Update - Merry Christmas!

Emma and I (Note Anna I am wearing your scarf - very warm! - and Emma will kill me for drawing attention to this fact as she is not wearing hers - sorry Emma!!)

Us after our lunch last week!

My host family and myself on our hike last week!

The cat, Minoute, which likes my bed but not me. Alas.

Hello hello. How is everyone?? Has ANYONE received a postcard?? Im thinking they have all ot lost. Alas. So this will probably be my last post for over a week, as there is no internet access at the snow! I am extremely happy to see that Anna has finally posted!

Here is busy, i have been to classes on thursday afternoon, but none today. Yesterday was horseriding, which was fun of course. I rode Gladys this time, who is also a very nice mare, a bit reculant to keep up a trot but nice to ride all the same. We rode without stirrups for about 30 minutes, so after that, iceskating and the bike ride my legs are seriously like Jelly. but everyone will be saying that the exercise is good for me. Phf.


This morning, we went on a tour of the rugby stadium that is being built for the World Cup next year and then a tour of the newer part of Montpellier. Then we had lunch all together, which was fun and did some (MORE) shopping. it never ends!! If anyone wants specific presents - tell me NOW otherwise the likelihood of getting them is nill.


We leave for the snow tomorrow which is awesome, i am very excited. It is a little sad to know that I am leaving everyone behind here in Montpellier though, I'm sure I will miss everyone on Chrismas day. Hoepfully the weather turns bad so it starts snowing again; I would love a White Christmas.


So thats all from Montpellier. To everyone who is reading this blog and everyone else you know that I know (if that makes sense?) - I wish you all a fabulous Christmas with lots of pressies, family, friends, and yummy food; a happy new year (and fun New Years Eve parties!!) and relaxing and enjoyable Summer Holidays in the good old Aussie sun!! (A tad cliche but meh!)


Missing you all, please post comments and send emails so when I get back I feel loved!!


A bientot,


Simone

More Photos...

Because i wont have access for a week, here are some recent(ish) photos.

The tart I had after lunch today - banana chocolate - yummy!!

Funny photo - how we love our cameras!! ( I would post a funny one of Issy dancing but this is liekly to end with retribution and I am scared!!)

After our tour of the new Rugby stadium - built especially for us Aussies (dont we feel special!!) It was absolutely freezing this morning!!!

Lise, Claire (my host Mum) and Cecile at the Cathedral on Sunday.

Mireille (my host sister), Benedict and Colene (her friends) at school!! ( I find the hallways depressing!!)

Like?? Anything else?? More after Christmas most probably!!

Le Patinoire

So I finally went to a few classes yesterday - 2 hours of Frnech (boring!) and Biology. After that we bought out lunch and went in circles on the tram before spending a bit of time at the library because we were too early for ice skating.

Ice skating was fun!! I think the last time I did it was Issy's birthday party in Year 8 but it kind of comes back. I didn"t stack once - i am soo proud! Although i think i caused someone else to stack - oops. It was good at the start, it was almost empty, but then it filled up - scary. Little kids with their little sled thingys going in all directions! Then they opened up the second rink (normally used for ice hockey) and there was space again. We skated for just over an hour, until my ankles were dying - next time wear thick LONG socks! One of my feet is always tilted out, and i cant fix it but anyways.

Must go, hope all is well. Horseriding today and in 2 days the snow!! (although lots of the snow may have melted if the fine weather continues )

Hier

(Yesterday) for those non-french speakers. (I hope you are learning from our blogs!)

So... after a slack (but fun) Monday, i again didn't go to any classes on Tuesday. (but it wasn't my fault as Mireille had 'controles' (tests) in nearly all of them. So in the morning I wandered around lonely as wasn't able to find anyone. After a while I bumped into Kase and Cyz - hung around with them for a while and Cyz found some boots. I went home for lunch (Mushroom omelette).

After lunch Claire (my host Mum) took me on a bike ride. I thought it was going to be reasonably short, to the library and then along the river Lez... but we just kept riding. We rode to and then through a beach town place called Lattes which is on the lake (and then there is just a tiny strip of land between the lake and the Mediterranian Sea - kind of cool) until we got to this Nature/bird reserve place. Once there, we did a circuit that was like 6 km, then rode all the way home, stopping only once for a pain au chocolat (i was starving!). We had to ride on the road (scary!!!!!!!!! as they are narrow and I wasn't wearing a helmet (no one does) and the bike was kind of annoying) My bike was borrowed from the carpark people and it was old-fashioned and bright yellow with a basket on the back so every time i treid to swing my leg over i fell. Great! And it only had 3 gears, so i almost died going up the 3 hills we came across (thank goodness Montpellier is not hilly or I wouldn't have made it!) Anyway, turns out we rode for about 20 kilometres (3.5 hours°); I suppose you are all going to say exercise is good for me, hopefully this means I can get out of school sport on Friday. today we might be going iceskating!! fun!!

