1st Rotary exchange student weekend!! ...October 27th & 28th

Bonjour a toutes et a tous,


I hope that this blog finds you all in good shape!!


So the first weekend of the school vacations, the 27 & 28 of October, seemed to arrive very slowly because ALL of us wanted this weekend to happen fast!!... But when it rolled around we were all soo excited! So we went with Bertrand, the YEO for the other exchange students in Chelles, he is very nice; he is the one who found me my new host family! So we left Saturday morning and it was only about an hour and a half drive to Beauvais, where the weekend was taking place. When we got there the majority of the other exchange students were already there. We were figuring that it would be obligatory to speak French the entire time, which we were all really excited about because it was a great chance to improve some more, however we were VERY mistaken. All of the exchange students are either Canadian or American, except for 2 Mexicans, 1 Argentian girl, 1 Columbian boy, 1 Taiwanese girl and 1 Indian girl... all of who spoke fairly good english anyway. So that was a bit of a downer at first... however we had such a blast. We had a bunch of kinda boring presentations from the Rotary people to start off with, telling us all the rules, they would even translate it into english for us - that got frusterating because we totally understand french. Anyway after that we had a talent show... that was really cool. Of course I don't have a talent, but thank god I wasn't the only one - Hannah suggested striping however when they began to give us the lecture of the "Rotary Rules" - we decided to scratch that...lol (just a joke momma!! he he he) Man though they are seriously strict here, I was hoping that they would losen up with some time, but I am not so sure. We have agreed that they are basicly just paranoid!! Anyway after the talent show, we just kinda sat around and talked and by this time we were starving, here we eat supper at about 7 or 7:30, so for all us, not just the north americans, we were down right hungry. This weekend was a bad weekend for the "weight factor" as we call it, because we were all together and there was good food, so we just pigged out!! It was bad. Then of course after that was 2 weeks of vacations, so needless to say, we all gained a bunch of weight! ahhh!







Anyway back to the weekend, It was alot of fun, just talking to everyone about their experiences and seeing that it wasn't just us four in Chelles who were experiencing some crappy times, that it was district wide if not world wide. It was really really great to compare stories and meet some more really amazing and great people! I am really glad that even though it took FOREVER to happen, that retreat finally occured. So on satuday night there was a dance, which got a little wild - which was great!! then after that we all basicly talked until 4am in the morning... then you will NOT believe. It was daylight saviings time, and they had told us that we HAD to be at breakfast at 9 so we got up at 8am or what we thought was 8 but apparently it was 7am and they had neglected to tell us this very major fact. Needless to say, we were seriuosly lacking sleep! So after breakfast we had to go play badminton for 2 hours, and had a big tournament. Which was fun, except that there was like 5 of us who actually knew the rules.. It was pretty amusing! After this was over, we had our group picture, ate lunch and then had more "meeting" stuff... where they explained the Rotary trips that we can take. We also had to make a postive statement for the Long term Rotary exchange program, for publicity for the program.


So all in all it was a really great weekend where I met alot of great new people. When I returned that night to my house at about 6pm, My family and I were to leave for our vacations to Bordeaux an hour later. Needless to say I was freakin tired!! But very worth it.

YEAH Pictures!!

Julia, dancing Highland for the talent show.... very well done Jules!

Maria (the mexican) and I

(not a great pic but the others were worse - if you can imagine!??eek!)

At the end of the Talent Show, we just started making stuff up..they came up with the Macarina.




This is Katie (from New York, U.S), Me (Manitoba, Canada!!) and Katie; yes another one (from Minnesota, U.S)



Me and Bethany (from Ontario, Canada!)

Villars.... October 20th & 21st

Bonjour...

So the first weekend I spent at my new host family's place, we went to their family's place out in the country.. it was about a 4 hour drive and surprisingly to me, we ended up like right in the middle of France. So I guess France isn't really that big. Anyway it was a pretty good drive, watching the countryside change from heavy suburb to semi country, definately not the countryside I know, but it was awesome all the same. For my family; it looked alot like Belgium... well you'll see in the pics. So we left Saturday morning and arrived late afternoon, they like to stop alot. I met the majority of the family, we were actually there for the 50th anniversary of Jean-Pierre's (my host dad) older sister.... there is 19 years between them! So MAB and I walked around the farm basicly all day, I wanted to see everything!! and I took pictures of EVERYTHING! ha ha he kept saying again?? How can you take 3 pictures of the same thing? Easy... cuz I can with my camera and I want too!! lol Nah it was a really good time, I just wanted to spend the entire time outside, I didn't realise how much I really missed space I guess. It was soo amazing, to just take a deep breath of fresh air! I just felt renewed after this weekend - I know that sounds lame, but I guess I really needed my dose of the farm. It's funny how you really don't know what is important to you until you leave.


- The farm, I wish you could all see this farm, it was basicly a petting farm but in mass production.. I absolutely loved it!! It was like I went back in time. Everything on the farm had a purpose, and they intended to eat all of the animals or the products they made. They have everything from rabbits, chickens, ducks and a damn annoying rooster (who decided that everyone needed to get up at 4 - man I wanted to kill it!! ha ha) Then they have goats and a cow that they milk, beef cattle, and sheep. It was soo sweet. Haydn is destined to come here, i just know it!!


Now for the Pics!!




