On the Loose in Toulouse

flight got canceled… stuck in paris by myself for the night! be home tomorroowww! hahahah

TOMORROOWWW!!!!

15 days. 360 hours. 21600 minutes. Let the countdown begin until I’m back home again. Soon it will all be over and I will be finding myself trying to adjust back into my old life, style, habits…It seems so weird to me that this year is almost at its end. It seems like just yesterday that I got on the plane to start this exchange year, and now I’m going home and leaving it all behind. Right now I’m feeling mixed emotions; happy to go home and see friends and family, sad to leave all the amazing people I’ve met here, nervous to see how everyone has changed and to see what people think of me after being gone for a year, excited to see what my future will bring. One thing for sure is that this was the best year yet and I couldn’t have pictured it in any other way.

Anyway, what will I be doing in my last 2 weeks here? Tomorrow is off to Rocamadour (south of France) for 3 days with my host mom and sister. It’s supposedly a beautiful old town built into the rocks and with lots of history and cool things to see. After, I’ll come back to Toulouse for one day to pack and say my final goodbyes, etc as the next day I will be headed off to La Baule (NW France) with my second host family to spend 10 days at the beach. I’ll be coming back the 17^th giving me just one more day in Toulouse before hitting home bright and early the next morning. Donc, du coup, I will be busy, busy, bussssssssyyyyyyyyy!

And now some updates on my last few weeks: School for me ended June 10^th as I didn’t have to pass the BAC. And since then, I’ve been bombarded with things to do. One, I took my SATs at the Intl School and did really well so I’m happy that that’s out of the way. Two, I changed over my school marks into the American system and got good grades which I’m super happy about as this year counted for me. After, I’ve been busy going to everyones end of the year partys, going away partys, get togethers, Rotary meetings, biking events, concerts, etc. I feel like I’m never home. I also got to go to Spain twice—once with my host family on a boat to Cadaques (super pretty and the town where Salvador Dali was from) and the other time to Madrid where I got to see one of my best friends as well as my brother and his friend who were traveling thru there for a few days!  Lots of funnnn!!!!!! Toulouse has a lot of festivals during the summer and esp in June and I got to experience the Rio Loco, a really cool intl music festival (this year the theme was Mexican/latin American), as well as the Music Festival where people play all sorts of music at all hours of the day and night and where you see literally everyone of Toulouse out and about in the city! I really have not had that much down time since the end of school with all the exciting things that have been going on.

Can’t think of more to write right now, sooo good night everyone!!!

Un peu plus que 2 semaines et après c’est fini. 16 jours et je serai chez moi encore. Cette année en France était même mieux que je pouvais imaginer et c’est grâce à vous les français, les étrangers, mes familles d’accueils, que j’avais une tellement bonne et enrichissante expérience.  Vraiment, je ne peux pas imaginer ma vie sans avoir fait cet échange comme il m’a changé, mes points de vue sur le monde, et plus il m’a fait grandir. Au début de l’année, j’étais juste une autre étrangère ; une américaine qui ne parlait pas de français, qui connaissait pas la ville, pas le system français. Maintenant, ce n’est pas le cas. Je me sens vraiment à l’aise parmi vous. Je peux parler avec vous sans avoir peur, je peux me balader toute seule dans la ville sans aucun chemine sans ayant avoir quelqu’un à cote de moi.  Je me trouve plus mature, plus confidente, moins peur du ridicule. Je suis tombée amoureuse de votre vie, de vos petits cafés, de vos boulangeries, pâtisseries, magasins, style…tout quoi ! Et tout ca va trop me manquer quand je retournerai aux USA. Si je pouvais, je revivrais cette année encore, et encore et encore. Merci Rotary, mes amis, et tout le monde pour cette année formidable que je vais jamais oublier. Je reviendrai bientôt à ma deuxième maison ! Vive la France !

hello encoree!!!!

