r.i.p turtle

this post in honour of the petite green machine, qui s'appelle the turtle. r.i.p litte one, you served us well.

i felt it was only right to smoke un petit petard to help get over the breaking news and now it is official. after making 3gs last almost three months, i am officially out of weed. sad day for all. but for now, it's making things better so i figured i'd fill you in on my amazing weekend!

friday night benjamin and kasia came and picked jeremy and i up with camilla and we went to watch the soccermatch, since it was free for ladies in celebration of le jour de la femme (france does have a few good ideas) the game itself was pretty dull and actionless, but in the end dijon ended up winning, which is something i had yet to see. i think benjamin was a little disappointed as he was rooting for the bretagne team and couldn't even wave his flag since we made him sit in the crazy dijon fan section. this is probably why they lost. after the game we headed home to pack our bags for our weekend checking out les chateaux de la loire!

saturday morning we were all up early and traipsing off to the bus at place darcy for 7am. then there was a 5hour bus ride to follow until we arrived in orléans to check out the sweet cathedral, see some joan d'arc statues and find ourselves some grub.

cathédrale sainte-croix





infront of la loire river

us with joan d'arc

then it was back on the bus for almost 2 hours until we arrived at our firt chateau, chateau chamboard. this was the house of King Francois I and was designed by Leonardo Di Vinci just before he died. it's crazy medival and so symmetrical it hurts. there are 365 chimneys (one for each day of the year), 440 rooms, an insane double staircase where you never cross with the people coming down when you are climbing up, and an enormous amount of property where King Francois loved to spend his time hunting. this chateau isn't located as close to the loire as the other chateaux but you can see where Francois I attempted to convince people to re-route the loire river so that it would run past his property and enjoy its beauty (amazing how much power kings think they have), needless to say, this goal was never successfully acheived.

back on the bus for 45 minutes and we arrived in the town of Blois. yes, its pronounced just how you think it is, like "blahhh with a hint of an s at the end". (this became very amusing to say as the night went on). we arrived at chateau royal de blois just as it was closing, and told that since we were behind schedule we wouldn't be able to make it inside for a tour. we decided that if we left early in the morning we would be able to make it back then as it was only about 10 minutes from our hotel.
this gave us more time to explore blois and obviously, get our party on.
we located food and liquor and headed to the hotel. charlotte, ann, alicia and i enjoyed a few drinks and smokes and then took our wine on tour with us while we found out what the city had to offer. we visited the fake spanish steps and made a new friend denni. then checked out the chateau at night, hungout on the riverbank beach, and headed across the bridge to blois sud. then returned to the hotel to try to make a mad dash to the pool before it closed. saidly we made it just past the threshold from changing room to pool when we were informed it was closed and couldn't get in... bummer. hotel party continues chez charlotte et ann, until jess and alex decide to come an knock on the door to join in the festivites. we continued to their room where we finished our drinks and smoked some j's in a blue light ambiance then decided it was time to hit the sheets so we could destroy the free breakfast the next morning.

and that is exactly what jeremy and i did. finally my intense 5 month long craving for BACON was satisfied. wow. just like i remembered it. literally ate for about an hour and then packed up our stuff and grudgingly got back on the bus.

i think we pulled off a world record timing for touring chateau royal de blois, so it's still pretty hard to take in. there was so much information and history involved with this place that the tour could have easily filled two hours, and the fact that nearly every king and his dog have lived there it was hard to remember much, malheureusement.

next stop, chateau de chenonceau, also known for le chateau des dames/femmes. basically the woman's palace. and rightfully so. the chateau itself is actually built up hovering over the river, and it has the most incredible gardens i have ever seen. and this is in winter when nothing is in bloom, i can only imagine what it's like in the summertime. inside the chateau is equally incredible and every room you walk into is unbelievable, we got to tour around seeing everything for the hallway where soliders from the war would come to rest and heal, the elaborate kitchens, the bedroom of Francois I, and the mourning room that Louise of Lorraine remained in after the death of her husband King Henry III (this room is almost entirely painted in black, with mourning symbols all around, the only color present is a religious painting that hang on the chimney.. needless to say, this room was quite depressing)
apres the tour we had a little time to wander through the gardens and the forests that surrounded, and even check out the labrinyth maze that can be found in the middle of it all. very cool, i think this was my favorite castle of them all.

