Oranges ARE Lemons.

Sorry about lack of posting.

I've been unable to shift this nasty cold so far. Have been doing all the right things! Been popping paracetamol like it's going out of fashion, drinking loads (although primarily Diet Coke because I hate water), and the other day I bought a whole load of oranges to inject some serious Vitamin C into my system, but. . .well. . . They're sour. I need to wait for them to ripen, methinks, before I try ingesting the masquerading lemons again! Perhaps by that time, my cold will have disappeared. C'est la vie.

I've been getting some writing under my belt today. I've started a notebook (with a pig on :op) just for scrawling rough notes and stories and ideas in. It's VERY raw and VERY rough, but I'm enjoying just letting my pen do the walking so to speak! Complete load of nonsense, but I already feel like I've taken a load off my mind. Tis quite relaxing :o)

Anyways, I'm going to go watch Bridget Jones with Holly now and make my bed. I did laundry today :o) Be proud all!

Tootles! xxxx

Updating. . .

Sorry there has been no bloggage from me yesterday or the day before, I've been absolutely knackered every time I come home from my French classes and couldn't be bothered to post entries. So here are the updates:

Tuesday. . .

I left on time that morning in order to get to my class, intending to leave it at 11am to go to a "rendez-vous" with the Sorbonne License administration department. This is basically the enrolment department for Undergraduates. However, I was very clever and I got so engrossed in my French class that I completely forgot that I should have left at 11am! By the way, my classes take place just round the corner from the Pantheon!

I walked out of my lesson at the normal finishing time and met Holly on the way home as she was heading to her own class. She had had her own problems with the registration and hadn't been able to do it either. So I wandered around the Sorbonne buildings for nearly an hour trying to work out where I should have gone. I struggled with trying to convey to Non-English speaking officials around the place that I didn't know what I was doing or where. Nobody could help me! I ended up leaving the place in a right huff because I couldn't understand anyone's instructions and nobody could help me until 2 hours later because all offices had closed for lunch!

I went back and bought my diary though, from the little stationary shop. The day wasn't entirely wasted :o)
The rest of the day was a bit boring so not worth mentionning.

Wednesday. . .

We both got up extra early so we could try and enrol together before my class but I took so long to get ready that we only just got there in time for me to be a few minutes early for my class. I actually DID remember to leave at 11am today (Because I am planning on doing a mixture of modules from different teaching levels, I was told to get both a License appointment and a Masters one.) Well, I'd missed the License one yesterday, so I went to my Masters appointment.

This is the SHORT story: I queued for 20 minutes outside a room on the off chance alone that I was in the right place. I told the man at the door what I was there for and he showed me into the room. He gestured for me to head for a young man at a desk, so I did and I sat down and gave him my incomplete dossier. Now, for the record, from the moment I stepped through that door until I saw Holly later on, I spoke French ONLY (not a word of English passed my lips from 11am until 4:30pm!)

Anyways, I spent about 40 minutes trying to explain to this guy and the woman next to him that I had been given permission to do 1 Masters module with a few License modules, despite only being in my 2nd year of University studies in England. They disputed it back and forth for a LONG time before the woman called someone else, who eventually confirmed what I had said to them in the first place! After all this fuss, the young man trying to deal with my enrolment told me to go somewhere in the building; when I looked at him non-plussed he led me to the right room and told me who else to speak to. After that it took me a mere 15 minutes more before I found myself completely enrolled as a Sorbonne Masters student, card and all!

Having finally managed to do what I thought was going to be an impossible task, I treated myself to lunch at the same open air café opposite the Sorbonne that Holly and I had eaten in beforehand. I actually sat and ate lunch, by myself and it was AMAZING! Here, sitting anywhere by yourself isn't considered loner activity, it's artistic and classy and everyone does it! I hate doing anything by myself, as most of you know, which is why I am extremely proud of myself for conquering this! I had half of a huge pizza (brought the rest home to have for dinner) and then I relaxed for a while with a cup of hot chocolate, watching the world go by. . .