soo heres more updates…!! Last weekend was our last and final organized Rotary weekend which we spent along the Mediteranean Sea. We went to Collioure, Perpignon, and stayed at an amazing 5 star camping resort along the beach at Canet-en-Roussillon. It was an amazing,amazing,amazing weekend and it was soo hot!! C’etait trop tropp bieeeennnnn!! =] Also, all of us inbounds received our diplomas, and district hats and tee-shirts which we all wore proudly thruought the weekend hahah =] The outbounds received their birght blue Rotary blazers for next year and have already started their collections of pins now too =]

However, all good things must come to an end… as I said earlier, that was our last Rotary weekend all together with all the inbounds and outbounds! =[ That means some of us may never see eachother again! =[[[[ AND, on top of that, the first person from our district and a really good friend of mine left today to go back to Mexico. It’s so weird for me to think that he already left and I still have another month and a half to go. Ahh I can’t even imagine that! Every one of the Rotary kids I have met this year, both inbounds and outbounds, have changed my life. They are all so so great and just really interesting people. I am gonna try to organize a party at my house for everyone before most people leave for home or to their respecting host countries so we can all be together again one last time. Hopefully that will work out!

And, this weekend I think I will try to go out with some Rotary kids to say goodbye to another good friend from Boston who leaves next Friday!!

Last night I finally did my Rotary presentation, in french, on me and my life in the USA to my host district here. It went pretty well and I’m glad it’s finally done! I gave them the bannar/badge type thing that my district from home gave to me to give to my district here and then I received 2 to bring home with me. Also, next week is another Rotary dinner with my club in some fancy restaurant in Toulouse for the inauguration of the new Rotex club (Rotary for teens). Should be nice!! =] 

The end of the year is really flying by quickly here and I’m basically booked with things to do before I go home. My last day of school for me is june 10 but these next 2 weeks we arent really doing much.. well i’m not anyway!! I dont have to take the BAC, their end of the year tests, so I’m pretty much done!! WOOOHOO!! Then the day after I get out of school, I go on a private yacht to Spain with them for a few days.. can’t wait for that!!! I then have plans to hang out with some people from the Eurotour if they can get tickets to come down to Toulouse for a few days and then I am going to try to get to Poland to visit a friend there for maybe a week. After alll that, in the beginning of July I will go with my second host family to the beach in the region of Brittany (northern France) because they have a house there. And, in between all that, I will be hanging out with some friends, trying to study, and possibly going back to Spain or somewhere in France to see my brother who is backpacking thru Europe right now as well. AHH what the life!!! Thank you Rotary and family!! love you alllllll!!! <3 =]]]

