February.

Bonjour mes chéris!  I know it's been a long time since I've written my last blog. I've been so busy here and honestly didn't really have the time yet. The month February is almost over and I have a lot to

tell and show you ;) At the beginning of the month I had to say good-bye to really good friend. She is from Finland and went to the same school that I do here in France. It was really sad and weird knowing that I'll probably won't see here in a long time or maybe even never again.

Au revoir ma belle :(

Paula and me

School is going so far so good. I have subjets like Math, Economics & Sociologie, English, Spanisch, Philosophie, History and Geographie,... Philosophie is still kind of hard to understand. My teacher doesn't make it easier at all. Most of the lessons she dictates and all the students are supposed to note. My problem is, that she talks super fast and that my classmates even can't follow. So how am I supposed to? :) Although English is really easy for me here, it helps me to improve my French. In history and geographie I arrived at that point, that I understand the class and everything that the teacher says. So that's my favorite subject :D

school scedule

February 2th: 5 MONTHS IN FRANCE, 5 TO GO!

Unbelievable, already halftime over! So much I've been trough, so much I've seen, learned, so many new people I met. And and still have 5 months left to continue this awesome journey :) Her are some pictures of my and friends from school:

Aurélie and moi après l'école ;)

Gwendoyline and me in the bus to Lille ( Schooltrip)

BON ANNIVERSAIRE FEDERICA!
On Feburary 5th, Federica, my Italian friend turned 18. She invited a lot of exchange students and some girls from her class. It was so much fun. We danced, talked-, took pictures, ate her birthdaycake, sang and just enjoyed being together!

Everyone together at Federica's House

One week later Federica and I took the bus to go to a shopping center called Auchon. We spent the afternoon there. The other weekend I went directly after school to Julia ( american friend ). She lives about an half an hour away and I spent the night there.  It was awesome to have the possibility to see another French family :)

Me in front of a boulangerie near Julia's house:)

January

On January 3rd, I had to go back to school. At first I wasn't in the mood at all, but when I saw all my friends again, I was happy to be back. School is going fine. It's not always easy getting up in the morning to catch the bus. Well the same thing would be in Switzerland, so :) This month we have had
a lot of rain, which doesn't make it easier being in the mood leaving the house. I would prefer snow, but it's just not cold enough. Well winter is not over yet :)

On January 2nd were exactly 4 months I have been in France. How time flies... I mean sometimes I had really hard periods, where I wanted to go home immediately. But when I think about that I’ve already past my Birthday and Christmas, it seems incredible.

 It’s cool that I found some activities to do. Every Wednesday I go to an art class with my host mom and my host grandma. It’s in a town about 20 minutes away. At the moment we’re working with water color. At the beginning it was really hard, but as more as I do it I got better in it J Every Thursday I go dancing with my little host sister and my host mom’s sister in law. Maybe you’ve already have heard about it, it’s a Latin dance -inspired fitness program called Zumba. It’s so much fun, we are like about 100 people in a big gym and the teachers (a guy and a girl) are on a podium demonstrating the dance. It’s a great opportunity to do a bit of sport and keep my weight J In France the food is just delicious, believe me!  So like all of us (all exchange students) have gained some kilos J

The first weekend in January I spent at my Mexican’s friend’s house. She’s called Tita and is from the East-coast of Mexico. Hadsune (Japanese) and Clara( Brazilian), two other exchange students were there as well too. We went to the movies and had such a great time. The movie was called HOLLYWOO with the French actress called Florence Foresti. It was so funny, we were laughing the whole 2 hours :)

I spent the night with them in Maubeuge, where Tita lives. We talked a lot and had a lot of fun. That Sunday was the day called Épiphanie. We ate the traditional Galette des Rois. (like in Switzerland: Drei Königskuchen) And I got the ‘’fève’’, which is the piece in the cake J That’s why I was the queen of the day and was allowed to wear the crown.

Galette des rois

From left: Tita, Clara, Nicole, Hadsune

Nicole the queen for the day :D

Vacances de Noël

Christmas in France

Making the gifts

In France, they celebrate Christmas on the 24th of December. Julia (my American friend) stayed with my host family and me for  the whole winter break. It was really nice having her here, we spent a lot of time together. The day before Christmas, we spent 6 hours in the kitchen baking. We did 5 different sorts of cookies and my ''Grittibänz'', which is a tradition in Switzerland.
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Grittibänz

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Julia with one Grittibänz

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me packaging the cookies

Daytrip to Germany

On Wednesday, December 21st my host parents took me and Julia to Köln( Germany). We left at six in the morning by car  and arrived there about at 11 o'clock. Köln is known for its gigantic Christmas market. It was really weird for me hearing German again. I even responded in French (haha)!
We shopped around a bit and visited the Dom, the different markets, ate German specialties..
 

