FINALLY, WE HAVE
INTERNET. After over a week of hiding
out on le Mcdo/hanging out in the bibliotheque/being
creeped out by the guy in the Telecom place I can finally post a blog post from
the comfort of my own home. Hooray. I never quite realised how dependant I was
on the t’old interwebz until I had to sort out a shed load of pointless
university paperwork via email, sort out an annoying French phone contract
online, be kept up to date with when and where I have to be in Le Mans and
generally mourn all the Doctor Who/Bake Off I was missing. But a week ago,
Alicia, Annika & I all crowded round the beloved router and grinned like
idiots for the following twenty four hours when it lit up green and our laptops
sprang into life (cue not seeing each other for about three days).
Since getting internet I’ve tried my best to be a
productive human, much to France’s general disinterest and dismissal. But after
too many painful conversations and exasperating email exchanges I finally have
a bank card, fully functioning French SIM card & a library card that doesn’t
expire every four days (weird) – side note, the library here is absolutely
incredible; we don’t understand how a tiny city can have a building bursting
with literally every book/CD/DVD you could ever need. HAPPINESS.
Anyway, since my last post I’ve started and finished work
formation, found my favourite boulangerie, been out for multiple lunches/drinks with the other assistants and spent half a day
colouring in and cutting out shapes for a fake lesson plan. Despite my initial
panic over having to hang out with six year olds, I think I could definitely
get used to it if I get to constantly play with felt tip pens while repeating “I
come from England”. I’ve also thrown myself into planning upcoming travels with
the Erasmus grant I’ll probably never receive (damn you UoM) and am counting
down the days until we get paid. After much bargain hunting, I’ll be spending
the upcoming Toussaint half term break briefly with my friend Emily in
Copenhagen and then with my housemate Alicia in Stockholm, Helsinki and Oslo,
followed by a four day trip to Barcelona to see Placebo (I AM SO EXCITED). Let’s
take a moment of gratitude for nasty hostels, Megabus & €27
flights.
I also visited my friend Jennifer in Paris a few weeks
ago for her 21st, where we went to the Catacombs and Pere Lachaise Cimitière – a relatively morbid way to celebrate a birthday, but whatever. There’s probably a metaphor in there somewhere. We queued for about two and a
half hours for the Catacombs, but it was definitely worth the wait (if not only
for the busker playing Daft Punk the whole way). It was pretty surreal being in
such a small space surrounded by so many skeletons and it definitely took a
while to get the used to the idea that we were literally surrounded by human
remains; leg bones delicately stacked in perfectly tessellated piles with
skulls carefully wedged in between. Pretty odd. I ended up going back to Paris
this weekend for a gig with my housemate, so we spent yesterday at the Eiffel
Tower before heading to the Café Des Deux Moulins from the film Amélie for lunch and to be crushed by the swarms of
people in Montmartre for some market/festival/wine thing that we’d had no idea
about. After much elbowing and metro hopping we made it to the fanciest concert
venue I’ve ever been to - punk/progressive bands are unlikely to play in a
three story, marble palace in England, s’all I’m saying – to see Antemasque who
put on a pretty decent show.
Now I’m back in Le Mans with a cup of tea, letting my
feet recover from the hiking I put them through yesterday; those hills in
Montmartre aren’t pleasant. Next week I finally start work and observing
classes (gulp) before properly starting after the half tern break, not bad to
say I’ve been here a month!
A+
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| Bibliotheque |
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| Crêpes in bed, ftw. |
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| Eiffel Tower |
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