Le francais!

The French!

So I'm a bit bored and there is nothing else to tell you so I thought I would blab a little about French things...

Food - for more information see Moniques blog - but it isnt as bad as i thought. My family eats reasonably normally, but I am very glad I am vego! (Kasey thinks she ate pigs intestines last week!) So at home for dinner I have been having lots of soup (yummy especially when it's freezing, which is always!), salad (this is odd - its either just sticks of carrot and cucumber - or separate bowls (giant bowls) of grated carrot, grated cabbage and lettuce, they never mix anything) and eggs. We have also had pikelets for dinner (which we made on the table with a electric type frypan with 6 circles) with pesto and dips and things. The other night we had mushy stuff which i believe was a combination of potato and cheese but i coudlnt be sure, it was sooooo sticky! Last night we had pasta - yay! (with a cheese/cream sauce) Other favourites included the savoury crepes with mushroom and onion - galettes!

For breakfast i feel obliged to have muesli, since they bought 3 different types just for me. No one else eats it! They have 'tartines', which is whit bread toasted with either slabs of butter or mountains of nutella, or yogurt, or fruit or waffles with nutella. (They love nutella!)

Hands are freezing, so i will continue for other aspects of Frenchness later...

Continued...

Friday, Lauren arrived from Bordeaux and so we all spent the day with her (except Monique who was sick). We went shopping, bought yummy food, had lunch and then (as the weather was really icky and raining) we went to Mia's apartment (which is huge) and made cookies!! I went to Chemistry in the afternoon, they were doing an experiment exactly like the one we did on orientation day, except they noly had to do it once AND they had a magnetic agitator, which stirs the substance for you. Will have to tell Doc Ross to get those for us!

On Saturday I slept in and so missed Geography; instead went for a wander and bought a 'tart Normand'! Again, it was pouring, something we miss in Aus I think, i cant remember it raining like that for any decent length of time in Melbourne. After lunch, Mireille, Lise and I went to the Cinemas and saw 'Arthur et les Minimoys' in French. Thankfully, it was easy to follow. On Saturday evening I went to mass at the Cathedral. It was surprisingly empty and I didn,t understand a thing but it was still interesting and kind of reminiscent of home (except with bad singing). I felt kind of guilty when the lady came around witht he collection basket and i was the only one with nothing to put in it. Oh well.

Sunday i slept in and then in the morning Mirielle and I went on the new tramline 2!! It is a big thing in Montpellier and as my host Dad is an engineer for the trams, he was very excited. It is much smoother and nicer than Melbourne trams, and all Line 2 trams are covered with flowers!! (I'll post a picture later - its funny!) After lunch we all went to the beach, had a long walk and had a look at the Cathedral de Maguelone. It didnt really feel like the beach, it was freezing, the sand was grey and covered in heaps of shells and stones and it didnt even smell like the beach. But it was still cool.

Today, in the morning I did some wandering and eating. I then went to Physics, English and Biology before meeting again with other Australians walking and shopping; went to the postcard shop again. Has anyone received postcards yet?? We explored the 'Marche de Noel' - Christmas Markets again, and i bought some funky xmas decorations. We shared a cup of 'vin chaud' which was really nice (and the lady sold it to me which was exciting!), hot and sweet and spicy. Mmmm. (Don't worry Mum and Dad, I'm sure the alcohol content was very low - I also tried some Muscat (like Port i think) at home last night which was nice) We also had some 'Pain d'Espice', which is like a loaf of Gingerbread and was also yummy. And that is life up until now.

Hope everyone is well, keep posting comments and sending emails. Have fun getting ready for Christmas - one week!

La Semaine Derniere

Last Week

Just a quick update. On Wednesday Emma and I slept in after our long day and so by the time we actually got to school classes had finished for the day. (Wednesday is only a half day) After lunch (at home) Mireille went to play Tennis so i watched some horses next door at the Equestrian Centre for an hour. I've decided they have an obsession with riding really fast in France, in one arena they were all going so fast around a jumps course over half of them completely lost control. Strange! In the other ring, poor ponies had tiny kids bouncing on them.

