I don't have conjunctivitis today! This is important because I did have it on Saturday. Walked around with a half closed eye then woke up the next day and it was glued to itself. Yes, lovely details. I seriously thought I was going to die! Luckily I haven't yet. A French lady told me it was most likely the wind that caused it. I nodded in agreement. The same lady also told me over a Rotary lunch that you shouldn't eat onions because they make you fat. I made a point of eating the onions.
The Rotary lunch was in the pretty town of Biarritz in the south of France at the district 1690 conference. Even if we did have to leave at 4.45 am to drive there, it was really good catching up with the other exchange students and enjoying the HOT day. It was seriously HOT! And I saw Spain. Didn't go there, but saw the Pyrenees in the distance which is totally part of Spain. I'm hoping to go there sometime.
Today I am angry at the physics teacher.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Springggg
G’day everyone!
You should have seen the super blog I wrote yesterday. It was really good until I put it on a USB stick which then decided to break, leaving me blogless and devastated. We’re totally going back to the place where I bought the offending USB stick and demanding a refund. Or asking politely. It’ll be fun.
You should have seen the super blog I wrote yesterday. It was really good until I put it on a USB stick which then decided to break, leaving me blogless and devastated. We’re totally going back to the place where I bought the offending USB stick and demanding a refund. Or asking politely. It’ll be fun.
Me looking at a building in Bordeaux
So, the last two weeks! Summing it up, I had a really good school holidays. I last left off at the day in Bordeaux. Well, after that I did various things such as staying at the grandparents’ large house with a spiral staircase and circular windows with a sea view. I also went to horse riding, where I actually rode a horse. Not just any horse, a French horse.
Marie Charlotte and cake
I spend lots of time getting mud on my red converses
So there I was taking a selfie and suddenly, there was a horse in the photoMarie Charlotte had some friends to stay and we made beautiful crepes, and I also had a good night out in La Rochelle with my fave French girls, Marie Charlotte, Gaby, Morgane and Solene, and we were joined for a while by an Aussie mate Aysha.
Gaby, Solene, Marie Charlotte, Morgane
Soso and Momo
And then he accidentally spilt a glass of beer on her jeans
Me and Aysha discussing French grandparents who store the bread in the rifle cupboard
Good times were had. After staying at Gaby’s house we gave Solene a super makeover.
Solene during haircut/makeover
Half an hour later
Last Wednesday I moved to my second host family, the Faures. The parents are really really nice and so are the four girls. They travel heaps. Emilie who is 5 just got back from a trip to the north of France. Marie who is 14 is currently in Amsterdam. Helene, 11, is going to England next month. The parents leave for Turkey in a couple of weeks. Cecile, 17, is going to Mexico for a year. There’s also a family summer holiday planned. So yeah, I’ve landed in a good family. Cecile and I are going to Paris for five days, I’m pretty excited about that.
Yesterday we got back from a weekend in Poitiers where we spent a day at a theme park called Futuroscope... my favourite attraction was Danse avec les Robots. You got to go upside down and all spinny around in a giant moving arm thingy to loud Bee Gees music. The other highlight of Futuroscope was making the park guide man laugh in the middle of his important safety announcement by walking around like crabs.
Yesterday we got back from a weekend in Poitiers where we spent a day at a theme park called Futuroscope... my favourite attraction was Danse avec les Robots. You got to go upside down and all spinny around in a giant moving arm thingy to loud Bee Gees music. The other highlight of Futuroscope was making the park guide man laugh in the middle of his important safety announcement by walking around like crabs.
Hélène and I with super cool 3D glasses
Exciting night time spectacular
The rest of the weekend was spent eating... I seriously gained three kilos this holidays. Nutella! Cake! Bread! More nutella! Tart! Pie! Ice cream! Creamy pasta! The food doesn’t stop. We did go and see a really cool castle in Chauvigny where my host family used to live. And a glass blower... he makes small glass pigs and cats in less than a minute! I also saw an Iguana’s tail dangling from the upstairs window of a Medieval creperie.