So this is the guest house that we stayed in, pretty nice eh!?.... So I told you how there is about 19 years between my host father and his sister. So My host father is more like the same age as his cousins, so anyway his parents built this house when he was still fairly young because his older sister was living in the original house and starting a family. So I guess that is why they have 2 houses, however now this house is just used for guests.










Here is one of the barns. I love the old bricks and the history here, it just seems to have SOO much more history to it, I love the "back in the day" feel.








Here is a side profile of basically the whole farm.









I took alot of pictures of the countryside, like this one. This is taken just from the backside of the farm. I think it's very pretty; france has alot of rolling hills like this.








The Beautiful Charolais!! and some countryside again...









Taken by MAB, my personal photographer, ha ha ha..., he took this right before I hopped the fence and said "lets go exploring" I got the feeling that he was a little ataken back by this but he came along anyway!!









Yet another picture of the countryside.









Good old tractor!...well it's not really old. lol... put that picture in for the famers sake!











Another random pic of me, nice charolais in the background.









Save the best for last, I really hope you all see this one. This is Nicole, the lady who had the 50th anniversary, she is like 70+ years old and still gets up every morning (real early) to do all the chores and that. I was really rather impressed by this!... EVERYTHING they eat on this farm is like completely natural, and they basically make it all too.









Well hope you enjoyed! A bientot!

New Host family + Versailles

Hello again,

So yes I did move host families on October 13th - wow that is 1 month today!! It has honestly flown by!! I am very fortunate, as I absoluetly adore my new host family!! - They are very kind and encourage me to play the sports and participate in the activities I would like to! They said I am just their adopted daughter - which was really cool. I arrived here the saturday morning and met my host Father and host brother!! yeah I have a sibling, he helped me carry my luggage upstairs to my room - I was a little afraid for him, thought he might break his back doing so! - I never in a million years thought that I could accumulate that much stuff! Then my host mother came home and I met her - she is very small, but very sweet. She even sowed my jacket the other day because Hannah ( the american exchange student ) had torn it, crazy girl!! lol anyway So after I said goodbye to Veronique, we ate lunch right away and during lunch they told me that they were going to take me to Versailles!! OMG!! How amazing was that - I hadn't even been here an hour and I was off to see something really unbelievable!!

- A little about my family: My host dad's name is Jean-Pierre and my host mom's name is Brigette. They have two sons; Jonathon is 23 and lives close by, here in Chelles, then there is Marc Antoine who is 17, he goes to the same highschool as I do here in Chelles as well. He is also in Terminale ( like grade 12). We live in a 3 story house, it is quite cute! I even have a back yard here! yippee!...I live in Chelles, Ile de France. - it is basicly a suburb of Paris, I am also really close to down town Chelles, so that is very convient for the bank and the post and such. As well to travel into Paris is just a 5 minute walk and then a 20 minute train ride. So all in all I am very content here!!

Now for the Marvelous and unbelievable pictures of Versailles... I am absolutely enchanted by that place!! When we got their we met up with our guide, who of course spoke french, but it wasn't too bad I understood some of it. She was very enthusiastic, kinda entertaining for me. ha ha ha Oh yeah... so as we are standing there waiting for the rest of our group with the guide, we stood outside the gates of the Palace of Versailles and anyway while we are waiting there are these men trying to sell fake doves, which you just wind up and then they fly - they look kinda cool actually, but anyway they are demonstrating them all over the place and they are completely uncontrollable and one of these damn little plastic doves comes right at me and smokes me in the side of the head... like of all things to happen the first day I meet my host family!! Jeezz!! It was really rather funny I guess, but I felt like a moron even though it wasn't my fault lol..

- So the tour we took of Versailles was completely organised with Brigettes work, I found this with basicly any adult I have spoken to about this too - it is really quite remarkable... Each company actually hires 1 person who all they do is organise trips and outings in and around Paris or to other countries, such as ski trips and that... that is his job!! And then the company will subsidize it so that you only pay a small percentage of the actual cost!! - jeez we need to get something like that in Canada I tell ya! It is pretty unreal.

Me at the gates entering Versailles, just after I have been dinged with the plastic flying dove.

The outside of the Palace of Versailles, just the left wing. This place was monsterous! And the arcticheture and detail was incredible.

Another extension of the palace, it has an identical one like it on the left too. Just like the two wings of the palace are indentical on the outside.

The beginning of the gardens of Versailles.

Again the gardens, here is the lake too. The forest all around is to create the illusion that the gardens go on like that for a long time (like forever), as they did back when Versailles was up and running, However today beyond the trees is just suburban area.

This is one of the many fountains you'll find in the gardens, they are very detailed and beautiful.

Huge skeleton man... I think that this is supposed to be King Louis XVIII, expecially cuz this skeleton has a massive nose.

This is the King's throne, it has a room all of it's own. I guess this is where people would come to see him or give him presents... I think. Sorry like I said I didn't catch everything the tour guide said, as well I forgot some of it.

This is in a room just before you enter the great hall of mirrors. It is very extravagant, the gold figures around this carving are actually real gold as is the majority of the gold trimming in the Palace... pretty expensive place! In the carving is King Louis XVIII, he was real short ha ha ha, so he rode ponies so that he would look bigger... I thought that was pretty funny.




This is the hall of mirrors, apparently it is very famous! Also very impressive!!!