Bisousssssss

The Eurotour was absolutely AMAZING!! It started off tiresomely as the Rotary kids from my district took a midnight train to Paris to meet up with all the other 60 exchange students from different parts of France who we would be traveling with. And from there, the next 12 days were perfect. There were tons of Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans, people from all over in South America,Europe, Asia,India,Russia… partout quoi! The first day was spent with a guided tour of Paris, which most of us have already seen plenty of times at that point, but it was still interesting and tons of fun! We then traveled to Reims, France to spend the night. We had free time to walk around the city, see the gorgeous church and get the chance to meet everyone! The next morning we had to get up bright and early at 6:30 (the usual for this trip, except for the one day where we got to sleep in until 7:30.. hahahah) to get ready to go to Strasbourg, FR (right on the border of Germany and was once part of German territory). We took a river cruise,had free time to walk around, ate some typical Strasbourgian pizza called Flammküche, went out to restuarants, etc=]. It was one of my favorite cities and I loved how the style was a mixture of both French and German influences. We spent the night there and after that, next stop MUNICH!! Of course it rained on us but it was still gorgous quand meme. We got to see the olympic sites, the BMW museum, we got a tour of the city, saw where Hitler worked (creepy), saw a concert in the center….!!  It was a good day. We stayed the night there and we all probably got about 2 hrs of sleep tops. The next day, before heading in to Austria, we stopped at beautiful Linderhof Castle along the way! It was soo pretty! We then continued en route towards Innsbruck, Austria. I loved it there tooo! Again, we got to see where the Olympic games were held, got a tour of the city and had free time to do whatever and ate really good food. The city was surrounded by mountains and was soo gorgeous.. definitely a place to go visit! And then the next day, ITALLIIIAAAAA!!!!! We spent most of our time in Italy and it was amazing. We first stopped in Verona where we could see the famous balcony and town of Romeo&Juliet and of course eat some delicious pasta and gelato. The next few nights we stayed in a town right on the Mediteranean called Lido di Jesolo (very pretty) where we could easily get to Venise and other towns around there. Venise was definitely up there on the lists of one of my favorite places. I think it is soo cool that there are no streets,roads, or any cars whatsoever. The only way of transport is by boat or by foot. The city itself is BEAUTIFUL and everything I imagined. The only thing I didnt like was there were waaaayyy too many tourists, and I mean way,way too many. The city was filled with them. Other than that, I loved it. We got to take a gondola tour (so cool) and get lost walking around the city. We even met a group of Rotary kids spending their year in Norway there on their Eurotrip! Although nobody from my district back home went to Norway, other people from France knew some of the kids from Norway and got to meet up with them! After that, the next day we went to Florence! Also soo soo gorgeous! What’s not to like about Italy? We got to see some of Michelangelo’s sculptures, get a tour and enjoy the beautiful sites of the city. We then continued on the next day to Montecatini and Pisa. Of course we alll took tons and tons of photos of us with the famous leaning tower, and then me and some of my friends had a picnik lunch right in the garden next to it.. what a nice view, huh? However after the few famous buildings of Pisa, I didnt really like the rest of the town at all. The buildings didnt seem to fit togehter. It was really nothing special…kind of a disappointment. We spent one more night in Italy before heading off to Monaco. I loved it there! It’s vraimement une ville de luxe! Everything was classy,beautful, and wealthy looking. My kind of spot… I think I know where I’m moving when I’m older!!! =] hahahaah. And the view of the ocean was beautiful as well. Monaco was the hi-light of the trip for me. We then continued on back into France to take a pitstop in Nice, which of course was very very very nice. I wish we had more time in Nice as I would have loved to see more of it. Dommage… il y aura toujours une 2ieme fois!! =] After that we worked our way up to Avignon, a fortified castle town and spent the night there. The next day was spent in Lyon (yet again very pretty and nice like all the other spots) with another tour and free time. We then went to Annecy… absolutely STUNNING!! The lake is gorgeous and the town is surround by picturesque views!!! I loveeddd it! And then we continued on into Geneva, Switzerland!!!! We got a tour of the United Nations building which was really really coool and then got to walk around the town! Ps. Swiss chocolate really is that goood! It was delicious!! yuummmmmmmmmm =] We finally finished the last of our trip in Dijon before heading back to Paris and then back on to our seperate ways. The EuroTour was probably one of the most amazing experiences I have had since I’ve been here and I got to spend it with the most amazing people who I will never ever forget. If only I could do it again….

ok off to bed… it’s late here!!!!

I’ll write more updates later.

Bonne nuite tout le monde =]

I think I live in the country with the most vacations, EVER. I now have another 2 and a half week break which I will be spending travelling around Europe. Today I’m off to the train station to pick up a good friend from Germany who will spend the night here  and then tomorrow were going off to Bordeaux (yes, the place for good wines =]) for the weeek. And then the day I come home, will start probably one of the best 12 days of my life. With all the Rotary kids around here and from some other districts in France, we will do a tour of Europe. We go to different parts of France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Monaco. AHH I CANNOOT WAITTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!

And after all that, when I get back from the trip, I’ll only have 1 more month of school because I’m not passing their BAC at the end of the year! WOOHOO!!!

