Elizabeth Forrest - VIC to France

Mon 12 Mar 2007

Elizabeth Forrest, from University High School in VIC, is currently in France on our Semester Program. Here is her latest news:

Coucou my loving family and friends. Hope everything is good where ever you are and that you are not getting depressed by the weather [Yay! That works for all because in Australia it's hot and dry, London is frozen and I think Holland is too... I know my feet are...]

This is just a quick update because I realised it'd been a while since I wrote to you all and told you how la belle France is coming along... so here goes nothing. Here are my experiences in a nutshell:

It's now been six weeks that I've been here and I am really enjoying it - I mean I miss you all terribly but not enough to not enjoy myself which is good, I think. [By the way, I can hear every one of you saying – yes, Lizzie, that's good. Get on with it...] Six weeks seems like a hell of a long time and I do feel like I've been here my whole life but at the same time it feels like only yesterday that I was saying goodbye to everyone and boarding the plane. I can't yet decide which one so I will just agree that it's been both a short and extremely long time that I've been here!

I am currently on Holidays in Bordeaux and it was really sunny today - for a change - so I went to the beach [I really didn't think I'd be doing that - especially in winter but it really wasn't that cold, but nothing like that Aussie beach and I long to be eating pizza shapes covered in sand with fingers that taste like sunscreen]. I also climbed the most enormous sand dune ever and then merely skipped down it like it was no work at all - big lie - it was painful as! My other day in Bordeaux was spent walking around Old Bordeaux, seeing all the oldest houses - some dating back to the Middle Ages and Renaissance! It was really beautiful and a bit of a shame it was raining because that meant lighting wasn't all that good and all my pictures turned out pretty dark.

Anywho - after walking around in the rain for a couple of hours there really is only one thing that can cheer you up - shopping! European fashion is very different but I imagine Melbourne fashion is changing at the same time too. I bought a dress which is "Frenchness in a dress". Black and white stripes and all. I will take a photo of me in my dress, wearing my beret, carrying a baguette and riding a bicycle. Ha ha. No-one does that here ... stereotypes are awesome!

So now I've got the rest of two weeks holidays and we’re going to the French agriculture show on Saturday which is like all cows, cheese, wine and crême de cassis (alcoholic ribena - totally awesome) so that should be good. Unfortunately, they don't have showbags - I already asked. What is that? A show without showbags! When will the French learn?

Lizzie XOXOX