Somehow I never got around to this this week to tell you about last weekend. Thus, I figured I'd better tonight before I head off to more adventures tomorrow and have overwhelming amounts of things to write about.

Working backwards, Thursday were our midterm evaluations. I feel like mine went well. There was an oral comprehension part, a written comprehension part, a writing production part, and an oral production part. I was a little nervous, but not terribly because in all reality they aren't really like a test. You can't study for them. You can practice for them, but either you've been working to improve your french skills or you haven't. And I definitely feel like mine have improved. So basically all week, Robynne and I completely banned anything in English: conversation, music, movies, anything. Not that we normally do too much of it anyway, but there was none this week.

Last Friday was the Aziz' birthday (he's the other student who lives in the house with us) so Robynne and I wanted to make some chocolate chip cookies. Besides Xavier had hinted at it a couple times already. So, Sunday Robynne and I set out to make some cookies and it turned out to be quite an adventure. Baking soda was exceedingly hard to find because French people don't use it for baking, they use it when they get sick. Thus, it must be bought at the pharmacy, not the grocery store. We had to use a pie tin to bake them in because cookie sheets don't exist either. And the oven . . . oh goodness. Not to mention the whole grams instead of cups and teaspoons. Haha, it was an experience, but they turned out awesome! We even made some more today because hints were dropped all week. It went much more smoothly today though, so I think we've got it figured out.

Last Saturday we had signed up for an excursion with the Institute to Amboise and Chenonceau. However, not enough people signed up so it was cancelled. Neither place is far away at all, and both are easily accessible by train. So, we went to Amboise Satuday and visited the Chateau and also the Clos Luce which is the castle/house where Leonardo Da Vinci lived for his last couple years and also where he died. I went with Robynne and our friend Valeria (from Columbia) and we took lots of pictures. So, I'll put up some of those. It was FREEZING though!!! It even snowed a little . . . ick!

Me and Valeria by the castle.

Leonardo's grave in the chapel of the castle.

The castle is built uphill from the rest of the town, so you can overlook the rest of the town.

Some goofy looking trees

The castle's to the right and the little chapel on the left.

. . . the bed where Leonardo Da Vinci died. Kinda morbid.

They had a fire in the fireplace!!!

They'd made models of alot of DaVinci's inventions that he'd never actualised. This was the paddleboat. And the one below is the "tank"