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Monday, October 31

Design d'Intérieur.

Last night I went to dinner in Kat's which was lovely to catch up with Georgie and Kat and a french boy. It's great that everybody is beginning to return now.
I even had a visit this morning from a very groggy looking Dan, who was recalling stories of his mad week away with friends.
I have been taking it easy this weekend. Pizza out with Georgie, watching films, taking another coffee with a french girl today, who turned out to be lovely! We speak French first and then English but it was great because she seemed to want to speak more French. We got on really well, so I'm sure I will meet up with her another time.
I sent an email to a family I heard are looking for an English-speaking babysitter, and dropped in a CV to a pasta place who are looking for staff, unfortunately the manager wasn't there at the time, and had yet another nostalgic wander around the shops.

I tidied up the sheets of vocab and phrases on my walls and am still thinking about ways to make my little studio look like the offices/bedrooms that I love!










Saturday, October 29

COS.

I have been eyeing this shop up for so long now...
When I popped in the other day I was in my element. So I became determined to get a job and spend all my hard-earned money in there.
After meeting with an Irish-American man today, I now am getting 50euro a month..(which is nothing I know), to carry a phone in my bag and organise appointments for english lessons. I am expected to get only 2 calls a week so this shouldn't be a problem. Although it does mean, that to fund my retail needs, I still need to find another little job.
Anyway he paid me in advance for this month... so I popped along to COS with Kate after having a coffee with a french girl from the tandem website.





La Dépendance.

Yesterday, I went to my interview which turned out to be in the cutest little family run sandwich store.
They all seemed so sweet and nice, but there was other people there for the interview too which I wasn't expecting. And I kept stumbling with my french so I'm not very hopeful unfortunately.

On the walk back, I popped into Rivetoile as per normal, and the new shop Kiko has opened! It is an amazing make-up store but with really really reasonable prices. I once came across it in Spain before and was really impressed but I'm so glad it's so close now.
There was a small sale of nail polishes from last season going on.. so I couldn't resist picking up 4 for 6euro! To add to my rather large collection...




When I eventually made it home, I gave my studio a big clean, put on a wash and then hurried out the door to meet Kate outside the Bains Municipales.
We went swimming for ages, or more like chatting at the edge, but it was really good, you can stay for as long as you want, and the building is so old and has loads of character.
I will definately be going back for another relaxing swim. But one really wierd thing was that there were these signs around the reception and pool saying that men cannot wear anything other than speedos!
So strange.. I have no idea why they would do that, but there were even pictures of bermudas with big X's through them.




Thursday, October 27

Alsace.

Today I had a nice lie-in, and then organised a couple of things on the internet.
I have managed to get myself two kind of job interviews for the next two days, so very pleased with that.
Fingers crossed they go well.

At 13h30 I was collected outside the door of Les Laureades by a lovely Strasbourgeois. He promised to show me the real Alsace region since he has lived here all his life.
It was so funny to hear him talk all about it because I could tell he was so proud, and as we passed through the many pretty villages he pointed out his grand-parents and ancestors homes.

We first drove to Molsheim, a small town with typical Alsacian shops and houses. And he made great company, because although we had a language barrier.. my french not being exactly perfect.. and his english on a similar level, we are both really chatty people! So it worked out really well, and we ended up discussing everything under the sun!

After Molsheim, we drove to Obernai which I preferred as a town, probably because I got a really nice coffee and piece of apple and walnut tart. We wandered around here for awhile, Nico pointing out various things and telling me stories involving the town.

After we were refuelled, we headed back to the car and drove on top a kind of mountain facing out over Obernai and the surrounding Vosges mountains.






 

We then headed somewhere I can't really remember what it was called but past a town called Boersk or something and to a forest... hahah I know.. heading into a forest with a stranger!
But Nico had told me of an Alsacian past-time of picking chestnuts and later cooking and flavouring them.
We popped on some gloves because the chestnuts are surrounded by very sore prickly shells, and spent probably close to two hours in the woods picking these chestnuts!
I'd like to do it again because it was really quite relaxing and theraputic, and I didn't manage to catch sight of a wild boar this time :(

I said a quick hello to some beautiful horses in a nearby field and then we headed home after a long day.
And it was fantastic I got a lift right to my door again!

