Vacation, vacation, vacation. Steph and I had become extremely close in the blink of an eye and I was extremely happy to have a best friend in Chateauroux with me. My host parents on the other hand were not very thrilled as they knew I would be speaking English with her instead of French, but I was so excited. I had gone through five months of school with no best, best friend and no one else to get excited over the small stuff with because it was their everyday life. Steph lived a block away from school so we ended up spending a lot of time there. Here house had a whole different atmosphere. Everyone in her host family spoke English fairly and there were excited to have someone in the house who spoke English fluently. The welcomed me just as easily in to their home and were amazed at how well I could speak French, which felt really nice.
Me being the giant francophile that I am, I was dying to show Steph just how amazing France was and so off to Paris we were. Every time I go, I fall in love all over again. I have no idea why, something in the air or maybe my parents just played Jonathan Richman too many times, either way I was beyond happy to be there. We spent the day walking around, getting lost, thanks to my lovely metro reading skills, shopping and eating yummy pastries. I was in awe even with the grey winter sky looming over. During the next week of vacation my family took me to 'center parc'. I was trying to be excited but the idea of spending an entire week in a tiny little cabin with five little girls and two moms was bringing me down. Everyone kept telling me how great it would be, but I still had my doubts.
We drove up, Pierre Yves was dropping us off since he had to be at work and explaining I was not that excited he told me to just keep an open mind. Oh right, that. So, I did and I ended up having such a fun time. The camp site was gigantic and beautiful and there was a never ending list of activities to do. Lola and I rented bikes and went exploring all over. The little ones were signed up for activities almost every morning which gave everyone a nice calm pause. In the afternoon we all went to the amazing pool. It's built to seem like a jungle so there are caves, rocks, and plants surrounding the slides, pools, and hot tubs. SO HUGE. And just for me there was a solarium where I could tuck out and go take a long nap under some florescent tanning lights.
This was about the time (seeing as I was wearing a bathing suit) that I re-realized that I had gained an enormous amount of weight which was somehow shocking and started on ongoing battle inside my head. I will save you guys from the long list of excuses I came up with to make myself feel better and just say the one that always got me to take that piece of tarte aux fraises or mousse chocolat; "I am living in France, where they have the most amazing food, for one year!" Of course, there comes a point where the clothes are just too tights, the excuses are transparent and total BS, and enough is just enough. Sadly there were still a few weeks before I actually started to do anything about hitting this rock bottom.
While at center parc, Carole, her friend and I did a challenge course where you walk on high, high ropes which are way too thin and shake with each step. There were about eight different sections we had to cross over in order to complete the circle and finally come down. I have never come so close to peeing in pants in my entire life, but afterwards I felt amazing. I want to claim that it was the adrenaline, but I know it was also just feeling so proud of myself for succeeding in doing something challenging and that scared me oh so very much. At the end of the course, in order to get down, you can either climb the billions of steps or fly on one of those swinging things and come crashing down into a pile of sand. Seeing as I do not like going down ladders, I attached myself, closed my eyes, and jumped, screaming with a smile on my face the entire way.
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