Busy, busy, busy!!!

I plan to write a blog about all the goings on of the week i just had but i'm finding it hard to find the time to sit down and write it all...i promise it's coming and i should have it finished by the end of the day but things keep coming up...haha plus i should probably do my english homework before i forget and get another cross..

Well i've finally managed to sit down and write my blog :)This week was my first week going to school from Jaquie and Bernard's and i caught the bus for the first time. I will be taking the bus (i should say minivan because that's all it is)every Wednesday and Thursday because those are the days i start school at 8am. The bus comes at 7.10am so i get up at 6am to get ready. I'm so glad i don't have to get up every day for the bus or i'd be dead tired by the end of the week. 6am is way too early to get up when you've stayed up late the night before trying to finish homework and going to Rotary meetings...

This week i went to another Rotary meeting and Claudia did her country presentation on Mexico. I was supposed to do a little presentation on my first three months here but we ran out of time so it's going in the newsletter instead. I'm quite glad except i know i have to do my country presentation soon. Cludia's presentation was really good and very interesting so i hope i can live up to the standard when the time comes for me to do mine. I'm thinking i'm going to try to acquire some vegemite for my presentation and try to get people to taste it...if anyone else has any suggestions i'd like ot hear them...my host brother, for some odd reason, things i sing really well(which is a total joke) so he reckons i should sing the National Anthem...i'm thinking that's a bad idea but i haven't ruled it out yet.

For sport at school we've moved onto badminton and it's definitely not one of my favourite sports...it comes under the category of sports with a ball needing hand-eye coordination. Since i have no hand-eye coordination i am quite "nulle", which means i pretty much suck. Claudia and i have our own little games and i do think i'm improving...i can even win on the rare occassion and at least i can hit it over the net now haha

This week at school i also got my bac blanc francais back. I got given a mark of 4/20 and i was marked as a French person because the teacher who marked it didn't know i was an exchange student. It must have seemed a bit strange for him that someone who was in L, the literature stream, had such a poor vocabulary and grammar. He didn't hesitate to write the comments all over my paper either. I was quite happy with my 4 even though the comments were a bit disheartening...another girl in my class also got 4 though so i don't know how she felt about the exchange student getting the same mark as her. I actually ended up with 11/20 though because my teacher re-marked it on my level of french etc It doesn't really count for anything for me but i'm glad i had a go.

Friday afternoon after school i went into the backyard with Bernard and Jaquie and picked the strawberries out of their backyard. It's been quite hot here this week, especially the weekend, and so we went to find all the ripe strawberries so we could eat them for desert. Picking the strawberries brought back so many memories of when i was little and i picked strawberries with my own granparents and it was nice to think about that for a little while. My host mum also makes her own ice cream with a little machine so we've had des fraises avec de la glace (vanille)for desert yum!!!

After dinner on Friday Bernard and Jaquie's son Xavier and his wife Sophie arrived with their two young kids. They travelled down to be here for Manon's 18th birthday party on Saturday night. Saturday after lunch we headed into Najac because this weekend they were having a Medieval festival. There were people dressed up in medieval costumes, they had eagles and a couple of other birds and they had markets selling things made out of leather and wood etc. It was really cool...we also walked up to the castle because there was a special tour but we got there two late so we decided to go back on Sunday. Manon's party was at Jaquie's mum's house in Najac so we went back there for dinner, cake and general partying. I met all of Manon's friends and talked to them for awhile.

My third host family were also there so i talked to them a bit more and talked to the kids for the first time. Anna, who's nearly 5, sat on my lap during dinner and showed me her little Pluto toy. She's so cute and has so much energy. Eva is also really nice and she told me she can't wait til i stay at their house. She's nearly 12 years old and we talked about school and dogs and played with balloons..i'm such a little kid. Camille was also there and she's 15, though she acts like she's about 20, and looks like it too. I had a really good time with them and i think i'm going to have a good time at their house as well.

For Manon's birthday Thierry wrote a song so we all got up to sing that...the very last verse was in english though and even though everyone was supposed to sing it everyone else stopped and it was just me...it was kinda embarrassing but Manon liked the song so it did'nt matter. We didn't get home til about 1.30am that day so i was pretty darn tired on Sunday.

Sunday we went back to Najac and did the tour around the castle. We had a guide but she spoke really fast so i didn't understand evrything she was saying but i loved looking at the castle...we even got to walk up the spiral staicase to the roof, all 120 steps. I had a super fun weekend and i'm also loving the fact that today is Pentocost so i don't have school.

I really should go do my english homework now...i have to read an extract of Desiree's Baby, answer some questions, read a biography of the author and then make up some questions...wish me luck

Also last week when i was away i received my return date...i will be back in Aus on the 15th of January which is still just under 8 months away. Looking foward to seeing everybody back in Aus on that date...until then i'm having a wondeful time here. It's been four months now, 1/3 of my year, and i'm sure the rest will fly by...at least for me.

Love and kisses
Mel