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Dayspring Academy's 1998 Language Immersion Program
in Montpellier with Nova Langue

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Dimanche, 3 mai
Washington-London-Paris-Montpellier
Lundi, 4 mai
Un jour de repos
Mardi, 5 mai
Ècole
Mercredi, 6 mai
Ècole
Jeudi, 7 mai
Ècole
Vendredi, 8 mai
Carcasonne - La Cité
Samedi, 9 mai
Pont du Gard
Avignon - Palais des Papes, Le Pont d'Avignon
Dimanche, 10 mai
Les Saintes Maries de la Mer - La plage
Lundi, 11 mai
Ècole - Présentez-vous
Mardi, 12 mai
Ècole - Des agendas
Mercredi, 13 mai
Ècole -
Jeudi, 14 mai
Ècole - Initiation aux odeurs (avec un nez professionnel)
Récréation - Basket-ball et Ping-pong
Vendredi, 15 mai
Ècole
Cannes
Nice - Superyacht98
Samedi, 16 mai
Nice - Superyacht98
Monaco/Monte-Carlo
Turin, Italy - The Shroud of Turin
Dimanche, 17 mai
Chamonix - Aiguille du Midi, Mt. Blanc
Lundi, 18 mai
Chamonix - Shopping
Mardi, 19 mai
Ècole - Faire de la peinture
Mercredi, 20 mai
Ècole -
Jeudi, 21 mai
Ècole -
Vendredi, 22 mai
Ècole - Le dernier jour
Samedi, 23 mai
Un jour de repos -
Dimanche, 24 mai
Au revoir Montpellier -
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  • Send an e-mail to Greg, Laurie, Devin, Whitney, Mike, Mary Ellen, or Juliana.
  • You can send a special note with webpage suggestions, special photo requests, and/or your favorite places in France .
  • Have you sent a special request?
    Writing on the computer for the webpage. Our camera, the Olympus D-320L. Talia, Juliana won't be in Paris, how about a picture in Chamonix? Papa, a  boat to dream about. As for a professional bike race in Nice, we were only able to catch a picture of one team's tuning station. Yes, Lauren, there are horses in France, too. Devin and Whitney working in the streets for extra cash. France has some strange animals. Special requests will be added each upload.

 

0503 Dimanche, 3 mai Top
Devin Well, today we were on a plane for a long time. When we arrived in London we were a little late, so we missed our next flight; but my dad took care of everything and we were on a plane before you knew what happened. We flew on to Paris and got there late too, so we missed our next flight. When we got to Montpellier the weather was beautiful. We went to our apartment and found out that we couldn’t use the stove and that there was another person staying with us. When my mom heard that she flipped, so we went to a hotel for the night. We need to make other living arrangements.
Whitney After a long trip, we finally got to France. Our host lady, Marie Christine, picked us up at the airport and took us to our apartment. When we got to our apartment we found out that we were going to share an apartment with another student. Since our apartment was so small, we decided we couldn’t live like this for three weeks so we changed apartments. We actually didn’t go to an apartment right away. We stayed in a hotel until we could find another place. Before we went to the hotel we went on a walk around Montpellier with Marie Christine, so she could show us where things were and where we needed to go.
0504 Lundi, 4 mai Top
Devin Today we slept in real late because we were all very tired from the plane. While we were sleeping my dad went to get McDonalds for lunch. He got lost on the French roads and went 20 Km out of the city to find a McDonalds. When he got there no one spoke English, so no one understood him. When they started to understand him a little he started to order. They kept misunderstanding him, so he said start all over. Well, they didn’t understand that, so they kept on adding stuff. When they charged him it was more than it usually was. When they got the food they started to pile tons of food in the bags.

