A biggish update

Well, well, well. Two months in France! As many times as I've looked the wrong way crossing the road cos the cars drive on the WRONG SIDE, I have NOT yet died or had an accident. Good news!

We'll start with the most important thing here... FRENCH TOAST!

A few weeks back, my Rotary club (Rotary Club of Loudun) organised a "Salon du Chocolat" as a fundraiser. I got SUPER EXCITED because I thought this meant that I could sit in a room for 10 hours with my face in a chocolate fondue machine - THIS IS NOT WHAT IT WAS, much to my disappointment. It was actually lots of local businesses (not just chocolate - wine, biscuits, macarons, cognac!) who were giving out samples - people go in and taste stuff and buy it if they like it.

Don't get me wrong, there WAS chocolate there!
Ie. the GENIE FROM ALADDIN!

By the end of the day, I ended up being initiated into an old and official Loudunois society - this is  a really big honour for Loudunois folk, so I am proud to say that I am a (junior) member of "La Confrérie des Hume-Piot du Loudunois"! In short, La Confrérie is a wine-tasting club, but MUCH more serious. All the members (the NON-junior members, that is) have robes and a hat and (this sounds much more understated than it is...) a teacup on a ribbon. No, it's more like a tiny jug!
But I will treasure it forever and put it on my blazer as soon as I find something strong enough to keep on there (so probably never, cos it's so heavy).

The Loudunois jug (red and blue are the Loudun colours
and that's the town crest).

I should mention what happened at the actual ceremony - one of the members of my Rotary club mentioned that "they have a SURPRISE for me!" early in the day. I secretly hoped that they were going to give me the huge chocolate genie...but no cigar. Then this huge ceremony began on the stage during the salon, with drums banging and all these people in ROBES! I got a bit freaked out when they made me go on stage in front of all these people, but hey! There's a light at the end of every tunnel! The "test" to get into the club was to taste some the Hume-Piot's wine (or whoever's it was) from this ENORMOUS glass. It was about as big as my HEAD, although the photos are a bit too fuzzy to tell - you'll just to trust me. I said (being a good little Rotary exchange student) "only a little bit!" because I didn't really want to swig what would be about a quarter of a bottle's worth of wine and go staggering off stage. I needn't have worried though. I'll admit, I'm not a big wine drinker, but THAT WINE was the BEST THING I have EVER TASTED. I am DEFINITELY taking a bottle home with me (and not to share)!

THAT is how big the wine glasses were!

http://www.confreriedeshumepiot.com/ - official website! You can change the language at the bottom of the page.

Signed my name (in BLUE QUILL, I might add) - I'm IN!

Next weekend we haaaaave...DISNEYLAND! THE HAPPIEST PLACE IN THE WORLD!!!!

Testing out the awesome hats

The queues were ENORMOUS but the rides were really really really GREAT!!! We had to wait around an hour for each ride but entertained ourselves (and the people around us) with TWO HARMONICA PLAYERS!!

Joseph and Ingrid busking in line at the Star Wars ride

Obviously I'd already met Mariana before, because she invited me to Disneyland in the first place (see how saying "yes!" is so good! You get to go to Disneyland with awesome people!), but I got to meet two other students from my district (Joseph and Ingrid, mutual love of harmonica) AND a student (Juan Pablo) who wasn't actually on exchange with Rotary (another program) but was staying with my district co-ordinator who organised the trip. Cool, eh?

I don't know what else I can say about Disneyland!!!! It was terribly good fun. I bought the COOLEST souvenir EVER. I assume you're all familiar with the Disney movie Ratatouille...?

BON APPETIT! I will wear this hat whenever I cook!

THE DISNEY CASTLE!

 Last weekend was the 1720 DISTRICT CONFERENCE! That meant that I got to meet all the other students in my district AT LAST! There are 17, including me. It was held at Fontevraud Abbey (only 15 minutes from my house) which I HAVE already been to, in case you missed that blog post. I don't blame you, it was short and a bit boring. I did buy a pin though, which was a highlight!

I thought there'd be a handful of people there at the most, maybe 100? No. There were 500 ROTARIANS that turned up! But whereas they had to sit through a day of speeches and exciting stuff like that, us studentios practiced our sketch for Annecy (all the exchangers in each district have to perform a skit/dance/whatever to everyone else next weekend) and had a look around the Abbey.

Joyeux anniversaire Josefina! As you can see, it was her BIRTHDAY.

