Can I leave my Gorilla here?

As a dutiful citizen of the Commonwealth, I decided this past weekend that it was time to pay my respects and visit the motherland. Or at least that's the excuse I'm using to explain my four day trip to London! (England, not Ontario). Once again teamed with my partner-in-crime in Europe Annie, we headed for the bus station on Friday October 29th for our 6 hour bus ride to the capital. A brush with disaster from the beginning was about the only thing that went wrong all weekend. After having just hopped on the metro to get to the station with a bit of time to spare, I realized I had forgotten the centerpiece of my Halloween costume in my closet at home. I quickly dashed off and managed to meet Etienne who saved the day and just made it to the bus just in time for our 2pm departure.

The ride over, which we had assumed was 6 hours (depart Paris 14:00/2, arrive London 20:00/8). About 4 1/2 hours into our ride we became aware of our, for lack of a better word, stupidity. We had forgotten to factor in the one-hour time difference in London (behind Paris). This meant that our 6 hour ride quickly became 7 hours, which actually ended up being about 7 and a half. I know that extra hour doesn't sound like a lot, but when you've mentally prepared yourself for only 6 hours of sitting on a bus, 7 seems so much longer, especially with no food. Fortunately on our stop on the English side of the border, there was a vending machine. Best processed waffle ever. All in all the hours went by relatively quickly thanks to my brilliant idea of bringing cards. The other highlight of the ride was the ride under the Channel. Obviously this was my first trip, and I wasn't sure logistically how the chunnel worked. Pretty darn cool. They have these huge pressurized train compartments that can withstand the water pressure and all the vehicles get loaded in and park. The compartments then speed along the tracks to the other side. Its weird because you don't feel like you're moving at all. All in all the crossing took about 30 min, and then just over an hour to finally arrive at Victoria station in the center of London.

Above left: Me with all but four of the cards. Being the champ that I am I still managed to win.
Above: A bus being loaded into our Chunnel train. We were sitting at the very back. Cuz we're cool kids like that.

Arrival in London at Victoria Station and made our way over the Paddington station on the "Tube". I can't describe to you how surreal those first moments in London were. A- because I was actually in London. B- because randoms walking by were speaking in English. What is going on here!? Apparently in only two short months, hearing English spoken by the casual passerby has become practically alien to me. C- Not only do they speak English, but they have very hot, cute accents. D- They say funny words like CHAV (council house and violence) aka sketchy looking youth, and loo. E- They have wide sidewalks and very different buildings and front yards. Slow down, this is too much to process for a poor Canadian girl all at once who's still woozy from a 7 hour bus ride.

Anyways, I was a little overwhelmed in the best possible way with my arrival in London. We went to Paddington station to meet Peta, a friend of Annie's from Australia who has been living and working in the UK for the past two years. We went back to hers to get changed and headed out to a very authentic London Pub, the Duke of York, where Peta's friend Kiriay. It was just off new Bond street and Oxford street for those of you whom that might interest. After Annie and I quickly wolfed down kebabs for dinner at 11pm, we went back to the pub for the "lock-in". This is where the pub stops serving alcohol to customers and locks the doors. While the staff are cleaning up, they partake, and their friends, in a few pints on the house as congratulations for a good nights work. A very pleasant evening chatting with the bar staff, a few of whom had been to Canada, Ontario and Vancouver respectively. Did I also mention is was Halloween theme at the pub that night? All the staff had gone all out on their costumes, which included a dead bride and a english soldier complete with white wig. My favorite moment of the evening, which inspired the title of this post, was when around 2, Graeme asked if he could leave his gorilla costume at the pub, explaining that he was uncomfortable walking in his neighbourhood at night in a gorrilla suit. Maybe it was funnier if you were there...Oh well, it pleased me.


Saturday dawned clear and fresh, so Annie and I headed up to Camden Town as Peta went to work. On weekends, a bustling, albeit packed, market overflows into any nook it can find with vendors of food, accessories, clothing and nick nacks. It was a riot. This part of town is also home to the remains of London's punk movement and a hipster sanctuary. I was given quite a few coupons for cheap tattoos, and was very tempted but knew my father might not be too pleased with me. Next time. We wandered around, in and out the stalls, as I was "very fascinated by this punk culture." Then we struck gold at the most amazing bag store ever. Since my arrival in Paris, I have been on the lookout for the perfect, tan leather school satchel for my books, since apparently the backpack is pretty much forbidden at Sciences Po. After two months, I was getting a bit discouraged, but finally, my dream came true. All real leather bags, absolutely gorgeous, sold at this very cute stall. The man who runs it is an absolute gem, having been here for years, he guarantees all his bags, no questions asked. It is one of those purchases that every time I use it I am filled with happiness.
Above right - the most amazing purse store ever, above, a view of Camden Town on a Saturday.

