For My Family

Mom, Dad, Joe, Jack, Aunt Jackie, Aunt Julie, Aunt Sam, Uncle Scott, Matt, Nick, Andrea, Justin, Tim, Uncle Matt, and Uncle Terry,

I am finding it hard to search for the appropriate words to express how you all have made me feel this past week. When you arrived exhausted on Saturday after 20+ hours of traveling and nothing but horrible airline food in your bellies, you greeted me with enthusiastic hugs and smiles that showed no signs of how crummy you felt. Having sixteen of us in Paris is something I never would've imagined when I started looking into this whole study abroad thing, and you have all made it happen. I want to let you know how appreciative I am. "Thank you" doesn't even begin to sum up my gratitude, but I'm running on three hours of sleep right now and can't think of any fancier ways to word what I want to say:

Thank you for letting me drag you all around Paris in blustery winds and torrential rain, even though your feet were sore and soaking wet.

Thank you for the countless amounts of times where you made me laugh so hard my stomach muscles ached (mostly due to the dynamic duo of Aunt Jackie and Ter Bear).

Thank you for being patient when my directionally-challenged self led you the wrong way.

Thank you for giving me all of your euro pocket change and then some (I promise I didn't count the envelope, Uncle Scott. I put it in my wallet without even looking at it!).

Thank you for taking me out to restaurants far beyond my student budget and graciously paying for it all.

Thank you for understanding if I ever got crabby and not calling me names (to my face) when I did. Thank you for entertaining me with your endless stories and jokes- I think Uncle Terry's Paris-sites pun takes the cake for the week.

Thank you for taking time away from your jobs and schools to come all the way over here just to spend a week with me.

Thank you for taking me to French cooking classes, theatre productions, tourist attractions, etc. and selflessly expecting nothing from me in return.

Thank you for putting up with my itineraries and plans even if you didn't want to get up and go to a museum at 9am.

Most of all, thank you for being the most loving, caring, and supportive family anyone could ever ask for. This past week has easily been one of the best weeks I've ever had, and it's all because of the fifteen of you. I have never in my life felt so loved or valued and these past eight days have truly given me such a deep appreciation and understanding of how lucky I am to call you people my big, crazy, wonderful family. Love you all and miss you already. Paris won't be the same without you.

Affectueusement,

Katie

For the rest of you that just trudged through that sappy profession of love for my family, I promise I'll get around to blogging about some of the many things we did. In the meantime, here are some pictures from the week:

Me and my mom near the Eiffel Tower

Parent Family at the top of Galleries Lafayette

Wine Tasting

The boys enjoying an appetizer before their fish and chips in London

Big Ben

View of London from The Eye

Joe, Dad, Uncle Terry, Aunt Sam, me, and Mom at our apartment in Paris

Most of the group by Notre Dame

My parents at the Luxembourg Gardens

Day Six: Prague / Return to Paris

View from the climb to the Castle

Friday (the 20^th) was my last day in Prague. Patrick and Chris were staying in Prague an extra night, and Brandon was staying an extra three nights with family friends. We woke up, checked out of the apartment we rented, and headed to the hostel that Patrick and Chris were staying in that night. We dropped all of our luggage off there so that we didn’t have to haul it around all day. Since we had done separate things the day before and were all leaving at different times, we decided it would be best to do our own separate things. I took the metro to the bottom of the Prague Castle, which sits atop a giant hill overlooking the city. I hiked all the way up and stopped a few times to take some pictures of the beautiful red rooftops. Once at the top, I walked around a bit and admired the massive church that sits there.

