Camp au Liron!

So 2 weekends ago we had our first local chapter camp! My chapter is the Toulouse one although it is almost two hours away from where I live. My chapter said that they're planning a soirée for us in Toulouse.. Ah I can't wait!! I really want to go there these holidays, my two host sisters live there so I'm really hoping I can!

After about an hour and a half of driving from my home I arrived at Liron where we were to have our camp. it was so picturesque! Farmland, beautiful trees and small villages. The place we stayed at was this big stone building with these cute tents that we slept in. It looked so inviting, got to love French architecture!
After everyone arrived we talked a lot together.. sometimes in English, but we would get told off by the volunteers haha. We actually spoke more French than I thought we would! It was so amazing to see the improvement in everyone's French in just one month. I sometimes worry that I wont ever become fluent, I just can't imagine myself being able to think freely in French. But I'm here for 10 months, it will come. I'm just impatient haha.
After some group sessions with the volunteers about our exchanges, we then had time to prepare for the Talent Show later on that night. We decided to do a strange dance, where the other 5 girls wore prom dresses and me.. well I wore this big freaky cloak thing, it was really flattering ;). Of course I couldn't take it seriously haha. 
We choreographed a dance 5 minutes before showing everyone, It was so funny and I did 'the worm' in my big cloak, it looked so strange later looking back on the video haha.
It was so great to see AFS students again that i'd met in Paris from USA, Belgium, Chile and also another New Zealander! For some reason our accents sounded so strange to each other, I guess I'm realising what us New Zealanders sound like! My chapter has more things planned for us in the future like going skiing together. Skiing in France.. I'm SO excited!

Bisous xx

Sabrina, me and Carissa

All of the students

1 Mois En France!

It marked exactly one month since I arrived while I was at Holly’s, I have reflected on how I feel, how it's been so far and what I’d like to change. 

I would like to be more active, positive and try new things such as sports here. Next week I’m going to begin playing Handball, I’ve never played in a team sport before so it’s an exciting thing for me! Also AFS students are known for getting fat (Another Fat Student) haha! I'm determined to defy this, I want to come back to New Zealand fitter than I was when I left! I know this is going to be difficult.. there are so many boulangeries (bakerys) here, lots of cheeses, lollies and even at school they've been selling chocolatines (pain du chocolat) so I can't get away from the temptations! 

I often don't pay attention when people are speaking in French around me (I think it’s a guilty pleasure of exchange students) haha. This month I’m going to try really hard to not do this, as a lot of people try to speak English to me so I've realised that I don’t end up hearing and translating that much French throughout my day as I thought I would. The process of becoming fluent will take so long if I don’t do this, and I hope to be getting there by Christmas so I have to try harder!

How do I feel that it's now been one month? There have been some difficult times but also some of the most exciting times of my life so the good outweigh the bad.
During my second and third weeks here I felt the most homesick. I felt as though I had experienced enough of France for now, I’d seen many things, tasted different foods, spoken French (improved a little too) and experienced what French school is like. I was feeling ready to go home. I think the main cause of this was because school feels like it goes on for one million hours every day, that’s ‘one million hours’ where I’m sitting there bored out of my mind not understanding the lesson and pretty much anything that is being said around me. This gets very frustrating, especially when i'm tired as all I want to do is sleep. But since then my French has improved even more and I’m able to understand some of the class if I try, and I’ve made some good friends here. I think that has helped me get over homesickness- having a social life! 

Now after school I don’t usually go home straight away, I often go to the centre of Bagnères (the town where my school is) and go to a café, or a friends house, or stay and play guitar with a group of people. After I’m done I take a bus home. As silly as it sounds, taking the bus makes me feel a lot more independent. It's not quite as exciting as having your own licence for sure, but I have the freedom to do things that I want to. Independence was something I was really hoping to build on over here.

My family here have been absolutely great, always helping, making me laugh, taking me places, speaking with me and just accepting me into their family like I’ve always been there. It’s definitely not their fault I was feeling homesick, it’s something that is almost inevitable for every exchange student. You can be having so much fun but there's still that thought in the back of your mind that you're missing out on things back home. So far I think that the feeling doesn't completely go away for a while, it just gets a little smaller each day as you immerse yourself more into your new life on your exchange.
I still miss my family, friends and New Zealand like crazy, but I’ve realized recently how short the time is left that I have here. I’m only here for 9 more months.. The first month went so quickly, I want to make the most of my time here as I know it’s going to go quickly and I’ll never get an opportunity quite like this again! After my exchange I know I’ll be returning to New Zealand and seeing everyone again, but I don’t know when I’ll come back to France and see everyone again here.
It's strange thinking back to when I first arrived at my host family's home. It's like i've been here for a long time, yet I still remember home in New Zealand like it was just yesterday. I'm contradicting myself, but the time here goes quickly and slowly at the same time! haha that's France for you I guess ;)
Here are some random photos from throughout my time here, enjoy.

à tout à l'heure! xx

Dinner outside (when it was warm). Typical French- Wine, Baguettes, Crepe with cheese

Dans le matin (in the morning)

Inside my school!

The jet stream, there are so many here! The sky usually has 4 or more all the time

Hiis

Skype with my mum! <3

Skype with Bekkie! <3

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!

Holly, we were so excited about to ride that up a hill to get to the shops.. Just a normal thing in Pau!

Pau is so pretty!

The Castle of Pau!

Inside the castle courtyard

At the castle

At the cafe, this was pretty good

Some of the shops

A carousel in Pau

The Oreo Cheesecake!

Going home, the sky looked beautiful

Again