Days I'll Never Forget

samedi 8 juin, 2013: District 1750 Conference Meeting

This was the last time I saw most of my exchange friends of my inbound district at Beaune.  We participated in the morning meetings, the lunch and we chatted during the afternoon.  It felt odd to see everyone again this time with their blazers, swarmed by pins and other attachable memoirs, while our blazers were still light and fresh during our first inbound meeting.  It felt like our first encounter happened yesterday except we were here for the final time.

Rotary emphasizing the 2012/2013 theme: Peace through Service

Preparing for the balloon releasing event

Conclusion of the District Conference Meeting

The fellow Rotarians from my club, Louhans Bresse-Bourguignonne, and I



Mix of inbounds, outbounds and two Rotarians who made our exchanges possible

I'll miss being with the other Rotary exchange students and the love we all shared.  We weren't just normal friends but on a higher level, a family.  It really doesn't matter what country you come from, how good you speak the host language or if you don't have the same taste of music... when exchange students unite, there's no questions about bonding; as part of Rotary and having the common desire to discover the world, we're always family.

Vous me manquez trop, District 1750.  Merci pour l'année incroyable.



dimanche 9 juin, 2013: Hair Donation!

Because my hair was getting too long and I happened to have a sympathetic friend who took two years studying haircutting, I literally chopped 30cm of my hair for a good cause!  I decided to send my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, an organisation that accepts healthy, non-colour-treated hair (at a minimum of 20cm) to create wigs for cancer patients.

My second host sister also joined me to donate hair!

Au revoir my three-year old hair!
(There's me, anxiously playing with the comb...)

VOILA!  Ready to be given to patients who need some beautiful confidence :)

To be honest, I can't send them yet until I return to Canada, so they're safely bundled in a plastic bag ready for the suitcase.  (I certainly hope customs won't think I'm doing some kind of illegal hair-trafficking...)



samedi 15 juin, 2013: ANOTHER day in the capital

Lastly but not the least, I took a train to Paris to meet my American Rotary exchange friend, Amanda, to enjoy a fantastic day in a city that has a world-wide reputation of it's beauty, history and popularity.  (I met her in Eurotour for the first time.)  We only had 6 hours to spend but we managed to do an incredible itinerary thanks to the métro and our impeccable organization.  Don't ask how, but here's what we saw and did:

The Parisien métro

 

At Gare de Montparnasse to pick up Amanda

 

Passing the (nowadays super expensive) café, Les Deux Magots, where famous writers and philosophes like Verlaine and Rimbauld came to enjoy their afternoon café

 

The Moulin Rouge that showcases the French Cancan

 

Café des 2 Moulins where Amélie works from the film
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain

 

The tomb of Napoléon Bonaparte inside the Musée de L'Armée

 

Us going to enjoy a gourmet lunch on the Bateaux Mouches that took us along the Seine river the Tour Eiffel, Musée d'Orsay, Musée du Louvre, the Notre Dame
and many other landmarks.

 

I ate carpaccio de tomates au basilica et mozzarella (shown above), echine de porc marinée et grillée avec des pommes grenaille sautées, and le vacherin glacé à la fraise ♪
Let's be honest, French is the prettiest language when it comes to naming food. 

At last, we reached to Montmartre, probably Paris's most popular neighbourhood for visitors as you can see that thousands of people are engulfing the Basilique du Sacre Coeur
(Going up these stairs was not pleasant but the view at the top was fascinating!)



Behind the Sacre Coeur, there are rustic houses that bundle along narrow streets,
filled with artists, boutiques and restaurants that serve moules frites (mussels and fries).
Above shows a work of one of the many street artists.

 

That day with Amanda was too good to be true and like the many other days, these are the day's I'll never forget.  However hold on tight my readers, there are still a few more to come!

 

 

Always adventuring,

Sari