I went out last night, to Switzerland.

Alors, last night I left the country for the evening. I went to a small town near the French border, in Switzerland called Martingy with my rotary club and the other two exchnage students, Iliana and Kotaro.
We went to a museum first off, where I found myself face-to-face for the first time with an original Van Gogh, Picasso and Monet, as well as many other well-know artists. Its was funny, as I was looking at a photography exposition, I stumbled apon (or is it "upon"?) a different room, and stopped in front a random painting, and then eventually, looked at the tittle and artist. It said Van Gogh. That has never happened to me before. I had to take a little exchange student moment and appreciate the amazing fortune and blessings I have had to be able to enjoy an original work of art done by one of the most celebrated artists ever.
My favorite thing about Europe is the age of it, and the food, but mostly the age. It impresses me to no end to think that in 1889 Vincent himself sat down and put the same oil to the same canvas that I stood there and looked at today in 2005. Its the same feeling with all the old buildings as well. For example at the museum there was an archiological dig and they found walls and houses that were built by the romans when that area was part of the empire. Its amazing that someone so long ago built that with their own hands and now I can touch it and walk on it just as they did. It makes me wonder what people will think in a few hundred years about the things that we have built, painted or made this century.
After the museum we went see an old building, that was built on a river and was used to grind wheat to make flours with the force of the water. It was actually really cool. We got to tour around the great wheels and stones and assorted contraptions used to complete this process and then we got to eat in the restaurant area, the most delicious cheese yet, Raclette. Its cheese served just at the melting/boiling point with patatoes, dried meat and pickles, and lots of Swiss white wine.
The evening was devine, I learned a lot about classic, impressionistic, modern art, grinding wheat and as always, cheese. As my friend Erica, once noted, there is something about traveling that makes learning about art, food, history, litturature and everything nerdy like that, incredibly interesting. On the other hand we returned at 2 am to Chambery, so I missed all the learning that happened at school this morning! Tant-pis.

This is Ilyana, me and Kotaro, the three exchange students from the club, outside of the restaurant just before leaving. 

This is the inner workings of the flour grinding. It is run completely by water using wheels like this.  

We ate dinner in a building, built on a river, that was used to grind flour since the 1800s. It's now a restaurant but it still produces bread that is ground from the flour there ever friday afternoon. We ate "Raclette" which is like melted cheese on your plate that is soo good and you eat it with potatoes, dried meats and pickles. Mmmmm. Its a Swiss speciality.  

So this is the biggest thumb ever. We saw it at the Fondation Pierre Giandda, a museum in a small town in Switzerland called Martingy. There were paintings inside and sculputes like this on the lawn outside. 

Voila, Chamonix!!! On my way to Switzerland 

Au Naturale

So when I found out I was coming to France, there were a multitude of things running through my head. These things included, the language barrier, food, culture, etc. but most importantly I thought, "Am I going to have to grow out my armpit hair to fit in?"
Now that I have been here for one month (last sunday) I have been able to accuratly asses the armpit situation in France.
And the verdict is:
Its depends.
I find that more women in France wax their body hair, as opposed to shaving it, so as a result, there is a lot of inbetween time where hair happens to grow to a decent length. However, it must be said that I have seen many more women who just go au naturale.
Everything here is more natural in general though, such as the cheese, that looks like real cheese as opposed to an orange block; bread (even though it is always white) that is hand made and still warm when you buy it and meat that can be eaten raw, to name a few. (I ate meat raw and cold the other day for the first time, hesitantly, but it wasn't too bad)
Its good, I believe, to get back to nature and enjoy things how God meant them to be, I love that attitude here, but for now I think I will appreciate the natural foods and bounty from France and continue to keep my armpit hair at a minimum.

This picture is totally out of order, but I have to post it anyway. I got to go to the french hospital because my beesting was so crazy. Its was great fun! Everyone at the hosptial was nice and calm. They took super good care of me and now my leg is back to normal. I finally got to run again today. That made almost 5 days without doing anything particular as far as physical activites. I gained about 56 pounds. Ahh, la vie de exchange students.  

Franish

So at school I am learning spanish as well as French right now. Its a funny thing learning a 3rd language. While I find it easier because Spanish is so close to French, its frustrating at the same time because of all the words I don't know yet that I know I will need to know. Doesn't make sense? Read on...