I walked back down (so much more pleasant than the walk up) and made my way back over to the Charles Bridge. I walked around that area for a bit until I couldn’t put off my stomach growling any longer. The authentic restaurant we went to the night before was supposed to have amazing goulash, so I was devastated when I got there to find that they were all out. It was my mission to have goulash for lunch- I didn’t want to leave without trying it! The night before, we went out and I met a very friendly Czech girl named Lenka. I asked her where to get some good goulash, and she recommended a restaurant called Lokál. I walked over there for lunch and ordered what I had come for. Within minutes, the plate of tender beef arrived at my table. After just one bite, I knew that it was the best thing I’d tasted in months. The beef needed absolutely no knife; just one poke with my fork and it fell apart into the rich pool of sauce it was sitting in. It came with a mixture of bread and potato dumplings on the side- both were good, but the bread ones were my favorite. Just as I was finishing and thinking to myself “that was awesome, but didn’t fill me up enough”, a mind-reading waiter came over to my table and said “Would you like more dumplings and sauce?” Would I ever!? He came over with a big gravy boat of sauce and filled my plate up along with some more of the fabulous bread dumplings to soak it up. This meal was phenomenal- even writing about it makes me want to hop back on a plane and get some more. My only complaint is that it only came with four small pieces of beef. There really wasn’t much meat at all, but it was so tasty I was willing to overlook that fact. In typical Prague fashion, the hearty meal came out to be under $6.

 

While I was sitting by myself at the restaurant, I decided to tap into the wifi and FaceTime my family. It was around 8am their time, so I figured they would be up. I wanted to see and talk to them just before they left for the airport. They were so excited to leave for Paris in a few hours and I loved seeing them. Video chatting astounds me. It was almost as if my family was right there in the restaurant with me. I probably looked crazy talking to my iPod, but I don’t care- it was so worth it.

 

I then headed back to the hostel to grab my bags and get going to the airport. I took the metro then the city bus all the way to the airport, where I waited for a couple of hours until my plane came. I flew EasyJet (a budget airline) for the first time, and it was all very smooth. Getting back to my homestay was, unfortunately, nowhere near as easy as the flight. I booked a shuttle in advance, and the confirmation email told me to go to Terminal 1 then call the company for further instructions. After I got to Terminal 1 (around 11:45 pm), I called, only to be told to go back to Terminal 2, exit  10, where I’d come from. I begrudgingly trekked all the way back and waited for the shuttle. After about 20 minutes of waiting outside the dark, abandoned terminal all by myself, I called the company to see where the taxi was. Of course, nobody answered any of the seven calls I made. I was getting approached by some shady characters asking me God knows what, which made me start to get a little panicky. I decided that I would take the next taxi that passed by me. As luck would have it, no taxis came. It was half past midnight, I was stranded at the airport, and creepy men were trying to talk to me. I did the only logical thing I could think of and started crying. When I finally found a cab, the driver told me he didn’t accept credit cards. Of course, I didn’t have any euros on me since I’d just come from a non-euro country. Between sobs, I asked him what I was supposed to do, and he pointed me in the direction of two people (one of which worked for the airport). I walked over to them and explained my situation. After about 10 minutes of hysterically getting my point across, the man that was standing there said “Well I can just take you home”. Of course, this made me panic even more and I started to back away. The airport official who was with him laughed and explained that the man who just offered me a ride was a taxi driver who was willing to drive me to an ATM so I could pay him with cash. I gladly accepted the ride, and the driver was so incredibly nice. The entire time, he kept telling me that it was okay and that I was safely on my way home. He also kept asking me questions about my vacation to try and get me to calm down. Once we arrived to my apartment, the total came out to be 65 euros. That’s almost 90 dollars. The price was way more than I’d expected, but I had to remind myself that my safety was at stake and any price was worth getting out of the situation I was in an hour before.

 

Our good ol’ pal William Shakespeare reminds us that All’s Well that Ends Well. Bill may have been on to something, because I am safely back in Paris, my family arrived on Saturday, and I’ve been spending every minute with them since. I haven’t had much time to update my blog since they’ve been here, but I’ll get around to it. We’ve been having the time of our lives and I couldn’t be happier. Despite the airport horror, this is shaping up to be the best spring break ever.

