le chapitre final FRANCE

Hey Guys! so let me tell you about the last few weeks here in France...

I had my Rotary presentation in french that went pretty well. i'm really happy with how it went. i did my presentation on New Zealand with a power point and i sang a song in Maori, which the Rotarian's seemed to like it.

so in the past few weeks it has been Christmas and the new year!..... the year has just gone so so fast now that i look back on it, it seems to have just gone by in a flash.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas. i spent Christmas in a town called Cholet with my host family and there very large family. we had christmas mostly on the 24th and had a lunch on the 25th also. Christmas is so different here! Unfortunately though i was sick for Christmas so it wasn't as good as i hoped it would be.

here is a photo of our Christmas tree that i decorated with my host brother
not a very good photo, sorry because of the lighting.

During the period between Christmas and the new year i went and stayed at my old host families for a night to catch up before i left to come home. it was really nice to spend some time with them before my return. This family means so much to me and i am going to miss them so so so much! 

For the new year i had to spend it with the Rotarian's from my club.... when i say french people like to eat... i mean it! we sat at the table eating from 7.30pm - 3.30am! can you believe it? Happy new year to you all! best wishes for 2012.

Tonight i sit here in my bed, it is my last night in France. Tomorrow morning i begin my very long journey home. It still hasn't hit me that i'm homeward bound.. but i'm so excited to come home to beautiful new zealand, back to my family, my friends and my home...

Last ever photo taken in La Fleche, France. 4/01/12

 France has been the most amazing year my life. at times it has been hard but, even in the hard times i have profited from the experiences. France and my exchange has given me so much. I now have learned a new language, i have a new family, new friends, a new home. I have seen and been to so many beautiful and amazing places. My exchange has made me more independent, more grown up, more appreciative of my family and what i have. This past year has given me a new outlook on life and i am so very grateful for what i have experienced. I think coming on exchange has been the decision i could have ever made.


So Thank you mum and dad and thank you to all of my family and friends who have supported me along the way.


Here's to the end of my exchange and the beginning of everything else. a new beginning, in which i know i will have so many more adventures..... the adventures aren't over yet.

I Hope you have all enjoyed reading my blog this year.

Over and Out

Love, Esther xx

A photo of my host family for you

My last ever Rotary weekend...

on the 10th and the 11th of December i had my last rotary weekend in a town called Nantes. Nantes is the 7th biggest town in France.
We spent the weekend at the beautiful Christmas markets, ice skating,  exploring the town and just hanging out all together for the last time.
It feels really strange to know that my year as an exchange students really is coming to an end, i had an amazing weekend with all my wonderful exchange students friends. It is going to be very odd not seeing them anymore but i know that i will be seeing them again someday soon. I made some really awesome friends from Australia that i hope to visit in April next year...

mechanical Elephant 

Ice skating

final photo together with all my southern hemisphere friends
Australia/ Argentina and Norfolk island + me

this year has been an amazing experience and i think it has been my best achievement so far in my life. i am very proud :)
so for now i would just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful and Happy new years, i am very much looking forward to seeing you all soon! i now leave in just 16 days!
Lots of love, Esther

When Mum, Dad and Kate came to visit...

i flew to London from France to meet the whanau for the first stop in our adventure, It felt so strange to see them after being separated for 10 months it seriously felt completely unreal.

Kate's wonderful sign

 We Spent the first few days in London exploring the town, shopping, visiting the royal palace, going on bus and boat tours and also went to the very famous musical of Billy Elliot. Just doing all the touristy things.. whilst i was in London i spotted a really small baby and i turned to look at its little face i saw that it wasn't a baby but a baby chimpanzee dressed in clothes with a hat in a front pack of a man.... Can you believe it? it was so so funny Kate and i ran after it so we could get another look, i could not believe my eyes.

