The long-lost Update Part 1: Luxembourg

Gooday friends. Today, i've decided (with the help of some Absinthe) to blog. Update you guys, and future me on the things I've been up to in the damn great city of Paris.

So i shall start with our weekend trip to Luxembourg. Albeit it being with Phyllis, it was overall a really fruitful trip, because we used every single minute we had to DO something. First day we made elaborate plans for sightseeing and over the weekend, realized those plans. Did a tour on the first day- "1000 years in 100 minutes" which took us around the old relics of Luxembourg city, including inside the old castle/fortress, and the ruins around the area. I must say, our tour guide was AMAZING. He was this old man who had the energy of someone half his age, with a deep, charismatic, commanding voice that kept you engaged all the way. Spoke half in English and half in French too, so that was good for my practice :D

That night, we had dinner at a nice Luxembourgish restaurant, pretty posh, awesome food. However, things took a turn for the worst when we tried to walk back to our hostel, but got hopelessly...and i mean hoplessly, lost. For some reason (Phyllis) we walked into a traffic tunnel which stretched for about 1.5km and walked through it the entire way only to exit it and realize that we had put ourselves in the opposite side of the city. Absolutely tired and a little nervous cos it was getting dark and there were no street lamps where we were staying, we scrutinized the map and managed to find the route back-long and arduous as it was. By the end of night 1, my feet were sore, my back was aching, but my experience trove was full :)

Next day, we took an very early bus up to Vianden, north of Luxembourg. Froze my ass off, it was about 10 degrees in the morning and I hadn't prepared for that. Still, it was a beautiful small town, complete with grand castle up the hill- such an important, historic vibe it gave to the town. We were just in time for their Nut Festival! I guess this is the time of year for walnut harvests and they make all kinds of things with their nuts like cakes, liqueur, pastries, etc. which was so much fun cos when there's a festival, there are lots of people, walking around, buying stuff, catching up with friends, which lent such a neighbourly, wholesome feel to the place. the castle was awesome too, to think that I was roaming the very hallways that the Duchess of Luxembourg and family once did. I'm really glad we chose to come to Vianden, off the beaten track, nut festival, actual real-life castle...twas gooood.

After which, we headed back to Luxembourg City, about an hour and a half by train+bus and did another walking tour. The host this time was boring so we left earlier and went to find a restaurant, one in which I had authentic Luxembourgish cuisine-pork collar bone smothered in beans and collar-bone sauce. Yum. Then we took the bus to the train station, got our train back to Paris.

One great thing about this trip, was that when we came home (besides the fact that Phyllis practically spent the 2-hour ride holed up in the train toilet cos her ticket got invalidated and that was her way of evading the ticket inspector, who never showed up, but blissfully leaving me to my music and thoughts) it was nice to think  "Yay i'm home, and home=Paris" :) :) :)

helloooo again

Hey so i'm back blogging again. and yep it's cos i'm a little drunk. and well i have to say, today was pretty much the strangest/worst day i've had in Paris so far. Was supposed to go to a club. Met some friends and went. Got there, forgot to have brought ID, wasn't allowed in. Sneaked in through the side, over the barricade, helped in by a guy from one of my classes. Was found by the crazy, big, scary hulk of a bouncer and was pushed outside. Really! These fuckers can be sooo rude and don't give a crap about man-handling young, delicate ladies like myself. So i forgot my ID, but I had my ticket, which if you aren't a student at Sciences-Po you don't get to have and to be a student at Sciences-Po, you have to be university age and therefore clubbing age, no? French clubs and honestly, the French system/service sector/way of doing things can really suck sometimes. No, scratch that. All the time.

So in the end, after waiting outside for a good 45 minutes, freaking out (I actually teared up) cos my friends were inside and there was pretty much no way i could go home that late at night, I finally got in, because the stupid bouncers decided to let everyone in. So i went in, used the toilet (the real toilet btw y'all) and then got a call cos my roomate who was supposed to meet me in the club was outside but didnt have a ticket. Silly me, told her she could get in without a ticket when you actually can't. So i was like....fuck....she came all the way but no ticket. So i had to leave and come back home with her, and well, about 7 of us left to go home at the same time, cos most of the friends I came with were too pissed off to have fun anyway.

And before the clubbing, the rest of the day, I was supposed to have been working on an essay, but absolutely infuriatingly couldn't because my mind was otherwise occupied. "occupied" meaning it wouldn't have been thus occupied if it wasn't thus involved with a certain boy, whose lack of contact with me that day wouldn't have meant so much if we weren't involved in a certain way. Sigh. I get depressed/overly anxious/incredibly overly insecure verrry easily. I know it's cos he's busy because he has other commitments, i mean you can't expect an exchange student to not have anything to do, but when i'm not in his list of important things, even for a day, it gets to me, really bad. :( How to write an essay on "How far can globalization be a cause for 'permanent austerity' in welfare states?" like that???

And anyway guys, there are things that happened in between the previous post and today, such as : Luxembourg, Italy in detail, the developments of my little exchange fling, meeting my ex future travelling plans, etc. Which I hope, if I have time, and for the sake of having this blog to look back on, read and reminisce one day, I WILL fill in :)