Ok finally it's here! In this blog I'll update you all on the past two weeks. its been pretty full on and I've nearly been here for a month, it seems so much shorter but it is getting weirder to speak english which is good. Also yesterday i spent 2 horus with some kids in my year level and we spoke french the whole time, the only time i spoke english was cause one of the girls wanted her friend to hear my accent in english.

The picture is of Lucie and Jeanne to friends from school. Lucie did an exchange to America with marie and Jeanne (Pronounced Jan) to England so they know what its like, but they speak french to me most of the time and occasionally explain stuff in english.

Anway since Marseille; Tuesday was my birthday. Because I get up at about 6.30 for school Remi and Michelle were still asleep but the previous night they'd layed out everything that had arrived for me in the past few days on the table, it was a pretty cool thing and I was nearly late for school because I was opening them all. the cards were cool and I've still got them up on my windowsill, thanks goes out to everyone who sent me a card. My sisters oen gave Marie a good laugh it said: "I smile because you are my brother, and I laugh because there's nothing you can do about it". Anyway that arvo the Chouissas gave me their present which was a Hummel Sports jacket which is pretty cool. It's white with Blue V's down the side, I would never wear it playing any sport though it's too good looking. That night we had a special birthday dinner were we had Carbonara which Marie cooked, it was pretty good too, Maries a great cook.

The day after on the Wednesday I went and rode the Cold Du Grannon. It hurts. it's over 10% for about 11km, when I did it I weighed in at something around 73/74 kilos (including bike) and compare that to State titles (61) it was very hard. I did a time of 1.07 hours. Jenny Longua (sorry to her because I'm sure I spelt it wrong) who is a French woman of i think 49 years of age, 4th at the Beijing Olympics beat my time by 19.50 minutes. It was slightly depressing to learn that. However just before the road gets closed due to snow I'm going to ride it again on the Basso and I'll be used to the Altitude and stronger by then and hopefully I'll go sub an hour.

Thursday and Friday were fairly unspectacular, Friday night was another party which was fun, actually it wasn't a party but a Fete which is like a gathering. it was good and I crashed out at about 3am, fell asleep with 3 stunning french girls in the same bed (Mum I kept my hands to myself like a good boy). It's not actually as good as it sounds one was Marie and another was a girl called Jan who's become my best friend/older sister here. It was a good time and I woke up at about 11 the next morning went down stairs and for breakfast was given a tub of Nutella and a spoon.

Went and rode the Cold D'Izoard that saturday. It's a pretty deceiving hill, you look at the gradient and you think yeh whatever (I think it's at about 6 or 7%) however it starts off at about 6% for 3km then for abotu 10km its only at 4 or 5% and the last 7 or 8km it slowly gets steeper, theres no rest as it slowly goes up before finishign at a fun 12%. I won the race to the top however not by much I was pretty nervous and didn't want to go too hard too early and I'm glad I didn't it would be a pain fo a hill to crack on. The descent was fun and a car had to pull over to the side to let us go through. The one benefit of riding on such a heavy bike is that I can go down hills very quickly now, after the hairpin section at the top you didn't need to touch your brakes and just sat on about 80 or 90, it was a nice day and a quick run home. On the way home ridign through the streets of Briancon I saw 2 mates Pierre and Arnould walking down the main street carrying a massive eski, i presumed it was full fo beer turns out it had Wine in there also for the party that night, anyway they went past two of my teachers, stopped chatted to thema dn then kept on there way, everybody here is so relaxed the teachers are really friendly and relaxed outside school. O and takking about teachers After the friday night party on the saturday i got a life home from my Biology teacher, it was really weird he's the dad of a friend of Marie's, I didn't say a word on the way home.

That night was another party/gathering type thing but this time it was more a dinner party. It was a roclette party. It was like mashed potato melted cheese and different types of meat. It was a very sophisticated occasion, with a lot of them swirling and comparing different types of wine comapring white and red. It was fun. That sunday i rested, God knows I needed it too.

Anyway i'm off to yet another party this time it's mine and I'll post about the week tomorrow or tonight.

Ciao for now