Americans

So, when before I arrived here I thought I would constantly have to deal with a general dislike of Americans. Thankfully, that is not at all the case. So far, I have found nearly everyone to be incredibly kind, helpful and interested! However, there are some people who have some interesting ideas of what life is like in America.

• I do not eat at McDonald's every day or even often, and I don't watch tv all the time. In fact I watch more tv here with my host family than at home!
• Life is not like Gossip Girl.
• I do not spend my life playing beer pong and going to football games (although, I have realized that my high school is really a very stereotypical small-town high school with homecoming, prom etc.).
• I do not live in New York City.
• I do not live in Los Angeles.
• I have never been to California ("7 hours on a plane! But it's just one country!")
• Not everyone has new cars.
• Yes, Obama is really cool.

And most of the time, I find that people are honestly curious. And everyone thinks that an American accent is cute. Every once in a while I feel like I should say "sorry" for America, but honestly, I think that's mostly me.

And in other news:

It is starting to get chilly here, and it really feels like fall. And of course, it's still gorgeous!

School is going well. My classes are hard, but I believe for the most part, I'm passing. Which, for the first time in my life completely satisfies me. And I know that my french will only improve!

My teachers are all very nice and very understanding.

I made pancakes for my host family this morning. They turned out a little different from what I'm used to, but they loved them. Who knew that baking soda and baking powder would be so hard to find? So I used yeast instead. And rice oil instead of butter or vegetable oil. And we ate them with the maple syrup cream my family sent as a gift to my host family. It was really great!

And I just tried to upload some photos, but it didn't work very well, so I'll try again later!