It's almost May...WHAT?

The month of April has literally flown by! Part of it due to the fact that my week long April vacation turned into two weeks because of the volcano in Iceland. Being stranded in Stirling Scotland was far from a hardship though. I was really blessed to have been stranded with my friend and her family. I had an amazing time; relaxing, watching movies, playing bingo etcetera.

Then....back to real life. I made it back to France a week later than intended. I spent the weekend in Paris, got a sunburn, ate some great food, went to the Musee D'Orsay and the Tuileries and then finally made it back to Grenoble.

Grenoble is having a stretch of amazingly gorgeous hot weather! 23-26 degrees celsius all week! I finally had a reason to buy a swim suit and give the family pool a go! It was actually amazing. Having a pool in the yard is incredible and I think I am going to go again since it is going to be hot today as well. I suppose since this ismy blog I can say it. My extremely hot French host brother is home for the week! Yay!

Exams are in one week...eeeeek! I lost a week to my extended vacation and came back for a week and a half of school before the exams. I am terrified! I think it will go well because on the practice exams I passed without studying....so if I study really hard I should be able to pass the real ones. I think thats a pretty good theory to go with. It however doesn't stop the butterflies in my stomach!

Also! I have started running, technically I've only gone twice but that counts as starting. The whole time I am running I am hating life. I am cussing myself out...complaining about my feet hurting, my legs hurting...reminding myself that I hate to sweat...that I can't breathe. This may make people wonder why I go again. Hell, I wonder why I go again. But after I finish running I am always in a great mood. I feel accomplished, mostly because I just finished something I detest, and I feel like I have a great start to the day. Hence the reason I am going to try to keep doing it. My legs were so sore after the first run. A huge sign of how out of shape I am but also that I am accomplishing something. So here's to hoping!

That's all for now xxx

Bonding time with my host sister

So recently it has been just me and Emmanuelle consistently in the house. This last weekend was Easter weekend and my host parents went to Bordeaux. Sophie was in some unknown place and Marion had come to visit. Then my host parents came back and Marion left and Sophie is still gone. But it does mean that me and Emmanuelle have been hanging out more.

The other night I decided I needed a bang trim so I thought Emmanuelle would be the best person to do it. That and she's got the right personality type that she would go for it even if she wasn't sure. Which was exactly what I needed. It turned out great! Out of all my friends who have trimmed my bangs before she did a great job!

Tonight she talked about all of her practice exams for the "bac" that she has been taking recently. The "bac" is a big big big exam that French students take at the end of high school. She is doing her "bac" focusing on science. The students have a choice between philosophy, literature, and science I think. The science one is the hardest and the most recognized. Since she wants to become a doctor thats the one she has to take. She is doing exams on chemistry, biology, math, english, and god knows what else. She showed me some of her practice stuff for it and it looks so hard!

After we talked about the "bac" and exams in general we somehow got onto the topic of vulgar words in French and English. I shared some of the more generic English cusswords like "fuck" and "shit" etc and she told me some of the French ones such as:

Merde - shit

Conard - asshole, jerk, dick, bastard

Connasse - bitch

Salope - bitch, slut, c***

Putain - damn, fuck, whore (literal translation)

A few interesting side notes: conard and connasse stem from the same base and you have to conjugate it go be in accord with the sex of the person you are yelling at. It seems extra French to me just because of that. Stephen Clarke mentions it in his books which is really the reason I even noticed it. Also I think salope is particularly vulgar because Emmanuelle giggled a lot more when she told me that one and had a bit more of a pause before she actually got it out :P

Phone Cards, Tax Refunds, and Geneva

It is officially the weekend! A nice lovely long three day weekend too. I love that the French recognize Easter Monday as a day worth having off!

Phone cards: I am so fed up with trying to use phone cards here in France. It is nearly impossible to get them to work. My last phone card I tore up and threw away in a fit of frustration. So tonight I made yet another attempt to call Alaska. Every! Single! Time! I try to enter in the "secret code/account number" The stupid automated woman tells me "Votre code secret est incorrect" which is a load of bullshit because not only have I entered it in exactly the way it is written, I have used the phone card before and it has worked! I did finally get it to work. But not because I changed the number I was entering. It was because I continually tried until it accepted the number I have. This card was lucky to have survived this phone call attempt. It almost joined the last one.

