the past month

hello everyone!!

I've been missing here on my blog, partly due to laziness and also partly due to being sick and not having the energy to write a blog post. Sorry!! This one is packed with what I got up to over the past month. 

Also an update to do with my travel plans after my exchange - I have officially booked a tour with Topdeck Tours which begins on the 3rd of July and I am joining the tour in Paris. It is a 27 day tour jam-packed with 13 different countries around Europe (for those wanting to know, the countries are France, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Czech Republic and the Netherlands). For the few days between the end of my exchange and joining the tour, I will be soloing it in Paris and will spend my days exploring lots of places around the city. After my tour I think (not 100% sure yet) I will be staying with family around Europe, catching up with a friend who will have finished doing her Au Pairing with a family in the UK, and a few other things too!! So that is very exciting for me, and although I'll be broke by the end of it I know that these experiences will be so worth it! I decided a tour would be the best option as 1) it means I don't have to sort out accommodation, transport and all my food, and 2) because I was worried I'd be pretty lonely doing my own thing for a long time, plus 3) travelling alone as a female in a foreign country with a language I am not yet fluent in is quite a big thing to do, and I wouldn't want to spend my time worrying about being kidnapped like in the movie Taken..so yeah. Obviously there are a few other small reasons but those are the main ones!

Anyway, it genuinely feels SO long since I have sat down and done a weekly post!! Which it has been. I have also been procrastinating this post for a while because I just feel as though so much has happened and that it's so difficult to explain my life on a post like this. Obviously I also don't want it to be too long because then it gets boring too. So I've meant to sit down many times and just get started but it hasn't happened until now. Over the past month I did quite a few things and obviously have been sorting my travel plans and finalising things.

We've been to see family of my host family a couple of times, we went to my host mum's dad's farm around 2 hours from where we are. At the farm there were a few horses and ponies and I got to have a wee go on the horse which was super cool!! It brought back so many memories of when I was younger and used to looooove going on horses 😇 On mother's day we went to see my host mum's mum also about 2 hours away and mostly relaxed too.

Another thing I would say is pretty important to mention over the past month is that we went to IKEA!!! I don't know if a lot of people know this, but IKEA is literally my favourite shop. Honestly the aesthetic is like, goals, and it is super relaxing and satisfying just walking through it and eyeballing all the things I would put in my house if I had my own 😆 so that was mint as, my goodness I could honestly go on for yonks about IKEA and how cool it is and how cheap it is and how much it sucks that they don't have one in New Zealand but I'm trying to keep this relatively short. I honestly don't know if people even read my entire blog posts - I just feel like they're so long and packed with so much that maybe it gets boring?

We've also been to the mall a few times, done lots of supermarket shopping, and, of course, have eaten plenty of pastries and a fair share of baguettes. Below I'll put some photos of typical French foods, cheeses, pâtés, cakes at the local bakery, etc..

In addition to all these things I've gone on a few runs, a few bike rides too, had to speak to the bus driver's multiple times because my bus ticket didn't work, etc, etc. I've also just recently finished school - I finished on Tuesday to be exact, which is both relieving and a little bit sad. Relieving because school was definitely a challenge for me (as you would expect in a foreign language), but sad because I was just starting to get the hang of it. Near the end of school I really was understanding nearly everything the teachers were saying, also 90% of the hallway conversations, and felt a bit more comfortable around the friend group I sat with because I was beginning to contribute to conversations and ask questions and actually hold conversations with people. Also I have to mention how proud I was when we had a biology test and I wrote over a page in under half an hour and the teacher understood it and I got 55%!!!!! GOALS. Continuing on with school, I did a presentation in English class about New Zealand and my life at home and some differences between France and New Zealand. This was so good and I'm glad I asked the teacher if I could do it because had I finished school without showing to the class what New Zealand was like I probably would have regretted it! This was also super great because most of the class was super engaged with it and everyone asked me questions. I think it probably soften the class up to me a bit as well. Also managed to feel comfortable enough at school to have a bit of banter with a few people which I will definitely never forget. I really feel like I accomplished a lot of things at school and now when I compare my very first day to the last couple of weeks I can honestly tell how much it changed over the short period of time of a few months. 

I'm trying to think of what else is note worthy for this post. I feel like it's a bit all over the place, I definitely think I'm going to try keep up with weekly posts again after this one as they're a lot easier for me.

My host family took me to another château in a small town called Blandy around 30 mins away from where we live. It was so cool, it was a pretty small château in comparison to the others that I have been to, but was so so cute! You could walk around a big wall high up and my host dad explained some of the history of the château and how they used bows and arrows to kill the people trying to attack it. It's quite a weird feeling knowing that where you walk, some people would have been killed there trying to protect it.

As far as weather has been, it's definitely getting a lot hotter here - to the point where you can't sleep with the duvet on because thats how hot it is. Strawberry season is peaking and I'm the furthest thing from jealous of everyone in Christchurch because the weather SUCKS and its SO COLD there and here I am escaping it all!! Also, something I can't get used to is how the sun sets at around 10pm here and until about 10:30pm it'll be light enough for you to be able to go outside and not need any lights. It's crazy but I absolutely love it!! I have to admit though in between the beautiful hot days (mid twenties) there have been lots of days when it pooooours down with rain, but nevertheless I would still rate this weather over Christchurch weather any day.

This brings me onto the point that I asked on Instagram and Facebook if anyone would be wanting a Question and Answer post and to message me with any questions. So I got one question from my aunt, so that's a bit awkward and I guess that post isn't going to be happening then 😂

A couple of weeks ago my host mum's sister (host aunt) came to stay with us and she specially asked me if I wanted to go to the woods and have my pictures taken as a mini photo-shoot sort of thing. She's really into photography and I was absolutely GAWKING at her high quality cameras and lenses 😍 she took some super nice photos of me, I won't post them here because I feel like that's a bit self conceited but they'll be coming soon™ to instagram so no need to worry.

And last Sunday we went to a Medieval Festival in the town of Provins. We dressed up in period costume and once we were there we met up with a couple of other exchange students who I had been to Paris with before, their host families, and the local coordinator (the lady who makes sure my exchange is going good and that everything is all good between me and the host family and vice versa) and her husband. It was so so incredibly busy, also so so hot (25 degrees, but us girls all wore long thick dresses and multiple layers of long sleeved tops underneath 😫). 

  

I think this pretty fairly sums up the past few weeks in France. I only have just over a couple more weeks here with the host family until I am off travelling, and it's going (and has gone) so quickly! 

See you next time,

Michelle xx