Scratch that last one.

Turns out my hangover only lasted about an hour. So that day turned into one of the best ever, the meal was amazing and I went to Paris. I tearfully told my host family at the lunch that they really are my second family and they presented me with an amazing Algerian pendant. The feeling of a second family has only gotten stronger since then. Ouiam's father told me at dinner the other night how much he loved adopting me as his daughter and only hopes next time I can stay longer. I'm going to miss them so much. Luckily I have my amazing family and friends to look forward to seeing on Tuesday (ahh!). Some of my plans for this week include, a meat tour of London with Jessa and building house with Mark. These last few weeks have gone by so fast but I will attempt to squeeze them into this blog. After birthday lunch, Fawzia drove Ouiam and I to Paris where we stayed in Cliche with the most amazing family. The father is from Camaroon, and speaks french, arabic and english fluently, the latter he learned on his own by reading books. The mother is one of the kindest women I have known here and their 4(!) daughters are working so hard to move past their less than affluent beginnings (Cliche is one of the poorest suburbs of Paris) and are all so nice, taking me around Paris while Ouiam worked. After 3 days I returned to Dieppe bymyself on a train full of businessmen comparing their gameboys and PSPs and another that looked like it was built in the 30s. In Dieppe I had just enough time to unpack from Paris and repack to Spain the next day. Spain was lovely and their apartment had the most incredible view. We stayed in Villa Joiosa spending most of our days on the beach and venturing to Benidorm for go karting, the market and Ouiam and I for the sin-filled bars. We returned and I completed my final week of school. We had a 3 day weekend and it was one of my favourites so far. The family we had stayed with in Paris came to stay with us and so did Ouiam's grandparents, there were 14 of us. Friday we went on a boat tour in Amiens and Friday night Ouiam and I went out to Marcouf's house (best name ever) drank a bunch then continued to drink more at the bar from my birthday with Victor (a kindly hipster) and Alain (lovely boy living in Paris). Saturday we mostly hung out at home but Sunday was fantastic. Today (sunday) we had a BBQ with everyone. But tommorow is Monday, my final day, and I should probably sleep so I can enjoy it fully. Goodnight all!

Death.

So I suppose you can guess how I'm feeling this morning. Worst part is that we're going to a super fancy restaurant for lunch. Ughhhh....snails and shit do not go with hangover, my stomach sounds like a battle scene in Star Wars. Don't ever mix booze. It makes you die in the morning. Later I think we're heading off to Paris, via train, for a few days, so lovely pictures for you.

4:30, birthday nigh

So, tonight I have...
a) snuck liquor into my drink
b) couldn't get into a club
c) my friend called the cops on that club for letting other underage people in
d) went to a bar that had no sign, lots of locks on the door and required a knock to enter
e) drank the perfect amount
f) had an awesome birthday

and I had...
1) glass of white wine
2) rum and cokes
3) coke and bourbon(s)
4) sips of gin

European Birthday.

The last two weeks have been the epitome of my homesickness, with the regularly going to school and all that. Sort of, I was kinda sick and I'm pretty sure that feeling like I'll simultaneously pass out and ingest my own stomach, is my body's fantastic way of reinforcing my longing for (almost) total understanding of the people around me. However, it was spring.

We went to Mont St. Michel last weekend which was amazing, lots of mud.

More tommorow, we're off to a bar. It'll be okay, probably good, just not normal birthday. I will report tomorrow perhaps with photos. I guess I was wrong at the beginning, I still really miss home. Birthdays aren't the same when only one person at your party speaks the same language as you, hence the likeliness of drinks.

Shit, almost forgot my gin.

Photogoraphy.

Alright, I realize that I am a horrible blogger, but I don't really care at the moment. I think I'm finally settling in here, becoming comfortable in classes, talking to people ect. however, that could just be a reflection of my Tuesday. Here are some pictures of the things I've done over the last month while not updating :D.

Visiting l'etretat with Keely.

None of the teachers were at school, the one day that week we went. So, we ventured to the castle just down the street. Hearing shouting and drums from the city below we followed and found this:

This is where the teachers were. Along with 3/4 of the French population who participated in a general strike that day. I grabbed a pain au chocolat (good for all occaisions) and we watched a parade of protest signs we couldn't understand.

Claude took us to the Canadian cemetary in Dieppe. For those who don't know before D-Day, the Canadians launched a suprise attack on the Nazi-occupied Dieppe that quickly turned into a massacre, and only about 20 survived. Claude knows two of them.

The Rouen cathedral.

The spot where Joan of Arc was burned.

St. Patrick's Day!

Hall of mirrors, Versailles.

Amsterdam, so fucking pretty. Also the most amount of bicycles I have yet to see in one place.

Giant iron atom in Brussels, apparently it has a restaurant and stuff inside.

Moules frites, lovely Belgian cuisine with lovely Belgian beer.

Thats all for tonight, more writing next time! I am tired as fuck but luckily its just a half day tommorow. There may be baking. Goodnight.

Lycee? Quoi?

