend we made curried chicken with a special bell pepper sauce. And of course a homemade chocolate and raspberry dessert!

This week is Lycee Joffre's first high school dance! It was even put together by my wonderful host sister, Ludmila. I plan on going and can't wait to see if it is anything like our dances in the States. Saturday night, is Nathalie's birthday party and we are all celebrating with a ton of friends over at the house! I finish school next Wednesday and then I am on summer! I don't have any summer plans yet, but I think I will be at the beach a lot, as well as finishing up some French shopping! I leave on July 3rd (less than a month!) to Paris with my friend, Mika, and we have an amazing itinerary planned out.

I can't believe how fast time has gone by, and I have to say that I am not ready to leave. I miss my family and my friends SO much, but five and a half months in such a diverse and beautiful country is simply not enough. This exchange has been the most amazing and rewarding thing I have ever done in my life and I can't believe how fast my time has gone by.

See you shortly!

And congratulations to Emily and Billy for their new baby girl!! :-) Can't wait to meet her!

Coucou!

I am so sorry, I realized I have not made an update in a while…I have been very, very busy these past few weeks!

So it has been a little over 2 weeks since my last post, and I have done a lot since that time! I had my end of the year soccer party with my team! We had a bbq, played a small game, and had lots of fun! But the next week I had school off Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesday after school I played tennis with Ludmila and then all day Thursday Ludmila, Milena, Laurie, and I went to the FISE. The Fise is an extreme sports festival all over the world. The biggest one in Europe is in Montpellier! There were people from all around the world (including a few Californian's) that participated in BMX, skateboarding, wake boarding, roller blading, and other competitions! It was super fun and literally all of Montpellier came! SO CROWDED!

That Friday night, Ludmila, Milena and I went to a party in a club! We got home at 6am…meaning the next day was full of sleep…

Sunday, we went to the Olivier's brothers' house on the beach and had lunch! It was rainy, but super super fun! And then Sunday night, Montpellier's soccer team won their final game, meaning we placed first in all of France! Even beat Paris :) 

Monday I had school, but we went to the center of the Comedie in Montpellier and had a HUGE celebration with everybody in town! There were fireworks and confetti and beaucoup de monde. All the soccer players came and everybody cheered and went CRAZY. Soccer is a religion here!

Tuesday I took a train to visit one of my friends, Hannah, living in Nice. Another friend, Mika, lives about an hour away from Hannah so the three of us spent Tuesday and Wednesday together! After a beautiful train ride across the French Riviera, I arrived in Nice and we went to the Coldplay concert. It was AMAZING!!! I am sooo glad I got that opportunity and I am so glad I got to see two of my American friends!

Wednesday morning, we woke up and took a 30 minute train to Cannes. Cannes was gorgeous! We went to the Film Festival and stayed all day! We ate panini's on the beach and then waited in front of the red carpet and saw tons of stars!! Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Kirsten Dunst, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Mcconaughy, and TONS of French stars (that I am completely unfamiliar with). It was amazing!!! After that, we ran over to the other side of Cannes and watched the taping of Canal +'s Le Grand Journal. It is a super super popular talk show/news show. It was sooo cool to watch and Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman were interviewed! All in all the two days there were AMAZING!

Alec Baldwin

Blurry…Kristen Stewart

Back of Zac Efron

Kirsten Dunst

Today I left Hannah's house and took another 5 hour train ride home! It is getting super hot here and I cannot believe that I only have 6 weeks until I am home…time goes by too fast. 

As for my French "Bucket List" I can cross off going to Cannes Festival! I also started my French book L'etranger by Albert Camus and have been planning my Paris trip! I hope I can cross off even more and completely fill the rest of my short time with even more amazing things! 

I miss everyone! A bientot!

Bonjour!
This week was so packed with school! And I didn't have much time to do anything other than homework…but I promise in 2 weeks when we have our huge festival I will have a better post!

I realized that I only have 2 months left! I have grown really attached to my French family and friends and it is going to be very hard to say goodbye. Today, one of my friends from Canada left! She had a shorter stay than me, but it just shows how fast time goes by. So this week, I am going to write kind of a "bucket list" along with my goals of the things that I want to do in my last two months.

