Today was the most beautiful day! It was super sunny and ateast 15-20 degrees. Me, Amarande and Valentine went for a bike ride and stopped by a beautiful little stream and had a 'gouter' with homemade chocolate raspberry muffins and cheros (which were AMAZING!) and I had to take my sweatshirt off.
I'm loving being on vacation and sleeping in and the weather is to die for! Tomorrow we're heading off to Grenoble, where Amarande's grandparents, and most of her extended family live, for just over a week. In Grenoble we're going skiing (I already got fitted for skis and ski boots) and meet up with Maggie and Marta! SO exited! I'm pretty much all ready to go, though I'm waiting to see how the 8 hour car ride is going to go. :/
Before I go, I would like to say a HUGE 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!' to Samantha! Hope you have a great birthday, and wish I was there to share it with you <3

(i'll attach some photos of cheverny, chambord, ext..)

So this week was pretty amazing! On sunday we went to see le chateau de Chambord which was fantastic. At the moment they're cleaning the stone, because it's turning all black from the polusion, so part of the castle was covered, but it was still amazing.
The castle has a double spiral staircase, designed by Leonardo DaVinci which was really cool, because the 2 stair case are intertwined so that you never see the other stair case, and it's really, really cool.
School's going great, I'm meeting a ton of new people and I'm not having to much trouble with the school work. I had a musique test and a french test this week and i suprisingly don't think i did to awful :)
My violin lessons are great, I have a fantastic teacher who is very understanding and quite happy to help me continue with my current studies. We just started the next song in suzuki book 4, and i can't wait to continue working with him.
On thursday Amarande took me to 'gym' at the comunity center, where a teacher guides us through a bunch of exercises for legs and abs. I am seriously out of shape and was practically limping by the end of it and could barely do the bike ride back home, but I'm so glad to be doing some exercise!
Yesterday, after school we drove down (about an hour away from Chaille) to some friends of the familly and ate the most fantastic diner. First appetizers and drinks, then, using these cool little cookers cooked up differnt cheeses with ham and a bunch of assorted meats a then poored the melted sauce over boiled potatoes. It was SO good, and then for dessert we had fruit with chocolate and white chocolate creams. We didn't get back until after midnight, but I have to say the car rides are much more fun; singing lisening to music together and playing games.
So now, finally, we're on vacation!!! On thursday we are doing the 8 hour drive to Grenoble and go skiing in the mountains with the rest of the Rouillions! Before we go we're going to visit a bunch of other castles and I can't wait. It's time for lunch so I better go, but talk to you soon! :)))))

Hello again! Sorry I haven't had much time to write this week! School's going pretty well, and I realise only now how much I love eating breakfast, and then having a big lunch. I wish I had realised this sooner. The food here is out of this world, and I'm going to seriously miss it. I went to church on sunday, with my host family, where I played my violin with Amarande and the Church was freezing, but it was the most beautiful little church. We were going to go bike riding last week, but it started raining and since then it just kept getting warmer. It's usually about 10- 15 degrees outside, and just about all the snow has melted! I'm starting to really get used to things, and I can't wait to start seeing the castles! Having a blast!!!

Hey people! I haven't had much time to right in my blog what has been happening much, but this  is  what i've been up to since we got off the plane into france; (if you haven't noticed by the length of this post, i've been up to ALOT!)

so we got off the plane and stood in a big clump to get to our bags on a tiny little conveyor belt, which also had the bags from 3 other flights on it, so after about an hour, we all had our bags and we headed off. We got into our tour buses and drove for a little while until we got to Sacrée Coeur. It was absolutely amazing in there! I could have spent hours in there, but because we were running late, we only had 30 mins to run up the steps, have a quick tour around the inside and head back down to the buses.
After that we drove to the Louvre, where we first had lunch (some asian style noodles and some amazing pineapple cake) and then with a bit of time to spare before going on the tour, checked out the french apple store. We then took the tour around the Louvre and i must say, even after over 25 hours without sleep, we didn't want to leave.
Finally we headed back to the hotel, dumped our stuff and ate some diner (salad, chicken and baguette). When we had finished we headed upstairs and after a long hot shower, crashed! (It was 2 people per room, and my room mate was Emma)
The next morning, after a wonderful breakfast of croissant, yogurt and some kind of amazing chocolate cereal, we climed back on the buses and went and saw l'arc de triomphe, which was amazing and then toured the streets around it, like true tourists. After that we went to Notre Dame (to amazing to put into words) and walked down to what to them is a fast food place called Flunch, but the food was fantastic (the most amazing chicken in the whole wide world, french fries and salad, with amazing chocolate and peach doughnuts).
We then got back on the bus and drove to the Bateau Parisienne, and we spent a couple of hours going around the city on the boat. Eventually, we climbed off the boat and walked to eiffel tower, and went up to the second level, unable to put our cameras down. After that we headed back to the hotel, we all tryed 'escargot' and then crashed into our beds once more.
The next morning we got out of bed at 8:00, and went downstairs, all packed up and waited to be picked up.
Amarande and Fabien (her father) picked me up and we took the 3 hour trip to Blois, but beccause it was snowing the traffic was only moving at about 10 miles per hour on the high way, so it took us a while! We made it home just as Baptiste (little brother) was leaving for his 5 day ski trip.
My first morning in Blois: Valentine (little sister) and Amarande went to school, but i stayed home and slept on a little longer, then me and Nadine (mother) went out and she gave me a quick tour of Blois, then we got my bus pass for school.
My first day of school was a little difficult, but i met alot of new people, and i already am feeling more french! We had history, english, and math, and then we normally would of had gym and science, but the teachers weren't there because ITS SNOWING! Normally it doesn't snow here, but its snowing even right now! everybody is amazed and even though it's only a few inches, the buses shut down and they really aren't aquipt.
Anyway, for lunch what you have to do is (if you pay every 3 months, like most of the students) put in your code then scan your hand and the machine will give you your tray. you then get one salad, one fruit, 3 pieces of baguette and cheese, and a main coarse which was beef stew.
My second day of school was today, but on wednesdays it's a half day so after english, history and physics, we headed home and ate there.
The food here is FANTASTIC!! So far i have had chicken, potatoe and carrot soup, spring roll kind of things and chicken nuggets (not like ours, but amazing). The eating schedual is very different; we have a small breakfast (homemade orange juice with a piece of baguette) and very big lunch, then a small 'gouter' when we get home from school at 5:00 and then a smaller, left overs type of supper. Eating really does solve everything. I was told today that if you are sick you must eat and eat, because you cannot recover unless your stomach is full, so if you go see the nurse feeling sick she will give you biscuits, cakes and coke!
Tomorrow we are going to another school, and exploring different occupations that we might want to do. Me, Amarande and one of her friends have 7 different stations that we are going to see!
Anyway, I should go (i have been writing far to much), i miss you guys all a ton!!!! and hope to talk to you soon!

<3 Vive la France <3