Paris Part 1

Where to start... I have no idea how this post will turn out. Usually, I have a plan in my head when I sit down and pull up my site, but this time, I have no idea. The problem is that I've usually got only one or two things to write about, but this time, so much has happened: my mom and sister coming to France, our vacation in Paris, our day trips in the south, a Rotary meeting in Chamonix, my move to my third host family, and plenty of little details in between. Even if I sat down to write about last monday morning, I'm sure I could go on and on and on. With that being said, I don't really want to spend all afternoon at the computer, so I think I will turn this big vacation into a series of tiny posts from my April vacation.

To start this little series off, I'll go all the way back to last Friday when my vacation began. I had to get up pretty early to take the TGV (high speed train) from Valence to Paris. To give you all an idea of how fast the TGV is, a usual 6 hour car ride from Privas to Paris took me about 2 hours in train. When I got to Paris by 10 a.m., I still had 5 hours before I was supposed to meet my family at the hotel. I was nervous all morning because I hadn't seen them in over 7 months and since waiting at the train station for another 5 hours wasn't going to help anything, I decided to get out and explore the city myself. Within the next hour, I found myself wandering around the Marais quarter which just so happens to be the homosexual and Jewish quarter. Seems like a strange mix. If you looked at the people walking by you, you would find two guys holding hands wearing leather chaps and conservatively dressed men with their kippahs and long beards. It was practically real-life Will & Grace!

Since I didn't really have much of a game plan, I randomly walked around a lot. This was my first time to Paris, and I was just so excited to actually be there. I bought myself falafel for lunch and found a nice park to eat it in. Everything was laid back and relaxed and I honestly had a really nice time getting lost. By 3 o'clock, I made my way over to our hotel in the Latin Quarter where I saw my family! Every worry I had about things being different melted away, and I was back to my old normal self. Most people who know me well know that around my family, I'm kind of crazy. I turn into a goofy, unpredictable, shameless joker. And I play that role quite well.

The whole afternoon passed by in a blur. It felt so weird to have them there, but at the same time, it felt like no time had passed at all. After all our hugs and greetings, we hit the streets and explored the Latin Quarter. We walked through markets with every type of cheese imaginable. We saw the Pantheon and walked through the Luxembourg Gardens, we ate at a Moroccan Restaurant for dinner, and we took a Seine River cruise that night. Everything felt perfect and weird and good. My two lives were combining for the first time and I was genuinely happy.

Old News

I just realized that I never wrote anywhere in my blog that my family is going to be visiting me in France. Now that I've waited much too long to state that, I can actually say, they're arriving tomorrow!! This is a short blog post to announce that. (Although, I'm pretty sure this is old news to the majority of people who read my blog (a.k.a. Mom and Dad).) Anyway, I'm really really excited. I'm excited to get / give big bear hugs, I'm excited to go to Paris tomorrow, I'm excited to translate and show off my French, and I'm REALLY excited to see my mommy!! (And my sister of course haha) My dad is staying home, so I'm a little upset about that, but I'll see him in three months.

To be completely honest, I'm pretty nervous to see my mom and Gigi again. It's been so long since the last time I saw them, and a lot has changed between then and now. I'm a different person, but I'm still me at the same time, so I think everything will be o.k. It's not like I've grown two heads or anything. I don't know when I'm going to write my next entry, but it might be a little while. To give you a little head's up, we're planning on visiting Paris for 3 days, and after that, they're coming back with me to Privas to spend a week at the Delenne's.

After all that's finished, they're taking the train back to Paris and I'll be heading over to Chamonix for a Rotary thing. The day after, I'm changing host families and the week after, I'm going to Toledo, Spain for a little while. So point of the story: it looks like things are gonna get a little bit crazy. I'm down.

The World is My Playground

Apparently, the Universe didn't read my last blog entry. I still haven't heard back from Pitzer, even though their deadline was April 1, but I did get rejected from Pomona and Brown. I suppose I'm not too surprised. I've had the worst luck with college applications between this year and last year, but at least I'm super good at taking rejections now. However, to be frank, I was a little ticked off at Brown. Last year, they had the courtesy to wait list me, but this year was a flat out no. What, have I decreased in character this past year or something? DARN YOU FRANCE! (I wish there was a little emoticon shaking his fists up at the Heavens right now haha :p) After that disappointment, I mourned for about 1 hour, shook it off, and moved on. After all, Brown Admissions is a bunch of cotton-headed ninny muggins and I've got better things to do with my time.

