fevrier vacances

Bonjour!

I am now back at school after having spent a truly wonderful 2 weeks vacation. I have hit and past my halfway mark and time is flying past! I have just under 4 months left in France and I can only see time going by faster.

The first Saturday of vacation I went over to a friends house (Anais) and her, another friend (Lucie) and I made cookies (chocolate chip canadian style of course)! They turned out really yummy and I probably ate a ridiculous amount of them. It was really nice way to start off mes vacances! Plus what's even better is that they live in Fuveau which is the town I will be living in for the last 3 months. Woo!

 The first Sunday of the vacanes Fabienne(h.mom), Clemetine(h.sister) and I loaded up the car and left for Beaufort-Arches ski station in the Alps about a four hour drive north of here. The station is about halfway between Lyon and Switzerland. I spent the drive half sleeping because lucky me the morning of leaving I had the beginning of a cold setting in. When I wasn't sleeping I read, took pictures or chatted with my host family. The terrain slowly became more and more mountainous and when we stopped to have lunch there must of been at least 30cm of snow on the ground. For lunch we had ham sandwiches and some fruit.

Fun fact: french people normally don't like sandwiches and I have learned why, they really have no idea how to make a good sandwich. Because when I make a sandwich I go the whole 9 yards with veggies and meat and cheese and sauce and heck half the time its toasted! But with french people you're lucky to get meat AND cheese. They simply have no sandwich pride. 

After finishing our picnic lunch we got back into the car to complete our journey. We arrived around 2 o'clock and got moderately set up in our apartment was fairly small and cute and was wonderfully located in regards to the chairlift. We weren't starting to ski until Monday and we skied all the way till Saturday to depart Sunday. For the rest of the afternoon we checked the weather, purchased our lift passes and walked around the town. On all mountain sides there were little wood cabins that were really homely and cute. We even went on a short nature walk to a stream and through a little part of the village. Later that evening there was tubing planned along with hot wine and chocolate so we stuck around to check it out. The tubing was set up on a little slope and Clementine and I did a few slides, drank some hot chocolate and then it really started getting cold so we headed back to the warmth of our apartment. The evening was spent relaxing and hanging out with an early bedtime for the early wake up the next morning for skiing.

The next morning was SKIING! And holy was it ever a beautiful sunny day. We got all set up and off we went. The station is set up in two different section parts. Planey, where are apartment was, and Arches, where the village technically is but both are accessible by skiing but getting to Arches took a little since it kind of is on the other side of the mountain. We skied the Planey side in the morning where the sun was and the Arches side in the afternoon to stay with the sun. The first day was awesome and it was so nice to be back boarding since I normally board all winter and here I hadn't gotten to yet. The evening was again a fairly quiet one because my cold was still taking its toll on me after our early morning and full day of skiing. Tuesday and Wednesday followed along the same lines with the same wonderful weather.

Wednesday evening there was a descent au flambeau with fireworks a DJ and hot wine and chocolate. A descent au flambeau is when a bunch of skiers with torches in their hands come down the mountain on skis in a line making s patterns as they come down. It was really neat to see. After was the fireworks and I thought they were really well done. I enjoyed all of this while sipping on my hot chocolate and then after we danced for a while out in the snow to the DJ music with lights and the whole schbang!. It was a nice way to end a great day of snowboarding. 

Thursday is when Cyril, my host brother who is going to school in Paris, arrived. Too bad for him the nice weather was only to be nice in the morning while he was with us. He arrived just after lunch and joined up with Clem and I for the afternoon of skiing. After skiing we went to check out these things that are called Yooners, which are these weird little sled things that you actually get going pretty fast on and I almost plowed this poor dog that was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time! I raced hy host siblings and won! Wooo go team Canada! And of course this was accompanied by hot wine and hot chocolate. 


That evening we played a large amount of a card game called Waitai which involves everyone playing at once and trying to be the first one to get ride of their whole stock pile. We also played a game called Jungle Speed which sometimes gets a little violent. The goal is to be the first to grab the totem if your card matches someone else's  It was a really nice evening and for supper we had a Raclette which is kind of a mountain tradition where you melt this special cheese and put it on top of potatoes and fried meat. And it is super yummy.

Friday was of course more skiing but today we had lunch on the slopes in a restaurant instead of at the apartment. The view was awesome from the restaurant and the food was really good too. And that night, lucky us, we got to have Raclette again because there was still some left from the night before. 

