A Cookie a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

These are Matthis's usual after school snack. He has a bowl of milk and crushes the cookies up and eats them with a spoon out of his milk bowl. They are pretty good, but the cookie part sort of tastes more like a Ritz Cracker without the salt than like a cookie. But when you add the chocolate, they are decent. Still, in my opinion, there are better ones to be had.

Well, not really. Actually, a cookie(or multiple) a day makes your waistband a bit tighter, and makes you question your self control. But, so good. I'll get back to the cookies later. I have some other stuff to talk about first.

Matthis’s birthday was last week and he got some fun things. He got a box with 5 puzzles themed around “Cars 2,” and he got a skate with the two two wheels and you move your feet simultaneously to make it go. I did the puzzles a couple of times with Matthis and Alexis, which was pretty fun. And Alexis and Matthis tried to teach me to do the skate. I am really really bad at it, and Alexis just ended up towing me around the living room while I pretended that I was doing it myself. But, Matthis and Lucas are getting really good, and Alexis already knew how to do it. I thought I might have an advantage since I know how to snowboard, but nope.

Doing the Cars 2 Puzzles

Matthis wearing his baseball cap. Unfortunately, it is not super useful here in the north where the sun doesn't shine much, but still. It was fun to see him put it on when he unwrapped it. It was way too big and he had to tighten the back a lot to stop the bill from slipping right down over his eyes.

The skate:Matthis's birthday present. Its primary users: Alexis and Lucas.

I went to watch the end of Lucas’s soccer game the other day. it is so unfair that he can walk to his games and my host mom has to drive me 15 minutes to go to my soccer practices just because I am a girl. I guess title nine might really have made a difference in the USA with developing women’s sports. Anyway, when we walked up, the other team was taking a penalty kick, and Lucas informed us with his fingers that the score was 1-0 for them, but i was thinking that it was about to be 1-1 when the other team made their penalty kick. But, the keeper saved the goal. Then, a few minutes later, Lucas got a breakaway and he scored, so we all cheered. It was cold and rainy, but it was still fun to have someone I knew to cheer for.

It is really cold and rainy here. One day, I got out of the car and shivered, and they said, “Welcome to the north of France.”And, I was told not to expect to see the sun until summer. Well, the sun shone for a little bit today, but not much, and it was still cold. I can already tell I’m going to need to go on a shopping expedition to track down some warmer clothes pretty soon. I guess that will force me to buy something here to bring home, since I’m sure you all know I’m not much of a shopper except when it comes to food and REI backpacking gear.

Alexis and Edith had me try a couple of French cheeses one day. Alexis told me there are more than 360 cheeses made in France, almost enough for a different one every day of the year. I really liked Comté, and was not a big fan of Maroilles, which I was told is the specialty of the north and I couldn’t leave without having tried it. And while I’m on the subject of cheese, now might be a good time to mention circular graphics. In my history class, we were discussing documents and we came to a circular graphic with percentages and portions corresponding to the budget of a factory worker during the industrial revolution. And my teacher asked, “What kind of graphic is this?” and I was thinking, “It’s a pie chart.” Well, the french kids in my class practically shouted “C’est un camembert!”(Translation: It is a camembert) which is a type of cheese that you buy in a round. I wonder if that means they just don’t really eat pie here, or if they are more proud of their cheese than their pie and would prefer to use cheese to describe graphics, instead of dessert.

The inside of a French fridge. Notice the entire shelf devoted to yogurt. They are practically obsessed with yogurt here. Personally, i find the yogurt to have a weird taste and texture. They have non-sugared yogurt, and sugared yogurt. Fruit yogurt and white cheese yogurt. Basically, if you can imagine it as yogurt, they probably have it. But, the yogurt isn't homogenized. There is a layer of water on the top, and then the yogurt itself is a weird fluffyish texture, but it is also a bit grainy. It is quite odd. And, you can see a wheel of cheese in the fridge, as well as our pizza for tonight's dinner, since it is Friday and Koh Lanta night.

                                                                              
We went to a movie as a family on Saturday night. It was called “Bienvenue à Bord.” Look up the preview on the internet, if you have time. It is about a man who gets hired to be the cruise director on a cruise and his disastrous first week as he makes a bunch of mistakes, having never even been on a cruise before. But, it was also involving some funny love triangles, so it was totally my kind of movie. I was really worried that I wasn’t going to be able to understand it without subtitles, but I was really pleased. i was able to understand the gist of practically everything, if not all the words. And I even understood some of the jokes right away and was able to laugh along with the whole rest of the audience. I laughed and smiled a lot during the movie, and during the typical post-movie discussion taking place in the car on the way home. My favorite joke is when Remy, the cruise director, is smiling and drinking alcohol as he watches his “rival” struggling, and his “rival” comes over and asks why he is smiling, and he says “I’m not smiling, I’m just forming my lips to the shape of the glass,” as he serenely raises the glass to his lips and takes a sip. My brothers were quoting that joke for at least 3 days afterward.