So, with the very probable chance that Pitzer completely forgot about me, I'm headed off to Boston College next year. Sure, I'll have to take about a cajillion core classes and be taught by some of those crazy Jesuits, but I'm trying to look on the bright side. For example, I might find my future J.Crew-clad husband within the next four years and now I'll get to buy a whole new set of Boston College apparel. I've got my eyes set on a gray zip-up yoga hoodie that I saw online. So, if anyone wants to give me 52 bucks or send me a Boston College Women's Yoga Jacket available at the Boston College Online Book Store, you are welcome to do so.

This past weekend gave me a much needed distraction from all this college business. All of the 450 + exchange students living in France this year congregated in Annecy for a huge Rotary weekend. And oh my goodness I love exchangers! Being with the other exchange students is literally a home away from home and you somehow find yourself surrounded by so many best friends. I ended up sharing a room with Carolina, and Pruthvi stayed in the room right next to us. I also spent a big part of the weekend talking to Julia, who's been my friend since Kindergarten (Go Norwich!!) and it was just so much fun to talk and dance and party it up. 

This whole weekend reminded me of another thing that I forgot to mention until now: patriotism. I've never felt as patriotic in my whole life as much as this one year on exchange. However, my patriotism is slightly different than when I left for France. I've always felt incredibly lucky and proud to come from a country revolving around freedom and liberty. And don't get me wrong; I still am. It's just that now I have patriotism for a lot of other countries too! I feel like a part of me now belongs to France, Brazil, and India (among many others). In the course of several hours this weekend, I found myself gathered around the American exchange students singing the National Anthem, chanting Bra-sil over and over and singing songs in Portuguese with the Brazilians, and walking around Annecy with the Indian flag draped around my shoulders all day. I love every country represented here and they are all a part of me.

This whole year has made me so aware of myself and of others. I used to think that I knew everything about, well, everything. I honestly didn't think there was that much room for me to grow on exchange because I already felt so mature. Now I look back on that person and realize how wrong I was. If anything, this year has opened my eyes to how little I know and how much there is for me to still find out. Everything from my interests to my future plans and personality have changed because of this year. Brown might not like it, but I do. In fact, I love it. I love all the countries and cultures which make us different and unite us at the same time. I love discovery and adventure. I love exchange. I love my families. I love my friends.  

And I love myself.

French Fine Dining

I promised that I would write a new exciting post soon, and since I always keep my promises, here it is:

To start off, I should probably just say that this post isn't actually all that super exciting unless you are a gourmand (food lover) like me. And yes, if that didn't give it off, this is yet another food post. Last friday, my host family took me to the best gourmet restaurant in Privas called La Chaumette. I forgot if it has one or two stars, but it's considered a good restaurant if it has any stars at all. (Cafés and MickyDs don't have stars.)

Oh my gosh. It was so good. The whole French dining experience at its best. I was honestly not expecting to go to a gourmet restaurant friday evening. Usually, my host family orders pizzas and we have a laid back meal in pajamas. (Or now that I think about it, I'm usually the only one in pajamas.) Anyway, after school, I went on a long run and was dying of heat by the time I got back. I took my shower, threw on my sweats and a hoodie and was ready to settle in for the always-anticipated Friday pizza movie dinner.

However, my host dad announced we would be going out for dinner so I went back to my room and changed from sweats into jeans. (My whole family had been joking about going to McDonalds, and since I thought they were legit being serious, I was completely fine leaving the house with my comfy clothes and no makeup.)

I started getting suspicious when we made a turn that took us in the opposite direction from McDonalds. We ended up driving to a classy hotel which had an intimate, beautiful restaurant with waiters in tuxedos, and that's when I wished I had taken a little more than 2 seconds to get ready. One waiter greeted us at the door where he took our coats (and in my case, a hoodie) and hung them up all neatly on hangers. At that point, I was just glad I had decided to take a shower!

