Where did I leave off....
Well I had another Rotary Weekend! I just love those! I love them so so so much! I think I am my happiest on my exchange when I am on one. This time we were in Rennes with our neighbour district. Lais and I took the train and when we switched trains, there were a lot of people on the second train and not a lot of space to stand. I actually got stuck in the cabin door and didn't even realize it because I was looking at my ticket trying to figure out where to go! Lais was laughing hysterically because the door was actually trying to close on me and kept bumping into my chest and I was completely unaware of it. Luckily my savoir came to me and stopped the door from entirely squishing me! A hardcore, very real hipster! If only I had a picture... hhaha. Taking the train is really nice. we had seats and tables and it was just very comfortable. I'd have no problem doing it again.
At the weekend, we went ice skating and I loved it! I tried jumping and fell on my butt. Let's not try that again!
Then Rotary took us to the centre of town and we had an hour and a half or 2 hours to walk around the area and look at the Christmas market and shop. I started walking around the market with a temporary student from South Africa who's here for 2 months. His name was Jack and he was really nice! Jack and I found a friend of mine named Andy from the USA and we walked around the block and found an Art Market... decided it was boring and went back to the Christmas market. Then Andy left and Jack and I met up with Lais, Linda from Germany, and Hudson from Brazil. The 5 of us walked around and found a nice Cafe to have a hot chocolate (something I'd been searching for since ice skating), and then found a woman in the streets handing out glow-in-the-dark bracelets (glow-sticks in bracelet form) and we each took a different colour and named ourselves the Power Rangers! <3 I just love my friends.
POWER RANGERS FOR LIFE <3
We then went back to where we were staying ate dinner and Linda and I went with Hudson to his room. You see, there was a talent show performed by the other district because they were guests in my district, and so we listened in on groups practising and talked, Linda and I locked Hudson out of his room for laughs.
The talent show was really good! Everyone who performed was talented and I wasn't bored for one minute! There were a lot of singers, some dancers and one comedy-singing act. Then there was a tearful goodbye presentation to the Oldies (the students who were from Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. They start their exchanges in January and thus finish in January also.)
After the talent show was a dance but not many people danced and when I tried to... well I just couldn't. So once again, I left with Linda and Lais and we wandered around the place, into and out of people's rooms for a few hours while the dance went on.
The rooms were organized so that everyone had their own room and you see... I had one of the scarier rooms. In fact, my room was terrifying. I would actually open my room door to show people and people would say, oh yeah... it is scary. Nevermind lets just, lets just leave. Close the door, close the door. Hahaha Normally, I could have slept in the room, but if you've ever seen a scary movie called the Asylum, then you will understand me when I say that my room looked exactly like a bedroom out of that movie and it is for that reason that I couldn't sleep in there. So I had a sleepover with Lais.
Here's the trailer for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FehgW7anqMY
And here's my bedroom:
Before we went to bed, we wandered around, met other groups of people, and eventually found ourselves, for some reason, sitting outside in the cold just talking. At about 3:30am, we decided to FINALLY turn in to bed and as we did so, heard other people through the doors doing the same. We heard someone walk someone to their rooms, give a goodnight kiss and then leave and out of curiosity leaned over to the window to see who it was, after identifying the person, we turned around to see a dark figure of a person standing in the open doorway and we both had a heart attack. Nothing to dear though, just a friend coming in uninvited to say goodnight.
The next day was incredibly sad. I think more for me than for other people though. You see, it was the last time I would see all of my oldies and possibly my other friends from the other district too. I was so sad the whole day and I just cried the whole day. Of course I have hopes and wishes and dreams to travel and see people but the likeliness of remaining friends with them is rare. You really don't know what a real goodbye is until you say goodbye to someone knowing that you may never see them again. I was an absolute wreck the whole day.
I was told not to expect a lot of decorations or excitement over Christmas. Yes, we would celebrate it, but there wouldn't be as much excitement over it in the media or stores, etc. Well whoever "they" were... They were so wrong! It's different, yes, but not lacking in the Christmas spirit in anyway or spirit.... at least with the town.
I felt like there weren't a lot of people who were as excited for Christmas as I was but the town... Oh my goodness! I've never seen a town get more dressed up for Christmas (and later after exploring more towns... I discovered every town is the same!) In Lannion, there were lights streamed across roads, giant balls hung in trees, and Christmas music playing and in town centre was a Christmas market!!! The whole town was very festive!
What else has happened.... ugghhh this is why I need to blog more... because I forget!!! Ummm....