Holly, castle, town, distant black bird
Interior of unconventional church
School started again today, hurrah! It was nice seeing all the people again, but it was less nice having one hour of maths, two hours of physics, two hours of biology (that was good) and then from 4-6, a maths test. I decided not to hand my pitiful excuse for a test in... I’ve kind of given up on maths lately. I’m looking forward to getting my history test back though. History in English, that is. Although we have the most boring teacher in the world, it’s a good subject. Well, it’s nice being able to understand. My French in general is getting better. Today I copied down a whole definition in biology. However, my speaking is still very lacking. I am probable speak like zis and making the peoples mock of mine accent who is not a good accent as of I am not being able to make the R like a France. That’s how I assume my French sounds to native speakers. They seriously do mock my accent.
‘Hey Olly, say Rhododendron!’
‘Rododondrrrn’
‘Ahahahahhahahhahahahahha. Now say...’
Yeah. I’m learning to get over it. I assume eventually I’ll learn to speak like a pro. For now I’m dealing with the language thing.
France in general is going awesomely. I like it best when I’m travelling around and not sitting in physics class, but for the most part, I’m all settled in and having a good time. I’m loving my new family and counting down for the Eurotrip (42 sleeps!). I’m also going to hopefully take up badminton and have bass lessons, so life will be nice and busy and I won’t have time to write fantastic amazing blogs like this one.
Well, love to everyone. I’ll write again soon, promise!
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
bloggyfish
G’day chums.
Today I went to BORDEAUX with my host family! It was pretty awesome – quite the shopping trip. All I bought was a tshirt and some sunnies to replace the ones I lost last weekend (sniff!), but the car boot was overflowing with shoes, jeans, leather jackets, candle holders, wall hangings, etc. Unfortunately they bought no chocolate... some people don’t have the same sweet tooth that I do. They also didn’t buy any wine. Just wait til I’m 18 (two months!), I’ll be buying those seven hundred euro bottles by the dozen.
Bordeaux is a beautiful city. My family were arguing over whether it’s more beautiful than Paris... they didn’t come to a conclusion. I’ll see for myself next week when I go to Paris! Anyway,Belle Bordeaux. None of the streets seem to be parallel and the buildings are tall and straight with gorgeous facades and balconies. It was more shopping than sightseeing so I’ll have to go back with someone who wants to take a million photos and visit the galleries. Any volunteers?
Yesterday I didn’t go anywhere, except for a short run from the Royal String Factory to the horribly ugly Transporter Bridge that is featured on at least ten different ugly postcards of Rochefort, my town. What a lovely landmark. Look ‘Transporter Bridge’ up on Wikipedia and you will see why I think the postcards shouldn’t exist.
Anyway. Yesterday, as they often do, my host family entertained guests. These ones had children, two little girls who are cousins of my host sisters. Emma is 4 and would prefer that we referred to her as a boy, not a girl. Johanna is 6 and made sure I knew that Emma wasn’t a boy but actually a girl. We spent a long time playing with bouncy balls until I decided it would be a good idea to play hide and seek (I knew the French word for it!). The cute little girls decided they loved me and both wanted to hide only with me. We hid in a crafty group of three. We played hide and seek for a looongggg time. Their parents spent hours over lunch, hours. We watched a movie. Surf’s up. Cody didn’t win the big surf contest. I was totally disappointed. Johanna informed me that the point of the movie wasn’t winning, but that the little penguin was happy. She is wise. When we cleaned out Marie Charlotte’s rabbit cage. Johanna told me I had a Spanish accent. I took it as a compliment. She hadn’t heard of Australia, so I gave her and Emma a small koala each. Now they know Australia exists – score! I informed French children of the existence of my country. Australia is great, go there. I’ve invited a lot of people to stay at my place...
In other news, I’ve now eaten a Nutella, Apple and Banana pizza. It was even better than it sounds.
Love from Holly.
Today I went to BORDEAUX with my host family! It was pretty awesome – quite the shopping trip. All I bought was a tshirt and some sunnies to replace the ones I lost last weekend (sniff!), but the car boot was overflowing with shoes, jeans, leather jackets, candle holders, wall hangings, etc. Unfortunately they bought no chocolate... some people don’t have the same sweet tooth that I do. They also didn’t buy any wine. Just wait til I’m 18 (two months!), I’ll be buying those seven hundred euro bottles by the dozen.
