Festive frolics

The time has come again where I write another blog about my 'Fabulous Year Abroad' (no word short of a lie, honest). But where to start? The days have gone by that fast I don't know whether I'm coming or going. All I can say is the last few weeks have been pretty ''dang'' good.

I do, however, seem to be turning American. I blame my flatmate Jackie (let's just call her the 'Chicago Bull'). Not sure whether this is a good or a bad thing. I have replaced 'What are you having for tea?' with 'What are you having for dinner?', 'Yeah, I know' has become 'I know, right?' and 'Dang, girl, dang!' has become a permanent fixture in my vocabulary, albeit an ironic one.

Thankfully, the annoying American sayings I have adopted are coming into their own during games of ''Beer Pong'', basically a team game that involves throwing ping-pong balls into plastic cups filled with beer (harder than it sounds, I was ''well chuffed'' with my 7 in a row the other night.... Dang girl, dang!).

So my inner American and I had a blast last Thursday evening during Thanksgiving. 18 of us English assistants (and one German) had a fabulous evening, eating as much chicken and sweet potato as is physically possible. Preparation for Thanksgiving began the day before chez nous- potato was mashed, stuffing was made and green beans were laid out in dishes. No rest for the wicked, eh? Our efforts were rewarded with a trip to the cinema (Harry Potter, what else? Was highly amused by the French subtitles where I learned the word for wand is simply 'baguette').

Back to Thanksgiving; after our meal of chicken, potato, beans and gluttony, we settled down for a Thanksgiving quiz one of the assistants had prepared earlier, Blue Peter-style. Was a great evening- and not just because my team won the quiz (plus the bottle of vodka that came with it).

The Thanksgiving festivities were accompanied with snow, which has been settling here in Nancy for five days now. The other day myself and someone I work with at school asked for a lift from a complete stranger to the train station as all the buses back from school had been blocked. Thank god he wasn't a pyscho...

The festivities continued on Saturday when myself, Jackie and Michelle went to Strasbourg for the day to see the world famous Christmas market (or markets- there's loads of them). We wandered round the hundreds of stalls, getting as many free cake samples as possible. It turned into a 'grub-crawl'- we had a bit of everything, from soup to sausage to vin chaud (hot wine, for those who comprennent pas). Mmmmmm. This is what I envisaged when I thought of the Year Abroad last year. Had a walk round the cathedral, went to a cosy bar for hot chocolate when we couldn't stand the cold any longer and even managed to find 'New Look'. Strasbourg was even more beautiful in the dark as all the market stalls were lit up, and the lights were just incredible. Definitely worth a visit, despite the crowds. Also an excellent place for comedy photos...

On Sunday, I went for a meal at a French family's house! It came a bit out of the blue, really. Jackie and I had signed up for 'Faim d'Echanges' a while back, whereupon local French families invite foreign students living in Nancy round for a meal. After getting a phone call from a very bossy sounding French lady at some point last week, I was invited for a meal at her and her husband's house on Sunday afternoon. If there's anything Faim d'Echanges taught me- it's that the French don't rush through their meals. We sat down to eat around half one and didn't finish until six o'clock. Ate a ridonkulous amount of Roquefort. Winner. Spoke lots of French too which is always a plus.

Anyway they were a lovely couple, recently retired, etc with the most gorgeous Golden Retriever (Missy) with whom I fell a little bit in love. The couple (Michelle and Yves) have offered to show me round the region- the Vosges mountains, Luxembourg, etc so on verra. I hope I'll stay in touch with them- they told me to phone them whenever I'm ill and they'll look after me (even in the middle of the night, apparently...). Gotta love the French.

So time stops for no man (or language assistant). Off for a meal at an assistants flat ce soir, should be a laugh. We're armed with chocolate biscuits and sangria. I just hope we don't get snowed in...

Ladies of leisure.

I seem to have become a lady of leisure. Qu'est-ce qui s'est passé? What happened? The French and their casual approach to work, that's what happened. Although officially I am supposed to be teaching 12 hours of English per week, last week I worked the grand total of 6 hours. 6 hours. And I got paid a ridiculous amount to do it. Mais comment?

It's mainly to do with the fact that the French have a ridiculous amount of jours fériés- or bank holidays as we would say in ye olde Angleterre. As last Thursday was a bank holiday and Fridays are my usual days off my weekend commenced last Wednesday. Vive la France!

After recovering from the guilt of not working (which didn't take long to get over, quelle surprise), I went and celebrated my youth by attending a party in a forest. As you do.

I should probably mention here that the last three nights out have been pretty memorable as far as nights out go. After inviting all the other English assistants we know round for a pre-lash last weekend (or 'un before' as it is known in France), an assistant proceeded to 'chunder everywah'. After cleaning up sick for what seemed like ages (to be fair, it did take a fucking age), we decided to head out into Nancy-ville quand-même, ending up in the cultural establishment that is le McCarthy, supposed watering hole of the Irish. Memorable.

Back to the party in a forest. My friends from the local Grande-École (friends in high places, clearly) invited me to a soirée their school was holding in a forest just outside Nancy (pourquoi pas??). Obviously our answer was 'Bah, oui!'. 15 euros for a party in a forest with an open bar seemed like a pretty good deal. And no work the next day!

