74. i smell like chocolate

well here's a post i wrote like 3 weeks ago...

les vacances de noël have begun & i'm rather enjoying it. family is gathering (papie & mamie are over) & hot chocolate is being made increasingly frequently. as you must know, vacation started earlier for me (tant mieux) & ever since, i've been taking things s-l-o-w. i miss you all back home but my family here treats me like family so nostagia is barely noticeable.

& every night, we've been playing cards or some other kind of jeu de société after dinner, which i love to do. except i wish that adults didn't have to sleep so early to go to work the next morning cause by the time we clean up the cards, i'm only just warmed-up. we play tarot, which exists in english too, i'm certain but it sounds cooler in french. :o

i've been hanging out with my afs girls a lot too cause one lives a 10min. walk away & another is staying at her house until the end of the holidays. first, they came to surprise me on sunday with a birthday gift--a food tasting!!! & at night, i went to see her host mom sing in a chorale freezing cold outside in a town next door. i tried du vin chaud, which is red wind heated with holiday spices; it was too strong for me. bleugh!! but i got a picture with santa!!!

yesterday, we went up north to amiens, a rich city historically meant for trade where we went to the marché de noël. it was fantastic!!! basically, artisans sell their products in their own individual little cabins, whether lanterns, roasted chestnuts, nougat, leather, etc. it was nice & festive. with the girls, we each ate a metre-long crêpe filled with nutella...6/10.

today, i went to see them so we could buy a present for her neighbour who took us to paris & allowed me to make my alphabet picture album. it was extremely kind of them so we wanted to thank them.

then i went for my chocolate massage (birthday present) where i had to wear a one-time-use-one-size-fits-all (meaning XXXL) string. nice. :o

& now i smell like chocolate.

[bt]

73. brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

i think we're due for a picpost:

that's how much snow it takes to make a day...A SNOW DAY!!!! (if you relax you eyes, it looks as if one leg is longer than the other, hehe)

so rather than study, we make snowdogs :) (that get buried with more snow, lol)

good thing i stayed covered up :P

love
[bt]

72. Snowfall the first: a French comedy

oh ho ho...too funny

i've been anticipating this wondrous day, thursday, since the beginning of the week because according to the météo, it was supposed to snow today (& i love snow)...

& it did. :)

so what i've heard is that over here, they're not really used to having too much snow. in other words, they kind of freak out when there's snow, even when it's only a gentle 2cm. everyone suddently slaps on their brakes, which in fact is coherent since nobody has winter tires here. apparetly, those grippers are for "les gens qui vivent dans les montagnes".

so when i got to school this morning, it was black out & it was snowing. gentle fluff, that's all. which is why i giggled when i saw girls with umbrellas who didn't want to snow to touch their heads. there's just something really odd about seeing an umbrella in front of a freezing white backdrop; there's a certain ridiculous quality about it. i guess it's cause when i think snow, i think blizzard & just trying to imagine a girl trying to protect her hair in a blizzard is just funny, i'm sorry.

i had a great day. normally, i would have been home for about a half of an hour by now but in truth, i've been home for six hours. SIX HOURS. let me elaborate...

this morning, i had an extra hour of class because my teacher switched around the class hours this week. no sweat; it was maths spé (love) & we had a super laid-back but informative class on the history of secret codes & their relation to prime numbers. then i had phys/chem & we started battery cells today. good stuff.

then i ate. (woot!) usually, caf food is a 5.5/10 but today, it was a christmas special lunch so we had xmas food!! still 5.5/10 but i'll give it a 6/10 because i appreciated it.
entrée: pâte à choux, saumon, champignons, sauce béchemel
plat: pommes de terre (en boules), haricots verts, poulet/porc
fromage: fromage, clémentine, papillotes
déssert: bûcher
à boire: coca

so in the middle of eating, an administrator walks in & tells us to contain our excitement until he finished speaking. basically, he announced that afternoon classes were cancelled & buses would arrive earlier than usual...due to the "snow". then he said to wait until tonight (now) to find out about tomorrow's schooling.
you should've heard the kids cheer; i'm glad they were that happy.

so i got home at 12:30.
i tried to work but i was too tired.
i helped host mom sprinkle salt everywhere w/ host sister, which somehow led to a mini snowball fight.
host sis & i decided to build a snowman, which became a snow-woman, which ultimately becaume a snowdog (isn't that movie?)
we made hot chocolate & cozied ourselves in front of the télé to watch ty pennington dubbed in french on extreme makeover for 2h.
afterwards, i went to the computer
& thus, i'm here.
& happy, which is why i had to locked myself in my bathroom for a few minutes to laugh the hysteria out of me cause that's what happens when i'm too happy; i can't hide it.
& i wonder if i have school tomorrow...
(imagine if i don't..lolololOLOLOL!!!)

