These were taken on Bastille Day JULY 14th

Not by me though! :)

I am coming home to New Zealand on the 25th. As my school application didnt just roll over into the 2008/2009 French school year, it ment I cant continue on at school in Paris. So Otago... here I come.

I am in the south of france again and I have limited acess to a computer .
Tomorrow, in about 15 hours I will do an update, I cant do one now because I am going out.

It is Bastille Day in 2 more days:

Bastille Day, the French national holiday, commemorates the storming of the Bastille, which took place on 14 July 1789 and marked the beginning of the French Revolution. The Bastille was a prison and a symbol of the absolute and arbitrary power of Louis the 16th's Ancient Regime. By capturing this symbol, the people signaled that the king's power was no longer absolute: power should be based on the Nation and be limited by a separation of powers.

Although the Bastille only held seven prisoners at the time of its capture, the storming of the prison was a symbol of liberty and the fight against oppression for all French citizens; like the Tricolore flag, it symbolized the Republic's three ideals: Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity for all French citizens. It marked the end of absolute monarchy, the birth of the sovereign Nation, and, eventually, the creation of the (First) Republic, in 1792.

Yesterday

At midday i left for the Eiffel tower to busk with me pipes on my way there a African man wanted to show me something (a little cautious at this point but to many people to do much harm) he told me to hold my hand out and slipped a piece of string around my index finger and told me to close my hand tight (at this point I thought it was a magic trick) he continued to twist and turn and plat and made quite a cool design out of this piece of string (well 6 strings) and he tied it around my wrist and cut off the loose ends and said "now you pay money for that" *sigh* tourist scam.
Well I did what a sucker would do and pulled out my wallet then he said "you pay ten for this"
10 EUROS thats like $20-$25 NZD for a piece of string, c'mon major tourist scam.
I felt guilty because he obviously needed money more than i did and i was on my way to busk hoping to make more so I gave him 4 euros (stil too much) and went on my way.

OK now a gypsie saw all this (thinking I was easily tricked ) rushed up beside me and bent over to pick up something, I saw nothing there but she managed to find a gold ring (in case you didn't realise it was in her hand) she showed me the ring and showed me two marks inside the ring (like a value stamp) then she showed me it didn't fit and she tried to give it to me *sigh*

WHO DO THESE FRENCH PEOPLE THINK I AM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >:O

*sighs again* I said "non merci" insisting it upon her and then I walked off. Ok this never happened but this is what would happen if I accepted the ring she "supposedly" found - she would ask for something in return i.e money, note this ring would be made of copper or iron just colored gold on the outside.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

I also pitied her but hers was more of a trick than the Africans so we parted ways.

Anyway i got to the Eiffel tower tuned my bagpipes played 1 tune when a police officer (carrying a large gun) told me that i can't play here, well a man pitied me (German or Deutsch) and told me "Life is tough, don't give up" and gave me 5 euros (I wasn't asking for money I was there to entertain and practise then a Lady gave me 1 euro as I was packing up my pipes, so i made 6 euros I had 4 "scammed off me" and I spent 2 on a coke so I left with the same amount I came with.

Seeya next time

THE ADVENTURER

2 days ago

A couple of days ago Tristan and I went to the "saint chapel" Pronounced "sun shu-pel" it took us an hour to get there by metro then a bit of walking, another 20 minutes queing, and when we got to the part were you pay.....................

....................we couldn't go in D: why? we were both under 18 without a guardian. O.o, I mean WTF?

We were both thirsty at this point so we went to Mc Donalds for a couple of cokes.small coke ?

Anyway we went to wait for Sybille for lunch we arrived 10 minutes early at the metro station she was going to arrive at . . . . . . . . . . 45 mins later we were still waiting, we went above ground to see if she was up there and surprise surprise, she was up there and had been waiting for an hour and a half. Well we went to a Thai restaurant were I had

Entree: salad and i think small deep fried spring rolls?
Main: chicken curry with rice
Desert: Thai flan
Drink: origuana (a brand of orange juice)

On the way to the metro station we saw protesters, they were protesting for rights or something (they were black and it was race rights or something)

there were at least 100 police there all in heavy armor of some kind and big rifles (scary police in france)the protesters melted 4 trash/wheelie bins :O
and burned paper and wood and other items.

