A Picture Post

I'm not usually one to just put up some pictures and say "Here, enjoy," but I have some pictures to share, so here we go.

So, since I was studying World war 1 in history, my host mom took me and my host brother to visit a battle site from the war. It is a Canadian monument on a ridge that the Canadians won back from the Germans. It turns out that my great-great grandfather was in the 54th Canadian Infantry Battalion, which fought in the battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917, as well as the battles in Somme in 1916, Arras in 1917, Paschendale in 1918 and Canal du Nord in 1918. I'm not sure if my grandfather himself fought in the battle of Vimy Ridge, but it's a bit eerie to think I might have been standing in his very footsteps.

This is the list of men who sailed to England with the 54th Canadian Infantry Battalion, with my great grand-father's name about halfway down.

All of the little craters from the artillery reminded me of moguls when you go skiing, except with grass. It was cool that they had been preserved. There were even signs warning you not to go on the grass because there were unexploded mines.

It was so cool to stand in the trench and just be able to see the lines of the other trenches. At one point, we were in one trench, there was a giant crater in the middle, and then another trench. And when we went to the museum, we realized we had been in a german trench and all that separated that trench from the allies was that one crater.

Engraved on the monument were the names of the battles, as well as the names of all of the Canadians that died during the war.

At the galette des rois/ AFS reunion, neither Nicole nor I was the queen, since our pieces didn't have the figurine, but we stole the crowns to take a picture.

On saturday morning, i went to the train station to say good-bye to the two month students that were leaving. It was so weird to think that that will be me in just 5 months. And then today at the AFS meeting, we had 2 new students who just arrived yesterday, so for them 5 months is an eternity.

I did some baking last week. These are called tuiles au chocolat, and there were quite a bit of work, but super yummy.

A successfully completed 1500 piece puzzle, thanks to the work of me and my two host sisters.