Pictures and Paris Day 1

So, today I arrived in Paris!!

We walked around the streets all afternoon and I honestly fell in love with it. IN LOVE. I want to live here. I really do. It's the most beautiful city I have ever seen in my whole life.

Today I saw the hall of famous French people... it's actually a building with the graves (like yes... the real bodies) of famous people like Napoleon and the kings and queens. We didn't go inside but it was beautiful, the exterior. Lots of sculptures and statues. I guess that was really my first site to see in Paris (if you don't include the Eiffel tower I saw from a far distance on the highway driving into the town.

We also saw one of those old circle fields with sand (no, not a sand box) where people in the middle ages would have fights, and tigers would fight, or, if you're from Canada you may remember studying something where something special happened in those circle rings? That's a really bad description and my photos aren't good but it was old and cool!

Then we saw the Seine. Looks just like the movies (but less shiny because everything is shiny in movies). Why this surprised me, I'm not sure. Maybe because I wasn't really thinking about the Seine and comparing it to movies until I saw it in real life? But I could almost picture James Bond or the dad from Taken doing epic massive jumps from the bridges to boats.

NOTRE DAME!! AGGHHHHHH SO BEAUTIFUL! It's so much more beautiful in person! You have to see it! I just LOVED IT. I really wanted to go inside but there was a crazy long line. Oh well, another time I suppose. Still so beautiful. More beautiful than pictures or movies... the real thing is something else.

After Notre Dame, we walked around some streets, popped into some stores and then visited the justice building! We had to be security checked to enter and I set off the alarm because of my boots!

Paris is just beautiful. I have pictures for my other blog post but I think I will just upload those in Lannion. Bon nuit tout le monde!

Hipsters for Heroes, Tearful Exchange Goodbyes and Christmas In France!

It's been awhile, yes I know... but I've been busy... I really have!!

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

Yayyy!!! Look at me doing such a good job of blogging!

So for the past two weeks, my music teacher has been absent (and will be next week too) and occasionally some of my other teachers too. Thus, my school hours per week, on average, have been cut from 33 down to 17! On Thursdays, I have been finishing at 11am! It's awesome! What I normally do is eat lunch with my friends, see them off to their next class and then I'll either go into this cool little hangout room hidden in the middle of the school or I'll go back to my house with Lais and we'll watch a movie. If the weather's nice this week, then we might go into town for a bit!

*Side story*
The little hangout room hidden in the middle of the school is really cool... there are computers you can go on and a pool table and couches and people will hangout, listen to music and so on.

Saturday was incredible. The original plan was to go into Brest with Lais, do a little bit of shopping, hit up IKEA to buy a new desk for Baptiste and then go back home and I would make pancakes for dinner again. What ended up happenning was...

We were in a shop called "New Look" because that is where I could buy a replacement for my scarf. While I was in the shop looking at some of the other things, I remember looking up and seeing a group of 3 girls standing only at the next stand from me. I made eye contact with one of them immediately and I had to look closely and do a double take to recognize who it was (and to make sure it wasn't some freakishly similar clone of my friend-which happens a lot actually....) By the time I had registered that it really was my friend Anna from Rotary, Tammany had screamed my name and came charging at me in the store to hug me. She body-slammed me so hard with a hug I almost fell over! I barely had time to recognize her let alone do anything to prepare myself; it happened so fast! If Lais were to tell you the story, she'd say that the first thing she saw was me being tackled by some tall, skinny and screaming person! Hahahahaha!

Turns out that my friends from Rotary, Suzy (Australia), Anna (California), and Tammany (Texas) were spending the weekend together in Brest chez Suzy. It was pure luck and coincidence that we all met up! I knew that the 3 of them would be getting together at one point but I didn't know when and Brest is huge! They could have been anywhere in Brest and I could have been anywhere! It was just luck that I even found the right store for my scarf! I had no idea where it was and if I would even find it.

We were able to finish shopping in New Look, and then we took a tram down the road to a fancy French restaurant for lunch. I ate a steak and a cake! Not the best meal for a pretty figure maybe... oh but it was so good! Then we walked to the bridge and took pictures of the only old buildings still standing (the only tourist photo spot in the town according to Suzy!). Pretty much the entire city was destroyed during WW2 and so there weren't any old, beautiful stone buildings.

After meeting up again with Sandrine, Lais and I said our goodbyes to the girls before popping into another store with Constance, Sandrine and Baptiste in which we saw them again! After leaving Pimkie, as if my day couldn't get any better, we were swarmed with people holding signs and giving free hugs! No one hugs in France! No one! Some people don't even know how to give a proper hug! It's mind-bottling to some people to think that people don't bisous everywhere in the world! So I very happily hugged the random people on the street! I was actually feeling like I needed a good proper hug last week, so that was just amazing.

