Hollywood

This post is really just about le cinéma and the films that I have seen that I thought were some of the best of the year. What made me think about this was the fact that my host family asked if I went to the movies often in the United States but really, I don't all the often. For whatever reason, maybe the fact that I have more time here and I'm not working, I just tend to go more. Anyhow I was torn between which of the two films I thought were the best I had seen, but my top three goes something like this..

Polisse by Maïwenn


Followed by...

Intouchables by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache


Followed by...

Les Aventures de Tintin : Le Secret de la Licorne by Steven Spielberg


Polisse is movie about a photographer who was embedded in a police unit that deals with children, whether it be abuse/kids who pickpocket/molestation and pedophiles/and anything like that. So same photographer decided to make a movie after what she saw. Obviously, the theme of the movie is very triste [tree-st: sad] but it is so well directed that at one point you are so sad, but in five minutes you feel happy about what happened, and in the another five minutes you are completely angry at the situation. So it really sends you on a roller-coaster of emotions which I think is what a movie like this should do. But it really leaves you the next couple of days thinking a lot about things and of people in your life that maybe you really don't know at all.

Intouchables is a movie about a wealthy paralyzed man who hires a person to take care of him day in and day out. In this case, he hires a man who has grown up poor and in a large family. But this billionaire hired him because he treated him as if he wasn't paralyzed. Obviously, this was an important quality that many others lacked. One of the funnier parts in the movie is when they are shopping for an art piece [that is priced at 30,000 Euro so you will hear trente mille euro], his helper is eating M&M's and so he asks for one "Donnez-moi un chocolate" but his helper replies "No arm. No chocolate" "Pas d'bras. Pas d'chocolate" but then of course just tells him it's a joke! "Bon blague!".



But it also could be that was one of the funnier to me because I didn't really understand all the jokes..! But what makes it a great story is the fact that it is a true story. There is talk of a movie being remade in English to be released in the US, but I truely wished they wouldn't remake it. I think this movie is one of the better movies made and I see no reason why they just can't dub it with English voices or put Sub-titles. Almost of movies that are released here are dubbed in French, so I think that it should work the other way around as well.

Then obviously, Tintin was out in the US, but it's originally from Belgium and it is very popular in France.

Next post will be soon, the town is finally decorated for Christmas! I also have finals this week so wish me luck!

A Foggy Day

Joyeux Anniversaire!: Happy Birthday!

As I'm sure most of you who read this know that my birthday just recently passed on Monday so I figured I would take the time to reflect on the things that I was lucky enough to do while I was here..

On the Saturday before my birthday, I woke up early enough to take the train into Paris to spend the day with Dimitri, Manon, and Alex. Unfortunately, Manon had a lot of work to do for school so I had to take the train to Paris alone - except for when I got the train station and when I went to validate my ticket, I had seen someone sitting on the bench and as I got closer..sure enough if it was my friend Stacy [another American from Arkansas] who just happened to be going to Paris as well! So we jumped on the train and took the metro together and then she parted ways because she was going to Musée d'Orsay and I kept on making my way to Dimitri's place. Once I got there, I dropped my bags off and we headed out for a day of.....shopping! It's been becoming super cold over the past couple of weeks and the poor Californian kid has no real "winter clothes". So we began at 11:00am and we headed to the "shopping district" of Paris where there are all the really big named stores and what not.

Just before the shopping commenced!

 So we picked some things out and we both liked [and if anyone knows anything about me - it's that I can't shop so I was blessed to have Dimitri with me to make all the executive decisions] but we were a bit pressed for time because we were meeting Camille, Dimitri's sister, for lunch in a different area of Paris.

St. Amboise church that was just down the street from where we ate lunch

After lunch, Dimitri and I went back to do some more shopping and after some time, Manon finally joined up with us to help give the final approval on the things we picked out. Finally after around 5 or 6pm we finished and went back to the apartment. There, Dimitri and Alex cooked a great dinner for the four of us. For dessert, they picked out a pastry for us all and sang happy birthday to me..!

