It’s been a while!

This past week has been non-stop for me. I’ve been in France on a school study trip Monday – Friday, and on Saturday – Sunday was my Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze Award Expedition! Hurray for tiredness!
Yes, I went to France. We went to a small town in the north, near Calais and Lille, named Le Touquet. I’ve gotta say, I really loved the place. To the point that when I’m rich and famous and stuff I WILL live there. The houses are all stereotypical little French houses and it’s all cute and the people speak both French and English and there’s A LEGO SHOP. My friend Imogen actually spent twenty euros on lego alone.
Monday was just travelling, travelling, and more travelling. 7 hours on the coach and some time on a ferry – yum.. I got terrified on the ferry though because this creepy guy winked at me. So we got into our two star Hippotel [so many hippo jokes..] and me and my four room-mates stepped into room 209. It was alright, I guess. We weren’t allowed to use the tv, there was a notice saying that we were NOT allowed otherwise we’d be fined about two hundred euros…
As you stepped in, there was a toilet and shower room to your left, and a bunk bed to your right. Through the door, there was a table in the middle, the door to the balcony on the other side which was sort of blocked by a bed going across it [my bed!], and a bed along either wall. Now, we were not having this arrangement. We shifted the table out of the way, turned the bed to the right of the door length ways so it pretty much blocked the door, and then put the two matresses from the bunks in between all of this.
… it sounds all well and good, but by Tuesday we soon realised that our room smelled. Stank. Like shit. May the tension begin.

I think I was the first to realise that our room smelled, because we had study time in our groups which we weren’t able to choose, and we had to find a room to work in. Mine was the only one that was free, and the first thing the girls in my group said was that it smelled. Things escalated with me and my room-mates, and we ended up with a mini divide in our room. Me and Imogen, and then two of the others, Sofia and Hayley, and then Eleanor just in the mix. Imogen and I wanted the balcony door open, as we would rather be cold than smell. The other two were quite the opposite, and as one of them is actually the most selfish person ever, we all got to be oh so slightly pissed off with eachother.
Anyway, back to the study groups. In these groups we had to plan interviews each day for people who worked in shops, hair salons, restaurants, cafes, etc. Only one of ours was really interesting, which was the first one, as the second one didn’t really understand us and our third, well, didn’t even happen as the place was closed! The first one was at a restaurant named Flavio’s. We went in, and started asking questions like “Did you want to do this job when you were younger?” and “What would you recommend?”, and after about 3 questions he took us into the kitchen.

And we all got really confused, and just sort of nodded and said “oui” every now and again, as he started to show us plates and plates of dead fish. Then proceeded to bring out a live lobster.. Awkward…

I named the lobster Pedro.

Anyway, after visiting a chocolaterie and an aquarium and having a quiz [we came joint 3rd] and going to a club which had a pole and a cage, we came home, and then the next day I had to get up early for D of E – Lucky me!

D of E was actually quite fun, as fun as walking 24km with a huge rucksack on your back can be.. Me and my bestest friendy Tiggy shared a tent, and as we were both cackling away [we both cackle when we laugh on our backs], the boys could hear us laughing in the field next door. FUN TIMES. We got followed by a horse, my friend got semi-rammed by a cow, and we managed to get to the end 50 minutes early!

So yeah, that’s where I’ve been the past week. Interesting, huh?