Hey everyone!! well it's been exactly a month since I haven't written mostly because I've been pretty busy with the French BAC(which is the final tests for the french students at the end of their junior year along with the BAC de science). The French Bac did go pretty well. there was a written test and an oral and I did both. However, I think I did better on the oral than the written. I got the Poesie(which is the poems section) which was good because that is all I really studied this year since the theatre didn't really interest me. But it went pretty well in all.
So then this past week-end we(as in the other exchange students and I) had our last district meeting and a sleep over camping at Chantal's place and then a long picnic on Sunday. We had a very good time, took a lot of pictures, and had some hard goodbyes. Then the day after I spent the night at my friend Justine's house which was very fun! I got to meet her best friend and made Chouquettes which was special and yummy! So yup yup, then today I had a coffee with my friend Romain and talked a lot, that's what I've learned what the French love to do. Have a nice drink with their friends and talk about n'importe quoi(anything) in the life. and I've gotten to love to do that, haha, I'm certainly not the quiet person I was back in the states last year. I'll say my opinion now more often which is...a good thing I believe.
     SO , I am kinda having in-between feelings about coming back. I do not want to leave this amazing lifestyle and these people I've met and made great relationships with, but I know I must take the next step in my life into the unknown results like I did last year at this time. I'm mentally preparing myself for what is to come and trying to....just be prepared I guess. I'm right now trying to plan what I'm packing and I might be using another suitcase that my third and last host family said I could use since they bought it in the US for their daughter who is now finishing her year up in New York state. So yup...I'm leaving this wonderful France on Sunday morning, going to Amsterdam and then straight to Chicago. phew... this year has been hard, wonderful, and at the same time a huge growing experience for my mentality as a person. I see so much more and have become more independent and mature (and a bit more egoist to tell the truth). I regret nothing of this year even though I've made a couple mistakes, but that happens when you grow up; you learn from your mistakes, for that is the only way to  really mature. So there you go people! you've had a little bit of a view of what I've done over my year in France!! Sorry for not writing more, but it's difficult to write so much down in a year of experiences! love you all and hope to see you all again :)
Love, Emmalou

April/Mai

hey everyone!!! So sorry again that it's been over a month. It's just hard to find time now-days! I just cannot believe that's there is only about a month left of my exchange. really. France is my life now and I'm just now realizing that it won't be for much longer....even though I"m sure I'm definitely going to keep in touch with some people I've met here. SO Printemps de Bourges was AWESOME!! probably one of my best experiences here! We saw a band called Shaka Ponk which was very interesting....it was in a huge tent and it looked and smelled exactly like cornerstone for those who have been there. The only downside was that it rained a loooot. except for Tuesday afternoon and Friday morning when we left. So there ya go, haha. All right, IN MAY. I received my Convocation du Bac de Francais, therefore I will try to pass it this year on the 20th of June for the written and the 26th of June is my oral presentation. So I've been really busy revising all of the texts and all.
So I had a couple days off the last week and my host family took me to Brittany to visit my host great-grandmother!! it was absolutely amazing! it was so beautiful by the coast and the beaches and the markets. we saw where the made natural sea salt, a little town not too far, and then went to La Baule which is apparently the most beautiful beach in Europe and I wouldn't say nay to that! it was very pretty, esspecially during the sunset. So I had my feet in the Atlantic ocean!! yay! and also lost 20 gift-euros  at the beach...THAT was not fun, whatsoever...but it was a learning experience and Brittany was just breathtaking is all I gotta say :)