By that evening, I had developed a very sore throat, but unfortunately it didn't stop me from staying up late to chat to people on msn!

Today, I am strongly wishing I'd gone to bed earlier! I woke up with the feeling that I had swallowed a bag of razors and I found it very difficult to get out of bed. I now have a horrendous cold. I feel like poo. I look like poo. And worst of all, I can't sleep it off :o( I tried to have a rest this afternoon because I was feeling run down and exhausted, but I couldn't do more than doze. My sore throat is impelling me to cough every 3/4 seconds and after doing that all day, you can imagine what the cough now sounds like! So, I think I should probably get to bed soon; will try to get some decent kip!

Thank God tomorrow is Friday! xxxx

P.S. did I mention that yesterday the police did a raid of some kind at a little shop down our road? ;o) Dunno what it was all about, probably not anything serious, but it's fun to imagine!

Hellooooooo Officer! ;op

J'ai besoin des Lessons Francais. . .

This morning Holly and I left the flat at 9am (which was really hard despite relatively early turn in yesterday night) and power-walked to the Sorbonne to check what our French language test results were. It seems that our test papers served only to separate us into groups of different standards of French; Holly was in one group and I am in another, mine starting at 10am and hers at 12. It was a good idea to have arrived early as my first class started approx. 6 minutes after I discovered which group I was in and which room I had to go to. Luckily somebody pointed out that the room was in the same building that the test had been in, so I found it fairly easily.

The class was good; our teacher is lovely :o) She speaks with very clear, very comprehensible French and I felt like I was back at school for the majority of the lesson! We covered what I would consider to be very, very basic French so I felt quite confident when leaving the class. Holly was in the same room almost straight after me so I gave her a quick lowdown on what she'd be doing and what the tutor was like before she scurried into her class. I headed out of the building and began what was to be a VERY long walk back to the flat.

I bypassed a large stationary stall outside a shop (was hoping to buy an academic planner there but found that I had left my purse at home; of course, sod's law meant that I didn't discover this until the diary had been scanned in at the checkout, but the girl was very kind when I told her how stupid I was. . . ), after which I walked a 30 minute walk in just over an hour to get home. It didn't take long for me to assess how little we had in the way of food and drink in the flat so after about an hour's chilling in front of the PC, I trekked up the road for about 10 minutes to the nearest supermarket, "Ed". I came home absolutely laden like a pack mule and filled the fridge and freezer before settling down to watch "Sex and the City".

Holly came home shortly after that with some shopping of her own which she managed to squeeze in with mine; we seem to be fairly well stocked for now :o) After a few hours of just relaxing an enjoying life we decided to sit down and tackle the "Dossier d'inscription" which is essentially a frustratingly complicated registration package of forms, in French, which we have to have done by tomorrow. We gave up. It is IMPOSSIBLE!! Evil thing. I think we'll just ask for help when we get there. Tell them we're hopeless cases and they are retards for expecting us to know all this stuff anyways! Pah.

By the way, we have VERY dedicated Dustbin-men:

They arrived at 9pm! They come every other day, I think, to collect various recycling bins or refuse, depending on the day. It's very eco-friendly :o) I'm impressed. But they are noisy! They came at 10:30pm the other day!

I'm going to get some sleep now; we have our French language refresher lessons from 10-12 (or 12-2pm for Holly) every Monday-Friday for the next 3 weeks!

Write again soon! xxxx

Ouch! Don't bite!

It's an itchy day today. I am absolutely RIDDLED with Mozzy bites! I don't know how they've gotten to me, as I've been mostly covered up, but the French Mosquitoes must just have a taste for Amy-blood now because they keep nibbling me! Argh!

Anyways, yesterday was another slobby day; we didn't stir from the apartment all afternoon (yesterday didn't have a morning) but at about 7pm we decided that we would doll ourselves up and go out to dinner! So we did doll up, and we walked to an Indian restaurant between the Pompidou centre and the river. Well, I walked, Holly hobbled :oD She had a pair of very high stiletto heels on and she couldn't walk in them without difficulty! It was very funny to watch as she squealed whenever we came to cobbled pavements! :op Sorry Holly!


