Hey everyone :)
Yes, it's true, I'm finally writing my next blog post. Sorry I haven't written for a while, I blame it on the fact that I've been busy, distracted or just profoundly lazy when it comes to writing. So I guess I'll just start where I left off then. Well the last two weeks have also been a bit of a whirlwind; the highlights being playing video games in a museum instead of doing something cultured, brunch in le Marais, following Audrey's uncle around in a hot air balloon (he was in the hot air balloon not us :P ) and Mel managing to walk (or more correctly, slam) into the Cohens' glass door and leave a nose print (in her defense it was freakishly clean but still I thought stuff like this only happened in movies..)
So to give more of an indepth explanation of what I've done I'm going to go by date (would have gone by days but thats way too confusing for me since its been two weeks and I barely know what day it is today, and to avoid this in future I promise to write every week but don't hold this against me if I don't because like I said I'm rather busy and important... and lazy.) So... wait let me just go look for a calendar... found one. So Thursday night after I wrote my last blog I went to someones birthday party. When I first got there it was loud, there were lots of young people and some were drunk so they were slurring their words so naturally I was thinking "Omg I can't understand a single word theyre saying!" but don't worry I got used to it after a while and it was a really fun night overall. I like parties in France because theyre all really chilled out, no fancy dresses or excessive amounts of make up when you're only going to your friends house that you go to every other day of the week anyway. Makes more sense to me.. So, Friday the 16th not much happened in terms of sight seeing, just lazying around the house while the other members of my family went and saw things of which I can't remember so you'll have to ask them :) Assia came around for dinner and I enjoyed annoying her (like I do Audrey) by taking about a million photos of her in short 20 second periods :) mwahaha...
Saturday 17th went relatively the same way except dinner was at Bella Rosa with Assia's family. They were all mortified when I told them that not every pizza/italian place has four cheeses pizza. I don't think Assia's going to come back to Australia after this particular revelation..
Sunday 18th I actually did something cultured, so 1 point to me. Both Thewli (plural of Thewlis) and Cohens joined forces and went to go view some sculptures at the Rodin Museum. And man were there a lot of sculptures.. Like three entire floors (of a mansion might I add) worth of sculptures. Lets just say Rodin was one very talented artist. And the gardens around the mansion were amazingly beautiful (I have photos which I'll put up). This was also the day that I discovered that French people have a weird relationship with Maccas. They don't eat it because its cheap ( because its about 3 times more expensive) or because they're drunk out of there minds and wouldn't know what taste even was if it smacked them in the face, they eat it purely because it tastes good, its a bit of a treat.. interesting. Anyways, after Rodin we went out into the French countryside, which is every bit as beautiful as everyone says it is and I can't wait to go back. Audrey's Uncle had been given a hot air balloon ride for his birthday and we were there to share the experience and follow him in the car. It was really cool to watch, not to mention amazingly cute that the whole family got involved :)
Monday 19th, Mum, Dad, Llew and I went to Montmartre. I love montmartre with all its little bustling streets hidden away beneath the monumental Sacre Coeur. Its picturesque. I'd seen Sacre Coeur once before but I never went behind to where all the artists are. I loved this bit :) just as busy but more cafes and less souvenir shops. And after walking completely in the wrong direction, trying to use the worst map of all time (why they have it there I dont know) and asking some nice old french man, we found les deux moulins, the cafe in Amelie :) sooo cool! Then home again for yet another amazing meal made by the Cohens (the food here is seriously good by the way)
Tuesday 20th, Mel, Llew, Paul and I went to the Inventions Museum, and yes we did see some miniature models of car and train and boats which were cool, but what was more awesome was that they had a temporary exhibitions with video games from Pong till now. And we got to play them!! So I played the original Pong, Pacman, Mario, Mario Kart and much much more, it was seriously the best fun I've had in ages! :)
Afterwards we had beers/gin and tonics in a bar on a busy Paris street (seriously like being in a movie) and the barman was so nice and kept bringing us nuts to eat. After this we met up with the others and went on the Bateau Mouche. It was nice to go on it in summer, its so much better than seeing it through a window :) and they had this cute laneway with lamp posts set up in the middle aisle. sooo cute :)
Wednesday 21st was Robin's birthday so people came over the celebrate and we made crepes :) I seriously love crepes...
Now this is where I get a little hazy so the days may not have happened in this order but I'll give it my best shot..
