Happy Thanksgiving

Salut tout de monde,

Happy Thanksgiving!! Je sais thanksgiving était il ya 2 jour, mais je n'ai pas eu le temps pour bloguer jusqu'à ce maintenant! Donc,  je n'ai rien fait pour thanksgiving parce que ce était jeudi et jeudi est mon jour de retard. Donc, je ne suis pas à la maison jusqu'à 18h. Mais il se sentait comme thanksgiving parce Renata fait un grand repas pour le dîne ce soir. Je étais tellement plein après.

D'accord, je suis écrire ce maintenant et il est 00h15. Donc je vais commencer à écrire en anglais. MDRR! (for those of you that don't know MDR is the equivalent to LOL!:))

Okay, so now it is officially christmas time! The lights all down the main street of wittelsheim have been lit up and it is so cute! They are on each side of the street all the way through town! Renata also hung the garland with lights on the railing going up to the house and it is soo pretty!:) Today during lunch she also gave Lea and I these super cute calendars that as soon as december starts we can open a door each day and it will have a different Kinder chocolate inside! :) safe to say I am excited about this! LOL! I REALLY love christmas so I am excited for this month!

On another note it is also going to be the start of my 4th month in France in a couple of days! I literally cannot believe how fast time goes here! Today my mom needed to ask me about booking my flight home and I was like freaking out inside because I feel like I am really just getting into this! Everyone says that around christmas time you really start to understand and are able to speak more and I really feel like that is true right now! I have noticed recently how much I really do understand and when I speak it doesn't feel so foreign and unnatural! Even though I still have the worst accent ever! LOL!

EXAMPLE: this morning I had just woken up and Renata asked me to go put somethings somewhere downstairs and I understood everything she said without even having to think about it! It was funny because she asked me after she said it, if I understood and I said yes and she smiled and was very happy that I did! I was proud of myself considering I had just woke up and wasn't quite functioning at 100% yet!:)

Another good note, I finally got to see Mockingjay ( I think thats one word, tbh, I am not sure and I dont want to google it right now). It was in french, obviously, but since I had read the books and seen the other movies I knew what should be going on, So that helped me understand more and like i said earlier I really am understanding more. It was a good experience over all! I wasnt lost the whole time! I was really happy because I understood a lot of those lines in the movie that are meant to be a  joke and lighten the mood! They all used pretty simple vocabulary, so I laughed and wasn't just doing it because everyone else was! LOL!:)

That last sentence is the definition of "exchange student'!

Also I have 2 more weeks of school before my second holiday, I am counting the days! hahah!:)

Nothing to crazy or interesting is going on right now, but I am enjoying every minute that I spend here and It definitely feels like home now which is good for me and I think it is good for my exchange as well!

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving (if you are in America) and if your not I hope you had a good week and are getting geared up for christmas!:)

Sorry there is no pictures on this post, I have some of course, but that will take more work than I have energy for right now!
Until next time!

peace
xoxoxox
Grace <3

Layering

Good morning everyone,

It is currrently 7:14 am and I would much rather be in my bed alseep than going to school! 

I know it's been a while since my last blog but I just don't think blogging about school is that interesting and that's a majority of my week, so sorry about the absence! 

Let's get down to businessss 

This week is normally the week before thanksgiving for me and in the US we are at this weird point between Halloween and Christmas decorations! However in Europe they obviously don't celebrate thanksgiving so as soon as November started so did the Christmas decorations and commercials! It is weird not having thanksgiving this year but at the same time it's cool because Renata didn't really know what the holiday was so I got to explain it to her! 

Another thing, here they celebrate a day before Christmas for saint Nicolas and then Christmas is for papa Noel (aka Santa clause). Renata told me that saint Nicolas day is for candy and chocolates to give to the kids and more of a traditional holiday! There are also these gingerbread man shaped roles that are  traditional in Alsace and you eat those on Saint Nicolas day! Then for Christmas you do all the presents and things! So that will be interesting to celebrate and see how it all works!!:)

This past weekend wasn't too too eventful it was a very rainy weekend, but that doesn't stop anything!!:) Saturday morning renata, wojtek and I cleaned the house as per usual, then we ate lunch and had a lazy relaxing afternoon! That night léa invited me to go to this resturant lounge with her and her friend to hang out and get dessert! Her and I had been there once before and ordered dessert and it was too good not to go back! We both ordered the same thing we ordered the first time! For me, crème brûlée with a tiny scoop of ice cream and for léa a choclate soufflé with caramel ice cream and a tiny pistachio milk shake drink! SOOO GOOD!!<3<3 Then sunday Renata had her concert performance for her polish folk singing! It was a really good show! They all had traditional costumes and instruments! I'll post a pic at the end!! Then we went to this dinner type thing with everyone from the concert and there was a bunch of traditional polish food! It was yummy! :)

SIDE BAR: isador just walked in the house sniffed my food and then licked it!! LOL!:) he's so weird! 

