Happy New Year!

It has been quite a while since I've written. I find this site difficult to use so it's cutting down on my entries, mainly because I get frustrated using it. However, today I decided I was going to tough it out and write about the last couple months. I've also put up some recent photos, for those of you that don't have facebook.

What's new? Well, before coming home for the christmas holidays, I went on a super intense hike in the Pyrenees with my university sports program. Very difficult, thought I wasn't going to make it, but I did. The 9 hour hike was straight up for the first 4 hours, hiking through mud, ice, 3 feet of snow, the works. They even gave us ice picks to hold on as we cut across the snowy banks. It was very scary and exhausting, but thrilling once we reached the top and we could see both sides of the Pyrenees mountains.

Pre-christmas was filled with fun events. One night we went skating on an indoor rink, other nights we went down the christmas market and drank "vin chaud" (mulled wine) or "chocolat chaud" (pure chocolat melted in white, dark or milk chocolat flavours, mmm, amazing!). We ate tartiflette I think it's called, this gooey, potato, ham, and cheese mess, much like poutine without the gravy. very very yummy. And looked at the beautiful lights while picking out christmas presents at the little stands set up in the square. Christmas in Europe is just beautiful, they certainly know how to put you in the christmas spirit. To celebrate, we had a little christmas party for our close friends the night before heading home.

Lucky me, they say it never snows in Toulouse, but it did. And the city fell apart, right before I'm supposed to be going home. Toulouse got snow(1-2cm was enough for a freak out), the metro went on strike, and airports couldn't deal with the chaos. Luckily after hours of travelling, I made it home safe and sound. Christmas was amazing, it felt so great to spend time with the family and my niece and nephew. I feel so blessed to have such an incredible family. I scored, truly amazing people. And great news, I got a 6 month visa from the Canadian Consulate! Hooray! That means I'm legal in France until the end of June.

Upon my return, I got stuck for hours in airports, my connections were missed and a 20 hour travel day turned into more like 30. But I was lucky, my friend Rebecca finally returned from Canada, after 4 days of traveling! I have now made a vow that I will never take a plane at christmas, ever again. Bold statement- I know - but I'm pretty sure I can stick to it if I just recall the aggrivation it can cause.

January has been a pretty slow month, lots of studying as my exams were at the end of the month. I discovered a gorgeous new library called "La Mediatheque", where you can take out cds and dvds. Its also a great place to study so I was there a lot. I wish I had known in advance, that studying wasn't really going to help me as I was not tested on anything we learnt in the course. My only true disappointment with this exchange has been the calibre of education I'm receiving. It nowhere near compares to what we receive in Canada. Count your blessings, UBC students, we are lucky ducks. We've been writing evaluations for each course and then I find out that the teachers read them themselves and then provide a brief summary to their "responsables", UNBELIEVABLE! No wonder I have a teacher who is an absolute lunatic! I finished my last exam today and nothing I wrote on my exam I actually learnt this term. I felt like I could have written the exams at the beginning and the end of the term and nothing would have changed. It's too bad, since it's the reason I came here, but I am learning how to speak fluently just by being amongst the french, so that's very positive.

Other than that, dance is going well. I went boarding in the pyrenees on the weekend, but the snow wasn't very good. I'll go again a little later on I think, when there's hopefully a bit more snow. This weekend is the last weekend for the 1st semester students and the 1st weekend for new students, so it's time to be sociable again and get to know people. I've been pretty lazy about meeting new people since I met so many in the beginning and have found some really awesome friends, but lots of them are leaving.

Today, on my way home from my last exam, I stopped in at the bank. The bank teller now knows me by name, invited me to check out a salsa class that sounds fun. Then I was on the metro and I saw this older lady who I see all the time, but we've never talked. I noticed that she was wearing skate shoes, and she noticed me notice. She said "ils sont plus stables". Their more stable, logical answer, but really adorable because she was all dressed up for her day and then paired them with skate shoes! Haha. I then went to Carrefour (the supermarket) hoping that they would be putting out the new, hot and toasty baguettes, and sure enough she was just loading them up as I walked in. Mmm, my favourite. Paying at the counter, the kid in front of me was trying to get away with paying 0.20 cents for a massive bag of potatoes, but good ol' Francois (who I swear is there from morning to night 24/7), didn't miss a beat, he laughed and said "go get the right price". The kid was so embarrassed, he just left. And with a big smile on his face, Francois rang through my 0.70 cent baguette. I walked outside into the beautiful sunshine, and I realized that I finally feel at home. That my life here has become very comfortable. I think knowing the language and not feeling like every situation I encounter is going to be a struggle, I can be more myself and can just enjoy.

I'm running low on funds, but my plan for spring traveling is quite extensive. Portugal for ten days at the end of February, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary (maybe) and Italy in April for three weeks. Turkey with Dad and Liz in May and Greece and Croatia before heading home. Very ambitious I know but I think it'll work out.

Love to you all!!!

Katy