This and that

After french class today I was finally able to use my own computer in an internet cafe. You can imagine my excitement when I went online for the first time in two weeks. Well, if you are young and semi-dependent upon AIM you can. Anyway, I put this lovely picture up of les Alps. That and much more is what I got to see all Sunday. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. It was beautiful.

Yesterday was also beautiful even down at the lake! It is usually overcast and you never see the sun, but yesterday it was sunny and it felt like spring had sprung. I could see the Alps across the lac Leman and the Jura behind the house. Very picturesque. But, today it was back to gray sky. I guess I do not notice it much because I am always en train de faire les choses. See? French is much easier if you mix it with a little bit of English now and again. I find it difficult to speak only in English now. That is good because it means that I am learning. At least I hope so...

One of the first days I was with my host family Marco and Jaquotte took me to the Swiss version of BINGO. This was a fun game to play especially to learn numbers or chiffres better. Jaquotte said she could see my mind working out which number was called and then a second later I would understand and mark it off on my BINGO sheet. The luck of the Irish must not have transferred through to me because I did not win. BUT, Marco did win! I think he won some fish and honey. Random.

So, there is this game show that is on a French tv station that we get. I do not know the name of it or really how it works. But, I do know that there is one person who plays to win as many Euros as possible and has to choose whether or not they want to switch boxes with other players (?) The main player has a box, but they do not know how much money it is worth. So there is a lot of switching boxes and sometimes there are tears shed because they should/should not have traded boxes etc. Also, there is a catch to the prix: everytime you switch boxes there is a telephone call from some random person. If you win you have to share the money 50:50 with that lucky random person. I asked my host family if it could be someone like me that calls and they said yes, but I would have to pay .50 Euros (that cents people) to make the call. Is this making sense to anyone else? I know I probably have not described this to the best of my ability, but that is because I do not even know what is going on. More to come on this when I finally figure it out....

Today, I had to wait outside in the cold for 45 min because the bus did not show up. I was shocked!! Everyone has been telling me that punctuality is very important here. For a bus not to show up...I guess I am discovering more and more that the little cultural differences are not the same as the ones people have warned me about. But that is why studying in a foreign country is so much fun!

This entry is a little all over the place, but that is because I just remember things and write them. Hopefully, everyone can follow. Also, a note about my grammer: I really do not consider it to be a big deal and hopefully everyone is able to just deal with the fautes that I make. If not, tant pis.