Done eating until 2008

The day after I posted my last blog I wished I had waited another day so I could write about something a little bit more interesting. Sunday I went and hung out with my friend Benjamin for the day. In the morning we went riding so I could buy my host sister a Christmas present (a little late). Then I checked out a weekly market in Benjamin's town. There you can find clothes, crafts, fossils, cheese, sausage, and rotisserie chicken that smells amazing when you're walking past it, hungry. Afterwards I ate lunch at Benjamin's house and watched an old classic movie, "La Tatoué," with the French actor Louis de Funès.

Then after lunch I did something that I think is necessary for my French experience - I toured a winery. It's owned by Benjamin's grandparents, and although I didn't learn much as Benjamin was my guide and he doesn't know that much about how it is made, it was still cool to see everything. If you ever get the chance to yell inside of an empty wine-fermenting tank, do it! It sounds awesome. Benjamin's grandparents also gave me six bottles of wine, which was incredibly nice of them. Therefore it is my job to promote their wine and their "cause." The name of their winery is "Domaine de Tavernel," although they don't export their wine to the U.S. However, I can help them out in promoting biologically produced wine, which is what they make.

Now, moving on to Christmas... Christmas Eve (the "Reveillant," "waking up" in French) we started eating at around 7:30. Small appetizers with an aperitif wine, then the dinner started. Raw oysters, shrimp, salmon, and mussels with butter, parsley, and garlic with white wine. After that everyone had of course eaten pretty well, so we took a break and opened presents. Then more dinner of roasted salmon with Camargian rice (a mixture of white and brown rice from the local Camargue marshes). And finally, for dessert there was a ice cream "log" of vanilla and chocolate ice cream with a layer of chocolate. That, along with champagne, lychees, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, chocolate truffles, and fruit as you please.

Christmas day was a little different, as we had already opened the presents. Also, one of the presents the night before was a foosball table for the family, so we built it and played until at least 2:30 AM. Then next morning I woke up at 11 and didn't eat anything, as the next big meal was coming after noon. Again small appetizers, then the meal of red wine, foie gras (fattened duck liver, which is highly acclaimed but I didn't find that special), escargots with the same persillade sauce that the mussels had, which I actually liked a lot and ate about a dozen of. I really don't know how this
turns into something yummy, but it does! After the escargots, there was quail with parsnips and garlic, another ice cream log and all the other dessert items.

So my long story about the food and all is done. I'm leaving for Barcelona the 31st to meet my parents, which I'm really excited about. I'm not sure if I'll post a blog before I leave or if I'll wait until I get back here January 5th with pictures. Happy New Years!

Noel is approaching!

Well Christmas (Noel en francais) is approaching and it's definitely going to be a different one for me this year. Thursday we had the Christmas meal at school, which wasn't really anything special except that they gave us bags of chocolate including a chocolate Santa, snowman (bonhomme de neige), and a couple small chocolate Christmas ornaments. Basically I got stuffed and then had a couple extra hours without class that I could do nothing with. Other than that not much is going on. My "host grandfather" came last night and he is staying a little bit past Christmas. I don't have much more to say on the subject of Christmas, but I'll be sure to post a little more about my experience here after it happens.

In other news, I realized that I've come a long way in speaking French. Yesterday I had to go and ask a secretary in my school if a teacher was there so I could go and talk to him about a class that he marked me absent for, and I think I talked really well. Plus the fact that I spoke well with my host grandfather last night, responding to his questions quickly and without confusion. I've actually realized for a while now that I understand people when they speak much more quickly, however I'm still not near what I consider fluent while speaking. I've found that speaking a new language is much more difficult to do compared to understanding one.

Now I don't have much going on. Today is the first day of vacation, and as the weather isn't very nice I spent it playing some board games with my host father, brother, and sister. I dominated Risk but my 11 year-old host sister won Clue. Tomorrow I'm going to my friend Benjamin's house for lunch, a little hanging out and possibly bike riding.

Anyways, I hope everyone who is now at my house for the Hanukkah party has an awesome time, I wish I could be there with you all. And I also hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! Until the next post...

Il neige!

Last night my friend Benajmin's dad said it was going to snow while he was driving us back from bowling. I said "Here, no!!!" (in French of course) but sure enough it snowed today. See picture above of my back yard. That was at about 11 o'clock. Now it's 4 and the snow is completely gone because of sun, rain, and temperates of about four degrees Celsius, above freezing.

Bowling also went pretty well, after I "warmed up." Which means that I sucked at the beginning but ended the first game alright and won the second! So it turns out I can do something other than "evasion sports"...cycling and running.

I can't think of a title...