Et ouiiiii, LONDON WAS AMAZING. Too bad I missed out on the Royal wedding but atleast I beat out all the crowds…

Bonnes Pâques et Bonne Pâque des Juifs tout le monde!! (Happy Easter and Passover everyone!!)

ciaoooooooooo

Coucou tout le monde!

7 months through one of the best years of my life, and I do not want to start thinking about leaving in 4 months. My plane ticket is officially booked for July 18 and I am so not looking forward to that day to come. Je veux rester ici, en franceeeeee!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow afternoon I will be changing into my 3rd and final family of the year.. soo strange! They seem really nice though and we already have some trips planned to do together. This weekend we will be going off to their mountain home in the Pyrenees to go skiing, but I don’t think it will be cold enough.. it’s scheduled to be 75 and sunny this weekend! YESS!!!!!! We might have to hike the mountains instead =] They said that they also have planned for us to go cruising in the Mediterranean sea on a private yacht in june!!! Can’t wait for that. I will have 3 host siblings; one boy whos about 12 I think, a girl whos around 10 and a half brother whos 17 but will not always be living at the house with us. Should be fun. The family seems really nice so I’m looking forward to being with them. I have been sooo soo lucky with all 3 of the families I’ve been placed into. They are all so great!

Ok next up is the past Rotary event which happened last Sat. It was the District Conference for France district 1700 in Perpignan, a town on the med. sea close to the Spanish border. It was only a day event but I got to see all my rotary friends, both the inbounds and outbounds. Although the event didn’t really involve us, we all had to introduce ourselves and then we got to go outside and hang out together for the rest of the day. Lots of fun =]

Also, I never talked about when my family came to visit me 2 weeks ago! They came to Toulouse for about 3 days where I showed them around the city, my school, my host families, and we even went to some smaller towns surrounding Toulouse like Carcassonne, Mirepoix, Cordes-sur-Ciel, etc… they loved it. After, we went to Paris for the rest of the time, and of course what’s not to love about the city of lights, good food, shopping and romance? Rienn!!!!!!! We did lots of walking around and touring, and although I’ve already been there before, Paris was just as beautiful this time around. I had such a great time with my family and I’m so glad I got to see them and show them my French life!

ANDDDDDDDD… I’m going to LONDONNNNNNNN! ENFIN! I’ve been trying to get to London ever since I’ve been little and esp. since I’ve been here and now I finally, finally get to go. One of my best friends from Spain, Elena, is coming with me from April 13-17. et evidemment, j’ai hâte d’y aller! I cant wait to goooooooooooooooo and see her too! AHHHHHHHH =]

April really will be the month of travels as about a week after I return from London, I’m going on the Eurotour with Rotary!!!!!!!!! We’re going to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Monaco, different parts of France, etc. AHH I love my lifeeee.

 Ok, off to go study for the SATs (which I’m gonna retake again in June in Toulouse) and for my online math class, which I need to do for back home. =[ Wish me luck!

Ohh and trying to decide on who I should be for carnivale next week.. Ke$ha or lady gaga… any suggestions? =]

Also, just wanted to say I had no school today because my teacher decided not to come in…. ahh c’est la vie =] 1 year of vacation… jealous anyone? =]

Ok, ciaoooo!!

Bisoussssssss xx

Amazing people. Amazing experiences. Amazing life. What can I say, J’adore la France. Everyday I find something new that makes me fall in love with France more and more each day. Whether it is the mild winters, the good food, the fashionable styles, the lack of school or in other words, the increasing of strikes, France has made me discover a whole different culture from the one I’m used to. And for that, I am so thankful for this incredible experience.

