Cardiff

So on Thursday 24th March I headed down to Cardiff for the 3rd anual FQB-Nantes Reunion. I went to see my favourite Welshies (+Tom, honorary fille) who I lived with all that time ago in Nantes (2008/2009). One of the best things about our get togethers is realising what good friends I have; when you haven't seen each other for over a year, and you can still get on and chat away as if you've never been apart. Cue warm happy feeling.

I arrived early afternoon on the Thursday and was met at the station by Anna. We had afternoon tea and scones in a quaint little tea shop is a pretty little village. The only slight mishap was somehow sealing my sunglasses into their case and not being able to get them out. I was flummoxed. Had to cut them out in an emergancy rescue operation. After tea we went out in Cardiff to a bar where it was quids night. Yes, drink for a quid!! God bless you Cardiff!! Now Cardiff nightlife is actually rather brilliant, it's like Manchester was about 3 years ago before I got too old and bitter to enjoy it! Highlights from the evening include harrassing a handsome yet ridiculously young bar man because he looked like Justin Beber, and watching a small fight break out because of a small man overcompensating for his lack of height. If men get small man syndrone I think I must have tall woman syndrone, because I'm a cocky little get most of the time. Excellent night.

On Friday me and Anna had a lazy morning drinking (yet more) tea. Imagine my confusion sat there in my pyjamas, watching Jeremy Kyle with a brew, when a strange let herself into the hous and launch into a full blown conversation with me... in Welsh!! I wasn't sure if it was the hangover affecting my judgement or whether she was actually speaking jibberish. I actually learnt some Welsh during my trip! Caru ti means 'I love you', and teesho paned means 'do you want a brew', so basically I the two most important phrases to survive down there. Anyway, once recover we went for a walk and an ice cream around Cardiff Bay and I met Anna's boyfriend (I approve). The weather was gorgous and it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

Friday evening we were joined by two other filles - Hannah and Elliw!! So it was a real reunion and we all had lots of catching up to do... over several bottles of wine, some sloe gin and a bottle of vodka!!! It was quite an eventful night actually. We ended up in a club called Oceana, which seems to be all over the south of England but I dont know of any up north. It's good, different rooms with different music. I wonder if it's a franchise... I may open one in Manchester! I met several randoms during the course of the night but two stick out in my mind:

The American/Korean Condom Tycoon who was about my age but had just inherited a latex company in Korea and gave me some free samples (much to my amusement the morning after upon finding them in my handbag!)

The rich 18 year old who, thanks to my charm and wit, bought me and ALL my friends a mojito. I don't like to brag or anything but I think going to the bar for my own drink and coming back with 7 mojitos and an enthusiastic 18 year old earns me a couple of cool points... no?

Anyway we danced and drank til they kicked us out at 3. THEN the night got even more random. We had acquired a following of boys from Portsmouth who were up for the football (England played Wales on the Saturday) and they followed us about looking for another watering hole. Unable to find one we hailed a taxi and were about to head home, however, thanks to the spontaneous decision of a crazy Welshy named Catrin, we ended up going to the Portsmouth boys' house. Only they weren't in the taxi with us. So we got there before them. And knocked on the door... Waking up their housemates... at 3.30am. Fun. Whatsmore, we couldn't remember the names of the boys we'd met, so we spent several minutes persuading these strangers that we had met their friends, who had invited us round!! They eventually let us in (due to aforementioned wit and charm) and we basically ransacked their house, drank their booze and played on their pool table. Eventually the guys we met came home, and we played strip poker. Although it wasn't really strip poker as there was only one guy taking his clothes off. I'm too good a poker player to go all in on a 5 and an 8 just for the want to be naked in a room of strangers.

Anyway, moral of the story is that we got home to Anna's house at 6.30 and I had to be up at 8 to catch my train!! I never normally sleep on the train but I did on Saturday morning! I ate a huge pasty and then dozed off. Kept waking myself up by snoring. Slightly embarrassing!

Next reunion is scheduled in for December. Love you guys!!!!