Bordeaux is a beautiful city. My family were arguing over whether it’s more beautiful than Paris... they didn’t come to a conclusion. I’ll see for myself next week when I go to Paris! Anyway,Belle Bordeaux. None of the streets seem to be parallel and the buildings are tall and straight with gorgeous facades and balconies. It was more shopping than sightseeing so I’ll have to go back with someone who wants to take a million photos and visit the galleries. Any volunteers?
Yesterday I didn’t go anywhere, except for a short run from the Royal String Factory to the horribly ugly Transporter Bridge that is featured on at least ten different ugly postcards of Rochefort, my town. What a lovely landmark. Look ‘Transporter Bridge’ up on Wikipedia and you will see why I think the postcards shouldn’t exist.
Anyway. Yesterday, as they often do, my host family entertained guests. These ones had children, two little girls who are cousins of my host sisters. Emma is 4 and would prefer that we referred to her as a boy, not a girl. Johanna is 6 and made sure I knew that Emma wasn’t a boy but actually a girl. We spent a long time playing with bouncy balls until I decided it would be a good idea to play hide and seek (I knew the French word for it!). The cute little girls decided they loved me and both wanted to hide only with me. We hid in a crafty group of three. We played hide and seek for a looongggg time. Their parents spent hours over lunch, hours. We watched a movie. Surf’s up. Cody didn’t win the big surf contest. I was totally disappointed. Johanna informed me that the point of the movie wasn’t winning, but that the little penguin was happy. She is wise. When we cleaned out Marie Charlotte’s rabbit cage. Johanna told me I had a Spanish accent. I took it as a compliment. She hadn’t heard of Australia, so I gave her and Emma a small koala each. Now they know Australia exists – score! I informed French children of the existence of my country. Australia is great, go there. I’ve invited a lot of people to stay at my place...
In other news, I’ve now eaten a Nutella, Apple and Banana pizza. It was even better than it sounds.
Love from Holly.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Best weekend ever!
Yep. Last weekend was the Rotary Journées Pour La Paix, where a couple of hundred exchange students from around France got together to create world peace or something. It started with an all-Aussie car trip with some of my awesome district girls, then we wandered into a huge UN-style peace conference full of old men making speeches in French and intelligent exchange students answering questions in microphones on cameras. They thought my first name was Holly-Joyce, the crazy French. After that we mingled over delicous patisseries and realised that there were a hell of a lot of Australians. It was a pretty exciting realisation... got to speak ENGLISH, and not just in a kind of 'I come with you and we makes something' way. The night was fun, getting lost in a large maze like caravan park, but eventually finding stuff & people, and losing my favourite new french bag... sniff!
The second day we did a 'March for the Peace'. This involved getting up too early, then waiting a few hours in the rain for the sea to go down so we could walk from the mainland to an island. We did this walk... my shoes got rather wet. I didn't get the message about bringing gumboots to walk through the sea. Not sure how all this promoted peace, but yeah. We walked to an island. We then ate lunch, got on buses and drove home over the convenient nearby bridge.
That night was a pretty awesome dinner. They should never let a group of Australians near a paper tablecloth, especially with water... I think the waiters ended up really hating us. We had an awesome time though, doing a bit of the old AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE! OI OI OI! Three days later and I still sound a bit like a man. The Mexicans challenged our awesome Aussieness with some kind of song and a conga line... they're pretty cool, the Mexicans. Two of them were called Jesus! One of the Jesuses likes my hair. I feel blessed. That night we played hide and seek, and listened to quite a few stories beginning with 'this one time, i was really fucking drunk...'
The next day we built a giant sand sculpture and a giant mosaic. I also made a paper crane who made risotto with Michael's grue, and ate some cake without hands or cutlery. It was lovely, thanks for asking. In the afternoon I trekked to the next town with Charlottle, Alex and Lloyd to visit the supermarket for essential supplies which had to be hidden where the Hippos ride Bikes.