I figured I should post now, as it's been almost a week since my last post. Unfortunately not much has happened, as I've been sick most of the week. I went to school Monday, and stayed home Tuesday, yesterday, and today. However, tomorrow I'm going to school for a couple few reasons:

1. I'm feeling more or less better.
2. There's a rule here that if I miss more than three days of school I need a note from a doctor.
3. To escape my younger host sister, Caroline. She's sick too, and she's been driving me absolutely crazy because I'm around her all day and she loves to get on my nerves.

There's actually a fourth reason, but I'm going to write about that separately. December 22nd is my host sister Marine's birthday, but as that is the start of the Winter vacation, she's going to celebrate it tomorrow. After school five of her girl friends are coming home with her, hanging out, and eating dinner here. Then them, me, and some guys in our class are going bowling in Nimes. Hopefully I don't embarrass myself too bad with the bowling.

I also thought I would write a little more about French school, even if I haven't gone most of the week. When I came here I immediately noticed that the teachers weren't quite as discrete as American teachers when talking about students' grades. For example, my math teacher hands everyone their tests after saying out loud their grade, and, from time to time, what kind of stupid mistakes they made. Now she's a little bit of an extreme, but still I think that aspect of the French school system is quite different, and may be a reason for French students seeming more serious about the studies - in general - than American students. But that also might be because they decide on their career paths much earlier. In Premiere (junior year) they choose a category: "Economics," "Science," or "Literature." Then, in Terminale (senior year) they choose a specification. For example, students in Science choose between Physics/Chemistry, Math, or SVT, which is a mix of biology and geology.

Okay, that's it. I need to go shave, as I haven't needed to look presentable the past few days so I'm a bit scruffy, but I do need to look presentable tomorrow. Take care everyone!

How do you spell Hanukkah.... in French?

"Hanouka," apparently. I'm not celebrating quite like I usually do. No menorah, no Hanukkah parties with the neighbors or family, and actually very few Jewish people around me. However, I did manage to make latkes tonight, which my French family liked. Thanks for the recipe Mom, and I can see why making latkes for 30 people is such a pain...

Other than that my week has passed pretty normally. Tuesday I had my class "conseil," which is when the class delegates, two students elected to represent the class, meet with all the teachers and get every student's average. My average was a 13.5, which was really good. The averages fall into categories, indicating more or less on what level you are working. I was on the "compliments" level, which is quite good , although my teachers have been easier on me than the French kids in most subjects.

Tomorrow my host father's parents are coming for lunch. After, I'm going to watch the basketball game of my younger host sister and walking around the village she's playing in, which is named Aigues-Mortes (Aigues pronounced "Egg"). It's an old town, the old section of which is enclosed by tall ramparts. It was where an old French King left with ships for one of the Crusades, although I don't know many details. I think it was somewhere around the 10th century. Anyways, I should have some interesting photos to put up this weekend, so be sure to check up.

Happy Hanukkah everyone! Here's some music I found out about, if you want to get in the mood: The LeeVees.

Incroyable!

So it's been an interesting week since I posted my last blog. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday consisted of more student manifestations. That means that I went to two hours of class on Tuesday, didn't go at all on Wednesday (which is a half day anyways), and went to all my classes on Thursday even though they were quite small. At the left is a picture of a ton of students from other lycees in Nimes blocking the front entrance to my school on Friday. The block was still going on at Camargue, another school in Nimes, so they came to recruit students from our school to help. I didn't go, but it was interesting to see anyways.

Today I woke up early and got out the door on my bike before eight o'clock. I rode to my friends Benjamin's house, and we left there at about 8:15 for the Pont du Gard. The Pont du Gard is a famous aqueduct built by the Romans probably in the middle of the first century A.D. It was originally quite long (about 50 km) and brought water from a spring in Uzes to Nimes. Now only a small portion stands, but it really is a magnificent thing to see. I can't even imagine how hard it was to create such a monstrous thing without modern materials or machines, especially for the length of time it has stood and will stand. To give you an idea of the amount of water here when it rains and the strength of the Pont du Gard, take a look at one of the pictures of the aqueduct. When it rains quite a lot here the water level if much above the first level or arches, and the aqueduct stands quite strong still.

The system of the aqueduct actually wasn't completely quite as extravagant as this. At the slightly higher elevations it was simply a canal that ran along the ground. There is a drop in elevation from Uzes to Nimes, which helped the water move along. On top of the Pont du Gard is a small canal. You can take a look at the pictures and see that there's a roof over most of the upper level, which was put there to prevent the water from being polluted by bird crap or leaves or whatever might get in there.

Besides the Pont du Gard, it was quite a good day. We rode almost 5 hours with getting there and returning home. Eating lunch sitting on the rocks in the sun next to the aqueduct was pretty awesome. If you ever get to the south of France make sure you check this out. And now, after a weekend of good riding, I'm tired and I'm going to go to sleep. I hope everyone's well and thanks for keeping up with the blog. Bonne nuit!