Visite en Bretagne

This past weekend Etienne was heading home to Bretagne, a province on the west coast of France and invited me to come with him. I happily agreed. All week it was up in the air whether the strikes (greves) going on in France right now would mean a cancellation of our trip, but fortunately our train was a go and we left Paris on Friday evening. We arrived in Lannion, 4hrs later, where his uncle and cousin picked us up from the station and drove us to his house in the small village of Trebeurden. We were warmly welcomed by his mother, Gaelle, and shortly followed by his older sister Marie, also home for the weekend. We made quick work at the delicious bakery bread, meat pates, cold cuts and 6 different cheeses. Mmmm, a wonderful way to come home.

A bit about the home. Originally a farmhouse, it was built in 1603, and redone in 1828. The date is engraved above the door. It is one of the older houses in the area. I am in awesome of the stone work, you can feel the history. Surrounded by yards, gardens, trees, and backing onto a huge field, it is so incredibly peaceful. The house itself is homey, and there is nautical memorabilia everywhere. There is a true sense of family in the house, especially with the new dog, Lawenn, and cays Cookie and Chouchenn. I can see why Etienne loves coming home when he can get away from Paris.

After a deliciously long sleep in on Saturday, the kind you only get when you are at home with no obligations. I got up in time to go to town with Etienne and Gaelle and did some shopping. They have the most pimpin car. It is an 80s hot rod, and has to "lift up" before you can drive. So cool. We drove through the town on our way to the farmers, where we picked up fresh eggs, veggies and meat. Again, I love this culture of fresh food. It truly makes a difference. The tomatoes were the best I have ever tasted. After lunch Etienne and I decided it was time to do some real exploring and busted out the dual suspension mountain bikes. Thats right, I got to rock out on a mountain bike. I only crashed once! (when trying to hop up on a curb). It was a very windy day, but gorgeous. We biked along the coast and stopped at various beaches along the ocean, stopping for tea along the way at a gorgeous Manor (manoir). Bretagne is incredible. The ocean is magnificent alongside the wild fields and rock faces. I loved it. It was actually a bit of a work out too with gusting headwinds in both directions and up and down the hills.


A shower back home before going to a Breton creperie. Yumm. The French love their crepes and galettes, the Bretons especially. It was delicious. I had the "Bretonne" - bacon, potatos, cheese and onions, accompanied by Breton cider (apparently you've never had cider until you've had cider from Bretagne). Dessert was a caramel crepe with french vanilla ice cream and meringue peices. Heavenly. I really should start becoming Tamara and take pictures of all the food I have been eating. What better way to end the night than with a hot cup of tea in front of the fire while watching Fame? If you have an answer, then please let me know. But I doubt it.

Another great night's sleep, and enjoyed a nice morning chatting with Gaelle while everyone else was sleeping, and actually catching up on some readings. Lunch was the big family meal of the weekend, with a delicious roast, cheese, bread, carrots and potatoes. I was in heaven. During the afternoon it rained so Etienne and I just chilled in the kitchen and played cards - apparently the French don't play crazy 8 countdown. It cleared late afternoon, so we headed over to his Grandparents, a 2 min drive away for tea. I met his grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin. Integrate with French family: Check. They were so welcoming, and so French. It was so pleasing.

We ducked out of tea early to do a final walking tour of Trebeurdan (aller ballader). The village is so quaint. An excellent to spend childhood summers I bet. We went by a few quaint old chapels, before walking above the ocean. The views were incredible, especially with the sun. My breath was taken away. It is amazing how many beautiful places there are in the world. This is right up there.

Homeward at 7pm, getting back to Paris at 11:30. A great weekend, another very needed escape from Paris. When I'm in Paris I don't realize I need a break from the pace, but whenever I leave, I do. Not only the break to country and calm, but also to be surrounded by a family. Etienne's family has been so welcoming, they are my adopted family in France. It makes me feel so special. I had felt homesick for the first time really at Thanksgiving, but this weekend in some ways felt like the Thanksgiving I never got. I have been rejuvenated.

All for now friends and family. A tout!

