I'm Comin Home

Bonjour lovelies,

 (CAUTION THIS POST WILL BE DEEPER THAN NORMAL)

DONCCCCCCC, today I left Wittelsheim and it was literally the hardest thing I have ever been through. I was so so so sad! I normally am not someone who cries a lot or easily but I feel like all I have done for the past 2 days is cry! Not all day or anything but frequently though out the day! Friday (yesterday) I said bye to my friends at school and I was doing okay until I gave my best friend Eva a hug and just completely lost it and we were both just hugging and crying! Then Saturday (today) morning I woke up to a text from my host sister Olivia. She had written me the sweetest message talking about all the fun memories and little joke we have and once again I lost it and just started crying! By far the worst goodbye was with my host sister Lea. We have become so close and she isn’t just my host sister she is my real sister and for me it really was so hard to say goodbye, even though I know I will see her again! I just can’t imagine not living with her and being able to see her in person for such a long time! I definitely already miss her! Then when I said bye to Renata and Wojtek that was super horrible too because Renata started crying which made me cry even more! I know I am making all of this sound so horrible and sad and for me it really was painful, but I know that I will see them again. I just don’t know when.

Then last night I had my house key in my hand when Renata and I were walking around mulhouse and she told me to keep the key so that when I come back to France I can get into the house!:) It was seriously so sweet!

I have had a lot of emotions these past couple days and I have said wayyyy to many goodbyes. It’s been a lot harder than I expected to leave everyone! I am having a really hard time imagining myself back in Austin, it seems so weird to me that I am going to be back in the US tomorrow night! I know that after a couple days it will start to feel normalish but I just really cant believe it! I have a feeling I am going to be home sick for France a bit! I have become so close with my family and I am so incredibly happy that I came on this exchange to France!

Well I wont be sleeping tonight because we have to get up at 3 am to go to the air port and its already 12:20, so by the time I get to Austin I will have been up for a solid 48 hrs. I hope I get at least a little sleep on the plane!

Okay so I will be writing again once I am back in the US!

SO WEIRD OMG! LAST BLOG IN FRANCE!

Xoxoxo

Grace

Surprise Sweet 16

Salut peeps,

I have been trying to make the time to sit down and blog for about a week now but I haven't been able to do it until just now! Hahaha!:)

Last friday was my 16th birthday and I got the biggest surprise ever that morning when I woke up!

Little bit of a back story:
The night before my birthday I went skiing with my host dad and when we got home I was super exhausted and just wanted to have a chill night! But my host parents told me they had plans and were going to go out for drinks with some of their old friends. obviously I didn't think anything of it and just said ok, ill be here!:) But then my host mom also told me that she stepped on a rock in my room that day and that I needed to vacuum and clean up just a tad, I knew already that I needed to clean up a "tad", but I thought the rock thing was a little weird. However I know myself and it was possible that I had somehow brought a rock in there! LOL! Anyway, they went out to dinner and when they got home I went to say goodnight and my host mom tells me that she is going to bring me breakfast in bed the next morning for my birthday! I was thinking, 'well isn't that nice, I've never had breakfast in bed', but she was super serious about it. She kept telling me, "I am bringing you breakfast in bed and you can't get up before I bring it to you. You can get up to go to the bathroom, but then you have to get back in bed." I just thought she really really wanted to bring me breakfast in bed. So then I went to sleep.

The next morning I was woken up by someone singing me happy birthday in english! It was a voice I had only heard through computer speakers, for the past 5 months! My PARENTS and BROTHER had come to France and surprised me for my birthday! Safe to say I was in literal shock. When I saw them and realized what was happening, I immediately started crying! I was so happy to see them! It was so so fun having them here in Wittelsheim and them getting to meet my host family and see where I have been living! they stayed for 3 days and I showed them mulhouse and strasbourg and we went up in the vosges and hiked! It was just super great! The night of my birthday my friends also threw me a surprise party! I thought I was going to have cake with them later that night and they ended up being at the restaurant I went to for dinner! It was ever better that they did that because my parents also got to meet all my lovely friends!:) over all it was the best birthday ever and I will NEVER NEVER forget it!


Then this week I went on a ski trip with my class for 3 days and that was super fun also! We stayed in this Chalet on the mountain where we were skiing, it is called Markstein. I actually got to ski a lot because we skied based on skill level and in groups. My group was the people that already knew how to ski and there were only like 5 of us so we got to ski everything, green, blue, red (blue/black in the US) and blacks. It was really really a great trip and it gave me the chance to hang with all my class mates and spend some good time with them!

PICTURE TIME!!!!!

okay thats all I've got for now!
I hope everyone has a great weekend
XOXO
Grace

Escargot

Bonjour à tous,

It's Sunday and so far today has been a very nice day. I went to mass this morning with Renata and it was actually very good. It was "kids" day so they had this teenage choir singing and it was amazing. This one girl played the harp and her voice was so beautiful it gave me chills. I also was able to understand a bit of the preaching so that was nice as well.

