Bonjour!

It's almost the holidays and I personally am excited to get a break from school. It's weird because I see on facebook that peopla are studying for semester tests and I admit that we don't have them here. The French school system runs in tri-mesters so I am also glad for that at the moment too.=) Another thing that comes with the season is the special foods eaten around the holiday. There are a couple interesting ones like foie gras which actually sounds really disgusting. So basically its something to do with the liver of a duck that people personally over feed and I heard that it's illegal in the states because of how they treat the ducks, but I am not sure if it being illegal is true or not. Just incase I want to try it well either way I will because I haven't before. Also around the holidays escargots(snails) seem to be popular, and I got the chance to try them at a marche de noel. I can't believe I'm saying this but they were actually really good. Usually they are seved with lots of butter and garlic and I could hardly taste the meat, but it was good. I think one time is enough though because I can't get past the idea of eating snails. It took three of us exchange students to get together and count to three and all try it at the same time to even eat the first one. Then another thing is boudin(that might be mispelled) or blood sausage which I haven't gotten around to trying yet either and I am not sure if I'll have the chance or not because everyone in my host family hates it. As for desserts there's the bouche de noel or a type of roll cake that I love and pain d'epices which I find is really similar to gingerbread though everyone insists that it's completely different. So I have a couple more things to try while I'm here.

Another thing that comes with this time here is first a lot of strikes for the trains and teachers. I've heard that it's the season in winter because it's cold and no one would have a reaosn to complain in the nice wheather. I am not quite sure how the whaether changes anything for the teachers, but okay. The final thing is calenders. It seems like everyone sells calenders at the end of the year. The people who collect your trash, students, firefighters, etc.. And my host mom says that it's almost obligatory to buy a calender to be polite. Therfore we have about 6 calenders here around the house from the various people who come to your door and sell them. It's sad to think that I only have about a month and maybe a week left here. It will fly even faster with the holidays too. Until next time everyone=)