IKEA was nice, and then we went home. I made pancakes and bacon and eggs again... it was better this time but still not perfect. It's really hard to cook. I'm not sure I like it...

Today, I woke up feeling all athletic and went for a run with Sandrine. An hour's run, I made it about 6 or 7km, and I came home feeling amazing like I had dropped 2 pounds! Then we go to lunch at Sandrine's friends' house and I was screwed over. If I had known that we would be eating from 1pm until 4pm, then I would not have pigged on the appetizers: carrots, mini sausages, juice... Then, after the appetizer was another appetizer. Feeling already a little full, and indecisive about whether there would be more food after the second appetizer (just because the second appetizer consisted of about 5 or 6 types of meat)I had a little bit but I didn't eat much figuring I would finish filling up on cheese and dessert(there is always cheese and dessert after a meal in France). But no.

After the second appetizer came the main course, a stew of vegetables, meat and fruit that I would never think of mixing together but was surprisingly delicious. I was given a plateful, and I can easily tell you that by the end of my plateful I was stuffed. I ate the plate so slowly... I wasn't even sure I'd be able to finish.

At this point, I'm thinking that they will put a variety of cheeses on the table and people can take what they like. Alright, that should be easy and polite enough to decline. No one will notice me not take something, or not eat something... That's good. But instead, I was given a small little bowl of melted cheese, some kind of beans with it and caramel. Everyone got this little bowl and it was the kind of thing where you felt like you had to eat most of it to be polite. So, slowly, I ate it. I did the best that I could! But I promise you, by the end of my cheese, I was so full, I was starting to feel a little bit ill and I was starting to fall asleep at the table.

Then... there was dessert. This was the worst for me. I should have said no. I wanted to say no. I was planning on saying no. Until... They placed not one, not 2, but seven different types of desserts on the table. Cakes, biscuits, caramel. And it all looked SO GOOD. French pastries are to die for, you have to know that. I was already eating myself to sleep and to sickness at the table... and combined with my extremely poor will-power, I was 100% unable to say no to a raspberry covered, fudge cake and a little bit of caramel. I sat there, guiltily eating my cake, thinking of my wasted run in the morning, and feeling ill at the table for 20 minutes. It took me 20 minutes to eat dessert. That's how full I was.

Elsewhere on the table were various bottles of alcohol that the fathers took turns having me smell each and telling me which one's they liked the smell of most. They all smelled good and sweet... So I didn't mind one bit. Apart from the odd interaction I had with people, I was mostly silent for the whole afternoon. I guess there wasn't much for me to say... It was mostly a rendez-vous for the adults and the food was extremely delicious.

I came home for the second time that day feeling as if I had gained 5 or 6 pounds. So much for my run in the morning. I was supposed to make a second batch of pancakes for dinner tonight but everyone afterwards was feeling like they were exploding from food and so We didn't do much in the evening other than relax and do nothing. I'm fairly sure that I won't be hungry again until tomorrow evening for dinner. I still feel stuffed and slightly ill from too much food. I guess, however, this is a typical rendez-vous French style! Take my advice though, if you're going to a friends house for lunch, do yourself a favour and do not eat breakfast or pig out on the first appetizers. The French like to eat and today we ate for 3 hours straight.

Look who has pictures!!!!!

MUSE!

FAMILY!

LAIS' BIRTHDAY SOIREE

ST. BRIEUC (the random man in the last picture is mt next host dad, Christophe)

THE AMAZING PAINTING I LOVE!

MY BEAUTIFUL CITY!

(I found my camera connector chord in case you were wondering as if it weren't obvious!) ;)

SOMEONE STOLE MY SCARF.

That.

Now I am sick.

Thank you thief at school for taking my first favourite article of clothing.... with it you stole my warmth and armour against colds -which I now have.

I suck at keeping a blog.

I'm just going to jump into it.... no one judge me. It's been a month and so yes, I suck at keeping blogs- I know. Oh, and I've lost my connector chord for my camera so this post will not have any pictures :(

On the last day of school before the Autumn Vacation (which was the same week as Muse) most of my afternoon classes got cancelled for a school dance. For me, when someone mentions a school dance, I think of party lights, and pounding loud radio music and everyone in a pit in the middle of the dance floor jumping up and down and enjoying themselves. However, this was different. It was a dance of traditional Bretagne music and dancing. There was a band playing funny instruments and singing in the traditional Breton language (which I guess is similar to what an Aboriginal language is in Canada. At first only a small group of people were dancing in the middle of the dance floor but eventually most of the people in the gym were linking pinkies and swinging arms back and forth while they shuffled in a circle. I joined for two rounds, but then I was done. It's the kind of thing where it's exciting for about 5 minutes and then it becomes repetitive and a little bit boring. So I spent the rest of the time watching and talking with Lais.