Was a YUMMY dinner :o) (The stupid face was not intended by the way. . . .) And we got some weird, minty sugar-coated seasonings in a pot with our receipt. . . I was brave enough to try them to see what they were but can't see a lot of point in them.


After dinner, we walked to the riverside intending to sit in a little café again and take in the view, but everywhere was closing. By this time, it was around 11:30pm, so not really a surprise there. We took some arty photos by the bridge and then ambled slowly back towards the flat. We did find an open café in the heart of what we now know to be the centre of the Gay/Lesbian district.



Oh yeah, and we kissed a giant penis. Hehe. A group of guys was wandering along the road in the opposite direction to us and one of them, we noticed, was wearing a huge pink squishy costume. It was hard to discern what he was dressed as, to begin with. He stopped to chat to us and we told him we weren't French so he started speaking to us in English. We were told a nice little story about his recent engagement and how tonight was a sort of tradition; as he explained in broken English, "I am supposed to dress like, a. . . erm. . . a. . ."

"A knob?" I suggested helpfully. He broke into a huge grin and started to laugh with his friends, nodding in agreement. He asked us if we would kiss his "head" for good luck in his marriage, and we thought it was quite funny too. So we did :o)

An interesting evening anyway. Tis a pity that we were too shellshocked to think of taking a picture with the costumed man, as that would have made a very cool addition to my previous Paris photos (marvel at my alliteration!).

Thanks to all who have been reading this blog for persevering with me this week. It has been quite a discovery so far and I hope to find even more exciting news to tell you in the next few months!

xxxx

PUPPIES!!!!!!!!!

This morning we had to get up fairly early in order to walk to the Sorbonne for the French test. We arrived perfectly on time although we were forced to wait in line for a place in the Auditorium. We were in a separate building and were queuing down a spiral stone staircase towards an enormous lecture hall, bedecked with black leather seats. Talk about grandeur! As we neared the front, we started to get nervous at the sight of every other student wielding their home university student ID cards. Holly did not have her card with her and neither did I as both cards were in the ID packs prepared for the enrolment yesterday. All was fine though because the woman on the door had a list of names to cross off.
We found some places to sit, were handed out our test papers (which thankfully weren't too thick) and when the last person had taken their seat we were told we could begin.

That test was INCREDIBLY difficult! I wouldn't be surprised if I was BEGGED to take a place on the French refresher course now! I was quite ashamed by how hard I was finding it and I feel quite embarassed when I imagine the examiner reading my free written section of the paper. . . .
The question (I think) was: Have you ever been scared? If so, when, of what and how did you react?
My answer: I am scared of spiders. I think they are disgusting; I especially don't like the way they move. Very creepy. Last week I saw one in the bathroom and I immediately screamed to my brother "COME HERE NOW!" He came running in and hit it with a Maths book."

I had been quite pleased with myself writing that all in French, but we also had a multiple choice question which was something along the lines of: Choose the right word for the gap, "ceux" "ce" "ces" or "ce la". . . I was stumped. I am sorry to say, it came down to an "eeny meeny miny mo" decision. I handed in the paper and sped out of the hall at the soonest opportunity; as I said before, it wouldn't be a disappointment at all if I managed to get on the course, and it sounds like I need it now too!

Holly and I grabbed some lunch, had a chat and then walked home. Via the pet shops by the river. . . .

I want one. Seeing those gorgeous little puppies makes me go all gooey inside :o) I'd love to take them home and love them. Maybe sometime in the future I'll have a little puppy of my own. But for now I'll have to make do with admiring them from behind the glass case. . .

Anyways, I'm gonna go watch some comedy sketches with Holly now. xxxx

Starting at the Sorbonne. Or so we thought. . . !

