My 18 Birthday

On Friday, November 25th, I turned 18. That morning when I got up, it was pouring. So, I still took the bus and went to school. School was like every other day, just that we went out to a restaurant at lunch. Federica ( my italian friend), Paula ( another Finish exchange student), Chloé & Victoria( friends of my class), Thomas( Victoria's Boyfriend) and Ophélie( a girl of my old class) celebrated my birthday with me in a restaurant, where they serve excellent french fries. It was really nice having them with me. Because my birthday was sort of weird far away from home, it really made me happy having my hostfamily and some friends at school.

My birthdaylunch

When I arrived at home around 5p.m I started opening all my presents from the states and from home :) That made me feel really happy. Thank you so much. My hostfamily gave me a book to make bread( I LOVE BREAD :P) and a set with soaps to take a bath :)

my hostsister with all my presents :)

That evening we went to a theater, which was organised by AFS. We were there about for 3 hours and then returned home. Actually I celebrated my birthday more on the 26 of Novemer. I had some exchange students over at my house in the evening and they stayed overnight. We were singing karaoke, played other games, talked, laughed, ate my birthday cake and just had fun. We had a great time.  I really enjoyed it. I think it was one of the most special and unique birhdays of my life.

Exchange students in my room :)

in front of my birthdaycake :)

The first 3 months: September, October, November

Because I decided to open this blog kind of late, I'm just going to do a summary of the last 3 months. My host family is awesome! Since I've been here, I really feel like a part of the family and I get along really well with my host parents as well as with my host brother and sister. They help me with my French, we go to the movies, we visit friends, they show me different places (one day we went to Lille), and I go jogging with Louise...

Lille ( the capital of the north of France)

The last three months in school were sort of hard on me. I had problems to find my place in class, had difficulties making friends and just didn't feel really comfortable. In the month of November, I decided to go to talk to the principal about my problem. The solution was that I changed classes. So I went from Premier L into Terminal ES. In my new class they are a year older, so my age, and the main subject isn't literature but Economics. I really like that because it's more interesting for me now, and I understand more than I did in French literature. After that, school got much better. I found some friends, I eat with them at lunch and they help me with my school work.
Every day I was excited to go home and be with my hostfamily, enjoying the evening and relaxing. Most of the time we are together in the living room, or eating at the table, or sometimes I spend the time in my french room.

My cute little french room


Louise's Birthday: 15.October.2011

My little Hostsister's Birthday was cool. She invited her best friend Chloé to stay at our house. My birthday present was a Britney Spear's CD ( haha). She loves her. In the afternoon we had family over.
Her grandparents from my hostdad's side, who are actually Italian, came over for a coffee. Later my hostmom's family passed by. In the evening my cousins were here and we played cool games :)

My hostmom and her niece

My hostmom's family

Vacances de Toussaint

Starting October 22nd, we were on vacation until November 3rd. The first week I visited Valenciennes, which is a city about a half of an hour away from my village, with other exchange students. That week we also went to Lille and went to a museum of art. We went shopping and just enjoyed the time together. The rest of the time I stayed at  home with my family and did different little activities with them.

Sylwia (a polish AFS girl) and me in Valenciennes

Federica( from Italy) and me in the museum of Art in Lille

On October 29th, my hostfamily took me to Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. We left in the morning around 7 o'clock and arrived about at lunch time. We stayed in a hotel not far away from the center. I shared the room with my hostsister Louise. Théo didn't want to come, so he stayed with my aunt's family for the weekend.  The first day we just walked around a bit, did some shopping, went to the port and went on a awesome boat ride. The second day, we to the museum of the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh. That was pretty interesting. That evening we ate in a Chinese restaurant, which was awesome. My hostfamily loves Chinese food and so do I :) The last day we just took some pictures, bought some souvenirs and got ready for the 3 hour ride home. Amsterdam was really nice! I really liked the whole city, with the port and also that we didn't have any problems to communicate. Although I didn't understand one word in Dutch, everybody could talk in English.

My hostmom, sister, and dad in Amsterdam

Louise and me in front of the house of Anne Frank

Arrival in France

On the 2 of September, 2011, I took the plane with 4 other Swiss exchange students to Paris. Two girls, Chantal and Hélène, sat next to me on the plane. They are the ones that are also staying for a year. The two others are  just staying for 3 months. So when we arrived in Paris, the French AFS volunteers picked us up at the airport, Charles de Gaulle, and brought us to the AFS camp. We stayed there for 2 nights with 300 other AFS students from all over the world. It was kind of chaotic because there were so many people and everybody was really nervous and didn't know what to expect. We played different games, had the rules explaned to us multiple times and just got to know eachother better.  We even got a tour of Paris and visited the Eiffel Tower.
I shared the room with an american and a chinese girl. That helped me be busy so I could forget about being homesick.

Chantal and me in front of the Eiffel tower

On September 4th we left early in the morning and took the train to our department. I hopped on the train at the station Gare du Nord and got off in Maubeuge. I was really nervous to meet my host family.

Gare du Nord: Federica (Italy), Clara (Brazil), Sylwia( Poland) and me

When we arrived in Maubeuge, I finally met my hostfamily. The whole trainride, I was really nervous. When we arrived in Maubeuge, I finally met my hostfamily. First we went to the AFS President's home. Afterwards we arrived at my future house.

My house :)

The veranda with my beloved billiard table

When we arrived at home and I saw everything the first time in person, it made the whole experience finally seam real. They were so nice to me and the moment I stept in to the house I felt really comfortable. I have a hostbrother, called Théo(14) and a hostsister, called Louise (11).

The next day (5.2.2011), I went directly to school. My hostmom brought my Italian friend( Federica), the mexican girl(Tita) and me to Lycée des Nerviens. That is my school for this year. The other days I take a bus, which leaves from my village, called Vieux-Mesnil.
So I arrived at school and we entered the principals office. He put me in the class Premier L. L for literature. The first day passed okay. It was sort of hard making friends the first day, because everything is new. I didn't speak french very well, so that made it even harder. After school, I was happy to go  home and eat the first delicious dinner with my hostfamily.

Lycée des Nerviens