although the next one did give it a good run for its money. lastly, we visited chateau d'amboise. this chateau is located smack dab in the heart of the town of amboise built up in the caves of the mountain that give the castle its superb view. it is also the resting place of Leonardo Di Vinci, and we got to see his grave located in the chapel of the chateau. at this moment very little remains of chateau d'amboise compared to what it was originally. a lot of the castle has been destroyed or just run down and no longer exist, but what remains is definately incredible. there are a maze of stairs and hallways all throughout and ever room seems to somehow lead to the blacony that wraps all around. and the view is something else. you can see up and down the loire river and get a panaramic view of the city of amboise. since we were behind schedule again our group got split up and i was without our trusty tour guide stephan for this one, so i didn't get to learn much about it, but even without the history it was not hard to appreciate such a beautiful place that someone once called home.

the chapel where leonardo divinci's grave is

said grave







tout le monde







amboise!

after our tour we wander through the garden and then back down into the city. we trekked down the road to see the last house that Leonardo Di Vinci lived in, but sadly we couldn't get inside to look any further. the rest of the afternoon was spent strolling around amboise and looking for some little souvenirs.

there was tons of houses built INTO the caves and mountains, pretty cool

leonardo divinci's last house

then unfortunatly we had to get back to dijon, and we commenced the 6 hour ride. somehow we survived and the night didn't last long until it was bed time.

today was back to class and back to the mediatheque to try for the FIFTH time to try and do the comprehension orale i had due this afternoon, but naturally, since this is france. when i arrived it was sporadically closed AGAIN and so i waited for two hours and returned when it said it would re-open. the woman finally shows up an hour later to tell me i can't do it today because she's rented out the tape played so i can't listen to the cassette. god i love france.
but tonight jeremy and i are going to chez benjamin and he and kasia are going to make us a specialty from bretagne, galettes! i'm still not 100% sure what a galette is, but i have been given the idea that its like a pancake filled with potatoes and such? interesting to say the least. i will be able to give you more information after tonight. but speaking of this, i have to leave in 15 minutes, so i should probably go and get ready. i will attempt to upload my 600+ pictures from this weekend and add some to this post, but i am very scared that my computer might blow up when i try.... if you do not hear from me again you will know why.

a la prochaine fois, bisous! x

re-living amsterdam

so, i just stumbled upon this excellent re-cap of amsterdam that i wrote upon my return, and had to blog it so i can remember it always. i don't think it could be summed up any other way really.

Amazing
Monumental
SO HIGH
The boys are so pretty
Everything I expected and then some
Rainy, but wonderful
Dream of living there with me
Astonishing
Miracles can come true

so poetic! hahaha

oh, the memories....

literal party chez anges - uh oh

well, when i said last saturday that i was pretty sure elias and ann were going to come over for a beverage or two i think it was possible the understatement of the year.

elias and ann came over around 8 or so, and we started off pretty casually with some wine. then when benjamin and kasia showed up, things we're still fairly tame. at this point phoebe called and said they wanted us to wait for them to get home from paris so they could come out with us. so what better way to pass time while waiting then to bust out some vodka??? by the time phoebe charlotte margaret and alicia showed up around 11, we were by far ready to go. however, they wanted to stick around to have a few pre-drinks and get some food into them, out came the champagne and beer and more wine and god knows what else. next thing we know we're all having far too much fun chez anges to even remember that we were supposed to be going out to a bar - whoops. somehow the party migrated from the kitchen to jeremys room (sorry jer, but let's just say it was because we missed you so much??) and then before i knew it there were about 15 people and a full blown party in action. not bad for an apartment where we're not even allowed to have 1 friend over in the middle of the day....
after pudding fests and using baguette as a shovel to eat butter, some french dude had the nerve to tell elias that he was drunk (he must have been the real sherlock holmes) .. but apparently this was sufficient enough for me to feel that i needed to kick him and all of his friends out. so that i did. took me back to those good old days on cunard street.
eventually everyone passed out around 3, thats right, we had a slumber party with 7 people hahah. but since i had been on the vodka and redbulls i was still raring to go.. so i spent my time wisely cleaning the entire apartment and making myself an egg sandwich at 5am
thankfully, after my drunken cleaning spree the apartment wasn't too appauling in the morning and it didn't take too much work to clean it up and ship everyone out the door before the return of anges. who still to this moment does not suspect a thing....