School.... well.... not a whole lot.... I had my phone stolen on the last day of school :( Came home, my host mum cancelled my phone plan and then the next day we went to the police and I got a new phone. There was something about me having to check my insurance... not really sure what for but I'll deal with it later.
Other sad news... my bank card isn't working :( Sucks eh? Christmas vacation, travelling (I'll get to that in a minute), things I need to pay for, such as my Barcelona bus trip which is now almost 2 weeks overdue, Christmas gifts, how can I possibly survive without my card? I'm an exchange student!!! Money is a necessity for me!
Ahh yess..... GUESS WHERE I WILL BE IN 1 DAY? PAAAAARIS!!!!!!!!!!!!! PARIS AT CHRISTMAS!!! Supposed to be BEAUTIFUL!!! I mean, Paris is already beautiful.... but the whole world is even more beautiful at Christmas time, so of course Paris is going to be even more beautiful and I am SO DAMN EXCITED!
But as you can see.... It's after Christmas now and I am not in Paris. So what have I done for Christmas? Well....
On Friday night, I packed my bag and watched my Canadian school's Extravaganza (student talent show) live online and IT WAS SO GOOD! It really made me miss everyone a lot... my friends, my school, even my teachers! It was really weird seeing them online too. For almost everyone, it was the first time I'd seen them live and in motion since I left. Connection wasn't great but the performances were so good! I'm so proud to be a part of that school and friends with everyone there.
I also put together a new... different style kind of outfit. Tights under shorts with a t-shirt and my plaid shirt. I quite like it... I know the kids at my French school will like it too since it's kind of very in fashion there but I thought I'd try it on in the security of my house first to see how I feel about it.
Saturday afternoon we drove to the grandparent's house on the border of Bretagne and Normandy, right by the Mont St. Michel. I love it there, it's so nice. We also met up with some cousins and their mother and step-dad there. There was Marie, the mother, who is the daughter of the grandparents, her boyfriend or husband or some relation like that with them too (I don't know how to spell his name and I'm afraid to make a mistake and so Désolée monsieur, vous êtes très gentil et le prochaine fois, j'apprendrai votre nom correctement! Then there was Anais and Quintin, the cousins who are both very nice!
I shared a room with Anais and Constance. We combined all of our nail polish and spent an hour the next day painting our nails :)
The next day, when I got up, everyone was playing on the Wii... Just Dance, Mario Bros, MarioKart, and other Wii related games. Then we painted our nails... I tried my first nail design and it turned out not so bad... a snow/ice blue/water kind of blue with the impression of snow on it.
Later in the day, I went to see St. Malo, a fortified city!!! (A city behind walls). IT WAS SO PRETTY! I loved it! That is exactly the kind of history I want to experience while I am here. It was used during the war and it was so cool to see and hear the stories of what happened on each site and what all the little windows and outlets in the wall were used for. I just loved it all so much! I'll upload pictures of it though after I get back from vacationing because I forgot my camera and took pictures on my phone and I left the connection chord for my phone at the house.
The day after was the 24th. The French do Christmas differently than Canada, USA and Australia. Christmas starts in the evening on the 24th and ends after morning on the 25th. And so Anais, Constance and I spent the day preparing ourselves for the formal dinner at night. The other branch of the family, the other daughter and her family, was joining us for the evening and that would bring the grand total of people up to 14 people, I believe.
Before dinner, I went to mass at the old church and I loved it. It's so different being in an old church like that. With the stone walls, the echos, the statues and old... oh how do you say it... those windows with pictures and colours in them?? OH! Stained glass windows! Right... anyways. It's just beautiful and lovely to experience even if you can't understand anything. The music was great too. I like the modern songs that my churches in Canada sing but I love singing those old hymns. They echoed in the Cathedral and were just beautiful. I also liked the mini songs/phrases that were sung by a woman at the front... beautifully haunting in a way I've never heard before.
Anais was there with me and she did her best to translate or explain to me what was going on. She did a decent job too! (GO ANAIS!!!) What struck me as so cool was when she translated the speech that is always given before Communion. It's something I've heard being said many times before, I know it almost by heart. And I know that it's from the Bible, and the Bible is the same in every language, but it's so cool hearing someone translate it from French to English to you when they don't know English very well... She translated the exact phrases that I know. The same religion and beliefs throughout the world... very cool!
After church, Anais and I ran upstairs and started getting ready for dinner... I had repainted my nails a pretty sparkly black earlier in the day and had straightened my hair too (well Constance and Anais straightened it for me) and so I threw on my dress, shoes, did my make up and everyone else's too and dinner started!