Part two of the one month recap:

We arrived home from Reunion at about 10pm Sunday night, and woke up at 7 the next morning for school. Ughh. But it was good, the first day I went with Ouiam to her classes to get used to the huge school. 2000 students, hundreds of rooms. Some students even live at the school. So basically all of those buildings (even the tall one) are part of the school, but this pic is from before they had the huge cafeteria too.


The cafeteria is amazing, it kind of resembles an airplane hanger. Everyone has a card to access it and if you forget yours, its only $4. Basically you swip your card to enter, get a tray, cutlery and fresh bread, then there is a selection of salads and vegetables. Next you grab some cheese (Camanbare!) and then there are two options for the main plate, usually one with meat one with fish and always some sort of grain to go with (yesterday lentils!). Finally you get your dessert and fruit, then you go attempt to find your friends here: (usually it has tables)



So thats school for me. Its not bad, kind of the opposite from home though. I generally do better in subjects such as english and history but here french and history are probably my least favourite subjects. Math and chemistry are the best mainly because I can actually comprehend most of what the teacher says/writes. It wasn't till about Wednesday night when we realised Keely was coming to visit the next week for her March break. From that point on it was a bit of a mad dash trying to figure out when exactly she would arrive, and what we would do since everyone had to work/go to school. After retrieving Keely and Ouiam's mum from the airport (she arrived from Reunion that morning) Keely, Ouiam and I journeyed into the heart of Paris. We decided to eat in the Latin quarter and walked the streets, looking for cheap fondue, while waiters from every restaurant called out to us trying to get us to eat there. We finally settled for the place that offered us free wine :).


Ouiam found us a cheap bus tour of Paris, it was particularily enjoyable having the most stereotypical Texans beside us saying things like "Gawsh, aint it such a shame to be passin all these pretty buildins so faaast." this was the first time Ouiam had ever heard a Texan accent.



Then train home to get ready for the large soiree that night. Keely and I made friends with "New York Guy" a french boy who spoke english and told us he was from New York, everyone lies about where they are from in France, apparently that night Ouiam told everyone she was from Hawaii and didn't speak much french and was believed by most people who didn't know her. Thats how drunk everyone was. Especially me, I remeber lying on the grass outside and then Amoree basically carrying me up Ouiam's driveway. I woke up with Keely on my floor and a mild hangover. Okay well I will write more later I think, I suddenly feel like my entire chest cavity is trying to come out my mouth.

Longue Temps!

So I appologize profusely to the 3(?) people who read my blog for not updating in exactly one month today. I have been insanely busy what with travel and Keely and school and everything else. Alright, part one of my one month recap:

From February 26 to March 28, we went on a huge trip to Reunion. Reunion is a department of France, off the coast of Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean.



It is one of the newest islands in the world, made from many volcanoes, a lot of them are still active. Ouiam's mum offered to work at a clinic while we were there so we stayed in an apartment that one of her colleagues owned. This is the view from my window.



Many afternoons were spent on the beach, Reunion has some of the best coral reefs in the world and they are right by the shore. Ouiam's father came a few days after us and the day after he came, we went into the mountains for the first time. It was amazing, I've never seen anything like it before, the bright green trees with strange flowers and waterfalls flowing from the tops of the extinct volcano.



At the time I didn't know that the biggest volcano on the island, the one we were going to walk on, was extinct and had a bit of a panic attack on the way up. The roads were insane and everyone felt rather sick by the end, but we got there finally and went on a lovely walk. Everyone was supremely impressed with my hiking skills, surprising yes, but only cause they don't have enough nature to truely hike in France. We went up into the mountains another day to do canyonning, its basically rappeling down waterfalls on the side of a volcano (crazy i know). The craziest was the last volcano which you rappel down facing outward directly underneath the falls. So you are basically inside the waterfall surrounded by water pounding on you (it hurts!) and the noise is incredible. So for the second time in the mountains I had slight panic attack. But overall the days in the mountains were fantastic. However, the best part of Reunion was the surfing!


I had never done it before but we were in a school run by 2 guys who didn't speak english but were awesome. Ther first day we went it was pouring rain and the sand on the beach was black, very pretty. In the end I was able to stand most of the time annd even turn. I really miss it alot, aparently they do it in Dieppe but the water is freezing! The people native to Reunion are called Creole and have an amazing cuisine including samosas and carry (rice with special sauces) and grilled chicken.



On the weekend Creole people almost always have picnics and a friend of Ouiam's parents, his girlfriend, Mimose, is Creole and invited us on a picnic. It was beside a small volcano, and a beach where you can't swim because there are sharks (ahhh!) and crazy undertoe. But we braved the dangers and proceeded to eat some of the lovely creole food mentioned above. Also I ate shark when i was there, and no it did not taste like chicken but it was fantastic anyways. The last night was very very strange.



