Blog writing has become a thing of the more recent past. But I’m putting in some serious effort today to update on all that has occurred in the last while.
School is officially over for me this semester. The first two weeks of December were filled with exams, papers, and oral exams. It was definitely a lot of studying, but the results were well earned. My math courses were much more difficult then the literature ones, but they have something called rattrapage, where if you don’t do well, they let you rewrite the exams in the middle of January. Sweet! I’ve already looked over the courses for next semester, and it should be good. I’m not going to be taking any maths (which eliminates having to be up at 6:30am every morning and traveling across the city). I have quite a few random courses on the list – a greek civilisation, the Bible as literature, stylistics, and a couple ancient literature. I’m looking forward to it.
On December 5, 2008 (Friday), Melissa and I and a two bus loads of other foreign kids went to Lyon for the Festival of Lights. It is an annual thing, where the entire city is dec
ked out in all kinds of lights. There are also light shows played on the sides of the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) and the church fronts. It was really pretty. Melissa and I treated ourselves to a nice dinner. We made it home in one piece, walked back up to our res and crashed. We both woke up at 6am and hurled our guts out. We had a serious case of food poisoning. It was horrible. We spent the entire weekend in bed – skipped church and singing practice. Saturday afternoon, my biggest accomplishment was sitting up without running to the bathroom, then Sunday, it was standing. It was the best worst weekend ever.
La Racclette is a restaurant that serves the local traditional food. It’s also the place that all the kids in my math class got together for a “class dinner”. It was a lot of fun. An entire evening (French meals last minimum 4 hours) just hanging out, no math theories, properties or propositions. It’s surprising how different people act from one situation to another. In c
lass, they are closed and serious, at dinner they are open, laughing, living.
The church, GBSE, held their outreach/evangelism Christmas on the 14th. We participated by singing English carols. It was a good time. They did a spin and a true English Christmas : they used Scrooge as the main character (after he was transformed into a happy guy) and spinned it so that he changed because of Christ. English traditions were also included, the served figgy pudding and the drink wassail. After all the guests left, Melissa and I helped clean up, mopping, sweeping, dishes, etc.
Last week, after writing our translation exam, we left the building to find 4 inches of snow on the ground. We couldn’t help it. We had to make a snow man. Sooo much fun!! Even without mittens and hands that went completely numb, it was totally worth it. We made a sign. We gave him a name and a nationality. All the French kids that walked past stared at us and thought we were crazy. Those who were in class, paid no attention to the lecture, but watched us intently. George was the highlight of the day!
This past week has been filled with a lot of social events. On Tuesday, Ray and RuthAnn took us (Jessica, Melissa and I) out for Chinese, as a post celebration of Jessica’s birthday and to thank us for our contribution to the Christmas event. It was true Chinese food. Not the greasy North American version.
I had my last oral exam on Wednesday afternoon and that evening Melissa and I hosted a “Repas à la Residen
ce”. We invited the Irish kids, the other Canadians and the Alaskan for dinner/potluck. The guests brought salads and dessert. It was quite a spread. Naturally we had way too much food. I wasn’t sure how much pasta they would eat, so I ended up cooking a kilo. I have been eating pasta all week. On Thursday, we had the International Dinner at CILEC (the FSL program). Then we headed to the bar afterward for a drink. There was a night club that was recruiting people, so they offered a night where ERASMUS kids could get in for free, perfect. So that’s where we headed afterwards. It was a lot of fun. Danced the night away. Literally. I didn’t get home to 04H15. Great night.
Then on Friday night, Melissa and I went skating with Benjamin (a guy in my math class, who had never been skating ever). It was great! I haven’t been skating in so long! He picked us up and then dropped us off. I love not taking the bus. We got back at 11pm, when Tammy (Canadienne) was hosting a SLUMBER PARTY!!!!! The plan was to cram as many mattresses as we could into one room and to stay up all night watching movies. But we (12 of us) only ended up watching one, Polar Express. It was cute. We spent the rest of
the night talking. It was a great night. Sleep is way overrated. We called it a night at 06h00. Good times.
Saturday was really chill. Sleeping, laundry, letter writing, dinner with the group. Today has also been very chill. Just hanging out, continuing the letter writing, blogging, I should probably start packing soon, as we leave for Holland early tomorrow morning. I’m really excited. We’re going to hangout with the family on Christmas Day and then explore, visit friends and go shopping! I’m so excited to find shoes that fit and are waterproof. In France, none of the stores carry anything over size 41. We found one that had 42s so we both bought them. Shoes here are also very narrow, so I ended up stretching them way out, breaking the seal and have been walking around with wet feet for the past 3 weeks, since it snowed and turned to slush. Not cool.
