long time no read!

Sorry I haven't really been talking about stuff on my blog, it's just we've been sooo busy! Last week I went to Fontainebleu! its a giant castle that was built before the United States became a country. The castles here are just amazing! It's hard to believe that people actually lived in them. every time a king came to the "humble" Hunting Lodge of Fontainebleu, they added just a little bit more. So today, the estimation of how many rooms there are, is about 1,500. Eek!

But before we went to Fontainebleu, we went to Champange. We went out to learn french with our teacher Marie. (Everyone is france is named Marie, you get used to it). We went on a big train that took us all the way out there. It was amazing. If you think that France doesn't have many streams or rivers, you're wrong. there's tons of them!!! Champange was nice, and I loved it. We decided if we would want to go any where to escape the clutches of Paris, (and yes, it does get tired) we would go to Champange.

Okay, back to Fontainebleu. We will go back to Fontainebleu too. IT'S AWESOME!!! WE decided on the first day, since it was such a nicew day, that we would hike out to Barbizon, the neighboring town, 5 miles each way. We went and had a great time on the way there, but on the way back WE WERE AMBUSHED BY A HUMONGO THUNDERSTORM. real great, huh? So we just had to walk 3 mils back in the hardest thunderstorm yet, to sit in our leaking hotel room.

But before I get carried away on how horrible it was, let's focus on the good thing about the thunderstorm. First we had a super fun time hiding under trees that barley had any foliage, but still kept us dry, we built a shelter (yes childpeace alumni and currents students, just like at camp!) that we only stayed under for five minutes, but it kept us pretty dry. Then we played game of "who got the wettest". Mom won because she barely even had a jacket.

The next day, we decided to spend it indoors, even though it was a very sunny and hot day, we went around a giant 1,500 roomed castle, which we only toured like, 20 rooms. (1.33 %?!) Then we rode home to Paris on a blissful ride in our on cabin on the train.

WEll,

TTFN!-Sophie luv 2 u all

'Twas the Night Before Friday

'Twas the night before Friday, when all through the house,

Not a creature was sleeping, not even the mouse!

It was a hot sticky night, heat filled the air,

In hopes that colder weather would soon be there.

The children were nestled all astray in their beds,

While visions of ice cubes danced through their heads.

Mom reading a book, and Dad, on the computer,

He was always a very big commuter.

When out in the sky, there a arose such a clatter,

I sprang form my bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters and tried to secure the sash!

The moon had disappeared under clouds so fast,

Gave rain to the streets down below.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a lightning flash, I gave out a cheer!

With a giant gust of wind, so lively and quick,

I knew in a moment, this was no trick.

More rapid than eagles, the wind blew my curtain off,

ripping straight through the stitches.

Ahhh Sophie! Ohh Quinn! Ah Mother and Dad!

The wind blew away your curtains, you should be sad!

To the top of the porch, secure everything!

Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!

As lightning flashed and thunder roared,

We watched from a window,

shocked with amazement,

One hundred percent.

Then, in a pounding, I heard on the roof,

The dancing and pounding of each little drop,

As I drew in my head, and was turning around,

Down came thunder around with a bound.

How the lightning twinkled! The flashes so merry!

The sky was like pea soup, the lightning like a shock!

The wind blew, and all the curtains were up drawn in a bow,

And the sky's beard was as white as the snow.

The lightning flashed, while the thunder died down,

Until there was not a sound.

For the rains had ceased,

And the wind asleep.

The lightning still went, on for a while,

And I was scared when I saw it, in spite of myself!

in a wink of an eye, and a twist of dad's head,

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

We spoke not a word, we went straight to bed.

And filled our minds with the storm ahead.

And laying my hands a writing book,

I heard one last roar that shook.

I sprang to the window, one last time,

And away it went, not in it's prime.

But I heard my self exclaim, as the clouds went out of sight,

"Happy Storm to all, and to all a good-night!"

© 2oo9 by Sophie in France, all rights reserved.

My poem of the thunder/lightning storm that happened last night. It was very quick, unlike this poem. This poem was based off of the Poem "Twas the Night before Christmas", by Clement Clarke Moore.

Poupee! (first one to figure out what that means gets a prize)

"I'm a barbie girl, in the barbie world, life's fantastic if you're plastic!" (by aqua, "barbie girl")

You got that right Barbie! Today I visited the Musee de la Poupee, or the Doll Museum. It was pretty cool, because even though they were just dolls, they had a lot of history behind them. we walked in the musee's tiny doors to see an assortment of really REALLY old dolls. Ads you walked through, you could se how the evolution of the dolls really worked. There were a lot of high fashion dolls, but they were all adults. Until the the 1800's, dolls weren't children, but adults. Then the children dolls became more popular.

We went through a veil to see giant cases of barbies. The musee's special exhibit was on Barbie! It was actually quite interesting to see Barbie go from the average 1950's woman to malibu barbie on the beach, to the 1970's hippie era (yes, they had a hippy barbie, complete with hippy Ken) to the mullet, rock, and really bad crazy fashion of 1980.

My Mom pointed out which Barbies she had as a kid, and i realized that I still had those barbies, but I didn't have any of their clothes. It was really interesting (even Quinn was interested!)and i loved it!

TTFN-Sophie luv 2 u all

summer summer summer

Well, today we are just sitting around the house doing nothing. nothing at all. Mom promised us this wonderful day because the past few weeks have just been sooooooo busy. Quinn and I have finished summer school, but our work is not over yet. we are continuing our lessons with a private teacher, Marie.