With the cute little telephone booths

At a Lookout

Big Ben

Buckingham Palace

first night of being together

Bus tour

On the boat tour of London

Second stop was Paris where we visited the Eiffel tower and all of Paris beautiful sights and all the famous land marks we also enjoyed a fun and adventurous day at Disneyland.... Mum even went on some of the roller coasters! in which we were all very proud of her. We also got to spend some time with Line, a lady that mum and dad used to know when she was a little girl in their time when they lived in France. Paris is such a beautiful city, Especially at Christmas time with all the Markets and Christmas lights and decorations around the city.

Christmas markets in Paris

On the Teacup ride

Disneyland castle

Le Louvre

Enjoying a day in Paris

On Top Of the Eiffel Tower

Third stop was Bourg-en-bresse, the town where my parents used to live 26 years ago.... During our stay we visited a midi evil town and even got to visit a beautiful town in the Alps. Our stay in Bour-en-bresse involved a lot of food and wine... and when i say alot i really mean enough food to feed a small army. It was really nice to be able to see the town my parents lived in and to see where dad played rugby and to meet all their friends. And what lovely friends they have..

In The alps

In Perouge

At The Bar 

drinking Cidre in Perouge

Forth stop was Barcelona where we finally got to take scarfs and jackets off and enjoy a bit of sunshine. It wasn't too hot maybe 18 degrees but a lot warmer then France. We spent our two days in Spain sight seeing, shopping and going on bus tours. Barcelona is a huge city with such amazing buildings.

A Castle in Barcelona

Eating Paelle on the waterfront in Barcelona

Fifth and final stop was La Fleche, i was nice to be able to show the family where i have been spending my days for the past year however it did feel unbelievably strange. we visited La fleche and stayed in a pretty impressive Castle that was owned by a Rotarian's in my Rotary club. My family got to meet all my host families at a rotary dinner and during the weekend we had meals at some of their houses. We visited Le Mans and my family  got to meet my lovely friend Ellie Prior. And we visited Angers and went to see a cathedral and a big castle and more CHristmas markets.... it was a nice quiet end to our trip together...

Christmas markets

the castle we visited

The castle we stayed in

When my family left it felt so so strange, because i had only just got them back. I must admit that i miss them even more now after i've seen them but thats okay because i will be back home now in just under 4 weeks... se i will write very soon and i hope you are all having a wonderful day. sorry  that this post took a while to come! xx

My New House - The Pierres

I have recently moved houses and i am now currently in my last host family. my new host family consists of Jerome and Colette and their 4 children, whom don't live at the house and only come home on the occasional weekend. they live in a nice new modern home in la fleche and it is just a 2 minute walk from my school which is handy....

this is  my new house :)

my bedroom

 the cool staircase

the lounge 

and the kitchen :)

it was really sad leaving my last host family because i loved them so much but i guess that's all part of the experience and i know i have made lifelong friends with them.. :)

wish me luck

EUROTOUR! - the best 12 days of my life

 France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Monaco

On the 22^nd of November i met all the other exchange students in paris ready and eager to start our bus trip over Europe.

Day 1: We started in Paris where we had a bus tour and visited the Louvre and the Notre dame then we drove to a town in the north of France called Reims where we stayed the night. That night we went into town and watched an amazing light show on the side of the huge cathedral, it was really cool.

       

Day 2: we had to wake up really early to start on our journey  to Strasbourg a town only 10 minutes from the German border, so there was Germans everywhere! in Strasbourg we went on a boat tour in the river and looked around the town. In Strasbourg there is a huge amazing Gothic church which was pretty amazing.

Day 3: We started our day in Strasbourg bright and early and drove to Munich, Germany we we spent the day.  i find it so awesome how in Europe you can just drive to different countries unlike in NZ where we are pretty far from everywhere really. it took about 5 hours to drive to Munich. In Munich we visited the BMW showroom then got a bus tour of the town and then went souvenir shopping :) and of course we all had a beer in the homeland of beer. Munich is the third biggest town in Germany and it is truly another beautiful town.

