Summer is here

I haven't been doing much lately, just going to school and enjoying the awesome weather! Today it is 27 degrees, and all this week it has been over 20. Everything is so much better with the sun! Everyone is so happy and everyone is out on the streets. I have recently changed classes at school, I changed from the Science classes to the Literature classes. I now have a lot more French, which is great! In about 2 and a half weeks it will be summer holidays, because I don't have to do the BAC (French Exams) I start summer holidays earlier. The first week of summer I will be going to Paris to go to Parc Asterix with my Rotary district, it will be the last time that all the exchange students are together. After that all the oldies (from all the countries that start school in September) will return back to their hometowns! It is going to be so sad saying goodbye to everyone! But at the same time it will be good to spend time with my French friends and then meet the new exchange students who will arrive in September. I have been doing a lot of exercise now that the weather is better, I try to do something each day (either run or swim). Yesterday I went bike riding with my next door neighbours, who have a son the same age as me! It was fun, then we went and played soccer against some of his friends in a park. I have been living in parks lately, just going to a park with friends after school and relaxing... It is the best feeling. I have had my first taste of French summer this week and I love it. It doesn't get dark until about 10 30 at night which is so awesome! Last night there was a free concert on in the city, so me and my friends went to it, it was hard to believe it was so late but still light. Time is France is going way too fast! It's been over 4 months now, my parents will be arriving in September, so soon! I have a lot to look forward to in the summer, including going to Italy with my host family for 2 weeks! I really love my host family, I feel so welcome here and everything is going really well!

London/Ireland

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, I have been away for 10 days and was very busy! First I took the underground train system from Lille to London, it took about one hour and twenty minutes, it was really fast actually. I then met up with my old host family from Canada (previous 3 months exchange I did), it was so good to see them! I missed them so much. In London we did all the touristy things, which was really good because it was my first time in London. The weather was okay, one day it was over 20 but i rained a lot one of the days too. On the second night we went to Phantom of the Opera on broadway, which was so awesome. We visited heaps of castles and went to a lot of old buildings. After 5 days in London we continued on with our travels, we took the plane from Heathrow Airport to Dublin! Dublin was so cool, it was a lot more relaxed then London, I really liked London but it was always really busy, and the people were so nice in Dublin. We took two day trips around Ireland, one went to North Ireland (Belfast) and the other went to the West of Ireland (Galway). The Galway bus trip was my favourite, we got to stop at the Cliffs of Moher which was probably the most amazing natural thing I have ever seen. They are huge cliffs looking over the Atlantic Ocean. In Belfast I got to go to the place where Titanic was made and first hit the sea, it was really cool. It was then time for home! It went so fast, but the last day of travelling was going to be a long one... We took the bus from our Hotel to the airport (40 minutes), then we took a plane from Dublin to London (1 hour 10), then we took a train from Heathrow airport to central London (one hour), then we took the train from London to Lille! And finally my host mum was there to pick me and Shalen (Canadian host sister) up, the rest of the family flew back to Canada, but Shalen came back to Lille for 3 days to see another friend who lived here and so I could show her a bit around Lille. Now to holidays are over and it's back to school until the summer break.