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.

My first real soccer match

Last night I was lucky enough to go see my very first professional soccer match. I went with my host brother and a few of his friends, it was at the new stadium in Lille. The game was Lille vs Copenhagen (Denmark). We had awesome tickets, we were right behind the goals. My host brother gave me a jersey of his and a scarf to wear, so I looked like a real Lille fan. The stadium was so big, and there were so many people. The cheer squads were massive, it was pretty funny, because I didn't know any of the cheers they were singing. (I had never heard of them considering they were all in French), so when everyone would go a bit cheer together, I would just mumble something out loud and throw my arms in the air. It was an awesome game, Lille won 2 - 0, I just loved the atmosphere of the whole game. The French take soccer so serious, and they get really into the game. Apart from the soccer, there is a lot going on at the moment. All of the new exchange students from the Northern Hemisphere arrived in France on Tuesday, I still haven't had the chance to meet up with them but I will meet them all next weekend at our first rotary get-together. This Sunday I will be changing to my 3rd and final host family, I have already met them and they are really nice too. It is going to be sad leaving my old family behind but I know I will keep in touch with them. I start back at school next week after an amazing summer break!

Italy with my host family

Two days ago marked my 7 months in France, which means I only have about 5 months left, I cannot believe how fast it is going. It seems like so long ago I got on the plane to saying goodbye to Australia, but at the same time, doesn't feel like I have already been in France for 7 months. It is almost the end of summer here in Europe, and so far, I have had an awesome summer. After I spent about 2 weeks in the south of France my host mum, and some other family friends (there were 2 kids my age) picked me up and we headed towards Italy. It was a long, hot drive from France to Toscane Italy, which seemed even longer when the air conditioner was broken in 35 degree heat. But the freeway we took was the most amazing road I have ever seen. We went past the coast of France and Italy, passing through Nice, Monte Carlo ect. There were so many mountains and houses right on the coast of the water. After a nine hour car trip we had arrived in Toscane. We stayed in a huge, old house in the country, in Toscane. I was in Italy for two weeks, half of the time we were in Italy we spent travelling around (Rome, Toscane, Perugia, Florence, Siena and other little towns). My favourite town was most likely Florence, the streets were so cool, lively, the houses were all orange and there was a lot to do. The other half of the time we spent relaxing by the pool (which we had at the house), reading, studying a bit of french, watching a bit of the olympics (understanding nothing because it was all in Italian), eating amazing Italian food and lying in the sun. I had a great time away in Italy, I got a lot closer with my host family, improved my french after not speaking any english at all for 2 weeks, and learnt a bit of italian too! We took a different route home, heading through Switzerland and Germany then into France. We were excited to finally get away from the heat we were experiencing in the car (still with no air-con) as we were passing through the Swiss Alps. Little did we know, there was a heat wave in most of Europe at the time, we took the heat with us. It was still 33 degree Switzerland! We stopped over near Strasbourg on the France/German border for the night and then returned to Lille the next day, where it was 38 degrees (the hottest it ever gets in Lille). The heat wave only lasted about 3 days, but it was kind of funny seeing everyone freak out and make such a big deal out it, because it isn't very common in the north of france to have such high temperatures. 

Summer Holidays - South of France

I was lucky enough to go to the South of France with a friend at the end of July, I stayed at their grandparents house in Nîmes. Their parents also had an apartment right on the beach of Grau du Roi, we went to the beach every day because it was so hot. It was usually around 35 during the day and 22 at night time. I loved the beach, it felt so good to see the beach again. There were heaps of markets on around the place, and a lot of people on the beach. The main difference I noticed between the beach in Australia and France, was the amount of clothing that they were, none. French people don't really like to wear clothes on the beach, it was funny at the start but after a while I got used to it.  The family I stayed with were so nice, they took me to see a lot of the South, and taught me a lot of differences between the south and the north (where I am from) of France. For examples the language is actually a lot different, they pronounce pretty much all of there letters, which for me sounded really funny, because in the south they speak with the Paris accent, and we don't pronounce the last few letters in words. They fed me a lot of amazing food, they had a fresh garden in the backyard, so each day we would eat fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden, and me and my friend would walk down to the Boulangerie to get fresh bread. My favourite place in the south was most likely the pont du gard (the gard bridge), which is a huge bridge which runs over a river, water runs through the top of the bridge and carries it from one side of the hill to the other. We could jump off the bridge into the deep waters below, swim around and there were even people kayaking. After ten days it was time to move onto another voyage (life is hard). I took the train to another town in the south, where I met my host mum and we started driving, direction Italy!! I will post about Italy in another blog. 

6 Months in France

Today officially marks the 6 month line for me in France, and I cannot believe how fast it is going! I am already half way! I am having an amazing time here, everything is going great! (apart from the fact that my camera I got for France got stolen a few weeks ago, so that is why the photos aren't very good, they are just taken with my phone).

It is currently summer holidays so I am not at school, the weather has been pretty average lately, cold and raining a lot but this weekend it has got a lot better and the next week it will be 28 almost every day! 

Today I got back from Paris with my host family (they are an amazing family!), Paris is a two hour drive south, from my house in Lille. We went to the Tim Burton exhibition, which was really cool, my favourite part was the Edward scissor hands section. We then spent the rest of the day walking around Paris, and finished the night off with dinner near our hotel. It was funny because at the end of the day I was the out one out of the family who was sun burnt, and everyone was laughing at me because I was the Australian, the one who is meant to have sun every day. The next morning we got up early to go on a boat tour on the river, we went in the car toward the Eiffel Tower, (bad idea, very bad idea! What we didn't know was that the tour de france was in Paris that day... We were stuck in traffic for over 2 hours, and we only moved a few hundred meters!) Anyway, we ended up seeing a bit of the tour, which was great! We then went on the boat tour and now I am back home in Lille! 

I have three more days in Lille and then I am off to the South of France, where it is really hot and there is the beach! I can't wait to get back to the beach. I will spend 10 days there and then I will go to Italy for about 2 weeks with my host family. Then I will change families at the end of August! I have already had dinner with my next host family and they seem awesome too! I am sad to leave this family but excited to move to the next one too. On the 28th of August all of the new exchange students will be arriving, so my counsellor is taking me to meet the at Paris airport. 

Also, I have my return date! I leave France the 12th of January and get back to Melbourne on the 14th. Which gives me two weeks to catch up with friends and family, enjoy summer holidays and prepare for year 12!