Integration Weekend au Touquet

On the 8th and 9th of September my Rotary district (1520) had a integration weekend at the beach! It was with all the new exchange students from the Northern Hemisphere, now there are 38 of us! Everyone is really nice, but it made me realise that my time in France is coming to an end, seeing all the newbies arrive means it's almost time for me to go home. Anyway, it was a great weekend. When we arrived we got changed straight away and walked towards the beach. It was actually a really warm day, about 27 and the sun was shining bright. We played heaps of little games on the beach to get to know each other, there were so many languages everywhere, everyone trying to communicate with each other. At the end of the games we all went swimming in the water! I was scared to go in because I heard that the water was really cold there (the north of France), but it was actually really nice and refreshing. After that we came back and ate dinner together (the basic french meal with lots of bread and cheese) for dessert everyone had to bring a dish from their own country, it was so good! After dinner we went inside and did a little presentation of each country and had to pin ourselves of a huge map, followed by each country having to sing their national anthem (us Aussies did the Aussie Aussie Aussie chant also). We didn't get much sleep that night, which was a bad idea as we had a huge day a head of us. We got up early and had breakfast and headed towards the beach again. We got put into teams and put in a bike that fitted up to 6 people. We had a sheet of places we had to find, once we got there, there was a challenge at each place. We had to do things like smell food and guess what it was, taste food and guess what it was, and memorise items that had a sheet put over them (answers were in french of course). My group came second and I won a tee shirt and a bag. Overall it was a great weekend and a great way to bond with all of the 'newbies.' 

Parents in France

Rotary advises that your parents don't come visit you during your year stay, as it can be difficult to leave them again. But my parents were very eager to visit Europe and see how I was living my life here in France, it was the first time they had ever left Australia! It was great to see my parents after 8 months, they said I hadn't changed at all. They got to meet my host families, we went out for dinner together in a very typical french restaurant. They all got a long really well and my parents think I am very lucky to have such great families, they are now invited to visit us in Australia! I am so glad my parents got to come and see my life in France. I am staying to travel with my parents for a few more days then they are going to stay a week and a half longer and discover a bit more of Europe by themselves! I have attached of me with my real parents and my host families their first night in France.

Week-end de la braderie

Each year in many different cities over Europe they have a big sort of garage sale/market all over the cities to get rid of stuff at the end of summer. They call this La Braderie in french, meaning "the flea". In my city, Lille, there is the biggest Braderie in Europe. That means that people from all over Europe come to Lille to sell, buy, swap and look at everything! There was music everywhere, stands everywhere, street performers everywhere, and just people absolutely everywhere, over 2 million come for the event. A few friends and I had a few things we wanted to sell, so we set up our own little stall. I sold a few books I had finished with a few clothes that no longer fitted me, I made a profit of 30 euros, which I was pretty happy with! During la Braderie, it is tradition to eat mussels and fries together. So on Sunday my host mum took me out to get some! After everyone has finished eating the mussels, they put the shells into heaps of different piles over the cities, by the end of the weekend there was mussel castles everywhere. On Sunday night, I changed families for the very last time. It was sad to leave my old family behind, but my new family are really nice too! I feel really at home here, everything is going really well. I have a host sister my age, who was in Australia with Rotary last year, and two older host brother, a host mum, a host dad and 3 cats! Now I am back at school, my class is really good and everything is going really well. Less than a week and I will see my real parents from Australia after 7 months, I can't wait to see them.