Strasbourg has changed so much since I arrived. It’s incredible to think that I arrived here in the cold, bare winter, and now, just over three months later, it’s spring. The whole place is green, there are flowers everywhere - it’s just so beautiful. To be honest, I really didn’t want the warm weather to arrive. I know that sounds strange because everyone knows how much I hate the cold, but I just thought that this gorgeous city would never suit the warm weather. I loved it bare, and I especially loved it covered in snow, but this greenery with flowers [View Full Entry]

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Did you eat a clown this morning? (Tu as mangé un clown ce matin?) Absolutely, without a doubt, the funniest French phrase I've ever heard! Meaning; oh, you think you're so funny, what did you do - eat a clown this morning? I may have too much time on my hands but that saying just doesn't get old for me! It's been a while since the last blog because all I've really done since I got back from Amsterdam is go out. I go to uni for the measly 8 hours I have per week, do the measly amounts of homework [View Full Entry]

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I know I’m a bit of a princess traveller. The closest I’ve ever come to backpacking is taking a backpack full of toiletries to the shower! So far I’ve always managed to find a friend or a long lost family member’s couch to sleep on every time I’ve travelled and have, up until last week, managed to avoid sleeping in a hostel. But this poor student has no relatives in Amsterdam so last week when Laura (the seasoned hosteller) and I went to Amsterdam for a little mid-semester break, she showed me how to travel hostel-style. We had a bit of [View Full Entry]

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Just a quick one for my girls back home who love Lily Allen! Girls, she is amazing!! After my devastation about 6 months ago from being one of hundreds turned away from her Sydney concert due to an overwhelming numbers of fans trying to get into the tiniest club ever, I’m so happy to have finally seen her live in Strasbourg! It was so unbelievably fantastic! I couldn’t have imagined it to be better if I’d tried. And it was the first time ever that she sang Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass’ live and it was fantastic - if you ever get [View Full Entry]

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Last weekend my Civilisation Française class went on an excursion with our nutty professor (nutty in a good way!) to 'Le Salon de Viticulture'; a big travelling wine exhibition that tours most of France displaying the latest wines from vineyards all around the country. Now that's my kind of school excursion! And Laura decided to tag along too even though she's not in my class, but my teacher's so loopy he'd never notice! I wasn't really sure what to expect, but when I saw that it was twice as big as any hall I'd ever seen and jam-packed with wine stalls [View Full Entry]

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I know that I always said that my year here in France was going to be just about me. I said that I was going to use this year to ‘find myself’, to be independent, and not to let my experiences get tainted with messy, emotional dramas. I swore that I wouldn’t fall in love. Well, here I am, just over 4 weeks into my stay here and I’m already eating my words. I’m well and truly, head over heels in love…… with Strasbourg. I tried to stop it but I just I couldn’t control myself! I didn’t plan it - [View Full Entry]

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I’ve been in Strasbourg for a month now - an anniversary that I celebrated with next month’s rental payment. Ouch! And although after my first week it felt like I’d been here for a month, now that I’ve been here for a month it feels like it’s only been a week. Strange how time can mess with your mind! I’ve been keeping very busy, although since I only do eight hours of uni a week and don’t work, I’m still trying to figure out how the time seems to be roaring past me so quickly. I think it may have something [View Full Entry]

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I’ve never really been one for sensible shoes, everyone knows that - but the thing is I don’t generally have a problem traipsing around in ridiculously high heels. However, after last Friday I discovered that stilettos don’t really work so well in the snow. It’s not like I planned to go out in stilettos, but my stupid boots - yes, the ones that already half killed me because of the holes in the soles resulting in icy, wet socks - decided to break. We’d all gone out for dinner for Australia Day; the usual suspects, as well as some other Australian [View Full Entry]

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The first snow has finally arrived! Today I woke up late - I was supposed to meet Laura who was going to come with me to open a bank account. (They’re so nice here, if you open a bank account with one of the banks they give you 40€ just to say thanks! And this one teller told Laura that for every friend she got to open an account with them, they’d give her another 20€, so of course she roped me into going to her bank. Hey, why not? I still get 40€ out of it!) So anyway, I totally [View Full Entry]

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Strasbourg is the city that sleeps on Sundays. Completely everything is shut, no clothing stores, no grocery stores - nothing. The only places you’ll find open on a Sunday here are kebab shops, which is fitting I guess considering the only thing to do when everything is shut on Sunday is to drink on Saturday night! Well, this was the conclusion that Laura and I came to anyway. Our Aussie foursome headed out for dinner last night to a Thai restaurant. We were all a little worried about the quality of the food as Asian food isn’t exactly France’s speciality, but [View Full Entry]

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