le premier jour d'école

Day 5 in France. Last night was pretty exciting. The kids are out a lot, so we don't get to see them all that often, but last night, they were here. We had dinner together - lasagne du poisson (sp?). Fish lasagna. It was amazing; I had never thought to put fish in my lasagna before! They also had this salad with leeks in it. (Our first dinner had leeks in it, too. We asked our professor about it, because it was a different word and we couldn't figure out what it meant, and she explained it to us and said that the French love their leeks.)

After dinner, we played a card game with the youngest son, Etian (again, spelling?). It was really funny, because he didn't know the game we were playing (Egyptian Rhapsody), so we had to really dumb it down a bit because we weren't quite sure we could explain it in French. Afterward, we just talked until midnight. I'm already on the Parisian's late schedule! It's amazing how late they stay up and how late they get up! Seriously, the streets are almost dead at 8 in the morning!

Ok, so today, I got up a little late, at 9:30, and got to talk to my host mother. Speaking of which, I guess they got in late last night. The parents were at a wedding in Italy, and the mother talked about how different French and Italian cultures were. She stressed on all of their religious holidays and the celebrations surrounding them. She says that the wedding was beautiful, if any were curious.

She sat with me at breakfast, which I had outside in their garden. Since people seem to be curious about what I eat for breakfast, it doesn't differ that much from what I usually have in America. I had toast with orange jam (which I don't normally have), and some hot chocolate. They do that, and I have to say, it's not a half-bad idea. The milk here in France doesn't taste as good as the stuff in America, but heated up with Nesquik (yes, they have Nesquik!!) it's really good. And then we talked for two hours (en français) before I had to go to class. Oh, speaking of French, as I was talking to her, she mentioned that my French was very good! (It was after I said that I had been studying for 3 semesters.) I had almost laughed, until she asked if I played any instruments, if I was musical at all. I told her yes, I played the viola for 9 years, and for a while I wondered why the conversation turned on music. But I guess if you have an ear for sound, your subconscious will pick up on different accents when you're learning a language. (Thanks, Mom, for encouraging me to go into orchestra! I owe you one!) Also, would anyone know how to spell viola in French? It sounded something like vielle-celli, but I'm not quite sure.

I have decided that metros are not as nice as the buses. As I was going out the door, my host mother told me to go on this bus (which the stop is just about a block away, and it took me straight to where I needed to go. Incroyable!) and I have decided that the scenic route is much more preferable to the metro. And it only took 30 minutes! On the route, the bus passes by the Eiffel tower (holy bamboo shoots, that thing is HUGE!), the Louvre, and la Palais Royale, and le pont Alexandre (a bridge with these gorgeous golden statues! Really, it was incredible).

This is a picture of le Pont Alexandre. It only shows two of the statues. I'll get a better picture, soon, when I get a chance to get off the bus and explore :)

Here's my schedule, if anyone cares to know:
Monday: 13-15 h - religion
16-17:15 h - Civilisation/cuisine
Tuesday: 12-13 h - French 202 (where I learn new words, yipee!)
13 h - devotional
Wednesday: 9:30-12:30 h - Histoire de l'art
Thursday: 12-13 h - French 202

Et voila! That's my schedule. I'll also be taking some trips with the rest of my class, one of which will be to Normandie on September 23-24. It'll be basically amazing. :)

What else? We had dinner after the Civ class for FHE. It was RATATOUILLIE. It was delicious, and I wonder why on earth Mom never cooked us any eggplant. Mme. Sprenger had almost done it as a joke, since we've all been influenced by the movie, but it really was delicious.

This picture was taken as we were preparing dinner. This is our Notre Dame made of bread! Very easy. I don't know why it took them so long to build it out of stone... (hardy-har-har...) This is Hannah and Taylor. ... Wait a minute... MY IN-LAWS!!

After FHE, I went to the Institute with a few others to the FHE for the singles in our ward (we have TWO family home evenings. It's awesome). It was hilarious, since we nearly doubled the amount of people who were already there, and I got to see a few people I had noticed yesterday at church. They're so nice!

And then I went home. I got lost along the way, but at least I got to see the Eiffel tower at night (so much more amazing at night than during the day!) And thank goodness for metros! They may not be as nice as the bus ride, but they sure can put you on the right track if you get lost.

So when I got back, I got to talk to Mom and Dad for a bit. YAY! I am an official fan of video chat. I'm so glad that I won't have to go three months across an ocean to see their faces.I apologize for the essay length, but I imagine they'll all be like this, heh.

Until next time! A biêtot!