Well, what a stupid day this has been! After waking up extra early to get to the Sorbonne at a reasonable time, we haven't actually done much that was useful!

We took everything we needed, document-wise, and speed walked to the University building. When we arrived, we had a little wander around the building and asked the concierge where we were supposed to go. I was experiencing a mental block on the french words for: "directions" and "registration", so we spoke to him in English. He directed us into the front office, where we managed to explain, in French, what we were there for, thus, receiving a map outlining the directions to the Erasmus registration area, and a reminder that the administration wouldn't begin until 2pm (which we hadn't been told).

By the way, I apologise for this sounding long-winded but I think you should have all the details to realise what a wasted trip this was for us.

Anyways, as we left the building, I thanked the concierge for his help (in French this time) and he looked at me stunned and said "You speak French!" which made me feel guilty for not trying hard enough to make do with the few words I COULD remember. We headed for a café/restaurant opposite the Sorbonne's main doors for some lunch and a drink whilst we waited for 2pm to roll around. Now, I'm not going to outline my lunch every day, but today was something quite unique. I made my mind up to be brave and discover how good the French "Confit du Canard" is. As some of you may know already, this is basically very tender, roast duck. And it was DELICIOUS! The only thing I hadn't counted on was that the duck was served on a bed of crispy potatoes sautéed in garlic. No problem there, one might think.

See how yummy it looked.

Only drawback was, that the meal should have been advertised as "Garlic with a hint of Potato thrown on the side". I was terrified of speaking too much, or too closely, to people after that, in case I repelled them with my garlic-breath! We posed for some pictures by the fountains in front of the Sorbonne front doors:

. . . and then we proceeded to the place indicated on the map to begin our enrolment. Or so we thought.

After knocking clearly, we waited outside the door for nearly half and hour before the man we needed to speak to finally finished his meeting and allowed us to enter his office. We had the entire 20 minute talk with him in French, because, as I understood from his e-mails during the past few months, he has very limited knowledge of the English language. That put a lot of pressure on Holly and myself to try and understand everything he was saying and to respond to his questions. I found that I understaood every word of what he told us, until he asked me a specific question that I could not simply answer with "Oui", or "Non"! Sod's law at work again.

After that, we went looking for the meeting place our coordinator had given us in an e-mail last night. Unable to find a place that was clearly labelled on the wall-mounted floorplans everywhere, we resorted to asking a receptionist, who misunderstood Holly's question and, instead, informed us where we should go to enrol for certain classes! We chose to ignore her misdirections and followed our noses, only to find that the room we were looking for has been exactly above us on the next floor up. The floorplan was wrong, I tell you. WRONG!

Anyway, we met Dr G (our coordinator) and he was extremely unhelpful. He kept telling us worrying things, like "You'll have to ask each individual tutor if they will permit you to join their class. They are under no obligation to take you in." and "You'll need to double check the number of credits each module has, because each module may have different numbers and if they don't add up to 30 at the end of your term, your coordinator at Brunel can ask you to resit all the Brunel modules in September"!! OMG. He also told us that Brunel has not prepared us very well and that we should have a form, which we obviously had never heard of when he mentioned it. AND it seems we shall have to enrol in each class separately, which means a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, which we can't do until after the 21st! This means our enrolment procedure is drawn out to the extreme and nothing will be over and done with for a very long time! I was hoping to have it all out of the way, so I could concentrate on enjoying Paris :o(

However, this guy, not only has the worst news, but he is ever-so-slightly awkward in conversation. He was supposed to be giving us information we couldn't get anywhere else, but every time he finished answering one of our questions (and generally not with an answer but the infuriating comment "you'll have to check back at a later date") he would sit and stare at us both, in . . . . . . . total . . . . . . . silence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . well, we left the room feeling even more confused about everything and slightly annoyed that much of the conversation had been silent awkwardness!