Affectueusement, 

Katie

Day Five: Prague

We decided to sleep-in this morning, which was awesome. Patrick and Chris did their own thing, so Brandon and I walked around together. We walked to the center of town and finally ended at the Communism Museum. It was a tiny little museum filled with posters, statues, etc. from Communist Czech. It was very interesting to hear all about what life was like back then. Brandon forgot his camera, so we headed back to the apartment we were staying in and grabbed it before heading to a tour of the city.

The tour we went on was fantastic. It was a three-hour walk that took us to all of the important Prague landmarks. Our guide was from Minneapolis and decided to move to Prague on a whim in 2009. She was very energetic and knew tons about Prague history. The best part about the tour? It was free. The company works on a tips-only basis and asks that you contribute whatever you feel the tour was worth. Since the guide was awesome, we gave her a great tip. It was definitely the highlight of our day.

Me on the Prince Charles Bridge

The tour ended near the Prince Charles Bridge, so we walked up and down it, admiring the beautiful scenery. I think the bridge was my favorite part of the city. We decided to head back to the apartment to meet the others for dinner. We went to an authentic restaurant I had read about and we were definitely the only non-locals in the place. It was a piano-bar type place and one of the regulars grabbed a guitar and did a duet with the piano the entire night. All of the people at the restaurant (except us) knew all of the words to the Czech songs being played, and sang along the whole night. For dinner, I ordered a porkchop wrapped in potato pancakes and a Pilsner. I don't really like beer, but Pilsner is from the Czech Republic, so I had to at least try it. The boys said it was really good, but it still tasted yucky to me. The porkchop, on the other hand, was astounding. The potato pancakes were the perfect thing to have with them and the boys were all jealous of how good my plate looked.

Old Town Square, Prague

The best thing about Prague is how dirt-cheap it is. The porkchop dinner and beer was under $7. It's such a wonderful change from how expensive Paris is. You can easily get a scoop of ice cream or Coke for $1. We met an American girl who lives in Prague, and she said her rent is about $150 a month. I also love that, unlike most large cities, the center of the city is not a place for publicity. The town squares don't have any billboards or flashing neon signs to detract from the cool architecture. This city is SO cool. I like it even more than I anticipated :)

Lskavě,

Katie

Day Four: Vienna, Austria

Here's a riddle for you all: what's scarier than a German woman yelling at you to wake up?

Answer: nothing.

We woke up to an angry German train employee banging on the door of our sleeper car, yelling at us to wake up. Of course, the door was stuck, so even though we were up and trying to open it, she kept yelling. It probably goes in the top five most frightening moments in my life. She was extremely rude towards us and told us to get out of our room so she could strip the sheets. When we asked her where we were supposed to go since we were on a train (with no lounge or common area), she said " I don't know". We ate the rolls given to us for breakfast and gladly got off the train and arrived in Vienna.

We took the metro from the train station to our hostel and arrived around 8am. We weren't scheduled to check in until 2pm, but the hostel was kind enough to rearrange our booking and gave us a room that was ready immediately. We got to our room (which was really nice and had a private bathroom- score!) and took a quick nap since the overnight train wasn't the best sleep we'd ever had.

Around 11am, we ventured to a tour we had booked at the Alt-Weiner Schnapps Museum. We just so happened to walk in at the same time as an enormous tour group of old Swedish people... We were the only ones in the room under 70. We were taken into a room with lots of machinery and learned about each of the products offered. The tour guide was the great-grandson of the company's founder, and he was vey funny. After he talked to us for about 25 minutes, we got unlimited tastings of the products he'd just showed us. The ones I tasted we're very good and smooth. The owner said that they use high-quality ingredients and distillation processes to ensure that their drinks don't burn going down. My favorite was a flavor with flakes of 23 karat gold in the drink- the owner told us that gold is actually good for you (in small amounts, obviously). The best part about the whole tour was that we didn't even have to pay! We hung around for a whole after we were done to see where we were supposed to give our 6 euros, but I think they thought we were part of the Swedish bus group and we got to do the whole thing for free.

