Wow! As you should know, I went to Germany on a day trip last weekend. We Went to an awsome town called Trier. For those of you who have not heard of this amazing town I will tell you a bit about it... It's a town that was once inhabited by Romans. There are many ruins, fountains and museums based around the town and it's history and Sometimes you may see people in togans, the traditional roman dress.

The day started at 6.00 am (too early on a Saturday if you ask me!!) I got ready, freshened up and went to the train station. Suprisingly I was the first one there (not including the teacher) but I was soon followed by 11 other eager students. The train ride was about 2 hours, MUCH faster than the plane to Aus' that's for sure!! We had alot of fun, chilling out or taking photos (of valentine while she slept hehe) and just being silly. We had a quick stop in Luxembourg so we could change to the German train (red and grey boxy looking thing). We saw some awsome things when we were on the train, there was a town that went down a cliffside and into a small valley, it was like a river of houses and Churches! We finally crossed the river mozel (the river that separates Luxembourg from Germany) and arrived  in Trier. We went and saw some pretty neat stuff a museum of roman tools, jewelery, statues and mosaics then to the ruins of an amazing roman... Thing I'm not too sure what it was exactly, but it was fun! There were underground tunnels and so many things much older than my own country! After site seeing we took a little trip to town! I didn't buy much as I wanted to save my money for the summer sales In France but had alot of fun checking out the German style.

As the day drew to an end and we started to run out of gas we happily climbed on to our red and grey box train to once more return to France. The day was great and I had alot of fun!! Well time to go!!

Jonte <3

Hi!! Me again
(duh' who else would it be? Haha). Well I just thought I would let you all know what I have been up to lately and what I will be doing in the near future, those of you who are reading this who are friends or familly should know that I celebrated my 16th birthday on the 23rd of May. I had a great day in town shopping with my friends, we... No I bought soooo many clothes!!! We also went and watched a movie! Thanks to all who made my day sooo special!! AND I ATE 2 SNAILS!! Very inteerrresting... Well I had a great weekend anyway!
On to something new!! I will be going to Germany this weekend!!!! As a New Zealander taking the train is well a little uncommon depending on where you live, I have taken the train ALOT in my life time ("cough" 16 years! hehe I suppose that's not a life time but yeah) but taking the train to another country is something I have never ever done... Probably because it's impossible in New Zealand! So as you can see I'm VERY excited to be taking a day trip by train from France to Germany! A complete novelty if you ask me! This is quite a short blog today as I haven't been doing alot lately... But I have 20/20 for my general behaviour in class which is good, plus 15/20 on a physics test, but I think that's quite boring... So will say good bye now and until next time... Hopefully next week...
Jonte
thanks for reading!!

SCHOOL!!

Well I have been told that my first week of school is actually very interesting and I suppose that person is right so I’m going to try and explain my first few days of school.
My first day of school, believe it or not, was a breeze! I got there a bit late but it was okay because I had to get my ‘carnet de liaison’ (communication book), my schedule and my classes. This was hard because well my French was really bad and I didn’t have anyone help me, I only had my pocket dictionary (thank you pocket dictionary!). When I finally met my class I was pretty content! I had successfully made it through one hour of school!! But my French was still at its same old level. I went up and met my class who were more or less uninterested and then met the girls to whom I am now close friends with, now I think I should explain why my day was a breeze… my good friend Xenia spoke quite a bit of English (she speaks it even better now!!) and for the first 2 or 3 months she was well to put it simply enough my translator, I owe her a lot as she spent a lot of time and energy constantly being the teachers beck and call in class. What did I learn in those first few days of school? We don’t take lunch boxes to school because we eat at school with our tray and stuff, we scan our card and then it gives us a tray and we get served (food...). I learnt that French girls are VERY fashionable and that I will always love my uniform! I learnt that there is more music in English in France than there is music in French, but the most important thing I learnt was how to get to school from my house!! I know it’s stupid but it’s still important!
Now my French is a whole lot better! I understand a lot more and I barely noticed I had improved!! It was just this weekend that I realized I could speak French, not amazingly but I could and I could understand it too! I’m happy to say that I am almost fluent in French! (Well I have a while to go but I can hold a conversation and talk to teachers and ask questions so yeah)
I suppose I have come to the end of my blog, but before I sign off I will tell you some things I have learnt outside of school (not all of them because there is a lot but just a few)
The French do eat a lot of cheese! It isn’t just a stereotype
We eat bread with every meal, and yes it’s the French type!
Champagne is for special occasions and teenagers are expected to drink some, it’s just normal (I hate it though)
Art class SUCKS!!!
Ratatouille is delish!!
French pate is gross!!
Thanks for reading!! Hope you liked it!!
Jonte

life in france, first trimester

Well I should probably start by introducing myself, I'm Jonte, a fifteen year old exchange student from New Zealand. I have been on my exchange in France for nearly four months now and so far it has been pretty relaxed and problem free. I think the most stressful part was before i even left NZ!!
I have been pretty slack obout keeping a blog so i have a feeling this will be a long one!! hmmm where do I start?! from the very begining perhaps? In the begining God created the heavens and the earth.... Just jokes, well i will do my best to skip the boring parts and keep you up to date.
I think my exchange began when I caught the plane to auckland, there I met eleven other students like me, nervous, excited and anxious! All three flights were pretty much problem free, and the in flight entertainment was awsome. there was a small problem in singapore however as two exchangees were not given boarding passes for our last flight to Paris, one of which was ME!! Thank goodness for bagage receipts, or whatever haha!!
We all made it to paris where another student discovered his bags were left in NZ because the people decided to forget them... we all caught our trains and started getting rid of jet lag.
Well i think i will skip the first few weeks as they are quite boring...
Febuary, we went to Venice, it was truely beatiful! I learnt that there are many bilangual people in Itally. We haven't done many exciting things since then but it's OK because i have had time to get settled, "hang out" with my new friends and learn the language (and bus time-tables haha) it has been a great experience so far and i cant wait for summer!!

Well I hope you feel mildly up to date and don't worry there will be more blogs soon!!
jonte