SNOW!!!!

SNOW!!!
That is the word of the week. LA NEIGE!

The backyard after the first lot of snow!

This wasn't my first time seeing snow, but it was the first time I saw it FALLING. And it was proper snow, not just ice. I got to leave school early on Monday (it snowed all day) and didn't even have to go all of Tuesday either!! Love taking advantage of snow days and being an exchange student (not having exams/a rigid timetable).

Therefore, when I got home from school, Caro and I jumped around in the snow for a while!

You might think that Caro looks happy... but it's all for the cameras. She hates the snow/the cold.

And Simon and I had a BATAILLE DE NEIGE (snowfight) with LES BOULONS DE NEIGE (snowballs!)

Action shot! Oh, and I won.

Then we made a snowman (bonhomme de neige). I named him Pascal, in honour of the french stereotype.



Pascal (my beanie looked better on
him than me, unfortunately).




Snowy love




















Oh, and we made snow angels!!




Snow angel 1.0

 And this is me in the snow:

After the snowball fight and angels and snowman building...très happy!

On a less fun note, SNOW IS COLD. It is FREEZING cold, in fact. In my shivery, below-0 state, I've also noticed that there are many inventions in the world - found in France AND in Australia - that are TOTALLY UNNECESSARY in Australia.
- Snow is the reason why heating in cars was invented.
- European cold is the reason why heated towel rails were invented.
- Being this close to Russia is the reason why central heating was invented!

Australia just needs to toughen up and ditch the heated toilet seats.

The next day, Simon and I had a REALLY SERIOUS snow war. My face was burning was cold afterwards cos of all the snow in my eyes. THANK YOU SIMON!

Oh and here are some mini snowmen that Simon and I made to make the fence look pretty.

And of course, the most exciting event of the week...

My first proper (and undoubtably French) CROQUE-MONSIEUR!

This is week was even better than the first, especially at school! With the whole language thing... I mean, I still can't keep up with all the insanely fast talking, but at least all the weird stares have stopped and I've found some awesome friends. Who (I hope) don't mind that I don't contribute much to conversation! Although in a month's time or so I should have picked up enough french (touch wood) that I can act like a normal french person and not the legal, temporary, literate-in-the-wrong-language immigrant that I am.
But I did have an english test on Friday... pretty sure I aced it. Or at least did super-amazingly.




Crêpes dure!

On the 2nd February, France celebrates "jour des crêpes" (a.k.a. Chandeleur) where everyone eats crêpes for every meal! Well, I didn't eat them for EVERY meal... but a few. At Rotary, one of the members is a boulanger and he and his wife made a basquillion crêpes for dinner. For the uninitiated, there are two types of crêpes - the normal ones that you know, like pancakes, and crêpes dure (deep-fried squares of crêpe pastry with heaps of sugar sprinkled on top). Consumed several thousand over the space of two days (somehow, there were leftovers).




The tower...of Loudun!

 Had a cold but lovely two-hour stroll around Loudun with Sylvie yesterday to see the town - we went everywhere man.

The view over Loudun... the camera will never be able to do it justice, unfortunately.

SNOW! Not a lot of cars on the road either.

And this morning...it snowed again! Everything looks so lovely all snowy and white and amazing. I love snow. Tra lala lala.

Simon had some fun writing in the snow...(in case you can't tell, he's written the names of
the whole family plus me and Caro's boyfriend in a big heart)

SO! An eventful and culturally-insane week! Am certain that this week will be EVEN BETTER!!!