But, I survived Thanksgiving. I survived being in school all day and all week while my friends back home are on vacation. I survived not having every person I met on the street not wish me “Happy Thanksgiving.” And I survived not eating until my stomach hurt, taking a break, and then coming back for pie. To celebrate Thanksgiving, I made peanut butter cookies that I shared with my host family. They don’t really have anything to do with Thanksgiving, but they kept me occupied in the kitchen and doing dishes after dinner, so it sort of felt like Thanksgiving all the same.
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| My Happy Thanksgiving Peanut Butter Cookies |
Actually, speaking of Thanksgiving, Thursday was the first day when the Christmas decorations really started to appear. Lights have been hung around parts of downtown and wreaths are beginning to appear on doors. A nice pine tree has been placed in the recreation room at our school. Now, why are they allowed to put a Christmas tree in the school? Oh yeah, it’s a catholic school. Having gone to public school since first grade, it still weirds me out to be walking down the hallways and see posters saying “Buy tickets to go see the play” and the next to it “Join the prayer group, in the chapel at lunch on Tuesdays.” But, it does bother me a bit that all of the Christmas preparations began before Thanksgiving and before December 1st. That always drove me insane back home in the states, but I guess here I can forgive the lack of respect for Thanksgiving’s right to be a holiday and have it’s time, considering it doesn’t exist here.
Now, on to my week(since I’m sure all of you Americans sitting around celebrating vacation are dying to hear about how I had to go to school. It’s ok, you can admit. I gloated when I had 10 days off for All-Saint’s day, so you can gloat now. But be warned, when I get two weeks in February and two weeks for Easter, then we will see who’s laughing.)
My AFS orientation was...well, good. It actually sort of turned into an AFS weekend since I hung out with some AFS friends before. Saturday, I hung out in town with Federica and our friend Ragnhild. We shopped and wandered around the mall for a while. I even managed to find peanut butter that wasn’t too expensive so i could make my peanut butter cookies. The skippy was ridiculously expensive so I had to get another brand, but it was pretty good. Then, went for hot chocolate. The store was a little cafe that was trying to be a Starbucks. there was even a sign outside that said “The American Way of Life.” And the logo looked like the Starbucks logo. We chatted and just hung out in the coffee shop until it was time for Ragnhild to take the train back. Then Federica and I took the bus to my house. I pointed out all of the “interesting landmarks” along the way. Thierry drove us to Federica’s house where I was going to be spending the night so Federica’s host mom could take me to the AFS day the next day. I made another batch of amazing chocolate chip cookies that night, but they weren’t quite as great. I overworked the dough so the butter was runny. The cookies flattened in the oven before they had time to rise, so they were really flat. But, they still had a good flavor and were happily devoured the next day at the AFS orientation. Federica made an Italian bread from her grandma’s handwritten recipe and I couldn’t wait to try it the next day. It was great, and it also promptly disappeared as we sat down for lunch the next day.
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| Raghnild, Federica, and me in downtown Valenciennes |
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| My freshly purchased peanut butter. not as good as Skippy, but decent all the same. |
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| L'American Way of Life. Yep, imitation Starbucks. |
The orientation was your typical AFS orientation, lots of sitting around and talking, drawing curves with our mental happiness fluctuations, taking lots of pictures, and hanging out with friends. It was just the 8 girls of our chapter with our volunteers, instead of all of the kids of the north. We have become a really close group and have a lot fof un hanging out, even when that hanging out involves talking about the AFS rules. Of course, we had to have time for snacking on cookies, plus a really nice lunch. When the host parents came, the students were kicked out to go for a walk, so we strolled around in the nice weather(probably one of the last days of nice weather.) We came back, everyone hung out and talked for a while, coffee and dessert was served, and we all just chilled some more. But eventually, even though know one was really ready to go home, the fact that it was Sunday night and we all had school the next day kicked in. We headed home to our respective host families to get ready for the week.