Tax Refund: Imagine my disbelief when I go to check my credit union account and find a huuuuuge sum of money has been deposited and is labeled "tax refund." I literally held my breath while Lauren texted my dad to verify that I wasn't imagining it and that it was really there for me to use and keep. That makes my life so much easier! I have never gotten a tax refund like that before and I am so overjoyed at the prospect of having money I think I might just let it go to my head for a little bit before I rejoin the real world!

Geneva: Tomorrow at the crack of dawn I will be on a bus headed for Switzerland. It is literally only 2 hours away by bus which is so surreal considering it takes 2 hours just to drive to Girdwood from Palmer to go snowboarding. In two hours I will be in a different country! We are going to get to take a tour of the United Nations building and see the Red Cross museum among many other things. I plan on buying Swiss Easter chocolate for my host family since Sunday is Easter. This weekend promises all sorts of happy happenings!

xxx

La guêpe

Just a short anecdote before I head to bed tonight.

After dinner I came back up to my room and I was sitting on my bed on my computer researching some holiday plans and I heard a buzzing. I started looking around. Almost immediately I saw the wasp (la guêpe) flying about three feet away from me. It landed on a bag near my wardrobe and I picked up my computer, ran out of the room and shut my door. Needless to say I am not a huge fan of bugs. I know the general advice is "if you don't bother them they won't bother you" but there was no way in hell I was going to stay in my room and pretend everything was ok and then eventually go to sleep with it still lingering around.

First thing I do is tell my host sister that there is an insect in my room. I used my computer to look up bee (l'abeille) so she would know. Her eyes got really big and the first thing she said was "J'ai trop peur!" and immediately called for her mom. The bug in my room had officially turned into a family affair. It was actually pretty funny. My host mom came upstairs got some clothes and was making fun of me and Emmanuelle. At this point no one had gone into the room again. Emmanuelle kept telling me she was scared and eventually me and my host mom went into the room to find the bug.

Of course when we went in we couldn't find it. My host mom found out that her spray wasn't working so I stayed in the room looking for the wasp. Of course I found it, under my chair. I involuntarily let out a shriek as I was running out of the room and closing the door again. Both my host mom and Emmanuelle were cracking up.

Long story short my host mom came into the room with me again, we found the wasp again, this time on my mirror frame. My host mom dispatched it quickly with wasp spray and I picked it up with a piece of paper and tossed it out.

We are officially into bug season and they are bigger here than in Alaska. My host mom saw it and said it wasn't very big at all. I definitely disagree! I would hate to see what she considers a big bug!

xxx

Candy From Strangers

Most things from strangers are discouraged. Candy, rides, talking etcetera, growing up those warnings are repeated time and time again.

I thought of a million things today that I should put into my blog but now that I've sat down to write it's all coming a little bit slower. I think the biggest news of my day was my impromptu hitch hiking I did this morning. I have never hitch hiked before in my life. My mom's voice is always echoing in my head telling me how dangerous it is and to never accept a ride from a stranger.

So this morning I woke up early got ready for school, said goodbye to my host-grandparents and walked down to the bus stop. I mailed a bunch of post cards and sat at the bus stop filling out an envelope. As I stood up to check the time the bus was coming a car pulled up in front of the bus stop and rolled down its window. I immediately thought that they needed directions so I walked over to the window. Of course I wouldn't have been able to give directions but I didn't want to be rude.

The woman in the car was older...maybe in her 50's and she asked me if I was going in the direction of La Tronche or Ile Verte and I said yes and all of the sudden she started moving her purse to the side. I don't know if I had a conscious thought process to making the decision but all of the sudden I was in her car buckling myself in. As soon as the door shut (it was an automatic door) I started panicking thinking "What the hell am I doing in this car?"

It all turned out alright. I'm still undecided if she was just a good samaritan or just lonely, maybe a little bit of both. We chatted while she drove me to the tram stop at Ile Verte.

She lives in Meylan just like I do and commutes every day to Grenoble for work. She has four children who are grown and live away from home. Two of them live in Paris, one lives outside of Paris and the fourth lives in Marseilles. She is originally from the Atlantic coast part of France where it is cooler. She doesn't enjoy hot weather and told me all about Grenoble's summer tendencies. She doesn't much family left there so she hardly ever goes back. She's been living in Grenoble for 30 years now. She's been to the US once. She flew into Salt Lake City, of all places, and did a drive up to Canada and back down through California and back to Salt Lake City. It sounds like she had a really good time and enjoyed herself. She is also planning a trip to Iceland in the next year.