Well Tristan went home to play on his computer Sybille went back to work because she was expecting a call and I went to the Louis XIII square

Ill do one more post before I go to bed i think

:)

OK straight into it,

A few days ago we(Sybille, Tristan, Seraphine and I) went to a high school get together party (Sybille's high school) I played football with a couple of other kids. We filled up coke bottles and drenched each other, then it rained HEAVILY and those that didn't get drenched got drenched. This all happened on the other side of Paris. After this "high school reunion" we went to a Cafe with a friend of Sybilles, were I had a small choclate cake with a very sweet and very strong cocoa flavour. On the way home we stopped off at a castle from the "17th century?"

here are a few of pics of it.ME :DSybilles friend pointing showing Tristan and Seraphine something.Tristan and seraphine (the castle was behind me when i took that photo)

On the final drive home Tristan, Seraphine and I waved out the window to random people to see if they would wave back xD (note we may have been high on coke and cake)

The adventurer has not finished yet




wait yes he has

OK

Not much happening lately written a bunch of post cards, which I will post the rest on Monday.
My French has slowed down but I am speeding it up again.
MY HAIRCUT
it was a very small haircut took a lot of hair off the back (of my head :P) Trimmed the fringe and the sides

Twp pictures 1st before, 2nd after.

seeya




:D

BTW

click on the pictures to make them bigger

:D

REUBEN

Annoying Blogger and PICS

Stupid Blogger, it wouldn't let me post or upload pictures yesterday but I'm pretty sure its working now.

OK

Pictures of the Lourve

This one is the entrance, yup the glass Pyrimad is the Entrance there are 2 (could be more) levels below ground and about 3 or 4 above you can see the levels above on the left and on the right of the Pyrimad.


Statues outsideLOTS of Greek statues inside LOTS!!!

French paintings exhibition


The Entrance (below the pyrimad)


Greek paintings


The Mona Lisa
I was lucky there wasn't a big crowd like there usually is.


Venus de Milo
The most famous Greek statue.

Thats all the pics for now, I have more but I can't upload them all

and I had a hair cut, ill take a photo as soon as there is space on my camera (too many Louvre photos)

seeya

Reuben

THIS WEEK

I have been to a couple of museums, a war museum and the Louvre the war museum had everything from knights armor to WWII, some of the armor and swords were pretty cool.
The 2nd museum "the Louvre" is the biggest museum in the world s i couldn't see all of it in just 2 hours, I just went to 2 of their exhibitions, a Greek statue one and a Italian painting one.
I saw the Mona Lisa which was a little bigger than i expected and the Venus de Milo which was also bigger than predicted to be.

On both of those occasions I found the French metro system very handy, just one ticket can take you to the other side of Pars in 15 minutes 0.0 <- its a face.
I have bought 8 postcards and I will be posting them to friends and family tomorrow.
I am in good health and I am really enjoying France (obviously)

BTW I have pictures from the museums and I will post them tomorrow.

REUBEN

JUNE THE 5th

These past 4 or 5 days I have been quite ill but I am feeling alot better now.
I have been studying alot more French and I can look at a sentence and get the main meaning out of it (about 75% of the time) and if it is spoken about 50% of the time.
Some of the schooling is getting easier (except HIGEO) and I just remembered the school holidays are here in about a week and they will last about 2 months :) . I have been trying to get hold of a class photo because everyone else in my class got one except me :( if I can get a photo or a photocopy I will post it here.
It is my sisters birthday today (or yesterday if you consider the time difference) she will be 17 years old :D

here is my translation of the above text
Ces 4 ou 5 jours, j'ai été très malade, mais je suis bien maintenant.
J'ai été une étude beaucoup plus français et je peux regarder une phrase et obtenir le sens principal de celle-ci (75% du temps) et si elle est parlée environ 50% du temps.
Certains de la scolarité devient plus facile (l'exception HIGEO) et je viens de rappeler les vacances scolaires sont ici dans environ une semaine et ils dureront environ 2 mois:). J'ai essayé de se procurer une photo de classe parce que tout le monde dans ma classe a obtenu un sauf moi: (si je peux obtenir une photo ou une photocopie, je poste ici.
C'est mon anniversaire aujourd'hui sœurs (ou hier si l'on considère la différence de temps), elle aura 17 ans :D

I have taken the liberty of putting it through a translator to see if I got it correct

