Mont St Michel

Last weekend was my third Rotary weekend for the year, and one of the best ones I have had yet. We went to go West of France, to Normandy. It was the first time I had ever been to the West, it was a lot different to the rest of France, it is really green there, as it rains a lot and they are close to the coastline. The weekend lasted three days, from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon. The first day we stopped off in an American war memorial, it was so great to see, it was really sad seeing everything they went through tough. That night my district met up with 4 others at Mont St Michel, which is one of the wonders of the world! It is a island that is covered by a huge castle, there a little shops and cafes on the way up to the top. In my district, there is a girl in a wheelchair, this was the first time my district had ever hosted a handicapped person. They wanted to take on the challenge but wanted her to be able to do just as much as we could, so we didn't went to let the hundreds of streps leading up to Mont St Michel to stop her. So each flight of stairs, a group of four boys would carry her up the stairs, until we got to the top.. It took about 40 minutes I would say, it was tiring but definitely worth it, she is one of the only handicapped people to visit the top of Mont St Michel! We also did a four hour walk around the island, it was raining, and we had to walk think water past our knees, but it was definitely worth it. The last night in Mont St Michel, every country got to sing their national anthem, the aussies were first! It was really good seeing more aussies from other parts of France. The bus trip was a bit long on Sunday, but it was good to catch up on sleep, as we didn't get much the whole weekend, I didn't get home until late Sunday night, but all in all it was an amazing weekend and I wanna thank Rotary 1520 for making it possible! 

Lille 3000

Every two years in Lille, there is a spectacular that comes through the city. There are activities, music, art and heaps of other cool things, it goes for around 2 months. The first night opens with a huge parade that passes through the centre of the city. I was lucky enough to be in France on one of these two years and got to experience the biggest, most amazing parade I have ever seen! It started around 8PM, it was really cold in Lille, as soon as the parade commenced it started bucking down with rain. Lucky I had my umbrella! The parade went for about 2 hours as it went very slowly, but there was music and bands everywhere. Each time there is a different theme, this years theme was a bit mysterious and had something to do with aliens and planets. I had a great night out.

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.