Last Post

Better put your sound on for this one... Click here (music to accompany blog-reading)

My final week in Loudun!

Rotary presentation night

I did my Rotary presentation a week and a half before I left, everyone loved all my photos and said what a great exchange student I was and how I'm welcome back anytime - I absolutely LOVED my Rotary club, every single person was super nice to me and I'm really lucky to have ended up there!

Typical French. A foie gras (goose liver) burger.

 For those who haven't seen it in the flesh, here's my GLORIOUS BLAZER!

On my last day of school, my school had a little goodbye party for me - complete with food and presents! - where they thanked me for being a cool Australian and I said thanks for putting up with me. The principal is really nice and all the teachers let me off homework all year so I'm pretty grateful! I had a good time at school with all my friends, even though it's a billion hours long...!

Receiving my present from school - a 2.5kg French dictionary, perfect for an overflowing suitcase

A group of my friends from school :)

 That night, I went and had dinner (for the last time!) with my first host family to say goodbye. I love them an awful lot, they're really generous and amazing and I'll admit I had a little cry when I left!

Sylvie and Frederic Baylart, my first host parents

On Wednesday arvo I played handball with the school team (they were short for numbers and this was the final!) and we WON! So this means in March the team will play against another department (sort of like a state, that's how France is divided up politically/geographically) and hopefully win the Coupe de France!

Handball finale (I'm the one in the orange shoes looking like an idiot)

Final Rotary meeting - my whole club (minus a few absentees)

Rotary even gave me a goodbye present - some lovely French perfume and... 3 bottles of wine! So that night, I was repacking my suitcase for the third time, this time with Jade's help... thank god she knows how to pack properly!

Limit of 30kg... getting worried

After Rotary my second and third host families took me to our favourite restaurant in Loudun for a final French pizza. I really felt like part of the family with them, life is going to be strange not seeing these three girls every day!

Catherine, me, Marie-Anne and Jade

The next morning, a sad day... we had to leave the house around 8 to get the train into Paris from Tours, which went straight to Charles de Gaulle airport.

This was no easy task.

The final verdict.

Driving to the train station - it was -5°C!

On the train to Paris - of COURSE there was snow. Right where I couldn't roll around and play in it. No fair.

I checked in, walked to the gate, and realised I had to say goodbye to Jade and Marie-Anne, my host family of 7 months. It was strange, like I wasn't actually saying goodbye to them, just a "see you later!" sort of goodbye. Naturally I had a bit of a cry and so did they (I think so, but my eyes were a bit blurry). It was hard, but despite all the looks behind me and hundreds of waves, I managed to walk away from my family, and this country I'd grown to love, where I'd lived and learnt so many things during just one short year.

Leaving France. Au revoir, mais c'est pas adieu.

After a long 6 hour flight from Paris to Dubai on my own (I couldn't figure out where the stupid TV was until 3 hours into the flight!), and a highly entertaining flight from Dubai to Perth with 15 other exchange students from my district who were coming home from Europe and South America, we got into Perth... hearts pumping, sweating palms - it was time to see our FAMILIES again! Would they remember who we were? What we looked like? Would they even remember to pick us up from the airport...?

"We are beginning our descent into Perth..."

Perth face!

Then came the big moment... after we'd found our bags, come through customs, were walking out of the terminal... FAMILY HITS YOU IN THE FACE! Literally hit me in the face, because my sister and I did a move-like reunion which pretty much moved a few bystanders to tears. As I walked out of the gate I didn't even have time to search for their faces because the first thing I see is Bronwyn elbowing people out of the way as she runs towards me, jumps over the barrier, and I throw away my baggage trolley and we run and hug and both burst into tears!!!!! It was so emotional and everyone around us went, "awwwww..." Needless to say, it was good to be back.

No comment on the red eyes...

Plane buddies from all around the world with our beautiful blazers!

Aaaand a nice family photo

As soon as I got home I ran straight outside to see my dog, so somehow I missed this fabulous welcome home poster...

