Arrival in the Alps

Basically me the whole time we were driving through the Alps:




On a side note, we've arrived safely and I can't wait to get back into skiing (after 2 years), so wish me luck!

Bisou, Lia

France so far...

France, a set on Flickr.

Welcome to the blog!

Hello, lovely reader! (Yes, that's you!)

      Welcome to my exchange blog/diary/updating thingermajigger. I'm sorry to say that as much as I love chasing you all around with various methods of communication (Skype, email, Facebook, etc) I just can't keep up! Therefore, I've created this blog to ensure everyone gets the same information at the same time, and I can be communicating back home a little less.

      Where to begin? Well, I'll start off with some FAQs. The food here really IS fantastic. I've had my fair share of baguettes, chocolate, croissants...and CREPES with Nutella and whipped cream! No pain au chocolat yet, but no snails either. I'm also always considering new foods, such as monkfish and blanquette de veau (veal stew)... both delicious! Juliette has also discovered I'm rather fond of dessert (mousse, cake, tiramisu, pie) which we don't get very often in Canada!
      I've made several good friends already, and I'm very grateful to those who have taken the time to help me. School isn't too tough... Yet. The teachers are friendly and seem to understand that most of the time I have no clue what's going on. I started my first week of school following Juliette to her classes, but this week I received my own schedule, and (attempted) to navigate the narrow and often crowded hallways on my own. I'm mainly with a class equivalent to Grade 9, but starting in March I'll also be attending a Grade 7 French class. (Can't wait ;) ) I've sat in on a Grade 11 math class (not fun) and others such as art and biology (we looked at the cells of rat...parts under a microscope). I also performed a gymnastics routine with some of my new Grade 9 class friends. Thankfully, I've been exempted from lots of exams/tests, meaning more library time to journal and get to know others, such as some exchange students from New Zealand. Sadly, they're leaving next week, but I'm glad I got a chance to meet them. A new school custom I've discovered is that students can leave for lunch, walking into town or going home and whipping something up. Juliette and I do this every day. I also found out that if a teacher is absent, the class is cancelled! Why can't we have this in Canada? :(
      Speaking of Canada, I've heard it's still far below freezing. My second week here has had beautiful weather (until today, it was chilly) averaging around 8ish degrees. Perfect walking weather, which is great, because we walk EVERYWHERE. As a rural girl, I'm not really used to being so close to town! Natalka (another Canadian girl on exchange) and I enjoy this, as we can go straight downtown for shopping after school! (I found shoes for 10 euros! Yay for being frugal :3 )
      The only real travelling I've done so far is going to the beach, which was beautiful! I somehow managed a 12km walk and took an extensive collection of pictures (available on Facebook). I know everyone is asking about the Eiffel Tower, and sorry to disappoint you, but I probably won't being seeing it until late April, so stay tuned!
     Another great school custom is to have 2 weeks of vacation every 6 weeks. For me this begins tomorrow, and we're heading off to the French Alps! (Final destination indeterminate, sorry Dad.) As you can probably predict, a BUNCH of photos will be available after I get back (in a week), in fact, you probably won't be able to get away from them.
     Some other last minute details... The time zone is 6 hours ahead of Canada (which is why it seems I'm on Facebook at 8am) and yes, speaking is VERY HARD! Fortunately I have a wide variety of wonderful people available to help out. Lastly, thank you to everyone at home who's supporting me, sometimes it gets tough and it's comforting to hear from the people I love!

I'll be updating and posting new stuff on here every few days, and sometimes I'll add SURPRISE content to mix it up. Talk to you soon!

Bisou, Lia

PS. Skype/email etc. available upon request. :)

(My host parents, Marie and Philippe!)