More of the daily life

Oct 15th: Housewarming!
Now that school is fully underway, people are settled into their accomodations and it is too chilly for outdoor nighttime picnics at Pont des Arts, the season of housewarming parties is in full swing. A couple of Fridays ago I hosted my own Pendaison de Cremaillere (a rather tricky name to pronounce, much to the delight of Etienne). I spent most of the day busy in preparation, cleaning the apartment top to bottom before Annie came over in the afternoon to help with groceries, food prep, nail painting and the creation of the oh so important playlist (final version 5.7hrs of fabulous tunes if I say so myself). I love hosting. The evening unrolled splendidly with friends trickling in between 9:30 and 11. Everyone loved the food, which included spicy deviled eggs, baguette with salmon and cream cheese, crackers, sausage, bread, veggies and dips and fruit, with hot stuffed mushrooms with tuna and pesto, and melted camembert with jam coming out of the oven at 11 to top things off. Not gonna lie, I was pretty pleased with myself. Night completed with a living room dance party and the last friends headed home around 3. The other great thing about hosting is that you are already at home. Phew. Fortunately (?) no pictures survived the night as my camera died in the opening 5min.

One reason for my great mood on Friday evening was my liberal enjoyment of Bloody Mary's. At one point I decided to introduce my friends to the "Bloody Mary Reloaded" - a drink passed down to me from my friend Niall from UBC Ski and Board. Essentially, you reduce the quantity of tomato juice by about 1/2 and substitute the remaining with beer, giving the beverage a nice carbonated, bubbly taste. Its actually quite tasty, even though there weren't too many takers. My enthusiasm for the beverage led to an absolutely joyous Saturday, which featured KFC (which is somewhat popular here), lots lying on the couch afraid to walk across the living room floor, which was degolasse, and watching bad Youtube clips, notably Justin Beiber. Annie and I also recalled our new favorite French vocabulary and moments of the evening including the left side of the bed - the right is unslept on! tope la (high five), pantoufle (slipper) franchement (frankly) and putain ca m'enerve. I finally felt I could function at 3 so Annie and I headed out to get some bus tickets for our upcoming trip to London. It was a gorgeous fall day, and we walked by the Seine and Notre Dame on our way to a costume shop in the 3rd. We were in search of headdresses for a Halloween party during the aforementioned London adventure. I'll leave you suspense as to my costume. This great day concluded with a return to mine to spend quality time introducing Etienne to one of the great American cinematic classics, Dirty Dancing. "No one puts Baby in the corner." Oh Patrick Swayze.

Sunday Oct 17th: I was faced with the harsh realization that summer is over, fall is here and its cold! Like really cold. Like good thing I didn't pack my winter jacket where's my parka cold. Apparently it has been an unseasonably cold autumn. Just my luck. I am not used to these frigid temperatures after the temperate winters of lovely Vancouver. Good thing Etienne and I decided this was a fine day to go grocery shopping at the market along Rue Convention. The market runs every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday all year long. Blocks and blocks of stalls lining both sides of the street selling fresh produce, pasta, MEAT, seafood and cheese. We picked up so much delicious meat, I was and still am so excited. I love how Parisian culture is centered around eating fresh, delicious, savoury food.

Monday Oct 18th: Successfully handed in my first paper of 3rd year! It was a book report for French Politics and Society. For the assignment I read Lucie Aubrac's memoir, a woman in the French Resistance. It was a good read and very interesting, and I had to evaluate the book and the period in terms of associations, both political and social. Thanks to impeccable time management and some procrastination, I printed off the final version, to my full satisfaction a whole 8min before the start of class. A good start to the year I think.

Tuesday Oct 19th: Tonight I fully appreciated the joys of being a young student, student life and roommates. Tuesdays are my big day of classes of the week so at night I am normally pretty beat and just want to stay in. This time however, my night ended with an impromptu mojito night with Etienne and Annie. Etienne had to practice making mojitos for bartending at a concert through his internship the next night so Annie and I gladly provided our assistance in critiquing his mixes. Spurr of the moment evenings like this are always wonderful.

