La Rentree

Apparently I have two people reading this... Sweet... Oh well. I shall keep on writing for you two =)

Sorry if my English is a bit crappy at the moment, I'm definately in French mode at the moment. But I'll try!

All of the exchange students have arrived. It's great to see their excitement, their smiles and happiness as they realise that their lives here are only just beginning. I keep on telling them, make the most of your time here and value every second, because before you know it, your time will be up.

I only have three months left here. Time passes quickly and I don't know how I'm going to handle it the day that I return to Australia. I'm good here. I'm not stressed, I have an amazing family, wonderful friends... life is good. I've grown a lot. No longer am I the shy baby that wouldn't speak her mind and lived to make everyone else happy that I was when I left Australia. I live differently. I'll tell you what I think, what I like, what I hate, I'll speak to everyone and everyone, make my own decisions... and most importantly, I don't live for other people anymore. I live for myself. Does this sound selfish? Perhaps. Maybe it is. But I need to be good in myself first, and then if it brings me pleasure, I can make other people happy. So I made the concious choice- my life is mine, and it's me that chooses what I want to do with it. And that is why I think that upon going back, people will not be impressed by me. But do I care? No.

La rentree de classe was yesterday- in other words the return of the school year. I'm in Terminale, or in other words, senior year, and my timetable is really quite insane...

• Eight hours of philosophy
• Four hours of history-geography
• Two hours of English literature
• Two hours of exams (per week)
• Four hours of French literature
• Three hours of Spanish
• Four hours of English
• Two hours of sport
• German classes when ever I can fit them in (which needs to be discussed with the teacher)

What exchange has taught me is to NEVER complain about the work in Australia... My mindset is now, think Aussie work is hard? Try doing senior year in another language, where you are at school for at least ten hours a day. Now that's hard. By senior year in Australia was a breeze compared to this.

It was great to see all my friends again, and surprising to see who out of them I was excited to see the most. I think I have got the most amazing school ever and really will be sad to say goodbye. But for now I'm just going to value the time I have with them.

Biz.

About Time

So... I figure it was about time to update my blog...who's still out there, following me? It doesn't seem like anyone really is, so am just writing this for myself, but you know... If you're following, drop me a line =)

So, what's happened since my last post? Well, MAJOR Culture Shock. Ha. That's fun. Not. But I got over it with a kick up the bum and major help from the best host family ever.

I finished off the school year by dressing up as a cowgirl and dancing YMCA, Bet On It and doing the Haka in front of the entire school, because I'm totally cool like that. I love small private schools... I actually think that Notre Dame is the best school I've ever been too. We might not have all the facilities and it may be old and whatever, but it's MY school, and damn, I love it there. Some of those people are incredible.

Then I did work experience at SNCF, the rail company here. I did it because everyone else in my class were on exams, but I didn't do them, so work experience was suggested for me. It was actually quite cool. I learnt a lot of things and talked to heaps of people =) i also had to do a rapport de stage, or a report, on it. This is not work experience Aussie-style. It's work experience French-style. Which means a report detailing everything that you've learnt and how the company works and the history and everything. Which ended up being 23 pages long. I spent hours and hours on it and I have to say, that I'm damn proud of what I've done. And if I don't get at least 10 I will cry, which is no joke. I also got a deal with my host mum, being that if I got 15 then she would come and get her belly button pierced with me, because she's scared of needles but I really wanted her to come with me. I love her! Coolest host mum EVER. So now we are playing the waiting game.

