Hello World!!!

Okay, so I am incredibly sorry for not writing for aaaagggggeeeessss but heres a little update on life at the moment:

Its the summer holidays at the moment. I swear they go forever. I started on May 31st and dont go back to school till early september!! There has been a few troubles with finding host families for me, so I've been moving around a lot. I am on my 6th family now! Actually, they are the same host family that I satyed with in my first 3 months in France, the Kante family. It wasnt too interesting the first time round, but both the kids are her for the holidays, so its all good. The daughter, Agnes, is 19, and the son, Francis, is 17. He just got back from a years exchange in Australia.

Before the kantes, I stayed with the Suchet family, just for 15 days. They have 2 children, an 8 year old girl and a 15 year old boy. They also had a labrador, a massive pool that was always at like 34 degrees (I was like "Yuck. Its too hot." And they were like "Ah, c'est parfait"), a home gym, and a lot (and I mean like 25) of Louis Vuitton handbags!! The kids and I went and stayed with their grandparents in the countryside, near Cluny. Its about 2 hours away from Vichy. The grandma was hilarious, very cynical. She was also obsessed with bread and made sure we ate at least one piece wiuth each course. We went and visited a lot of religious things, because thats what the region is known for, including the cathedral at Paray-Le-Monial, and the amazing abbaye at Cluny... which was built in 900 and something!! There was also this huge religo festival in these big white tents, and I went to masse with my host family. I'm pretty sure I will have nightmares for the rest of my life. There were like 500 frenchies, all in this big tent, with like 20 priests, all chanting along robotically to some melancholy choir. And then people would just randomly get down on their knees to chant and pray, even little kids (and I mean, without being asked by their parents). It was WEIRD. Like cult-worthy stuff, to my untrained mind. We also went to a huge cattle market which felt very much like the EKKA :)

The family before Suchet, was the Voison family. They were fantastic. They are young and cool, and have a gorgeous daughter, Juliette, who is 10. They gave me the nickname "No Stress Jess" coz I tend to just agree with everything or let them decide. Haha, the mum, Fabienne, made up this whole song about No Stress Jess, No Problema Jessica, No Soucy Jessi, and we walked down the street singing it. They live in this lovely old apartment in the centre of town, and I got to sleep in the massive attic. It was cool. We went to Clermont-Ferrand for a few days and went shopping and went and visited the volcanoes and a cave, and went for my first french bushwalk. It was only 3 hours long,and not very tiring, but they were all saying that they wouldnt redo it for 500 euros, haha. And then I saw a snake, but it was dead, so I just said, casually, "Oh, look, there is a little dead snake" and they all ran off screaming. Gotta love the french.. they are so... outdoorsy.

I havent got anything planned for the rest of the holidays. I've tried asking if I can visit some other aussie rotary students in france, but my club is very strict so it hasnt been possible. I have, however, started going o the gym everyday, because my host siblings are very sporty. So at least I'll lose some weight over the holidays. And my french is really starting to improve. I understand pretty much everything (except for weird french slang...), and I am starting to speak more.

So yeah, everythings good. Hope its all fab in Oz as well, and I'll try to put up some photos soon. Oh and if Jaiden could show Grandpa and Grandma my euro tour photos on facebook, that would be good :)

Lots of love,

Jess