This is me in the the King's bedroom, it was very nice, very beautiful... although I am not entirely sure why the king had his own bedroom, because if you've seen Marie Antoinette, he slept with her... so maybe he got up real early and went back to his own bed... I don't know, I am confused. Anyway it was a nice room!




This is the Queen's bedroom. Also really nice and impressive... has a secret door in it in which the queen escaped from the castle through, when the people of france were charging the Palace. Very pretty room, as were all of the rooms though... not a single one that I didn't like..lol



This is one of the first rooms you see actually when you enter the palace. And like all the other rooms in the palace, it has magnificant paintings on the ceiling. All of the ceiling paintings and the carving on the walls and ceiling all have specific meanings, I definately don't know them, there are a ridiculous amount of them and I can't imagine that anyone knows ALL of them. But anyway most of them have saints or gods, lots of symbols. - very beautiful.



Another one of the first rooms you'll see. This place was very amazing, here again on these doors, the gold is real, therefore the doors actually have glass pains over them, so that people don't touch the gold, I guess...



--- Sorry that the pictures are soo dark and really can not see much, it was a really hard place to take pictures and the paintings on the ceilings were basicly impossible...... there was very very little lighting in all the rooms, mostly just daylight through the windows. Anyway hope you enjoyed them, sorry there was soo many!! Sometimes I get a little carried away...lol

Thanksgiving!!

Wow I really don't even know what to say for myself!! I am very sorry, I don't want to beleive that the last time I updated this was September.... OMG but that seems to be the Truth!! Well I have been busy, and for a while there my blog wouldn't let me log on, but I supose that that is no excuse really. I actually do not even know where to start; so I guess i'll just follow my pictures....! Sorry....eek!





So this was quite a while ago, but at the time of Thanksgiving, Julia and I decided that we should make our own Thanksgiving supper for her host family. I mean why not, we could do it - I always helped mom and grandma and watched them do it too since I was a little girl. Sure No problem we could do this! well....... I supose we may have over estimated ourselves just a tad!! ha ha ha The fact that we may not even be able to attain the right ingredients just never crossed my mind I guess, so when I saw the "turkey" that we were to use, needless to say I was a bit shocked!! The "turkey" was actually just two huge leg bones - not sure how they thought we were going to stuff a turkey that didn't have a damn hole to stuff!! ha ha then there was the actual stuffing itself, the meat we used would be comparable to hambuger I supose - that is the closest thing I can think of, cuz I really don't know what it was.. they called it sausage - tasted good all the same! We didn't have a recipe for the stuffing so we just took some bagette, this meat stuff and celery and manufactured something that didn't even look in the slighest bit edible but seriuosly it was!! Naturally Julia and I snacked the entire time we made supper so by the time it came to eat we really were not that hunger but we of course had to take something of everything - which I honestly was a bit frightened of, but I found myself quite impressed with our cooking - or at least the taste was fairly good, to me and Julia anyway (then again maybe we were biast!?) So I did the mash potatoes and the cooked carots, we had turnip from a box - not too shabby I guess.. Had alot of cranberry sauce with our stuffing - it was a tad dry.. he he But no one got sick so that was all we were aiming for in the end!! That no one had to visit the hospital! lol no it went alright...well other than you can see for yourself with my pictures too. However at the same time, truthfully I am a little embarrassed and scared to show these pictures as I know my mother and grandmother will see them - and I am damn sure I have put them to shame!! .... if they were there they prolly would have split a gut watching our meagle attempts at cooking ha ha ha they also probably would have a mild heart attack when we just about lit the kitchen on fire...!! All the stoves and heating here is gas, and Julia couldn't get the stove turned on, she tried for like 5 minutes, so then I was ha ha ha I can do this, no problem - oh dear god, why I felt the need to do that ( you all know my past with BBQ's and a gas stove is not alot different!) But honestly - not entirely my fault! really..., Julia had left the gas on the entire time, so when I finally decided to use a match it kinda went boom and we caught a dish towel on fire, - man I didn't know what the hell to do!! At first we just screamed and stood there, until Julia yelled - DO SOMETHING!! so I grabbed it (probably not the smartest thing I could have done, but it was right beside our stuffing and I didn't want that to get ruined) and ran to the sink, dowsed it in water and then we tried to cover it up until later when Pascal (Julia's host mom) had had a bunch more wine... he he he, actually she took it better than expected - however there was a group of people nearby so maybe that was why... but hey thank god for them then - she scares me a little. well here are our pictures of our sad sad little thanksgiving.


Here is Mr. "Turkey"... yes that is apparently how they come here...tasted different too, but good all the same!




Here are my lovely Potatoes, Carrots and 'the stuffing' (it is famous with Julia and I now)... Sorry I actually do not have any after pictures, but I just let you know that although I though I could make Mom's awesome mashed potata's - it just didn't quite seem to work out that way.
- oh well she better teach me next year!





Me with the food!