Riding the high from our purchases, we decided to have lunch at a good English pub, the Elephant Head, as part of my education in authentic English cuisine. First up: Steak and Ale Pie. Yummy :)

Steak and Ale pie at the Elephant's Head Pub.

Back on the tube and down to Portobello road in Notting Hill. Yes, the very road where much of the movie Notting Hill is filmed. On weekends it is another open air market, primarily antiques, where I managed to find a gorgeous pair of vintage earrings and a really cool necklack with an antique pocket watch on the end. So many cool trinkets and toys and everything in between. After strolling down the street, we ended up at Peta's Pub, the Castle, and enjoyed a drink and some nachos while waiting for her to finish work. And of course I had to snap a picture of me in front on the door where Hugh Grant lives in Notting Hill which is right across the street from The Castle. So happy!

Portobello Road and outside the door from Notting Hill!

After a quick stop at Peta's to grab some of my stuff I then tried to navigate through Tube closures on my three direct lines to King's Cross station and failed to do so in time to catch my 7:30 train to Stevenage. Finally able to get on a train 45min later, I was headed to the edge of London, to Hertfordshire to meet Christie, one of my best friend's from 1st year at UBC who had done her exchange at UBC. So it had been over a year and a half since I had seen Christie, and my visit was partially taken in order to visit her. She had just started her masters and was living at home in Stevenage, so I took the 25min train ride out to her place. Thankfully, despite my inability to contact her and tell her I had missed the first train (which so obviously figured out when I wasn't on it), she was there waiting for me and wisked me off to a dinner party at her friend Aman's. Not only was it great to see Christie, but also to meet some of her friends and see her interact with them. After a delicious dinner, we watched the X-factor, the all the rage singing talent show in England right now. Then back home and to bed seeing as the punch was putting me to sleep on the couch at Aman's.

Sunday, thanks to time change (which happens a week before North America) we benefitted from both sleeping in and being up at a reasonable hour to head back to London for a action packed touristy day. It was kindof surreal that all of a sudden, here I was, in England, with Christie, catching up and chatting about UBC people that I hadn't really talked about in a long while as if this was common place. Hanging out with Christie, despite the time apart (which was longer than how long we knew each other for) was natural and like we hadn't missed a beat and picked right up where we left off. Not that I was worried at all, but it couldn't have been better. Anyways, we arrived in London to a morning of rain and hopped on one of those double decker sight seeing buses, the Original London Bus tour, to see the sights around the city. Best idea ever, a must do if you ever visit London. As a history geek, I was relishing all of the anecdotes on the many London landmarks we went by, including Tower of London, Shakespeare's Globe, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben, among other sights that were pointed out. For example, when going over London Bridge, it was noted that this was the first bridge to span the Thames, and has been here since Roman times. Well if that doesn't take you down a peg, then I don't know what is. Or maybe seeing the residence building of the Archbishops of Canterbury for the last 700 years, which far exceeds the age of your entire nation. Anyways, the tour was amazing, and we lucked out by getting to move up to rather early on and get actually front row seats on the upper deck for the main portion of the journey. We opted to stay on the bus for its entire 2 1/2 hour journey, but you could easily make a day of it by taking advantage of the hop-on/hop-off policy.

A statue of Winston Churchill. There is an electric current that runs over the surface of the statue so birds won't sit and poop on him. He insisted.

Perfect timing that over the course of the bus tour, it had stopped raining and there was to be no more rain for the rest of the trip, a rarity for London at this time of year apparently. We headed uptown for lesson English cuisine number 2, authentic fish and chips, back at my favorite pub, The Duke of York. Then onto Oxford Street to go to TopShop, Christie's favorite store ever which she had raved about since first year. It was gigantic, and I can't really describe it to you, but it was sweet and I wish I wasn't a poor student. I did however, manage to find a gorgeous cream coloured sleeveless blouse which was on my list to go with my new navy blazer. (All part of my new grown-up look that I'm trying to create now that I'm 20 and a big girl).

