la deuxième semaine ( 2nd week )

hello everyone!

This second week has been pretty exciting for me, I actually got to go to Paris and went to the Louvre museum. Scroll to the bottom of this post if you want photos! Holidays have begun and I don't start school again until the 30th of April, which I am so stoked about.

I have to say that the start of the week was rather uneventful in all honesty. Mainly all I did was sleep, eat, go to school, starve due to there being no morning tea, absolutely down lunch at the canteen, come home, eat, and repeat. On Monday I had one class at 9:10am and then my next class was only at 2:35pm. So I bussed to school, bussed back home for lunch and relaxed a bit before I went to school again in the arvo and bussed back again. When I finished at 3:30pm I walked to the bus stop and had the most awful bus ride where the bus was literally packed from door to door and I had to stand fully against the front doors at the entrance of the bus for most of the ride.

On Tuesday I started in the afternoon because there was a class trip to a museum in Paris which I didn't go to (because the teacher said it would be easier if I just stayed at home). So I had 2 hours of classes on Tuesday. When I finished at 3:30pm again, I walked to the bus stop, which again was packed with people, and then tried to hop on only to have my bus ticket not work on me, so I looked at the bus driver who shook his head before getting off the bus only to finish a tough 2 hour school day by walking home. Oh my god I was honestly so upset but mad at the same time, I wanted to cry but then I also wanted to scream because I was so angry. Like my bus ticket was fully valid and had never been used, so why didn't it work on me?? I tried to find a positive in the situation and decided that walking back was probably good exercise anyway - even if it was barely 4km.

On Wednesday I didn't have any classes so just relaxed at home. On Thursday I had classes from 8:10am-12:10pm because there was a P.E trip in the arvo which I also wasn't included in, but it actually turned out to be good because the weather was awful and it was raining pretty badly so I chilled at home.

Friday, the worst of my school days, began at 8:10am and finished at 5:35pm. Honestly, I was exhausted by 10:30am and almost fell asleep multiple times in multiple classes from being soo tired. Honestly, school really takes it out of you, esp without the much needed snack at morning tea. I've decided that when the holidays are over I'm going to stock up on some snacks to bring to school. If you'd like to help me out I've set up a GoFundMe page so that people can support me. lol kidding

On Saturday I had 2 hours of maths which seemed like the slowest 2 hours of maths I have ever been in 😩 if anyone from my calculus class last year is reading this, take me back to Dozza's class with the sick banter. Maths here is so difficult. People often say "at least 2+2 is the same in every country", well yeah, but at this age basic addition isn't included in the curriculum. It's not exactly the difficulty that throws me, it's just the fact that everything we have been covering during my time in France is something that I have never covered in any curriculum in New Zealand. The trigonometry they do here is something I never learnt at school, and what we have begun to do in probability isn't at all what I did in year 12 either.

Now, on Sunday, I had the most exciting day trip since arriving here just over 2 weeks ago. I got to go to Paris!! I went with 2 other exchange students just like me. One girl is from Mexico while the other girl comes from Spain. We drove to Paris with the Spanish girl's host mum and parked the car in a big parking lot. We then took the métro to a stop close to the Jardin du Luxembourg and got off and walked a wee bit before we landed ourselves in the gardens. They're so big and so cool, just like the photos with the small remote controlled boats you can put in the wee pond thingy. 

We walked around, took plenty of photos and then sat on the grass and had a wee picnic with sandwiches and chips. In France, when you bring a packed lunch, they call it a picnic. Like a lunchbox isn't even a thing over here.

After lunch we took another train to the Musée du Louvre and then got off, took heaps of photos and then finally entered the museum! I honestly can't even describe how incredible it was. I've never seen anything remotely similar to the rooms and the extreme detail in every single room in the Louvre. All you can think of is how long it must have taken to construct and all the time and effort that was put in to every single piece of work there. 

The Louvre is absolutely massive! There are 3 floors and they seem to continue for forever. Of course after slowing wandering our way through the museum we laid eyes on the one and only Mona Lisa. Even though it was cool to see old mate Lisa in the flesh, I have to say that she's so overhyped and there are so many people who go just to see the Mona Lisa. Personally I thought the insane ceiling paintings and intricate designs made the Louvre so cool and seeing the Mona Lisa was just a wee bonus at the end, like a cherry on top.

It's pretty ironic because in year 11 I did a powerpoint presentation in French class about all the places I would visit and things I would do if I went to Paris...on there I put:

⊳ go to the Jardin du Luxembourg

⊳ don't go to the Champs Elysées because it's always super busy (ironic because I really wanna go there if I go to Paris again)

⊳ don't go to the Louvre because it's overrated

⊳ go to the Musée de l'Orangerie

Keep in mind this was from 2015 and obviously a lot has changed since...if I'm honest I don't even mind doing all the tourist 'cliche' things - I suppose the tourists always visit them for a reason - because they're cool places to go.

I can already say I've been to the Luxembourg gardens and the Louvre, so next on my list are the remaining ones, plus the Musée d'Orsay and visit the Eiffel tower. Even though I saw it from a distance, I really wanna go up it and see the view + of course take plenty of pictures.

Honestly not gonna lie being in Paris was the most incredible experience, especially since it was my first time being there EVER and actually seeing the Eiffel tower in all it's beauty 😍 the whole time I was there I wanted to cry so bad because it just felt so crazy to think that little wee mich is actually in Paris and speaking French. Sometimes I honestly think I am so lucky to be doing this and I am also so proud of myself for doing what I am doing and for stepping out of my comfort zone like I am.

Here is a whole heap of photos from my trip, although this is probably only 10% of the total amount of photos that were taken. Scroll to the bottom to see a cheeky pic of me and Lisa 😍😏

I sent this photo to my mate and they were like "mate it's not the tower of Pisa 😂"

See you in my next post

Mich xx