: : Je suis une bonne fille ce soir :D [[...writing my blog for once ; ) ]]

This morning was rather warm, surprisingly (due to it being Spring at the moment, the mornings are 0 degrees and the afternoons 25ish). Probably about 11 degrees :D.

After my host-mum had written us both a little note to get out of French 10 minutes early, we quickly stuffed an apple and a Bueno chocolate in our bags each and ran out the door, down the street to Natacha's mum's car. We were a tad too early apparently as we had to knock on the door to get them out of the house ; ).

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We started the morning with two hours of Droit, whoopieee! Haha, no it wasn't too bad, although I got annoyed at myself for not seeing the space Marine had left on her sheet for her heading when I was copying her notes and ended up spoiling my page which I was trying to make presentable for once...

At 10am, Marine and I took our apples outside with Cindy where we watched Alexis (other Alexis, who was in Marine's class last year) as he did a sort of model strut and read something on the new tables which were still wrapped in plastic before giggling to himself...hehe, which made us laugh...he's a bit odd, that one.

I don't know what it was today, but all the teachers (apart from the teacher for Spanish and Droit) seemed to be in bad moods...giving out unnecessary detentions when they felt like it (although, I do admit that we were rather restless in a few classes...*cough French cough*).

During History the teacher had enough of us and gave us work to do in the last 15 minutes on Hitler and the Italian leader that had the same beliefs as Hitler to take up at the end of the lesson. Marine and I were even being good girls and trying to do our work! Haha, so the teacher ended up helping us with the question that we had trouble with at the beginning.

At lunch, Marine and I were both starving, even after our apple eating at 10am. Too bad the canteen wasn't all that good, but we ate it anyway...hehe, even after my initial confusing of canteen lady when I said that I wanted the vegetables instead of the fries and she gave me half half of the two and then I shook my head and started doing a bit of crazy pointing...haha, once I got what I wanted and had moved along, Marine explained to the lady that I was Australian and she laughed and smiled at me.

Lunch was...silent. We sat with Nafissa, Sawdatou and a friend of Nafissa's...my first slightly awkward lunch yet...

At the end of the day, we finished with yet another French Commentary :S during two hours...4-6pm. We had to write an essay on some sort of poem that described the spring time and at the end, the death. It would've been rather interesting had it not been for the essay in French part...

I finished after 20 minutes, although it was only half the required length, but I wrote a little note to my teacher explaining that I did it to the best of my ability.

She was extremely moody today :S she gave out a detention to Yanis (who had settled down to do his work for once) and gave him a 0 for having the book, "les Fleurs du Mal" on his table...a book which the exam wasn't even on!

Clement, Thomas and Fabien were more annoying than ever! Tapping pens and dropping them on the floor just to annoy Marine, haha.

Oh, and my bueno mysteriously dissapeared! I spent a full 20 minutes searching for it!!! But no, no such luck : (.

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At 5:50pm, Marine and I left to go to Code, where I just sat and read : )...Sadly I'm running out of English pages to read, and quickly!

Jennifer joined us a few minutes later (hehe, she didn't have a note to get out of class earlier ; )) to where we had saved her a spot.

At 7pm, we found my host-mum outside waiting for us in her car : )...The end of a looooong day.

Although I was extremely hungry and searched Marine's room for food...I found a mini Mars Bar...I don't usually like them, and I can't say I remember a Mars Bar tasting so good!

Then, half way through setting the table I spotted some left over Ferro Rochers (???) on the piano, so I helped myself ; ). Haha, my chocolate eating (rather rare for me) lasted until after the rest of the tirimisu scroll from last night when I halved a twix-like chocolate bar with Marine, haha.

All too chocolately today ^^

Anyway, I think I'm going to get ready for bed now....It's been a long day and I have to get up early tomorrow...

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Oooooooh, and I forgot to write something we studied in English the other day. It was an ad for racism which I found really interesting and well done : )

"When I born, I black.
When I grow up, I black.
When I cold, I black.
When I in the the sun, I black.
When I scared, I black.
When I sick, I black.
When I die, I still black.

But you white fella',
When ya born, ya pink,
When ya grow up, ya white,
When ya cold, ya blue,
When ya in the sun, ya red,
When ya scared, ya yellow,
When ya sick, ya green,
And when ya die, ya grey...

*chuckles* And you have the cheek to call me coloured!"

: : First week of my 4th month [[ first week back at school ]] plus cake and all that comes with it... : :

So, eight days of blogging to do in one hit! Whoohoo! Haha. Thinking back on this week, in relation to school, it went pretty quickly, however thinking back to the last time I was perched up on my bed, back supported by numerous cushions, writing my last blog entry seems ages ago.

So...I'll start be Sunday, shall I?

After my alarm went off at 8:15am (and every 5 minutes after that until I actually got up :S...which it has decided to do every Saturday...don't ask me why!...I finally managed to stop it yesterday morning), I got up at about 9am/9:30am, showered, ate breakfast and got ready to go to Mammie's for the usual second Sunday lunch.

Aurore found a long yellow string which she hung over the top of her head all the time we were there and decided that that particular Sunday, she would like to be Miss France, sitting with her head held high at the head of the table and stutting around the house dancing and practicing faces in each mirror she passed.

She even made Marine put on some music (from her mobile) and she did a catwalk walk and danced at the end, blowing kisses and all...it was all rather funny.

After we had returned home, I was feeling rather tired so I took one of my nanny-naps (it had been a while, okay! :P).

I woke up at 5pm to music and some heated discussion between Marine and her mum downstairs (Aurore was at Deborah's and my host-dad was in the woods yet again searching for mushrooms). I got myself and went to check it out.

Marine had decided to go ahead and do the Communications project which was proving to be a lot more difficult than we thought...with a lot more time required too :S.