Oh I love french people!!!!

Wednesday, October 26

C'est Quoi Normal?


My newest wall decor. Dan told me that a friend of his got this tattooed on his wrist I think it was.
If I was to oneday get a tattoo, this would be my kind thing.
But for now, it stays only on my wall.

I also cannot stop doing my nails since I bought the new colours...












Colmar.

Today I got up earlyish and wandered into town popping into shops on the way to ask for jobs, but to no avail.
I met Kate from Cork at Homme de Fer and we took the tram to the Gare. From here we bought our tickets and hopped on a train to Colmar!
The trains are so comfy, I could've happily stayed on there for a couple of hours as opposed to the short 29 minute journey.
We wandered around the town admiring how pretty it is, and were blessed with great weather!




Kate and I were lucky enough to meet a lovely French girl who helped us with our map... and then told us that she was going to take us for a tour of the town because she had lived there all her life.
We couldn't believe it! She took us around for about 45 minutes telling us the interesting stories and history of the town. She showed us the various buildings and their markings and explained to us what the colours of the houses represented and other interesting facts.
She was so lovely to just take time out of her day to do that, I'm telling you, the French are the kindest people!!




It was a gorgegous way to spend the day overall, and Kate and I had a constant flow of animated conversation about everything under the sun! And made sure to stop for plenty of coffees...








Tuesday, October 25

Tout Seul.

With the girls having left yesterday afternoon I tried to keep myself busy and got some jobs done in college, then proceeded to Rivetoile to bring back a top I had bought in H&M and ended up echanging it for a new hat and scarf in my favourite colour of the season.


It has gotten so cold here in the past week! Literally freezing... so these were an essential purchase.
I have also been feeling very inspired recently by my new favourite French brand.. The Kooples.
Although far too expensive for students, there overall look is attainable for the most part in Zara.
Now all I need is to find a little bit of babysitting so that I can puff out my winter wardrobe.


I am in the process of decorating my little hall, and I decided to turn it into my little closet and fashion inspiration area. Although not totally finished, I am very happy with my new purchase from Ikea of this extra clothes rack.


This morning there is a complimentary breakfast in my residence, so I popped down for some croissants and tea and met a girl in my building whom I knew to say hello to.
She is german but speaks fluent french and we had a great time chatting.
I have also been invited over for lunch to a french girl's apartment in town now. She is so lovely and great craic, and after that a boy that I know from college who lives in Strasbourg, offered to give me the grand tour!!
So plenty to do today and I have to say that French people are incredibly friendly and welcoming!
They really are all so nice and helpful and patient with my french which I think is improving rapidly! I seriously doubt if I am going to want to leave Strasbourg in 9 months... 



Sunday, October 23

Le Coupe du Monde.

This morning I woke up really groggy for the match.
The tiredness soon wore off though as the excitement that France might actually win the World Cup took its place.
I have spent the last few weeks familiarising myself with all the French players, and I felt almost as worked up as I would have if Ireland were in the final!
I think New Zealand definately were the star team of the tournament overall, and it is nice that they could win while hosting it in their country, but I thought France definately should have taken the prize for todays match.
After Parra's face got smashed, I was only delighted to see my ultimate favourite rugby player get to play more then usual.
Francois Trinh-Duc, was seriously the most underated player of the tournament I thought. But today I was so glad that people began to see his true potential!!... and looks..

La détente.

Friday evening, Susie, Laura, Dan and I, ate dinner together down in Susie's room.
The others had all left for the mid-term Friday morning so we decided to have a nice night in and chat and watch a french film.
Dan and Susie cooked a delicious dinner of rocket and goats cheese bruscetta and a stir-fry.