Pascal!! - Julia's Host Mom with the turkey! (before the "accident" lol - nah she wasn't too mad)



Random pic of me and jules... we put big t-shirts on as we were afraid of spilling on ourselves and aprons don't exist here. - yes, we are more fashionable than that now... ha ha ha

Weekend of 29 & 30

Hey Again,

So on the weekend of the 29 & 30... I played soccer on the saturday. The coach met me at the Gare in Vaires and took me to the game, he is real nice and likes to bug me. Ha ha... The game was at 4pm but I had to meet him at 2:30pm for the game, He likes to be really early! When we got there the place wasn't even open. Anyway the game went great, I played outside midfield, on the left.. I am always really really nervous for our soccer games and don't have much confidence at all, but I know that I should, I should just go for it and try different things, but it's a new team and I'm a bit scared still! eek?!? Anyway I actually played not bad, if I do say so myself, the coach also remarked on this to me after the game. It felt really good though, to feel satisfied with how I played. We won the game pretty easily, I set up some goals - which was sweet! he he! But k I can not imagine what it would be like at a REALLY important game, or like a professional game, because people here get VERY intense!! Which is great, but wow we very nearly had a brawl in the middle of the field. Honestly!! I guess it would have helped though if the referee had been more sure of what he was doing! At one point a girl from the other team went offside, he blew his whistle and then she scored, and he called it a GOAL!!!?? I was like are you insane? If I could speak french right now I would give you a piece of my mind- damnit!! Well it seemed that I didn't have to because EVERYONE else on our team did! Holy crap it would have sucked to be him, I am sure he knew it was wrong after, but he really messed up!! ha ha.... The other big problem was the linesman were just like friends of the ref's and knew way less about what constitutes the ball actually going out than I know about fashion; which here..is next to nothing!! Anyway on quite a few occasions the ball would touch the line and he would call it out...once again I really wanted to explain to him that the ball actually has to roll a complete rotation over the line to be OUT! But err I can't speak french!!... Anyway this linesman started fighting with our coach and then parents.. OHH it got UGLY alright!! ha ha pretty unbelievable for me anyway! lol anyway it was a pretty sweet game anyway, we won!

On Sunday, I never have anything to do, So the Rotary club mentioned that there was a "fair" in Bussy St. George (Where my rotary club is from) and that I could tag along if I'd like... So I did!! Julia's family was going to Versaille that day and asked me to come and I really wanted to but I figured that I should really go to this fair because the Rotary club was now trying to be interested in me. So this Fair was like a benefit for a childrens hospital, mostly for sick kids with a disease in their chest that prevents them from breathing properly.. sorry I forget what it is called in french (no idea what it is in english though?! sorry) Anyway it was a pretty big thing actually, there were SOOO many kids and many many booths. The kids had to buy tickets and then go around to the booths and they got to play a game, and then would get a prize, or another ticket that they could then collect and trade in for a bigger prize. With the Rotary booth, they had about 5 games, but they had all already been asigned and seemed to be completely under control so there wasn't much for me to do. But luckily where they were situated was right in the center of the whole thing and infront of us was a stage, where they had really cool entertainment ALL afternoon. So that is what I did, watched and took pictures of this, it was soo cool!! Anyway you can see for yourself...


This is one of the first performances...each of those snake costume things has 2 guys in it, who control the costume and make it come to life basicly. The little kids got a little scared because they came really close to you but all the same they were well liked by the audience. The colours were really cool too. They were soo animated!




Here you can see that each one has two guys under it, they had to be real fit because they did ALOT of this jumping up and down and stunts like that. It was sweet!




Here is another type of oriental dancing.. I was told that Bussy St. George has quite a large asian population, therefore alot of different types of dances from China and Japan. Here they were using fans and they were soo synchronized, it was cool, when they all whiped out the fans it made a really loud clash!




This is a picture of some Salsa dancing. They had demonstrations of many different types of dancing; Salsa, hip hop (except they were guys and Believe me, it was NOT what as cool as you think it might have been, the very reason I didn't show you pictures - I don't want to scar you all for life!!) also they had like classical and many others, sorry I don't quite remember. Anyway with the Salsa, that guy just whipped that girl around, it looked like soo much fun and really awesome to do!! I would like to try it here if I can!!





This is just a picture of the inside of the one building where the fair was, it was also outside and in another small building. As you can see it was pretty packed full of people, not alot of breathing room, but that is something very common here. Spaces are small with alot of people.




** Also Veronique's Parents were here this weekend, back from their trip to the United States, they really enjoyed it and had alot of pictures to show us. They went to the Grand Canyon, and WOW... I want to go there too!! It looked soo amazing. Here parents are actually from a town way down in the south of France, right along the border of Spain. That is why they were staying with us, because we live quite close to the airoport. As you will see in this photo, they are quite small, as is everyone here, I find. Also they just look so very french and cute - or so I think so. Veronique's mother, is as she says "a typical mother", ha ha wow!! is all I can say, she loves to talk about VERY personal things, or well they are very personal by our culture, I am just going to leave it at that!! Ha ha culture is such an eye opening experience, sometimes you just gotta laugh!! lol Anyway here I am with Veronique's parents in her kitchen.

Precy St. Martin - Weekend at the lake

Hey all, So I am now Trying REALLY hard to keep this here blog slightly updated!!

So I think that I had mentioned that on the night of Julia's 18th birthday that her host Aunt and Uncle had asked us if we wanted to go to their other house for the weekend which is very close to a lake. Did I mention that they have a boat!! and a wakeboard and skiis and also a wakesurf board..yes thats right! We also drove to the lake in their mercedes!! ha ha it was pretty unreal.. Well I'm just going to show a bunch of photos cuz that is WAY more fun and easier!! So here goes!


