Looking at the date of my last post I feel suitably ashamed! I’m sorry that blogging really isn’t my thing. Nonetheless, I’m so grateful for those of you who keep up with my adventures (well day to day life) so I’ll try and do some summarising so you don’t get too bored!
My Mum came to visit me in Montbéliard in the week before I went home for Christmas. It was really nice to see her, and we did plenty of Christmas shopping together in the markets! Fortunately she made it home before the snow started falling again in Britain.
The special Christmas service that I mentioned in my last post went really well - it was lots of fun anyway! I managed to remember my lines in French and it was just really cool to spend some more time with people from the youth group. We even had a posh Christmas meal together that evening. Everyone dressed up and we even ate foie gras! (No snails though!)
So the title of this blog post doesn’t just refer to my slowness in blogging. I spent quite a lot of time waiting during my journey home for Christmas! I expect most of you have already heard this story so I’ll keep it short(ish). Basically, I spent three hours waiting at Basel airport on the evening of 20 December, only to be told that my flight back to Gatwick was cancelled due to snow, with no alternative until at least the next morning, and only if the weather cleared up, but it looked like it wouldn’t! As you can imagine, I was pretty worried about how I was ever going to get home. I am so thankful for one of my friends from youth group here, who had seen the news of snow chaos in Britain on TV, and who texted me to see if I was ok. Her parents drove for 1 hour to come and pick me up, then 1 hour to drop me back at my flat. It was about 12am by the time I got home. I left my flat the next day at 7.30am to get a train to Paris, then another train to Calais, to then get the ferry (there were a lot more trains and buses that I haven’t mentioned there!) Calais was fairly chaotic, and the ferries were running late due to fog. Nonetheless, I met my parents at 10.30pm in Dover, and I was very glad to see them! (They had driven for 2 hours to come and get me, as we feared that I would miss the last train.) It was quite fun in the end, I think I was very as the ferry was full of Brits with stories to tell! It was clear that I'd had one of the better journeys!
I had a lovely time catching up with friends and family over Christmas. One of my assistant friends from the US, Eryn, came to stay with us over Christmas, since it’s a bit far to get back to the States just for Christmas. So it was great to have her with us, and my brother and Dad enjoyed teaching her about the different accents of Britain!
And now I’m back in France, and have been for two weeks. It took a little while to get used to being back, although fortunately I hadn’t forgotten how to speak French over the holidays. Quite a lot of my classes have changed with the new term, so I making the most of the experience I’ve gained and lessons that I already had planned!
It’s starting to dawn on me that I am already about half way through my year abroad! Well, you know what they say…time flies when you’re having fun :)
With love from France x
