Now's your chance to give us a quick glimpse into how you spent your summer... people, places, things that you saw, books that you read, whatever you feel like sharing!
As some of you already know I went to Poland this summer. Actually I was at a friend's so I didn't discover Krakow with stupid tourist eyes. I went to a Jewish culture festival therefore I learnt a lot about this religion : Jewish cooking, Jewish art, Jewish music, ... And also (obviously) how Jews were treated during the Second World war. I went to Auschwitz - Birkenau. It was unbearable, first, to be at the heart of so much horror and secondly, to see how this ancient extermination camp happens to be now the main economic motor in this part of Poland. Indeed, there are so many people coming to visit it, it allows this geographical area to earn money. Honestly it made me sick. Anyway, apart from this I discovered many many wonderful things : beautiful landscapes, great food, great concert, an ununderstandable language, and so much more ! Something more linked to the class now, I went to "Le Centre Pompidou de Metz" where there was an painting exhibition about the year 1917. All the paintings made this year (or almost all) were gathered in this place and it was very interesting to compare how the first world war influenced the artists. Don't get me wrong, a war is horrible and an artist can do a great work without a war but while visiting this exhibition, I had the feeling that the war really boosted art. As far as reading is concerned, I only read one book apart from the required reading list, it was "why be happy when you could be normal", an autobiography written by Jeannette Winterson, a British feminist and gay icon who became famous thanks to her first book published in 1985.
Well that's it, now the only thing we have to do is being ready for our last year together .. See you all on tuesday :)
Yasmine, I'm so glad to hear some more news from you! Again I wish I was with you the day you went to see those paintings in Metz but the testimony you've texted me satisfied my curiosity. Now I would just like you to clarify a mere thing for my overall understanding. When you said that while visiting the most-known concentration camp worldwide, you learnt that it helps considerably the economy of Poland and that made you sick. Once I've reread your comment, I realised that your opinion might not be as biased as I thought in the first place. I'm aware of the fact that Auschwitz - Birkenau is a place that had witnessed outrageous, horrible , shameful and beyond unmentionable slaughters but in reality we owe Poland to bear the sight of such a place in their precise territory. Without this,some people or human beings in general could forget or worse pretend to ignore what were the impact of such acts and reproduce them with a "clear" conscience. I strongly believe ;as you certainly do too; in the duty of remembering these who died unfairly; don't you? Your beloved fellow, Elizabeth !
Well I totally understand your reaction, and I'll try to be clearer here : The thing is that I consider this issue as a dead-end. Indeed, on the one hand it is (as you said) a duty of memory, no one must ever forget what happened in such places. It's actually the reason why I accepted to visit it. It was a way to pay tribute to the millions of people who died there. And I imagine that the millions of tourists who go to Auschwitz had the same motivaiton. But on the other hand, visiting camps has become a real business and this is what I reproach. I don't know if some of you ever went there, but when you arrive, you see a big building, full of souvenir shops, cafés and you wonder "well, am I at the right place ?". It became a way to take money from tourists, as any other tourist attraction if I may say. What stroke me the most is that you could buy auschwitz posters. So you see, I think it's important to go there and see this at least once in your life to try to realize that it really happened but mass tourism and money has spoilt everything and even sullied the memory of the place.
The idea of having a Auschwitz poster in my room is very disgusting... Anyway, the money people pay to see these horrible sights will not go to the dead so yes I believe this profit is quite sick.
My holidays weren’t certainly as emotional as Yasmine’s ones but I have nothing to envy her and I’ll gladly tell you why. Some of you already know that I’m keen on everything concerning dancing and in particular break dancing, that’s the reason why I attended « The battle of the Year »; a break dance contest; that took place in the arena of Nîmes. Now, If I had to sum up what where my feelings towards this trip I’d say first that you missed something! Also that I was really flabbergasted, excited of course and wowed by the performances of the most impressionable crews of France. After that my sister invited me to Newcastle Upon Tyne .There, we inaugurated the church in which she was making a work experience. I played the role of an usher for three days straight and I was worn out at the end but I assure you that it was worth it. I also had the pleasure to meet the members of the choir who came from different regions of England as well as some priests from everywhere in the entire world. Seeing all these believers gathered for this event in order to sing, dance and pray really moved me. Then, I also had the occasion to go to Paris thanks to one of my other sisters who housed me. In the first place this travel had another purpose which was to go to the exhibition of the drawer and movie maker ,Tim Burton, whose works where exhibited since the beginning of his career. It was so awesome and rewarding to see what a lover of Art could have become owing to his ambition. On the contrary I enjoyed less being lost in Paris (I did have a hard time finding my way even if it‘s not my first time in the capital). And finally… I came back in Dijon where I met with old friends, sunbathed, enjoyed the tramway’s noise and obviously waited eagerly for the 4th, September to arrive. I’ve shared my vacation time, now it’s your turn to do so; until then, be well !! Elizabeth
When you say me and send a link to a HP GIF, does it mean that you think he represents you well? (The real question I think is : do you have magic powers? Because if you do, maybe you could help the rest of us to get through this year with a little less difficulties... )
For once I had an interesting summer. ( because I usually spend my summer hanging around, geeking on my computer.)
The first thing I did after the oral bac...Disneyland! With two friends. The next day we went to the Japan Expo 'cause we are manga crazy fans (well I'm not crazy but soon to be). Then I invited them to spend a week in Dijon, in order to show them our wonderful pleasure of living on the countryside, and its beauty, magnifence,radiance, resplendence, richness, splendor, sublimity, sumptuousness...OK let's not get ahead of ourselves, there is a reason I'm trying to convince myself of this: very seriously, everyone in Paris thinks Dijon is a small isolated village, totally lost in the countryside with very few people. Which meant proving the opposite was my goal. In the end, they did not seem convinced. Mission failed. -.-')
Afterwards I spent a week in Lofoten Islands in Norway, above the arctic circle. It was cold, around 10*, it was day 24h/day. We hiked on the first day, then hanged around because it rained the rest of the week. Many seagulls. Few people. Breathtaking landscape. Did I mention there were many seagulls?
After, ( summing it up the best I can), I spent a couple of days in Paris ( again) and a week at my grandmother's house in the south. The next two weeks I spent in Dijon. During those 3 weeks, i did a "training course" ( stage d'observation) in a stable and at my local veterinary clinic, in order to acquire work experience, which most universities in the UK demand in the applications. My last week was spent in Cannes, so at the beach, the tennis court, the pool.
Overall, not so much time with my beloved computer, and some time spent reading. The best part? The 'no studying at all' part! Alas, it cannot last, so I await with great anticipation for next summer!
The fact that your parisian friends found Dijon so small really made me laugh, because I imagined them coming to my village in the middle of nowhere where barely 90 people live, haha! You're so lucky for your trip to Norway, I would really love to go there! I'm fond of northern countries: I went to Iceland a few years ago and my dream is to go to Greenland. The landscapes must really be breathtaking! Alice
Hi Charlotte, I'm so jealous you went to Norway, I've been planning (or trying to plan...) on going there as soon as I can, I can even talk a little Norwegian ^^ ( A LITTLE )! Just like Alice, I live in the real countryside, (approximatly 100 inhabitants kind of village type)and for most people out there, Dijon is like sort of "wow, the biggist city on earth so... (and it is also very hard to convince them otherwise! )
Well hello, hello, dearest classmates! :D My summer was... As usual, I guess you could say. For those who know me, they also know that I've had the same "summer routine" for the past couple of years : I spend the first month at my grandparents' (in Pau, for those who are interested) and the second month in Toronto, Canada. The first half of the summer was mostly spent at home, reading our English literature and philosophy books (at least those in S know what I'm talking about... The amazing "Le Monde de Sophie", right? ;D). During that time, I also went to Biarritz for a couple of days (spent either at the pool or the beach, of course!), to Spain for an afternoon (Pau is right at the border, which makes it very easy to go shopping in Spain for a bit... Things are also a lot cheaper there!), visited Le Pic du Midi and Les Grottes de Betharram. The second month was all about seeing my Canadian family (especially my sister, with whom I lived with during that time) and friends. I don't have much to say about that... Maybe three words to sum it up : CNE (a kind of fair/exposition/show place), shopping and eating (a lot of that last one! Mmmm, Toronto food... AKA food from all over the world!). I just took advantage of being back in "my" dearest city. All in all, my summer was very fun, as always, and I can't wait to see what the next one is going to be like! For now, though, let's just try to focus on our last year of high school and as Charlotte quoted very well : "stay positive!" ;) See you all Monday, Rebecca
Ok, I am asked to tell how my summer was (what a pain to write with the past tense), right? To make it short and avoid sending you all to sleep, let's say that I've spent better holidays than ever, meaning that I've spent most of my time abroad, with no news of anyone, of anything, far, far from all those soporific occupations, from that everyday life that kills me (don't get me wrong, I love you). Well, where did I go? Life gave me the opportunity to see the dolfins, whales, puffins, icebergs, impressive waterfalls, limitless landscapes and inexistent summer nights of Iceland, in a restless and giddy wind that makes tears appear in front of the insolvent opposition between human absurdity and nature's clearness. Then I explored the Slovene territory, this small and unknown country that has the chance not to see loads of swarming appalling tourists who take pictures without even taking time to understand what is exactly in front of them. Please, learn to leave your camera and your iPhone in your bag, the best memories are in the head ! And to finish those two months with a joyful note, I played and made childish experiments with sea urchins, sea cucumbers and winkles in the limpid sea water of Croatia. I could say I envy people who go wasting their money in Parisian clothes or Las Vegas games, but I don't, because even in the hardest situations, lacking comfort, our everyday life affluence and facing truth, I have learnt that life is magnificient, I have learnt that love's beauty is the fact of knowing who to share nature's beauty with. It often happens to me not to know the reason why I am living, but it is always while being within the world immensity that I feel there's no more use to wonder; I suppose this is where my seat is. Good night :).
