NOEL EN FRANCE

Woah I'm sorry it's been so long since i've wrote to you all, I'm not really sure why I didn't have the motivation to. In fact, since the Christmas holidays things have really changed for me here. I grew a lot; I realised many things about myself and life in general, I can thank my host mum for that. I've really become a lot closer to my host family, and trust me, I think it's so essential in having a great exchange! Since those holidays I have gone out more, been daring by stepping out of my comfort zone, "living" I guess you could say, and have been, on a whole, enjoying my time here so much more. I think that's why I haven't sat down and written on my blog in so long!
So since I last wrote there've been many memoriable events.. Christmas, New Years, my friend Florence (from New Zealand) staying with me, my class trip to Brussels and Strasbourg, my 18th birthday and my friend Injy (also from New Zealand) staying and getting a French boyfriend! I'm going to begin with Christmas.. it's almost 3 months late but I have to tell you about my amazing experience of a French Christmas!!

The month of December was a little strange for me, I had so many mixed feelings.. Incomprehension of how it was already almost Christmas thus how quickly my exchange was going, missing my family and friends back home and our Christmas traditions, but also at the same time I had so much excitement for the French Christmas that I was about to experience for the first time. Although sadly it didn't turn out to be a white Christmas!

In France they celebrate on the night of the 24th of December as well as the 25th. So at my home, we had around 20 people for the 24th and 30 for the 25th! It was packed. 
Something I never would have guessed is that a traditional French Christmas food is..seafood! Mainly Oysters, but they also had things like Crab, Shrimp, Pipis etc. I was warned that every year my host family makes everyone try the Oysters, luckily being vegetarian, I had an excuse! Instead, I watched others trying them for the first time.. and not really enjoying them haha. Later when my friend Florence came, we made her try them and the look on her face was priceless ahah.

Another traditional food, which is better in my opinion, is the 'Buche de Noel' which is like a sponge cake rolled up into a shape of a log with chocolate all over it. My host mum and I made some the night before.. it took us hours and just as were finishing the last one, one of the cats jumped up on the bench and stepped all over it! He then took it with him onto the floor as we frantically tried to save it. Ah how exhausting but it was definitely a moment when all you can do is laugh!

Our Bush de Noel

And then the Buche de Noel from the Aunty and Uncles bakery!

Later at around midnight I skyped my family back home as they were having Christmas lunch at my Grandma's. I was SO happy to see them all together and on Christmas day.
I was a little worried before about being struck by homesickness seeing them. Of course I missed them, but it made me so happy at the same time. We didn't get to talk for very long, and once I was finished I went back downstairs and joined the crazy party again. Why I said crazy, well for a few hours I think, everyone from the Grandparents to the Grandchildren were firing these little balls of paper all around the room at each other. It was really funny, shows you a little more of the playful side of my host family!
That's honestly something that I love though, how they're such open people and really know how to have fun!

My host family's tradition is to keep all of the presents from the extended family at the house as well so that we all open them at the same time on Christmas day. Man I have never seen so many presents in my life.. they were all around the Christmas tree, 'Sapin' in French, even extending up the stairs too. While sitting at the dinner table everyone had there gifts brought to them, I was so overwhelmed with how many I received! A silver fern necklace from my mum and jewellery from my Grandma too, both sent over to me from New Zealand. From my host family: perfume, a scarf, a book with guitar tabs, chocolate, a huge mug and many other random things!

My presents

It was really a humbling experience, my host family letting me experience something so family orientated as Christmas with them, how they have opened their home to me and treat me just like I was always there. It will definitely be a Christmas I'll never forget!

Matching!

Opening presents!

AFS Fête de Noel

Salut!
Wow this past month has gone by so quickly, i've done so many things and begun to really 'live' my exchange. Here's a post I wrote just before Christmas but didn't finish it in time!

As Christmas is only 7 days away, we had a Christmas party for all of the people involved in AFS in the Midi-Pyrénées during the weekend. I took the train to Toulouse with an AFS student from Paruguay, as I can't speak Spanish and he can't speak English, we only had French as a means of talking. Surprisingly, this didn't hinder our conversations at all! We spoke for the whole train ride about a lot of different things, that was one of the moments when i'd realised how much i've improved in the language. It was such a difference from when we caught the train together with Holly down from Paris when we were going to meet our host families for the first time, back then it was literally impossible to have a conversation with him! Haha.
We were met at the train station by an AFS volunteer who showed us a bit around Toulouse, and went and got lunch. The fries at the place we ate at had been cooked in Duck fat, that's the first time i've seen that and as a vegetarian, i was disgusted haha. Apparently it's common here in France, so I better check every time before eating things like that. We walked around so many streets and through the Christmas market which is right in front of the Captiole building (I have pictures of the building from my last blog post). Oh yes, so the Christmas markets!! France is really big on them, they're like small villages full of tiny shops selling festive things, food (especially Churros, Beignets, Gaufres- Waffles and Crepes) and just anything really! the walkways are so tiny but CROWDED with people, such a cool atmosphere!

