"She'd only gone and pooed her pants again..."

Hi everyone, 

It's been a busy week with lots of highs, and one quite considerable low.

Tuesday night I went for a drink (a tea, of course, silly Dry January) with a girl called Nastasia who I met Montpellier with Hannah. She’s French but her English is so perfect you’d think she’s American. It was great to have some conversation practise, as I don’t really get the chance that often. She was so interesting to talk to and she also spent a good couple of hours here at my flat showing me tons of authentic French singers, comedians, films and teaching me French slang. I appreciated this so much as, living with English people, I’ve not really experienced the French culture to the extent that I hoped I would. 

Wednesday day I got a text from Clémence’s mum that made my heart sink ‘pouvez-vous passer chez nous avant de récupérer Clémence et récupérer un collant? Elle a fait caca dans sa culotte…’ For the non-French speakers amongst you, I needed to go to Clémence’s house to pick up a clean pair of tights as she’d pooed herself at school. Bless. Luckily, I thought to pick up a spare pair of pants just in case though the school had put her in clean ones. When I arrived at Clémence’s school we went straight to the toilet to put on clean tights so she wouldn’t freeze to death. However, once in the toilet, Clémence pulled down her “clean” pants and said ‘regarde’ (look). She’d only gone and pooed her pants again and not told anyone. Good job I’d brought a spare pair. We (she) popped her dirty pants in a plastic bag and rushed back to mine where she washed her pooey little derrière. I supervised. 

Wednesday night was my second Drunk Writers' meeting - I was sober of course. It was such a fun night and I met lots of lovely, interesting people. The writing prompts were really stimulating and I left feeling very inspired. The warm up was to write something based on a random word our neighbour gave us. One exercise involved writing a story in six words, something Hemingway invented, and another was a two-sentence horror story. Here are some of my efforts (please bare in mind we only have five minutes per exercise and I haven’t edited anything).

-      The smell of sausage rolls, steak and kidney pies and Cornish pasties was overwhelming as she pushed open the ice-cold glass door and entered the shop. Trays upon trays of pies and pasties shone like a beacon after a hard day at the office; golden puffy cases with little cracks bursting with delicious filling that oozed out as if it wanted to say hello. The man behind the counter smiled warmly as she rubbed her numb hands together. “ It’s bloody freezing out there,” she laughed, “but I know exactly what will do the job. One of your yummy chicken and vegetable pasties please.”

The man’s smiled drooped slightly as he explained, “ I’m sorry, Miss, we’re all out of those…”

My word was savoury.

-         ‘Light footsteps. Whispered voices. They’re here.’

-         ‘Clock watching. Spoiled dinner. Stood up.’

I wasn’t very happy with my six word stories. Hemingway’s are much better.

-         Cosy in bed, I was starting to doze off when I felt the duvet lift and behind me    the mattress sank. I live alone.

My two-sentence horror story is based on a true event. For more creepy stories speak to my family!

January's Drunk Writers Meeting. Lovely people <3 

Since being here, we have befriended the twins that live on the second floor of our building. Their mum very kindly invited all nine of us round for dinner Friday night. It was the sweetest time ever. We had to speak in French all night which was great practise, the food was delicious, the company fantastic and we even had some entertainment in the way of piano playing and singing. The night was concluded with a game of Time’s Up which is a bit like Articulate, all in French of course. It was such a lovely experience and we’re planning on returning the favour by inviting the family over for afternoon tea!

Yesterday I went for lunch with Soph at a delicious vegetarian/vegan burger place called VG. The food was really tasty and reasonable considering it’s central Paris – a burger, side and a drink for 9,90€! It was great to catch up with Soph even though it wasn’t for very long as she was getting the train home to Reims. 

Last night, we went to a classical concert at the Musée d’Orsay which was something really different. The event was free and therefore unsurprisingly popular. The queue was pretty big when we arrived and the experience wasn’t improved by all the French people pushing in/sneaking friends in next to them. We British could teach them a thing or two about queue etiquette. Eventually we got in, were handed a cushion and directed to our spot. We were sat on the floor in the beautiful museum (it used to be a train station) listening to the equally beautiful music of the orchestra and I just felt so lucky to be able to experience such a special event. It only lasted an hour but we got a little bit lost on the way home, it did lead to my first tram ride in Paris though, so wasn’t all bad. 

And today has been a very typical Sunday. I got up late, tidied my room, wrote this and had a bath. School tomorrow but for once I’m not that bothered. The French, being French, are having a strike on Tuesday which means I have a two day week – heaven. Although, the plan for my year abroad assignment is due on the 29^th and I’m still not entirely sure what I’m doing so I’ll be working very hard on that. 

I hope you all had a good week, thank you for reading!

Bisous à tous xxx