Christmas in France!

Salut!

Well yes, I did survive the french version of christmas. Actually it was really good, rather different but good. My host family and I went to my host brothers step brothers girlfriends moms house. ... get that? lol ... Yeah we didn't go back to Villars unfortunately, or go to Brigitte's family. It was cool all the same though. We actually went on the 24th and spent the night. And in general french fashion we ate A LOT and had the normal insane amount of wine and champagne; but honestly you know that did not bother me...I was quite content. So anyway I guess french tradition is to celebrate the 24th and then stay up until midnight to 1 or so and then open presents. So that was cool, very different though; maybe I am just used to being SOO excited for christmas day and mom and dad saying NO! you can not open a present before christmas...I felt like I was cheating ha ha ha. (Well I guess Mom always lets Jason open one on the 24th...but he's the baby! he he)It was pretty sweet anyhow, just another christmas.....I think what I missed most was the hard coreness, there was basically no decorations here and a severe lack of family for me. But there's always next year and the year after and so on.



What else? Oh yes, here apparently according to my host mother and the other exchange students families, christmas and presents are for the children. Therefore the vast majority of people I gave presents to were rather shocked, because apparently I am just supposed to recieve presents, but like I told them, they were just little thank you's and have a very Merry Christmas. .... Definately a different attitude, hey and plus, I don't consider myself a child and I still like presents. ha ha

Anyway, as an exchange student put it; It was good!!... not great but because that is only reserved for real family, back home.

Speaking of exchange students, me and the three other exchange students who go to my high school with me, known as the Sisterhood. (Hannah, Maria, Julia and I) So we had our Secret Santa gift exchange on friday the 21st, It was SOO much fun, what a blast! First we went to Carrefour to buy the "provisions" otherwise know as some good wholesome junk food! ....Oh man I knew at the point I was going to feel sick, but in the Spirit of Christmas I just didn't care!Next we met Hannah and set off for Julia's house (on the bus that is, and honestly!! she has the slowest bus in all of france..Hannah and I swear it! lol) So we got the Julia`s house and low and behold we had already dug into the candy!... so I started making the KD!!! yeah baby!! ha ha ....they all insisted that I make because apparently I was the best cook...I really don't know how they figured that one, the only thing they'd eaten that I'd baked was Pancakes; and really how hard are those? lol but anyway I made KRAFT DINNER for all of us. I figured that we may have to share it with Julia's host familly some, but she wasn't having any of that! ha ha ha , she said that the one chance she got to have KD was all for her...and us 3 of course. So by about 8 or 9 or so we were feeling SOO sick from eating a ridiculously gross amount of some very sweet food!! We watched Superbad, in english with spanish subtitles..yes we cheated, but hey as Hannah put it: "this was our AMERICAN night"; that being North America of course lol. We also watched 16 Candles, which was really sweet too....I didn't even realise it, but we stayed up talking and all until 3am...

The next Morning we got up a 7:30 because we wanted to go for breakfast in Paris, and Julia lives about 45min by bus from the Train Station. So we missed the first bus...of course, I don't know how I assumed anything else!lol... Finally got the the Gare and took the train to Paris, again missed the first one lol....But they come very often so not a problem. When we got to Paris we took the Metro to the Jewish quarter of the city...which is just SOO cool!!.... Hannah wanted to go to a cute little american restaurant called "Breakfast in America" .....First we walked about 15 minutes in the wrong direction until we got er straight, turned around and Voila!! we found Breakfast in America, where I ordered a 2 x 2 x , which was 2 pancakes, 2 eggs and 2 pieces of bacon!! SO sweet, kind of expensive, but hey it was our "american" morning, where we could speak english and be like tourists, but not because we live here......THAT is just SOO cool to say sometimes!! Anyway, afterword we did some shopping, went to this sweet little vintage shop not the far from the restaurant and then came back to Chelles and Maria and I finished some of our Christmas shopping. Went home and watched a movie....ahhhh that's the life! lol..It was a really really great time all in all.



So now for some pictures. I'll apologize right now for the complete lack of good photo's, I forgot to take my camera out...he he sorry. Also they don't take any pictures, like of anything, so I always feel like a tourist in someone else's house. Some kind of weirdo who's photographing them for some odd reason lol.


Yeah!!! Our Christmas tree!...ok it was fake (a 1st for me) and it was about a metre high (another first) But hey!! It was a Christmas tree with real Christmas presents! yeehah! lol



Me with my Christmas presents in my room!





