A Laid Back Vacation

Well, we are home and vacation has come to a close. 6 weeks until our next vacation. I have also hit the two month mark, Halloween being the 2 month mark from the day I got on an airplane and flew away in search of new adventures. It has been quite an interesting two months, with a lot of ups and downs, but I can’t believe I only have 8 months left. So anyway, having missed last Friday’s post due to lack of internet access, it’s time to get you all acquainted with what I have been up to for the last two weeks.

I wouldn’t say I have been busy, but I wouldn’t say I have been bored. I have been riding that line the way you only can when you are on a nice, low-key vacation. It was quite a change from my normal style of vacation where every minute of every day is planned and action packed. Take a look at my last summer vacation, where i went to hawaii the week before i left, leaving myself only two days to pack for France. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. We didn’t head to the Vosges until that Tuesday, and vacation started Friday, so there were a few things in between.

Sunday morning was the final of the rugby world cup. France lost 7-8 to New Zeland, but they fought valiantly. And really, if the New Zeland kicker had even made 50% of his attempts, the score gap would have been wider. i won the betting, since I was closest to the actual score. I said NZ would win 27-21, and the only other person who said they would win was Alex, and he said it would be something ridiculous, like 60-12. The whole family sat in front of the TV and watched the game, eating freshly bought croissants and baguettes.

Monday, I went to town with my friends from AFS. We went shopping and walked around a bit, and they spent the whole time telling me how lucky I am that I live within walking distance of downtown Valenciennes. The clothing shopping lasted a bit too long for my taste, but we also hit a bakery and I went to a chocolate shop in the mall. Oh man, that chocolate was great. I got a chocolate espresso cream and a caramel truffle, and both were fantastic. I’m afraid I might find myself going back very soon.

Me and Nicole in front of the city hall of Valenciennes.

I didn’t do anything for Halloween this year, since it is not a big holiday here. In France, November 1st is the national holiday, and it is All-Saints’ Day. However, Fête des Morts, or Holiday of the Dead, was on November 2nd this year, and I guess they normally come together. I’m not exactly sure. But, my pocket dictionary with some cultural information informed me that people normally visit graves of relatives on Nov. 1 to lay down flowers, so I’m guessing the two holidays are often sort of squished together. My host family made a Jack-O-Lantern as their tribute to Halloween, but we didn’t dress up or trick-or-treat or anything. Actually, at a family lunch with relatives one day of the vacation, Trick-or-treating was abused as an American tradition and the person didn’t think the french should be doing it, since it is not a part of their traditions. Anyway, the pumpkin was carved before we left for vacation and stayed to guard the door while we were gone.



We packed up my host mother’s mini-van with all the luggage and left around 230 pm on Tuesday to go to her parents’ house in Joinville, a small town in the Lorraine region. I think it was about 3 hours to Joinville from Valenciennes. When we got there, my “host grandparents,” as I will call them, were in the process of making quiche lorraine for dinner. I love quiche lorraine, and I had 4 pieces(which, I must admit, equates to half of an entire quiche.) But it was so good. We also had apple tart for dessert. For anyone interested, here’s how you make an apple tart in their style. You get your pastry crust from the store out of the refrigerator and put it in the tart pan. Then, you peel some apples. Then you slice the apples and put them in the pastry shell and put it in the oven. When it is done baking, you can sprinkle some sugar on top if you want. Ta da! Super simple. I think we had 3 during our 4 day stay since it was so easy to make and was good for breakfast the next morning too.

Apple tart and a freshly bought baguette. My host grandma walked to the bakery every morning to buy the bread so it was always super fresh.

On Wednesday, my host brothers, host mom, and I walked to the 16th century castle in Joinville, Château du Grand Jardin. Castle of the Big Garden is not the most exciting name for a castle, but it was pretty cool. It was more of a big house then a castle, but it had some really cool gardens. We walked all the way to the top floor and I took bird’s-eye view pictures of the gardens so that you can see the designs of the gardens. After the castle, we walked back through a park, and we all indulged in the chance to act like little kids. The sign on the playground said it was reserved for kids aged 8-12, but that didn’t stop us. We played on the teetor-totter and climbed up and down the slides. Basically, we goofed off and had a lot of fun, although the other kids in the playground gave us some funny looks.

This was my favorite garden at the castle, but there were some other nice ones too. And, the caste had a moat, which was awesome, but there were permanent stone bridges over it, rather than drawbridges. There were some huge fish in the moat and Alex and Matthis had fun pointing them out.

New York may be the real "Big Apple" but you can find big apples lots of the places. They were preparing for an exposition of local, seasonal crafts and products coming up that Sunday, and this was one of the icons of the exposition. You can see from the size of the castle behind me that it is really more just a big manor, but it was still super cool. The walls were about 5 feet thick of pure stone!

Playing on the playground was fun, but we had to find ways to make it more exciting. Lucas climbed across the top of the monkey bars and claimed it was a Koh Lanta challenge.

