I'll have chips with that.

Starting from the time that I sat down in the eurostar and the man that sat beside me right away said "Hello", I felt like I wasn't in Paris anymore. Let's face it, no french person would randomly say "hello" to you unless they somehow knew you, or they had to due to customer service duties (which aren't the best as we have learned with the internet incident).

Arrival in London was splendid! I tried out couchsurfing for the first time as some people were really recommending it, so I figured, why not. My host was so wonderful! He met me right at the train station and then knowing I like Harry Potter took me to platform 9 3/4: 

Yes I wore Slytherin, because I am a herpetologist (no I don't study herpes, and yes I have heard the joke many times before.. and still continue to hear it from certain someones... continuously... ) and therefore I like snakes.

First meal in London was an obvious choice. Also the cider was so delicious! If only we had cider like this in France. 

I did find this kind of hilarious.

On my first day in London we explored the west side. Specifically our goal was Abbey Road. You'd think it'd be easy. Not so much when I have no phone that can utilize internet in another country and when my friends phone has no battery. However there are maps everywhere in London! Making things very helpful. However, not so helpful when you end up in the middle of Abbey Road and pick the wrong end to go down... only having to turn back around to the middle and continue on in the other direction. Thankfully we did find it! And obviously tried to impersonate the Beatles. 

It's like John Lennon is looking right at me... I can't even spot the difference. 

Then we decided it would be better to take the bus home rather than walk the however many kilometers we walked to find Abbey Road. So I had to get my Oyster card (unfortunately no seafood was provided with the purchase). 

On my second day I went exploring all by myself. I ended up visiting the British Museum first (which was my favourite out of all of them!) and then took the bus to the Natural History Museum. Throughout my trip I took the bus a lot as it was almost 1 full pound cheaper than the metro and I got to see more of London that way anyways, oh and the traffic of London. I was also always terrified the bus driver will hit the person in front of us... it's like they've never heard of the "one car distance in between every stop" (more like let's see how fast I can brake). 

Darwin was the most fascinating thing I saw at the Natural History Museum. Otherwise the museum was structured mostly for children... and oh god... there were so many children. I guess as an au pair I shouldn't say that... but when it comes to 30+ children in each room you enter, even Mary Poppins would be overwhelmed. 

I laughed out loud at this. Why does DNA look like an old scrunched up tissue? 

After a day of exploring 4 museums, 2 castles, 3 parks, and being hit on very aggressively by random old men....funny story, I was sitting in Hyde Park just eating my lunch when this guy just comes up to say:

Him:"wow so beautiful, can I take pictures?" .... 

Me:"No." *continues to eat sandwich*

Him: "I am a photographer....blah blah blah" He continues talking and I trully stopped paying attention thinking maybe if I look really deep into my Kobo he'll go away... I was unpleasantly surprised it didn't work when I hear

Him:"Can I sit down?"

Me:"It's a public place, so yeah you can sit down, but I'll be on my way"

Him:"Well can I take your number?"

Me:"Sorry I'm not from here"

Him:"do you have whatsapp?"

Me:"That doesn't exist in my country"

Him:"well then what about just your number"

Me:"again, I don't have a number. I'm not from here. I moved here and I never got a phone"

Him:"Oh so you are sure then you have no whatsapp"

Me:"No. I have to go to dinner plans" *gobbles rest of her sandwich as fast as possible and runs away BUT not before he takes my hand and kisses it!!* It's ok.... I had my hand sanitizer. 

The next day my friend suggested I go to the SkyGarden where I can see all of London for free... free you say? In London, yes please. Then I continued exploring the rest of London. I mostly headed to explore the East and around the Thames.

I came upon Tower Hill which was this awesome looking castle. I really wanted to go in and I figured no matter how many pounds it'll be I'll still buy the ticket (thinking it would be around 10 pounds). NOPE. try doubling and then add another 7... yup that's right it was 27 freakin pounds to get a ticket! So when people say London is expensive, yes I agree. But when people say Paris is the second most expensive, I really can't believe you. I can pass a weekend in Paris (no shopping) seeing most of the touristy areas (including museums and castles) for about 30 euros (food included and wine).... but to pay 27 pounds for just one ticket??? Seriously London... That's a bit over the top. 

Instead I went up Tower Bridge because I wanted to see the glass floor and all the history behind the bridge. 

Finishing my exploration day at Big Ben. 