While she was doing the Communications work I attempted to learn the Droit : | ahaha, took a lot of explanation and translation into simpler French from my host parents for me to understand.

We ended up working up until dinnner and kept our word when we said that we would not work afterwards as we needed our sleep for the nine our (8 classes :S) day that followed.

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[[ First day back ]]

Our first day back consisted of two hours of Droit...The first of which was the test that I had [tried] to study for the evening before. It was rather disastrous as Marine told me that we didn't have to do the last exercise...Too bad I thought the last exercise was the WHOLE of the last page...So I took my own sweet time. Then, with 5 minutes to go, I asked Marine if we had to do the last page (just to clarify)..."oui"...oops...I finished...but didn't do it all that well :S.

During History we didn't really do all that much. Although for the first time so far, a teacher actually WROTE on the white board instead dictating! EXCITING! Hhaha, I atually took in some of what I was writing for once!

During Spanish, I attempted to read, "Poil de Carotte" as Marine had found out late the night before that the book and the film were not at all the same :S. Haha...ooops.

We finished Monday at 6pm...

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[[ Tuesday ]]

Tuesday tuesday tuesday...

We didn't have English, so we got an extra hour for lunch! Although I was a bit sad about the English part : (.

We ended up going into town to check out the new Chinese clothes shop that had opened. Marine was horrified that her usual M size had transformed into an XL at the shop and we tried on every single black dress we could find for her singing competition. Haha, it was rather funny as there were a few that she got completely stuck in (got some hilarious photos!)

Afterwards we went to an "American" food shop for lunch. I got excited at the sight of a salad, so I ordered a tuna salad...and Marine an "Americain" which consisted of a chicken/salad baguette and fries, with a soft drink and afterwards, a milkshake. I helped her out on the fries a bit, but I mostly documented her remarkable eating process ; )

So, Tuesday after lunch Marine and I slept on the school lawn under the sun (in our defense, we started at 8am that morning :P).

And in Comminucations at 3pm, we had a test...wonderful wonderful wonderful stuff that was. I couldn't answer a question worth quite a lot of marks and then I misunderstood another, writing two letters instead of one...hehehe.

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[[ Wednesday ]]

We said goodbye to our two houred Wednesday as we had swapped class groups...So instead we had three hours, starting with Droit where he gave back our tests...7.5/20. Not toooooo bad considering that before I gort a 0 and a 4 (out of 5 and out of 20).

After lunch, Marine and I went to the doctor with her mum for Marine's vaccination. The two had been telling me non-stop (my host-dad even piped in...) that the doctor was extremely good-looking and that I had missed out on an experience when I didn't go the last time...So I was dragged along the second time...nah, just kidding, I was kind of obliged to go :D.

Anyway, the waiting room was full when we arrived and extremely hot, so Marine and I went to some nearby shops and took a seat outside for about 15 minutes which Sandrine waited in the waiting room.

When we returned there were still about 4 people before us (not too bad :)), so we took a seat each on either side of my host-mum. My host-mum then took out some dirty jokes that she had found on the internet and started pointing them out to us (not daring to say them out loud...as the room was rather small and there were still a lot of people as there were group appointments). She was rather shocked that there were a numnber of ones that I got right away....haha, the mind of my mother, we'll say ;)

Marine egged her mum on to ask one to the doctor...haha, she wasn't so sure, but agreed anyway : )

It was rather funny how each time someone stood up to go in, we all crained our necks to get a glanced of the "good-looking" doc.

Marine and I were too hot in the room so took a detour to the bathroom where it was noticably cooler. I decided that yes, I did actually need to go to the toilet, so I kicked Marine out where she waited outside, dancing to her music.

Haha, mid-toilet-going-to I then heard, "bonjour". AAHAHAHAHAH! Marine then burst through the door all read and flustered as the doctor had interupted her little dance.

Anyway, the doctor ended up singing to us, and Marine ended up telling the joke (which he didn't find funny and she was, yet again, embarrassed...ahhahaha). And I assure you, he was not all that good-looking...

Afterwards we took a quick trip the new shops to look for a black dress for, "L'aigle Noir" for Marine. No such luck. Turns out that the shop that Marine and I really really really liked had completely changed its collection....not so nice now...:S.

We were nearly late for singing, but arrived with two minutes to spare : ).

We were both a bit confused when we saw Alexis...with brown hair??? His natural colour apparently.

Marine talking to Karine at the beginning of the lesson to tell her that she had made it into the final of the competition and if she had any advice. So Marine sang second last and Karine told her that there was not so much she could improve, and if anything, she could just sing it more simply.

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When the people in the group sang, Karine got everyone (except for me and Emmuel) to do certain things.

For one of the girls, she got everyone to dance the Walz (haha, Marine and Natacha, were commended for their dancing skills ;)), and for Floriane she got everyone to sit on that round box thing and sway. Alexis was a tead crazy and pulled faces everytime his face was visible behind Marine's (haha, she didn't know until I indicated for him to knock her down and she was looking at me when I did it).

And for Alexis and Emmuel, she got everyone to do the box-step (epic fail for Marine :P haha).

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[[ Thursday ]]

Thursday was yet again looooong. I was so tired it was unbelievable. I ended up sleeping in the library when the teacher of Gestion decided not to show, and then again after we ate.

Then three hours of Communications...Whoopieeee! Haha.

After school, Sandrine took Marine and I with her to do some last minute shopping for the week.

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[[ Friday ]]

Friday we started at 10AM!!! YAAAAAY! We got a little bit of a sleep-in!