We were led to our table, and besides us, there was only one other couple in the restaurant. I know that's usually a bad sign, but this was an exception. We were served so many courses, and every plate was so delicious and flavorful and ultimately just really pretty to look at!

I can't remember most of the menu, and I didn't know what half of it was anyway, but here's what I do remember:

1. A starter of sushi, other appetizer-like substances that I'm sure have names to food-critics or people who know the slightest thing about food, and chestnut-flavored white wine. After that was another starter of sautéed salmon in a really fluffy lemon-lime mousse.

2. An entrée of eel and asparagus with gelatin in a citrus-y sauce, and another entrée of thin raw beef slices served with black salt and some type of soft cheese.

3. For the main meal, we were served poultry stuffed with spinach and asparagus on the side. It was served in a gravy with morille mushrooms (which are to die-for). There was also bread made from chestnut powder and puréed potatoes in a side dish. After that came a soup with more poultry and vegetables.

4. After the main course, they served a quick "palette cleanser" of mousse made from chestnut cream (I'm not sure if I already put this in my blog, but Ardèche (mainly Privas) is a region well know for its chestnut products. 

5. There might have been something in between that I forgot, but I think dessert came just afterwards. I ordered a dish of tropical fruit, sponge cake soaked with some type of fruity alcohol, papaya gelato, and a fruity sauce that was flavored with vanilla from Madagascar. The other option was tiramisu, which was also very impressive. The waiter arrived with a plate that had a chocolate sphere on it. He then lit some other type of alcohol on fire and poured it all over the chocolate sphere which then melted and opened up to reveal the tiramisu. I love France!

6. After that came coffee time. Espresso served with macaroons and other little cakes. And.....then it was done.

Since I thought I was going to McDonalds, I didn't bring my camera, but Simon (my host brother) had his phone and he took lots of pictures on that. Hence, the wait for the pictures. They aren't the best quality because the lighting was dim and the phone camera was a little fuzzy, but they're better than nothing.

Before I end this post, I just want to point out another thing about the French dining experience. When we were given the menus, the server was ready with two different types: one for the women (which was distributed first), and another for the men. Basically, a fine French restaurant will never give women menus with the prices. The prices are only displayed on the men's menu because they are supposedly the ones who invited the ladies out to dinner and they are the ones who will pay. It's a little old fashioned, but the French place an emphasis on the act of upholding traditions. After learning that, I had to ask, "Well, what if there are only women out dining together?"In response to that, the waiter told me that they will check ahead to see which lady made the reservation, and she will be the only one to receive a menu with the prices. Interesting.

Now that this post has gotten a little out of hand (I'm starting to notice that it's always the food entries which go on and on and on) I am going to stop here for now. Overall, La Chaumette was one of the most amazing food experiences I have ever had in my whole life, and next time, I'll think twice about putting on a nice shirt and a little mascara before I leave for McDonalds.

Avignon

Time is flying by quicker than ever! Weekend outings have become routine, school days blend into the next, and vacations come and go. And while I've fit so much into this year, I just can't wrap my head around how time keeps accelerating. I counted the days today, and here it is: only 28 more days of school (!) and 95 more days in France. It honestly felt like last week when I last counted the days and had 115 left to go. The numbers are becoming more and more realistic, and I wish I could just put a pause on it all and yell "STOP! Lets just slow things down a little bit more, and I'll figure this all out." Unfortunately, yelling "stop" does nothing so I guess I'll just have to learn to pick up the pace myself.

In addition, I've had more energy this past week than I think I've ever had in my whole life. I'm supposed to be hearing back from colleges any day now and I hate waiting. So much. (I'm kind of a huge hypocrite for saying this, but I just wish this week would fly by already so I can get my decisions.) I've still got Boston College, and I'll be happy to go there if my other schools say no, but I really really want to get in to Brown / Pomona / Pitzer or a combination of the three. I'm trying to gear up for rejection, but there's still that little voice in the back of my head that tells me: "Hayley Chwazik-Gee is amazingly amazing and why would they ever say no?" Well, in response to that, I'm sure my math teacher would say, "well your 2 on the AP Calc isn't helping you out so much, and neither is your boringly average SAT score," but come on, other than that, I am a catch. So anyway, if the Universe is out there reading my blog, I just want to say that I'm sending you good vibes, and I hope you you send me something (hopefully in the form of an acceptance letter) in return.

