Vacances de Hiver 2013

“Is it snowing where you are? All the world that I see from my tower is draped in white and the flakes are coming down as big as pop-corns. It's late afternoon - the sun is just setting (a cold yellow colour) behind some colder violet hills, and I am up in my window seat using the last light to write to you.”
― Jean Webster, Daddy-Long-Legs

Hello everyone!

So as  hope you are aware of it is currently winter and that means that winter break is coming up soon as well.

For the majority of you I am guessing the vacations will still have to wait for a few weeks. But as for me, I have only one hour of school left today before I am free. Free for two weeks from the daily routine.

And am I excited for these vacations!
Let me explain..
So it was only three days ago at a Rotary meeting that I received the information that during these vacations not only will I be changing host families (like previewed) but I will also be staying in the homes of three different members of our Rotary club.
Yay! This means that my biggest fear of having once again absolutely nothing to do during the vacations is completely vanished. Instead I will be busy busy busy.. sooo if you do not hear from me for the next two weeks not to worry I am simply happily occupied ( no need to fear me freezing into a human popsicle either as I will do my best to stay inside and bundle up).

Lets not let the wintertime weather get us down and until next time
-juli

Synchronized Swimming

Sortie Scouts

Yesterday sure was an exhausting day; as Juliana Alvarez took part in her second outing as a Chefftaine.
A role composed of animating, guiding and reprimanding 18 little boy scouts.

Picture of the whole group together.

These boy scouts ages eight through eleven although super cute were also quite demanding yesterday.
And being one of three Chefftaines I had an important role in the success the day.

Making the trek from the locale to the church.

They decided it would be funny to ring every doorbell we passed..

After church we quickly headed to the camp site and began making the fire.

The fire just would not start.

 As usual the first and most important thing we do when we get to the place were we will be spending the day is make a fire. The fire is crucial as it is our only source of warmth and cooking.
Normally the fire is done and over in 45 minutes or so which leaves us with cooked food and time to do the evening activities. This was not the case yesterday, as due to the wind the fire was simply impossible to keep up and being in a prairie there was not a lot of wood to be found either.
Because of this we ended up eating basically raw rice and cold soup (needless to say there were a lot of left overs).But Thank goodness for the snack we had previewed (bananas and chocolate marble cake made by Amelie).

One of the other Chefftaines disguised as the vulture from the book of the jungle.

Doing their best to pass the tennis ball with their feet.

Go go go!!

Digging a group of them found a "treasure" which they so beautifully recovered up at my request.

All in all it was worth it at the end of the day, as they all went back relent-fully to their parents and anxious for the next outing. As for me I was cold from the tip of my nose to my toes but happy as well for being able to help out in the community.

Festival Croc'Livres

Today I am reporting on the annual book fair that took place last Saturday the 9th.

It happened to be the fourth edition of the festival "Croc'Livres" and was held at the Athena hall in La Ferté Bernard, France

Throughout the day, dozens of people toured the aisles to meet the 75 authors present and get to know a about their books. The animations were also very numerous. There was a dog sled demonstration proposed by Arnaud Leoty, musher to Maisoncelles initiative, as well as "the head down" principle which was composed of reading a digital book by pedaling a bike.

However, most notably this event was marked by the presence of Bernard Hinault Badger, five time winner of the Tour de France, who was offering his books to the public. An audience that seemed to be attracted by his presence and full of doubt at his legibility ( we all thought that he used drugs to achieve the level that he did).

Below are pictures of the event.

This is the wife of a man who wrote a book about their travels  around the world during eight year.

That is my host brother Adonis, with his favorite author, after getting his  comic book signed and dedicated.

And finally my host mom talking with a local author. 

A Walk Around Town

Having no school or swimming (thanks to my current hand situation below)

I decided to profit of the unusually nice weather and take a leisurely walk.  

There is the main deep cut right in the center of course that annoying in between fingers one.
Luckily it is healing quite nicely, and by next Wednesday I should be right back into the pool.

And of course I took all you lovely people that read my rather drab posts into consideration and took plenty of pictures. Hope that you enjoy them and sorry if I have already posted pictures of certain of these places as I tend to forget (and it is a rather small town).

The mayors office.

This reminded me of one of my favorite movies the Secret Garden.

Typical house/apartment located downtown.

The costume loft.

Yum! One of the three creperies to choose from.

There is also a Chinese place although I am quite perplexed  as I haven't seen even one Chinese person ever in our town.

Supposedly the best restaurant our town has to offer as it is even on the Michelin guide (although I would not know as  I still have not set a foot into an actual restaurant).

I am a fan this place and not only because of the obvious, but also because they have a map of the city  posted outside which comes in handy when you get lost easily like me.

French houses are always gated off.

Old people have interesting ideas when it comes to outdoor decorating, and these little guys where just adorable.

What an impressive gate.

Along my walk I decided to head to the supermarket mainly to look around but also because I wanted to find some dental floss and buy my host family a dessert for tonight's dinner. Well I came out with one of the two things the dessert. Which I guess I will consider a success. The floss was a no go as they do not sell any,guess I will just have to wait to buy that one once I get home. 

Out of all these products they do not have one single dental floss.

The impressive wine section..

that just keeps going and going..

and going.

My all time favorite jam here in France and probably in general. 

Tomorrow I will be back in school like usual but at 8:30 I have something that will be the topic of the next blog post.
Until then

- Juliana