During maths when Fabien and Clement were being rather annoying and misbehaving, Marine and I slowly, but steadily, edged our table closer and closer to their's (we were behind) so that the teacher wouldn't see (as he was in a rather bad mood). Then we wrote on a piece of paper, "Je suis con et j'adore les pistache!" and on the back, "(heart) le prof de math, xox". Marine added the required sticky-tape and I stuck it to his back, thankfully we had already guessed that he would turn around, so Marine asked for some white out and it was all good until people asked him to turn around and took their time to read what the note said...which left him suspecting something, so he asked Clement what was on his back...

So the note lasted all of about 45 seconds...meh, it was worth it while it lasted...and I got a photo ;).

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We finished the day with sport which was orientation...running everywhere :S in the park, in the sun!

I got to go with Marine as Marine and the teacher were afraid (me too!) that I might lose myself in the park...We ended up completing the course in 12 minutes and a bit which put us in 4th place (I think...).

Marine was a fiesty and was picking fights with Fabien and Clement. She ended up having a full-on bottle battle with Clement (ahha, it was just her, as he wouldn't dare hit a girl ; ) and with MY bottle) and ended up missing him and whacking me hard in the mouth...why thank you for my temporarily swollen lip Marine :P haha.

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When I returned home I made sure that I said Happy Birthday to Aurore : ). 12 years old :D.

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[[ Saturday ]]

Let's just say I was just about ready to murder the alarm on my phone!!! especially as it was at the bottom of my full bag : |

Anyway, at 3pm Marine and I went to Code where I read in the dark, before making our way to Alexis' house with Sandrine.

Sandrine, Marine, Aurore and I were a bit confused about how to enter his street (it didn't really help that earlier on when we looked on Google Maps, the picture of his house was an empty paddock...hmm...). Marine was convinced it was a path...but her mum, was not so sure.

Marine called Alexis and he said he'll come searching for us, so Sandrine dropped us off outside the small castle.

Marine decided that we would walk up the path she thought it was...and as we did so we heard a car pull up and looked back to see Alexis hopping out, looking at us strangely and laughing...Turns out we were on our way to the woods...haha, MARINE!!!

Anyway, he walked us up a small road before turning and leading us to the biggest house I've seen in France since my arrival :O. It was amazing! And reminded me a lot of my hosue in Australia.

When we arrived we took off our shoes before he lead us into the kitchen where we drank some water (yes, that tiny room for "Code" leaves you thirsty :S).

Alexis, Marine and I then spent the next hour running around his house looking for batteries, laptops, card holders and chargers to try and play Marine's music on her phone so she could sing "L'aigle Noir" with the proper sound and microphone. It turned out to be a bit of a mission impossible :S.

So we just headed to his computer and got to writing the letter he needed help with in English, before completing the tour of his house...and before we knew it, it was time to go.

Although Sandrine spent a while talking with the three of us at the car.

Before we said our goodbyes, Sandrine realised that there was one lonely flower (a rather beautiful flower too) outside the castle...Alexis then told Marine to quickly go pick it (haha, what is it was people in Soissons and stealing flowers??? haha).

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Saturday night, the two mammies came over for dinner to celebrate Aurore's birthday.

My host-dad and I had some good fun with the fact that he was the old man at the table and he was forced to listen to all that girly talk...even the personal, slightly disturbing bits ; ) haha.

I ended up making a scarcrow out of a Champommy lid, cord, wrapper, three toothpicks, and a smarty box, haha, which we kept and put on the piano as a souvenir : ).

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[[ Sunday ]]

I woke up this morning under the impression that we had to go to Mammie's for lunch...oops, wrong week!

Anyway, after doing the dishes together (all the girls, as my host-dad was yet again in the woods), we went into town to buy a few things (some things for the BBQ as it was a nice day to have the first BBQ of the year : ) and some face cream).

Lunch was rather late, finishing at 2:30/3:00pm.

At 4:00pm, Deborah and Natacha came over to celebrate Aurore's birthday. We ate fruit skewers and chocolate cake outside and we later joined by my host-parents.

We did the old, "throw a smarty in the air and see if you can catch it in your mouth" trick...sadly Marine was the only successor.

Afterwards, my host-dad took each girl by the legs and walked us around the garden on our hands like we were a lawnmower...Haha, I was useless! Too slow! Gotta work on those arm muscles, I reckon ; )

After the photos of the afternoon were on our computers, the five of us went around Vauxrezis. Aurore by bike, deborah on her rollerblades and Marine, me and Natacha by foot.

After we dropped Natacha and Deborah off at home, we arrived to find my host-dad sleeping on the couch snoring...something that he always blames on my host-mum and reckons that he's a silent sleeper...Hmph! Haha, well now I've got him on camera!

Aurore, Marine and I started just by putting smarties in him hand as he slept...which let to balancing them on his face...then drawing on a mustache adn then my host-mum putting a giant blob of mousse in his hair and a toothbrush in his hand...It was only when she started putting the brush to his lips that he opened his mouth (haha, still half a sleep) and then realised what he was doing and woke up.

We got it all on camera too! Funny stuff!

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We ate dinner outside too today : ) it's starting to finally heat up here!

We ate a ham, cheese and crouton salad and a tirimisu scroll for dinner which my host dad made...and had tried to make two times in the last two weeks, but had failed miserably due to poor quality cream : (.

And now, I'm finishing my blog, just about to get ready for bed...

Bonne NUIT!!!

: : L'aigle Noir [[ The Black Eagle ]] : :

Thursday was full of surprises : ).

After lunch, Marine and I sat down to watch a movie for French (instead of reading the book, but shhh!), "Les poils de carotte".

I was multi-tasking a bit at the beginning and kept asking Marine to rewind...hehe.

Anyway, about 5 mins in, we received a phone call from the people who organised Marine's singing competition (she had already received an email saying that she didn't get into the final) saying that someone had pulled out and that she was next in line! We were all really excited because it was one of those big competitions with produces as judges etc.