July was spent travelling Europe... I love the casual manner in which I say that! I flew out of Toulouse to London on July 2, to meet my mum and sister. The UK Border was very scary with the whole interrogation thing going on, but two hours later I was through and jumped on my sister in greeting. We went straight to Becky and Mike's house- my mum's friends who live near Gloucester. They live in a tiny little typically English village and it was lots of fun to see that =) Then it was off to London to be typically tourist. Truth be told, I think London could have been a lot better, but there you go. We also visited places Harry Potter was filmed and walked in amongst the rocks at Stonehenge... and I saw Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Chicago and Legally Blonde on West End. i heart Legally Blonde, talk about AMAZEMENT. And I met the main actors/actresses, which was pretty cool. (THE PACKAGE GUY! ...If you don't get this, get yourself to London or New York and watch the show). Then it was off to Paris, which was once again pretty awesome, especially EURODISNEY! We were really lucky because on the day we went there, it looked like it was going to pour down with rain, so there was no one there, but it didn't rain, not one drop. YAY! It was amazing, I love Disney. After that it was direction: Barcelona. This was my favourite place on the whole trip. I loved it there... the people, the culture, everything, and I can't wait to go back to Spain one day (hopefully) and be able to explore of the beauiful country. There were also some interesting experiences with the language, like when I mooed at the shop assisstant to try and find out of the meat was beef... it worked though! Kind of... After Spain, we returned to my house for a little so Mum and Sam could meet my incredible host family. It was really weird seeing them together and I think my mum and Evelyne got on really well, which was great. Then we headed over to the Cote d'Azur for a couple of days. We based ourselves in Nice and visited Cannes, Grasse and Monaco. This meant awesome times on the beach, lots of photos and an epic cactus garden. I cried a lot when I said goodbye to them at the airport, the blubbered in the train, but got over it after two or three days. So all in all, the best July ever.

In July it was also my 18th birthday, yay! I had a small party with my family, with pink, purple and pirate balloons, a pink tablecloth, pink glasses, pink and white napkins and flowery pink plates. It was awesome =) Two days later, the village party started up, which last for five days, and on the first night I had my two best friends here, Marie-Anne and Michele (better known as Kiki and Mimi) over to party the night away. And party we did.

August has been relatively calm... lots of work on my report and lots of going to the pool with the host mum and sis. And I'm not scared of water anymore which is pretty cool... It's actually the main way I've exercised in the past month. Yes, I did laps. Of a pool. Voluntarily. And I bought myself some pinkn goggles which are uber sexy, because the chlorine was killing my eyes. Weirdest thing ever here though... you're not allowed to wear board shorts in the pool because apparently it's "unclean"...

About four days were spent at Nini's house, who is my host mum's friend. She's absolutely adorable, Spanish and has a dog that waddles... I kid you not. It was incredibly relaxing just spending time there and sleeping, and I even got to hold a frog that we caught =)

Bryani from Sydney came and passed three days with me, which was quite epic to see and hear another Aussie =) Had lots of fun cruising Toulouse and Carcassone and watching A Very Potter Musical- only the best youtube thing ever. Watch it. Seriously. You will not be dissappointed.

And so now I'm on holidays at the beach =) My host family found another host family through EF for a week or so, so I could see how another family lives, so I'm here for about 10 days, and it looks to be great, they're incredibly nice =)

And that about sums up the last three months... waiting excitedly for the next exchangers to arrive (August 28!)

I LOVE my host family.

Culture Shock...

...is a gay piece of crap that I never want to see again. Go away please. I hate you. You're a bitch.

In case you can't tell, I'm well and truly into the 'culture shock phase'. Please someone... tell me that it gets better! I can't do anything in this country without wanting to cry or being anxious or stressing. Fuuuuck that.

Okay, rant over. Let's see what good things there are now... I guess it's been a while since I've blogged, hey? =S

I'll start with Easter. We (being my host family) went to this tiny little random country town called Boule D'Amont in the middle of no where (actually, near Perpignon) where my host dad's family have been for years and years. At the moment though, all that's left there is Claude, my host uncle, and his five year old daughter, Any (Annie). We left the Sunday at about midday day, taking two hours to drive down. It was gorgeous, really different to where I live, and like a mini holiday =) We walked around the village (taking us like, five minutes, tops... I'm not exxagerating) and met some old family friends. It was truly one of those French country towns, except there wasn't even a boulangerie (and you know that in France, a town is miniscule when there's not even a boulangerie!) The night was spent playing cards and Trivial Pursuit with my host family, equally more bonding with these amazing people and a very late lights out. At nine am on the Monday, we were up and searching for Easter eggs... in the garden, that the Easter Bell bought for us. Yes, Easter Bell. Not Bunny. I thought it was weird too haha. Then it was off to the village for the fete, as in celebration. Basically we ate, drank and talked a lot... I had my first Easter Omelette ever (a tradition in Ariege) and took a heap of photos so I would never forget.