Okay back to what I was saying! So every Monday from 4:30-6 I have UNSS which is the little sports thing that I do! Normally I shoot hoops and just work with a basketball, but yesterday I went to this gymnastics/ weight lifting time! It was really fun! I did gymnastics with one of my girl friends from class and then when she had to leave I did some weight lifting! 

It's was a very nice last couple of days! It has now been a whole day because I started this blog this morning at 7:15 and I am finishing it now at 7:27! I am now watching money drop and drinking Noel tea with my fam!! :) 

ONE MORE THING before I go, the whole reason I wanted to blog this morning was to say this, "layering is how I survive in the cold!" I used to never believe in the concept of layering, but now I will wear items of clothing that don't match my outfit AT ALL just for the sake of being warm! LOL!

Okay I am finished!!:) 

             PICTUREEE TIMMMEE!!!:)

               The polish folk concert 

            Dessert from the resturant 

This also a dessert renata made this weekend 

I hope everyone has a lovely week! 

Salut

Xoxox

Grace 

2 month Anniversary

Salut my good people,

Today November 6th marks my 2 month anniversary for being in France!!! Yaaayyyyyy!
I can hardly believe that I have already been here 2 months, yet at the same time it does feel like I am actually here now! Before you go on exchange you hear everyone telling you, this month this will happen, then the next month this will happen and after that you feel this and then that...etc. I expected it to be sort of similar to what those people said, but I didn't expect for them to be right on the money!

My first month of exchange was this whirl wind of weird, new exciting, different activities and experiences, so it didn't seem like I was actually living my life. It was like some magical dream! But when the second month rolled around I had really started to develop a routine! I had been in school for a while and made friends and was staring to kind of figure out what was happening. Things were starting to become normal! Now that the second month has passed everything seems and feels normal, this is my life, I live in France as of right now! LOL! It seems as though I just came to this realization as of this very moment! I promise I haven't, my feelings just match the reality now! :)

I am really understanding sooo much more than I was at the beginning of the month and I think my speaking has improved! At least thats what all my friends at school have been telling me! hahaha! :) To conclude, I feel really good about everything right now and I am so happy to be reaching mile stones in my exchange!

Donc,
Here in Wittelshiem, the weather has officially started to change! It is pretty much always cold now, no more fluctuations between warm one day and snowing the next! It is just cold! However, I am enjoying it!:) This week has been pretty rainy! It rained all of yesterday, it started the night before yesterday and rained until the middle of the night last night! It wasn't too bad really, I layer in my bed with my window open and read my book all day. One of my favorite things to do!:)

 I've gotten smart and brought my umbrella with me, so I can walk home after school instead of Renata, or Wojtek having to drive 5 seconds to pick me up! Hahahaha!:) It also gets dark crazy early here now! It messes with my body clock a little! I've been feeling like its time for bed at like 7:30-8 every night! LOL! It gets dark around 5:45 and by 6 its pitch black and the moon is out! It was bizarre because today I was walking home after school and today was my long day, so I finished at 5:30. When I left school it was already almost completely dark and by the time I got home it was pitch black and like I said the moon was up in the sky! It was awesome though because it looked like a full moon, I don't know if it was or not, but it looked that way! So it was a pretty walk!

One last thing before I go! Renata had asked me last night if I could make pancakes for this morning. I have been wanting to do that for a while since, they don't eat pancakes very often here! So I said sure! I wasn't even really thinking about the fact that I would have to get up at 6:20, make the pancakes from scratch, converts the units of measurement and cook enough for 4 people. Then I find out as I am literally needing to eat and leave for school, that the recipe was tiny and I should have tripled it! So then I have to make another batch, but by then I had no choice but to leave it there for Renata to finish, because I had to go to school! It was crazy! Renata kept telling me to, " to sit down, chill out and eat." (in french of course) But I kept telling her that we didn't have time for that, so I ate as I cooked! It was crazy and hectic, but really fun! And thinking back on it now, we both probably looked like lunatics half asleep and destroying the kitchen at 7:15 am! :) I did teach Renata how to just cook pancakes in a pan on the stove, rather than in a machine, so that was cool also!:)
(don't ask me how she cooked pancakes in a machine, because I have never seen that in my life)
While we were driving to school, Renata looked over at me and said, "what was I thinking when I said can you make pancakes this morning!" It was really funny! Neither of us really considered the time we needed! LOL!:)

Alrighty, I hope you all have a super weekend and friday! I am not really sure what my plans are, maybe get the perfume I have been waiting to buy since I arrived! Hahaha!:)

Hasta luego and bonne nuit,
XOXOXO
Grace <3

Vacances/ Norvege :)

Hello tout le monde,

It has been way to long since I have last posted on my blog. I have wanted to and needed to, but it is hard to sit down and take the time to write sometimes!