The greatest part of my holidays and also the most interesting one was without any doubt my trip to Guadeloupe. For those who don't really know where it is (don't worry, I didn't know where it was before going there too ^^), Guadeloupe is an island surrounded by the Caribbean Sea but also by the North Atlantic Ocean. I was supposed to stay there a dozen of days... supposed as I only stay ten days due to plane delays. The weather was not very clement: it rained a lot and temperatures oscillate between 30 and 40 degrees "only". Although Guadeloupe is part of France and its departmental code is 971, I didn't feel like I was in France. For instance, people there were talking French but as it was mixed up with Creole language, I had a hard time understanding what people were telling me. There, I discovered new landscapes very different from the one I was used to in Metropolitan France. Volcanoes such as “La Soufrière”, black sand beaches near “Trois Rivières”, waterfalls such as “Les chutes du Carbet” and many others... The most beautiful landscape I saw in Guadeloupe was probably the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen. It was “la baie des Saintes” which I saw in the “Îles des Saintes”, a small archipelago. This bay is considered to be one of the three most beautiful bays of the world with the ones present in Rio de Janeiro and Shangai. Well, this is the most interesting part of my holidays as the following weeks were filled in with sport and rest. See you on Monday, and a happy birthday to Zohra :)
I mostly stayed at home, I was hoping I would spend some time in Ireland, but in the end that didn't happen. During the first week of July I went to britanny with friends of my parents, for about a week. It was very nice, besides the fact that there were 3 small children and a 12 year old, I had a very pleasant time! We went to see the "cote de granit rose" and the "ile de Bréhat", both absolutely breath taking, The cote de granit rose looks a bit like a magical land like they describe in children's fairy tails, because the granit stones are very big and tall and pink! So they look like clouds. L'ile de Bréhat was my favourite part of the trip, it's a small island covered in beautiful houses and rare plants. You have to take a boat to get there of course but it's only a 20 minute ride, you can't bring a car but you are alowed bikes, but we went on foot. It was a warm (how suprising!) so we went swimming (it was very cold though!) and rock pool investigatind with the smaller children, that is something I've allways loved doing! They were so happy each time they found a crab or an anemony or even small fish! Of course we had panckes and other specialities with funny names, and a lot, and I means loads, of butter, but they were sooo good!!
During the rest of the holidays I stayed home, and read my school books, I went camping with friends, we ate barbecues had a few quiet parties and that's about it, I hope you all enjoyed your holidays! Daire
These two months were totally crazy! I first spent three weeks in the French Riviera, in Vallauris and in Niza. I mostly spent my days lying on the beach, swimming…I also went diving, fishing and hunting (some sea urchins :D). During the first two weeks of August I stayed in a ‘students’ residence in Cambridge! That was fabulous! The city is wonderful (even if the Colleges look a bit like Harry Potter’s school). It is full of students coming from all over the world and I met some cuddly people! As we were living all together it was a really good way to discover new cultures (new foods, new traditions…) and of course to improve my English (I hope so ahah). We even went to London for three days. Back in France (and no more tanned, alas) I spent some days in the countryside by my grandparents, the best way to relax! Finally, I went with Yasmine and four other friends to Bruxelles. We stayed there four days in a youth hostel. That was a fantastic stay! We visited many museums, we tried weird Belgium food, and we went out in really nice cafés… (I think we walked around aaaaaall the city).
Well, that’s all…I hope you all had great holidays!
Hi everyone! Wow! I read the summer activities of the ones who have already posted… most of them are amazing! You guys are lucky :)
I was really busy during my holidays (as usual!). First, I worked for three weeks with children in my riding school. It was a really interesting experience, both for the kids (most of them were from big cities and enjoyed spending a week or two in the countryside) and for me, because I learned how to handle a group of 10 kids on my own (which was really demanding & exhausting)
Then , I decided to focus on what I want to do in the future: medicine!! That's why I spent two weeks with a neurologist in a hospital. Let's just say that IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME!! I learned a lot concerning recent medical advancements in brain science and neurosurgery, learned how to read MRIs and CT scans, and even watched a surgeon clip an aneurysm! Our gray matter is still very mysterious, so neurologists do a lot of research and go to lectures to keep them updated on the last news concerning their specialty. In addition, I did a lot of reading about eyes surgery, cardiothoracic procedures and Alzheimer's disease, because I had daily access to the med students' library!
Finally I went to St-Jean-de-Luz: the sun, the sea & the beach brought me a little rest before going back to school!
Hi ! :) I spent the first month of the holidays in Dijon : I read a lot, I hanged out with my friends, and I watched a lot of movies and TV shows in English or in (subtitled) Japanese and Korean. I had plenty of time to chill out : I was very tired because of the school year ! Then, in the end of July, I went to the Oléron Island for a week with my family ; I sunbathed a lot, and I visited the island, which is really nice : it's made of small towns, and there are so many pretty beaches, especially when the sun sets. Moreover, it was really sunny and hot, but the nights were quite cool, so it was really relaxing. I spent two weeks with my grandmother afterwards : I didn't do anything special, except eating, reading and surfing the web, but I wasn't bored at all ! But the very interesting part of my holidays began two weeks before going back to school : I travelled to the English Riviera, to Newton Abbot, a town in Devon, for 14 days. In the morning, I had class from 8 to 12, with two other girls, who came from Corsica and Paris, and an English teacher, who was really good. In the afternoons, we visited the region : I took a huge lot of photos. In the evenings, I went back to my host family's, who was very welcoming and lovely : we had very interesting chats over a cup of tea everyday. We visited two cities with the group of French students : we went to Plymouth (the city where the Mayflower departed on the early 17th century) and to Exeter, which are the biggest cities in Devon. In the morning, we visited the cities, and in the afternoons, we could go shopping and visit by ourselves. We also went to Torquay quite often, a really nice city where we could shop, go to a swimming pool, and even to a nightclub :) There were some awesome places where I could take beautiful photos. With the host family, we visited other towns : Teignmouth, Totnes, Paignton, and Brixham. They were all very nice, and I was lucky, because when we visited these towns, the weather was nice and sunny. Everyday, we had to write a text to sum up the previous day, and we made a scrapbook, so that when I'm bored, I can read through it and remember all the nice things I did in Devon. This travel also allowed me to speak English a lot with the teacher and the host family, so I think I improved my oral skills, or at least gained some confidence. Moreover, I am still keeping in touch with my host family, as they were so nice to me. I have, as I told you before, a lot of photos of Devon in my computer, so if you're interested, I can send you some :) I am looking forward to going back to this region, I already miss it ! So I think that's it now, thank you for reading. Audrey
Well, as I can see, you all had tremendous holidays! Mine were not as original I’m afraid…
I spent most of my time at my grandparents, in the South West of France. They live in a tiny village lost in the countryside, near the Dordogne River. Going there is always really exciting though, as I always learn plenty of useful things! You may not know I’m keen on fishing for example, and it is with my grandfather I first learnt. I also did tons of cooking with my grandmother: rice pudding, orange baba, mirabelle pie, brioche, cream of zucchini soup, pâté… I think I’ll just stop here, for I could fill three pages with all I did!