On Dimache (Sunday) we went to the bastille market with Marie. I bought a very pretty dress (for only 15 euros!) and head bands. Quinn bought socks and dad kinda went crazy and bought like, 4 different types of cheese. But for those who come in the summer, the bastille market is a MUST DO.

We have also had some friends who have chosen to visit us while during their stay in Paris. One of our friends had an apartment where you could see the eiffel tower from. On the 14th of July, the French have their bastille day parade and the fireworks off the eiffel tower.

The bastille day millitare parade was amazingly intense. We watched as tank after tank after tank went by. it was getting dreadfully hot, and I couldn't stand the sight of another tank going by in the stiffiling hotness. i went and sat in the shade reading a book while everyone cheered.

After an hour of tanks, i couldn't stand it any longer. We went away from the crowds and went down a backstreet where we saw no other than MORE TANKS. but this time, there were no barriers blocking us from the street. they were just sitting there! They had come down the back alley as soon as they had finished parading. Quinn took this as an opportunity to snap pictures of everyone in their uniforms.

We decided to take a break from the big crowds and go on the giant ferris wheel set up by the Louvre. But, of course, there was no way to cross the streets. What were we to do? Finally, mom had this idea to go underground and cross by means of the metro stop since there is always and entrance on both sides of the street. We ended up taking the metro to the next stop, because tit was pretty much a waste of a couple dollars just to cross the street.

We walked and did a lot of cool things on our walk like go in a trampoline park (trust me, it's real) and a roller coaster that didn't have any safety features and was totally fun. When we got on the ferris wheel (after an assortment of the carnival rides) we realized that it wasn't so tall. When we got on however, it was really tall, and felt like you might fall off. We took lots of pictures and had a great day.

TTLY-Sophie luv 2 u all

Summer School

Hello,
Today I have been learning all sorts of things in French at my summer school. It is very fun, and we've done all sorts of things like go to the cirque (circus) and the OMSI (Oregon museum of science and industry) of Paris, except it's like, two times the size of OMSI, which is pretty big, not including their Imax cinema. We've also had scientists come in a teach us all this wonderful thing about particles and atoms (it's a shame i didnt get any of it). We made sugar that we could eat, but me and my american friends didn't eat it because we didnt know we were supposed too.
Then, the science teacher helped us make goo! She called it chimmy-shimmy, or something like that,. Mine of course, was yellow. We were not to put his in our mouths. Noope, other wise we would probably die.
We are also learning songs in Summer school. For those Childpeace students or alumnis, you'll all remember the "Un elefante" song. Well, i'm learning it in french! It is very difficult to undewrstand, but i like iut. We also learned some other songs such as "Un puse et Un pou". It is very funny, so I will share the lyrics with you in French and English...

"un puce, un pou, assis sur un tabouret, jouaint aux dames, la puce perdait, la puce en colere, attrapa le pou, le flanqua par terre, lui bisa le cou, Madame la puce, Qu avez bous fait la? J'ai commis un crime, un assassinat!"

What the song is saying:
One day, a flea and a nit were playing checkers. The nit was winning, and the flea got angry. So, the flea went ahead and killed the nit. We asked "Why did you kill the nit Miss Flea?" she says "I have commited a crime, A murder!"
Dad called it a french prison song.

Au Revoir! A beintot,

TTFN- SOPHIE luv 2 u all

Bonsoir

Well, Paris has been extremely hot. It even feels hotter than Portland! I'm not surprised though. I head July is it's hottest month (August is a little better), but the rest are all cold, or nice. When we went to Paris in April, the weather was very kind and let the sun shine upon us.
We might get our new kitten soon, but the place where the have the kittens is in Monaco, so we'd have to take the train (if you don't know where Monaco is, I would look it up. I don't know much about it.)

Summer school is nice, and I'm learning all sorts of useful french words, like the different ways to say good-bye and thank-you. I hope you all are having a great summer,

TTYL- SOPHIE

Bonjour

hello! I'm sorry i haven't really been doing my blog, but I've been really busy these last few days. I've been going to summer school, so I'm learning new french words every day. J'aime le musee! Today we went to a chateau, just outside of Paris. It's where all those french royalty went to spend a little time hunting. But this wasn't like a log cabin...it was a full on castle! I couldn't believe my eyes when we got there, but I couldn't believe my feet either. We had just spent 2 and a half hours walking, stopping only to figure out where we were and to eat a crepe.
The castle belonged to Charles the 5th, a king of France. He had it built as an escape from the royal castle. There were all these little rooms, that he used ONLY FOR HIMSELF. All this time while I'm going around this beautiful castle looking at all these humongo rooms for King Charles, I wonder, where did everybody else sleep?

In the late 1600's, the castle was converted into prisoners. These prisoners are famous, because of one thing. GRAFFITI. Yes, 500 year old graffiti was carved all over the place! In the first room we went to, we were all stunned at how beautiful the wall art is. WE look over to the info sign, and it talks about how all of the wonderful paintings and such were done by prisoners. Ancient ancient graffiti is pretty cool.
We took the metro home, which only lasted us 15 minutes. Thankfully, I'm becoming quite a commuter and brought my book. I hope any of you come to France on a vacation, this walk and castle is a MUST DO.

well that's about it!

ttfn!
sophie