Here is a link to the preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvx7qS5wkn8

I had some free time on Sunday afternoon so to improve my French, I watched Harry Potter 3 in French. I put on subtitles in French, thinking it would help me really understand the words. Actually, it was really annoying. The subtitles always paraphrased what was really being said or used a different verb. So, instead of being able to link what i was hearing with what I was seeing, my brain spent the whole movie being frustrated, and knowing I heard one word and seeing a different word on the subtitle. I think from now on, I’m just going to listen to the movie without subtitles. I need to work on my listening comprehension more than my reading anyway.

I have discovered that I am actually really bad at making the kissy noises when I do the bisous. I thought I was really good, but then I realized that it is just the people I am touching cheeks with who make noise, and not me. I guess if you grew up doing them, you would be better, but I am horrible. And, its not really something you can practice in your free time. People give you funny looks if you stand around making kissy noises to no one. Actually, I really don’t like the bis that much anyway. It is a bit of an invasion of personal space for me. And, when I go to soccer and enter the locker room, I have to go around and touch cheeks with everyone before I can sit down and put my cleats on, rather than just being able to walk in and say “Hi, everyone.” I don’t like it much, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

So last week, when I said we didn’t watch Koh Lanta because there was a soccer game, well, we did watch that instead. France won 3-0, so Lucas won the betting. Matthis likes to make us guess what we think the score will be. I said it would be 2-1, but it was 3-0. We all said France was going to win, and Edith commented how no one had said Albania was going to win, but in that wholly French household, who would. I watched half of the Bosnia-Herzegovina vs France match with Lucas and Thierry. I guessed that France would win 1-0, but B-H scored in the 40th minute, so I was out. France managed to equalize with a penalty kick later in the match to get the tie, but no one won the betting because we all said France would win outright.

For SVT on Tuesday, we had to do mini skits. We had about 50 minutes to prepare and then we presented them. They weren’t really skits so much as informative conversation. My group was assigned to discuss options for a couple wishing to have a child even the the man had some difficulties. One of the other groups was a doctor and a women wanting information about methods of birth control. There were a bunch of different methods in our book. I find it funny that we go to a private catholic school where I’m pretty sure the policy is abstinence or rhythm, but we are learning about birth control pills. Since the beginning of the year, all we have talked about is male vs female, from embryo and development until birth, through puberty, where pleasure comes from in the brain, and now birth control and reasons for infertility. I feel like I am in an advanced, complicated Sex-ed/health class. It is all really interesting since it is really detailed, but still.

At my school, we have something called DS’s. That stands for Devoir Surveillé, or supervised work. They are tests that we have to take, but they are super serious. We have one DS each trimester for our level 1 language(English), our level two language(Spanish or German), History-Geography, Physics-Chemistry, and SVT. We have 2 each trimester for Math, and 2 for French. There are schedules posted around the school, and when you have a DS, you don’t have your regular classes during that time, you have the test. Our DS for French was 4 hours long! So basically, it allows the teachers to give us really long tests, something they cant do at rio where they only have 1 hour with us, or two on a block day. And we have assigned seats for the DS and you have to leave your backpack by the wall, and when you are done, you just have to sit there. It is really stressful for the kids here. And I find it really bizarre to be packing my backpack for the next day and be looking at my schedule, saying “ok, i have french, english, and math before lunch, and SVT and histroy after lunch. Let me grab my books. Oh wait, we have a DS this afternoon, so I dont have my afternoon classes.” Im always worried that my class will be “behind” because we missed that class, but we are all together so it doesnt matter. It isn’t like Rio where all of the periods of Montbriand’s chemistry are supposed to be in the same place. The teachers have a bit more flexibility. And after our break coming up, we start school again on Thursday, and I’m thinking “wait, we are going to be “off-schedule” if we miss our monday, tuesday, and wednesday classes”, but really, we are all one class, so we are all in the same place. It is so weird for me.

I saw my first manifestation on Tuesday. We were leaving school to walk to the bus to go to Sport when there were police sirens. I looked down to the main street, and there were a bunch of people marching and carrying signs, with a police escort. The line kept going and going. There were so many people. I asked my friends why they were demonstrating, and they said “I don’t know, people are always demonstrating bout something here.”