During the time at my host grandparents’ house, I got my first introduction to legitimate, slow paced 4 or 5 course meals. We would start with an appetizer and sit around eating it and talking for a while. Even after everyone was done with the appetizer, we would just keep sitting there. Finally, we would clear away the appetizer dishes and move on to soup. After soup came the main dish. After the main dish, the salad, closely followed by the cheese. And then the dessert. The cooking was really good in general, although I could not handle the cow tongue that we had for lunch Thursday. I took one bite and had to leave the rest of my piece on my plate. Luckily, the side dish was mashed potatoes, so no chance of me going hungry.

Our days with Edith’s parents were very laid back. Basically, i got up when i felt like it and had some breakfast. The boys would roll out of bed and into the kitchen for breakfast when they got around to it. It was a bit interesting sharing one toilet and one shower between 8 people, but we managed. Thank goodness the toilet is in a separate room from the shower, though, since sometimes four people in a row would be in line for a shower, and if you had to wait to use the toilet, there might have been issues. After breakfast, we would do homework or read or play games or just relax until lunch. Matthis had to memorize poetry for his homework, and by the time he learned it, the whole family had learnt it. Especially since after he knew it, he took pleasure in reciting it to everyone we talked to. Kathy and JD, this part is for you. Remember when we went to the close-up magic show on the cruise and we learned that trick with the two rubber bands? I taught Matthis, and he did it for every family member that we encountered during the rest of the week. The problem was, the only rubber bands we had were my hair ties. At one point, i had my ponytail all formed and I was ready to grab the rubber bands off my wrist to tie it up when I realized that Matthis had them because he was performing his trick. So, I had to stand their holding my ponytail until he was done and gave me my rubber bands back.

Lots of time to just chill and hang out during this vacation.

After lunch there was usually an outdoor activity, whether a walk to town, biking along the side of the canal, or a walk in the forest. The forests were absolutely gorgeous with all of the leaves changing colors in fall. There were so many different colors all around, it was amazing. One day, we drove to a hike which was actually a sort of trail with activities along the way. So, you walked or jogged along and then when you came to an activity, there was a sign explaining it. We did chin ups and jumped over logs and other random things. It was pretty fun. After the time outdoors, we would head back to the house and play more games and whatnot until dinner, although there was usually a snack involved immediately after the return home.

The Parcours de Santé and Alexis lifting Matthis up so he can reach the bar. What a nice brother, right? Well, that is until he pulled down Matthis's pants as he was hanging on the bar.

My long awaited photo of the stoplights for pedestrians telling you when you can walk. I think the little people are so cute.

One day, Alex and his grandma and I made a biscuit roulé, or what I would call a log cake. It was cool, since I had never made one before but I like to get a log cake from Baskin Robbins for my birthday. We used apple jelly for the filling, and sprinkled powdered sugar on top. It was my first time using metrics while baking, so that was a bit interesting. Most things are down by weight, rather than by size. For example, you use 100 grams of flour, rather than a cup of flour. We used a little electric balance to measure it. I’m thinking I will need to invest in a balance for my kitchen back home in the USA if I want to make any of the recipes I have been collecting.

Me and Alex making our biscuit roulé. Notice how I'm the one doing the actual manual labor and he is just waiting around to use the electrical machine.

After dinner, which was often a lengthy affair, we would watch TV and talk until bed. Edith and her dad played scrabble a few times, which was funny for me, since that is what my mom and I do a lot when we go on vacation. Except it was weird that the letter had different point values than I am used to. Like a k, which is, I think, only 4 points in american scrabble, was worth 10 points. Actually, that’s not surprising, since a lot of english words with k use q in french. Like risk is risque, so it makes sense that k would be 10 points and q only 3 or 4. I watched some random stuff on TV during that time after dinner each night. One night I watched a movie with Lucas about Europe losing all power and how people had to fight to survive and everything started to break because the back-up generators didn’t last long enough. It was quite odd, but I was proud to have mostly understood it. And another night during vacation, I watched a movie about Spanish women who rent rooms in France on the 6th floor of a rich man’s house to work. One of the women becomes his and his wife’s maid/housekeeper, and he ends up falling in love with her and his wife kicks him out so he takes a room on the 6th floor. Again, a little random, but I understood the movie, so that’s good. It is weird for me to be watching as much TV as I do here, having grown up with 3 channels and no time to watch TV. I think about seeing cartoons with Anti-TV sentiments(like a big guy with a tiny head sitting in front of the TV and a caption saying “Read more”) but for me, TV here means improving my French, so I don’t have to feel guilty.

Just for you Kathy, King's Corner has now traveled all the way to France.

My host father joined us in Joinville Friday night after work, missing only the first couple of minutes of Koh Lanta. We were all sitting at the table eating dinner and watching the show. But, my short-term traditions here are getting messed up. We didn’t have pizza friday night(my 1st friday without pizza) and we didn’t have waffles sunday night(again, 1st sunday here without waffles.) Plus, my school schedule is getting messed up. Before vacation, weeks when I had English Wed morning, I had ECJS thursday morning. But since I start again on thurs, we will have ECJS, but our wed english will be next week, so It is messed up. Luckily they did give us a paper with when we have all of those classes, so I dont have to keep track of it. Sorry, I started rambling off topic there. 2 people were eliminated this week in Koh Lanta, and it was the merge, so things have gotten interesting.