This picture is of the back of Jean-Marc and Genevieve's other house, the one in Precy St. Martin. We were about 10 minutes from the lake. Their house was so nice, they had alot of Haribo (which is french candy) here, and as it is completely peanut free (Julia is allergic to peanuts) we ate alot of candy.. ha ha good times though. They have 2 beloved dogs that they brought with us, you can see them laying on the deck here. They are both real old though and Jean-Marc said that the Vet doesn't even know how the older of the two is still going.. eek.?! The really neat thing about their house here was that pretty much all the windows were full length so they were also like huge patio doors!! It was really nice, Jean- Marc and Genevieve were so so incredibly nice to us, it was a great weekend!





Pic of me infront of a sign coming into Precy St. Martin. Julia and I went for a walk around town the first morning we were there, just for something to do while Jean-Marc went for a run. And wow what a nice little town, so very french and cute! It is a relatively countryside little village and I really really enjoyed it here. There were fields and forests and flowers and trees and more fields... it was really great to have some space!! - can you tell i'm from the farm? ha ha




Funny, random pic of Julia and I...at the house in Precy.



Ha ha, yeah I'm pro! lol Just jokes! but no, this is me wakeboarding at the lake. I thought at first it would be hard but then again not too bad because I have snowboarded before...well it is really not that similar to snowboarding! ha ha It was real fun though, harder for Jean-Marc to explain to me because I ride goofy and he and Genevieve are both regular. So for me I had to do everything backwards of what he had shown us... Anyway it was really awesome though, I got up the second time, after finally realising that I should not be starting with my arms full extended - duh!! ha ha




Me wakeboarding again!! It was soo exhilarating!! Very fun and awesome, Jean-Marc and Genevieve were really patient and great with Julia and I. The hardest part for me was hanging on to the bar, it really started to hurt after awhile. Jean-Marc wanted me to try some tricks but I figured for my first time that I'd just stick with the basics, back and forth, back and forth across the wake, lol.




Me in the fairly freezing cold water!! The weather here is rather rainy, kinda dreary alot...so it is not really hot ever; hopefully in the summer. As you can see, we wore wet suits and gloves, which was good because once in the water, when your body went numb basicly, the wet suit kept you warm! Nah but really once you got in the water, and after the shock, it was really not that bad...Alot of fun!






This is wakesurfing! er...the start of it! ha ha The wakesurf board has nothing to hold your feet like the wakeboard, so it is all a balancing act with the water...Once again, I ride goofy and wakesurfing is done on the left hand side of the boat...of course, had to be more difficult for me!! lol So to get up you have to (for me) place your right foot on the board and your left knee to brace yourself and then push the back of the board with your left hand so that you can position your left foot (hope that makes sense)...anyway it is rather difficult as all the while you are fighting with keeping this board the right way in the water, you are still being pulled by the boat. So you are being dragged through the water, trying to position your feet. However once you get it, it is soo easy to get up!! It's just like a rhythm, every time do the same thing.. and actually it becomes the real easy part of wakesurfing! Oh yes and in this pic. I realise I look ridiculous, but you have to start with your knees very bent - ok!?! ha ha




This is the next step, staying up! ha ha Not that bad though... however because I ride goofy, I had to traverse across the wake to get to the left hand side of the boat, where you are to wakesurf...So this pic is of me coming at the wake, and going to cross it. The board has like grippy material on it so that your feet don't slide off, but it is still difficult to move the board - takes alot of balancing and weight transfering.





And the final step! ha ha here I am on the left hand side of the boat and Genevieve is sitting on the edge ready to take the rope. So essentially wakesurfing is just that! 'Surfing in the wake of the boat'... So once you get infront of the wake, right behind the boat you have to use your weight shifting to keep going and you give the rope to the person in the boat. This is the insanely hard part - I found! Jean-Marc was unreal at it though!! I could do it sometimes, I would have Jean-Marc hold the majority of the rope and I would hold a knot on the other end and only pull on it when I needed to...It was difficult, to shift your weight "just" right so that you were going the same speed as the boat, infront of the wake without having the type of the board go under!! Ha ha I hope that all makes sense!? Anyway it was such a blast!! I was soo determined to do and I did!! (for short periods of time ) but non the less I did it!! he he!



I have to say that this occasion was one the rare occasions in my life where I actually was really gratefull that I had "tree trunks" for legs and had some muscle on me. Because without my huge legs and arms, I am not sure that I would have been able to manage it!! lol I felt sorry for Julia, she is a danser, (they are muscular too!! ) But her arms just couldn't do it, she never got up on the wakesurf board, but she did finally manage the wakeboard though!! She was hilarious, and we had alot of fun that weekend!

2nd week of school

SALUT!!

Wow where should I start? Well as you may have imagined, from my complete lack of blogging, I have been quite busy!! Last week I had my first Rotary meeting with my club, they were quite genuinly nice and all wanted very much to meet me - so that was great! I spoke a few words about who I am, home, etc. Later on I will give a presentation on Canada!! I met my Counselor for the first time, he seemed real nice. I had alot of questions about the program here, trips and meetings, etc. So my counselor said that he would meet me sometime this week, but he is one of those people who never answers their phone, unfortunately! ha ha anyway apparently I am the first exchange student that they have ever hosted!! So I assume there, as there has been already, some problematic points and unknown areas...but I am sure it will all work itself out! The meeting was actually a diner meeting and the food was insanely good, I am not actually sure when or where their other meetings are but they said that I am not to go so whatever, more free time for me I guess! lol

I had soccer on Monday night, an english teacher who plays soccer with me picked me up to take me. She is very nice and it is great to speak good, understandable english. We had a good meaningful discussion, which was great because in french I still have trouble talking about anything deep or meaningful - which I suppose is to be expected. I have been here 4 weeks tomorrow!! I am very proud of that actually!! lol Anyway Maud, the girl who took me to soccer, has agreed to take me to soccer on monday nights, which is really nice of her!! However I've had some difficulty being allowed to go as my host mother says that I am not allowed. I haven't yet really understood why, other than she says "it's not french culture", Maud says this s ridiculous! lol and I have to admit I agree! lol but c'est la vie! et Hopefully I can speak to my couselor about this..