After that we went to the city center and walked around a bit, wandering in and out of a handful of gorgeous churches. It was such a relief to see that Vienna wasn't nearly as expensive as Switzerland (or Paris). After a few hours of wandering, we finally arrived at the Imperial Palace of the Hapsburg dynasty. We bought tickets and walked around for a couple of hours, admiring the lavish decor and amazing history. Our feet were sore from all of the walking, so we went back to the hostel and rested for half an hour before heading out. We stopped by the opera house and bought standing-room tickets for that night's performance and headed to dinner to kill some time. We went to an authentic Austrian restaurant and got fabulous weinerschnitzel. I had never had weinerschnitzel before, but I loved it! They were so big that they didn't even fit on the plate, but we all ate every last bit. We got some gelatto after and headed back to the opera house to see a performance of Werther. After that, we headed back to the room and went to sleep. Our day was so jam-packed that I fell asleep within 5 minutes of laying down and slept through the entire night.

Picture: the owner of Alt-Weiner explaining his products to us

Liebevoll,

Katie

Day Three: Lucerne and Zurich

Switzerland is crazy expensive and it is nearly impossible to buy even breakfast for under 15 dollars, so we went to the grocery store the night before and ate our breakfast in our hotel room. We then walked around Lucerne a bit and found this really cool sculpture of a weeping lion. He's supposedly crying over the loss of all the Swiss guards who lost their lives defending the King and Queen during the French Revolution.

After walking around a bit, we decided to take the train to Zurich, since our overnight train left from there at 10:40pm. We couldn't have timed our arrival to Zurich any better. Right as we walked out of the train station, this enormous parade/festival started on the main street. The people in the parade were dressed in traditional Swiss garb, holding tons of flowers. We noticed that spectators would give someone marching in the parade a flower in exchange for three kisses on the cheek. Occasionally, the people in the parade would also give out flowers (no kiss needed if a spectator receives a flower) I got lucky enough for some man in the parade to give me a white rose with a pretty ribbon on it. Best parade ever!! The boys I'm traveling with kept teasing me, saying that I'd found myself a Swiss sugar daddy.

We walked along the parade route for an hour and a half or so and stopped to get these amazing fried apple rings. I gotta give Switzerland some credit- I thought taking something healthy and frying it was only something America was capable of. We noticed there was an enormous fire in the distance, so we went to go see what was going on. Turns out, there was a giant fake snowman atop a ten-story heap of burning kindling. Tons of explosives were going off, and the crowd went nuts when the snowman finally caught fire. Apparently the whole day was a celebration for the coming of spring. It was so exciting and a great way to spend our layover

We then passed the remainder of the layover reading our books at the train station. Once our train arrived around 10:20pm, we were shocked to realize our sleeper car reservations weren't sleeper cars at all. In fact, they were just 6 uncomfortable chairs in a very cramped space that we had to share with two old men. We decided it was worth the extra money to have our own private room with beds for everyone, so we paid up and moved rooms. The overnight train was an interesting experience! I'm just glad we didn't have to share our sleeper car with any strangers.

Liebevoll,

Katie

Picture: Zurich, Switzerland

Day Two: Lauterbrunnen and Lucerne, Switzerland

We woke up and had the breakfast that was included in our hostel fee. I had some delicious Swiss cheese on top of toast, which I was super excited about. French cheese is pretty astounding, but the Swiss give them a run for their money. We checked out of the hostel and took a quick train ride to Lauterbrunnen, a beautiful alp town known for its many waterfalls.

