Paris, je t'aime- again!

Bonjour ! Woah it has been a long time, but I must admit things have got a lot busier all of a sudden recently!  And plus, with a 6000 word project dealine soon approaching, updating a blog really isn't a priority.. as much as I'm using it as a distraction now! But I'm just going to bash out what's been happening in Lily's life recently so I can tick this off my list and 'crack on with my project'. A sentence I've been saying since September.

Exciting things: 

A few weekends ago, I did a proper Jouy-Paris-Jouy night out, staying out pas the last train and returning  to my room at 7am! It was for Julie's birthday, so I met some of her Irish friends- who are so full of beans! I didn't even drink because the drinks were so expensive, I don't know how I survied until 6am before the trains started but I did. The music was great, that must have been what kept me going! Julie and I were the only hard core ones who lasted until sunrise, and we evern found a cute 24hour brasserie café where we got (nice, not greasy chicoland-esque) homemade chips and a cup of tea whilst looking over the awakening of Montparnasee square at 6am. This is what Paris is about! Funniest moment on the train back in the morning, a French guy came up with uncontrollable hiccups. After asking me for a bottle of water, to which I replied, 'no sorry but try holding your breath and swallowing three times', he groaned and curled up in a ball on the seat, his shoulders jiggling up and down constantly. He then got out his phone to call his friend, and from what I understood by his angry voice and what he was saying, his friends had left without waiting for him or something, so he was having a go at them, but I couldn't take him seriously because literally every other second was followed by a hiccup. 'Are you serious? hic'. 'What are you playing at? hic', 'Shut hic up!'. LOL. Julie and I were just in stitches behind him! 

I  took a day off  last Wednesday to see my lovely friend Ella before she packs up and leaves France! ( asif!) We trated ourselves to another day at Disneyland, starting this time with the Studio Park before finsihing at the main park. I liked the studio park, there were less children and in my opinion more interesting rides to go on. We saw a cool car stunt show too! I actually did  rides!! House of terror, (after which, I was so shaky that I had to sit down and was mocked at by a northerner saying 'Oha, she's all sheehyyken up!'). Space mountain, rock n rollercoaster... there is a finding nemo ride which is actually quite fast and jolty and spinny and backwards in the dark! But fun all the same. I was very brave I must say, I am overcoming my fears! I had a really great day off and it was nice seeing Ella. One of our friends, Sarah, now works there so we met her after work and had yummy nacho's burgers at planent hollywood for tea! (with ehr discount, of course :p)

Thursday night, after shaking my booty at Zumba, I went over to my colleague, Christine's, house for dinner and the airing of Desperate Housewives in French! She knows I am a big fan, and despite already having watched the latest series, I took up her offer to go and have dinner and watch the show at her house, because, you have to take these opportunities! As I know the story lines, it was good watching it in French as I understood it. I met her mum, had a lovely home cooked dinner and the evening was just lovely :)

Last weekend was really good, and I have fallen back in love with Paris. To add to my sudden burst of bravery, I took a ride on the back of Aurélien's motorbike on friday night. We cruised to Versailles along the motorway at speeds which I can only describe through my thoughts as 'Ohmygosh I am going to die'.

There was a free boat trip along the Seine on Saturday evening organised by the HEC  International Students and we basically had a ride in a cute boat along the river seeing the sights with a tour commentary. Who ever knew that each bridge across the river told a story?! There was a little meal with wine included and we watched the sunset along the river- so nice! It's not every day you get to eat smoked salmon and drink wine whilst passing the Eiffel Tower! And the Statue of Liberty...! Afterwards the girls and I went and got a crèpe from a very cute crèperie in the Marais, really hit the spot!  Later, Sylvia and I went to meet Aurélien and his friend  at a pub to watch an important football match (don't ask me what though; Lyon vs Marseille, the League Cup perhaps??) so that was fun, just chilled having a drink in a nice pub and chatting to the guys. Lyon lost though, which didn't go down too well. I feell that I am learning more about football now, so I can join in conversation and my boyfriend's friends will think I'm cool. Even if it is mostly just French insults to the 'arbitre'!We got a lift back to campus which is always a luxury  when trains stop running at 10! And in his flash new car too.

Sunday morning I went to Paris again in the morning to watch a friend do the marathon. We spent a lot of time taking métros all across Paris, but it was worth it. We managed to see her twice and she did so well! Then after I went to meet my neighbors from home who were in Pairs for the weekend for lunch near Notre Dame. We had a lovely quiche, salad and apricot tart in a cute tucked away café just behing the cathedral! 

I was told that Sarkozy was making an appearance in paris that afternoon, as was François Hollande. So in order to delay working on my project further, I went over to Concorde to see Mr President! There were lots of people, lots of flags and lots of cheering. I didn't stay long, just long enough to take a photo to say I've seen him. There were too many people to get a good spot, and I couldn't really hear what he was saying anyway as it was echoy and windy. Elections this Sunday, it's quite interesting with all the election stuff happening at the moment. Then I met Aurélien and his friend again for coffee and then a lift back (I'm not with him just for the lifts, honest). I did some 'work', skyped mum then they came back again with Pizza so we just chilled together all night! It's been ages since I have had a nice week end in Paris, it's a shame that the weather has turned windy and rainy recently , but I just keep hoping it will pass as it's only April Showers.

In other good news, I think my summer is sorted. So I finsih here end of june, go on holiday to Tunisia and then I hopefully have an aupair job with a French family for end of July until mid August.I will come back to England for 3 weddings (in the same week!) and spend some time at home, try and move my stuff into my new student house. Theeenn... I have a month's job working at BNP bank in September!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soo exciting, can't believe my application got accepted! It will be at the same branch as my boyfriends, which could be a challenge, but it was he who encouraged me to apply and I think the fact that I speak English was a bonus. Even if the Au*pair job doesn't work out I will still be very happy with the Bank internship. I just want to make the most of being in France before Uni starts again! 