These 4 or 5 days, I was very sick but I am good now.
I have been a much larger study French and I can look at a sentence and get the main meaning of it (75% of the time) and if it is spoken about 50% of the time.
Some of schooling becomes easier (except HIGEO) and I just remind the school holidays are here in about a week and they will last approximately 2 months:) . I tried to get a photo class because everyone in my class earned a save me (if I can get a photo or a photocopy, I post here.
It's my birthday today sisters (or yesterday if one considers the time difference), she will be 17 years :D

PS I did use a couple of books and a little of the internet to translate it into French and I used another program to correct my spelling (i.e turning e into é and such)

the adventurer

My school week

My school week consists of 32 and a half hours, with three 1 hour lunch breaks so my school subjects take up 29 and a half hours out of my week.
In New Zealand my school week is 30 hours minus five 1 hour lunch breaks so thats 25 and minus five 15 minute intervals, so that makes about 23 hours and 45 mins.
So in France I have 29.5 hours of school and in NZ i have 23.75 hours of school (a week)

Here is what my school timetable looks like
Sorry about the size, blogger automatically scales them down to fit

Ok, on Monday I start at 10:00 and I have EDMUS which is Education Musique (music), which is just recorder then I have FRANC which is obviously Francais (French). French is the most boring class because I can't understand much so it is quite difficult, AGL1 is Anglais (English) this is the easiest class because I speak English (no kiddin) After English I have REPAS which means meal, I think its odd calling the lunch break "meal". So I get an hour for lunch then I have a class which is just as boring (if not more) HIGEO - Histoire et Geographie (History and Geography) that teacher is not that keen on givin out good marks, any way next is LATIN (same in English)
I chose not to be in the "Latin group" because my class (or the part that does Latin) is too advanced for me to just jump in and I need to concentrate on French. Maths is next which is almost as easy as English, it is only a bit harder because some of the questions in the tests are not that easy too decipher. After Maths at 5:00 school will be finished until tomorrow.

Tuesday 1st up is EPS' Education physique (Physical Education - PE) then English, HIGEO, lunch :) Maths then SVT', I don't know what the S the V and the T stand for in French but I know it means (in English) Science of life and earth, the teacher in SVT has a pretty good understanding in English so its not too difficult. Now the last subj' of the day PH-CH -> Physique Chimie -> physics and Chemistry. PH-CH is CHAOS the teacher can't control the students the students take advantage of this by
throwing things across the room (at other people)
not doing work
talking
writing on the blackboard while the teacher is writing on the board
walking round the class
and on one occasion two girls where dancing on a desk listening to an i pod (they both fell off, and it serves them right >:) )

and they do all that while the teacher is trying to teach.

On Wednesday we have two hours of French and on every second week we have Maths as well, and then end of school. In France it is compulsory that all schools let there pupils have the Afternoon off on Wednesday, unless they are serving Detention.

Thursday I have TECHN first (Technology) which is computers and graphics and woodwork, then French then English, HIGEO, lunch and PE. I end Thur at 4:00

Friday I have French, 2 hours of math, Latin (which i don't do), lunch then A-PLA which is art and plastics this class is reasonably easy, it would be better with a better teacher, she sets the work in the first 10-15 minutes then she reads a magazine expecting us to do our work and not interrupt her, I mean what do we do if we need help (ask her and get YELLED at) >:(
Then finally English

thats basically my week at school

REUBEN

The next lot of videos

watch the videos in the post under this one before watching the videos in this one

4th video is going through the door of the apartment and going round the living room


5th video is going around the kitchen and dinning room


6th video is upstairs: bathroom and Seraphines room


7th video Tristans and my room, I say quite often in the vid "my room" but it is more Tristans room than mine



8th video is of Paul and Sybilles room.


Right these are all videos I took of around the apartment, I hope they have all loaded successfully and if they haven't just comment and I'll upload the unsuccessful one again.
If you still have time two watch yet another video, here is a French add I saw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpt_hHZ6pPs << I would like to do the stuff in that video.

THE ADVENTURER

P.S I recommend broadband to watch these videos.

TOUR THE APARTMENT

I thought I'd put up a bunch of videos (while everyone was out) of the apartment.
There is a total of 8 videos and if some videos don't upload correctly I will upload them again

video 1 is on the private st, but my camera cant zoom out while filming so I had to do a second part.


video 2 is the second part (of the 1st) and goes up to a gate, the video gets glitchy so i cut it slightly short.


the 3rd video is going up the stairs and through the door to the apartment.