Mimose invited Ouiam's mum to come dancing with her and some friends at a night club, she invited Ouiam and I too, so we figured that even if it sucked we could always drink. The nightclub was amazing, I want to set a movie in there or write a book about it. It felt kind of like being in Fear and Loathing only you weren't on drugs, everything was just fucked. It was this huge building with all these different themed rooms and Mimose and Ouiam's mum left us to explore. First was the jungle themed room that all the youth hung out in, Ouiam and I attempted dancing for about 30seconds, when we realised the dancefloor was basically a giant sex pit. There were cages. So we sought refuge in the restaurant, only to discover there were pornographic paintings of really manly women all over the walls. At this point we ran to the nearest bar and asked for something strong. The lovely bartender said he would make us his specialty but we had to promise not to drink anything else after because it was so strong. Basically it was 2 shots each of some sort of alcohol with baileys and something else, drank through a straw. We were pretty much instantly hammered. On to the next room, salsa! Very good room, danced with one of Mimose's friends, salsa is difficult when drunk! We stumbled across a fifties themed room but for some unknown reason were ushered out rather quickly. The final room was where we spent the rest of the night. Watching all the 40+s dancing like zombies and laughing our asses off. When the song from Pulp Fiction (the one from Jack Rabbit's twist contest) came on, we moved to the dancefloor, impressing all with our moves. The best was when Mambo #5 came on and we basically freaked out. The next day we had our 12h flight back to France. I fucking love Reunion. (more pics on facebook as usual)

Update!

Alright, still trying to catch up on days. So after the party Saturday night, we were all super tired so everyone slept most of the day. I woke up around 6 and went and had Algerian tea with the owners of Epson, (restaurant with the best punch and bruschetta ever, we went there the first night) Jean and Anne(?). Apparently this is usual on sundays. After that we had a relaxed dinner and basically went to sleep. Ouiam is taking special classes to be able to pass her driver's test (it is alot harder in France) so on Monday she had to go to class, so i spent the afternoon with Latitia (my british/french/canadian friend) and some other people.


We shopped a bit, but spent most of the afternoon playing fooseball(?) and discussing "How I Met Your Mother"! After we went home for dinner. I love dinner with Ouiam's family, they are so lively, its really hard for me to not smile when they get angry and start speaking arabic. We make lots of jokes, especially "les enfants" as everyone calls them. So now I suppose today is Tuesday, fuck this is confusing. Ouiam had to do another driver's class so I met Valentine in Dieppe and we walked along the beach to the big public pool (outside and heated!) that is on the beach.


It was kind of cold so we went to the Cafe des Tribunaux, in the center of Dieppe. Its the place where the market is held and the "rendevous" point for everyone.


Valentine said she had come there for breakfast with her family almost every Saturday morning since she was a baby. Once Ouiam was finished, we caught the train to Rouen (the big city near Dieppe). We went to Coccino, where I had the most amazing "Pomme et Chevre Salad" for lunch.


After we shopped on the many pedestrian streets that Rouen has. Rouen is amazing, very strange though, all of the shops are in buildings from the middle ages. It is where Joan of Arc was burned and is home to the Rouen Cathedral that Monet is famous for painting.


After walking around there for awhile we came back to a cafe where we spent the rest of our afternoon people watching. We met Valentine's father at 7 and he drove us home. French highways are crazy, the speed limit is usually 130km/hour but Valentine's dad drove about 160 most of the way. I had to try really hard to keep from breaking into a huge smile. So yeah, that is basically it so far, right now i'm just waiting for dinner and listening to one of the children play piano. I love just sitting in my bed and listening to everything happening downstairs, from piano, guitar, saxophone to french, arabic or spanish, I love being here.

Bonjour Paree!

So this is not really my first day here but I shall pretend that it is anyways. My plane left at 5pm Thursday night and arrived at 6am in Paris. The flight wasn't too bad despite the 150 students on it. I sat beside a lovely boy named Edward, from Richmond Hill. Unfortunately neither of us slept. Looking at my pictures of Paris from that day it seems like I didn't take them. I made friends with Souroosh and Grant, also from Richmond Hill and we spent most of the day together. First we took a boat tour of the Seine which was fantastic albeit freezing. After they gave us half an hour to do the eiffel tower then we drove around, I slept alot in the bus. We went to a buffet-ish restaurant for lunch called "flunch" ahaha! Around 5 we finally got to meet our families. Ouiam and her mother came to pick me up and we slept most of the way home. The 3 of us went to "Epson" for dinner, it is on the beach and has amazing bruschetta and tapas. They both highly reccomended the punch and it was soo strong, I was rather embarrassed by the small buzz I got off it. The next morning we went to the market in Dieppe. It was amazing, everything is local and fresh and the vendors were all really friendly. Its nearly impossible for us to go anywhere in Dieppe without seeing someone we know. I'm getting used to the whole kissing on the cheek thing. It was kind of strange at first but I like it, people seem really happy to meet you. We had some coffee at the oldest cafe in Dieppe when we finished shopping. Then we went for a drive along the beach and up to the school which is huuge. Luckily we have 2 weeks vacation now so I don't have to worry about that as much. We came home for lunch then went shopping again to get ready for the party that Ouiam was having that night. More on that party later. Pictures later too as I am tired as fuck. Bonne Nuit!