Oh My Goodness!

I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! There's inly 10 days left! So happy, yet so sad!
This last week we had a bunch more tests, non of which I did very well on ...
Then saturday we drove to Versailles for a family reunion, which was such a great idea, and it was also celebrating the 140th birthday of Amarande's great, great grandmother who passed away 48 years ago. Me, Valentine, Amarande and Nadine then went to the chateau of Versaille and did the tour of the castle. It was SO amazing! The chateau of Versailles is the most visited castle in France and I can see why. The paintings and architecture was just phenomenal! We also walked down to 'Le Grand Canal' which was beautiful, but unfortunately it then started pouring rain so we didn't get to see the rest of the gardens.
Today was my last monday of school so I said goodbye to my Arts P. teacher (I'll put the picture at the bottom) and then we had our french test on the book we've been reading: Claude Gueux by Victor Hugo. It was only 50 pages, but it was very difficult to read, and I was constantly opening and reopening the dictionary. Luckily I feel pretty good about the test :)
The rest of the week is all saying goodbye to my teachers and friends, and friday is my last day of school. Then the coming weekend and my last few days are all visiting castles (YAY!) and packing for my long trip back.

Can't believe I'm going to be home in less than 2 weeks!!!

Hey, sorry it's been so long.... again! Time seems to be moving sooo fast, I can't believe there's only 3 weeks left?!?! I can't wait to see all my family and friends, but I don't want to leave this place :(
Anyways, last week was the Carnaval de Chaille, we all got into costume and had a little parade through the streets accompanied by some mini floats made by the primary school kids. There was confetti and silly string EVERYWHERE (i feel kind of bad for the cars and windows on the streets that we went down, the kids covered them!) We then went home and had a quick gouter, changed and went to the soirée :D We ate the best food (dessert came at 12:30, haha) and danced until 3:00am! I learned the 'Madelaine', the 'corde a sauter' and the french 'Macarina'. We had so much fun!
On Sunday (after sleeping in, and having a brunch, I made pancakes for the family) we went to the Max Vauché chocolate factory and shop! It is THE BEST CHOCOLATE IN THE WORLD (unfortunately it's also the most expensive in the world) and we took the tour and ate cocoa beans and chocolate mousse. It was fantastic!
At school this week we had a ton of tests(a math test 9/20, an SVT test, a french test, a music test, a history test, a Spanish test and last but not least, a technology test)! We had to present our finished Arts P. projects, and ours was pretty good i must say! haha. And allong with all that we also got our report card, though mine is rather plain, I only got 3 marks; a 14,7 in music, a 15.5 in math and a 16 in physics, and in french the teacher wrote "Eleve agreable et serieuse. Son integration dans la classe semble completement reussie" which I think is good, so I'm pretty happy with that :)
So Easter's coming up on Sunday, pretty exited to see the french traditions, and for 'les cloches de paque' (the easter bells) which delivers all the chocolate, because the story goes that the bells disapear for the 3 days before easter to go get all the chocolate and then easter morning deliver it all and return to their duties.
So I hope that everything's going great, and I'll talk to you all (all 4 or however many there are of you) soon :)

Hey, sorry it's been so long. I had some issues with logging into my account, but all is well.
So we started school again as usual and school is getting better and better. I'm understanding more and more, my grades are going up and it's getting easier. There have been ALOT of tests since we got back, including one of our big exams (which in france are scattered out throughout the year instead of at the end of the year, like in Canada). On Friday me and Amarande did our big poem resitation and I am so increadibly proud of it, and we got 20/20!!!
This week there's only 10 people left in the class, because almost all of 3emes and 4emes (grade 9s and 10s, including Valentine, Amarande's sister) are on a 1 week exchange to Britain to improve there English, so it's actually very nice and peaceful. In Art Plastique (art... ish) we have to make a sculture, which attaches to our body and grows outward until it meets with our parnters sculture (I'm with Amarande) who has the same theme, but different sculpture and at the end both sculpturse have to be 1 meter long! Our theme (Me and Amarande) is 'Flowers' so my sculpture is a bunch of different sized flowers which attach together (made out of metal wire) and then latch on to flower cuffs that Ihave on my wrists. This will then attach to Amarande's sculpture which is one giant flower around her waist, with lots of little bamboo sticks that come out with flowers and gardening tools on them.
I believe I explained that in the worst possible way, but wish me luck for the presentation next monday :)
On Saturday me and Amarande biked to the chateau Beauregard and walked through the beautiful spring gardens ( it was atleast 30 degrees and I have actual TAN LINES! On the 5th day of spring!!!!!) and then took a guided tour through the castle. The castle is famous because it has an amazing room with 327 portraits which tell the history (great battles, alliances and tragic deaths) of France until the death of the genius who created them, and the 5600 Delft tiles which, all hand painted, show an entire army! The current owners of the castle have also put in a 'dog' gallerie' which has tons of portrait pictures of famous dogs, such as the president's dig, the queens dog (one of them) and much, much more.
Yesterday (Sunday) we got up early and Me, Amarande and Valentine (on her last day) went to Nadine's school and babysat about 15 children between the ages of 1 and 5 and played games outside, did some coloring and ate a big bouffé lunch. Finally when we had finished at 4:00 (I made 10 euros :) we went and had a quick look around the carnal of Blois. everyone was in costume, confetti littered the streets and the parade was amazing!!!!
Anyway, I have homework to finish so talk to you soon :)

