Another day at the sea

First up today i went to Noels school and we collected firewood and had a look around the school. It is an agricultural school, and it looks like it would be so much fun to go there. they grow plants, maintain fruit and vegetables, carve wood and all sorts of stuff.
Then after the school we went over to the sea, had a walk to the beach, looked in some shops, chilled, and then on the way home we stopped to have a look at some goats.

This is one of the goats that came up to me

I loved this goat. Check out the beard on it!!!

Well, i wont be posting anymore blogs for this week because we are going away on a holiday. Im not telling you where we are going, but i will definately have tons of photos for you to see when we get back home.

TONS of cheese.

Today we went to an art exhibition. There were heaps of sculptures of animals and also a band there singing.
Here are some pics of some of the sculptures:

 After the exposition we picked up Noels parents and went back home. I helped christelle prepare the dinner, and i was so shocked at how much cheese there was. All up, there was 8 of us, and we ate 2kg of cheese. There was so much. We ate it with potatoes and 4 different types of ham, and other meats.

By the way, those plates were massive!

these following 2 pictures are of the thing that was in the middne of the table. In the first pic you can see how the cheese is being melted under the fry pan type thing. and in the second pic you can see how we were cooking the ham and the bacon. It was awesome



BASKETBALL

This is my story of me making mhy way to the basketball stadium....
My bus ride to and from the basketball statium takes anywhere from 60 100 minutes. The busses here dont stop at each stop, only when there is someone wanting to get on and thay wave at the bus, and when someone in the bus pushes the stop button. Each bus has a different time table for each day of the week, and i am so used to looking at the 'Monday-Friday' timetable, so today i looked at it instead of the 'saturday' timetable. And on saturday the busses come about every 40 minutes, so its good not to miss the busses, because its not fun just waiting around and you dont get to where you want to go on time. So i was sitting at the bus stop waiting for the bus, and i look at the time table for 'monday-friday' and i thought, 'oh im here early' so i sat down thinking i had 8 minutes, and was looking at my ipod, and then, all of a sudden i felt this gush of wind blow past me, and it was the bus that just drove strait past me. So i looked at my watch, and was like, 'why is the bus so early', and then i saw the saturday timetable, and im like, 'Oooops'. So the next bus was going to arrive 40 minutes before the game start, and i knew if i cought it, i wouldnt make the game ontime, so i walked a few km down the road to where there is another bus stop, with more busses that pass through, and one was going to arrive in about 15 minutes, so i thought that would be ok. so i got on that bus, and when i was about to get off at a stop to get on another bus that would take me to the stadium;  i saw that other bus stopped at the lights, ready to turn into the bus stop i needed to be at. so i got off the bus about 500m away from that bus stop i was meant to be at, and just sprinted for my life (in the pouring rain), and thank god i made it in time. Public transport......anoying at times!!!
Anyway... About the match. WE WON, YAY!!! We won 52-33, so we were pretty happy with that. i now have next week off basketball because of the holidays, and i start back the week after.
Noels Parents are arriving here tomorrow, and are staying with us for a few nights.

HOLIDAYS!!!!!

Well. i am officially on holidays now. Well, technically i have been on holidays for a bit over a week already because of the blockades. Anyway, there is another major Protest on today. I was on the bus this morning, and then halfway through our ride, the driver stopped and said to all of us, that the bus isnt fonctioning anymore bacause apparantly it couldnt pass through the road because of the protest, so she said we all had to get off, and walk to the next bus stop, where there was a different bus that we could catch. so we were waiting there for about 15 minutes, and we were already late for school if there was class. And then we saw the bus coming towards us and then it turned around, because it wasnt fonctioning either. So then we had to walk a few km to school, and then run to the tram, and then we arrived at the school and it was another blockade, so we were like, 'All that for nothing'. So then me and antoine took the tram to another bus stop where we would catch another bus that goes neer Coueron, and it was working, so PHEW!!! and then we got off it, and cought another bus to our Normal bus stop.
WELL... What a morning. And by the way, we did all that in three degrees this morning. it is so cold. And guess what, there is already snow falling over the other side of france and there is 2 1/2 months until winter. wow, an early start to winter.
YAY, HOLIDAYS... i can sleep in in the morning!!!

