Ma Vie Quotidienne

'My Daily Life'

Here's an update of my weekend and my everyday life :)

In the Mountains: Les Pyrénées

This weekend my host family and I went to go have lunch at their grandparent's house in a village in the middle of the mountains. These are the mountains I see everyday as I go to school, it was so cool actually be surrounded by them and witness how truly large they are!
My host family informed me of a flooding in June this year due to a HUGE amount of rainfall in the mountains. The water flowed down the mountains and collected as one big flash flood which tore through some small mountain villages. Only having a small stream running through these villages, they were not prepared for a Tsunami-like amount of water. This resulted in the stream enlarging so much that roads were broken, houses were torn apart and rubbish and stones scattered for miles across the once beautiful countryside. It was really sad to see but work is slowly being done to fix the damage.
On the way back to Hiis we drove up one of the mountains and around a ski field (I thought of you mum and how much you hate driving up to ski fields haha). Apparently I'l be going skiing in winter, so excited!!!

On Saturday night I had my first French party!! It was in the 'Salle de Fêtes' of a village nearby called Loucrup.
A 'Salle de Fêtes' is a party house, there is one in every village here! Just French culture I guess.. ;)
I had an awesome time, so many people were really intrigued about New Zealand and were attempting to speak English, it was so funny!
 

School: Lycée Victor Duruy

Everyday I begin school at 8am, that's something that I can easily say I don't like. Tomorrow I will begin catching the bus every morning at 7:15am, for those of you who know me well.. you know I'm not a morning person! So I don't know how I'm going to cope with that, maybe i'll have to stop going on Facebook late at night..

The subjects I take are Mathematics, History, Geography, Economics, Spanish, Philosophy, English (my favourite!) and Sports.
This is very different for me as in New Zealand I took Biology, Chemistry, Physics, French, Calculus and English. I have never taken Spanish before, so beginning it in French is crazy!
We often have 2 hours of some subjects such as Philosophy, Economics and History/Geography. These are the very 'wordy' subjects so I really struggle to keep concentration and actually try to understand the lesson. Lately when i'm feeling like i'm about to fall asleep, which is very often, I begin writing letters to my friends and family in New Zealand. (I'll send them soon!)
I've made some friends at school who I feel really comfortable around already. I was so happy that on my first day I didn't have to awkwardly go sit by myself at lunchtime! (haha sorry Georgia your prediction was wrong). Instead, two groups invited me to sit with them who I've gotten to know since, they're awesome! Something I like about Lycée Victor Duruy is that almost everyone is friends with everyone, there are no real 'groups' that don't communicate with others. So i'm beginning to know many different people who aren't even in my classes :)

It's funny being the only Exchange Student in the school. When people know who you are they are really intrigued and friendly. New Zealand seems like such an exotic place to them, and i'm beginning to view it differently too. It really is a good country, an amazing country. With having a smaller population it has such an advantage I believe, and we are able to keep it clean and looking beautiful. I really can't wait to see the New Zealand environment again- Central Otago, Fiordland, and most of all Taieri Mouth. It's my most favourite place on Earth.

Apart from with a few people at school who speak English well, I hardly ever get to have a decent conversation. I see people laughing hard (something I don't get to experience much because I don't get the joke) and I wish I could join in! But as my host family keep telling me, by Christmas time I will be fluent in French. Although in order for this to happen I know I need to try harder.. more days where I'm exhausted await me!

Until next time,Au Revoir! xx

Driving towards the mountains

A cultural dance in a small village

A DOG! I miss my dog in New Zealand so much, it was really nice to finally see a dog over here!

Damage

The stream ruined

Up by the ski field, this was all I could see downward.. whilst knowing it was a cliff!

Creepy cultural dolls in a mountain village, they had them all over the place

The same village as the dolls, why so much creepy stuff?

Saint Jean De Luz

I spent 2 weekends ago in Saint Jean De Luz, a very touristic city part of the Basque province in south- west France. We left on Friday and it took us just under 2 hours to get there. After finding the camping ground (which had a pool!) we went into the centre to have a look around. Once I stepped foot into the mall area oh my goodness it hit me that I was in France! All of the small streets with cute little shops, and the buildings! They were beautiful, I couldn't believe my eyes.

Loany (one of my host sisters) and I walked around the streets for hours, just mesmerized by it all. I bought a ring for 3 Euros (was pretty excited about that) and Loany told me about 'Churros' which I didn't try until the next day.. they're like a waffle but a stick shape. wow, I'll just say you must try them yourself, so good! 
After walking around for a long time, window shopping in really expensive clothing and shoe stores, we made our way to the beach. I hadn't seen the ocean or beach since I had left Taieri Mouth about 3 weeks earlier, so I was feeling like I was a little deprived (as I grew up right beside the ocean!) haha. After walking around the narrow streets then to walk up another tiny street and step onto a path which overlooked the vast Atlantic Ocean was breathtaking. You may be thinking it's just a beach, but to me it was really a highlight of my weekend to see such an amazing part of nature again.
Over the next two days we went between the beach and the shops so many times I began to know my way around. Sunbathing and swimming in 33 degrees Celsius, and Loany and I decided to go board paddling (not sure of the name). But it involved both of us floating around on a huge, almost twice the length of me, board with a paddle. This was really fun, we formed a great team as she would paddle with her arms at the front for speed and I would stand up behind her with the paddle to help turn. We tried for so long to go into the waves however they kept moving away from us, that was a little sad haha. There were some men doing this too, but solo. They were really good, taking on the waves but not always succeeding in staying on their board! As Loany and I would shreak with a small wave underneath us, they would look at us and laugh :P

