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