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 !
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