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...)