After we finished dinner, we all went out to meet some of their friends at a little bar for a while then came back home because we were so tired from shopping - at least I was! The next morning Dimitri, Manon, and I took the train back to Orleans and later that night I saw Twilight with Manon and her mom.
I did want to have a party with the rest of my friends here in Orleans, so I planned a little party for Thursday night to spend with my friends. But before that, on Monday - the day of my actual birthday - it unfortunately was a school day so there wasn't a lot to be done. But nonetheless, I went to school and my friend Stacy was nice enough to make me sugar cookies for my birthday. They were absolutely delicious. So declicious, in fact, that I had to make a rule that I would only eat one cookie at the beginning and end of each class so I would make sure they lasted me all day. Within 10 minutes of making that rule I had already broken it. So after school finished I went home and had lots of homework to do, and then I had dinner with my host mom and brother. When they called me down for dinner, just as I was about to come off the last step they turned the lights off and started singing happy birthday to me with a big chocolate cake and candles which turned out to be the trick kind! They were even kind enough to get me a nice little present, so I gave them both a big hug and said thank you for everything.
Finally when Thursday rolled around, I was so excited. This was a busy day however. I had a basketball game, and this was the first time we played at home so it was nice in the sense that I didn't have to miss a lot of classes or anything like that. I thought for sure we were going to win the game but we ended up losing by 6 points. So after the match, I went back home to shower and get ready. Then I headed to the bar where I reserved a place for all of us to enjoy the night together. Nearly everyone I invited showed up so I was happy about that and we stayed until closing time and it was really just a nice, easy-going, evening where everyone got a chance to meet people and talk with everyone; just how I wanted it! But one thing in France is that turning 21 isn't a huge deal because they can already drink, so I made sure that I had my friend ask me to see my drivers license to check my age, so it was just like being back home!

Then Friday consisted of school, but afterwards I met Dimitri at the train station since he was in town for the weekend and then he went home and I went to the school of Manon's mom because she had invited to come to one of their English lessons. It was absolutely one of the cutest things and I couldn't help but smile the whole time. When I walked in the classroom they all said "hello" and than sang happy birthday to me. Then they all introduced themselves and asked me questions like "What's your favorite color?", "Do you like sports", "Do you like France". Then I showed them where I live on a map and afterwards they asked if I would like to play Hangman with them. So I had them guess the word "California" but apparently I went to easy because they solved it in nearly 4 tries.

After class was finished, I was invited to go to another basketball game but this time it was in one of the bigger arenas in Orleans so there were a lot more people and it was lots of fun. The funniest part about it though was that I didn't know exactly what time the game started but as soon as I left the school I went straight there [this was around 5pm] but the gates weren't open yet - and they weren't going to open until some time around 7:30pm. So I didn't really feel like taking the tram to go back home so I chose to just go hang out in Auchan [which is sort of like France's Walmart] that was across the street and look at the TV's and DVD's and Video Games and Refrigerators and Books and - oh sorry I got excited remembering all the things I looked at - just until it was time to go back to the arena. We won again this time as well by almost 30 points so it was a fun night.

After the game Dimitri and Manon came to pick me up and we went back to his house for dinner where he said there wasn't really anything to eat...until he pulled out a huge plate of SUSHI! Not only was it sushi but it was good sushi, and not only was it good sushi it was home-made-hand-rolled-Dimitri-served good sushi! I was super impressed that he made each one of them!

  Finally, today after doing a little but of shopping and what not, Dimitri and I went to his aunt's house where she invited us to have lunch with her and Justine and Enzo. Again, everyone sang happy birthday to me and Justine had bought some little sweets and put a candle in them for me. So overall, I would have to say that this has been one amazing birthday week thanks to everyone!

On a side note: I find things in this town that remind me a bit of Bakersfield from time to time - but obviously not a whole lot but nonetheless..recently we've had a number of days with heavy fog so it really made me think of being back home..!

From the Clouds

"Qui a le chapeau?" : "Who has the hat?"

Friday was Armistice Day so we didn't have school, so it was only necessary to take advantage of this! My friends Manon, Dimitri, and Alex were driving down to the south of France for a friend's wedding, but the cool part is I have two other friends studying there at the moment, Fabienne and Jovanni. So they know I've been wanting to make my way down there ever since I've been here, and although this has been my fourth time in France I've actually never really been to the south. So they kindly asked if I wanted to ride down there with them and of course I was more than happy to take them up on the offer..!

So to back-track a little bit, Thursday was my first basketball game. We played against the University of Poitiers, and unfortunately, we only had seven guys show up for the game, so this meant that we were going to be dead at the end! Especially since the other team had a full roster and was able to sub in and out to keep everyone fresh. But because this was our first match playing together we still have a lot to work on, but we ended up losing the match, however, there's still plenty to come! We finally got back to Orléans around 8pm and I went straight home to pack my things and as soon as I was finished, Dimitri came to pick me up so I could stay at his house since we were leaving so early in the morning on Friday.

