Not good.

So i have just come out of 1 and a half weeks of holiday...my last ever holidays here in France before i leave...got me thinking that i leave Angoulême in exactly 26 days from now:( Not cool! But at the same time it is really cool cos it means i can get back to everyone back home, which i am really excited about. Its gna be so wierd tho seeing everyone again after such a long time being away from them, like seeing how people have changed, or how theyve stayed the same, seeing all the changes made around the town, seeing changes around my house (eg. new people living in it who i have never met before!!! haha :p), it just will be so wierd. And i don't know why but i think i may be a little tiny bit nervous about coming home haha how strange is that.
I will miss france, i know that. I was thinking about it the other day, and im just gna miss everyone coming to me at the last minute saying they understood nothing in the english homework, gna miss the hello kisses everyday that have become an automatic reaction now for me (will try carry on the trend in palmy, even though i know people will look at me awkwardly lol), theres just so much stuff that ive gotten used to here, that im gna miss so much! 26 days is gonna go so fast, so im gna try not to think about the fact that i have to leave soon, and gna try do as much as i can before i leave.
I dropped my laptop a couple of weeks ago too, and now it wont start up, so yeah, that really sucks. Atleast it means i cut down on my computer time which can only be a good thing? I thought id be so lost without it, but its not actually as bad as i thought itd be haha. Ive been occupying myself when theres nothing else to do, by drawing pictures. I drew a picture at the start of the year (in classes i didnt understand) and friends saw it and asked me to do them pictures too, and then more people see and want pictures so yeah, im trying to draw people pictures before i leave! haha. And i liek it tho cos i miss not having art as a subject here, unlike last year where i was having to draw or paint a picture nearly every weekend! So this kinda fills in the gap.
Oh yeah, and one more thing before i finish.
Im broke. Like outclean. And it sucks. Alot. Going into town with no money is self torture, and at the end of the year when i want to buy everyone presents, well, as the french say << ça fait chier!>> .

Chocolaterie "Letuffe" = heavennnnn!

The best chocolatier we have discovered so far.

Mmmmm...

Okay so avec Amelia, we have a mission to go hunt down all the best patissières, chocolateries, all the french-food-aries in town !

We went to town the other day and bought fresh, home made Macaroons (like a french delicacy! very delicious, but very pricy.) from a little patiserrie in Angoulême. I hadn't realised how many chocolateries, patissières etc. there were here! Which is where our new fav hobbie came from.We then set an actual day to go food shopping which we will do tomorrow haha which means i probably wont be able to eat all of this weekend. But thats okay, it'll be worth it !

Prof de Philo.

Just thought i'd add a link of something about my philosophy teacher. He's really into his job, and kinda of shows off all the time, so lots of people immediately disliked him cos he acted like he was the best there was.

It wasn't till someone googled his name that we found out he actually knew what he was talking about...(will have to translate page, or google translate^^)

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Boisnard

La Rentrée

Okay, so, it has been so long since i last wrote, and so so much has happened since. I went to Rome with Aunty Awerangi and Uncle John, where we saw the Vatican City, St Peters Basilica, Sistine Chapel, The colloseum, the catcacombs, pompeii city, almafi coast and so much more ! i had sooo much fun there, it was really hot everyday (it was 41°C when we went to the vatican and that was in the morning! i got the bloodiest nose in my life as a result just as coming out of the basilica, so low key awkward when guards and other tourists would just stare at me sitting there trying to clean blood off of me.) We stayed in the centre of Rome in a motel, where we had drinks on the roof top bar and restaraunt every night (which of course, had the handsome, smooth talking italian waiter, who yes indeed, smooth talked me too! haha. the fact that uncle john and aunty awerangi didnt seem to be an issue for him!) We ate loooots of pasta, looots of pizza, and loooots of gelato every day! Sooo good!

