A Typical French Weekend? I hope so!

So, as you might have noticed, I have not posted for 4 *gasp* days! Well, this is mostly because I am just having a blast at school (once again: food, friends, it pretty much rules!) but it is also because I having been "saving up" my weekend for one big post! That's right, it's party time...

First, let's begin with Alessandra:
What?? Who's Alessandra? My friends, we have some catching up to do. As you may have guessed, the Girard Household is one that greatly appreciates people, culture and languages. So you shouldn't be surprised to know that I'm not the only exchange student with them! Alessandra, an exchange student from Peru (!) came to join the pack friday night! She is my fellow 16 year old, an extremely advanced Francophone, and probably the sweetest and most softspoken person on planet Earth. You could say that we get along well! She also speaks English and Spanish fluently, so I may also be benefitting from some much needed Spanish tutoring this week ;)

Saturday:
As do all super-awesome households, we started our weekend off with some superior culture: nutella and a french documentary! Before Louise trotted off to Horse riding, Jean-Yves, Alessandra, Louise, Madame Touffet (our neighbor) and I sauntered off to the local movie theater to see a truly inspiring movie: Le Chemin de L'École.

For an hour and a half, we followed the daily lives of four children who travel between 15 and 22 - most travel via foot, while one rides a horse - kilometers to reach their schools. If this documentary's subject matter wasn't touching enough, it's cinematography should be considered a piece of art.

After such an emotional (yet heartlifting) morning, we needed some merrymaking! Of course, we did frolick a bit in Combrough (My highschool's renaissance embossed neighborhood)...

But our chance for jollification came when we found out that the church (just one block away from our house) was hosting an accordian concert! I'll admit, when I first found out we were going, I was excited mainly because I thought that the accordian was a silly instrument - boy was I wrong! I never knew that one instrument could sound like an orchestra! We'll just say that after the first song I was converted to accordianism...

Our concert tickets:

Another Fun Fact: Dame (the complicated French version of checkers) and completely drained from Nain Jaune (Michigan Rummy, only Frenchified!)

Sunday:
By comparison, today was pretty relaxed! Besides getting my butt kicked at Dame, we mostly relaxed and caught up with one of the Girard daughters, Emilee. As a little celebration of Jean-Yves's birthday (which luckily fell on Saturday, the sunniest day this week) we gobbled down yet another version of the Galette (cake variety) and surprisingly, the delicacy never gets old! And guess what? This time I remembered to take pictures. Oh yeah!

Galette (#3!):

 
From the Left: Odile, (in the crown) Louise, Emilee, Me and Alessandra

The Lucky Fève-Finders!