Thursday I did actually go to a few classes in the morning. I then went with Mireille to a friends house where we had Pasta for lunch, and then i had to almost run back to school to meet everybody for... our visit to IBM in Montpellier. Issy's host dad works there and so he was really excited about showing us a presentation and taking us on a tour. Unfortunately none of us are that interested in computers, but i think we all tried to look engaged. After that, i again had to rush home because the bus got caught in a traffic jam. Then we went horseriding!!! YAY!! I rode in the lesson before Mireilles which was better because there was less people in it, they werent as good, and it meant Mireille could expain stuff to me. I rode Dragon again and we did jumping - FUN!!

More later...

Photos of Paris

Okay, I finally uploaded some photos onto the computer because my memory stick thingy was full. here are a few, and yes, i will take requests.

The Seine!! (please excuse if photos are good, i cant work out how to see big ones to choose)

I also cant work out how to turn them aruond; so turn your head. Notre Dame of course!!

A cool photo taken rfom the little garden on the point of the Ile de la Cite.

Emmy and I on the Eiffel Tower (of course Emmas eyes would have to be closed!!!)

Arc de Triomphe - we stood in the middle of the Champs Elysees to take this - scary!!

The room of the Louvre we saw.

Thats all for now, it takes ages!! Lots of my photos are blurry or dark or weird but there are some good ones; Photos of other stuff another day.

Enjoy!!

Paris - numero 2

Okay, so we took a long long walk all the way down the Champs Elysees to the Place de la Concorde (where they set up a giant ferris wheel, but it wasnt yet working!) Then we walked a little way more before stopping for a quick dinner - I had some quiche. Then we headed into the front of the Louvre, saw the famous Pyramid (it is pretty cool!) and walked around the outside of some of the buildings. It is seriously huge, i can see why it could take someone a week to see everything! We even saw some sculptures through some giant windows, which was pretty cool. Aftr walking around there a while; also seeing the Palais Royal; we jumped back on the metro and back to Gare de Lyon.

Here we waited a little while for our train (the station is really cool, one huge room has one wall completely a mural of monuments and buildings of France, and there is a restuarant that was also spectacular (we just went through the doors for a look)) The train ride back felt long, but mostly Emma and I (after eating our pain au chocolat) slept. We arrived back in Montpellier at midnight (there were still people around which i thought was funny) and walked back home. They were spraying fake snow onto the giant christmas tree in Montpellier.

Okay so thats it about Paris, sorry if its a bit brief, check out Emmas blog for anything i have forgotten. (Im sure shell let me know!) Overall it was an awesome day; we saw a lot but still i could easily spend weeks and weeks there - meaning we will have to return in the nearish future!!

PARIS

Guess what this blog is about??

So, on Tuesday, my host Mum Claire took Emma and I to Paris!!! We awoke early to catch the fast train, the TGV, from the station in Montpellier, Gare Saint Roch, at 7:30. The train certainly is fast ( i think over 200 km/hr) as countryside flashed past our windows. At Nimes, we had to evacuate the train and then the station for 30 min - very annoying!! (Bomb scare i think, announcments were in French) So we got to Paris at about 11:30.

So we took a bus from the station into the centre of Paris, the Bastille. From there we hopped on a double decker tour bus, had great views from there and headphones for info and history in English was useful!! It took us around to la Seine, and we walked along there, over Pont Neuf onto 'La ile de la Cité'. Along there, past the police place (huge!) to Notre Dame. From what I saw in a day, Notre Dame would definately be my fave place after the Eiffel Tower. It is stunning, inside and out and I wish we had had half a day to spend in there. Unfortunately, i couldn't get any good pictures of the inside, because it is so dark, but i think Emma got some that were ok. The windows, walls, stations of the cross, little side bits (what are they called??) were all so detailed, painted or carved or both! Wow!!

From there, we grabbed a sandwich for lunch and got back on the tour bus for a trip around Paris, past all the major sites; We hopped off at the Eiffel Tower. We took the lift up (Emma and would have prefered to walk but Claire wanted to take the lift) to the top. The veiws were breathtaking. The day was quite clear but still the landscape faded to a haze in the distance. Then we went to the second level; walked down to the first, and back to the ground. It was great as you could see all the famous places that we didn't have time to visit.

From there we jumped on the metro (an experience in itself) and got off at the Arc De Triomphe. We didn't climb it :-( but walked all the way down the Champs Elysees. By this time, it was almost dark and it was all lit up, very pretty!!

To be continued... (Time for school)

Le week-end

French for weekend - pathetic huh?

Anyway, thought I should do a quick post on this otherwise will get distracted by Paris and never remember. So Saturday... went to school in the morning for Geography, then went for a promenade with Emma and Monique. There are lots of cute shops with cartoon things - like le Petit Prince in Montpellier! Saturday arvo a whole group of us met up in the city to go shopping/walking. The main square in Montpellier, La place de la Comedie, was packed all weekend because the telethon was on - a huge fundraising event. I made my first purchase (if food doesn't count), a teal coloured woolen jumper! On Saturday night for dessert we had chocolat fondue - yummy!!