So, the past 2 weeks I have been out of school on vacances. In french school their system for vacation is, 6 weeks on school 2 weeks of vacation! So my next vacation will be in december. The last 2 weeks for christmas!:)

The first week of vacances I didn't have any plans really, I was just playing it by ear! The only thing I knew I had to do was buy a coat! Hahaha! I ended up doing something everyday the first week of vacances. It was a very full week to say the least, but it was really fun, so who cares! I went shopping, bowling, horse back ridding, I went to a birthday party and Hiking! I literally got to do 3 of my favorite things 3 days in a row! It was fabulous! The horse back ridding and hiking were definitely the high lights of my week!

 I rode english saddle when I went horse back ridding because I am in europe and western saddle really doesn't exist here! Hahaha! Before I went I was super nervous because the last time I rode english saddle it didn't go so well! But it ended up going WAYY better than I expected! I got to gallop, trop and canter and it was just really amazing! The girl who I went with is named Floriane. The horse I rode was her horse. She jumps horses in competition and I am very jealous of her! The stables were very beautiful in a rustic way! I really enjoyed that day! Even though I was sooo incredible sore after! Hahaha!:)

Hiking was also really amazing, it was just me, Renata, Wojtek and Isador which was nice! We drove up into the voges to the trail where you can see the swiss alps! I was completely mind blown over the whole thing! I tried to take so many pictures of the view and I will post one, but it really is nothing like the real thing! It was incredible! There was also snow up on the mountain and on the trail! when Renata and I were walking together at one point, she all of a sudden bent down, grabbed a hand full of snow and threw it at me! Then she laughed and laughed until I got my revenge! Then she didn't think it was so funny!:) The view up on the mountain was amazing and I hope I get to go up and hike at least one more time while I am here!

SIDE NOTE:
Renata my host mom likes to play tricks on me and just mess with me in general!
Here are a couple stories of her messing with me that I have forgotten to put in other posts.

- one day I got home from school and sometimes instead of using the front door I walk around to the back of the house! Also, everyone knows when I get home because my school schedule is on the fridge and isador starts freaking out! So this day I decided to walk around back. Right when I walk in the house Renata comes back from the entry hall with the chair cushions from outside and she's laughing super hard. I asked her what she was doing and her answer was this, " I was going to hit you with the pillows when you walked in the door and scare you!" I was so shocked and happy that she was going to try and scare me that I started laughing too! It made me happy that she was trying to play tricks on me because back in texas, that's "the thing" that me and my brother and occasionally my parents do! We play scare pranks on each other! So that made me smile!

- This one was just funny! At night Renata and Wojtek watch tv and most nights I watch one or two shows with them and sometimes lea comes too! A lot of the time I lay on the floor with isador to watch tv! I don't know why, but I like to sit on the carpet with him! This night though, I was laying on the ground beside the couch. Renata was sitting on the couch above me! I was texting one of my friends from school when all of a sudden its raining on my face and renata is dying laughing! She had poured the rest of the water that was in her cup on my face while I was laying down! once again I was so shocked and happy that she was playing pranks that I started laughing too! Wojtek and Lea didn't see it happen, but when Renata told them, they started laughing too!

Basically I have no idea when she is going to get me because she just does it whenever the feeling strikes her! LOL!:)

Okay now back to vacances! The BIG event of my vacation was my trip to Bergen, Norway! My host sister Olivia and I went together and we stayed with family friends who live in Bergen! The family we stayed with has 3 children who were all exchange students! 2 of them, the boys, were hosted by my aunt and uncle! So that is how I knew the family! Norway was absolutely beautiful! As my uncle always say's, "It's a place of natures raw beauty!" Even though when we were there it was rainy pretty much all day everyday except our last day, it was still amazing!

We walked up the mountain and got to see all of Bergen, and each day Britt, the woman we were staying with would go to work, so olivia and I got to spend some good time together! I was really happy that Olivia got to come with me because she doesn't live near Wittelsheim and we never really get to see each other!

For 2 days olivia and I went around and shopped and found little churches and places around town that we wanted to see! It was awesome because I am pretty sure we managed to walk all of downtown Bergen! There wasn't anything we didn't get to see! Wednesday we had planned to go on a boat tour of the fjords! That was like the big event that we had planned on doing! It was definitely the highlight of my trip! The fjord was breath taking!