So that was a fun day! It was just a day. Saturday, in fact.

Driving home we found the Nuclear Power Plant... next to the CREMATORIUM?!

Next up: BIKE RIDING IN THE COUNTRY 101

Sylvie (host mum) and her friend (I was riding behind being official photographer...
and because my bum hurt from not riding a bike in MONTHS)

You know you're in the country when...

...YOU FIND COWS AROUND THE CORNER FROM YOUR HOUSE!

Aaaaand remote-control car races?

Took refuge at Catherine's place for a while, managed to catch a lift with her to Marie-Anne's house and had a skype with Jade! No bike-riding for me, MWAHAHAHA.

This was ALL planned beforehand, obviously...

So the last couple of weeks have been pretty great! NEXT weekend will be even better - ANNECY!! It's a biggish town in the east of France, where ALL the exchangers in France will be staying for a whole weekend! That's 437 students - in two hotels. Can't wait!
But more on that next post. AU REVOIR FOR NOW!

Nawwwwww...

BUS TRIP WEEK!

Day One

The biggest, most exciting and most fun week yet! And to think, I almost didn't go because I didn't book in time...

PARIS! SPAIN! BACK TO PARIS! Chock-a-block of touristy wonders and best of all, EXCHANGE STUDENTS! I (finally) got to meet 50 amazing people, and share a bus/hotel/air space with them for a whole week. Probably the best week of my life so far.

The whole group (at Versailles)

The trip was for all inbounds in France, with 3 different weeks of the same trip (there are 3 different zones for school holidays in France). I was on the last trip because it fit with my holidays - the biggest one, with 51 students! What I'm trying to say is that all the students came from all over the world and live all over France. There were only 3 newies (arrived in January) and the rest had been in France since August.

The newies: Me (obviously), a girl from Argentina and a girl from Tasmania! First Australian I've met since I arrived.

The idea was for all the students to rendez-vous in Paris, so for me the trip started with a two-hour mini-trip to Paris on the train. Luckily, Wei-Ting (Taiwan) lives a half-hour drive from Loudun so we took the train together. Incidentally, it was also lucky for her because her suitcase was SO SMALL she had to put her shoes in mine.

Here we commence with los fotos stupidos

 Got to Paris Montparnasse with no dramas. Turns out there were 5 students on our train, but in a different section. Had to wait around at the station for three hours for other students' trains to come in but EVENTUALLY we got to go outside into PARIS!! See the architecture, hear the beeping of furious motorists, smell the pigeon poo...



A bagel for the American, naturally. This is Pachin!

Me and Julia! Also American

We drove around the streets of Paris for a while, collecting bus-less exchange students and stray dogs. Then (YIPPEE!) we had lunch in PARIS!

The rest of the day we just had people pointing out famous French landmarks from the bus - we only stopped AT THE EIFFEL TOWER! Well, almost. It was a square which had a perfect view of La Tour Eiffel, which is where everyone does the "look, I'm holding the Eiffel Tower!" photos. I was too cool for that though - I just smiled and said “fromage!”

Me, Evie (Aust), Maggie (Canada), Jackie and Hana (both U.S.)

Saw some (well, A LOT of) people rioting at the Bastille, something to do with politics. As usual.

Not completely sure what this is. The Fred Flintstone of Paris?!

Also saw l'Arc de Triomphe, but never got to get out and have a good look (had a "heated discussion" about whether or not you can CLIMB it...apparently you can. But I won't agree til I've STOOD ON TOP OF THE SILLY THING!)

Arc de Triomphe, surrounded by
lovely little Parisien cars

Also stopped off at Notre Dame so we had a peek inside that! Was pretty cool but we didn’t stay long. Plus, after driving around Paris all day looking at old buildings, they all start to look exactly the same…

Me, Aja (U.S.) and Julia at Sacre Coeur

Walked along the Seine for a while, saw Saint Michel (not COMPLETELY sure what the significance of this was, other than it being a fountain where a man was busking with his piano).

Saint Michel and piano man

Then the trip leaders let us loose to WALK AROUND UNSUPERVISED! So what do you do, alone in Paris? You buy crepes; genuine Parisien crepes, in a paper serviette off the street. (The crepes, not the serviette. Well, they were both off the street but not OFF the street like on the road. Oh English, it’s all too hard.)

Crepes!