mars - in like a lion

i apologize in advance, because i'm sure this will probably be another doozy of a post! (also, my 'e' button is a bit on the fritz, so bare with the spelling)

well the first fantastic news of the last week and a half is that i finally caved - i bought my ticket to go to paradise - a.k.a: l'île de la réunion!!! life couldn't go on any longer without danielle in it, so obviously a trip was in need. (and that fact that there are glorious beaches and sunshine doesn't hurt much either). i purchased my ticket on th 24th and i'll be taking off for my april break and will be posted up on this tropical remote island (which is located just a little to the east of madagascar) from april 1 until april 14. life won't be able to get any better im sure.

if you can't see where the arrow is pointing to on th map its because réunion island is so small and remote that it pretty much looks like it doesn't even exist. feel free to research this on your own so you can understand exactly how jealous you should be of me, but i will keep my lips sealed on all the glorious things i know about this place until i can tell you that i've done them first hand :)

on the 24th, i also managed to survive my first day of level 4 classes and i was able to understand everything that was going on and even participate a little, so needless to say i felt quite good about myself. to celebrate this and my big purchas, i headed to o'kils bar with phoebe and alicia for the international night they have every wednesday. the bar is super cool and its always really busy with people looking to speak lots of different languages. (literally, you can wander around the tables and find people speaking french, english, dutch, german, finnish.. you name it. it's pretty cool)

the following day was thursday. which has become my new day from hell school wise. i've got two hours of comprehension orale, followed immediately by another two hours of grammaire (easily my two worst subjects) so by the time they are finished i am more than ready to head home and crawl back into my bed. but no, i get a half an hour break and then i'm off to THREE hours of civilisation and familar french. luckily my professor is pretty sweet, and well francais familier is usually always good for a laugh or two.
that night we hit up chez nous for a pretty quite night with the crew, although there was a fairly interesting band playing which made for good entertainment!

i had my first glorious friday with no classes, so i celebrated by doing sweet fuck all for most of the morning. followed by my previously mentioned pleasent experiences at the prefecture/ofii/and of course, my favorite place, the bank. eventually i went over to katherine and antoine's place so antoine could help me translate my resume into french (oh yeah, that's right, looks like its time to get a french job - wish me luck!) and then after dinner katherine and antoine, and benjamin and kasia came over to chez anges to hang out for a bit.

saturday the 27th was an early rise, and we were off on a bus to the champagne captial of the world - epernay! (thanks to my buddy elias who donated his ticket to me and saved me the price of 50euros that it would have cost me!) the bus ride was torturous, but i managed to sleep for most of it. it took about three hours to reach the chateux mercier, in epernay;

and then we had a guided train tour of the champagne caves,

and after the tour, was the champagne tasting!

we had an hour to walk into the city of epernay and find some food for lunch and get back to the bus. so we strolled down the richest street in the world (avenue de champagne - thanks to all the bottles of champagne they have for sale) and found the classiest kebab shop we could.

then it was back on the bus for another two hours to head to a town called Colombey-les-Deux-Églises. this is where general charles de gaulle lived for most of his life, so naturally we visited the charles de gaulle memorial museum, whre you can learn about every aspect of de gaulle's life, admire an incredible view and also see the cross of lorraine (which is a symbol of the liberation of france from nazi germany after world war II)

once again, it was back on the bus for another two hours to head back on home to the good old dij.