Hello again.
So yesterday we got back from Villard de Lans (Grenoble). I had the best time there! We went skiing (Grenoble is completetly surrounded by mountains, and Villard de Lans is perched at the top) which was fantastic! It was about 15 degrees on the hill and the snow was perfect and at the end of the day we could take the ski route all the way back to the house.
Amarande's grandparents are the sweetest people and grow all of their vegetable and keep their own chickens and rabbits. Her grandmother definately didn't think I ate enough, but the food was so great that I couldn't refuse seconds even if I tried!
On the weekend we went into Grenoble and met up with Maggie and her exchange student Marta and went shopping and had a TON of fun! We also went to the museum of Grenoble and saw some beautiful art work.
Later on we met up with all the cousins and did a grant performance of different commercials to the parents which was pretty hilarious and at the end everyone insisted I play my violin for the family so I played the third Seitz, which went well.
On our last day in Villard de Lans, me, Amarande and Fabien drove to La Grotte de Choranche which was amazing! It's a huge cavern inside the mountain with stalagmites over 100 000 years old and stalactites over 3 meters long! Inside the cavern we saw a light show which was fantastic and then the Olm, which is an animal from the prehistoric era that live in the water and looks a bit like a snake with no eyes. The car ride back was fine; we listened to music, played games and stopped for lunch and leter for gouter at some nice little places.
School starts again on monday and tonight I'm cooking dinner for the family (shepherds pie and lemon pudding) which I hope they like and tomorrow we're going to the family day (which is once a month) at church. :)

Today was the most beautiful day! It was super sunny and ateast 15-20 degrees. Me, Amarande and Valentine went for a bike ride and stopped by a beautiful little stream and had a 'gouter' with homemade chocolate raspberry muffins and cheros (which were AMAZING!) and I had to take my sweatshirt off.
I'm loving being on vacation and sleeping in and the weather is to die for! Tomorrow we're heading off to Grenoble, where Amarande's grandparents, and most of her extended family live, for just over a week. In Grenoble we're going skiing (I already got fitted for skis and ski boots) and meet up with Maggie and Marta! SO exited! I'm pretty much all ready to go, though I'm waiting to see how the 8 hour car ride is going to go. :/
Before I go, I would like to say a HUGE 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!' to Samantha! Hope you have a great birthday, and wish I was there to share it with you <3

(i'll attach some photos of cheverny, chambord, ext..)

So this week was pretty amazing! On sunday we went to see le chateau de Chambord which was fantastic. At the moment they're cleaning the stone, because it's turning all black from the polusion, so part of the castle was covered, but it was still amazing.
The castle has a double spiral staircase, designed by Leonardo DaVinci which was really cool, because the 2 stair case are intertwined so that you never see the other stair case, and it's really, really cool.
School's going great, I'm meeting a ton of new people and I'm not having to much trouble with the school work. I had a musique test and a french test this week and i suprisingly don't think i did to awful :)
My violin lessons are great, I have a fantastic teacher who is very understanding and quite happy to help me continue with my current studies. We just started the next song in suzuki book 4, and i can't wait to continue working with him.
On thursday Amarande took me to 'gym' at the comunity center, where a teacher guides us through a bunch of exercises for legs and abs. I am seriously out of shape and was practically limping by the end of it and could barely do the bike ride back home, but I'm so glad to be doing some exercise!
Yesterday, after school we drove down (about an hour away from Chaille) to some friends of the familly and ate the most fantastic diner. First appetizers and drinks, then, using these cool little cookers cooked up differnt cheeses with ham and a bunch of assorted meats a then poored the melted sauce over boiled potatoes. It was SO good, and then for dessert we had fruit with chocolate and white chocolate creams. We didn't get back until after midnight, but I have to say the car rides are much more fun; singing lisening to music together and playing games.
So now, finally, we're on vacation!!! On thursday we are doing the 8 hour drive to Grenoble and go skiing in the mountains with the rest of the Rouillions! Before we go we're going to visit a bunch of other castles and I can't wait. It's time for lunch so I better go, but talk to you soon! :)))))

Hello again! Sorry I haven't had much time to write this week! School's going pretty well, and I realise only now how much I love eating breakfast, and then having a big lunch. I wish I had realised this sooner. The food here is out of this world, and I'm going to seriously miss it. I went to church on sunday, with my host family, where I played my violin with Amarande and the Church was freezing, but it was the most beautiful little church. We were going to go bike riding last week, but it started raining and since then it just kept getting warmer. It's usually about 10- 15 degrees outside, and just about all the snow has melted! I'm starting to really get used to things, and I can't wait to start seeing the castles! Having a blast!!!