All Quiet on the Eastern Front

---

Sorry I haven’t written anything for a while – to be honest, I didn’t do very much worth writing about for a while! So here are the edited highlights of the past three weeks:

First of all, Sophie Jones of Avignon came to visit! We had a lovely weekend drinking wine and eating well and wandering along the Seine. We went to a restaurant near St Michel and ordered snails (she’d never had them before! :O and I really like them) – but they were in their shells! We got strange snail-shaped tongs and forks to eat them with, it was quite a challenge! But we managed, and they were better than other snails I’ve had, actually. I later saw the same things, sauce and all, in a frozen packet in the supermarket, which ruins it slightly. We also went back to my new-found favourite restaurant, a Salon de The near the river which the first time I went had only Parisiens in it! Later there were more English conversations, but I think they were more expats than tourists.

Last weekend Lyosha had another one of her dinners on Friday night. I feel like I can take part much more successfully now! My French has improved a lot, but it’s still a struggle by 2am. It was a great laugh, though, we had a good time. They’re all talking about a book, “traduit de l’Americain” (!!!), called Women Who Run With Wolves. At least, I assume that’s the title, having translated it back into English...Apparently there is a time in your life when it’s exactly what you need, and everyone should read it.

Saturday was more fun. I met a group of students, and went to a bar by St Denis metro stop where you bought cheap beer and got free chips and mussels! Amazing idea. Although I have now discovered I don’t particularly like mussels...snails are better. So then she invited me to a house party this weekend. It was great! I got slightly lost on the way, going in the wrong direction out of the metro, as always, but I got there eventually. Then my phone decided it couldn’t call her! Luckily, after standing in the street for a few minutes, someone else came by and between us we got through to her and she came down and let us in.
It was great fun! I drank wine out of a proper English teacup! It was a lovely two-room studio flat, too. And I met lots of people, Finnish, Danish, American, Irish, English, and French! One of the English girls is the step-sister of the boyfriend of someone in my year at Somerville! (Ollie, KP’s boyfriend, for Somervillians.) Small world! And I successfully navigated the late-night metros without either getting stranded after the last one or lost. Although I probably could’ve left a bit later and still been fine, I really really didn’t want to take the night bus again! So now I have a bunch of things on this week and am being much more sociable.

Miscellaneous things which are exciting but probably only to me:
I’ve started reading for my bridge essay! Just about...
I’m planning a Burns Supper next week when Dave as well as Andrew and Cathy are here. I’ll keep you posted on that one!
I bought Mcvities’ digestives, which have far superior packaging over here where all things British (in a union jack-branded way) are “supercool”.
I finally got my payslip so I can sort out my social security (...yaaay...) and get my 64 euros back from when I was in hospital.
I’ve found the best museli in my local supermarket! That’s definitely only exciting to me...
The homeless man in the red jacket who paces up and down beside the canal was feeding the birds the other day, and I’ve never seen anyone look so delighted, it was amazing!

I’ll try to keep more up-to-date, but I’m not doing anything that exciting, except the Burns’ supper, and that only maybe! Bisous to all 

---