I Am the Most Sporadic Blogger Ever...

So, except for the week just gone, nothing really exciting happened because I was preparing for exams. Buttt Sunday the 21st was Fete de la Musique, which is a festival in Paris to celebrate the first day of summer. Basically all the musicians take to the streets, play outside bars and retaurants, and everything is free. So at about 6pm Steph and I threw in the towel on study, met up with our friends Jess and Marcella, who did an exchange in Lyon but were in Paris (not staying with us because we were too busy studying) and decided we'd just walk out of our building and follow the music. So on the first little side street running off my street we hear some music and decide to walk down. There we find what is without question the best dj set I've ever heard in my entire life, being played on the street. So we grabbed mojitos from the bar next door, and sat around drinking on the street and listening to the music. It was very chilled, and I absolutely loved it.

Then we just wandered along, headed up to Republique through the Marais to grab some dinner. By this stage we were a bit tipsy, and so sat around eating while Jess and Marcella told us hilarious stories about donkey farming. So the waiter took quite a shine to us, and brought us out free glasses of champagne. Then, when I broke a glass, as 'punishment' he brought around another round of drinks. Epic. So headed off to meet Steph's boyfriend, the two of them headed home (it's about 2am by this stage) and Jess, Marcella and I head off to one of the gay clubs in the Marais. We dance the night away until 6.30 in the morning, and as we're walking home I turned to the other two and said "You realise I have an exam in 26 hours". So freaked out a little bit, but it was definitely one of the best nights/days I've had in Paris.

Exams didn't go at all well, but I'm crossing my fingers and hoping I've at least passed. So I had my last one on Friday morning, Brooke was staying with Steph and I, so we went back to the apartment, dumped out stuff, met my friend Damian for lunch, and then hit the sales. It was a pretty epic day, and I managed to pick up a number of bargains - the most beautiful linen jacket that I'm in love with, a pair of chambray high-waisted pants, denim shorts, and a beautiful floral dress. Unfortunately that night I had to work, but I was so overtired that I was mostly just hyperactive and ran around singing to everyone.

So the next day, had the first sleep in for quite awhile. Got up and went to my friend Olga's house for drinks before we went out to dinner for her 21st birthday! So dinner was delicious, and the people were great. After we finished we went to Pont des Arts (a pedestrian bridge kind of near the Louvre) and sat there drinking until about 3am, when I headed out on the town with a couple of the guys until about 6am. We were actually at a club that closed at 5am, and when it closed Igor and I thought it would be a good idea to move onto one that closed at 6am. So we did. It was a pretty big night...

Sunday caught up with the same group of people, and we went up to the hill that Sacre Coeur is on and sat around drinking. They were all staying the night, but about 3am I realised I wasn't going to last the distance and jumped in a cab. Passed out the minute my head hit the pillow.

Monday night Olga and I headed off for a picnic on Champ de Mars, the stretch of grass in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was lovely, but I had to leave pretty early because Rob was coming to my place to drop off his bag that he's leaving in my apartment over the summer. Anyway, I was also keen to get an early night because Stacey and Michael (Ken-z) were both arriving the next day. As it turns out, Rob and I finished off a couple of bottles of wine and I didn't get to bed until 3.

So the next day I go to meet Stace at the train station at around 11am. Between that time and 6pm when we got back to my apartment before Ken-z arrived I think we must have walked about 10km, and seen every monument in Paris. It was epic. Anyway, Ken-z showed up fresh off the plane from Brisbane, we let him have a shower, and then headed back to Pont des Arts for a picnic. Igor (who is a Kiwi) and some of his friends came and met us, we also had Steph, Jess and another UQ girl Suzannah with us. So, once again, at about 1am we leave Pont des Arts to go out. The Kiwis bailed, but Stace, Ken-z and I powered on until about 6.30am. Then woke up at midday to try and tourist it up. Needless to say we didn't do particularly well, got to lunch and Notre Dame before we decided to go home and have a nap.

That night we went to Champ de Mars for a picnic, and to watch sunset over the Eiffel Tower. We also climbed it, and went right up the top (which I'd never done before, every other time I've gone it's been closed) which was a great idea given I'm petrified of heights. So spent most of the time clinging to the walls, and then sitting with my head between my legs because I got vertigo. Managed to get home at about 2am (although Stace and I did make a brief detour to a nightclub).

Woke up the next day, went up to Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge, then did a bit of shopping before taking Stace back home and then to the train station so she could head back to London... Igor and his friend came to my place, Ken-z and I drank to much, and we all went out to this place called Social Club. Got home at a reasonable hours (3.30am) as we were having lunch with one of my Mum's oldest friends the next day who was in Paris for business.