We ate, and we ate well!! My favourite, the fois gras. I'm going to have to find it back in Canada. It's this pink spread that you put on bread and cover with jam and it is sooooo good! I just love love love it! Fig jam is the best with it.
The cutest part of dinner was the little girl who was sitting next to me. You see, I wasn't expecting gifts from the whole family... I'm an exchange student after all, I can't just expect these things. I can't remember exactly how it went, but the little girl next to me, Lisa (?), but we were talking about presents and she asked me, "T'aimes le parfum? ~ Do you like perfume?" I said "Mais ouii" and she said "Okay, just wondering!" Well I know what one surprise gift is right there ;) Later in the night, she was so funny! She slammed her hand on the table exclaiming "C'est l'homme qui choisis la femme! Pas la femme! ~ It's the man who chooses the woman! Not the woman!" Hahahaha I just love her!
PRESENTS! I've never ever had a present exchange like that before. All the presents were piled and all at once people just pounced. It was mayhem. People finding presents, giving piles of presents, within seconds there was wrapping paper all over the large room and people shouting and exclaiming excitement. I've never seen so much going on at once. Picture a massive store like Costco or Walmart, then picture CRAZY sales and hundreds of people reaching and grabbing for things... like a flea market also... it wasn't too much different!
I honestly wasn't expecting so much from people. I knew I would be getting a pair of boots and a scarf and a nail polish from my host family and then my real family had sent me a couple small things too, but that is really all I expected... and so I was very surprised to find out that each family had something nice for me. How blessed am I?
I got for Christmas, some boots that I really wanted, 4 colours of nail polish (pink from the OPI Skyfall collection, sparkly black from a Hunger Games collection, and a really pretty blue and purple, a t-shirt, a scarf, a Bretagne license plate, a DVD, a CD (with something on it but I don't know what... Susanna is good at secrets and surprises!), some earrings, oh and the perfume of course!
Today, we left the grandparents house and arrived at Margali's house. SUCH A FREAKING NICE HOUSE!!!! Big and open and modern but warm and friendly, comfortable and relaxed, full of happy playful personality. Maybe the giant Christmas tree and red carpet surrounded by a collection of couches playfully placed around helps! And the fact that all the inhabitants of the house have a lovely big and open personality too.
We ate lunch here and then went on a big walk in a nearby forest. I loved that walk! I really love the outdoors and nature and I didn't realize just how much I missed it. I mean, there's a lack of outdoor activity in a French lifestyle, and that's probably a result of one factor: the rain. I absolutely loved walking through the woods and watching the littler kids running ahead and playing on all the play grounds and just in general being surrounded by nature. It was the first time I've been in that kind of environment since I left Canada. It was also fun because we took the white van which has no seats in the back because it's a work van, so 3 adults went in the front and I piled into the back of the van with the 3 other kids and as they drove to the forest and they would suddenly stop or serve the van sending everyone in the back of the van piling and falling and tumbling in every direction. SO MUCH FUN! haha I loved it.
I got to Skype with my mum and sister today and that was really nice to see them and say Merry Christmas. They seemed happy, it was just the 2 of them today because my brother is in Australia with my dad this year and Larry was sick. They also did a big Christmas celebration early with Daniel, Larry and his kids last weekend and so I think they were both a little weirded out by the lack of... how do you say it... Christmas spirit? Excitement? People? I'm not sure... But I still loved seeing them. They said my French had improved :D While I was skyping them, I had people running up and saying hello to them and shooting nerf guns at me! Got to love family and friends! Surprisingly though, I didn't get to see my dogs on Skype :( They were probably sleeping somewhere.
You could say that I've been a little homesick these past few weeks. I knew it would be hard to be away from home for Christmas but I didn't know that I would feel so strange about it too. It's not the first time I've been away from home for Christmas... I've spent Christmas in Australia before... several times. But this is the first time I've been away from family... I guess the first time I'm truly away from my home... But I have had a truly incredible and amazing Christmas and I couldn't have asked for anything better. I really couldn't. Christmas is definitely one of my highlights of my exchange.
Oh yes and I discovered this awhile ago... I just forgot to mention it in my blog but turns out that "Vivant en France" doesn't really mean "Living in France"... It really means "SURVIVING in France!" oops... haha
If you're in the mood for a laugh, check out this blog. I just love love love it! It's so funny and very true: http://blazersandpins.tumblr.com/
This is how I feel right now:
MORE PHOTOS OF EVERYTHING ELSE INVOLVING CHRISTMAS WILL BE ADDED AFTER I GET BACK TO LANNION! GOOD NIGHT AND BISOUS TOUE LE MONDE! I'M GOING TO PARIS TOMORROW :D
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