After Italy, i went to spend a few days in Paris with Fanny, as her grandparents live there so we stayed there. I was welcomed at the train station by fanny and Hélène, and also by a full on fight in the train station involving atleast 6 grown men, yelling and chasing another grown man with long bits of jagged wood and baseball bats, gang bash, blood everywhere. Luckily (i use the word lightly) there had been an attempt to bomb a train station somewhere within the week, so there were troops of soldiers walking around everywhere in Paris with all ther guns and everything, so they were there to break up the battle. Any way, we did loooots of shopping ! went to the louvre museum (not into the actual museum, but inside the building. got inside and the line was too long.), saw the eiffel tower light up by night, sprinted thru the metro trying to catch the right one! The metro was where we had the most fun now that i think about it. We saw exhibitions at different museums in Paris, went and got a good taste of Paris night life, and just had so much fun !

During the rest of the holidays we did even more camping! One time to an island called "L'Ile de Ré" where young people our age would all gather on the beach everynight for a bonfire and drinks, without setting a time or place or being in contact with each other, we'd just go down to the beach and everyone would follow the flame of the bonfire. The old school way of meeting people! The other time we went camping was to a place called "Fouras", where it was just me and Fanny. Our camping spot was not ideal, it seemed as if we were plonked right in the middle of the surrounding peoples back yards. But we got used to it. There were a couple of guys our age staying in a tent not far from ours, so we got talking with them and just hung out with them, went to town, etc, which was cool!

The rest of the holidays was cool, did so much but there is too much to write about it all!

The first day of school was about 2 weeks ago, and my class is pretty much the same as last year except for a few changes. There is another boy in the class who moved from another school who is Irish, and has been living here for 7 years, so i can speak english with him too. And then there is another exchange student from America who arrived at the start of last week, and on her first day i asked her if she wanted to come hang out with us kinda thing cos she didnt know anybody, and shes really cool. It felt good to be able to talk about stuff with another english speaking girl my age like that! But we try to talk in french as much as we can still, but yeah its good to have someone to talk to in my own language! The classes are alot easier this year, i can see that ive made alot of progress over the summer holidays, because i understand everythign the teachers are saying, i can even take all my own notes like even when they dictate and everything. And i even did a essay in philosophy. (even tho i didnt anwser any of the given questions but still, i did something !)

But yeah, i think ive summed up everything so far, i will try and keep a regular update from now on! My time has gone sooo fast here, i only have like less that 3 months here:/ To be honest, im not ready to leave. I dont want to leave just yet, i want to stay just a little bit longer, things seem like theyre starting to get even better !

Fun Camping.

Yesterday we got back from a weekend camping, and it was such a cool weekend we had so much fun! the camping spot was just out of a small village called Aubeterre, which is classed as one of the prettiest towns in France. The camping grounds were pretty cool, we pitched our tent right at the back right next to the river, and then we had a view of a dam and the artificial beach too. We also had a couple of Dutch neighbours who were real cool, they invited us over to their tent for little nights out with them it was fun. The first day we got there we just pitched up our tent and sorted out our stuff, then went spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach, and then went in to town to grab a drink at the bar. Got back and it was hot, so went for an evening swim which was better cos there was no one else there just us and our neighbours. They were jumping off the little dam so we wanted to go try, and i sliped and fell off instead of jumping off and fully thought i was gna drown haha but i managed, and then after that Fanny and Amélie were too scared to go down but the dutch guys were like come on its easy well help you and so they did it and i wanted to do it without drowning this time so i went and did it again and they helped me not drown haha and then we started talking and stuff and then thats how we made friends with them haha. That night we spent it at their tent, and then the next morning i woke up to go toilet only to find an old man fishing right outside our tent. What a lovely suprise. Then the next day we went and did a visit of the town and went to an underground church, which is reeeeeally old and was entirely carved out from inside a big boulder, it was pretty cool. That night we went to town again to the bar to watch the world cup finals and got there and the pub was packed as, so we spent ages tryna get a drink, got our drinks and just listened from outside behind all the crowd and then left cos gt sick of not seeing anything. The next day we packd up our tent and got ready to go canoeing, but had to leave all our stuff with Milo and Thomas cos we couldnt carry it al to the canoeing place. And then we did a 2 hour canoe trip and it was pretty fun, crashed into the bank loads but it was okay, and then there was a group of little kids who caught up to us and decided to all gang up on us and splash water at us, and driving us into the bank at the same time. Got back to the starting point, and then on the way back i wanted to jump off the bridge like the boys were doing. So i got myself on the edge of the bridge, and realised how high the birdge actually was, so got nervous as and tried to trick myself into jumping. Then the girls were all like go just jump dont think about it and then they made me nervous cos they started counting so i told everyone to shut up so i could think haha, and then this man came over looking all worried and was like you know you dont have to do it if you dont want to and im like yeah i know i want to do it im just scared haha. And then, i looked up and realised i had a full on crowd at on the river bank watching me all waiting for me to jump so im like great now i have to jump i cant chicken out infront of all these people haha. So then like after 10 mins of standing there being watched i jumped, and it wasnt even scary haha so did it again. And yeah then that night we came home.