Wed Oct 20th: After yet another week of slipping into inactivity, I needed a new motivator. I've been missing the variety of multisport after primarily running so I decided to head back to the pool. Dry spell broken after 2months and 3 days! A little rusty, but it went better than expected. There is a 50min pool a 10min walk from home. I love how relaxing slipping through the water is, how exquisite a smoothly executed flip turn feels. Plus you come out feeling incredibly invigorated and find a perfectly crips autumn day awaiting you. I will definitely be hitting the pool more in the future. Days like wednesday reminded me why fall is my favorite season.

Wednesday continued being wonderful when I got to see the President of Chile, Sebastian Pinera, come and speak at Sciences Po. Its not everyday that a President comes to talk to your uni, and this visit was of particular interest as I am currently studying Chilean history. The speech itself was very standard politics - moving Chile into the 21st century, looking to the future, opening up to the world and creating a Chile for all its people. I was also very impressed with his command of French. Even better though was the question period. I was in awe of the boldness of the questions asked by students about the constitution and military dictatorship and liberty for the Mapuche people. Students even interrupted the debate to hold up a huge banner. The president was calm and diplomatic, but it was funny how uncomfortable the moderator was by the outspokeness. I am continually impressed by the weekly line up of guest speakers who visit Sciences Po. They have included the President of the EU and the CEO of google. The school truly stives to be globally aware of cutting issues. I am resolving to be bettwe informed on future speakers and take advantage of the unique opportunities I have while I'm here.

Thursday Oct 21st: I decided that school work was overrated and that it was practically criminal that I hadn't been shopping since arriving in the fashion capital of the world. Fear not, I have rectified this horror. Annie, Maia and I hit the town and I successfully got some very sweet brown riding boots for winter, along with a new skirt for school, a blazer and beret. I fear though that now that I have broken the fast, my appetite for the boutiques has been whet...

Thursday night, Etienne was able to get Annie and I into a concert of a well known french jazz guitarist, Sylvain Luc, in concert with Bireli Lagrene. Go to a French concert with French people: Check. It was really cool, in a small theatre by Gare de Lyon, and the whole show felt like a very very impressive jam session between friends. They were fabulous. The evening concluded with drinks at a virtually empty bar bar close by where it was decided that our trio will hence be referred to as the Three Muskateers (even though there were four - Athos, Portos, Aramis and d'Artagnan). There may have even been some dancing on a table with a old man who I mistakenly thought was a co-worker of Etienne's. Nope. Just a random. How comforting.

All for now! Next up - Trip to Bretagne to visit my adopted French Family!

I have been having a crisis with the blog. So far I have kindof outlined my weekly happenings here in Paris and all around, both for friends and family back home, but also for me to keep track of everything that I've been doing for myself, as a sort of travel diary. Problem: After a promising start of updating the blog weekly, I have fallen further and further behind, and its now been 2 1/2 weeks since my last post. This means that I've been feeling less motivated to update because I know I will have even more to do when I finally sit down and get to it. Should I start just writing a small clip every day or so, that way the task seems less onerous? I think this is going to be my next goal since clearly my current strategy is ineffective. Damn homework and social duties.

I can hardly remember what I've been up to the past few weeks, so much is happening all time. Following my weekend in Marseille I came home to a lovely expose on the the Salvador Allende government in Chile right before the military coup. Despite my hard work before leaving, I arrived at my group meeting at 9am Monday to find my two partners in a bit of a panic as the powerpoint was still not done, nor a handout even started. Not what I was expecting. Fortunately Lauren to the rescue, making a stellar handout as per usual while my partners rushed off to class, and the expose went off without any difficulty. Really I am only mentioning this because it outlines why group projects suck. I don't understand why some people think that they can not pull their weight in a group and everyone else will be ok with it. Not cool. Choose partners carefully if at all possible.

I have decided the rest of the post is going to be in short form, a chronology of sorts.

Thursday Oct 7th: Invited to my first soiree by a French girl in one of my classes, Laure, with only French people. Score. Practiced my skills. Then went out to watch our national past time: Hockey! Normally I am not a huge follower, but being overseas, I have come to miss a few things from back home. Opportunity to watch Hockey in one of two Canadian bars in Paris with other rowdy canucks? Game on! Toronto vs. Montreal game, start time 1am. 5euro pints. I was so distracted I forgot to order poutine to top the night off. Another failed night bus mission at 4am resulted in cab home. I will get the best of you yet nightbus, mark my words!

