First Week Back/Chateaux/Vitamin Meal!

So I successfully got on a train back to Clermont (missing Monday classes, but it was worth it!). After arriving home at 10 pm, I fell asleep, but had to get up early again the next day to continue the silly thing called "school". Anyway, because it was the first week back, everything was crazy, classes all the time again, just trying to get organized and back into the swing of things. Thankfully, things have started to slow down again this week. Nothing eventful happened, other than being served a half cooked omelet for dinner one night. And other than the crazy fits that my host sister has started to throw (oh to be a teenager again), nothing is really happening at home.
Then this weekend was a visit to the Loire Valley to see 3 different chateaux, and spend one night in a small town. So the weekend started early on Saturday morning and ended late on Sunday night. After meeting our guide (a Greek guy who was about the same age as us Americans, oh and did I mention that he spoke no french?) we then got on the bus with a driver who only spoke french. This was going to be an adventure. We get to the first chateaux (which I've already visited in high school) And we explore, wander, and after we got bored got back onto the bus to go find our hotel and eat some dinner. The dinner was at a semi fancy restaurants, they served us chicken with a honey sauce, these delicious mushrooms, and hash browns?! But anyway, this was followed by a course of cheese on a plate of lettuce (do we eat this lettuce or not?) then a banana flambe with graham cracker crumble and a sweetened whipped cream (all in all it was too sweet). The atmosphere was nice if not a little awkward because us Americans could pick a language to talk in (English and the Greek could understand or French and the bus driver could understand), so we ended up switching back and forth all night. After wards we went back to the hotel and fell asleep early. The next day we went around and visited 2 more chateaux. There was a misconception with the lunch arrangements (while we were originally to eat lunch in a market in Amboise, we ended up leaving Amboise early to arrive at another small town). We found the only restaurant open on a Sunday, and ate there. I had a French pizza with chroizo, parmesian, and black olives. It was delicious. Then after visiting the final chateau, we left for Clermont where I returned home once again tired and fell promptly asleep.
Then this week I have found out that my host dad was diagnosed with high cholesterol and can no longer eat a lot of French cheese, which has caused high tensions around the house. So my host mom in her effort to put more veggies into his daily diet created what she called "the vitamin meal!". It started with a beet and garlic puree that was chilled. This would have been delicious if it were summer and not freezing cold in the house. But anyway, onto the second course which was a creamed spinach and ham concoction that was put over rice. This was decent as well, but the color was not appetizing in the least and after a few bites my host dad declared that he wanted something different for dinner. Then a frozen pizza was brought out and we had that for dinner. After wards we had small amounts of cheese while my host dad ate a non-fat yogurt. Then finally for dessert there was an apple tart, which was delicious except for the crust which was difficult to cut and was a little tough. But the cooked apples (from the country house) were soft and delicious!
Anyway, all in all it has been a good week back, and I'm looking forward to my next break when I can travel around Europe a bit more. And with that, I am all caught up!
Peace, Love and Yay for Real Time!