September 2010
13 posts
chez le pharmacien
After having a bit of sore throat and head today I decided to head to the supermarket to try and pick up some sort of cold relief medication, however, much to my disappointment the only thing even slightly ressembling medical treatment were band-aids. Unfortunately I had forgotten that this was France, they take their health care extremely seriously. Cough lozengers cannot be merely...
no hunchback in sight
Last Sunday I decided to wander down to Notre Dame to catch their Sunday evening mass, a celebration of a century since the birth of Mother Theresa. We found some seats relatively close to the front, mimed our way through many of the hymns (I’m sure God will forgive our lack of linguistic know-how) shook hands and wished eachother ‘la paix du Christ’, sat in awe as we absorbed...
florence of Arabia
I rose extremely early on the day of my departure, catching the rickety train to Gatwick airport (costing me a rather dear 11 pounds) where I was about to take the long, extemely indirect flight to Amman, Jordan to visit my aunt who is currently working there at the moment as a missionary. I was flying Air Baltic, apparently the largest aircarrier in North, with a short stop over in Riga,...
no shortage of shortbread
After just over three weeks in London I jumped on a bus up to Edinburgh. A couple of weeks before hand I came across really cheap bus tickets (about 14 pounds each way- almost the same price to catch the tube to the airport!) with Megabus. I wasn’t aware at the time that it was to be a nine hour bus ride, ah well, it was rather pleasant just sitting there, watching the English countryside...
looking for Mr Darcy (and the East Midland chavs)
During my first weekend in England I decided to pop up north to visit my fellow au pair friend Bianca at her family home near Chesterfield. Anneliese was also on this side of the Channel (or La Manche, the sleeve, as they say in French, as it is not the English’s) so together we took the two hour train voyage up north when the accents are closer to Scottish than the London English accent.
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london calling
I was looking forward to London all year, mainly as I had been accepted into a Shakespeare and Contemporary Drama course for a couple of weeks at the prestigious Guildhall Drama School.
My couple of months in Paris had flown by and before I knew it summer up upon me and I found myself at St Pancras train station in central London bursting with excitement. It was the first time I had been in...
la fête nationale
For an extremely patriotic nation it was interesting seeing their military orientated festitives for Bastille Day. It was mostly tourists I would say who flocked and lined the streets both on and around the Champs-Elysées. With so many streets blocked off it was difficult to find a good spot. We decided to head up onto the Champs itself and just hope for the best, peeking over the heads of those...
jazz along the Danube
On my final weekend in Germany, after a week in Erlangen, we all packed into the car and drove down to Regensburg (it is a lot easier to drive places quickly in Germany when you can drive at 200 km/h) where Chris had a conference to attend so thought we may as well all come down as there was to be a wonderful jazz festival there as well as plenty of beer. Who could resist?
Regensburg is one...
three months too early for Oktoberfest
As summer approached the French school year wrapped up and Paris started to empty itself of Parisians and fill up with Americans and Italians armed with enormous Canon cameras and bumbags. Originally I was supposed to finish up my au pair gig as well and spend my summer wandering everywhere before heading but home but with a chat to the parentals and to the LaFosse’s, I am now in Froggland...
soccer world cup
It seemed the whole world was engrossed in the soccer world cup in South Africa. A few of us, bursting with optimism, hiked up to the Aussie Bar to watch the first game for Australia against Germany. The devastating defeat was made that much worse with the swarms of Germans that decided going to an Aussie bar would be much more exciting. Unfortunately the French didn’t like to let this...