The view from Lover's Lock Bridge + Jo and Peter (Taiwan)

Next stop was Lover’s Lock Bridge. I think there are similar bridges all over Paris but this might have been the original as there were locks dated from 50+ years ago. The gist of it is to go to the bridge with your lover, write both your names on a padlock and then lock it onto the bridge. The key goes into the Seine or is similarly hidden so your love lasts forever. It’s such a creative idea!

Also had a quick stop at LE LOUVRE! Got my "touching the pyramid" photo!

Le Louvre!

 That was it for day one (isn’t that enough?!) so we checked in at our youth hostel for our first night. There was a mad rush to exchange pins and business cards...

Lover's Lock Bridge, Paris

This photo reminds me of Madeline. That TV show about the French girl? It's so PARISIEN!

Possibly Pont Neuf... or maybe just another bridge.

Day Two

This is the day I’ve been waiting for since…well, a LOOOONG time. The day I can, at last, see and climb the Eiffel Tower!!! Getting out of the bus and seeing this colossal metal thing towering over my head… well, I was impressed. It’s impressive! I would say that this was the most exciting (in the manner of “I finally get to see the Eiffel Tower after all these years of waiting!” because really the WHOLE trip was exciting) part of the trip.

As soon as I got out of the bus: "QUICK! PHOTO!"

Everyone whipped out their country’s flag and felt a bit patriotic. Then we skipped the queues (only because we were there so early that everyone was still asleep and NOT at La Tour Eiffel on the cloudiest day ever) and took the lift to the TOP (almost). Naturally, we picked a cloudy day where (as you can see from the photos) the top of the tower wasn’t even visible! Tant pis, it was still AWESOME.

The world jumps for the camera

That flag: best $5 I ever spent

The Australians loose in Paris!

For lunch, we splurged at a deli and bought sandwiches for 2 euros (they’re all the rage in Paris). And of course, assorted chocolate for dessert! It’s just so CHEAP! Hurrah! We just had a walk around Paris after that, pretending to be statues and talking to Irish tourists – the usual. Then we were on the road to Versailles for the afternoon!

There are so many carousels in Paris! Why?

The gang at Versailles

The great gardens and not-very-humble abode of Marie Antoinette were at last revealed (even though the Eiffel Tower was a billion times better)! Result: Pretty disappointing, actually… the gardens weren’t really “ready for business” and there were hundreds of gardeners running around the place. The huge ponds in the middle of the garden were emptied of water and instead full of cleaners, scraping away the algae from the pools. Lovely.

Gold, glorious gold!

But there was a still lot to see and I’m sure that in the right season it’s more visit-worthy and, er, clean. On the other hand, her “house” really is incredible! So much gold – and the chandeliers! After Versailles, it was on the bus again for the trek to our youth hostel.

The most reluctant tourist I have ever known.
Sparsh: Why do I want to take photos
of paintings? I can just google them!

At Marie-Antoinette's palace

Day Three

The Louvre! The most famous museum in all the land. Since I’d already got my “I’m touching the top of the Louvre!” photo, it was time to actually go in and say hi to Mona. So we did. Can I just say that that painting is A LOT smaller than anticipated – I feel a bit cheated. So I’m not even going to put a photo up because you all know what Mona Lisa looks like! Or in French: “La Joconde”. Only photos of ME!

Inside the Louvre!

As well as being the most famous museum in all the land, the Louvre must also be the BIGGEST and most extensive. My feet* were numb by the time we got back to the bus, and I didn’t even get to see that armless statue! We couldn’t find him in the maze of ridiculousness!

*Feet, here meaning “lumpy, nerve-less appendages attached to legs”.

Mariana (Mexico), me and Maggie (U.S.)

This day was the beginning of the road trippin’ – 7 hours on a bus, only one toilet break. We stayed the night in some self-contained cabins in I-don’t-know-what-town. Ended up playing late-night volleyball because there was a net in front of our cabin!

The view from a window in the Louvre

Day Four

Next morning we set off for Carcassonne, a town known for its huge fortress and battlements. It was restored in 1853 and now has a shopping arcades, cafes and restaurants within the walls, as well as a tour of the inside of the fortress (which we didn’t see). It was a quirky little place, with shops selling suits of armour, swords, touristy things and those plastic things that spin around when the wind blows (just for fun – not representative of the wind turbines in the area).

Found the biggest Nutella in the world

Found the most terrifying old lady in the world, who luckily wasn't real

And got a photo with a viking!