Back to all the energy boost this has been giving me, I have been trying to put it all to good use. I've started going on hour long runs in the forest after school, and yeah...that's about it. (I suppose that was anti-climatic.) Anyway, they help, but it's still super duper annoying because I have to lie in my bed for about an hour with random thoughts and images and visions racing through my brain at the speed of light before I can semi-fall asleep every night. I mean, whatever happened to the good old days when one could just hit the sack and call it a day?

Other than all that, I suppose I can tell you about my weekend in Avignon. My host parents took me there yesterday, and it was a very nice, relaxing day. The weather was gorgeous and sunny, and I even enjoyed just staring out the window for the hour and a half car ride south to the beautiful Provençal city.

The main attraction in Avignon is the Palais des Papes, or the Popes' Palace. During the Catholic Schism, the popes relocated from Rome to the city of Avignon and 9 popes lived there during the course of about a century. I went around with an audio guide, but I didn't understand too much. Usually, I have no idea what the narrator is saying in English, and since I listened in French this time, I was just flat-out lost. However, you really don't need a guide at all to be impressed. Just standing there in the huge, ginormous rooms will leave you speechless at first. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous castle, and I plan on going there again in April with my mom and sister!

Avignon is a very old city that dates back to hundreds of years before Jesus, so there is plenty of history and culture to see. Roman ruins, pope things, a medieval wall around the city, the bridge of Avignon, churches....you get the picture. And if that's not for you, each summer there is a really well-known festival at Avignon with tons of shows in every nook and cranny of the city. They have everything from Shakespearean plays to modern plays that are held in schools, in the castle, on the streets; literally everywhere. Sadly, I will be home before that all takes place, but it'll just give me another reason to come back and visit!

That's all for now. I have another entry coming soon, but I need to get the pictures from my host brother because it isn't worth writing if there aren't pictures. (Trust me, they are the best part.) Anyway, it will be a pretty exciting post in my opinion, so you'll just have to tune in and wait!

The Crocodile Farm

The Dollé's took me to a Crocodile Farm this weekend in Southern Ardèche. Pretty awesome, right? I was a little surprised when they told me all about it because this is what I got from the conversation: We're going to an exotic crocodile farm right next to the nuclear power plant in the middle of nowhere. When I hear something like that, I usually think, "O.k. Hayley, got to keep working on the French, but don't worry, it's getting better!" (And that right there is my habitual self motivation in the mirror.) However, they weren't kidding and I didn't misunderstand. Last Sunday, we drove to the middle of nowhere in the rain to this huge warehouse-looking structure with the ginormous power plant billowing smoke in the background. (I know this sounds like a nightmare, but it was less creepy in person. Sort of.)

I enjoyed the crocodile farm. As soon as we walked in the building, the artificial sun and heat and tropical plants were all very welcoming after the cool, dark, rainy exterior. We spent several hours walking around the structure and learning all about crocodiles. Now that I'm very knowledgable about them, I'll give you a few facts:

1. Crocodiles are very very very lazy
2. Crocodiles in Ardèche eat twice a week
3. There are 23 different types of crocodiles
4. Crocodiles live to be around 100 years old
5. There are only 20 albino crocodiles from Mississippi left in the world (2 of them are living next to a nuclear power plant in France.)

The farm was a scientific research center and it is also a place where they bring endangered crocodiles as a safe-haven and breeding ground. The center works on introducing the crocodiles and the offspring back to the wild. There are tons of other facts that I learned but I forgot them all. It was a worthwhile visit though and since I rather love animals, I thought it was all interesting.

Once we left the farm that afternoon, we went to Chateau Grignan in the Drome Provençal (it was my second visit there) and after that we went to the creepiest, and I mean creepiest, antiques shop ever. It was huge and scary, and it would be the perfect setting for a Hitchcock film. This shop was also in the middle of nowhere, and it had every possible nightmarish thing imaginable. Dolls with missing body parts, dummies, chainsaws, empty dungeon-like halls, and clowns.