Hannah (I was her Secret Santa) with her present, in Julia's "rec room" in her "basement"
( in " " because it is all relative to here..not like the basements and rec rooms you know back home)









Maria with the Socks I gave here...we all have matching fuzzy warm socks but in different colours.



Random side profile of me at Julia's for our Fete de Noel.





Maria and I on the train to Paris for "Breakfast In America"! (looking oh so very fatiguer!)





Ahh yes...the "Christmas Cooking" (again relative lol) ...This thing you see with me in the picture, honestly have noo idea what it is, but I was supposed to cut it up and boil it in some water and then we ate it the next day. Now I know what your thinking, that thing looks like the part of the corn plant you give the pigs...don't worry I thought that too!...But to my grand surprise, if you put a little salt on the soggy,boiled plant looking thing it is rather edible!






Oh dear?! I have to eat this thing...I am such a fool!






My partener in crime...the crime being killing the tradition of Christmas dinner! ahhh!....I think he coordinated his outfit quite lovely..don't you? ....the carrot matches the hat rather perfectly! lol

Villars 2!!...December 1st & 2nd

Salut all!



So...yes we went back to Villars again. I was rather excited because it was such a great time the first time. This time was for the 20th Birthday of one of Mab's cousins. (I guess that particular birthday is a pretty big deal here) So it was about the same this time too, Mab had a 2 tests on Saturday morning just until noon and then after that we left for the countryside! So this time we got there a bit later. The party/celebration was at the same little hall, with a D.J and all again. Oh man did we eat too!! ...again it was pretty impressive, the amount of food that they had accumulated for this event, and that was before the insane dessert. It was a 20th birthday party so it was just family this time, there were a lot of the guy's friends too and guys he works with too. He actually works fixing tractors, well he is apprenticing, I though that was just so farm boyish, it was great!! ha ha ha..There just aren't farm boys here in Paris, it's quite sad really!Anyway well I dont know what else to say?... It was a blast!!! We stayed up real real late and danced a lot! Mab was video taping, I really do not want to see that video!... ha ha I am very sure I looked like a fool. But it was soo great!!, for the first time since being here I heard some country music...well as country as you'll get here!! It was awesome! lol ....although no one could dance with me :( ....that is probably why I looked soo ridiculous, I seemed to feel the need to dance alone. Oh dear, I think I am lacking that thing you know, that goes off in your head to say "seriously you should stop now!!" ....I wonder who's fault that is??hmmm dad?? Are you lacking that certain thing too??ha ha ha ha just jokes!!he he he..



Anyway It was a great time again, well other than the fact that I literally did NOT sleep! By the time we got back to the house that damn rooster was going off again - seriuosly if we go back there I think that that Rooster may just mysteriously go missing, It may just have a most unfortunate accident with a garden shovel... ha ha ha nah... but anyway Mab just somehow, most "unfortunately" forgot to give me the blankets his mom had told him to give for sleeping...therefore I slept with a sheet! needless to say, I slept on the ride back home.




So now for some pictures!




The starting platters...ahh!! It was really amazing too!









The pretty table settings, each of us had a specific spot with a name tag. I was 5 in from the end! ha ha ha ..... We sat at the table with the majority of young people.






Some people up and dancing, the closest 2 people are my host parents.



My host mother, Brigitte.














My host father, Jean-Pierre; and everybody dancing in the background, at the very back of the room is the D.J.




This was the guy who turned 20! In front of him is the dessert, it was absolutely amazing. The tractor says CLAAS because that is the type of tractor that they fix where he is apprenticing.




Here is him again and his buddy's that he works with.




Ha ha ha and this is the dancing... apparently. ha ha I guess they felt the need to take their shirts off for this particular song, I found this rather amusing. lol




Mab and I ... seriuosly contemplating something; not sure what?...lol



Mab doing his dutiful cleaning in our guest house, check out the class!!, nice feather sweeper thinger.




Well thats all folks, I'm tired now. So talk to ya'll later.
Peace. ..........Lauren

District Conference... November 17th

Hello....

So I`ll just get right down to it here. On the 17th of November we had our Rotary District Conference, it was only one day at a Univeristy about 30 minutes from where I live. Once again I went with Bertrand and Julia, we had to leave a little earlier because Bertrand was helping set up some stuff for the day. So we arrived at around 8:30am (yeeehah!! nice early start!... can you sense my enthusiasm!!) When we first got there we had to go pick up our name tags and little packages. Bertrand had asked me if Mr. Kuti (my counsellor) had inscribed me? Honestly I had nooo idea, apparently he was supposed to do that and be there at the conference....hmmmm!?!Anyway I managed to get a name tag, ha ha actually the man insisted that HE write my name so I spelt it out for him and he still got it wrong. ha ha ...but I definately was not the only one, about half of us had at least one of our names spelt wrong...we all got a kick out of that.