After we checked out of the hotel, we went to our new apartment. It is great. It has a lot of room for us, and has no one else in it. We have a little general store right next to us. In France it is not uncommon to see people walking around carrying loaves of bread with them. We wanted to get into the mix, and we were hungry, so we got some bread and started to eat.
Whitney Today Devin and I slept in until 3:00 in the afternoon. We were so tired from traveling that we could have slept longer. We thought it was earlier because we weren’t used to the 9-hour time change yet. This morning my dad got up and went searching for a place to stay for the rest of the three weeks. On his way back home he stopped by a McDonald’s and got us some burgers for lunch. He couldn’t speak enough French at the time, so he couldn’t communicate very well with the person who took his order. My dad kept screwing up on his order because he was doing it in French, so he kept saying to start over. They didn’t understand him. They just kept adding all of the orders together. When they told him the amount he thought it was a little much. He was confused. When they started putting all the burgers in the sack, he understood why it was so much. When he brought the burgers back we had about ten burgers.
0505 Mardi, 5 mai Top
Whitney Today was our first day of school. It was a lot of fun. My mom and my brother are in one class with our teacher Mary Ellen, and my dad, our other teacher Mike and I are in another class. Splitting it into groups like that helps us to learn a lot more. My teacher’s name is Florence. She is very nice and she knows French very well. School lasts from 9:00 am till 12:00 in the afternoon. After school we went and ate lunch in the square. The square is a place with many shops and restaurants around a big square area in the middle (Place de la Comedie, Opera house). Today was my dad’s birthday, so we celebrated that with a cake at dinner.
Devin Today we went to French school. I liked it a lot. We learned a lot of things in our first day. We have school 3 hours a day. That is perfect when you are learning a foreign language. After school we went to walk the streets  (Cathedrale Saint Pierre, 15th century, tower and pillar). All the streets were really narrow so it is interesting to see cars drive around. The middle of town is more than 1,000 years old, and very few cars are allowed there. The town square is where we ate lunch. There are always a lot of pigeons and people in the town square, that is what makes it so fun. When I was walking down a road I felt this thing hit my eyelash and go onto my sunglasses. When I took off my sunglasses there was bird poop all over them. That was gross. We were so excited to see everything, we walked for a long time. My sister wanted to shop, but we told her that there are cooler things in Paris. When we got home we all took naps because we were still catching up on our jet lag.
0506 Mercredi, 6 mai Top
Devin Today we went to school and learned a lot. I learned lots about conjugating verbs and the days of the week. I also learned how to ask people their name, where they are from and what nationality they are. After school we walked back to our apartment (and bought some pastries) so we could get our van to go to the mall. At the mall we turned in our cloths to get washed and Whitney got a new backpack. When we went to get back in the car there was a mine in the Town Square. Whenever you give the mine money he moves. My dad gave Whitney and I money to give to him. When we went to pay for the parking the machine could only take change. My dad just gave up all of his change for the mine, so he had to go get some change. When he came back he had a "Titanic" poster that my sister wanted and it turned out that he had bought the poster to get the change.
Whitney Today was our second day of school. My teacher, Florence, taught me the days of the week, how to say my birthday, how to say my phone number, how to say husband and wife/ affectionate terms, how to say my dearest friend, and I practiced my French numbers. During class I learned a lot of different words and phrases too. My class is very fun.

After class we walked to the square (Place des Martyrs de la Resistance) and ate lunch. We went to a place with hamburgers, other types of sandwiches, and salads. I ordered a hamburger, and when I got my food it was a plate with hamburger and French fries on it. The hamburger came with no bun. During lunch two groups of musicians came and played for the crowd’s entertainment. They were really good. When they were finished they passed their hats around to collect money. (We study each day at the cafes during lunch.)

When lunch was over we went to the mall and went grocery shopping. We got all of the items we needed plus more. Our refrigerator isn’t really big so we had to keep that in mind. When we went back to the car, we stopped at a machine where we paid for the parking. We didn’t have enough change because we gave most of it to the mime we saw, so my dad had to go get change. My dad didn’t know how to ask for change, so he bought me a Titanic poster from a street vendor and got some coins back. He came back and paid for the parking.

