la quatrième semaine ( 4th week )

hello everyone!

↑ THIS is exactly what I mean when I say all the streets look SO French. This is a typical street...

It is absolutely insane that already a month has gone by since I arrived in France. While it does feel like I've been away from home for such a long time, this past month has already passed incredibly quickly. 

For my next post I've got 3 options:

1. Another weekly update post like this
2. A Question and Answer Post
3. A post outlining differences between school in France/NZ plus general cultural differences

Feel free to please leave a comment below (rip if nobody comments) on which option you'd like to see, or send me a message on social media!!
Holidays passed extremely quick and now I am back to school again. I have school until the 8th of June, which is super sick because the French Baccalaureate (the equivalent of NCEA) happens in July. So their study leave begins near the beginning of June, so essentially another lot of holidays for me. 

The week was pretty chill and seemed to go pretty quickly. On Monday I went to the big mall again with my host sister and host dad, and bought a wee sweater from Uniqlo. Then some friends of my host siblings came and stayed the night. We went for a bike down the street, played hide and seek when it was dark and then went to bed. The next day (Tuesday), I woke up and went for a run, then the rest of the day was just spent relaxing. Wednesday I sat in and watched netflix on the couch for the majority of the day, because the weather was really off and it rained on and off. Here where I live, it'll be hot and sunny and clear skies for a few days (like the first week of holidays), then the next week it'll be freezing cold and raining and windy. The weather is so bipolar. On Thursday I woke up and went for a run again and then the rest of the day relaxed. Even though I lowkey hate running, it's pretty good because it gives me something to do, takes my mind off things if I'm homesick or worried or stressed, and makes me feel good because it means even if I'm a couch potato for the rest of the day, at least I was productive during the morning and got a wee bit of exercise. 

My puppy at home Tinky went for her first walk on Wednesday, not that anybody reading this would care, but its small things like this that, at times, make me sad and wish I was with my family. The wee bean is growing up so quickly, I swear she's probably doubled in size since I left. 😪

I can't really remember what happened on Friday if I'm being honest. During the weekend we were quite busy both days. On Saturday we went to the Château de Fontainebleau which was hecking incredible, I mean I find it so crazy how two people alone could live in a castle this big, I think if that was me I would go crazy from having all this space to myself. Anyway, we didn't go inside but we did walk around the outside and there was a wee event going on, so there were lots of people dressed up in period costume and a wee Napoleon (he's very big when it comes to French history) and a few horses. There were also lots of white tents which they call bivouacs, which I guess was meant to make it more realistic than just lots of people dressing up??? I feel like that genuinely made no sense, it's extremely hard to explain 😂

After walking around the castle and seeing these people in period costume, we went to an Italian restaurant nearby and had pizza. The food here is that good, so good that I genuinely think I am gaining a fair bit of weight. I've already mentioned this in my last post, whoops. Some days I'm like "I should really eat healthy" (tbh the only days I think that are when I go for a run in the morning HAHA), and others I think "I can get fat, its ok once I'm back in New Zealand I swear I'll hit the gym hardcore". I'm also getting a lot more used to the mealtimes here, obviously breakfast is as per, but lunch and dinner are pretty out of whack with New Zealand "meal times". Actually, lunch isn't that out of whack when it comes to timing, except it's literally the biggest meal of the day. Dinner is usually around 8pm if not later, probably because lunch is so big it should last a long time, which was initially super hard to adjust to but now it's actually not that bad. In my post about general cultural differences between France and New Zealand, I'll speak a bit more about lunch/dinner here in Franceee.

On Sunday we also went to a wee town called Tours, which is about 2 and a half hours by car from where we live. We went there to see my host dad's sister and had lunch at theirs and stayed for a while just chatting, etc. They asked a lot of questions about New Zealand which was lowkey a mission to answer but I got there in the end (I hope). Mostly they asked a bunch of questions about the history and where I live and about the population. Then I went for a walk with their son around the area. He chatted in English while I chatted in French, which was pretty cool, and he said that my French was actually pretty good and I was so stoked. Honestly not gonna lie when people compliment me on my French I feel so pro and I'm like 

 thank u

Anyway, so that was pretty good because I talked all in French and we yarned about movies and music and French history and politics and cultural shocks and what I think of France and French people in general. I say this so often but I am so proud of myself when I say things in French and people actually understand. 

So after that it was around 7pm and we decided to hit the road again for the return trip, but not before we had a cheeky macca's run for dinner. So that was literally my whole week in a blog post, and then Sunday night was spent getting anxious for school again on Monday, but bless up it was only a really short day. Anyway that all is saved for next weeks update again. 

PLEASE comment below which post you would like to see next!!!

Till next time,
Mich xx