Finally Saturday had come and our last day of skiing. And for breakfast I made pancakes! Which turned out really well and everyone really liked them. By now I pretty much knew how to get to anywhere on the mountain which was nice but also sad since it was our last day. Nearing the end of the day a fog had set in that made it hard to see and it had started to snow. So we turned in just a little earlier than normal because they had to close the chairlift because of the fog. The evening was spent playing more card games and we watched a movie. 

Sunday we loaded up the car and made our leave around 10:30. We dropped Cyril off at the train station and now here I am at home. Tired and very happy having spent an awesome week with my host family and still with another week of vacation left ahead of me. Thank goodness I get some recovery time! 

As I have mentioned to al of you before there is another exchange student from New York who is living in Apt and it was planned for her to come and stay with me for a couple of days. She arrives Monday afternoon and I was soooo excited for her to get there! When she got there we ended up getting dropped off in plan de campagne, which is pretty much a town that is ONLY for stores/ We spent a few hours there looking around and hanging out in a little café. We had so much to catch up on!

Tuesday afternoon we went to Marseille to see a church and the vieux port and to hang around a bit. The church is set on top of a hill and gives a great view of Marseille and the sea. After we headed down to the port and here Cathy and I went off to do our own thing while Fabienne and Clementine went to meet up with some friends. My h.mom gave us very...vague, directions to this old hospital that is now a museum that was just on the other side of the view port. We wondered around quite a bit and ended up having to ask directions on how to get there but we finally made it. It was kinda cool but we didn't really stay for long. Instead we went and got tartes from a café across the way :p The time we had set to meet back up with Fabienne and Clem was coming up so we started making our way back to the view port. Of course neither of us  really remembered how to get back because in getting to the museum we went through a whole bunch of tiny roads and back alleys and we were soon lost. Finally we asked someone how to get to the view port we had to go right. Of course we had gone left and we ended up being slightly late for our rendez-vous but at least we finally got there alright! 

Wednesday was PANCAKE day :) I made some really awesome pancakes in the morning and everybody loved them. And then that afternoon Cathy and I went to Aix to meet up with a bunch of other exchangers. We spent most of our time in a pub and then a café and then shopping but it was really nice to see everyone. There was Cathy, Bobby, Clay, and Fionn (all from USA), Lucca (Brazil), Ime (Mexico) and me. And I'm sad because I just realized we didn't take a group picture :( Oh well you can all just imagine it. All of us are smiling. Except maybe Bobby...he never smiles.
That night we played a few games of Waitai and I wiped the board with my h.family and Cathy. So that was nice :)

Thursday was Cathy's last day and we didn't really do too much. Simply enjoyed each others company and talked and talked and talked until her yeo (youth exchange officer) came to pick her up late in the afternoon. The days  went by so fast and it was awesome having Cathy over and I'm so grateful to my h.family for hosting her for a few days. 

Friday I was planning a nice quiet day. Maybe going for a run and cleaning my room and watching a movie but of course that didn't happen. Thursday night I got a phone call from one of my friends at school asking if I wanted to going skiing tomorrow. Of course I said yes! So Friday morning they picked me up and off we went. The station was a fairly small one just beside Gap. It was a pretty nice day and surprisenly warm!

Saturday night I went  to a Rock concert with Fabienne and Clemintine where 3 bands were playing at. The first group, The Funky Monkeys, really reminded me of my brothers band. They were about the same age, played the same type of music and had the same type of energy. The were really fun to watch and I even saw the bass players bum (he was wearing a kilt...) and the lead singer crowd surfed! 
The second group was called Soma and they really rocked it! They had everyone dancing and I'm really happy to have seen them. I discovered a new band!
The third band was not the hit band of the evening and we ended up leaving about half way through their performance which was probably a good thing since it was getting late and we had plans for the next morning.


Sunday was the last day of the vacances and I really was not looking forward to having to go back to school. But I was looking forward to seeing all my friends. Sunday my h.family decided to go to a carnival in Nice. It was an absolutely gorgeous day so we had a picnic lunch on the beach. 

