Hello everyone, well those of you who are still faithfully checking the ailing blog! It's nice to know that someone is out there bieng interested (or nosy!)
Sorry to be posting sans images for the moment. I probably won''t be reviving the dead computer anytime soon, so for now am posting from an internet cafe.
I had a really wonderfully restful time in Ireland. I was not blown away by the countryside or culture, but found the people to be very warm and welcoming and with a great sense of humour. The rolling hills were a refreshing green, kept that way by the incessant rain, and the beaches were wild the way I like them. I drank A LOT of tea, truly this is country which takes its tea-drinking seriously.
I was back in Paris for one short night, just enough time to sleep and re-pack, before taking the train to Lille. Lille is a middling-sized city an hour north of Paris (2h in a car) where my ex-neighbour is now living with her family. This family have been kind of like a second family to me during my time here so it is always a delight to see them. The 'kids' are all studying in Lille at present and have an enormous apartment not far from the centre. I and around 15 others arrived on the 30th to help with the preparations for the 'revéillon'. We baked pizzas and quiches for hours and i tried desperately to keep track of names...too many Guillaumes and Maries.
By the time the evening of the 31st arrived we numbered about 50 and the neighbours had already laid 3 complaints about the noise levels. There was a dance floor and DJ, and to my astonishment everyone know how to dance 'le rock'. I mean really knew how to dance, guys doing the inviting and all. So different to NZ party culture! True these youths had almost all come from well-to-do, Versailles-dwelling families (no not IN the castle) and the fact of knowing how to dance is quite the social indicator.
Thanks to my salsa-experience I was able to hold my own and so danced til 5 am when there was a scuffle ofr floor space and 50 or so of us did our best to sleep a little. I stayed til the 2nd, cleaning, playing pictionary (I think i have reached a milestone with my French in actually being capable of playing!) eating left-overs and checking out Lille.
Now back in Paris with a pile of paperwork to get ready for Mondays visit to the prefecture. Yes it is time to renew my permit and all going well Ill be allowed to keep working here for another six months. SO looking forward to Monday, which is also back to work day.
For now, home for soup and then off to the American Library of Paris (the Americans have a very strong presence here in Paris) where I will stock up for a blisfully lazy weekend.
ciao
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4 comments:
Yay, please keep updating - I love reading your blog! And the photos are amazing.
im glad you had an awesome holiday soph, it sux bout your computer, i miss only being a mouse click away from you!
happy new year sophie. i was in ireland yesterday so cold. i'm over seeing mum for christmas. my trip started in venice beach LA then to toronto canada to tunisia north afirca then ireland and england. sounds like you have a new home. god bless.
Emmerson is getting about. Happy New Years and all that! I am still holidaying in the south of New Zealand. It seems so empty and slow after Wellington. It has been good catching up with the family and limited mates left down this neck of the woods. The warmest day of the holidays I spent in Dunners where I saw a few people still living there like Anna and Matt and of course Dom.
It is tough being a regular blogger at this time of year.
P.S. I saw your brother in Meridian he served SI Harvey a massive plate of nachos. It was funny as Si Harvey claimed to know him and he didn't know Si and then your brother recognised me from the past since I haven't lived in Dunners in nearly 2 years. Si was left speechless.
Hard to say if I could return to Dunners to live? The magic of the student days have gone!
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