we made it back to dijon just before 8 and it was a mad rush to get everyone fed and ready and off to chez nous for 9 for regina's last fete before she headed back to germany the next morning. everyone piled into chez nous and we filled the entire back room. it was a great turn out and the night was hilarious, with few tears shed. we made sure regina had a good send off and finished the night marching down the street with her flag chanting les marseillais (the national anthem for france)

the night ended late and the morning came early when we all had to get up and sadly bid our farewell's to regina. jeremy and i decided to try and improve the day by walking to the park since it was so gorgeous outside. walked for almost an hour to get there just to find out that the fucking park was closed due to a heavy wind storm in france. bullshit. (although the park did look really beautiful from outside the gate, so i will definatly have to venture back again when its not so windy). i smoked my pétard that i had brought in anticipation for seeing all the crazy animal in parc de colombiere and we headed off to chez benjamin for a surprise visit. ended up visiting for a while and watching american histoire X, thats right, american history x en francais. pretty sure that movie would be fucked up in english, its a whole new level when its in french. eventually jer and i walked home and called an end to the day after dinner.

monday wasn't anything special but we were suprised with a dinner with a bunch of anges' friends - always a delight. if by delight you mean the longest, most dragged out, uncomprehensible time of your life.

the rest of the week was pretty chill and i didn't get up to much other than classes and all that exciting stuff. then all of a sudden it was march....

jeremy and phoebe have had some friends from back home stowing away in phoebe's room since wednesday (literally stowing away since we're not allowed to have friends over at all, and they've been here for about 3 days with anges having no idea about it - fabulous) so it's been a bit of an american/clark student overload for me, and i've definatly been outnumbered by far. but we've been having a good time regardless. we all went out on thursday night, starting off at katherine and antoines place for some aperatifs and then off to chez nous (of course). the night was hilarious and i managed to make a new pal with the young bartendar at the bar while he was off duty. and convinced him that it really wouldn't be so bad if we happened to drink our own bottle of wine we conveniently happened to bring to the bar with us. he did not disagree. hahahaha

obviously the night got sloppy and out of control and before we knew it, it was midnight and we were off to la salsa. it was pacckkkked since we showed up a little late and we couldn't all get in, but camilla and i managed. unfortunately it wasn't really as fun as usual and there were a lot of creepy old men hanging around, so before long i was heading off draggin my drunk ass home.

last night is a night to go down in my french history. i ate my first snail. can you believe it? needless to say, i ate one, and one was plenty.

(that's right, escargot here are essentially like chicken nuggets back home, buy them frozen, stick them in the oven, and they're ready to eat)





(oh, how appetizing)

everybody insists that they dont taste that bad at all and its really just like garlicy butter. this is true, until all the garlicy butter is gone and you're essentially just chewing on a slug. disgusting. something that had to be done, but i dont think its something that needs to happen again. next on the list, frog's legs.
after the snail eating experience a beer or two was in order so benjamin, kasia and ann came over to chez anges and off we went to chez nous, where it was far too packed for us all of us to sit down so we decided to relocate to bocadilla's for a pretty quiet night.

jeremy took off to london this morning and everyone else is off to paris for the day, so i've been taking advantage of having the apartment to myself - you know, walking around in the nude, doing as i please. and i think elias and ann are going to come over for a beverage or two (or a bottle of wine) and then we'll head to vieux leon where i get to be initiated by having to place our order with the nasty barman..... excellent. more on this later!

again, i apologize for the lengths of my posts lately. but procrastinating is so much easier than actually updating, i hope you understand.

a la prochaine fois mes homies, love ya's! xx

ps. 25 days 'til réunion bitches! fuck yeah

irrational feelings with positive endings

well where to begin this time.

i have been meaning to update everyday for the last week now, but everyday i have had to go to the bank and deal with the joys of finances in a language i barely grasp (when it comes to financial terms at least) and apres that my body was so filled with rage that i thought it would be in everyone's best interest if i avoided my blog. BUT after almost half a month of arguing with them i finally got my way, paid off what i owed them and convinced them to remove all the extra fees and unnecessary charges they had applied. however, i have STILL yet to receive the reimbursements that THEY have owed ME since november... oh how i wish i could charge them interest as easily as they charge me.

