Let the Festivities Begin!

This past week was Thanksgiving! In France, people don't usually celebrate this holiday. However, this year I brought Thanksgiving to France! My host family was really excited to celebrate this holiday with me that they started planning it a month in advance! I had my mom in Hawaii send me boxes of stuffing mix because stuffing doesn't exist here! Crazy, I know! When Thanksgiving day arrived, my host family was anxious all day to eat an "american meal"! My host mom even came home early from work and put the turkey in the oven. When I got home from school, I made the stuffing and helped with the rest. We prepared mashed potatoes, peas, stuffing, my families special apple sauce, the turkey, and american apple pie! Before eating, we all went around the table saying what were thankful for, and of course I said, "I'm thankful for having such an amazing host family!" I feel so lucky to get to spend my year with them. After giving thanks, it was time to dig in! It was surprisingly amazing! And, my cooking didn't poison anybody. I was so proud! Along with the exciting meal, it was the first day it snowed in France! I was so excited I had to go outside and throw snowballs with my sister.




This blog is in memory of my grandpa, Charles Weisman. He will be greatly missed in my life and in the lives of many others. I love you.

A Roller Coaster Ride

This month has been full of ups and downs! I'll start with October to November vacation! In France, at the end of every six weeks of school, we get two weeks of vacation. For October vacation, my host family took me to l'ile d'oleron. It's a small island off the west coast of France. My host family has a house there, and spend all their summers there. However, since I'm not going to be here for summer they decided to take me there in October. It reminded me of how I would picture Greece, with lots of boats docked and little stores and restaurants by the sea. During our stay, we went to see the chateau de l'ile d'oleron and went to the beach. However, it was way to cold to go swimming and it was very windy. We also saw a lot of light houses, very normal for an island!


After visiting l'ile d'oleron, we went to the cutest town ever, La Rochelle! It was surrounded by castle ruins and had the best but most expensive shopping! Also, there were these ducks that looked cute and innocent but were so loud and obnoxious and were very feisty! It was very funny.




Also, during vacation, we went to the Chateau de Chambord in the Loire Valley! It was the most amazing chateau I've ever seen from the outside! It was so intricately designed. However, inside the Chateau, there wasn't a lot of furniture and decoration. Chambord is known for the design of the staircases. It kind of reminded me of Harry Potter!




Okay, so the next thing that was exciting during vacation was Halloween! A lot of people don't celebrate Halloween here in France except for the little kids that dress up and go trick-or-treating. However, I only saw about 5 kids doing that. So, for halloween my friend from school invited me to stay at her house and go to a nightclub with her and her family. It was so much fun to get out and go dancing with my friends!


When we got back from our trips, I had a couple days left of vacation. So, I went to Paris a couple times with friends and also did homework. School here is hard, but I'm slowly adapting to it. My hardest class is French Literature, but my teacher helps me a lot! The English class here is bizarre! The teacher says some words I don't even think exist in the english dictionary!
This month overall has been a roller coaster, but I don't want to get off. It's been filled of happiness and sadness and all sorts of feelings you would never think you would have. I feel like i got so lucky to have been placed with such and amazing host family who is always wanting to help me succeed. This week is Thanksgiving, and my host family is so excited to try new things and help me prepare the meal! I promise I will post again soon with new information and experiences.
á bientot!
Natalia