An American track training experience !!

Hi everyone! 

           

Today I will talk about my American track training experience. 

In the United States, everything is so different than France. As an example: sports. Indeed in the States, sports in high schools are way more valued that in french high schools. 

In the United States, most high schools have several fields for different sports, gyms, a track, or even a fitness room.  Of course, it depends on where they are located and if it is a private or public school. Therefore, sometimes in the morning after the sports season, they will spend around 1h30 congratulating the athletes. The fact that the school provides a lot of accessories and space for students to practice their sports makes it better. 

Also, high schools can be very flexible with athlete-student schedules which will help them, which can be one of the biggest differences between France and the United States. Also, as in some schools, the academic level could be low, and students really depend on sports to get into universities. Overall, what amazed me is how the high schools would accommodate everything for athletes. 

In St. Andrews, I had the chance to train with the track team as my exchange student also runs track (and I couldn't go away for a week without doing any training!) 

I feel like the training could be the same but the difference is how it is organized. Indeed, in my situation, school finished around 3 o'clock and training will start at 4. Students don't have to walk back home as the track is 5 minutes away which can be very helpful! Around 6 pm, the training finished. However, in Marseille, I will finish school at the latest at 5:30 pm and rush to training around 6 and will finish at 8 pm.

I really enjoyed this experience because I learned a lot about track and how it works, I also had the opportunity to meet new people and talk to the coaches and get some information. 

Thanks! 

Zeinab :) 

My favourite niche departments in France

Hello Charlie,
today, I want to talk to you about a subject that I feel is not talked about enough: how some places in France are constantly mocked for no reason. So, today, I want to write something about each and every one of my favourite French departments.

• 1: Ain. 
• I really like the vivid life of Bourg-en-Bresse, and I think that the industrial zone of this lovely village is very much overlooked when people think about Ain. Moreover, there's an homophony between "1" and "Ain" in French, and the Ain is the 1st department, so it's funny, so I like it :)

A map of Ain

• 2: Calvados. 

• This department bears my favourite place EVER in France: Fresney-le-Puceux, with it's beautiful Neolithic menhir, and it's ancient castle. Moreover, the food in this cute little department is very rich and thus you can prepare for a possible hibernation.

The beautiful city of Fresney-le-Puceux

• 3: Lozère. 

• What I really like about this department is that there's not much to do, and thus you can really focus on a deep introspection. When one meets Lozère, one meets themselves. When one discovers Lozère, one discovers their true nature, in the complete void that is this amazing department. Moreover, because of the total absence of population in Lozère (approximatively 15 inhabitants by squared meter), one may go for a week without seeing a human being, which we can all agree is nice.

• 4: Creuse. 

• Again, this is a department for those who want to meet a form of meditation that no one ever felt. Indeed, because of the severe lack of any form of activity in this department, and because civilisation did not make it to there, Creuse is preserved from any corruption.

• 5: Nièvre. 

• What I like about Nièvre is that no one knows about it. Because I'm a typical Aquarius, I like to be different, and thus I put this department in my list of favourites.

My favourite place in Nièvre

• 6: Ariège. 

• This department is really great because of it's banality. Today it's so hard to find people/objects/departments that are not trying to be constantly different from others. Ariège is not like other departments because it is absolutely basic.

The stylish logo of Ariège

• 7: Haute-Saône. 

• Truly what brings this department up in my ranking (it was a tie between Vendée and Haute-Saône for this 7th place) is the main city: Vésoul. Indeed, this is truly the best city I have ever had the chance to see! It is so vivid, and it really makes me wonder why some people talk about such things as the "void diagonal".

Well, that's it for today, I hope this list has helped you have a different view on these amazing departments, because I find it really fascinating to spend time in each and every one of these. 

Do good today!

Welcome to the Haut-Koenigsbourg castle ! (...and other adventures...)

This summer holidays, I went with my brother and my mother to Mulhouse, in Alsace, where my aunt and her children live. We visited lots of sites and made a lot of activities, but today, I wanted to share with you the moment we spent at the Haut-Koenigsbourg castle, which was interesting and funny at the same time, for my first article on this blog. I hope you will enjoy it !
One afternoon, my aunt and two of her daughters decide to take us somewhere as a surprise. So, we take the car and go for two hours and a half of driving.

Going out of the car, they kept on saying to hurry because we were going to be late. But late what for?  When we finished climbing the hill, we understood that we were at a medieval castle: the Haut-Koenigsbourg. The view up there was stunning, even before entering. 

As soon as we got into the castle, we wet a knight on his horse, which immediately put us into the atmosphere. 

My cousins finally told me that we were here to see a performance, but when we went to buy the tickets, we were told that there was not such a thing here. My aunt then took the flyer of the castle, and they realized that we were in the wrong castle! We understood that when we set up the GPS, my cousin had put the name of the wrong castle. We laughed and were quite disappointed because it was too late to arrive on time for the last show of the other castle. So, we decided to stay there and followed the guide through the castle. We learned interesting things about the history of both the castle, which has been German and French, and the people who lived there. I am now going to let you appreciate some of the pictures we took. 

(Yes, it is my brother with the Marseille blue cap)

And one scary wild boar, one!

One of the first wardrobes. The original idea came from one of the residents of the castle, who thought that it would be a good idea to put a chest on the top of another one.

A more recent version of the wardrobe.

The two previous pictures are from the weapons room.

 Beautiful view, isn't it?

When we finished visiting, we took advantage of the fact that there were very few people to take some more pictures of the landscape and the castle. 

And we did so on the way back to the car too...

But this is not the end of the story, because about ten minutes after we left the castle, when we arrived in a little village, we smelled something coming from the back of the car. We broke down! There weren't any mechanics, or at least we didn't know if there was, but after a few phone calls, and waiting for the car to cool down, we continued our way. It was just a little bad moment. 

The landscape was once again very beautiful on the road. We even saw the castle on the top of the hill, very small now. 

As we looked at the landscape, we also saw a storm coming towards us. 

We hoped we would be home before it arrived, but unfortunately, we didn't. Hail started to fall, we couldn't see a thing a meter before the car, we were driving very slowly and thought that at every moment, a hailstone would break one of the windows of the car, and all the for about five very stressing minutes. Thankfully, nothing bad happened and we arrived home safely. It was quite an adventure we had this day, and I hope I could make you at least smile while you read. 

Inès Benamer.