I went to see the studen'ts musical the other night. It was the show which I auditioend for but then turned down the secodn round of auditions. It was entertaining enough, nothing compared to what Southampton Performing Arts Society can throw together though! If you're going to sing the Friends theme tune, at least GET THE WORDS RIGHT!! Oh, je n'étais pas contente. 

I have a close uni friend with me this weekend. She's currently asleep in my room as I had to do my 3rd 8.20 start this morning!! Lionel has been away this week which has meant Christine and I manning the library by oursleves, but it's been quite nice actually! I'm looking forward to a weekend with Lucy, I'm off this afternoon so we'll go out exploring!

If you are still with me, well done! I'll stop here as ths has already taken me like an hour to write! As you can see I've been quite busy, and the next few weekends will be the same, with a trip back home, a trip to Astérix Park and Reims planned for May. 

Bref, je dois bosser. A la prochaine! 

Ai se eu te pego!

I wouldn't reccommend you look up the translation of this title, but it seems to be the song of the moment across Europe and I can't go one day without it being played, and for lack of any other inspiration of a blog title... why not! 

En fait, this song title does kiiiinda have something to do with this blog. So basically a Brazilian singer, Michel Telo, has invaded the charts and the hearts of young Europeans with his notoriously acclaimed 'Ai se eu tu pego', and you can't escape the tune on French radio. ( I must even admit; the mp3 found itself in my amazon basket the other day...). Even one night at Zumba this song came on and we discovered that there is in fact a dance to accompany it, which pretty much mirrors the lyrics of the song in the least subtle manner! 

Where am I going with this? You may ask. Well, this weekend I spent a lovely couple of days visitng the beautiful Loire region in France. Famous for it's chateauxs ( It's known as the Chateau de la Loire region), the area is very well looked after and stunning in terms of landscape and architecture. The International Society on campus had organised a trip, and I must say it was very well organised as we had meals included in very accommodating restuarants, a coach to take us to three different castles, tours around castles and enough free time to explore Tours, where we stayed. I really loved Tours, there was a lot of character, and it was just great to be in a town which actually had shops, bars, crèperies, restaurants ( all which were open till late!) and people! Once we arrived on Friday night, we checked into our hostel, which was pretty grim, then headed out to the square where we were lucky enough to have tables especially set up for a group of 20 of us so we could sit outside, have a drink and just soak up the atmosphere. Within this group were some very cool Brazilians, who, once they heard me attempt to sing this Portuguese song quietly to myself, immediately corrected my pronounciations and then the song just kinda became the 'soundtrack' of the weekend. For some reason, we thought it would be fun to film us in the grounds of one of the castles singing and dancing this renowned song. So there we were, standing outside Chateaux de Chenonceau , the sun shining and glistening off the river, couples strolling in the blooming gardens, bref, tranquility partout, and we burst out with thrusting and proclaiming to the world 'Ai se eu te pego!' It was just so not in keeping with the étiquette of this historical site but we had such a laugh! So there we go, one theme of the weekend I decided to use in this blog! 

We had tours around Amboise, Chenonceau and Chambord castles. Each having it's own story and impressive architecture.It was a great way to see a different part of France and I enjoyed just being out of the hustle and bustle of Paris and being able to just relax and appreciate the calmness of it all. One crazy thign though, on Sunday morning walking around Tours, I bumped into two fellow Southampton course friends who were visiting the town too- what a small world!

In other news, things have been very eventful but exciting. A couple of weeks ago I went back to Nottingham for my 21st birthday weekend, during which I was very spoilt! As I don't have Easter Holidays here, it was my only chance to come back to see my friends and family, and I had a lovely Open House with lots of special people who came to see me and I had a great weekend full of suprises ( including a French Bank Man :p ), nice presents, cake, champagne and sunshine :) It was hard leaving and having to go back to work, but I had such a wonderful weekend all the same.

The campus has been pretty lively the past few weeks, with new Student's Union elections. There was music, bumper cars, trampolines, segways, sumo suits,free food, free drinks, free goodies, posters, sirens, happeneing all day and all night for about two weeks, and POWs pretty much every night! Not that I attended that many of them, but there was just so much going on across campsu that you couldn't concentrate! And what is it with French student campaigns and condoms? Chucked around like confetti! Can you imagine that in England? The French are wierd.

And equally, what is it with everything being shut ALL THE TIME in France. Theres none of this Tesco 24h convenience malarky. You want to get something for dinner at 8 pm, nope you're just gonna have to make do with what you've got in your cupboards because no food shops are open. Sunday shopping? you've got to be kidding.  Go to the ticket office because the machine is broken, no body there. Pop to the bank on monday. It's shut. Go to the post office on your lunch break. Fermé. France, you'd make so much more money if you JUST STAYED OPEN!!!!! 

Things in the library have been all go. We have migrated our email accounts over to gmail and it's cuased more stress than it's worth! Being young, you know, I can adapt quite easily to the cahnge and just get on with it, some of my colleages really are not impressed with the changeover and all I hear is ' J'en sais rien!' and 'Je comprends pas' and 'J'en ai marre!!!!' all day.

Par contre, the campus is much quieter, sun is out and it's Easter weekend which means I can eat chocolate again yaay. I will be around Paris for the three day weekend but that is all I get. I'm composing a list of 'Things to do before leaving France' so perhaps I will get to tick off some of those things this weekend. Like hiring a Vélib' or doing and actual Nuit Blanche. 

Happy Pâques to you all! And here's just a teaser of Michel and his groupies ;) 

( The girl who filmed it forgot to press 'record' for the first like minute, but I am sure you'll get the idea...)