Passion lives here

Seeing the olympics was cool. I live about an hour and a half away from the Olympic site, so we drove. We had to go through the tunnel that goes through the alps. It lasted for about 20 minutes. I went with Marie, my host mom, Iliana and Kotaro, the other 2 exchange students in my club and Margaux, my last host sister. Margaux brought makeup and we put French flags on all the French peoples cheeks around us, and we all brought flags from our various countries. It was really cool. Here are my olympic observations:
1) The snowboarders were really fast, but not like out-of-this world fast. I think the TV gives us the impression that they go faster. It was also interesting to see all of this in real life because we really saw how the athletes are just humans. They laughed and it was clear that they liked each other well enough and we're enjoying their olympic experience too. Even the three medalists at the end looked excited, a bit unsure of what to do and giggles amongst themselves. On TV they look so untouchable, but in real life we see they are just girls who won a competition.
2) My favorite thing about going to the olympics was that I really felt like it was a world event, at least the western, developed world anyway. It was so cool to see other Canadians, have a good english conversation. I saw lots of other students who live in europe too, I saw people from Ontario, Saskatchewan, and BC. I met the mayors of Richmond, Wistler and a Vancouver councillor, and the Vice President of BC transit. I didn't know who they were at the time, but was just looking for other Canadians and introduced myself. Hahaha.
3) I have never been in a situation with as much media in my entire life. Someone filmed me drinking Powerade in exchange for a free bottle of it.So watch those Powerade ads carefully.

4) I enjoyed all the police and fire fighters and just any other uniformed people there.

My weekend in Maurienne

This is called the "Maison Penchée" It was an old army house that got bombed during the war. It stayed together, but was just tilted. It was so weird to walk in it. You actually get dizzy. It looks very odd so see other people walking too.
We saw this on our way to our friends Chalet in Maurienne.

This is me and Dominique, doing some cross country skiing. I retried it this weekend and found that it really really wasn't as bad as the first time. I actually really enjoyed it. It was exhausting, but like running a bit. Definatly something I need to continue.

This is called the monolithe. Its like natures vrsion of the Eiffel tower. It is like a huge rock that stands out of no where. People can climb it in the summer and we snowshoed to it.

It was a weekend filled with sports, and the chalet was beautiful. A good time was had by all. I was happy to dicover my love for cross counrtry skiing, and meet some new people.

Your olympic mission

I have just got back from a petit vacation at a chalet of friends of the family. I did lots more really hard core outdoor, mountainy, snowy stuff, which I will show and tell later.

The main purpose of this post is to impose upon all of you the watching of the womens slolome snowboarding at Torino, Thurday the 23rd, because I'M GONNA BE THERE !!!

Look for the Canadian flag in the crowd.

My HARD CORE weekend

You guys will never guess what I did this weekend, (with the exception of Ben, mom, the people I have told already.


This weekend I actully hiked up an entire mountain with a backpack with my snowboard attatched. I went with Etienne and he had his special, grip went you go up, slide when you go down skiis on. It took us 3 HOURS to hike up this mountian. It was steep and hard going, but the weather was beautiful and I got a wonderful tan. I was incredibly incredibly hot for the first time in a long time, being in freezing cold France. The hike up was killer in general though. It was definatly one of the most hard core things I have EVER done. Then when we finally got to the top....... there was a ski station with a chair lift RIGHT beside us. There were people like 50 metres away laughing and sliding off the chair lift with ease. It was so ironic. I put in my own swear blood and tears to get to the top of that fricken mountain. I've never had such an incredibly strong "Oh my god, that was the wrong way to go3 feeling in my intire life. Then we put on my snowboard and Etienne his skiis and we skiied down where we climbed up, in like 30 minutes. Then we went home.
It was terrible, because by the time you get to the top, your completly exhausted, then you have to get back down, and trails for skiiers are not easy to do on a snowboard. I must have fell at least 50 times. It was very very very hard but, in the end, glad I did it.
Dad told me once that my Grandparents used to do that before they had skii lifts to take. I felt so old fashioned and mountainy. Just look at how hard core this is.
Anyway thats just about all I have to say, except that sunday we drove to the top of another mountain, and then me and Etienne spend 1 and a half hours running down it. It was pretty cool, but the jarring motion of running down the mountians, gave me a stomache ache. Then we played "loto" which is like bingo, but different, for a fund raiser for marie's school. It was actually really fun and very well organized, but I didn't win.
So need less to say I am 100% worn out, Good way to start the last week before the VACATION!!!!!!

