Il faut que je vous mette à jour un peu, je pense !

Salut!

So I'm REALLY sorry I've been so slack, but I just haven't had the time really... I'll try do it more regularly now! 

Just after my last post, I had my birthday. I don't know if it's just because I'm the exchange student or what, but I got really spoilt. My host family bought me croissants, pain au chocolat and dozens of other viennoiseries. Then my friends and I went and ate by the lake in the afternoon. It was a really cool birthday! As a gift my host parents gave me a book about Australians and Australia through the eyes of the French… It's a very interesting read. (Her favourite thing to do is mock Australians and Australia, so this book was perfect from her.)

A week or two after my birthday we had a 4-day long weekend here in France, so my host family and I took to the autoroute early on the Thursday morning and we headed to their château, inherited by my host mum. Not a bad inheritance at all! The château is in a little village of 100 people, in the middle of the Rhône-Alpes countryside, about 40 minutes from Lyon, and 80 minutes from Annecy. When my host family told me that we were going to a château, I thought they were just talking about a really big house, and trying to make themselves sound cool for the exchange student. But no. I was mistaken. bedrooms the size of half tennis courts, two kitchens, two dining rooms, six bathrooms, a tower with one room on each of the three levels, a 45m long terrace, a bridge to the entry, and I don't know how many acres of land. It was truly spectacular. We arrived on the Thursday morning with the family friends, and the first thing we did, before unpacking and taking bags to our rooms, was bring out the reblochon, the champagne and the bread and sit on the terrace in the sun. There was my year made just there. I could have come home after that weekend and been happy with my exchange! We spent a nice few days there, walking in the woods, buying cheese off the local cheese-making grandma, playing French card games and talking about a bit of everything. This weekend was where I realised that my French is really going somewhere.

Two weeks later, I started my Bus Trip in Europe. The most amazing 12 days of my life. 51 exchange students all met in Paris (after a 6 hours bus ride from Lyon for me and 20 others.) and spent the afternoon in Paris together, then we continued on to Reims, the capital of the Champagne region in France, for the night. 

The next day we continued on to Strasbourg, where everything is heavily German-influenced, so we all started to get really excited, finally leaving the country and exploring new things. We all tasted our first REAL pretzel of the trip, and we were let out until midnight to explore the city by night. It was strange seeing the contrast in the buildings, between the German and French architecture, and also in the people, with half of the people around us being German! 

The day after we went to Nuremberg. Finally fully immersed in German. It was quite weird, because I actually understood a lot more than I thought I would, and THE PEOPLE WERE NICE. So much friendlier than the French people. And everything there is incredibly cheap, too! I definitely should have put Germany higher in my preferences when choosing my countries last May! (was it really that long ago?!) We stayed in a hotel right in the centre of the city, so we went exploring at night time, checking out what there is to do seeing as we didn't get much time during the day. 

Next stop was Prague! The most beautiful city in Europe. (Apart from the outer suburbs, where you could really tell it was Eastern Europe.) Everyone told me I'd be amazed, and amazed I was. If the language didn't scare me so much and there wasn't so much of a drug culture, I would definitely consider going to Uni there. Everything is insanely cheap, the people are really nice, and they even have Gloria Jeans! (the only bit of Australia i've seen in Europe apart from the 'Australian bars' that serve only Fosters…) One day when we had the day to ourselves, we went wandering around the city and we found a shopping centre with 300 shops, so we lost ourselves in there for the day… Well, Lorenzo and I lost myself in TOPMAN for the day...

My friend Amy got her handbag stolen the morning we were leaving for Vienna, so we were stranded in Prague for 3 extra hours, and only arrived in Vienna in the late afternoon so we didn't get time to do much sightseeing or anything, so that's really somewhere I'd love to go back to, because it seemed amazing! And they're even friendlier and more relaxed than the Germans! 

After a 6 hour bus ride the next day, we arrived in Lido di Jesolo, about 20 minutes from Venice. AND THERE WAS A BEACH. The first beach I'd seen since I left Australia. And it was like a bath, it had real sand, with the salty sea air. It was just amazing. It made me a bit homesick in fact! But after I recovered from that, we had dinner, then the rotarians let us out till 2am, so I pretty much just headed straight for the beach! 

The next day we headed to Venice by boat! It was 35 degrees, humid, people everywhere, and we had an old italian Nonna as a tour guide, who speaks worse French than I do, so that put a bit of a dampener on the day, but we gots some free time, we rode a gondola, bought Venice sailor hats, ate italian gelato and went to the Ferrari museum/shop. A very Italian day, I'd say! 