So then I also had done The West Side Story with a bunch of friends this past month and Le Requiem by Mozart just this past week-end. Doing the choir was probably the best choice I"ve made, I've made a lot more friends in the Choir than else where I believe. I'll put picture up when I get them off of my camera! And then this past week-end Joanna, she's from Australia, came to my house from Loudun! we went shopping Friday afernoon, she came to Le Requiem and then Saturday I went to school, did my math test that I understood only half of it, really, and then since I had two hours to spare afterwords until my next bus, Joe (from Canada) and I went to VitiLoire with is a wine convention basically that was in Tours. All you had to do was buy a glass for 5euros and you can taste all the wine you want. We just stayed for a wine tasting class that gave you tips on how to judge wine and then tasted just two other main wines from near Montlouis. and guess what! WE're in the newspaper! here's the link if you are interested and can translate it all:
 http://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/Indre-et-Loire/Loisirs/24H/n/Contenus/Articles/2012/06/03/A-Vitiloire-la-jeunesse-dit-son-amour-du-vin
  "A Vitiloire la jeunesse dit son amour du vin" means, in English, "At VitiLoire, the young people tell of their love for wine." even though no reporters talked with us. but yeah, I found it all very interesting! It was so cool to see that much of the culture explained to us now that we understand. Seriously, the wine is a huge part of France; all I can say is that it is really an art and une vraie matiere. and I know that in Rotary we are not allowed to drink...but it is part of our 'job' to learn of the culture of the country we are going to. So I believe that wine tasting is indubitably a part of the French Culture.

and then Saturday afternoon Joanna and I went shopping some more once I got back and had lunch with her and my host dad and brother and then that night we met up with Joe again and went to a Brass Band concours in Amboise. it was really cool but they played for about 4 hours and it kinda got long, but it was a very good experience and we ended up getting home around 12:40 and having dinner and 1AM.. And then today Joanna and I and my host mom went the Le Marche d'Amboise (Amboise is a town not too far from Montlouis, were I live) so I finally found a jean jacket so I got that for not too much...and then this afternoon we went to Le Chateau de Chambord which was breathtaking as well! it was the house of Francois premier! really, he must have been filthy rich to build all of that! it was very very cool and then we had ice cream afterwards which was yummy. so there you go! I'll put pictures on when I can, I'll see you all in July!!
love, Emma

24 avril, 2012 HUIT MOIS!!!

Hey Tout le monde! well, I'm in april and I've changed to my third host family! So now actually, I"m living in Montlouis Sur la Loire which is a little town outside of Tours. And what makes it better(besides having little chickens and two geese in my back yard), is that my friends Joe(Canada), Ingrid(Sweden), and Mariana(Mexico) all live in Montlouis at the same time! So we've been taking the bus together frequently and everything and all is good fun :) And also, I have a few school friends who live in Montlouis as well, :) so yeaaah, things are going fine here. My host family, I have one younger brother who's name is Théo and he's 14 (almost 15) years old. He's practically just like Andrew it's scary! He loves Anime, manga, music, and his ps3. he's very nice though and we sometimes talk about Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, so it's cool.
My host mom's name is Sandra Graslin and she is so sweet and funny and loves to talk with me(which is good) and she's a beautician for the little town of Montlouis. She loves coffee and tea as much as I do :)
My host dad's name is Christophe and he works in Tours(not 100% sure of what he does, but he works for a factory) and is very funny and loves to cook and is very good at cooking too!
so yeah, that's my host family and all.
This past weekend I spent with my friend Zol who is Mongolian. I spent the night at her house in La Riche Soleil which is a little suburb outside of Tours. I got to experience a Mongolian dinner and breakfast and it was so cool! Her family doesn't speak much english nor french so she is having to translate everything (which I know what probably hard for her) but it was cool even so. The dinner we had these little meat things. haha, they were greasy beef and onions covered in flour and kinda fried, and then a carrot/cabbage salad, and a little salad of cut potatoes and carrots and peas and mayonnaise. I actually liked the beef plate...haha. surprise! I'm not Emma anymore! and then since I was a guest they made me a special milk tea....that I didn't like so much...they use whole milk and a kind of tea that smelled nice but I couldn't get myself to drink the milk...but then they made me a green tea that was very yummy! Zol's little sister was so adorable, she loved all the milk teas and she almost drank mine! They were all very welcoming even though they didn't share my language and it was quite an experience. They told me that they eat the meat things with their hands, using all the fingers to hold onto it because it's good for the health. HOw? because there are apparently 3 different bad spirits inside. and if we use all our fingers to grasp the meat, one of the bad 'spirits' will disparate through your fingers. And then that night we watched a film in Mongolian about their king who saved them ad actually, my friend Zol was in it! it was so cool to see her in a film she was apparently a little actress when she lived in Mongolia.
and then in the morning we had a breakfast of bread, butter, green tea, and vegetable soup with tofu. it was all very good and nice to meet Zol's family and her way of life in France.
and now we are in Bourges for the Printemps de Bourges!! I'll tell you all how that goes after this week! Love you all,
Emmalou

