This is my very odd mind spewed out onto a blog. It's random, crazy, funny, and it's me :)

Monday, April 2, 2012

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 20th 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 3rd) 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 4th) 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 9th 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 28th 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 30th) 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.