1.  Master French completely. I can confidently say that I can understand 99% of things being said. Occasionally there is a word that I am not familiar with, but for the most part I can understand everything. My problem is writing and talking. My talking has improved a lot in the last month, but I still have problems conjugating verbs while I write. I want to get that done!
2. Read a book in French—I'm thinking a classic, like Madame Bovary or Candide.
3. Perfect my accent
4.Learn how to cook a typical French meal. And I mean everything from the first course to the dessert of homemade Creme Brulee.
5. Cook that meal for my French family!
6.Go to the Cannes Film Festival (which is already being planned :) )
7. Visit the Northern regions of France—my liaison is trying to get me a week in Bretagne with another host family during summer
8. Visit Paris and Versailles
9. Have a French sense of style—this involves tights, trench coats, hats, scarves, etc.
10. Visit 10 museums—so far I have 6!
11. Enjoy every day more than the last!

I have been talking with some of the other Americans in different regions and we are trying to plan visits to stay with each other so we can see more regions in France! I might be going to stay with my friends Hannah and Mika who live in Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur. And then I will go and see my friend Grace who lives in Midi-Pyrenees and then Noe who lives in Clermont Ferrand.
I don't know when the next chance will be for me to come back to France, so I just want to enjoy every second I have left and see as much as I can!

Aside from that, yesterday was the final election! It was Nicholas Sarkozy against Francois Hollande, and my family's wishes came true as Hollande was elected the new President. In celebration, Montpellier's main esplanade was full of people and Dj's and drinks and parties! We all went and I have never seen anything like in regards to an election…

Tomorrow, I have a holiday! The family and some of our friends are going to a camp ground and having a picnic lunch. I will be sure to take lots of pictures, and have less boring blog updates soon :)

A dimanche (ou Lundi)!

Bonjour!

This past week, I haven't done anything exciting! Just got back into the normal school week, and didn't even take a single picture. I had a semi-busy weekend, however. On Friday, I went to a dinner with all the AFS students in Montpellier at my friend Iveta's house. I love visiting with the other host families and my friends! On Saturday, we had some friends over for dinner too. With the elections coming up, the adults had a lot of debating to do over dinner. Sunday, I had another soccer game. This time, things went much more smoothly! We won 4-3 and I assisted 3 of our 4!

Because nothing else exciting has happened in the past week, I will note some of the differences between school in the United States and school in France.

1. There is no particular room for a teacher. At my high school, each teacher has their own room with their desk and computers etc. etc. Here, almost every class is in a different building, let alone room,  each day…we are constantly in contact with our friends to see if a teacher has said anything about where we are to be.
2. Everyone in your class is in all our your classes. That being said, it is hard to know a lot of people outside of your class, which I really hate!
3. Every class has a different schedule. At Foothill, almost all students start at 8, with the exception of 0 period, and end after 6th period or sport. But here, some kids start at 8 while others start at 1pm.
4. Homework/tests are much different. Homework is optional and almost never collected. Tests and quizzes are never multiple choice, or even have a single answer. My last history test was just two blank pages with a question at the top of the first saying, "Write down everything you know about the totalitarianism governments in the 20th century."
5. Lunch is never brought from home. Everyday, everyone either walks into town and eats at a cafe or restaurant, or eats in the Cantine. The cantine at my school is not very popular though, because nobody likes the food.
6. Lunch is long. We normally have an hour and 15 minutes to eat, but sometimes I get 3, and even some days, 4 hour lunches.
7. There are no electronics rules. Cell phones, ipods, and laptops are completely permitted at all times. Obviously, you can't talk on the phone when your teaching is lecturing, but a few texts is perfectly normal.
8. The students are very focused always. Even with the rules so lenient, teachers never have to ask people to be quiet or pay attention—parents stress education A LOT here, and their kids do not disappoint.
9. There are no sports teams, student government, dances, or clubs. School is for learning, and that is all. Oh, and no lockers either!
10. Girls do not carry backpacks. At all. I really hate this as everyday I have to carry an oversized bag on my arm full of books and notebooks. It's very inconvenient and leaves me with a lot of shoulder aches…

That's all for now! Bisous

Bonjour tout le monde!

Sadly, vacation is over. Yesterday, I had my first day back and I have been crammed with long days from 8am-6pm! But it isn't all bad; I get to see my friends and we have been talking about everything we did over the break. I also got two tests back, and I was SO happy to see that I got a 14/20 on my French test. I know what you are thinking—14/20 is a C-, and that's awful—but here in France, the grading system is extremely different, and a 14 is actually considered a very good grade! My French teacher also told Nathalie that she was very impressed with my progress! And I was extremely happy to hear that Nathalie thinks by the time I am done with my semester, I will be perfectly fluent!