So caught up with him, and he'd bought me vegemite and milo! Which was so so exciting for me! Had a nice, free lunch, and then went to meet up with my friend Suzannah and her family, as we'd established Ken-z knew her brother from waterpolo. Small world... He also knew my Mum's friend - turns out his family had holidayed at the place where Ken-z's family goes every year for a couple of years, and they stayed in the units beside each other...

So Ken-z headed off on his tour, and my house was empty! Not really, because we still have Jess and Steph's Mum with us. But my houseguests are gone. So I had a bit of a rest before heading off to work. And now am catching on the emails and whatnot that I've been neglecting!

Spring Break and Alcholism

Hi All!

Definitely haven't left it so long, although it has been awhile!

So, Spring Break. Not exactly the relaxing or productive week I'd been hoping for. Worked Friday and Saturday, as I usually do. Sunday went to trivia, Monday hung out at home... And from Tuesday night it all went downhill.

On Tuesday I caught up with my friend Chris, a Scottish guy who had hung out with Dave (my ex) and I when he and his friend were travelling around Australia. He'd been skiing in Switzerland and was travelling back through Paris, and stopped by for a visit. So that was lovely!

Tuesday night, I had work from 8pm til midnight. So I was working, it was pretty quiet, and was chatting to three english guys who had been in Paris for the week, and were going home the next day. I finished, and as I was leaving, they told me I should stay for a drink. They were with Helene, another bartender at work, who had been showing them around Paris. So, the five of us hung out. Then Helene went home when the bar closed. I got home at 11am on Wednesday morning, because we decided it would be a really good idea to, when the bar closed, go back to their hotel room and keep drinking.

The rest of Wednesday I spent napping, and was just on my way back from picking up takeaway sushi when my phone rang. It was my friend Rob, who had been down in Burgundy, and arrived back in Paris, only to realise he'd forgotten his apartment key. So he came round, and we stayed up drinking wine and chatting until very late.

Thursday I did some study, so as a reward on Thursday night I went into work as my boss had just had a baby, and had invited us round for a drink. Anna came and met me, as I hadn't seen her in ages! After she headed off, I went and met Steph, Tess and Soph at Cha Cha Club. We stayed there dancing for ages, it seemed to be the gay night because there were gay guys everywhere. It was especially fun when Britney came on, and I was really happy about it because I wasn't in the mood to deal with sleazy french men. I'd worn my new floral overalls, which was fun, although it was only after Steph and I were walking home that we realised I'd worn 6 euro overalls to one of the chicest clubs in Paris...

Friday and Saturday night I worked again. On Sunday night Slater (who was back in Paris) and I went to Cafe Charlot for dinner, in the Marais, and went to La Perle, where we were entertained by one of the craziest and most beautiful girls I'd ever seen in my life having a fight with her boyfriend. She was Italian. Slater and I then went back to my place and kept drinking, so got to bed really late, I woke up at 1.45 and realised I had to be at uni at 2.45. So that was a bit of a mad rush.

Then just spent the week studying for my first ever exam, on Saturday. Happily on Friday Misa and I went to the Marais, had a falafel and sat in a park in the sun studying. Our exam was the most mentally draining thing I've ever done - it was four hours long, and I had to write a dissertation on whether or not there was a malaise in political representation in Europe... in french.

So, finished 45 minutes early and went to Rob's place for a drink while I was waiting for Steph to finish (she somehow managed to run out of time!). Then, work.

This week haven't done a great deal, had two exposes due for two different classes, and worked Thursday as well as Friday (and will be doing Saturday as well) so I'm pretty tired. But, on Friday it was a public holiday, and we have Jess and her friend Marcella up from Lyon staying with us. So we went and had a picnic in Place des Vosges in the Marais, which was lovely. The weather was so nice I even got a little teeny bit sunburnt!

The other exciting thing is that I've started doing some vague planning for my summer travels! Yay!

Will be in touch. My friend Isabel is coming over from London, where she's an au pair, on Friday for the weekend. I've taken time off work, so I think there will be plenty of adventures to share!

Pick Up

French men happen to be a lot more forward than Aussie blokes. They have no qualms walking up to women and telling them exactly what they think. Here are a few of my favourites thus far:

Boy (B): I noticed you walking through the crowd picking up glasses, I was scared you were going to get hurt.
Georgia (G): Uh no, I'm fine.
B: You have a very beautiful face.
G: Oh um okay... thanks...
B: I'd really like to get to know you better.
G: Sorry, I have a boyfriend (my staple excuse)
B: That's okay, I have a girlfriend!

B: You are magnificent. We should have sex.

