Author: sam_goeuriot

Today, I was able to sleep in and relax until noon. I had a very nice homemade lunch with my host family, and then we set off for the day. I met up with Callie and her exchange student in Amboise for ice cream. When we got there, we were surprised to find that there was a festival going on. It was really cool, because we got to enjoy our ice cream, while listening to music play and watch the people around us. After that we headed into Tours and met up with some friends. We went shopping, hung out at a café, and bought amazing macarons. Today in Tours it was very crowded since there was the festival of bikes, so there was lots of music and people riding their bikes. Tonight, my exchange student and I plan on going to a party, and hangout with other people and their exchange students.

 

Today we didn’t have to go into school until late, due to the flooding and protests around tours. We arrived at school around 1 o clock, and walked from st ursule’s to bus station to get to a laser tag place called laser max. After arriving, we divided into four teams of ten, and each team would eventually go head to head against two other teams. The games were about 10-15 minutes long and extremely tiring and thrilling. It can be said that almost everyone came out with sweat, and a bit of raggedy breath. After the first two games, the winners of those games went against each other and the losers of both those games played against each other as well. All in all, team number 2 , with persistence and energy, took the grand title. It was a great day and it bonded the Americans and French together even further!

 

Today we were blessed with the opportunity to bring out our aggressive side and use our psychological war skills through laser tag. In all seriousness though, our French exchange group as a whole integrated and put their minds together. Whether it was in the laser tag zone or if it was right outside in the social area, we were able to keep ourselves occupied with a plethora of things like food, games, and of course: attacking each other (playfully of course). By engaging in such a vigorous and exhausting activity, we were able to work together in separate groups and work to the best of our ability (even if by the end of it Callie scored an impressive -3050). In all fairness she didn’t exactly know how the gun worked. There was no French group and there was no American group; instead, it was a group of friends working together and having fun.

Today, June 3rd, the American exchange students had the pleasure of being accompanied by their French counterparts to intense games of Lasertag. Broken up into teams of ten, teams were tasked with racking up the most amount of kills in a two periods of 20 minutes each. After a brief instructional video on how to use all the equipment (which none of us understood), we suited up and headed out into battle. The matches were intense. So intense that all the rules quickly went out the window, giving way to full on sprinting, crouching, crawling, and close quarters combat. Despite our team’s lack of experience in the laser tag world, we were able to completely annihilate our adversaries. Louis Du Portal, Myself, and Enoch Kuan were able to dominate the field, winning first, second, and third respectively. We left the oven-like battlefield drenched in sweat, looking forward to our well earned break. However, we were thrust into yet another game…. This could not end well for us. Long story short, we were bested by our more well rested opponents. I don’t like to pin the blame on any one, but Katie and Callie were able to achieve a combined -5600 points. All jokes aside, everyone had a blast (pun intended)!

 

It’s our first weekend here in Tours, so everyone got to spend the day hanging out with their exchange student.  Finally we didn’t have to go to school, and we got to sleep in in the morning. Eventually, once everyone was awake, Lola and I made some breakfast out of delicious French bread, Nutella and French jam. Soonafter we headed into the village and went to her dance class together while her brother went to a fencing competition (his team came in second). It was a small class, but everyone was very nice. Dancing along to a French-speaking teacher was very exciting, and I learned a lot of vocabulary. I also got to see her and her class practice their choreography for a performance which was amazing. Once the class ended we took the tram into Tours and went shopping with Mohala Kaliebe and Lucy Daley and their exchange students. We went all around « Rue Nationale » and « Rue de Commerce » which are famous streets with lots of great stores. When we got hungry we decided to stop by a bakery to get yummy pastries such as cookies, pain au chocolat, and a pistole. Later in the evening, Lola’s mother picked us up, and we went to visit her grand-parents. They live in a cute cottage right beside the « Château de Villandry » : a beautiful castle with massive gardens that we visited earlier in the week. Apparently, Lola’s grand-father and mother have worked at the castle before doing different things. Her grand-parents immediately got us little pieces of candy, and we were quick to jump on the two-person swings in the backyard like little children. After leaving we returned to Lola’s house and had an amazing dinner. Then we headed to bed to rest up for another amazing day of adventures tomorrow.

Today our castle trip got cancelled because of all the things happening in France right now. The floods, the strikes- and on top of that, the seniors hiding around Tours and egging underclassmen (a CU tradition!). We all ate breakfast and lunch at our respective homes, arriving to school at 1. At that time we walked to the bus stop for a ride to a high ropes course! It was a lot of fun and very muddy. Then, as each other day, we were left to the hands of our exchange students. I personally went shopping at the outdoor/indoor mall before a relaxing riverside dinner.

