GUESS WHAT!

I WENT TO AN OPEN AIR MARET THAT INCLUDED FISH AND CHEESE AND MEAT AND FRUIT AND VEGTABLES AND BREAD OF GREAT VARIETY.

And then there's the sausages !!!!! I kid you not, they were soooo yummy-looking. And the guys selling them were a stereotype of french-sausage-sellers!

It was like Vic Markets, but localler, smaller and in some aspects, better. coming from me, the lover of the Vic Markets.


Now, I am totally ripping off some guy's artwork and various other peoples photos. Sorry world!




i ate a peach (pêche)(oh my lord, I did it!! I added a hat!!!!) and although it was good, it wasn't the best pêche I've ever eaten. that was Penny's yellow peaches. So ... yeah. But it's the end of the season.



but back to cheese. OMG.

Haha my host mum just walked past muttering about fromage, so I said 'FROMAGE!?' and now I'm chewing on stale baguatte and blue-vein-like-cheese. Which, as my host-bro tried to explain, has a strong taste, but google translate first said 'This cheese has a government'..... What could that be implying?

Anyway!

You seriously have no idea of the variety of cheese that were for sale at this market! I saw about 10 cheese stalls, filled with interesting blue mouldy things, with little old ladies walking past and smelling them.



and the bakers made me want to melt a little. THERE WAS EVERYTHING PASTERY LIKE!! All shiny and full of sugar and fruit....! mmmm yummy!

xx have a fun day.

Does anyone else think Howl has the coolest EP cover EVER?

You HAVE to agree. It's original art. And she looks like a real person and it all looks very real.



Thanks iTunes :)

and here's a smaller, less blurry one:



Have fun with.... LIFE!

On the Jellicoe Road's Sountrack (according to me)

On the Jellicoe Road is an amazing book. It shatters you up and peices you back together. It does what a good book should. Yes, you will cry with this book. Of sadness and of happiness. It's very powerful.



Now, sixty billion songs coming up: (you can look them up on itunes!)

Have fun. Read the book.

italics means very very important for the story. and bold is the band names.

Snow patrol:
open your eyes
crack the shutters
singal fire
chasing cars

two door cinema club;
come back home
something good can work
undercover martyn
eat that up, it's good for you

silversun pickups
panic switch

sarah blasko
all i want
we won't run

sparkadia
jealousy

vampire weekend
campus

peter bjorn and john (no comma at all! totally real, not a mistake... in case you're wonderiong):
lay it down

birds of tokyo( this band and snow patrol are very good for this book)
plans
the saddest thing i know
silhouettic
wild eyed boy
broken bones

british india
run the red light
tie up my hands
i said i'm sorry

coldplay
clocks
yellow

death cab for cutie
i will posses your heart

Edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros
home

howl
i hear it's love
blackout

Joan Jett and the blackhearts
bed reputation

josh pyke
middle of the hill
even in corners
new year's song
the lighthouse song (for when they're at the seaside)

the kooks
naive
seaside (for when they're at the seaside)

laura marling
you're no god
night terror
deavil's spoke

lisa mitchell
neopoliton dreams

indigo girls
closer to fine

little red
rock it

matt and kim
daylight

metric
help i'm alive

the middle east
blood
the darkest side

passion pit
little secrets
sleepyhead

philadelphia grand dury
the good news

robyn
cobrastyle

the white stripes
seven nation army

the waterboys
the whole of the moon (this and flame trees is what webb was listening to when he died)
this is the sea (for when they're at the seaside)

yves kelin blue
polka

the shins
phantom limb
new slang

florence and the machine
between two lungs
girl with one eye
blinding
my boy builds coffins
i'm not calling you a liar
howl
cosmic love

jamie t
sticks and stones

Cold Chisel
Flame Trees

What is aussie music?

I've been asked what kind of music Austrlian's listen to, but how would I know? I listen to Indie and Alternative (mainly aussie stuff. I think I put music-miles (like food-miles) on my music. I get the guilts listening to American stuff).

But what defines Aussie music?

Is is ACDC and Kylie Minoge?

Or is it Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil?

Is it contemporary indigenous Australian artists like Jimmy Little, Yothu Yindi, Tiddas, Geoffrey Gurrumul?




Or is it British India playing in a pub by the sea?

Is it all the awesome music coming out of Perth and Brisbane?

Is it Hilltop Hoods and Art vs Science playing to packed festivals?




Is it Australian pub rock?




Maybe it's Cold Chisel and a working class man.

Is it the big festivals like Splendour in the Grass, Homebake and The Big Day Out?

Maybe it's today's stuff, like The Presets, Sarah Blasko, Lisa Mitchell, Cut Copy, The Herd, Hilltop Hoods, Little Red and everything else out there?



Has anyone got any idea what I could say when someone asks 'What's Australian Music?'.