Vuelta a Madrid

Just got back from a week in Madrid. Going back for the first time in since I lived there in 2009 – was great! Felt like I’d never left. Saw my friends, where I used to live, where I used to drink… I’d like to go back to live there again one day. And even better than just seeing all my Spanish friends; Melissa my fake Mexican showed up, Christopher and Markus where there, and even Lauren came on a business trip. Nice. Got very drunk showing everyone the joys of free tapas (just HAD to order a pint of sangria everytime) and also had a rather disturbing experience of Spanish hash. I got high and went under because Javi was singing “English man in New York” by Sting. It freaked me out. And put me off smoking illegal substances for quite a long time. In hindsight its pretty funny but at the time it wasn’t, I was scared!! It was also quite a linguistic challenge for me, having spent 6 months in France my Spanish was extremely rusty, and at the start of the week I was speaking French to Christopher and Markus and Spanish to Javi and everyone else, and interpreting between the two. Lots of fun, at the end of the week I didn’t know what language I was speaking in! Found it reassuring though that I could still understand everything that was said to me in Spanish, and that I could just about talk more or less well in Spanish.

So now I’m home and I’ve only got three weeks to go before Peru!! How scary. I know its going to go really fast, and the fact that I’m actually away for 2 weeks out of the 3!! Oh… Almost everything is booked and sorted now though, I’ve got myself a couch in Lima, and I’ve booked my trek to Machu Picchu. It wasn’t the traditional trek that I wanted to do, that was booked up, but it’s a less known less travelled trek that sounds really good, passes through Inca villages and even includes a visit to natural hot springs! Yipee!

My fund raising is going well too, hoping to have about £400 when I go, which I’m donating to the orphanage!

So…. Next stop: Cardiff – Leamington Spa – Hertfordshire and then back to Madrid!

This Shit Just Got Real

I booked my flight to Peru!

I really am going travelling around South America. On my own! Booked my flight yesterday. I decided to go with Iberia, even though it was the more expensive option. My reason being that I'm 6ft1 and it's a 12 hour flight so I'm gona want some goddamn leg room. I leave on the 13th April - less than 6 weeks away!! OMG. This dream that I've held since my early teens is rapidly becoming a reality. Which is both equally exciting and terrifying. I haven't got much else to do now, sort some accomodation out, get a few more vaccinations... pack! WAAAAH!!!!!

Turning 23

Yesterday was my birthday! I've made it to the grand old age of 23. I celebrated by eating Marks and Spencers chocolate cake for breakfast, dinner and tea, and then by drinking several glasses of wine with Sarah Jones, who also had her birthday yesterday.

I also had one of three rabies vaccinations. It hurts, not only physically but emotionally as it cost £50!!! Great. This bloody trip is costing me so much it'll be a wonder if I manage to get there in the end! I've already spent £100 on vaccinations and I've got at least another 6 to go! I've spent hundreds on my 'kit' and medical supplies... But I'm not complaining, it's making me really excited!

I went on the wii fit the other day and it told me my new wii age was 23! I was so chuffed! It was 47 at Christmas! Guess my running around France has paid off afterall.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes :) and finally in the wise words of Coolio...

I'm 23 now, but will I live to see 24, the way things are going I dont know...!! ;)

Jen, Ken and the Meat Heads do Freelance Camping in Derbyshire!

What's freelance camping you might ask? Well instead of camping on a camp site, with toilets, showers and other such facilities, it's camping on a random field. Really Roughing It. And that's precisely what we did on Friday.

My first full weekend home and I went away! To the Peak District, a national Park about an hour and a half south of Manchester. The day started with breakfast at my house, a shopping trip to Morrisons to buy booze and cake, and then we filled Jen's tiny Beetle up with camping gear and hit the road.

Road trip entertainment included teaching Jenny the Eddie Stowbart game, whereby you punch your road trip companions every time you see an Eddie Stowbart lorry, poor Jen wasn't very good at this game. And the sound track was provided by Stacey who found an old indie compilation CD.

We arrived at Uppertown Farm, Ashbourne, at around 2pm and spoke to farmer Paul who indicated to us a flooded field where we were allowed to camp for the small fee of £5. The field was full of sheep poo, but not even this could dampen our mood. Full of enthusiasm, we had our outer tent erected in no time, but we couldn't figure out how to put up the inner tent. Finally, after much deliberation, and an emergency call to Stacey's Dad, we reached the conclusion that we had put the tent up INSIDE OUT!!! And we had to start again.

We took this opportunity to find higher ground, which was less flooded, although more shit-covered. And once again we set about putting our tent up - the right way round!! All in all I'm ashamed to say it took us almost two hours to get set up, and to celebrate we tucked into our picnic lunch of quiche, sausage rolls, ham, crisps and loads and loads of cake!