Then for lunch, Renata made ESCARGOT. AKA SNAILS. She and I have been talking about making  them for a while and with me leaving soon we decided we were eating them today! David, my host brother kept giving me crap and saying they were going to move when I ate them! thank god thats not  true! LOL! They were actually really good, they make them with butter and garlic and stuff and they tasted awesome! I was laughing cause I knew if my mom ate them she would probably throw up! LOL!:) So I am very happy that I finally got to eat stereotypical french food!:)

On another note these next two weeks are basically like vacation for me because at my school we have testing all this next week and all the teachers are gone for some sort of conference, so I only have to go to school Tuesday and Thursday, which also means I don't have school on my birthday!:) La chance!:) Then the week after that I am going on a ski trip with my school Monday to Wednesday so I only have school Thursday and Friday! Its definitely going to be a good next two weeks!:)

Other than that not to much has been going on around here, just the norm!

Picture time!!!!

I hope you all have a nice week and a good end to the weekend!
XOXOX
Grace

The last month

Helllerrr everyone,

It is officially the start of my 5th/ last month in France. I am actually about 2 days late, but whatever not everyone can be perfect!:) LOL! It is soooo crazy to think I will be going home in less than a month! Today I walked into the house and Lea was opening the mail and says to me, " Your train ticket came." and I was so confused I was like, "What train ticket, I didn't buy one...?" and she goes, "The one for when you leave."

I was in shock, I was like WHAT are you serious! Its another one of those things that punch you in the face with reality and right now that reality is that I am peacing out soon!

Lately I have been thinking about my whole exchange and basically reflecting on everything I have done, accomplished, been through and seen and its extremely bitter sweet. I went back last night and read pretty much all my blogs, starting with the one about US orientation and it was so weird to read them, because I obviously remember being there and what we did, but when I read what I wrote its like I am watching my self experience it again! So I am sooo happy I wrote this blog because it gives me a way to relive my exchange! I had some moments while I was reading were I noticed how much I have changed since the start of this exchange, not just maturity wise, but with the language and how I think about things here now! I guess it's because living here is now normal for me. It isn't foreign or weird. I know how things function and look and I just go about my business here like anyone else.

One of my best friends wrote this quote on her instagram yesterday and I just thought of it as I am writing this because its perfect, I promise you all know it!:)

"When in Rome, live as the Romans do; when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere." - Saint Ambrose

Obviously a very famous quote but it's true. When I am back in the states I will live as I did 5 months ago, but here I live as the french people live and at the moment it is normal.

I know that when I get home I will be very happy because it is home and I have missed my family and friends soo much and I really have missed how somethings are. However at the same time it is probably going to be a serious rocking of my world when I am suddenly having to warm my brain back up to a different way of thinking!

I am also pretty sure when I am surrounded by english again I am going to be very confused! LOL! It's already happened to me once when I went to Norway with my host sister! I kept speaking French just as a reaction and then having to remember that we were in different countries and there I had to speak english and that was like my second month, so I barley spoke french! I can't imagine what it will be like now! Hahaha!

As I said earlier all this is bitter sweet right now and I know that it probably seems a bit early to be talking about all this stuff, I mean I am still here for a little under a month, but time passes like the wind here. I am also already doing a lot of "lasts" so it is just the phase of the exchange that I am in. I am soaking up all the time that I have left here and having to start thinking about whats to come in the next couple weeks!:)

On a fabulous note, my birthday is in 2 weeks wooohooo Ill be 16 and that in it self freaks me out! LOL! and then my last week in France I get to go on a ski trip with my class, so that will be a really great way to finish this insane life changing adventure!:)

Sorry this wasnt an update on what I've been doing, if you are really that interested, I've been at school since monday! super fun, I know!

I hope you all have a good rest of the week and a relaxing/ fun weekend
à bientôt
XOXOOX
Grace

Merry Christmas from Poland

Hello everyone,

I mentioned earlier in my previous blog that I was going to Poland with my host family for Christmas!!:) right now I am in Poland, at Renata's sisters house. To be honest I have no idea what town we are in I just know that we are close to Warsaw, which is the capital of Poland! :)  

So I am going to start from the beginning of our trip and go from there, which means this will probably be a long post, soo warning!! 

The first day we went to Prague and stayed the night before heading to poland. That was my surprise Christmas present, the night in Prague!!:) it was soooo beautiful! It gets dark here in the Czech Republic as well as Poland at around 4 in the afternoon, so we really only got to see the city by night but that didn't matter because the city was just as pretty if not prettier at night than it is during the day!! We stayed at this really cool hotel that was super European (in my mind) LOL! The room olivia and I stayed in was really cool looking, even though I think I tried to take my foot off on the edge of a table!! Hahaha!:) we walked, that night, from the hotel to old town. On the way we stopped at this church that is the church of 'baby Jesus' I need to do more research online to really get the full history on it, Renata explained it to me but I don't want to say anything because it is very possible that I will miss inform y'all! LOL! After that once we were in old town we walked around to a Christmas market and ate one of the traditional sweets, saw some amazing sights then headed back to the hotel for dinner! It was really amazing getting to see Prague! I hope one day I can go back and explore the whole city! It really is beautiful! 