The week after was the break. We had family members come to visit and stay for awhile. There was Sandrine's brother and his family, Sandrine's sister-in-law and her son, and the Grandparents. Constance, Quintin, one of the cousins, occasionally Baptiste and I watched movies, mostly in French, for the whole week. All 3 Paranormal activities, Drive, Mission Impossible 3 and that movie where Johnny Depp plays a Vampire. I didn't understand the ones in French all that much but it was good to watch.

I have to admit, I was feeling really homesick during that week because it was Halloween and I was missing the celebrations and festivities of the holiday back home. Especially since nothing is really done at all for Halloween here. It was one of those holidays where I didn't realize just how badly I would miss it.

Novemeber first was a sad day. The whole family went to the graveyard to visit the grave of a lost family member. I wasn't sure if it was socially appropriate for me to go too, but I went along anyway. It was hailing and so we did not stay long, we stood in front of the grave for about a minute in silence, left flowers, and we left. I did say a private prayer for everyone as well.

Sometime in that first week, I dropped my iPod and it died for the last time. Fell flat on it's face, my poor baby. Now, I can listen to music and take pictures but that is it. It doesn't scroll easily and typing is impossible.

The week after that was Lais' birthday. We went to her house for a soiree, and then I stayed the night. We didn't sleep until nearly 5 am and we slept in to 12. Then we came back to Sandrine's house and we went to see Skyfall with Constance. It was really good!! I couldn't understand the story much but it wasn't difficult to figure out who had to die when or what was going on. Lots of boom boom boom p-tttttt bhooooooophhhh!!!

Lais slept over again on Tuesday night and on Wednesday, we took the bus into the neighbour town of St. Brieuc to go shopping and to visit Sebastien (from Equador) and Amit (from India). It was really really nice to see them! I bought a plaid shirt, some earrings, a jacket (but it's not warm enough!) and a necklace.

Later that week, I went again into St. Brieuc with my family. A friend of Sandrine gave me her boots, cute little caramel coloured heel boots with a heel, and Sandrine bought me my Christmas present! A pair of beige boots with a mini heel! I do love them but I don't get to wear them until Christmas.

We ate lunch with Sandrine's friend and then went to a mini super-market with crazy amazing prices on everything! I bought hair product, nail polish, and nail stickers for less than 16E ! When we tried to leave though, Sandrine's car broke down and so we spent the night at the friends house. She was an amazing cook and so that was okay. I also loved loved loved the painting in the dining room. We took a taxi home the next day.

School... probably not much exciting.... I finished my Arts project. Drew a picture and assembled everything. I don't know the mark on it though...

Lais and I tried to speak French... it was too difficult. But our French has improved!

Had a couple more head-butts with teachers... They don't seem to understand how difficult it is to learn a language. That gets frustrating.

Two girls from my district here have left! They both asked to go home. One girl from Argentina and the other from Arizona. Then there was an issue with the American girl at my school who is only allowed to speak French here. She left school... had problems with her family. She wasn't sure if she would be going back to California or if she's be relocated but either way, she definitely wasn't staying in Lannion. I think it's really sad, and I was sad to see her go. Exchanges are not easy at all and I guess not everyone can handle them.

I had plans last weekend to go visit my friend in another town but those plans fell through last minute. Instead, I spent the weekend with my family, we went to go see Christmas decorations in stores and then we went to see the new Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn part 2 (except in French, they renamed it Revelation). That was really nice. I actually understood some scenes. I didn't get all of the dialogue, and after watching it online in English later I realized there was a lot that I didn't get, but it's an improvement!!! I spent the night at Lais' house and came back home for lunch.

Tuesday night, I made a Canadian meal for my family: Pancakes, bacon and eggs. I know they really loved the pancakes even though they weren't super keen to try the maple syrup with them. The bacon was a little cold and I'm not sure they were a fan of the eggs either. But at least the pancakes were good!

I tried going swimming with Lais on Wednesday but there wasn't enough space in the lanes for us unfortunately. Just old people swimming really slowly. We spent the whole time in the shallow pull kicking our legs of the edge of the pool because Lais said that was supposed to be good for your butt and talking. I also accidentally insulted a woman when I referred to her as "tu" and not "vous". Oh well, you live and you learn. There was no hot tub at the pool and that kind of sucked... I miss hot tubs. But apparently there is another pool close to Lais' house which isn't as busy and has a hot tub! She will check it out, see if it's good for swimming laps and if it is, we will go there again soon!