 

 

 

 
And that's where we saw all the floats coming around the corner to get set up for the parade. After eating we headed over to where the parade was going to pass by. There was a ton of people, confetti and silly string. The theme this year was international relations and there was a least 15 floats. There were floats representing many different countries, people dancing in cultural dress and did I mention confetti? There was a hell of a lot of confetti... Its been a week and I keep finding it in the strangest places. In my bathroom drawers, in my purse, in my bed! 

The parade really was amazing and really well done. There was music the whole time and there was always something surprising and breath taking to see. I used up my whole memory card and battery on my camera taking pictures. Good thing Clemitine brought her camera too, which also happens to be a much better camera than mine, and she took some awesome pictures. I'm really glad we went because it really was a nice (haha get it? We were in Nice) thing to have seen and experienced.

These vacances were absolutely wonderful and I never had a dull moment! As I've probably mentioned many times over time is flying past and you now all can mark your calenders because my flights have been booked and I'm leaving the 27th of June at 6:10am and will be arriving in the Kelowna airport the same day at 11:51pm.

So until then,
Gros bisous à tout le monde,
Rebecca

Je ne sais quoi

Jan.7th-Feb.10th

Coucou!
J'espère que tout va bien pour tout le monde :)

So I think I'm at least a month behind in my blog...So I'm going to spend the next 2 hours writing and HOPEFULLY I will finish this post. I will be using to hours because that's the amount of time I have to wait until my next class starts. That is the one good thing about having spare time at school because it moderately forces me to work on and write my blog. And as I'm sitting here in the library I overheard the librarian talking to another lady and she said that there was another Canadian exchange student in my school! Whhhaaatt!?!? I am now determined to find her! I believe they said she was in Second (grade 10) so I know they weren't talking about me. I wonder where in Canada she's from...?
Alright so I have know been with my second host family for just over a month. It has gone by so fast and I can't believe it! In this post though I will only be writing about my first 3 weeks ish with them.
Mission accomplished!!! The Canadian is a girl from Ontario and she's 15 and is here for 3 months and apparently there is another girl coming from Alberta! Invasion of the Canadians or what!?

So I finished the first week of school after the vacances and of course I was already ready for another vacation. :p That weekend was the starting of Marseilles Provence capital de la culture 2013. So that Saturday I went to Aix with Fabienne, Clem and a family friend to see some of the festivities they had going on. We got there around 11. They had all the road closed off and there were a ton of people. All up the Cours Mirabeau they had decorated the trees in bright red cloth with poka dots.

 Then down the street facing it they had these two girls that were doing tricks on swinging ropes up in the air. They were really doing some amazing tricks. Then following down the road there were these poles placed along the road with people climbing them and doing tricks. In between the poles the had tones of red balloons continuing down the road. There were sooo many people and it was hard to keep up with my host sister as she dodged and weaved through the crowns and I feel behind with my good ol' Canadian nature of "no after you" and "sorry pardon me". Eventually my host sister just grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowds. :p

The end of the street finished with a bigger open space with the theatre building at the end. On top of the theatre they had a band that was all dressed up in these really awesome costumes and above them there was a tight rope walker.

All in the space they had these large read balloons along with some smaller ones. We finally made it to a space where we could see pretty well and we enjoyed the show. The tight rope walkers wire must have been about the length of a football field and he had this huuge pole. He made it all the way across the wire and when he made it to the other side all of a sudden alll the large red balloons popped with a bang and from inside a whole bunch of smaller red balloons fell onto the crowd and THEN five jet plans flew overhead with red, white and blue smoke trailing behind them! It was really amazing and the show did end with a bang!

After headed back up towards the Routond to eat our picnic lunch. We found a bench in the sun which was just perfect. After we walked around the town for a bit and stopped by a museum that had some really strange art in it along with some older pieces. After that we caught a bus and headed back home pretty munch only to leave again for a hike to the top of a mountain where you can over look Marseille, the sea and a few of the surrounding villages. We were going to the top to see a laser light display that was happening in Marseille. At the top there was actually quite a few people. They had fires and hot chocolate, coffee and hot wine. The laser show was pretty much these huge green laser that shot in the sky and there was one that past right over us!

After there was some fireworks in Marseille but I didn't get to see them too well because Marseille was actually still pretty far away from where we were so they were pretty small and there was quite a few people standing in the way. After we left to walk back down the mountain and we all ended up meeting at some friends of the famillies house so some food and drinks ect. We left to go home pretty late that night and I was tired!