After the movie (which was rather interesting, hehe, I liked it! :D), Marine and I brought our laptops to the table in the dining room and Marine filled out the competitiong forms.

Afterwards, we decided to go for a bike ride before Marine's mum's auntie and her husband come over to eat apparitifs with us.

Just before we left, Marine's mum was already preparing apparitifs (I prefer the prepared ones to the packaged chips and nuts...:S).

For our bike ride, we decided to take the road our of Vauxrezis and then the main road to Pommiers where we stopped by at Mammie's house for about 15 mins.

Her eye was somewhat redder, but you know what they say, it always gets worse before it gets any better : ).

On our way back (we were about 5 mins by bike away from home) the car of the other mammie (Sandrine's mum, not Patrice's mum) passed and she waved to us (she was heading to our house to pick us Aurore who was spending the night with her).

About half an hour after we returned home, Sandrine's auntie showed up. After we said our hellos her auntie laughed at me and said, "ahaha, she can't understand anything can she? AHAHAHAHA!" (but in a nicer way than that's probably read ; )). Haha, I then had three people defending me and telling her that I understood pretty much everything now. Oh, well, her and I had a little chat about the differences between French and Australian schooling after that little incident :D.

After sitting with everyone for the first bit of conversation (which consisted of my host dad, Sandrine's auntie and her husband discussing how to fix computers and Marine and staring blankly at the tv on the other side of the room (Un Diner Presque Parfait, WHOO!), Marine's mum said that we could take our share of apparitifs upstairs on a plate and watch Un Diner Presque Parfait in Marine's room. Thanky you host mummy!

She also gave us some rum diluted with orange juice (she gave me a miniscule amount as she knew I don't like the taste of alcohol)...I didn't like it all the same, but drank it anyway...probably not the best idea...

When it was time for them to go, we went to say our goodbye before setting the table for a late dinner. Chicken, mushrooms (that my host dad had picked that week), potatoes and strawberries for dessert (I think I ate a little too many of them :S aha).

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Yesterday Marine spent the morning preparing revision sheets for Droit and Economie and I tried to do my Communications homework, but my computer stuffed up for 43 minutes...wasn't very productive there...all I managed to do was find a picture!

At 4pm, Marine and I prepared ourselves for our bike ride to the park (even though it's only like 3-5 minutes by bike from our house). I just felt so cool in my converse, tights, skirt, belt, pink sunnies, and my trumpet strapped to my back ; ).

Oh, yes, we were planning to sing and play my trumpet at the park (and were secretly hoping that no one would be around, ahaha).

I played my tumpet first...and it was such a weird sensation, playing ouside with hills surrounding me and having the sound bounce back! Usually the sound is flat outside...but not in the French country side : ).

Afterwards, Marine sang for a bit...and then the photo taking started.

On the little Zebra (one of those things for little kids that's attached to the ground by a spring)...Then on the ping pong table...

And then Marine took a video of a crazy interview with me...

Then in the rubbish bin...which started to tip over when I tried to get out (which wasn't good because it was too small and my legs were stuck :S haha). Haha, and Marine lost her shoe in it!

Then of the bridge...

Then in the tree...

Then with the "Vauxrezis" sign, pretending to be hitchers...

Then lying on the road...

And yes...I think that's it...

We then rode home, ditched my trumpet and Marine's backpack and went for a bike ride around the cemetary before returning home again (had a little run in with the evil neighbours...apparently they just LOVED my mismatched outfit :|).

Later on, we found out the neighbours had deliberately rode their motorbike head on, nearly into another car just to scare the woman who was in it and the little girl lay on the rode as my host mum was returning home (luckily she saw her!) so that she could call the police on her like they had done to the other woman earlier.

For dinner we ate duck that's bought in a tin that has been soaked and cooked in duck fat for a long time. It was rummy! Hehe.

: : One week gone... [[ One week to go ]] : :

: : Lundi : :

Monday was pretty much a relaxing day for the family...It was mostly spent with us all snacking a bit of chocolate here and there : ) and lazing around in our rooms.

It was due to this general laziness that Marine and I were so surprised when Natacha and Deborah turned up.

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Natacha, Marine and I had a rather in depth discussion about her family while I did Marine's makeup (we were preparing her for a photoshoot ; ) and no, it's not as random as it sounds, :P).

Anyway, we got to it, with me with the camera and Natacha with the airdryer, and these are some of the end results : )





: : Mardi : :

9am: Marine and I did Aurore's and Deborah's hair and makeup for a performance of Greece - DISASTER! Apparently nothing we did was good enough

Tuesday morning was, well, interesting. Marine and I decided to be nice and active and go for a walk in the forest. I asked her time and time again whether she knew where we were going..."Oui oui oui"...and honestly, I did trust her the beginning, until we met up with her dad who was coming back from one of his early morning mushroom picking ventures into the forest (which are now every morning for at least 5 hurs, and every afternoon for at least three hours...we don't see all that much of him anymore...). When we saw him, we were just about to enter the first lot of trees (and were making some very loud farm animal noises...although I failled with mine due to the numerous packets of tissues in my bag and pockets...). ANyway, he pointed out a steeper trail...apparently not all that well...anyway, you can guess what happened next with Marine's and my lack of direction (although we both claimed earlier that we were like two walking talking compasses...cough cough).

Anyway we decided with our wonderful compassness, we would take a little detour, which led to a path anyway...and then a serie of other detours...which led us to an open road. Marinegot excited and told me that if we take the road up a little further, it would lead to her grandmother's house in Pasly...So we took the road, whichput us onto a smaller road between houses...