Day 4: today we woke up in Germany and drove to another town and visited a small chateau which used to be the king of Germany's holiday home. after our visit to the chateau we drove to Innsbruck, Austria.... in Innsbruck we got to look around the town, have a nice austrian meal for lunch and have a guided tour. I LOVE EUROPE!!

Day 5: ~ Welcome to ITALY! ~ Today we drove on the bus for 3 hours to beautiful Verona, the land of Romeo and Juliet....... where do i begin? Italy is so beautiful it is literally heaven on earth..... when we arrived in Verona  after a three hour drive on the bus we went to a restaurant  and i had ravoli.... the pasta was so good from it's homeland. We spent the day looking around the town, visiting the place of Romeo and Juliet and we all wrote letters to Juliet. Afterwards we had a tour and then drove another three others to our hotel near Venice :) -life is good-

Day 6: Today i am fairly certain was the best day of my life. I made it to Venice! Venice has always been a dream to me and i made it :) from our hotel we caught about a 30minutes boat ride to the centre of town. We spent the morning exploring Venice and having another guided tour. After the tour we had pizza for lunch and went to all the markets which were really cool they were filled with such nice things!! in the afternoon we got to go on the gondola, which are the very famous boats! it was so indescribably beautiful. Afterwards we went  to some shops and the caught the boat back to our hotels where we had dinner  and went out on the town for a bit after. a truly amazing day! Venice is one of my favorite cities that I've ever visited! it truly blew me away!

Day 7: in the morning we drove from Venice to Florence. When we arrived we all went straight to have lunch, i had pizza again. after lunch we had a guided tour and got time to explore the town and the markets. In Florence we visited another beautiful church and went and saw the statue of David. Another amazing day in Italy!

Day 8:  we started the day by driving to Pisa, we spent the morning taking photos and we hired a car bike thing that we drove around the town! i was the driver and we had to drive on the main road! i must admit, it was a bit scary. In the afternoon we walked all over the town  and visited the markets. Pisa is another really pretty town! and i love seeing places with my own two eyes that I've only ever seen in photos and on postcards. i must admit, i am a very lucky  teenager.

Day 9:  Today we visited the land of the filthy rich 'Monaco' the moment the bus got to the top of the hill overlooking the small country of just 2km squared i was completely amazed. It looked unreal.... Monaco is the second smallest country in the world and is a very very wealthy country. In Monaco we had a guided tour and visited the Palace of the royals and watched the guards change. We also visited the church and visited the museum.... quite a lot in one day. At the museum there was lots of photos of the prince's wedding. There was also a huge and awesome aquarium. i like Monaco. All the houses were huge beautiful white apartments, massive boats filled the harbour and Ferrari’s and Lamborghini filled road.... 

Day 10:  we drove back to france and visited the beautiful old town of Lyon, where we spent the day shopping and having a guided tour, that night we had a party because it was one of the girls 18^th Birthday and we all dressed up J it was lots of fun.

Day 11: today we drove to Geneva, Switzerland. While there we went and visited the united nations head quarters and had a tour of it, it was a very interesting place to visit and the buildings were pretty impressive with a lot of architectural design. Afterward we went and had Indian for lunch... it was sooooo good! And then we spent the rest of the day looking around Geneva and taking photos.

Day 12: Today was the last day we woke up, piled on to the bus and went straight back to Paris which took about 5 hours. My group was the first to be dropped off at the train station Montparnasse so there were tears shed on the bus as we said our goodbyes. No one wanted to separate and go back to relality (but most of all back to school). We all started to realise that now this is over, time is going to pass very quickly, and now we only have just over 7 weeks  left of our year abroad.

This trip was by far the best 12 days of my life, I saw so many things I can't even believe it, and I am so thankful to the people who made this possible. That would be you, parents, I hope you know how much I love you and appreciate everything you have done for me

My beloved parents and my beautiful sister Kate now arrive in just 4 nights in which i am meeting them in London on Thursday afternoon! I am so so so excited. And i leave on my journey back to NZ in just 52 sleeps......