Thurday 22nd, Mel, Paul, Llew and I went to a contemporary museum which was by far the worst exhibition Ive ever seen. One of the artworks was just a log, nothing done to it, another a stone (same deal) and other an epicly big ball.. of dust.. there was also a skull made out of what we suspected was toe nails... there was only one good piece in the whole museum and it was the first one so it was all down hill from there. There were also films. First one was a robot that followed around a farming family in god knows where and kept saying "where is the horse?", the next was a cushion falling over (repeated indefinitely), the third was a movie with two guys who played all the characters (being a white teenaged boy, a black teenaged girl, a mum, a dad, a naked guitar player and a terrorist. The story was about the son and adopted daughter having a relationship and then going to Iraq together. It seriously sucked...) and the last was a man who walked around in different settings and then ended up crawling through a tunnel of shit. So wacked. As you can imagine we were rather disappointed. So after that we went to a supermarket, bought some food and wine and had a picnic in a park on the Champs Elysees for dinner. Picturesque to say the least.
Friday 23rd we had a picnic in the woods of Vincennes which are east of Paris and next to Nogent Sur Marne (where I'm living). It was really sunny and beautiful until the end where it absolutely poured down with rain and everyone got soaked :P
Saturday 24th, the Cohen family came over to celebrate Robin's birthday. Apparently Robin's cousin has fallen in love with me and every time I'm not there he talks about me, every time I'm there and not looking he looks at me and every time I look at him he turns away... he's 3 years old. and soooooo cute! He was playing the drums with his dad and kept checking to see if I was watching his awesome skills. Such a sweetie.
Sunday 25th we had Brunch in le Marais. It was a set brunch of yogurt, compote, juice, tea coffee or hot chocolate, croissant, chocolate bread, toast, jam, and eggs. Oh my God I ate sooo much. Worst day to wear my tight jeans I swear to God..
Monday 26th I said goodbye to my parents which was a tearful affair. Afterwards Llew, Audrey, Robin and I went and saw Inception (which is awesome by the way, you should really go see it).
Tuesday Llew left and that was pretty much it for that day. Wednesday Audrey, Robin and I had lunch at their friend's place and we watched Asterix in french :) Thursday we had Maccas (special treat remember) with Audrey's cousin Benji. That night we went into Paris with Audrey, Robin, Barbara Zerbib and a bunch of other. We walked along the Seine near Notre Dame looking at all the street artists and just hanging out :) There's this really cool bridge where people come and have little picnics at night and theres all these locks along the bridge where couples have come and put a lock there and thrown away the key. CUTE. After we went to a bar where there were two guitarist playing french jazz sort of stuff (I think, I cant really remember) and we all had cocktails :) Yesterday Audrey got her drivers license so Robin and I got to drive with her for her first time on her Ps. Last night we went to a restaurant at Paris Plage, a beach they make along the Seine with all these temporary restaurants. I was so annoyed I forgot my camera because its soo beautiful :) I'll go back and take photos though don't worry ;)
So thats pretty much it for now. I promise I'll write every week from now on so you don't have to read as much in one go. Till next time! xox
ps. I'm using the french keyboard which is weird and inpractical so sorry about spelling mistakes, also I have french spell check on and I don't know how to change it so the read lines under all the word is rather distracting when trying to be grammatically correct...
pps. I swear I'll put up photos but I have to sort through some 2000 photos so you can see why I havent been in a great rush to put any up yet :P
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Bonjour!
Hey Everyone!
Bonjour from Paris! I would have written earlier but it's been so crazy hectic here from the moment I arrived. We (my mum, dad and I) left Saturday night after just managing to fit an entire pool tables worth of stuff in my pack (plus country road bag and backpack, but do they really count?). The airport was pretty cruisey but as far as flights go I'm generally pretty unlucky with the people who sit in front of me. I always have that annoying obese man who has to recline his seat back straight away in order to allow the blood to flow to his stomach. This time was no different, except it was a woman and she was actually thin but the point is, she put her seat back as soon as the seatbelt sign went off and I swear I almost reached over the seat (which was at this point about 10cm from my face) and hit her. If I was older I would have used the elderly person needs their space and respect card but since I'm 19 years old I figured this excuse wouldn't pan out so well so I just had to have my legs scrunched into a ball for 14 hours. And what makes this even more infuriating is she was actually lying across the 3 seats and didn't need it down anyway. Fortunately there was some pretty good stuff on the TV, even if I did get square eyes from watching it too closely :P
So anyways, we arrived at Doha airport at 6am their time, and would you believe it it was 32 degrees already! I practically melted on the spot. I didn't know humans could even survive 50 degree days but apparently they do on a regular basis.. crazy. But Doha looked really amazing from the air. There were all these sandy coloured skyscrapers right on the coast line and huge sandy coloured hotels with bright blue swimming pools and palm trees. And these were all clumped in little cities in the middle of the desert (good thing I bother to re-read this post otherwise I would have said dessert, and that would have just been confusing :P ) but like seriously, there was nothing else. It was great to see something so completely different from Australia.