After a while, my little brother and sister arrived, and my grandparents brought us in the Pyrenees for a day. I had never been there before, so I discovered beautiful scenery! We walked alongside a torrent and we could hear the lapping of the water all day long. Unfortunately, it was too hot to see any animals. Both marmots and izards were hiding to protect themselves from the burning sun…
Later on, I went with all my family in our summer house, lost in the countryside (again!), but this time in Charente-Maritime. That was the relaxing part of my vacation. When we’re there, we usually invite people we don’t see a lot during the year, so it is always a pleasure to have people there. I read quite a lot of interesting books and we went to the beach several times.
After that, I spent a few days at my cousin’s in Paris. We visited many exhibitions, among which one about Chinese cooking. Well, I can tell you it just made me feel sick… Dog broth, stuffed tortoise or bear paw, none of that was for me!"
During my vacation I mainly stayed at home : I slept a lot (at least until noon^^), I read also several books such as 1984,(which is for me one of the greatest books ever written), I went to the cinema (I found the last Batman really awesome!), I swam in my swimming-pool... At the beginning of August, like every year, I visited my grandparents, who live in "Aveyron", in the South-West of France(in fact they live in an ancient mining town). There, I visited the region with my family : for instance we climbed the "Puy-Mary" in "Auvergne"(steep slope = quite exhausting), we made a horse ride and that was a bit stressful since the horses were nervous. In fact at one point,one of the horses got scared because of a noise and ejected the jumper -_- . Otherwise we relaxed, we ate specialties of the region... Finally I came back home and prepared my stuff before going back to school.
Now’s my turn to tell you the tale of my fabulous-incredible-extraordinary-amazing-breathtaking HOLIDAYS! Now I know what you are thinking: Isn’t she exaggerating a bit? Well… yes, I am. Contrary to you guys who had really busy and interesting holidays, mine were not boring but not that interesting though. This year, we were supposed to go to Brittany and visit mount Saint Michel but things happened, like my mother having an intervention, so we finally stayed at home. Nonetheless, I enjoyed having nothing but to read and geek; it was really fun and mind escaping. As usual, I drew a lot too and even managed to improve a little! Yay! -Still I have a long way to go if I want to get those pretty cool images I have in my head on paper but “Yay!” anyway!- I also had the pleasure to have the visit of my grandmother in July for my birthday and the visit of my aunt in August, for whom I had to leave my room and sleep in my sister’s, on the floor, on a mattress for four days. I’m telling you we were happy when they come and even happier when they left. Well, what else can be tell on my super awesome holidays except that I can’t wait for the next holidays because I will go to Paris for two weeks-Yay !- and the exams will be OVER !-double “Yay!”.
That was the tale of my marvelous vacation, Reminding me of them leaves a bitter taste in my mouth But the perspective of a brand new school year And the thought of the incredible load of work that await us Fill me up with a feeling of bliss and delight In conclusion, let’s work hard together and enjoy every moment of it!
Dear classmates! (And Zohra, I wish you a great happy birth day !) Your holidays sound so great! And lucky those who travelled abroad! As for myself, I stayed in France but I had a wonderful summer. First, a friend from Montreal came to visit me in Dijon; it was such a pleasure to see her again in real (because usually we talk and see each other with skype). We mostly hanged out with friends, but it was quite enjoyable! Then, I spent a week in the Drome-Provensale, with my parents and a friend. We did crazy activities! We went canyoning in a river, and I felt like Indiana Jones! We walked under the bushes, feet in the water; we jumped into water holes (More than 7 meter high!!) and so one. It was crazy. My dad proposed us to do paragliding, but we couldn’t, we were too scared. After this week, we came back in Dijon where we rest for two weeks. My friend and I went to the cinema, we saw friends, … It was nice. By then, almost a month passed, and it was time for Cecile and I to go to Biarritz, in the Pays Basque for two weeks. We had sun, heat and the beach, what could we ask for more?? It was perfect. Actually, we were staying in Guethary, a small and very popular village of the coast, very lively. We went to a music festival, taking place in Guethary, where we had such a good time! The bands were amazing, and the people very nice. This was for the first week. For the second, we took surf lessons! And believe me, the waves were huuuuuuge! And we were not that bad! I may admit that we fell quite badly some times, but you could call us The Goddesses Of The Ocean. We had a wonderful time. And then, we had to make the way back to Dijon. 38°C, a 206 Peugeot, 800km. I let you make the conclusion! It was quite an accomplishment. This was the end of summer, and I had to prepare myself to go back to school. What is more, I had to say good-bye to two of my best friends who moved for one year to China. It was a very hard time for me… However the return to normal avoid me to think about it too much.
Reading your posts,I'm convinced that you all spent nice holidays, and it's good to konw. For my part, my holidays began quite poorly with the burial of my uncle (my mum's brother), in Poland. So my mum, my brother and I went to our beloved country, and stayed with our beloved aunt (my mum's sister). During the three weeks we spent there, we payed a visit to our family (many people to see!), as we usually do, and we tried to have a little fun in all this period of sadness, visiting some new places. During the visits, we stopped by an old house my grand'ma's cousin recognized as being the house she grew up in. In the garden, there was an old lady. After some words exchanged, both of them began to cry : this was the daughter of the people who welcomed my auntie after her mother's death! It was so touching!
Another great meating happend in Zamosc, a lovely and colourfull town, in the easter part of Poland. The city organized the Eurofolk this year : a festival where folklore groups from all Europe are competing. There we found "Les enfants du Morvan", which is a group from guess where...? From DIJON! Unbelievable! But very badly, just before they were going on the stage to dance, it began to rain, a real tempest! So the organizators had to cancel and to postpone the meeting.
After all these discoveries, we came back to France, and for my birthday, my mum offered me the best gift ever! A week-long music stage! So the third week of August, I was with 160 other musicians. It was like in a dream! Music everywhere! Great musicians, and great instruments. We were only 9 pianists. We had some jazz lessons (we had a GREAT young professor - 24 year old - from Paris), and then we had to split into groups made of guitarists, drummers and pianists. So I've met maaany people, and I've learnt maaaany things. I was in HEAVEN! At the end of the week, there was a big concert. Imagine a concert with all the instruments you can imagine, three orchestras, four groups of pianists-guitarists-singers-drummists, the flute ensemble, the drum ensemble, the trombone ensemble, the horn ensemble, a brass band, a big band, chorists... It last for 6 hours!
Well, a hundred pages wouldn't be sufficient to explain you how magic it was, and how my vacations were greaaaat! Just talking about this makes me... excited! I'm looking forward next year, to attend the next stage.
I hope you were not annoyed by all I've written, and that I didn't loose you during your reading ^^' So now, back to the hard reality of school, and of the OIB exam... Well don't feel bad about it. After we'll pass it, we'll talk about it as I was writing about my holidays. We'll be excited about it, thinking these were the best years we've had in our lives. Because knowledge and friends, this is life.
Wow! I see that all of you did very interesting things during this summer. That’s really a good idea to share our new experiences, the places we went, what we saw, did, read… and I really enjoyed reading the posts you made and I’m looking forward for the other posts!
As for me, I think that my summer won’t interest you that much because I did not do as interesting things as you did. With my mother and some family we wanted to go to Denmark, visiting family who lives there but it didn’t happen because of a problem of tickets and most importantly because I don’t have a passport, which is problematic even if Denmark is part of the European Union and Schengen area.
Apart from that, I spent the two months playing volley-ball and badminton with my brother and sisters and also hanging out with some friends and seeing family that I don’t have much time to see during the school year.
As for the reading, I read two works in English, apart from the required reading. The first one is a book of Selected Poems from Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet, playwright and translator who has won several awards including the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. I picked up some poems and read them; they mostly deal with situations of everyday life. I also read some short stories written by English novelist, playwright and short story writer Somerset Maugham (/ˈmɔːm/). These short stories were quite short and easy to read.
I would like to speak to you about Broken, a film by Rufus Norris I watched at the end of the summer, with Tim Roth, a well-known English actor - maybe you’ve watched him in the TV series Lie to me in which he played Dr. Cal Lightman - but also actor Cillian Murphy. It is the story of a young girl called Skunk who sees her life changing after she witnesses a violent attack. I really liked this film, the close and full of tenderness relationship between Skunk and her father but also the fact that is set in North London. Moreover, I was really impressed by the acting performance of Eloise Laurence who played Skunk.
