GOODBYE VENICE!!

So I went on a EuroTrip. This is Venice.

Everything's Shiny Captain

THIS IS A BIG POST. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Here's what I've been up to. I'm going to post another video as well soon. Sorry for the overuse of the word 'then'.  

So Feburary the wather was a mix of nice and crappy.On the 14th there was even snow! Everyone at school when a little nuts; there were snowball fights, and snowmen, and I even saw a few snow angels  I personally spent large parts of my breaks sliding around on the slippery basketball courts.  

The weekend of the 18th/19th of Feburary I went up to Strasbourg with my host family. It was really nice. We visited the cathedral and wandered around the city. It is so old and beautiful my mind was completely blown.  We also went up into the Vosges ( a small mountain range) to this super old castle called Haut-Koenisgsbourg. It was SUPER cool. Standing on the top of the mountain you can see all across the plain all the way to the Black Forest in Germany. I waved. J There are a lot of old castles in that area but most of them are in ruins but this one was restored at the beginning of the 20^th century.

You know what I love about France? Vacation. For every 6 weeks of school there is a two week vacation.So end of Feburary begining of March I had two weeks vacation. I spent all two weeks in Paris. TOTALLY AWESOME. So I arrived the Saturday the 25th and I stayed with a host family that used to live in Dijon.

Then on Sunday we went to Mass at Notre-Dame and had a picnic lunch on a quay next to the Seine.  Then we wandered for a bit, we saw the Hotel de Ville and the Centre Pompidou (an art museum designed in a very modern style), then we walked home. It took FOREVER to walk because they live on the longest street in Paris, and not near the beginning. It was a lot of walking but it was really great because I got to see a lot of really cool buildings.

                Then Monday (27th) we went to the Maison de Victor Hugo near Place des Vosges. Place des Vosges is a beautiful square near Place de la Bastille. We wandered around the area looking at a bunch of galleries and little shops as well as visiting the Museum of the History of Paris (Carnavalet) which was really neat. It’s GIGANTIC so we didn’t see all of it because we arrived only about an hour before it closed. Other stuff I did includes:

!!!! I went to the Musée des Arts et Mètiers, a giant farm show, Saturday (the 3^rd) I went to mass at the Madelaine, I walked down Rue St Honore (which has shops I can’t even go into). I had a Super Delicious Birthday dinner made of regional specialties. As well we had macaroons from the most well-known shop in Paris (Ladurée), they were heaven in the form of a macaroon, like edible happiness. I also visited the Arc de Triomphe on a really foggy day so it looked like all of Paris was rising out of a gray mist. I walked down Champs d’Elysées and went to the Great Canadian Pub and had Timmies coffee and a yummy doughnut; the same day (Sunday March 4^th) I visited the Saint-Chapelle and the Conciergerie. Then during the week I did a lot as well : I went to the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Jeu de Paume, the Panthéon  and did even more walking and some shopping. And I made cookies with my host brother Jean. All in all it was a super awesome couple weeks. On Friday the 9^th I took the train home to Dijon. I was picked up by my YEO and spent the weekend at his home because my host parents weren’t home from yet. It was a really nice quiet couple days in his small village close to Dijon. I was also really lucky because Saturday was a Celtic festival. There were bagpipe bands in the streets and in the evening there was a couple different bands playing. Then on Sunday we visited a nearby medieval village whose walls are still standing, which is really rare because most ancient walls have been destroyed.

Monday I went back to school, which is you know school; so not that exciting, except that I have some really amazing friends. They all gave me birthday presents and we drank pop. It was really sweet of them, I’m glad I landed in such an awesome group. Also on Monday my birthday present from my parents arrived which made me super happy.  It included peanut butter cups and gummy bears, a t-shirt, AND JOHN GREEN'S NEW BOOK! SO AWESOME! YOU HAVE TO READ "THE FAULT IN OUR STARS"!

I also have to give a shout out to my buddy Nick whose package recently arrived. Kinder Surprises and a super long awesome letter. As well as some epic internet pictures that made me laugh a lot.

