European travel and the metro

hi again!!! first off, minor error in my last post-Vivaldi's four seasons, not Mozart .sorted? ok back to the blog. My great European holiday ( cue fanfare) began with a visit to Wales. Yeah okay maybe not the grandest beginning, but at least I can work my way up?!? ... right? Possibly not normally , but since I am not exactly an ordinary teen my holiday dipped and rose and lead me to live out of my multinational suitcase. Wales was good actually. Well, I was there for three days and slept for two days and nights straight, so, whilst I was Wake it was good...and amazingly missing that oh so famous welsh weather condition-rain. That was a relief. Then my mum turned up and we went to Paris . Yup, due to afore mentioned exhaustion I outed on the actual French exchange, but that didn't stop my mum hopping on a plane from hong kong and zooming back to sunny wales for our own personal vacance a la France . So off we went to Paris. I have to mention I've been to Paris more times than I've been to London in the past seven years ( not including visiting heathrow) so I wasn't sure how my mum could possibly find anything new for us to do. She did however, and the first day of my Parisien vacation I spent on a bicylce in the sunshine: cycling down the banks of the Seine; round the back of the Notre Dame cathedral and into the plaza outside the Louvre. Not that I'm showing off or anything . (word to the wise: hot chocolate outside the Louvre is delicious and picturesque but ridiculously expensive). On the same day we cycled entirely uphill, to then walk uphill to that oh so famous graveyard: the pere lachaise . Well the glorious dead were gloomily inspirational and the uphill hike took care of a major part of the old ' blancmange'. In fact everything was going swimmingly in that restplace of the dead until we got picked upnby the graveyards tour guide. Now, you might possibly be wondering why the graveyard has a tour guide. Some of you may think it's not in the best of taste, others may think it's unnecessary. This is surprisingly not the case- because the particular graveyard my mother and I wee walking the Streets of (got a clue yet??)- had 10,000 graves with 70,000 corpses decaying beneath the cigarette butt littered soil. a whole city of graves, complete with building like temples etc. Anyway, back to the guide- who babbled at us in French , said he thought my mother was my sister and showed us lots of famous graves, but not the ones we wanted to see. His most brilliant moment however was his description of how to get buried in the graveyard ... "well," he says in his thick french slur, " first, you 'ave to be born in Paris,and zen 80,000 euros to be buried for one hundred years "( enthusiastic waving of hands to my mum and my gasps of astonishment)" and zen.. BARBECQUE! Me, I can barbecque myself, my wife and my two sons for 3,000 euros. Only if you are famous can you stay here forever". Well, it was an interesting dialogue and later, when he'd left us we saw a large chimney near the top of the graveyard at which point my mum looked at me knowingly and said, "ah hah, zere is ze barbecque"
more updates and parts 2 and 3 of my interesting holiday coming soon.
-- Post From Moi

Lists of apprehension and excitement, and comments on soocer and paintball

Yo! So, yeah, in the ict room, again. It's starting to wear on me, eventually, I reckon I'll meld to be part of it- too freakin' slow computer, bad jokes and banned websites. Don't forget, the future's bright, the future's orange. (the phone company, in case you didn't know). Anyway, so, eventually, eventually, I'll get around to talking about Cambridge. Until then however, lets talk about the most recent events. These involve quad biking with an 8 year old, football (and discovering I have an 'accurate shot', that's a direct quote), Leeds, being dressed up like a doll and experiencing a...surreal talent show. First however, the talent show! Well.....where to begin? Every year, for a while now, our school has had a talent show. This year, due to the fact I have 24 extra curricular activities, one of them was helping to organise this (not that I got any credit). It doesn't matter though. Oh, and recently, in fact, since I began this post I went paint balling. A word to the wise- paint balling is great, however, pellets of paint that come at you at 180 miles an hour at close range into your un-padded leg really hurt, and give you MASSIVE bruises. Oh well, I guess I deserve it. I'm looking at the next few weeks with a mixture of apprehension and excitement which can be summed up in a small, mildly important list:

• The school play- 'The Kiteman' in which I am in every scene but two, and have three costume changes (but no shoes)
• My Nan's visit to see said play (I'm not sure if I'm more worried about her view on my room or the play)
• Finally going to see 'Slumdog Millionaire- I really hopes it lives up to my expectations after reading the book, and I urgently need to find a present/card for my friend's sister's birthday
• The field day I'm going on tomorrow for RAF (No, I have not ironed my skirt yet)
• The music festival or senior choir (I think I know the songs)
• My year's retreat on Tuesday (sure to be action packed with prayer, hail Mary's, coloured pens and paper and duck duck goose)
• And the French Exchange, which leaves at an unearthly hour of the morning, and from which I have to go to the house of a girl who seems nice enough, but who speaks as much English as I do french (see previous comment about languages and the mysteries of the bi-lingual), although, when I say she seems nice enough, it is an assumption from the two emails I've received from her a week before I go.

I would include packing, but there is absolutely no excitement in thinking about that, only apprehension, so it's not quite eligible. Anyway, that's about all for now, sorry it took me so long. Finished from the library. Ba-Bye!!

Hello I'm back again!!!!

