The-morning-after-the-night-before. Well, the afternoon after. . .

Last night was awesome! I’m so glad Holly convinced me to go to that Erasmus do because I had a really good time and saw loads of people there that I recognised and met loads more new people! I’ll start from the beginning (As Maria said “A very good place to start” :op): Holly and I dolled ourselves up to go to this thing and headed for the Bastille via the trusty metro, as we had made plans to meet some of Holly’s mates there before making an appearance at our final destination. When we arrived I was introduced to: Bernie (Bernadette), a sweet little character from Singapore with absolutely fantastic English; Anna-Marie, a quiet girl from Finland who will be in my “Histoire de la langue” classes from now on; and Daniela, a Swedish girl who I got on brilliantly with :o) With these first few introductions out of the way we went for a quick drink/bite to eat in Mackie D’s before we found the bar we were aiming for: SanzSans.

When we arrived the party was already in full swing, but we were to see it MUCH busier! :op Straight away I recognised a girl from one of my classes at the Sorbonne, Marie, and upon greeting her, she informed me that she was working for Parismus that night and hoped we had a lovely evening :o) We headed for a table in the corner of the bar (the only one free) as a group and all of us sat down to people watch for as bit. Gradually throughout the evening, one or two of us got up to visit the bar and acquire drinks for the others and we began to introduce ourselves to others in the room, friends and strangers alike! The Parismus company had a game organised for us all to play; we all wrote our names down on a sticky label and popped them in a little tin, then later on in the evening we were all asked to pick a name from the box, find that person and introduce ourselves to them! A fantastic idea I think, especially as, although I didn’t have time to put my name in the box, I managed to find my label person! :o)

Recall me describing a house party that Holly, Mel and I went to at my friend Steph’s place? Well, I saw Steph again last night, very drunk and very happy :oD Hehehehe! I also bumped into quite a few people from various Sorbonne classes, including Siri, who came to sit with us when I found her. After about an hour’s deliberation and discussion, Bernie and I realised we’d been in the same French language classes without noticing each other! She had sat at the very front for every lesson and I had been at the very back. One contributing factor to this revelation was a guy called James, who I instantly recognised from my class, when Bernie called him over to be introduced to me! It was very confusing, but James and I chatted for a bit before he went off to mingle again. He is actually English as well, so it was nice to see that Holly and I aren’t the only ones here from good old Angleterre!

Although it was lovely to be in this pleasant, reverie-like atmosphere, I was soon jolted out of the delusion that my international world was perfect; on my way out of the bar with Holly and Kristin (a good mutual friend from Germany) we stopped to talk to some people who had also just left the bar, but we were quickly accosted by a strange French bloke who introduced himself to me, asked me how I was, and invited himself back to my flat for “ a good fun time” all in the same breath. Silly man. Why do blokes think lines like that work on us girls? I informed him in no uncertain terms that I was NOT a prostitute, and that he would not “get any” from me! One thing’s for sure, I won’t be wearing that outfit again in a hurry!

Anyway, on another note, earlier today I went into Uni to meet Siri for lunch, and then I actually managed to find my classroom for the class I missed last week. It was really interesting! We were taught about ancient runes, Anglo Saxon England and we’ve started learning how to translate Old English texts. :o) I think this will be a great subject! We only have to write one essay for it too! We should expect to have that set about 2 weeks before we finish the term. But then again, it shouldn’t be all work and no play. . . ;op

Here are some pics of Siri and me in a park down the road from the Sorbonne, which is where we had lunch today. We found some rather odd-looking children’s toys there; see if you guys can work out which animals they are meant to be:

We think this one was some kind of dinosaur. . .

. . . with a weird meerkat-ish, fox-like, kangaroo kind of thing in the background. . .

. . . this one, I reckon, was a cat (although from one angle it looks like a warthog!)

I think it’s quite ridiculous to have weird non-animals in a children’s play park; if you were all parents, would you want your kids playing on toys which look like mutant hybrid creatures?! I think not!

Anyways, I’d better go now, got to read the Tempest in preparation for tomorrow’s morning lecture.

Til next time! xxxx