Blessed are the cheese makers

OMG I AM IN LOVE WITH FRENCH CHEESE!!!

It's going to be a very expensive habit hobby, but they're amazing! The camemberts at the supermarket are to die for! Chocolate and cheese are now things that I would go to the ends of the earth to keep on the earth.

And the french eat CHEESE!! Like the cheese pasket has 11 chesses and half were homemade and over half were raw milk! I always though raw milk sheep chesses would be scary, but i ate on that was beautiful! The best cheese i've ever eaten. I am in love. I gorged myself on cheese and tried every one. Everyone had finished and i was still making my way through. It was good. Veryveryvery good. To the least.



Don't get me started on the bread. I commented on it as I trawled through my second baguette, saying it was the third best bread I've ever eaten (explaining sim and that dude we need to kidnap (so we have two good bakers in bogie) who's from whittlesea) and baptiste pointed out it's just supermarket bread. SUPERMARKET. BREAD. I almost choaked and said I couldn't wait to try good bread.

I hate not being able to talk for myself. It sort of hit home that I was practically without a voice when this little kid that was one of the teacher's kids was chatting to me in french. Like I could explain I couldn't speak french. What would that be like to a three or four yearold? Why can't she speak?

xkcd

~(said tearfully, possibly clutching a trophy) This is a shoutout to bren. for keeping me addicted to quirky internet sites!

I think i'm addicted.

Honestly. a good, wholesome waste of time. very nerdy and therefore very cool. it's the way the internet rolls.




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Wikipedian Protesters

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and that's all for today, folks.

:) enjoy your internet addictions!

School is ............ Different?

So. Weekdays. Oh ! the horridness!

Well it's a 6.20 up-and-at-em for me. by about 20 to 7, i'm down having breakfast. I leave for the bus at 10 past. It's a really short walk, about 1km? or 900m? hardly anything at all.

The bus stop is incredibly funny to observe. There's a lot of littler kids, and all the girls (and girls + guys) kiss cheaks. I honestly thought it was a thing the older people would do, but the kids do it as well. Even seven year-olds. The boys all shake hands. Not a stiff-backed handshake, just a relaxed, almost wet fish handshake. The boys also do this when saying goodbye. It's sort of cute.

On the bus, all the college (junior high) kids are rulers of the bus and sit up the back.the older, more mature beings
(like me) sit at the front and listen to music.

At school, here's the estimated numbers:

75% of people wear converse.

40% of people smoke. There is no stereotypes of 'smokers'. it's just people smoke.

85% of people have Eastpak bags. About 50% of those people have black, maroon or grey bags.

And:

10% of girls wear heels. Most, thankfully, just were converse or flats.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

School is long and very french. because it's all in french. Mainly, at the moment, i just look up words and write down everything on the board. Everything.Every single thing, so when i can read french, i can study what we've pearnt. it's annoying when the teachers only talk, so i have learnt to sit next to someone with very good handwritting that i can read.

Lunch is hot, with salads, main and dessert, and also bread and cheese. Fruit counts as dessert, in case you's wondering. To get into lunch, you carry your booklet around with you with your class and name on it. There seems to be some kind of order to the madness. Usually it's in whatevcer class you're in. Because all my friends are in 2 or 3, they get me in earlier with the whole 'she's an exchange student' card. So i get in earlier :)

Then school again.... pfft.

Then i come home on the bus. I walk home again and then i usually sort out my books and stuff, try to read and understand my homework, and blog????

And here's a link to my current favorite song. THANKS STEPH. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcmlshqyQ_s

(Because i can't work out HOW to save videos. please help!!! )

viola!

SO I went on this massive 30km bike ride.

THE END.



Well..... no. There's a lot more to it.

there's about 2500 budding [french] cyclists joining you and it does feel pretty awesome to be a part of something so massive and yellow (there's a lot of reflective vests).














As much as i recommend this, (whenever you're next traveling around france at this time of the year) please let it be noted that there IS a turret (up the Amboise castle....) and maybe you should actually change your gears BEFORE it. you're funneled in and it's like a bottle neck to the extreme.

And then you're out and it feels very good because your calves hurt from WALKING up hill like that. And you turn around, after nearly getting run over, and Amboise is all lit up and it's so beautiful!

Then you ride. gradually you leave the smooth, nice roads and find yourself in the middle of a paddock. And then you're in the forest and those paddocks look very nice from the pot holes and branches and stinging nettle (and if you stop, make sure you don't stop on and island surrounded by stinging nettle. that, or hold your breathe for about five minutes so you can escape).

When there's an accidant, or a large pottle hole, or everyone's stopped to walk up a hill, everyone shouts out something in french to warn those behind them. it's really nice, in a weird way. and when you stop, everyone shouts 'ça va!' at you and actually waits for a reply.


I gather there's massive amounts of history involved. I mean, it's france, afterall. I'd explain, but i can't. It's all in french.

xx