B: Hard night at work tonight?
G: No it's been alright.
B: Do you want my phone number?
G: Oh, I have a boyfriend.
B: That's okay, I'm not jealous!

B: You are a vision of perfection.

B: You seem lonely.
G: I'm fine.
B: Would you like to sit down and have a drink with us.
G: Uh, I'm working. (this is at about 3am on a Saturday night, our busiest time of the week)
B: Just one drink.
G: No..
B: Just one!
G: No!
B: Maybe you'd like to come home with me instead?

Finally...

A new update for you all!

So, when you last heard from me Mum was about to arrive. So she showed up on the Monday, and I was so relieved because my cold had turned into something of a deathly illness! The virus had migrated to both ear and chest infections, but luckily she was packing some hardcore antibiotics that made me feel better very quickly. So she was with us until Saturday, which was absolutely lovely. She mostly pottered around exploring the area, and Paris in general. Went to the Museum of Modern Art, ate out a lot, it was really nice.

So she headed off, I had work, went to Trivia (and won, obviously). Nothing really happened until that Thursday night, when I had Misa, Alex, my friend from Canada, Ally, another Canadian, and Sylvia and Frances (also from Canada) over for my famous vegetable soup and a lot of wine. So we hung out at mine until about midnight when we headed out to Andy Wahloo, a really fun miniclub just near my place and danced the night away. I did feel a bit sorry for myself the next morning, when I realised there had been six of us at my house and we'd had nine bottles of wine (the first of which Misa and I finished before anyone else arrived).

On Friday night before work I headed down to The Thistle for the leaving party of Alan, one of the bartenders, who was heading back to Scotland to prepare for his next international venture, to Australia!

Sunday, Alex and I banded together with the Corkatudes, the team who used to be our big competition but who we now seem to have merged with, and absolutely killed it at trivia, beating the team that came second by 4.5 points (which is a lot in trivia).

The rest of the week (which was last week) I was completely focused on my uni work, as Thursday morning I had an oral (in French) on "The role of values in the political choices of electors"... Easy, right? So, had to write that, then present it. Showed up to class thinking I would have at least half an hour to read through it before I went, as I was supposed to be second. However, my professor decided that it would actually make more sense if I went first! In a way it was kind of a good thing, as both the other two girls who were presenting were Australian. In some classes that wouldn't be a problem, as there are a lot of international students. However, in this particular class there's only about five of us. So by the time the second girl got up to start presenting, all the french in the class had just about had enough of foreigners massacring their language.

Anyway, the one good thing is that it's done and I no longer have to worry about it - I can focus my stress on my other oral that needs to be prepared, and the four hour exam that I have on ANZAC day. As Misa said when we walked out of class, 'It wasn't that shit'.

So, to recover we decided to go to the Marais to get a felafel, as Rue des Rosiers is a big Jewish street with the best felafel in Paris. Sadly, we'd forgotten it was Passover. So instead we went to Breakfast in America, and I had the first meal of bacon and eggs I've had since I got here! The french don't really eat bacon like we do, so I was very excited... I also treated myself to a haircut.

Thursday night went out with Ally and Olga, two friends, and Olga's best friend Amanda who is doing study abroad in London, and was over visiting. We hung out at there apartment drinking for awhile (quite awhile) before heading to a bar called Le Motel, where we were supposed to meet one of Ally's friends, Tomas, who is in the Sciences Po rugby team, and all his rugby friends. Needless to say, I found the prospect of french rugby boys rather appealing. Unfortunately we'd been drinking for so long that by the time we got there only Tomas was left, the others had gone to a Sciences Po student party at a club in Republique.

Olga, Amanda and I decided we couldn't be bothered legging it to Republique (by this stage the metro was closed so we would have had to cab) so we went to Cha Cha Club, which is just at Les Halles, basically between my place and Olga's, very convenient. Anyway, it was a great place to go out and is definitely on my list as one of my favourite bars/nightclubs in Paris. Walked home through Les Halles at 5am, didn't get stabbed, which is definitely an achievement in that area.

Friday afternoon, once I'd woken up, Steph and I went vintage shopping in the Marais and over in Bastille. It was kind of late, and the crowds were pretty crazy so we didn't really make the most of it. But I did manage to pick up two pairs of overalls, one in denim, and one in this fabulously hideous blue and brown florally pattern.

Then, work work blah blah. Easter Sunday we had lunch at our place with Tess (who cooked, yay!), her friend Loc who was visiting, our friend Loc, Julien, and a couple of other Australians. The food was absolutely amazing and it was a really fun bunch of people. Later that evening some french friends of Julien showed up, so a lunch that started at 3pm ended up finishing at about 3am. I was sent on a wine/vodka run at about 8pm. Luckily France is secular, so everything that would normally be open on a Sunday was still open.