No fuel left

well... its wednesday, and there is another blockade. Because there has been so many people going to all the petrol stations, all the petrol stations i have seen here, have all run out of petrol. so it looks like the trams are going to be our means of transport for a week, and probably not the busses, UH OH!!! Christelles car has only about 10km left before she runs out of fuel, and im not sure how much noels has. And it mite not be just this week that the petrol refineries are on strike, it could lead into next week. I hope it doesnt, because we are going away in the holidays, and its a long drive, so we're going to need the fuel!

ANOTHER blockade

well, this is the third day there has been a blockade at school. Also this whole week there has been a strike on all the petrol refineries in france, so everyone has been trying to get to all the petrol stations before they run out of petrol. Today was the worst ive seen this week. i was on the bus on my way to school, and then all of a sudden there is just heaps of traffic, and they were all waiting to go to the petrol stations. the line to enter the station was about 2km long. so lucky there was no school otherwise i would have been very late, that bus ride took about 40 minutes, opposed to the normal 20-25 minutes. Then when i got to school, i voted again, and then left school. from the moment i left school, to the moment i got home, it took over 1 and a half hours, as apposed to the usual 25 minutes. we were stuck on the round-about before the over-crowded petrol station for over 40 minutes in traffic. the round about was ony a one lane one, but everyone managed to squeeze in heaps of cars so it ended up a three lane round about. there were also police cars parked on the side of the road to make sure no cars tried to take short cuts driving on the wrong side of the road etc. then there was an ambulance that came driving towards the round about with it sirens on, and we were all like 'this is not gunna work!' . so the policeman came running towards the round about, then started blowing his whistle, frantically trying to get all the cars to make room for the ambulance, and after a minute or so, it eventually worked. once the policemen were there i think our bus driver asked them to make room for our bus to pass through, thank god!
so i got home, chilled, had lunch and ive got the day to chill. i think i mite have a little nap. im tired because lastnight we watched 'crocodile dundee' (in french) and i woke up fairly early.
i wonder if there is going to be another blockade tomorrow. hope so!!!! only 3 more days 'till holidays, YAY!!!

OMG

Well... guess what. there was another blockade today. So no school, YAY!!! Aparantly it is meant to be a blockade all week, so it looks like my holidays have already started! Each day we still have to go to school, and just vote if we agree with Mr. Sarkozy or not, then you can either go to the protest march or go back home. i dont think i should really go to the protest march though, because i've seen that in some of the other cities in france, they turn to violence, people get arrested, and i dont really want to get involved in that, so i have a nice day at home, siting by the nice warm and cosy fire!

Perfect Pavlova

Well, what a nice week-end. This weekend was pretty casual. we got all our rooms cleaned up for the holidays and also, i did some nice aussie cooking. On saturday i cooked ANZAC bikkies with Sarah. They all like them, which is good! And then today, i cooked Pavlova. It was the first time i had actually cooked a pavlova. It turned out really well though (well... once i covered the whole pavlova with fruit). After i finished cooking it, it looked really good, so i left it in the oven to cool (like it said on the instructions) and then i came back 10 minutes later and the crispy top had all caved in. so lucky i had some cream and lots of fruits ready to put on to cover up the whole mess. I cant believe how well it turned out in the end, it tasted really good!
Later tonight we watched a movie, (in english with french subtitles - YAY!!!). And its been really cold lately. We are in our first month of Autumn, and im already in my thermals, and 6 layers each day (3 of those layers are jackets), and all the heaters are on, and i have all my extera blankets on my bed.
well, i betta get to bed. sport in the morning, YAY!!! it is fun, but you're just numb, breathing steam, shiverring, and more shivering!
Only one more week left until holidays, YAY!!!

