End of Vacations

Hi everyone

It's 6PM Sunday night and tomorrow Andréanne, Nicolas, and I will be heading back to school. I could use another week, though the truth is I don't really need it. I'm just feeling lazy. But the time goes faster when I am busy and it's easier to not be homesick, so even though I am not looking forward to waking up early tomorrow for the first time in two weeks, at least I know it's good for me.

So, what happened in the last week..? Not much really. I guess I hung out a lot. On Monday Andréanne, Béatrice, Béatrice's friend, and I went to Berne (the photos are posted in my last post if you missed them.) It was only a 45 minute or one hour drive to the Swiss capital, and being in a city that was somewhat bigger than Fribourg for the first time in a while felt nice. Béatrice showed me where the Federal Palace is, but unfortunately it wasn't open to visitors. After that we split up- they all went to go shopping (much more variety than Fribourg) while I explored Berne a bit. It's not that big but really lovely with lots of old buildings, stores, and people. It is weird, but it generally takes a trip to a new city, seeing new things, to remind me, HEY I'm in Europe (I guess because the rest of Swiss life has become routine.) It's a fairly exhilirating feeling to realize that I am visiting new places and doing new things even though I'm generally blind to it.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were completely filled with hanging out. I did most of my homework during those days, played Fable, in French, on the computer (Language skills? Maybe?), cleaned my room, read, etc. Nothing big. For New Year's Eve Andréanne's newish boyfriend was going to come over but there was too much snow on the roads so he couldn't. Nicolas went to some party, and Béatrice and Bernard went somewhere as well, so it was just me and Andréanne to celebrate. Béatrice bought us some special foods (mini sandwiches, little smoked fish things, ice cream) which we ate while watching TV. It sounds lame but it was actually quite nice, and I didn't feel much like going out anyway. On New Year's Day Tata and José came over and we all ate cheese fondue together. It was good, as usual.

Yesterday (Saturday) I made chocolate chip cookies for la Fête de Rois with AFS which was today. In the evening Andréanne and I went to our souper de classe in a (different) cabin in the woods. I finally learned that different communes have their own cabins that people can rent out, so that explains why there are so many all over. The souper de classe was pretty lame, to be honest. Berenice, one of my and Andréanne's better friends in our class who is super funny, couldn't come, so that made it a bit boring. In total there were about 15 out of 22 people in the class.. lots of alcohol (though not everyone drank and not all of those who did got drunk) and cigarettes. The laxness about alcohol and cigarettes is such a cultural difference for me, though I guess I am getting used to it now. Andréanne drank about 1/3 of a beer, while I drank the other 2/3, and that was it for us. Since there was only a fireplace in one corner of the cabin it was absolutely freezing and I left my coat on the whole time. We left around 11:30 while the party was still somewhat going.

Today I slept in until around eleven since it is the last day I can do that until next weekend.. For breakfast there was a gâteau de rois because today is la Fête de Rois (Epiphany) to celebrate the day that the three kings visited Jesus in the manger. Anyway, we ate a cake that isn't really a cake, but more like a bunch of sweet buns stuck together in a circle shape.. Inside one of the pieces there was a trinket hidden, which Nicolas found, which means he got to be the king (which doesn't actually mean anything.)

This afternoon there was an AFS get-together in Fribourg which me and my whole host family went to. I think it was a bit boring for Andréanne and Nicolas, but that they were willing to go means a lot to me. We ate more gâteaux des rois as well as clementines, the cookies I made, chocolates, coffee, tea, etc. I visited with all my exchange friends that I haven't seen in ages, and Alicia and Claudine. One of the exchangers there, Mikael from New Zealand, is going home in 18 days because he is from the southern hemisphere so his program goes from February to January instead of August to July. In February there will be a new group of Australians/New Zealanders arriving, and I am quite excited to meet them. I remember around a month after I got here I met an Austrailian and Mikael at the AFS bowling event and it seemed like they had gotten through so much of their exchange year and already had so much experience behind them.. I can't believe that is going to be what I seem like to the new students. It's a weird thought. Anyway, The local AFS chapter has decided to have get-togethers once a month from now on, which I can go to alone since my host family may or may not want to go, and I am really looking forward to them.

After getting home I finished my homework, ate dinner, and now am writing here. My vacations were relaxing but definitely went too fast.

To Chloe and Aunt Amy, I got your letters. Thank you! I will start writing back very soon.

Amy, you asked: "What is the movie you watched for the 3rd time with your family on Xmas Eve ("welcome to the house of - something"?)? Is it sort of the equivalent of us watching "A Christmas Story"?"

The movie, Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis (meaning Welcome to the Land of the Ch'tis) is a popular French comedy in which a guy from the south of France is forced to go to the North where the people speak Picard (a language very close to French) and have silly accents, eat weird foods, and it supposedly rains all the time. Basically it plays off the stereotypes and truths of le Nord-Pas de Calais, the northernmost region in France. It is a super funny film even though the English subtitles are a little weird (they really can't not be because only French people truly get it) and it broke pretty much all of the box office records in France... I would recommend it if you can find it, but make sure to watch with subtitles to be able to hear all of the crazy Picard.