The only hard part is by car, it's a 7 or 8 hour drive, so we had to wake up early and get the car loaded up and get on the road. The early morning was really foggy but after about an hour or two the sky opened up to sunshine and blue skies. Seeing the country side of France like that is amazing. It simply reminds you how beautiful the world can be. But even more, how diverse one country can be. One point it was all rolling green hills and then at another point it was forests that looked like it never ended, and then rocky mountains at the next area. It was absolutely beautiful. During the car ride, I figured I would make an attempt to translate a riddle I learned back in high school during one of my business class trips. It's a very simple game yet complicated that it takes a while to catch on. The idea is you can take any object (not physically, but rather this is the object you say) you want - I like to use a hat and it works by saying something like "If I give my hat to Dimitri; who has the hat?" then the first person who respons/or talks..has the hat! So for example each time I asked the question after making up a story about who has the hat, Alex would respond but he never understood why it was always him even if I finished the story with "I threw the hat out the window; who has the hat?" But it's such a fun game to play because you get to watch people get so frustrated! We finally reached Aix-en-Provence, which was where we were staying for the weeked, around nearly 4pm. The others dropped their stuff off in the hotel and then they took me to Fabienne's place where she so graciously hosted me for the weekend. After I dropped my bags off in her place, Dimitri, Alex, and Manon went off to search for some gifts because they were going to a wedding on Saturday while I stayed and visited the city with Fabienne and Jovanni. So Fabienne and I went and walked around the city and she showed me a bit then we went to the grocery store so we would have some breakfast and dinner to eat for the weekend and afterwards we grabbed a pizza to go and went to the house of Fabienne's friend Pauline. We went there to watch the football [Yes, that's right. Football. Not soccer.] match with France vs. United States. It was a great game and France won but of course I was glued to the TV and occasionally letting out a few yells but it was lots of fun. After the game was over the three of us met up again with other three when they had finished with the rehearsal dinner [or at least I think it was this that they went to] and we grabbed a drink and stayed and talked for a while. Once we were all tired, we split our ways and crashed for the night.

My first attempt with my panoramic picture app on the iPhone

Saturday morning, Fabienne and I jumped on the train to go to Marseille. Marseille is one of the three largest cities in France. Once we got there, we just started making our way around and seeing things in the city. We spent most of our time in Vieux Port which is where they keep all the private boats and yachts. After we grabbed some lunch there we made our way up to the city's main cathedral, Notre Dame de la Garde. It was the best view of the whole city and the cathedral itself was beautiful.

We came back to town after grabbing some Starbucks and jumping on the train with 10 minutes to spare. We stopped by the grocery store again because we needed a few extra stuff and put it up then we went to try and see if it was possible to see a movie with Pauline and Jovanni before dinner but the whole town decided they wanted to go at the same time so there were no seats left, so we bought tickets for the next showing which started late enough to give us enough time to go back home and Fabienne cooked all of us a steak and potatoes dinner which was perfect. Like I always say, as long as there is cooked meat on the table; I'm game. I picked out some cookie dough ice cream that we found in the store for dessert, I was extremely excited for this..! Oddly enough, I've only eaten ice cream a number of times since I've been here but never have I found cookie dough, so this was gold that was found in the freezer aisle! After we finished dinner, we headed back to the movies and saw a french film called Intouchable. It was a really good movie and most certainly recommend it. When the movie finished, we all headed back home and went to bed for the night.

Sunday morning we woke up and Fabienne took me around this city again, this time in the daylight so I could take pictures of the city. In the middle of our little tour, we stopped by Jovanni's apartment so she could show me her cool place that's right next to a church and a couple schools. Then we walked around a bit more and stopped for a slice of pepperoni pizza which was to die for. I slathered it in hot sauce and finished it in probably three bites. But it's not normal to find something this spicy in France, so I had to get my fix in before I left. Then we topped it off with some Haagen-Dazs...where again...I found/got cookie dough ice cream.

Then Dimitri, Manon, and Alex came back to pick me up and then we headed on our way back home, and finally got home around 2am after leaving around like 5pm. But overall, a wonderful weekend and an even more exciting weekend to come!

What was I thinkin'..

This post is simply just a post of two things that I have forgotten to write about that I keep trying to remind myself every time I come to write, but can never seem to do it. I'll still have another post for you at the end of the week, of course!

The first thing that I forgot to mention was that before we started school, my host family asked if I would cook them an "American meal" but as most of you know, I do not cook much - but I was more than happy to show them what an American meal would be like. The hardest part was trying to figure out everyone's schedule to make sure all my brothers and sister would be home at the same time, but unfortunately even after I thought I had it figured out, my brother Adrien couldn't be there for it! The first thing that came to my mind was Mac & Cheese so now I just had to figure out how I was to do this..! Luckily, the day after my host mom had proposed this to me, I saw Kelsey (another American student here) on the tram going to school and I had mentioned this to her and she was so excited and asked if she could help. Of course there was no way I could say no..! So we finally got together and ended up making a great dish of Mac & Cheese with fish sticks on the side, and of course some home-made chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

The other thing that I wanted to mention was that it is really winter here now. But what was really cool was how much you could really see the change in weather. But it was absolutely beautiful because here, there are so many trees so it gives you a chance to visually see it..

