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Published: October 26th 2008
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It's been a quieter week this week, the weather turned a bit grey and windy for a few days (it even rained once, for about 20 minutes!) and my body decided that despite the fact the temperatures were still in the high teens, it was time for the obligatory winter cold. Today though, things are returning to normal, the sun's back out and the temperature's back in the 20's, and my cold's disappeared with the grey weather.
I also had to go and see a dentist, because I had a filling that was cutting into my tongue, so after finally managing to persuade a grumpy dental receptionist to book me in, I was seen on Tuesday. Now, I'm not usually scared of dentists, but when this guy said, right I'm going to put your mouth to sleep, without any explanation of what he was going to do, I did get a little bit worried. However, 20 minutes and several mean-looking metal implements later, I was out, and I still had all my teeth! In fact, he did an amazing job and my teeth look beautiful! Unfortunately, as I had half a frozen face, it meant I had to miss my wonderful Tuesday lectures, instead I watched Pochahontas (which actually was more educational than I wanted it to be, as most of our education here is about the discovery and conquest of the New World), and poked my face as it began to come back to life.
The rest of the week passed fairly uneventfully, but we have noticed a curious phenomenon in Perpignan. The old town is a maze of little cobbled streets, and they have a habit of disappearing and reappearing and generally moving around when you're not looking. It's like in Harry Potter, where staircases shift at random and streets which are there one minute are gone the next. For example, I have come upon the Cathedral more than once, but I realised I had not seen it for a while, and wandered for a bit with the vague notion of trying to find it. But even when I was sure I was close, the streets just seemed to take me off a different way and suddenly I'd be back on a street on the other side of the old town. You may say that it's just because the streets are maze-like and that the locals know exactly where everything is, but you can never be sure. Apart from the few main which always stay where they are, you never know what those little alleys are doing while your back is turned.
Luckily for us, the streets stayed permanent enough for us to find our way to boca boca (Perpignan's idea of a nightclub) to celebrate my housemate Charlotte's 21st birthday. The music was alright, the people were a little bit chavvy and the drinks were expensive. Consequently we didn't stay late; instead we're saving our money and energy for Barcelona next weekend!
Last night, we went to the cinema and felt a bit like we were cheating as we asked for tickets to 'Be Happy', or 'Happy-Go-Lucky', as it's called in Britain. It was a quirky film about a woman who was very happy, and we were split on our opinion of it. I really liked it, it was sweet and funny (apart from a psycopathic driving instructor), but the strangest thing was seeing London districts, British suburban streets which were so familiar, typical British houses, the seafront, greasy spoons, cars driving on the left, and then we left the cinema and went back out into Perpignan, with its palm trees and balconied houses, and it all seemed newly foreign again.
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