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| The AFS orientation and our chapter of girls |
I learned a few things at the orientation. For one, it sounds like sunday dinner is pretty low-key, leftovers or take what you want all over france. In my host family, sunday dinner is early and we eat waffles in front of the tv. the other exchange students said that in their host families, it is kind of every man for himself. The host parents explained that Sunday afternoons, french families usually eat lunch together and really take the time to talk and relax. so by sunday evening, no one is super hungry for a big dinner, and you don’t want to spend too much time at the table since you have to get ready for school or work.
I also heard the french point of view on the 35 hour work week and the “french are lazy” stereotype. I was told that yes, the french have a 35 hour work week and lots of vacation, but that it is necessary because when they are at work, French people really work. It isn’t 15 minutes of work, chat with your neighbor, 15 more minutes, coffee break, 15 more minutes, make some phone calls, ect.” It sounds like work is really stressful and people are actually really productive at work. It surprised me to compare the french 35 hour work week but 9 hour school day with the american 40 hour work week but 7 hour school day. It seems like it would be the opposite. But, i learned that as the French get older, the day gets sorter but more stressful. The young kids are at school for a really long time, but they have fun. As they get older, they have less hours of school, but they have more work to do at home and more stress during class. And the principle applies into the working world too.
So on to the school week. Not a great week for me. I got sick on Monday and had to go home early(probably the first time I have left school early because I was sick since about 8th grade.) Back home, i always found I got more stressed and more sick the longer i stayed at home because catching up when I got back was so hard. But here, I decided it was better to go home and sleep and try to get back in form that struggle to stay when I didn’t really understand what was going on anyway. I was still sick throughout the week but i got a bit better each day. Unfortunately, Wednesday was the regional cross-country meet and I was still pretty sick. I had a really hard time running and was proud of myself for finishing and not giving up, rather than proud of my bad placement. It was unlucky timing and I didn’t qualify for nationals, but that’s ok. It was still a fun experience to go to the 2 meets and walk the course beofre-hand and eat my sandwich and cheer for the others from the school.
Thursday was Thanksgiving, which I talked about above.
Friday was a typical Friday, nice and short. I brought some leftover peanut butter cookies to my friends at school, and a few people at school said “Oh, yesterday was Thanksgiving, wasn’t it?” Lunch was pretty funny. The cafeteria had a Swiss Animation. Apparently, multiple times per year, the cafeteria does these country animations. They hung strings of Swiss flags and flags with skiers on them all over the room. They had quilts of skiers hung on the walls. There was Swiss music playing as we walked in the doors. The cafeteria people were dressed in traditional Swiss outfits. We had some kind of Swiss food, but it was better than the normal food at the cafeteria(which is already pretty good) so that was cool. There was even a fake goat at the top of the stairs. At one point during the meal, i was sitting downstairs and glanced up the stairs. I saw the goat, thought it was real, jumped in my seat and had to explain my behavior to my questioning classmates.
As I explained before, Friday was the start of my weekend. I got home and just had time to pack and jot out my tiny blog post before getting picked up by Federica’s host mom. She took me to her house, where we got ready for the theater we were going to that night. We drove off to the town about 20 minutes away where the theater was. It was a group, and one of the AFS host fathers was acting in the show. It was really confusing for me at first, but by the second act, when i had taken the time to read the program and understand the characters, it was really funny. I was even able to understand some of the jokes that involved plays on words. In a foreign language, I think that’s pretty impressive. Some of the other AFS students who also came to the show fell asleep during the show, but I kept my eyes open and kept following along. It was frustrating when I would understand a whole speech someone said and then I wouldn’t understand the last line, and then everyone would laugh. But, it was still fun.
By the end of the show, around 11:00 pm, I was really hungry(having eaten nothing but a clementine since lunch.) I didn’t know what the plan for food was, or if there evn was one, but being the guest, I just waited patiently. After the show, we all went into the lobby and talked and talked until 11:30 pm. At that point, I was reaching the point of being too tired to be hungry. We finally left the theater and got into the car, and I was thinking, “Ok, we are heading home, right?” Well, not really. We drove into Belgium and went to a friterie with Clara and her host family, in addition to me and Federica and Therese. We were sitting around eating fries in Belgium at 12:30 am. That is definitely something I had never done before.
