So, we’ve hit the second week of my exchange – the longest I have ever have been away from my family, and yet for some reason I have had next to no homesickness, despite some health issues with my grandads. I’m currently curled up in a blanket with a hot water bottle and a sleeping cat (Nimbus) on me, with a temperature of -3 degrees at 11:00am you can only imagine how cold it gets at night (last night it was -7 degrees). The big chunk of ice Denis and I put in the garden last week is still there last I checked!

This week has been amazing, my french is gradually getting better day by day. My English teacher has offered to tutor me for 2 hours each thursday, and despite my first doubts, it was actually so helpful. A teacher who can actually teach, Who would have thought?! This last week went by in the blink of an eye because I have been so full on. I am really enjoying school because of how inclusive and fun everyone is. I don’t mind the long school hours either- which surprises me no end.

I had my first peanut scare the other day at the canteen. I was eating this amazing thing called Paris brest recit, when I tasted something odd – almonds. I never eat nuts so I had no idea what type it was and asked my friends, but they couldn’t understand me because of my accent. After a bit of help from google translate we figured it out, but boy was I scared! My friends are now really educated in how to use an epi pen.

On Tuesday we had 2 free periods so my friends took me on a tour of Baza’s. They showed me this massive, elegant cathedral and just the general shops and things. We took heaps of photos, but it’s not the same as seeing it in real life, it’s just breath taking. We spent a while in a cafe and they taught me to play pool, we often go their to kill time during free periods.

Yesterday after school I went to a little arts and crafts work shop with my friends, it’s on every thursday and they want me to go with them. It was pretty fun, we just drew and mucked around, afterwards Louise and I went to watch a movie. The cinema’s here are way cheaper than in NZ. We watched Paterson, which to be honest was really boring, I think you need to be a lot older to appreciate it, but to me and Louise it just dragged and we kept waiting for something to happen.

Aside from all that, Elisabeth and I meet a potential flute teacher who seems quite nice, we will be starting lessons next friday. It will be very interesting given she speaks zero english.

Differences of the week:

1. There are squirrels and moles. When I catch the bus to and from school and look out at the country, there are always millions of little mounds of dirt scattered every where from moles digging, they are real pests here. The for word squirrel is “un ecureuil” and so far it is the hardest word I have found to pronounce.
2. The power plugs are different
3. The keyboard layout is different, which makes typing incredibly slow.
4. At school instead of having a bell ringing, my school plays part of a song for 30 seconds or so. Each Wednesday they change the tune, this week it was the main theme of Pirates of the Carabean!
5. The names of notes are different for music. Instead of naming them a, b, c, d, e, f, g they are named doe, rae, me, far, so, la, tea – just like from the sound of music. This one will take a while to get used to after years of calling them by letters.

This weekend is looking to be a nice lazy one, I will probably walk Chaca, Lina is taking me kayaking this afternoon, and I may or may not go for a run. I still haven’t solved the photos crises but when I do I will update the posts as soon as I can so that you can see a slice of my heaven over here.