Monday, July 19, 2010

leaving

i leave in 13 hours and 43 min

July

May and June were a blur of good times and good friends. I think I can safely say that they were the best 2 months so far on this trip. I moved into a 3rd family, where I had an 11 year old sister. The reason for the move (which had not been planned) was because my 2nd family was going on vacation to the south of France….and there was no room for me. So they asked a friend of there’s Pascale and Jean-Claude. Both are lawyers, and are possibly the sweetest people I have ever met. Pascale let me borrow any of her clothes, and/or shoes whenever I wanted, I felt so at home. And every night that Jean-Claude wasn’t home we three girls would watch Plus Belle La Vie, which is a french sitcom with lots of juicy drama.
They lived in a village just outside of Rouen, called Isneauville.
I stayed there for 4 weeks, then moved back to my 2nd family’s house to pack up all of my things.

My parents arrived on June 21st in Paris, where they picked up the car we are renting for the month. They then drove to Vernon, where they spent the night.
I took the train down to meet then the next morning, and we had a classic train station reunion, involving running down the platform, waving arms, the works. It was great to see them…10 months is a long time.

We spent the day looking at Monet’s Garden, which is incredibly beautiful. Afterwards we slowly made our way up to Rouen, taking little back roads.

I spent that week showing my parents around, introducing them to my host families, saying goodbyes to my friends, it was quite possibly one of the most emotionally draining weeks of my life. We left bright and early Saturday morning for Belgium. Along the way we stopped at Vimy ridge, and saw the beautiful war memorial that stands there.
The next day we went through 5 countries…that is a lot. France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, and finally, reaching our destination in Italy.
We were staying in the vacation house of a close friend of the family, near Brunico in a little village called Antermoia. We spent a week there, surrounded by the alps and feelingas if were were in a scene from Heidi. I don’t think that there are words in english that describe how incredible this place was. Breathtaking. Moving. Incerdible. None do it justice.
After a week there that passed all to quickly we moved on to Tuscany. Where we stayed in a beautiful Agroturismo place, about 10km from Siena. Which, is in fact one of my new favourite cities. We spent the week looking at beautiful old walled cities, eating pizza and pasta, basking in the 35 degree heat and being very thankful for the pool.
The highlight of the week was taking a ferry to Isola d’Elba, where Napoleon was exiled. We’re talking white sand beaches, turquoise water so salty that you could practically float a rock. High 30s heat, and a man selling fresh pinapple and coconuts for 3 euros served on a palm leaf. In other words, paradise.

When the week was over we rejoined the other family in a village near Florence, to stay in a beautiful old house for our last week. Stone walls and high ceilings, antique wood tables and the best food you have ever eaten. The daughter of the family, Sophia who is my age, will be coming to stay with us with her son for a month this summer. I can’t wait, she is such a sweetheart.
Yesterday we had to say our goodbyes, and had another long day of driving, Florence to Gap ( a small town in France, near Grenoble). This morning we had a little ‘mix-up’ with my train back to Rouen….and had a few hours to kill. So we explored the area around Grenoble a little, and found a picturesque little village. It’s church dates back to around 1080. We had a drink and bite to eat as we had left very early and missed breakfast. There was a charming little river that flowed through the town center, and my mom and I couldn’t help but take our shoes off to stand in it a while.

After that they dropped me at the train station, and headed of to Avignon, while I make my way back to Rouen. I will fly out on Tuesday the 20th back to Vancouver.