A Year in France: April 2012

Yet another blog post to start off with an apology. I could of sworn I had updated my blog just a few days ago! Well those days turned into weeks, and those weeks into months. So much has happened since the beginning of February. But now that I have to write it all down, my mind has conveniently become blank. In two days I will start my spring break (les vacances de Paques, en francais). But first, I need to tell you all about February vacation!
For our winter vacation (last two weeks in February) we took a little road trip out east, to the Alps. My host grandparents own the cutest little chalet on the mountain side. Every morning we-my host brothers and I- would get up as early as we could, eat some breakfast (French style, baguette and hot chocolate or something of that nature) and put on our skis and be off for the day! We would ski until noon. We would eat lunch in a hurry and then go out and ski until the slopes were closed in the evening. I have a hunch that if my host parents didn't make us stop for lunch, we would just be out in the fresh air all day long. The alps were amazing. I was almost hesitant about taking pictures because I knew that no matter how nice the picture was, it wouldn't ever show how nice it really was. The older of the two boys (Antoine) liked sticking to the easier slopes on the bottom of the mountain, while the younger one (Corentin) enjoyed the tougher ones near the top. Me being half Norwegian and everything, I couldn't possibly imagine myself passing my time skiing the green slopes. So most of my time was spent with Corentin towards top of the Alps. One morning he wasn't feeling well so I went up to the peak by myself. It was early morning and not many people had arrived yet. The only ones already skiing where people who lived in the area that had a short commute. So I sat on the ski lift and watched the view on my left. The sun that was still rising in the valley was making the snow glimmer. In contrast to the white peaks, the sky looked as blue as I had ever seen it. I sat there for a few moments in complete silence and realized how small we really are, and how beautiful everything really is. On a blog that sounds completely cheesy, but if you ever find yourself sitting in silence high up on a ski lift on a beautiful February morning at 8:30 am, I'm sure you'll think something along those lines as well. Anyways, the evenings were spent in the cabin eating (what else...) and drinking tea. There was always fire in the fire place and good books to be read. The car trip was nine hours but we got to stop by Montpelier, a warm city on the Mediterranean. I'm lucky to have such a nice host family. And playing with the host brothers is way more fun than with two older sisters. I think if I ever got into a punching match with Siri or Greta it wouldn't end up so well. I think I'll end up missing having two younger brothers after all. I won't have anybody to hit around, or borrow a gameboy from. C'est la vie!
School started up again and nothing new really happened in that department. Economics still has some distant resemblance to Chinese for me, but I understand everything everybody says to me. It's so natural that I don't even realize that I'm listening to a foreign language anymore, it's really exciting actually. But talking wise it is still a little difficult. I can talk and people understand me, at least they do a good job of pretending to if they don't. But this damn accent isn't going anywhere. It's a good conversation starter though! And it's always fun to see people try out their best English. It's usually incomprehensible and something they learned in primary school, but I always nod to what they say and add a "wow, that was perfect!". Sorry if I've ever told you you were perfect at something. I assumed that it would be easy to be fluent without an accent but French isn't an easy language so it was a silly assumption!
I think I'll try to update more often. It's easier to write smaller entries more often than huge ones every three months, that's for sure. Hmmm what else has happened. My school celebrated Carnival. Basically everybody dresses up and we eat lots of crepes and beignets and parade in the street throwing candy and glitter. So like Halloween meets 4th of July meets....France! Ahh yes, the other day I took a day trip to Bordeaux with my good friend Astrid. We took the train there in the morning and spent the day shopping in the main street, drinking coffee in small cafes, and sitting by the huge river which the city borders. It's about an hour away from where we live. The weather was beautiful and everything was wonderful. Then we missed our train at 8 pm. It's a long story but in the end my host dad had to drive to pick us up. He was very understanding about it all, because after all it wasn't completely our fault. But if you ever find yourself in France, Bordeaux is not optional, it's a must!
Well, my mom told me to stop making British jokes, so sorry if this entry was a little dry (haha). I hope it gave you all somewhat of a picture of how everything is in France. The most important thing to know is that everyday the weather is nicer as spring is bringing flowers and sunshine, and I am happy to be in Europe. It is almost spring break here, and I'll be headed down south to Spain. I've never been there so I'm very excited about it! I'll be visiting an American friend named Anna. I guess I'll be writing about that next time! I wish you all a happy April, and maybe May if I don't stick with my plan of updating more often. I'll end with some pictures comme d'habitude!