The sun awoke on time
ready for the day,
while I simply waited
for the buzz buzz buzz of my alarm clock.
Snooze.

wide open spaces

French Alps

What I've learned in France...

• Men can carry small sacs with straps that hang horizontally across the body (sometimes referred to as a purse) without being called a "faggot" or "queer."
• Parisians collectively dislike sunshine. They tend to prefer life under cloudy, gray skies. (This could be taken literally or metaphorically.)
• French women really don't get fat.

Time is flying by!

Holy cow! It's been way too long since I've written, but there has been no shortage of things to say! Life keeps moving at a million miles an hour here, but all is going well. I got back a week ago from a trip to Toulouse, France (in the south-east), where I had a conference with all of the exchange students in France. We took our time getting down there and visited chateaux, old villages, and even a fromgerie (where they make cheese... I know, so French).

I'm back in Paris now for the next two weeks and then I'll take off for Brittany. Once I get back, my parents will be here for two weeks. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Winter vacation

Les arénes romaines à Nimes
Barcelona
Stephie (Mexico), Me, Madeleine(Austria)

A street performer in Barcelona

oh my, the life of exchange students...

These are some photos from the weekend when we had a reunion with the exchange students in our district. I think that we have a little too much fun together...

(Side note for anyone in the Kelly family, the hat that I am wearing is one that Gov brought back from Ireland.)

La première photo... c'est ma vie. Du café, du chocolat chaud - c'est tous que j'aime.

La Manifestation du 29 janvier

These photos are from last Thursday's big protest. It was definitely an eye-opener... I've never seen anything like that in my entire life! Quite an experience!

no school today - major strike

I love how in Indiana, school would be cancelled for things like snow or fog (although that got to be a little ridiculous at times...), but here, it is in protest of something.

I'm going to go see if I can catch a bit of this major manifestation. Don't worry, I'll take pictures.

Vive la France...

Coucou!

It's been a while since I've written a real post... time just slips by too quickly. I find myself in the beginning of my 5th month in Paris - WOW! In December I had the opportunity to do a lot of traveling - Alsace, Champagne, and Provence. I continue to see new things every day and try to take it all in.

In December I saw my first ever "blocus" at school. In the right side of the photo you can see that students have piled trash bins in front of the entrance. This was in protest to reforms that were being made in the school system and continued for the rest of the week (no school for me!!! woohoo!). I had a friend take this photo for me and explained that if kids in the US did that, there would be police there in a matter of 5 minutes. She just kept laughing at my apparent shock in the situation. Apparently the trash-bin blocus is a yearly affair because students always protest the reforms. I think that protesting/striking has been added to my list of things that are "typically French" - baguettes, cigarettes, berets, protests.

I tried foie gras and escargot for the first time over my winter break. The escargot were great! As for the foie gras... it tastes like "la cuisine des chats" (cat food). But at least I tried, right?

I changed my host family on Sunday and now have a new address. I'm not going to put it up on the blog, but if you would like to have it, ask me and I'll e-mail it!

Happy New Year to all!!!

ESCARGOT!!!!!

I ate escargot!!!!!!! And I might even go as far to say that I kind of liked it and may try it again.

Christmas in Provence

My host sister, Aurélie, and I had our picture taken with a typical Provrençal "Père Noel."