Day #182 - SIX MONTHS/happy holidays

SIX MONTHS!! I'VE BEEN HERE FOR SIX MONTHS!
This is a very grand achievement for the girl who was sure, after the first month, that she would be home on the first plane back to the country where she can use all her bank cards and use £££ and say things in English and have people understand her through her accent.
Six months. That's 262,080 minutes. Which is like, half of that song from Rent.

So what have I done with my 262,080 minutes? I have been an extra in a French film. I have made some excellent friends. I have drunk wine and eaten baguettes from the market out in the sun on a Sunday lunchtime. I found a house, and moved in. I have been to Paris about a kajillion times. I have been to a funfair on the river Seine. I have joined a choir. I have signed up to be in a play. I have been wine tasting, and to Lyon for the lights festival. I have done Erasmus parties and basement parties and many nights spent in with a bottle of wine. There's probably a load of other stuff.

This week was my official spring holiday, and I spent it staying in my friends' flat in the centre of town while they were away. It felt like a proper little holiday, and I got to explore the city while almost everyone was away.

the cathédrale notre-dame de rouen

 

the jardin des plantes on the wrong other side of the river

Oh yes, fair warning, this post will be very picture-heavy.

The weather picked up considerably and by the last day of the holiday, it was 20°C and I had tea in the garden and wore sunglasses and everything. It took me straight back to sweating on buses and having tea in the sunshine when I first arrived in September.

I also took a little day trip with a friend to Honfleur, which is a lovely seaside town in Normandy which is very, very old and very pretty. 10/10 would recommend!

who r u

erik satie museum

 

SIX MONTHS. I can't get over it. I hope that's enough reason to make a blog post like this, which was basically me just showing off about my little holiday. I ate plenty of baguettes, watched plenty of Twin Peaks, Community and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and drank plenty of wine. I actually broached the transition from red wine season (winter) to white wine season (summer) with a couple of glasses of rosé on Saturday whilst watching Don't Tell The Bride. (That's right, kids, just because you've moved abroad, it doesn't mean you will ever stop watching trash TV. In fact, you will watch more trash TV. Especially when you're drinking.)

The fact that I've been here six months also means that I am basically starting the countdown to going home. Lots of my friends have already booked their flights back and have started organising how they're going to ship their things home. I have had to start worrying about finding accommodation for my fourth year of university. And, weirdly, as the weather gets warmer and as I keep discovering new and cool things around the region and around the city, I am already feeling nostalgic. I almost don't want to move back to Scotland where there are no 6am bakeries and the Sunday markets are farmer's markets and there are posh people who dress like homeless people but with really clean trainers.

??????????? I have no point to this post beyond: Rouen, you're lovely, Normandy, I love you, sunshine, bring it my way.

LOTS OF LOVE
Josie

x

Day #175 - The art of not updating.

The higher the numbers in the titles go, the less I feel like I have achieved something, and more like I am a sad prisoner scratching tally marks into the wall, which isn't really the sort of vibe I was planning on giving out, if I'm being honest.
So, after on updating once (once! Appalling!) in February, I am back to tell you Where The Flipping Heck I Have Been. Because we belong to the Internet/Buzzfeed generation, I'm going to do this all in handy, easy-to-digest categories.

I TURNED TWENTY-ONE.
I honoured it by misspelling a celebratory tweet, which I can blame on my friend Saf's excellent tequila sunrises. Then I went out and got very, very drunk in some bar off the Vieux Marché (which I believe is called Le Vicomté ???). The next day (my actual birthday), we managed to haul ourselves out of bed in time for the Sunday morning market, and then my other friend Maddi showed up (look at me!! Josie Two-friends!!). Then we went home before realising that had been a horrible mistake and all the shops are closed on Sundays and we had absolutely no food - including no ingredients for a birthday cake.
Being the resourceful girls that they are, Safiya and Maddi constructed this monstrosity delight out of rice krispies, all my Milka chocolate (ahem) and a scented tealight:

Then I got sick and spent the entire night vomiting. But before that, it was all really, really nice, and I got flowers and a sweet silk shirt and some comfy socks, and what more could you possibly want?

I FINALLY STOPPED GETTING LOST IN ROUEN.
In my defence, all the old buildings look the same.

I FINALLY CLIMBED THE GROS HORLOGE.
The gros horloge is that sparkly clock that I was so excited about way back in September when I was a fresh-faced young sprite. Anyway, by the time I realised it was even possible to climb up the thing, all my friends had already done it, and had the lovely photographs to prove it. Well! Here is my photograph! Ha ha ha ha let me join your gang now please

not quite the view from the top, but isn't it nice?

I also decided to test out the Panorama XXL - it's this weird blue cylinder that they built on the banks of the Seine, out by the docks, and nobody had any idea what it is. It turns out it's a sort of arty installation where you can see a big picture of Rome all around you. I'm making it sound less cool than it is. What I'm saying is, I'm going full tourist.

I WENT TO PARIS!
Again! Another visitor, another town. Me and Eric hit up all the sights, and I thought I would keep my climbing-things-streak from the sparkly clock going by heading up to the third floor of the Eiffel tower. It's only like, 990ft off the ground. There was no complaining or screaming or crying from either of us. At all. Nope.

 

hiya, paris!

It's actually the first time since I've been here that I've seen the Eiffel tower close up, which is ridiculous, because everyone else who spends their years abroad seems to get off the plane and run straight to the Jardins de Trocadéro. Anyway, it was nice. It was also very, very windy.
Something else that I have wanted to do since moving to France, and hadn't done yet: Disneyland Paris! Do not judge, it was magical, and Eric stopped making me go on rollercoasters after I almost cried on that Aerosmith-themed one.

THE HOLIDAYS STARTED.
As if all my other holidays weren't enough. Rather than being left in Rouen on my own, as I had expected, I'm slowly filling my week up with trips to places around Rouen and Normandy that I haven't ticked off my to-do list yet - climbing up to panorama spots, heading to new spots, visiting the old plague burial ground, as well as Honfleur and other towns.

i hope you're not sick of views yet

I can't believe it's already the half-term holidays! The weather is already picking up - the sunshine has finally come back into my life, although it's not quite warm yet. Before you know it, it'll be Easter. My promise to myself that I wouldn't get on any more planes home until I finish school here - that's the end of May - is looking more and more do-able, and the idea of not having to traipse back through Charles de Gaulle airport warms my heart almost as much as the sunshine.

I'm sure I will update this again soon with news of my holiday adventures, but if I don't, I wrote a little piece for Prancing Through Life to tide you over until then. 
Happy winter break, everyone! And for those of you who have already had your holiday.. ha ha. I'm going shopping now.

Josie
x