From Karl to his classmates (and everyone else!)

Matt, yes I am having fun with my road-bike, Johann is having fun with his bike to.
P. S. Are you guys learning to type on the keyboard yet?
John, yes there are Pokemon cards in France.
Becca, we’ll be back in April.

How is Iowa different from France?
(from Marissa)
There are some things that are different between the Southeastern part of France and Iowa, and some things that are the same. We have learned a lot about how these two places are the same and different in their landforms and climate. Right now, in Janurary, it has been about 7 degrees Celcius here in the mornings. That is about the same as 45 degrees Fahrenheit (Look at the 3rd grade Science book page D36 to see a thermometer.) It has been about 12 degrees C in the days. Can you guess the temperature that is in Fahrenheit? We don’t have a thermometer here. We heard the temperature in Iowa is below freezing and that you are getting snow!! Some days here it is very windy. The wind comes down off the mountain top.

Some of the land here is like Iowa: mostly flat plains. They call the flat area here The Roussillon Plains. The Plains go from the mountains all the way down to the Mediterranean Sea. There are sandy and rocky beaches along the Sea (sort of like the Mississippi River).

There are many mountains here (not like in Iowa). They are part of a mountain range called the Pyrenees. The mountains are steep and made of rocks. That makes lots of valleys and canyons. We learned canyons are deep valleys with very steep sides. We used an old egg carton to show how the landforms are here. Most of the roads are made from rocks. Even our rental house is made with big rocks. The rocks outside the door are made into an arch.

Here there are palm trees, orange trees, and trees called cork trees (the bark is cut off and used to make cork for wine bottles). In Iowa there are willow trees but we haven’t seen any here.

We have learned that animals depend on trees for food and shelter. Wild boar live in the forests here. The chestnusts grow on trees and the wild boar eat the chestnuts. Pinenuts grow on some of the pine trees. Some people eat the chestnuts. We eat the pine nuts in our salad. One day we saw hunters hunting the wild boar.

What have you been doing?
Megan,
I have been riding my road bike, looking in Roman castles (built two-thousand years ago),
Playing scrabble, UNO, soccer and learning to speak French. Everyday we practice French. Sometimes we use the marker boards. Sometimes we use flashcards. We listen to French stories and songs and videos. We use French when we shop. I bought a stamp at the Post Office where I used French.

How fast is your road bike?
Tanner,
My road bike/race bike has 16 speeds.
The lowest speeds are the sprinting speeds, the highest speeds are the spinning speeds.
I’ve biked half-way up the mountain three times already. The last time I got cramps on either side of my back bone.
How is France? (Dakota)
GGGGGGGGRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!
The food
Last night for dinner mom and dad had an Egyptian dish called kosherie (pronounced, CO-shAIR-ee), as for me and Johann……..we had pizza.
Last night we didn’t have dessert but tonight we are going to have lots of chocolate. We bought 7 kinds of chocolate. Coeur Truffe (pronounced koor-TRuFAY) is my favorite so far. My next favorite is the creamy Fondant chocolate. Then I like the Coeur Truffe a l’Orange. I haven’t yet tried this last store-bought kind, but it is called Coeur Praline. We bought 3 kinds of homemade chocolates at the bakery. One is nutty and is covered in milk chocolate. The next one is dark chocolate and the very last one is all milk chocolate. France is known for their chocolates. The end.