On Sunday the festivities continued and it was raining. Today my h.mom and I went to Gardanne to take part in the Chase au 13-ors. Which technically means thirteen golds and is also pretty much a clever play on words for treasure hunt.We went to the meeting place to get our first clue and then we were off. The hunt pretty much took us on a whole tour of the town. We went to a couple of shops, fountain squares, museums and a church. And it rained the whole time haha. Oh well we hada we had a  nice time anyway  When we left we stopped by one of Fabiennes friends houses because they had a guitar that they said I could use. I was sooo happy! Even though the Calsats have a guitar its a pretty little one and it is also pretty old and the one we were going to borrow was slightly bigger and a little older. It would also be especially nice to have because I've been teaching Clem how to play guitar so this way we can play at the same time and it makes it a little easier to show her things. :)We went to go and pick it up only to find it was broken! :O One of the tuning knobs at the end was broken but they said that if we took it in to get it fixed they would pay for it and then I could still use it! Score! So the next day Fabienne dropped it off and we had it back by Thursday. We got it backed all fixed with new strings and everything.

I also found out that on Thursdays when Clementine goes to swim at the pool for syncro I was allowed to go and swim along the side! Only thing I had to do was get a one piece swim suit, goggles and a swimming cap. I secretly dreaded getting a one piece because I have a really long torso and It is horrible to find one that doesn't constantly give me a wedgie. i told this to my h.mom and she said no worries I might have an old one you can I use. I just said oookk. So she found one, I tried it on. The length was actually fine. But of course it was only fine because it was really old a stretched out. And see through... -___-  Since we didn't have time to go and buy a new swimsuit before Thursday I just ended up wearing my two piece swimsuit under this old stretched one. It work alright but my host sister and the rest of her synchro team had a good laugh. :p So I made a real nice first impression as the girl who wore 2 swimsuits. Awesome. Haha But for the next Thursday don't worry I was all decked out with a new swimsuit and all the rest of the equipment. :D

The following weekend was clean the house Saturday! Wooppie I helped to vaccuum, cleaned my room and my h.mom's car because she said she really hates doing it so I offered to do it. Saturday came with a soccer game in Nice I think...? I dunno it was so long ago.

The next weekend wasn't too busy. I went for a run Saturday and then went my my h.mom and sister to go and find a snowboard set up and some boots for Clem. I found a whole set up for 90 euros along with a 40 euro helmet and some goggles. So now I'm pretty much all set up to go snowboarding! And then Sunday was soccer where I re-injured my ankle which is already pretty fickle. For the following week I ended up not doing too much because I wanted it to get better before I went and hurt it again.

A week later I had started running again and my ankle was feeling much better. And just in time for my week off! Because at school it was what they call, "Bac Blanc". Which is their week of practice exams. Of which I didn't have to do! Wooo! So I spent my week going for runs and catching up on some stuff I had kind of let slide. Like my *ahem blog cough*. So for my full week off a made a to-do list and I tackled quite a lot of it. I had to do a few applications for school next year along with some scholarships and stuff. I also caught up on one of my blogs. I did a few things with my bank and I made banana bread. Which didn't last very long. :


I even made some vin d'orange with my h.dad Michel and Clem. It involved pouring large quantities of vin, alcohol, sugar, orange peels and some spices into containers that will then seep for a various amount of days depending on the recipe.

So all in all I really benefited from having a week off. But mostly I'm just glad I didn't have to do the exams! For that week also Fabienne was in Spain with some students from her school that were doing a mini one week exchange. She had a nice time other than the fact that its was rainy and stormy the whole time she was there. One the Friday of my week off I met up with Lucca and Imelsy in Aix and we sat in a café and hung around for a while.

Then on Saturday I went to Marseille with some friends from school. We took a train and a bus and then went to the Ice rink and went skating. Which I like to think I do you Canadians proud by showing all the frenchies how good at skating we are. I got pretty nostalgic when there because it reminded me of all the time I spent in the arena at home. And then of course they were playing hockey on a tv there and it made me think of watching hockey with my dad and brother. Then soccer game on Sunday which I play really well in and we tied. It was a nice way to end my free week.

And now I just have one more week of school and then two more weeks off! One spent skiing in the alps and part of the next with Cathy who will be coming to stay with us for a few days! I am very much looking forward to the break and it is really going to make Februrary pass by quickly!

So until after the vacances!
Gros bisous,
Rebecca