Each night we would eat dinner with britt and then talk and Britt would show us pictures or we would watch a movie! One night we went to Cathrine's house, Britt's Daughter and another we walked up the mountain to see Bergen by night then we made home made blueberry muffins! It was really fun!

Then last night was halloween, no one really dresses up and goes trick or treating in France. Little kids do, but I didn't really see anybody out last night! Me and 4 of my friends decided to get together and we ate candy, played just dance and then watched saw 7, which is the nastiest movie ever! It was a different halloween then I am used to, but it was still very very fun!

Over all Vacances, has been absolutely amazing!

David my host brothers birthday is tomorrow and I think I am going to make pancakes for everyone for breakfast tomorrow also! A good end to a fabulous vacation!:)

PICTURE TIME!!!!!!

Beware there are about 10000

These are from our hike

Seeing the snow was really cool

The swiss alps in the distance! You can't really see the clarity that you see in person! But you get the idea of the awesomeness that came from this view!

Cows on the grazing on the mountain! Its funny because in Texas you don't see black and white cows as much as you see like brown, white, black and some other mixes of colors! But here I have only seen black and white cows!

NORWAY
this is the top of the mountain that britt lives on, the view behind me is downtown bergen and the harbor

Olivia and I at on of the museums we visited! we were standing in front of the table that the king and queen of norway sit at! For those of you that had no previous knowledge of this, Norway has a royal family!

from right to left, Britt, Me, Catherine (britt's daughter), Ingred and christian (Catherine's kids)

This was the road we walked down to get down the mountain and into town

This was the park that was to my right in the picture above ^^^

The Harbor

The Center of downtown 

There were about a million churches in Bergen, we were told that pretty much all of them were protestant. This was just one of them. However I am pretty sure that Olivia and I managed to visit all of them!:)

Little gazebo that was by this lake that you could walk around and sit at! But I am pretty sure this was just for show, because I didn't see a place for people to actually walk up and go inside.

There was a little market going on in front of the lake and it was like different countries food at each one. This was Italy.

Candy Haribo is like the candy brand of europe, like wonka or hershey's in the US

Belgium waffles! With NUTELLA <3

The walk way around the lake

The Fish Market 

The huge black chunks are whale, Olivia and I tried it and I thought it was pretty good!

The welcome man at the fish market

This was an amazing cake that britt's friend made! <3

This is an iconic spot in Bergen, it is from the old bergen before everything new was built! Its really cute! 

The fjord tour!!!! <3

This was like the entrance to the big big fjord

They called this Norwegian whiskey, this man reached out with a bucket and got water from the water fall in the fjord then we got to drink it! :)

Double rainbow on the way back home, we actually saw 4 different rainbows on the way home

I forgot the name of this bridge, but half of it is just floating because the fjord is too deep to anchor it 

Bergen by night! This was when we walked up the mountain to see the view of bergen at night!

This is a very old church that was moved to Bergen after being rebuilt. The original was burned by a french man that worshipped the devil. we couldn't get closer because there is a big fence with security and cameras around it! It is open from like may to september!

It is in a huge forest!

The walk up to it was crazy steep though! Hahaha! My butt was definitely feeling that walk at 9am in the morning!:)

This is the castle were the King and Queen stay when they are visiting Bergen! You can go on the grounds and walk around, but you can't go in, except for a few days during the summer!

Our hike up the mountain

This is a little kindergarden up on the mountain! Britt said the little kids have to take the cable car up each morning to get there!

The restaurant at the top! 

We stopped and got hot chocolate, the view was awesome!

Olivia and I stopped for lunch one day and of course out of everything we could have ordered we got burgers! Hahaha!:) We were really hungry and burgers sounded awesome!

This was a joke during the trip because I hadnt seen one starbucks since getting to France and so I joked that I had to come to Norway to get one! So I obviously had to stop at Starbucks and grab a coffee! But it was way to expensive! hahaha! I am going to stick to little cafes from now on.

More from the Fish market

This was the fish market from the outside

That building was the starbucks and  I just had to take a picture because it was the most beautiful starbucks building I had ever seen!

Being artsy with the umbrella! LOL!

More from the Fjord tour

More from our hike! this was the Troll park on the mountain for kids!

We just had to take a picture with the troll

Britt and I!:)

The cable car

The view out of Britts living room! Just gorgeous!

Okay I know that was a ton of pictures and I even have more from the previous week but I won't post them because this post is crazy long! LOL!

I hope everyone had a great halloween and has a beautiful week to come! 

À bientôt

XOXO

Grace <3