Let it Snow

Not that I can do anything to stop it from snowing :)

But really, it has been snowing tons here! And it's the talk of the town, or should I say country. It's all that's in the news and it's all anyone talks about anymore it seems. The kids in my class are saying that I brought the snow with me because they've never seen this much before! I told them I did the secret Sierra Valley Snow Dance. The other night on the news they interviewed an old man who claimed that he hadn't seen a winter like this since 1978! So it's definitely a big deal here. More proof of that is that hardly any of the public transportation is functioning, the buses have been running inconsistently due to road conditions and today I was going to go into Charleroi with a friend but her train was cancelled due to ice on the rails! However, there is an upside to all the mayhem, it's going to be a white Christmas after all! :D

Well since I am still lacking the motivation/inspiration to blog I'll just upload some pictures from this month :)


This is the view from my bedroom window, look at all the snow! :P


Our quaint little Christmas tree :)


This is a "buche de noel" it's a tradition here :) I made it in my cooking class, it's a cake!


Last but not least, I got to sit on St. Nicola's lap! The black boy next to him is Perfetta (I'm not sure about the spelling) and while St. Nicola gives candy to the good kids Perfetta hits the bad ones! Nothing wrong with traditions but it seems a little racist to me.

Anyways, Merry Christmas, Joyeuse Fetes! <3

Buffet or Dance Club?

Friday was my host dad, Jean-Paul's, birthday. The family didn't do much on the day, it was the end of the week and everyone was pretty tired, but Pascal, my new host mom, planned a surprise dinner for last night...and it was quite a surprise :)

First off she arranged everything so that all of us kids would be out of the house when Jean-Paul got home from work so she could ask him to go out to dinner "just them two." So in the afternoon she drove Estelle, my little host sister who is 11, and me to her sister's house where we were to stay until 7:30 when we would go to the restaurant and set up for the surprise. What a fun way to spend my Saturday afternoon (no sarcasm there) Pascal's sister has three daughters, the oldest of which spent last year in Longbeach, CA! It was really fun to get to talk to her in English and French (when other people were in the room we switched to French so we wouldn't be rude) it was funny to hear some of the things that she noticed about the US and what things she missed, we also Skyped with the boy from Longbeach that she lived with who lived with her family in Belgium the year before and is now spending a year in Germany, confusing enough haha? Needless to say it was a good afternoon.

By the time we finally got to the restaurant, China Garden, I was starving and unfortunately it was a buffet. So while we were getting everything set up and waiting for Pascal and Jean-Paul to arrive I was being tortured by the tantalizing sight and smell of delicious Chinese food! But, in the end it was worth the wait, Jean-Paul was (I would say) pleasantly surprised and everyone was smiling and laughing and the evening was off to a great start :)

I expected to stay for a few hours until everyone had had their fill of food and conversation but this time I was the one who was surprised. After we'd gone back for seconds...and then dessert, the turned off the overhead lights, turned on some strobe lights and brought in a DJ! WHAT? It's like Chinese buffet by day dance club by night? There was a dance floor cleared around the speakers and soon it was packed with almost everyone in the restaurant. We ended up staying until 1 am and everyone had a great time.

I'm really happy here in my new home, my French is picking up, I'm becoming more integrated...I think I'm gettin to the real good stuff :P

Briefly

Wow, I have quite a bit to write about but not enough time! I moved to my second family yesterday and most of what I have to say pertains to them, however, I don't want to rush it and at the moment I must get to bed-school tomorrow :( but a rather funny thing happened to me today so I'll just write this quickly (I'll write more later).

So today, in a parking lot, I saw an average (by American standards) sized Chevy truck trying to park and I thought to myself "What a ridiculously large and impractical car!" Then I immediately remembered Big Red, my family's king cab F350 (aka enormous truck) and I almost laughed out loud. I'm getting to used to being here that I'm even starting to think American cars are over-sized :D I'm thinking it'll be really weird when I come home, which thankfully (no offence Mom, Dad) is not for quite some time.