Actual size: A  bit bigger than a sticky note

First dinner back home: a proper Australian barbeque! YEAH!

Coming home feels like a huge chunk of my life has been removed from my memory, and I've returned from somewhere but have no recollection of it. I have enough souvenirs (and that much less money in my bank account) to prove it, but exchange feels like a dream that I've just woken up to, and I can't quite believe that I'm back, even a week later.

Reunited with my boyfriend at last!

...who'd been thinking about me all year thanks to the new poster on his kennel

This is my final blog post, obviously, and I'm not going to even to try and summarise my entire year because that would take AT LEAST three more blog posts. All I can say is that I had an unforgettable, incredible, life-changing, eye-opening, mind-boggling (hphen-ated) experience. 2012 is my favourite year of my life (to date), and as much as 2013 tries to take over it's going to be a tricky one to beat.

My only advice is to travel, to do an exchange, to 100% immerse yourself in a culture so different from your own that you feel like an alien, because only then can you experience how great life can be, and how richly diverse and vast the world really is. The connections I have with people who know people who I know, who have friends who are friends with my friends (etc.) show that the world really is a small place - but travelling is the only way to open it up! My mind is so open it's about to fall out. Do it. Be open-minded and go somewhere crazy and different and unique, learn a new language, meet people from all across the globe, try weird foods (slight emphasis on foods but you know me well enough by now) that turn out to be delicious, go out into the world and do it!

I have a month of holidays (oh, woe is me) until uni starts (ie. real life), so I'm going to have to set aside travelling for a while and maybe actually learn something.

Thanks everyone who's followed my blog this year, I'm still not quite sure why you all love it so much but that's fine! Merci et adieu!

Happy New Year!

This year I celebrated new year in a cave. Like a wine cave, which is where people have parties. It's not just a hole in the ground, it's a MASSIVE underground room and people put speakers in there, tables of food, whatever! We had a massive dance party and yelled "BONNE ANNEE!" at midnight!

The cave

Me and Canadian exchanger Victoria and one of her friends

Have also spent 2 days in Blois, a town not far from us, with Victoria and Emilio (because Emilio lives there).
Had a look around the town with all the pretty Christmas lights!

Tori and Emilio

Maison de la magie (the house of magic)

The maison de la magie - magic meaning magic tricks, not Harry Potter magic - is about a guy named Houdin whose name was copied by Harry Houdini. Basically, this French guy inspired Houdini and this building is full of magic. Unfortunately, it was closed while we were there so I never got to go in.

Cathedral of Blois

Jeanne d'Arc statue

 Saw the chateau de Blois the next day:

Chateau de Blois

Saturday morning I managed to wake myself up to get the train at 7 to go to... DISNEYLAND!!! I met 2 of my Australian best friends (who I'd met on bus trip) there and we spent the day in the happiest place on earth. Bliss! And so much fun!

Pirates of the Carribean

Alice in Wonderland maze

Space Mountain!

The beautiful Disney castle

It SNOWED! (With the help of a snow machine)

No words are needed for Disneyland, only photos.

Goodbye Disney, time to go...

Back to school this week - final week! This means flag signing, lots of photos, and the giving out of koalas...

I'm dreaming of a white CHRISTMAS!

Yes, dream on, because it RAINED at Christmas. For the first time in my life, I had a RAINY CHRISTMAS. I wanted snow so badly!

Real deal maple syrup! Sooooo goooood!!

Victoria (Canadian who lives 20 minutes from me) stayed over for a couple of nights and helped me make a mountain of lamingtons as presents for all the families I was going to for Christmas! We also had Canadian pancakes for breakfast with amazing maple syrup, yuuuum.

We are a LAMINGTON MACHINE.

Loudun even had a little Christmas market for the weekend, with gooses running everywhere, free ice-skating, stalls selling local produce and stuff like that, and also (best of all) a waffle shop!

Sheep dog (goose dog?)

Ice skating!