Now, we have a week midsemester break... A lot of my friends have gone away, but I decided that with work I would just stay in Paris and enjoy the spring (although it's kind of cloudy and gross at the moment). Worked last night til midnight, and although I intended to go straight home, I got chatting to a group of English boys who were friends with Helene, a girl I work with. So I ended up getting home at 10am this morning. Oops.

Anyway, must go do some uni work now. I'll try not to leave so long between posts! I really miss you all so much! Georgia xox

La Vie As It Stands

So it's been awhile between posts, but I have a legitimate reason, which is that there hasn't been a great deal to tell!

Worked and slept for almost all of the weekend, with the exception of Sunday, where I managed to mosey down to Trivia, and, despite intending to get a relatively early night, did not manage to stumble home until 3am. Oops.

Probably the most exciting thing is the fantastic weather that we're currently enjoying. Since the weekend the sun has been shining, although it is by no means the skin cancer generating Aussie sun that I miss so much. I went out to lunch with a friend from the UK on Monday, and was so amazed by the weather that I sat around in a t-shirt dress and only one pair of stockings. My goosebumps were pretty epic, but I couldn't bear to put on my cardigan!

Anyway, Tuesday night was St Patrick's Day, so Eric, Misa, Alan, Giva (two of the bartenders from The Thistle) and a few other people and I went to a bar called the Fifth on Rue Mouffetard. We played beer pong, I was unsurprisingly rather terrible and thus ended up drinking quite a lot in quite a short space of time.

Unfortunately I've know come down with a bit of a cold, so am trying to rest a bit in order to recover! Happily, this was made so much easier by the fact that my class this afternoon was cancelled! Alot of unions went on strike today, and when I showed up at uni there were about 40 policeman blocking off the street. I ran into my friend Rob, who told me that he'd been told to leave the building immediately, and they were now in lockdown and no one could get out or in. Apparently they were scared that the strikers would move down to Sciences Po and try to storm the building. I love France, and the fact that it's probably the only place in the world where uni classes would stop because of a fear of violent rioters!

Anyway, work Friday and Saturday night, but on Monday Mum arrives! I must say I'm looking forward to a bit of mothering!

Miss you all, please keep in touch xox

Exciting Post and Awful Clubs!

Firstly, thank you so much to Misses Jo, Tamara, Kelly and Sarah, and Ash (who is not a Miss, although he does have a girl's name) for my lovely package which I received today, and which has made me ridiculously happy! My fear of running out of Vegemite has been momentarily averted!

In news from the life of Georgia - went out last night (as I am now working Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so thought I should make the most of it) with Eric, his sister Alli who is visiting, and a couple of his friends to a fondue place in Montmartre. For 20euro you get all you can eat fondue (but I feel I should point out that you can't eat that much fondue), plus wine which is drunk out of baby bottles, an aspect which I found quite bizarre and a little disturbing. Anyway, we ate and drank there, before heading down to Le Duplex, a club near the Arc de Triomphe.

I feel I should note that I was a bit hesitant about this club. It didn't seem like it would be my sort of thing, but I allowed myself to be convinced that it would be okay....

Never again! From now on I will continue following my instincts of dislike! So, unsurprisingly, I got very bored very quickly and left.

We currently have Slater, a friend who is travelling around Europe by himself for 6 months, staying with us, so when I got home (at about 3) I crept round the apartment, using my phone as a light. It wasn't until about 10 minutes had passed that I realised Slater and Steph were still out, and I'd been creeping round for nothing. Idiot.

Anyway, off to class and then straight to work for me now!

Last Few Days

In my most important and exciting news, I am now employed! Had an interview last Tuesday at Le Truskel, my favourite bar in Paris, and started on Saturday night. Spent the evening going round collecting glasses, and fighting my way through the crowd, but it was still quite fun. I have never had so much attention from men in my entire life (it actually got really irritating), and the music there is literally my ipod playlist. It's fantastic! Am working again tomorrow night for a couple of hours, to get training on the bar, and then again Friday and Saturday nights. Great way to save money!

So, Sunday night we had trivia, of course. Wandered down with Misa, waited for Joe, and we cracked open our bottle of gin. Misa's lover, Archie, came down with a couple of his friends, so they made their own team. Joe and I were pretty much the only ones drinking the gin, so by the end of the quiz I was a little tipsy... Unfortunately, we came second in a tie break, the prize for which is a round of shots. Joe wisely headed home, but Misa and I decided to party on, with a guy who apparently won American Big Brother, and his fiancee. So we headed across Pont Neuf to The Highlander, because The Thistle was closing, and stayed out til quite late. I have no recollection of getting home... I did make scrambled eggs at Misa's place though.