Marine then pulled out her phone...I thought she was going to call her parents, ahahah, wrong! Nope, instead she decided to call Henry...you know, my cousin who lives in NEW ZEALAND! Haha, she's an odd one. Anyway, we took a little road down (a very steep road...) which led onto an open paddock (with a parked car) and a small cluster of houses.

We walked through the paddock and spotted two old men gettin out of their car, arms flled with baguettes. We started to run throught the paddock to them before they reached their front door. We asked them where we were..."Pommiers". Hehe, oops, wrong suburb...Turns out we had wandered two or three suburbs over. Walking, talking compasses indeed, haha. Anyway, the old men pointed us in the right direction and we were off :D. Although the path was steep and we had to take a staircase (haha laughed and Marine couldn't believe our bad luck -- got a photo...).













Anyway, we arrived home 45 minss late for lunch (Deborah joined us).

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After lunch, we went into the town with Deborah and Aurore for some shopping. Pimpkie was our store of the day, with all our puchases taking plae there.

I was in desperate need of some summer clothes, so I bought a vest, two teeshirts and a summer knitted top thingy (yeah, wonderful description, I know :S haha).

After our shopping was done we ran into Yanis and his older brother and said hello before continuing on to a small (okay, it was rather big) cart selling icecreams - a double flavoured soft-serve.

Aurore got the Vanilla/Strawberry flavour and Marine and Deborah got the Choco/Pistachio nut flavour.

Marine was craving a pistachio nut macaron too, so we stopped by the bakery and bought her one. We ate our ice-creams and the macaron at the park where we walked down the stairs of an old building like we were getting married (not our fault we're odd :P hehe).

Oh, and I bought a bag too - not having to much luck with bags here, already been through two in nearly three months :S haha...this one looked sturdy though, and was good quality :D.




: : Mecredi : :

Wednesday was an epic failure of a day. Marine and I went with Sandrine to get Marine's identity card re-done after she lost it when she got her passport made.

Anyway, we drove into Vauxrezis and when we arrived at the place, there was a beautiful garden out the front with the reddest tulips I have ever seen! Anyway, Marine said, "go on, go on. Pick one!"...So I did, and then my host mum told me that I wasn't allowed to...oooopsies, too late :S. I left it on the side of the garden before following my host mum and Marine inside the building (we retrieved it on the way out and put it in a vase when we got home).

The man inside the building told us that no, we couldn't get her card redone there, and that we had to go to this other place in Soissons...so we did, and of course we were redirected back to the original place.

My host mum wasn't very happy about this and got the man in Vauxrezis on the phone to speak to the other guy, haha.

Anyway, we got it redone and all was good...except for the obsessived heating in the building in Vauxrezis :S.

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Anyway, we then went to the bank...Closed.

And then to the extreme sports centre in Soissons to see the prices for the quadbikes and carting...very expensive! So we didn't end up going with Fabien, Clement and Yanis : (.

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Aurore's friend Charlotte stayed the night...let's just say she's not as innocent as she seems...

Haha, and Marine and I were listening in on the two while we were getting ready for bed, and apparently made too much noise trying to hide our giggles because Aurore opened the door to see if there was anyone there...Good thing Marine and I are quick on our feet and were in the bathroom before she could see us.

Marine had turned off the light and was in the bath adn I was just standing there like an idiot hoping she wouldn't come in.

Anyway, she gave up looking to see if anyone was there and came into the bathroom to retrieve...something...

Anyway, she turned on the light and I screamed a little and she asked what we were doing and whether it was us who were outside her door.

Marine said "no, we're just removing makeup"...AHAHAHAHAHA! Good one Marine...that's why you were in the bath with the light turned off...

Anyway, I laughed and told Aurore she was kidding and we were waiting to scare her mum when she returned to her room.

: : Jeudi : :

Marine and I took Aurore and her friend to the swimming pool on Thursday... We didn't really do anything much for the hour we were there...Although afterwards our ears were aching after all the noise...

When we were waiting for my host-mum, Marine and I sang and danced in the street while Aurore and her friend thought we were strange, haha.

Soon after we arrived back home, we were joined by Charlotte's family...which meant her little brother too :O. He was...very...excited.

: : Vendredi : :

Friday morning I woke to the recording on my phone of Marine and I singing, "Somewhere Only We Know" very badly, at 8:15am.

I got dressed in my sports gear, shoved my iPod, camera and phone (incase I got lost ;)) in my pockets with a bottle of water too...you can imagine that at this stage I as rathr...heavy...

Anyway, after exploring Vauxrezis...all of what there is of it, I looked at my watch and realised it had only been ten minutes --'. That's where the camera came in handy ;).







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I returned home after half an hour, took a shower and ate breakfast with Marine.

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After lunch, my host parents decided to do the early Ssturday morning shopping tripthat afternoon and asked Marine and I to make our shopping list for Saturday (we cooked for the family again).

So at 3pm, the whole family (for once) headed to Cora together. Marine and I parted with the parentals and Aurore and set off to do our shopping.

It was all a bit of a disaster in the end with th shopping costing a lot more than usual...and of course, it was us who were blamed :S. We didn't really understand when we were told off for buying the sae things as my host-parents as theyhad checked everything and given us the okay before we bought it :S.

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: : Samedi : :

At about three pm, Marine and I started on the cooking while my host-parents and Aurore headed into th forest, mushroom picking.

Marine and I prepared the entree (haha, was a bit of a disaster with us spilling spices into the mixture and Marine dumping a whole lot of something she THOUGHT was pepper...:S...I had to point out to her that the label DID NOT say pepper...

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When the family returned (after 3 hours) they all poked around the kitchen making faces at our cooking...some good, some not so good... :S

At 7.30 Mammie came around for dinner. After eating apparitifs, Marine and I started heating the entree of couscous/pototo/carrot/corn patties with garlic and spinich yoghurt sauce.