The next day we left very early for Milan. Milan is such an incredible city. Its massive château and cathedral are like none I've ever seen before. And being the second fashion capital of Europe, there were a LOT of very very nice shops, and many attractive Italiens, of course! And Milan is practically the same distance from Annecy as Melbourne is from Warrnambool, so hopefully I'll be able to go there again! 

We left Milan, heading for Chamonix, the next day, cruising through the sunny Italian Alps, which are surprisingly different to the French Alps just next door! To get to Chamonix we took the Mont Blanc tunnel. 13 kilometers! And BAM. As soon as we left the tunnel on the French side, we had the miserable Chamonix weather! Every time I go there it rains, it snows, and it's freezing cold! And after leaving sunny Italy, we'd all dressed lightly, so it was a bit of a shock. We walked around the town for a bit, then went up the mountain to see the glacier which was cool. 

The next day, our second last, we headed to Geneva, where we had a tour of the United Nations, which was incredible. It really made me realise that that's where I want to work when I'm older. After lunch in a Mexican restaurant (another first since I've left Australia), we headed to Dijon where we didn't really do much except for party, seeing it was out last night together. (But don't worry, we partied with the Rotarians, so it was pretty lame. French rotarians are nowhere near as fun as Australian rotarians. FACT.)

And the final day involved a lot of crying and hugging on the bus before we arrived in Paris to drop everyone at the train station, then I managed to catch up on some sleep I missed out on the previous 11 nights before we arrived in Lyon. 

After that trip, I have really close friends from all over the shop, so I've got a looooot of traveling to do in the next few years!

And since I've been back from the trip, I've been on holidays, so I've been spending as much time as I can with the other exchange students in Annecy before they all go home. I've already had to say goodbye to 8! It's not fair to be Australian sometimes… 

I've got a very busy rest-of-summer, so I'll keep you all posted as soon as I can!

Ciao !

Comme des Enfants.

Salut !

I know I haven't blogged in more than a month, but I haven't really had much to update you guys on!

Since my last update, we had the JRJ (Journées Rotariens de la Jeunesse) in Annecy. This is where every Rotary Youth Exchange student in France - all 430 of us -  come together for a weekend of several events organized by the 4 clubs in Annecy. Although, with the amount of us, half of these activities didn't happen simply because us students were too caught up in our own little world, meeting people from other countries, and the 50 rotarians could not keep up with us for the LIFE of them… Frenchies are possibly the worst organisers around. In total, there were about 40 Australians, a fairly strong cohort for a non-americas country! It was nice to see Australians after two months of seeing only one, and so so good to have people understand the Australian idioms that even other anglophones don't understand.. All in all, it was a pretty awesome weekend, and now I'll be continuing my 'poor exchange student life' for a few years POST exchange because I've got so many people to visit!

The weekend after the JRJ I went and stayed with an Australian (Sam) and her host family in Lyon over the easter long-weekend. I was suffering a bit of post-Annecy depression (a disease coined by the exchange students,) so it was good to be able to be with an Australian for a bit more! And to be in Lyon for a bit too. That city is seriously amazing. A mini Paris (replica eiffel tower and all) just 2 hours away from Annecy. And it's also the gastronomical capital of France. It's safe to say that if I lived there, I'd be rolling off the plane when I arrive home…

Last weekend, I changed host families for the first time! It's a very big change! This family is a lot more academic than my last family, who were just rugby, rugby, rugby and some more rugby. I was dreading changing families, I love my first host family too much, so it was supere hard to leave them. But eh, that's the deal! My new family is extremely nice though, they have 101 new questions for me every day; about Australia, about school, about my life here, about anything you could imagine really, so my French is getting a MUCH needed workout! I've been speaking way too much English lately...

I'm sorry I didn't have that much to tell you guys, it's hard to remember everything I've done in over a month. I'll update you all sometime before I go on bus trip in June (hopefully multiple times, but don't count on it!)

Tschüss ! (The Frenchies don't have enough ways to say goodbye so they steal off other countries.)

Differences.

Hey everyone !

I'm following a few blogs that belong to other Exchange students, and one of them, a guy called Jarryd, made one post about the differences he's noticed so far between la vie Française and Australian life, the people etc. So I thought it might be a good idea to do my own to show you all the things I've noticed in France.

So, here goes !

