Ive been Angers & Angouleme but ive never been ta wigan

Puuuutain, so much has happened. First of all, I live in the above red building now, right on the university campus. Goodbye 70 minute commute and hello rolling out of bed at 10 to 9 for a 9am lecture :) Still not the greatest area to be in, but, n'importe quoi, point is I wont be walking round it 11 o clock every night after lectures. Also theres a microwave, a luxury I did not have in my previous residence, so I will be getting on down to M&S Champs Elysee at the earliest available opportunity to get me a microwave balti.

Since my last post all this has happened:
-A weekend in Angers with Beth and J-dog. It was a catholic town, and as such, they don't like it when boys come to stay in either of the girls' dorms, which I found out to my dislike when at midnight a young ethnic man who called himself the receptionist chased me down the hallway waving his arms and shouting 'les garcons sont interdits'. As if to make some kind of point, he showed us that in the visit book my visit was recorded as an 'amie de bethany'. Oh that little e causing so much trouble. I mean in all seriousness, piss off France.
Anyway, he was nice enough to let me stay so thus begun the weekend. They have made a nice group of assistantship friends and we all had some general fun eating crepes, drinking wine, going to the fair and to a couple of bars. Then went to this guys house for a roast(hes some ambassador for the twinning of Angers to Wigan.. even though hes never been.. obviously)... it was amazing!! So good to have a good roast beef with all the trimmings, and the frenchies there loved it too!
The thing that really stuck with me from this weekend though, was the sheer number of times I was offered a cup of tea. Must have been at least every 43 seconds, good work girls <3

-My Birthday
Went to see the Paris christmas lights get turned on by Amelie(Audrey Tatou). I saw her, id give her a 6/10. She would get it, but don't get the fuss I'm not gona lie.
Ruth Walker said my blog was shit, I'm still recovering.
Went on a wee bar crawl on Wednesday and Friday for my birthday, late back both times because last metro was missed!! haha, only one thing to do when that happens!! carry on drinking!!

-Work
French University seems to follow the following pattern; drop in and out of lectures for 6 weeks whilst deciding what to do, have normal lessons for 2 weeks and then go MAD. All of a sudden over the last two weeks I have had an absolutely crazy amount to do, working so much! Tant pis, c'est la vie!

-Angouleme


Went to see Macarena in Angouleme, quelle belle ville!!(et fille evidement!) It was so so pretty, it was a proper year abroad place, a boulangerie on every corner and a fountain on every square. It rained all weekend unfortunately, but it was still superb fun. Met some interesting characters too... I say no more.
Walked into the Jamrag's house and she explains that the atmosphere would have to be romantic and candlelit... due to having no lights. Upon inquiry, the bulbs had blown and she didnt know how to replace them. Drunkenly got a knife out when we got back from the bar and undid the light fittings, on reflection, a bad idea, but it got the job done. This in a weekend I also fixed a hairdryer, hashtag manly win.
Asked for a guided tour come Saturday, Hayley leads me out the door, round the corner, and my FIRST landmark was where her friend Miss Heston had pissed a few weeks earlier. I'm planning a similar tour of Paris, but of everywhere a tramp has pissed. It may take a while....
Ate another roast (nom nom nom) and came home to my new room :)

Its been a mad time, must get back to work, and I will be off to Amsterdam on Friday morning for an end of term celebration with lots of Erasmus friends.
A plus
x

This is why you live in a capital city..

Waited ages for my two favourite DJs to play in Paris, as was told that they regularly do... and what happens... they announce a gig together....

As Beth said when listening to Fix you by Coldplay, wait for the Drop....

Madeon


Russ Chimes



8th December baby. x

Quick me out

My apologies for a long absence, I never realised how much I depended on my laptop, especially out here! It broke and I felt like I had been plunged into some kind of weird abyss.

No more skype, no more facebook, all my ties with England cut. It was very weird!!