Anyway, yesterday I dragged myself to class for what I thought would be a rather painful 4 hours. Happily, my second class was cancelled! So I went home and waited for Slater, a friend of ours who arrived in from Berlin last night.

Just trying to get through some uni work so that I can do something fun tonight, and then class tomorrow and work. Boring :(

Birthdays and whatnot

So I am officially twenty! As I'm sure you can all imagine, I'm now extraordinarily responsible and ridiculously well behaved.

Birthday weekend went like this:

Friday, woke up to the sound of the doorbell. It was Jess, back from Lyon for my birthday celebrations. Opened my pressies from Jess and Brooke, and Steph, which were all lovely. Then the three of us headed out to a little restaurant on Rue Montmartre for a birthday lunch. Arrived back, and Tess showed up with another gift! She couldn't make it that evening, so she dropped by for cake and chats. We did a bit of a clean of the house, then started getting ready for my party!

The party itself was fabulous. There were about 30 people there, we all got rather drunk and danced around in our dining room. We didn't make it out, so at about 4am I went on a hunt with a Canadian boy to try and find a bar that was open. We didn't have any luck, but we did climb a huge fountain that is in the middle of a big square near our place.

Saturday was evidently spent recovering, until about 6 when we headed up to Montmartre for Tess's celebrations (I don't know if I've already told you, my birthday is the 27th, Tess is the 28th). We had dinner at La Cave, a really cute restaurant around there, got rather drunk again and headed to a bar in Pigalle. Then we decided to go to Chez Moon, a rather fun club, but couldn't remember how to get there. So instead we got cabs to Madam, a club on Champs Elysees. It sadly wasn't my scene, nor Steph's. Luckily, it was 6.30 in the morning and the metro was open, so we jumped on the metro to Chatelet, walked down Rue Saint Denis, I got a kebab, and Steph got a baguette.

Sunday we were all pretty out of it (I apologise, Ash, for initially having no idea who you were when you called). Jess went to get groceries for breakfast, and came back with two apples, a tub of yoghurt, and a can of iced tea...

Anyway, once again spent the day recovering, until I got out of bed and headed down to The Thistle to use the internet, as I had a presentation due Monday which I hadn't started. Went back home, slept, went to meet Misa, Joe, two girls called Maddie and Fatima for trivia. Despite my poor efforts (although I did answer a couple of tricky questions) we actually won! So we have a bottle of alcohol of our choice waiting for us next Sunday.

Otherwise, not much happening. Yesterday I got hopelessly lost in the suburbs going to pick up our internet box, which we now have but the installation instructions are in french so we still don't have working! Went out for a couple of drinks with Eric last night, but am otherwise planning to have something of a detox and try to get on top of my uni work...

Speak to you all soon xo

Wednesday and Thursday

Well, my classes thus far have been marginally better than the first day... Misa (it's spelt Misa, not Mischa, I have discovered) is in one of my classes, which makes it helpful. She and I went out for a kebab for lunch today, and not being used to really food (I'm currently existing on pasta with tomato sauce) I'm feeling a bit sick...

So much work to do already though, but the most exciting news is, of course, that it's my birthday tomorrow! Will let you know how my festivities turn out!

Drowning My Sorrows

It comes as no surprise that Tuesday morning was spent nursing a rather nasty hangover. Steph came home after she finished class, saw my bottle of wine open on the table, and pulled out another bottle. Her day had gone as well as mine, so we polished off both bottles, felt sorry for ourselves, and went to bed. Julien arrived at some point, gave Steph a hug, walked into the dining room and saw me sitting on the floor, probably looking as pathetic as humanly possible, and kindly gave me a big hug as well. He attempted to reassure us, but it didn't really work. My prospects of passing my french classes are not good.

The rest of Tuesday I just pottered round the house, when I really should have been working (which is what I also should be doing at the moment). Then Tuesday night, when I really shoudn't have, I went out with Eric, one of the American boys on my trivia team this week, and his friend Mischa. We went to an Irish bar on Rue Mouffetard, and hung out there for awhile before heading back to Eric's. So, when my alarm went off at 9am I was the opposite of impressed.

Happily, I had a lecture in French today, and although I didn't understand even close to most of it, I think I've got the general idea. Steph and I are doing it together, and on my way out I spotted Mischa and Joe, the other American from trivia, so hopefully I can get a bit of assistance!