Being Patriotic - Go Canada!

Saturday Oct 9th: Versailles. What better way to spend a gorgeous hot saturday in October than take the train 40 min and go stroll around the gardens of Versailles? Corina and I, and a bunch of other Canadians actually headed to Versailles to soak up the last shorts and t-shirt weather of the year probably. An unbelievable picnic by the water and an afternoon strolling through incredible gardens and the Marie Antoinette Village. Beautiful. The atmosphere is indescribable, especially with hidden speakers in the trimmed bushes playing classical music. It made me want to don a huge ballroom gown and promenade or waltz through the grounds. I can't even imagine what it must have been like back in the time of Louis XIV. Planning on making a second trip back for the Chateau.

Pictures can't capture how beautiful the gardens were.
Full album of pictures on Facebook.

First successful walk home mission from a soiree in the 5th. Only took an hour. Conveniently Corina and I live only 15 min apart so we could walk most of the way together.

Sunday Oct 10th. I wanted turkey so bad. The past two years, even though I wasn't with my family for Thanksgiving, I was always taken in by others kind families and given a thanksgiving meal. Here I was confronted without Thanksgiving for the first time in 20 years, and I did not like it. Even though Versailles for Thanksgiving was nice, its during these major family celebration times when I know everyone is together that I miss home the most. Plus turkey dinner is my favorite meal ever. EVER. Give me dressing and the special mashed potatoes and I will love you for life. Just ask my mom.

Nothing extraordinary happened for a while. Sorry to disappoint. I'm just going to post this for now and catch up on the rest when I get back from my weekend in Bretagne visiting Etienne's family!

Weekend in Marseille!

Annie (Sunday night) : Want to go to Marseille for the weekend?
Lauren: Sure, sounds good.

As I think I have related, I decided fairly spurr of the moment two weeks ago that after having been in Paris for just over a month it was time to travel a bit further afield in France. Result: three day trip to Marseille!

I departed on Friday morning with Annie from Adelaide Australia. We would be meeting the rest of our group of six later that night and the next day. Finally a chance to put my 3 day weekends to good use! Despite some difficulties in our 10:15 takeoff that resulted in a lot of stress not being able to print out Annie's ticket, and being forced to buy a new one 5 min before the departure, we were off! The ride down was incredible! It was a beautiful sunny day and it was my first glimpse at the French countryside. It was incredible! Rolling pastures, hills and forest, quaint country houses - it was something out of a book. I would definitely love to drive down and stop to take it all in. I was also blown away by the TGV - the high speed trains in France. It blew my mind that we could cross most of France in just over 3 hours on land, travelling at a speed of 200km/h of course. Why does Canada not have high speed trains? The whooshing sound as we passed trains going the other direction was so much fun.

Successful arrival in Marseille at 1:25pm. After a bit of wandering in search of our hostel, we
finally arrived at Vertigo just after 2. This was to be my first stay at a real hostel, so I was rather excited. According to Annie, it didn't even count, that is how nice it was. The place was large, spotless, and each room of four had its own shower and toilet. Being that we were a group of six, we got a an entire room to ourselves. At only 25euros a night, it was incredible! I have stayed at far worse hotels. As if it couldn't get any better, Vertigo was located only 3 blocks from the Vieux Port, the city center. The mood was set for an excellent weekend.

After dropping our stuff off, Annie and I headed off to check out some tourist attractions around the city. I had met Annie on my first day of the Welcome Programme when I was looking for lunch and joined a group of australian girls if I could join them. Since then, I had only seen Annie twice, so I was looking forward to spending some more time with her since she seemed really cool. We became partners in crime over the course of the weekend, and had so much fun together. After walking along the Old port, we checked out an old fort before heading up to the main attraction of the city, Notre Dame de la Garde Church. Watching over the Marseillais from the top of a hill in the middle of the city, this Notre Dame offers the most spectacular views of the Marseille, overlooking the port, the ocean, the islands and the hills that surround the city. Getting all the way up to Church by foot makes the view even better. Apparently, we chose the steepest possible street to climb up, I swear it must have a been a 45degree angle. Fortunately, a boulangerie and corner store with cheese provided excellent excuses to stop on the way up to get some lunch supplies for a picnic at the top.