Thank you Valentin and Alice, that’s really nice of you! And to answer your question Alice, I spent my birthday with all my family and I really enjoyed it.
What about my summer holidays ? First of all, I left Dijon as soon as possible, just after the BAC – I think that the rain was a push factor. I first went to south of France, to Toulon more precisely. I spent a week and a half with my grand-mother, musing on the beach, playing with her animals and trying not to throw myself through the nearest window – my grand-mother and I have had intense discussions about trivial things which were playing with my nerves. My sister rejoined me at the end of the second week for about three days and then, I went to my others grand-parents' house, a bit more inside the country, next to Aix-en-Provence, in a small village called Peyrolles. It was just a way to cut the trip, before going into the mountains with them. So after 4 days under the sun, reading some philosophy, my grand-parents, my sister and I took the car and travelled through France to reach the Alps, in Haute-Savoie, where we had a small chalet, next to the very well-known village called La Clusaz. The rest of the family arrived two days later and we spent two weeks in the middle of nowhere... which was quite pleasing ! As I've just said, we were in the Alps and in this case, you do not have so much things to do, expect walking. Or more exactly, climbing. We've walked 75% of our time during the journey, the 25% left were for a bit of swimming pool, the Olympic games, my “dear” philosophy book. As you may understand, it was quite exhausting, but very beautiful and instructive. Did you know, for instance, that goats were very tender and affective animals ? Well, I didn't before this trip – and I've decided that I will have a goat when I'll be old. After those two weeks in the chalet, I finally came back to Dijon... for one day. We were at the beginning of august, and I've had just the time to prepared a new suitcase and I was ready for Biarritz with Alice ! I'll try not to repeat what Alice has just said, but it was the best part of my holidays. We spent the first week going to the Great Beach of Biarritz (as we were staying in a smaller village called Guethary), visiting the region – as I'd never been to Basque country – and we also went to a electro music festival (it was amazing). The second week, we took surf lessons, and it was great ! The two first days, the waves were quite small but until the third day, they nearly reached 2m50 ! Which is twice my size. Or a bit more. But we met people, and I loved surfing, because even if the wave is small, even if you look like a wet kitty on a board, you feel like you are the greatest surfer on earth ! And the guys in our group were so nice, and it was so funny sometimes. You just have to picture yourself on the board, and coming right behind you, a wave of 2m50. And you just say to yourself “If I catch it, I'm the most powerful person on earth”. And of course, you do not succeed and drink (a bit) of sea water. I will not say a word about our trip back to Dijon, if you want to know more about it, just read Alice's post. It was to painful to be remembered ! The coming back to Dijon was particularly depressing, but I went to our campaign house and helped my mother taking care of it during the last days of summer. This week spent in the middle of the cows, listening to music while working and far from every kind of society, was a good way to rest... before the last coming back, and the last year of lycée.
Well my summer holidays were, of course, great. And as approximately every student in the world, I'm devastated by its end, so let's maintain those souvenir by telling you my adventures. First, I had a little bit of family time with my grand parents in Jura, in the midst of cows, horses, dogs, cats (and basically every farm animals), but no network for a week! Then a four-hour flight took me to the Beldibi Club Med in Turkey for two absolutely fabulous weeks. I met lots of new people and had so much fun, practiced (a tiny bit because of the 57 degrees under the Turkish sun) my volley ball, practiced Kayak, swam, but mainly tanned on the beach with at least a hundred of water bottle lying next to me. But even the best comes to an end, so I took the plane back to Paris and came home by the end of July. I had a week to relax and recover (you can imagine that I wasn't going to bed at 8 p.m.) before the continuation of the program. I took the opportunity to see friends and invite them to come and have a swim at home. But on the 1rst of Auguste my job begun. Indeed I worked a month in a Super U in Dijon and earned my very first salary! It was exhaustive but a good experience to my mind. I also met new people and, against all odds, had fun. On the 31 of Auguste, once again as lots of people here, I went to the Concert de Rentrée followed but the Coldplay concert in the Stade de France on the 2nd of September, and I have no words to tell you how wonderful this was. To finsh with, the morning of the 4th of September I woke up at 6h30 a.m., took my bus, and came back in Charles de Gaulle for my very last year (well I hope so!)
Hi everyone, I just read some of your posts, it looks like we all had a great time this summer! As usual I spent the first part of my holidays in Menorca which is one of the Balearic islands. I'm used to going there since my childhood because my parents bought our house when i was born. Indeed we always go there during the month of July with friends or members of my family. I always have a great time there because I can meet again people I've known since my infancy! However I was disappointed this year to see that my neighbours who have children of my age couldn't come. But my uncle and my aunt brought their boat so I did a lot of fishing and wakeboarding with my uncle who is very sporty. It's really amazing to have a boat in a wild island like Menorca because it allows you to see differently the sea coast and to get to beaches which are inaccessible by the land. This year in Menorca was important to me because my parents want to sell our house there and I've spent every month of July there. It's kind of my "childhood house" and I know that even if we sell it, I shall go back to Menorca in a few years. (maybe with my own children ^^ ) I spent the first part of the month of August in my father's family working for my grandmother and then I came back to Dijon. Once I came back, I spent most of my time with my friends, I did a few parties and I started to look for a new sport since I had decided to stop ice hockey because it was really getting too competitive and hard to handle with the lycee. I finally found a handball club where the environment is less professional but it still enables me to do some sport. I already miss my holidays and I bet you too but I'm sure we will all spend a good this year and I wish good luck to everyone for the bac! See you tomorrow, Maxime
Hello, Honestly, I would be lying if I said that these last summer holidays were the best of my life, mainly because I didn't really feel on holdiay. Indeed, I was quite stressed at the begonning, because of the exam results, but it didn't last long. Then, I got soon bored as all my friends were out of Dijon, so instead of wasting my time sleeping or watching TV, I decided to create a virtual portfollio and started doing virtual financial operations on the european stocks. But the problem was that it was virtual money, so I couldn't spend my ( surprisingly ) very important profits compared to the amount of money invested. This trading period was very interesting beause I had an everyday goal, and to achieve it, I had to wake up before the opening of the market (9 am), and stop "working" at 7 pm. After this period, I want to the south of France for two weeks with my parents to relax. There, I learnt patience through star photography, which is amazingly beautifull but could last 3 hours. And when I came back to Dijon, I did what a regular teenager on holiday would do, that's to say see friends. Nevertheless, I was sometimes stressed when thinking about this new year and most of all about my application to the University of Oxford. Anyway, try to enjoy this year guys. Good morning, good evening and good night.
Hi everyone I'll just do my little roundup of the holidays now...
In July I went to England to visit some of my family and do a few different things. The main event was a country show in Essex that I went to called the Tendring Hundred show. It's the kind of place that farmers take their best livestock to parade and small rural businesses show of their produce. Basically you spend the day eating and drinking too much very nice food like pies and real English beer, as well as fudge, cheeses and everything in between! What made it especially impressive was the mud. The foot of liquid mud that covered the entire field that the show was in. It had rained so much in the days coming up to the show that it really was a mud-bath. That didn't dampen too many spirits though as the turnout was great and yours truly was the fastest man to complete a lap on a mountain bike simulator, it's tough being awesome sometimes...
Anyway when I got back to France I came down to Earth a little bit, literally. 73 onions and several kilos of potatoes later I knew I had been digging! Anyway after that it was a very relaxing holiday as you all can imagine.
Hi everyone !
ReplyDeleteAs some of you already know I went to Poland this summer. Actually I was at a friend's so I didn't discover Krakow with stupid tourist eyes. I went to a Jewish culture festival therefore I learnt a lot about this religion : Jewish cooking, Jewish art, Jewish music, ... And also (obviously) how Jews were treated during the Second World war. I went to Auschwitz - Birkenau. It was unbearable, first, to be at the heart of so much horror and secondly, to see how this ancient extermination camp happens to be now the main economic motor in this part of Poland. Indeed, there are so many people coming to visit it, it allows this geographical area to earn money. Honestly it made me sick.
Anyway, apart from this I discovered many many wonderful things : beautiful landscapes, great food, great concert, an ununderstandable language, and so much more !