This is my pavlova. As you can see, it was HUGE!!!

Blockade so no school

OMG, yesterday is an experience i will never forget. Yesterday, i went to school like an ordinary day, and when i got there all the people were waiting outside the school. so i said to antoine, why cant we get in. and he pointed over the the gates of the school and there was a massive pile of rubbish, trollleys, cardboard boxes, metal, fences and anything you can think of blocking all entrys to the school. the people that put the blockade up were students from the highter levels of the school, and they put it up throughout the night. At my school, there are two gates, so you walk through one, and 5m later there is another one, and both of them were blocked with rubbish. this was all because no-one agrees with mr Sarkosy changing the retirement age.  So we were waiting around for about an hour, and then we were told to all sit infront of the gates so no truck or police could come and remove the stuff. we had a few police cars drive through the street and also a couple removal trucks, but they didnt seem to succeed. So at about 9:00 some people started to leave (so i left) and some went into the city to join a protest march with all other students in Nantes. so that day was interesting!!! but at least i had the whole day off school! After school i had Basketball training and it was heaps of fun. But i did hurt my finger, it is just a tad blue. And then i went to the pool with my friend and christelle.
im not sure whats happening this week-end, i know today is another strike. It has been a strike pretty much all this week since tuesday, but wednesday and thursday weren't official strikes though, if that makes sense!  this weekend i think we are just getting stuff cleaned up before holidays. YAY!!! only one more week of school. and mabey less than that, because there is a possibility there could be another blockade and heaps more srikes!

Easy week at school!

this week has been pretty easy. ive only had 3 exams!! thay have so many tests here, at the moment ive had at least 2 tests for each subject, and some 3. now ill give you a little recap of each day throughout this week:
Monday: Sport in the freezing cold. outside running around the running track, i cant wait till we start swimming for sport in the winter, at least its an indoor heated pool.
Tuesday: We had another strike. so we just turn up to school for our normal classes and wait for the teacher to come. some teachers tell us the day before if they are going to be away, but others, just decide on the day, so that day i had just 2 hours of english and 2 hours of maths. yay. they are my two favourite subjects. Also that night i went to a fabulous concert in Nantes. it was so much fun. Noel said it was the best concert he has seen in over 10 years, and they go to a concert nearly every week.
wednesday: I had my first session of basketball training after school. i ended up getting home at 9:00pm after it took me a while to figure out which few busses to catch.
thursday: in english today, there was an young american teacher who is going to be a language assistant. i had a chat to her after my lesson and before my history exam, YIKES, i had no idea we had it! Then i finished school early so i went to the shops with my friends to buy some basketball shorts and some other little goodies!
Tomorrow: i've only got 3 hours of classes at school which is good. then after school i have to go to the doctors to get a medical certificate for basketball, then go to basketball training, then after basketball training, i am going to the swimming pool to swim a few K's with my friend and sarah.

YAY, only one more week of school left until holidays, and then 6 weeks of school after the holidays before christmas. I cant wait to holidays. We have some very fun stuff planned. So Exciting!!!!

Pics

these are two pics from yesterday at the street party. each of those activitys were so hard, you wouldnt believe how many times we fell over!!!!!!! it was so much fun though

best day ever!!!

