City of Lights and Love

My goodness I have a lot to tell you all about.

So I have been back in Pau for a few hours, I got back at midnight last night (the train was delayed four hours!). Paris was unbelievable. Normally I try not to get my hopes up about things like that, I tried to expect Paris to be a little disappointing and not really all that I had hoped for, but it really was. It was everything I ever hoped it would be, we're talking since I was ten or eleven years old, and I am ETERNALLY grateful that I had the opportunity to go back there.

I can't give you all the details, but I'll give you the highlights for me:

1. The first night the family that we were staying with (thank you Facomprez family!) took us to dinner in this gorgeous little genuine Italian restaurant in some little side street of Paris and afterwards we went for a walk and saw the city lit up at night, from the top of the hill of Sacre-Cœur. It was really amazing. We also saw the square with all of the impressionist artists at night it was really really cool.

2. Went into the Louvre, saw in person the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, it was really surreal for me to be standing IN FRONT of these artworks whose names are known all over the world. I really loved the Venus de Milo, and the other art works in the Louvre was beautiful too.

3. Went into the Notre-Dame cathedral, again incredible. There was a service happening while I was in there which was neat to see, the cathedral is HUGE HUGE HUGE and really intricately designed and the stained glass windows were mindblowing detailed.

4. Went up the Eiffel Tower. This was really the best part of Paris for me, ever since I was a little girl, Paris was the city that I most wanted to visit and the symbol of Paris for me was the Eiffel Tower. It was amazing to be able to TOUCH it, and see the entire city from it. I had an INCREDIBLE hot chocolate up there too with like a cup of whipped cream on top. I can best describe the moment as euphoria.

Me and Marion up the Eiffel Tower

Obviously we did other things, there is such a variety of different scenes in Paris, it's not all gothic architecture and monuments. Took the métro and the buses, did some shopping (H&M Paris!) and generally just wandered around. There is a gorgeous little network of alleyways with weird international restaurants and lights everywhere in the Latin Quarter that I particularly loved. One day I'll revisit the city and go back there.

So it's not really a huge post for such a big event but, as ever, if you want any more details hit me up. I do have other news outside of Paris too. MASSIVE shout out to Uncle Steve, Aunty Claire, Liam, Michaela and Thomas for the postcard from Samoa! I hope you guys had an amazing time, keep an eye on your letterbox :)

Also just a general thank you to everyone who is keeping in contact. There are those of you that I didn't really expect to keep chatting to me while I was overseas and I am flattered that you like me enough to keep it going :) Merci beaucoup.

Im on holidays for two weeks now! Don't have many plans, want to spend a night with Taryn next week but apart from that I'm free as a bird. I might go shopping with Marion, maybe hit up the French cinema one day? It's good to be free :)

Stay Super,
Holly :)

Camp in Bordeaux

So I totally mislead you with the title. You're thinking inner city, gorgeous architecture, cute cafes. Not really. we're talking mini outer suburb AUSTENSE, a massive two storied house in the middle of the forest, next to a gorgeous lake. The house was old and cream coloured with blue shutters very French. The downside was that there were cockroaches and spiders everywhere and we had to cut firewood every half an hour to keep everyone warm haha.

Seriously though I enjoyed this weekend an indecent amount. Perhaps one of the most enjoyable nights of my life, I am so crazy glad I am involved with AFS. I hung out with Czech David, Hungarian Richard and French Foucauld. And met up with some of the girls I roomed with in Paris - Brazilian Maria, Norwegian Vilde, Japanese Eri. I'll post a photo of the camp in this space once it goes up online - we're going to be in the Sud-Ouest Newspaper!

The accuiellis, gosh I think that's how you spell it (kids from overseas) did games and activities together, getting to know each other and talking about what we like/don't like about France, one on one interviews about how things are going, crazy French dancing games outside in the rain etc. We wrote letters to ourselves to read at the end of our exchanges. The partants (french kids going overseas) did other stuff, including my host sister Marion - who passed the English test to go into America! It doesn't mean she will but she is allowed to.

Im going to volunteer for AFS as SOON as I get back into New Zealand, the volunteers at this camp were absolutely amazing, treating us like equals and sharing stories and being so understanding I can actually not wait for the next camp in December.

Other camp activities included a talent show (I did a magic trick with cards and a boy called Alexi), silent breakfast with no conventional cutlery (Johan was using a mug to scoop his cereal out of the silicon cake mould he was using as a bowl into his mouth I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard). And helping to prepare dinner too! I like cooking so it totally wasn't a chore for me, I was involved in the fruit salad, the capsicum and tomato sauce and something with garlic I never really saw.

So yeah, it would take the longest post ever ever to explain in full all of the things I did this weekend, you should see how many pages I filled in my diary, but that's the gist. There are so many more notes I want to make but I am practising restraint. As ever, if anyone is curious, hit me up for details.

Next post will be sometime next week because in exactly six days Marion and I depart for Paris. Casually. More details on that as I receive them, just know that I am crazy excited to see Paris again, and hang out one on one with Marion (hearing some of the horror stories from the other accuiellis I feel so sorry for them, but crazy happy for me because she is such an awesome host sister).

Stay Super,
Holly :)

Un Mois

Salut,

Un Mois means one month in French, and to celebrate my one month anniversary here in France, Taryn and I went ALL out shopping in Pau and she stayed the night at mine afterwards :)

I bought clothes from Jennyfer, Bershka and H&M and some shoes from a shoe place I don't remember but they're cute trust me :) It was beautiful weather, apart form two mini torrents that sent us running like absolute butters from bar shelter to bar shelter until we found a cafe and sat down to eat. And on Sunday Taryn and I made an Oreo cheesecake because master chefs.

It was awesome to see someone familiar after so long without it, and incredibly to talk (and we talked for HOURS) about everything we'd been up to. Taryn is now officially the person who knows the most about my exchange so far, and her stories were so, so, so interesting too.

So this month felt like it absolutely flew by. 30 days just doesn't take as long as it used to. My French has definitively improved, even if I don't form the negative how I was taught in class (omg nobody uses the "ne" it's nuts). Keeping busy has helped me a whole lot and I'm enjoying this so, so much now. I wouldn't give up my time here for anything in the world, and I just know that come January I am going to be so sad to leave this place.

I've been keeping a journal too, and today for the first time I went back and read some of what I had written from the beginning of my exchange. Things have changed so much, the initial emotional turbulence has subsided into a kind of constant happiness. I'm so AWARE of how much fun I am having, and how lucky I am to have been giving every opportunity that I have been given. I couldn't have asked for a better setting for my exchange.

Also, I hit 1000 page views just the other day, and my blog is now officially linked on the AFS website, which is awesome. Thanks everybody for checking in, I'm trying my hardest to keep you all perfectly up to date but if you ever have any questions, or comments or you just want to harass me a bit, leave a comment here, on my Facebook, or my email (missanne@hotmail.co.nz). I swear I'm actually a pretty nice person, I will reply.

Stay Super,
Holly