Something more linked to the class now, I went to "Le Centre Pompidou de Metz" where there was an painting exhibition about the year 1917. All the paintings made this year (or almost all) were gathered in this place and it was very interesting to compare how the first world war influenced the artists. Don't get me wrong, a war is horrible and an artist can do a great work without a war but while visiting this exhibition, I had the feeling that the war really boosted art.
As far as reading is concerned, I only read one book apart from the required reading list, it was "why be happy when you could be normal", an autobiography written by Jeannette Winterson, a British feminist and gay icon who became famous thanks to her first book published in 1985.
Well that's it, now the only thing we have to do is being ready for our last year together .. See you all on tuesday :)
Yasmine, I'm so glad to hear some more news from you! Again I wish I was with you the day you went to see those paintings in Metz but the testimony you've texted me satisfied my curiosity.
DeleteNow I would just like you to clarify a mere thing for my overall understanding. When you said that while visiting the most-known concentration camp worldwide, you learnt that it helps considerably the economy of Poland and that made you sick.
Once I've reread your comment, I realised that your opinion might not be as biased as I thought in the first place. I'm aware of the fact that Auschwitz - Birkenau is a place that had witnessed outrageous, horrible , shameful and beyond unmentionable slaughters but in reality we owe Poland to bear the sight of such a place in their precise territory. Without this,some people or human beings in general could forget or worse pretend to ignore what were the impact of such acts and reproduce them with a "clear" conscience. I strongly believe ;as you certainly do too; in the duty of remembering these who died unfairly; don't you?
Your beloved fellow, Elizabeth !
Well I totally understand your reaction, and I'll try to be clearer here :
DeleteThe thing is that I consider this issue as a dead-end. Indeed, on the one hand it is (as you said) a duty of memory, no one must ever forget what happened in such places. It's actually the reason why I accepted to visit it. It was a way to pay tribute to the millions of people who died there. And I imagine that the millions of tourists who go to Auschwitz had the same motivaiton.
But on the other hand, visiting camps has become a real business and this is what I reproach. I don't know if some of you ever went there, but when you arrive, you see a big building, full of souvenir shops, cafés and you wonder "well, am I at the right place ?". It became a way to take money from tourists, as any other tourist attraction if I may say. What stroke me the most is that you could buy auschwitz posters.
So you see, I think it's important to go there and see this at least once in your life to try to realize that it really happened but mass tourism and money has spoilt everything and even sullied the memory of the place.
I hope you get my point now ;)
The idea of having a Auschwitz poster in my room is very disgusting... Anyway, the money people pay to see these horrible sights will not go to the dead so yes I believe this profit is quite sick.
DeleteMy holidays weren’t certainly as emotional as Yasmine’s ones but I have nothing to envy her and I’ll gladly tell you why. Some of you already know that I’m keen on everything concerning dancing and in particular break dancing, that’s the reason why I attended « The battle of the Year »; a break dance contest; that took place in the arena of Nîmes. Now, If I had to sum up what where my feelings towards this trip I’d say first that you missed something! Also that I was really flabbergasted, excited of course and wowed by the performances of the most impressionable crews of France.
ReplyDeleteAfter that my sister invited me to Newcastle Upon Tyne .There, we inaugurated the church in which she was making a work experience. I played the role of an usher for three days straight and I was worn out at the end but I assure you that it was worth it. I also had the pleasure to meet the members of the choir who came from different regions of England as well as some priests from everywhere in the entire world. Seeing all these believers gathered for this event in order to sing, dance and pray really moved me.
Then, I also had the occasion to go to Paris thanks to one of my other sisters who housed me. In the first place this travel had another purpose which was to go to the exhibition of the drawer and movie maker ,Tim Burton, whose works where exhibited since the beginning of his career. It was so awesome and rewarding to see what a lover of Art could have become owing to his ambition. On the contrary I enjoyed less being lost in Paris (I did have a hard time finding my way even if it‘s not my first time in the capital).
And finally… I came back in Dijon where I met with old friends, sunbathed, enjoyed the tramway’s noise and obviously waited eagerly for the 4th, September to arrive. I’ve shared my vacation time, now it’s your turn to do so; until then, be well !!
Elizabeth
Well, hey everyone !
ReplyDelete(Note, links are clickable. And safe. Promise.)
(Anyone who recognizes that gif is awesome.)
So... my summer holidays? Not much happened. Went to the mountain with some family friends. Then the beach for a little while. All good fun.
What I did most of the time? Read. Draw ('till my hand fell off.) And losing too much time on the computer.
All in all, pretty normal for me.
I'm sorry I don't have much to say but I am lacking inspiration.
Anyway, hope you all had wonderful holidays !
Mathilde
When you say me and send a link to a HP GIF, does it mean that you think he represents you well? (The real question I think is : do you have magic powers? Because if you do, maybe you could help the rest of us to get through this year with a little less difficulties... )
DeleteI wish !
DeleteBut alas no ! I am not anymore magical than you.
Unfortunately.
Hi everyone!
ReplyDelete( my best attempt at making it short)
For once I had an interesting summer. ( because I usually spend my summer hanging around, geeking on my computer.)
The first thing I did after the oral bac...Disneyland! With two friends. The next day we went to the Japan Expo 'cause we are manga crazy fans (well I'm not crazy but soon to be). Then I invited them to spend a week in Dijon, in order to show them our wonderful pleasure of living on the countryside, and its beauty, magnifence,radiance, resplendence, richness, splendor, sublimity, sumptuousness...OK let's not get ahead of ourselves, there is a reason I'm trying to convince myself of this: very seriously, everyone in Paris thinks Dijon is a small isolated village, totally lost in the countryside with very few people. Which meant proving the opposite was my goal. In the end, they did not seem convinced. Mission failed. -.-')
Afterwards I spent a week in Lofoten Islands in Norway, above the arctic circle. It was cold, around 10*, it was day 24h/day. We hiked on the first day, then hanged around because it rained the rest of the week. Many seagulls. Few people. Breathtaking landscape. Did I mention there were many seagulls?
After, ( summing it up the best I can), I spent a couple of days in Paris ( again) and a week at my grandmother's house in the south. The next two weeks I spent in Dijon. During those 3 weeks, i did a "training course" ( stage d'observation) in a stable and at my local veterinary clinic, in order to acquire work experience, which most universities in the UK demand in the applications. My last week was spent in Cannes, so at the beach, the tennis court, the pool.
Overall, not so much time with my beloved computer, and some time spent reading. The best part? The 'no studying at all' part! Alas, it cannot last, so I await with great anticipation for next summer!
Until then, stay positive !
Charlotte
Hi Charlotte!
DeleteThe fact that your parisian friends found Dijon so small really made me laugh, because I imagined them coming to my village in the middle of nowhere where barely 90 people live, haha!
You're so lucky for your trip to Norway, I would really love to go there! I'm fond of northern countries: I went to Iceland a few years ago and my dream is to go to Greenland. The landscapes must really be breathtaking!
Alice
Hi Charlotte, I'm so jealous you went to Norway, I've been planning (or trying to plan...) on going there as soon as I can, I can even talk a little Norwegian ^^ ( A LITTLE )! Just like Alice, I live in the real countryside, (approximatly 100 inhabitants kind of village type)and for most people out there, Dijon is like sort of "wow, the biggist city on earth so... (and it is also very hard to convince them otherwise! )
DeleteWell hello, hello, dearest classmates! :D
ReplyDeleteMy summer was... As usual, I guess you could say. For those who know me, they also know that I've had the same "summer routine" for the past couple of years : I spend the first month at my grandparents' (in Pau, for those who are interested) and the second month in Toronto, Canada.
The first half of the summer was mostly spent at home, reading our English literature and philosophy books (at least those in S know what I'm talking about... The amazing "Le Monde de Sophie", right? ;D). During that time, I also went to Biarritz for a couple of days (spent either at the pool or the beach, of course!), to Spain for an afternoon (Pau is right at the border, which makes it very easy to go shopping in Spain for a bit... Things are also a lot cheaper there!), visited Le Pic du Midi and Les Grottes de Betharram.
The second month was all about seeing my Canadian family (especially my sister, with whom I lived with during that time) and friends. I don't have much to say about that... Maybe three words to sum it up : CNE (a kind of fair/exposition/show place), shopping and eating (a lot of that last one! Mmmm, Toronto food... AKA food from all over the world!). I just took advantage of being back in "my" dearest city.
All in all, my summer was very fun, as always, and I can't wait to see what the next one is going to be like!