I headed back to the flat after this, bypassing a supermarket to buy vast quantities of chocolate on the way, and I sat in front of the computer and watched Frasier episodes until my eyes were square. Twas consolation enough for the pooey day. Hello Milka :o)

Oh and on the way back to the flat I saw my first French geek shop. Peeked in and it's filled with comics, small ugly models of creatures that only exist in fantasy games and smelly, spotty french teenagers. Hehe.

By the way, tomorrow is the French test. If I fail, I'll be given refresher language classes. If I pass, it means my French is adequate enough to get me by for the coming 3 months so I can't say I'm worried about it. All the same, I really should be getting some sleep now so, will let you know what happens.

Nitey! xxxx

A better day :o)

I am considerably more upbeat writing today's blog, than I was when labouring over yesterday's. I still woke up late, even after vowing to try and get up earlier. Sat at the computer contemplating being more positive with the day today until I decided to go and get the important things sorted.

First stop - Bank account. Holly and I headed back to HSBC to get me one of these sensible French bank accounts, so that I don't have to be charged to get money out of my English ones. We followed somebody else into the building and I decided to be brave. I went straight up to the first desk I came to and said:

"Bonjour, est-ce qu'il y a ici quelqu'un qui peut parler en anglais, s'il vous plait?"

The woman I had spoken to looked bemused, even though I knew my French hadn't been too awful to understand. I'd like to think, instead, that this puzzled look was because my French was so plausible that she wondered why I needed someone who could speak English! Oh well, I'll never really know, will I? So, might as well dream :o)

She called somebody on the phone then led me around the desk towards an office, and guess who we should meet! Yes, it was that GORGEOUS banker we met before! He smiled as we walked towards him and we said our "hello"s as he directed us towards two chairs in his office. You don't need to know the Ins and Outs of how I got my bank account (to be honest, it's just as dull signing the forms as it is hearing about someone signing forms!) However, we made simple conversation with him and found out that he is from Marseille and I tested my spoken French on him. He smiled politely, and responded to whatever it was I said, before giving me lots of forms to sign and date. After that we left and I could barely keep my feet on the ground as we left the building. I am sad to say that I didn't leave in a dignified manner; I was in such an amorous daze that I managed to trip over a 6 foot potted plant as we walked towards the door. What a retard.

Now I'll have to find an excuse to return to HSBC; not only to snare the HOT bloke, but also to prove to him and the rest of the bank staff that I am not always such a clumsy fool! I should have to go back within the next week or so to collect my credit card from the desk, so watch this space!

Feeling thoroughly deranged and humiliated, I dashed back up to the flat to collect a few things and drop off my ID documents, so that Holly and I could go explore. We headed for what Holly described as "a nice little public garden" in the direction of the river Seine, which I suppose was about 5-10 mins walk away from our flat. This turned out to be the Forum des Halles within the grounds of the magnificent St Eustache church, complete with fountain, tiered lawns around a sort of circular courtyard, and huge stone head. . . . hmmm. Anybody who's been to Norwich's Haymarket recently (By Next and opposite Primani); think of those new stone/marble sculptures. This one beats them. There were children climbing all over it too. . . *shudders*

Anyways, Holly and I sat in the "Jardin Des Halles" for a good period of time, watching the wannabe rappers and breakdancers performing (I doubt any of them were older than 15), writing spontaneously in out little studnet notebooks, and watching hundreds of dog owners with their pets meeting and allowing their animals to play together in one, . . . thronging. . . canine jumble. We found it astonishing that apparent strangers were strolling through the park and stopping to chat to each other for company's sake alone! It was quite pleasant to see :o) Makes you realise how unsociable people are in England, where you can't even smile at someone without leaving them with the sneaky suspicion that you have a knife and you're planning to steal their wallet.

Also, We saw a ferret :o) One couple walked right past us with a ferret on a harness lead and sat on a wall nearby, speaking to any passers by about their pet and allowing strangers to stroke it :o) Even the mass of dogs were finding the small creature amusing and kept trying to lure it away from its owners to play.

Actually, people do seem to be slightly obsessed with their pets. When walking to the "Halles", we spotted this fashion shop. . .

