Ma Vie En France: Weekend in Pau with an AFSer!

Two weeks ago I took a train to Pau, a beautiful city not far from where I live, to stay with an AFS New Zealand student (Holly) who I met this year on our camp in Wellington!
It was the first train ride I had taken by myself, I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t realise where to get off and find myself lost in France.. but it was easy!
It only took about 25 minutes by train from Lourdes to Pau! So I’m hoping to go again sometime, and for Holly to come stay with me!

Holly and I took the train from Paris to meet our host families together on September 8th, but we hadn't seen each other since! we greeted each other with ‘la bise’ as we’re now such French students ;), but it felt funny to do it to another New Zealander.
That day we went to the Castle of Pau.. the first castle I've walked around here in France! King Henry the fourth was born in the castle in 1553. Something very famous about this was that his cradle was made out of turtle shell and was preserved so you can still see it at the castle today! Also the castle was used by Napoleon as a summer residence!
Later we went shopping! One street that I remember in particular had so many shops that I’d heard of before but never been to. It was so exciting, I hadn’t been in so many awesome clothing shops at one time in my life, it was hard to decide what to buy! We went to H&M, Zara, Jennifer, Birshka and a few more.. we don’t have them in New Zealand (well in Dunedin anyway) so you can imagine how excited I was!
Holly told me about ice cream that she had bought in Pau which was the best she had ever had, apparently you can’t call it ‘just ice cream’ it’s far more than that. So while we were waiting for the store to open to buy some it started to rain very faintly. We thought it was okay, we’d keep waiting under the limited shelter that the tree gave us from above. However, within 1 minute it began to pour. When I say that, I mean POUR. It was crazy how fast it came, we decided to skip the ice cream (despite our disappointment) and find some better shelter and somewhere to eat. We got absolutely drenched running through the rain, every few minutes we would find a bar type place where people were sitting outside and stop for a second. They looked at us like we were crazy, like wild foreigners, as they were dry and calm sitting under cover while we were laughing, screaming and dripping wet. We eventually found a café to eat at, and again, people looked at us funny but that just made it more fun for us ;). This was the second time i've experienced crazy heavy rain here. The first time was while I was at school one day, it was really magnificent. Maybe it happens a lot here in this area of France?

I bought a few things in Pau but not as much as I thought I would. My parents will be happy at least!

Chez Holly (at Holly’s house) I found her family to be quite like mine here. For dinner everyone eats at the table and bread (baguettes of course) and water is with everything. There was a cheese course at the end also, but it was better for me because they didn’t have many really strange cheeses like my host father likes such as ‘Roquefort’ I suggest you look it up, the sight of it alone I think is enough to put you off but the smell.. that adds another reason to stay away haha.
The next day we made oreo cheesecake, we were both excited to bake again.. we hadn’t since we left New Zealand. It turned out well, but there were complications at the supermarket trying to find what ‘Cream cheese’ and ‘Sour cream’ were in French (story of my life). Luckily we found the right ones in the end and our cheesecake was good!

Later that day I took the train back home. It was so great to spend time with Holly! There are some things only a New Zealander can understand and only an AFS Student can understand. Holly is both, so we shared lots of our experiences together and laughed A LOT. I came back feeling refreshed and ready to speak French again.
We both have school holidays in one week so we're planning to see each other again. This time Holly will come stay with me and i'll show her my small village of Hiis, Tarbes, Lourdes and maybe even Bagnères where my school is. I really can't wait to see her again,
she's become a good friend of mine!