Last weekend, from Friday night to Sunday night, was filled with Rotary events. Friday night was the inauguration of the new Rotex group created by my club. Rotex is the same thing as Rotary but for teenagers and young adults to take apart of. It was a huge event with about 120 people from all the surrounding Rotary clubs of Toulouse. We had a huge dinner and celebration which didn’t finish until about 1 in the morning. However, the next morning I had to be up early because there was a Rotary weekend with all the exchange students. And this time, it was with all the Frenchies who will be outbounds next year! So there were about 40 kids between us all and it was tons of fun. We first went to a town called Foix to see an old, important chateau of France and then headed off to a tiny, tiny village called Suc to spend the night. We probably doubled the size of the village which was quite funny. We were up until really late just talking and getting to know eachother. And then the next morning, instead of going skiing which was planned for, we went for a 6hr hike in the mountains instead because there was no snow and it was about 65 degrees… ahh I love the winters here!! =] And we stopped along the way for a 2 hr lunch break to sleep and enjoy the views of the Spanish border and the province of Andorra. What the life, huh?

Striking and the lack of substitute teachers here is also one of my favorite things I’ve discovered since I’ve been here. France is the country known for striking, and they definitely live up to their name. There is something always bothering them with the government and they feel need to strike each time something doesn’t go their way. That being said, sometimes teachers just don’t show up for class, meaning no classes for us. It’s great. Also, last week my history teacher left to go to Italy for 2 weeks, and because they don’t have substitute teachers here, we don’t have class. So between the striking and no history class, I had probably about 15hrs of class last week. Why can’t we have that in the US?

Still on the subject of school, next week starts my 2 and a half week winter break too which will be nice. The first week, I’m still not sure if I’m going to northern France or not, but during the second week, my family is coming to visit me in Toulouse and then were going to Paris. I cannot wait to see them as it has been almost 6 months since I last saw them!!! And I can’t wait to show them around and introduce them to some of my friends and my host families.

Anndddddddddd, in April I’m going to LONDONNN for 5 days with one of my friends here!!!! It has been my dream to get there ever since I was young so I cannot waitt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a sadder note, my plane ticket home is officially booked. I leave here on the 18^th of July. =[ I wish I could stay longer, but I have a lot of school work to catch up on for next year… should be tons of fun… hahaha.

Ok, more to come later!

Bonne semaine tout le monde!

Hi everyone!! I know it has been a really, really long time since I have last written, but this is the first time in ages where I have had the chance to sit down and write. Anyway, wow!! Soo much has happened in the last month and a half that I don’t know where to begin.

       As I mentioned before earlier, one of my good friends from home came to visit me for a week at the end of November. It was so great to see her and we had an amazing time together. I got to show her my new school, city, family, friends, places, foods… it was tons of fun! And I even got to miss one week of school to show her around which was a plus. During the time she came to visit, it was Thanksgiving back home in the US so we decided, along with another American friend from Rotary, to make a Thanksgiving meal for some of my friends and family here in France. Us 3 Americans worked hard all day long to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for 10 people and it actually turned out really well! Everyone especially liked the sweet potatoes and cranberry jelly sauce that we made, and some people even made the recipes for their families when they got home.  It was tons of fun to create a Thanksgiving dinner and to share our customs with people from other parts of the world, who some of them had never heard of Thanksgiving before I told them about it.

         December seems like a blur for me as so much came and left in what seemed like by far the quickest month yet. December is the time of year where all the festivities happen and all the towns and villages set up to prepare for Christmas with their markets and lights all over the place. Everything looks so pretty with the twinkling lights and decorations that it just makes you want to smile. However, not only did I get to celebrate my first Christmas ever, and it happened to be in France, I also got to celebrate Hanukkah with a friend from my class… lucky me!

       My chirstmas experience I will talk about later, but first up is Hanukkah: My friend from school invited me over to her house one night to celebrate with her family so she could share her family traditions with me. It was really cool to see the different ways in which her family and the French values contrasted with the way we celebrate in the USA. They had different foods, different songs, different tradations…anyways, it was lots of fun  and I was glad I could take part in it!!