No other news, other than we got our letterbox key yesterday and I am hopefully able to pick up our internet box from the post office tomorrow! (Provided it's been delivered, otherwise I will have to make an angry french call to the internet people)

Class

Well, today was my first day of class. I'm sitting in The Thistle with a glass of wine, and have an entire bottle waiting for me at home. I think that's indicative of how it went. I have a 20% presentation due next week (the lecturer did not understand that Friday was my birthday, and Saturday was Tess'). I also understood less than an eighth of the class that I had in french. Sadly, I only experienced two out of five subjects today, so I am rather concerned...

In happier news, I am steadily improving in trivia - Loc, Anna and I joined forces with two American boys I met last week, and we got 4th! No prize, but still exciting.

Jess left this morning, but is planning to come back on Friday for my birthday! I'm planning a party, although my plans do change regularly.

Off now, I need to find news articles about current issues in the European Union... yay!

Nights Out

Friday - Steph and Jess didn't know what they were doing, so I headed off to the apartment of a group of American students - Brendan, Kevin, Dan, and Sean... lovely boys.

Anyway, I showed up and Rob (the student from WA) was there, which was really exciting for me as I had already decided that he would fill in for Matty and Phil in a big brother capacity.

So, we sat around drinking for awhile. Their apartment is absolutely enormous, although it's in a pretty bad part of town. Then we headed off to a bar in Bastille, drank there for awhile, got bored, went back to their place, sat around and drank and talked, and Georgia once again found herself trying to stay upright on the metro at 6am.

Saturday was a pretty quiet day as I tried to recover, then Saturday night Jess, Steph and I headed out for dinner at Le Dindon as Julien was working. Jess and I stayed there drinking until about 2, when I realised that the boys we were talking to were quite creepy and they started forcefully suggesting we should go back to their apartment. So we trotted home, bought a packet of chips, and watched Sex and the City til about 4.

Trivia again tonight, and unfortunately classes start tomorrow! It will be very interesting! Sorry about the rather short post, after a rather epic week of big drinking nights my head doesn't seem to be working properly...

Gregoire...

On the right...

Ice Skating

I finally went ice skating! Ice skating in the middle of Paris outside is probably one of the most fun things ever! I was unsurprisingly initially rather bad, but steadily improved and am ready to go back sometime next week!

Otherwise, had our last course of Methodology today, and next Monday start classes! Am heading out tonight to have some drinks with some other exchange students, and otherwise not sure what's happening, but is likely to be a big one as Jess is heading back to Lyon on Monday!

The Night of the Gay Rabbit

I know, it's a bizarre title. Before the night of the gay rabbit, Steph and I had class, I slept a lot, we just generally went about our business.

So, the night of the gay rabbit, last night, we (being Jess, Brooke and myself) headed out to meet Steph, Julien, and Julien's friend Raouf at a Japanese restaurant near Opera. Loc and Tess also joined us. Dinner was quite lovely, I had the assorted sushi platter, and there was so much wasabi in the first bite I took that the heat shot straight up my nose and I started crying! Anyway, Raouf is also an actor, and think he's quite amusing. So we were telling jokes at the table, and Tess misunderstood one of the jokes and thought that it went "What is invisible and on a carrot? A gay rabbit!" which was absolutely hilarious at the time, and a better joke than the intended meaning.

After dinner we headed to a bar called Le K1ze. Jess and I, both being sick and trying to save our pennies, decided we wouldn't drink - this resolve was shattered when the bartender took quite a shine to us and gave us free caramel and vodka shots... After a bit of a dance, Steph and Julien headed back to his house, Raouf went home, Loc had already departed, Brooke felt sick and decided to retire, and Jess, Tess and I walked to Cafe Oz.

Cafe Oz was pretty much empty, but Sam (boy from NZ) and Jules (girl from Sydney), the bartenders, poured us ridiculously strong drinks and gave us tequila shots. We stayed there til they shut, then Sam poured us drinks into plastic cups and we walked to Truscolls, a really cool bar that apparently a lot of bands go to when they finish their gigs. By this time we were all completely trounced. Jess and Jules headed home, and Sam, Tess and I pushed on... Sam almost got in a fight with a french bloke and I thought our coats had been stolen until I remembered I put them behind the bar with the bartender....

Jules' visa runs out in about June, so she's actually getting pacsed, which is basically a civil marriage, to one of her french friends, so she can stay in the country!

Anyway, once again Tess and I found ourselves stumbling home at 6am, and buzzing the bell to get someone up to let us in!

Today, we woke up at about midday, as Brooke was leaving to go to Germany. Steph arrived home, changed, and headed off for a lunch date and I haven't seen her since. Jess got up and went to Monoprix, our local supermarket, in her pyjamas, to get us eggs and pineapple. Then we fell asleep again, woke up at 3, Tess cooked us scrambled eggs and we've been watching Sex and the City since we decided to venture outside to use the internet. Tess has met up with friends to go party again, but I'm slowly sipping coke, hoping I will start to function like a human being soon!