Saturday night was a giant spectacular soiree where I danced the Tecktonik (look it up on Youtube, it's the coolest dance in France... and i, ME, danced... I'm NUL in dance!), sung spontaneously with all the Aussies, and got to watch some awesome acts including Alex on the piano (he deserved the 300 person standing ovation) and the Haka which was magnificent. That night was awesome... first French all-nighter! The next day was kind of a blur as I slept in the car and arrived home muddy and unslept to find the whole family sitting at a big lunch for Léa's 12th birthday. I was lucky enough to skip lunch and just sleep... yeah.
Well, apart from the awesome weekend, it's been school. I realised I kind of have a group now. Every day I hang with Marion, Drissilia, Julie, Johan, Marjelene and Charlotte. They're pretty cool. Marion likes emo boys, Drissilia is extremely nice, Julie asks a lot of questions, Johan sometimes straightens his hair, Marjelene is glued at the lips to her boyfriend who I guess is by default part of the group, and Charlotte has cool fashion sense. 'Where'd you get your cool overalls, Charlotte?' 'Oh, I picked them up when I lived in Paris.' They are a great group of people, and Marion will be in my class again next year when I change from Science to Literature. School is nothing like in Australia... I got 4/20 in maths and was really excited to get 7.5/20 in biology.
Well, that's enough for now. I'm now starting to like Facebook so if you feel like it, drop me a wall post. Or a myspace comment. Or an email. Or a letter. Or a text, I've got a phone now! +336 66 37 14 67 is the numero. Easy as fish!
Love from Holly the master tecktonicker.
The second day we did a 'March for the Peace'. This involved getting up too early, then waiting a few hours in the rain for the sea to go down so we could walk from the mainland to an island. We did this walk... my shoes got rather wet. I didn't get the message about bringing gumboots to walk through the sea. Not sure how all this promoted peace, but yeah. We walked to an island. We then ate lunch, got on buses and drove home over the convenient nearby bridge.
That night was a pretty awesome dinner. They should never let a group of Australians near a paper tablecloth, especially with water... I think the waiters ended up really hating us. We had an awesome time though, doing a bit of the old AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE! OI OI OI! Three days later and I still sound a bit like a man. The Mexicans challenged our awesome Aussieness with some kind of song and a conga line... they're pretty cool, the Mexicans. Two of them were called Jesus! One of the Jesuses likes my hair. I feel blessed. That night we played hide and seek, and listened to quite a few stories beginning with 'this one time, i was really fucking drunk...'
The next day we built a giant sand sculpture and a giant mosaic. I also made a paper crane who made risotto with Michael's grue, and ate some cake without hands or cutlery. It was lovely, thanks for asking. In the afternoon I trekked to the next town with Charlottle, Alex and Lloyd to visit the supermarket for essential supplies which had to be hidden where the Hippos ride Bikes.
Saturday night was a giant spectacular soiree where I danced the Tecktonik (look it up on Youtube, it's the coolest dance in France... and i, ME, danced... I'm NUL in dance!), sung spontaneously with all the Aussies, and got to watch some awesome acts including Alex on the piano (he deserved the 300 person standing ovation) and the Haka which was magnificent. That night was awesome... first French all-nighter! The next day was kind of a blur as I slept in the car and arrived home muddy and unslept to find the whole family sitting at a big lunch for Léa's 12th birthday. I was lucky enough to skip lunch and just sleep... yeah.
Well, apart from the awesome weekend, it's been school. I realised I kind of have a group now. Every day I hang with Marion, Drissilia, Julie, Johan, Marjelene and Charlotte. They're pretty cool. Marion likes emo boys, Drissilia is extremely nice, Julie asks a lot of questions, Johan sometimes straightens his hair, Marjelene is glued at the lips to her boyfriend who I guess is by default part of the group, and Charlotte has cool fashion sense. 'Where'd you get your cool overalls, Charlotte?' 'Oh, I picked them up when I lived in Paris.' They are a great group of people, and Marion will be in my class again next year when I change from Science to Literature. School is nothing like in Australia... I got 4/20 in maths and was really excited to get 7.5/20 in biology.
Well, that's enough for now. I'm now starting to like Facebook so if you feel like it, drop me a wall post. Or a myspace comment. Or an email. Or a letter. Or a text, I've got a phone now! +336 66 37 14 67 is the numero. Easy as fish!
Love from Holly the master tecktonicker.
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