The fortress of Carcassonne

But Barcelona was calling, a mere 9 hour drive away. So close, yet so far… because it might not look that great a distance when you look at a map, but 9 hours is a long time when you can’t take photos of anything (when you have chronic photographic addictions like me, life can be difficult). Which also explains why I have so many photos of people sleeping.



Carcassonne had massive plate shortages, and
had to resort to using bread instead

It was raining... not very welcoming to begin with but it was warmer than Paris

Later that afternoon, what do we see but A SIGN SAYING “ESPANA”!!! Border crossed, with not a single passport check! I just changed countries and there wasn’t even customs. I love Europe. This is what amazes me – purely because if you want to change countries in Australia, it’s a lot more difficult than it is here.

Drove a tad past the border to get to Lloret de Mar – the hotel of the 1992 Olympics! The hotel even organised a disco for all of us every night and I’m (sort of) proud to say that I know the dance to “Ai Se Eu Te Pego”! If you don’t know this song, google it. It’s huge in Europe at the moment!

Day Five

The day began with a museum visit – do they never end?! This one was called MNAC (translated to “National Art Museum of Catalonia”). Everything in Barcelona had 3 translations: Spanish, English and Catalan; the language of the Catalonia region in Spain that includes Barcelona. It’s (apparently, not that I understood) only slightly different to Spanish but different enough to be declared a whole new language and not just a dialect.

The view from out the front of MNAC

But after the museum we visited CAMP NOU! It’s the soccer stadium in Barcelona, seems to be pretty important. As a footy fan (that’s AFL, not football/soccer), I didn’t really understand the significance behind the trophy collection (which was INSANE! Soccer must be pretty one-sided in Barcelona) but I appreciated the passion. The stadium is HUGE, with three tiers of seats and a VIP section… but the field itself? (We got to walk down to the very bottom of the stadium and stand on the edge of the pitch.) I had no idea that soccer fields were so SMALL! This is exactly why I prefer AFL – soccer is a walk in the park (or should I say… a FIELD! And not a very big one!) compared to footy. So a bit of patriotism escaped there; I must learn to rein it in. Bit of advice about being in the right time and place: don’t say “Aww, the field’s tiny, isn’t it? I thought it’d be MASSIVE! Soccer players are pretty wussy.” in front of the frothing, rabid soccer fans at Camp Nou.

Inside Camp Nou

Only the biggest soccer fans anyone could hope to find! Pachin, Aja, Evie, Mariana, Me, Sparsh

You know, what I love about Barcelona (apart from the super-cheap shopping) is the architecture! Which is a nerdy and touristy thing to say, so let me redeem myself. I like all the cool buildings that are all over Barcelona – there are colourful towers, mosaic façades, street art and interesting sculptures that I’m sure MEAN something, but I don’t know what. They just look nifty and modernise the whole city. There’s heaps to look at and that makes me appreciate the effort that’s gone into all the art.

Washing everywhere!

But enough of that! We walked around Barcelona, buying pins and souvenirs and presents (don’t get your hopes up, people of Australia, I’m not exactly made of money…unless you send it to me) and enjoying the freedom. That’s another reason why this trip was so great – the independence! Every day we had at least one chance to go off with our friends and do what we wanted for a while. In my case, our saunters were highly worthwhile – having lunch after Camp Nou (today), we found an abandoned dog! He knew “sit” in three different languages, so we ended up feeding most of our lunch to him because it was more entertaining than eating it ourselves… oh, and we named him Pancho.

A day in Barcelona

No you can't have my biscuit! Pancho looooved Sparsh

Day Six

HAPPY SAGRADA DAY! The internationally-unrecognised holiday which marks the day that Jo Smith saw the Sagrada Família for the first time. It was pretty magnificent, I have to admit. Although I only realised when we got there that this was the ACTUAL Sagrada Família – we’d been to a big cathedral the day before and I thought that was a bit of a let-down considering all the hype… so I’m relieved to say that the REAL Sagrada was much better.

The Taiwanese exchangers managed to find some fellow Taiwanese people
outside the Sagrada! So they all had a photo together.

And we had our OWN Taiwanese-style photo! Woo!

Well, I think everyone would rather see a bus than the most visited attraction in all of Spain.

This was also the day that we had a tour guide for the WHOLE DAY who stayed on the bus with us and blabbed on about art and Dali etc. It might have been interesting if I knew anything about art, or even how to understand enough French to know what she was talking about. Which I didn’t. After La Sagrada (as it is now affectionately known to us Spaniards), we had a squiz in a church with about thirty different, um, praying stations? There was at least one for each religion, or maybe each branch of Christianity because there are so many religions under that umbrella. This church was HUGE and really ornate.