The views did not disappoint. It is hard to describe how incredible it felt to look out over the Meditaranean on that beautiful sunny day and realize how lucky I was, and what a great decision it was to come to Marseille. Paris is amazing, but I had missed being by water, hills, greenery and fresh air. Pictures can't capture the vistas from the top. The church itself was spectacular, so ornate of the inside. The trademark of the church is the gold coloured statue, of Mary holding the baby Jesus in here arms, is at the peak and towers 40m in the air. Jesus' wrist has a circumfrance of a meter! Incredible. At night, spotlight shine on the church, illuminating it above the city. That visit was among the highlights of the trip.

Came back to the hostel and went for the strongest mojito I have ever had while waiting meet up with Aiden (Melbourne Australia) and Ai (Japan) before heading to dinner. We were finally able to decide on a place after an hour of wandering that looked like it met all of our qualifications: good food, not too expensive and had a 'fun factor' of at least 7. Unfortunately the appearances were deceiving and the fun factor was rated a mere 4 but that added to the enjoyment of the night. We headed back to the hostel from some drinks before heading out. While channel surfing in the lounge we had the great luck of coming across this amazing French reality show called Secret Story. Basically it is like Big Brother, but members in the house get assigned secret missions and if they are able to accomplish them, they get cash. Doesn't sound exciting, except, we were under the impression that everyone in the house was gay or a transvestite (being that the French was so fast we hardly understood anything). It didn't matter, watching the facial expressions and gestures was hilarious.

Only Annie and I headed out that night, I won't go into too many details, but it was a good night at a cool bar called Trolleybus that had 3 rooms all playing different music - top 40s, hip hop and rock. We enjoyed it. We enjoyed even more our trip to an Irish pub after a while and discovering two bottles of cider for 3.50. We enjoyed these with some nice boys from Aix-en-Provence before calling it a night, departing with me successfully using for the first time the French expression bisous ciao. (I was pretty pleased with myself - which I informed Annie loudly as we were walking away. Smooth.)

Saturday was a bit lazier. Maia, another girl whom I had had lunch with on my first day at Sc Po and had only seen once since, and her friend Hannah arrived, having taken the overnight train from Paris. After complimentary breakfast, they headed out to see Notre Dame with Aidan and Ai while Annie and I took a quick nap and showered. We reunited at 12 and began a long, but lovely walk to beach. I have never seen water so clear in my life. It was a beautiful sunny day, maybe 26 with the lightest sea breeze. You should all be jealous. We arrived at the beach at around 1:30. The other only stayed for a short while before going off to do some more exploring while Annie and I blissfully enjoyed a lovely afternoon at the beach. On our way home, we stopped at St Victor's Abbey, built in the 5th century. I think that is the oldest building I have been in to date. Pretty darn cool if the history geek in me says so myself.

Saturday night featured a delicious dinner with a fun factor of 9, a return to O'Malleys Irish pub for 2 for 1 ciders and beer. I also finally got to go on my first late night food mission. These apparently aren't common in France, and I had thoroughly missed them. The traditional French one is the kebab, a sandwhich with salty yummy mystery meet, tomatoes lettuce and french fries. Yes, the French fries are in the sandwhich. This trip was made all the more entertaining by the man serving the kebab hitting on Maia. Pick-up lines not to use: referring the girl as a "big baby" and making an analogy between gazelles and lions.

Sunday we were up in good time to pack our things for 10am checkout. We were able to leave our bags in a locker for the day though which was good so we were able to continue exploring. The group of 4 decided to head east of town to the area of Cassis to look for beaches, while Annie and I, having had our beach fun the day before, really wanted to go on a boat tour through the calanques (beautiful rocky bays around Marseille and its islands). Best call ever. The 2 1/2 hour cruise took us past the most beautiful bays and rock faces. The conditions made you feel alive - probably because we got soaked as it was rather rough on the water with strong winds. But despite our struggles and being asked more than once if we needed sick bags, Annie and I had a ball.

