Merengue and a mountain train

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Yet another week gone, I can't believe I'm writing up another blog already!

The week got off to a fairly ordinary start, with lectures now seeming routine. In-between starting to sort out the mound of erasmus paperwork that has to be sent back to Sheffield and trying to get to the erasmus office during its opening hours (not easy when they are open for a total of four hours over two days), the working week passed in a flash.

I had moments of homesickness, but by the weekend, I was on top of the world again when I heard from my mum that she and my little brother Rory have got flights and a hotel booked to come and stay at the end of October! It was difficult to get it all sorted, but I now can't wait for them to come!

L'exception francaise - those little peculiarites of French life that seem to occur only to annoy and confuse foreigners - emerged with a vengeance this week. Why is it, for example, that you cannot buy a book of stamps from a post office? (You either have to buy envelopes already stamped for domestic post, or bring in your letters to be stamped. But what if you need to supply the university with SAEs to post to the UK? I have to hope one of the tabacs will have stamps. Then there's the closing of everything at lunchtime. At first I thought it was sort of nice, but now it's just annoying, when you have two hours off between 12 and 2 and need to buy a coursebook/go to the bank/collect a parcel... and everywhere, except restaurants, large clothes shops and supermarkets, is shut. Equally annoying is at 8:30pm, when you and your friends decide to have a nice evening together with a DVD, so you think you'll just pop out for a bottle of wine and some nibbles, only to remember that every shop and supermarket in France closed, en masse, half an hour ago. And why oh why oh why are people not encouraged to clean up after their dogs?!

However, we were provided with a few treasures this week; on Friday night, Fiona, Adam and I went in search of a pub, and ended up at the havana bar, clearly not a pub, but one of the best nights I've had. When we got there, it was fairly quiet, but we got in the cocktails and chatted to the beats of salsa music. Slowly the place began filling up, and within an hour or so, the place was full of people dancing, and dancing properly. Adam showed off his latin american dancing skills by teaching Fiona to merengue, and before I knew what was happening, some guy had grabbed my hands, and I was merengue-ing too, without knowing what I was doing. It was a breathless but brilliant night, letting guys who knew how to dance lead you round the floor, following their steps and being twirled around. And unlike Tio Pepe's, where the French guys want a lot more than a dance, at Havana, they only want to dance. We'll definitely be going again.

After a quiet day on Saturday, on Sunday, Rosy, Liz, Fiona and I set off early to take a trip on le petit train touristique. We chugged our way through the Roussillon countryside, which got more dramatic with every passing moment, and we went from one side of the train to the other, snapping away like Japanese tourists, trying to capture what we were seeing. After a stop at a cave for some wine-tasting (we came away with a bottle of delicious muscat) we transferred to another little train, but this time with open carriages for truly panoramic views. we went through mountains (literally, through!), saw medieval castles on distant hilltops and were surrounded by the most incredible scenery. Then we were left for two hours in the middle of nowhere, where there was a restaurant for lunch and, um, mountains. The restaurant was a little upmarket for us, and the owner seemed to feel the same way, but eventually we ordered something not too expensive, and then basked in the sun until it was time to head back, by way of a shortcut. We arrived back in Perpignan with the sort of tiredness you get from being out all day even if all you have done is sit on a train, and headed to a small Vietnamese restaurant called La Saigon, where we learned how to wrap spring rolls in a lettuce leaf, tuck in a mint leaf and dip into some wonderful spicy sauce. They were divine. All in all, a perfect end to the week!

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