A long drive, a good ski and a bonne soiree

So here I am. In the snow. Middle of December. In France. In the Alpes.
I still can't quite believe it myself.

Saturday:
Alarm set for 7am. Departure at 9. Lunch at 2. Arrived at 7. Slept a little in the car. Listened to my ipod. Looked out the window. Stopped at France's best Nougat place. Took us 30mins to put on the chains and 5mins to drive up the hill that needed them. Left the chain box behind. Not much else to tell.

Sunday:
First day of skiing! Woke up at 8ish I think...took our time eating breaky. Went to hire skis. Were on the slopes at 11. Weather was beautiful! Though very VERY cold. Sunday morning it was -25 DEGREES! CAN YOU BELIVE IT! I couldn't. I would have bet my life that the lady who told us was joking. BUT LUCKY I DIDN'T CAUSE SHE WAS DEAD SERIOUS! We had a picnic lunch on the top of a mountain. Then we went into a bar to get a hot chocolate to warm ourselves up. After that we continued to ski till 4.30. We did much of the same runs because not many are open, Valmorel is lacking snow in the best parts. But I didn't mind. How can I complain when I'm skiing in the French Alpes? Oh and I saw Mont. Blanc.

Monday:
Another day of skiing. Left the house late again because we slept in. Although no need to rush out early when it's that cold :P There weren't any more runs open today than yesterday, but because we were getting bored, we decided to be rebels and go down the CLOSED RUNS. Was so much fun :D I love cutting through fresh snow and making my own tracks. Took some risks today, hence my 5 falls. We all body parts still intact. (But it is only Monday). Picnic for lunch again, but it wasn't so cold/we had more clothes on. Still got a hot choc all the same :P Practiced pronouncing my Rs in the bar.
Tonight we went to a restaurant with Annick and Jean-Paul, the family's Aunty & Uncle / Sister & Brother in law, who own the apartement we are staying in. But they have two, so they are staying in the other one :P Went to a nice cosy little place. Had a fondue for main meal (bowl of 3 cheeses melted together, then you get potatos and bread to dip into it) and a coupe marmite (a whole lot of yumminess in a bowl - possible meringue, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, ice cream...).
When we had finished the girls and I went outside to take some photos in the snow. Three Belsh boys who had drunk a little too much came to crash the photos. Invited us to a bar. I played my 'Sorry don't speak French' card. The most sober then said 'Oh ok, we speak Dutch but English as well.' Then I had to politely decline and admit we were here with parents. He took it well and stumbled off with a wave. The whole way home we had a snow fight. When we got into the apartement I wasn't sure if I was cold from the snow inside my clothes or hot from all the running and ducking.

That's it for now. Will update soon.

Spinning

I love it here.

I never want to leave.

I wanna stay forever.

I wanna go home.

I miss my family.

I miss my friends.

I miss my room.

I miss my junk.

I miss Summer.

I'm excited for Christmas.

I'm excited to ski.

I'm excited for last week of school.

I'm excited for the flights back home.

I'm excited to be back in my own bed.

I'm excited to start my new school.

I'm excited to wear a uniform and do homework again.

I'm excited for a longer sleep in on weekdays and earlier finish in the afternoons.

I'm dreading packing my bags.

I'm dreading putting on my bikini when I'm back in Summertime.

I'm gonna miss Wednesdays.

I'm gonna miss the food.

I'm gonna miss the language.

I'm gonna miss the landscape.

I'm gonna miss my host family.

I'm gonna miss my double bed.

I wanna buy everything.

I wanna be rich.

I wanna see more France.

I wanna see the world.

I wanna quit school and be a tourist.

I wanna learn French fluently NOW.

I wanna talk to my mum.

I wanna hug my dad.

I wanna giggle with my brother.

I wanna play with my dog.

I wanna swim in my pool.

I wanna sleep in.

I wanna get up and go!

I want a summer holiday.

I feel so young and free.

I feel so old and behind.

I'm anxious.

I'm nervous.

I'm frustrated.

I'm tired.

I'm lazy.

I'm happy.

I'm grateful.

I'm living.

So much time and so little to do.

So little time and so much to do.

My eyes are heavy.

I can't fall asleep.

I wanna laugh.

I wanna cry.

I wanna smile.

I'm running out of time.

I'm up late.

I'm gonna be tired tomorrow.

I better go to sleep.

I'm saying goodnight.

Sunday in St. Pee

The Bajoits are awesome.

This weekend I spent a day and night chez la famille Bajoit. It was suuu-perrrrr!
So where to begin....?

Saturday afternoon bowling with the girls for Sophie. Sophie is one of the girls at school who has the best of both worlds. She lives in France for the most part of the school year, except in December and January when it's too cold so she goes back to her other home in America and is home schooled there until the weather warms up where she comes back to France to finish the school year. Then she spends summer in the USA and it starts all over again. What a life huh?

So Sophie is leaving on Sunday for America for 3 months, so the girls decided to organise a game at bowling for everyone to hang out with Sophie for the last time. There were 13 of us in total, so we played with 6 and 7. We all sucked. The best of us was Carly who got just over 100 in the end. I came in about 3rd with 80-something. Some girls had 12, 8, 4. Mon Dieu! It was hilarious. They were asking us 'Have you ever bowled before? How do you do it? Like this? [palm facing the lane and smooth under-arm motion] Or like this? [back hand facing the lane and a flick of the wrist motion]' Oh la la! But it was quite fun and after we all went and got an ice cream at "Magdoes" (Maccas).