I finally did a bit of sharing about American culture. I talked a bit about the political/election systems in France and the USA because the primary of the socialist party candidates was on TV. Apparently, this is the first time that they are having a primary. And i talked about how we have primaries too, and how they are cool when both parties are having primaries. So yeah, a little bit of sharing about politics without really getting into the meat and potatoes of the real politics. Today, I had my computer out when Matthis and Lucas were snacking, so I showed them some pictures, including the picture of me, Yulia, John David, Kathy, Andrea, and my mom on the San Francisco Duck tour. And then I came across the picture of me, my mom, and John David at his graduation. I asked Lucas about whether there were any sort of graduation ceremonies for students here. He said that if you get between a 10 and a 15.99 on the bac, you just see your name on a list and that is it. If you get more than a 16 out of 20, you get to have a small ceremony where the school presents you with a little card or certificate, but it is small. Then, I showed them my picture and explained about our graduation, sashes and cords for high G.P.A.s, and how you get to “walk in graduation” and have your name called and walk across the stage and get your diploma. It was cool to explain that to him, since our graduation ceremony in something that you can see if American films, and it is a cool process with the symbolic cap with the tassel.

I had lunch with a girl named Ophélie(I now know three Ophélies) on Wednesday. She found me on facebook and said that she wants to be an exchange student with Rotary next year, and it is so cool that I am at her school when she wants to go abroad and be in my position. She was really nice, and we are going to have lunch together again to talk some more. She is in 1L(language) instead of S. She only has 1 hour of math every two weeks. But, she has 8 hours of English a week, including an English Literature course. She told me that their first unit was on Harry Potter, and they got to/had to read some of it. Why didn’t I choose to be in L like my host mom tried to tell me to do? Or right, because two hours of French on Wednesdays almost wipes me out, and she has a lot of French. Plus, I like SVT and Physics-Chem and math, so I think I’m in the right section for me. Unfortunately for French students going abroad, they have to repeat their year when they get back, since the french schooling system is so structured and there is no flexibility. So, on the one hand, their grades abroad absolutely don’t matter at all, but, they have to graduate a year late.

And finally, cookies! I have a feeling that my blog might become my cookie blog, with pictures and comments about all the cookies I try. But, I guess that is ok. I was all set to make some chocolate chip cookies for my host family, but then I opened the pantry, and saw the box of chocolate chip cookies. So, I guess I’ll have to find something more uniquely American that hasn’t been spread to Europe yet. I might try pumpkin pie, since thanksgiving is coming up soon. Maybe I will write percentages in it and tell them it is a pie chart. (50% of the pie for me, 10% for Matthis, 10% for Lucas, 10% for Alexis, and 20% for my host parents. That seems fair, right?)
                                                                             

The chocolate chip cookies I found in the pantry. Very symbolically American, but that doesn't make me less disappointed that my chocolate chip cookies won't be as exciting. These are pretty good though, as store bought chocolate chip cookies go. They are the thin and crispy kind, but they have a good flavor.

Smarties, which are like m&m's, but smaller and not as good. The only kind of m&m's they have here are the peanut ones that come in a yellow bag. I bet the US grocery stores have all of the halloween m&m's out right now. I'm sad to be missing halloween. For years that was my conversation starter. What should I be for Halloween. This year, I don't get to think about it, since I won't be going trick-or-treating, or to any halloween dress up parties.

Store bought mini palmiers. Nowhere near as good as the full-sized one I bought from the bakery, but still great. I especially like the outermost layer that is coated in sugar.

That’s all I’ve got for now, but stayed tuned for stories from my AFS hike and picnic this weekend.

I'll leave you with some photos.

My host family's cat. I'm not a big fan of the cat, not being a cat person anyway. it gives me evil looks and follows me around just looking at me menacingly. I miss my dog, Cyrus, especially when I am cold at night and he could be sleeping with me, keeping me warm.

One of the classrooms where I have English and Spanish. Not very exciting. It reminds me of the end of the school year when the teachers start taking down the posters to get ready for summer, and the walls are bare. That always makes me sad. here, there aren't any posters or student work being displayed. It just feels like the school has no personality, whereas I always felt like our classrooms at Rio had unique "personalities."

Lucas's rubix cube collection. A 2x2, 4 3x3's, a 3x3 mirror cube, a 4x4, and a 5x5. I can do all of them up to the 4x4. I haven't learned how to solve it or the 5x5 yet.

My AFS friends. Sylwia(Polish), Nicole(Swiss), me, and Tita(Mexican). In the background, you can see Frederika, who is Italian. The 5 of us, plus Fabiana, Ling, and Clara make up our chapter of 8 students.