For now, though, let's just try to focus on our last year of high school and as Charlotte quoted very well : "stay positive!" ;)
See you all Monday,
Rebecca
Ok, I am asked to tell how my summer was (what a pain to write with the past tense), right? To make it short and avoid sending you all to sleep, let's say that I've spent better holidays than ever, meaning that I've spent most of my time abroad, with no news of anyone, of anything, far, far from all those soporific occupations, from that everyday life that kills me (don't get me wrong, I love you). Well, where did I go? Life gave me the opportunity to see the dolfins, whales, puffins, icebergs, impressive waterfalls, limitless landscapes and inexistent summer nights of Iceland, in a restless and giddy wind that makes tears appear in front of the insolvent opposition between human absurdity and nature's clearness. Then I explored the Slovene territory, this small and unknown country that has the chance not to see loads of swarming appalling tourists who take pictures without even taking time to understand what is exactly in front of them. Please, learn to leave your camera and your iPhone in your bag, the best memories are in the head ! And to finish those two months with a joyful note, I played and made childish experiments with sea urchins, sea cucumbers and winkles in the limpid sea water of Croatia.
ReplyDeleteI could say I envy people who go wasting their money in Parisian clothes or Las Vegas games, but I don't, because even in the hardest situations, lacking comfort, our everyday life affluence and facing truth, I have learnt that life is magnificient, I have learnt that love's beauty is the fact of knowing who to share nature's beauty with. It often happens to me not to know the reason why I am living, but it is always while being within the world immensity that I feel there's no more use to wonder; I suppose this is where my seat is. Good night :).
The greatest part of my holidays and also the most interesting one was without any doubt my trip to Guadeloupe. For those who don't really know where it is (don't worry, I didn't know where it was before going there too ^^), Guadeloupe is an island surrounded by the Caribbean Sea but also by the North Atlantic Ocean. I was supposed to stay there a dozen of days... supposed as I only stay ten days due to plane delays.
ReplyDeleteThe weather was not very clement: it rained a lot and temperatures oscillate between 30 and 40 degrees "only". Although Guadeloupe is part of France and its departmental code is 971, I didn't feel like I was in France. For instance, people there were talking French but as it was mixed up with Creole language, I had a hard time understanding what people were telling me.
There, I discovered new landscapes very different from the one I was used to in Metropolitan France. Volcanoes such as “La Soufrière”, black sand beaches near “Trois Rivières”, waterfalls such as “Les chutes du Carbet” and many others... The most beautiful landscape I saw in Guadeloupe was probably the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen. It was “la baie des Saintes” which I saw in the “Îles des Saintes”, a small archipelago. This bay is considered to be one of the three most beautiful bays of the world with the ones present in Rio de Janeiro and Shangai.
Well, this is the most interesting part of my holidays as the following weeks were filled in with sport and rest.
See you on Monday, and a happy birthday to Zohra :)
my summer holidays...
ReplyDeleteI mostly stayed at home, I was hoping I would spend some time in Ireland, but in the end that didn't happen. During the first week of July I went to britanny with friends of my parents, for about a week. It was very nice, besides the fact that there were 3 small children and a 12 year old, I had a very pleasant time! We went to see the "cote de granit rose" and the "ile de Bréhat", both absolutely breath taking, The cote de granit rose looks a bit like a magical land like they describe in children's fairy tails, because the granit stones are very big and tall and pink! So they look like clouds. L'ile de Bréhat was my favourite part of the trip, it's a small island covered in beautiful houses and rare plants. You have to take a boat to get there of course but it's only a 20 minute ride, you can't bring a car but you are alowed bikes, but we went on foot. It was a warm (how suprising!) so we went swimming (it was very cold though!) and rock pool investigatind with the smaller children, that is something I've allways loved doing! They were so happy each time they found a crab or an anemony or even small fish! Of course we had panckes and other specialities with funny names, and a lot, and I means loads, of butter, but they were sooo good!!
During the rest of the holidays I stayed home, and read my school books, I went camping with friends, we ate barbecues had a few quiet parties and that's about it, I hope you all enjoyed your holidays!
Daire
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteThese two months were totally crazy! I first spent three weeks in the French Riviera, in Vallauris and in Niza. I mostly spent my days lying on the beach, swimming…I also went diving, fishing and hunting (some sea urchins :D). During the first two weeks of August I stayed in a ‘students’ residence in Cambridge! That was fabulous! The city is wonderful (even if the Colleges look a bit like Harry Potter’s school). It is full of students coming from all over the world and I met some cuddly people! As we were living all together it was a really good way to discover new cultures (new foods, new traditions…) and of course to improve my English (I hope so ahah). We even went to London for three days. Back in France (and no more tanned, alas) I spent some days in the countryside by my grandparents, the best way to relax! Finally, I went with Yasmine and four other friends to Bruxelles. We stayed there four days in a youth hostel. That was a fantastic stay! We visited many museums, we tried weird Belgium food, and we went out in really nice cafés… (I think we walked around aaaaaall the city).
Well, that’s all…I hope you all had great holidays!
Emma xx
I still remember the taste of our FAT belgian "fricadelle" ... Dear God, first and last time I ever eat this thing haha !
DeleteHi everyone!
ReplyDeleteWow! I read the summer activities of the ones who have already posted… most of them are amazing! You guys are lucky :)
I was really busy during my holidays (as usual!). First, I worked for three weeks with children in my riding school. It was a really interesting experience, both for the kids (most of them were from big cities and enjoyed spending a week or two in the countryside) and for me, because I learned how to handle a group of 10 kids on my own (which was really demanding & exhausting)
Then , I decided to focus on what I want to do in the future: medicine!!
That's why I spent two weeks with a neurologist in a hospital. Let's just say that IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME!!
I learned a lot concerning recent medical advancements in brain science and neurosurgery, learned how to read MRIs and CT scans, and even watched a surgeon clip an aneurysm! Our gray matter is still very mysterious, so neurologists do a lot of research and go to lectures to keep them updated on the last news concerning their specialty.
In addition, I did a lot of reading about eyes surgery, cardiothoracic procedures and Alzheimer's disease, because I had daily access to the med students' library!
Finally I went to St-Jean-de-Luz: the sun, the sea & the beach brought me a little rest before going back to school!
Hi ! :)
ReplyDeleteI spent the first month of the holidays in Dijon : I read a lot, I hanged out with my friends, and I watched a lot of movies and TV shows in English or in (subtitled) Japanese and Korean. I had plenty of time to chill out : I was very tired because of the school year !
Then, in the end of July, I went to the Oléron Island for a week with my family ; I sunbathed a lot, and I visited the island, which is really nice : it's made of small towns, and there are so many pretty beaches, especially when the sun sets. Moreover, it was really sunny and hot, but the nights were quite cool, so it was really relaxing.
I spent two weeks with my grandmother afterwards : I didn't do anything special, except eating, reading and surfing the web, but I wasn't bored at all !
But the very interesting part of my holidays began two weeks before going back to school : I travelled to the English Riviera, to Newton Abbot, a town in Devon, for 14 days. In the morning, I had class from 8 to 12, with two other girls, who came from Corsica and Paris, and an English teacher, who was really good. In the afternoons, we visited the region : I took a huge lot of photos. In the evenings, I went back to my host family's, who was very welcoming and lovely : we had very interesting chats over a cup of tea everyday. We visited two cities with the group of French students : we went to Plymouth (the city where the Mayflower departed on the early 17th century) and to Exeter, which are the biggest cities in Devon. In the morning, we visited the cities, and in the afternoons, we could go shopping and visit by ourselves. We also went to Torquay quite often, a really nice city where we could shop, go to a swimming pool, and even to a nightclub :) There were some awesome places where I could take beautiful photos. With the host family, we visited other towns : Teignmouth, Totnes, Paignton, and Brixham. They were all very nice, and I was lucky, because when we visited these towns, the weather was nice and sunny. Everyday, we had to write a text to sum up the previous day, and we made a scrapbook, so that when I'm bored, I can read through it and remember all the nice things I did in Devon. This travel also allowed me to speak English a lot with the teacher and the host family, so I think I improved my oral skills, or at least gained some confidence. Moreover, I am still keeping in touch with my host family, as they were so nice to me. I have, as I told you before, a lot of photos of Devon in my computer, so if you're interested, I can send you some :) I am looking forward to going back to this region, I already miss it !
So I think that's it now, thank you for reading.
Audrey
Hi everybody!