When I learned french in school it was just a another language that I didn't know, and just lots of words that meant nothing to me. It didn't matter because it all just seemed like more than I could ever learn anyway. However, looking back I realize how one must learn a language.
One must start from basic grammar foundations,and slowly build the vocabulary as well. I now realize, the language gap is not as hard to close as I had thought during my first years in French. At the beginning of my foreign language learning, knowing no other language but English, I had no idea that the teachers back home had figured out the best way to learn a language too. I just learned most of what they taught me. In the long run it totally paid off and when it came down to it I knew way more french than I thought. Now that I have mostly figured out French too, Spanish should be easy, right?
Well, it is, but there is nothing that replaces those years and years of repetition of grammar and vocab that we in Canada are, thankfully, forced to withstand starting in grade 4.
To sum it all up, taking another language is great in one way because I feel like I am still not quite there in French, and then, Spanish comes along and reminds me how far I have come. On the other hand, its frustrating because French reminds me how far I have to go in Spanish.

This weekend we went to the country side for a traditional Savoyard lunch at Veronique's mother's house and we went for a small promanade afterwards to aid in digestion. This tree reminded me of a Dali painting. I loved it and had to take a picture.

This is a huge bread oven in the middle of a field. They put them there for travelers, who rest in the fields overnight. It seemed weird to me that there was a giant oven in the middle of nowhere, but that is such a french things- food first!  

C'est trop bien, la vie! This is Veronique, promanading in the French country side.  

Dad, this one is for you! This is Veronique's mother who pulled out her model trian collection, just so I could take a photo for you. These are all french trains, with SNCF logos on them. 

We just happened to look around the corner all at the same time.  

Encore la famille! 

Family photos! This is on our porch looking out towards the Croix De Nivolet.  

So I was stung by a bee and THIS occured!!!! Nice legs, eh? 

This is Kotaro who doesn't speak english or french but is too cool anyway. 

My running Group, Louis the trainer is on the left. The woman on the right is wearig a Canada shirt! 

Camille and Romain with their pretty sweet Canada pins 

These are my next host parents Etienne and Marie. They are super nice too.  

Some of my room mates at my first rotary weeknd as an inbound!!!! This was the next morning even, I can't belive we're all still smiling. 

Update from the land, where minis and smart cars are truly as big as they get.

Hello everybody,
I am doing relly well still in General. I have run into some problems but none that haven't been highly solvable. School is getting less confusing. I find myself making really great friends and as you can see in the following pictures, I went to a village festival with an awsome friend Camille a week ago.
I am loving French more and more each day. It's so wonderful to be able to comunicate more comfortably now. Little by little I am learning words and understanding more and more. The subtle differences each day don't seem as abnormal now.
Today, I gave everyone in my class Canada pins and everyone loved it. Every single one of them wore them today and winked and giggled to each other in halls about our Canadian pride. It was fantastic. One boy said to me*in french*, "Bonnee, thank you for the pins, it's enorme!" - which means*enormously good* haha I love it.
I had my first Rotary weekend, this weekend and it was restful as always. At this stage as exchange students, everyone was absolutly desperate to talk to some one who was going through the same thing. It was such a good outlet to speak and hear full out Canadian English for an entire weekend and just let absolutly everything that is going on in your life, good bad or ugly, be said and understood completely by someopne else.There is nothing like that. Anyway I will add pictures of my weekend later, for now I have to go.
Feel free to leave me a comment everyone,
love
Bon bon

The grande adventures of cheese continues, but this time in the form of fondue! 

My first Rotary meeting. From left tp right, Iliana (Mexico) Kotaro (Japan) Theirry Schmit YEO, some random Canadian and then our club president. 

This is Florion, the other petit frere du Camille, in front of a monestery, tucked away high up in the French Alps near Auw Aillons 

Tibalt, with a french cow. Check out the bell on that thing! 

L'eglise du Aux Aillons- the church of Aux Aillons. This is Tibalt again the petite frere du Camille. I love the huge wooden, doors here

This is Camille's Family, Aunts Uncles cousins and of course the Grandparents as well.