1. Incredible public transport systems.
2. Very formal conduct with teachers at school.
3. They set the table with forks on the left, knives on the right, but then switch them around once they start eating.
4. They use bread to hold/push things on a fork much more than they use a knife.
5. Lunches that are a full meal. (My host mum is still shocked when I just eat a sandwich like back home.)
6. There are pharmacies on every second street corner.
7. And defibrillators. Even at school.
8. Things actually can cost 98 cents/centimes, and the cashiers get really angry when they have to give you 2 cents change, and make it that bit more inconvenient by giving you two 1 centime pieces.
9. You have to pay for plastic bags most places. Not that I'm complaining, I guess it's a good thing.
10. They hardly drink at all. I think this is why their glasses are so damn small.
11. French become madmen when they get behind the wheel. They drive incredibly fast, over the 130 km/h limit, park on pedestrian paths and are very, very abusive. (I've learnt every swear word in the book now!)
12. It's not a hassle to go to Switzerland for 3 hours. (This applies to the east of the country)
13. Smokers areas at school.
14. La bise.
15. There are no rules on which cheek to kiss first when you faire la bise, they just know, so things can get awkward if you're not French.
16. Some regions do 2 bises, some 3 and some 4. The Genevois (People who come from Geneva) give 3.
17. Dubbed TV and movies. I CAN UNDERSTAND THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE SOUNDTRACK. PLEASE DO NOT ANNOY ME WITH FRENCH I CAN BARELY UNDERSTAND.
18. It's not weird to have two boulangeries in one little street.
19. There are banks absolutely EVERYWHERE. 
20. The are, on the contrary, barely any public toilets, and you usually have to pay to use them anyway.
21. Not many "shopping malls," as such.
22. The teachers here swear even more than Mrs O'Connell. Yes, you read right.
23. The French hate it if you don't speak in French to them, but if you do and they detect an accent, they change to their SHOCKING English.
24. Bon appétit is ALWAYS said before a meal.
25. You sit at the table until everyone has finished. 
26. They formalise the after-school snack by calling it a "goûter" and preparing it the day before/morning of.
27. Bread. Partout.
28. Horrible, horrible French music.
29. French people not knowing the lyrics to the English songs they play, so they "sing" the instruments.
30. Street-side dining at cafés.
31. Everyone writes in really nice cursive writing, so much so that it's illegible. (If that makes sense?)
32. Families only go out to dinner for special occasions. 
33. Cheese. Partout.
34. Everybody hates the Parisian tourists. 
35. People judge others by the département that they come from/live in. (Found as a two digit number on number plates.)
36. The French are never on time.
37. I've counted 6 obese people since I've been here. SIX. That's easily done in a lunchtime at school in Australia.
38. Unisex toilets.
39. Swearing is less offensive if it's in English, apparently.
40. Things actually aren't overly expensive. Junk food is cheaper than in Australia. Not good.
41. If you ask for a coffee, you'll get a short black. It's hard to find a coffee that isn't half the size of a normal coffee in Australia.
42. It's weird to drink coffee with milk after breakfast time.
43. Sport sport sport and more sport.
44. They don't actually all dress really well.
45. Teenagers can't write a sentence without abbreviating a word to something you can't understand.
46. You can leave school whenever you don't have class.
47. "Bonjour" and "Au revoir" are always said when entering and exiting a shop.
48. There are too many ways to say goodbye.
49. They use words from different languages to say goodbye. Like "ciao" and "tschüss"
50. "If you drive for more than 3 hours to get there, you have to stay for the weekend" is a rule of thumb for the Frenchies.
51. They don't keep their word a lot of the time.
52. Family is extremely important.
53. It's weird to do homework after dinner.
54. Ice cream stores have the most insane array of flavours. 
55. Nivea products are branded "Lobello."
56. Most subjects that kids do at school are obligatory, they get very little choice.
57. Salt is eaten with everything.
58. "It's 18 degrees, let's all wear shorts and t-shirts and act like we're melting !"
59. French singing/talent shows have really bad talent.
60. They eat so much and so quickly! 

And yeah, I'm not going to go overboard. 

I'll write a proper post soon. I hope.

Salut !

Catching up!

Hellooooo!

I kind of forgot I had a blog, so I haven't posted in almost three weeks... Sorry about that..

I haven't really done much since my last post anyway, so I would have had nothing to write..