Afterwards I went home with Carly and Marie for a sleepover :) Fun Fun Fun. I had been to the house before but had never seen past the front entrance. As we pulled into the driveway and stared in awe at the property before me. I had never seen it in daylight. It. Was. Huge. And I couldn't even see all of it cause the house [mansion] was in the way! I got the full tour of the house once we got inside. Each of the 5 kids has their own bedroom. Plus bathroom. There are...5ish living areas. All large rooms. Carly practically has her own apartment downstairs with her bedroom. And they just installed a 'home cinema'. So cool.

So...that night we hung a bit with the kids. Gaultier, the youngest at 5 years old, is ADORABLE! I spend ages playing with him, just wanted to wrap him up and take him home! He did his Micheal Jackson impersonation for me :) Brigette showed us the gigantic jar of Nutella she bought! I had never seen anything like it in my life! It was HUGE! And heavy! And even more surprising...it was totally real and edible! It would have had to have been larger than my head... See for yourself:

We ate dinner (mmmm chicken wings! T'was funny actually, just the day before Mum had asked me what food I miss and I said chicken wings! L'hasard! And then...we spent the night on Skype talking to Carly's parents (Hi Natasha if you're reading this!) who gave us a lovely tour of their home in California :) Also met some of Carly's friends via Skype. Had to demonstrate my 'funny Australian accent' a couple of times :P We stayed up till about 2am and then crashed. That was better than the previous week at my house, which was 5.30am.

The next day we got up, had breakfast, watched Star Wars on the big screen. I had a bit of a snooze, leaning against Carly's knees as I must admit, Star Wars isn't really my cup of tea, especially in French. Then I heard one of the girls whisper 'Regarde Maddy! Elle dort!' and I opened my eyes and said 'Aha! No I'm not!'. That really didn't add much to my story so I'll move on...

So we had lunch. The meat we ate would have to have been to BEST I have tasted DANS MA VIE! And we tried this interesting Belsh vegetable, (Belsh? Is that what we call someone from Belgium?) which was good also. AND THEN! For desert they brought out this huge ceramic bowl full of what looked like custard until they said 'take a spoonful and taste!'. Oh and when I did it was like heaven in a mouthful...it was sort of like pancake mix. But better. It was the mix for some kind of waffle thing...and it was SO SO GOOD. It was thick and sweet and YUMMY. Probably added an extra kilo to my thighs just in one swallow but it was worth it :)

Then Carly and I went for a walk with Brigette, Carly's host mum. The views were amazing of course. Very relaxing and refreshing :) Brigette told us some things about France and her life etc. And we came across a heard of sheep!

That afternoon we went to Beatrice's house for tea with Min, the new Australian and her host mother. It was very nice. We spoke in French and English equally and talked about the experience of coming to France blah blah blah. It's interesting seeing Min, and how little she can speak French in comparison to us. It's hard to believe that was us not too long ago and it is an eye-opener to how far we've come. Although it sounds awful to say this like we're satisfied by her suffering, it is rewarding when something shows us how much progress we have made in French because otherwise, we only ever think of what we can't say, and not what we can.

So overall the weekend was great :)

Until next post...

On the 1st Day of Christmas...

"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partidge in a pear tree."

So it's the first of December and we've just spotted snow right at the top of the Pyrenees in the distance from our backyard. I can't belive I'm really going to have a white Christmas! It has been snowing much in the Alpes, but hopefully this will change in the next 3 weeks because we want lots of snow for when we go skiing! Fingers crossed.

So December means I'm officially into my 4th month here in France. It's quite cold. Things are getting busy preparing for Christmas. On Sunday we put up the Christmas decorations. I liked the family warm feeling of setting up the tree and putting on the decorations. And when I say warm, normally I would mean literally, but in this case, definitely not. It was a bit strange doing this routine in Slippers and a Jumper, but still nice all the same.

Christmas means lots of fun and food but also means family, so putting up the tree was a little saddening, however eating my first chocolate from my advent calendar did remind mean that when all of those little flaps are open, I will have less than a month till I am back at home again with the people I love the most.

In saying that, I also know it will be very hard to leave here because I have grown to love this family too. Monique is so motherly and loving. And although she will never take the place of my own mother, whom I love dearly (LOVE YOU MUM!), she does a pretty good job as a temporary replacement and I know this because she even does embarrassing things sometimes and I cringe along with the girls like any child does with their parents. She loves to show me things and take me places and we both share a keen interest in dancing, so we always look to each other when good music starts playing. Didier has become a very close friend, but in a fatherly way. We can spend hours just talking and I am totally comfortable telling him my thoughts and feelings (as best I can in French!) and he is patient when I can't quite get my words out. I feel very attatched to him espcially when he talks about me like I really am his 3rd daughter, and when he gives me advice and encouragement. Sometimes I just wanna give him a huge hug for no reason!

So at the moment I am missing me family, and my friends and am a little disappointed to think I want be spending Christmas and New Year and all the Summer holidays with them. But there are lots of exciting things ahead and the time is flying by so quickly now I know I need to cram in as much as possible before I'm on that plane once again! Won't be long now...