Let me tell you about the mime we saw in the square near the shopping mall. He was dressed in all white and he painted his face with white paint. He even covered his radio and collection hat with a white cloth. Even though music was playing, he held perfectly still and moved very slowly every once in a while. I can’t imagine holding that still for that long.
0507 Jeudi, 7 mai Top
Devin This was our last day of French school for the week. We will not have school on Friday, because it is a holiday here (Victory Day for WWII). My class has my French teacher and three students in it: my mom, my tutor Mary Ellen and I. My teacher Celine is really nice and fun to learn with. We do all sorts of games that help us learn and we do really fun homework. I am learning a lot here because everyone speaks French. You have to talk and listen in French 12 hours a day instead of a 45 minute class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Whitney Today was our last day of school for this week. We don’t have school tomorrow because it is a national holiday. Our school, Nova Langue, is located in the old section of town (Centre Historique). The cobblestone streets and buildings that surround it are over 1,000 years old. I had a fun day in school today. One of the funniest things we did in class was we made up nicknames. My dad calls me 'Mon petit ange.' In English this means 'my little angel.' After school we had lunch in the square. After lunch my mom and dad exchanged money (about 6 Francs equals one US dollar). When mom and dad came back, we walked home.
0508 Vendredi, 8 mai Top
Devin Today, we went to see a very famous walled city of Carcassonne. This is the biggest walled city in France (1.7 km around the outer wall) and is in near-perfect shape. It was cool seeing all of the defenses that they had. When they were attacked they would shoot through vertical slits in the walls with arrows. The city was surrounded by two walls (an outside wall and an inside wall) and the castle inside the city had a wall around it as well, so if the enemy got through one wall they would have to go through even more. Believe me getting through a 12 ft thick stone wall under fire would not have been an easy job. One method the enemy would use to try to get control of the city is to set up huts against the wall and put clay on the roofs so the soldiers above could not set them on fire. In the huts they could chip away at the wall or dig tunnels and try to get under the wall. Sometimes the invaders would set up ladders and climb up the walls in groups. They would also launch rocks into the city with catapults and try to plug up the city's well with a rock. With no water, the whole castle would have to surrender in a matter of days. It is hard to believe that the catapults could hit such a tough target, but I guess they were actually pretty good at it. The catapult was one of the most feared weapons in those medieval times.
Whitney We went exploring today in the walled city of Carcassonne. It was fun to walk around on the walls and actually get to experience what people in those days experienced. We visited a museum where they had a whole bunch of  tools that were used for torturing people who did bad things or were accused of doing bad things. It was disgusting what they did to people’s external and internal bodies. If you were accused of a crime, you would be tortured until you confessed or died. Even if you didn’t do something but someone said you did, you still would be tortured. One of the funniest punishments was a steel mask with donkey ears that they would put on women who talked too much. My dad said that he is going to get my mom and I one of those. After the torture museum we went to an old cathedral built in the 7th century. It was amazing to see something that old and large still in use today. The windows in the cathedral were amazing because they were all stained glass. It was a Catholic church so they had a bunch of statues of saints with candles all around them that you would pay to light if you were Catholic.
0509 Samedi, 9 mai Top
Devin Today’s adventure started on the way to Avignon when we checked out part of Roman built aqueduct. It was amazing to see all of the stones that it took to build it. (Each stone weighed about 5 tons). The aqueduct carried water for 50 km to a city where the Romans lived. The structure was 150 ft high over a river. Some of the arches were at least 50 feet tall that held up the structure. The most amazing thing about the stones used in the aqueduct was that they fit tight in every joint, and no mortar was used. They have all just been resting on each other for about 2000 years. The aqueduct was built in 19 BC and was not used after 800 AD.

Something is very different here in France than in America. We notice this every time we go to a tourist site that has dangerous, high places where you could fall. They hardly ever have railings. You can step right up to the edges where anyone could just step off and die. We took a picture lying at the edge almost 80 feet above the water. It was really scary. The water was so clear you could see fish swimming.
Whitney From approximately 1310 to 1380, the Pope lived in Avignon. Today we went and saw the palace where nine Popes lived during that period (Palais de Papes). It was amazing. We had the choice of taking a live guided tour, or taking a tour with an audio guide. We chose the audio guide. It was a lot of fun because it took you room by room and told what that room was used for and where they had secret hiding spots for treasures and money. In some of the rooms they had huge tapestries hanging on the walls for decoration. They had no heaters back then so they would hang the tapestries to keep the heat in the room from the fireplace. Not many of the rooms had fireplaces in them. All of the fireplaces where at one end of the room. There wasn’t one room with a fireplace where the fireplace wasn’t located at one end of the room. After the tour, we went and ate lunch at a small restaurant near the palace. We ate outside in the plaza and Devin and I sketched a picture of the front of the palace.