My last post was the last day of holidays, and the next day was the LONGEST day in my life. I only had 3 hours of class in the morning, but man, it was such an effort.. 2 hours of French on a Monday morning after a big weekend is not ideal. In the afternoon I just slept and skyped. Tranquille. On wednesday I did an Economics test at school... Complete failure. I think I got a 5/20, while the others in the class got 12s and 15s/20... Thursday afternoon I caught up with my friend Marion, we just sat and talked in the park then went to a café. Friday afternoon was really warm, so I went for a walk by myself because I was alone at home, and I ran into Ana, Lorena, Tristan, Paolo and Elise so they whisked me off with them and we spent a nice afternoon together talking. Then Saturday. Carnaval. Wow. It was so much fun. Annecy's carnaval has a Venetian theme..

Last week was, again, pretty quiet. I had an English test. Got 16/20. Trop fort... On Wednesday after school (I finish at midday) I went to Chambéry for a French lesson for us Rotary Youth Exchange students at a woman's house. I met up with Amy and Monica at the station in Chambéry and then we went to get some lunch at a cool little café in the centre of the city. After a little walk we headed to the teacher's house and had a one and a half hour lesson. It was pretty easy, things that I had already done at school, so I'm not sure if I'll keep going... I hung out with Marion on Thursday afternoon again, and on Friday afternoon Magdalena and I went out for THAI for lunch! I have missed thai so so much. The only real asian food they have here is sushi, which I'm not a massive fan of, so I have missed Thai and Indian food a lot! We were supposed to wait for Elise (American) but she caught the wrong bus and had to be back at school early anyway, so Magda and I just went by ourselves. Aaaaaand it was rather disappointing.. A tiny little bowl, with a tiny basket of sticky rice cost me 13 euro. In Australia you could get a lifetime supply of sticky rice plus enough of your dish to have the leftovers for lunch the next day for that price. And it wasn't spicy at all, but rather really garlic-y, cause you know, the french love their garlic... Weak. Then on Saturday I went to the park with Marion again and we played cards, and we laughed for almost two hours straight. I could feel some abs coming through afterwards. But it was such a nice day. The sun was out, people were everywhere, everyone was happy. Perfect. Last Sunday I met with Thérèse, the mum of Noémie, the French girl in my district in Australia, and Geny (Mexican) and Emilia (Ecuadorian), two other exchange students from Pontcharra. We went to a little restaurant for lunch and had Tartiflette. Like scallop potatoes, but 10 times better. Really. Afterwards we got some ice cream from the best Glacier in Annecy (they have Nutella ice cream - the best based solely on this) although the French tend not to give you very big scoops at all, so I downed that rather quickly. After walking around Annecy for a bit, by the lake, in the old town etc. we went for Coffee in a bar/café just below my house, but the rugby was about to start, so it was absolutely packed full of crazy French supporters, thus we left quite quickly...

This week has been very uneventful so far. On Wednesday afternoon I went and sat by the lake in the sun with Lorena, Ana and Tristan for a little bit, then I went to the post office to collect a parcel from home! I was like a little kid on Christmas day on my way home. A massive grin from ear to ear, knowing that I had Milo inside the box! Needless to say, as soon as I got home I cracked open the tin of Milo and attacked its contents with a very large spoon. Heaven. Yesterday was also a very good day; I had two hours of class and then went for a picnic in the park (yes, I spend a lot of time there, okay?). I bought a baguette, 1.5 litres of iced tea, a packet of ham and some cheese and it only cost me 5 dollars. I was a very happy boy. PLUS I brought some vegemite to give to Daniel, Elise and Jessica. And they actually don't mind it! Even though Daniel said it tastes like garlic bread (?)... We then went for a walk to get a drink, then to Monoprix to get Ben and Jerry's and Tim Tams and just sat in the Jardin d'Europe for an hour while we ate it all.. Gooooood afternoon, I say! And then last night I went to a Rotary meeting, which was long, like usual, but still really enjoyable. I sat next to a man who used to work for the United Nations, doing exactly what I want to do in the future, so it was really cool to talk to him all about his time at the UN. He also helped design the bobsled run for the Albertville Winter Olympic Games. It made me feel really good that I could have an intelligent conversation in French, too! To my right was a man who was recently in Sydney, so we had a chat about Australia, and one seat further to my right was a man whose little company here in Annecy were commissioned to design and build the canoeing facility for the Sydney Olympics Games. So the conversations around the dinner table were very interesting! All this for a rotary club of 30 members..