On Wednesday the 28^th of March I went to the movies with some friends to de-stress. We watched the Hunger Games together which was ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!!!  :D I mean it was slightly weird because I read the book in English so some of the important quotes were a little different (cause it's in French), but I understood everything and it was amazingly well done, especially considering it had some really big shoes to fill.

Then Friday (the 30^th) I headed up to Annecy with the other students from my district. Annecy is a BEAUTIFUL city on a lake surrounded by mountains. There we met up with all the students in France, 430 students from 31 countries. It was amazing. On Friday we danced. On Saturday we listened to a round table about the 2018 winter Olympics, and then we went on a boat ride across the lake. It was absolutely brilliant, mountains all around us, it was really warm but some of the mountain tops still had snow on them.  Then we had a group photo, everyone ended up joining up with their countries holding their flags and shouting the country name really loud. It was epic. Canada I believe was not the largest but maybe one of the loudest (side note: my voice is completely shot now.) Then we walked around and ate ice cream. That night there was a talent show where each district performed, a dinner, and more dancing. I danced but I also spent a lot of the night talking with different people. Sunday we got up a little later, did some pin trading, hunted for printed pictures of fish (April fools thing in France. It was very confusing), and did some more pin trading. It was really amazing. I met so many people from around the world and a bunch from back home. Funny story: I met some kids from Southern Ontario and when I asked them what town they were from told me I wouldn’t know it. I said try me. They did, they were from Chatham, and one of them has a cottage in Goderich. Another one was from the same town as my grandparents. Small world. 

Around one we headed back to Dijon. I slept a lot last night but I am still totally dead. However it was one of the most amazing weekends of my life. I am so thankful for my year here. I’ve met people here who have become like family, friends I wouldn’t trade for the world. My life is amazing, and different, and scary, and hard, and cool, and fun, and beautiful. And I love it.

So yeah, everything is Gorram Shiny.

I HAVEN'T POSTED IN THREE MONTHS I'M SORRY

I know I suck. I'm sorry. I have been so incredibly busy I haven't updated this. I'm sorry. So I made you a video!!!! Yeah. I don't know why my cheek looks super swollen for most of it...I promise I haven't gotten into any fights.

And here are a couple vids I took on top of a mountain. It's right next to Mont Blanc which is like the highest point in France. AKA ITS REALLY BIG

I'll do a written post soon! I promise!

LOVE YOU ALL

Dear Katey,

HI HI HI!!!!!! You wanted an update so here it is :)

I'm gonna start at the beggining :)

The first weekend of school my host family went to a Rotary picnic. It was a family picnic so there were a bunch of games to play. I played darts (sometimes I was good sometimes I sucked); this game on a table where you slid little wooden pucks into different 'nets'. AND I SHOT A GUN. It was only a BB gun and I know that shooting things is nothing new in Huron County but I HAVE NEVER SHOT A GUN BEFORE. Aiden had a gun for pentathlon when I was little but I was never allowed to touch it. I actually was okay at it :) We also had some really awesome food (I FRAKIN LOVE FRENCH FOOD!!!!).

Then I had school for a week Normal long slightly boring school. However school is cool 'cause I have some really nice new friends :) Nerdy friends. French doesn't have an equivalent for the word 'nerd' but that’s my friends. We talk about Manga and Stargate and Castle and Doctor Who and Firefly and Books and all kinds of other things that I love. (A few of us may be going to a manga expo together in a few weeks :D) Also when my friends and I have a couple hours free at the same time we often go into the center of the city which is really cool cause it SUPER old and has a lot of nifty shops.