Next to our 'camp' was Carsington Water, the 9th biggest reservoir in England and we had a wander down and used the toilets! The rest of the evening was spent eating, drinking and chatting incessantly as we do. And we were quite comfortable in our tent, with a gas stove, lanterns and an inflatable bed to keep us above the puddles! Our make shift toilet was less luxurious, let's just say there was a field full of sheep next to us that got more than a eyefull over the course of the evening.

We were lucky with the weather, it rained all night, keeping us up, but during the day it stayed more of less dry. And we woke up the next day to bacon butties and brews courtesy of Stacey Groom!

In the morning we took a walk around the reservoir, all 8 and a half miles! It was really beautiful and reminded me of some of the nice things England has to offer, it's often easy to forget living amongst the grey working class squalor of Swinton. The sun even made an appearance and it was a lovely walk, although almost three hours later when we arrived back at the tent we were shattered.

Packing the tent up was even more of a trauma that setting it up. The wind had picked up and it was flapping all over the place, sending sheep poo and mud in all directions, and I have no idea how it fit in the bag in the first place, the tent seemed to have tripled in size when we came to squeeze it away!

We set of home, smelly, unclean and exhausted. And all in all it was a brilliant experience spent with my two best friends. The only two people in the world that love me enough to go freelance camping in February!!

Here are some photo's of the trip:

Waterproofed and ready

Tea making facilities

Me and my little munchkins

Some neighboring cows

When we finally got the tent up!

Our shocking 1st attempt

Home Sweet Home and the smell of tramps arse

Here's an amusing anecdote for you. I was getting the bus home from Manchester today, and not surprisingly the stench on the bus was making me heave. It smelt like the arse crack of one thousand tramps. Welcome to Manchester. I stood up to open the window. Then I sat down again, not realising that my pull down seat had sprung back up to the upright position and I landed with an embarassing squeal, on my arse, surrounded my by shopping. I was right at the front of the bus too so all the common smelly people were looking at me.

Today I got my yellow fever vaccination! It cost £45 and I was told I will probably experience flu like symptoms for the next ten days. Lovely.

I also bought a fabulous pair of hiking boots, they're brown, hideously ugly and wonderfully confortable. They're also my replacement Markus for climbing mountains :(

Other than that home life is going very well, seeing friends, eating bacon and doing all the little jobs that I couldn't get done from France. Feeling super efficient and Haven't even had a lie in yet.

END OF CHAPTER I (France)

France. Six months. DONE.

So I'm on my way home from France, for good. I'm no longer an au pair. I no longer live in France. So, as I sit in the departure lounge of Nice airport, I feel it's time for some reflections on my time here:

Au Pairing: My experience as une fille au pair was greatly different to what I had imagined when I signed up. I imagined I'd feel like a member of the family, but I can't say I did. I was generally treated like an employee and I lead my own separate life to the family, however I think this improved my experience rather than hindered it. It allowed me to make friends, travel, explore, and get ridiculously drunk and do stupid things. And still in spite of this I still formed a really strong bond with the children. Charlotte, who I consider like a little sister, who confided in me things she couldn't talk to her parents about, who make me relive my experiences as a 13 year old girl, where boys, friends and clothes are all that matter. Barnabé, such a sweet intelligent and sensitive boy who was better than me at maths and always made me laugh. And Merlin, my baby, who corrected my French, entertained me with his hilarious 4 year old jibberish and taught me how hard it is to raise children!! I've learnt so much from this family, I had moments where I wanted to give up, moments where I wanted to stay forever and moments that I will cherish. It has really been a memorable experience living with another family, adapting to there way of life and helping them in their day to day routine.

My French: I finally feel I deserve to have 1st class honors degree in French. When I graduated I felt like a fraud, who'd gotten lucky on the day of the exams, but know I can confidently say, "I can speak French". I think in French, I dream in French, and I spent six months speaking nothing but French. I genuinely am proud of the progress I made. I made the effort to study and to learn the impossibly complicated mess that is French grammar, I can have complicated conversations about politics, education and what-not in French, I watch films in French and understand as if it were in English. The aim of coming here was to get my French up to standard, it's not perfect, it never will be, but I achieved my goal. Pat-on-my-back!

My Opinion of French People: Has not changed. I really wanted it to, but I'm afraid the stereotypes are true. I've met lots of cool, friendly, and open minded French people. Frenchies that participate in couchsurfing for example, or people I’ve met hitch-hiking. However there's still something about them that drives me crazy. Je sais pas quoi! It’s the way they drive. It’s their stubbornness. It’s their conviction that France is the best country in the world. It’s their coldness. I’m not saying I don’t like them, I love them. And I love to hate them. It’s a love-hate relationship in fact.

