ANNECY!!!

The weekend every exchange student's been waiting for!! ANNECY!! The actual event was "Journées Rotariennes de la Jeunesse, Annecy 2012" but we just say Annecy - it's a town, by the way, in the East of France. For my district, 7 hours by train cos we had to go via Paris. And then 7 hours back again.

EVERYONE!

The idea was that EVERY exchange student in France (every inbound), plus some Rotarians, spent a weekend in Annecy for a conference. There were 430 students there from 31 different countries. It was INSANE!

My amazingly awesome and wonderful fellow districters - 1720!!!

As soon as all the students arrived at the hotel (one of them, anyway) everyone just ran around screaming and searching for their friends - who we hadn't seen since the bus trip, PRACTICALLY A MILLENIUM AGO!! Then people were swapping pins and business cards, singing national anthems and kissing their flags - MADNESS. Then we had a dance party!

MADNESS! Might not be captured from the photo, but trust me.

Next day, we had a mini-conference about the Olympic Games because Annecy is a candidate for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which is cool. Because it's such a beautiful town - there are (permanently, I think?) snow-capped mountains overlooking  Lake Annecy which is HUGE and actually clean (more than I can say for the Swan River, AHEM). So we were listening to these guys talk for a while, then we climbed a mountain and had lunch. On a mountain, looking at mountains. Drinking mountain water (see below).

The home of Evian! WE FOUND THE MOUNTAINS ON THE BOTTLE!!!

Then we went for a boat ride! A CRUISE, actually. On the lake (not on the mountain). Which was PICTURESQUE and MAGICAL and all that. Here's a photo:

Ahhhhhhh!!!!

Alright, so that's not on the boat. That was on land, before we left. But we took patriotic flag photos while waiting for all 3 boats to arrive!

Me and my Canadian friend Elle pretending to be Australian

AUSTRALIANS! Plus...three extras?

Yep so we were on a BOAT! YEE-HAW!!!! Then we went and walked around the lovely town of Annecy, terrorising the townsfolk and the like.

Standing on the Pont des Amours (why is it that every bridge in France is about LOVE?)

How ROMANTIC!

As you can see, we made it from the boat and onto a bridge. Then we progressed to a PARK! Which wasn't full of people until we got there! WOO!

Yup. There we are. In a park.

Everyone was going CRAAAAZY and waving flags, singing national anthems (and just random national songs), jumping around, taking the same photo with fifty thousand different cameras, etc. So fun.

And because it was such a hot day everyone lined up at this teeny little ice cream stall cos we were all desperate for a delicious french ice cream... but a 300-strong queue doesn't really disappear quickly, especially with only TWO PEOPLE working at the ice cream shop! We waited for about 2 hours. And then as we were about to order, OUR DISTRICT HAD TO LEAVE TO GET THE BOAT BACK TO THE HOTEL!!!!! It was heart-breaking. As we were walking back to the boat, there was another ice cream stall right in front of the harbour bit where you board the boat. Sooooo... BACK IN LINE! Our district organisers were going bananas about being on time and sticking together and futile exercises like that, so we were AN HOUR EARLY anyway! Ergo, we FINALLY got ice cream! HURRAH!

SUCCESS!

Yeah that's the story for today. Ice cream. I HAD TO SAY SOMETHING MUNDANE ONCE IN A WHILE, otherwise you'll all get sick of hearing about all the amazing things I'm doing!!!

Alright, here's a boat photo!

Then we went back to the place we were at in the morning (super advanced language here, also try and keep up if you don't remember where we were this morning) and had DINNER AND A SHOW! ie. the TALENT SHOW!! Each district had to perform a little skit (which we'd practised/invented at Fontevraud the week before) which was GREAT! Most groups did a dance to a song (eg. Ai Se Eu Te Pego or however you spell that STUPID song) but we did a sketch about all the new and weird things in France - eg. whether to do the bisous (and how MANY!) when you meet someone or to shake their hand; the phenomenon that is unisex toilets; answering "oui!" to every question because you don't understand, etc. WE THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY!! But... another group did something similar that was much better.

Then we had another dance party!! With STROBE LIGHTS this time!!!

I can't claim this photo, I didn't take it. But it's great!

OH and before the party there was a flag-waving, very official ceremonial ceremony. A representative from each country carried their flag onto the stage and every went beserk (respectively). Especially for the U.S. - at least HALF of all the exchangers were American, I swear. It's ridiculous - there were less than 20 Australians!!!

Again, not my photo. BUT STILL COOL!

Then we had a crazy fun night where me and my friend didn't actually sleep...and rolled in for breakfast! Gave out the rest of my pins (yeah I only had 50... sorry to those people who didn't get one! Which was most people.) and some more cards and then we were ON THE BUS, LEAVING! Quel horreur.

Train buddies

I just wish the weekend was a WEEK - we needed MUCH more time with that many people there!

As predicted, it was REALLY HARD to wake up in the morning on Monday, at 7am, for school. I kept falling asleep during class and my maths teacher actually laughed at me! Then an economics test... UGHHHH. Am hoping to get AT LEAST 1 out of 20...

The view from my window

Standing on my loverly balcony!

LOVE this photo! Again not mine, but sometimes other people HAPPEN to take, er, better photos than me.