Host Family

Yesterday, I got to spend a wonderful afternoon and evening with my host family. It had been quite awhile since I'd seen them, due to busy weekends for both of us, so it was great to get together again. When I arrived around 5pm, we went to watch their youngest daughter's basketball. Unfortunately, her team was playing a much more experienced and taller team, so they lost pretty badly... I think it was something like 62-12... they tried really hard though and it was very enjoyable. Once again, people were shouting and cheering throughout the entire game, despite these girls only being around 10-12 years old... I am always amazed at the ambiance at sporting events over here!
We didn't get out of the gym until about 7:30, so we went straight back to their house to have dinner. Of course, we started with an aperatif, which was cucumber, sausage, zucchini, crab meat, and some cheesy things. They also made sangria, which was the strongest sangria I have ever had! I brought a USB key and showed them my pictures from my Italy trip, which was nice. I also played a board game with Melanie (the youngest) before dinner. We didn't actually start eating until around 9:15!
For dinner, we had something really delicious that I had never heard of before... meat fondu! Basically, you take a bunch of pieces of raw beef and put them on your plate. They heat up a bowl of oil, and then put the oil on a fondu burner in the middle of the table. Then, you skewer your piece of meat and cook it in the hot oil. The nice thing about this was that you could cook it as much or as little as you wanted, which was nice for me because the French definitely don't cook their meat like I do... I always have no pink in mine (although I must say that pink in the middle is actually starting to grow on me). We also had fries and salad. The meat was delicious, and it was also much needed because I honestly can't remember the last time I had red meat over here... so it was great to eat it again. For dessert, we had a bit of ice cream, baked apples, and some little confectioneries from somewhere in the south of France.
After dinner, we began to watch a movie, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and I left around 11pm. It was a great evening and lots of French speaking was had!
Today my day is pretty much dedicated to homework and researching hostels for my trip before Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas... I may or may not have started listening to Christmas music... it is making me very excited for the holiday season!!