Well, that’s all for this month. You’ll hear from me in the New Year!
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.
School is officially over for me this semester. The first two weeks of December were filled with exams, papers, and oral exams. It was definitely a lot of studying, but the results were well earned. My math courses were much more difficult then the literature ones, but they have something called rattrapage, where if you don’t do well, they let you rewrite the exams in the middle of January. Sweet! I’ve already looked over the courses for next semester, and it should be good. I’m not going to be taking any maths (which eliminates having to be up at 6:30am every morning and traveling across the city). I have quite a few random courses on the list – a greek civilisation, the Bible as literature, stylistics, and a couple ancient literature. I’m looking forward to it.
On December 5, 2008 (Friday), Melissa and I and a two bus loads of other foreign kids went to Lyon for the Festival of Lights. It is an annual thing, where the entire city is dec
ked out in all kinds of lights. There are also light shows played on the sides of the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) and the church fronts. It was really pretty. Melissa and I treated ourselves to a nice dinner. We made it home in one piece, walked back up to our res and crashed. We both woke up at 6am and hurled our guts out. We had a serious case of food poisoning. It was horrible. We spent the entire weekend in bed – skipped church and singing practice. Saturday afternoon, my biggest accomplishment was sitting up without running to the bathroom, then Sunday, it was standing. It was the best worst weekend ever.La Racclette is a restaurant that serves the local traditional food. It’s also the place that all the kids in my math class got together for a “class dinner”. It was a lot of fun. An entire evening (French meals last minimum 4 hours) just hanging out, no math theories, properties or propositions. It’s surprising how different people act from one situation to another. In c
lass, they are closed and serious, at dinner they are open, laughing, living.The church, GBSE, held their outreach/evangelism Christmas on the 14th. We participated by singing English carols. It was a good time. They did a spin and a true English Christmas : they used Scrooge as the main character (after he was transformed into a happy guy) and spinned it so that he changed because of Christ. English traditions were also included, the served figgy pudding and the drink wassail. After all the guests left, Melissa and I helped clean up, mopping, sweeping, dishes, etc.
Last week, after writing our translation exam, we left the building to find 4 inches of snow on the ground. We couldn’t help it. We had to make a snow man. Sooo much fun!! Even without mittens and hands that went completely numb, it was totally worth it. We made a sign. We gave him a name and a nationality. All the French kids that walked past stared at us and thought we were crazy. Those who were in class, paid no attention to the lecture, but watched us intently. George was the highlight of the day!
This past week has been filled with a lot of social events. On Tuesday, Ray and RuthAnn took us (Jessica, Melissa and I) out for Chinese, as a post celebration of Jessica’s birthday and to thank us for our contribution to the Christmas event. It was true Chinese food. Not the greasy North American version.
I had my last oral exam on Wednesday afternoon and that evening Melissa and I hosted a “Repas à la Residen
ce”. We invited the Irish kids, the other Canadians and the Alaskan for dinner/potluck. The guests brought salads and dessert. It was quite a spread. Naturally we had way too much food. I wasn’t sure how much pasta they would eat, so I ended up cooking a kilo. I have been eating pasta all week. On Thursday, we had the International Dinner at CILEC (the FSL program). Then we headed to the bar afterward for a drink. There was a night club that was recruiting people, so they offered a night where ERASMUS kids could get in for free, perfect. So that’s where we headed afterwards. It was a lot of fun. Danced the night away. Literally. I didn’t get home to 04H15. Great night.Then on Friday night, Melissa and I went skating with Benjamin (a guy in my math class, who had never been skating ever). It was great! I haven’t been skating in so long! He picked us up and then dropped us off. I love not taking the bus. We got back at 11pm, when Tammy (Canadienne) was hosting a SLUMBER PARTY!!!!! The plan was to cram as many mattresses as we could into one room and to stay up all night watching movies. But we (12 of us) only ended up watching one, Polar Express. It was cute. We spent the rest of
the night talking. It was a great night. Sleep is way overrated. We called it a night at 06h00. Good times.Saturday was really chill. Sleeping, laundry, letter writing, dinner with the group. Today has also been very chill. Just hanging out, continuing the letter writing, blogging, I should probably start packing soon, as we leave for Holland early tomorrow morning. I’m really excited. We’re going to hangout with the family on Christmas Day and then explore, visit friends and go shopping! I’m so excited to find shoes that fit and are waterproof. In France, none of the stores carry anything over size 41. We found one that had 42s so we both bought them. Shoes here are also very narrow, so I ended up stretching them way out, breaking the seal and have been walking around with wet feet for the past 3 weeks, since it snowed and turned to slush. Not cool.
Well, that’s all for this month. You’ll hear from me in the New Year!
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.
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