Lastly, when I was going through my pictures, I did find the picture of my dessert that I made with Manon. For those that have been lucky enough to try it, you'll recognize it but otherwise this is what's known as: Sex in a Pan [Credit to Angie Williams for teaching me this dangerous piece of work] or also known in the "PC-World" as Chocolate Delight. I was nervous to do it because there isn't necessarily all the same products as there are in the US. For example, there are a number of cream cheese's here but each is a bit different and considering they're in a different language it makes it a bit more difficult to find what I need [not to mention I'm already illiterate in the kitchen] but also I wasn't able to find the right thickness in chocolate pudding that I wanted and Coolwhip doesn't really exist here so I had to make due with normal whip cream. But in the end it had nearly the same taste but just a bit different. Manon and her mom said they enjoyed it, so I'll just take their word and run..!

Go On

Just before vacation ended I wanted to take it easy but still take advantage of my time left..

So that Saturday, I offered to help Dimitri's aunt move into her new apartment since I'm somewhat of a master of moving [considering how many times I've moved in my life]. So Dimitri came and picked up me and we drove over there and got to work. We had to put together an armoire for Justine, then while Dimitri was doing some of the stuff only one person could do, I helped carry the boxes upstairs. But after a while, we all left to go to Dimitri's grandparent's house to celebrate Justine's birthday. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet a lot more of his family. One of his uncles that I met was the President of the professional basketball club here in Orleans, so after he found out that I loved basketball he invited me to come with everyone that evening to the game against Strasbourg! So after lunch, Dimitri and I headed back to the apartment to finish setting up his aunt's armoire as well. Then, it was just a quick walk over to the arena for the game. It was so great to be at a basketball game again since this will be the first year I don't get the chance to go to a Jam game. Before I had left Bakersfield, I knew that I wanted to at least come to one game, so I looked up the roster to see if I knew any of the players and sure enough, one of the players - Amara Sy - had played for the Bakersfield Jam a few seasons ago. So, it made it even cooler to have some sort of connection to the team. What made the night a little more exciting was the fact that this game was being televised by Canal + which is sort of like France's ESPN.

The amazing seats we got to sit in.

Overview of the arena

The TV commentators for the game.

But throughout the game, I think I was more of the excitement for Dimitri and his cousins because they hadn't seen how much I get into the game when I watch so every time something happened I could expect to hear a chuckle from behind me. After the game had finished, I got to go with Marie (Dimitri's cousin) and her boyfriend to the "VIP" area where they served an open bar and open food. The food of the night was scallops that were to die for. I think I went through 3 plates of them. But in the VIP area the players give a little speech after they're done changing and then the crowd gets to mingle with them a bit. Since I had mentioned to Dimitri's uncle that I sort of knew Amara, he brought me to him and introduced me in French but just as soon as he was finished I was just like, "Dude. I'm from Bakersfield" and Amara was like "What?! No way! What are you doing here??" So I explained to him that I was studying here and we talked a bit about playing in Bakersfield vs. France and then because we were talking in English another player, Cedrick Banks who played for Illinois, came up and with the same face I'm used to now: "Where are you from??" so it was a great night. To polish it off, Dimitri and his cousin and her boyfriend went out for some Sushi and later we called it a night. The next morning Dimitri and I went back to his aunts apartment to finish putting together her armoire and after we finished [sorta - not really haha] we left to go to Enzo's house to ride some quads.

When we had finished, we had drove out to his Grandparent's house that is in Sologne. It was a beautiful house that felt was in the middle of nowhere, just quiet with trees and a pond. While his grandma had cooked dinner, we all helped his grandpa level out the pool table then we walked around outside the house and at one point we had thought we heard a deer, but it turned out to just be their neighbor's fire haha. So we headed back and sat down at the table for a dinner that I was not prepared for..! The first thing his grandma brought out was a potato soup which was delicious! I had two bowls of it and was going for a third when Dimitri stopped me and told me I better hold off cause there is a lot more to come! So I finished, then she brought out the main course: duck [I think..!] and I had 3 pieces of this with half-side of my plate full of scalloped potatoes. I went through all of that and there was 1 piece of meat left so they insisted that I finished it, so of course I did but at this point I was ready to call it quits. However, the next part of the meal was salad so I had a plate of this and now I already knew what was coming after this, as it is very traditional....fromage! So..Dimitri and Enzo know that I'm not much a fan of cheese but his grandparents don't, and now is not a time to say "Je n'aime pas le fromage" [I do not like cheese] so Dimitri told me to try two that he thought would not be too bad, and they weren't. The only thing was, with the cheese I had eaten nearly 6 pieces of bread so I'm completely stuffed. But one last meal was to come; dessert. When she brought it out I said I would love some, but maybe a small piece. So she hands me the largest piece there was! So I took it with a smile and at the last bite was so glad that I could actually swallow it! Before we got up, his grandpa wanted us to have a "digestive" drink. So he pulled out a bottle of Armagnac and poured each of us a glass. The way he decided to know how much should be in each glass, after he poured he would turn the glass on it's side and let the drink level out and as long as it just touched the lip of the glass then that meant there was enough. Obviously he's had enough time and practice to master this so each glass was poured perfectly on the first try. After we were finished at the table, I just rolled over to the coach and plopped myself down and rested for a bit until we decided it was time to leave and go back home.
Then, of course, Monday was Halloween so it was somewhat strange that I didn't get to carve any pumpkins or decorate the house to scare people, but then again Halloween has never been my favorite holiday either. But we did get together with some friends at Dimitri's house and I did get to give candy to one group of kids who came to the door. In total, we only had 2 groups but that's because Halloween is really dying out fast in France and more and more kids aren't doing it anymore. Although from reading some people's Facebook, I saw that this seemed to be the case everywhere this year. Finally on Wednesday, I started school again and now I'm just on my normal schedule..