I went home for almost a week to try and sort my life out a bit last week, it feels like ages ago but like was only 2 days ago that I got back! Good news is, life is generally sorted! :)

You know that, you feel alone and a bit crazy bit of the year abroad people sometimes talk about, well yer i definitely had that for like a week! Very odd, my advice to anyone else that gets it is to try and stick to everything that makes you happy for a little while... eg in Paris I stayed in the areas I love and met up with lots of people, and didnt go anywhere near Gare du nord for a while. It worked! I think to an extent Paris can probably do this to you as much as anywhere else, theres even a syndrome named after the acute sense of disillusion Paris can bring you.



Its called Paris Syndrome, and is paticularly prevolent among Japanese visitors to the capital, where the distance between the idealised image of Paris in their culture and the reality causes them to become depressed to the point where they are unable to exit a trance like state. Theres a special centre in the Japanese embassy for them to all go.... Whatever your thoughts on this are, the thought of that centre is really, really funny...


One thing I certainly love about France is the Faux-pas that come about from using English so much. Its nice to know that while we are wandering about failing left, right and centre to master the language and culture barriers that inhibit everyday life they are equally inadept at using English even though they feel necessary to do so on a regular basis. Let me give you some examples::

-I recieved an event invitation from a club called Caves Saint Sabins, which is one of the only clubs in Paris to play dub and dnb music. The whole description, guestlist, drink offers etc where in French at which point the promoter signed off with... a samedi soir pour big motherfucking bass. I dont think this really needs translating...

-The Belgian restaurant chain Quick has outlets all over Europe except in the UK. The new takeout bag design demonstrates this with 'Quick me out' scrawled across it in large red lettering. Someone at the marketing department must be pissing themselves...

-I treated myself to a new DVD the other day, nothing too exciting, just the Hangover... or as they call it in France... 'Very bad trip'. Now far be it from me to correct this slightly odd sounding English, but believe me, going on a very bad trip is nothing like this film. And it wouldn't be set in Vegas but perhaps somewhere like.... Amsterdam??




Having said all this, when I returned to England my English was fairly bad, and I kept saying things in a very odd syntax. Leading my housemates to call me Frenchy. Cheers guys.

In other news, I had the fabulous Geo B come to stay, which was really good. And im off to see barcher and J-dog tomorrow.
Must remember to compost (determined to get this verb into the English language) my ticket.

x

At the moment

do you know what, im really bloody happy that i'm here.

thats all really.no moan.

beginning to see what people mean when they say erasmus is the maddest year of your life... I havent posted for 11 days because ive just been so madly busy! definitely in a good way though.

AND

the dogs not here for the weekend, so my clothing is safe... at least till monday :)

The one negative thing, its definitely starting again for all those in Southampton. Last night, I met a guy for the first time, and he said "oh yer you're the dj guy from facebook"....

fuck
my
life

Laters potatas x

Today

I was changing after a shower and the dog managed to open the door and attempted to eat my boxers. #nakedmanangryatdog

What I love about France & a weekend away

On Wednesday whilst heading to Les Halles shopping centre to purchase a new memory card(thats right--living the dream) the Metro stopped... AGAIN. This must be the 8th or 9th time since I've been in Paris that the Metro has literally just stopped with little or no explanation and doesn't resume for anything from 15 mins to 2 hours.

That France has better public transport is largely a myth, and another slightly 'grumpy old men' esque blog started to form in my head. Although the regional transport can be somewhat of a nightmare, however the TGV, train de grande vitesse is simply fantastic, and this leads me onto a new topic, there is actually some really great things about France.