Reform: If you read my blogs from when I first arrived you’d think I was a born again Christian. I was starting again after a 3 month long post-graduation binge and I was an angel. I was eating healthy, I stopped drinking, I started jogging and I was studying French grammar in my spare time… And then I realised it really wasn’t for me!! What have I learnt about myself in France? I’ve learnt that I like to party, I like living a random crazy life, doing stupid things and that people like me because of that. So although I’ve kept up the jogging, I’m also proud to be returning to England with a rather impressive pain au chocolate filled belly and some rather amusing drunken anedotes!

International Relations: Another misconception I had before coming here was that the friends I would make would be French. Yeah I made French friends, but I also made German, Polish, American, Italian, Mexican, Dutch, Danish, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Swiss friends – just to name a few of the nationalities I’ve come across. We were a load of foreigners living in France, and we make a pretty handsome group. I have learnt SO much from my friends here. I can now swear fluently in German, I know all about American TV and religious cults, I’ve learnt about their countries, their food, their politics and customs and education systems and I’ve laughed from start to finish. Together we have our own special language of Foreigner-French mixed in with some set phrases that became part of our everyday vocabulary but that no French person would understand! I’ll miss them, but I know I’ll see them again some day.

So that’s just a few thoughts on my stay in France. Generally I prefer for this blog to be a factual rather than sentimental/feelingsy account of my life, but still I think its nice to summarise all the things I’ve learnt and experienced.

Now I’ve got a month or so at home to prepare myself for chapter two:

SOUTH AMERICA!!!

France, it has been a pleasure!

Saint-Valentin

Valentines Day in France, the most romantic country in the world. Not. Although I did spend a lovely day shopping with Melissa, who by the way knitted me an AMAZING scarf! I've never had a scarf knitted for me before and I LOVE it!!! Thank you Little Oddy!

Tuesday last week we had a farewell meal cooked for us and hosted by our wonderful German boys Markus, Christopher and Paul. It even had South American themed potatoes! We had champagne and ended the night dancing the Macarena. Perfect.

On Thursday the schools were on strike. Surprise surprise. Not like the French to strike is it? It was nice though because I was able to spend a nice day with the kids. We went for a walk along the cliffs at Six Fours, saw a castle, and played at the park. Then had McDonalds for lunch.

On Thursday evening me, Markus, Christopher and Pablo went for a nighttime hike up to Le Fort de Six Fort, a military look-out on top of a hill. The fort was built 1875 and is still in use today. It was dark, so our view was limited to enjoying the lights of the surrounding towns, Toulon, La Seyne and Sanary.

And at weekend Giulia came to visit to say a final farewell. Sob. I lost my motorbike virginity when Paul came and picked me up on his bike! And the 3 of us went on a bike ride (normal push bikes that is) into Sanary. Hilarious. My bike had no brakes and Paul's had no gears, and Giulia had to balance on the back on mine! Needless to say we ended up abandoning the bikes for the uphill journey home and walked back instead. Stopping off at Bard'O for a beer to quench our thirst.

Saturday night we went to Villa, the one big club around here. And I have never missed Manchester nightlife so much. Looking around at the sea of conservatively dressed Frenchies; the girls in long sleeved baggy black numbers and the guys in their tight white pants and unbuttoned shirts, I found myself cursing the DJ and his housey-techno music and his mumbling in French. I also almost had a heart attack after paying €10 for a vodka mixer. We didn't stay long.

Sunday we had kebabs for breakfast and went to Cassis for ice creams and coffee. Cassis is beautiful but there really isn't much else to do there in winter other than eat ice creams and drink coffee.

And now my final week in France is upon me....

HItch HIking to Nimes!

Last weekend was wonderfully random and spontaneous! On Saturday morning Markus and I set off to Nimes, 200km away, with nowhere to stay and not much of a plan. We decided to hitch hike and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to get picked up. We started our journey at the motorway toll station at Bandol, and within 10 minutes we were picked up by 5 girls in a luxury mobile home! They were on their way up north to perform a show, they were actresses/dancers. It was very comfortable inside, we ate fresh strawberries and talked about transsexuals!