When we finally left, we drove back to Federica’s house and collapsed into bed. The next morning, I had breakfast and then got to work. I was making cookies to take to Nicole’s 18th birthday party that night. I pulled out the trusted, and now very dirty, chocolate chip cookie recipe and set to work. But, I decided to tweak it a bit, since all my AFS friends had already had my chocolate chip cookies just the weekend before. I added peanut butter too. I ended up with 60 cookies, a very nice number, sampled just one or two(or maybe 4 or 5) let them cool and then boxed them up with my other presents. While I was slaving away in the kitchen. Federica was at her flute lesson, where she is playing beatle’s songs. When she got back. Therese made us spaghetti with pesto. Well, I was a bit nervous, since I have never like pesto. But, I was playing tennis with Federica and the boyfriend of her host sister that afternoon, so I needed to eat something besides cookies(even if i do claim there is protein in peanut butter.) Well, it turned out that the pesto sauce was great and I ended up taking seconds.
After lunch, Federica and I changed into our tennis clothes(including high-topped hot pink converse for me since I had left my tennis shoes at my host family’s house) and then we headed off to play tennis. We played “indoors” but it was technically walls with a tarp-like tent as a roof. So, needless to say, being the north of france, it was very cold. The fact that I was in pants not having brought shorts for the weekend was a plus, rather than a minus. It was really fun to be back on the court, even a weird French clay court.
When tennis was over, we went back to Federica’s house and showered for the party. For me, getting ready meant showering, putting my hair in a ponytail and putting on clean clothes. For Federica, it meant a dress, make-up, and straightening her hair. So, we can already see some different personalities. Didn’t matter. There were 6 very very different girls at Nicole’s house and we all managed to have an amazing time. That’s what I love about AFS. Our chapter of girls is so close that we can come from all over the world and have a fantastic sleep-over together.
Sorry to everyone I have ever had a sleep-over with before, but this was definitely the best sleep-over of my life. That is a major accomplishment considering how many awesome slumber parties I have hosted and been to.
It started the way all of our AFS activities do: everyone coming in, doing the bisous, and then posing together for pictures. We sat around and chatted about how things are going at school and with our families and with life in general, glad for the chance to catch up, and happy to be talking to people who could understand us even when we had to think for 30 seconds to find the word we wanted. The cookies appeared on the table as Nicole started opening her birthday presents from us. One of Nicole’s presents was a journal for us to sign and write notes to her, so we passed it around and munched on cookies and chips until dinner. Dinner was amazing. Nicole’s host mom had made 3 different kinds of pasta(pesto, butter and cheese, and bolognese tortellini). We all sat at a table with Nicole’s host family and really talked about how we are all having the same difficulties. It was really cool that even though there were a lot of us eating together, we were having one conversation that everyone was participating in, instead of lots of little conversations. It was a real french dinner of sitting around talking long after the forks had finally been set down. I talked to Nicole’s host parents about my opinion of Obama, people compared their classes and grades, everything. We were like a group of normal teenagers just hanging out and enjoying being together, not worrying about the fact that we were all a long way from home and family. Here, we have each other as our loving AFS family.
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| Nicole with her happy birthday journal. Tita drew a picture with all of us at the party. It was amazing how she was able to really capture our personalites with just a little stick person, but it is true. Nicole especially looks just like her. If you can't read it, from left to right: Sylwia, Federica, Nicole, me, Ling, and Tita. |
I think we finally got up from dinner around 10:30 pm, and then the next traditional slumber party item came out: the karaoke. We sang some greenday, some beatles, and some french songs. Let me tell you, it is weird to hear someone singing Greenday perfectly but with a very strong Italian accent. I can only imagine how bad I sounded singing “Toi + moi” with Nicole’s host mom. That song is really hard because it is really like he never breathes. We both ended the song literally panting and I had to get some water. When we had sung ourselves out and finally had room in our stomachs, probably around midnight, we ate dessert. I wasn’t the only one who had brought a dessert. Nicole’s little host sister had made chocolate macarons (super yummy), I had made my peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, Nicole had made crepes and sugar tarts, and Ling had brought custards. Nicole’s swiss family had sent her candles that spelled out “happy birthday” so we lit the sugar tart and sang “Happy Birthday” in 7 different languages before Nicole was allowed to blow out the candles. We stuffed ourselves with dessert and then split into a few groups. Some of us played some violent spoons with Nicole’s host siblings, culminating in a tug of war over the last spoon. Some nail polish and hair braiding began. Nicole and Sylwia took a break and laid down for a bit, but still laughed at us as we played.