Oh and also, there were soooo many english people there, like most of them were english, and then when we were at the beach once we were tanning and then these english people about 15 year olds come over by us and were talking to eachother, thinking that we were all french including me, and were in the middle of talking about me. One of the said "is that who i think it is?" so i looked at them and they were looking at me, and then another one goes "yeah thats her, the one with the tattoo." i looked over at them and fully felt like saying "you do realise i speak english and underdstand what your saying?" but yeah i just gave them a dirty look everytime they stared at me. haha.

But tomorrow we are leaving to go to Auvergne, the family farm, for 4 nights, then on Sunday im going to Italy for 4 days, and then after that i catch the train up to Paris for 3 or 4 nights and then come home, gna be a busy couple of weeks!

SUMMER !

Its finally summer time in Angoulême! The days are long and hot, thank god we have a pool so spent the day in. Summer here is so so soooo hot! Most days are 30°C or over, tomorrow its supposed to be 35°C! Im definatley making the most of the weather tho, getting black! haha.

Um so yeah summer means summer holidays which means 3 months of holidays which means dont go back to school till september. The year has gone so fast already, ive done nearly 6 months, less than 5 more to go. Have been shopping my heart out seeing as sales are on (very good sales might i add), but am going to control myself and wait till i go to Italy with Aunty Awerangi (in 12 days to be exact) and then going to Paris when i get back so am going to save money and suitcase space for that! I am definately gna start sending stuff back home soon cos no way am i leaving any of my new stuff here at the end of the year! haha.

On saturday we are going camping, at a camping ground about 50 mins away, and its right by the beach so well be spending sat and sunday at the beach and campground (me, Fanny, Mélanie et Amélie) and then on the monday we will be doing a 4 hour canoeing trip! Shouold be fun. Then on tuesday we are leaving to go to Nathalie(host mum) s family farm thing for 4 days, then i leave for Italy.

The other night i went to have dinner with some people i met, Nelly (englih lady met her ages ago), and a couple, Elvana, (who is greek), David, (who is french), and Jason (there little sone who is just over 1 yr old) and it was cool! theyre really nice, and Jason is soooooo cute he is the only little kid that ive met since ive been here and i love him! haha His parents were telling me how crazy it was the way he follows me and looks and smiles and wants to play with me all the time haha i love it cos i miss being around little kids so yeah, he has all my attention! Hope theyll need a baby sitter sometime soon:)

Oh! And i dont know for sure, but i think i might be fluent in French? People ask me and ask me if im fluent ad im like no not yet, but then ive heard my family tell people im fluent now so it made me ask my self how am i suppodsed to know when im fluent? I can understand every thing and can reply fine, but its just the vocab that i dont understand sometimes? So yeah i dont know if that means im fluent or not. And i dont like speaking english either. Stutter too much.