My very different weekend.--Amanda

Hello all. It has been quite a while, hasn’t it? I hope that all is well with everyone. Okay, on to la France! I would like to talk about my weekend with the Couly family. Christian Couly is my keypal and his family invited me to stay with them for the first weekend in France. It was an amazing experience because it was the first real one that I had with normal French life. Families may follow different customs, but they really are the same. I felt very at home with the family, even if I could barely speak their language. I met Christian’s father, mother, brother, sister, and his girlfriend. I was pretty much thrown into dinner the first evening because I arrived so late (I’ll talk about that later). Every meal was so good. We did something called raclettes for lunch on Sunday. Lots of cheese and wine too. Christian’s girlfriend, Marion, and Christian drove me to some very pretty places north of Paris, like the Chantilly chateau and to one of Christian’s old schools.

Travelling in France has been one of the most trying experiences because I am a very nervous person anyways. In order to do all of the stuff with Phil and the students and to go to Paris, I had to take a train by myself to Paris. It was okay cause Thibaut (Dad, remember the guy and the fridge?) and Michelle helped with getting a ticket at the station and saw me off. A friend of Marion’s, Camille, and two of her friends met me at Gare de l’Est. Then Christian’s dad, Christian and Marion met us in a car. Driving in Paris is crazy! I am a terrible driver anyways and driving in France would be murder. By the way, the train ride back was no problem because Christian had to come back to Troyes as well. I will find something else to talk about later. Bye!

Love, Amanda