3 Months In France!

WOW it's December already!! It feels so strange to say that I've been in France for 3 months now, since I never really felt like I truly accepted that I'm here!

So in my determination to improve in the language rapidly for christmas and also my school trip to Belgium in January (so I can talk and have fun with my class!), about a month ago I decided to stop speaking with friends and family in New Zealand so much as I was doing that almost everyday. By speaking with them everyday it got me habituated to speaking English again and it seemed like i'd taken a step back with all of the improvement and flow of the French language i'd made. I haven't really noticed if I've improved faster, but I definitely don't have so many moments where i make silly mistakes or just speak in English without even realising it.

At the same time, not talking to my family and friends so regularly made me feel like I was even further away from them and sometimes like I wasn't even a part of their lives anymore. I wont lie, this was and still is hard to get used to. But I've become closer with people here because of it, which at the end of the day is what I want- a life and friends here.
I realised that I hadn't skyped my dad in about one month and a half, so last night we skyped for about 30 minutes (a lot shorter than the usual 2 hours haha) but it was soo good to talk to him. It left me feeling so happy and just like I had spent some time with him at home. I don't think i'll ever forget that and how much it meant to me.

It's really such a relief now to understand almost everything that people say to me, now it's mainly just French expressions that i'm getting my head around. I once said to my host mum 'I feel like a drink' directly translated into French, she looked at me strangely and then I realised how silly I must have sounded- that i literally felt like i was a drink! They just say 'I'm thirsty' so i've remembered that ever since haha.

I have some REALLY exciting news: one of my best friends, Florence, from New Zealand is moving to England in 8 days now and she will be spending New Years with me here in France!!!
Right through my AFS application, the interviews, the unsure moments whether i'd be going, and when I finally knew I was going to France.. Florence was there for me. The dull moments at school when we both wanted more, we talked about her future life in England and mine in France, how many experiences we were going to have. During my exchange so far I've shared SO many things with her and she has too as she's counting down the time until she leaves. I remember our conversations about one day we'll be in France together, i'd buy her a croissant at a café and we'd talk about everything. I can't believe it's going to happen in 27 days!!! I think i'll be so overwhelmed with happiness that i'll cry when I see her! Haha
This will be my first Christmas and New Years away from my family, so with Florence coming I think it will really help me to be not so nostalgic. And after my exchange i'm hoping to spend some time in England with her too! 

I've almost hit 2000 pageviews!!! They're from all over the world too! So thank you for reading, I hope you've gained something from be blabbing! haha. Have a lovely day wherever you are in the world, don't forget to take a look around you and realise the things you're thankful for! :) 

Bisous xxxx

Weekend with my favourite AFSer Holly!

Holly and I had another super fun weekend together, this time she came to my place.
With this being our 5th sleepover I think we can say we have traditions now! There's always clothes shopping, we stock up on lots of clothes and don't buy more until we're with each other again. That's not really intentional but I guess we get too busy to go shopping more often. At the end of the day we always stop at a supermarket and buy lots of unhealthy but so good French food to eat at night time. I don't feel so guilty about that because I never buy that stuff without her! Plus we can be fat together at the returnee camp in New Zealand next year ;).
At night time we always skype other New Zealand AFS students (who we met on the amazing orientation camp we had before leaving). I want to make a shout out to Graeme in Sweden, Hugo in Spain, Austin in France and Hugh in USA! You're all awesome.

During the weekend with Holly we did exactly that among other things. It's so funny walking through malls together speaking English, everyone turns around and stares at us (not descretely at all) haha. We think we're becoming accustomed to getting so much attention, what will we do back in New Zealand where we're normal?! Maybe we'll have to walk around speaking French hahah. After spending 5 hours in the mall, laughing so much and seeming like crazy foreigners, we went back to my place and I dyed and cut her hair that night! She says she loves it, i'm so relieved haha.
We got to sleep at around 3:30am, and the next day after skyping some more people my host mum took us about 20 minutes south into the mountains (Pyrénées) where everything is covered in snow!! We've had a bit of snow here where I live but nothing like in the Mountains, some places I stood it almost went up to my knees!

That was Holly's first time seeing snow up close as she's from Auckland! We had SO much fun making snow angels, having snowball fights, sledding and just running around and posing for the camera haha. We also spoke a lot of French to each other that day and proved to ourselves that we could do it. It was really nice of my host mum to take us there, it was defnitely a moment i'll never forget!!

Holly has 2 more months left in France, i'll be so sad when she leaves! It'll be sad not having our weekends together in Pau and here at my place every month or so. I hope we can skype or something and talk about everything! 

Holly so excited :p