My second weekend of school was even busier. On Saturday some members of my Rotary club went grape picking. OMG THAT’S HARD WORK. You have these like mini clipper things (which can cut your fingers if you’re not careful) and you cut the grapes and then if there are any nasty ones on the clump you've just cut you gotta get them off with your clippers. We did this for like 5 hours starting at 8ish in the morning. (SIDE NOTE: at some point during the morning one Rotarian asked me if it was easier than catching salmon. I was slightly confused, I wondered if he had confused Canadians with grizzly bears or if he assumed all Canadians were fishermen. Either way I had to regrettably inform him that I have never caught salmon before.)   After we had some awesome French food, with CHOCOLATE MOUSE for dessert. :) Sooooooo gooooood. Then in the evening we went and toured an old underground reservoir. It was built centuries ago so the government decided that you can't store drinking water there anymore. So no it like an underground stone igloo you can walk around in :) It was SO COOL. It is seriously ancient; Dijon was the second city in Europe, after ROME, to have running water. Then we had dinner out.

Then on Sunday my host family and I ate lunch at a friend’s. There were a bunch of people there. They kept asking me questions about Canada and my town; it was really fun to be able to tell them things. My French at the time was great but thankfully everyone has been really patient with me.

The next week/weekend was rather restful comparatively. Except Tuesday (the 20th) when I went to my first meeting with my host Rotary Club. I made a presentation on my home country and community. It was really great cause when I was presenting I showed a lot of pictures but I didn't always know the French word for it and the entire club helped me out :)

The next Tuesday (the 27th) I didn't go to Rotary however that day was the strikes. This is a scheduled day where if teachers have a problem with the school/board they can just not show up for class. I LOVE THIS COUNTRY! Only one of my teachers did it however it was my history teacher and I have two hours of history from 8-10 on Tuesdays, then I have an hour of nothing while my classmates study languages, then I have history of arts them I eat. So my history teacher not showing up meant that I had two hours to just chill with friends. Then from 10-11 one of my other friends (not in my class, therefor not in languages) had an hour off so we hang out. AWESOME!

That weekend (1 and 2 of October) was my conference with all the other exchange students in my area. There was 9 Americans, a girl from Taiwan, a girl form Ecuador and me. Out of the twelve of us there are 9 girls. It was such an amazing weekend. We toured around the country side, saw Charles De Gaulle's GIGANTIC monument, and toured a wine cellar that was built by a monk in the 11 hundreds (I think. It was something like that. OLD.) We ate French food (CREME BRULEE YUMMY) and threw one of the Rotarians in a pool. And we did a LOT of talking. It was super awesome to talk to people who understand what I'm going through. We swapped stories of what we've done while in France as well as sharing stuff about our lives back home. Everyone was awesome and I can't wait to see them again. :)

Then this week was normal. School. English and French literatures are my favourites. I dislike the sciences cause I feel stupid (I mean I suck at chemistry in English!). But thankfully they're only once a week for an hour and a half (one week is bio the next is physics/chemistry).  History/geography is okay cause I understand some of the concepts from back home. My French is A LOT better now so I understand almost all of what people are saying to me. However teachers speak super-fast and they use words that I don't know. Normal everyday conversations are easier but when a teacher uses a wordback home. My French is A LOT better now so I understand almost all of what people are saying to me. However teachers speak super-fast and they use words that I don't know. Normal everyday conversations are easier but when a teacher uses a word that is never used outside a scholarly situation I'm lost. That means taking notes is hard cause I never know how to spell the words. However I usually understand the basic concept of the lecture so sometimes I end up writing small parts of my notes in English. The person who sits beside me in history actually laughed when she saw my notes. These days I write more in French (with horrible grammar and spelling) but at the time it was such a weird mixture. A couple times I started a sentence in French and ended it in English :P

That brings us to the weekend. This rainy dreary weekend. Yesterday I did a bunch of homework. Then in the afternoon me, my host mom and my host sister went into the city for a bit (I live in a town of 6000 people outside Dijon, its kinda like a suburb(St Apollinaire), but my school is like right near the center of Dijon). I sent postcards and we picked up some things. Then today we went to mass and then to a friend’s place. We ate lunch there. More delicious French food. Including some awesome shrimp. Mind you this isn't Canadian shrimp where you take it off the ring and take the tail off. These shrimp were full on shrimp. I had to remove the head the tail and its hard skin stuff (side note to any family reading this: one of them shiznited on me!) but it was so worth is cause shrimp are DELISCIOUS! We also had veggies and meat in red sauce and apple crumble with ice cream. I have to tell you though a good 80% of the time I am not entirely sure what I'm eating but it’s always delicious so I just go with it :) And usually I have a small idea. :D

Also this weekend is Thanksgiving back home so I talked with my whole family while they were at my sister’s place for dinner. It was really great :) Though Thanksgiving means that I've got a bit of a hankering for pumpkin pie.