The Chateau d'If (famous from the Count of Monte Christo)

Annie and I all dry now, enjoying the sun on the bow

Back on land, we did a bit more touring, saw an incredible cathedral, went to a cool vintage store and ate a very delicious pizza. We ended the day with ice cream by the old port, watching the sunset. It was an actual vacation for me - something I had needed even if I hadn't fully realized it. Despite being exhausted when w got back, I was relaxed. The change from Paris made me appreciate the city when I finally got home at 2:30am, but also realize what a beautiful country that my new home is.

The Marseille Team: Aiden and his ladies Hannah, Annie, Maia, Ai and Myself

And then things got busy

I keep feeling like I never really have a regular week in Paris. Yes, there are some things that happen every week, everyday. I have cereal for breakfast without fail. I go to class (so far perfect record), manage 95% of the time not to fall asleep in class, go to bed at varying hours of the night, morning or afternoon. But everything else in between is different. The to do list is always changing, social distractions pop up constantly. Sometimes it gets a bit chaotic, I like that I'm doing different things, seeing new places, meeting new people, all the time.

Basically these are the excuses I'm giving for not having updated in quite awhile. The reason being was a recent trip to Marseille this past weekend. In anticipation of this weekend away, I had to work ahead on an oral group expose that I was presenting on Monday. Added with moving on Wednesday, last week was so packed I neglected my "postcard" writing. Fortunately, I had some time to reflect on the past few weeks on the train rides to and from Marseille.

I think my banking woes are almost all behind me. Two wednesdays ago my bank almost made me cry. I might have, if I hadn't had to go straight to the metro and off the salsa class, which of course but me in a much better mood. At that point I'd been in Paris for just over three weeks and still didn't have a french bank account or cell phone number. Having not received any notifications by email or mail from my bank account of my account I had started opening two weeks preceding, I thought I'd just pop in and see about my password, account slips (RIB), chequebook and bank card were ready. This is kindof the way the ensuing hour of waiting and dialogue with four various french bank agents went:

- "Oh yes, looks like your card has been here for a little while. Oh you didn't get an email? That's too bad. Well you can't use the card until we send you your pin in the mail, which you don't get to choose, which you should have received by now. You didn't? Ok, we'll resend it. Until then, the card is no good. No we can't just tell you the pin, its sent to you confidentially. Yes we can just print off the RIB's you need so you can get a metro pass (but we couldn't do that when you asked two weeks ago). Looks like we forgot to order your chequebook, which you need to get a cell phone. You'll have to wait another 8-10 business days. We won't notify you when its here. You can just come back and waste an hour of your life struggling to understand us speak really quickly about your financial future.

I love French banking customer service.

After that horrible banking experience, things have been looking up. Despite being unable to set up online banking just yet, and still not chequebook, I was able to use my French bank card for the first time last Friday! So exciting! It was very handy because in France, automated machines don't accept foreign credit cards. Very inconvenient, and shatters the myth that the credit card is supposed to work everywhere. They will accept Euro mastercard, but not regular mastercard. Frustrating? I thought so. But now I have a French card that will work everywhere! Hooray!

On to the cell phone dramas. Despite having been told that to get a contract I needed to present a void cheque with my RIB from my French bank, I decided I couldn't survive any longer with my canadian number racking up long distance charges and headed out to try and get un mobile. Success! Incredible I know. I managed to convince the lovely staff at SFR the give me a contract with only the RIB (which allows direct account transactions) and bring back a cheque as soon as I get them. New number 33 (0)6 22 97 93 78. BB pin for all you blackberry users is 22FA26E68.