Sunday my host family took me to a small village called 'Saint Guilhem le Desert', about a 40 minute drive. Here, we did a little hike - the first bit was all uphill and everyone was faster than me, but oh well! We walked for about 3 hours, stopping for a picnic lunch in the middle. Then we explored the little village before returning home. On Sunday evening I went to look at the Santon exhibition at Saint-Anne's in Montpellier (see Moniques blog for explanation of Santons) and so made my second purchase! (Although i forgot to check with Monique what she bough, hope we haven't doubled up - ah well!)

Monday was pretty normal. I sent some postcards, ate a pastry, called home, went to class, did some wandering. Monday night Emma slept over because on Tuesday...

Si tu veux - Comme tu veux

These phrases are tres utile; meaning 'If you want' and 'As you wish' respectively. I use them very often. My hands are freezing so I'll finish this later. It was going to be about what I did this weekend. Off to school.

Off Topic - Results

I want to do this is a separate message to France stuff because... Actually i dont really know why, i just do. So, as you know, the results for our Year 12 subjects (or all results for those in year 12) came out today. (or yesterday, depending on what continent you are on). Here are my study scores:

Maths Methods - 39
International Studies - 41
Horse Studies - 45

I think I'm happy but I dont know - my reaction was pretty neutral, there were no tears but also no jumping for joy. If only Maths had been one more (I'm just being greedy, i want my name in the paper 3 times). Alas.

So if you feel like sharing, please do so - or if you dont want the whole world to see, email me...

Now I have to decide on Subjects for next year - please help. So, its definqtely English, Chem qnd French (bien sur) and then 1 or 2 of Physics, Biology or Further Maths. Advice appreciated...

Hope all is good news for everyone!!

Le Visit

Le Visit is another word for a tour, that we did yesterday (Friday) afternoon with a teacher from la lycee. Before that however, I went to French, and then didn't go to sport... We are meant to - but they were doing running - can you think of anything worse. Instead Monique convinced me (its all her fault - bad influence) to go walking/shopping/eating with her so she wouldn't be a loner. I had a chocolat chaud et un tarte aux pommes, then we headed into the Polygon for Monique to shop becuase the weather was tres icky - (cold, drizzly and so windy it was best not to bother with an umbrella) Monique bought a bag i think and i bought some gloves, they are blue and not too thick so you can do stuff with them on. Now i need to find a hat of some description - my tete is always cold.

Anyway, then we ate lunch at the canteen again - wasn't anywhere near as traumatising as last time as we were early. The food was also slightly better, some fried rice and some eggplant thing. Oh and just in case you need to know, they dont count fish as meat, so make sure you say 'Pas de viande, et pas de poisson'. Anyway, then was our tour of Montpellier. We met our tour guide, an ex_teacher, who was very funny! We visited a museum on the history of Montpellier, the cathedral, the water tower etc etc. It was very interesting and fun to hang out with all the aussies (except issy and mia - in toulouse).

Last night after dinner, my host dad, Laurent, took me and my older host sister to a concert; It was at the local theatre/concert hall type placee - Le Corum - and was the Nationql Montpellier Orchestre with a opera singer. It was very good and i enjoyed it heaps, but i sturggled to keep my eyes open. Then we walked home through the Place de La Comedie - very busy as this weekend is the telethon. Its a fundraising event in Paris and Montpellier and its huge! Anyway, more later, now I am meeting Emma and Mia in the city for a stroll...

A Bientot

Le canteen... et l'equitation!!

Yesterday was a long day! I went to all of Mireille's classes except for the last hour of Geographie (the class went for 3 hours) - i was almost falling asleep. I also saw all the other Aussies, which was good after being a complete loner on Wednesday.

For lunch - we ate at le canteen, which is what we would call a cafeteria (American style?). It was an interesting experience to say the least. After class we basically ran there, but there was already a ginourmous line... so we then were squashed for about 20 minutes waiting to get in. Once in, you grab a tray and get in another line for food. It took about 3 tries for the man with the meat to understand my 'pas de viande, s'il vous pait!' but eventually he got it and instead gave me 4 eggs in this sauce stuff. (who could eat 4 eggs with lunch???) Then the lady with the vegies who was talking to someone compltely ignored me. Alas. Some self serve salad ( only 2 without meat - ridiculous!) and bread (of course) plus yogurt or fruit. Once you get your food you cant go backwards which is kind of annoying and then you have to find a table. ( another almost impossible feat) But it was definately an expereince; unfortuneatly one i think i will have to repeat...