So after 2.5 days I saw about 90% of London, made new friends, and saw very old friends (try 14 years of not seeing each other), I can say that I spent a good holiday in London. 

Some places definitely brought back some memories of when I used to live in London, but most things I have really forgotten and it was great to relive them again. It was also really delightful to have people ask me where my accent was from! Also so many of the British people would tell me how funny I was... I've clearly found my audience.

Back to Paris I went: taking the midnight train for drinks this weekend and fun times of creepy men following you around Bastille.... good times.

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!

Once upon a wine

So last week was sort of bittersweet as I happened to lose another good friend here in no-where-land of France. We first made time for some tea and food in our favourite café in Fontainebleau, followed by a crepe dinner a few days following. It is always sad to say bye to a friend here, especially cause you don’t know when you will see them again (but in this case, Berlin in July!!! See you soon girl).

Crepes for dinner, because when in france.. 

The weekend also started off so nicely. After seeing how inconvenient the train schedule was at night (i.e I’d have to sit on a sketchy bus for about 2 hours) my host mom suggested I take the Saturday morning off and just spend the night in Paris.

So Friday came and I left to Paris for a friend’s birthday party. The atmosphere, the people, and the music were just perfect. First there was wine, then there were familiar faces, then there was wine, then there were Russians, then there was more wine, then there was home cooked appetizer-foods, then more wine, then the guitar came out. Ah it was perfect! 

Unfortunately a blurry picture, but the only picture I took of the birthday girl and her musical husband.

Then my friend and I had to maneuver the last metro trains back to her place on the other side of Paris.

As we were getting out there was a drunk man who kept shouting at us. Saying something about Germans and Germany. Neither of us spoke German, nor look like Germans (although I guess it might be debatable in my case with the blonde-hair-blue-eyes) but for some reason he was insistent. He happened to follow us all the way down the street. At first I was calm and collected as I find “if I don’t look, they won’t bother me”. Then we watched as he walked a little further up and only then decided it would be safe to cross the road behind him and head in the direction of the apartment. As we began to cross he turned around, faced us, shouted whatever he was shouting, and started to slowly maneuver towards us. That’s when I lost my cool, and totally started to freak out. So we just fast-walked along and finally turned on the street we had to, escaping the crazy man.

OR NOT.

All of a sudden out of the corner comes this man!! You know how you watch zombie movies and you think the calm has finally commenced and then JUMP SCARE. Yes, that is exactly how I saw this event occur. So we, being the slightly intoxicated and not-so-slightly terrified girls, we decided to hide behind a car and call my friends fiancée to come get us.

To put everyone at ease, we got home safe after that and didn’t see the guy again.

Mom don’t worry, Paris is safe I promise!

The next day was kept pretty calm after some Indian food, salon hopping, saying goodbye to my friend, and then meeting up with another friend for some Starbucks. I swear I should stop with the Starbucks… it is way too expensive here in Europe. Like you Canadians back home think Starbucks is expensive, trust me Canadian Starbucks is like Tim Hortons compared to European Starbucks. Anyways, I can’t always explain my spending habits. Maybe that’s why I’m broke.

So on the Sunday I figured it would be a good idea to go to a free wine tasting with some girlfriends. It happened to be so, that I got an email about a free wine-tasting in Paris as long as you print out some coupons. Sounds like a trick right? Nope, I printed out those coupons and off we got our little wine glasses, which we’re filled immediately with wine (Come on we’re at a wine tasting what else do you expect our wine glasses to be filled with… oh wait there was cognac).

So fortunately for me I’ve had experience with wine tasting (Alberta + boyfriend + filled glasses of wine which we would down + little food + (- water) = den den holding my hair back while I threw up on the side of the bed in a bucket [sorry about that imagery. Unfortunately I am reminded of this finale regularly by den den]).  I learned my lesson from the last time and actually only tasted the wine rather than finishing every glass, and did not even bother to drink much of the wines I really disliked. Surprisingly, or maybe not for some people, this event was much bigger than the one in Alberta (wine population wise), and all the wine came from France! The one in Alberta had wines from all over the world and it was all in one gymnasium, this one had like 7 rooms (or more for all we know, it seemed infinite).

See you girls did make it into the selfie!

So after a very French day of wine and baguette we all headed home for a nice relaxing time of the Walking Dead (you see now why I used the zombie reference, and also why I am spooked in the dark now…)

Goodnight, don’t let the zombies bite.