Anyway that’s what my life’s been like the last few weeks. In short I love France, I love the food, I love how beautiful and old everything is. My host family and my new friends are awesome (me and my host sister get in so many tickle fights. Its epic, I love being the oldest). I miss people back home (especially when something reminds me of them) but I've been keeping myself busy and I wouldn't trade this for the world :)

 PS. Sorry there are no picture on this one, it actually slightly difficult and time consuming to get pictures from my computer to my blog because I have to put them onto a hosting sight (cause I don't have a server just kicking around) and then I have to transfer them and it takes way longer than is necessary. And unfortunately I do not have the time for that today. I promise I will put a bunch up soon. I might to just an entire blog post of pictures or I may make a web album or something. I still have to figure that out. However if you have me on Facebook you need not wait for that and can just check out the three albums I've got on there :)

After arriving I spent three relaxing days at a Rotarians country home. While there I spent an afternoon touring the countryside and nearby villages. I saw a lot of old buildings and took lots of pictures J Here are a few.

Then on the Saturday my host family came and picked me up. The next week I spent hanging out with my host siblings and doing a little exploring. My host mom and siblings spent an entire afternoon with me going around the center of Dijon and showing me my school, which by the way is gigantic. It was built by Napoleon around 200 years ago. I believe it’s an old fort or something. It has three floors and three courtyards. About three thousand students attend Carnot (my school), that includes the younger grades as well as preparatory classes that are offered there (they are classes that you can take before going on to university or whatever). I started school this Tuesday. Every day but Wednesday I have class from 8 in the morning until 6 at night. However I have a spare hour or so every day because I’m not taking any languages (ie. Chinese or Spanish or German). Sometimes it’s really hard because many of my teachers speak really fast French. However I have an English literature class that promises to be really cool. I also am taking two other English classes which probably seems like a complete waste of time however I learned a lot of new French words thanks to my English class this week. Yesterday my teacher taught a lesson based on a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. It was amusing and also educational because we had to translate it into French.

I also met a bunch of other Rotarians at a dinner. It was great they were all very nice AND they didn’t laugh when I messed up my French. The dinner was outside and I was in a metal chair. At one point in started sinking into the ground so my yeo put this wooden thing under it and I was suddenly taller, the Rotarians were very amused. It was a great night J

The weekend before I started school we stayed a few nights at my host mom’s parents place and they took me to a winery and we went into the cellars. It’s a famous champagne brand called Mercier. I also got to go into the grape fields and to a cooperative where people make wine. It was awesome. You know what tastes awesome? Grapes fresh off the vine. :D

That’s really all that’s happened. So yeah. Here are some more pictures J

 Yes that is a giant wine barrel. I don’t know who the random lady is…

Life as I know it....in FRANCE!

Hello all! Right now it is 10:54 local time in Dijon FRANCE!
A lot has happened in the last week. First there was the tornado. Thankfully my family was out of town when it hit so we are all okay. My family is also feeling grateful right now because none of our property was damaged. That was Sunday. On Monday I ran around doing last minue things and I packed. I also hung out with this amazing girl named Celtae who is one of my very best friends as well as one of my other best friends Kayla, and I saw Alexus :) On Tuesday I said goodbye to my home and my parents drove me to the airport. There we met Jordan and the two of us started our journey. At the gate we met two students we didn't know. Both going to France :) It was really cool bumping into them. One was from Calgary  and the other was from Winnepeg. Me and Jordan sat with the Winnepeg boy all the way to France. When I arrived I was swept into the welcominh open arms of Rotary. And I swear to God they must have taken a hundred pictures :) A bunch of other stuff happend and now its Saturday :) I'll fill you in in the next post but I have to sleep now :)

Also, to the man who changed my screen saver... no. I love YOU mostest.