Group on the hill!

Went to another church/courtyard after that (with the guide still rabbiting on about nothing – I have to admire her perseverance though, to try and get 51 hyperactive, sleep-deprived teenagers to settle down and listen to a speech about art) and then FINALLY we got let off the leash to scavenge ourselves some lunch – at the beach! Me and my chums ended up being proper Spaniards and ordering tapas (tiny food from Spain!) from a restaurant overlooking the beach. Menu: mussels, the best paella I’ve ever tasted (and probably will ever taste, pending future Spain trips) and crème brûlée.

The cathedral that I (stupidly) thought was Sagrada Familia...

Beachside restaurant for lunch! Shame about
the fern, but there is an ocean there

Had to sprint back to the bus (I won't even tell you how the tour guide nearly burst a blood vessel cos she was so furious) because we had the slowest waiter in the WORLD…and then we found the HILL! Alright, this hill. Someone told me that there is a hill in Barcelona where you can see the entire city and the ocean and it’s just the most incredible view ever. I don’t remember who you are, but I FOUND THE HILL!!! Actually, it was more like a mountain. La vue était INCROYABLE! Please comment if you told me this! (Dis moi si tu m’as dit ça!)

THE HILL!

View from the hill!

After the incredible hill, we toddled off to Güell Park, a colossal palace thing, every inch of which is either intricately carved or tiled with mosaics. There was even a gingerbread house! This is also a Gaudi production, just like every other building in Barcelona…

Güell Park, Barcelona

Still at Güell Park

After the free-with-every-bus tour guide threatened us with NO SHOPPING OPPORTUNITIES (half the bus turned on her after she revealed that the reason why we hadn’t gone to the shops today was because everyone was talking too much and not listening to her enough), we eventually got dropped off at the shops in Lloret de Mar, the city (an hour’s drive out of Barcelona) where our hotel was. Then it was LATE NIGHT SHOPPING and that much more exciting! I took advantage of low-priced Lloret de Mar and bought a pair of shoes for 9 euros! And I NEARLY bought a sombrero… but resisted. That’ll probably be my only regret in life.

A cool building in Barcelona

Day Seven
D-Day - DALI DAY! Saw his fantabulous museum, definitely the best one of all the museums we visited. His work is just so crazy and outthere and more interesting than just paintings (although there were paintings too). Loved it!

Dali at Dalicatessen

After the museum we had lunch and a poke around the shops – but I have to mention the name of the café/restaurant we went to – it was called DALICATESSEN! So OBVIOUSLY we bought lunch there.

I'm sure you recognise this... again, I'm not putting up hundreds of photos of the Dali Museum because either you know
what it looks like cos you've been there - OR you should just buy a plane ticket and go to Spain to see for yourself.

Then it was BACK on the bus – for around 9 hours. We stayed at the town of Millau (that's in France - goodbye Spain!) for dinner but before we got there, had a quick pit stop to watch the sun go down. There was a beautiful view of the famous Millau Bridge with the setting sun behind it, and the town nestled in a valley right below our feet (we were on a bit of a cliff).

Millau Bridge + sunset

Much fun and games was had at dinner time (see Peter in his hilarious disguise, below) – THE LAST DINNER! Afterwards we were on the bus for the last time and en route to Paris. That was a long night, where I couldn’t sleep at all (for fear of having people taking photos of me while I was sleeping AND because my knees were under my chin). But everyone was pretty quiet (or SNORING) – without a doubt the most quiet we’d been all trip. Unusual…

Mr Napkin Head!

Day Eight

GOODBYE! Aww it was so heart-wrenching watching everyone leave! The bus reached Paris and each group headed for their separate train stations. It only took about an hour and all the texts messages started: “I miss you already!” “Come visit me!” “School is going to be awful!” etc. Although, everyone was being a bit overly dramatic, because there is a COLOSSAL gathering of ALL EXCHANGE STUDENTS IN FRANCE on the 30^th March, where we all meet up again! But I am SO GLAD that I met these wonderful, bizarre, hilarious exchange students who I can now enjoy the company of – FOR THREE MEASLY MONTHS! Before they all leave me in July to deal with the newies!

All I can say is: BEST TRIP EVER! Until October anyway, because on Eurotour I can visit more countries. But ahem, yes, best trip EVER to date!



Au revoir! :(