But as always, thanks for reading! I hope everyone enjoys it..!

Get Ready

Les vacances: Vacations

So the one nice part about French life style is that we get to take vacations very often! This week being one of them. So, I decided to take advantage of my free time to visit one of the few places I've always really wanted to see: Bordeaux, France. To say the least, it was a busy weekend..

Friday started out with me finishing my last course for the day and making my way to the north of town to pick up my package that Kylie and my mom sent. It was a bit difficult because I had never been to this part of town where the package was waiting, so I had to take the one and only bus line out there - but thankfully the bus driver was really nice and showed me exactly where I needed to go. But at this point, I was racing again the clock, but also my friends because I had already planned to go somewhere with them but had no idea it was going to take this long to go there. So I get off the bus and run because the Post Office closes at 6 and it was..6! When I arrived there, the outside gate door was still open so I walked through and then went inside the main door and walked up to the lady and she gave me the look like "How are you in here??" so I explained to her that the door was open so I thought you might still be open but I told her I only need to pick up a package. Unwillingly, and rightfully bothered a little bit, she went and got it for me and came back a bit more cranky, but again, understandable considering her day was finished. She asked me for an ID to verify and my first thought was to pull out my American passport [there are some cases when, obviously, you don't want to use it - but in this case I thought it would be best] so maybe she will understand, so I give it to her and the first words she says, "Ooh I understand now!" and from right then and there she lightened up a bit and started talking with me and right before I left I apologized once more and she told me not to worry about it because she hadn't finished her work. It was just nice/funny to see how quick one's personality can change. Afterwards, I was picked up by Paul, Veronica, and Judith and we went to a laser tag place and met up with a few other people and we played a couple games there. It was tons of fun and I finished 6th out of 18 people for the first game and finally 2nd for the 2nd game. After we were finished there I went home to pack my bags because I was leaving for Bordeaux for vacation!! Just as soon as I finished packing, my host mom asked if I wanted to come with her to pick up my brother from the train station, so I said of course I would love to! But as soon as she walked away, my friend Dimitri called to ask if I wanted to come to Paris to spend an eveing with him, Manon, and our other friend Alex [To make this story a little more exciting: I'll note that it was 11pm at this moment]. So I told him that I was actually on my way to the station so I would love to join them and I can just take the next train into town. I get to la gare and the train to Paris is just about to leave.. the conductor asks if I'm coming and then says "go go" as he is pushing me on the train. I go find a seat and take a little "nap" until I get there. The most interesting part of this journey, however, was that I didn't have time to buy a ticket so I waited until the workers came by to check that I needed to buy one [I later found out that I am supposed to go search for the workers because it looks better than sitting and waiting for them because then it looks like you were really trying to travel for free], but nobody ever came to check so I rode to Paris for free! Finally, I get to Dimitri's apartment (for the first time!) nearly at minuit [pronounced: min wee; midnight] and shortly after that we went out for a night on the town. We went to one place for a quick glass of wine and then went to one club, but they wouldn't let us in. We decided to go to another club but again they wouldn't let us in! So we finally made it to one more club (because now it was just a goal to get in) and they let us come in and it was really fun! It was just absolutely crazy to be driving/walking around Paris like it was normal and to be with friends - was amazing. We finally left around 5:30am and at this time, there was almost no point to sleep because my train to Bordeaux leaves at 10:10am and I still needed to grab my bags from home, so they took me to the train station and I jumped on the next train to Orléans. But again, this train was leaving just as soon as I got there so I had no time to buy a ticket but I made it all the way back home without a ticket again! The only scary part about this train was that it stopped at each little stop between Paris and Orléans so it took longer than normal and I made it home by 8:45 which gave me 30 minutes to run home - grab my things - and meet everyone at the train station. But, of course, I made it on time..