Lesson in English cuisine 2: Legit Fish & Chips

Back down to the Thames where we had a lovely walk across the river to the next tourist attraction, the London Eye or Millenium Wheel. Thanks to advance fast-track ticket purchasing, we skipped 30min of line waiting and hopped right on. The ride was incredible, and very romantic. We arrived just as night was falling over the city and all the lights were aglow, yet it was still clear enough to see all the landmarks from our earlier tour. Amazing how high you go, and view from the top. I definitely recommend going at dusk as we did, I can't imagine what it would be to see the end of a sunset. Most spectacular had to be the view of the House Parliament and the Big Ben, all lit up against the night sky.

Next up a quick stop at a gift shop for a souvenir, and the beginning of my new world traveller's item - the magnet. I had been inspired by my world travelling friend Kyle's shot glass collection, and decided I wanted to start a collection of my own. I had thought long and hard as to what small token I wanted to collect at each stop on my world tour for the rest of my life and have finally decided on the magnet. Not only can you always find magnets, but they are cheap and you can display them easily in your home, a constant reminder of your wonderful travels. So magnet number 1 has been purchased!

View from the London Eye of Parliament and the Big Ben

We then strolled back across the bridge riding the high of our wonderful ride on the Eye and walked to Covent Garden, a gorgeous covered market where we went to a wine bar there that Christie and her family have been frequenting for years. We timed it perfectly to get one of the last tables 'outside' (of the restaurent, but under the covered structure of the market), and listened to a lively violin troupe serenade us while we sipped champagne and nibbled on nachos under the lovely Christmas decorations. Really I could not have imagined a more perfect day at all, everything was splendid and a huge thank you is in order to Christie and her parents for organizing the whole day and making it incredible. On the highlights of my year so far list.

Christie enjoying champagne at Covent Garden

We then caught the tube back to Picadilly and Peta's where we met up with Annie and got our Halloween on and costumed up, Annie and I as indian's with the most fabulous matching headdressed and Christie as a cave woman, which she had organized that morning (very impressive). With my heels and headdress on I would estimate I was about 6 1/2 feet tall. I had to bend to get to doorways, which was hard to remember a bit. Our evening didn't quite go as planned, and ended up being kindof random, definitely not North American Halloween epicness, but we embarked on a bit of a pub crawl and enjoyed some drinks etc. A decent night. A few things to note about Halloween in England. Dressing up is supposed to be scary. Your costume is lame unless there is fake blood involved and general death and scariness. Not everyone dresses up. Our party of about 10 did, and so we would forget about it until other in the street would start making pow-wow noises and then I would recall, yes, I was wearing a massive headdress.

Annie and I rocking our sweet headdresses.

Monday morning, Christie and I bid adieu to Annie and Peta and headed back to Stevenage to freshen up before heading out to Cambridge for the afternoon, which is about 40min down the highway. Sadly, my camera decided to die so I have pretty much no photo documentation of the city, but it is amazing. You can feel the history of the buildings and the streets. It was a real change from the bustle of London, the most delicious small town feel. I can't imagine going to school surrounded by such amazing, ancient architecture in a fairytale like town. I guess you get used to it. I, however, am continually thrown off in Europe by seeing establishements such as the dressmakers in Cambridge, that have been in operation since 1629. Its a bit mind boggling as I always contrast these dates with the age of Canada. We had a lovely day strolling through the town, into a few stores before sipping hot chocolates in the park as night came on. It was another perfect afternoon. I realized that time doesn't come between true friends as the two of us sat on our park bench admiring the fall leaves and talking about everything. They will always be there for you when you need them. This was particularly comforting for me as I think about my future after UBC and have no idea what lies ahead for me. Wow I am getting really sappy. Anyways the point is I really appreciated my really meaningful talks with Christie over the weekend, especially as since coming here, all of the friends I've made are still fairly new and you just haven'y built up that kind of connection yet. It was so good to have that back.

King's College Cambridge, one of the oldest colleges. If that doesn't inspire academia, I don't know what would. Note the spectacular gothic architecture.

It got dark and chilly so we headed over to d'Arry's, a very lovely gastro-pub for dinner. Once again thanks to Christie's parents for an amazing dinner. Such delicious food, including crispy duck salad and a beef and gravy casserole with horshradish mashed potatoes. The English sure know how to do comfort food. The atmosphere was classy yet homey, and we had a great time. On our drive home, journey came on the radio as we were talking about first year and I almost cried. It was one of our floor songs from 1st year and to have it come on then by coincidence was crazy. We sang along so loud. 2nd SL forever.