Let's just say the sauce was complimented ;) haha.

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Afterwards Marine and I took the lamb skewers outside with the tiny little BBQ (could only fit 6 on at a time :S) and began the looooooong process of kabab cooking (45 mins per lot of kababs...of which there were two, so that kind of dragged on a bit :S.

There was a lot of BBQ moving in amongst that ime too due to the wind...and we ended up cooking in the garage, haha.

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The dessert was the biggest failure of all :S. Souffles...ha. ha. ha. Apparently we were doing everything wrong, according to my host-dad. So he took over and made it all for us...I didn't dare telling him that he was doing it wrong...so I let him do what he liked.

Apparently we made way too much mixture too...

It was 10pm and I was tired and fragile and when I took out the souffles they fell after 5 seconds and then I dropped them upside down and then my host-dad told me it tasted of nothing...I wasn't my smiling self, let's just say that... :S

: : Dimanche : :

Marine and I didn't do all that much Sunday. We were eager to ride the bikes in the garage, but the tyres were flat and none of the three bike pumps fitted the bikes. SO we went to the neighbours house to ask if he had a bike pump...no answer. So my host-dad went and bought one for us : ).

: : Lundi : :

Monday morning was spent making a French sheet for Henry to do to help him perfect his French : ). It was rather intestesing comparing Marine's and my knowledge about the French language and our different ways of teaching it.

After lunch we set out to ride the bikes...but after stepping outside we knew it wasn't going to be possible due to the masses of wind outside...

Instead we went up to Marine's room and made eachother up as emos...haha, and that's how we do it here in the France...Anti-boredom = emo makeup ;)...That was a failure...haha, it looked like Marine had drawn all over my face with a black crayon like a little kid! :S At least I TRIED :P haha.

: : Mardi : :

WE RODE THE BIKES!!! Hehe, yes, and it was magical :D. My first time in 3 years or so : ).

Marine and I rode all around Vauxrezis on the little trails through the wide open paddocks and through the fores (haha, we didn't actually know where we were going and the ground made it difficult to ride on, but we were curious ;)...oh and Marine's brakes weren't working so she ended up screaming 'BECKY!!!!!!!!!!!" when I was in front of her on a steep hill...but we survived ;)).

Anyway, we popped out of the forest in Vauxrezis!!! Haha, our sense of direction is back! Hehe. Anyway, we met up with Aurore on our way home and Marine made her carry her jumper before riding away with Aurore screaming after here...Haha, should have heard the screaming from her when she arrived back at the house to see us drinking water in the kitchen (she ran all the way home, ahha).

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That evening we went to Marine's great-aunt's house to eat apparitifs.

Afterwards we went and spent the night with Mammie where we watched three episodes of House before going to bed.

I didn't sleep all the well last niht as I spent the night in the same bed as Marine who doesn't stop moving and speaking in her sleep! Haha, I woke up everytime she moved :S.

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: : Mecredi : :

Wednesday morning Marine and I woke up at 9:00am. When we asked Mammie how her sleep was, she told us about how she tried to get the cat in last night and she fell...that was when we realised that she had a black eye and a grazed knee :S.

For breakfast we ate a pain au chocolat each (the biggest ones I've ever seen :S).

After breakfast Marine and I showered (in a stand-up shower! Hehe, I was rather excited as the whole time I've been in France I've only taken sitting-down showers : )) and listened to music on our bed.

After lunch we watched "House on th Prairy" and a bit of a French movie before we made our way to the new shopping strip where we stayed until 5pm (didnt buy anywthing, just browsed). Mammie then bought a baguette and a massive pastry for Marine and I... at this point I was on sugar over-drive and all the pastries were beginning to take their toll :S.

When we arrived home...we arrived to a dinner of...wait for it...wait for it...CREPES! Oh, sugar really wasn't on my side today :S. I ate three (in Australia, that would be a lot..but here it's normal to eat 10 or more for dinner :S).

Anyway, now we're settling down infront of the telly to watch "Nouvelle Star" (French Idol).

Tomorrow we're hoping to do some bike riding again :D...Hoping our butts aren't still sore :S haha. Those seats are nasty! ;)

: : Paque [[ et ma troisieme famille! ]] : :