Saturday: I met with Veronica (Venezuelan who is in my class), Judith from Germany, and Isabela from Romania, and we all left for Bordeaux. Nothing too exciting happened on the train - at least that I knew of considering I was too busy drooling all over myself and I'm sure a couple snores nsuck their way out. We made it to Bordeaux and dropped our bags off at the hotel. We immediately went out to start site seeing and we really saw A LOT. 

After we went to eat at a restaurant where the man at the hotel recommended and it was a really nice little place. We came back to our place and cleaned up and then we went out for a couple drinks but sooner than we expected every place shut down because it was already 2am so everyone was leaving and we we were all walking in the streets but the girls werent ready to go to bed yet so I went up to a couple guys who I thought seemed like they were decent people and I asked if they knew where a club was at that was still open. I explained we were internationals on vacation and they were more than happy to show us what turned out to be a really cool place. So our new friends Stéphane, Quentin, and Alex got us into the club and we spent the rest of the night there. Around 5am the girls decided they were ready so we left but Stéphane and Quentin invited me to come watch the final match of the Rugby World Cup [New Zealand v. France] with them in the city center on a big screen so I said yes without hesitation!

Sunday: But I had to be sure I was awake by 9am to make it there and what not. It was a bit of a walk to get there, but in fact the walk was along one of the longest commercial streets in France, so it made it seem even longer to get there. But as I continued to get closer and closer the crowd kept getting louder and louder and finally I made it and there were thousands of people there! Everyone was dressed up for the match and I had to climb through the mob of people and somehow found Stéphane and Quentin there. I can say that this was one of the coolest things I have ever done. The fact that I was with all these people and for the time being everyone was best friends hanging on each other and what not and singing songs and yelling the National Anthem after we scored was by far the coolest thing ever. Unfortunately, France lost by one point so there was no big celebration afterwards like I expected. I left them to go meet the girls back at the hotel and we went out to go do some more site seeing. I have no idea how I was functioning at this point but there was no reason to complain at all since it was all my choice to stay out like that. But we had beautiful weather so we took advantage of the day.

Stéphane worked at a candy/ice cream store and was nice enough to let us have whatever we wanted.

I found it very ironic that I just happened to meet a friend who would work here..

Monday: We woke up and the girls wanted to go shopping on the commercial street so I accompanied them so I wouldn't be by myself and then at 13h30 [1:30pm] we went to the tourism office because we had bought tickets to go on a wine tour. So we jumped on the bus and headed to our two destinations. I did learn a bit from the trip like: Wines normally get named by the city or area that they were located. They are forbidden to put anything in French wines because it must be natural, however, they can blend wines. You don't choose by the variety of the wine but rather by the name. I found this the most interesting because when you go to the supermarket in the states you shop by Merlot, Pinot Noir, etc. so in this case if you say "I'm serving a Merlot" it's better to say the specific name of the wine so you're precise rather than the variety because that can be easily seen from the bottle. Overall, the tour was fun and full of laughs. Our guide couldn't really speak English but she couldn't really speak French either [of course she could speak French but she had no idea what she was doing]. I think that now that I have done it, I would be willing to pay a little extra to get a full grasp on everything rather than just a quick show of some things and that's it. The first Chateau that we went to, the owner was in a huge hurry with us and we really only spent maybe 15 minutes there. It was also interesting at this place because the fact that we couldn't go out to the vineyards because it was raining and we couldn't go into the factory because they were working in there. Before we left, we did have the chance to taste two of her wines and they weren't horrible but it wasn't as good as we thought it would be. But the second Chateau that we went to was better and the owners were very nice. The husband and his wife were an older couple who's family has been there for generations. They let us try 3 different kinds of wines: a white, and two reds and each was very tasteful. They also gave us bread with some of their own homemade jam (which was super delicious!) 

After finishing up there we got back to the hotel around 6pm and went out to do some more sit seeing. Later that night we went to one bar that I found and I bought all of us a bottle of wine and we spent the evening just talking and having a good time. Without forgetting to mention, in Bordeaux there is an area where they have water that makes the ground look like a mirror and the whole weekend we were there we tried and tried to find it, evening passing just in front of it a couple of times but when we finally found it, it wasn't working!

Tuesday: Time to leave. The girls wanted to go check out some more of the stores and then we came back to the hotel and grabbed our stuff - checked out - and made our way to the train station. Unfortunetly, it was raining this day as well so we really had 2 beautiful days and 2 not-so-beautiful days. But on our way back to Orléans, I had already planned to go to Beaugency [which is about 20 minutes outside of Orléans] to visit my friend Fabienne. So I got off the train a little bit earlier than the rest of our group and I had dinner with her family because it was her brother's birthday. We had a wonderful dinner with a delicious dessert and I got to build some paper airplanes for her nephews! But I was so tired that I was sure that everyone went to bed by 10:30pm but the next morning Fabienne assured me that it was well past 1am..! Finally, I made it back home and had to go to my Immigration meeting to give them all my documents and then enjoyed lunch with Manon and Fabienne [which I was extremely happy about because normally Fabienne is in the south of France for school] and later that evening Manon, her mom, and I went to see a movie called Polisse. It turned out to be, in my opinion, one of the best movies I've seen this year. Just when you take into account all the emotions the director makes you feel and how into the movie I was..it's been a while since a movie has done that. After the movie, I went home and slept like I've never slept before...  THE END!

