Well, I'm on vacation, folks!

I mean, I'm always on vacation, since I'm not really a full-time anything, but school's out for Le Caousou for 10 days! Whoohoo!

It has been very relaxing, actually. I sleep until 8:00 or later, I actually have a chance to read, mail my post cards, go to the movies, etc. I've been reading in English and French (or at least trying), which works out pretty well. Camille and I are reading the same series (it's originally English, translated into French) so I read in French and ask her questions, and she reads in English and asks me questions. It's easier than having to look up every other word in the dictionary. I've also been watching more movies in French, and I made it through my first French film, no subtitles, (French or English) and totally understood what was going on! Score for Meghan! There is hope for me yet. It was a really cute story called "Faubourg 36" - I recommend it if it makes it to the states. It's about a 30s era theatre in Paris.

On Monday I went with some family friends to south central France, to a town named Millau. We stopped on the way there to go to an insect museum called "Micropolis," which was wonderful, I absolutely LOVE museums! And then we went to the main attraction - le Viaduc de Millau, the highest bridge in the world. It was designed by a British architect and mad by a French engineer, and its highest point is 343 metres (1,125 ft) and 2,460 metres long (1.5 miles). I'll try to attach some pictures, but I'm not sure if they turned out very well.

This Saturday, we're having a family halloween get-together. Halloween isn't very big in France, and that's putting it lightly. No one really knows when it is, and no one carves pumpkins. If kids try to dress-up and trick-or-treat, they are usually shouted at (plus some profanity about not being in "beep"-ing America) and the door is slammed in their face.

So. Things have definitely got to change here. I asked my family if we could carve pumpkins, and the official jour de decouper les citrouilles (pumpking carving day) is Saturday. We're also going to have pumpking soup, pumpkin tart, and pumpkin something-else. I'm very exctited! I decided trick-or-treating may not be the best idea. One, because we live in the country and do not have very many neighbors, and two, because there is only so much one girl can change at one time. After all, I would hate to be cause of a world-wide candy shortage because all of a sudden the French are eating the most candy in the world on Halloween. Catastrophic, it would be, as yoda says.

I'll post our pumpkin pics as soon as they're carved!

Ciao!
Meghan.