After that lovely relaxing evening, we got up in the morning to head off to a brocante/market that ended up being really small unfortunately, so i didn't pick up the bits and pieces I had been hoping for.
But, I did manage to find desperate housewives season one and two other french movies in french for only a couple of euro. So I have been watching those.


I also found a pretty storage bottle to put on my dresser.


So after all are relaxing and recovering from the past few beer nights... we decided to go out..yet again!!
Dan left to visit some friends in Lille, so Laura, Susie and I headed over to a french guy, Mickael's apartment.
We arrived a bit late as usual, and found that we were the only girls..and erasmus! So it was great to get chatting in French and play a bit of Ring of Fire.
After a couple of hours we headed out to a club but didn't end up staying out too late. The three of us girls walked home together later.


Friday, October 21

La Gueule de Bois.

So last night was our competition...
We decided to dress-up as cats, as two of us on the team have that name, and also its easy enough, and I loved the thought of doing cat-like make-up!



The girls came over to mine and we had a quick warm-up beer, took some photos of our costumes and headed out to join the other competing teams.





There was a bunch of cool costumes like a boys team who were cows, and another boys team who dressed up as brides in wedding dresses and played the wedding theme song!



When we arrived at the studio, which was really just a hall in the middle of nowhere, we just had to hang around and wait for our team to be called to the platform where we would battle head to head with another team.

When our team did eventually get called.. we had to making our way through the crowds and get everybody cheering! But we were missing someone... Georgie had disappeared to the loo and we were standing on this platform against a team of 5 other girls who were taking it very seriously.. we had to ask them to wait.. that we couldn't find our final team-mate and the crowd started to get a bit impatient!!
But to the rescue came Kat's boyfriend!
He hopped on stage and just grabbed her and started kissing her so everyone was cheering and roaring laughing!
In then meantime our final pussy came along and got herself ready for battle.



We all knelt down infront the table holding our two glasses of beer.
And I looked across at my competition, who really shouldn't have been allowed enter the girls category because she was a man-beast!! I'm not kidding...she was huge!
I wouldn't have minded but she's not exactly miss friendly competition either..that scowl on her face!
Anyway, the referee counted us in and we were off! From here it's a bit of a blur because everything happened so fast, but I knew that we were doing well. The other team were good thanks to mrs. monster, but we were better.
Any little problems we had had before were gone out the window.
We flew like the wind!! Unfortunately with all the adreniline and people screaming at us, it was hard to concentrate on technique. And yes, there is such a thing as technique in beer-downing.
We got soaked!!!

We managed to beat the other team probably by a sizeable 5 or 6 seconds and the crowds went wild!!
Haha, it felt like we had a lot of supporters, mostly the other erasmus and a couple of the boys teams.
It was such a great feeling!

Unfortunately... although we beat the other team we played against we were penalised for wetness of shirts. And didn't make it through to the next round after all that! But the other team didn't make it in either which makes me feel slightly better.
Another silver lining is that aparently there is another beer trophy in February, so there has already been talk of weekly training sessions...

Thursday, October 20

Allemagne.

Yesterday, Susie and I drove over to Kehl with two other erasmus boys Etienne and Phil.
I wanted to visit a cheap beauty store that ended up being like Boots.
We then wandered over to Aldi for a couple of cheap necessites.
Here are my beauty purchases.












La bière.





I don't even like beer at all. But for the past two nights we have been "training" for a competition involving a team of 5, who kneel up against a table, with two cups of beer infront of them.
The idea is to down your drink as fast as you can and slam your cup back down on the table, then your team-mate does the same in a sort of relay fashion.
The 5th person has the toughest job of downing two cups at once... and then it goes back down the line finishing with the person who began.

The concept is actually simple.
But the drink is the hard part! You don't even taste it as you're just trying to get the fastest time you can!
Our team's star player Kat, can down her cup in 2 seconds!!

We teamed up with a team from the boys competition to train against, and had a great time! I'm sure we will be drinking with those lads again. Great craic!!

I will post our costumes and results from tonight over the next few days.
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