United States, Virginia - Last day

LAST DAY

Today was an exhausting day! When I woke up I had to reorganize my baggage so that everything would fit in it. After that we ate at Chik for lunch. This a seafood restaurant in front of the bay, the view was beautiful and the food was yummy! Then we went on the airport and we finally had to say goodbye... This was an emotional moment and we were all so sad to leave... I'm going to miss thee muricans so much. But we all decided to enjoy this trip until the last minute, so we joked a little bit and our joy came back. 

On the plane, I think that we did even more mess than when we took the first one to Atlanta. We played music, we danced, we laughed so hard... It was amazing. We were so tired but we wouldn't sleep to enjoy the trip. 

Finally we found our family waiting for us at the airport of Marseille and we were really glad to see them all. We said goodbye to each other and promised to organize things for us during the holidays. And then we went home... 

It has been an incredible experience. I have met wonderful people, who are nice, welcoming and funny. I found friends in the American teenagers and I found a family in my hosts. I'm really happy that I shared this amazing adventure with 4 great people, my frenchies, and I hope that we'll see each other again after this trip. I would like to thank every person that has made this adventure possible. There's no word to tell how grateful I am. I discovered the United States and I lived the American way of life for 3 weeks, and it was incredible. I'll never forget the people that I met there and I'll never forget all these good moments shared together. These memories will be right there with me, in my heart. For the rest of my life.

United States, Virginia - Day 21

DAY 21 

Today we went on the beach with all the group. We made a picnic and we played in the sea. It was great, Yousra and I tried to drown Quentin and Doug, we had fun, even if we swallowed a lot of water! After that, we lay on the towels and tined all together. There was a huge slide and we used it several times. We were going on it 2 persons at the same time and it was really fun! 

After that we went to a pool party with Alli's friends. They are really nice and they really included me to their conversations so it was cool. We ate pizza and it was delicious. 

After that Alli's parents took us and we walked on the ocean border. First we took some pictures in front of the sea and we looked the articles in a few shops. Then we walked on the bord. It was amazing. The street follows the ocean and a lot of different people walk there. You can find a drunk yelling man with his skate on the road as a family with 3 children or young people who wanna have fun. 

We had a frozen yoghurt and it was really yummy, I was glad to do that again before I leave. There were plenty of street performers. We danced with Alli in front of a band, it was really funny! There were also a lot of magicians, a fire-eater and there were so passionate that you wanted to share their passion with them. I applauded so hard that my hands hurt!  I had a great night and it really makes me wanna go back in Virginia soon!

United States, Virginia - Day 20

DAY 20

Today I had to pack my bagage. It made me so sad.. Packing my things is admitting that this trip is over. And it was such a great experience... I've got memories in my head for the rest of my life. I met wonderful persons and I find some really good friends in them. I'll never forget this trip.

On the afternoon we went to the mermaid factory and we painted our own mermaid statue. We'll bring it to back in France. This is the symbol of the city. It was awesome to be all together doing a creative activity. We were all really proud of our mermaid, so that was really cool! On the evening we just hanged out with Alli and Doug and it was fun.

United States, Virginia - Day 19

DAY 19 

Today the frenchies and their mericans hosts came at Alli's house and we all hanged out together. It was really cool, we selected pictures to make a scrapbook from our trip, then we decided to cook a special meal for the mericans hosts. The boys made a salad for the first plate. Then we all made pasta with meat balls, vegetables and tomato sauce. It was really spicy and tasty, they all loved it! For the dessert me and Yousra baked little brownies and it was really yummy! We were glad because the mericans hosts really appreciated that we cooked for them.

In the evening, I asked to take a family picture for my scrapbook. The dog had to sit on an high chair so that we could see him, it was funny. After the family picture we just took really silly pictures with Doug and Alli and that was fun too! 

Then I showed them on the laptop the "tutos cupcakes" video from La Ferme Jerome and "superquenouille", they found it funny. They showed me a bunch of  videos, I found one of them hilarious, I challenge you to watch the entire video without laughing : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejM_1MJN4PY 

Anyway, it was a great day!