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The Dom

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Julia and me

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tons of people at the christmas market

Christmas!

So on Christmas Eve, my host family, Julia and I went to my Italian grandmother, who lives 3 minutes away. All together, we were 21 people. My host dad has three sisters, who all are married and have two kids. So there were a lot of cousins there and aunt and uncles :) I have a little cousin, who is 3 years old. That’s why the Père de Noel (like a Santa) passed by and gave out all the presents. It was really funny, because actually it was my uncle who dressed up like Santa. The whole night was really fun. we played card games, showed each other magic tricks, talked and ate a lot. We started appetizers around 10 o'clock at night. We continued eating until 4 in the morning. First we started off with seafood after that potatoes with meat, then cheese and bread and then a whole bunch of dessert. It was crazy. Julia and i almost fell asleep at the table. :) After dessert we start playing games like Poker and Rummy cube. Some of the boys played Fifa on TV.

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Christmas tree :D

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My host family and me

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Julia, me, Louise and Théo

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my little cousin and père Noel

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Christmas table

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seasnails yummy haha

3 Day Trip to London

On December 27th my host family took us to London. It was my first time in England, so that was really cool. We left at six o'clock in the morning and drove two hours until Calais. Calais is on the northwest coast of France. There, we went under the English Channel, arriving in Folkestone.
It was really exciting driving with our car on the train under the channel. First we had to pass the French customs, after that the English ones. After a half an hour train ride, we arrived in England. But we had still an hour of driving to get to London. 


In the tunnel

When we arrived in London, it was just so awesome! It was exactly how I imagined: taxis, telephone booths, buses, Big Ben, Tower Bridge..


In front of a telephone booth

It was about 9.30 am when we arrived, because we gained one hour thanks to the time difference. So we drove directly to our hotel, the holiday inn. It was situated in Camden, which is a district of Inner London. We dropped off our luggage and went out to breakfast. It was delicious, I had an omelet with bacon in it :D. After that we went back to the hotel, checked in, and took the metro to the Westminster station. It was totally awesome to see Big Ben, the London Eye... Later that evening, my host dad, my host brother, Julia and i went on the feris wheel. It was so cool, you really saw almost all of London. It was beautiful with all the lights. That evening we ate in our hotel and went to bed early to be in form the next day.

Big Ben on the left( Picture from the London Eye)

Me in front of the London Eye

 December 28th: My host mom called me and Julia in the morning around 9 o'clock to wake us up. We got ready and went to a breakfast place right next to the hotel. After that we took the underground and went to see Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately we didn't see the parade with the horses. But we saw a couple guards, who stood there for I don't know how many hours without moving:D That was really funny.

Our ''home'' Underground Station

Louise, Julia, me and Théo in front of Buckingham Palace

One of the guards

After that we took a walk in the park and took the underground to Tower Bridge. That's really impressive. The bridge is built really nicely and you have a fantastic view up there.

In front of Tower Bridge

In the afternoon, my host dad and Julia did a tour of the Tower of London and my host mom, Louise, Théo and i went shopping. We went down to Oxford Street, where there are tons of great stores. Because it was right after Christmas, there were a lot of sales. In the evening we met up and drank a coffee and ate a little snack. Our feet hurt really badly because we had been walking the whole day, so we decided to go back to the hotel and get a little rest. Then for dinner, we went out for Indian food, which was excellent.

The next day we stayed in Camden and my host mom showed me this huge market. I found a lot of stuff there and the prices were really interesting. For lunch I ate Mexican, which was delicious:D  
Around 4 o'clock we walked back to our hotel, packed our stuff and took off. The ride back home was really fast, I almost slept the whole way. They were just 3 great days in London, I really enjoyed the trip!

Happy New Year! 2012

New Year’s Eve was a bit like Christmas. Just that we were with my host mom’s family and not with my host dad’s. There was my host grandmother, my host uncle, his wife and her parents and my little baby cousin. We started off around 10 o’clock eating the appetizers. After that we ate seafood like shrimp, salmon and snails! When we were about to finish that, it was already midnight. So when it turned 12, we all gave each other the famous ‘’bisous’’. (On kiss on the right and one kiss on the left cheek)  But my friend Julia, I gave her a big American hug ;)
Around 12.45 we started to eat the main dish, which was potatoes and chicken. When we finished around one thirty, I really almost fell asleep at the table. To wake up a bit, I played Zumba Wii in front of the TV with my aunt and sister. (Zumba is a dance fitness program, which I actually do every Thursday with them. My aunt picks us up and we go to this gym and dance with about 60 other people. It’s really fun :D)
After that we went on to dessert. We had 2 different sorts of Ice Cream log cakes: Chocolate and Vanilla. As usual, I ate Vanilla, my favorite J

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