A 3 in 1 blogpost.

I am so bad at this! I write all these blogs in my mind but when to comes to writing them I just find other things to do.... like youtube exercise videos that make me hurt the next day. So instead of posting two different blogs in one day, I am going to do one but title them within the blog post.

Night Bus Adventures

So last Wednesday I was in Paris to visit a friend and happened to stay fairly late. I also happened to get lost on the metro and ended up going the wrong way on my way to the train station.... twice. Then one of the metro lines I was on suddenly stopped and I had to get off and switch trains. Inevitably I missed the train I wanted to take but with all my confusion I made it with 7 minutes to spare for the other train (clearly I got lost for a while, it was late and I was tired after our nightly shenanigans)! Then to my surprise the train happens to stop at the first station and everyone just starts getting off because, surprise, train is no longer running, the busses are taking over. So because I obviously wanted to get home I got on the bus. The guy beside me started to be sort of creepy when we got to my stop asking me where I live and et cetera. Let's just say I got to my car pretty quickly after that. 

Welcome to Paris in the Summer time

So I hear Canada is still pretty cold... that sucks. Good thing I am in France. 

This weekend I had to pack lightly as a friend and I were going to spend the night in Paris. In my attempts to stuff everything into my little purse/backpack I ended up breaking the little zipper thinger on the bag... good job me. This whole zipper problem has happened to my pants (haha yes I am getting fat on baguette and cheese, whatever make your jokes) but seriously I have been through 2 pairs of pants and two purses with broken zippers now! What is going on in the world! 

So on the first day some friends and I went to this food tasting thing. I must say it was delicious, but some items tended to be on the expensive side for the amount of food they were giving out. Well either way, it was fun. 

It's like Lady and the Tramp but with a hydration fruit juice.

Irina and I then headed over to the friend with whom we were later staying at, as we had a dinner being prepared for us. I know we are just the luckiest people. 

Dinner was lovely! It also included one and a half bottles of wine, and beer so you know it was good. After judging my music taste and showing us that our new "dj" can do better we headed out to Pigalle for a bar and then a club. The club was quite interesting as at first there was a live band playing. As my french friend pointed out one of the guitarists looked exactly like Tyrion Lannister, while the second Daario Naharis - the second actor (clearly we watch too much game of thrones to be seeing these characters now in real life). 

Daario and Tyrion in their true environments.

Well after a good laugh and dancing we headed home. Where our poor friend (who is over 6 feet) slept on the tiniest couch while we, two small girls, slept on the bed. I believe we had the better deal...

In the morning we had slept through half of our day by waking up at 11:30, then by the time we made breakfast (including french croissants and pain au chocolate... because when in Paris you do like the parisians)

We could see bits of the tower from the window... so you know we are fancy.

Then we headed out to explore the area bumping into a couple of shows, a museum and the fountains in front of the Eiffel Tower. Where we decided to have our own private photo shoot! 

"I believe I can fly"

She doesn't need to believe, she can fly.

The spectacle in front of the Eiffel tower was quite amusing!

Then we headed out to meet some more people very close to our train station (and next to Jardin des Plantes which is starting to be very beautiful compared to the last time I visited when it was mostly bare trees... oh and kangaroos). 

We figured 17 minutes would be plenty to get back to our train station and take the train on time.... oh how wrong I was. We sprinted half way to the train station, got lost in the train station (the trains had changed it's track) and then missed it by a millisecond!! We got down as the train started to pull away. So frustrating!! 

Jam Session in Paris

If you don't know me very well, I love to sing. And so Irina and I found this event in Paris that we went to last night that was simply titled "Jam Session". We were so glad we went, it was such a wonderful experience. I got to sing two songs! And the other singers were just so perfect! Even if you aren't a singer really go check out these jam sessions. It's like going to a concert, but we just took over the basement of the bar, set up a mic and speakers, and people just sang either their own stuff or covers! It was so perfect. Reminds me of the times back home when we would just set up a campfire, have a guitar, and just sing (side note: I've noticed Bohemian Rhapsody is almost always sang during these campfires... QUBS oh the good old days of field research and waders). 

Oh yeah... pizza was totally involved too. 

Attack of the bumblebees

I could not believe I did not take any pictures on Saturday night. I just realized this when I thought “today I’ll write a blog about the weekend”… so you’ll just have to believe me when I say:

I went to a Birthday party on Saturday for a friend who lives just around here. It was really quite fun to catch up with some people as I haven’t seen any of them for some time, and it was great to eat some really delicious food!