[bt]

71. Times have changed...

Last night, my mamie (grandmother) came over & at the dinner table, she asked me if i knew what "whore" was in french.
lol.

<3

[bt]

p.s. I'm not telling you!

70. It's not me, it's you...

I hate it when people make some smug comment under their breath just to make you feel bad.

[bt]

69. Aglow

things are beginning to gently illuminate around me...

this morning, i slept in until 12:15
this afternoon, a captivating aroma of sweet christmas cakes (touch of lemon zest, i'm sure) rose up to my room & made me think of christmas; not the nostalgic feeling, but the warm, wraps you in it's arms feeling...inhale deeply & exhale slowly...close your eyes...

two days ago, i tasted perfection. i like food, yes but rarely does something leave me speechless to the point where i'm speechless. i'm not a great fan of crazy flavours mixed together (ex. "flavour-packed" sausages, quiches, etc.) i don't hate them but let's just say that i've yet to find anything that makes me recommend it. au contraire, i love simple blobs of food of a single nature & a few blobs together, that go together, is my heaven. (i'm sure there exists more technical terms for what i'm trying to explain)

anyway, i had duck thigh (love; protein, fat, flavour), chestnuts sautéed in duck fat (love; nuttyness, flavour vehicle, texture) & carmelized apples (love!; sugar, acidity, texture). PERFECTION. officially my favourite flavour combination. odd, because it's practically starchless...

for my eighteenth birthday, i went to paris with my family. we walked went to see a musical comedy about teenagers then we walked around the city of lights for about 2h to take in all the illuminations then we ate at a nice italian restaurant (spaghetti bolognese, if you were wondering). i got 18 MACARONS!!!, a hip hop dance lesson, a chocolate massage & a gold bracelet! it was definitely a memorable night.

also, my family back home decided to eat cake on my behalf as well...(millefeuilles, it seems, which i detest cause i've only had synthetic versions)


it was a nice relaxing week cause either a teacher was absent or i didn't have exams or field trip...basically, the older you get, the more irregular life gets, which in a way is good cause it favours spontaneity :)

lastly, my average for the term is above the class average!!! hehe.
headline: [BT] TAKES FRANCE BY STORM!! (lol, only kidding, but can you imagine? too funny...)

[bt]

68. This is post number 68.

it follows post 65,
which follows post 65,
which follows post 65.

c'est des choses qui arrivent...

65. 18yrs-3h...sh*t

you know what i just realized right now? today was the last day of what is legally considered my childhood. that's about the worst news i've ever received. can someone please assure me that numbers don't matter?

well, techinically speaking (cause i am a math girl, after all) i've got 8h to go since you know, time change...woot?

but hey, look on the bright side, right? 18+ movies, voting rights, driving...woot?
but who am i kidding? no one follows movie ratings, i have minimal interest in politics & i don't even have my learner's permit yet so um, where's the bright side again?

oh great, & now here comes Nostagia...

so what's the big deal about birthdays anyway? obvious nowadays, it's more commercial than anything else but originally? perhaps with the extreme death rate in the olden days it was more of a "WOOOOT!! you survived yet another year!!!", or something along those lines.

i'm not ecstatic, but i'm happy that it's my birthday tomorrow. i guess i'm just not sure how to face it. optimally, i would treat it as an ordinary day but at the same time, optimally, i would treat it as a special day. anyway, what i mean to say is that knowing that tomorrow is my birthday makes me overthink & overwonder just how it will play out. but i love a good mystery.

heck, what am i blabbing about? it's not like i'm even 18..yet...

happy birthday to me,
happy birthday to me!
happy birthday to ME-EE!!
happy birthday to me...
*blows candle*

[bt]

65. Talk About "In Your Face"!

when: today
where: rock-climbin in ggym class
who: boys
what: a "package" showcase would be a very big understatement
conclusion: whoever designed rock-climbing harnesses, um...

