Madame, madame, exusez-moi madame, bonjour

It's been a while since I've posted on here properly, mainly due to laziness and the fact that my life really isn't that interesting. I've also left it so long that I don't really know what to tell you. I've been feeling quite homesick since Lewis and my sister visited, only natural I guess but it's been a tough couple of weeks. We've had a few tests and graded homework at uni and it's been stressful and I'm still awful at contributing to lessons (apart from my German ones, which says a lot about what language I prefer...)

Anyway, aside from feeling sorry for myself, there's been some good parts too. We've had a crepe party at my residence, which is just what it sounds like- just eating a fuckload of crepes really. I met a couple of Peruvian girls which was lovely and Mau, a hilarious Mexican girl, taught me to salsa which was a laugh.

international amis

I also had a 'cultural' Sunday with Niamh, which consisted of going to a jumble sale, visiting the Pantheon (where they keep all the important people's bodies, basically) and sitting in MacDonalds waiting for the rain to stop. I was a bit relieved with the jumble sale, as it's called a vide grenier and I thought we were actually going to go to someone's attic and rifle through their unwanted belongings. Which would have been a bit odd.

a really rubbish picture of the Pantheon

I've been out a couple of times too, back to Earth's Kitchen with the Hannahs and Hannah's lovely spanish flatmate. Managed not to get locked out this time. Joe and I also attempted to go to an Erasmus get together in Bastille last week but I can't even tell you how awkward it was. Everyone is incredibly clicque- y here. We said hello to a few people and then ran away to a cheaper bar.

Bit of a nightmare when I got home that night, as I realised my sister was arriving that morning NOT Friday morning as I'd started to think. Cue frantically (and drunkenly) doing the washing at 1am. I managed to collect my sister sans incident and we had a wonderful weekend together. We stayed in a very cute hotel a stone's throw (well, a 10 minute walk) from the Arc de Triomphe, ate some decent meals and walked everywhere.

from our hotel window, my camera skills are shocking

Naturally, there were some hiccups along the way -it wouldn't be my life otherwise. I actually had my first proper confrontations in French. One was with a beggar woman who practically tried to rob us and the other was in a restaurant in St. Michel. The food was rubbish and I tried to get our money back, didn't work but I held my ground for a good 5 minutes and argued the whole thing in very angry French.

We did a lot of touristy things as well, as it was Joy's first ever visit to Paris! It was actually really nice to see her excitement at everything, as it brought it all back for me. We ordered room service one night as well, which went swimmingly until I dropped it (a massive chicken sandwich) all over the floor. The poor bellboy said he'd get me another one, but then reception rang up to the room and said it would be another hour. "Have you still got the one I dropped?" is probably one of the oddest requests they've had in a while.

the one I dropped, complete with elastic band to prevent future accidents

Joy was also a bit shocked by the amount of beggars and homeless people here, but I'm used to it now. Everyday, someone will approach me or say to me as I walk past 'Madame, madame, un euro, madame.' In fact, I'm so used it, I've perfected the art of completely ignoring them, which is awful, I know but let me just quickly explain. A lot of them that roam the trains are just chancers (they have little printed cards explaining their plight), some are just evidently not genuine (I've seen people pretending to be deaf and then having a conversation with their beggar mates...). It gets to the point where you just don't bother to even try to work out who really needs help or not.

We said byes on Sunday afternoon and it felt so strange to know she would be back in Essex, with my mum, and I was going to be in my room in Cachan drinking chocolate milk and crying into my vocab books.

This week has been alright though, have spent most of it with Joe as we're both miserable and sans amis at the moment (my residence is practically empty because everyone is on uni holiday). Wednesday night we went to La Defense, which is the business district, just outside the city border. I actually love how they've kept it seperate from the city. It also looked like something from the future. Were we on the set for the film adapation of 1984? Must have been.

La Defense (from the Arc de Triomphe)

I did absolutely rien for Halloween except watch the Shining by myself and as a consequence, didn't go into my ensuite for about two hours, for fear of some axe murderer hiding in there.

Yesterday was All-Saint's Day and we attempted to be French by visiting the Montparnasse Cemetery. There didn't seem to be as many people there as we expected, but it still felt a bit cultural. (I'll keep telling myself that.) Then we went to the cinema to see Gravity which was INCREDIBLE. Except, we queued to buy our tickets and then had to go back outside and queue again to get into the film. This country, seriously.

I'm still enjoying being here, but I think I'm definitely getting a bit sick of the city. You're probably thinking 'But it's Paris, stop whining!', I know, yes it's lovely, but it's very stressful after a while! My horoscope said I should take a holiday....if only!

can you tell we're related? scary innit