Dear Pa,

I am going well, and somehow surviving the heat up here (having a swimming pool in the back yard helps). My housemate has asked me to be bridesmaid for her in December; there will be two weddings - one in Melbourne, and another in Mexico (the groom's country)!

Here I am with two of my friends. It was too hot to just dip our feet in, so we recklessly threw ourselves into the pool, clothes and all!

I took this with the camera Imogen, Ned and Ben gave me for Christmas. It goes underwater and everything! Coooooool.... :)

Please say hello to Nana and any other family members you might see. I haven't spoken to anyone in a week or so - things get so busy up here! I hope to talk to you soon.

P.S. I'm typing this all from my very own laptop! Hooray!

P.P.S I've been giving my new bathers (which I bought with my Nana&Pa Xmas money) heaps at the local pool. Me and my housemates go swimming several days a week before work.

hi pa, how are you? Happy New Year, or 'Bonne Année' in french
im in science engineering class at the moment but its about to end so i have to type quickly.
school started again after 2 weeks break on monday. i have 2 weeks of school to go then im going to catch the TGV which is a very fast train back to paris for my 5 day stay there with my friends.
im having a lot of fun meeting lots of new people and visiting many new places.
we went to the village called Hyères on the weekend. it was probably my favorite village so far because all the old buildings and castles were still standing, because during the war Hyères wasnt bombed, like the town Toulon (closest to where im staying) which was heavily bombed by the germans because it is home to a lot of military boats and headquarters. Hyères had lots of palm trees, cobble stone streets and a big castle on top of the hill behind it which we walked up to.
Toulon which we also visited was really cool as well. there were lots and lots of boats, from tour boats to cruise ships and sailing boats to massive french navy boats which are the ones that my host father works on because he is an electrical engineer for the french navy. it was really cool, like a really big version of Williamstown!
tomorrow im going shopping with my friend because im not going to school tomorrow, so i think that will be fun. my friend is also an exchange student from pegs staying in Six Fours les Plages, another village near mine.
i hope you and nana had a good christmas and enjoyed catching up with all the family, mum sent me some photos via email. im sure it was nice to see everyone, especially John and Hooch who we dont get to see very often!
send my love to Nana,
ruthi
xoxo