[bt]

65. I Came. I Saw. I Ate.

these little monsters are called macarons & they're half the reason i came to france. a few years back & discovered David Lebovitz's blog & thus, discovered french food. a few years ago, he wrote a post about chocolate macarons & how they're completely different from macaroons (the coconut globs). he talked about their feet & how hard they are to make. later, he wrote another post about Pierre Hermé's macarons & how he couldn't eat them, which made me want to eat them even more. ANYWAY, even if these four (of which only three are left in the picture) costed me 4£, well, art like this for me has not price. so i bought them & savoured them one by one, even though, i'm not even sure how they're supposed to taste or feel. in any case, i can't really explain how they are cause they leave me speechless. all i know is that i completely understand why Mr. Lebovitz couldn't eat his.

mini crêpes.

it's better than it looks.

64. It's All About Perspective

i don't think it'll ever hit me that i'm actually living in France.

sure, i can say it but they're just words. i feel too at home here to think that i'm in "that country across the Atlantic". my brain just doesn't want to flip...thinking about when the year is over & when i'm back home looking back on my year abroad makes me gape in awe at myself. if i wasn't me & i met me a year from now, i'd be astonished at myself!

it all depends how you look at it.

this past weekend, i hung out with AFS alumni, AFSers & future AFSers & the thing is, after all is said & done...um, they're just people. like anyone else...perhaps because french culture is coincidentally very similar to my own or perhaps really, people are just people & living in another country for a year is really no big deal. plus, the alumni are totally cool, as in apparently minimally unaffected.

secondly, if i may admit, i am a little too sucked into Education to look at the big picture. i'm well adapted & i feel 98% at home; i've established a life here & i no longer see the big deal in what i'm doing until...i look around at my classe, at my famille & realize that i have to Leave these people sooner that i think. Leave, as in won't see them, probably ever again...but then i realize that airplanes exist...

it all depends how you look at it.

***

my birthday is in (holy cow!!!) three days & i can't remember the last time i've felt so birthdayless. i don't know, perhaps it's hard to identify yourself with a birthday when you don't have the people you're used to celebrating it with around. will it be the same for christmas? AFS tells me it's the hardest part. currently, i feel insanely neutral, as if saturday will be any other saturday; not my birthday. however, my host family & i are going to go see a comedy that night for my birthday. i'm glad cause:
a) i don't really like throwing parties for me cause i'm more of an adult-oriented kid & for me, entertaining people sucks more energy out of me that i'd like for a day that should be um, about me. plus, you all know how much i like doing nothing. & how much i hate being celebrated be people who are "forced" to celebrate me cause i invited them...just a lot of cons
b) i like spending time with family
c) it'll be my first french pièce de théâtre, which is a big deal
d) it was kind of a surprise gift & you all know how much i like surprises!

---

Paris this past weekend was great, like every other AFS event. i'm very impressed by this organization & i think i'm completely convinced about bénévolat. everyone is just-right kind & the activities are numerous & fun. it's really the most i've walked in a long while & i shopped on the Champs Elysées & bought an um...*cough*100£*cough* jacket. it's beautifully plain & it's from zara & it's black & long & belted & i bought it with my visa..funny story...

since my visa looked funny (not french) the cashier asked for an ID, which i didn't have so i gave her my bus pass that i never use & have an enormous landscape (not portrait) picture of me (cause the picture was too big) that i put on myself. it other words, as unofficial as you can get. hehe.

so dance tonight! :)

last thing: this morning, i had TWO exams, as in 2h géo & 2h maths...& i pulled throughhhhhhhhh! ok, so i studied til past one in the morn, which is really shame on me but i don't know how else to do things...i'm more of a night owl, i've realized as in i don't like to & i can't work during the day but work wonderfully when i'm half aspleep & alone. people distract me. heck, i distract me. now go philosph-eye on that one...

nap time, i believe (but i don't like naps either :S)

[bt]

p.s. i realize that i always digress from the title
p.p.s. i had a huge urge for chocolate & so i um, took a "reverse raincheck" on my calendrier d'avent...shhhhh
p.s.s. i'm currently crazy about the xx