: : Saturday : : Yesterday the day consisted mainly of sleeping and Marine going to her Code. The only interesting thing that really happened was up going to eat apparitifs at Natacha's house to say thank you for the previous night. Half an hour before 7pm, when we were due to arrive at Natacha's, Marine and I were a little crazy while we got ready. Let's just say that it ended up with a marriage between a Marmot (me) and a Vache (cow - Marine). Haha - don't worry it's not at all offensive, hehe. Marine just eats all the time, and me, sleep. Hehe. Anyway, while we were brushing our teeth, Marine had yet another blonde moment... We were having a giggling argument in the bathroom. I had forgotten the word for grass in French so I told Marine instead that I didn't understand why cows were linked with fat people if all they eat are vegetables... She told me that cows don't eat vegetables... So, in my defense, I said that they eat the little green trees that are everywhere on the ground (aka, grass) and flowers and lettuce is a vegetable and that's like the grass and that brocolli is a flower...Then I laughed and said, "haha, see! I'm not 'blonde'!" (meaning that she was ; )). The she came out with, "HA! MOI NON PLUS!" [[ HA! Me neither! ]] HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I suggested she take another look at her reflection...! --- The night with Natacha was hilarious! We ended up making shapes, names and pictures with the crackers...Oh and I ate escargot (snails)in pastry (i just thought it was chewy spinach....with A LOT of garlic, haha)...by accident...hehe. Anyway - we were too loud and ended up being banished to our rooms, haha. Anyway, at the end of the night it ended up that Deborah was Marine's and my baby (the product of the Vache and the Marmot) and Natacha was the grandmother. --- When we were walking home, Marine and I sang and danced the Japanese dance for her parents, haha, was funny! --- We ended up staying a lot longer than we expected and we ended up eating at 11:30pm...hehehe...and we watched the tv while doing so...wow, there is some crazy stuff on at 11pm :O. There was a show with people with weird talents, and there was a lady who could massage her eyeballs with her fingers under her eyelids...And yes...the second one...NO COMMENT AT ALL!!! Wow...My host-mumj wouldn't stop laughing at my open mouth, haha. --- We ended up going to bed at past midnight, and when we were in the bathroom getting ready for bed, my host-mum laid out our easter gift bags in the corridor for when we had finished. In the little bags was a little wollet, a bag of chocolates (really yummy!) and a wheel of Milka chocolate : ). Gotta love MILKA! --- After spending an hour or so going through both of our cupboards for a nice restaurant outfit, we finally went to bed...but not before tasting our chocolates ; ). --- I woke up at 10:30am this morning (hehe, half an hour later than planned...) and got ready. After eating my apple (oops, apparently we weren't meant to eat that morning...) we left to go to Mammie's house where she had three gifts laid out for us on the table. She had bought Marine, Aurore and I each a stuffed bunny :D which we named : : Daisy (mine) Lilly (Marine's) and Tina (Aurore's) --- We then arrived at the restaurant where I ordered : : Cucumber, prawn tartare Lamb with celery flan, beans and some sort of vegetable Pistachio nut ice cream --- Between the entree and main meal, Aurore, Marine and I, for whatever reason, went and danced in the bathroom...I think we were a tad excited. After everyone had been served their main meals, we were informed that mine had been given to the other table...So I had to wait again... --- Between the main meal and dessert, my host-mum jokingly suggested that we go dance on the toilet seat...haha, we thought she was serious...so that's what we did, haha, and we filmed it. It was hilarious when Marine was dancing on the toilet seat without her shoes (just her tights) and at the very end she slipped and fell in!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! We got it on camera too!!!

--- When we were finished with dessert and reasonably stuffed to death, ehe, we went to the counter and payed...Haha, it was then that Aurore decided to take as many of the free sweets as possible and stuff them into her bag...I seriously think we got close to 90! --- We then went back to Mammie's...and would you believe it? Ate more...! --- Let's just say that tonight I kept to an apple a two chocolates for dinner :S. --- Anyway, I'm off to bed : )

: : Poisson d'Avril [[ Spectacle Catastrophique...avec un arc au ciel ]] : :

So Wednesday our very short day of school had finished, we yet again left my trumpet teacher wondering where I was due to the time of Marine's code clashing with the time of my tumpet lesson :S. We really should get his number...I have a feeling he'll ditch me if we keep going like this :S.

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Anyway, I went a long with Marine to Code as we planned to go shopping for two hours afterwards.

The guy running Code decided it would be amusing if I tried it too...that involved a lot of French road law questions...in French...haha, ended up getting 18/40...interesting that...

The room was stuffy and at the end all I wanted to do was get some fresh air and sit down; however the rather freaky old man wanted to talk to Marine about when she was going to sit the test, so I did my best to be polite and keep a smile on my face, but in the end gave in and nearly ran out the door...

Outside I sat on the step and had a drink. Marine and I then proceeded to a bench by the roundabout where I sat down - ears thumping, sore throat and all that jazz that I seem to be getting quite accostomed to here :S. Marine called her mum to come and collect us...We waited for 15 minutes before the car finally came around the bend : ) boy was I relieved to see it :D.

When I got home I climbed into bed and slept for three and a half hours.

At 5.45 I woke up, looked at my watch and jumped up (still feeling rather horrible :S) and was about to get ready to go to singing when I realised that it started at 5pm...not 6pm. So I settled back down and went back to sleep for another half hour.

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Thursday morning we started early...Oh and it was April Fools Day!

We started with Gestion, where Marine and I tried our best to do our work, despite my headache (which seemed extremely clingy :S) and the chocolate we had smuggled into my bag that morning (haha, she ate the whole block, minus two small pieces that I ate myself).

During management, I realised that Marine's "blonde moments" were becoming more and more common, haha.

When we first arrived, the teacher of Management was talking in some sort of well-know French character's voice, which was interesting.

At one stage, Sawdatou was talking to Alexandre when she wasn't meant to be and not looking at him...the teacher decided to answer instead of Alexandre...haha, Sawdatou didn't realise until it was too late...hahaha, it was quite funny!

When we were doing the "True or False" questions, I asked Marine why one of the questions was false...

She proudly answered : :

"Bah...Parce que c'est pas vrai!" [[ Bah...because it's not true! ]]

Yes, Marine...Yes, that's a very good answer :P haha.

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Afterwards was English, where I was able to rest my head a bit...

The teacher wasn't in a very good mood...and it didn't help that we had a practice fire evacuation.

Marine's second blonde incident occured once we were outside, when I pointed to the sky and said, "oooh! Look! There's a wave!"
Marine: WHAT?! WHERE!
Me: euh...It's not real...
Marine: Oh, HAHAHAHA!
Clement: Marine! Look! There's a bird in the sky!"
Marine: Pfft! Yeah right, Clement! Bird's can't fly! :P

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! She even admitted to being very proud of herself at the moment...Nice one.

We returned to the English classroom for the last 3 minutes of class. Marine and I received our results for the English test. Marine got 16.5/20 and I got 20/20!!! WHOOO! Haha, it was good to know :D as most of the English exchange students get 16 or 17/20 : ).