Notting Hill before bed (SO HAPPY) and all too soon, 5:30 was here for my wake up for my flight. Christie, being amazing, drove me to airport at that ungodly hour. As we said goodbye, it wasn't sad but comforting, knowing we'll get to see each other soon. And now for tackling my flight home...

All in all the best weekend yet in my European adventure. Let's see if Amsterdam this coming weekend can top it...

Closing out October

Home from Bretagne and back to books. Thanks to great advance planning, I wasn't too far behind on my schoolwork. I had had to be prepared before the weekend as on Tuesday I had an oral expose in my History of Fashion class. So far this class has proved to by my favorite. The teacher is fabulous, and the material in class is very interesting, including the readings. I genuinely look forward to doing them (nerd). My expose topic, with partner Allison from Australia, was particularly cool. It was a text analysis of the essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", by interwar period German literary critic Walter Benjamin. Benjamin was defending photography and film as new mediums of art that were significant tools of political discourse in the 20th century. We had to apply Benjamin's analysis, and definition of art, to fashion. Essentially we were looking at whether fashion can be described as art. Very mixed opinions, pivoting on the definitions of both 'art' and 'fashion'. In the end, we concluded that haute couture can classified as art while the clothing/fashion industry, is not. Assignments such of these that are engaging and really make you think are the lessons in education that actually stick. My most meaningful academic work has always been a particularly difficult paper, or in this case, oral presentation, because they really challenge you to think. Though annoying at the time, the satisfaction at the end, and the learning process, is what education is all about. That is why being an arts student is the right fit for me. And when the professor tells you after class what a great job you did, that's also pretty nice ;).

In celebration of my presentation on from 5-7, I went straight to Annie's to meet up with Annie and her friend Fran from England and we headed off to concert #2 of year in Paris, Yeasayer. An American band, their music is a mix of alternative, psychedelic rock. Though mid crowd for most of the show, we were able to get right up to the front with my friend Glenn for the encore. A really solid show with a good, albeit slightly more mellow, buzz. Afterwards we went out to enjoy a drink before heading home before the last metro.



Wednesday Oct 27th: After my initial complaints about unseasonably cold fall weather, I have been pleasantly surprised by a return to pleasant autumn temperatures the last few weeks. Still riding the high of nailing my expose, I decided to go to the Paris catacombs on Wednesday before salsa with Nadir, a friend of Etienne's whom I've hung out with a few times. Unfortunately, we had forgotten that it was fall break for the primary and secondary schools, and the line for the museum was unmoving and long. Instead we decided to head to across to Quai de Bercy by Bastille and walk along the Seine and enjoy the sunshine. A real burden. I don't think I will ever fail to appreciate stolling through Paris on a sunny afternoon. It is simply splendid and always puts me in a fabulous mood. Enjoying a cup of tea while overlooking Bastille square wasn't too bad either. Its been a tough year. Really.

On my way home from salsa, I stopped by Monoprix and picked up some pumpkins. I decided rather last minute that I needed to bring some true halloween culture over to France. Essentially I just really wanted to carve a pumpkin. I had invited over a bunch of the Madeleine crew to mine for the evening. Though there were a few bailers, I ended up having a lovely night with David, Annie, Anna, Paulina and another Russian friend of theirs whose name escapes me. It was so much fun carving myself, but also watching the childlike glee of Anna and Paulina, who were carving their first pumpkin. I'd say we turned out two very fine pumpkins. After the crowds had cleared, Etienne came home from his own night out with friends and the three musketeers were united once again for another rowdy wind-down soiree.

Paulina and Anna with their very first pumpkin! Eiffel tower on the front, unicorn on the back.

Sarkozy and I, Annie and mine's masterpiece.

Thursday Oct 28th: Really not much to say, other than Annie and I ate so much delicious food all day, watched Scrubs and wrote French papers. Though due Tuesday, I had to finish this paper before Friday when I was leaving for London as I was going to miss my class on Tuesday morning. It was a bit of struggle, being my first essay in French and the question itself, "Is the state the essential power", a rather difficult topic to tackle. By the end I was quite proud of myself and blissfully unaware that I had written the paper on the wrong topic. But I wouldn't discover that until Tuesday night.

My two muskateers

Next up: my London Adventure!

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