Hey everyone(once again and this time closer to that last date..)! WELL, since last week everything has been going fine! These American correspondents from my English class came on Wednesday and I hung out with one of my friend, Mariétou, on Thursday afternoon while having a chocolate-nutella brioche(which is YUMMY). And then early Friday morning I left with Ingrid... OH but first I gotta tell ya that last Sunday when I went over to her house she trimmed my hair and she did it very well too and here is that picture x} The weather has also been beautiful for Marche(although today it was a bit cold).

okay and then this past Friday her host mom picked me and Rosie up at 6:45AM....PHEW:P didn't like that, but then we took a train with the rest of our district to Annecy, France! (which is very near the Alpes) and this was our Rotary Week-end/Conference with ALL the exchange students IN France! we met so many different people and took a boat ride around the beautiful lake! and let me tell ya, the mountains were BEAUTIFUL in the morning! absolutely stunning. I even met up with three or four people from the Conference I went to last year in Michigan which was awesome too! fun to see familiar faces after such a long time, it's weird too though but also keeps ya light-hearted. Oh and apparently there were about 400-450 students there and I never felt more proud of my Country, of the USA! we sang our Anthem at the flag ceremony along with the rest of the students there from other countries and it was just amazing to see so much diversity yet so much equality.

(I'm right on the left center-ish)

but it was a very fun-filled week-end! also there was a dance Friday and Saturday night which was fun also!
And SO, today I need to unpack and this afternoon I passed my French oral which was on Baudelaire who is a French poet and my favorite poet now. :) There ya GO! and apparently I might be changing families on the weekend of Easter. love you all!!

Emmalou

March and February :)

Hey everyone!! so so sooo sorry I haven't posted in two months...wow time goes fast now-in-days! WELL my second host family is very nice and I have my own room and bathroom even :) it was hard at first to get situated, since I have three host sisters and two baby host brothers (who are adorable!) but it's kinda hard to find someone to talk with(just to talk and practice French) so I love talking to our maid(femme de la ménage;).

ANYWAY,  let's see....February was a good month. school as normal and Valentine's day I was sick with a horrid virus or food poisoning and was in bed all day...horrible, UGH. So  I wasn't able to see how they celebrated it...but apparently it's not that big here. REally only between couples and they give flowers more than Chocolate even though they DO give very yummy chocolate. :) they seem to love dark chocolate the most and then also Almond paste or something ? very sweet, that stuff but not something I'd really like. too sweet.

