Vicky's visit and festivities

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With a somewhat half-hearted attitude, we made it through the last of our lectures this week, which was a relief! My Wednesday was saved by Rosy, Katie and Franzi; after an unsuccessful meeting for my year abroad project, a lack of decent birthday cards for a ten-year-old boy, too many people in town and queues at the post office, I was in a pretty bad mood. But when Rosy texted to say they were going for a hot chocolate, my mood picked up. We sat cosily inside drinking hot chocolate in one cafe and then moved on to our new favourite place; the small salon du the we'd discovered at the weekend. This time I did actually have tea, of the forest fruits variety, and it wasn't a let down. We just had such a lovely afternoon sitting in that pretty tea shop, and began to realise that actually this whole experience is going to end, and soon. I've got such a group of friends here, it's going to be strange when we go our seperate ways.

I think the tea shop lady did get a little scared when Rosy and I appeared again the next day after buying hats and shouting at the bank (it had got really cold and the bank still hasn't reimbursed us with the money the took in September), more so when Rosy put her newly-purchased hat over her face and we began giggling a little insanely. But it's not our fault that it's such a nice place and does the world's best hot chocolate!

On Thursday night, Vicky arrived, and I introduced her to everyone; everyone being Rosy, Katie and Fiona, who were all watching a creepy kids' film; and later Adam and Charlotte when they poked their heads round the door. Then on Firday, I showed her around Perpignan (and let's be honest, it didn't take long!), and we had lunch at a crepe stall before going up to the Palais des Rois. Fortunately, it was a lovely day, bright sunshine and mild temperatures, the perfect weather to wander around the palace and take in the views across Perpignan, taking in the sea on one side and the Pyrenees on the other, with the city sprawl in-between. Out of season as it was, Vicky and I were the only people there, which gave us the oppurtunity to take our time wandering round, and to take lots of photos! In the evening, the whole group of us went out for dinner and then on for drinks at the Irish pub. It was such a good night, and the others carried on to other places, ut as Vicky was leaving on the 6:30 a.m. frogbus the next day, we called it a night after a couple of ciders.

Before I knew it, Vicky had gone again, it was a flying visit but it was great, it saw me through the penultimate week. Waking up for the second time on Saturday at around 11 (the first time had been half five to take Vicky to the station) I had a lazy morning, then went into town with the others, where I managed to do my last bit of Christmas shopping. We found a great book and stationery shop which I wish I'd known about before, but that seems to be the theme recently; we're finding these good places just as we're about to leave. There was of course the obligatory visit to H&M, where I tried on a grey sweater dress which I'm now in love with and really want to buy it but can't justify it! Then we all went back to mine laden with a couple of bottles of wine for the Christmas meal we were having that evening. To our surprise, Adam already had the chicken in the oven by the time we got back and had everything under control. We just had to sit back, chat and lay the table. Everyone had had the same idea about bringing wine, which meant we had about seven bottles. It made for a fun night! It was brilliant, the food was good, the wine was good and we chatted and laughed all night, until finally falling into bed at 3 a.m.

Tonight we're going to a carol concert at an English-speaking Church, which I'm looking forward to. What more could you ask for over a December weekend than a roast dinner, Christmas shopping and carol singing?

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Photos

Rosy and Franzi
in the tea shop