Where the Streets Have No Name

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't updated, I've been busy.
For dinner on Thursday we (Catherine, Joël, Violaine, Ophélie, Marcus, Marcus's dad, and I) drove past Giverny up a hill overlooking Vernon, which is in a valley, and had a picnic. It was like eight o'clock when we left; they eat dinner kind of late here. Another family came; they are British and French, and their kids speak both English and French fluently. They have three kids I think, but I only remember one of their names which was Paisley. First they passed around bowls of chips (Lays potato chips, haha) and peanuts, and bread with pattè, which is duck liver or something. Then there was tomato and mozzerella salad and quiche that was really good, and after that bread and cheese. They eat bread and cheese after every meal (except breakfast). Then they had chocolate gateau (cake) that was sooo good, it didn't have icing on it or anything. After that we had these yellow plum things. They also had wine and apple cider (which is a Normandy specialty). They eat much smaller portions here, the quiche and the cake were cut into little slivers and everyone had one or two at the most. Dinner took over two hours, so it got dark and we could see the light pollution in the direction of Paris. They were joking and were like, "Look over there, you can see the Eiffel Tower", and when I looked they all laughed. On Friday I went with Catherine to the bank to open an account or something, and I successfully got money out of the bank. It was easy because they have different languages on the ATMs. Then we went to buy bread at the bakery; they buy baguettes every morning, normally three or four I think. After that we went home. A baguette costs .80€. Their house is right by the center of Vernon. There is a movie theater like a block away, and they are close to the Seine. Also there is a Chinese food restaurant on the street behind their house, I saw it when we drove by.
That afternoon I had tea with Ophélie and Violaine. They had coffee and bread with peanut butter (Marcus was in England and brought back a jar). They like peanut butter, but they don't like peanut butter and jelly. They don't have Reese's here or in England. They also were eating bread with butter and chocolate on it; I had some, it was good.
That night, the Chinese boy arrived. He goes to school in Vernon and lives with the Guèrins during the year because his parents live in Hong Kong. We ate dinner outside in the garden. We had bar-b-qued steak and sausages with rice and vegetables. They also had more of the plum things, and of course bread and cheese and wine. It was a very international table: Marcus and his dad from Australia/England (they moved from the UK to Australia a few years ago), the boy from Hong Kong, the Guérins from France, and I from America, so like 4 continents.
The next day, Saturday, Ophélie, Catherine, Violaine, and I went to St. Adjutor, my school, to buy books. There were a lot of people in this one hallway; everyone got numbers and had to wait in line until their number was called to go into a classroom and buy their books. We had to wait like an hour, and then we got our books. St.Adjutor is really nice and only has 300 students in the high school. Marcus doesn't go to the same school, he goes to the public school, which is the third largest high school in France and has 3000 students! We went home, and then I walked with Catherine to the farmer's market they have every Saturday in Vernon. It was a really good market and took up a whole street. There were lots of people there. At the market, there were multiple booths selling roasted chickens, and Catherine bought one. There also were booths selling fish with their heads still on, vegetables, herbs, fruit, meat, clothes, shoes, watches, and candy. It was like the West Side Market in the street, except it also had clothes and... LIVE ANIMALS. There were live chickens to buy, kill, and eat (!) and live baby ducks that people take home to get fat and then kill and eat (!!!) and... a LIVE BUNNY RABBIT that was for sale to eat (!!!!!!!!!). It looked like the rabbits that they sell at pet stores. Anyway, Catherine bought some more food and we walked down the road with all the shops in Vernon. There was a guy outside the market playing the accordian, next to another bakery (there are a ton of them in Vernon) that had a line of people waiting