Late in the afternoon we walked through the Rocher des Doms, a park next to the palace. The park sits on the cliffs just above the Rhone river and has great views of the Pont d'Avignon, a bridge originally built in the 9th century and made famous by the French nursery rhyme. "Sur le pont d'Avignon..."
0510 Dimanche, 10 mai Top
Devin We had a lot of fun today at the beach. We could rent kayaks and paddle boats. We rented paddleboats and went out to surf the waves. The waves would come over the top of the boat and get us all wet. Whitney went out with us the first time thinking she wouldn’t get wet. Then the first wave came and it soaked us all. She wanted off the boat because she wasn’t expecting to get wet. After we ate lunch we went out again. There was a really big set of waves that we hit. On one of the waves we went sideways on the front of the wave. We sat vertical for about 3 seconds and then flipped. It was scary, but it was a lot of fun. After that we were very careful about hitting waves straight.
Whitney My mom thought that going to St. Marie de la Mer for mother’s day was a lot better than being in the jungle with bugs bigger than your fist. (Last year, during Mother’s Day, we were in Costa Rica in the Rain Forest with the biggest bugs we had ever seen.) It was a perfect day for the beach. The sun was out and shining very brightly. We had a great time. We suntanned, played in the water, and we played in the sand. Since we were right on the Mediterranean, the water was pretty cold. It took me a while to get used to. I love to write and build stuff in the sand like castles and big holes with walls around them. Today, I dug a hole and put a big wall around it so that water wouldn’t get in it. My wall held up pretty well against the tide. I like to play a game where you try and write something like your name in the sand before the tide rushes up and washes it away. On our way home we saw a lot of beautiful pink flamingos in the marsh near the beach. They were a very light color pink, so you couldn’t tell that they were pink unless you got right up next to them. Under their wings they are very pink, almost magenta.
0511 Lundi, 11 mai Top
Devin Our fun day at school included a written story about ourselves.
Devin Duncan a 14 ans. Il aime le paintball. Il vit à Redmond, Washington. Il est célibataire. Il est étudiant.
Whitney We are learning French a lot faster than we learned Spanish. I think French is a lot more fun. I am learning how to describe myself.
Whitney Duncan a 11 ans. Elle aime danser et l’équitation. Elle vit aux Etats Unis depuis 11 ans, à Redmond, près de Seattle. Elle est célibataire, elle a zéro enfant. Elle travaille comme étudiante à l’école de Washington.
0512 Mardi, 12 mai Top
Devin Our apartment is a small two-bedroom apartment. My parent’s room is usually a living room, but it has a fold out couch that they sleep on. It also has a four-person table where we eat our meals. Outside the main room is a deck where we sit as a family and do our homework. On the weekend nights we go into their bedroom and play Monopoly on my computer until two in the morning. My dad has a separate studio that he uses to make his phone calls and do business. It works out well having a second studio because we can put all of our suitcases and all the extra food that we have in there.

I share a bedroom with my sister. My bed is my place to work and read. I type my journal into my computer here a lot. My cool posters of yachts are on my wall; we need to get a yacht.

Whitney We are staying in a nice place called the Citadines (city dwellers). It is a combination of an apartment and a hotel; they call it an aparthotel. Our apartment has a bedroom with two single beds, a kitchen area and a room with a fold-out couch and a table. Devin and I share the room with the two single beds. You can tell which side of the room is mine because I have my Titanic scarf hanging up on the wall. The kitchen area in our apartment has a sink, a refrigerator and a little oven/toaster. My dad has a separate studio that he uses as an office. This studio is similar to the one that we live in, except it does not have a separate bedroom.