After all those troubles, I was really looking forward to that weekend. The highlight was going to see an English band, Mumford & Sons, with my friend Tom from groupe Madeleine. The previous Friday, Tom had mentioned he had an extra ticket to see them and I jumped on. I started loving them this summer while listening to good old 98.9 the Drive everyday at work. Best call ever. The show was at a very a very intimate club in the 19th - Le Trabendo. About 300 people or so at most in attendence. Tom and I managed to score and got within 2 metes of the stage! It was an absolutely incredible show,

and being so close to the stage was unreal - the energy of the club was great. Added bonus of 4euro beers put us in an even better mood. As if the night couldn't get much better, we waited around after the show with a cool young French couple and got to snag picture with the lead singer Marcus and the keyboard/accordion player Ben! They both seemed super down to earth and I still can't believe we were so lucky.

Tom and I reveling after the show.

Picture with Marcus!

I have also come to realize that Paris' biggest default is the night transportation system. After the concert Tom and I met up with some other friends to go out. We ended up failing at that plan so Glenn, Marina, Tom and I just went for food. So necessary, as in our excitement to get to the show Tom and I both had neglected to have dinner. This mission for food distracted us however and we missed the last metro. We decided to night bus home. After finding the right line the other 3, we assumed my bus stop was across the street. No such luck. Despite the number of bus stations, apparently night buses only ran in one direction around that street. I then spent the next 45 min trying to find my bus route, with no success despite intense consultation of the map. Exasperated, tired, cold and wet, I decided to bite the bullet and just cab home, seeing as it was 3am. Not one, two, but three cabs all turned me down because I live "too far". I was shocked. It couldnt have been more than a 25 min drive to my place from there, and I couldn't believe they would turn down a girl alone on the street in the rain at that hour. Needless to say I was a bit distraught, but fortunately I was able to get a hold of Tom and crash on his floor for the rest of night. In retrospect I could have cabbed to the city center and then taken another cab from there, but really, for Paris being such an amazing city at night, the transportation sucks. I really understood at that time why people stay up until 5:30 or 6am before heading home if they've missed the last metro.

As I mentioned before, after that weekend, the week the week of Sept. 27th was really busy. I suddenly realized that readings were piling up and needed to be dealt with and school overall was catching up with me. I had to work even harder with my pending Marseille trip, decided on Monday, departing Friday morning. I had to step up my game what with moving on Sunday and wednesday all my stuff over to my new apartment! So far the apartment is working out spectacularly. I love my room - it is bright and overlooks a courtyard of an old nunnery, giving a sense of calm that is fabulous. I have a massive closet that spans an entire wall, a big desk and a double bed. A student's heaven. My roommate Etienne, is super chill, and this week I got to meet his mother, Gaelle, as she was in Paris for a medical appointment. She is your classic mother figure, making us a delicious home cooked meal, taking us out for dinner twice and insisting I make a trip to visit their family home in Bretagne on my list. Having a sense of family for the first time in a month was so nice, and having the feeling of having an actual home to come home to is a rarity for a Paris student that I am sure I will appreciate.

Also this week I got to take part of a very sweet Sciences Po tradition called the Diner de Conference. Essentially, in all of your small electives, your class delegate organizes a dinner out as a class with the teacher to meet and socialize with your other classmates. I had mine for my Chilean history class on Monday night. Not only was the food really good at this nice Chilean restaurant in the 19th, but it was very valuable to get to know the other students in the class, many of whom are French. As an international student, its easy to make friends with primarily other exchange students, so I always relish getting to meet actual frenchies. It was also sweet talking to our teacher, who is a leader in her field of Chilean history during the Allende government and Pinochet dictatorship. Now when you come to class everyone chats together way more than before, and already I have been invited over to a French soiree!

The other exciting thing of last week was an evening of Salsa at a bar at Montparnasse, La Pachanga. Emmanuelle, the leader of my welcome group, found out I was taking salsa classes and convinced me I had to go out with her friends to this authentic salsa club after we had been out dancing together the previous Saturday. It was amazing! There were so many good dancers, but there were also lots of beginners trying to improve their skills. Emmanuelle did her Sciences Po exchange to Mexico last year and has lots of latino friends so I had lots of very good dance partners throughout the night, and boy did I improve quickly! As it is only a 5 min metro ride from home, I am sure evenings at la Pachanga will become regular occurances.

That's all for now, I will post a seperate account of my spectacular trip to Marseille hopefully by Friday!

Love Lauren