United States, Virginia - Day 18

DAY 18

Today was a busy day! In the morning we visited the Chrystler museum, it's a collection of paintings which is known in the area! We were with all the group and we had fun. The piece of arts were beautiful! They came from many different part of the world, and from different ages.

However we spent more time being silly than contemplating the piece of arts...

For lunch we ate at Doumars, apparently, this is the restaurant of the man who invented the cornetto. It was really yummy and typically American! Then we went shopping (again) in the mall.

After that we were introduced to a council woman of Norfolk. She explained us how works the political system of the city and asked us some questions about the life in France. Then the mayor of Norfolk greeted us and wished us a nice stay! We continued our day at the laser tag, we played 3 times and it was awesome! The first time I was so lame that my final score was -2! But we decided to make an alliance with Yousra so it was easier. On the third party I wasn't the last one and I was really proud of me!

United States, Virginia - Day 17

DAY 17

Today we went on busch garden which is a huge attraction park. We really had a great day, it had been a while since I last saw my frenchies and it was cool to spend some time with them again! Unfortunately Yousra and Quentin weren't there but I was with Alli, Mareen, Pete, Adrien and Maxime! We did all the roller coasters in the park and that was amazing! The attractions were huge and that felt great. I'm not used to roller coasters. I've been on attraction parks like maybe 5 times in my life (and every time in Magic World which is terrible) so I discovered a hole new world of sensations. And it was unbelievable! We laughed a lot, we yelled, we screamed rude things in French while we were waiting... This was definitely a great day!

United States, Virginia - Day 16

DAY 16

Today we visited the Holicaust Museum. It talks about the jewish genocid during the Second World War. This was a great and really emotional moment. The first chapter of the exposition treated the affirmation of the nazi ideology and how everyone underestimated this threat.

The second chapter treated the "Final Solution" and showed the conditions of life of Jewish people in the ghettos and in the concentration camps. It was really sad. We saw a lot of pictures, testimonies and rests of the camps. Finally the third chapter exposed the testimony of persons who tried to resist to the nazi expansion and helped the Jewish people. We also saw a movie where people escaped from the camps told their story.

If think that this kind of exposition is really hard to build because sometimes there's no word to express the horror and the suffering of the past. But this museum was impressive cause it tells only the truth. 

After that we went in the Jefferson's memorial which is really beautiful. I learnt more about this president because I didn't really know who he was, and in fact he was a really passionate and cultivate human. 

We ate in a Mediterranean restaurant for lunch, then we got home and that was the end of our DC trip! 

United States, Virginia - Day 15

DAY 15 

This morning after our breakfast we took the metro to the Smithsonian museums with Alli. We started our tour with the Natural museum. It was really nice! We saw an exposition which talked about the ocean life. We saw the evolution of many different species of fish and the exposition explained why the ocean wasn't healthy.

There was also an exhibition about the human evolution. We saw many skeletons and a man explained us how men appeared on the different continents.

The last exposition that we saw was on the mammals. There were a lot of animals reconstitutions and it was pretty fun!

After that we visited the Museum of american history. There were third floor, the first one exposed the social advances in the United States. The part on the food presented a woman named Julia Child. She's famous because she went to France and brought back our cooking recipes in the United States, how funny! The second floor exposed the history of United States, so I learnt more about the Civil War, and it was really interesting. The third floor was talking about the presidents of the United States. There were also an exposition on the cinema and we saw Harry Potter's costume! 

After Iunch we walked around and we saw the White House! I would have liked to yell "hello Obama, how are you budy ?" but the place was crowded so I figured out that I probably should stay quiet... We also went to the Washington Monument which is huge! The construction started before the civil war but stopped during it. When the war ended, they continued the construction but the rocks weren't the same color, so the monument is bicolor haha! 