We get around in a van that seats seven people. It is really cramped when we travel on the weekends with our two tutors and their daughter, but we are thankful for its small size when we get stuck in the little, crooked streets in the French villages. You can see our corner apartment on the fourth floor over the top of our van in this picture.
0513 Mercredi, 13 mai Top
Devin We had school today and learned a lot of interesting things as usual. We learned how to talk about our family members. After school we went to the mall to complete my mom’s to-do list. We had to run around asking everything in French. Everyone was using their dictionaries a lot because nobody spoke English. After we got through that little excursion we went to a club where we became members so we could play basketball and Ping-Pong. We had fun playing as a family. Then we went to eat a delicious dinner at Chez Marie-Christine (the house of Marie-Christine), our host family.
Whitney School was great today. We learned a lot of French. We only had two pages of homework, but they were harder than heck. After school we went home and got the car so we could drive to the mall in the Centre Historique. While we were there we bought a basketball, some T-shirts, and some more school supplies. At Centre Historique they had a place where you could exchange money. We needed more francs so we went and exchanged money. After the mall we went home to do our homework. Like I said, it was harder than heck. To rest our brains after all that hard homework, we went and played basketball. It was a blast. We left straight from basketball to go to Marie-Christine’s house for dinner (our host lady).
0514 Jeudi, 14 mai Top
Devin After school we usually play Basketball and Ping-Pong. We have had a lot of fun playing together. We went to buy a second ball, so we could play my sister's favorite basketball game. My dad tried to make a slam-dunk but because the basket was 12 feet high he didn’t make it. Whitney and I wanted to play Ping-Pong, so we went inside for a while. Whitney came very close to beating me but I pulled it out. I knew that the day was coming when I would  lose to her. The club let us become members without paying. It was very nice of them because the club had the nicest Ping-Pong equipment I had ever seen.
Whitney We had a special school day today. Devin’s teacher was gone so my mom and Devin had a substitute. My class and their class joined together in one big class. My teacher, Florence, and their substitute teacher, Veronique, taught us about the five senses and all about different perfumes. It was really fun because we got to smell a bunch of different perfumes in bottles and then we had to write down the first thing that came to our minds: what it smelled like or reminded us of. Next, we had to write down what it reminded us of after we had thought about the scent for awhile. We also had to write down the color that the scent reminded us of. When we were done with the five that Veronique had us do, we smelled them again and wrote down what they reminded us of doing or where they reminded us of being. When we were finished writing those down, we wrote an original story using the adjectives we had written.

Coming right home after school really helped me  not be so tired. We came home, ate lunch, then I took a nap. Even though we came straight home I was still tired. After my nap we went and played a little basketball and Ping-Pong. During the time we went and played basketball, we played my favorite game, Lightning.

0515 Vendredi, 15 mai Top
Devin We went to the world-renowned Super Yacht show today. We saw the beautiful 165’8" Lady S. It was a beautiful yacht with a beam of 31’. It had a beautiful interior with six spacious guest cabins. It also had six crew cabins, each with two beds. The master bedroom was very big. It had a split-level office in it for the owner that also included a great view over the bow. The exercise room was very nice and had room for a treadmill and weights for weight lifting. A giant cushion that was very nice to walk on surrounded the Jacuzzi on the upper deck.
Whitney The six-hour drive to Nice was very exciting. The thing that made it exciting was going through all of the famous French towns like Cannes where they were having the famous Cannes Film Festival. When we got to Nice we went to the Yacht show which was fabulous. There were some huge super yachts there that were incredible. The insides of them were gorgeous. The yacht show closed down at 6:00, so we went back to the hotel and went out to dinner. We had dinner at a wonderful pizzeria. Our hotel was right on the water so we went and walked on the beach after dinner. The water was azure blue, as in Cote d’Azur, which means Coast of Azure Blue. The beach was a stone beach, so we got to skip rocks. My parents sat in chairs and watched us. The tide was coming in and one time it soaked my parents’ feet.
0516 Samedi, 16 mai Top
Devin We went back to the boat show today to see some more of the fabulous boats. A boat there that we liked a lot was the Dardanella. It was only 121’ long but the room inside made it feel as big as the Lady S. The beam on it was 27’, so it was still very wide. The interior included custom woodwork and felt very warm. The halls gave ample headroom and the rooms were almost over-sized. It would be a great northwestern boat because it has a very high bow, which you need in the waters around Puget Sound.