They dropped us at a service station just outside Aix-en-Provence, several cars stopped for us but none were going to Nimes. In the end we managed to get a lift of a middle aged man named Vincent who had recently split up with his wife and was going to visit his brothe in Avignon. I think he was grateful of the company. He took us to Orange, which was actually a bit out of our way but seeing as we weren't in any hurry it didn't really matter.

From Orange we got a lift from a young man on his way to Monpellier to visit friends. He took us just outside Nimes and dropped us at the side of the motorway at one of the 'picnic areas' that are commonly found at the side of French motorways. The picnic area was deserted apart from a couple of lorries with sleeping drivers and I started to think our luck had run out! However within 5 minutes a car pulled in to use the toilets and the kindly couple inside offered to take us to the city limits. They even gave us an orange each to snack on. They were very friendly, positive people on their way to Perpignan for their holidays.

From the city limits we decided to walk into Nimes. It was a boiling hot day and after 3 hours sitting in various cars it was nice to walk a while. We finally made it to the city center and naturally, we congratulated ourselves with a nice cold pint of Stella :)

We had nowhere to stay, our search for a couch to surf had been in vain, so we visited the city with our back packs in tow. Nimes is a Roman city, we saw the main sites, had a nap in a park, then ate pizza for supper. As the sun was setting we set off to find a youth hostel that the tourist office had recommened. It was miles away up a big hill, and after 12 hours of walking/hitch hiking with our heavy backpacks it was a depressing journey, made better by the beers we bought on the way! We finally found the hostel and it was splendid. Really nice, clean, modern and rural. We even managed to get a dorm to ourselves for the same price as a shared dorm, even after the receptionist told us that we'd have to sleep in seperate rooms because there were no mixed sex rooms. I think she took pity on us seeing the tired desolate looks on our faces when we arrived at 9 o'clock at night without so much as a reservation!

There was a large party of crazy Spanish youths staying in the dorms around us, making lots of noise and generally being Spanish, but we weren't feeling sociable. We stayed in our room, chatted and drank our beer then both fell into deep sleeps.

Sunday we were up early and cracked open the first beer at 9.30am. Liquid breakfast. We visited Les Arenes, a Roman Colosseum and did the whole guided tour thing. It was once again a gorgeous day. We strolled through the city, it was destitute like everywhere else in France on a Sunday morning. At midday we took the train to Montpellier. Markus knew some people there with a couch we could sleep on and I wanted to see the city anyway. When we arrived we went on a huge walk looking for two crucial things: an ice cream and a toilet - I was brusting! We saw the old town (and wee-ed in a smoothie shop) and then had an overpriced ice cream in the main town square. Then Markus took me to see the Antigone. It's a brand new neighbourhood that was built to handle the rapidly increasing population of the city. Apparently Montpellier has the highest rate of population growth in France. The Antigone is weird. It's like all Grecian-style large imposing buildings, it reminded me of Disneyland for some reason. Very beautiful though, lots of big pedestrianized spaces, lots of greenery and fountains. Once again we had a nap on the grass in the sun. Then went and met our couchsurfing hosts.

The were Eddie and Auld, a young couple studying in Montpellier. They were great. They took us for a walk around, Montpellier is really beautiful. Then we had noodles from a noodlebar for tea and went to the pub for a few beers and a game of pool. It was a tight game and in the end we gave up and called it a draw because nobody could pot the black!! French pool is different to English pool: to win, you have to pot the black (as per) but you have to hit the side of the table with either the black or the white before you pot it. Tricky!

The neighbours came round later on in the evening and we spent a lot of time discussing stereotypes that we have of other nationalities. Apparently English people are known to be open and sociable, albeit a tad slutty. I'm quite happy with that conclusion!

We had planned to hitch hike home, but we overslept and ended up running across the city to catch the train! The train went via Marseille where we stopped to have a McDonalds lunch.

Finally the weekend was over and it was back to au pair life. Fantastic final adventure to end my stay in France.

Nuit Blanche

Monday night was one of those wonderful unexpected crazy nights. The boys cooked us dinner, it was fantastic as usual. And we all got very drunk and ended up skinny dipping at Portissol beach at 2am!! It was COLD! My whole body went numb about 3 seconds after getting in but luckily thanks to the wine, gin and whiskey, I didn't feel a thing! Swimming in the sea in January can now be crossed off my to-do list!

We ended up staying up all night, and then I had to start work at 7am! That's the meaning of nuit blanche, a sleepless night!