        My premier noel was also something I will never forget. To start it off, not only did I get to decorate two Chirstmas trees, I was decorated into a Chirstmas tree by my host father, followed by me making the rest of the family into Christmas trees too. It was a blast! Although people don’t really decorate their houses here as much as back in the states, each city and small town has festivities going on in the center throughout  the month of December. Toulouse, along with all the other large cities, had a HUGE Christmas market filled with many new foods and different things from other regions of France. I got to try these things called aligot and tartiflet which at the base are really whipped potatoes. With the aligot, you then add this cheese type thing and garlic, to make a really interesting textured and stringy potato type meal. It was reallllllyyy yummy. The tartiflet is a little bit more like mashed potatoes with different spices and meats mixed it… also really good. And of course they had one of my favorite things ever…spiced hot wine!! Mmmmm =] There were tons of other different foods and desserts which I can’t remember the names of, but everything was good and the Christmas market itself was all decorated and pretty.

         And then the festivities and gaining weight continued as I celebrated my 17^th birthday here, went away on vacation with the family, and celebrated New Years. I love the French school system here with all the breaks they give us. I had a nice long 2 week break and then I will have another 2 week winter break at the end of February. It’s great! Anyway, over the last break I got to go to Grenoble (north eastern France) with my host sister for a week to visit some family. Her parents came up the following week because they still had work so we had a really nice time bonding together and spending our last few moments together before I switched families. I also got to meet up with a really good friend from Germany who actually lived with me in the US for 6 months because she was vacationing near Grenoble with her family… it’s such a small word, huh? There in Grenoble, is where we celebrated Christmas which was tons of fun and tons of food. I can’t really compare the Christmas foods here to back home because I don’t really know but everything was really really delicious and I even got to try a lot of new foods. The dinner started off with foie gras (still don’t like it hahah!), escargots (honestly, they really are not that good), and other things that I actually ate! Then everyone received their own little duck/turkey type animal to eat (I don’t remember the name but it was very yummy), salad, different vegetables, potatoes, etc. etc. etc….  and for dessert,” une buche au chocolate” a type of chocolate log cake which is very popular here. They also have these chocolates called papilottes which is a typical  treat here around Christmas time and they are sooo soo gooooddddd. I even got to try a fruit I have never heard of before. It’s called a “lychee” and it comes from warmer countries. It has this hard pointy outer shell and then on the inside this pinkish-white really sweet fruit… so good!

        After the week in Grenoble, my second week of break was spent in Ardeche, another region of France. This time we went to visit family on my host mothers side. She grew up in this really poor and really tiny village in the middle of nowhere. And when I mean tiny village, I really mean it. The village consisted of 5 houses! However, it was still really nice because I got to see the French country side which was gorgeous and there were about 15 of us piled up in one house which made for an interesting time. We played lots of cards, watched movies, and ate really good food. The style of living in countryside is totally different than living in the city and much simpler. But I’m glad I got to see how the other parts of France live.

     We returned home from vacation the night of the 30^th and then we went to pick up a friend from Rotary at the airport because she would be staying with us for New Years. My family had a party at their house with some of their friends so we just stayed there and hung out with them. It actually turned out to be a lot of fun and we stayed up until 5 in the morning dancing and eating.

        Also, if you didn’t catch my drift from my first sentence, I am now in my second family! I changed January 2 into a house about 1 or 2 km away from my first house so I’m basically in the same area and it makes it easy to see my first host family whenever I want. I can’t believe I am already in this family as it means I am more than 1/3^rd of the way thru my exchange now. Anyway, they seem really nice so far and I also have 3 host siblings too. One is 14, one is 19 and the other is 21 so I think it should be a lot of fun! And they even have a dog which I am soo happy about =]

Soo not much more to say right now except my language is really starting to improve right now and I am really getting comfortable with it and not being embarrassed to speak anymore. I know I have improved so much since I have got here, and my friends have been starting to tell me that too. Although I am still not near fluency mark yet, I can see how just 4 months has really made a difference.

Ok off to bed!! It was a looonng weekend =]

Bonne nuit!