top four ridiculous things the joke of a bank, BNP, have told me:
1. "sorry, we're a bank, we can't accept payment by credit card or cheques, only by cash." (shouldn't a bank be able to receive money in any form, isn't that the point of a bank, to deal with money in various ways??)
2. "if you can make it in on monday, i will take care of everything for you and remove all of the charges" (oh geez, thanks bitch, nice to find out when i showed up that the bank is CLOSED every monday, fuck you and your family)
3. "oh, you want to deposit your cash? sorry, its 13h30, we only accept deposits until 12 noon, even though we're open from 9h-18h." (what exactly do they do at the bank for six hours if they aren't processing the reimbursements they owe me NOR are they accepting deposits?)
4. teller: "you want to pay off everything in your account to the penny?"
me: "oui"
teller: "but that's not possible, if your account is zero the bank will think you want to close it and we will automatically close it"
me: "what! why?"
teller: "why not?"
me: "that is NOT a real response"
teller: "oui"
(this is seriously the stupidity i have to deal with when i go to the bank. so needless to say i paid off my account + 1centime. so that i can continue to have a "functioning" account)

anyway, now that i no longer owe them anything i can joyfully go in everyday demanding why they haven't processed the money they owe me (even though everytime i ask "someone is on holiday and it will be done by the end of the month") and continue to piss them off as much as they pissed me off. oh how i love the french administration services :)

SPEAKING of french bureaucracy, i also had the pleasure of going back to the prefecture this week to find out why, after 5 months of waiting, i have still yet to receive my carte de sejour. when i went in december, before christmas break, they explained that there was "un petit problem" but it wasn't serious, (although they failed to contact me and mention that i had to return to the prefecture to sign a few things to apply again) but now that i had returned i should receive this infamous card within two months time. i explained that in a month my visa would expire, but apparently that's okay and as a canadian citizen i can chill here for three months as a "tourist". fine. well now that my three months is coming to an end and i'm on the verge of becoming vraiment illegal, i decided it was time for another visit. upon arrival, i had the pleasure of waiting in an overheated, body odor induced room, for a good hour or so. once i finally made it to the front of the line the pleasent lady informed me that my card is in fact ready! and it has been waiting there for almost a month now. HOWEVER, she can not give it to me, as i haven't passed my medical exam yet. i explain as kindly as possible that this is because they haven't sent me my appointment yet, and this is what i am waiting on. at this point, she did what all french associations do. shrugged her shoulders and gave me a pathetic, "meh, not my problem. ofii deals with that. you'll have to go to their office and deal with them".
so march on over to the ofii office, where they are closed for the hour and a half lunch break. wait, wait and wait some more. to finally find out that they haven't sent me my appointment because they have no idea who i am, they have zero records of me and this is all "very bizarre". i'm about to completely lose it, so they explain to me not to fret, head home and they will contact me soon with more information. i give them a strong warning that they have two weeks to contact me or else i will be back feeling even more irrational.
i think i have finally managed to express my sheer anger to the french though, because about 2 hours after leaving the office i received a call from the ofii office explaining that the prefecture had forgotten to send my file along, and they were sending it now and ofii would have it in a week and would call me with the date of my medical exam. (marvelous isn't it? how they just conveniently forget to pass things on? no wonder nothing ever gets done in this country!)
THANKFULLY, i received a phone call this evening, letting me know that my medical exam is scheduled for next tuesday. so as long as i don't manage to aquire tuberculosis in the next week, i should (finally) officially be legal in this country! WOOHOO!

i believe that is all for my irrational feelings for this week. and i feel like this rage filled post is long enough. and that, although i have had a great week aside from all this i think i should end this post here and start a new with the glorious details of my last week! i promise the prochaine post will be much more contente :)

until next time, gros bise