Saturday morning after breakfast, we packed up and headed to Gérardmer, a town farther East, where my host family has an apartment. Thierry’s family lives in that area, so we stayed in the apartment and visited the family at their different homes. The first afternoon we were there, we stopped for a while at Thierry’s aunt and uncle’s place, and they talked and had coffee. Then we drove to Thierry’s sister’s house, where we were going to have dinner. But first, we drove with her to look at her son’s house, which he has been working on. For dinner that night, we had rabbit, another first for me. I was not a fan. First of all, it was quite hard to eat since it was practically all bone. And secondly, I just didn’t really like the taste. But, there was pasta too, so all was good. And for dessert we had a really good chocolate mousse and ladyfinger cake, so that was cool.

I think my details may be getting a bit excessive, but I guess that’s ok, since this is sort of a record of my experience for myself too, as well as a blog for my readers.

The next day was the day of the 8 hour lunch. We went to Thierry’s brother’s house and lunch started around 1215. We didn’t leave until 815 pm and basically that whole 8 hours was spent at the table. There were 21 people there, and I was able to amuse myself for some time just trying to figure out who belonged to whom. It was my brothers’ cousin’s 20th birthday, and so they celebrated with a puff pastry cake, very traditional for birthdays and weddings. But yeah, it was a really long 8 hours for me, since I didn’t understand much and didn’t really know anyone. But, I did find it pretty funny when all of the adults started complaining about their GPS’s, since I think that is a pretty common table topic in the USA, too.

When we got back to the apartment, we made crepes since we (the kids) hadn’t eaten much at the luncheon. I had fun making the crepes on the cool 6 at a time machine, but I wasn’t actually that hungry. And we watched Shrek 3 that night. It was really weird when the credits came on and it was different people. But, with an animated film, if someone does the voice in a different language, they are the only actor for that part.

I don't think this really needs a caption, but I had a lot of fun making crepes and watching Shrek.

Monday, we played host to a different brother of Thierry and his wife, who came for dinner. They arrived at the apartment after lunch, and then we went for a walk/hike. We walked from the apartment to the Gérardmer ski area. It was so funny. The ski hills were just grassy slopes, and the grass had even been mowed. We hiked up what would be a nice, long, easy blue run to the top of the mountain where there was construction going on. They were building an artificial snow factory at the top, and there were lots of trucks in the process of working on a giant hole, which will be the reservoir to hold the water that will be turned into snow. After the hike, we went back and had pasta carbonara for dinner, which was super yummy.

This is the ski slope that we hiked up. It looked like a nice run, except it was covered in grass instead of snow. Still, I bet it is nice during the winter.

The next day, Tuesday, was All-Saints’ Day, and I decided to go to the mass just to see what it was like. The church was almost completely stone and there were pillars all over. There was a pillar in front of me such that I couldn’t see anything that was happening in the front. It was a huge church, and it was completely full. I’m not sure, but I have a feeling people might go to mass on All-Saints’ Day even if they don’t go the rest of the time, like the way we talk about Christmas-Easter Christians as people who only go to church those two days. But, that is all speculation. I was just surprised to see how full the church was. Between stuff being said in French and the mushiness of the sound coming out of the speakers, I understood absolutely nothing, but that’s ok. After the service, we walked to Thierry’s mother’s apartment and had lunch with her and his sister and his aunt and uncle. And then we drove home. I think we ended up driving through Luxembourg to go back, but I’m not exactly sure. I slept through most of the 5 hour car ride, so I don’t really know where we went.

However, I did notice a few things throughout all of the driving we did during the trip. There is a whole lot of open space in France, or at least in the part of France we were in. We would drive through miles and miles of green fields with a few cows roaming around here and there. There were hills covered in gorgeously colored trees. We might drive for an hour without seeing a house. It was so beautiful. Another thing I noticed is that single story houses are very rare. Even if it looks like a house is one story, it is probably built into a hill and has a basement garage and laundry room. In general, it seems that the houses are rather square with 2 stories, instead of bigger but only one story, like my neighborhood back home. It does make for more efficient usage of space to build up instead of out, but I personally prefer single story houses.

And now I’m home, blogging because I don’t want to do my homework for school which starts again tomorrow. I have a 3 hour History-Geography test, which I’m pretty sure I have zero chance of passing. But, that’s ok. Its about the experience, not about passing school. I’m learning a lot of things about myself that have nothing to do with French or schoolwork, but they are still valuable lessons. To be honest, I have actually been a bit disappointed with my improvement in French. I don’t feel like I’m getting much better. It is frustrating because there is so much English here. On the radio, I hardly ever hear songs in French. On billboards, there is usually an English translation. I have too much access to English, and I think my French is suffering because of it. I try to think in French when I am alone, and I slip almost immediately back into English. I guess there are more important aspects to this experience, but it is frustrating when I hear other exchange students talking about how much their french has improved, and I feel like I’m still stuck at the same level.

That's all for now. I really enjoyed my 2 day long week, but it's back to the regular schedule next week. I really liked going two weeks without school Monday or Tuesday, since those are my super long days.