The town hall (and decos)

Pony rides

Mulled wine

We even got free fouées and mulled wine because Rotary was running a stall! Mulled wine is amazing, warms up the soul...

Santa giving out lollies in the street (though we nearly ran him over cos he wouldn't get off the road)

Christmas #1! Starting early, the 23rd. Chez Jacques, a member of Loudun Rotary Club. He has a massive house not far from Loudun, and nearly all of his children and grandchildren were there, plus me, so we had 19 at the table. Not bad!

Crackers with crappy toys and bad jokes are international

Here's a weird cultural difference: in France, instead of sharing your cracker with the person next to you or whoever, everyone does the cracker with THEMSELVES! Just one hand on each end. I got so confused when we started doing crackers, why was everyone being so selfish...? But apparently that's normal.

Foie gras...goose liver. French guilty pleasure #59830524

This was the first Christmas, or just the first day of my life, where I'd eaten "sanglier". That's wild boar. WILD BOAR CHRISTMAS LUNCH, OH YEAH!

Wild boar - and it was pretty good, too!

The thing about traditional French Christmas lunches... is that they last FOR HOURS. We started around 1, finished a bit before 5pm? I don't remember what Australian Christmasses are like so I can't compare (that's another worrying thing... can't remember anything about Australia. Hmm).

Fromage (one of two plates, we need more choice than THAT, it's Christmas!)

Christmas lunch order: Nibblies. Foie gras. Oysters (if there are any). Main course, meat and veggies. Cheese. Dessert (usually a Christmas log - is that called a Yule Log or something?). Coffee/tea to finish off. And all of this takes AT LEAST 4 hours.

Pony rides in town

Ready for Christmas dinner that night

Jacques and Brigitte Deram, whose house I was at

Chez Candela/Turlais

Christmas #2! This one was at my current host family's house, with Marie-Anne, Jade, Catherine, Gina and Sylvain (other 2 host siblings who don't live at home). It was also Christmas Eve! It was pretty low-key (like any other Christmas Eve I've had, normality can be good), we just had heaps of platters of nibblies-type food, then when we were stuffed so full no one could eat anymore, we had a break and did present-giving!

Gildas, my oldest host brother, is in Germany so we skyped him and gloated
about having Christmas as a family while he was all alone, poor thing!

Serving the homemade Christmas log

Christmas #3! On Christmas day (after skyping with the fam in the morning, naturally) I was at the Rotary club president's house, with his children/grandchildren. Now THIS was a long lunch - with foie gras, oysters, l'oie aux marrons (goose with chestnuts), une buche, the whole shebang!

There was a big ceremony of present-giving before the meal, while we were having nibblies.

Then it was OYSTER TIME. I would like to just add that normally... I don't eat oysters. Just looking at them is enough to put me off. Everyone asked me if I liked oysters, and I was was kind of like, "I'll...try them...?" I ended up eating THREE. I ATE THREE OYSTERS, EVERYONE. Obviously there was no way I was finishing my plate of TEN like everyone else (14 at the table, 10 oysters per person, times that by how many Christmas lunches were happening in France... they eat a lot of oysters here), but I was pretty proud of myself for managing that many. Spread the word, everyone.

Oysters upon oysters upon oysters...

This log (it's called a "buche", sounds much better than a log) wasn't homemade like the others but it's was pear and caramel-flavoured and deeeeelish.

A couple of days ago I went and visited my first host family (Sylvie was working and nothing special happening at Christmas for them, according to her) with some presents (lamingtons!) and had a good catch up. Amazingly, the WHOLE family was at home together, that's usually impossible because both kids don't live at home anymore and Fred's always working. So that was really nice.


I know it seems like I go on and on about the food, I LIKE FOOD OKAY! But it's just so incredible here, food's something I'm really going to miss (among other things, of course). Speaking of missing things... I leave in less than 3 weeks now, things seem to be speeding up this side of Christmas. Am taking everyone opportunity to travel places and see people so I don't have time to think about how soon I'm leaving!