Hello all,
So, since I haven't updated my blog in months (apologies for that), I am going back, month by month, to fill you in on what has been happening here. I am starting with February and will go back to November, each month will be a seperate post. Therefore, don't worry that i have skipped all the time between October and February, just keep reading and you will get to the other months...
February was a good month, on the 14th began my vacation, so i didn't have a whole lot of school to deal with :) And before that, I had a Rotary sunday with all the other students from our two districts (1660 and 1770 always do everything together, i don't really know why we are separate). We got together for lunch and the afternoon, and to talk about the upcoming trip to Toulouse. The trip is for all the exchange students in France to get together for a weekend, and each district (in our case our two districts) has to put on some sort of skit or performance. That Sunday we had to figure out what we are going to do for the show. It was fun to be able to see everyone again, and the weather was really nice so we went outside a bit, as you will see in the pictures :)
Me, Cari and Maggie
myspace!!?!??!?
girlssss
we were bored, and giggly
hahah
lunch!
cheeeeeese
The week after was Cari's 19th birthday, so we celebrated in Paris, and then vacation! I spent the first week at home, and went to some museums with Marie, Musee d'Orsay, Musee National du Moyen Age (a.k.a. Cluny Museum), L'Orangerie, and L'Institut du Monde Arab. The Musee d'Orsay was really beautiful, the architecture is really amazing. It was originally a train station built to bring people to the Eiffel Tower and World Fair, and was later turned into a museum. I got to see a lot of VanGogh and Renoir, so that was cool, along with a lot of other amazing paintings and statues. The Musee National du Moyen Age was really cool, i enjoyed it a lot. It had tons of artifacts from the middle ages, most coming from France, but also from other european countries. Lots of tapestries as well, i loved seeing the Lady and the Unicorn series, there are 6 fully preserved tapestries, five of which illustrate the 5 senses and the 6th showing 'a mon seul desir' or 'to my only desire' which i think is illustrating love. The Orangerie is a museum featuring eight paintings done by Monet, and there are other paintings on the lower level. The museum was built to house Monet's paintings, which he did for this purpose, but was closed in the 1960's, and didn't reopen until 2006, no one saw those paintings during that time, they were just sitting in the museum. Finally, the Arab Institute was kind of a disappointment, the set-up was really bad, and the explanation of the artifacts wasn't very good either. All in all though, it was really interesting to see all the different things.
Inside the chapel (the museum is a monastery)
and by the way all these pictures are from Cluny
italian silk from the 13th century i believe
outside in the gardens
ceiling of the chapel
a part of one of the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries
After that week, I left to go skiing with my host family, without my host brother who stayed home. We stayed in a little chalet that Eric's dad built about 40 years ago. It is at the foot of some small mountains, on the edge of a town called Faverges. The first day, Sunday, we cleaned the chalet and unpacked, that night we ate at the house of some friends of theirs. They made this thing called a tartiflette, which is basically just potatoes, onions and some cream, and then they slice a round of cheese like reblochon, but it on top, and put it in the oven. So the cheese melts all through the potatoes, and then you eat that with different cuts of ham or sausage. Its pretty good, but reeeeally heavy. All the typical dishes in that area of France are full of cheese. So the next day the weather wasn't great, so we went skiing at a little station so that i could get started relearning how to ski :P Marie helped me and it all came back to me pretty quickly. The rest of the week the weather was beautiful, and the snow was perfect, so i had a great week of skiing. We would wake up in the mornings around 9, have breakfast, tea, bread and nutella for me, get ready, make a picnic and drive to the ski stations, we would start around noon everyday and ski into the afternoon, eventually stopping to dring hot chocolate and eat kit-kats. I don't remember all of the ski stations right now, but i will eventually figure them out.
marieeee and me
snowshoeing, this is the easy way, not what i did with Perrins
after lunch, and some chocolate mousse :)
post-ski, we had to take them in b&w, color was not pretty
hahaha, i did it for camille
At the end of that week, we met up with Signe's host family, the Perrins, and skied with them for that Saturday. After that I said goodbye to my fam. and left to stay with Perrins for the week. We stayed at the house of Brigitte's brother and his wife, Philippe and Sabine, they are both really sweet people, and they have a beautiful house. Anyway, the first day of skiing with them i was reallllly tired, i had already been doing it for a week, so i was ready for a break. They were all really understanding though, so it was fine. On Monday the weather was bad, so we went on a walk in the snow instead. We were in a tiny village near the Swiss border, and we ate lunch in a restaurant that is part of a farm. It was nice for me to have a break from skiing for one day. Tuesday we went skiing and that night we ate in a little old chalet in the mountains. You have to walk about 40 minutes to get there, but the walk is beautiful and that night the sky was clear and the moon was bright, so it was nice despite the hike. At the restaurant we ate a plate of cold meats and pate, along with bread and a salad, and then we all ate fondue with mushrooms in it. It was all amazing, and by the end i think i gained a few pounds :P So after dinner and dessert, we got to sled back down to the cars, which was hilarious and fun. We went with head lamps, and it was really fast because the snow had melted a bit during the day and then re-frozen. It was a great night, Signe can vouch for me, she did the exact same thing :) and did you go in the bathroom signe? it's really unique... Moving on, Wednesday, we went skiing with a family that Perrins know, and that night ate at their cabin. Thursday i went snowshoeing with Clemence and Brigitte, it was one of the hardest things i have EVER done. Uphill, for three hours, in fresh snow. Needless to say, by the end, i was spent. Friday we all went skiing, the snow was better and the sun came out for a bit. And Saturday, my last day for skiing, we were out all day, the weather was gorgeous, and i wasn't even tired at the end of the day :) After two weeks of conditioning i was in form, and the rest of the family was feeling what i had felt the previous week, so anyway, it was a good day :) Sunday they drove me home, and i was received with Eric's silliness and comments about my tan (after two weeks of UV at 3800 meters, i got rather dark). Now I am home, and it is nice to be back to Paris, although i miss the mountains and clean air.
post restaurant, sledding fun!
looking goooood, i promise you axelle doesn't normally look like that, i don't know what happened in this picture
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