We rested a while in the Second World War memorial because it's really nice. In the middle there is a huge fountain where you can wet your foot. Alli's mom joined us and we continued our visit. 

We went to the Lincoln Memorial. To enter in the memorial you have to climb precisely 87 stairs. (yeah we count it..) But it really worths it because the Lincoln statue is really impressive! We passed by the Vietnam Memorial to get in the metro. It is a black wall with the names of the victims written on it. Some people drop flowers or American flags to honor the soldiers.

On the evening we shopped before our dinner. Now I have all the gifts that I need! For dinner we went in an Italian restaurant and it was yummy. They served a really good bread, it felt like home haha! Washington is a really fun city. There is a lot of walking when you are visiting but I really had a great day. 

United States, Virginia - Day 14

DAY 14 

This morning we drove to Washington. We were really comfortable, we had crackers, starbuck coffee, music and blankets!

In Washington we visited the Capitol. It's a beautiful monument where the Senate sits. In the memorial crypt we saw statues of great personalities and I took a picture with Mr Martin Luther King! There were also famous paintings which retrace the American history. This visit was really interesting.

On the evening Alli's mom had a meeting dinner so we were all by ourself in Washington with Alli and we had a great time! We ate pizzas and it was really yummy.
Then we walked around, we listened to street art performers in front of the river and we went shopping in the streets. I bought a lot of gifts for my friends and my family and I'm really glad about it.
It was really amazing because it was getting dark but the stores were still open and the streets were alive; the atmosphere was great. The smells of seafood melted to the talks of the walkers, the weather was perfect.. When we felt tired about walking we took a gelato and we returned to the hotel. We ate our gelato on the terrace to enjoy the weather and then we got to our room. It was a really good night, and Washington is a really nice city.

United States, Virginia - Day 13

DAY 13

 This evening we shopped in an Asian supermarket and we bought the ingredients that I needed to cook for the family. After this I cooked with Alli a Tom Khakai. This is a coconut milk sauce with lemongrass, vegetables and chicken. It was really good and they really appreciated that I cooked for them! I was glad that they actually liked it.

United States, Virginia - Day 12

DAY 12

This afternoon we went at Alli's friend house! So I met her friends Eden, Gabi and Ashley. They are really nice and funny, we had a great time. When we arrived, Ashey and Eden showed us a dance from their holiday camp, then we just joked around. At dinner time we ate tacos, it was soooo good! This is like bread (the bread from the wrap in McDonald) with meat, salad, cheese and salsa sauce in the middle. It's yummy! After this we swam in the pool at sunset, there were so many dragonflies flying in the sky, that was really beautiful. We dried and then we played games inside. We played the spoons game. It's the principe of the Kem's, but when you have 4 same cards in your hand you take a spoon, and everybody follows you, the last one who doesn't get any spoon loose. We also played the George game. You have to call someone around the table by his name. Then this person has to call somebody else, but if he doesn't respond at his name or if he hesitates, he changes his place with somebody else and gets the name of this other person. It seems confusing and it WAS confusing but we laughed a lot!

I'm sorry, I have to admit that none of the pictures of this collage are from me, I didn't take any pictures yesterday so I made my best to illustrate this article! 

United States, Virginia - Day 10

DAY 10 

Today we went on the beach with Alli, Doug and his friends! It was really cool, the beach is so much bigger than the mediterranean ones, and so are the waves! It wasn't too crowded so it we enjoyed it. I was really happy because I swam for the first time in the Atlantic Ocean. It's colder than the Mediterranean sea but it felt so good! We spent 3 hours on the beach and then we went at Matt's house (this is the son of the friends of Alli's parents, I told about them earlier) and we swam in the pool while the guys were kayaking on the river. I had a great day. On the way home, I chose the musics in the car and I felt powerful about it haha!

United States, Virginia - Day 9

DAY 9

Today I went to church for the first time in the United States! And no matter how much you think it's boring, well here it's not. It's quite different from France, first the mass happened in a casual building, I mean that it wasn't in these old gothic churches that we are used to see in France. And in fact, the ceremony was funny, because there was a screen with lyrics on it and we were all singing praying songs with a band... It was like a karaoke prayer! They really made the mass alive and I found that it was interesting!