We obviously didn't manage to go ice skating, we ran out of time yesterday, but I think we'll go tomorrow! You'll hear from me soon xox

Pub Quiz

Last night happily went exceptionally well... we came 5th out of 20 teams! Given we were five girls, unsurprisingly we fell down on sport, and didn't do too well in the history category either.

Classes start next week, and although Gregoire, the smoking hot professor (Sarah, I will try to sneak a photo) is doing his best to explain how the assessment works, I'm not feeling too confident at all! Steph and I have also bailed on the french classes as well, they were not particularly exciting...

Anyway, short post today as I only told you what I'd been up to recently yesterday. We're going ice skating tomorrow night, which should be great fun! Birthday in less than two weeks, and Tess' birthday is the 28th, the day after, so we're planning a big blowout to last the whole weekend!

Uni etcetera

View over the Seine

Well it has been quite awhile since I did my last update! Sadly our internet box is yet to arrive, although Steph lost our set of keys that had the letterbox key, so it is entirely possible that the courier came when we were out and we are blissfully ignorant!

However, our methodology and french classes have started at uni... Most of the other students in our class are painfully bad at french. Some (an American and a Venezuelan) are good at french but so hard to understand. One thing that makes it easier is the fact that our Methodology professor, Gregoire, is smoking hot. He started our second class with a poetry reading. I almost died.

Met a lot of lovely new people. I should mention Anna, a girl from Amsterdam, who is an absolute hoot and a generally sweet girl. We had a bar-a-thon on Thursday night, which Steph skipped (as she'd been out the night before, I stayed in as I'm coming down with a bit of a sickness and am trying to fight it off) so Anna and I went. Chatted to a lot of people, including Rob, from Uni of WA, who happens to have the same 'falling in love' fantasy as I do. I think he and I will be great friends...

On Wednesday night Loc, an Aussie photographer, came and stayed with us, as he is living in this horrible basement thing, and his heating system broke, so had no heating and no hot water... I could think of few things that are worse at the moment... (His photos, by the way, are amazing, check out locboy.blogspot.com)

Friday, Jess and Brooke, two girls from UQ who are doing their exchange in Lyon, arrived. They're staying with us for a while (Brooke til Wednesday, Jess til next Monday) so the four of us and Loc went out for dinner at Le Cafe and had delicious simple french food... I had the best Croque Monsieur I've ever had in my entire life... That afternoon we'd been shopping in the Marais, an activity which we continued on Friday... I'm still trying to work out my budget, but Jess bought a gorgeous pair of boots and a lovely coat.

Saturday night Steph, Brooke, Jess, Anna and I went to Julien's (Steph's new french lover) play up in Montmartre. I don't know if I'm a fan of french theatre, it was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. It was four short little scenes (about 20 minutes each) and there was a lot of nudity. The first one was about the myth of the goddess Diana, but as far as I'm aware involved a lot of rubbing meat on naked bodies....


Anyway, after the play, we went to a Turkish restaurant in Montmartre with all the actors in the play, so we ended up commandeering the entire restaurant... It's open all night, and we stayed there until about 4am. The five of us girls were quite conspicuous, given we're all blonde, and also happened to be the only blondes there.

Today the four Aussie girls had brunch at a little market in the Marais. For 20euro we got fruit salad, yoghurt, the best scone I've ever had, a huge assortment of cured meats and cheese, scrambled eggs, coffee, freshly squeezed apple juice, and a really yummy green salad. It was delicious. Then, it was such a lovely day (in that it was freezing cold, but the sun was at least out) so we decided to walk from the Marais across Le Petit Pont to Notre Dame. We headed inside and had a look around, and although I've been a couple of times it never ceases to amaze me how beautiful it is... Then we crossed Le Pont Neuf to the Louvre and Jardin des Tuileries... Also, special shout out to Carmen - I saw the restaurant where Carrie has dinner with Aleksandr Petrovsky's ex-wife.... We wandered home and after doing all my internet business we are going to head back home to dump our computers and come back to The Thistle for Trivia Night!

Am going to upload some photos, and belatedly attach them to posts soon, so look forward to that! Am starting to feel marginally homesick, but by the time it comes on full force I will probably be swamped with uni work!

La Deuxieme Soiree and other news...

Naked man from Le Dindon

So you last heard from me I believe after Thursday night. Friday was fairly quiet, as I was pretty busy recovering. Saturday was much the same. Saturday night, however, was another story.