Happy Saint Valentine!!!!

I would like to wish everyone at home, and in France for that matter too, that I have not yet seen or talk to, a trés trés happy valentines day!!!! I hope that all your valentines day wishes come true. Most of all my valentine. All the way across the ocean. Love to Canada!!!

My class photo!

It has been 6 years since I have had a class photo. I love it. Note the Canadian pride in the picture.
The theme was togas. But not the normal find-your-white-sheet toga; our theme was the-ugliest-sheet-you-could-find togas.
Isn't it beautiful?

Random photos

Last night I babysat 2 kids aged 2 and 4. I run with their mom. We made playdough together and made little pigs. It was so cute. Then I slept at their house, which was a cool experiece too.

The other day I went with Etienne to the french dump!!! It was awsome. It was really organized and well sorted. Quite the french experience. This is specailly for Dad, Auntie Mary and Auntie Gail. There's no better way to get to know a town.

This is me in the process of doing some hard core snowboarding last weekend. We had some friends from Paris come and stay with us because they are on holidays now. We all went skiing and above the clouds the sun was shining. It felt soo good.

Faire la greve!!!!

On tuesday, we had another strike in France. But this time, it wasn't the teachers. It was the students. The French government is trying to pass a law that is called the "Contrat Premiere Embauchement" which is a contract for people who are being hired for the first time in which their bosses can fire them at anytime without giving a reason. The upside of this is that if there are businesses that can't afford to pay their employees anymore, they can just get rid of one without having to go out of business. I'm pretty sure that this type of thing is legal in Canada, but the work systems here are so different. Its a lot harder to find a job, but once you've got one, it should be for good.
Because this affects students trying to get their first jobs, we took to the streets. Personally I stiked for 2 reasons.
1) Striking is the 2nd national sport in France. Not striking would be like coming to canada and never giving hockey a try. It would be a real shame.
2) If I am indeed going to move to France next year to go to school/ work (which is looking more and more likely) this law will actually affect me. It I get a job I would like to keep it for the whole year instead of having to find a new one every few months.
Donc voila, that is why I striked. Once again it was like a huge party of 4 thousand students and young people who brought their instruments, voices, signs, chants, fireworks and energy to walk around town to the nearest castle.
I'm such a rebel. hahaha

My olympic experience

Do you know what that is ladies and gentlemen?

Thats right its the olympic flame. It passed through Chambery the 6th of February, headed for Torino, Italy. I actually went to Albertville to see it because they were having a bigger celebration there because Albertville was the olympic town in 1992. It was so cool. We waited for at least an hour in the freezing cold, but when it passed, surrounded by all the Italians, it really put me in the olympic spirit, which is really saying something beacuse I'm not huge on the olympics normally. But this was amazing. There was a huge parade and lots of people. It was just so cool. I wore my trusty Canadian flag and carried one around to wave. So proud to represent. Good luck Canada. I got lots of free stuff as well. I got candies, olympic flags and a free hat/neck warmer. Pretty sweet.

After the flame passed, we ran after it!! After that there was this really cool show that recreated the opening spectacle of the 92. There were these drummers all dressed up in crazy green costumes who played they're drums while marching among the people on the field where we were. Then after they got lifted up by a crane and there were all 7 ish of them playing directly above us, lit up by spotlights. Then this acrobat lady appeared at the top and started doing crazy acrobat stuff on her swing like thing. I seriously thought she was going to fall, but she didn't. It was incredibly. While this was all happening, there was also an amazing fireworks display going on, for at least a good strong 15 minutes. It was sooooo cool.

After that we went to a skating / orchesta show. It was really neat. At the beginning, the band played on the ice, then loved off and we had some amazing skating. It was really the most enjoyable skating show I've ever seen. It was for the most part, professional level people, but there was no stress of competition, no worries, they looked like they were there just to put on a good show. There was music, lights, lots of interesting props and cool acrobatic action going on. Later on in the night, they took the pianist, and put him out on the ice and he played while the skaters skated. We got home at midnight. It was one of my favorite evenings in France.

This is Etienne, my fabulous host Dad, who brought me to see. He was a volunteer for the Albertville olympics in 92, so he knew everysecond person there, which was cool.

Suprise!!