Anyway; after school (at 7) came the good part of the day - horseriding!! yay!! The horseriding place is about 30 min out of Montpellier and from what I could see (it was dark) they dont have any paddocks but 2 outdoor and 1 indoor arena, some yards for ponies, and lots of stqbles for the horses. I rode a horse called Dragon, a not-to-big very sweet old grey gelding - I think probably the horse they put all the newbies on. But he was nice to ride. The lesson itself was hard given that I couldn't understand much of what the instructor said so just tried to copy what the others were doing. (Plus trying not to crash - everyone just rides every where and there are no rules about passing) But although it was very different - horses are still the same and so it was great!!

Eek, school soon so must go... Hope everyone is well...

La Lycee

The school we go to, Lycee Joffre is ginormous and way more confusing than our school. (which is hard) I think it is one of the biggest schools in France; so there are also zillions of students.

On Monday morning we all met and were introduced to the Principal, and had a little orientation type thing - basically they just said try and go to some classes... On Monday i went to English and Biology with Mireille. In English, i introduced myself (in english) and the students asked me questions. Their english teacher is not very strict so the class is fun! Biology was ok also, i understood a little of what they were doing.

We had lunch at the cafeteria - the only thing vego was a cheese baguette - with slabs of butter - not all that appetizing: Next time we eat there, i might pop into the city to find something instead. French people really like their butter and sweet stuff, they don't spread butter, but slice like cheese and place on bread (ugh) and nutella - it makes me feel ill watching the mounds of it on thier bread!

After school that day, Mireille and I went shopping as Mireille had to buy some christmas presents. They have a big shopping centre, like those is Aus, called le Polygon; but i much prefer the little streets with the 'boutiques', as they are called here.

Yesterday I had my first pain au chocolate - it was yummy! The croissants here are way better than at home - really light and fluffy! Then i went to Spanish (they only speak Spanish, i didn't understand a thing - i think once for the experience but not again!) and Physics, where they were studying the conservation of energy, something we have already done, so i understood it all! yay! After lessons we returned home for lunch (very european thing to do) and then i visisted the giant library just out of town with Claire.

Am understanding a bit more French now but my own sentences are still very rudimentary - am trying to fix that!! Hope everything is well

trop de histoire

Too much history!! Yesterday my host family took me to 'la cite de carcassonne'. It is a large walled in town from the middle ages. getting there, we drove for about 2 hours and thqt whole time the countryside on both sides as for as the eye could see were vines - no wonder they make so much wine. The Cite was all very interesting and some of the architecture was amazing as were the views - i took lots of photos. There was a bit of historic information en anglais but with trying to understand the tour guide and everything, not much sunk in; But it was a good day out - and the weather was really nice - the sun came out!! Today is Monday so I will be going to school with Mireille, i think something has beenorgqnised for all the exchange students; hope everyone is well - post comments to let me know what is happening in other pqrts of the world!!

C'est bon!

I have found that this is a very useful phrase for when you don't want any more food. So, yesterday school was ok, i didn't understand much of what the teacher's or Mireille's friends said though - they all talk very very fast. (like me but in french - i now know how frustrating it is) We went to geography, which was interesting, and maths which was impossible to understqnd and as it went for 2 hours, kind of boring. But at school i saw Issy for a brief second, and Enzo and Laure - it was nice to tqlk to all of them! After school, Mireille's parents - Claire et Laurent - took me for the grand tour of Montpellier, which was very thoughtful as now i almost know my way around (and i have a map!) Today we are going for a drive somewhere, i will write about it later. salut!

France!!

Finally qfter weeks of counting dozn qnd making lists etc. we qre here in frqnce!! Sorry for spelling mistakes, the keyboard is crqzy; So, the flight was quite uneventful apart from some rushing at Paris - the airport at CDG really is impossible to navigate. My family is tres gentile and the qpqrtment in the centre of montpellier is very cute - it has heqps of character. This morning i am going to school with Mireille, school on a saturday - can you imagine? hope everyone in aus and everywhere else is well, i will try qnd remember to keep posting. a bientot!

Singapore!!

Hi Everyone!! We managed to get a computer with free internet at Singapore. Our flight to Paris is just starting to board. The flight from Melbourne was ok - but long - i can't imagine what the next one will be like. The food wasn't too bad and we had in-flight movies, but they stopped working halfway through the flight. We were all sitting together which was good. Anyway, must go... so hot here. Yuck! Will post after i arrive in Montpellier...