Anyway on Tuesday it was Julia's Birthday!! she turned 18, it was a suprise party for her, so all day she was kinda bummed out because nothing was going on for her birthday and she was feeling pretty homesick! All I could do was say, oh yeah don't worry, i'm sure it'll be ok, you have a great host family!! Tomorrow will be better, and Happy Birthday!! - it was soo hard to just lie to her, because we are together ALL day!! ha ha but when I got to her house at about 7 and surprised her in her room she screamed soo much!! It was soo great! We had soo much fun, however I forgot my camera so that was crappy! Anyway her host grandparents and aunt and uncle came over! They were all SO SO nice and funny, and wow...lol talk about openess at the diner table!! ha ha No, it was a great night, I spoke alot of french and we drank alot of wine, even the cake had alcohol in it!! ha ha It was great! During supper, her aunt and oncle learned that I am alone on the weekends for the most part and I don't do anything and so they invited me and Julia to their other house, which is right beside a lake!! They have a boat - and well that weekend is a-whole-nother story!! Anyway Julia's birthday night was great and I stayed the night, the next day was our half day of school so carrying around my over night bag plus my school bag wasn't too bad!! lol

- One of my more hilarous episodes happened this past week. So Julia and I are trying to fit in, right? of course! So I decided that one day I should wear my heels to school, as this is what alot of the girls where, however they all wear the skinny jeans and I swear I won't do it!! Julia says I'lll be wearing them by christmas..lol but I refuse! Anyway so I wore my heels, got on the bus, that was fine, climbed into one of the higher seats and was content. However I realised that I was in a group of 4 seats and I don't really have anyone to sit with so that would be pointless, so as I am about to get out of this higher up seat, to move to a single one, the bus lurches forwards, I catch my heal on the ledge of the seat platform and go flying face first into the aisle!! Thank the lord that my bus stop is the first one so there was virtually no one on the bus yet..But wow I drove into the aisle, my knee starting bleeding - I still have the bruises and scars lol - All I could do was laugh, I laughed so hard I honestly must have looked like a complete lunatic! Anyway for the rest of the 30min bus ride to school I tried to get my knee to stop bleeding. ha ha Needless to say I refused to wear my heals again for the rest of the week, however today I was feeling brave so I wore them!! I am happy to report I did no falling of any sort! However I did miss the first bus this morning - these city buses are extremely difficult to get used to!!


Thursday this week was our first official day of gym class! There are approximately 100+ kids in my gym class. On the way to gym today there was a huge brawl outside the gymnasium, I am not going to lie I felt quite afraid just walking striaght by it but thats what everybody else was doing, other than the big guys getting in on it! It was insane though, there were teachers standing like 30 yards away just having their smoke before the next class and these guys were really going at it! Finally the actual gym teachers came and some other students and broke it up. All the same I was astonished that it went on for that long anyway. Then someone explained to me that that is why the whole school is in a huge compound, because big fights start like that. There is another school which shares the cafeteria with our school and it is right next to ours but it like everything else is also in a big compound because apparently the two schools used to fight alot! anyway needless to say I feel like something straight out of a hollywood movie! However I guess it is just VERY different for me coming from small town Minnedosa where we just don't have high fences with barb wire and jagged edges! lol...and I mean I thought that Dosa was getting to be jail like, it's kinda over the top here I think. However it is for safety and so far I feel safe.

Anyway back to gym class, they told us not to bring any money, mp3 players, expensive jewelery or our phones to school because last week some guys smashed the windows in the boys locker room and broke in and stole ALL of that stuff! so yeah I guess I really am in a big city ha ha! ANYWAY for our gym class you can pick 1 our 6 choices, they all include 3 different types of sports or "subjects" I chose track & field, badminton and volleyball (i think..)- I had wanted to go in the only one with Soccer but the prof. came up to me after and asked if I wanted to switch and of course I said NO... why would I lol I love soccer... to which he responded.. Only boys go in that class and it's really competitive.. and so I changed, Wow was I sure glad I had. At the beginning of this class all the football guys got together and went insane!! They are all big and REALLY good - so it was definately a good thing that I chose another one... As I am quickly learning, sports here are really not meant for girls!! From my perspective it is ridiculous of course, but here it's just like that!! The boys play football and sports and have motorcycles and the girls go shopping and....I actually don't know what else?!! lol but Of course that is NOT all girls!! There are always alot of exceptions - like my soccer team!