We spent about four hours total just hiking the gorgeous rolling hills and breaking rules. If we ever saw a "no access beyond this point" sign, we decided that the sign didn't apply to us. We had a great time exploring and taking pictures and we saw tons of cows and sheep! Of course, we ran up to the sheep and took goofy pictures with them. I think Chris snapped a shot right when one of the sheep was kissing my face. On our way back, we were going to hit up a grocery store to get lunch, but we ran into an adorable little lodge and decided it would be worth spending a little extra to eat there. Well, this was just about the best decision of the day (next to kissing sheep)- the food was outstanding. Since I was pretty cold and it had been raining, I decided that the soup and pie combo would be a good idea to warm up. I got sweet potato and red curry soup paired with a minced meat and cheese pie. I couldn't have picked a better meal... It was phenomenal and exactly what I needed after a long, damp, chilly hike.

We then went back to Interlaken, got our things from the lockers at the hostel, and went to the train station. We took a two-hour scenic train ride that went way up into the alps and way down into the valleys, giving us some spectacular views. I can't even imagine how gorgeous it is when the sun is shining! We then arrived in our next destination, Lucerne, Switzerland. We were a bit disappointed to find out that our hotel was a bit different than the booking website led us to believe. No pool and no free breakfast :( since it was Sunday night and nothing was open, we just walked around the town and took some night photography of the stunning scenery. Lucerne reminds me of a Swiss Venice, since the cute shops are situated right on the river.

After we'd gotten our pretty night pictures, we hurried out of the rain and cold and back to our hotel, where we got in our pajamas and went to the TV room to end the night watching some good ol' Jersey Shore.

Liebevoll,

Katie

Photo 1: Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

Photo 2: Lucerne, Switzerland

Day One: Interlaken, Switzerland

Saturday kicked off our Spring Break. Our train left Paris at 6:15am and since the metros don't start until 5:30, we decided to play it safe and get taxis to ensure that we'd have enough time. All four of us (Brandon, Patrick, Chris, and myself) have Eurail passes, which allow us to hop on/off any train in whichever countries we purchased them for. For the international trains, we had to make reservations and we were pleasantly surprised to find that Saturday morning's reservations got us in first class. We were even happier when they made an announcement that everyone in first class would get a complimentary breakfast! We had big,comfy chairs and enjoyed watching the sun rise over the French countryside while eating our croissants.

After a few train transfers, we arrived in Interlaken, Switzerland, a quaint little Alp town known for its pretty views of the mountains. They speak German in this part of Switzerland, but most everyone also speaks English, so we had no trouble communicating. We couldn't stop talking about how fresh the air is here compared to the recycled city air we've been breathing for two months. Switzerland is supposedly one of the world's cleanest countries, and I absolutely believe it. The air was so crisp and the natural water was crystal clear, allowing you to see straight to the bottom. We walked from the train station to our hostel, which was this adorable Swiss lodge with tons of young people from all around the world. We checked in and then walked into town to get something for lunch.

After lunch, Patrick, Chris, and I decided to hike a decent way up one of the mountains in Interlaken. Brandon sprained his ankle a few weeks ago so he opted to go back to the hostel and sleep. We would've gone to the top of the mountain , but the weather was so cloudy that it was way too foggy and he top wouldve had lousier views. The hiking trail was filled with lookout spots along the way for us to sit and soak up the Swiss Alp scenery. We were really bummed that the weather wasn't nicer, but the views were still spectacular.

We hiked up an appetite, so we went back to the hostel, got Brandon, and went to the store to buy ingredients for dinner. The hostel has a kitchen for anyone to use, so Chris and Patrick made us all a pasta and chicken meal. At the end of the dinner, an employee stood in one of the common rooms, rang a cowbell (Switzerland has TONS of cows) and shouted that it was two-for-one happy hour at the bar downstairs. So, of course, we went and chatted at the bar for an hour and a half or so before heading to bed.

Liebevoll,

Katie

Le Supermarché

When video chatting with my family last month, one of the first things I was asked by my aunt was "Have you gone to the grocery store yet?" The answer to this question couldn't be adequately summarized with one simple "yes", so I've decided to dedicate a post to the intricacies of French grocery stores.