On the afternoon we did a picnic for the Bastille Day (again) at the Academie Francaise presidente's house and it was really cool! We were with our group of correspondents/hosts so we had fun! When the picnic started, we were so hungry that we just swallowed the first thing that we saw and it happened that it was the dessert.. So we had several desserts and then we ate the actual meal (like the salty part of it). It was fun, even if the American guests have probably thought that French people are really weird!

United States, Virginia - Day 8

DAY 8 

Today we went to the friend's house of Alli's parents.  Their house is beautiful. It's huge, and they have a pool in front of the river. The view is amazing. They were really nice and we had a great time. There were 3 other teenagers. One of them was so excited, he kept executing flip back everywhere, he's such a character! I also met Doug, Alli's brother! I'm sure he's nice but we haven't talked much yet. During the afternoon we chilled in the pool, we played ping pong, we ate a lot, the guys tried to catch some crabs... It was great! These people are so nice too me, it's wonderful. 

On the way home listening to country music (this song precisely : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOB4VdlkzO4) I couldn't stop smiling. So I figured out that it was because I'm really happy to be there with great people. Damn, I love United States!

United States, Virginia - Day 7

DAY 7 

Today we went out on Norfolk with Alli. We visited the Nauteausicus museum. In fact, this is a museum wich talks about a great old ship. It was fun because we could visit the boat. It's huge, so it was kind of impressing. I really liked going inside the boat, where the sailers used to rest, or in the cafeteria... There was also a painting of a mermaid (wich is the symbol of the city) with a hole on her face, and we found it hilarious!

After this we celebrated the Bastille day in Ghent. It was so funny because there was 3 Eiffel Towers on the grass wich were smaller than me and none of them had the right color! There was also a guillotine and I was like "Well, french people are known for their beheadind weapons, nevermind!". We sang the "Marseillaise" (with the american accent) and then some dancers executed the french Cancan. It was so funny because just in front of me two young girls were so excited about it that they tried to dance it too, this was really cute!

We had dinner in a restaurant wich hosted a drag queen dance.. OMG, she (or he, i don't know which is the most appropriate) was fabulous. At some point she just looked at Alli and then she took Alli's face in her hands, I couldn't stop laughing!

On the way home we stopped at an iced yoggurt store, I loved it! The concept is great, you pick up a cornetto and you choose between several flavours the ones that you'd like to eat (and you can taste them before you choose), then you can add fruits, candies, chocolate or caramel sauce, grated coconut or whatever you want. You make your own iced yoggurt and then you pay for it weight ! In my cornetto I put some vanilla and yogurt ice cream, then I put grated chocolate, pieces of pineapple, a few pricking candies, a few m&m's and the caramel sauce. It was yummy!

United States, Virginia - Day 5

DAY 5

So today we went to "go ape" and tried zip line! It was so cool, I love this feeling when you jump and you're not already hold by the rope and the harness, this is just like flying ! I think that it was wonderful. Even thought I really didn't feel comfortable climbing or walking on some boards suspended over the void, I'm glad that I went through all the stapes!

 I discovered Wendy's at lunch, it's a fastfood way much better than the typical french ones. It tasted so good! Then we went shopping and we kind of buy the store itself.. I've made some pretty good snips! There were some sales and the prices are amazing in the United States. I got two pairs of Vans for the French price of one pair, a Levi's short at 20$ and a Guess short at 20$ too (20$ is the equivalent of 15euros in France hahahahaha) ! So I'm really excited about shopping in the USA! 

So that we would finish this day on a beautiful note, Alli and I just ran and danced and sang under the rain in the neighborhood when the pour started, it was great! We couldn't stop laughing and we had such a great time!