FOR DOGS! (What IS the world coming to?!)

Finally, Holly and I decided that we were hungry so we headed for one of Holly's favourite restaurant/fast food places, Flunch. I was instantly attracted to the place due to its very cool name (Don't judge me now, you've seen the supermarket pics ;op). As we descended into the darkness. . . . nah not really, it was OK, but, on the way down into the restaurant, we passed a scary German man who decided to start talking to us. . . and insisted on telling us over and over that he was German for some reason . . . . . I'm not kidding!! We did our best to tell him that we were English (in both French and English) but he eventually tired of us and moved on (for which we were extremely grateful).

Now, Flunch, I am impressed with and disappointed at the same time. Here's why: They offer a vegetable and pasta stand (like the salad cart in Harvester restaurants) from which you may serve yourself with as much or as little as you desire :o). I chose Lasagne and was not disappointed with the huge portion they proffered; however, it tasted as though they had spread cat food in between the layers of pasta :o(. They give you a drink into the bargain and a dessert is only 1Euro 50 extra, so we paid it (to have yummy Chocolate Mousse for pud) :o). The drink I chose was called Oasis and it tasted just like the children's juice drink I used to have when I was little, Um Bongo! Blast from the past, I remember drinking that after my swimming lessons! Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that, in the end, drink and dessert inc. I paid the equivalent to £5.70! If the Lasagne hadn't been intended for feline connoisseurs, it would have been a good quality, good value meal.

Do you remember yesterday's entry boasted the possibility of playing with small aminals? Well, we hiked to the Seine riverbank to see if the pet shops were still open, but, finding them closed for the day, we decided to have a little wander and see what we could discover. We got as far as the famous "Hotel du Louvre" where we stopped at a little café for a few drinks and a chat. I met a friendly Italian woman who complimented the scruffy doodles in my notebook. We also chatted to the main waiter in the café who asked if we would return tomorrow. I said "peut-être" and we departed. We ambled back to the flat via the Louvre and "La Pyramide" (which was beautifully lit in the twilight of the evening). . .

. . . then we crossed the river and went down some dodgy stone steps to walk along the actual riverbank which was quite a pretty walk.

Back across the river (on the right side now), we sauntered past Notre Dame (which isn't far at all from our flat) and headed for home. When we got back, we watched the televised episodes of Casonova (starring the Shexy David Tennant. . . . mmmmm. . . ) and now consider yourself up to date!

We have a busy day tomorrow, hopefully going to do some enrolling at the Sorbonne, so we need to log off and make sure we have all our important documents sorted and ready to take with us. I'm gonna head for bedlies soon anyways coz I'm cheese and crackered! There you go, Ma. Proof of the exercise and fresh air having it's effects on me :o)

Night all! Wish me luck for tomorrow xxxx

P.S. Here's some fun artwork I thought I'd show you, seeing as I have no rude food for you today :op

The feverish onset of homesickness. . . :o(

Today has been a bit of a rough rollercoaster ride, emotionally.

I didn't see this morning, as I was up late last night chatting to Holly; instead, as soon as I woke up, I lay in bed watching French TV until I could be bothered to get up and get dressed. When I could bring myself to make an effort with the day, Holly and I took a little wander up the road to the nearest supermarket, where we spotted the latest "rude food". . .

Mmmmm, Gayelord biscuits. . . . :op

Hehehe, well, after this retail delight, my day brightened considerably!
However, I was slightly confused to discover this shop in Paris (thought I'd found my way up to Russia instead!):

Hehe, you can even see an Amy reflection in the second one :o) Marvel at the CLAW clutching my camera. . .

After the little walk to the shops, I retreated back into the flat in order to write this blog entry and send some important e-mails. Unfortunately, when I was in the middle of sending an e-mail to an admin guy at the Sorbonne, the internet crashed! Holly and I desperately fought to repair the connection but it didn't want to play ball. We decided to turn the pooter off and give it a rest whilst we walked up the road to HSBC to sort out a french account for me. When we got there, we were introduced to an extremely BUFF young bloke with a sexy voice and a scrummy tan! He led Holly and myself into his office, locked the door and proceeded to have his wicked way with us. . .

