Handball Game, Vacation...

Handball stadium.

 Sunday night, Rogerio's host mom took us to a handball match between Chambéry and Nîmes. I had no clue what to expect because I had never even heard of the game before. For those of you who are like me and were not aware that this sport existed, here's an attempted description: handball is like soccer, played on a basketball court, with a smaller version of a soccer ball that you can only pass using your hands. You can dribble it like a basketball or not, it's up to you. Traveling isn't illegal like in basketball, most of them just carry the ball and run. Then they try to get it in the soccer-like nets on either end of the court. These guys all have mad hops.

A really enthusiastic announcer who danced around the court! It was a really fun crowd. Their supporters go all out.

This is where the players sit when they get kicked out of the game. Penalties work like in hockey, and after so many you just get kicked out for the rest of the game.

 I'm also on break, since last Friday officially! So, I've been keeping busy hanging out with people and I've barely started on my homework... In my defense, though, I have cleaned my room. Monday and Tuesday I went to the skating rink two times in a row, and I'm definitely getting more comfortable. I can avoid falling now, can steer, can keep up a little speed while going around corners, and am even starting to bend my knees and skate faster! All of this balanced out by the fact that I am still incapable of stopping of my own free will. If a little kid falls down right in front of me, that kid's a goner.

Friends by the elephant fountain! (From my window.)

Hot chocolate served with whipped cream and a mini chocolate cookie. The most exciting discovery in Chambéry since... the choco-banana macaron that I ate the day before. Macarons are the most delicious things in the world and I will put up pictures soon. But in the meantime look on Facebook or google images!!! (I personally haven't taken pictures of them yet, but it was a banana cookie sandwich with chocolate in the middle. This is a long caption.)

Hot chocolate with Marina (from Brasil). And Anita (from Canada), who took the picture!

Mer de Glace/Grenoble/Rotary Meeting/Riots.

Two weekends ago, Claudie and I went with her hiking club to hike near Mont Blanc. We took a cable up to the observation deck at the top of the Aiguille de Midi, a really tall mountain just next to Mont Blanc. You're almost level with the summit! Then we hiked along a lower ridge to the Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice).

Snowball with highest mountains in Europe in the background!

Solid ice, inside the mountain with Morgan, the daughter of Claudie's friend (and my friend, too).

Alpinists, on a 6-inch wide ledge.

Where we hiked, these stone piles are called cairns (sp?) and they mark the path.

Hiking. The autumn colors reminded me of Minnesota!

The Mer de Glace. A woman said that 50 years ago there was a whole sheet of thick ice with crevasses and folds and everything but it's diminished this much due to global warming.

 Last Wednesday I went to Grenoble to take the PSAT at the American school there. I went with Cassie and after the test we went into downtown and met her Czech friend, Karina. We went to a real, old-fashioned chocolate/tea/pastry salon and afterwards walked around and looked in different shops. Grenoble is south of Chambéry in the region called Isère. It's so pretty in the countryside! There are all of these autumnal forests and rolling hills. No snowy mountains though. That's why Chambéry is so perfect- you're in the middle of everything!

Delicious chocolate éclair with hot chocolate in the pastry salon.

Baking shop with tons of stuff inside, and lots of halloween baking supplies.

Outside of the baking store.

Le Jam Studio. You pay 5 euros per hour and can go in there with your band and... jam!

Look what I found in a guide book in a store in Grenoble!

 Thursday night was my first Rotary meeting/dinner with my club. The meetings start late, around 8:30, and they take place at this country club/chateau place three Thursdays per month. (But I won't go to every one, although I want to go often!) I'm the only girl, because women aren't allowed and all the wives have a separate, unofficial club. The dinner was so good, especially the dessert. It was this soft, piping hot, moist cake with gooey raspberries on the inside! Below I have documented our four courses:

Mushrooms with some herb foam thing...

Mussels, white beans, foam, and a crunchy zucchini flower (my favorite part).

Best course after dessert! Potato cakes and then the pulled/roasted pork circle thing with a tomato and a whole clove of garlic!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......

Site of the meetings.

 Back in Chambéry, there are some riots going down! There has been a continual strike ("grève") for almost a week now, because the French government wants to change the official retirement age from 60 to 62. There are lots of young people who just want to rebel and break stuff ("casseurs"), but the places like the library and my art school are also on strike. The police have been using tear gas and today I had to run away from it down this alley! They were right by my house (for the first time), and so I had to wait before going home. It's actually really exciting, not that I'm going to join up or anything. But, I still feel completely safe because it's never by my school and hardly ever by my house. Also, tear gas is as violent as it gets. But still, the best course of action is just to stay away.

Walking around Chambéry, I saw this sign for the Bar Saint Paul! Definitely going there at some point.

Riots outside of my friends' school.

In a nice, quiet park away from the grève, tightrope walkers who said it was okay if I took there picture!

SQUAT team, view from my house.

One of the rioters trying to stir things up. I know this guy personally, I talked to him in the line in Monoprix one time. He's one of the homeless people who I see around a lot.

Three hours of class, then tennis, then rock climbing tomorrow!!! (And Rogerio comes for the first time to rock climbing with me!)

School is hard, art class is fun, rock climbing is one of the best things ever.

Activities are under way! Wednesdays I have tennis from 1:30-3, then rock climbing from 6-8 and Fridays I have art class from 5-8 (but you can come and go anytime between then). Meanwhile school is ramping up. I have an essay for philosophy about yes or no, is a happy life a life of pleasures? Then, Tuesday, I have a test on The Odyssey in French. In two weeks I have a test in History, and then finally, it's vacation on October 23rd, until November 2nd. A vacation where I plan to do a lot of sleeping and a lot of reading and a lot of running and a lot of cooking, all things I haven't had time for with my busy schedule.
But, busy though it may be, I love all the activities! It's really nice to be keeping up with tennis because it's physical activity and the people there are all really nice. After, at night, I take the bus up to Chambéry-le-Haut, a neighborhood up on a hill that looks down on Chambéry and is surrounded by pretty autumnal forest to do rock climbing at a gym there. In the first two sessions, I've learned how to belay and grimpe-à-la-tête, which I'm not sure how to translate into English. It's when you clip the rope in as you go, and there are 5 or 6 clips ending with the one at the top. The climbing rope isn't already at the top. Last class, I got to the top of every wall I tried except for the last one with a huge overhang that even the best person in our class couldn't get past. My goal: to be able to get to the top by the end of the year. On Friday, there's art class from 5-8. I usually stay from around 5-7:30ish. Tonight one of the French kids came over to talk to Cassie and me, and then another girl came over too! They played around and we painted some stuff together, like a person with tatoos. In the class, you just take your materials and go paint/draw/sculpt what you want. I haven't done sculpture yet but today I painted a tree and the statue of a man's torso which in my painting looked slightly too feminine. The first class I drew the head of Mary (from a sculpture). I think I'm going to work on computer design next week! After that, I want to start on sculpting too. Tomorrow I get up at 6 am to do a hike by Mont Blanc so right now I'm prioritizing and going to sleep instead of doing more homework. Homework can wait for Sunday, the national French homework and other chore day because everything is closed. Tomorrow night I think I'm eating in town with Leah, the Canadian girl in Chambéry and sometime Saturday (while not doing homework), I hope to go to the skating rink with my friend Claire from school!