Today was so much fun. first up, we went to an open farm, where we got to look at ponys, chickens, snails, wine, calves, and where cows get milked. It was so much fun. they also had all the meats from animals there. and i was with noel, and he asked if we could try some of this meat, so we did. and it was really nice, so after i asked him what it was, and it was a pigs tongue, ewwwwwwwww. lucky i didnt know that before i tried it!!!! I also had my first 'official' escargot (snail). it was so nice though. everyone was surprised that i liked it. On friday, i did a presentation of australia (with vegimite)-half the class tried it, and had to run out of the room to the toilets, and the other half, looked at it and smelt it, and wouldnt taste it!!! anyway, after the presentation, they asked me questions, and one person asked me what has been my favourite 'french food'. it is probably snails, so i told them that and they all screw up their noses. thay hate them.
Each year here in our street, all the people that live here around us, all come together for lunch, afternoon tea and games. so today, we went down to the oval behind our house, where there were huge tents set up with rows of tables. all up there were 100 people. after we ate, we played heaps of games, and i met a girl that lives across the road from me, and she is about the same age as me, so we hung out all day with antoine. i have never laughed so much in my entire life!!!!, my throat is saw, my tummys saw and everything from laughing, it was so so much fun!!!!
one think i cant believe is that there are so many moskitos here. the headlines in the newspapres were "Nantes is being invaded by moskitos'. and now, this week we have been getting so many of the giant mockitos, the ones an bit bigger than your palm.
tonight, one of antoines cousins arrived, so we had dinner and played some games with him.
anyway, im heading to bed now, its late and im exhausted from today!!!
cya, xxx

'Chateau des ducs de Bretagne' (castle of the dukes of Brittany)

Today i went on another school excursion to the Chateau des ducs de Bretagne. It is an amazing castle, its the third time ive been there since ive been here, but i hadn't actually had a good look around, and gotten to know all the history until today. also a few blogs ago i wrote abought the light spectac that was inside the castle, well i remembered to bring my camera today, and took a photo of the castle, and also the wall where the light spectac was.
So here is a bit of history about the Castle:
Francis II, the last duke of brittany, Began constructing this building in the late 15th century. the work was continued by his daughter,  Anne of Brittany, Duchess and twice queen of france. The castle, is a fortress with a residential palace within it. Later a royal castle and the residence of Brittany's governors fron the 16th century, over the centurys the building has been used as a prison, barracks and arsenal. it is now home to the Nantes History Museum.

 sorry, i still havnt figured out how to rotate the picture! the tower on the far right, is called the 'tour de la Couronne d'or' (the golden crown tower). (this is one of the walls that were used for the light spectac)

 this in not a very good photo, but it is from the outside, with the beautiful green grass and the moat. in the moat there are actually heaps of fish (decent sized fish too). the tower to the left is called Jacobins' tower; and the tower on the right it called the Port tower. if you can see on the far right, where all the trees are. the Loire river used to run along there (well, i think, thats what i understood from the teacher). now the loire is a few km, i guess, away from there.

this is looking across the courtyard. on the far left on the ground you can see a well.

(on the wall on the left is also where the light spectac was)

Rain, more rain, and movie.

It has been raining and overcast for the past few days. But luckily, yesterday it held of for the two hours we needed it to. Yesterday was another strike for france. In Nantes there was a protest for the age of retirement to be changed. There were over 3 million people walking in the streets of Nantes, with Big banners, signs and flags protesting. and i was one of them! we walked around the streets for about an hour. it was really fun though, because i also had the chance to do a bit of sightseeing along the way. there were so many people there though. I saw the Mayor of Nantes again. People were either for or against Mr. Sarkozy (President) or Jean-Mark Ayrault (Mayor of Nantes)

then today, we had a nice aussie brekky, of bacon, eggs and sausages on toast. its so much different to what french people have. there breakfasts are with suger. lots of nutella, croissants, bread, etc. then after that, me noel and sarah went to see a movie called 'AO La Dernier Neanderthal' (AO, The Last Neanderthal). It was actually a french movie, and obviously they spoke in french, but i could actually undertand it. i really liked it. Then after that we had maccas for lunch, and went to a art exhibition, and i also saw where noel and quentin work.

Im getting all ready for another week of school. ive got sport tomorrow, lets hope it stops raining, because im told its still on if it rains. Drenched, in 5 degrees. im not looking forward to it!!!

The pic below is of Sarah, with a statue thing, next to a pedestrian crossing. I thought it was so cool!!!