Today, I just had one hour of school (compared to the usual two) so I got a sleep in, then my host brother made us lunch and then I Skyped with a friend. Tomorrow I'm off to Lyon with Amy and Ellie, then on Sunday I'm going to an Auto Show in Geneva with my host family. Fully booked weekend for the first time in a long time! Hopefully I'll be able to write again soon.. Sorry for no pictures either, I just want to get this post done and out of the way!

A la prochaine !

Last week of holidays!

Salut !
I know I know, it's been a while. I've been busy. It is holidays after all.

Anyway. Since I wrote last time, I've been to my first Rotary meeting, been skiing, saw the president, caught up with a friend who was an exchange student in Australia last year, been to Geneva, to Aix-les-Bains, Chambéry and La-Roche-sur-Foron and been snowshoeing.

Last Thursday, Mister President was in town ! Yes, it's only Sarko, but it was pretty damn cool to have the President walk past my house! Maggie, Ana and I waited outside a restaurant for almost half an hour, for him to emerge, but we seriously could not be bothered waiting so long, and figured he'd leave by a back door anyway. Afterwards we walked to Ana's house, drank delicious tea, ate chocolate and watched past Eurovision performances because we are cool, okay ?

On Thursday night was my first rotary meeting, and it was the most insane rotary meeting ever. It was at a very nice restaurant/conference centre across the lake. First we all sat in a conference room for half an hour for the formalities of the meeting, then we moved in to the restaurant for a delicious three course dinner consisting of gravlax salmon for entrée, pork filet mignon for main and millefeuille for dessert, with many bottles of wine being consumed between the Rotarians, this all being spread out over 2 and a half hours. So different to Australia.

Last Friday my friends Typh (who was in Bordertown last year) and Mégane came to Annecy for the day! I met them at their friend Marion's apartment where we stayed for a bit, then we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch, and then for a walk by the lake. It was a rather eventless day, but tonnes of fun nonetheless.

On Monday we went to Le Grand-Bornand and I WENT SKIING FOR THE FIRST TIME! Well, it was cross-country skiing, but it was still cool to be on the snow. Cross-country skiing is a workout, and then some. Oh man. I only did about 2km, and was almost paralysed at the end. Afterwards we stopped by a little lodge in the village and had crêpes and cider before we left to go home.

Start of the piste!

The ski village.

Cross-country skiis.

Tuesday I went to La-Roche-sur-Foron and stayed with Typh's family for the night with her friend Marion, so we didn't have to get up so early to go to Geneva the next day. For dinner her mum made lasagne, in a frypan. There's always a first for something! Then we made a lemon tart which was absolutely amazing! We ate it while watching The Best of Nouvelle Star (French Idol) until the early hours of the morning.

On Wednesday Typh, her friend Céline and I went to Geneva for the day to meet Typh's German friend Lars, who was coming to stay with Typh's family for a few days. In Switzerland their road signs are in at least 3 languages (French, Italian and German) but usually with English thrown in too. That spun me out. When we got there, we went straight to Starbucks! The most expensive Starbucks ever.. 8 Swiss Francs (roughly the same in AUD) for a coffee. We then went for a stroll down the Champs-Elysées of Geneve, with all of the designer stores, as well as all of the flagship stores for the Swiss watch brands. Nearby was the Jet d'Eau, a massive jet of water randomly placed in the lake. For lunch we went to the Globus food hall, which is like a David Jones, but classier, where they have food stores from all over the world, but naturally I went straight to the french food store right after I'd been saying how much I miss Thai food... After lunch we made our way across the lake to the main station, Cornavin, to meet Lars, although we had plenty of time, so we sat in the street and ate lollies that looked like eyeballs and almost threw up, then went to McDonalds. The best McDonalds I've ever been to. Toblerone McFlurrys, Ovaltine McFlurrys, 'restaurants' so much nicer decorated than any I've ever been to in Australia and they have these adorable little kids books that feature a penguin as the main character in their Happy Meals. And carrots in tall glasses on shelves for decoration... Bizarre... We had to leave in a hurry to meet Lars at the station, and once we met him we had to hurry to find a bus to take us to the other station to take us back to France, but that obviously wasn't an easy task. The ancient map of Geneva that we had was missing a few things. Like train stations, for example. So we took a bus to somewhere near where we thought we had to be, instead of just asking a local. We got off halfway through the line, to try and find our bearings again, which was almost impossible. Who would have thought the compass on my phone would have ever been helpful? We just started walking in the general direction of the station, with lost hope that we'd catch the bus. Just at the bottom of the hill where the station sits atop, we walked past the terminus for the bus that we were just on... Smart. Once we finally found the station, we started frantically calling parents to see if we could actually get back to France that night. Turns out another bus came only 20 minutes later. The bus only takes half an hour, and there was a half an hour wait at La-Roche to get the next bus to Annecy, so I was home by 7:45.

