Update time!

           I started this post this morning in the library because I had arrived at school a little early and had some extra time. I was planning on sending my finally-finished package of French goodies back to CV's French Club, so I drove to school with my host mom before my normal courses to avoid walking to school with it in the (possible) rain. I left the package in the library, went to one hour of class, then planned to walk over to the post office during my one hour break. Unfortunatley, when I tried to drop if off, the lady informed me that you're not allowed to send food to the United States. Wait, what?? I asked if I could just change what I had written was in the package (you have to declare the contents), but the lady said they'd scan it and all the food (which is the whole darn package) might be confiscated. Hmphf. Gah, I was so excited to get this thing finally sent off! At least I had just found out that my english teacher's gone today, so I now have a three hour break (my regular hour break, lunch hour, then english period), plenty of time to come home for lunch. So I walked home with a dissapointed scowl on my face and a heavy orange parcel full of delicious French snacks that the CV kids might not get to eat. Hopefully I'll find a way to send it.
ANYWAY,
      What I had been writing earlier was some stuff I've been up to since the last post.
Change of mood, Ahem:

    1. I woke up a couple sundays ago to a blanket of snow over Villepreux! I LOVE snow, so that already made my day, but I was also going to Paris to meet another AFSer, Laura. We had hung out at orientation in New York, but hadn't seen each other since. After some minor train problems due to the snow, we met up at a metro stop in the mid-west of Paris. It was really fun catching up with her, knowing that she's in the process of some host family changes and we don't know when we'll be able to see each other again. We hit up a café and spent a good while talking (and avoiding the cold outside). It seems like two exchange students never run out of things to talk about! We finally got up the courage to brave the cold and left to search for some shopping, which was wholly a failure since it was sunday and almost all of the stores were closed.

    So we decided to go to Angelina's, a café famous for it's hot chocolate. Was it touristy? A little, but holy cow, that hot chocolate was delicious. It's so amazingly thick and rich that I had a hard time finishing my own mug. We finally left and spent a while wandering around trying to find stamps, to no avail. Chilly and with tired feet, we decided to say goodbye and headed back home. I had a great time and it was pretty to see Paris with a little dusting of snow (not as much as we had here!).



My street



The back yard




A park in Paris with just a little bit of snow (it didn't last long :)




Laura and her quiche.




Angelina's Hot Chocoate



2. My birthday is this month, but since its during the winter holiday coming up, I decided to have a party a little early before people left for vacation. I invited my class and we had all had a good time dancing and hanging out. One kid even brought his DJ mix board thinger, which was pretty cool. In France, the kids usually pool money to buy birthday gifts. My class was really sweet and bought me a super cute Longchamp bag (I can now join the 90% of French girls who already own one), some stylish Nike Air Sneakers, warm new boots, and a big fluffy scarf. It was really nice of them, I loved all their gifts! We also had a cake frosted with nutella (how French!) that my host mom and sister made.





Opening gifts



Cake time! 

  Only two more days until winter holiday, the second week of which we're going to the south of France to go skiing in the alps. I'm super excited (of course)! I'll try to actually take pictures this time :)
Alright, I'm gonna go eat some lunch before heading back to school for the rest of the day.
Bisous à tous
Lauren