Sunday was Steph's birthday so we decided to head out in our neighbourhood for a few quiet drinks... So off we trotted to Le Cafe Noir, a very cute french bar a few minutes walk away on Rue Montorgueil, the big pedestrian street filled with bars and restaurants. After Tess left to work at Cafe Oz, Steph and I befriend Hector, the Chilean bartender/history student/documentary maker, who kindly provided with a few drinks on the house.

Next we caught a cab to La Perle in the Marais, which is a very popular bar/restaurant, probably because the drinks are relatively cheap. We met a french man (an agent for soccer players) who holds something of a candle for Steph, and his various friends. They were a little bit clingy, so I don't think we'll be back at La Perle for a while!

Lastly we went to Le Dindon, where an actor/potential love of Steph's works. It was actually closed, but Julien let us in, where we were confronted with a man wandering around completely naked. Unfortunately we arrived a little bit late to get the story, so I'm still not really sure why he decided clothes were unnecessary.

Anyway, I chatted to the owner and a couple of other lovely frenchmen, and we were kindly provided with copious amounts of champagne... This meant that when we eventually arrived home at 5am, we literally had to crawl up the stairs to our apartment... Sadly we live on the last floor over a very rickety, ancient staircase... To make matters worse, the light isn't working at the moment...

We had orientation today, it wasn't particularly exciting, but french and methodology classes start tomorrow for two weeks, before actual classes start...

Our internet box should be delivered sometime this week, so I will soon be much better at updating! Miss and love you all xox

Une Soiree

My first night out in Paris - amazing. We headed out for Steph's birthday (which is actually Sunday). After a couple of aperitifs at our place, the two of us and Tess, another Australian girl, caught a cab to the bar at Hotel Coste, a stunningly beautiful and achingly trendy hotel in the 1st.

After having what may have been the most expensive drink I've ever had the pleasure of drinking, we wandered down to Footsie, a bar close to Hotel Coste, populated by bankers and playing the worst mix of music I've ever had the misfortune to be subjected to. The drink prices are like the stock exchange - the more drinks someone orders the higher the price will rise. We drove the price of rose up 10 cents. Yay for us!

Next off we walked to Cafe Oz on the Grands Boulevards. Tess works there, so we managed to get free drinks off the bar staff, and had a chat to lovely french boys who believed that Australia was actually a larger version of Cafe Oz (think Union Jacks...)

Finally, we caught a cab to our final destination - Le Baron. We arrived at about midnight, so it hadn't picked up at all. But, given my love for a good dance, I quickly befriended Cindy, a stylist, and her friend Camil. The clientele at Le Baron are all artists/writers/fashionistas etc, and by the end of the night I was great friends with a music video director, a painter, a writer, and a man who looked like Johnny Depp with long hair. My first impression was that it was going to be horribly pretentious, but the people were so much fun (albeit un peu bizarre) and the music was fantastic.

Still getting established, but Saturday night I believe we're heading out to another club, Favela Chic, with some boys we met last night. We're also going to see a play that a boy Steph met earlier is in next Saturday, and hopefully will get to see Ladyhawke at Nouvelle Casino next Thursday night...

I'll keep you informed.

Internet

Trying to hammer a stop into the bed with my heel

Internet... such a brilliant creation. I've moved in to my apartment, but sadly am yet to establish an internet connection (will hopefully get on it tomorrow) so for the moment I'm sitting in The Thistle, a lovely Scottish pub just down the street.

It's thus far absolutely freezing, snowed very heavily on Monday when I arrived, and briefly again today. Thus far I have bought and assembled an Ikea bed (using my shoe as a hammer), cleaned out H&M, eaten about four baguettes and three wheels of cheese, and realised that I really need a new pair of very waterproof boots.

Will be updating regularly as soon as I get my internet connection up and running. Right now I miss you all a great deal, and hope you're getting on alright without me!

Au Revoir

I'm sitting here feeling a little bit sorry for myself, and more than a little nauseous. Thanks to all who came and wished me farewell last night, it was a wild evening with lots of drinks and a couple of tears. Thanks also to those who made it to brunch on Monday, it was a lovely day.

I'm going to miss you all more than you could know, but will see you before you realise, and in the meantime can keep you entertained and occuppied at work with more blog posts!

Au revoir mes chers, à bientot xox

Cold Feet

It's three sleeps until my departure, and I must confess I'm starting to get what some people might call cold feet. I still haven't started packing, organising any of my documentation, or even worked out what I have to sort out before 1pm on Sunday. I think my desire to avoid any sort of preparation is a symptom of my nervousness, or aforementioned cold feet.

Unfortunately my condition is unlikely to be cured upon my arrival. The maximum temperature during the day is expected to be 1 degree, with a chance of snow. I suspect it will be more than my feet that feel the cold.