Typh made me be a tourist...

On Friday I went to Aix-les-Bains, half an hour away, to visit Amy and Monica, exchange friends. Amy and I spent about an hour trying to find a homewares store so she could by a cookbook, all to no avail, so we went to Carrefour and bought a less-cool recipe book, but still with amazing recipes. Afterwards we went to a café to get ice cream and a coffee. I had chestnut flavoured ice cream, and it was the best thing that I've tasted in a long time! We had to leave to meet Monica at the station, who had been waiting 20 minutes for us... Sorry Monica.. It took us a while to decide what to do, but we went bowling for a bit, then went across the road to McDonalds so I could try the amazing Magnum McFlurrys. They were really something. Rich, but delicious. When we went back into town we walked around aimlessly for a little bit, trying to find reasonably-priced restaurants because we are poor exchange students, found an Italian restaurant that looked nice and decided on that. Good decision. It was like real Italian Nonna's food. Even though I don't have an Italian Nonna, or know an Italian Nonna. But for dessert we went to another restaurant, where Amy and I got a "Dame Blanche" which was Hot chocolate, ice cream, meringue and chantilly. Sort of like an Eton Mess. My train ride home was on a TGV, so fast, quiet and comfortable. Australia really needs to take a leaf out of the Frenchies' book!

Yesterday afternoon (Saturday), we went for a drive to Chambéry, about 40 minutes away, just to have a look around, and it was Carnival as well! There was such a buzz in the city, everyone all dressed up, kids throwing confetti around on the streets (there was confetti literally everywhere you looked.) and a few floats waiting on the street for a parade. Annecy's Carnival is next weekend, and they dress up in old clothes, so that will be interesting..

Elephant statue in Chambéry.

And today, Sunday, we went to a place called Le Plateau de Glières, a site of the French Resistance where young men between the ages of 18 and 24 fled to escape being summoned to the French Armed Forces in World War II (If I understood my host dad correctly). More than 120 Frenchmen were killed by the German forces there. After that nice history lesson, we put on our snowshoes and set off along the pistes. We found a nice little chalet to sit and and eat, and each time someone walked past they wished us "Bon appetit!", which I though was really nice, and which would NEVER happen in Australia. After we'd finished eating, we went to see the igloo that my host brothers had made, and then back to the car to come home.

Now, I'm sitting at the kitchen table, warming myself up by the heater drinking cider while my host mum makes us crêpes and cupcakes pour 'goûter', which happens almost every day after school. A pretty good routine to have! I'm sorry for such a long post, but I haven't written in almost two weeks, so I've tried to put in as much detail as I can.

School starts tomorrow, which I'm really dreading. We'll see how it goes anyway.

Tchao !

Il neige, encore une fois !

Hey!

Yes, as I'm writing this, it's snowing again! Really heavily, but nothing is sticking to the ground! Boooo.

At the moment, I'm on holidays, cause the Frenchies are lazy and have two weeks holidays after 6 weeks of school... But hey, I'm not complaining at all. I thought they'd be jam-packed of things to do, but I haven't really been doing much at all. 

On Saturday I slept in till almost midday, then went shopping with my host mum to buy some boots because mine broke. When we got home, my host mum made cookies for us "pour gouter" then soon after Maggie (Swedish), Ana (Moldovan), Tristan (French) and Jörgen (Estonian) come to take me to get coffée with them, so it was nice to get out of the house for a bit, but it was also a bit of a headache with all of the different languages being spoken across the table..

On Sunday, we went for a "Balade" in Yvoire and then in Thonon-les-Bains. When my host mum initially told me "On va faire une balade demain, près de Lac Leman, qu'en penses-tu ?" I panicked because I thought she'd told me we'd be going hiking around Lake Geneva, in -4 to -6 degree weather, and that just wasn't going to happen, but then I double-checked my dictionary and it's just a stroll. Thankfully. My host mum convinced us all to go by telling us we'd find somewhere to get a coffee and crêpes, and that pretty much sealed the deal!

By the way, this lake is the biggest in France and Switzerland.