to buy their daily bread. There are lots of clothes stores in Vernon and none of them are American. We walked by the cathedral and the Hotel de Ville (town hall) and went into the Vernon Tourism Office where they gave me brochures about Vernon and Giverny. We went home and everyone ate chicken, potatoes, bread and cheese, and plums for lunch. After lunch Marcus, his dad, and I rode bikes across Vernon to Marcus's last host family's house for tea and coffee. Their house was soooooo nice, the nicest house I've ever been in. It was very old but they renovated it, and it is made of stone and has vines and flowers growing on it. The inside was really nice, and his host parents were really nice as well.
After we got back to the Guérins' house we left for their farm in the country. They have an old American WWII army jeep that was used on D-Day and still works, and we rode into the forest that is near the farm. Then we walked in the forest for awhile before going back to their farm. After that the people with the really nice house who we had coffee with earlier came to the farm and Marcus, his dad, and I went with them to their brother's farm in a little village about half an hour away for a party. The farm was really nice and was from medieval times but had been renovated. It used to be a monastary or something a looong time ago. They put up a white tent outside and passed out sausages and quiche and drinks. They had Coke Lite :) There were a lot of French people there and I talked to some of them. After awhile they all sat down under the tent to eat dinner; by this time it was like 9:30ish. There was soooooo much food, and it was all really good: pasta, steak, salads, bread, and more quiche. For dessert there was really good raspberry-and-apple crumble, lemon tart, and some other things I don't remember. The party was soooo French, they all were drinking wine, there was French music playing all night, some of them were smoking cigarettes, and it got cold so some people were wearing scarves. After dinner they all gathered around the fire and three guys began to play the guitar and sing; all of the songs were in english; I found out later they actually were a band but were also the friends of the people having the party. Everyone was singing along. I got up to get my camera from inside the house and I tripped over a rope holding up the tent; nothing happened but Marcus said they were all like "What is that American doing?" in French, haha. The band played Stayin' Alive (no one knew the words except for the chorus), Across the Universe and Help by the Beatles (eveyone knew the words), and some other songs. Then one of the guys playing the guitar was like "for our American and Australian guests" and played some of Beat It by Michael Jackson. After they finished the guitar-playing sing-a-long thing, Marcus and his dad and I were talking to the guitar-player who played Beat It. I had talked to him earlier in the evening in French and he asked me where I was from and I said Ohio, so he played Ohio by Neil Young and the French people sang along. Then we had to leave so we said goodbye.
On Sunday we went to a cheese factory/museum in Figarot to see how camombert is made. It took more than an hour to get there. We got to sample all this cheese; it reminded me of Madeline because some of the cheese in France smells like Helen's cheese in Madeline. After that we went to see some Normandy cows and saw baby pigs that were three days old. We ate bread, cheese, apple juice/cider, and cake at a farm (it was kind of a tourist attraction type farm). Then we went to Honfleur.
Honfleur was sooooooooooooooo pretty. We don't have any towns like it in the US. Lots of Parisiens and British people go there on vacation. It is on the English Channel and is basically perfect. There are all these little cobblestone streets and it's just sooo European. We had ice cream that was really good; I got Tiramisu flavored and it was delicious. We also went in shops; I took some pictures and will post them soon hopefully. Then we went home and had dinner. In the car I heard "where the streets have no name" by U2 and it seemed kind of fitting to my time in France so far, because while the streets have names, I don't know them yet. I may not remeber the names of all the towns and villages yet, or the people, but I do know that J'adore la France! (I adore France).
Well I have to go, but more soon!
Au revoir!
Halle

