Toulouse, weekend for all the exchange students in France.

20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd of March.
After the holidays, which really seems like soo long ago, I returned to school as usual. Im sure you heard about the big Journèes de Jeunesse de Rotary?? Well that translates to the days of the Rotary youth, namely exchangers and ex exchangers. All the Inbound exchange students in the whole of France gathered at Toulouse, a big city in the South West of France. I am in the North west, and so had to travel quite a long way to get there. The exchangers in my district, my district president (I guess thats what she is) took a bus down to Toulouse. I got on the bus at 10pm at night, with a few others, and travelled for a few hours until 2am when the rest of my district got on the bus. We travelled all night, and didnt really get much sleep, untill we arrived in Toulouse at 1pm the next day. We had lunch at Pizza Hut, which really is so much classier in France, and headed to our accomdation at around 2pm. Our accomdation was a bit of a way out of Toulouse itself, and it had cabins and a lake and a big mess hall, with lots of grassy area. When we arrived, we found out that they were still cleaning our rooms, and we wouldnt be allowed in until 4, which turned into 5, whcih eventually turned into 6pm. at around 4pm, the students from the district of Lyon who were also staying at our accomdation, arrived. We had a bit of free time, so we got to catch up with the Australian students I had met on the way, and leet new people as well. After we had a bit of time to settle into our rooms, the others students started arriving. As it was such a big group of us, around 400 exchangers, we couldnt all stay at the one accomdation. So the students came to our for dinner, as we had a huge hall where we would eat all together. It was really good, before dinner, I got to catch up with all the students I had met on the trip over, and find out how they were doing. I also met heaps of new people from all over the world. Dinner was massive. Imagine, 400 16-19yr olds and about 200 Rotarians, plus ex exchangers. It was huge. A lot of the Australians were sitting at one table, and in a sudden burst of patriotism, started chanting 'aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi' really loudly. Of course, I was one of them. :) This started rivlry from other nations, and everyone began either singing their national athem, or chanting a famous phrase. The American started chanting 'yes we can' and they had people on shoulders and waving th flag. Soon everyone ( all the exchange students) got really rowdy and it turned pretty muchinto a riot. It was crazy. Everyone was screaming. I wonder what the Rotarians thought. After a while, they managed to calm us ddown, and we had dinner. After dinner, everyone who wasnt staying at the accomdation left. We didnt have an arranged bed time, so we all just had free time to socialise and get to know new people. It was a really relaxed environment. Evntually we all got to bed, as to be ready for a big day ahead of us.
We woke and had breakfast at 7am, and left at 8am, when we all climbed on buses to go to Toulouse. We arrived at this place which Im not sure what it was called, but definatly seemed like some kind of parliment building. We all sat and for around 2 hours listened to some people explain a bit about what we were going to be doing next. It was all in French, and difficult french, speaking very quickly, so I didnt really understand a lot of it. Around me, a lot of people were sleeping. After the talks, we had a bit of time again for a meet and greet, where I met some new people and met some Swedes! I got some badges and cards! After, we all left for various places around Toulouse, I went to the Cité de L'space which was a huge museum type thing with models of everything ot do with space. We had a guided tour, and learnt a little about space and getting there. After the tour we got to watch a movie about travelling to the moon at the IMax! It was pretty cool. All in french of course. We left again and went back to the accomdation, to get ready for our Gala dinner.
The bus driver got us lost, so we didnt arrive at the Gala hall untill 9 or 10pm. The French like to have their dinner late, but not that late! by then, everyone was starving. We met up with all the others, and sat down in the extreemly squishy tables, and had the first course. Then after, representatives from each country stood up on the stage with their flag and sung their national anthems. By the end, it got pretty crazy again, and when it was time for the Americans to sing, it was deafining. The US sent the most amount of people. It was pretty amazing. Then we had desert, ,and everyone settled down a bit. Before Toulouse, each district had prepared a short demonstration to be presented to a board of important people at a later date, which happens every year in France with Rotary. The districts performed their demonstrations. The technology was pretty dodgy, and eventually cut out all together, so the people at the start didnt have their music, which presented a few issues. The Rotarians eventually managed to fix the technology and there was music, dancing and singing, with everyone joining in. For one presentation, some Mexicans did the Macarina, and everyone joined in. 400 people doing the macarina. It was pretty crazy. Very fun. Then there was a district which prepared songs. One district had everyone singing 'Hey Jude' by The Beatles. Then another had everyone dancing and singing to Latina songs and 'Mercy' by Duffy was sang by a very talented Latina girl, which had everyone dancing and singing. It was a pretty amazing night.
After the Gala had finished, we arrived at the accom at 3am!! and didnt got to sleep for ages.