On Monday I only slept in till 10am (hard life, I know) because I had to go meet Ellie (American) and Amy (South African) at the station. We spent the morning shopping, had lunch and oreochinos (yes, Oreo cappuccinos) at a café in the Vielle Ville then went home to find something to bake. After spend 50 years in Monoprix trying to find all of the ingredients, we come back home and made raspberry and smartie cupcakes. They. Were. Amazing. 

In my efforts to find good french music (basically non-existent) I have found this girl! Cœur de Pirate. She's from Québec, so her accent is a little strange ;) but she is great nonetheless! This song is my favourite from her newest album, it's called Place de la République. 

As for the rest of my holidays, I've finally been invited to a Rotary meeting tomorrow evening, I'm going skiing on Monday somewhere nearby because we couldn't get to the Swiss Alps this weekend, and next Wednesday I'm going to Geneva with my friend Typh, an exchange student who was in Bordertown (I think) last year, then my host family are meeting me there and we're going to an Argentinean restaurant for dinner, then back home to Annecy!

I'll write again next week sometime. Next Wednesday marks my first month in France!

Bisous.

It's like walking on snow, without leaving a trace...

...so the last bit of the title doesn't really apply, but these were the lyrics I heard when I opened this page, and I thought they were rather fitting to this blogpost.

Anyway. IT'S BEEN SNOWING! Yes, after never having seen snow in my life, I've seen it every day for the last 10 days... To be honest, I'm quite fed up with the -6 to -15 degree temperatures, and would just like to go back home for another few months, but the added bonus of snow here is making me stay put. It is the most amazing, magical, fun and pretty thing I've ever seen. Walking to school in the morning, under the still-dark sky, the old street lamps lighting my way there, with snow blanketing the roofs of the old, tall houses and stone streets is one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced. It's like it's not even real. This whole thing. But then I turn up to school and well yeah, it's less magical.

Aside from being in awe of the snow, and rugging up more than I ever have before, I haven't really done much in the last week...

On Saturday morning, Amy, one of my exchange friends, came up to Annecy from Aix-les-Bains for the day to catch up and do a bit of shopping etc. so that was a veeeeery fun day! We were out for about 8 hours, most of that in -11 degree weather. After lunch we met up with Daniel, the American rotary exchanger here in Annecy, then a bit later with Magdalena, the Swedish exchanger, to do some further shopping, and spend more money that I don't have... Afterwards we went to a café for coffee, and then Amy and I went and got dinner and went back home to the WARM. The day seemed to go for so long when I couldn't feel half of my body parts.

Sunday afternoon, my host mum and brothers took me on a tour around Lake Annecy, in car of course, because it was just as the day before (I actually wore my snow jacket when we were out this time). But the whole drive around took about an hour, and we got out and walked for about half a hour. That whole time I was just gob-smacked that I get to live somewhere like this, for a whole year. It was nothing like I've ever seen before. And every photo I took looked amazing, effortlessly.

So, uh, yeah. This is Annecy and surrounds. 

And this is all I've got at the moment. I have school holidays at the end of this week for two weeks, so hopefully I'll be out and about and I'll have more things to update you all on! 

A plus, bisous !

Mitch.

My first week and the Week-end neige.

Salut !

So, last time I posted, I hadn't started school and now, I've been going for 6 days.. I started last wednesday, at 8am, and boy was that the toughest wednesday morning I've ever lived - I had to set 6 alarms, and snoozed every single one of them.  I only had three hours of class though, so that made things a bit brighter. When I arrived at school, the year level co-ordinator took me to my class, introduced me to them, then left. I went and sat by myself, but got talking to two girls in front of me who were nice enough to let me spend the free period with them. That day when I got home, my host mum had a hot lunch (curry and rice) ready for her, her mum, my host brothers and I. Definitely can't say no to that!
On wednesday afternoon, I went and profited from the Soldes (winter sales) and got completely kitted out with my snow gear. Jacket, pants, boots etc. Then I went off to Zara and profited further from these amazing sales. They're even better than the boxing day sales! They mark the price down even more as the Soldes go on, and they last for over a month. WIN.

