Half way through my third month...?

Woah, hold the phone, this is my THIRD month? As in the one that comes AFTER second? Trop bizzare. Yep, life here is zooming by like nobody's buisness. But it's odd, because if you were to look at my schedule it wouldn't look like I do anything. In the US I have choirs, dance classes, plays, voice lessons, babysitting, soccer, and tons of other things that completely fill up my life. But here, the only set thing I have is my piano lesson on Saturday. Yet, despite this lack of scheduling, I always feel like I'm always busy. I guess AFS is a full time activity =)

Let's see, what have I been doing...

This week my French teacher has been absent, so my friends and I planned a trip to McDonalds on Friday because on Fridays we have a double period of French right after lunch and would thus have 3 hours of free time. It was really fun, and my first trip to McDonalds in a really, really long time (thanks to my health-conscious parents). For those of you planning on going to France, here's a tip: If you hear someone talking about "Mac Doe", it's not some odd French thing. It's just the odd, err, different French name for McDonalds. ANYWAYS, The McDo in question was about a half hour walk from the school, so it was a good thing we had do much time, in a shopping center off the high way. And it was probably the classiest McDonalds I've seen in my life. It had two levels and a Artsy style interior with fake leather chairs and earth tones. And it worked diferently than in the US. There was a lady standing around, and you gave her your order and she printed you a little ticket. You then would take the ticket up to the counter, where they quick grab all the parts of your order and you pay. Also, you needed a code to get past the entrance to the bathroom... Afterwards, since we were in a shopping center, my friends and I looked around a bit before heading back for the final two hours of school.

What else... The weekend of Halloween I went to a town near Grenoble to stay with another AFSer, Annie, for the weekend. It was alot of fun to see how other AFSers lived. I noticed that even though we all have things that are similar, each experience is incredible unique. I find that incredibly cool, though. I love how AFS can give these wonderful experiences that are as unique as each of the participants, that can't be duplicated, but are all amazing. That weekend was my first Halloween without Trick-or -Treating, but it was pretty fantastic nonetheless.

Isn't Fall in France lovely? Sights from Halloween weekend

I spent an evening in Lyon the other weekend. My host mom went to a movie with a friend, so I shopped around the Rue de la Republique (The main shopping street) for a little while bu myself and then met up with my host brother, and we wandered around for a while. It was fun to have a "Saturday night out" like at home, only French-y.

It's funny, retelling my adventures makes me realize exactly how fun they were. It's like, when they're happening I don't realize that I'm having the time of my life, it's just having fun, but when I type them I realize "Hey, that was a real AFS moment!". Haha, I guess that's actually a good thing! I've left the phase where I notice every conversation and revel at the fact that there's someone who wants to talk to me, and I've entered the "Life is normal. Good, fun, and normal" phase. =D

On Monday evening I leave for London for 3 days! The school put us in host families for our stay, and I'm with two of my new friends in my family! This ought to be a good test of how much my courage for meeting new people has increased... wish me luck! I'm super excited, and I'll obviously do a post when I get back.

Speaking of posts, I've remodeled them! I've gone back to my old posts and added appropriate pictures, and I plan on putting pictures with my future ones! I think this will work better for presenting my adventure! As always, you can check my photos on my FlickR. There's a link to the side, but if for some reason that doesn't work it's: SophiaKH.fkickr.com

A bientot,

Sophia