At the AFS Fête de Noel, as usual, we ate a lot of good food and had yet another 'Talent Show' although i'm not sure you could call it that as we made up another random skit just half an hour before performing it! This time it was about exchange students at school with various teachers in different classes expecting them to understand etc. A lot of it was improvised but it turned out to be really funny!

Voila, that was the AFS Christmas party, now i'm going to write another post about many things that have happened since!

Us AFS Students

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

Toulouse and life of the late!

Bonjour tout le monde!
A dream of mine ever since I arrived 79 days ago was to go to Toulouse, and guess what.. it came true last weekend!
After actually missing 2 trains in Tarbes, long story I wont go into detail why but some advice to you.. whenever travelling in France always take identification with you! Haha. So I eventually caught a train to Toulouse by myself, where I got to look out the window at the Pyrenees mountains all breathtakingly covered in snow, and arrived about an hour and a half later. My host sister Loany met me at the train station and from there we went back to her apartment (where I was going to be staying). Being all French, we made Gratin which is a Potato and cheese dish, however her microwave oven actually burnt everything we tried to make.. even cookies! That was so disappointing and I swear we could have died from the toxic fumes they were releasing into her small apartment! Ahah.
Later we took the metro (yes, metro!) into the centre of Toulouse to go shopping. I must say that was such an exciting moment of my life, taking the metro for the first time.. another Frenchy thing to tick of my list! ;)

Toulouse was magical- the streets were full of people, everyone wrapped up in coats and scarves as Autumn here is proving to be extremely cold.. I can't wait to see what winter will be like haha. There were also crepe stalls, a Carousel and Christmas decorations going up already but not being lit yet. Loany and I have planned that I'm going to go back just before Christmas to see all the lights and the markets they have out front of the Capitole -which I saw! (I'll put a picture below). We did lots of shopping and walked around the streets, there I confirmed my thoughts that I can never go back to shopping in the Dunedin clothing stores after France, they have got nothing on them here!
The next day I had my second AFS chapter function, where all of us exchange students and a few sending students had lunch and went to a museum together. Seeing the other exchange students again was really nice, people who understand exactly what it means to be an exchange student and often have the same thoughts and feelings as you. Surprisingly we all spoke in French practically the whole time although all of us know English! That was a little difficult to do at our camp in Lyron 1 month ago, so our improvement in the language is definitely evident! Kato, my friend from Belgium on her exchange here, is sadly finishing her exchange in one week! I'm going to miss her a lot, we were all a little emotional that it would maybe be the last time we would see her. We've all been a part of each other's lives since we first arrived in Paris for the beginning of our exchanges as we all shared a room together. I didn't know that in coming to France I'd get to make not only friends from here, but also from all over the world. And I have AFS to thank for that!

So the day before I left for Toulouse I said goodbye to my host brother who'll be living in Lyon, about 6 hours away I believe. I already miss him a lot, he's so cheerful and fun and he's always been there when I've needed someone! But with him being there, maybe that will give me a reason to see Lyon too!! Thankfully one of my host sisters has been here recently and we've been having fun baking Macarons and Eclairs, so I'm not like an only child just yet. I'm thinking it'll be strange, I've never been an only child before! But I've got a lot of support from my host parents and we have a lot of fun too so I think it won't bad, just different.

Update on how the language is going lately: About a week ago some of my friends were talking beside me as we were walking to the cantine. Usually I don't bother trying to understand because with the noise of cars and other people it was almost impossible for me to. But this time, without even putting thought into it I understood their whole conversation! That was such an amazing moment for me, one of those eureka moments when you realise how far you've come!
It's also really wonderful to see that it's not only me who's benefiting from my exchange, but also others are too..some of my friends here often speak in English to me, I correct them and respond in French. In doing this I've seen them improve a lot over 2 and a half months and one of my good friends, Sarah, told me she can even understand everything that I write on my blog! (I'm so proud of you petite fleur!)

Like my host mum and I were talking about today, when us exchange students talk with others in our host country, it's like we're giving them the opportunity to travel themselves. We open their mind to what life is like from where we come from and probably give them something to laugh about with our accent! :p I never really thought about this but it's so true. I love that I'm able to give people the opportunity to have a connection to the other side of the world, the exotic and mysterious Islands of New Zealand ;).

But basically my life here, I'm loving it. I have days where I'm not so enthusiastic or thrilled about my school timetable (3 and a half hours of maths, but also the same of economics in one day!), and this gets me a little down. But the good outweighs the bad, I have a family, friends, hobbies, things to look forward to like Belgium in January, Spain at one point, seeing Florence and Holly, skiing in winter and experiencing a French Christmas! And also a new 'French' life here which always surprises me with more exciting new things. At the same time, I have amazing support from friends and family in New Zealand who I love so much! I've really been given such an incredible opportunity, so thank you again to everyone who's made it possible for me!

Bisous <3

Making Macarons!

The museum

A Kiwi in France.. ;)

Kato! Haha

War memorial

Toulouse view from Loany's apartment!

Capitole!!

Didn't buy one but they looked gooodd!

The metro aha ;)

She may kill me for putting this up, do it for the fans Loany ;)