 I'm writing in a journal for the restaurant who keeps tabs on who's visited the place.

Good People

Il fait beau!: The weather is beautiful!

Sorry for the delay. But school is beginning to finally keep me a bit busier.

Last Saturday, the university had organized a trip to Château de Chambord and turned out to be a lot of fun! At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go because I had already been before and as beautiful as they always are, not much changes, but obviously I made up my mind that I wanted to go for the sake of spending a weekend with friends and it never really hurts to see a castle like this! But once we arrived, I stuck with a group that turned out to be a lot of fun. We toured the castle, ate some lunch, went for a walk in the forest, and rode in a boat around the castle. Couldn't have been more fun.

 This was labeled: "The Californian, The German, The Spaniards, The Chilean, The Venezuelan, The Mexican, and the Romanian"

While we were there, I saw a couple taking their wedding photos in front of the castle. I couldn't help but think how amazing that must be to have the chance to just say "Hey, why don't we just go take our photos at the Chateau today?" So of course I had to take a picture, but since I wasn't their hired photographer I didn't want to be blatant. But it actually turned to be a really cool photo..

Later that night I spent some time with Dimitri and Manon. Afterwards, I passed a week of school. I've got a lot of tests coming up so we've been working really hard. I did get the opportunity to join the basketball team for the school! Thursday was the first day I went, so I had trouble finding the place because it was a little ways off campus and kinda tucked away. So I showed up and signed in and jumped right into drills. It was great to be doing this again, because I haven't done this since high school. So I meet each Thursday from 12-2 for practice and then from what I understood, we will have games starting sometime next month. There are about 15 other people playing so it's perfect. But I'm pretty sure that I about died after the first practice. At one point, I asked one of the kids if we finished at 2pm?? Because I was thinking that I had been there for well over 2 hours, but sure enough, I had only been there for maybe 30 minutes!
Other than this, there's not much to update on. Vacation starts next week so I'm sure there will be plenty to talk about soon..! Au revoir!

What I Got!

Il est américain: He is American

This weekend started out as a bit of a surprise, other than Saturday because I knew my plan since the beginning of the week. But, nonetheless, to start out Friday..

Friday started out a little different than normal. My friend, Côme, invited me to his house to have lunch. So instead of ditching out of class early for some food, I decided to wake up a little earlier and attend the other group's morning class rather than my group's afternoon class [essentially they are both the same class, but because there are so many of us there are two groups within my group and each of the two groups have flip-flopped schedules]. So I finished and headed over to the Fac de Droit [here you say which faculty you study in rather than the school in general. In other words, it's just a little bit more precise as to where/what you study on campus] where I met up with Côme and his girlfriend Justine. We headed to his house which wasn't far away and of course, was beautiful like always and we walked down through his backyard to the Loiret [a part of the Loire river] and we all talked down there for a bit. Then, we headed back up and I met his mother - who just got home - and she made us a fantastic lunch! So, as normal, we spent lunch time talking about the differences between our two countries and things we like and things we don't like. So after we finished, I headed for home and was trying to figure out my plans for the night. I ended up playing a little game of cricket with my brother and then I worked up enough courage to ask some random guys if I could play pétanque with them. So of course they were more than happy for me to join and I had a lot of beginner's luck. But I loved the game, and eventually some more of their friends showed up so we had a 3v3 game going. I helped out a bit but a few of the guys on the other team were really good. But I did win one game for our team so I was pumped about that! I think now I will try and play a little more if I have the chance. Then we all ate dinner together and then made sure everything was ready to go for tomorrow..

Saturday morning I woke up and got ready because my host mom, Virginie, my host sister, Mathilde, my host brother, Axel, and myself were leaving early to go to their grand-parents house to help prepare for the family reunion. So we left and my host dad, Antoine, and my other host brothers, Adrien and Pierrot, would arrive later. We got to the house and it was a beautiful house with a large yard. Slowly but surely, other family members showed up and I was introduced to all as "the american" in some form or another. Every wore name badges to help make recognizing a little more easy. On my badge I wrote, "Grant Bingham/Gilliot" and everyone got a kick out of that. Once everyone arrived, we all jumped in our cars and drove over to a restaurant that wasn't too far, but was set back in a beautiful part of the woods. So after spending a few hours there, we headed back to grandma's house and spent the rest of the evening talking but mainly all the kids playing sports. We played a little bit a cricket, I showed everyone how to throw a football [granted it was with a rugby ball, but eh, it worked], then we even got a little rugby game going. Then, just before everyone called it a night, the family gathered for a photo

  and just when I thought we were gonna head out, everyone waved me over to join in on the family photo, so one more was taken..

 and I think my face says it all in this picture. I was very grateful to be given the invitation not only to come, but to also be included in the family photo. So after this, I was really in the photography mood and wanted to take one more except with just my host family..