I enjoyed this place a whole lot less than the crocodile farm. I also thought it was terrible not only for the creepiness, but also because they had poor animals living in horrible conditions. There were camels standing out in the cold rain without shelter in a small enclosure, and there were these poor, poor birds (cockatoos and other very social birds) that were stuffed in a very small, very dark rusty iron cage outside. There was no natural light in the cage (or no artificial light for that matter) and they were all standing on rusted steel bars. The cement floor was was covered in the birds' waste and my heart went out to them.

Other than all that, there's not much else happening here for a little while. I didn't have school yesterday or this morning because my class is taking a baccalaureate exam for next year, and since I'm all graduated, I was free! Unfortunately I've got 2 hours of economy class in about 15 minutes, so I should probably go change out of my pajamas...

Carnaval!

It officially feels like spring here. For the past week, the sun has been shining non-stop and the flowers are in bloom. I've spent the past three days basking in the hot sun on the patio, and I've finally regained some color in my pale winter skin. Every time I walk outside without a jacket I'm thrown into an instantaneously really great mood (unless I'm heading off to class after lunch or something). All in all, I just want to thank gloomy, cold upstate New York for helping me appreciate the sun and a blue sky.

Now that that piece is said, I can talk about Carnaval! (My new favorite day of the French school year.) It is basically a day where people dress up in costumes to celebrate the beginning of spring. (Oh - and carnaval is the French spelling of carnival, so I just thought I should stick that in here somewhere.) Our school's Carnaval was yesterday; I dressed up as a playing card (the Queen of Hearts) with Mathilde and another friend, Charlotte (not my host sister). We spent all Sunday making our costumes with the help of paper board and a lot of computer images and now I'm pretty sure there's no more colored printer ink left in France. Charlotte made earrings and rings out of cards, and we coordinated our outfits to be black and red - down to the fingernails haha! 

I was slightly worried because Charlotte and Mathilde are in the same class and they started an hour earlier than me, and I didn't want to be the only one decked out (yes, pun intended) in an absolutely ridiculous costume in my class. And as it turns out, I did look ridiculous and overboard because only about half of my class dressed up (and, mind you, in outfits where you don't have to worry about walking through doorways and such), but I really didn't care because I thought I looked rather fantastic. The weirdest part was walking to school all alone the morning of with random people just staring as you walked by. However, to be completely honest, I kind of felt invincible in my costume. (Yes, it sounds weird, but I can't think of any other way to put it.) As the day went on, I felt less and less self-conscious and on the walk home that evening, I didn't care one bit what people were thinking. 

The main festivities occurred around lunchtime. I brought a picnic and ate with Mathilde and Charlotte outside. We ate our smoked salmon sandwiches, chips, drinkable yogurt, and little chocolate hearts on the grass under the perfectly warm sun. Almost everyone brought picnics, and there were even several people who were ready with blankets and huge parasols haha :p 

After lunch, we all headed to the outdoor track to parade our costumes. Carnaval also consists of a competition for best costume, so there were judges and runway music playing. First place went to my host brother, Simon, and his friends who dressed up as Tetris. I must say, their costumes were really great and original, and they certainly spent a lot of time making it. Here's some pictures of the costumes:

One thing that surprised me was how laid back the school was about dress-code for Carnaval. There was a group of boys that dressed up in kilts and paraded around the track flashing everyone multiple times; including the teachers. (They won second place.) Oh, and Marlboro won for best individual costume. There were also male teachers dressed up with half of their shirt unbuttoned and all their chest hair sticking out. Euh... 'Nuf said. In addition, there were tons of students who brought fake real-looking guns to school as part of their costumes; surely one thing that would never ever, in a million years, pass in an American high school! - Halloween or not. There were some awesome costumes, though, and I definitely agreed with first place going to Tetris. 

After the parade, everything went back to normal minus all the costumes. I had class for yet another 4 hours, so that was kind of painful, but other than that, Carnaval was a success!