Tuesday, March 16, 2010

another week in the french life




Well it's been another week and i'm surprised i've actually managed to keep this up so far. I find i write about the same events so many times her eto so many people so when i come to write my blog i'm almost tired of writing. Maybe i should do this first and then copy and past the text afterwards...that might be smart.

My past week has pretty much just been a normal week for me here. Last week wasn't a great week for me though so i'm kinda glad it's over. The weather was pretty crappy, school was boring and i was tired after my big weekend in Spain. I'm happy to say though that so far this week has been much better. I've been here nearly 2 months now...where has all the time gone?!?! I did start those special french classes au college and they were good. I'll be going every Thursday and it's practically all french grammer. Last week we did really easy stuff that i could already do so the teacher said she'd find some harder work for me to do. My writing and reading is at quite a high level here and my understanding is definitely coming along i just need to improve the speaking. I have had conversations in french though so i'm improving. I think i'm doing quite well for how long i've been here.

Well i'm currently sitting here at school on the computer trying to fill in the time until my host dad comes to pick me up at 3.30pm. I finished at 12 so it's quite a long wait but that's the story of my life here. I usually find something to do to fill in the time either at school or en ville so it's not really much of a problem. Now that the weather is finally starting to get warmer it's nicer to wait outside too.

Well i might start this post with my weekend. My weekends here are my chance to sleep-in and relax and i really do take advantage of that opportunity by sleeping in until about 12. My host family don't mind though so it's all good. Saturday after lunch i spent some time on the computer and then my host mum, host sister and i went to the neighbour's house. My host brother was a bit upset because he wanted to come but he was told it was just a girl's thing haha. The neighbour's have two young kids, a girl and a boy, and so we decided to play the wii. We played this game called just dance, which is pretty much the dancing equivalent of singstar. There are lots of songs to choose from with different levels of physical exersion and technique. We had four players at a time and it was absolutely hilarious to watch. It was heaps of fun and even though i felt stupid it was good. I even managed to win once to the song, "Fame". Go Me!!! Then when the guys got home we relocated to our house and the game continued until about 9pm. My host brother then started a pillow fight but he ended up surrendering because i was too good (read: my host mum made him stop because she thought he'd hurt me. lol fat chance of that happening becuase i was def winning)Then we had dinner all together and it was some really nice carbonara pasta. It's times like these (haha my head just said "you need minties" anyway back to the story)i'm so glad my host dad is a chef.

Sunday was another long sleepin and restful day spent on the computer. After lunch my host brother went to his friend's house to do homework and my host dad went to work so it was just us girls at home. We played a card game and after they had managed to explain it to me we played for about 2 hours. I won so i was pretty stoked about that. Sunday night i talked to my mum and my sister on skype because it was my sister's 16th birthday at home. I got to see her open her present and card which was nice. She also got her licence so congrats about that Dani!!

Yesterday it was back to school but it's actually sunny here this week so i'm super happy. Everything seems so much better when it's sunny. School was school and nothing that exciting happened. After school i had an hour to fill in so i went for a walk around the town and finally took some pictures of the bridges. (see above when i can bothered to add them off my camera) I also bought a patch to put on my blazer and i was so proud because i managed to use french to buy it without the man getting confused. I'm planning on putting the patch, which is the crest of my host city, on the shoulder of my blazer. Unfortunately the ugly green Aus blazer happens to clash with my beautiful red patch. At least it'll stand out i guess...

When i got home yesterday i had a package waiting for me which is so exciting considering the amount of mail that's been lost between aus and here. It was a package of french work from a my old french teacher and some photos and things from my mum. So exciting to finally get something and not be disappointed because it didn't turn up.Last night after dinner i had a long talk with my host family about my life here, my exchange, how i'm feeling etc It was so nice to know that they care about what's going on with me. They also said that when i leave their family there will be a hole because ive really become part of the family and my host brother considers me his sister. It was very nice to hear that because i do feel like part of the family and i am so grateful that they have been so good to me. It will be sad to leave such an amazing family but i'll see more of them throughout my year. Especially because my next host family is my host mum's parents.

Well today at school i only had three hours of lessons. I was dropped off at 8 but didn't start class until 9 so i spent an hour doing english homework. I find some english homework here quite difficult though because the instructions and explanations are in french so i'm never quite sure what the question is asking. Spanish was ok and then afterwards i had english with my class. They had to do a talk about their virtues for 2 minutes in english and i had to do mine in french. I think they were pretty impressed by my french which is good because we were'nt allowed sheets or anything. After that class i had anglais de spé which is more advanced english. At the moment we're analysing advertisements. Some people had to do an impromptu oral about it but i'm first up next time. I don't really like this class because the teacher gets annoyed if i don't say what she expects me or wants me to say. It's hard because this is subjective english so our ideas aren't always the same or i might miss something. It's a little bit stressful for me.

Tomorrow i finish school at 12 and my host sister and i will be home alone all afternoon so we'll probably do something together which will be nice. Next Wednesday i'll probably stay in Villefranche and do something with the AFS student from Paraguay. She speaks really good english so we can talka dn we might watch a movie or something. It'll just be nice to finally do something with someone for a change.

I also have some exciting things to look foward to as well. In April i have my class trip to spain...then early May i have my next rotary weekend and they're always fun because of the amount of awesome exchange students in the same place at the same time...then later in May my best friend who is on exhcange in Belgium might be coming to stay with me for 5 days. If this works out i'll be thrilled and it'll be so much fun to muck around and have fun just like we would at home....then my euro tour comes right at the beginning of June....i finally got a reply from the travel agent about how to pay so that's being organised. Two weeks of travelling around Europe with other exchange students is just about the best thing in the world. Then in September my family is coming to visit. My mum finally got her passport (yes mum you were supposed to have that before i left home)and booked the trip so i'll have some time with them. Can't wait!!!

Well this turned into a rather long update...i had some other things i was going to talk about, like how i'm feeling here, and reading material and my scrapbook plans but i might leave them til tomorrow or whenever i next feel like writing.

Enjoy!
xoxo
Mel

p.s if you're wondering about the picture of me at the top i got bored on the weekend and took about 10 random pictures of myself. I decided i had to do something with them so here one is...

p.p.s leave a comment!!!!!

3 comments:

  1. wooooooooooooow thats alot lol

    i should really read a section comment then read another section and comment

    well atleast i know your having fun mel

    ReplyDelete
  2. lol the writing is the great wall of mel lol ha ha ha ha

    ReplyDelete