I am having problems with uploading the videos so I will upload the rest in another post.

Sorry about the short update last time, I was being ushered into bed as I wrote those last lines.

My Grandmother came over with a friend from New Zealand about a week ago, to tour Italy, France and Singapore, While she was here we went to Claude Monets house and garden. On the way there we saw two macaws

Video above of the Macaws.

Here is one of the many pictures of flowers I took
Claude Monets garden is HUGE

Here is the place where he painted his famous bridge painting (the bridge has been replaced with a safer one) My Granny and her friend are the two ladies on the bridgeOn the right is my Granny :)

I have put a real big effort into learning French this past week or so memorizing Etre (to be), Avoir(to have), Aller(to go), Parler (to speak), Finir (to finish), Faire (to do), Venir(to came), Voir (to see), Prendre (to take), Pouvir(to be able to (can)). Each of those include the I, you, him, her, them, they and all the other forms, they also cover present, Imperfect, Future and Past compose, all in all it is about 300 word that I am trying to memorize

I have memorized another bagpipe tune called "Barbaras jig" its a long and fast tune and I have been given the 1st variation and the 2nd variation on my Piobrached tune.

So...

till next time

Reuben

this past week

My grandmother came round about a week ago, and we went to Claude Monets House and his garden with her a have some photos,I will upload them tommorrow.
Nothing too interesting has happened lately so I cant really tell you much.
My French is coming along I have been trying to learn alot of the French verbs, like to have, to be, to go,to speak,just some basics.
We went to the theatre today, we saw "Indiana Jones the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" This Indiana Jones movie is different because it was about aliens and U.FO's not ancient treasures like the fountain of youth and stuff
gotta go to bed, I will upload pics tommorrow

Reuben

O NO

My bagpipes have split down one of the ivory stocks D:
I hope it wont be too expensive to repair them :(Sorry about photo quality, my camera can't do extreme close ups


The SAD Adventurer

hello

Nothing much too report this week, I have been reading alot of a French learning book and I am trying to learn a minimum of two phrases a day.
My bagpipe lessons are going well I got my first Piobrached (ancient Scottish tune) tune yesterday, geez its hard it will definitely take me a while to memorize.
I thought I could show a few French vids so here is the first







SPIDER COCHON and SPIDER PIG

Any way like I said nothing much to report

THE ADVENTURER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi again

I have spent the last week and a half in the very south of France, because it was the HOLIDAYS :)

Well we packed clothes, enough for a week or so and drove for about 3 hours, then stopped for a bite to eat then another 4 hours of driving. While driving for those seven hours we drove over the Viaduc de Milleau
Here is a pic.
It is definitely BIG. This photo is taken from the south side

We arrived sometime around 9 ish at an American friends in Brissac, this is the place where we slept throughout the week and a bit. We had dinner with Charlie (the American) and went too bed there because we had been since the early hours of the morning.
About this town called Brissac, it is a very small town with only a bakery and a butcher but it had a Castle called Chateau de Brissac ( Castle of Brissac)More big things, and why would such a small town need a castle? maybe it is there for protection for when the English invade (its a joke, your supposed to laugh)
Anyway through out this week we visited a bunch friends, mainly my cousins friends but a few were my uncles friends.
My Aunt and Uncle own a large house just around here ( I mentioned this in another post ) but we could not stay there because it was being rented out but we did visit it they have ALOT of land there, and for my family to get an idea of how big it is, take the 1st paddock and multiply it by 3 or 4. Occupying some of this land was a vineyard which was tended to by my uncle while we where there.
On one of the days where we didn't visit friends we ( meaning my cousin and I ) went kayaking in two person kayaks with about 20 other people, fun but wet very wet, in fact i could say incredibly soakingly completely WET.
While way we ate food, amazing isn't itI take credit for the above dishes except the cucumber circle thingy that was Seraphine (my cousin)
I also ate some artichoke hearts, some french celery salad thing and various other things which I don't know how to spell or pronounce.

We went for a walk through a valley and saw a wild snake flick into the bushes, and behind the chateau I saw two snakes brown and greyI drank a little bit of Chateau Margaux (expensive wine)
http://www.chateau-margaux.com/Website/site/eng_accueil.htm

and thats about it
I can't think of much else so..........