 

United States, Virginia - Day 3

DAY 3

I've just got an amazing day! This morning we've done some charity work and given food to homeless people. We prepared the meal and then served it. This was great because we were all really excited about this, so we did this work in a really funny atmosphere. I feel so good right now because we have done something really useful. Thanks to this experience I'm even more persuaded that I want to work in humanitarian missions later. I also gave some of my clothes to the thrift shop, and I was like "uh, this an excuse to buy other clothes that will fit me even better!"

On the afternoon, we went to the mall with all the french correspondents and the american hosts (except from Adrien and Mareen who were unfortunately absent) and we had such a great time! We took the ferry to get to the mall and it was awesome because we learnt to know each other, the american hosts are so funny and nice! We showed them the Pilou Pilou song and then we learnt them French insults. Did you ever heard an American guy yelling "TETE DE BITE" whenever somebody crosses his road ? Well if you don't, I'm sorry but you'll die silly... Because it's hilarious! 

When we went home Alli and I just chilled in front of the TV. I talked to her about How I Met Your Mother so we watched it (actually we watched 10 episodes, she's getting kind of obsessed with it :D) and I'm so glad she likes it! It was a really good day. I enjoy American way of life. Just for Starbucks coffee. (Yeah I've got my first one today and I was like oh my gosh how could I live without that before ?!) Virginia is great.

United States, Virginia - Day 2

Day 2

      This morning my baggage just shows up like "Hey! Sorry i'm twelve hours late!" Well who cares dude, we're on holidays now! 

After this miracle we bike around the neighborhood with Alli. I was like "It looks like wisteria lane's streets!" ... Cliché. But this is really funny because all the gardens are gorgeous and the bushes are perfectly cut. The houses are pretty and it looks like you could make a movie there! "Murder in Paradise" that's how they would call it! Seriously, the neighborhood is great. 

Well, after this we made a barbecue to welcome French students (like me) who arrived in United States. It was nice because we were all together, correspondents and hosts, so we had a great time. And there's a funny thing, in France I've explained the game of "That's what she said" and "Jinx" to my friends because they didn't know them, and I realized during the barbecue that these games are really popular in the United States! And I was like "I'm finally understood!" This was really cool. 

United States, Virginia - Day 1

DAY 1

         That was the day, we were finally living. As I walked into the airport, all my fears diseappeared. What I thought best about this trip, was that I had no clue of what would happen there. I was meeting destiny and I let it write my story. When I figured out that I was going to explore new sensations and a hole new world full of mysteries, I finally got unstoppably excited. 

That's how started the most amazing flight of my life! You can see by yourself that we found some really smart occupations. If someone from the flight AF0688 ever comes to read this, I'm so sorry we've ruined your hears by laughing non-stop during 9 hours..

Finally, we got off the planes (with a big S, 3 planes and 15 hours of travel uh) and, SURPRIIIIIIISE, our bagages weren't at the airport yet. We were kind of stressed but the service has been really kind with us, saying that they will brought its in our houses. I had a really good time at home with Alli, she seems to be a really funny and nice person. I was anxious, because we didn't get to know each other before the trip, but I'm sure she's great, and it makes me happy.

 

Introduction

            Hello! I've created this website a few months ago in order to write a logbook of my trips. Right now, I'm composing my United States trip's report. You'll find short texts and pictures wich resume my daily adventures! I won't necessarly write everyday, but I will update this blog as my trip goes on.  

      

         E N J O Y !

Well, I should tell you more about my trip in the United States. The association "France Etats-Unis Toulon" organizes every year an english contest. Among the candidates, they choose 5 persons and offer them a free trip to Norfolk. So, I participated to this contest, and after several tests, I have been chosen by the jury! I've been sent in an american family near Norfolk in Virginia. My correspondent is named Alli Mcleod and she's 15, she's friendly and welcoming. I'm also

travelling with a group of 4 really nice persons and this is great because we get along well! I'm living an incredible experience, and I hope that thanks to this resume of my trip, you will see an overview of the beauty of United States. 

Happy reading guys!