For the last week of vacation, I did a lot of traveling with Emma and Nathalie throughout the days. Ludmila and Olivier had work to finish up, so the three of us took day trips to Avignon, Pont du Gard, Arles, and Saint Marie de le mer. They were all soooo pretty, but Avignon and Arles were definitely my favorite!

In Avignon, the three of us went on a tour of the Papal Palace. I loved learning about the Great Schism in history, so it was really cool to actually go to Avignon and see where Pope Clement V ruled!

Dark picture, but one of the courtyards of the palace!

8 (of the 9) Avignon Popes!

Men playing "La Vie en Rose" on the accordion 

To say it was windy is a MAJOR understatement!

After the Palace, the three of went to lunch in a creperie! After eating, I met a few lost Americans and successfully translated directions to them! I was very proud of that :)

Then, we faced the crazy winds and found ourselves lost and in search of "Pond d'Avignon." When we finally found it, Emma taught me the song and dance and "l'on y danse!!"                                

We watched Titanic the night before...

Sur le pont!

The song was written on the wall of the gift shop and I couldn't help taking a picture :)

After we survived the roaring winds, the three of us searched the city for our car and then drove to the city of Pont du Gard to see the actual Pond du Gard! The bridge was really big, and I learned that it was built in 19 B.C. It is absolutely beautiful, and I was incredibly impressed that without crane's and machinery people were able to built this! 

Me in comparison 

This is what the bridge covers and there were a surprising amount of kayaks out, even though it was freezing!

The Pont du Gard was so amazing and we spend a lot of time in the new museum about it. We ended the day with a Nutella Crepe, and then drove home. 

The next day, we all stayed home and worked on homework. Emma and I made Pancakes for the family. They had already tried them once before in New York, but had never made them! Everybody loved adding chocolate chips to them, and Emma learned how to flip a pancake perfectly! In the evening, Ludmila's boyfriend Benjamin came over and we all ate together. He is super nice, and we talked about when he lived in Austin for a year. He told me that one of the things he misses the most is Chipotle :)

Wednesday, the three of us took another day trip. This time to Arles and Saint Marie de le Mer. In Arles, we went to a super old Greek theater which was super cool. It is only half as big as it used to be, but it is easy to get a sense of how big and amazing it must have been.

Next, we went to a Roman stadium where the ancient Romans fought to the death. Right now, it is being restored and is still in use…but for concerts and bull fights. 

We then ate lunch and then walked around Arles. I saw Vincent Van Gogh's house when he lived there and then we went into an old Roman bathing area.

The last really cool thing we did in Arles was go see the bridge that Van Gogh painted! His painting looks like: 

And it actually exists!

To end the day, we drove a few kilometers to Saint Marie de le Mer and went into a few cathedrals. I really enjoyed my day trip and I love how there are such great little towns just a few minutes from Montpellier. 

On Thursday, Emma and I went to The Odysseum and did a fair amount of shopping. The Odysseum is this super cool outdoor mall that has all the cool stores! We took the new Tram system, that finally opened in Lattes. When we came home, Emma got ready for her sleepover. She invited 5 friends over for a Pajama Party and they kept us all up until 3am. On Friday, I went with two of my AFS friends back to the Odysseum and we shopped, ate lunch, and saw a movie. I love seeing my AFS friends! It is such a nice break from my new reality. But don't get the wrong idea, I absolutely love everything about this trip, but sometimes I just want to relax and be around people that feel the same. Saturday morning, Emma, Nathalie, and I made chocolate mousse! It was super fun and surprisingly easy.

Don't judge my appearance…it was a lazy Saturday...

On my last day of break, I did a bit of homework and went to the beach with Nathalie. It was cold, but we sat in the sand and had a lot of fun! It was also election day. In the morning I went with Nathalie to the local middle school and she showed me the process of France's Presidential Elections. There are two elections; the first one is a nation wide election with ALL the candidates. Then the votes are tallied and the two candidates with the most votes goes on to the final election, where they obviously choose one person. The first election was extremely close! Nicholas Sarkozy, the current president, and Francois Hollande beat the others. The two men had an extremely close amount of votes with I think 28% for Hollande and 25% for Sarkozy. It will be interesting to see where the votes will go for the next election, but my family seems to think Hollande will win. 

As I mentioned, school has started once again! I have eight more weeks until school ends and then I have just a few weeks of summer before I return to the States. I am HOPING (mom and dad) that I will be able to go to Paris with some friends before my journey is over, and can't wait to do what I can, in the last weeks.

Bisous