February 19, 1996

Hey folks it's me again :)

Right now I'm in Vercours, a skiing place and today I had my first lesson. Fell down 3 times but got the hang of things pretty quickly and tomorrow I get to try a real hill, as today I was in the kiddy garden.

Let's see. Last Saturday was Geraldine's birthday party that I didn't want to write about last week because I thought I should let it stew awhile. It wasn't too bad; the food was good and people were nice but... it was like Dave B's parties in that the main activity was talking, and I'm not very good at that (yet). But it was a good experience. And I had fun.

Sunday was Francois' (Ma's grandson) birthday party, and we had lunch at his house. Philippe (F's dad, Ma's son-in-law) was being silly and making jokes as usual. The food was really good and I surprised Philippe, who thinks I don't understand a lot of French, by talking a bit about American universities and their usefulness. I gave Francois a U of I t-shirt and he wore it to judo later in the week.

Monday I gave my oral report (exposee) on the American Educational System in Geography (in French of course) and I think they all understood. There were lots of questions afterward and they really liked the idea of Drivers' Ed being practically free. Here there are Auto Schools and they're not cheap. They were very confused by my schedule too, and wanted to know if Americans work as hard as French kids. I told them it depends. From what I've seen they don't seem too stressed out here, and I don't think they have that much homework. I've been here a month and there has been one quiz/test in Russian and one in English. Two papers (multiple short answer questions) in French and one exposee in Geography. Unit tests are not a thing here, I think.

Tuesday I was sick and Wednesday I didn't have school, and was home alone because Magali was working this week with her sister in Marseilles. It's something for school, to get students used to the idea of work. In Marseilles, 1/4 of the men are out of work, and 1/2 of minorities. That's the worst city though. Thursday morning the boys all ran 5K and the best time was 22 something. My friends (Charles, Yann, and Christian) were last, and very slow. No one really tried. Friday I made french fries for lunch and as I didn't have a clue how to do it, I overcooked the 1st batch. But then I figured it out and had a very nice lunch. Friday night I saw "Dead Man", w/ Johnny Depp (in English) and learned a lot of French swear words from the subtitles. Now I know that Magali is very rude. The movie was great--a little strange but Depp was good and the photography is excellent.

I still don't know the Oscar nominations OR the Golden Globe results, except for a few. Kevin Spacey is up for best supporting actor (Hooah!) and Babe and Postino and Sense & Sensibility are up for Best Picture, I think. I bought a French movie magazine Wednesday and was annoyed to find that it didn't have anything I didn't know.

After vacation I'm going to show everyone the Lounge video. I finished translating it, w/ Laurence's help, and have to type it up, print it out, and copy it.

There was an earthquake (6 on the Richter scale) in France yesterday or seomthing and people are freaked out because there are never earthquakes here. Students have stopped hitting their teachers (for now). Ma bought a Daily Telegraph today (British paper) so I know that Buchanan got called a Nazi and Dole is doing pretty well, and Ralph Nader is gonna steal votes from Clinton. Oh, and that the flat-tax guy did badly in Iowa (but who really cares about Iowa?) but is still going ahead. And Lamar Alexander doesn't know the price of milk and eggs. And of course various British news but that's pretty boring.

I had a crepe today, at a Bretonne restaurant and boy was it good. i think when I get back I'll miss crepes and having little Bread Co's on every block, and CHEESE. Cheese is GOOD. :) Even goat cheese, although it's a little dry. My family doesn't eat a lot of pasta or potatoes, and I miss those. I haven't had spinach since I got here, or a baked potato. Mmm, potatoes! I also miss peanut butter, w/ chocolate. There's no candy bar here w/ peanut butter. Oh well. I'll live.

Magali went skiing today on a hill that wasn't difficult for her and was in a pissy mood and now she's got a fever.

All this belongs in next week's letter, so I sign off with one more thing--

No one cuts their grass here! They've either got really gross looking unkept lawns, or piles of yucky dirt. You'd think that w/ Versailles and everything the gardening tradition would have carried on. But no. It makes their lovely houses look 3rd world.

Til next week,
Hannah

Next!