Today was a little bit different because our morning plans were changed.  Because of all of the flooding that’s happened from the rain, our trip to Chenonceau was unfortunately canceled, but this gave us an opportunity to sleep in (which is always a plus).  Though I was a little bit disappointed we wouldn’t be seeing the castle, a little extra sleep was very much appreciated.  After a relatively lazy morning, Victor (my exchange student) and I arrived at the school at around noon.  We ate lunch, and then waited for the bus to arrive to take the Americans to a high ropes course.  I can’t remember the name of it, but it was much more intense (and a lot more fun) than any American high ropes course I’ve been to.  After a bumpy but relatively quick thirty minute bus ride, we arrived at the location of the high ropes course and began our journey through the forest.  If I can recall correctly, there were six different courses that you could choose from, ranging from green (the easiest course), to black (the hardest).  Each of the courses had different levels of difficulty and were relatively long, so we didn’t have a chance to do all of them, but they were still a lot of fun.  I particularly enjoyed the course that was almost entirely zip lines, and in order to get to the end you had to take seven different zip lines through the trees.  The views were amazing and I managed to get some fantastic pictures.  We were running late when we left the course, but then realized that this would also be a plus, because we managed to miss their version of a senior prank.  This apparently involved throwing eggs and flour at passing students as they walked by, so our tardiness actually ended up being an advantage.

Today was another great day and I can’t believe we only have three days left in Tours!

This morning was very lucky for all of us. Since flooding was occurring in the town, we didn’t go to school until 13h or 1:00 pm! This meant that we all slept in. We were supposed to go to another chateau, but unfortunately it was cancelled because of flooding and strikes that we’re going on in the area. But this doesn’t mean we didn’t have an amazing time.  On our walk to school, my exchange and I tried to go through our normal route, but police were blocking the way. There were many protests that were going on by the Main Street revolving around the gas strikes. I believe that the workers are striking against them getting too many hours. This was very interesting because I’ve never seen protests in my life. We got to go to a ropes course which was actually so much fun. Many of us were so scared to do these long, unbelievably high courses and zip lines, but it was an adrenaline rush. Being that high in the air with the wind rushing in our faces, or drastically trying to find a place to land our feet for our fast descent was beyond fun. In my opinion, it was one of the best days of the trip so far.

We started off the day by going to the Chateau de Chinon. It was a hike up a big hill to get to the entrance, but when we got up there, the view was worth it. Overlooking the entire area, you could see everything from the top of the tower inside the walls. We learned the history of the chateau, which was regarded as one of the most impenetrable fortresses for a couple hundred years, and watched a video about the significance it had. After taking way too many photos, we packed up and drove to the goat farm. We ate lunch there and then got to see and play with all of the goats. We got to see how they made the cheese at the farm and ate differently aged cheeses to taste the difference. Once we were back in Tours, a small group went to Indoor Go Karting. We took the tram from downtown Tours to get there and I got a baguette on the way. We spent a few hours Go Karting and afterwards I went home and ate dinner with my Karim (my exchange student) and his family.

Today we visited a chateau in Chinon as well as a goat farm. We started the day with a bus ride that was about an hour long before reaching the chateau. Unfortunately, the weather was very rainy and cold, but it made the scenery look incredible. The chateau is set on a cliff edge overlooking a river. The significance of the chateau involves  political ties to Joan of Arc and the King of England. The tour guide explained that the chateau’s physical structure had changed with each century, for it was ruined and rebuilt again and again by different leaders. This reconstruction led to various styles of architecture found in parts of the chateau. For example, some of the towers have more of a Roman influence, whilst others have a more traditional French style. For the second part of our day, we traveled by bus to Cabri au Lait, which is a goat farm found in the countryside. Our tour of the farm included visiting where the goats live, the milking area, and where the cheese is made. We learned the details of the cheese making process, which takes around three days to complete. The tour was followed by a tasting of cheeses of various ages. I personally thought the cheese was delicious, but there were strongly mixed feelings amongst the group. 

In the evening, a small group of my friends and I went go karting. The venue was extremely different from the Adventure Landing back in Raleigh – it was completely indoors, and everyone was required to wear a helmet. The experience was, honestly, terrifying; but it was also incredibly fun! I placed higher than my exchange student on the scoreboard, and I wouldn’t let her forget it for the rest of the evening. 🙂