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

L'Homme qui Rit

Yay! I finally got to see the film that I have been wanting to see for a while; L'Homme qui Rit or The Man who Laughs.

This film is the adaption of the novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in April 1869, and while it is one of his most obscure works it has been adapted to a cinematic version twice. Once in 1928 and once again this year.

Being a film that is only available in France (and some parts of Europe) I was hoping to see this film before my return to the US and after a  few weeks of talking about it, my host mother decided that she would be willing to invite me to see it in a nearby town.

And I am truly glad she did because I loved it! The film was well made in my opinion and above all it was super French. Written by a famous French author acted out by French actors and full of criticism of the French aristocracy, I adored everything about it.

L'Orchestre Symphonique du Perche Sarthois

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

- Victor Hugo

Sometimes we are lucky enough to have the opportunity to go hear beautiful music and for me this was the case tonight.

Together with my host mother and younger host brother we went to the performance of  L'Orchestre Symphonique du Perche Sarthois ( our towns orchestra).
This orchestra happens to be one among two in the whole region of "La Sarthe" in France.
And it plays magnificently!
Needless too say I had a great time enjoying 6 pieces (some more well know than others) all played proficiently.
There also happened to be two members among the orchestra who I am acquainted with so that just made watching them play even more amusing.

If you are wondering what they sounded like here is a clip from tonight's presentation.

(sorry but it was to heavy to upload :(

And if you are wondering what else I have been up to..

Last night while writing this entry I decided to go search water for a nice warm tea.
Unfortunately I tripped over the open dish washer and manged to land on the bowl I was holding so that to impel the handle of the broken cup into my palm.( this was all in the dark)
The result being a dishwasher that is currently being worked on and my hand that has a deep half inch long cut right in the middle of the palm and another half inch cut in between my left middle finger and index.

This cut might take some time to heal.. as it is on my left hand and I am left handed.
Guess I will have a "interesting" story to tell tomorrow at school :p

All the little things.

Well another week has gone by, and while not much has happened I will try to share what has.

Monday-
Went to school(there was snow).

•  Arrived to my class and big surprise there was only three other people there.

Happy Marthin Luther King day (for everyone in the United States)!

Tuesday-
Went to school,saw a dead dog on the way back. Yuck..

Wednesday-
Had no school like usual:

• Woke up around 9:30 to get ready for synchronized swimming.
• Came back from the pool did some stretches/abs while watching television for nearly four hours.
• Decided to get moving again and went for a walk around town.

Thursday-
School..

• Started French Boxing during PE.

Which I so far I like a lot better than vollyball :) I mean me boxing = at least slightly hilarious.
Anyways we will be having six more classes during the next few weeks so I will keep you all updated on this new sport.


Friday-
Thats today! So far:

• Woke up to go to English class. Found nobody there.
• THERE was NO English CLASS ( and nobody thought to tell me about it)

Due to not having had the innformation passed down by my class mates I am now sitting in the computer lab for the next to hours until French class.
Guess I got some extra time to write to everyone.. and I might just get started on my presentation that I am voluntarily doing about Colombia for the students that have Spanish class with me.


As you might see I am getting into a rather ordinary routine. This is why I have decided for this next week to come to try to live by the following quote.

“There is an anaesthetic of familiarity, a sedative of ordinariness which dulls the senses and hides the wonder of existence. For those of us not gifted in poetry, it is at least worth while from time to time making an effort to shake off the anaesthetic. What is the best way of countering the sluggish habitutation brought about by our gradual crawl from babyhood? We can't actually fly to another planet. But we can recapture that sense of having just tumbled out to life on a new world by looking at our own world in unfamiliar ways.”
― Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder

Who knows maybe by looking at things in a different way I might have something slightly more substantial to share next Friday.

A la prochaine
-Juli

Exchange students and snow

Today Sunday the 20th of January, it snowed in not only La Ferte Bernard but just about everywhere in the North-West of France.

As you can see I am placed right in the eye of the "storm".

Actually it is a bit funny you see because even in Albany, Oregon 8cm of snow will not get national coverage.

Luckily for me this means that I get a little break from school ( hopefully) tomorrow.

Not to add the opportunity to take lots of pretty pictures of our serine white dusted wonderland of a town.

Also today I just got back from a weekend with the current exchange students in France, the French students that will be leaving elsewhere for 2013-2014 school year and the returning out-bounds.

Now like most Rotary weekends not much was planned but I still had an exceptional time.

This was mainly thanks to for the first time having not only the current exchange students but also the others. Something that made things much more interesting, as I find that I am able to sympathize and relate to them more..

To finish of here are some pictures of the weekend
Hope everyone is staying nice and cozy
-juliana