I am currently sitting in the ICT room, in an English boarding school with the only English person in the room being me but also it's a great company from other countries that differently than English DO listen to you and know what to do in moments of crisis. Just to prove how scarily smart these people are- a Spanish boy, who is now speaking Spanish, wrote the last sentence from 'me.' Sometimes others brilliance astounds me. Perhaps I should go hide in a corner till I'm bi-lingual. Now said guy has got a cuddly pig which speaks Pig Latin- he's rapping with it, and no, I don't know how that's actually possible. I know I've neglected you all for ages and I'm so sorry. I just told Rafael to shut up. That is soooo cool. OK, maybe he's not the painter, but the sentiments still the same. Anyway, I've been up to a lot recently, including a day trip to Wales, seriously mental family visits (including a delicious second Christmas dinner, which was as unorthodox as the first) and the much talked of trip to Cambridge. I've played a piece from Mozart's four seasons as part of the string group in the spring concert, am currently involved in organising the Mwabuka (the school in Zambia that we are sisters with) talent show for next Thursday, am suggesting a summer fair for the school, getting closer to my Speech and Drama exams every day, trying to finish my English coursework and doing a mock Latin test. Otherwise, I'm not so busy. Oh, and there's the play which is in three weeks to consider . So look, I'm not trying to excuse myself, but I have been busy. Eventually, I'll get round to documenting the full Cambridge experience- including meeting a man who was, getting on, shall we say, with a box of risk under his arm and a tweed jacket, and an American man, who thought my patriotism was 'beautiful.' There might even be a bit about the strangest clock I've ever seen. (When I see strange, I mean it in a bad way) Anyway, that's all I can fit in for now. Adios!!!

Poll

'Everybody was snow-ball fighting...'

du-du du-du du du du du duu that slush was fast as lightening.... By the way, I don't own the original song. (Everybody was Kung fu fighting the song- Youtube it) Boarding can suck sometimes. Majorly. Sometimes you're so depressed and so sick of school you just want to pack a bag and run off down the road. Or maybe just punch the wall and scream you're head off. But sometimes, like today, it is totally AWESOME. So, it was snowing today- surprising really since we're in the middle of an English winter. Sadly, school was on. I know that sounds a bit childish, but to be honest I couldn't care less. To quote Garfield, 'I hate Mondays.' I also hate Maths, which I had a double period of.Anyway back to the story. It was snowing. Which was really cool. Our school is quite old, so it looked like a castle- you know the kind of thing, Harry Potter/Hogwarts sorta feel. Everyone (that's the boarders) was hoping the day pupils wouldn't make it in. But they did...sadly. Not all of them however, and not all the teachers either. The day was a collaboration of half full classes, clueless cover teachers and cancelled PE classes. I'm not really sure why they bothered. Of course- being the hormone charged teenagers that we are, with nothing much better to do, we had a huge snowball fight at break time. After break, there was a notice sent out by a member of staff affectionately (or not) known as General Franco. (Yes we know the historical background, we're not that original, we listen occasionally in class.) Apparently, no one was allowed outside. This made GF, already disliked, pretty much hated by every kid from 11 to 18. I mean, we had to watch the primary school kids up the road playing outside when we knew we couldn't. I know the health and safety blah, but seriously, the risque jollity of snowball fighting is hardly going to cause serious harm. As it turned out however it was all alright in the end. Because at the early end of school. (I think they all gave up), the boarding masters let us have free reign of the snow covered grounds. It was great. As I said, Awesome. Fantastic. Fabulous. So incredibly fun. We all went mental, and occasionally mobbed the teachers who were 'supervising'. We sledged on bin bags, made snow men, got ice down our bums, in our mouths,on our backs. We were out there for two hours. I wore my Mum's coat, because I wanted to remember her, and also because it's alot warmer than any of mine. Now I sit in studies, literally dripping, and feeling like laughing all the time. I know my face is bright red. I don't care. It's still snowing. I've got Cambridge this Friday and as travel arrangements are made I feel equally nervous and excited. If anyone linked with that is reading this, I have no credit and cannot answer, but I have received all messages. Fingers crossed school is canceled tomorrow, I'm going to have to love and leave you, tata!!!

Poll results!!!

Sorry, almost forgot, The results of my poll!!!! Well, Mr.Darcy and Iggy. I guess Fang and Edward have a way to go after all. The other thing is that a male writer wrote about Iggy. Maybe men do know what constitutes a girl's idea of good looks. Either that or pot luck. Of course, Darcy has romance- killer attraction. Any ideas for new polls?? let me know. My friends on Max-X, please comment, you can anonymously now and I miss you! MissLotti, I know you'll give me some ideas. AussieBum??? Ok, later!

Sleepovers and Australians-a brief insight

Hello. Again. I'm really excited. My bizarre life has taken another unexpected turn. I'm going to stay at Cambridge university! Which sounds almost as insane for a young teenager as it feels. I'm overly excited, but nervous too. Trust me to trip over or something in front of the most people at once. Oh well, fingers crossed. But you're probably wondering about the title, and if I'm going to relate it to the content of this post. I figure I probably should. A friend of mine, one of the ones that threw the party, invited me to her party. Her birthday was in December but we're all up for belated celebrations, especially when it means a chance to dress up. What can I say, my hormones are getting the better of me. Anyway, we went to quite a nice restaurant, although to my intense disappointment, the desert selection wasn't huge. (there were a choice of 2 sweets, or cheese. The brownie's were nice though) We had more estrogen than a charged up hen party, and I'm not sure the confined space was great for noise levels, but it was a real laugh. We went back to her house, and after a chick flick or so the burglar alarm went off. At 2am. That was OK though, since half of us were on a video chat to our host's Australian cousin, whilst the other half (including me) took advantage of the bathroom's under floor heating. Eventually we all got to sleep, then left the next morning, with half of us still in pj's. I got a lift back, and now I'm complaining about being trapped here to anyone who'll listen. There's nothing like hide and seek to remind you of freedom. Till next time! I'm hoping to get a hit counter so I know how many people have been on this, because I have no idea, by the way.