First of all, even though they're called supermarchés, there's nothing super about them. The supermarkets here are significantly smaller than those in the U.S., because not many people buy their produce from the grocery store. You get the cheese from the local cheese man, the fruit from the local fruit lady, and desserts from the local patisserie. While produce is available at the grocery store, "super"marchés are more a place to buy cereals, pasta, frozen goods, etc. (Speaking of Frozen goods, there's a store here called Picard, and they only carry frozen food. The store has nothing in it but chest freezers, filled with any food you could ever need. If someone opened one of these in America, they'd be rich).

Note the partially-opened Pepsi packaging

1. The soda aisle- When I first got here, I was amazed that you could just reach in the 6-pack of Coke and pull out one can and buy just that one at the cash register. After a couple months here, this has probably turned into my favorite thing about French grocery stores. I don't have my own fridge for storing a multi-pack of soda, so it works out perfectly that I can just buy one can at a time on my lunch break. I've gotten so used to it that I'm going to have to make a conscious effort back home to not tear open the packaging and take just one can at Kroger.

2. The chocolate aisle- yes, there's an entire section dedicated to chocolate- it's always such a tough decision what to get. We have about 20 minutes in between classes for lunch on Mondays and this is always the perfect opportunity to run to the grocery store with a few people, have everyone get a different chocolate bar, and share our flavors with each other. The chocolate selection is truly impressive. One can easily find types from all over Europe with very exotic flavors (like chili peppers inside the chocolate bar)

So. Much. Yogurt.

3. The yogurt aisle- aisle probably isn't the correct term. "Department" would be more accurate. Every time I go in the grocery store, I can't help but stare at the unbelievable amount of yogurt they have to offer. Ever wanted pistachio or honey flavored yogurt? France has got you covered. Every night, my host family eats plain yogurt and sweetens it with sugar for their dessert.

4. The chip aisle- while America's chip selection puts France's to shame (I don't know whether or not that's something to brag about... God bless the USA), the French certainly have a few interesting chip flavors. I've come across roast chicken flavored Lay's as well as these Mystery Lay's. Pringles are also pretty common here and they come in crazy flavors like ketchup and cheese-onion. We tried the cheese-onion ones in my photography class, and one pringle was stronger than ten Funyuns. It was an onion overload and no amount of gum could cure our horrible onion breath.

I feel like food is such a huge part of any country that you can really learn a lot about the culture just by browsing the grocery store. It's impossible for me to make a quick run to the supermarché because I always find myself wandering the aisles, marveling at the selections in front of me. When on Spring Break next week, I fully intend on roaming at least one grocery store in every country I visit.

In other news, I realized I hadn't had a pastry in a long time and felt that it was appropriate that I fix that right away. When my classmates don't know what to get at a patisserie, they always stick with the classic tarte au citron. I recently admitted to them that I hadn't tried one yet, and they just about paraded my head on a pike, French Revolution-style. I decided to give-in to the tarte au citron craze and am so glad I did! It was fantastic, and the lemon curd had a magnificently tangy flavor. I'll definitely be re-visiting this little treat before my time here is over :)

Affectueusement,

Katie

Easter Weekend

Friday after class, Patrick, Chris, and I decided that we better reserve our seats for all of the trains we'll be taking next week during Spring Break. We ended up having to go to two different train stations and we probably couldn't have picked a worse day to go. Paris has a very high Christian population and almost all schools/businesses are closed Easter Monday, making Good Friday a huge travel day. We eventually got all of our reservations taken care of and headed home.

