A MONTH!!!

OHHHH Goodness!!! I can't believe I have not updated this thing in a month!! I deeply apologize!! I will make sure I update my blog more regularly from now on.

SO. Here's what has happened in a month:

Scotland/England Trip: AMAZING!!! Got to see my awesome cousins David and Robbie whom I stayed with for about 4/5 days in Sevenoaks, outside of London. Loved it there, Sevenoaks is beautiful and my hosts were FANTASTIC! Thanks so much David and Robbie!! After that, it was off to Scotland to meet up with Melina and her friend Emily, with whom we stayed with. SCOTLAND WAS AWESOME!!! Loved the landscape, the castles, the rugged coasts, the sheep-dotted fields, the people, the accent......AND THE KILTS!!! One of my main goals while being in Scotland was to get a picture of myself with a Scottish man in a kilt...MISSON ACCOMPLISHED!!!! I got one with THREE guys in kilts!! And they were everywhere....I loved it! I actually really like the Kilt outfit, guys actually can wear skirts and look good in them!! So lots of greasy food, we tried a deep-fried mars bar (which was not as good as I expected it to be) and Haggis!! Which I really liked!! Although if I am being honest, it wasn't the traditional Haggis and it was deep-fried (like pretty much everything else in Scotland...they love their fryers!!). Even though we only toured around Aberdeen, I felt that Scotland was definatly I place I will return too and that it is a hidden gem of sorts. After my trip there I really felt that if you dig a little bit, you can really find some amazing things in Scotland. For instance, we visited Slain's castle, completely abandoned, and it was actually the castle that inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula!! When we visited it, it was just us...no one else around!! Here's another funny thing about Scotland, well more Aberdeen to be exact...almost all of Aberdeen's clubs used to be CHURCHES!! We were partying in old churches from the 17/18 century that had been specifically built for worship! How ironic is that!!! All together it was an amazing week and one that I will never forget....in fact whenever I think of that trip it makes me smile!!!

Than after returning, the kids were still on vacation so I was with them for two whole days, which actually went quite smooth, than on the wednesay it was off to Barfleur in Normandy to stay in the family's "summer home". It is actually Fabrice's dad's house, but he will be inheriting it when his dad passes on so they are welcome to use it anytime. Incredilbe village, incredible house from the 19 century..google Barfleur, it was beautiful!! Surpringsly, even though we were in Normandy in the north of France which is known for the D-Day beaches where the Allies landed in WWII and not particularly warm, the waters around Barfleur were a beautiful crystal clear blue! It really surprised me, it was something I expected to see in the south of France. Ate soooo much good food, from lamb to salmon to fish eggs to the very classic Beef Bourgingnon!!!! (Like in Julie and Julia!) I got to OPEN AND POUR a bottle of REAL, CERTIFIED Champagne!!! And Pam, just so you know, I did a really good job of it too!! :D

From there, life returned to a hectic normal. In between returning from Barfleur and my latest trip to Valence, I applied to university!! After a few convos with my very wise and awesome partner in crime Melina, I realized that I will come home with this amazing experience behind me and all these new people skills and other skills in general, and if I go to Uni, all these things will be fresh in my mind and be able to use them to there full advantage. However, if I were to stay in Penticton for another year I feel these skills would'nt be put to much use and that I might stagnate in Penticton for another year....those six months before I left were hard enough!! So I applied to McMaster University in Hamilton, even if I was late!! I'm going to try and apply for some more universities as well, so hopefully in the fall I'll be off to Uni!! :D

THEN, just this past weekend I went to Valence, which is in the south-east of France. Very cool place, we stayed at a friend of Melina's appartment there. Had another wicked weekend, Valence is sooo beautiful. Very different scenery from the Paris region. Lots of mountains with vineyards on them, valleys, and much hotter too. Day-tripped it to Romans-sur-Isiere, which is the shoe capital of France!! And, that particular day we were there was the national "Night of the Museums", which meant that after a certain time all mesums in France were open for most of the night and FREE!! So being three girls, which museum do we go to? THE INTERNATIONAL SHOE MUSEUM OF COURSE!! Wicked place...happened to have a cool exhibit showing all the steps of creating a good leather shoe, and Melina and I starting chatting up the shoe stylist there who was just sketching piles and piles of beautiful shoes! So we casually asked if we could have one and he said "no no no no! I will sketch a shoe for YOU!" So we each got our own personal shoe designed for us signed by the artist and everything!! it was beautiful!! I will definatly be framing it (at Picture this! ;P) and it will be proudly hung on my wall!!! We also visited this ancient catsle and village settlement completely perched on this mountain just outside of Valence. So cool!! It was called Crussol and I reccomend you all google it to see what it looks like because I can't do it justice describing it here on the blog.

And now you are up to speed folks!! Sorry for the delay, but at least there is lots to read in this post!! haha

Bisous!!