Sometimes, I still really do miss Canada. But it's weird... I miss the things that even I don't get to see a whole lot when I am there... things like the snow, skiing, the mountains, warm cabins. I miss the nature and how relaxed and spontaneous it is. I miss my friends a lot too. I'm sad I'm not there to graduate with them, and I miss my family. I've talked to other students and almost everyone is feeling the same way too. I think it has to do with Christmas coming up soon. But I'm glad I'm here. This experience is definitely worth it... worth all the ups and downs.

Oh, and one last thing! I am going on two Bus trips next year! The first is at the end of February and I will be visiting Versailles, Paris and Barcelona, and the second is a Europe trip to tons and tons of Countries in Europe! I don't even know all of the countries but I am beyond excited! It will be fun!

My dad is also coming to visit me in Spring time, right around Easter. If I get permission from Rotary, I will get to go with him to the South of France for a week too. It will be nice to see him, my step mum, Cas and baby brother Tom.

A tout a l'heure!!

a forgotten post....

Hey! and so I was coming to write an update and found this little post here that I had completely forgotten about!! Haven't I aleady talked about Muse? I don't know.... but oh well... here is the forgotten post from more than a month ago :)


More differences about school:

8) You have one class of people and it is the same people who go with you to all your classes. I have no idea where I'm going usually, or what class I'm about to have until I get there: I just follow the crowd!

9) NO LOCKERS! That's something you have to get used to.

10) There aren't any special events or days at school. In Canada, we have Pajama Days, Twin Day, Where's Waldo days, etc. And people love to participate. We also have bake sales and jewelery sales for fundraising but there's none of that here. When I described this to my French friends... they were stunned and all wanted to go to school in Canada!

11) There are no clubs and not many sports teams to join.


Now.. MUSE!

It was really good!! Monday morning, bright and early, Sandrine's friend met us at the house and while Sandrine and her friend had a cup of coffee, Constance and I finished getting ready. Unfortunately Baptiste couldn't come because he would be too small in the crowd to see the band. I did feel badly for him but he got to miss school on Wednesday to make up for it. We left early in the morning... I think 8 or 8:30 am, and it was about a 2 and a half hour drive to Nantes. We stopped once to get gas and for a small coffee/chocolate bar (because I was feeling carsick. We spent the first couple hours shopping and we ate lunch. I bought a really cute sweater from H&M and lunch was by far the best mall lunch I have ever eaten.

There was a massive buffet kind of thing but with different plates of things already prepared for you, eg: plates of salads and desserts. Then you went and waited in line ad you could either choose a pre-made food meal like fish or something or you could have a burger or something else made for you fresh. We all ate a burger and then, continuing with the buffet style, chose the extra food to go on the plate. I ate a salad, a mini loaf of bread, a burger with vegetables and spinach (because surprisingly I do miss those) and a dessert (brownie with custard.. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm :D)

Then there was the dreaded wait. I didn't understand at first why we were waiting. The concert didn't start until 7 pm and here we were almost at the front of the line at 2 pm. All of the previous concert's I've been to, we never wait. If it's an open seating concert, you get there before hand and claim your spot in the crowd and if it's a seated concert, well there isn't much point to waiting since you're always going to have a seat reserved for you. I almost drained the battery on my iPod and phone by listening to music and playing games.Towards the end of the wait, Sandrine's friend Margaree and her husband Jean-Francois joined us in the line around 4:30 or 5. Gates opened at 6 and we waited for an hour inside the stadium for the band. I now know why we waited so long in line.

As soon as the gates open and people had finished being checked (padded down for stuff) people ran. Literally ran, leaving behind their family and friends. It was kind of funny actually. If you have ever seen the Amazing Race, it looked sort of like that. One by one people were padded down and then they sprinted into the building and into the stadium. We were on the floor and there were no seats so that's why we waited so long. When the concert started, it was fairly similar to a very crowded dance or club. Everyone was jumping and screaming and fist pounding. We were right near the front of the stage thanks to the 6 hour wait and the show was fantastic. The lights were almost unreal and there was this massive pyramid thing on the stage as well. It was extremely hot though and without any water, by the end of the concert I was feeling a little claustrophobic and I felt desperate to get outside.

We didn't get home until 2 am thus giving me an excuse to miss another day of school :) I missed 2 tests I did not know how to write and instead I got to sleep. Life is good.