Scout time!

Thursday 28th December (yes I know I'm very far behind but here I am catching up!)
So we were back in Montpellier at Francoise's apartment in the Antigone (new quarter). We were to be spending today with the scouts (Alix and her group of scouts...around 7 of them). We took the new tram line (exciting!) to Parc Meric, a random 'espace vert' (green space) where there is a big oval without goals or anything, a small park, some forestry, some benches, a yard for dogs to play in...and met a couple of the others there (Hugo and Charlotte-Anne I think)...We waited for the others to arrive and eventually Laure (Alix's best friend), Joaquin and Fanny turned up (I know they have weird names but hey, this is France!). We wandered around the park for a bit before sitting down at one of the benches. The scouts then each had to say something, I think reflecting on the year or how much they'd helped out at gift-wrapping or something...i didn't really understand and they told me I didn't have to say anything!
We then walked up to the dog yard and played a random game there were there was someone in the middle and the people around the edges have to exchange places without letting the person in the middle take their place. We play it at hockey except you have to pass the ball. It was lots of fun! After that we walked to the end of the park and straight into Hugo's backyard. He actually lives in Marseille I think so it's his holiday house or something like that but anyway. We went around the back and into a little room at the bottom of the house. There was a bookcase, a table, a bed/couch and some chairs. Then the actual scout work began. We all sat around the table and they talked and talked and talked, sometimes writing down things on bits of paper like 'what they value in their life' and activities that they want to do. It was pretty boring for me. At some point Claire arrived as well. Finally we had lunch (Alix and I had bought sandwiches at the bakery below her mum's apartment). My baguette was chicken and eggplant and was quite good. After that Alix and I shared a block of crunch chocolate she'd brought from home (and shared some with the others) and shared a madarin that Hugo had fetched for us. We also got some brioche from Joaquin and some chips that were for everyone. After lunch they did a lot more talking. It was a bit boring for me but I just listened and tried to pick up as many French words and phrases as I could.
Finally they finished and we went outside and started playing tennis. We played tennis for about an hour, which was heaps of fun, except at one point I fell over and bruised my knee. It now has a big yellow and purple bruise on it!
After tennis is was about 5 or 5:30 and getting dark. We went inside and sat at the kitchen table and had some afternoon tea which consisted of a loaf of briche and some blocks of dark chocolate! Yummy!!! We sat and chatted for a while and they took a lot of funny and silly photos (Alix got a digital camera for Christmas so was taking it everywhere and using it all the time!). We left around 6 or 6:30 and returned to Francoise's apartment. We were both really tired so we went to bed basically straight after dinner (although I might have spent some time on the computer, I don't remember).
Friday 29th December.
We got up around 10am and got ready before Lissia, one of Alix's friends from school, arrived. She gave Alix her Christmas present (a huge candle holder with about 10 different places for candles) and we took the tram to the cinema. There we saw Hors de Prix (Priceless) at around 11am. It was all in French but I understood the storyline (which was quite simple) and a lot of what they were saying, which made me feel good. It was very funny but I was constantly reminded of how skinny Audrey Tautou is! The expensive dresses that should have looked beautiful on her looked silly because she had no figure whatsoever.
We returned to Francoise's apartment for lunch, which was salad then some form of roast meat roasted with mini potatos and prunes I think. It was very yummy! In the afternoon Alix and I returned to Casino and did a few hours of gift-wrapping again. I'm not sure why we bothered doing gift-wrapping for New Years because no one gives gifts for new years and we raised very little money after Christmas.
We returned home around 6 or 7 pm and had dinner (I don't remember what we had...) then Alix and I made crepe batter for the morning. It tasted pretty good raw so I was quite excited about the actual things! Then it was to bed!