This past weekend was my first get together with everybody from my Rotary district in France. Everyone living in the Toulouse area all met up at a bus where we would then be picking up some people along the way and finally head towards our final destination, Cahors. In my district, there are about 18 exchange students from all over the world ranging from Japan to Russia to Australia to Mexico, however, for some reason this year, there were ALOT of us from the US. Everyone is soo amazingly nice and cool and we all became fast friends becuase we all understand what one another is going through right now.. it’s not easy being an exchange student! Anyway, it was about a 2 hour bus ride to Cahors, a very very pretty town in France, and after we arrived, we ate a picknik lunch overlooking the town below. It was gorgeous! After that, we took the bus into the city and dropped our stuff off into the youth hostile we would be staying in for the night. We then proceded into the town for a tram tour of the city.. we were all very loud and were taking tons of picutures and of course everyone looked at us like we were crazy but it was tons of fun! After the tour we walked around for a bit and then headed back to the hotel to just relax for a few hours before dinner. We all talked and just hung around and it was great to get to know everybody and hear about their stories so far. Our lovely dinner that night was prepared by somebody from Rotary and it consited of some kind of meat stew, salad, baguettes (of course), and a type of apple cake with icecream and honey.  After dinner, we all had to introduce ourselves in french to all the Rotary people. We had to explain where we were from, where we were staying, our name, age, etc. After that, we were allowed to walk around in the city for a bit before heading back to the youth hostel for the night. However, although we had to go back, most of us stayed up until VERY late.. most of the girls in my room only got about an hours sleep.. however, it was totally worth it, even though I was dead tired for the next’s days canoeing trip. The next day, we spent the whole day canoeing down a river. The views were gorgeous and it was tons of fun, but the water was absolutely freezing. Some people went totally in, but it was too cold for me and I was happy staying put in the canoe. For lunch that day, we docked our canoes on a beach and had a bbq lunch which was soo goood. After that we canoed some more and while we were canoing we found a cave to go exploring in. It was incredible!Everyone canoed into the cave and then we all got out of our boats and started to explore.. it was pitch black and at some parts the water went up to our shoulders but it was amazing! After that we spent a few more hours in the river and then we went to this gorgeous chateau (which somebody in our rotary club owns) to have an afternoon snack. The place was gorgeous and was quite swanky. It was a perfect way to end a perfect weekend and finally we headed back home. We all said our good-byes to eachother but I know that all of us will definitely be hanging out sometime soon because everyone was just so much fun to be with.

More to come later!

Ciao!