The only downfall was that I had to leave early, as I wanted to go to church in the morning with a Russian au pair-friend I met in this area. Especially because it was Easter, and I really wanted to check out the service in a Parisian-Russian Orthodox church*

The service was so lovely, and as my friend put it, almost meditational. We definitely walked away very happy and ready to enjoy the rest of the sunny day.

We met up with an old friend I met back in University. We really had such a great time. I don’t know whether it was that we were in such a good mood, or that his jokes were so funny but I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much in a full day. We really could not get over the fact of how great the time was! Like even now I can sit here and think back and still laugh… creeping out my work buddy.

A tiny example of the fun we were having at the Invalides. 

Once I got home I was just so exhausted… I went to bed at 9:30 and fell asleep by probably 10 (but then again I might be a bit too generous with my time… it could have been 9:35).

Also today I came to a realization. I have a defense-less defense mode. I am quite disappointed in myself.

I bumble-bee flew into my room and then turned and flew right at my face, and you know what I did?! I just closed my eyes! How freaking useless is that! Like why was my instinct neither fight nor flight but just stand there with my eyes closed under the impression of “if I don’t see it, it doesn’t see me”. So clearly I should start taking some self-defense classes or something, because that just won’t fly with me.

And yes I come up with loads of epiphanies like that when I’m under attack… by bumblebees.

*Do understand I am a scientist. I also very much believe in evolution and that the world is much older than 3 000 years. However I was born and raised in a very religious culture, so it’s almost like a habit now. I’ve also been through things in my life that I could not have gotten over without the feeling that I wasn’t totally alone, even though physically I was.

Smooth Criminal

Last week I was driving the girls to their afterschool activities to a neighbouring village. As we were coming up to the roundabout one of the girls says “Oooh look police”. To my surprise there were 2 cop cars and about 7 policemen/woman standing around the roundabout stopping people. So I just continued driving and realized that they were checking the opposing traffic (i.e after dropping the girls off I would potentially be stopped by them). Now this was probably just an alcohol barrier thing that they do all the time in all different countries. So as we passed by I started to think of what I would say in my broken French (I definitely don’t want to seem drunk due to bad language skills) and then started thinking about the documents I would have to give them: car insurance, drivers license… drivers license! I had forgotten my drivers license at home! All I had taken were the house keys.  So now I am in a panic and trying to think how can I explain that I just live in the next village over and that I can drive back here in 5 minutes and prove that I am no weird foreigner driving kids in a van. Or maybe I’ll just wait at the girls’ activities for 30 minutes, by that time surely the police would leave. Then my brain kicked in, what if I just evade them by going around that village? So once I dropped off the girls I just followed random signs that took me to my neighbouring village. My fear was that A) the police would realize people might do this and be posted at all neighbouring roads or B) It turns out the road I take takes me to the same road the police are on. Luckily I had turned out to come out on the road exactly parallel to the road the police were on. Now every time I leave the house I remember to take my license, even if it’s a place down the road... I’m so paranoid.

Of course Easter was last weekend. By Sunday the girls had so much chocolate they could probably have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a full month. I figured this was “family time” so I just spent the time in Paris the whole long weekend. Who wants some stranger hanging around while you catch up with all extended family, and also I’d have felt really out of place, not only because I am not related but that I don’t even speak the same language.

At one point in the weekend, a friend and I went to Shakespeare and Company to a writing workshop. After writing a piece the last thing I wanted to hear was “this is sharing time now”. I swear I was just going to burst into tears at how nervous I was. I don’t mind performing in front of people or being the center of attention when I have a good experience story to tell, but when I have to share something that is so close to me and that I had put so much emotion into… yeah I don’t want to. But people were very positive after my read, and had genuinely enjoyed my piece. I think though because the piece was so close to experiences I’ve had I’d prefer to do a completely separate blog post on it, just to explain where it stems from, or not… again telling stories is one thing, sharing emotions through art is a completely vulnerable part of me that I don’t know if I feel comfortable sharing with people other than myself.

Otherwise the weekend was as usual: meet new cool folks, eat lots of good Parisian food that I can’t afford, and just have a wonderful time in Paris.

I finally went to the Pompidou... it was alright

But at least I became a rockstar for 5 seconds.

Also I was contacted by my University to let me know I have been officially accepted into my Masters program (yay!) but that I have a different name on my application compared to my transcript. Damn it Lithuanian spelling! Why do you put random “J’s” in area’s where they should not exist! So right now I am registered as two different people under the same last name… oops.

Oh also had to say goodbye to a friend yesterday. While we had a wonderful time eating lunch and then drinking wine by the Pantheon, it was still bittersweet when you hear “That was a lovely time” in a British accent one last time. But unfortunately not everyone comes to Paris permanently. Out of our entire Wednesday gang only one person will stay in France! And they aren’t even au pairs!