In gym class I was alone for the warm up running but then these really nice girls took an "interest" in me. lol and so I did the rest of the warm up with them and after joined their team for handball! They are soo nice and really cool, they wanted to know everything about Canada lol - it was cute. I now eat lunch with them pretty much everyday, and the one girl really wants me to live with her, so we are going to look into that! But yeah my first official day of gym was great!! I made friends and even managed to kick some ass in handball, lol the other french girls were kinda mad and but I thought it was sweet! he he --- For the next gym class we did either running, jumping (triple,long,etc) or Javalon. I did running for a bit because that was what my new friends were doing but I was dieing to try javalon so I went over to try it out! The teacher is a lady and she is really nice! She showed me how to do it and everything and I ended up beating some of the guys on my first try!! muh ha ha!! lol No javalon is really sweet, it takes alot of technique but is soo cool - I really hope we get to do it again next class!



** Another crazy thing about being an exchange student in a foriegn country where you don't speak the language very well is that ALOT of the time you feel very much like an "Attraction". Whenever people hear you speaking english or sometimes they can just tell but your french ha ha.. they ask "anglais?" and your like yes I am english... immediately they think you are American and then you have to say No I am from Canada, then they try all the english they possibly know.. and after switch back to french when you say "no no je comprend francais." D'accord... After this some people say oh thats cool and thats the end of it!! No they are not your friends you are simply the "attraction" However other people want to know a little bit more.. like where in Canada your from and why you are here and so on.. But of course after this - thats it! c'est tout! lol and you part... AND then there are the real nice people,like my new friends in gym, who really genuinly want to know about you and want to heng out with you and that is soo soo nice!! At first of course you feel the "attraction" thing again and are weary of what their real intentions are - wether they actually think you are interesting or just the highlight of that minute!?.. anyway it is all just part of the exchange!! I think now I have a great deal more appreciation for ANY foriegn person I have ever met, exchange student or otherwise. I know that it is not easy being the "Different" one, the "attraction" of a person's interest for that moment but nothing else! So cheers to all the exchange students!! I know that already I have learned to be SOO much more Patient! and some of the "life lessons" I am learning have had an affect on me already! This experience so far is a GREAT one and I can only imagine it will get better!!



Going along with my last paragraph, is what peoples perception of Canada is... Can you guess? lol yeah they all think COLD!! ha ha and well for the most part I guess they are right, But as I was told before coming here... I am an unofficial ambassador for Canada and therefore it is my job to correct misconceptions to the best of my ability! So whenever people ask what it is like, I try not to specify too much and say that Canada is VERY large, the second largest country in the world and it is very diverse. Yes we have long winters and yes they can be VERY cold (down to -40) However Vancouver is much more mild than this as is the east coast. We also have very nice summers, they are short but last very long!! And No I do not and never have lived in an igloo, yes I have seen them and even made them, yet never slept in one.. I guess this is something I am going to have to come home and experience!

Well I really must go now, but I will try very hard to post more often and with some pics of course!!

gros Bisou!! miss ya'll!

Salut from Paris!!

Hello all!!


wow I am real sorry it has been quite a while since I have been on here. And actually, most surprisingly to moi!, alot of things have occured!! anyway I guess I should start cuz I need some sleep tonight!!


PARIS!! oh my god!

Well what can I say really, usually the weekends here are rather lonely as I am not very fluent in french yet and don't know that many people. However this past weekend my host mother asked wether or not I would like to go to Paris... and I mean really, who is going to say no to that? so on saturday I skipped my soccer game (this was a first for me! never have I skipped sports for pure pleasure...) anyway yes I was quite anxious to get going, however if any of you know french culture you'll know that they are people who like very much to move slowly and could possibly do not much of anything all day if given the chance, they say they like to relax and take their time which is quite true, as I've seen so far. So for those of you who know me and how I may be a tad bit like my Manns relatives (I won't give names ha ha) I like to get a move on, like now!! lol and I am not used to the waiting game, but this is an experience and a new country and so I am learning quite quickly how to pass the time.

Anyway so we finally got going around 2 pm, took the train to Paris from Vaires, was only like 20 minutes or so. When we got there the first thing I noticed was the buildings - wow!! Well and of course the vast amount of people! But the arctitecture on even the most non important buildings here is soo much better than in Canada - sorry guys!?! ha ha but ya the Train station and apartment buildings were even totally cool. So we took the bus first off (this is me, my host mother and her best friend ) I have learned that navigating is quite the skill here and one you must have in order to survive!! anyway we went to Hotel De Ville - this is the mayors office, or palace as you may call it! I am not sure why or how he seems to need all the room, anyway I assume that this is also where alot of other important people work as well. I should really ask but it is possible he lives there too!!? sorry I should know that..lol Anyway so next we went on a walk about along le Seine, I tell ya, that is a pretty sweet river, and people are everywhere on it's banks doing ALL kinds of things. I now understand why Paris or really France even (so far) is the city of Love, I guess you could say people are VERY affectionate here!! ha ha We also went to La Louvre, didn't go in because my host mom said that it takes about 3 days to actually go through the whole thing, and I believe it - that place was enormous!! But still it was like magical to see it from the outside, the history around it is soo awesome and it was real cool to see things from the Da Vinci Code too. Again the arcitecture is gorgeous you can stand there and look at it all day and still not see everything possible. Next we continued on to Notre Dame and I must say I never seen such a work of art, I can not imagine how long it took to make such an amazing place. It took your breath away just looking at it! Everything was soo detailed too! I really can't imagine the work and time that went into that, didn't go in once again because the line up of tourists was astronomical!!! well we walked around again some and got some ice cream - which was not at all like the stuff back home, more like sherbert but good all the same! By the time we got home it was like 8 or 9 and I watched The chronicles of Narnia on my t.v in my room (in english he he - I cheated...but I used french subtitles!? ha ha) yeah it was really weird and has been for the last two weeks ( WHOA 2 weeks tmorrow!) to just be at home on a friday night and especially on a Saturday!! but i'm sure that will pick up in time..!!


