End-of-Quarter Report

I'm officially more than 1/4 of the way through this year. It's flying by so fast, it's crazy. Life continues at school. I got 16/20 on a literature essay, which is good for French school. And the teacher used my ideas as examples for the class. I'm understanding the principles of greek a little better with Mme. Crespo's lessons in the library during break on Wednesday. I can now read greek and answer questions in class! I (and my mom) figured that I should give a breakdown of an average day. I'll try to give the norm as best as possible, but all my days are different. Here's my school schedule for Monday:
9:05-10:00 Literature
10:00-10:20 Break (on campus)
10:20-11:15 Literature
11:15-12:10 Greek
12:10-1:00 Italian
1:00-2:35 Lunch Break (off campus)
2:35-3:35 English
3:35-3:50 Break (on campus)
3:50-5:35 Philosophy

Now, here's Wednesday, where I have class only in the morning:
9:05-10:00 Philosophy
10:00-10:20 Break
10:20-11:15 Philosophy
11:15-12:10 Greek
12:10-12:50 Quick lunch...
12:50 Take bus for tennis
1:30-3:00 Tennis
3:00-5:30 Free time!
5:30 Bus for rock climbing...
6:00-8:00 Rock Climbing
8:30 Dinner (This is when we eat dinner every night... a lot later than stateside!)

This last weekend was really fun, so I'll give a breakdown of that, too:
Friday Night: Stay over at friend's house. Meet her family and see all of their ski collection. There's a type of skiing called ski randonée, where you hike up the mountain in these specially designed skis and then ski down alpine-style. This means you can go out in the wilderness where there's no one else!
Saturday Morning: Help rock climbing instructor and two other guys with a rock climbing class for 5-7 year olds.
Saturday Afternoon: Fire in the apartment building just next door, have to evacuate but no damage done! It was just the one apartment that got burned because some lady left her clothes iron on. No injuries or anything, because she had left to go run errands. Here's a link with the video someone took, I live in the pink building shown at the very beginning.
http://www.ledauphine.com/savoie/2010/11/20/incendie-en-ce-moment-au-centre-ville-chambery-savoie

There was never really a risk that the fire would transfer to our building, but Claudie told me to take what I wanted to be better safe than sorry. So, I grab my passport, 50 euros, my ring and my teddy bear. Little do I know that there will be a huge crowd standing around our building to look up at the fire when I walk out clutching my teddy bear. Needless to say, I got some strange looks while we waited for the fire to be put out.
Saturday Night: Go over to friend Claire's house and have dinner with her family and Cassey.
Sunday Morning: Claire's dad takes me to the ski sale....

AND VOILA! It was cheaper to buy at the sale then to rent every time you go skiing. I'm definitely going to go every single weekend possible and there is no doubt about it, this year I am learning how to downhill ski! (And cross-country ski too, because they do a lot of that here. Claire's parents said that they'd invite me.)

Pictures of Lyon!

The Rhône, one of two rivers in Lyon that converge at the one end of the city and form the triangle-shaped neighborhood called the Presqu'île ("almost-island"). This is where downtown Lyon is.

View of the Basilica from another hill. Lyon is very hilly.

Fountain close to the mairie (mayor's office).

Basicila (La Basilique).

Painting inside the basilica.

Tower in one of the courtyards of Vieux Lyon (the old town). There's a "homeless" guy who lives in the top of this tower but because he's lived there non-stop for thirty years, French law says that he now has officially earned the right to stay there free of charge and he can't be kicked out.

One of the courtyards.

River in the evening.

Buildings along the river in the eve

Ok, so I found my other memory card. Here are the pictures I took of Lyon! Lyon is the second largest city in France and it was so gorgeous.

A Visit to Annecy

Friday of last week, I went to sleep over at the house Adriana (a Mexican girl living in Annecy). So I spent Friday and Saturday in Annecy! I love Annecy, it's gorgeous. It's right on a huge lake and there are tons on things to do. Also, the train station is right in the middle of town, which is incredibly convenient. Going there meant that I took the train for the first time in Europe. I went to the station to buy my ticket, waited for the train (it was actually a bus on the way there, and a train on the way back), and got to Annecy with no problems! I got to see a lot of the other exchange students in Annecy. It was a lot of fun and nice little vacation.

A man doing Chinese yo-yo in the huge park right by the lake (where we ate lunch on Friday).

At the chain Chez Barnabé, where you can choose in between all these different kinds of cookies (chocolate chip, Snickers, caramel, double chocolate, butter cookie) and brownies and tarts too. I chose an ourson cookie. I'm not sure what it was but it had chocolate chips and then more chocolate and caramel and marshmallow stuff on top. After you buy the cookie, you put it in the microwave so it gets gooey!

Halloween display in a chocolate shop!

More halloween!

Annecy has lots of canals, and swans everywhere.

Sushi for lunch on Saturday. There's Roxy from Ecuador on the left and Adriana on the right. It was the first time Roxy had tried sushi. She didn't really like it... So it's good we got rice and teriyaki too!

Adriana and Borinya from Thailand (who loves sushi).

 

 

Other than that, on Monday I spent the day in Lyon but I can't find the memory card with my pictures on it, so those are on the way because I know when I stop looking for it, it'll pop up... Now it's back to school and studying. I have a paper to write on the philosophy topic: "Am I responsible for the acts which I do unconsciously (e.g. things done while sleep walking)?" So... yeah. Haven't started that one yet and it's due Wednesday. But, I have all day tomorrow and on Tuesday I probably won't start school until 10! More photos to come with my other memory card.