Nouvelle Ans

In January and a bit of December I got to visit my Lily Mirsepassi in Nimes, France. It was awesome. Nimes is really close to Montpiller, France. Its located in the south of France. Which equals no snow!. When I left there was a a foot of snow on the ground and when I arrived in Nimes it was sunny and 10 degrees celcius vs. -4 celcius. I was happy to see the sun cause at that point it felt like I hadn't seen the sun in weeks possibly months. Lily picked me up at the train station in Nimes (which was about a 5hr train ride from Brussels) and for some reason I couldn't find the stairs really I know it sounds stupid. But they are located in an obscure location. So I wait behind like a billion old people. And finally I made it. I screamed when I saw Lily. Probably scared her host dad. We got in her family's BMW and arrived to the spainish styled maison that she happened to be living at. Nimes looks like Sac but older same climate and trees etc. Her family has an amazing backyard with a huge pool and a bar. She also has a bath room in her room so not fair. Her host mom is goregous and nice. She fed me so well. She is a stay at home mom and her host dad is a doctor and they have 3 children 2 in college and the other in exchange in Sacramento. The first day her mom made something close to mexican food delicous and we walked around her town I took a billion photos. We went on a ferriswheel I thought I was going to die not a fan of the heights. She a has collseum in the center of her town which is still used for concerts and bull fighting. Its like a mini version of the collseum in Rome. It changes colors with the lights at night. So a couple days later my brother and my aunt came to visit me. They stayed hotel in the center of town. We visited Lyon on New Year's Eve. It was great I have lots of photos but the weather was lame. We got lost for a second but, found our way back but we got see lots if back streets. haha The train system is sooo expensive! its so different from Belgium. I think that the french rely less on the belge. But anyways its was 80 euros (there and back) to go somewhere that was 1 and a half hours away and in Belgium its 30 but with a student pass (ages 5-27) its 5 euros. Thank god I live in Belgium. But France is goregous and the mind set is so much different. The teenagers are more outgoing with there feelings which I like but the parties are so much lamer! I can definatly vouch for Belgium on that. They do lots of house parties with 20 or so people in France usually but in Belgium you go to a club, bar, or a dance hall thing with a DJ. Almost every week. (its the culture) If you don't go out in Belgium on the weekend its almost social suicide because kids are so busy with school work and work that its the only time they really hang out besides Wednesdays afterschool. New Years I went out with Lily and her French friends . The party was really fun. It was a house party like the ones previously mentioned. Her brother Kevin was visiting her from Sacramento he came with us and Jamenson from Canada. But it wasn't lame. I gave everyone a bisous (kiss on the cheek)when it was offically new years. It the best way to ring in the New Years. After it was hard to say bye to Lily and my Brother and my aunt I wanted to stay. Btw ate sooo many crepes. I also bought a french book which i am still reading.

decembre

December was a busy month for me. I celebrated my first saint nicholas and my first Christmas away from my family. It was actually easier than I thought. Before it was Christmas my town had its annual fete de noel. What it entailed was walking 8 km and at each kilometer there was a stop to drink hot chocolate or hot wine or peke. The whole town does it; its a tour of the village. It was so much fun. My friends from scouts were there and I went with Sofia. At the end there was hotdogs with sauerkraut, soup, brownies, and other things it was great to see everyone from town.
Christmas was fun with my family. But it was different that what I was used to one thing was that we set up the Christmas decorations the week of Christmas. In Sacramento we set up Dec 1st at the latest. haha Also we opened presents Christmas Eve at 7. I usually open up the morning. I gave my family their gifts in the morning because I had stockings for them which are meant to be opened in the morning. Another thing was that my family only gives one gift per person. I got all of them a gift not knowing this. We didn't go to mass which made me sad because Europe has all of these gorgeous churches and Europeans rarely go except on Christmas.
Christmas eve we went to the house of a relative of my host dad Max. He has a huge family there were 30 plus people there. It was the first time I had met them. When I first got there it was akward but, it got better as the night went on. I ended up having a great time. There were a lot of kids my age. I had a lot of fun with Vinncent and Laurent. And we played in trival persut in French and I answered more questions than the other kids.

The next day I went sledding with William after Christmas lunch. We had gotten a lot of snow that week so it was perfect for sledding. I fell deep into the snow a couple times I had to dig myself out. I was a beautiful day also. The sun was out and I could see for miles we went to the highest hill in the city.

The next day I had dinner with my host mom's family it was boring. But, no worries.