PARIS AGAIN!!!

oh wow, yes it is true! the next day my friend Julia, who is from Thunderbay and is also a long term rotary exchange student and is living in Chelles (fairly close to me), her host dad had asked her if she would like to watch some of the Rugby World Cup!! and when she told me this I was like OMG!! that is so awesome, so she invited me to come whenever they would go and it ended up being the sunday (9th) right after I had been in Paris! so yeah I was totally physced!! so I was too meet them on the platform for the train in Chelles, because the train from Vaires stops there, anyway I got off and everything and ran around frantically trying to find them but couldn`t, so I got back on cuz I didn`t want to miss the train and figured that I could meet them in Paris, but of course they showed up as the train pulled away and had to wait for the next one, meanwhile wondering where the heck I was! so they called veronique (she wasn`t happy though....eek..lol) and then got ahold of me, on my crappy cell that I couldn`t here julia on but anyway managed to meet her in Paris (like I so cleverly thought ha ha) and went the Hotel De Ville again! At this place they have set up this monsterous t.v screen for the people to watch the rugby on!! it is really sweet and they have also put down this fake, plastic grass to sit on, it is very similar to the fake grass (I think it is plastic too) that I play football on. Anyway we watched Canada versus Wales and we had heard that Wales was gonna kill but all the same I brought a huge Canada flag and we cheered really loud and proud!! ha ha we also sang the national anthem (which was in french and I forgot it - lol so I just sang in english) and oh god the poor people around us - we can not sing ha ha!! anyway yeah it was alot of fun and actually Canada was up until the second half when they slide terribly - it was like they hit a birck wall!! ha ha but they did alright and it is only the round robin!! lol I hope that my brothers are good and jealous - actually I would like to see a live match but that is very very doubtful! OH yes and half-way through the game this little frenchman comes to speak with us because he saw our flag and he was like oh Canada - and we are like well oviously yeah lol - no we were real nice and spoke to him alot, he said that he had been to montreal (like every french person we meet here lol, Montreal or Quebec city are the only things that exist about Canada to them, lol oh yes and the fact that it's cold) and he said he loved it and that it was very big!! and yes it is. lol and then omg !! you won`t believe this - he was like 30 right? and he asked for our numbers; so we said we didn`t know them ha ha ha!! it was really funny though because it was actually true - the configuration of telephone numbers here is soo weird!!

So after the game we went to get something to eat at one of the many little stands around Paris, I chose something called a Steak hachee, the picture actually showed some real definate meat - I shouldn`t have got my hopes up because as all the other `Steak` here , it is not the same REAL steak as we know it! ha ha it is like a baby hamburger patty with a whole lotta grease - yet good all the same! And at least this time it was cooked, the majority of the meat I eat at my home is basicly still mooing - or at least cold in the middle. It was quite the transition from the way i`ve had meat at home, lets just say `well cooked` - it`s not bad though mom!! i LOVE your cooking! he he However the "meat issue" as Julia would call it was difficult for us at first because at home we are always told not to eat meat that is not fully cooked because you'll get sick - but here I suppose that is not something they are worried about...and i haven't got sick yet so, c'est la vie!!!



now for some pictures and then bed time!!!!









Le Seine - There are so so many bridges across it and also alot of buskers (sp) and performances!! Along the banks of the seine you`ll find alot of tourists and therefore things are more expensive - but it is still very good!






Notre Dame - or the side of it at least!! Once again the arctitechure on this building was phinomenal! (sp)











Hotel d`Ville - like i said it is like a palace ha ha , in the background you can just see the HUGE screen (from this angle it looks like it is covered by that ugly round tree ha ha)











Gare l`est (Paris Train station- east) -it is pretty insanely large and has a shopping centre in it as well. this is where ALL the trains are out of so there is the TGV and many many others; very busy place!













Le Louvre - this is one of the squares inside the main entrance. It is pretty unreal!! I can`t wait to go inside!!





Square with a pool and cool fountains - on one of our walks through Paris i saw this and it was soo cool, it totally reminded me of Sabrina ( the movie). I found that if you just walk around aimlessly you can find alot of cool stuff. - this is now one of my favourite past times.



Ok i am not going to try and lie about what is behind me because i do not remember, i just know that these huge gates looked so cool and medieval! so... pic of me in Paris on Sat. 8th




Julia and I with my Canadian flag at the Rugby match in Paris on Sun. 9th he he good times!



Le Louvre - underneath the ground, this is in the Da Vinci Code, and it is real cool. Apparently there was ALOT of controversy over the building of this monument at first - the people REALLY didn`t want it as the thought it would ruin the history of Le Louvre, but the President insisted and today everyone loves it! ( well most of everyone does!! lol - i am sure there are still some who don`t think it was necessary ) anyway this was reallu awesome to see!!


*** well i miss you all and i hope you enjoy my blog!! ha ha
a bientot!