. . . nah unfortunately not the case, but he WAS HOT, so I certainly wouldn't have said no! No, instead of that sexy little scenario, he told me that I needed certain documents (which I did not, of course, have on my person at the time) in order to open an account there, and that the branch was closing for the day in approximately 30 minutes. Yippee. . . So, we power-walked back to the flat (luckily, it is only round the corner from us) and hoped that the internet had fixed itself so we could print off a document I had received in an e-mail attachment.

It had not. We succumbed to the fact that sod's law was not going to permit me to open a bank account today, so I shall have to wait just that little bit longer before I will be financially secure enough to shop (which my parentals, no doubt, believe is a very good thing!). Grrrrrrrrr.

I decided to call my mother for a chat and a moan, whilst Holly went for a walk along the river. Talking to Mum made me feel extremely homesick, but when I'd hung up, I settled myself on the double sofa for the remainder of the afternoon to watch Amelie and eat Milka chocolate:

Yum.

After a relaxing afternoon, Holly returned and in a last ditch effort, tested the internet again. This time, it worked. Why is it that technology doesn't like me? My computer refuses to work here at the moment, but Holly's has done since she arrived here. I use it for a few days and the internet makes a stand and refuses to work for me for a few hours. Pah.

I'm gonna go to bed soon in protest. Evil technology, have at thee! I'll tackle you with a good night's sleep, so there!

P.S. Going to the Sorbonne tomorrow and possibly to play with some baby aminals!

Wooo! Shall update soon! xxxx

Abandonment issues!

Well, this is the first morning that I've woken up in my room alone so far because the 'fam' left yesterday evening at around 7pm. . . . Holly and I are now totally on our own here, in an apartment of our own, in a foreign country! It's a little scary, but mostly exciting because I've had a few days to settle in with me parentals and they took most of the worry and anxiety away, so now we have exploring to look forward to! Last night, as soon as we'd waved the Ford Galaxy out of sight, Holly suggested that we go for a walk down to the riverbank and get a drink in a traditionally French café.

So we did :o)

. . . and we found ourselves in the same café that my Ma & Pa had taken us to on the very first day there! The waiter recognised us and we told him (In French!) that we were here for 4 months to study at the Sorbonne so wanted to do the touristy thing for a while. He grinned at us and acted suitably impressed to hear we are gonna be students at the Sorbonne, and proceeded to tell us how fantastic the university is. It would appear that the French are extremely proud of their University and ready to tell anybody who will listen.

I think they have good reason to be proud as it is a beautiful building!

(NB. Please ignore French woman on Bicycle who insisted on starring in an otherwise decent photograph!)

We need to go and register as students at this awesome building at some point over the next week, which may involve some drastic photography for Student ID cards. . . . . Uh oh! May be posting a horrid pic of that later on then, so you can all have a good laugh!

Anyways, when we left the apartment last night, we decided to have a lil look at the surrounding area on our way through to the River Seine. Our apartment is bang in the middle of the French equivalent to Chinatown! I'm not kidding! When you leave our building, the first thing you see is a line of Chinese bag shops and jewellers, oh, and a shop with the best name in the world. . .

(NB. Pic taken from our livingroom window)
Just to prove to you how childish we are, (if the previous pic wasn't enough proof already!) on our journey through la ville de Chine (China town) we had to stop to take this photo. . .

How cool are we. Posing with a can of Cock. On a more adult note: Dad, I found you some frozen frogs legs. Not gonna buy them. Call me un-adventurous if you must, but this looked to me like a bag of roadkill.

Sorry it's a bit of a sucky, unclear picture but I was in a hurry. We were getting some funny looks from the Chinese shop assistants. Can you blame them?! We were taking photos of their frozen food section!