ReplyDeleteWell, as I can see, you all had tremendous holidays! Mine were not as original I’m afraid…
I spent most of my time at my grandparents, in the South West of France. They live in a tiny village lost in the countryside, near the Dordogne River. Going there is always really exciting though, as I always learn plenty of useful things! You may not know I’m keen on fishing for example, and it is with my grandfather I first learnt. I also did tons of cooking with my grandmother: rice pudding, orange baba, mirabelle pie, brioche, cream of zucchini soup, pâté… I think I’ll just stop here, for I could fill three pages with all I did!
After a while, my little brother and sister arrived, and my grandparents brought us in the Pyrenees for a day. I had never been there before, so I discovered beautiful scenery! We walked alongside a torrent and we could hear the lapping of the water all day long. Unfortunately, it was too hot to see any animals. Both marmots and izards were hiding to protect themselves from the burning sun…
Later on, I went with all my family in our summer house, lost in the countryside (again!), but this time in Charente-Maritime. That was the relaxing part of my vacation. When we’re there, we usually invite people we don’t see a lot during the year, so it is always a pleasure to have people there. I read quite a lot of interesting books and we went to the beach several times.
After that, I spent a few days at my cousin’s in Paris. We visited many exhibitions, among which one about Chinese cooking. Well, I can tell you it just made me feel sick… Dog broth, stuffed tortoise or bear paw, none of that was for me!"
Thank you!
Have a nice end of week end!
Agathe L.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteDuring my vacation I mainly stayed at home : I slept a lot (at least until noon^^), I read also several books such as 1984,(which is for me one of the greatest books ever written), I went to the cinema (I found the last Batman really awesome!), I swam in my swimming-pool... At the beginning of August, like every year, I visited my grandparents, who live in "Aveyron", in the South-West of France(in fact they live in an ancient mining town). There, I visited the region with my family : for instance we climbed the "Puy-Mary" in "Auvergne"(steep slope = quite exhausting), we made a horse ride and that was a bit stressful since the horses were nervous. In fact at one point,one of the horses got scared because of a noise and ejected the jumper -_- . Otherwise we relaxed, we ate specialties of the region...
Finally I came back home and prepared my stuff before going back to school.
Hi you guys!
ReplyDeleteNow’s my turn to tell you the tale of my fabulous-incredible-extraordinary-amazing-breathtaking HOLIDAYS!
Now I know what you are thinking: Isn’t she exaggerating a bit? Well… yes, I am. Contrary to you guys who had really busy and interesting holidays, mine were not boring but not that interesting though.
This year, we were supposed to go to Brittany and visit mount Saint Michel but things happened, like my mother having an intervention, so we finally stayed at home. Nonetheless, I enjoyed having nothing but to read and geek; it was really fun and mind escaping. As usual, I drew a lot too and even managed to improve a little! Yay! -Still I have a long way to go if I want to get those pretty cool images I have in my head on paper but “Yay!” anyway!-
I also had the pleasure to have the visit of my grandmother in July for my birthday and the visit of my aunt in August, for whom I had to leave my room and sleep in my sister’s, on the floor, on a mattress for four days. I’m telling you we were happy when they come and even happier when they left.
Well, what else can be tell on my super awesome holidays except that I can’t wait for the next holidays because I will go to Paris for two weeks-Yay !- and the exams will be OVER !-double “Yay!”.
That was the tale of my marvelous vacation,
Reminding me of them leaves a bitter taste in my mouth
But the perspective of a brand new school year
And the thought of the incredible load of work that await us
Fill me up with a feeling of bliss and delight
In conclusion, let’s work hard together and enjoy every moment of it!
Seriously tough… GIVE ME BACK MY HOLIDAYS!
Dear classmates! (And Zohra, I wish you a great happy birth day !)
ReplyDeleteYour holidays sound so great! And lucky those who travelled abroad!
As for myself, I stayed in France but I had a wonderful summer. First, a friend from Montreal came to visit me in Dijon; it was such a pleasure to see her again in real (because usually we talk and see each other with skype). We mostly hanged out with friends, but it was quite enjoyable!
Then, I spent a week in the Drome-Provensale, with my parents and a friend. We did crazy activities! We went canyoning in a river, and I felt like Indiana Jones! We walked under the bushes, feet in the water; we jumped into water holes (More than 7 meter high!!) and so one. It was crazy. My dad proposed us to do paragliding, but we couldn’t, we were too scared.
After this week, we came back in Dijon where we rest for two weeks. My friend and I went to the cinema, we saw friends, … It was nice.
By then, almost a month passed, and it was time for Cecile and I to go to Biarritz, in the Pays Basque for two weeks. We had sun, heat and the beach, what could we ask for more?? It was perfect. Actually, we were staying in Guethary, a small and very popular village of the coast, very lively. We went to a music festival, taking place in Guethary, where we had such a good time! The bands were amazing, and the people very nice.
This was for the first week. For the second, we took surf lessons! And believe me, the waves were huuuuuuge! And we were not that bad! I may admit that we fell quite badly some times, but you could call us The Goddesses Of The Ocean. We had a wonderful time.
And then, we had to make the way back to Dijon. 38°C, a 206 Peugeot, 800km. I let you make the conclusion! It was quite an accomplishment.
This was the end of summer, and I had to prepare myself to go back to school. What is more, I had to say good-bye to two of my best friends who moved for one year to China. It was a very hard time for me… However the return to normal avoid me to think about it too much.
Hi guys!
ReplyDeleteReading your posts,I'm convinced that you all spent nice holidays, and it's good to konw. For my part, my holidays began quite poorly with the burial of my uncle (my mum's brother), in Poland. So my mum, my brother and I went to our beloved country, and stayed with our beloved aunt (my mum's sister). During the three weeks we spent there, we payed a visit to our family (many people to see!), as we usually do, and we tried to have a little fun in all this period of sadness, visiting some new places. During the visits, we stopped by an old house my grand'ma's cousin recognized as being the house she grew up in. In the garden, there was an old lady. After some words exchanged, both of them began to cry : this was the daughter of the people who welcomed my auntie after her mother's death! It was so touching!
Another great meating happend in Zamosc, a lovely and colourfull town, in the easter part of Poland. The city organized the Eurofolk this year : a festival where folklore groups from all Europe are competing. There we found "Les enfants du Morvan", which is a group from guess where...? From DIJON! Unbelievable! But very badly, just before they were going on the stage to dance, it began to rain, a real tempest! So the organizators had to cancel and to postpone the meeting.
After all these discoveries, we came back to France, and for my birthday, my mum offered me the best gift ever! A week-long music stage! So the third week of August, I was with 160 other musicians. It was like in a dream! Music everywhere! Great musicians, and great instruments. We were only 9 pianists. We had some jazz lessons (we had a GREAT young professor - 24 year old - from Paris), and then we had to split into groups made of guitarists, drummers and pianists. So I've met maaany people, and I've learnt maaaany things. I was in HEAVEN! At the end of the week, there was a big concert. Imagine a concert with all the instruments you can imagine, three orchestras, four groups of pianists-guitarists-singers-drummists, the flute ensemble, the drum ensemble, the trombone ensemble, the horn ensemble, a brass band, a big band, chorists... It last for 6 hours!
Well, a hundred pages wouldn't be sufficient to explain you how magic it was, and how my vacations were greaaaat! Just talking about this makes me... excited! I'm looking forward next year, to attend the next stage.
I hope you were not annoyed by all I've written, and that I didn't loose you during your reading ^^'
So now, back to the hard reality of school, and of the OIB exam... Well don't feel bad about it. After we'll pass it, we'll talk about it as I was writing about my holidays. We'll be excited about it, thinking these were the best years we've had in our lives. Because knowledge and friends, this is life.
Have a good day!
Yours,
Myriam
Oups. This was a bit long... I didn't think it would be SO long... Sorry!
DeleteWow! I see that all of you did very interesting things during this summer. That’s really a good idea to share our new experiences, the places we went, what we saw, did, read… and I really enjoyed reading the posts you made and I’m looking forward for the other posts!
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I think that my summer won’t interest you that much because I did not do as interesting things as you did. With my mother and some family we wanted to go to Denmark, visiting family who lives there but it didn’t happen because of a problem of tickets and most importantly because I don’t have a passport, which is problematic even if Denmark is part of the European Union and Schengen area.
Apart from that, I spent the two months playing volley-ball and badminton with my brother and sisters and also hanging out with some friends and seeing family that I don’t have much time to see during the school year.