So the day started with, guess what?? Speeches!! ...nah actually it was relatively good. Good practice for my french and it gave me time to unstitch the sewed in pocket on my Rotary jacket. There we some interesting speeches by exchange students who were doing university exchanges as well as a group who were from Minnesota, U.S on a short career exchange, and the Rotaract club; they had been to the states this past summer and showed their presentation. We also had a key note speaker who spoke about helping our communities and people in them, volunteering and creating programs and opportunities for everyone. It was really well done actually! We had a morning break at about 10:30 and then lunch at 12:30. Lunch was absolutely amazing and we totally overate again, also drank a rather large amount of wine; which just killed us because it was a rotary event!! YEEHAH!! So after lunch, it was not obligatoire for us to attend the second half of the conference and therefore we had the chance to all sit around together and discuss our exchange, our experiences and help each other. It was alot of fun and we took alot of VERY crazy pictures too!! well anyway I guess I'll show them to you now.



The Sisterhood! We call our selves that because we are soo much like the sisterhood of the travelling pants, the four of us, it's just crazy!
from left to right: Julia (Thunderbay, Ontario, Canada), Maria (Mexico City, Mexico), ME!, Hannah (Coronado, California, United States)








Kathryn (Irving, Texas, U.S) looking oh so very shocked!!



Katie (Elmira, New york, U.S) having waaay to much fun with a rotary sign! lol




Katie (Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S), ME, and Maria (Mexico) ....I actually do not know what we are doing here,...having waay to much fun at a conference, thats what!! ha ha ha



Well thats it folks!! ...don't have any pics of the speakers cuz I wasn't really sure if I was allowed.
All in all It was pretty damn good time!!

peace!
Lauren

Philosophy Theatre...October 12th

Salut a toutes et a tous!!

So this is really late and I'm sorry, I know I've said that a million time but really I am Sorry , my life is busy too yah know... lol ha ha.



Alright Anyway! So this is of the Theatre that I went to with my Philo class, it was called "Sophocle Antigone" It was all about Greek philosophy. Actually it was really interesting and cool, something you could actually follow even if you didn't understand a damn thing. The whole thing was actually done in like "old French"; like french shakespeare, so even the other students didn't understand very much. At the start I was atually trying to really pay attention but then got tired of straining myself...my brain was aching lol. The Theatre Hall place was really beautiful, yet another architectural gem! And yes as any play I assume in Europe would have, this one also included some Nudity! Ahhh!! ha ha ha... I think the biggest shocker for me and Julia, that it just came out of NO where!...Julia was basically having a little nap, trying really hard to stay awake and they all of a sudden, just out of the blue this girl starts taking her clothes off and before we could even gasp she is completely naked..ON STAGE!! Now I don't consider myself an overly reserved person but HOLY SHIT!...like who does that, I guess its for Art!?!?...Like I said I'm not that reserved, I didn't think so anyway, but poor Julia; the girl is basically the definition of the word, can you imagine? I thought she was gonna drop dead right there beside me, and that'd be the end of her exchange. She immediately looked at me, gasped, had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from screaching and looked overly horrified...I think we both were. Our immediate reactions where "WTF!!"...So the girl then put a nice little bed sheet looking thing on herself, which slipped off her shoulders rather quickly as she began to dance around the stage as if she had been possessed, honestly!, It was as if there was something inside her trying to get out, it was nuts!....So if all this wasn't enough for us, seeing a grown woman we don't know revealed. There was some crazy old man taking pictures and video content of this poor young girl flopping (for lack of a better word) all over the place. He sat front row and got the entire nude scene on camera....lovely!..... note to self: NEVER join the arts!





Well anywho, here are some pics...and NO (to the disapointment to some of you) I did not take pictures of the poor young naked girl.




Picture of me and Adeline, just outside the Luxembourg Park; near the Theatre.





Pretty sweet, grand hallway leading to the theatre stage....everything was marble in there!!





Inside the Theatre, this is the stage.




Inside the Theatre, Again the architectural design was really sweet.





Close-up of one of the murals on the ceiling.