Seeya

THE ADVENTURER!!!!!!!!

so sorry

It has been two weeks since i last posted and for this I am am sorry.
Today I walked around Paris by myself with some cash, my camera and a couple of metro tickets, I was told to walk around Paris for as long as I wanted then to come home.
This Map shows the route I took
The first image is all of Paris, and it is separated in different sections and they are numbereed 1-20. Technically the Population is only 2 mill inside Paris but, the outer suburbs (the white area around Paris, sorry I couldn't show you all the suburbs) contain 12 mill. these These two areas, Paris and the outer suburbs are separated with a 8 lane "Ring road".
The second Image is just a close up of the area I walked in.

Any way, as I walked past the Arc' I took some Photos. Here are two photos,one from each side of the Arc'
While walking down the Champs Elysees (shonz eliza, one of the many main roads in Paris) I saw the Toyota show rooms where they were exhibiting some DIFFERENT looking hybrid Cars.
The Obelisk
After I took some Photos of the Obelisk I bought a French hot-dog, Which is about a third of a baguette that has had a spike pushed 80 per cent length ways into it then the "sausage" is put into the hole. I thought about taking a photo of this strange version of a hot-dog but thought I would look really weird taking pictures of my food in the middle of the street, so I found someone on Google doing it for me.Thanx whoever you are

And I bought a Coke like her as well, but not Coke light or Coke zero, just regular sugar and caffeine filled Coke. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm I'm thirsty now.

On the close up map above ^ There are the words"The Obelisk" below those words is a blue circle which is a water fountain. Pic below
The line in the middle is a water spurt and behind that is the Obelisk

This was one of the last photos I took Because I forgot to put the memory card into my camera so I only had internal memory to work with. Yeah that was pretty stupid.


Here is something I have only seen in Paris 3 times and never in NZ, a three wheeled motorbike scooter thingie

So thats it,
No more till later,
Thats right,
Bye.

Reuben

birthday and cider

I had my birthday, I am now 14 yrs

I got presents and cake in the evening after dinner. Paul and Sybielle pulled out a birthday cake, (with 14 candles) some sparkling wine and three presents. The presents were a wooden model of the eiffel tower, two professional high quality drawing pads and a book to help me learn French.

Mum sent birthday money

and my Gran back in NZ sent me a book.

Also this is me and Tristan drinking cider at a cafe/bar. It was raining this day.

Hey all my watchers

This is for all the people out there reading this
HI!!!!!!!!

Any way everything is going sweet I'm learning to speak more of this language everyday and I'm understanding a lot more French as well, Its all good at school everyone there is nice to me.

Because there isn't alot to report I will just explain how lunch at school works (and que snoring sounds) Nah seriously it isn't that boring, at most schools in France you have the choice to go home or to eat at school, but unlike in NZ you can't bring food into the school because of health reasons (bacteria and crap they don't want spread around). If you choose to eat at school you are issued with a lunch card which has a magnetic strip down one side and after queuing for what seems like half an hour you can swipe your card into a machine, which spits out a tray which you take. You place on the tray (which is always Grey) a bread roll, knife, fork and spoon then maybe a starter (usually a salad which most people ignore)then a plate of food (main) and a dessert like a yoghourt or a piece of cake and now for the best part you get to sit down at one of the many tables and EAT all the food you have just ladened your tray with.
I told you it was interesting.

Signing out

The Arc de Triomphe

YAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!
My computer has arrived all fixed up and I have set up Wifi (wireless internet) on to it and now I can bring you photos, YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The guy who fixed my laptop just changed the hard drive for free and this new hard drive is a 30G the broken one was only a 20G

On Sunday we went inside the Arc de Triomphe and I took a bunch of photos of it and from it.

This is the first picture I took of the Arc'The red arrow shows where I took the next pic'

The green arrow shows where I was when I took the first photo


In the top photo you can see the back of a bus and in the second you can see the front of a bus.
To go from ground floor to the top of the Arc' is exactly 248 steps (I didn't count I read the sign like a normal person) and to show you the 3 main levels here is another pic'The squigily line that goes most of the way up through the main columns is the stairs that take you to the 2nd level. On the 3rd level is a souviner shop and some large televisions and signs that tell you pretty moch all the history of the Arc', including other designs for it and some plans for a statue on top of the Arc'. and finally the 4th floor (top) is in my opinion the best part of the whole thing
and this is where I took most of my picturesYou can see the Eiffel tower from the top of the Arc' and the rest of Paris.

Bye for now
Reuben