Hi everyone I just wanted to shock the heck out of all of you and blog two days in a row!!!!!! I have nothing really new or exciting to say, so I have gone back and decided to add pictures from things that happened a long time ago. This is a picture of me and Laure, one of my french friends, one night at a bar. Being students and too poor and lazy to get money out of the bank we put the contents of our wallets together and came up with about 2€, which was enough for 1 drink for the two of us. What class!
This other picture is of Romain, Camille and moi, in our very very last saturday morning class. This class is called TPE and is basically like one big research project on whatever subject we like. We have had it every saturday morning, until last weekend, so tommorow will be my first saturday morning sleep in since I got to France!! With the exception of holidays anyway.
Today I ate a Kabob with another Canadian in town and shopped all afternoon. It was delicious.

My thoughts from lord of the rings to dangerous roofers

Yesterday I finished the Lord of the Rings. This brings up many topics... well like 2.

Ok so first off I just want to say that I LOVED it. It took me until the last movie to really get into, but then after that it was like a book that I just couldn't put down. I love stuff like that. I cried so hard at the end. I was all alone in my chair in the living room bawling into my scarf. I was so scared that someone was going to come home and see, but it was just so, sad/happy/ scary/ relieving. It was amazing. Thank you Peter Jackson.

Secondly, I wanted to make it known that I watched all but 1 /6th of the movies in French. The very last disc of the last movie I watched in English, and it was sooo weird. I thought that it seemed a lot more fluent in french, in a way, but I like Gandalfs voice better in English.

Now I just want to talk about french and english for a bit. I am thoroughly french fried. I don't even remember how to spell "thouroughly" and I have completely forgotten the word in english for the plate that you bake pies in. (Is it just simply called a pie plate?) Its good though. I have now finished 3 or 4 whole novels in french. Today I bought 2 books for my french class, which must be really quite intellectual, and for the first time all year, I am going to try in my litterature class.

French people are funny about english.
On one hand they don't like it, for the most part. The amount of good english teachers in France, it appears, is very very low. It seems that they are either very very not nice, or can't really speak english correctly themselves. Not that they aren't good people deep down inside, but in my experience, getting a good english education is not an easy task for the french.

On the other hand english is cool for the youths in france. I actually see more graffiti written in english than in french. There are all sorts of bad english words written all over, having to do with sex, drugs and rock and roll, which is funny, because they are not even always used correctly. Makes tourists laugh I suppose.
English is also a bit chic in France. Like French is a bit chic for us. Change hair dye from "color expert" to "couleur experte" and you can charge another $5 for the same product, because its "from Paris" Here in France there are quite a few english names which are incredibly chic, I'll share a few that have made me laugh..
A pet store that is called "lover dog"
A restaurant that is called "Break France"
And a store called "manpower" in which I have no idea what is sold. Today I was shopping and saw a bag that said, " Friendship is a golden." There are also shirts around that say, I am irresistable girl. There are many more and when I see / remember them I will let you all know. I find this all very chic.

Speaking of chic-ness, or rather lack of it on my part, I will now do a petit french anecdote.........

So I had some free time, for reasons I will explain below. I was shopping in "Galery Lafayette" a french chain of clothing stores. This particular store has 4 levels. To get down to the bottom I opted to be lazy and take the elevator. So I got in, pushed 0, and nothing happened, I pushed it again and nothing happened. I tried twisting the botton ( because everyone knows if it you can't push it, it must be twist -NOT) I stood there for like 2 whole minutes before a french girl came in. I looked and her and said, " It doesn't work!" Then she reached over and pushed this button that said AD!?. The elevator jumped into motion immediatly, and I went bright red. She just looked at me and didn't say anything. I told her I was Canadian, because that normally, will get you out of any embarresing situation, but no, this girl had no pity. It was clear what she thought of my underdeveloped elevator skills. I left the store as soon as I got to the botton, laughing and laughing.
The end.

I had some free time to shop today because THE TEACHERS ARE ON STRIKE AGAIN!!! This is the third time since I've been here. I LOVE FRANCE. Not only that but the students will be striking monday I think. I asked someone why, and no one really knows. My classy french friend, Romain said that it was fashionable to stike. Like I said, I love France.

Now just because I want to, another anecdote from france. .....

Yesterday I went to the pool to do some hard core laps. I was swimming along, when all of a sudden this man wearing a pink swim cap, in the lane passes me, fully singing. It was so funny. I had a good laugh, and kept going.

And now, to share avec vous des photos.

This is a picture of the mountians where I went snowshoeing last weekend. It was beautiful. There was actually not a cloud in the sky. I could have gone in a tee shirt and been warm enough. The alps were magnificent.

My host family is the couvreurs, which in french means "roofer" like the guys that put rooves on houses. Its also a last name. This sign is funny because is says, "Caution Couveurs!" hehehe.