The Move, St. Omer- Rotary Weekend and Vacances d'Hiver

 

The Collection

 

A casual Bike ride to Belgium

 

 Carnival

Laurena's Birthday Party

Cap Blanc Nez

 

 Sports Day

A few days after I got home from London, I moved families. I was supposed to go to the Borelle Family’s home but I found out the day before the move that wouldn’t be possible for various reasons. I moved in with the Dupont Family which is great!   I arrived at their house with two big suitcases, a backpack, four giant Ikea sacs and other bags! I do not know how it is possible for one to accumulate so much stuff in six months. They were so welcoming the first night which was good because I was sad to move from the Bernardeaus. I live in a little town called Lorgies which has a church (like every village in France) a small school and a store. It is further from Lille than my other houses but the village is cute.

We had a Rotary weekend in St. Omer and I met the newbies for the first time. There are 11 new exchange students from Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. We went bowling and had blast! You could imagine how 41 exchange students bowling together would be. What a mess. We met all the French students who will be going on exchange in September and spoke with the people going to our countries. We had presentations and then a dance that night. The next day we went to gigantic underground bunker designed by the Nazis, called La Coupole. It was used to store, prepare and launch rockets during the war and is a museum now. It was interesting for a short while but everyone was so tired so we all napped during the films. As exchange students we learn to stop trying to fight the fatigue and just sleep. That is the biggest lesson I learned in school... The classic cold chicken and other cold pasta salads were served for lunch and then we sat around and waited for our host parents to arrive. The weekend was great, as per usual and I really like most of the newbies.

On the way home from St. Omer, we went to The Carnival in a town called Bailleul and it was crazy. There was a parade with over 50 floats, brass bands and people dancing and singing. Everyone was dressed up like it was Halloween and the ambiance was great. The ground was covered in confetti that had fallen from the sky like snow; most floats had confetti cannons and everyone was throwing it at one another. There are a lot of different carnivals for Mardi Gras in France including two big ones in Paris and Nice and another in Dunkerque.

I was with the Dupont family for another week and then moved in with the Borelles. It was just for the holidays as my host parents were going to be working and I would be stuck in the middle of nowhere for two weeks! It was a perfect break from school because I had no specific plans and I was able to relax. The Borelles live right next a train station so it was really easy for me to go to Lille as I wanted. Early in the break, Celia, Lauren Abby and I rode out bikes to Belgium. It only took about 20 minutes and was the first time Celia and Abby had been to Belgium, which was pretty exciting. We asked some man to take a picture of us with our bikes and the Belgium sign; he was so confused as to why we were so enthused since there is no difference from the French side to the Belgium side. The weather was unpleasant, the town was quiet and there was nothing to do. We went to a grocery store and stocked up on Belgium Chocolate and some other stuff then headed home. I went to Laurena, my best French friend’s birthday party and had another party with the exchange students for Ignacio’s 19^th. One Sunday my host family and I went to Cap Blanc Nez and Cap Gris Nez which are on the Cote d'Opale in the North. It was raining, cold and super windy but was worth it to see the magnificence of the cliffs. Typically, if the weather is good, you can see England (the white cliffs of Dover) but we had no such luck with the weather. We had lunch in Berck, a little town on the ocean, but it was disagreeable beach weather. haha

The second week of vacation was lower key but started with a bang! I woke up on Monday morning, opened my shutters and thought I was still dreaming. It looked like I was opened a Christmas card. There was snowflakes quickly adding to about a foot of snow and I could not believe it. It was a really slushy snow and I didn’t bring my boots, I didn’t think we’d get a snowstorm in May after the warm weather we’d had, so I stayed in for the day.  

After the snow had melted, we had a “Sports Day” at my house. My host family has a massive garden with two football nets, a ping pong table and a volleyball net. We decided, why not change things up from our average afternoons in Lille. Twenty five exchange students came over on an overcast afternoon to hang out and play games. Jean Carlo wearing Gucci jeans and a Louis Vuitton shit sweater set, rain boots and holding his Longchamp sac. He obviously didn’t get the message.  We played an afternoon of mostly football and had such a great time. Everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves.

The vacation was well spent and it was nice to get to know some of the newbies a little better and hang out with friends. Staying with the Borelle family was nice and I really felt at home there. I had a chance to catch up on sleep and relax! It was a good break from Beaucamps and my nine hour school days. I watched lots of French movies and caught up on my online television. I can’t wait until the Vacances de printemps, thank goodness the French love holidays. 

 

London

 

Jon and I 

 

 Westminster Abbey

 Changing of the Guards

 Trafalgar Square 

I returned to the UK to visit London for a week and get to know the city that all the French people rave about. Everyone wears the United Kingdom flag; on their clothes, bags, even cars! I had never been to London so it was really interesting. I am a fan of the Royal Family and it was lovely to see things I had seen in movies or on TV, right of front of my eyes. I didn’t see the sun for seven days, the weather was not great, but that is not a big change from the North of France. I stayed with Samantha’s friend, Jon, who goes to the London School of Economics and is living there this year.  