Then we had vacation the 26th(I think) which ever that week-end was and had two weeks off(but I had three since my parents came the 3rd of March! anyway, that day(26th) I went to Chantal's house just until Tuesday and after tuesday I stayed with the host family of Ingrid(a swedish exchange student) and the whole reason of WHY I had to stay at a different house was because my host family went on vacation to La Réunion de France(an Island) for a week and  I couldn't stay by myself(sadly) so I needed to stay at other people's houses. And while I was at Chantal's house, she was really sweet and actually, she's a host mother to a mexican guy who's staying there until July(I think) and he's very nice(but not with Rotary)! and voilaaa. I made her meatloaf too! and it was very yummy. then that Friday (the 2nd) I went to my first host family's house for dinner which was really fun to see them all again. I'll always be close to my first host family I think.
     THEN the 3rd of march my parents came with Andrew and we stayed in Paris just until Wed. for EuroPain(a food/bakery conference) and then that afternoon we came to Tours (MY town;) and had dinner with my current host family Wed. night(and they spoke very good english better than me at the time...haha), Thursday morning we saw how the bakers of France work and then went out for an apetizer (l'apéritif) with Chantal and her husband and Rosie(an american who is living in France but was an exchange student last year) and then went out to dinner with Rosie afterwards. and it was really fun to talk with her and all. THEN Friday we met with a baker and I translated for my dad and the baker(let me tell ya, translating constantly is very tiring....WHEW...) and then visited Tours and my mom got her hair cut just before we took the bus to my first host family's house in Joué les Tours and we had dinner there which was really fun! it was funny to see Andrew and Etienne(the boyfriend of my first host sister who doesn't speak english) sit next to each other...silent :) but all was fun. then on the morning of the 10th we took a plane to Spain(my parents and I) while Andrew went home for school. The plane was interesting, they had to be bilingual! yeesh, I couldn't handle that I don't think...I'm already trying to learn Spanish but it's complicated(the conjugation and all) I definitely prefer French. So much easier! Anyway, in Spain..well, I'll tell ya all that later when my dad sends me HIS part of it ;) I'll just say that we visited a lot and I cooked a couple French meals such as du rit au lait and duck and a vegetable stew and then also Chicken Curry which is surprisingly made very often in France. (in fact, we ate that just last night) and then tasted red wine of spain which was not as good as Bordeaux or Chinon, mais bon. haha it was all right :) oh and I got my first pedicure there at our resort and also Aunt Mary and I rode horses and it was absolutely beautiful!!
alright... now then, I had to go home on the 19th and we got back to Paris on the 17th and the 18th we visited Le Louvre et La Tour Eiffel which was fun! and then on the 19th I went home and said goodbye to my parents for the second time. It wasn't as hard as the first time...but we all got home safely! it was hard the first week back but apparently people missed me at school! yay! I feel loved! haha... so the first two days were good but after that during the first week I couldn't speak well French but it's much better now. whew. and then last weekend we had a conference for our district at an Abbey and that was interesting. got to miss math saturday morning! hah, yayy....and then this week end we'll be leaving Friday morning for Ansey! (which is in les Alpes) we'll be there just until Sunday. School is going all right, but I couldn't succeed at explaining the Mortgage crisis of 2007 today in my social/economics class... I mean, when you have lived through it, quite often it's difficult to explain to others. but really, the USA is very criticized  I think...I mean ALSO, during the conference this one guy was talking about peace but he somehow figured out a way to fit into his speech that America has a goal to take over the world...I mean....REALLY? that kinda upset me and my other American friends who were there. hah....we understand French now, so ya better watch your mouth(same to my history teacher....erk. anyway, it's their opinion on us, so I'll leave it at that. People are always entitled to their own opinion; I'd just ask them to not directly insult other civilizations please! Not everyone is the same, like the Vietnam war! not everyone wanted it but they say that it's the American's fault, yeah it may be our government, but not OUR fault, we are the PEOPLE, not everyone in a 300 million population has the same view/opinion on this world. some might be 'better' but really....don't think everyone's the same.
OKAYYY I'm stopping rambling now, so hope everyone has been doing well :] I'm loving France and OH my final date of return in the 8th of July! just for letting everyone know. And also I believe i'm to change host family's in April sometime, but don't know anything yet. oh, and i'm working on my Jogging and swimming. I also believe I gained more weight during my parents being here than in this entire year....hahaha love ya mom and dad and Aunt Mary and Andrew! and everyone who reads this blog.
bisous de France! Emma-Louise <3

and this photo was taken by Ingrid when we went out for a photo shoot ;)

December and now!! :)

Christmas: So sorry I haven't written. Christmas is over, New Year's here, and I've changed families! Christmas was interesting and pretty cool. They have a semi-big seafood dinner on Christmas-Eve and then put a shot glass of whiskey to warm up "le pere noel", a piece of chocolate, and a carrot for the reindeer out and also each person places one pair of their shoes under the Christmas tree. Christmas morning, awesome French Christmas music! :) We ate my homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then for lunch(which started at 1 and ended at about 6:30). Seafood, foisgras, little birdies, zucchini, Christmas wine/champagne, cooked apples, cheese, salad, buche, and finally macaroons and homemade fudge from me for dessert, it was A LOT.