Bonjour from France!

Hi everyone, sorry it's taken me a couple of days to update.
I left Cleveland in the afternoon on Tuesday. Hanna (from Kirtland) and Anne (from Buckeye) were on my plane as well as Ingrid ( from somewhere in northeast Ohio). The plane was TINY; there were 11 rows and the ceiling of the aisle was 6 ft. tall and I'm not exaggerating. We sat on the runway for like an hour, and for like 40 minutes once we got to Minneanapolis. Hanna, Anne, Ingrid and I had 80 minutes to get to our gate, which was at the opposite end of the airport. We all were hungry so we stopped to get pizza to go. When we finally got to our gate they were halfway through boarding. There were all these Rotary students on our plane waiting in line to get on. Anne and I were talking a little in French and joking about how bad our accents were when we realized that basically everyone in line who wasn't wearing a Rotary blazer was French. We got on the plane; my seat was only four rows back from first class. I sat next to a French girl who was probably like 10 at the most. Everyone around me was French except for two Rotary students a couple rows ahead of me.
The flight was long but it took only 8 hours. I didn't sleep at all; that was not fun. There was a French flight attendant who looked like Jess from Gilmore Girls except he had a mustache. They passed out copies of Le Monde to the French people but I took one and tried to read it. Dinner wasn't too bad: pasta, salad, bread, cheese, and a brownie that I still have in my purse. After they showed the first movie they put up on the screen that we were over Northern Canada and it was -56 degrees farenheit outside. The plane was freezing cold, if you ever fly to Europe, bring sweaters and Tylenol p.m. After awhile it showed we were over the Atlantic and it was dark out. About two hours later I thought we would still be over the ocean, but we had flown over Dublin and London and were over the English Channel. After that the plane went from 40000 feet to 8000 in 20 minutes and my ears were popping ridiculously much.
We finally got to Paris, but we didn't fly over it because Charles de Gaulle is outside of it. The flight attendant wished all the Rotary students luck over the speaker and everyone who understood English cheered. We all got off the plane; no one knew where to go. I finally found customs and got through in two seconds; they didn't search anything or ask me anything, and I didn't have my Rotary blazer on (Hannah, Anne, and I were the only ones who didn't wear ours at all, they were a pain so we stuffed them in our carry-on bags in Cleveland). I got my bags and went out to look for my host family. There were lots of host families with signs. Mine didn't get there until about half an hour later, so I waited with Hanna and Anne. Hannah taught me my new favorite phrase--"Oh mon dieu" which means "Oh my dear". Finally they got there, and Ophélie told me that we were going to Paris to meet Marcus (from Australia) and his dad. We drove into Paris and passed the Eiffel Tower twice and the Arc de Triumph three times. The city was not crowded except for the tourist spots because most Parisiens are on vacation for the month of August. We parked at the Louvre and went into the courtyard where the glass Pyramid from the DaVinci Code is. The Louvre is ridiculously beautiful in person, it doesn't even look real. All of Paris is that way really, it is much nicer than I thought it would be. We met Marcus and his dad at the Louvre and walked to a bridge over the Seine that had all these gold statues on it. They all ate half-baguettes with cheese. Then we walked to the South bank of the Seine. There were all these houseboats on the Seine that people actually live in and are very expensive. One had hundreds of rubber ducks in the windows of all different colors, which was very weird.
We met Camille (whose name is pronounced Ca-mee, not Ca-meel). She is the oldest daughter and she lives and works in Paris. We all walked to Notre Dame, where there was a huge line, but we didn't go in. I could tell a lot of Americans very easily because they were the ones wearing shorts, fanny packs, and white tennis shoes. We went back to the Louvre; I still was carrying my purse that was very heavy from the plane; there were venders selling bottled water for 1€ at the Louvre. We drove out of Paris past the Arc de Triumph again and went on the highway to Vernon. I heard Billie Jean, Wakin' Up in Vegas, I Got a Feeling, and I'm Yours on the radio to name a few American songs. I'm staying with this family for a week, then I go to the another.
They have a dog, Volvie, who they don't let in the house. She is a golden retreiver except she is very small, a little bigger than a beagle; they found her in the South of France one year. Their house is 100 years old and is very big. The ceilings are about twelve feet high and there are 3 1/2 above-ground stories. One room on the ground floor is their store where they sell refinished antique furniture, and they also have a studio attached to the house.
All the houses in Vernon are gated with walls. Today I went with Ophélie, Violaine, Marcus, and Marcus's dad to drive by my school. It is very pretty and the Nazis lived in it during WWII. We drove around Vernon; the streets look like the Madeline street from the movie Madeline, and the houses look similar to the old house covered in vines that Madeline lived in. I'll post pictures soon hopefully. There are separate rooms for the bathtubs/showers and toilets. They don't have fans or screens on the windows.
Lunch today was pasta with mushroom sauce, bread, really good cheese, and then dessert. Dessert was plain yogurt with sugar and raspberry jam. Eveyone else ate it, but I thought it was... interesting.
They do not have fresh milk like us, so the milk tastes very weird. The water also tastes weird. There is a HUGE chateau in Vernon. There is also a small castle and a big cathedral. We drove into the country to my host families' farm where they keep tons of antique furniture. It is very pretty and we passed at least two chateaus on the Seine.
Okay, I have to go, but I'll post more soon.
Au revoir for now!

Au Revoir Bay Village!

I'm leaving tomorrow at 1:30ish from Cleveland to Minneapolis. Then I fly straight to Paris and I'll arrive there at 9:15 a.m. Paris time, which is 3:15 a.m. Cleveland time. I will update as soon as I can. It might be a few days...
Feel free to e-mail me while I'm in France :)
au revoir
Halle

City and School

I will soon be leaving to live in Vernon, Normandie, France. Vernon is about 40 miles from Paris and is on the river Seine. The city is most known for Giverny, where Monet's house, gardens, and famous lily ponds are. The population is 25,ooo.

My school is called Lycée Saint-Adjutor. It is a private Catholic school, but there is no uniform. School is Monday-Friday, with Wednesday afternoons off.

A map of Vernon/Giverny

A picture of my school, Saint Adjutor

Bienvenue!

I leave in eight days to spend a year as a Rotary Exchange Student in France. I'll try to update this blog on a somewhat regular basis... but I'm not promising anything!