I took the Eurostar from Lille to London and Jon met me at the “Harry Potter Wall” which was covered up due to construction. I arrived in the early evening so we went to his residence and planned roughly what we were going to do that week, then went and met his friends. 

The next day we went to Convent Garden, had tea, and then went to China town. It was really authentic and there were decorations for Chinese New year. After visiting a famous round-about called Oxford Circus, we spent some time shopping on Oxford Street and Regent Street. We also walked along Saville Road which is an area with very famous suit makers. We could see into some of the workshop and they were making the suits by hand. 

We had a touristy Saturday which started in the Lincoln’s Inn Fields, a park, where Jean Chrétien had planted a maple tree in honour of fallen Canadian Soldiers. We headed to the Somerset House and on the way saw the BBC Building and I took a classic London picture with a police officer. We went to Trafalgar Square and there was a large protest going on there for Amnesty International. Minus the protesters, the square was really beautiful, with flowing, icy fountains and the Nationally Gallery at the top. We continued on and I saw a statue of Earl Haig (Earl Haig Family Fun Park, only the Brantfordians would get that. Haha) and statues of other war Generals. There were police men on horses which is one of the stereotypical images of London. We finally got to the Parliament Buildings where I saw Big Ben. I never knew, I thought Big Ben was the clock, but in fact it is the bell inside. It was impressive; the architecture of the building and the stone work was incredible. There were people dressed up like the Queen looking to earn money and people who sold little Clock Towers, etc. Jon and I went to a restaurant for a late lunch and then to Evensong at the Westminster Abbey. It was amazing, took my breath away. The abbey was perfect; it is one of my favorite Churches/Abbeys in Europe. The choir was moving, their ensemble blew me away. I am also a Will and Kate fan, so I imagined I was at the Royal Wedding. After, we went to Buckingham Palace where there were guards who stood as still as a statue. We headed home for a party at Jon’s residence that was themed, Mathletes and Athletes. It was fun!  A few of us went out afterwards and I got a taste of London’s nightlife. 

I spent the next day shopping and bought some London souvenirs. It was weird being surrounded by English speakers, although I did come across many French people. 

I got up early the next morning to go to the Changing of the Guards at the Buckingham Palace. Jon had class, so I went out and tackled London alone (I got lost for about an hour in the late afternoon). There were so many people and I waited for an hour and a half to have a good spot. It was pretty neat to see although it was long and repetitive. A lot of tourist sites say that it is good to do if you have the time, but not vital, I can see why. The band was neat and the show was appealing to the crowd. After, I went to the National Gallery and it was wonderful. It is full of some of the world's most important and most beautiful works of art and it was free! I saw Leonardo Di Vinci’s “The Virgin of the Rocks” which was just beautiful. The rest of the Gallery was great and I drifted from room to room in awe. It was massive; one could easily spend an entire day there. 

I decided I would go to a few Markets in London and I also made the horrible decision of walking. I was so dead by the end of the day. I visited The Chapel Market which was a garage sale style market, not very exciting. I headed to Petticoat lane which was a textile market and was it was not great either. From Petticoat I went to Spitalfields Market which was a relief. It was an upper-class, indoor market that sold some great art, clothes, accessories and food. I bought a little money pouch and a snack. I took the bus back to Oxford Street because walking would have taken forever. I had lunch where a met an old lady who lived in London and told me all about these mosquitos or tropical bugs that are in her house and how she had a doctor’s appointment and a meeting at the bank.  She was cute. I went to the British Museum after which was very different from the National Gallery. It is also really big and I didn’t have all day so I chose to visit the exhibition of different countries. In the Egypt exposition, I saw the mummy of Cleopatra and The Rosetta Stone! In China, there were beautiful statues of Buddha and glass work that was amazing. The Latin American one was interesting and so was Northern America. There were a few pieces about Artic Canada and Native Americans.  There was another piece called “Cradle to Grave” by Pharmacopoeia. The piece incorporates a lifetime supply of prescribed drugs knitted into two lengths of fabric, illustrating the medical stories of one woman and one man. This is over 14,000 drugs in each story and that number does not include the medicine we buy over the counter.  It was absolutely eye opening to see what the average person puts in their body over a lifetime! Jon and I went out for dinner and hung out with some people from his floor that night. 

The next day was low key. I drank tea in a little café and did some work on my computer in the morning while Jon went to class. We later went to St. Paul’s Cathedral which is a really old, pretty church. Outside the church is the longest lasting sit in called, “Occupy London.” They had been camping for about 4 months and were fighting against a warped capitalist system that created a global financial crisis in the UK. They ruined my pictures. We had Pizza Hut for dinner and then went out with Jon’s friends, Matt and Andrew. 

Jon and I said goodbye that morning and I headed back to France. It was a good voyage and I certainly got a good taste of London, literally, I drank a lot of Tea. The Westminster Abbey was so moving and London was really nice and it was good to see a friend from home and to speak English for a week! I can now understand why people in France, and all over the world, love London so much.