So heres a list:

1.TGV- This weekend I visited Lille to see the simply lovely Miss Jennifer Rawlings and Miss Harriet Notton. It was so quick, I didnt even have time to finish my movie! I travelled at night so I couldnt see how far we were going really, just kind of turned up in Lille after not that long. It was literally about 50 minutes... 40 euro return and 1 hour, and its over 150 miles away. Never has travelling 150 miles been so easy! It might seem sad, but over the next 2 months I have planned trips to Angers and Angouleme, and its cost me so little and if those two weekends are anywhere near as banterous as this one, its going to be fabby :)

2. Bread- French bread is god. Several times ive bought a baguette, had some with cheese for Lunch and then wacked some salad and meat in it for dinner. Efficient <3

3. Sausages... are sick. expensive. but well good.

4. The randomness... Experiencing new cultures, as I'm sure everyone thats travelled knows can sometimes get you in the most bizarre situations. Last night I was in a beach themed bar, the Dj was mixing Nirvana with Grease lightening onto Placebo, then in barged a brass band, complete with HUGE tuba and started playing basket case by Green day. I was sipping a cocktail which was more rum than coke... You know what, it was just so France, and so funny.

5. Wine... is so cheap. And its almost impossible to buy a bad bottle, the least ive spent was 1,15. And it was nice, and 12%. Thats just so good!


6. Music... the lack of dubstep dissapoints me, although it does have a small underground following! But french hip hop is amazing, heres a sample from Sexion d'assaut::



and electro is huge here... amazing!


7. Sometimes the French attitude, which seems to be that nothing need be done in a rush can be infuriating, however, sometimes the lack of formality is extremely relaxing and refreshing. Kind of depends what kind of mood you are in and how important it is that the thing happening is to you!!



a bientot x

The warping of value that comes with living in Paris..

At the start of last week, I went to the Erasmus to sign up for my Monde en huit club card, which is basically a card which is for foreign students and gives a few discounts at club nights etc...

Heres a brief extract from conversation

Erasmus guy(mosse):Tu vient d'ou will?
Where do you come from will?

Me:Angleterre, pres de Londres!
England, Near London

M: ahh mon dieu! J'adore Londres. mes chassures vient de Londres!! et a boots, il y a le 3 for 2 sur lynx. c'est fantastique!
oh my god! i love london! my shoes come from london!! and at boots, they do 3 for 2 on lynx, its fantastic

Me: (laughing) oui, lynx est tres cher ici!
yer, lynx is well expensive here

Erasmus leader girl(Dahbia): Oui, et primark. j'adore vraiment primark.
yer, and primark!! i really love Primark!!


Now, ive seen girls go gaga for Primark before. And as I think I pointed out at the time, practically my whole outfit that day had been bought at the Spanish retailer.
But such excitement I have never seen for the boots 3 for 2 offer.

However, this young man is Parisien, and I completely understand him getting so excited over cheap deodorant.

In years gone by, Paris was expensive, some years ago I bought my girlfriend of the time and I a hotdog each and a coke in the shadow of the eiffel tower. Thats right... I know how to treat a lady...



It totalled over £25..



Now however, you have to practically sell your kidneys to afford to live here; that same bill would have probably now totalled over £35 due to the hellish exchange rate. You find yourself as a Brit practically willing the Greek economy to collapse as the fall out is likely to affect the Euro much more than the pound. (Greece I love you.. but you know.. I also love my internal organs...)


During the week, the socialites of the newly formed Southampton a Paris group met to take on the happy hours of Les Halles(and in Charlottes case... lose), and I found myself practically wetting myself at the prospect of a pint of beer for under 5 euros.
I almost had a heart attack when i saw a pint for 3,90(about £3.40).




At the trusty old Mitre back on the seedy streets of Portswood you can get a pint of Carlsberg for £2.29. In the sick filled cesspit that is Jesters such a thing would cost you just 50p on a Monday evening.

Girls on your year abroad you were told to be very careful about the length of skirts etc when out in Paris. I have the opposite advice, get them as short as possible, and flirt your ass off for drinks. It will save you a fortune...Either that, or do what Miss Osborne did on wednesday, which was forget to eat and get hammered off one drink...

But as I say, my sense of value, has literally been completely warped. To the the point where I was delighted to pay 6,50 for my KFC meal the other day, only to realise I had paid almost double what the equivalent would have cost in England.

Paris, you are a pain in the ass. x