Il y a deux semaines...

I arrived in France, and I've already done so many amazing things! Anna has lots of lovely friends, and one day last week I went to 3 different colleges -mine, her friend Priscilla's (we made a picnic, borrowed someone else's card and sneaked into their school canteen!) and then Benoit's school in the evening for two (very long!) school council meetings, one having to decide between saturday or wednesday afternoon school -I'm glad I live in NZ, it seems like so much time here is taken up with school already, and I don't even take sciences here! It was an interesting evening, mostly because I had a correspendance (don't worry, it's a French word!) to make between the bus and the tram, which was much more confusing than it appeared, and it was night and raining, and the bus was diverted so the stops didn't have names! I had to ring Anna to find out where I was, and trust me it's much harder speaking French without body language!

The first photo is of my school -isn't it a beauty? It's older than the arrival of white people in NZ, and I really appreciate it after seeing some of the other schools. School is great, if a little crazy to understand! I take Maths, which is insane at times (at the moment we're doing algorithms and they write these huge long sentences using 5 different types of brackets, infinity signs and no numbers!) but the teacher explained a problem to me yesterday and I understood it, so watch this space...! (Paula, my German friend said it's not even that French maths is that much more advanced, it's just more confusing!). I also take German, History, English, Economics and French, but depending on what the topic is I spend a lot of time writing words in my vocab book.

The second photo is of me and Anna before going shopping (I'll have lots more time to blog and do fun things like that ;) when school finishes in a week, and I'm looking forwards to the christmas dinner at the canteen!) -The lipstick I'm wearing was because we had a class photo where we dressed up, and our class theme was Comic Book Heroes -Anna went as the cutest little Milou (Snowy the dog from Tintin) and I went as the Castafiore -we had a whole group of us as Tintin! Check out the album on Facebook -sorry I only just realised it wasn't public until now!

The third photo is a treat I'm still waiting to enjoy, along with the ice skating rink that's about to open -it's right by a big chateau (castle) of which there are many in Nantes, so it seems a bit like Disneyland! I've visited the Christmas market countless numbers of times, including the big fruit and veg market, and the clothing one (although I think I'll have to go second hand to find the dress for your wedding, Becky -all the dresses seem to be made of wool because it's Winter!) 'L'autre Marche' (it's aimed at anti-commercialism) next to the normal marche is pretty cool, but you'd be suprised how up with it (in terms of fashion and craft) NZ is! (I'm looking forward to capes really taking over next Winter though!)

The fourth photo is me with my second best friend in Nantes (next to Nutella -I even found recipe books for Nutella and carambars, a favourite French candy): the tram map. If I do say it myself, for someone who is absolutely terrible at directions (I often sprint for the tram then find I'm on the wrong one!) I'm really getting to know the tram and bus system much better. Anna says my French has improved aswell -it's actually scarier saying a French word to you guys at home because I feel like I should be perfect at French now (but Laura reassured me - you don't get bilingual in two weeks -or two months!)

The final photo is Odile's work, where I went for the first time on Friday -we were making diary covers for yet another Marche de Noel (Christmas Market -that's 4 in total I've been to!); it's an amazing little business!

I really feel like I'm much more fluid with speaking French, even only after 2 weeks. I got asked yesterday whether France was as I expected it to be, and it took a while to answer (not only because of the language!) I think there's much more of a Morroccan influence in the cooking, and there are lots of Arab people around town, which influences the culture -you did tell me that Madame Collard! It's actually quite funny at times thinking that this place I'm getting to know is the place you're from! The Brousses are also very into Africa, which means we eat some very interesting foods. And I have eaten at a creperie already (in Bouffay!) -It was very dignified and sophisticated, just some friends and I (although it took ages trying to choose the cheapest of the twenty creperies in just one street!) and I had crepes du beurre salle) a favourite flavour of mine popular in the region. And although there are lots of patisseries, I haven't actually eaten at many yet -unlike NZ, we eat heaps at home and don't really buy much when we go out, but I'm looking forward to getting breakfast at a patisserie one day before school. I have fallen heartily in love with bread and cheese, which we eat (lots of!) at nearly every meal! I also love brioche (with nutella!) and I love how they call anything sweet (like toast!) a 'tartine' and even biscuits 'gateaux'! Didier went away to a conference for a few days and brought back a cheese that I'm pretty sure was around before Jesus was! It is old and crumbly, tres fort, et tres bon -anyone know if NZ allows you to bring cheese into the country?

will write soon
Joyeux Noel
Harriet