THEN. On Saturday I went to the snooooooow! It was about two and a half hours away, but I went with Lucia, Lorena and Jorge, some other exchangers from Annecy, and they made the drive feel like about half an hour. They're heaps of fun. When we were going up the mountain, the temperature started at 3 degrees, then slowly dwindled down to -2 degrees, and they still didn't think it was cold! Then I explained what the weather had been like before I left and they understood.. Once we got there, I eventually got around to meeting all of the other (roughly 50) exchangers too! I was really nervous, but I have no idea why, they're the best bunch of people to spend your exchange year with! (Or half, because of the northern hemisphere school year) After a while we got into groups for our rooms for the night, I shared with 2 Brazilians and an American. Crazy to say the least. But crazy fun. At dinner we were officially welcomed by the YEP committee, but then got to chat amongst ourselves for the rest. I'd only met the people I sat with that day, but it felt like I'd known them forever! After dinner, we had a talent show, with about 10 acts, so it didn't last very long, so instead we just danced to mostly south american music, and had snowball fights when we got too hot. Very good night.

Sunday was death. We woke up early, had breakfast, got our snow gear on and then set off on a 20km/5 hour trek through the snow up the mountains and back down. We had lunch half way up, with the most amazing view ever, then kept going for a little bit, and started our descent, which involved a looooot of sitting and sliding down! I lost count of how many times I fell over... Clearly someone who doesn't come from a country with much snow... Anyway, when we got back to the lodge, we drank hot chocolates, talked some more, then had to pack up and leave. The drive home was sooo good, I slept most of the way, I was wrecked. But it was one of the best weekends of my life. No kidding.

I'll write again soon hopefully,

Bisous à vous.

Je suis bien arrivé !

I've FINALLY arrived in Annecy, after around 34 hours of flights and stopovers! And all I can say is that it is like nothing I could ever have imagined... My flight from Paris to Geneva started it all off, seeing the snow-capped Swiss alps as we flew in to a very frosty Geneva. After meeting my host dad, he took me for a drive around Geneva to see the important things, and it was absolutely incredible! I wish I had have thought to take photos, but I was just too awe-struck to think properly.. I'm sure there'll be more chances to get there in the next year though..

Then I got to Annecy. Wow. This city, that I've barely seen much of, is one of the most amazing cities I've ever been to. This below, for example, is the view from my bedroom. Could it be any better?

Also, my host family are so nice! My host dad lives in Geneva during the week, and comes home on weekends, same with my eldest host brother, Alex, who goes to school in Thonon. So there's just Caroline, Arthur and Hugo here. They've made me feel so at home though, it's great.

I start school on Wednesday, but only have half a day (win!). I'll be meeting with another exchange student, Lorena, who will be in my class I think, on Wednesday morning so I can have someone to show me around etc.

That's all I've got for the moment, I'll try write again after my ski weekend this weekend with all of the other exchangers!

Bisous ! 

On y va !

So; it's the night before the big day. The last night with my family, the last night in my own bed, the last night of normal. I don't quite know how I'm feeling, but I'm pretty damn excited! It's really odd to think that I won't be here for a whole year...

Last week I finally found out my first host family! I have 3 brothers: Hugo (10), Arthur (13) and Alex (15), as well as a host sister Marine (17), but she's in Brasil on her exchange year at the moment.. My host mum's name is Caroline and my host dad's name is Eric. It seems like they have a lot planned for me, so I'll be real busy!

Next weekend I'm going to St. Jean de Maurienne for a "week-end neige" with all of the other exchange students in my district! Pretty sweet event for my first weekend in France! It'll be super cool to meet them all too!

As for tomorrow, I fly out for London via Singapore at 5pm, then fly to Paris, then Geneva, where my host family will meet me, which is only a half-hour drive from Annecy. Pretty crazy that Switzerland is only that far away...

Anyway, I'll try post again when I arrive, depending on what my internet situation is...

A bientôt !

Thus begins my year...

So, three weeks to go until I leave to France for the year!

I tend to ramble on and go off on a tangent, so expect a lot of BIG posts full of NOTHING. But, that's what a blog is for right? Writing everything down. And I have no humor, so don't expect anything interesting. Also, during the year, I may slowly forget English, and start writing in 'franglais' so please call me out on that..

I guess I should tell you all a bit about my year. I'll be staying in Annecy, a city of about 60,000 people in the heart of the Rhône-Alpes in France. It is such a beautiful city, I can't wait to experience something other than Warrnambool! I'll be living with a few different families for 3-4 months at a time, just to mix things up a bit. At the moment, I've had no contact with my families or my rotary club, so I'm a bit nervous! But I'm hoping for some news in the next few days..

That's all I've got right now, I'll just leave these pictures of Annecy here to make you jealous.

Bisous.