Chez les Pelltiers :)

Salut a tous!

   So I just thought I'd write a quick update before I fall months behind again :P I am now with the Pelltier family (the ones that I stayed with my first week in France). Luckily I won't be changing again for another four months, so I can kind of make myself more at home here :) I have three host sisters (ages 14, 16, and 18), which is really great....their names are Lucy, Jeanne, and Mathilde. And my new host parents (Stephan and Marie-Noel) are both really funny and really nice (and kind of goofy as well....like my real parents! ;P).  Hmmm...to tell you about them a little more: Lucy dances and plays the piano, Jeanne does horseback riding, and Mathilde I'm not really sure about because she has actually been on a school trip in Morocco since I came last Saturday. The dad has pretty much the SAME exact job as my dad, which is kind of funny...he sells promotional products and he started not too long ago too...this week he is actually moving from his current home office to a building in Rennes, and he is doing an "economical move"  (they are moving all the supplies on bicycles....kind of crazy if you ask me ;P And I doubt my help will be enlisted after my little incident with their bike before (see August post) ;)....and that was without extra stuff attached to me! Thank you mother for passing on the treasured "klutz" genes that run so strongly in our family) My host mom has a very fun personality and she does a lot of things and has a lot of quirks that make me laugh: She likes to try saying words in English all the time when I'm around (my favorite is her saying "I am very hangry muzzer!" (angry mother) while laughing hysterically and spanking Jeanne with a kitchen towel), she LOVES the song "Someone Like You" by Adele, and plays it over and over on the computer downstairs (I honestly think I've heard it about 200 times this week) and sings along with it in a kind of English/French/made-up-words mix, and she paints her nails a different color about every other day :) What else? This family eats a LOT of vegetables (yay!) and are very healthy....they also love yogurt and Roquefort cheese (a REALLY strong French cheese...good, but I can only handle a tiny amount ;P) They eat a lot of salad too (sometimes that's our dinner), and they put all these strange things on them that they have in jars: dried pimentos, dried flowers, black salt, red salt, sel de guerande (more salt....they eat a LOT of salt in France!) . And basically everyone in France makes their own salad vinagrette (no Hidden Valley Ranch here, sorry Connor ;P)...it's usually mustard, a type of vinegar, and olive oil...they put it on almost every vegetable, which I find a little strange. One time I was eating carrots plain and they were astounded that I didn't put vinagrette on them. 

   It seems crazy that I've been here for over three months! Time has passed both quickly and slowly, and even though it seems like an eternity before I'll be home, I'm sure it will go by very fast (or so I've been told by other students who've been on exchange...) It is now becoming winter here, with lovely rain storms almost every day to prove it. Unfortunately in Bretagne, there is no snow but rain, rain, rain ALL THE TIME. Which is probably why there are a ton of stores here that sell just umbrellas (and some for over 300 euros!...I just have one question: why would you get a 300-euro umbrella when you can get a free one at the state fair? Just saying.) The other day I was Christmas shopping with my friend Louise after school and literally, suddenly, out of the blue, whoooosh! (Shelby, you will appreciate this) It was like an instant downpour, and we couldn't see anything (which made us laugh really hard) and in about 2 seconds we were SOAKED. And I mean hair plastered to our faces, mascara running down our cheeks, clothes and shoes completely wet. Which, it turns out, is actually NOT very funny when it's super cold out, AND I just happen to take the bus home in the wrong direction, adding an hour of frozenness before reaching my destination (oh, bus system, you never seem to tire of confusing me) You should have seen the look on my host mom's face when I stepped in the door. I must have looked like I just went through the Jungle or something. Yeah.

   Speaking of Christmas, I'm kind of REALLY missing the holidays at home. Halloween? Nonexistent here (except I did see a rather tempting ghost and pumpkin sculpture made completely out of chocolate in the window of a patisserie in Rennes). Thanksgiving? Well, obviously not. When it was Thanksgiving, I spent the better half of my day in school here drawing on a piece of paper all of the foods I wished I were eating. Which was rather awkward when my math teacher came by and saw on my paper a big turkey and apple pie instead of the graph that was supposed to be there (needless to say, he gave me a very strange look) :P. And although they do celebrate Christmas, it's very different; nobody puts up lights on their houses (there are a some in the city center though), I have yet to hear Christmas music, and, let's just be honest, it's not the same without snow! I don't know if my host family will put up decorations or a tree, but I really hope so :P 

    I'm going to stop writing now because I have to clean my room. Somehow, even though all that I have here is what I could stuff into a large suitcase, my room still ends up looking like a bomb went off. But don't worry mom, it will be perfect in about 20 minutes :) 

Love and miss everyone!

Claire