Swiss Alps 

Menton

Menton 

Menton 

Menton 

Monaco-The day after Grand Prix

Menton 

Time

Well the time has flown past! I have only 3 months left before I go back to my normal life. I just changed to my 3rd and final host family.  I have an older brother who lives here, but he is at university or work all the time. I don't see him much but he is very nice. I have a little brother who is the smartest person I know and he is only 5. I have an older sister who I have met once time. She lives in her own apartment. Last but not least I have a brother who is my age. I have only talked to him over skype because he is in Japan on exchange. My host parents are maybe some of the coolest people ever and they are so funny together. The only bad thing about my new family is they live in the valley. The valley that is full of cows and cheese. They valley that is a 40 minute train ride to town. The valley that is full of a million small villages that only consist of  a handful of houses, 2 churches ,and a bakery/post office in each. I guess that is just how it is in France. It will definitely take some getting used to. Talk to you soon!

MARCH

The past month has been insane. I was on winter break for 2 weeks and did some pretty cool stuff. I went to Strasbourg and Germany with friends and swimming at the hot springs with my host family. Right when break finished I came back to Strasbourg. CFA is a special school for things like learning butchery, pastry making, baking, woodworking and a bunch of other stuff. I was there all this week and had a lot of fun. My first day I did bakery and we made a few cakes and fancy cookies. The second day I did butchery. It was actually pretty fun. I got to take these huge pieces of pig and stick a spray gun in the middle and inflate it with a saltwater mixture. The scariest part was the kids with there giant knives cutting up like 4 whole pigs it smelled pretty gross. Later in the day I went and worked in the kitchen with the adult class. We made 2 types of stuffing out of the fatty part of meat, goose stomach, and an unidentifiable type of sketchy looking meat. We put it in a food processor with alcohol and cream. I don't remember what was in the other one some meat and stuff. We then stuffed the chickens and wrapped the chickens in pasta dough that they had made earlier in the day. We finished up by decorating them and made a few other small sides to go with it. The third day I was in woodworking and made a star. It was a lot more difficult than it looked. Fourth day I did baking again and we made 7 cakes. It was a crazy class full of all guys and then there was me...the  only girl. There were things flying across the room every time the teacher left. They were using lids as frisbees, chucking lemons at each other, and tossing eggs back and forth. My last day I was in butchery and it was the only day I had class with other girls. We made pasta alllll day long(I still don't know why we made pasta in butchery). They were so nice and the teacher was really funny. It was all together a great week. Today I think I am going to go out with some friends maybe see if I can go to IKEA! Tomorrow I am going to Carnival for part of the whole Mardi Grass thing then taking the train home. Monday I start school and Dad, Aunt Angie, Uncle Serge, and Kellie are coming to town and picking my up at the house right when I get home in the evening. They will be here for 2 weeks. We are going to Germany to see a soccer game and some other cool stuff. They day after they leave I go to Annecy for the weekend with all the exchange students in France I think all together we are about 500. I think that leaves no time for sleep or rest of any kind for a few weeks, but who needs sleep? I can sleep when I am dead.

Just another week in France!

I just got back from my second trip to Paris. It was so so so great! I stayed with my older host sister, we did a lot of fun stuff. I like knowing someone who lives there because then you have someone to take you to all the cool places only locals know about. We of course did touristy things as well :) 

Yesterday I only had French class so once I finished school I went into the city with a friend. We were going to go to  our first day of French boxing but got there and chickened out because it was all guys. I want to go next week because now I wish I would have gone. Anyway, we went to get a coffee and mail some postcards instead. We walked by the park and noticed hundreds of soldiers and military people. We had no clue what was going on so we asked a nearby police man. He told us the soldiers just got back from Iraq and it was also the day that Colmar was founded. As we were walking to the station to catch our buses home we passes a bike propped up on a wall on the side of the street with not a person in sight and two dogs just hanging out in the front basket. It was so cute and so French! 

Today I only had English class so I finished at 10. All of my friends have school and no one is home. I decided to make pancakes and eggs (sadly, no bacon)....first time in almost 6 months! Well life is good and the time is flying past... it needs to SLOW DOWN! 

Cooking in France

I made my host family cinnamon rolls with orange cream cheese frosting from scratch today. I didn't think they were going to turn out because I had to substitute a lot of ingredients. Instead of cream cheese I used some French cheese that is similar, for butter I used oil, and since they don't have brown sugar here I used cane sugar. AND I switched all the cups and all that into metric. It was a lot of work but I think they turned out pretty well... We will see how they taste!

Village Adventures

A weekend

      As most of you probably know I have switched host families. I live in a small village right outside of Colmar. Yesterday my host parents took me to a few other small villages, they were very very old and so pretty, surrounded by castles and vineyards. They were like what you image France to be, like the France you see in movies. It was so amazing. When we finished we stopped at my host dads twin brothers house. We stayed for tea and a little chat. He owns a pottery store. On the first floor of his house is his work shop. I got to see all the things he makes. He invited me to come and make something if I ever felt like it.
      Today I got up at about 11 and went downstairs to see a strange man sitting at the table drinking coffee. My host mom walked in and introduced us but Im still not really sure who he was. There was fresh orange juice waiting for me on the counter and cereal calling my name. Once I finished eating I made chocolate chip cookies for my host moms birthday. It was somewhat stressful because her and my host sister decided to sit and watch me. I felt like Martha Stewart. As I was finishing up the cookies a bunch of people started coming in the house. Apparently we were having a family gathering. My host dads whole family was there, which really isn't all that many people. His mom, his moms Italian''friend'', his twin brother and wife, his sister and her dog. We ate lasagna that the Italian old man cooked. It was the best lasagna I have ever eaten in my life! It was about 6 inches high and filled with things I never expected to be in lasagna. Like hard boiled egg whites, ham, and eggplant, with of course all the usual things as well. It was perfection. I had 3 huge pieces the size of my head and a salad to go with each. It was so much fun I was laughing the entire time. My host grandma told said she liked me because I was always smiling :) They stayed for about 6 hours. We went for a walk, had cheese and bread, dessert and coffee. But now I can honestly say I understand why the French always drink wine with their food....because it is the only humanly possible way to make it through those long meals alive.