~Nathanya

The Last 365.

Today I am 17. I have been on this earth for 6,205 days. I have done some amazing things in that time, but I'm just going to talk about the last 365. So here are 17 things I did this year, most of it rocked, some of it didn't.

It's in no particular order, and is probably rank with grammer and spelling mistakes.

17. I learned to play guitar. Now I'm not the best at it. I love to play and it generally sounds pretty good but sometimes I can't remember which note is which, and there are a couple chords I haven't mastered. I also cannot sing and play at the same time. But I don't really care. I play for me, because I love how it sounds. I love the vibrations of it singing through me. And I love how natural it feels to hold it.

16. I was in my sisters wedding. Which was super awesome. I was able to share in her special day and through the entire thing we bonded a lot. Also, I looked rather pretty :)

15. I went in the lake during huge waves. It was freaking amazing! Usually when the lake is rough it scares me, but I just went for it. I was jumping through the water and it was soooo cool. I did it with some pretty awesome friends :)

14. I said goodbye. A lot. One of my best friends went away to Austria, and it was kinda hard to say goodbye. But I know she's having the time of her life which makes up for it. I also said goodbye to another exhange student, much sooner than expected. I said goodbye to YoCo friends, and school friends, and the normalcy of yesterday. This year has been so crazy and busy it's hard to remember the last time I just slowed down.

13. I went to Algonquin park. I was there with my fam-jam, the exchange student, and twoo good friends. We cannoed so much that week. And hiked. We hiked to look out point and I dreamed I could see the edge of the world. I was amazed by that trip, but I also saw how much the park is changing. Gone are the crazy walking trails with roots and rocks and challenge, now so much as been turned into refined gravel paths. It was kinda depressing. However I did read like 6 books : )

12. I hung out in a library for like an entire morning. I just sat and read and wrote. I also talked to some wicked friends, and read Chester the Cat books :) That afternoon/evening I saw two sick plays at the Blyth theater for free : ).

11. I wrote a play. I loved it. I haven't gotten the chance to present it yet, but I hope I do in future. I really loved what I wrote and I think others will to. It speaks to people on a lot of different levels.

10. I took a class I hated and was horrible at, though somehow I managed to scrape by with a 75. Which is the lowest mark I have recieved in my high school carreer.

9. I was in a play called Aligator Tears. It was amazing. The people I met are still close to my heart. We had huge amounts of fun, and the number of inside jokes is too high to count. I also got to preform in front of people who honestly loved what I was doing.

8. I got into Rotary Youth Exchange. I survived my interview, and the huge application, and they've decided to send me to France. Which is freaking awesome.

7. I got a lead role in a play put on at the livery. The people I worked with were phonomenal and I loved every minute of it.

6. I had a small role in a different play at the livery. It was also amazing. Because my dad was lighting designer I got to do a lot of tech stuff which was pretty awesome. I also met some of the most amazing, and dedicated people I know, and some of them are younger than me.

5. I had some pretty rockin' hangout sessions. I have some really amazing friends and we have had some really really great times lately. We discovered that Clinton has few aligator themed things for sale, I can't sing and do an accent at the same time, also there is a frightning epidemic apoun us. And I forget to text people.

4. I had a blast on New Years. I hung out with Haley adn we did hot rock, fondu, and hot tub. As well as play Cranium at three in the morning. Best. New Years. Ever.

3. I'm directing the schools SEARS show. Which is hard, but great.

2. I lost my uncle. I wanted to scream and rage and cry. Meanwhile everyone around me is complaining about such stupid things. So it was hard, and it hurts, but it makes me appreciate who I have in my life.

1. I read a lot of books. I watched a lot of TV. I said deep meaningful things that were probably really cheezy. I started writing a novel. I laoughed and I loved. In short, I lived.

So I left out a lot that I did this year, these were just the first things that came to mind. Even though some bad things happened, I had an amazing year. I hope the next 365 are just as fantastic.

See you the Flip Side.

~Nathanya