Anyways must be off now, gonna cook myself some peas for lunch. C'est la vie etudiante! Such is student life :o)
Will post again soon! xxxx

Finally here!

I can't believe it! I'm finally here! Yesterday was such a long day that I was far too tired to post an entry last night. We set off from home-base in Norwich at 9:30pm Thursday night and arrived at my new apartment at 12:48pm French time (which is essentially 11:48am by English time, as it's an hour ahead here).

The journey seemed to pass really quickly between home and the ferry port at Dover; but then again, I was
dozing on and off all the way! I sleepily listened to my family rummaging around in the car for the passports, first to show the French police and then for the English ones. Next a female customs officer inquired about our reasons for travel and Mum couldn't resist an opportunity to boast "We're here to take my daughter to university in Paris. She's going to the Sorbonne, you know..." Anyway, this woman asked if she could check the boot of the car, but after one glance she backed away hurriedly. I don't blame her; it was absolutely PACKED! Two huge pink flowery suitcases, countless bags of shoes and handbags, along with 1 kilo bags of pasta tactfully wedged in, and the customs lady was smart enough to know when she'd bitten off more than she could chew! Well, it was some hardcore packing in there and she really didn't fancy messing with it!

Once on the ferry, we made our way directly to the duty-free shop. I knew stuff was supposed to be much cheaper when sold in between countries, but this was ridiculous! The perfume that I had asked Lei to get from Boots with her staff discount was nearly five quid cheaper than the discounted price I paid for it! As soon as the engines started rumbling beneath our feet, I nagged the "fam" to join me out on deck and we did the whole tourist she-bang: posing for photos in front of the White cliffs (which were more pinky-orange due to the reflection of the street lamps). It was quite awesome to feel the power of the motors roaring through the floor of the deck and watching the water, frothing and churning in the wake of the ferry.

We reached a point, not too far across the Channel, when Adam spotted the amber glow of Calais and was surprised that he could still see Dover's glare in the opposite direction. It was quite a shock to realise how close we really are to France! We were forced to retreat indoors when it got a bit too nippy up top so we retired to a comfy sofa in the bar/family room. Twas very quiet; I'm sure the boat wasn't even 1/3 full! Mum offered to buy us all hot drinks after standing in the chilly sea-spray on the deck and Adam asked for an Espresso (which he's never tried before). We all watched him eye up the semi-filled teacup with disappointment; you could see he felt cheated with the small quantity of liquid compared to our brimming hot chocolate cups. Hehehe, when he'd taken his first brave mouthful of the oil slick from his cup, Dad grinned at the face my brother pulled and asked him "Is it OK?" Adam replied, with total sincerity: "Well, I've just experienced 4 simultaneous cold shivers, but it's fine." Bless the naivety of him! :op

Anyways, now feel fairly settled into our flat which is gorgeous! I'll be posting some pics as soon as I've worked out how to do that! It has a double bedroom, a pretty little bath/showeroom and a pretty big living room/dining room which has an alcove kitchen in one corner. We have cable TV, t'internet access, a DVD player, a stereo, a microwave, a clothes washer/dryer and most other little commodities that you take for granted at home, but really miss when you don't have them! There are two separate keys AND a security code, which can get quite confusing, but I'm sure I'll get used to it!

Will do some exploring soon, and when I do, I'll be posting lots of loverly piccies so you can all experience the adventures with me!

Will post again soon! xxxx

La première entrée...

Bienvenue! (Welcome!) This is the beginning of a bloggage diary I hope to keep updated over the coming four months during my stay in Gay Paris! I'm just two days away from disappearing out of the country and it's really exciting! Need to get my lease posted off ASAP, because at this rate, i'll be arriving at the apartment before IT gets to our landlord! Have not packed a single thing yet because I only bought some suitcases yesterday; my birthday prezzie from the parentals. Anyways, don't want to pack too soon in case I need anything I've put away!
Well, need to go write a VERY long list of things I still need to do! Not long to go now! Woooo! Watch this space. . . . . :op