 Finally, on Sunday, I went to messe [mass; but in French it's pronounced "mess" which I find kinda funny] and then afterwards we went back to grandma's house to enjoy a lunch before everyone left for their different cities. This, of course, also meant a little more extra time getting to play frisbee - which I absolutely enjoyed! Then finally, we headed back home and everyone completely crashed! But once again, a great weekend which a truly amazing family. Merci encore!

I Go Back

C'est genial!: It's great!

So this time I have lots to talk about because it was such a busy weekend! So to start with Friday:

Friday evening, I went out with Dimitri and Manon to walk around because from Thursday until this last Sunday there was the Festival de Loire. It's a really big festival because thousands of people from all different cities within the Département come to Orléans. There were plenty of things to see, and listen to, and watch. Each night there was something different. Friday night, they had an acrobatic show that was suspended in the air and people were dangling playing music while the acrobats were doing tricks, it was really amazing. Afterwards, we went back to Dimitri's house to watch a movie and after it was finished [at nearly 3 am] I stayed the night at this house and went off to bed. The next day..

Saturday morning was spent watching the French rugby team play in the Rugby World Cup. Then I did lots of smelling because Manon and her mom was preparing lunch for later. After they were finished, the three of us went to the train station to pick up some friends of Manon's mom. Then, we came back to the house and ate lunch and, for the first time - like most things here, I watched Lord of the Rings in French! C'etait genial! [pronounced: set-ay gen-ee-al]. Later that night, Dimitri came and picked me up and we drove out to his Uncle's house. We had dinner there and this was the first time I got to meet everyone, apart from Enzo who I had met at an earlier time. Afterwards, we watched a little TV before Dimitri and I went to his friend's birthday party. Now, of course, it was a normal birthday party..you know..music, people, talking, and all the above - just as there are anywhere in the world, oh yeah, except the fact that this birthday party was in a Chateau. We pulled up and all the lights shining on the chateau - it was beautiful. Dimitri introduced me to everyone and of course being the American made for an easy conversation. Some people were more than happy to show off their English, asking me plenty of questions and then was I was finished talking with one person, another person was ready to poke there head in my vision and start up a new conversation. My favorite was probably between Christian and I and started out something like this..Christian: "Hey where are you from?" Me: "Me? France, of course. You?" Christian: "But wait, you speak perfect English?" Me: "Oh yeah, that's cause I'm not from France." After meeting a few people, Dimitri showed me around the chateau. It was all wonderful, and too hard to imagine that I was there to just have fun.

Finally, we headed back to his Uncle's house around 3am [at this point, we're both dragging] and fell asleep the moment we hit our beds. Then we got a very warming wake up call from his cousin, Justine, bright and early the next morning...

On Sunday. We woke up around 8am and ate a quick breakfast because on this day, we were taking some vintage cars out for a whole day of driving. We met up with Dimitri's aunt and uncle where they had their old-school Buick parked. Then slowly but surely 8 other vintage cars with something like 20 people started showing up. Once everyone had arrived I was introduced and we all gathered for a group photo and then Dimitri's uncle gave each car a little game of fun trivia questions to play and then at the end of the day we would see who got the most right. Dimitri, Enzo, and I rode with Jean-Luc in a convertible Oldsmobile. Everyone drove to a small little town where we stopped to grab a drink

After the short rest, I switched cars and rode with Eric, Dimitri's dad, in the Fiat. That was a lot of fun because it is so small of a car! But at this point the weather was so beautiful so it was an amazing drive. Not too long after that, we arrived at our destination which was a nice little restaurant in Sologne.

 Enzo, Dimitri, Me, Justine

After eating, we jumped back in the cars and drove to Jean-Luc's family home where we spent the rest of the afternoon. There, we tallied up the points from the game. I believe that Team California came in 4th, so close! But there was a tie between two teams for 1st place, so they added a bonus question to decide the winner. After some hours there, everyone headed back towards town. On the way, I was fighting to stay awake - but I definitely did not want to miss anything so I resisted the urge. Finally, I made it back home and unpacked my things and crashed on my bed. So to say nonetheless, it was an awesome weekend and tons of talking, learning, listening, and having tons of fun.