Paris skyline with the enormous Tour Montparnasse

My host family left for la campagne on Friday evening to spend Easter weekend with the extended family, which left me toute seule at the apartment for a few days. I didn't mind the peace and quiet since I have a huge paper due this upcoming week. My task is to pick any object (artwork, statue, random bench... literally anything) in the city of Paris and write a research paper about how it influences the city aesthetically, historically, and socially. Yeah, it's even less fun than it sounds. For my object, I chose Tour Montparnasse, the only skyscraper in central Paris. Parisians absolutely hate this tower because it "ruins" the skyline. Many famous landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and Louvre Pyramids were both hated shortly after their construction, but were later accepted and embraced by the city. Tour Montparnasse has been around for 40 years and people still hate it, so I've decided to write about why it hasn't withstood the test of time. Six pages of unending fun. Worse yet, my professor knows that I can read French, so she said she'll expect me to have lots of research due to my access to both English and French sources. I've spent far too much time these past few days milling through French scholarly articles with my French-English pocket dictionary in hand. Is it too late to play the "Je ne parle pas francais" card?

Beaches of Nice, France with Alps in the background

The only thing powering me through this paper is the fact that I leave for Switzerland, Austria, and Czech in five days and immediately after I get back from that vacation, my family small army will be here. Another thing I'm super excited about is the fact that a bunch of classmates and I just booked a long weekend in May in the French Riviera. We rented an apartment that's in the heart of Nice, just a 10 minute walk from the dazzling beaches (no, Dad, they're not nude beaches. Don't bother making a cheesy joke about it). The lady who we rented the apartment from informed us that the weekend we'll be there is also the weekend of the Grand Prix and Cannes Film Festival. We honestly couldn't have picked a better time to go! Here's a link of the apartment we rented.

My monthly Métro pass got stolen on Thursday (either from a dishonest bag check at a museum or out of my pocket), so I've been having to buy individual passes or jump the turnstile, just like the Parisian hooligans do. It's a really expensive / annoying inconvenience, but I guess I'm just glad nothing else got stolen. C'est la vie

Alright, I should probably stop paying so much attention to this blog post. My research paper is starting to get jealous. À bientôt!

Affectueusement,

Katie

Faire Des Cookies

There's something you should know before reading this post. The French pronunciation for cookie is "koooogie". So each time a French person says it, they sound exactly like Cookie Monster. I had to stifle my laughter each time the kids said "cookie", because it was just so darn funny. Henceforth, when you come across the word (multiple times) below, please pronounce it in your head as "kooogie". It makes it so much more entertaining.

My Wednesday afternoon class got re-scheduled to Thursday, which left me with a free afternoon. In French K-12 schools, all Wednesdays are half-days, so the kids didn't have class either (before you think that this is pretty awesome, they pay for free Wednesday afternoons by having school each Saturday morning. Yuck. I'll gladly take the American schedule). Since we were all home, we decided to faire des cookies. The package my family sent me a couple weeks ago included some ingredients that are hard to find in France, such as baking soda, brown sugar, and chocolate chips.

Geoffroy (13) and Diane (10)

I set-out to buy the other ingredients, which was easy until I got to the flour aisle. There are at least 8 different types of Flour in France. Type 45, Type 55, Type 65, bread flour, pastry flour, etc. I had read somewhere that cookies are best with a 50/50 blend of types 45 and 55, so I got both of those. The kids were so eager to make them, since the only cookies available in France are store-bought ones similar to Chips Ahoy. I was extremely nerveuse the entire time that the cookies would end up being une catastrophe, since French ingredients aren't identical to American ingredients (for example, the butter here has a much higher fat content, so I was worried the cookies might schlep right off of the baking sheet after a couple minutes in the oven). To my pleasant surprise, the recipe worked fairly well. Of course, I was a bad influence on the kids and encouraged them to eat heaping spoonfuls of cookie dough, which they absolutely loved. 

Once the delicious confections were done, we ate them warm and they raved about them. Just when they thought the cookies couldn't get any better, I suggested that they dunk them in glasses of lait. They were really confused, since French people only use milk in their cereal or as creamer- they find it super weird that we drink it (and even weirder that we drink it cold... They don't drink things cold in France). Regardless, they went bananas. Their grandparents come over to keep them company every Wednesday afternoon, so we offered some to Grand-mère and Grand-père, who proceeded to eat the cookies with a knife and fork (French people...). I just couldn't believe that none of them (grandparents included) had ever had a fresh cookie before. French pastries may be the bomb, but they're seriously missing out when it comes to cookies. Geoffroy loves to cook, so he just about died when I told him he could keep the recipe.