After another 7 hours we finally arrived at Paris airport which was a pretty surreal feeling after all the build up. Audrey and Edmond (her dad) met us at the airport and we took the "scenic" route back to her place which I only saw partly because after 36 hours without sleep I was pretty ready to collapse into a heap on any flat surface I could find. However I managed to stay away for 45 hours straight in total which I'm rather proud of but still feeling the effects of. When we got back, Audrey's family had made afternoon tea and it was soooo nice to sit in the sun in their backyard (which I finally went in because it was too cold last time (in fact I didn't even know how to get outside :P )) It was so strange to go from such a cold winter to like 30 degrees (especially because I didn't even think Paris could get that hot) But I swear I've never been more relaxed in my entire life. After not so subtly taking a nap at the table outside while the others caught up and ate awesome looking french food, we took a trip to an ice cream place next to Notre Dame on the Seine. It was so beautiful to see it in the Summer :) and even though it was 9pm it was still so bright! Oh and on the way we picked up Audrey's cousin, and he rode in the boot of the car (one of those ones that are actually just the back of the car but still). Paris is characterised but a complete lack of road rules. There are no lines on the road, there aren't that many signs, people just stop when they want, turn when they want, push the car behind to get into the car park better, its pretty insane and so hilarious to watch. It was great to just soak in the whole atmosphere of Paris and be surrounded by all different sights and sounds.
On Monday, I woke up at 3am and thought "are you kidding me?" because I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep again. Must say a lot of that day was a tad bit hazy. We went for a tour around Paris and walked among the crowds of people preparing for Bastille Day. It was crazy busy. We also had lunch at the top of Printemps which is like a really big department store. The view was awesome :D
That night some of the french girls came around and had dinner. It was sooo awesome to see people again! :D Also Mel and Paul arrived (somehow they made it here without being able to contact us by internet or phone, pretty incredible :P )
Tuesday we walked around Nogent and along the Marne (which is a river). We also had lunch in the garden in the sun. and the French really know their lunches :) Later, we had a dinner party with some of the exchange girls and their parents as well as Llew and Tearlach (who arrived in the afternoon). This involved lots of food, talking, music and (Eleanor you would have been in heaven) Karaoke :P
Wednesday was Bastille Day so we went to Versaille to have a picnic (wearing all white which is apparently part of the deal). I'd forgotten how MASSIVE it is. The rooms are actually never ending. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain so instead of picnicing in the sun, we got soaked in the rain and found refuge in the car :P It was quite a struggle trying to fit like 6 people under the one umbrella haha. Everyone looked a little bedraggled. However it just made getting home to another amazing lunch that much sweeter. Later we went to watch the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. They were INCREDIBLE. I swear I thought they would never stop and the Eiffel Tower was all lit up and WOW it felt good to be in Paris at that moment :)
This morning, Mel and I went to meet the lady for the apartment Mel, Paul, Llew and Tearlach are staying in and I came home with 3 keys, a massive headache and a irresistible urge to pass out on the couch. Which I soon did. The woman spoke a mile a minute and I swear we followed her around the house for like 30 minutes not really saying anything because she didn't stop to take a breath.
Oh, it so weird have such long days, you think you're more jetlagged than you actually are. You wonder why you get so tired at like 3 in the afternoon and then you realise its actually 10pm and its just because its so bright really late. I think it'll take a little getting used to, but its awesome to be able to do so much in the day.
So that's pretty much it. Sorry I described everything like a 5 year old doing a talk on what they did on the weekend :P I'll upload some photos on Facebook soon :D
A bientot tout le monde!
