Rotary Weekend, Bike Ride, Philosophy Seminar, Birthday Party. (Busy week.)

It's now Tuesday, September 28th. It's been over a month since I got here, and I'm 1/10 of the way through my year (hard to believe)! This past week has been really busy. Going chronologically, I'll start with two weekends ago- the first Rotary weekend! It was great, I got to meet all the other exchange students in the district. It was north of Chambéry in Haute-Savoie near the town of Annecy, which is bigger than Chambéry, and more touristy (and very beautiful). We had an orientation and dinner the first night, then afterwards we had a talent show where we danced to all the songs from the different countries (me and a Canadian girl, Anita, did the chicken dance). Sunday, we took a bus up to the top of this small mountain (grassy and rounded at the top, it looked like The Sound of Music). From there we had an amazing view of Mont Blanc, which is so beautiful it's hard to describe. After we went into Annecy and went around the lake on a tour boat.

Mont Blanc.

Group photo on the mountain-top.

Where we picnic-ed.

Mont Blanc.

Me, Mavis, Rogerio, and Ji-Soo with Mont Blanc in the background.

Picnic on mountain-top.

Annecy on Sunday.

A big group of us!

Team U.S.A.

 Next, the week after the Rotary weekend, on Monday Claudie and I went on a bike ride and saw some of the winelands around Chambéry, which I didn't know existed. There are these beautiful old farmhouses surrounded by vines and mountains (which now have snow on them, as I saw when I biked back there again last night).

Horses.

Village by the lake that we biked to, and the route.

Remnants of a chateau on the hillside.

Cool house.

Grape vines growing on the side of a house!

Vines, and the name of the town of the town, "Les Abymes".

Vines and farmhouse.

Boater on the lake.

Lake and houses on the other shore.

Claudie stops to ask for directions.

Vines, etc.

Mountains, snowy as of yesterday!

Farmhouse with a statue of Mary.

Another statue of Mary.

Sheep.

Town on the hillside, with vines. Because the cultivated too far up the mountain, there are problems with flooding at the base.

On Wednesday I left with my school class for a three day philosophy seminar in Haute-Savoie, close to Mont Blanc, in a little town in the mountains called Saint Gervais. We stayed at a junior high/welcome center run by nuns, the sisters of the Assumption. The first day was all philosophy class on Plato, the second day in the afternoon we walked around in the mountains and visited some alpine churches, then we dined with the nuns at night. The third day we visited the Eglise d'Assy. It was weird, and really cool. I didn't take pictures, sadly, but you should really google it. The mosaic on the outside was done by asylum inmates on the principal that "everyone can create", and the pieces inside were done by famous artists like Matisse and Chagall. It was a really good way to bond with the class and it was really fun!!!

Baroque-savoyard style. Really tiny and cute!

Baroque. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but the inside is incredibly bright and pretty (and there's our tour guide).

View of Mont Blanc.

Nun in the convent garden. All of them were very nice.

 

 

Finally, this weekend it was my friend Claire's 18th birthday party. It was small, there were just six of us. Her mom is friends with my host mom, Claudie, and so I'll stay over at their house one weekend every month. For the party I made M&M cookies! And Cassie brought Oreos. I slept over Sunday night and in the morning we ate crepes and hot chocolate. We tried going to the tennis courts but they were all full so we played ping pong in her yard instead (equally fun).

Making the crepes at night.

Dessert at lunch on Sunday: flan in a plastic container. This is Step #1.

Step #2. (You have to pull the metal thing off.)

Step #3. (Tip upside down on a plate.)

Step #4. (Eat!)

Today, Cassie and I went into town for lunch. We stopped at a pizza truck, got a pizza, and ate in the park. Then, we went to the waffle truck, and I got a waffle with Chantilly cream on top. And, moreover, the waffle was made out of dough so it was fluffy and yummy and chewy like bread! It was the first day the waffle truck was there. It's right outside of my apartment building, and I really hope it comes back! Tomorrow I am getting a cell phone, and, more good news: when we go to Germany to visit Laura's first host family (from when she did an exchange year in the U.S.), Claudie is taking me to stop in Paris for a couple days! So, I will see Paris at Christmas!!!

Une ballade, une foire, and a perfect day!

First order of business, I went hiking with Claudie, her friend Marie-Christine, and the Taiwanese exchange student Mavis along the mountain ridge to the cross that overlooks Chambéry (le croix de Nivolet). It was probably forty-five minutes each way through mostly forest with a few pastures. Hiking through the pastures felt like being in the final scene of The Sound of Music! At the top, on the grassy hills just beneath the cross we had a picnic lunch of grapefruit and ham-and-boursin-and-baguette sandwiches.

Mavis and me at the start of the trail.

Moooooooooooo!

 

 

Our destination.

Idyllic forest.

View of Chambéry below!

Mavis was afraid she was going to fall, so she crouched and edged out slowly.

Le croix.

Me, Claudie, and Mavis. Almost there!