I also recently had school holidays... again =) We have them every five weeks, once again leading to my love of France. These ones I spent in Strasbourg. I left on the Sunday early morning with my host dad taking me off to Toulouse because there were no trains going from Saverdun (the closest train station) to Toulouse... of course, SNCF were striking. Praying that this wouldn't cause any problems, I got on my train to Montpellier with no problems. I had a three hour stop in Montpellier, which I spent by getting lost, interrogated by a random drunk, getting really hot, finding where I wanted to go, trying to find a toilet (I love you Macca's) and then waiting and the train station paranoid someone would steal my luggage. All in all, three hours well spent (I'm not actually joking- it was beautiful and an awesome adventure). Then, my train to Lyon was packed- people were even standing in the isles... Thanks SNCF. I did have a seat though, luckily and wasn't too badly affected. The train station at Lyon was horrible... people EVERYWHERE. I simply walked out and sat outside for fifteen minutes, before going inside and finding my next train to Strasbourg. This one was luckily quite empty which meant quite a relaxing ride until 10.20 pm, where I reached Strasbourg and was met by Isabelle, by host cousin.

I had a fantastic time at Strasbourg... I stayed with Isabelle and her boyfriend, Jeremy, two of the nicest people ever. I was also taken out around Strasbourg by Elodie, Isa's friend, who was incredibly kind =) Strasbourg was so different to Toulouse. I saw the most amazing cathedrale ever, Alsacian-style houses, 'La Petite France," rode around on trams and learnt that it's actually not too hard to get around a city I don't know by myself. I even went to Germany one day =) Lots of shopping was done (read: WAY too much shopping was done), as well as lots of sleeping in and lazing around. Basically I had an awesome break and a wonderful time... I love Strasbourg and was so glad to get the chance to go. I was meant to come back on the Friday or Sunday, but due to the lovely SNCF strikes (still going!), I decided to wait until they died down a little to come home without a problem... so got back on the last Friday of the holidays. I didn't realise how much I missed my host family until I saw them again, and was incredibly happy... I love them.

The last weekend of the holidays was the first village festival. Basically it was a mini version of the Royal Show spread out around the village. They even roasted a cow on a spit (yes, a cow. I'm not exagerating). I rode around on a tractor for like two hours and there was lots of liveliness and music and talking and food. There was even a black swan (yeah Perth!!). And probably the best part of the entire weekend? It was warm enough for me to wear a dress =)

School was back to usual, with the only change being that I've actually understood French lit for the past two weeks.

May 1st was the 'fete du travaille.' I'm not exactly sure what it was for, but basically 'mugeut,' a type of flower, was sold and we ate and drank a lot at my host brother's house. We were up at 5.30am the Saturday morning to drive to Toulouse and catch the train to Bordeux, then to Angouleme, where Sebastian picked us up and drove us to his house. We spent the day talking around the table with the family which was great. I was freezing cold that night though so slept really badly... then got called silly in the morning for not waking someone up that night for a blanket... I was trying to be nice... oh well. Sunday we recommenced the eating, then at midday it was back to Angouleme, Bordeux, Toulouse and Mazeres . All in all an extremely tiring but fun weekend.

Next weekend it's off to Chambery to see Mini, a fellow Perthian on exchange... I can't wait =)

Bisoussssss

Some days...

Occasionally, as exchangers, there are days where things just don't go well. We can't communicate, have cultural misunderstandings, make mistakes, don't realise things, offend people... a lot of the time without realising it.

What we have to remember is that there is always something good that comes out of it. Take my worst day so far. Something great that came out it was realising how much my host family actually care about me. And maybe I really am starting to become a part of my family.

"Every day may not be good, but there is some good in every day."

A shout out to the ever lovely Lizz. She's probably my best friend that I've met over here...she's wonderful and funny and my twin and I love her, but unfortunately her exchange adventure finished up after three months. I miss her an incredible amount, but it sounds like she's having an awesome time back home in New Zealand. My next holiday destination...most definately Kiwi Land to see her.