Later that day we went on a road trip to Chamonix in the French Alps. The fastest way was through Italy. Luckily, the town of Turin was on our way. This was the place where the famous shroud of Turin was being displayed after being kept hidden for twenty years. It was very interesting to see the outline of Jesus imbedded in a cloth. There were drawings from the shroud showing what they thought Christ really looked like; they sent chills up my spine. My dad told me that it was only on display for six weeks and that 4,500 people came and saw it every hour. Around 45,000 viewed it daily.
Whitney The adventure of going to Turin, Italy to see the Shroud of Turin was exciting. The people in Italy drove very differently. We were driving on roads with a lot of turns, like a mountain road, and it was very different for my dad, who was driving. They have a lot of toll roads in Europe so you have to have some money with you at all times. We were driving along in Italy to get to Turin and we came to a toll place but we didn’t have any Lira (Italian money) with us so we were really worried, but then we figured out that we could use a credit card. My mom was really relieved. When we got to Turin we found parking to go see the Shroud of Turin. Near the church where the shroud was located were a bunch of tents that people set up to sell souvenirs for the Shroud of Turin. After a quick look at the souvenir booths we went into the church for a look at the shroud. We went into the church during a mass. It was very interesting to see what the Catholics do during their mass. The church was very full so we weren’t very close to the shroud which was up front, but it still was a breathtaking experience for me and everybody else that I was with. Seeing the shroud brought me to tears. Even though I was in tears, I was filled with excitement. There was a man standing in front of us that looked at my mom and started saying something in a different language. My mom told him that she didn’t understand him, but I think she thought that he said something about me not being able to see because she picked me up so I could see better. This guy had a special pass with him that allowed him to get very close to the shroud. I guess that he could sense that I needed to see the shroud better because he took me by the hand and took me right on up to the front of the church very close to the shroud. He kept telling people to move out of the way to allow me to get through. This allowed me to get a very close look at the shroud. This was wonderful. I could really see the outline of Jesus’ body. This made me cry. When I came back through the crowd to my parents we left. As we walked to the car I told them how amazing it was to see it that close and what I felt like when I got that good of look at it. They kept telling me how great of an opportunity that was for me to get that close to the shroud. The shroud was in a frame and it was very faded so you had to pay close attention to see the outline. When I got close I could see it very well. I could see where Jesus’ hands, arms, feet and head were. The cloth looked like it had two images on it because when the people put the cloth around Jesus, they put part of the cloth under him and the other part over him. When they had the shroud on display, they folded it out so you could see both sides. It looked like two images because you were seeing the front and the back.
0517 Dimanche, 17 mai Top
Devin We arrived in Chamonix late last night, so we were all very tired. To see Chamonix in the daylight seemed like a blessing from God because it was so beautiful. Out of our hotel room we had a great view of Mt. Blanc, the biggest mountain in all of Europe. We went up a gondola later in the day to a peak below Mt. Blanc. The peak was called "Aiguille du Midi" (the needle of the middle region). On the ride up you could see the whole village in the valley. The rock walls were very steep on the sides of the mountain. We saw people climbing them. We took pictures of our family on the top because it was so beautiful and clear. We heard that we were blessed, because it was clear just for us (this was not in English of course).
Whitney The 20-minute ride on the gondola to the top of Aiguille du Midi was fun, beautiful, and scary all at the same time. It was scary because we were several hundred feet off the ground, and there were only two poles supporting the huge cable that held the gondola. It was fun because I had never done something like that before, and it was beautiful because we got a great view looking down the valley of Chamonix. There were actually two gondola rides, one from the base to a little building half way up, and another from that half-way point to the top. When we got to the top it was very chilly. There were two viewing points of Mont Blanc. One was lower than the other was. The buildings that we walked through were hanging off the edge of the rocks. Sometimes we walked in tunnels through the rocks! Seeing Mont Blanc and other mountains in the French Alps was incredible. On the way down from the top we saw a go-cart track right by the place where we got on the gondola. We went to go try it out. It was a blast. We could either go for ten minutes or thirty minutes depending on what we chose. We chose to go for two, 10-minute runs. Devin, Mike, my dad and I all drove cars. We had a lot of fun. The cars were a lot different than in the United States because they didn’t have roll bars and they didn’t have seatbelts. They also went about 30 miles an hour, which you would never see in the United States. Devin was the best driver of all of us. He got first every single time we went.

