All Settled In

I think I’m all settled in here in France now. I’ve even made some French friends (who would have known!) it’s quite useful actually because they teach me some French and I correct their English so it works quite well.

Cute picture of Fanny, Ann-Sophie, myself, Bekah, Sophie, Liza and Jen (left to right) at the Mayor’s welcome.

 

Sophie and I with Luke (a Brit who’s lived in France for 9 years: an excellent translator!)

I was told on one of the first few ways that being in the kitchen was a good place to meet people; I was sceptical but it’s true. I met various people predrinking/playing poker/maybe actually eating in the kitchen! It seems to be the social hub of the floor. It’s always heaving with people and they tend to speak a bit slower when they realise I have no fricking clue what they’re saying – which is handy! There’s a drastic change on the weekend though as all the French student go home. I wouldn’t be surprised to encounter tumbleweed in the kitchen it’s that quiet. The weekend is therefore an excellent time to do washing (if you can work the machines… if we’d found the language setting earlier we may have saved about 10 minutes umming and arring!)

The kitchens are locked after 11:30pm, which I thought was strange but I think they’re trying to crack down on kitchen parties. There was one on Wednesday due to be on my floor which, due to the sign, was shut down before it started! We assume the cleaner saw the note and locked the kitchen early. Because of this it was moved to various places before everyone just went to chill outside. It was interesting, nothing like a house/flat party in the UK: there was just as much wine but nothing was broken and no one was sick!

We then went out on Thursday night (I’m definitely learning too, not just drinking… ) which is student night here, so it’s always rammed. We are still yet to make it to any of the bigger clubs as we don’t ever seem to make it past Rue de la Soif/Place des lices! We then somehow ended up at a rock gig, which was really good! I had to ask in French the name of the band to look them up afterwards: they were called Monty Picon.

They came out with some trombones and stuff which somehow worked! Also, the huge skull prop had a cable attached to it so in the chorus it could “sing along”. Weird. But cool.  Later there was a DJ set which was equally as epic:

I got some nice edgy photos of the occasion. I don’t know how, but the guy did the whole set in a morph suit! It was hot enough in there with everyone smoking cigarettes and weed inside, let alone a full-body tight attire! We eventually retired and got the night bus home.

Now I’m going to attempt to upload some long awaited photo’s onto Facebook!

A bientôt!

A little bit of Dutch/French courage

Morning!

So it turns out I have to set an alarm here because with the shutters closed my room is pitch black no matter what the time of day! At least I’ve learnt that early on. Oh well, I’ve only missed a meeting about bank accounts and insurance that would probably be another 2 hour meeting in seriously fast and technical French followed by another mountain of forms and papers; I’ll stay in bed!

So after my last post I said I was in my room with no plans for the evening but then Chloé asked me on facebook if I wanted to meet so I could improve my French and she could work on her English. She invited me to have a drink with some other Erasmus students. I checked with Bekah, Liza and Fanny and we headed to the metro, got off at Ste Anne and then this “drink” escalated. “A drink” I didn’t realise meant a visit to the infamous “Rue de soif” (I don’t even know the street’s real name but I much prefer street of thirst to whatever it really is! We were all told to go into any bar, get a drink and then meet again outside. Obviously that is not the done thing in Britain, but it was awesome. We had such a good night! The drinks were cheap and everyone was congregating in this large open space where some people had brought huge speakers and improvised their own dance floor. We later adjourned to one of the bars as it was warmer inside. At this point I witnessed my first French flirting… I was told in French I have pretty eyes. I understood and said thank you only to have the guy say are you Spanish (not aware I look or sound remotely Spanish..), I told him I was English which he said he loved. This started to get a bit creepy so I said goodbye and turned back to my friends. He then moved closer to our group and said to me “sex”, I replied “six?” confused. He then went on in broken English: “I like the sex, and you?” At this point, about 10pm, I was so shocked I couldn’t speak (which says a lot about me, I know!) I told him I was going to leave and all my friends asked what happened. On hearing the story they couldn’t stop laughing at him and he left! Maybe he should work on his lines…

We started our rather civilised night all talking in French to each other (well, trying) but 2 drinks down and we were all back in English! Oops. Another few drinks, including a lovely Belgian cherry flavoured beer, and we met some guys from Brazil who had been here for a month doing an intensive French course before university. Their English was not good so with a little Dutch/French courage in me: I spoke for about 2 hours in French! Score! I feel Bekah and I may have ruined the allusion when we both went and got some chips to end the night; apparently it’s a very British concept.

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to an ESN picnic for international and Erasmus students. It was lovely weather in the gorgeous Parc du Thabor. We played a game to meet people where you have to write on a piece of paper “trouvez un(e) etudiant(e) avec…” so for example, find a student to has a hat on/has 2 brothers/from Germany. Mine was to find 3 students wearing red t-shirts. This was relatively easy but my next I couldn’t even understand, something about economics I think. This was a great way to meet new people but with so many people, and I’m so bad with names, I think I will stick to my little group for now!

So we are managing a bit in French and apparently drinking helps. Lucky there’s more welcome night out events on Tuesday and Thursday then! For today, the plan is the go to the supermarket (after I get out of my pajamas!) then I have a room inspection (maybe I should tidy my room…) and after that we meet our tutors (I should also probably find out who my tutor is…). I’m so unorganised!

Bises x