So after hopping on a coach from the Ecole des Mines at 23h30 (very funny coach journey, felt like I was on a bus with a load of football hooligans à la Millwall), we arrived at the Forêt de Haye ready to P.A.R.T.Y! Luckily for us, the party was being held in an old warehouse and was not in fact outdoors as I had originally assumed (it rained every day last week so that would have been disastrous). After spending a ridiculous amount of time waiting for a measly beer, we hit the dancefloor...4 hours later we were still 'busting-a-move' on aforementioned d'floor. Was definitely an experience anyway, perhaps due to the absence of toilets (but maybe that's too much information). Two guys sitting near us on the bus back 'made a little vomcano' which was lovely to watch if I do say so (or not- haha), but apart from that it was a night to remember!

'Livin' it up' was rounded off by a night out in Nancy last Friday, which culminated in a trip to La Friterie, a 'Munchies' type affair if you're familiar with late night takeaways in Newcastle upon Tyne (thought not). This does seem to be a common way to round off an evening- perhaps I should commence the jogging I've been postponing indefinitely for the last month (?).

Et voilà! That's your lot. I should probably get back to work. Who am I kidding?!

The City of Lights

There's just something about Paris isn't there? My fourth visit to Paris and still I get excited about seeing the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre despite all the tourists, pigeon shit and annoying street vendors. I was meeting up with ‘the girls’, two of whom are living in Paris this year (one in Montparnasse and the other close to Opéra) - perfect excuse to keep visiting if ever I needed one!

Perhaps I still get excited about Paris because all four of my visits have been different. I first visited the City of Lights aged 12 with my family, wide-eyed about Parc Astérix and seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time (definitely worth the wait). My second trip was more of a mistake than a well thought out plan- on a school French exchange in 2007 we got on the wrong TGV and ended up in Paris Gare de Lyon, as opposed to actual Lyon. This resulted in six crazy hours, trying to see as many of the sights as possible- I remember pigeons walking all over our feet as we ate baguettes under the Eiffel Tower. Best mistake my teacher ever made! My third visit was rather spontaneous also- I was working in a youth hostel in Brittany and was given four days off ‘pour voyager’. Hence my first thought ‘Sod it, I’m going to Paris’. I spent three (and a bit) days wandering round Parisian streets, and doing as many of the tourist spots as possible. I had completely forgotten just how large a city Paris is and stupidly kept walking between sights, thus ‘knackering myself out’ a treat. So that was an experience, albeit a little lonely at times.

So trip number four was (yet again) rather different to the first three, namely because I went ‘out out’ for the first time in Paris. We all met in a cosy bar near Belleville, a working class district of Paris that is ‘up and coming’ if any of the slightly pretentious magazines and newspapers are to believe. Moved on to Bastille just before the last metro and raved in a bar/club before a quick visit to the Irish bar next door (would have been rude not to really). Other night-time escapades in Paris included a lovely meal near the Moulin Rouge, sitting on the steps with crepes outside the Sacré-Cœur and sipping 11 euro cocktails in Montparnasse. I only had one- you can take the girl out of the North of England, etc, etc.

During the day wandering was high on the agenda- we wandered over to Trocadéro and walked down past the Musée de l’Armée before heading up the Champs-Elysées. Highlight of one afternoon was helping some students do a challenge for charity by leap-frogging up the Champs-Elysées before climbing the Arch de Triomphe just as the sun was setting. Parfait.

Notre-Dame was full of tourists, but I still decided to go in (fourth visit), we went to a gorgeous English bookshop just across the river from Notre-Dame (Shakespeare and Company- check it out if you’re ever in Paris). The top floor of the bookshop has beds, comfy chairs, typewriters to mess around with and even a piano! Books aren’t even for sale on this floor- instead browsers are encouraged to sit down and read (and we did exactly this).

The final day in Paris was spent visiting le Cimetière du Montparnasse- where we stumbled upon the graves of Serge Gainsbourg, John Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir (we didn’t exactly stumble, it was all intentional…) before wandering round the streets of the Marais district around the Latin Quarter. CULTURE!

So after four visits, Paris is still my favourite city in the world (apart from Newcastle, obviously). Clichéd I know, but there really is just something about the City of Lights. Maybe the media has something to do with that- the scenes at the end of Amélie in Montmartre, the Sex and the City finale, the views of the Eiffel Tower at the start of Truffaut’s Les 400 Coups, even the bloody Hunchback of Notre Dame. It’s not just the media though- there’s something special about watching people as they sit reading/eating/etc along the Seine (in a strictly non-creepy way, I hasten to add) and listening to buskers as they do their best Piaf impressions on the metro. Yes, Paris is expensive, full of tourists, litter and ugly souvenir shops, but it’s also got taste, charm- a certain ‘Je ne sais quoi’ if you will (ha ha ha).

Ever since starting university, my course friends and I had talked about meeting up for a Parisian weekend, dreaming about hot chocolates in cosy cafés and tourist pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower. Well the dream came true. Now what??