Friday, February 27, 2009

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!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

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)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

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!

Monday, February 23, 2009

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...

Saturday, February 21, 2009

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!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

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

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

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!

Monday, February 16, 2009

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!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

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

Saturday, February 7, 2009

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.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

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!