We also received our History marks from Chloe - 14.5 for Marine, 14 for me :D

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Hm, well French followed that...Marine ate the second block of chocolate...And we had to put up with Clement and Thomas...ehe, Thomas who wouldn't stop throwing pen lids at my head :S. Oh well, I didn't mind as he was a bit annoyed because the coordinator took away his mobile...apparently it was the first time any of the students had seen him outside his office and the first time they'd seen anyone's mobile taken...

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At lunch, we walked to Marine's grandmother's house for lunch. We arrived five minutes late, but she wasn't too fussed.

For entree we ate MELON! Haha, cantelope (??? loosing my English spelling!!!), more precisely.

We then ate some sort of creamy chicken, mushroom and cheese bake with steamed rice. Apparently it's a French dish : ) really yummy!!!

Mammie (no.2) then tried to convince me to eat a dessert - I was stuffed, so I declined...however Marine caved in to two chocolate proffiterolls :P.

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We stayed at Mammie's house for 2.5 hours, studying for maths and perfecting Marine's English pronouciation, haha.

We were kicked out when Mammie's "friend" arrived...*cough friend cough*...I think the whole family knows what goes on between those two very SPECIAL friends...NO COMMENT.

Let's just say Marine and I exchanged a glance after we were pushed out the front door, just to hear the lock click behind us...

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We started at 4pm with Communications, although the teacher wasn't there...She told us to wait until 4.30pm, and if she wasn't there we could leave. HA! The teacher who petrolled the corridors didn't buy that very true story :S. So we all had to assemble inside the classroom, with nothing to do...

The teacher arrived in the end...She turned on the power for the computers and I found that work had been mysteriously deleted off my hardrive. Despite saving it every 2 minutes the week before :S. I was nearly done too :S.

Gotta do that work these holidays :S.

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My head and earlier sickness took over and I had to go to the sick bay where the lady took my temperature...sure enough, I had a fever... She told me that it would be best for me to stay home tomorrow if I felt bad in the morning as it would only get worse, and gave me a pastil for my throat and a tablet for my head.

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I spent the last 45 mins of Communications just looking at photos, waiting for the pill to do its job.

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Sure enough, it did and I ended up my old crazy self...And worked up enough courage to study for both the maths and Droit test for Friday.

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Friday morning...hm. Friday Friday Friday.

I think I honestly went through two and a half packets of tissues after staying home for the 10 hour day at school with Aurore and my host-dad (all sick...thanks to Aurore :P haha, just kidding : )).

Before lunch, I texted Marine to say good luck for both the tests as I cleaned my room in Marine's giant "SING SING" t-shirt.

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I had yet another siesta that afternoon, haha.

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I got ready for Marine's Spectacle at 5pm as I waited for Marine to return home for sport.

At 5.30 I sat down to watch the end of the April Fools Presque Parfait episode with Aurore and my host dad.

When she did arrive, however, we all knew about it. She was laughing and screaming that she was stressed for her song and that she was annoyed at everything and that she was still in her sports clothes. It was quite funny.

Haha, and I made the mistake of taking my four pills on an empty stomach...I was rather crazy.

I think I scared poor Alexis and Marine when we were at the Spectacle when I was lying on the table laughing...hm...

The singers were...interesting...for the first half of the night...:S

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When we had the 30 min break, we ate tuna cake, salmon cake, apple cake and yoghurt cake...was rather stuffed after all that cake...but meh, I was hungry!

Natacha announced that she wasn't feeling well, so Floriane's mum gave her a capsule to swollow...Natacha, not being good with tablets, failed miserable, so we emptied into her Oringina. Which she drank...only to find the powder still at the bottom of her cup...so we tried again...and then with water another two times...then we tried to mix it in with the knife that was used to cut the tuna cake...it was all quite catastrophic...

Natacha then went outside as she still wasn';t feeling well.

We joined her, and later with the mum of Floriane, who's a nurse.

After about 15 mins, we all gathered inside again, before realising that Natacha wasn't with us...

After asking Alexis if he'd seen her, and him answering non, the three of us went to search for her...She wasn't in toilet...so we figured maybe she was just wondering the building.

We sat down again, waited 5 minutes...then went in search for her again.

My gut didn't feel right...I ran to the toilet to look again and told Marine to look outside.

Nope. Not in the toilet...

I ran outside to find Marine on her way back to the building. When she saw me she gestured for me to follow her and yelled "VITE!".

Natacha had wondered up the street, in the dark and was having trouble breathing.

I ran back to get Floriane's mum...

After talking to her, and convincing her that it was best if she came back inside, Natacha wasn't in good form.

Her parents weren't answering their phones either...

In the end we called the ambulance and she was taken away with Marine's dad - who wasn't too happy with Natacha's parents.

He ended up missing Marine singing. It took a lot of convincing before she went up to sing that everything would be alright.

Deborah, Natacha's little sister, was distraught and to make things worse, a woman told off Aurore for making noise (she was stressing about Natacha) and to respect the people who were singing...and to shut up.

That resulted in Aurore crying : |, Deborah crying : | and Marine not wanting to sing at all.

I told her to sing for everything that night...and that's what she ended up doing...goosebumps and all : ).

I was extremely proud of her :D.

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After stressing, and stressing, and stressing some more, it was time for Alexis to close the show with "Telephone" by Lady Gaga.

It was quite the show stopper with background singers, a real telephone (which he threw on the ground) and dancing.

He got a lot of compliments that night.



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When we returned home, we were all rather tired...everyone except for Marine and I.

At 1am, Marine was starving (don't ask me how!)...so we snuck downstairs and prepared three sandwiches for Marine...and during, she ate a mini piece of apple cake.

We made : :

a banana sandwich with this ginger biscuit butter

a nutella sandwich with squares of chocolate

and a Emental cheese and garlic/herb cheese sandwich



Haha - I tasted all three but I wasn't all that hungry...The only one Marine didn't finish was the chocolate one.

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