Changement

Salut!

Ok, rewind back to the beginning of January with me for a bit.....

On January 8 I turned 18, which was pretty big for me. It really made me realize just how fast this year is going by! I can't believe Christmas and New Year's have already passed. Anyway, I ended up changing families on my Birthday, which was a little hard for me, but both my old and new families were so nice, and each had a party for me.
Friday night (the night before my birthday), I went out with Julien and some friends, and we had a lot of fun, they were so sweet, when it was 11:59 they counted down to mid-night, and all sang "Joyeux Anniversaire" (Happy Birthday) to me.
On the 8th I had a Birthday lunch of fondue (très Swiss), and Birthday cake at the Ropraz's, and they gave me this really pretty charm bracelet. Leaving was very hard for me; because I had really come to feel like I was a part of the family. They were so great to me, and helped me out so much with learning the language, and adjusting to cultural differences. I had such a great 5 months with them! However, part of the Rotary exchange experience is learning how different families live, and so off I went to my next family. But not without having to have Simon sit on my suitcases so I could try and fit everything. I have absolutely NO idea how I'm going to get all this stuff back to the US, but fortunately I don't have to think about that right now. :)

Here are some pics from my Birthday at the Ropraz's:

Because of the afformentioned packing difficulties, I didn't get to my next host family until late-afternoon, however they just live a little further up the mountain in the same village, so not to long to go.

Les Famille Gendre:

While it was quite difficult for me to leave my last family, my new family is wonderful as well. My host parents are Marc and Geneviève, and I have three siblings: Elsa (21), Bob (19), and Antoine (16), there's also a boy (Daniel, 16) from the Swiss German region that lives with us and goes to school here during the week because he and Antoine are doing an exchange so that they can learn German/French. On my first night there they had a little party for me with hamburgers (you know, me being American of course haha :) ), and cake, and they gave me a really cute Swiss t-shirt. Later Elsa took me out to meet some of her friends.

I'm so glad I'm fortunate enough to have two great families, and such nice friends that helped me have an unforgetable, fondue, chocolate-filled, très Swiss, 18th Birthday.

More posts to come... :)

Au revoir,

Becky