Second order of business: the Foire de Savoie. It's live an expo, and this year the theme was Japan. There were anime pictures, Japanese merchandise, and apparently sushi (though I didn't see it). It was like a regular Rotary dinner, except with three clubs and some Lions clubs too. It was nice to meet some other exchange students and some Rotarians as well! I met two Americans who now live in Chambéry: a woman from Lake Tahoe and a guy from Baltimore. I also talked to the wife of one of my "responsables" who said I could come over any time! She's blonde like me, which is nice because most French people have brown hair and I feel out of place. I got to meet he wife of my other responsable, who's really nice too! Some people there told me I spoke without an accent (which I don't entirely believe, but which is nice all the same)! According to Claudie, I have a British accent when I speak French, not an American one. I really wish I could hear what I sound like!

Mavis (Taiwan), Marina (Brasil), and Ji-soo (Korea).

Me straining to get in the picture, Mauricio (Mexico) and Rogerio (Brasil) who are both in my class.

Bandanas!

Ah, what lovely people.

Awaiting the soon-to-come excellent dinner (which was "just okay" according to the French standards of my responsable).

We got to introduce ourselves (unofficially).

Two turn tables and a microphone.

Third order of business, my day today:
8-10: Class. First history than philosophy.
10-11:30: Break.
11:30: Meet Manon (for first time outside of school), buy cheap and very delicious sandwich from La Michaline (a really popular boulangerie, people walk down the street all the time eating sandwiches from here in the typical yellow paper), eat on steps of the mayor building looking out on a cobblestone square.
12:30: Go to Glup's candy store and buy "bonbons". These include gummy octopi (my favorite), a gummy cow that tastes sour, and some sour strings among other things. Eat candy while walking down street.
1:30: Sit at café and drink hot chocolate.
2:15: Return to school. Talk with lots of French people!
2:35: History-Geography in English with Professor Marmounier. He is British/French and says things like: "Last time, did you give me your opinion? Would you like me to use chalk or felt tip markers?" He asks me questions about American syntax and gave me good feedback on my reflection (on which I got 20/20, it being in English; although he also said my English was of good quality and I was deep for my age).
3:35: Leave class with Rogerio and Cassie (another American with another organization). Stop home to change and find letter from Aunt Jeanne! Go to Monoprix with Rogerio and Cassie, buy cheap cookies (including Oreos).
4:45: Meet Mauricio at the Elephant Fountain. Go to the main park in town, sit and eat cookies. Want coke
5:30: Run back to Monoprix with Cassie to buy Coke.
5:45: Return and make up story about how we had to take the bus to Carrefour to buy the Coke, encountered hobbits, Santa Claus, a grizzly bear, etc. Get carried away speaking rapidly in English.
6:30: Home again to shower, pack for the Rotary weekend (the first orientation, update to come next week), and write this entry!
I love you all and love hearing news from home so send me emails/messages/etc.!

And in Other News....

Briefly, some other goings-on in Chambéry:
-I met my Rotary liaison here, Benjamin Beroud, who is incredibly nice! I'm going with him tomorros to open a bank account and hopefully buy a telephone.
-I went to the doctor to get a physical for rock climbing. She was this cool Romanian gypsy woman, who said I was really pretty. She also gave me a depression test... which was weird. But apparently twirling my hair constantly is a sign of some disorder. Not that she made me do anything about it, it was just the only question I didn't directly say "no" to.
-My first full day of school was yesterday. Boy, is it exhausting. I feel pretty good in all my classes. Especially English, where I get asked questions by the teacher. She wants me to do a presentation on the U.S. sometime soon. I'm also in two other English immersion classes (to get the credits, and because they looked interesting)... However, in 3rd year Italian and Ancient Greek, I am in wayyy over my head, so we'll see what to do about those when I talk to the counselor tomorrow.
Happy belated Labor Day!!!!

Mambo Italiano

 La Galleria (a shopping promenade).

So, this past weekend we went to Milan! It's because my older host sister, Laura, is doing an internship there with Renualt automobiles. On Saturday we saw the duomo and the surrounding square, where there was a big sports festival going on. There were stations set up for basketball, ping pong, baseball, hockey, soccer, tennis, boxing, tai chi, fussball, etc... We also ate lunch with a family from Turin who Laura nannied for when she was younger. I met two of the Italian girls who are a little bit younger than me, and who might come to Chambéry to visit some time this winter. I also learned how to say "Volio uno gelato molto buono" (I want a really good ice cream) and "Dove è una gelatteria molta buona?" (Where is a really good ice cream shop?). However, that's all I know of Italian and the Italian professor at the high school thinks I should switch down if possible from Terminale Italian to Seconde (the first year). I have no clue why... But anyway, Milan was gorgeous! And the road there was pretty too. We drove through the mountains, some of which have snow on already. And there were these old, broken down Italian fortresses... On the French side, there's a house (La Maison Penchée) that slid down a hillside during the bombings of WWII, so that now it's tilted. Here are the photos, so you can see everything more first hand:

The duomo, which took over 500 years to build!!!

 

Guys come up to you with seeds so pigeons will land on you! (For 2 euros, but still a very cool-and scary-experience.)

Flash mob (with me and host sister Laura).

Inside the duomo.

Soldiers? Or something. We chased them down to take a photo! They called me Paris Hilton.

On the roof of the duomo!

Ping pong at the sports festival.

Pizza, pizza!

Tilted house en route from Milan to Chambéry (la maison penchée).

Sliding helplessly backwards because the house is so crooked.

Trying to climb back up! (Also note the red blouse, which I got in Milan from Zara. Apparently a famous shop in Europe!)