After go-carting we went out to a very special dinner. It was probably one of the most enjoyable birthday dinners I’ve ever had. We went to a place with fondue and a cheese called Raclette. We ordered the cheese fondue, the meat fondue and the Raclette cheese. Both of the fondues were really good, but I liked the meat fondue better because the cheese in the cheese fondue was a little too strong for me. I’ve never seen anything like the way that you cook Raclette cheese. The huge 1/3 piece of Raclette wheel of cheese is placed under a coil of an oven in a glass covering, like a heat lamp, to let the one side that is under the heat melt. Once it has melted enough we took a wooden spatula and scraped off the melted cheese and ate it with potatoes and meats. After the dinner we celebrated my birthday with a fabulous ice-cream cake.
0518 Lundi, 18 mai Top
Devin We went walking the streets of Chamonix today. On the streets we saw an awesome Mercedes that has not been released in the US yet. Our hotel, Hotel Mt. Blanc, was one of the few four-star hotels in the town. Our corner suite had two rooms with beautiful views of the grounds and the mountains. It is amazing that no matter how big the rooms are, the bathrooms in France are always tiny.
Whitney We left Chamonix today, but before we did we went shopping around town for souvenirs. Yesterday my parents went and quickly looked in store windows to find the places with the cool stuff. We went to those places, and most of them were closed. We were pretty bummed out. We kept walking around to see if any places were open with little souvenirs and we found a few. We got some great souvenirs from those places. After shopping we went and did a little more go carting. This time only my family went. Since it was Monday, everybody that was there on Sunday was at work. This made it a lot more fun because we knew that everybody on the track was safe drivers. Devin got to drive a 200-cc car the last time we drove instead of a 150-cc car because it was only family. This made Devin go a lot faster. My dad and Devin were neck and neck the whole race. On the final lap my dad was right behind my brother but he couldn’t pass him. When they got to a gravel area right before this big turn that led to the starting line, my dad cut across the gravel and just waited for Devin at the start line because Devin did the right thing and went around the corner. Devin was really confused because he had been in front of my dad and then he was behind my dad.
0519 Mardi, 19 mai Top
Devin In class today we made glass paintings. It was very fun because we could paint like Picasso and not get chewed out for it. To make the paintings we first drew the design on a piece of paper and then put a similar sized piece of glass on the paper. Then we took paint tubes and traced the lines onto the glass. Than we took paint and painted it with colors. I drew a knight's symbol with a shield and 2-swords. I also drew a boat anchored in the Mediteranean.
Whitney Today our classes joined together and formed one big class. We learned how to paint pictures on glass. This helped us with our French because we got to learn the colors and how to say brush and other things that had to do with drawing and painting. I drew three pictures because I had a lot of extra time. My practice picture turned out to be so good that I colored it and made it one of my pictures. The last one I drew was one that my mom and I did together. It turned out very well thanks to my mom’s artistic side.
0520 Mercredi, 20 mai Top
Devin Our French lesson was interesting today. We had a substitute-teacher that had a cool way of teaching. We did easy things that we already knew like numbers and family members. This teacher taught by whispering in your ear   until you got the pronunciation right. This was the most effective way of teaching that I have ever experienced for a foreign language.
Whitney Our day at school today was very normal. We learned a lot of French. After class we went and got some lunch at a restaurant right across the street from the school and went home. After we came home and did our homework, we went over to Marie Christine’s for our last dinner over at her house.
0521 Jeudi, 21 mai Top
Devin Every day after school we walk home and stop at a sandwich shop to get a sandwich. Well, today was no exception. We stopped at our favorite shop where the people that work there already know what we like. This is not the same place as the bakery where we stop and get donuts everyday. Today was also a holiday, so most of the shops were closed. That made it very hard to get food, since we usually buy food daily here. All the food is fresh with no preservatives and the refrigerators are small, so the food tends to spoil very rapidly. The holiday is known as Ascension Day.
Whitney Every morning at 10:30 our school has a break. We are welcome to bring food to this break, so every morning before school we go to the bakery right across the street and pick up some milk chocolate covered donuts. They are some of the best donuts I have ever tasted. This bakery is the only bakery where we have found raised donuts. Since we go in there every morning, the people that work there know us pretty well. They are very patient with us while we try to speak to them in French.