Yay

I love exchange. Long live "the honeymoon period." I'm meant to get into my Culture Shock stage in two weeks time, officially. Screw that, I say. I'm not going to expect it- because if I do, then that'll be my excuse always, and I won't try and be happy. I'm planning on keeping a positive attitude, talk to my friends, host family, and express how I feel as best as I can in French. Every day is a new day. Just because I'm in the time period of culture shock, doesn't mean I have to always be sad and upset and homesick. I'm expecting it, of course I am. But I want to be as positive as possible.


What else is there to say? Let's see.

My last week of the holidays was pretty good- mostly staying at home in pyjamas! But nice to have a break. Then it was back to school...oh joy, school. But yeah it was ok, I guess. I'm really starting to figure out who are my friends here and who aren't, and as well as that, I'm beginning to have closer relationships with people- they are 'amis' rather than 'copains'. I got my first ever 'bulletin', with and average of 14. 14!! Yay! People who don't know the French school system, 14 is good. Very good. I also got 19 in one of my English tests (which means FREAKING AMAZING work, like 120%), but then got 10 in another. But I did pretty damn well. It was a vocab test on all the words they had learnt from the beginning of the year (like over 600), then we were given 200 words to translate. They had to be the perfect word that the teacher wanted as well, he didn't want any synonyms...loser. And I was only given like, a week's notice to study. So yeah, I think I did pretty damn well.

Last weekend was awesome. I started off my singing in Spanish at my school's open day... yeah now that was interesting... We sang La Bamba and danced, and luckily I didn't make a total fool of myself. I think. My IC (as in the person in charge of me), Evelyne, came to the open day and afterwards, we all (as in her and her husband and me and my family) went to eat lunch, then I went home with her to wait at her house for Lily, her exchange student, Chelsea and Anna (two other exchange students). At Evelyne's house, there is no tv or internet and no phone signal either. It's actually really interesting to see the way that they live and how they entertain themselves...but still, I don't think I could stand it for a year, so here's to you, Lily. I was the only Aussie against three New Zealanders, which was an interesting experience! Haha. Oh, and Vegemite totally wins over Marmite. Anyway, we all bonded very quickly, as most exchange students do, because we understand what we are going through, I guess. Sunday we slept in... a lot! And then we went off to these gorgeous castle ruins on top of a hill, from the 13th century, I think it was! It was incredible. We took lots of photos and fell over in the mud and snow a heap. One of the best parts of tyhe weekend though, was when my host family came to pick me up and my sister ran over to me and gave me a huge hug... maybe she doesn't hate me after all! I think we are getting to have a real sister relationship now haha.



Then the weekend past was pretty cool as well. On Saturday, I went to Toulouse with a bunch of French and German people, as at the moment there are Germans at school doing a mini exchange. Didn't buy anything but had fun looking at clothes and being in the city again. That afternoon, I met my host brother, Gary, who's twenty five, at the train station and we went to Atyka... where I got the cartilage in my ear pierced =) Hopefully there'll be more to come! That night Gary, Stephenie, his girlfriend, her family and me went to see Holiday on Ice, and ice skating show, which was awesome- I love watching skating! It's so pretty. Then I slept over at his house, and on Sunday we drove back home and they had lunch at our place. All in all an epic weekend.

Cartilage in my hurt hurts like a bitch but so worth it =) Actually it wasn't too bad at the time, it's just the fact that I am a tool and keep on hitting it accidently when I'm doing things. Nice one Kirsty. I'm paranoid about getting an infection as well.

Basically life is pretty epic. Fracne is amazing, God is great.

...

Holy shit.

I just had one of those moments. I'm having one of those moments.

I'm in France. I'm doing an exchange. I have friends. I have a host family. I'm speaking French. I live in Europe. I'm living my dream. I get homesick. I get tired. But I'm here. And I'm gonna get through this year and come out with memories to last a life time. I can't believe that I've been given this chance.

I'm gonna give it everything I've got.
I have one year. That's it.
Why waste it?
Embrace it.

Exchange.
They never said it would be easy.
Just that it would be worth it.

Holiday Photos

You're never too old to play on Macca's playgrounds

Will I never be able to escape it??? And it's in French!

Host 'Mami's' house for Sandy's birthday

I love playgrounds

Apple pie! Yum

Yes, I am actually cooking =) Pasta =)

Where I spent most of snowboarding...on the ground =)

Still there!

Comfortable

I made it... finally.