The night after Christmas day I got really sick from I think the seafood...only one thing was raw, the rest was cooked, but the raw thing was the clams. the smoked salmon was really good though! With homemade mayo, it was very yummy. :)

Oh and I went over to Ingrid's(a girl from Sweden) place for a sleepover and crepes and I succeeded in flipping a crepe!!! Oh and now I know how to make Mousse au chocolat et un oeuf a la coque! Which is Chocolate mousse and a half-cooked egg. :)

New Years: The 31st I moved to my second host family who live in the center of Tours! Right now I"m just getting used to them, but they're really nice! I have a nice room with my own bathroom/shower, which is actually really really nice!! The maid does my laundry(and she talks with me and teaches me French slang which is so nice and cool). Anyway, New Years I was with Mariana(Mexican), Louison(a French girl who went to Brazil last year), Dora(from Turkey I think...), Danielle(a Canadian girl), Elizabeth(another American), and a few of Louison's french friends to the center of Tours til about 1:30 in the morning. I didn't drink ANY CHAMPAGNE!!!! But it was all fun! Place Plumeau(Place Plume) was not chaes at midnight, but it was awesome. Everyone gave bisous' and you couldn't count how many people popped the Champagne bottles! and I grabbed one cork for a memory. :)  But it was so cool to see so many people full of love and happiness. Then Danielle and I spent my first night at my new host family's house afterward.


Now.... Well, school started the 3rd and yeah...ugh. I love my new house though! I love being in the center of Tours! I can walk to school in 20 minutes and walk to mail a letter. I've also been able to swim with my host mom and I've taken up jogging because I'm close to the Loire(big river) and I love jogging next to it at about 6 o'clock at night. So pretty. I ran...Sunday, Monday, Yesterday but not today because my right leg kinda hurts. Oh, and tonight I have a Rotary meeting! I can't remember if I told you how my speech went on the 22nd of Dec. WEll, it went well! I was with Jessica(a girl who spend last year in Indiana) who talked about her year, so she took a while, so that was good. I spoke about my life in the US with a slide show for about 5 or so minutes. Which was pretty good since I was talking in French and all...now my French is so much better!! I kept a conversation with a salesperson today in the a store! She could tell I was from another country though....I don't like my American accent in French!! Only in English!!
Anyway, I bought some nice boots from the "soldes"(sales lasting about a week or a bit more) in Tours a couple days ago! 30 for two pairs of shoes, which wasn't too bad considering that most of the shoes are at LEAST 30euros for one pair...voila, :) Love you allll!!!

Emmalou

j'adore la France!! :) I'm very happy here...but let me tell ya what happened in just a week...

WEDNESDAY I swam and got my hair dyed and cut (only a tiny bit but it looks more French my sister said...)
FRIDAY I joined a second choir for the Mozart Requim, and I'm VERY excited for that....
SATURDAY I ran into my bus for school and hurt my toe and didn't go to choir practice or Math class...so one plus to that day...and got French X-Rays of my foot and figured out I have hereditary bones in my feet...
SATURDAY/SUNDAY I went over to my counselor's house for the weekend with Rosie and it was all very fun!
SUNDAY I went to some kinda French thing at a big adatoriam in Tours and learned about wine and cheese and stufffff....and I tasted "un oeuf a la coque" which is really good!! you just boil the egg for ONLY 3MINUTES and then you use slices of bread and ham and dip it into just the yolk and I'll have to show ya how to do it the french way ;)
MONDAY I figured out I actually had 5 hours for a lunch break and could have gone home for lunch since I didn't/couldn't do sports....but I did figure out how to say 'smurf'' en francais...
TODAY I had un repas de Noel au lycee and went to a Dracula play in English with my English class! oh! and found out that I'll change families the 3rd of January! it's goin pretty fast noow...don't wanna change from this family!
TOMORROW I will teach 24 little kids how to bake American oatmeal-chocolate chip-raisin Cookies!
Voila!!