One day, my dad decided it would be great to have donut holes every morning so he had Mary Ellen (our tutor who speaks French well) ask the people in the bakery to make some for us. Since they knew that we were going to school to learn French, they told Mary Ellen that she wasn’t allowed in there, that we were the only ones whose French they could understand. We all got a kick out of that. They agreed to try to make them and see how they turned out. The next morning we went and got our regular chocolate covered donuts. Rright there in the window were 24 donut holes waiting for us. They were perfect.

Since today was a holiday, our bakery was closed, so we had to go to another bakery. We were pretty sad about this because we love our favorite bakery.

0522 Vendredi, 22 mai Top
Devin Today was our last day of school. At the end of the day the teachers gave us graduation certificates for doing so well in school. My teacher, Celina, and I took a picture in our classroom. The certificates included our name, the name of the school and comments from our teachers. I can’t wait for the time when we get to come back to this wonderful school.
Whitney We played a really fun game in class today. Our two classes joined together into one big group. Our teachers made pieces of paper with each of our names on them. Devin and I each choose two pieces of paper and they gave my dad the two that were left. We each read the names on our two pieces of paper; those two people were on a team. It ended up that my mom and Devin were together, my dad and Mike were together and Mary Ellen and I were together. Then we drew one more piece of paper for each group. On each piece of paper there was a description of what we were supposed to do in French. Mine said, "Question / Response," then underneath that it said, "Description de la class," which in English means describe the class.  I had to ask Mary Ellen a question like "Où est le livre? (where is the book?) " and she would answer me  using prepositions such as in, on, under, to the left or to the right, and so on. Each group practiced  for five minutes and then  had to present it to the teachers and everybody else.

After that game we played another game were we broke into two teams. Devin, my mom and Mary Ellen were one team and  Mike, my dad and me were on the other. Each team took turns answering questions that the teachers asked us. If we answered a question correctly we received one point. The team with the most points at the end won. Well, my brother and my mom were so good at French that they beat us. We did a good job too, but they were just too good to beat. Today was our last day of school. Our teachers gave us each a diploma for completing the French course. We took a picture of my teacher and me with my diploma.
0523 Samedi, 23 mai Top
Devin My experience at Nova Longue was great. The thing I liked most about my class was that my mom was in it with me. I liked not being in a class with Whitney, because last year in Costa Rica I felt like I had to compete with her. I always lost because she was a lot quicker with languages than I was (aren’t they always). My tutor, Mary Ellen, was fun to have in the class because she was translated when the teacher talked to us. My favorite teaching style  was when the French teacher whispered the word in my ear syllable by syllable. When we come back to France again, Nova Longue will be on the must-go-to list.
Whitney Having French class with my dad and Mike was a lot of fun. They were always making it funny. There was never a time when I didn’t like class. My teacher made it very fun for me as well. She would always make sure that I was finished with one exercise before she moved on to the next. If she was in the middle of going over someone's homework and somebody else had a question, she didn’t mind if we interrupted. I especially lliked doing the different projects that we did. It spaced out our class time so we didn’t get so frustrated.

Nova Langue (our school) was located on the third floor of a building right by the entrance to the old city. We got quite a workout every morning going up the three flights of spiral stairs. When I got into the school, I went down a hall. In this hall there were a bunch of pictures of past students. When I came to the end of the hall, I was in the school’s office. Once I was in the office, I would turn right and there was my classroom.
0524 Dimanche, 24 mai Top
Devin Au revoir à Montpellier !
Whitney