Lovin' the life...

Well i've now been in France for over a month and have finally found some motivation to continue this blog....the plan from now on is to try and update once a week...let's see how long that lasts.

The last couple of weeks have been great...i've really come to feel part of my family and i'm totally enjoying the french lifestyle. France really is a beautiful country and i've been lucky enough to see a bit of it these last couple of weeks. Since my last post i've settled into school and made a couple of friends which is really quite good..no parties or outings yet but things are coming i'm hoping. I've been on holidays the past two weeks though so i haven't seen anyone apart from my host family because we've spent the whole time travelling..

The first week of holidays i went to the north of France to Bretagne and we went to the beach and saw some beautiful landscapes. It was pretty cold up there but i saw a medieval, fortified city and lots of little port towns. The history in france is so great and seeing all the historical churches and buildings is so amazing. This past week i went south to the pyrenees with my host dad and host brother. They are both amazing and my host brother has to be the funniest kid on the planet...i have so many hysterical photos of him! We stayed at my hot dad's mum's house and she was so lovely. During our stay i saw the Lourdes cathedral which is a famous stop for pilgrims because the virgin appeared there and there is a grotto and you can drink healing water. It was absoultely beautiful and while i'm not religious to that extent it was lovely seeing people take so much comfort from this place and their beliefs. I also spent a wonderful day tobogging in the pyrenees which was an absoulte laugh. My host family borrowed a snow suit for me and i looked, and felt, like a giant marshmallow. I had a wonderful day though filled with lots of crashes and laughs. It's very tiring though!

I go back to school the day after tomorrow and i'm almost looking foward to it which is kinda sad. There was a bit of confusion about changing classes etc ater the holidays but i'm not really worried about that..i'll sort it out when i get back to school. I'm going to Spain next weekend with my rotary club and my mexican friend Claudia so i'm really looking foward to that...i love Europe!!!

My french isn't going too badly though my host family do speak english so i don't use it as much as i should...when i go back to school i'm hoping people there will speak french with me so i can continue to learn. When i have to speak french i can get by but i really do want to be quite fluent by the end of my exchange so i need to start using my french.

Lastly while i'm having a great time here now i'm defiantely missing my friends and family back in Oz as well as my two great friends Sarah and Elisa who are on exchange in Norway and Belgium...i knew i'd miss these guys heaps but wasn't quite prepared for exactly how much..

Until next time
Bisous,
Mel