Vacances de Noel (part 1)

This week was the first week of Christmas break.

Saturday the 22nd of Decemeber I slept till about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and I have no idea why. Sunday I moved in with my second family. My first host parents drove me the second family's house and left pretty quickly. I was shown to my room, had a tour of the house, and settled down in the living room for coffee and initial conversation. In my new host family I have nine brothers and sisters, quite the change from having one sibling. Only the four youngest children live at home but everyone is here for the holidays. After coffee I went to my room to unpack and afterwards we all went to the lake to play some football (soccer). By this time I had decided that I really like this family as well! Everyone is very welcoming and nice. We returned to the house to play a board game and eat dinner.

The next day was Christmas eve, so at about 10 at night we walked to the giant cathedral down the street called St. Etienne. The service was beautiful and ended at midnight. We came back home for some hot chocolate before going to bed. Christmas day, after we ate breakfast, we all went into the living room to open presents. The family went to mass again but I stayed home to relax. Later I was able to skype a friend and my family. The next morning I woke up throwing up at 4 am, and stayed up till just after 7 when I was throwing up again and my host mom brought me a bucket and water and a change of bedding. I didn't eat anything except for a bit of bread until dinner that day. Luckily I felt fine by the time I went to bed the following night. Today another exchange student from the USA came over and we hung out acting like American teenagers: We watched countless youtube videos and spent hours on facebook, 9gag, tumblr, etc.
Tomorrow I will be going to the Alps with my first host family to learn how to ski. I know I will fall a lot and I wouldn't be surprised if I hurt myself.

Hurrah for new families and adventures!
We'll see how this skiing thing goes..

Busy December

For pretty much every weekend this month I'm busy, which  is great! The only slow parts of  the month are the weekdays.
Last weekend my host parents and I joined two other  couples on a bike ride. We were only going to ride about 6 miles,  eat  lunch, then head back. After lunch one of the couples decided they wanted to do something else and wanted us to come along. None of us were quite sure what we were doing or where we were going. We ended up biking 15 more miles in a large circle until we got back to Bourges. 21 miles total. (35 km) Let's just say my host parents and I were definitely not prepared and weren't the most ecstatic people about it. But hey, I got a really (really  really) good work out.
This coming weekend my host mom, sister and I are going to Paris again. We'll visit Valerie's mother and maybe do some Christmas shopping.
The following weekend the Rotary students in my district (1720) are all coming to Bourges. We were told to bring a present under 15 euros so I'm assuming there'll be some kind of exchange and celebration of Christmas. I'll be wearing my new ugly Christmas sweater as well!
The next weekend I move to my next host family's house. That'll be interesting. I love the family I'm in so much I wish I could stay but I'm also excited to meet  these people. I hope I can memorize the names of all 9 children pretty quickly.
After spending Christmas with them, my 1st host family picks me up to go skiing with them. I'll have beginning lessons with a couple younger children. Hopefully I won't make a fool of myself.
Aaaand that' all for now. Ciao!