xox
Bonjour from Paris! I would have written earlier but it's been so crazy hectic here from the moment I arrived. We (my mum, dad and I) left Saturday night after just managing to fit an entire pool tables worth of stuff in my pack (plus country road bag and backpack, but do they really count?). The airport was pretty cruisey but as far as flights go I'm generally pretty unlucky with the people who sit in front of me. I always have that annoying obese man who has to recline his seat back straight away in order to allow the blood to flow to his stomach. This time was no different, except it was a woman and she was actually thin but the point is, she put her seat back as soon as the seatbelt sign went off and I swear I almost reached over the seat (which was at this point about 10cm from my face) and hit her. If I was older I would have used the elderly person needs their space and respect card but since I'm 19 years old I figured this excuse wouldn't pan out so well so I just had to have my legs scrunched into a ball for 14 hours. And what makes this even more infuriating is she was actually lying across the 3 seats and didn't need it down anyway. Fortunately there was some pretty good stuff on the TV, even if I did get square eyes from watching it too closely :P
So anyways, we arrived at Doha airport at 6am their time, and would you believe it it was 32 degrees already! I practically melted on the spot. I didn't know humans could even survive 50 degree days but apparently they do on a regular basis.. crazy. But Doha looked really amazing from the air. There were all these sandy coloured skyscrapers right on the coast line and huge sandy coloured hotels with bright blue swimming pools and palm trees. And these were all clumped in little cities in the middle of the desert (good thing I bother to re-read this post otherwise I would have said dessert, and that would have just been confusing :P ) but like seriously, there was nothing else. It was great to see something so completely different from Australia.
After another 7 hours we finally arrived at Paris airport which was a pretty surreal feeling after all the build up. Audrey and Edmond (her dad) met us at the airport and we took the "scenic" route back to her place which I only saw partly because after 36 hours without sleep I was pretty ready to collapse into a heap on any flat surface I could find. However I managed to stay away for 45 hours straight in total which I'm rather proud of but still feeling the effects of. When we got back, Audrey's family had made afternoon tea and it was soooo nice to sit in the sun in their backyard (which I finally went in because it was too cold last time (in fact I didn't even know how to get outside :P )) It was so strange to go from such a cold winter to like 30 degrees (especially because I didn't even think Paris could get that hot) But I swear I've never been more relaxed in my entire life. After not so subtly taking a nap at the table outside while the others caught up and ate awesome looking french food, we took a trip to an ice cream place next to Notre Dame on the Seine. It was so beautiful to see it in the Summer :) and even though it was 9pm it was still so bright! Oh and on the way we picked up Audrey's cousin, and he rode in the boot of the car (one of those ones that are actually just the back of the car but still). Paris is characterised but a complete lack of road rules. There are no lines on the road, there aren't that many signs, people just stop when they want, turn when they want, push the car behind to get into the car park better, its pretty insane and so hilarious to watch. It was great to just soak in the whole atmosphere of Paris and be surrounded by all different sights and sounds.
On Monday, I woke up at 3am and thought "are you kidding me?" because I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep again. Must say a lot of that day was a tad bit hazy. We went for a tour around Paris and walked among the crowds of people preparing for Bastille Day. It was crazy busy. We also had lunch at the top of Printemps which is like a really big department store. The view was awesome :D
That night some of the french girls came around and had dinner. It was sooo awesome to see people again! :D Also Mel and Paul arrived (somehow they made it here without being able to contact us by internet or phone, pretty incredible :P )
Tuesday we walked around Nogent and along the Marne (which is a river). We also had lunch in the garden in the sun. and the French really know their lunches :) Later, we had a dinner party with some of the exchange girls and their parents as well as Llew and Tearlach (who arrived in the afternoon). This involved lots of food, talking, music and (Eleanor you would have been in heaven) Karaoke :P
Wednesday was Bastille Day so we went to Versaille to have a picnic (wearing all white which is apparently part of the deal). I'd forgotten how MASSIVE it is. The rooms are actually never ending. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain so instead of picnicing in the sun, we got soaked in the rain and found refuge in the car :P It was quite a struggle trying to fit like 6 people under the one umbrella haha. Everyone looked a little bedraggled. However it just made getting home to another amazing lunch that much sweeter. Later we went to watch the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. They were INCREDIBLE. I swear I thought they would never stop and the Eiffel Tower was all lit up and WOW it felt good to be in Paris at that moment :)
This morning, Mel and I went to meet the lady for the apartment Mel, Paul, Llew and Tearlach are staying in and I came home with 3 keys, a massive headache and a irresistible urge to pass out on the couch. Which I soon did. The woman spoke a mile a minute and I swear we followed her around the house for like 30 minutes not really saying anything because she didn't stop to take a breath.
Oh, it so weird have such long days, you think you're more jetlagged than you actually are. You wonder why you get so tired at like 3 in the afternoon and then you realise its actually 10pm and its just because its so bright really late. I think it'll take a little getting used to, but its awesome to be able to do so much in the day.
So that's pretty much it. Sorry I described everything like a 5 year old doing a talk on what they did on the weekend :P I'll upload some photos on Facebook soon :D
A bientot tout le monde!
xox
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