This is some time after the trip, but there's too much to just write in one day so ...:

It was a very early start! I got up at 3am in order to be at the school by 3.25 to get a 'coach' to Stansted. It was such a weird coach, really small (There were only 10 of us), and there was a table at the front with 4 seats (two facing backwards) and a row of one on the opposite side to the driver. I didn't explain that very well, but nevermind. I think I must have slept for most of it...

So we got to the airport at about 6ish, boarded shortly after checking in and whatnot. The plane was really empty, so a number of our party at least went in search of empty rows to sprawl out across in order to sleep.

We got to Lyon at about 11 ish, as planned, and Pierre and his dad met me there (others met the others) and we took K and M to meet their partners at the school before going 'home'.

The home's quite nice. It isn't very big, but it's comfortable. I had a couple of hours to rest/relax/doze before we headed out. (Pierre had shown me round the house, but the toilet wasn't in the bathroom, so I was bursting before we were got ready and I was able to mention it...)

So we went out to a tea room, had a hot chocolate after admiring the cakes, and his parents and youngest sister (Adele, 7) left us to wander the streets of St Etienne until it was time for the restaurant.

Unfortunately for us, it started completely belting it down, and we got completely soaked, which was very pleasant for the rest of the evening.

The restaurant was a pizza place. I orded a Napolitaine (well, Antoine did for me: I couldn't say it) but I only ate half ... I was too cold and it was too big to eat any more. I felt quite bad about that; everyone else ate all of theirs.

After that, we wandered over to a nice warm pub for 45 mins ish, where I dried off a bit before we left the others to go home at 11. A fairly early night, I thought, which was reasonable...

Well! I've been busier in the past week than I have in the past 5 years, or so it seems!
There was the party on Saturday, after which Pierre threw up, then the going to B'ham thing [see prev. post].

On Monday I had my driving lesson! That was such fun, I really enjoyed it. I got up to 3rd gear - the instructor was rather impressed! I had trouble with indicating left though, I kept pushing it forwards which turned the dipped lights(?) on... Although I was getting the hang of it by the end.
We didn't do anything on Monday evening - Pierre was apparently shattered and went to bed rather early. Some others, however, decided that they were going to the pub together, and didn't even invite me! How rude! It's even worse than not inviting K to the second party! But I had to seem like I didn't even notice...

Tuesday was also fairly boring. In the morning we went to see a French film - Le Scafandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) at the Warwick Arts Centre. It was good, but quite a depressing story about a man in 'Locked-in Syndrome' where he could only communicate by blinking...
Again, we didn't do anything in the evening, but this time I don't think anyone else did anything together either, which makes it alright.

The next day a few of us wandered around town showing our people the sites of Coventry. It really wasn't too interesting, but it got us all out of the house for a few hours. Me and Pierre had a Subway tea, which is always good!
Wednesday was also the second party, also at J's house. There was no alcohol available this time, which was good! We played Wink Murder and 'Apple Pie' this time, so it was much more involved. There was also a game of Spoons, where Pierre was punished by J, I think, for being sick after the previous party. That was really unfair - it had nothing to do with J.

On Thursday evening I went with my dad to see Nizlopi, again at the Warwick Arts Centre. The supporting act went quite wild with the wailing, but Nizlopi themselves were really quite good! They made it funny to watch too, and got people up and dancing on the front part of the stage, which is, I think, quite unusual. Right at the very end they played their only widely-known song - the JCB song. It got to number one at around Christmas time one year methinks. But this finished faaar too late - I shouldn't have gone since I was already exhausted. Oh well...

Friday was the third and final house party. This time it was at the other J's house, whose mother is also a teacher at my school! How odd! By this time I was really quite tired, so I just sat being fairly unsociable all evening/night/morning (it finished at half 1...). There was alcohol here, but this time Pierre didn't drink anything. Tom did though, so we got a taxi back - I hadn't been in a taxi for aaages! Fun times...

Yesteday we went to town so the Frenchies had time to buy souvenirs. We split up, and we English people went to a pub for lunch, which Mrs C paid for! How weird that was... I had tuna sandwiches, which were very oily, but pretty good!
In the evening we went to 'TenPin' and most of us had a couple of games of Quasar! I hadn't done that in aages and it was good (but sweaty) fun. Sadly I didn't win either game, although my team won the second.
For tea we went to Nando's, which we had to wait 40 mins for enough spaces. While we were waiting, most English people went to see if there was space at Taybarn's/Pizza Hut sooner, and T went to see his co-workers at Tesco's. So I was left on  my own with the French people ... good. But the Nando's was very nice, and we had an interesting conversation around our table... C (a Frenchie), suggested mixing French/English people, which was a really good idea. We had the best table, obviously! Talk ranged from Cannibalism to sex lives... great.

And today we had to get up at 5 to be at the bus station at 6. Having hardly slept at all last night, that was great fun. It turned out there was a 'problem' with the bus, and they got on another to MK instead, planning to meet their bus there.
It's quite sad that they've gone. Yes, I'll be able to sleep in my nice warm bed again - yay! - but my social life will disappear once more. And I'll never see any of them ever again! I don't get to go to France with the rest next month, since I don't know the language. I wish I did...

Well this morning was fairly ok, listening to a record of the Beatles, doing my latch hook rug, watching Moulin Rouge while eating eggy bread... But when H came online, well, it started out with us being fine, but this evening it turned out he was going out with this other girl, K, again (He'd broken up with her last night after giving in to her in the morning...) arggg! Only a male could be so stupid and annoying and ... careless..
He could tell something was wrong - I went all quiet again. But I don't know if he knows why. I might explain, vaguely, tomorrow...
I've decided I'm not going to go on chat as often any more. It's not worth it.

School starts again on Weds! I can't wait - no more boredom! But I'm nervous about the tutor groups thing and the workload from the IB (Might explain the IB in the future). Sadly, we'll have to go in at the normal, early time of 08:50... I need to start getting to sleep earlier too! I did last night, actually - before midnight - Wow!

Also, birthday, 5 days! I'm thinking I might do a skiing/snowboarding lesson thing in either Tamworth or MK with R (friend, not brother), but I don't know whether to invite N... She's drifting off from our group and she's not really anything like us anyway, but I shall have to see. We haven't really spoken to her at all this hols...

Anywho, for now, I'm to bed... Or something.