I had a REALLY good weekend there, it was really cool to see another part of French culture. All of the buildings are different to here where I am living. For example, most of the roofs are an orange colour and the outer walls are white. Here the roofs are black and the walls are made of stone.

A cute shop

Streets

The buildings are so cool

Warf

Heading towards the beach

A family friend, me, Loany

The pool!

At the camping ground

Paddling!

Yay Churros!

The beach!

Amazing view of the Atlantic Ocean

If you keep following this coast you'll get to Spain :D

Sunset on the way home

First 20 days in French life

Wow, how crazy life has been lately. If you're reading this Sangji, I got inspiration to write a blog post from yours, I hope mine is as good!

3 weeks ago today I arrived in Paris.
It was so hard saying goodbye to my family at the airport, i've never been away from them for more than a week, let alone on the other side of the world! After a lot of tears I got onto the plane that would take me to Auckland where I would meet up with all of the other AFS students going to France, Spain, Germany and Italy. It was so nice to see them all again, and the excitement began.. I was actually going to be in France!
We stopped in Melbourne for a few hours on our way to Dubai. After about 26 hours of flying in total on different planes, we eventually landed in Paris where I experienced the most turbulence I had ever had. Luckily though, we landed haha.
The longest time on the plane without stopping was 14 hours, where I had a window seat. It was amazing to see all of the old stone white buildings so close together as we were descending into Dubai, however I was only able to get up once on that plane ride. I think I got about 4 hours of sleep in total, as well as many AFS students, so we were all exhausted when we finally got to our destinations.

Some of the first things I noticed in Paris as we left the airport the temperature (so hot!) and the traffic.. it's crazy! I couldn't notice many road rules like in New Zealand, people just pushed their way in wherever they could and were reluctant to give way. They all looked so mad, so us AFS students waved at them and did silly things from inside the bus, didn't look like it cheered them up though :P

We eventually arrived at our AFS orientation camp where we would spend the next 2 nights. It was awesome meeting people from all over the world such as the United States, Belgium and South America. However everyone just spoke in English, so it didn't feel like I was in France yet.
On Saturday the 7th, we went by bus into the centre of Paris. It was so amazing driving through the streets seeing the little shops, people riding bikes (Vélibs!) and the long buildings which seemed to go on forever. All of the buildings had decorative railings, the kind when you see them you immediately think of Paris. It was funny to think they spend so much money and effort on appearance, but it works- the buildings look beautiful.
As we were driving I got a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower from far away, the feelings I had at that point were so strange, it was all so unreal.
As we got closer an AFS volunteer told us to close our eyes until we got there. I couldn't, I was far too excited. When we got out of the bus, and the Eiffel tower was staring straight at us I couldn't believe my eyes! It's so much larger than what I was expecting, it really does tower over Paris.
We walked over the river Seine, around the tower and underneath it where I could truly realise how unbelievably tall it is. There were so many tourists like us, and people selling cute Eiffel Tower things however we were advised to leave our money and valuables on the bus because of pick-pocketers, so I didn't get to buy any.

The morning after (Sunday the 8th) we woke up early- 4.30am to go to the train station where we would each catch a train to meet our host family. It was at the train station where I bought something completely in French and they understood me! I was so proud haha.
My train was to Tarbes, a city which is a little more north than Hiis and good for shopping (sorry dad). The train ride down took 7 hours, but it was so cool to pass through a lot of the French countryside. Every few minutes we passed through another small village, I was surprised with how many there were and how flat most of the land was.

I eventually got to Tarbes, exhausted but so excited and relieved to finally meet my host family. They greeted me the French way, bisous, (they do two here) and spoke to me in French of course.. now I was starting to feel more like I was actually in France.

I've been here 20 days now, i'm beginning to discover the way of life and the different customs though I'll list them in another blog post.
I miss my family and friends in New Zealand a lot, more than they know. But at the same time I'm making friends here too and my host family are awesome. I knew exchanges weren't easy, I'm keeping in mind what I will achieve and that gets me through when I feel like giving up. I think I have improved already with comprehension when listening to people speak, but only a little in speaking myself which is frustrating I must admit. I still have a long time to become fluent and just like a French student (apart from the smoking!), but it will eventually come! 

That's all for now, bisous et à bientôt!

Streets of Paris

L'Arc De Triomphe!!

So happy!

La Seine!

This excited me a lot haha

So incredible

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