Geoffroy, Inès, and Diane

After we had devoured the whole batch of cookies, Diane said "You can come to my dance class tonight if you'd like". Since I was once a 10-year-old girl, I'm fluent in 10-year-old-girl-speak. Allow me to translate: "I really, really want you to come to my dance class tonight." I told her I'd love to come watch her dance. She then said "If you want, you can bring your camera" (they know I enjoy photography). Translation: "Please bring your camera and take pictures of me". Grand-mère, Grand-père, and I took Diane to her ballet class and I couldn't believe how disciplined it was. During the entire hour and a half, not one of the kids spoke out of turn, misbehaved, or talked amongst themselves when not working directly with the teacher. They must've roofied the kids before class or something to get them to behave like that. 

All-in-all, it was a great day and I can't wait to introduce them to different kinds of cookies, like sugar, oatmeal raisin, etc.

Affectueusement,

Katie

Killing me Softly

This past weekend, it was très tranquil at my homestay since all of the kids went on a camping trip for Scouts (which they pronounce "scoots". It's hilarious.) It was a good weekend for them to be gone, since I had tons of homework. Yesterday I had to give a fifteen minute presentation in French class on anything I wanted, as long as it pertained to the arts. Many of my classmates have been presenting on their favorite novel, piece of classical music, etc. I decided to spice things up a bit and present on Britney Spears. I showed a powerpoint with a timeline of her life and each new slide played a clip of a Britney song. The presentation went well and my teacher and classmates enjoyed it very much. After my presentation, we had an exam that lasted three hours. The listening part was really challenging, since they talked super fast, but the rest of the test wasn't too bad- just time consuming. After the exam, my teacher reviewed my presentation with me and told me what I did well / not so well. I will now digress about the French schooling system:

1. Student performance is not private between student and teacher. Far from it. While my teacher was reviewing my presentation, she would say things like "you didn't do this part as well as so-and-so, but you do this thing a lot better than that classmate". 
2. When tests have been graded, French teachers usually post a list (with names. None of that secretive student ID number stuff we do in the US) starting from the highest grade down to the lowest grade earned
3. The French grading scale is out of 20. However, it doesn't convert equally to the US system, because a 16 out of 20 is considered an A. It's almost unheard of to get a 20 on anything.
4. Teachers use students as examples all the time. They see it as a form of motivation. Our professor will usually go over mistakes she saw on homework and she'll say stuff like "Katie made this mistake over and over again on her homework last night. Isn't that right, Katie?" Professors will also say things like "John did such a good job on this exercise. Maybe you should all take some tips from him because he understands it the best"

My host siblings couldn't believe that in the US, teachers would get in trouble for making students' grades publicly known. They were also shocked to hear that teachers pass back tests face-down so that nobody around you can see what grade you got while your test is in transit. It's really hard for me to get used to the grading system, because when I see 14/20, I consider that a 70% or C- when, in reality, it's the equivalent of an A- / B+.

Tonight for dinner we had mac and cheese baked with bits of ham. If you know me well, you know that it was no challenge for me to accept seconds and thirds of tonight's meal. Madame was saying that she had made too much for six people, but I gladly helped her out by piling my plate each time. My host family invited my immediate family to come over for dinner on their first night in Paris, which will be in a few weeks. I'm curious to see where all 11 of us will sit, seeing as the dining table only seats 8 and the apartment is fairly small. It's a good thing that most of my host family members speak English well, or that would be one awkward dinner. Only 17 more days until my family comes!!

Affectueusement,

Katie

P.S. I had only heard this song once or twice before coming here, but for whatever reason, in Paris I seem to hear it at least once a week in stores, on the métro, etc.