Hill Winstead - June 9 in France

We spent today with our host families finishing up work from the previous week and preparing to leave for Paris Monday. I started the day by sleeping in until about 10:30 and then I had my usual breakfast of Fitness cereal (it’s basically the French version of Special K but with chocolate.) After breakfast, I killed an hour or so by watching the first half of The Shawshank Redemption, before leaving to meet Arjun and his exchange student Michael on Rue Nationale. The three of us wandered around the city for a bit before heading to Quick Quality Burger Restaurant for some lunch. Quick is basically the French version of McDonalds but it tastes a lot better. After lunch we wandered around some more and Michael shopped for Father’s Day presents while Arjun and I talked to one of the employees, whose brother lives in Chicago, about North Carolina. The conversation was basically <> and that seemed to be the extent of his English. After a little more shopping and wandering, we went to Le Palais to engage in what seems to be the French national pastime, sitting on the street drinking cokes and watching people walk by. Soon enough, I had to return home to prepare to go to a party with my exchange student. Around 6:30 we left for the party, but had a hard time finding the street. It was at one of the French student’s father’s house and it was amazing, it looked like a chateau and the grounds were immaculate. We spent several hours there eating, dancing and playing American football before returning home around midnight and collapsing into bed.

Julia Niemi - June 7 in France

Today, I woke up at 6:30 and was looking forward to going to seeing everyone, since I had been sick the day before. Unfortunatly, I was still sick, so I was not able to go with everyone. My french mother decided she would take me to the doctor. I watched a few movies (Ghost, The Family Man, and 4 Weddings and a Funeral) before going to the doctor. The doctor's office was different than mine back home. It was a lot smaller. When I went into the exam room, it looked more like a business office. It had a desk and a computer. The doctor decided that it was just a small stomach bug from being in France. He prescribed me a few different medicines. I then went to the phamacy. The French call this the Chemist. The pharmacy was just a pharmacy. (The pharmacy I go to in America is attached to Eckerds). I then went home and slept for a little, to try to regain some energy. I was feeling a lot better, so I went to the party at Alex's (Max's exchange student) house. People played soccer, danced, and ate all night. It was really nice to see all of my friends again, because I missed them. Ms. Jones and Mrs. Walden stopped by the party for a few minutes, to see how everyone was doing. Chloé and I left and went home, because we were both tired.

Mazin Khoury - June 7 in France

Today, we woke up at our normal times and headed to school in anticipation of our most grueling test yet, the bike ride. Some of the more physically exhausted students, such as myself, questioned our dear teacher Ms. Jones prior to this day about the difficulty of this ride. Everytime we asked, Ms. Jones gave the same convincing reply, "Oh don't worry about it, it's so mellow!" and eventually, we believed her.

When we hopped off the bus at our biking location, we began to accept Ms. Jones' answer. There was nothing but smooth flat roads surrounding the area and we were convinced that this bike ride would be a pleasant experience. Within 15 minutes, we had changed our thoughts completely. We were tracking through field after field of high grass and mud, often having to stop and walk our bikes to keep from plunging into the unknown abyss. 14 Hours later, we were done. Although exhausting, all most of us had to show were bruises and various dirt stains. The french students, however, showed no fatigue from the death ride and continued to run around and play games as most of us sat down to eat our lunch. Typical.

After the bike ride, we had the opportunity to visit the chateau "d'Azay le Rideau." We walked about the castle, answered our challenging worksheet, then finally returned to the bus for the short ride back to school.

Luckily, we all survived today, though we once thought there was no chance. We headed home and prepared for the weekend festivities.

Images from June 6 in France

Molly Lankford - June 5 in France

Today, Tuesday June 5th, we went to the chateau Chenonceau. We left the school at 9:00 and borrowed a charter bus for the ride there (luckily everyone had their own seat). On the way there, I noticed just how many poppies (coqulicots) there were that lined the road. When we got there, we all split up - Julia and I went to the chateau first. We both agreed that the best room was the Black Room, but all of the others were just at intricate and beautiful. One of the first sights of the chateau was the green algae infested moat, another sight was the tower that had a gift shop. I, unfortunately did not get to see the garden, but the maze led us to a rather relaxing place to sit in the shade. After this, we went to have lunch in a nearby town.

During lunch, most of us discussed how our families asked us how many sandwiches we wanted (and how we only received 3). My lunch box got attacked by bugs and I was forced to give it to Max. Many of us just sat around; and some of us walked in the town; very tired.

Anirudh Kota - June 4 in France

Today started off the first day of our last week with our correspondents. We started the day off by having a class with our teachers, Ms. Jones and Mrs. Walden. After that we had a bit of free time and then we were off to the Mairie de Tours. The Mairie de Tours is a little like the mayor as he has some responsibilities to the city. If someone wants to get married they would go to the Mairie and have it done. We toured around the building of le Mairie and found some very nice rooms (like the one in front of the chimney). After a big tour of the building we got let out for lunch. For lunch a couple of the guys and I went out to a restaurant which had the best fries ever! Unfortunately they weren’t as good the second time around but they were still quite good. After lunch we slowly reassembled back at the school and then left for our highly anticipated dance class. It was in another town close to Tours and so we had to walk to take a bus to the other town and from there walk to the studio. We were all hot and sweaty by the time we had gotten to the dance studio but there was more sweat to come. We first did a small dance by without partners and then we started to do pair dancing. We started off very basic with just the footwork and after that we got more advanced as we learnt how to correctly spin our partner and do a check. After a tiresome but fun afternoon of dancing, we headed back to school where we went back home for the day. But after a quick shower and food, we had to head out to another town again to see a Theater spectacle put on by some local actors. It included a farce about married couples and a lot of music from the Renaissance period. After a comical evening of music and theater, I got home late and fell asleep. Oh and I didn’t included my correspondent in any part of my summary today because his class won a country wide math tournament (for the second year in a row) and so they got to go to an amusement park.

T’Sani Watson - June 3 in France

Throughout the week all of the French kids have been shopping for Mother’s Day presents because today is Mother’s Day. Coincidentally, today was also Delphine’s sixteenth birthday. Delphine is my French exchange student. This morning we had a small breakfast because we all slept in this morning. For lunch, Delphine, I and, Delphine’s mom went to Delphine’s grandparents house for a traditional French lunch. The first course was a salad which was followed by bread and foie gras ( a type of pâté). The main course was steak and potatoes. For dessert we ate a raspberry and strawberry tiramisu that Delphine’s grandmother had made. Once we had finished eating Delphine and her mother opened their gifts. Then, at about two o’clock, Delphine and I left her grandparents house and went to Fantasy Forest to meet up with some of the other students who participating in the exchange. Fantasy Forest is a high ropes course in France. It was tiring but, a lot of fun. We were having so much fun that we didn’t want to leave. We stayed there until it closed at 6:30. Then I returned to Delphine’s house to unwind for the day and prepare for school tomorrow.

T’Sani Watson