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| All the girls at the party posing in front of the birthday cake, plus Nicole's host brother, Theo, who was dragged into the picture. We were told that he was overwhelmed by all the girls. Apparently in the years past that Nicole's family has hosted, there has always been a boy or two in the group. |
I’m not exactly sure when Nicole’s host parents went to bed, but I’m guessing they didn’t have much luck sleeping. At some point, Nicole and I started singing random songs, starting simply with “Bingo” and “Old MacDonald had a Farm” and ending with High School Musical, obviously effects of drinking coca cola at 1:00 am. Slywia, Theo(Nicole’s host brother), Loulou(her host sister), Nicole, and I played a trivia game on the TV, and one of the categories was American Sports. I totally rocked the category, although I missed the question about some famous hockey player. I think everyone was in bed around 2:30 am, but we weren’t sleeping. Federica and Tita and Louise were laughing constantly about something or other all night. Nicole and I stayed up until 4:00 am just talking. Talking about life and troubles here, and ending with college systems in our home countries. When we finally did fall asleep, it wasn’t for long. My host family was coming at 10:00 am to pick me and Sylwia up, so we had to get up and eat breakfast and get ready. The last of the 60 cookies were eaten, as well as the left over crepes and tart from dessert the night before. Of course, there had to be some chatting before we could leave, so while the adults were talking, Nicole and I epically failed at playing billiards(but she eventually beat me) while some of the other girls played on the piano or took pictures. When we left the party, the car ride home was very quiet. Both Sylwia and I were too tired to really say anything.
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| Playing( or failing at playing would be the more accurate term) billiards at Nicole's party. I succeeded in getting the white ball into a pocket 5 times, but I was having lots of trouble getting the colored balls in. |
I got back to my host family’s house and started working on homework for Monday. After a little bit, my host father came over and said they were planning to go to the cinema and did I want to go. I said “oh yeah.” Going to the movies here is so cool because it’s a chance to get out of the house, to practice my french, and to having something to talk to other people about at school. So, even though I was running on 4 hours of sleep, i went to the movie. We went to see “Intouchables,” a new and really popular movie. The showing was sold out. Some of my school classmates saw me at the theater and told me at school monday that they had wanted to see it, but it was sold out so they had to go to Twilight instead. I really, really liked the movie. It was a happy, feel good movie, but based on a true story. When we got home and were eating our Sunday night waffles, there was an interview on the TV with the people who inspired the movie, so that was perfect timing. I headed to bed soon after, completely exhausted from my awesome weekend.
3 more weeks until Christmas vacation. Lights are going up in Valenciennes. Ads for Christmas gifts are all over the TV and billboards. Everyone(including me) is counting down until the holidays. But, I do have a few plans before then. I’m going to make Christmas sugar cookies for my host family. I’m going to help decorate the house. I have an AFS activity in Lille so we are going to go and look at the decorations and go to a christmas market, too. And there is some talk of doing charity work selling christmas candles to raise money. As long as we don’t have to go caroling, I can handle it. I will sing karaoke at 11:00 pm with my friends if I have had enough sugar and not enough sleep, but besides that, singing is not usually my preferred activity.
Well, I know there are a lot of random details here. When I see my friends back home after a long time of being apart (or maybe even just a weekend) we talk about what we did. My mom once asked, “This is what you guys do when you get together? 'Here, let me read my diary to you and then you read your diary to me?'” referring to the fact that we just go through what we did. But, I think my activities this weekend and my details are pretty cool, so I’m going to share my diary with all of you. I hope you enjoyed this very detailed snapshot of a weekend in France with friends from around the globe.
Love this post. :-) It makes us happy that you are doing well, and once you perfect all of those cookie recipes, you can make them for us. The Herons
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