The next day we piled back onto the car and headed to Poland! The first stop we made was with Renata's younger brother, we just stopped for tea and to chat!! (This was also when I stopped understanding everything that was happening.) haahah! :) after that we headed to wojteks sisters house, the town that she lives in is where pretty much all of wojteks family lives so we had 3 chrisrtmas's there!! We stayed at one of his sisters houses the whole time we were there, which was about 3 days total. 2 full days and 2 half days. The first full day was Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve in Poland is pretty much more important than Christmas from what I gathered! 

It is also the day that you open all your presents! So this Christmas has been very weird considering I have opened a present pretty much everyday, but Christmas!! Haha!! 

The dinner was at wojtek's nephew's house, their house was beautiful and we had a huge feast for dinner! After that dinner we went to wojteks other sisters house to do the same thing again just with his nieces families! So we ate 2 Christmas feasts on Christmas Eve! We ate and celebrated starting at 6 in the evening and we were arriving home around 12:15 that night! Safe to say I was VERY full and very tired! Christmas Day was very relaxed and honestly it really didn't feel that much like Christmas! Considering I had already had Christmas like 3 times before the actual day! Haha! We went to mass and after went and ate lunch with wojteks sister! That night wojteks nephews came over to his sisters house (the one we were staying with) and we had another huge feast!! It was really fun and this time it only lasted till like 10:30 or 11! At these feasts it's all the same foods at every house and somehow it is impossible to run out of food, you could just sit and eat for a week! 

The next day (today) we left and headed toward Warsaw the capital of Poland, but before we arrive there we stopped at Renata's sister house and had another Christmas here with her and her kids! Aka another feast! At this feast however It was just physically impossible for me to eat more than a piece of chicken!! Lol! I am not really sure what the rest of the trip holds because apparently there is another surprise waiting for me in the next 2 days of our trip!  So I will stop here and finish this post when I get back to France! 

Also one more thing before I pause, I am proud to say that I have learned some polish. I can now say, hello, hey, thank you, okay, yes, no, no thank you and come! I learned the last one so I could talk to a dog!!:) LOL! 

Okay everyone it is now Sunday and we are 592 kilometers from the house! Aka about 6-7 hrs more of driving! Turns out my second surprise was a trip to Berlin. It was a really beautiful city, we just did a drive threw with a few stops because we were running about 2 hrs behind!

EXPLANATION/ STORY ABOUT THE 2 hr DELAY

So yesterday we went to Warsaw the capital of Poland and went around and saw some sights and got tea and dessert at this famous restaurant the we headed on our way to the boarder of Poland and Germany to stay the night at this motel! We were all ready, packed up and headed out of the motel at 8:30 this morning, when Wojtek and I walk up to the car to find the front right tire flat as a pancake..... Safe to say that put a little hitch in our plan! But Wojtek changed the tire and then he and olivia went to a shop to get a new tire put on while Renata and I waited at the motel! 2 hrs later we were finally on our way, but that meant we had to spend less time in Berlin. But it was okay, I was just happy I got to see it at all!!:) 

Well over all, this past week has been an absolutely amazing voyage and these long drives have given me some prime reading time/ nap time,  that I am thoroughly enjoying!!:) as my mom always says I am a baby inside, I need my naps!! LOL!:) 

It also snowed in Wittelsheim and I guess all I had to do was leave for the snow to come, hopefully it's not too cold. I am finding that my Texas skin isn't as enthusiastic about the 25 degree weather as I thought it would be!! Hehe. I have also decided to start running again because when it started getting dark early and pretty rainy I just kind of stopped running and started going for really long walks, but I now have some winter running gear and I am ready to test my luck!

It has definitely been a different Christmas and at times I have felt a little sad and missed my family but it's not in a bad way. it's just me experiencing a whole new way of doing things and being so far out of my comfort zone that I am reaching for things I know! However I know this has been probably the most memorable Christmas of my life and I thank god everyday for this insane opportunity I have and what an amazing family I have been placed with here in France! 

Sorry to get slightly heavy, but I write this blog to share my experience and I will tell the truth of my experiences and feelings for those you who might be reading this and actually considering exchange!! 
Okay I am finished now. this is an EXTREMELY long post, but I gave warning before! 
I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and have a happy new year!

PICTURE TIMMMEE!!

these pics are a mix of berlin, poland, france and prague

  Dinner in poland

Berlin wall

The backyard

Prague

Xoxoxo 
Grace