She was a really friendly lady and she had a lot of interesting things to say. I have to say as far as my first, albeit accidental, hitch hiking experience went, it was good. I don't think I am feeling too hasty to accept rides from future strangers but it has definitely altered my perception of the whole idea.

Ma Famille D'Accueil

So my last blog was a bit of a shout-out to my family at home. This time I am in full appreciation of my host family. This weekend has been great here at Chez Debillon. I suppose a quick run down of the family members wouldn't hurt.

Mme Debillon (Isobel) - the mother of my host family she is a part time nurse and all around superwoman...she gets so much done in a day its unbelievable

M Debillon (Thierry) - the dad of my host family, he is a full time doctor at the hospital 15 minutes from the house. He works a lot, likes to drink whiskey and eat cheese. He also does an absolutely dead-on impression of Chanel (the family's dog).

Marion - the eldest of the Debillon children she is my age and currently doing an internship in Lyon. She speaks English really well and I really get along with her.

Pierre-Antoine - By far the most mysterious of the 4 kids. He goes to school in Bordeaux and has only been home for two weekends since I've lived here. He is I think around 20 ish and he has the whole "I'm so cool I pop the collars of my polo t shirts" thing going on for him.

Emmanuelle - She is 17 years old and I share the 3rd floor with her. Whenever she does impressions of people she lisps. It is hilarious! She likes to do theatre, she recently fell off her bike, and I am pretty sure she is in a pseudo-relationship with Charles-Eric, the host-brother of my friend Elaine.

Sophie - The youngest Debillon is 16 years old and currently having a bit of a tough time with her highschool math course. She is the fastest eater I have ever met and could probably do some serious damage if she entered a competition.

Chanel - last but not least the lovable golden retriever...named for...yes you guessed it. Coco Chanel. She is really a happy dog but was recently diagnosed as being fat by the vet. Poor thing is on a diet now and as my host mom says "Son regime, c'est tres dur, elle est toujours faim!"

Right now we have a petit addendum to the family in the form of my host dad's parents. Mami and Papi are visiting for the weekend since it is Mami's birthday. She got an orchid from the family as a gift and gave bisous (the little french cheek kisses) to everyone. We had 9 people for aperatif and dinner. We had a range of dinner topics which was only interrupted once by Sophie who burst into tears when talking about her math class. A serious discussion on China and the Chinese language, and minimal joking about Chanel's weight issue, which has been a constant joke since the vet visit.

Mami has deemed me "toujours propre" because I have been cross stitching a present for my nephew Corbin recently, so for two nights in a row after dinner I have taken out my cross stitching. Apparently I have failed to live up to the university age party image. Quel dommage!

More to come later because tonight is daylight savings and we have mass in the morning. Which will be my first french mass ever since I think we are only going because the grandparents are here.

xxx

My Momentous First Blog

So sitting in my room on the third floor of my French host family's house listening to Savage Garden I am not quite sure how to start. I have written one blog before but only about my traveling. Never about my daily life. Who knows maybe something interesting will pop out.

As I travel and live away from Alaska I am constantly reminded how lucky I am to have my friends and family. I just got back from a 4 day break in Scotland and I returned to Meylan, France to my room to discover three letters and a package waiting for me. I had a letter from my aunt, a letter from my grandma, and a card that had been signed by a bunch of my family members "just because." The package was from a close friend in Scotland, it was "a wee sparkly card" and a pair of earring I had been coveting for ages.

At the same moment I had to email my dad to inform him that once again disaster had struck his wayward daughter. I lost my cell phone while I was in Scotland, lost meaning I had managed to forget it in a taxi...never to be seen again. My friend Sam jumped into action and lent me her spare phone and Dad did the same. He scrounged up a spare phone at home and unlocked it so he could mail it to me. I lost my debit card three times in 2009 and my dad had the solution each time no matter where I happened to be located at the time. He is an amazing problem solver even though I think I manage to up the ante each time. I am hoping he views it as a challenge rather than the pain in the ass that it really is!

Every now and then I have moments where I am overwhelmed by how amazing everyone around me is. I am very lucky and blessed to have such a wonderful group of people in my life. Hopefully I can continue to remember this whenever things are difficult.

I think that will be all for now but more coming later on French life and thoughts about it.

xxx