As for the reading, I read two works in English, apart from the required reading. The first one is a book of Selected Poems from Seamus Heaney, an Irish poet, playwright and translator who has won several awards including the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995. I picked up some poems and read them; they mostly deal with situations of everyday life. I also read some short stories written by English novelist, playwright and short story writer Somerset Maugham (/ˈmɔːm/). These short stories were quite short and easy to read.
I would like to speak to you about Broken, a film by Rufus Norris I watched at the end of the summer, with Tim Roth, a well-known English actor - maybe you’ve watched him in the TV series Lie to me in which he played Dr. Cal Lightman - but also actor Cillian Murphy. It is the story of a young girl called Skunk who sees her life changing after she witnesses a violent attack. I really liked this film, the close and full of tenderness relationship between Skunk and her father but also the fact that is set in North London. Moreover, I was really impressed by the acting performance of Eloise Laurence who played Skunk.
Thank you Valentin and Alice, that’s really nice of you! And to answer your question Alice, I spent my birthday with all my family and I really enjoyed it.
See you all on Monday!
What about my summer holidays ?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I left Dijon as soon as possible, just after the BAC – I think that the rain was a push factor. I first went to south of France, to Toulon more precisely. I spent a week and a half with my grand-mother, musing on the beach, playing with her animals and trying not to throw myself through the nearest window – my grand-mother and I have had intense discussions about trivial things which were playing with my nerves. My sister rejoined me at the end of the second week for about three days and then, I went to my others grand-parents' house, a bit more inside the country, next to Aix-en-Provence, in a small village called Peyrolles. It was just a way to cut the trip, before going into the mountains with them. So after 4 days under the sun, reading some philosophy, my grand-parents, my sister and I took the car and travelled through France to reach the Alps, in Haute-Savoie, where we had a small chalet, next to the very well-known village called La Clusaz. The rest of the family arrived two days later and we spent two weeks in the middle of nowhere... which was quite pleasing !
As I've just said, we were in the Alps and in this case, you do not have so much things to do, expect walking. Or more exactly, climbing. We've walked 75% of our time during the journey, the 25% left were for a bit of swimming pool, the Olympic games, my “dear” philosophy book. As you may understand, it was quite exhausting, but very beautiful and instructive. Did you know, for instance, that goats were very tender and affective animals ? Well, I didn't before this trip – and I've decided that I will have a goat when I'll be old. After those two weeks in the chalet, I finally came back to Dijon... for one day. We were at the beginning of august, and I've had just the time to prepared a new suitcase and I was ready for Biarritz with Alice !
I'll try not to repeat what Alice has just said, but it was the best part of my holidays. We spent the first week going to the Great Beach of Biarritz (as we were staying in a smaller village called Guethary), visiting the region – as I'd never been to Basque country – and we also went to a electro music festival (it was amazing). The second week, we took surf lessons, and it was great ! The two first days, the waves were quite small but until the third day, they nearly reached 2m50 ! Which is twice my size. Or a bit more. But we met people, and I loved surfing, because even if the wave is small, even if you look like a wet kitty on a board, you feel like you are the greatest surfer on earth ! And the guys in our group were so nice, and it was so funny sometimes. You just have to picture yourself on the board, and coming right behind you, a wave of 2m50. And you just say to yourself “If I catch it, I'm the most powerful person on earth”. And of course, you do not succeed and drink (a bit) of sea water. I will not say a word about our trip back to Dijon, if you want to know more about it, just read Alice's post. It was to painful to be remembered !
The coming back to Dijon was particularly depressing, but I went to our campaign house and helped my mother taking care of it during the last days of summer. This week spent in the middle of the cows, listening to music while working and far from every kind of society, was a good way to rest... before the last coming back, and the last year of lycée.
Well my summer holidays were, of course, great. And as approximately every student in the world, I'm devastated by its end, so let's maintain those souvenir by telling you my adventures.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I had a little bit of family time with my grand parents in Jura, in the midst of cows, horses, dogs, cats (and basically every farm animals), but no network for a week!
Then a four-hour flight took me to the Beldibi Club Med in Turkey for two absolutely fabulous weeks. I met lots of new people and had so much fun, practiced (a tiny bit because of the 57 degrees under the Turkish sun) my volley ball, practiced Kayak, swam, but mainly tanned on the beach with at least a hundred of water bottle lying next to me.
But even the best comes to an end, so I took the plane back to Paris and came home by the end of July.
I had a week to relax and recover (you can imagine that I wasn't going to bed at 8 p.m.) before the continuation of the program. I took the opportunity to see friends and invite them to come and have a swim at home.
But on the 1rst of Auguste my job begun. Indeed I worked a month in a Super U in Dijon and earned my very first salary! It was exhaustive but a good experience to my mind. I also met new people and, against all odds, had fun.
On the 31 of Auguste, once again as lots of people here, I went to the Concert de Rentrée followed but the Coldplay concert in the Stade de France on the 2nd of September, and I have no words to tell you how wonderful this was.
To finsh with, the morning of the 4th of September I woke up at 6h30 a.m., took my bus, and came back in Charles de Gaulle for my very last year (well I hope so!)
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteI just read some of your posts, it looks like we all had a great time this summer!
As usual I spent the first part of my holidays in Menorca which is one of the Balearic islands. I'm used to going there since my childhood because my parents bought our house when i was born. Indeed we always go there during the month of July with friends or members of my family. I always have a great time there because I can meet again people I've known since my infancy! However I was disappointed this year to see that my neighbours who have children of my age couldn't come. But my uncle and my aunt brought their boat so I did a lot of fishing and wakeboarding with my uncle who is very sporty. It's really amazing to have a boat in a wild island like Menorca because it allows you to see differently the sea coast and to get to beaches which are inaccessible by the land. This year in Menorca was important to me because my parents want to sell our house there and I've spent every month of July there. It's kind of my "childhood house" and I know that even if we sell it, I shall go back to Menorca in a few years. (maybe with my own children ^^ )
I spent the first part of the month of August in my father's family working for my grandmother and then I came back to Dijon.
Once I came back, I spent most of my time with my friends, I did a few parties and I started to look for a new sport since I had decided to stop ice hockey because it was really getting too competitive and hard to handle with the lycee. I finally found a handball club where the environment is less professional but it still enables me to do some sport.
I already miss my holidays and I bet you too but I'm sure we will all spend a good this year and I wish good luck to everyone for the bac!
See you tomorrow, Maxime
Sorry for the bike max
DeleteHaha yes I also spent some time of my holidays to fix an old bike but Louis just broke it today :)
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I would be lying if I said that these last summer holidays were the best of my life, mainly because I didn't really feel on holdiay. Indeed, I was quite stressed at the begonning, because of the exam results, but it didn't last long. Then, I got soon bored as all my friends were out of Dijon, so instead of wasting my time sleeping or watching TV, I decided to create a virtual portfollio and started doing virtual financial operations on the european stocks. But the problem was that it was virtual money, so I couldn't spend my ( surprisingly ) very important profits compared to the amount of money invested. This trading period was very interesting beause I had an everyday goal, and to achieve it, I had to wake up before the opening of the market (9 am), and stop "working" at 7 pm.
After this period, I want to the south of France for two weeks with my parents to relax. There, I learnt patience through star photography, which is amazingly beautifull but could last 3 hours.
And when I came back to Dijon, I did what a regular teenager on holiday would do, that's to say see friends.
Nevertheless, I was sometimes stressed when thinking about this new year and most of all about my application to the University of Oxford.
Anyway, try to enjoy this year guys.
Good morning, good evening and good night.
Hi everyone I'll just do my little roundup of the holidays now...
ReplyDeleteIn July I went to England to visit some of my family and do a few different things. The main event was a country show in Essex that I went to called the Tendring Hundred show. It's the kind of place that farmers take their best livestock to parade and small rural businesses show of their produce. Basically you spend the day eating and drinking too much very nice food like pies and real English beer, as well as fudge, cheeses and everything in between! What made it especially impressive was the mud. The foot of liquid mud that covered the entire field that the show was in. It had rained so much in the days coming up to the show that it really was a mud-bath. That didn't dampen too many spirits though as the turnout was great and yours truly was the fastest man to complete a lap on a mountain bike simulator, it's tough being awesome sometimes...
Anyway when I got back to France I came down to Earth a little bit, literally. 73 onions and several kilos of potatoes later I knew I had been digging! Anyway after that it was a very relaxing holiday as you all can imagine.
On that note I'll leave it.