Easter

Happy Easter, everyone! So much has happened since the last time I wrote, I don't know where to begin.
Overall, things are going really well here. My French is (very) slowly improving, I understand the basics of the bus system now and got a bus pass, I have adjusted to the time difference and stopped falling asleep in class (a very good thing), I have eaten maybe a bit too much good chocolate (but you can never really have too much chocolate in my opinion), and I have almost finished my third book. I have written in my journal every day, but have only just discovered that I started writing in the back of the book, so it is upside down. I'm a little embarrassed that it took me so long to figure it out, but not too much. Also, I have now been to France three times, but if no one had told me, I wouldn't have realized that I crossed any borders between countries, because there is almost nothing to show it. A little different from America, I guess.
Things are much more expensive here and the Swiss franc is now almost equal the value of a dollar, which is not at all good news for me. Still, as long as I refrain from buying too many books and chocolate I should be fine. I should have no problem refraining from buying shoes here though. I have already received much sympathy from Kimberley's father's girlfriend about shoes here, because they have very few choices once you get up past a U.S. size 8, and they are really expensive. Oh, well...
Back to the present, today for Easter, I went to Kim's mother's boyfriend's house for dinner with his daughters, parents, and brother. After we had all been introduced and kissed on the cheek a million times, we all sat down in the living room and had a bit of socialization and snacking. We had olives with anchovies inside, crackers, nuts and champagne. It feels very strange to be offered wine and champagne at a meal as if that was normal, it will take a bit of getting used to. Once dinner began we ate salad, warm bread, and (I know there is a culinary name for this, but I don't know it) duck liver. It was very good, very salty. This course was followed by lamb, a kind of potato and cream casserole, hard boiled eggs (of course), and more bread. Desert was a fruit tart and mille feuilles, which I don't know the name for in English but it means a thousand leaves and it is a kind of pastry. It was an amazing meal, perfectly satisfying, and everyone was very friendly and helpful to me.
Afterward, Kim and I sat on the couch, altering a few of her pairs of jeans that had wide legs, which used to be fashionable, but skinny jeans are the mode right now, so they had to be taken in at the bottom. That was fun, I think Kim is still working on a pair now. I guess being able to do projects like that very easily has something to do with all those handwork classes I've had.
Kim is upstairs right now, watching Meet the Fockers on TV, and laughing loudly, which I know anyone who stayed in our house for a while while she was with us will remember easily. She would be alone in her room, watching a movie, and laughing so that you could hear her through the whole house. I love that she does that, it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud if I'm watching something by myself. The movie is dubbed in French, like so much of the TV here. Most of the shows we watch in America come out here a bit later, but they have most of the same. Almost all of the songs on their radio are songs that are popular in the U.S. It would really not be that hard to live here speaking no French at all, everyone speaks at least a few words of English.
Well, it is getting late here so I am going to head up to bed. I will try to write more often, and I have two weeks of Easter break now, so it should be easier to do. Happy Easter!