dan

So on Monday night for the second week in a row we decided to have a social gathering, but this time to celebrate our Columbian friend Ricardo’s birthday. Becky was in Turkey so he was quite upset about that, but despite that he had a lovely time. We went over to Alex’s room at 22.00, but this was after a rushed shower and various attempts at matching my limited clothing to something that might remotely match in some way. I figured I would be too tired to go out anyways, which turned out to be true. But before anyone got too tipsy we were able to take pictures, and in the above one we have Laura, Myself, CrazyDan, Elle, Emma, and Scott.Yes Scott is mégaüber tall, but so is Dan but you’d never know since he is bending down to make fun of Laura’s apparent shortness.

Turns out that Dan has this really posh accent that is so easy to understand. He had to go to private school and wear 16th century uniforms that made him look like a freak, so I can’t wait to see these photos, so we had a good laugh. Also he’s so intrigued by Canadian accents, whether he’s joking or not it was all in good fun trying to think of rhyming couplets to entertain him with. Eventually he got bored and moved on, but I kept going since it was the only conversation that drunk english-men could have.

I have already cursed Matthew for taking this photo of me when I was clearly not ready and completley out of context. Never-the-less I’m posting it becasue it’s so ‘natural’ or ‘je ne sais quoi’. I think I was telling him that I thought he was crazy for doing something or other.

On a happier note I have vacations coming up in a month (already yes I know), and I’m seriously toying with the idea of going skiing in the alps with Emily, Dan, Siân et al. It costs roughly 700€ but we are going to be staying in chalet and everything with lift passes and skii rentals. I’m excited about the possibility but I’m looking into more information so that I can make a decision. I’d like to spend more time with them and get to know them in the non-drunk stage of their lives, but also I just want to go skiing damnit! This may be the only opportunity I have to go skiing in a place like the Alps and I don’t want to pass it up. I just need to work out the logistics because I didn’t bring any of my stuff obviously.

I will talk to my mom sometime this week on Skype and see how she feels about it, and if she can send my winter jacket in the mail superfast as it’s far too expensive to buy here, along with skii-goggles, which I will go check out at the store. In any case, just toying with the idea but I really think it would be cool.

Also, I really wish that I had better abilities of telling when someone is hitting on me. Apparently someone who shall not be named was flirting with me all evening but I was completely oblivious, as usual. Is it due to my social awkwardness or is it just that I’m in denial? Who cares, it’s just good for the ego!

When someone gives one an opportunity to get dressed up, no questions are asked and you just put the shit on and get ready to go out. Dan’s 22nd birthday was last night and I promised him that I would come since, well it’s SuperDan. He wanted everything to be classy and has advertised this event for many weeks, so everyone was looking spectacular when we went to the Le Saxo. I was stupid and bought a glass of Piniot Noir which turned out to be 4.70€ but it didn’t matter since we were at a really classy pub where we looked the best out of everyone. Much chit chatting before heading to Le Brasseur, a more Dan-British-Type pub, and after being hesitatnt about going downstairs we went down and everyone had a great time.

When it’s Erasmus night at The Living Room, you don’t pass it up, since it’s not as sweaty as Le Salamandre and although being quite small we were all able to squeeze in there so we danced the night away having a wonderful time for Dan’s birthday. By this point in the evening he was still in good condition surprisingly, but by 4am when we left he could barely hold his head up, and therefore was struggling. He was a limp noodle, and we all got into a snowball fight before being nearly arrested. Luckly us few sober ones were able to save the situation and find our way home being lost and all. When Dan says to rock on and dance, you damn well rock on and dance and have a good time and that’s what we did. Crazy drinks with lights in them, and crazy drunk people everywhere; it all equals a crazy night out but luckily nothing went wrong and Dan had a great birthday. I somehow managed to crawl out of bed the next day to go to class and then skating for the first time in like forever. It was horrible since the skates were dull and I fell about a million times because they had no traction at all. Turning was like trying to cut butter with a finger; useless.

On a sad note Shirin lost her coat, but stole someone elses which was similar. She was pissed, and mad, so the situation remeid itself in time, thankfully. Otherwise it would have been a sad scene on the streets of Strasbourg!

Is it wrong of me to go out late on Monday night? I think not, well not recently after having such awesome times really. I knew ahead of time that it would be quite a show to see everyone being done exams and not having to worry about the concequences of anything. We headed from Alejandro’s room (the guy across the window who is always naked) to The Mosquito which was impossible to even enter, so we went straight to Java which was much nicer but impossible to see because of so much smoke. I can’t wait until French laws change and it’s illegial to smoke in bars, it will just make things so much nicer and won’t have to worry about smelling so poorly.

We arrived and immediately I got into an intellectual argument with Gustav and Ginette about inventions of Sweden and Canada. Gustav made me take his side since I spoke Swedish with him, and team Sweden beat team Canada’s ass, sorry all you Canadians. Sure the telephone was important, but the mobile phone was more important, and as well as the zipper, which was invented by a Swedish-Canadian immigrant.

When Dan saw me he couldn’t help but scream my name since I’m a legend and I was in his reality. He was stashed off in the corner barely able to stand up, but at any rate I was able to hold a conversation with him while Ginette defined her nationality while in termoil. I left at about 2am since I had an 8.30 class the next morning, but apparently Ginette and Becky stayed until 4am, which was a poor choice on their part. Now they are both sick and one is leaving for Turkey on Thursday. My warm bed was wonderful to feel after being out on a Monday night, mental note, Monday’s are awesome!

When you get a bunch of drunk 20-22 year olds together for a birthday celebration with a theme like golf pros, it’s always a little bit scary. After spending hours getting ready to meet Scott et al. at a bar around the corner we finally departed in pretty rough condition. Me of course being the only sensible one as always, but the problem was I had to grounge some outfit together since I had nothing. When I arrived I met a bunch of the other Erasmus students that I didn’t know but had met through Facebook group and all, but the most exciting of all was meeting Anne and Dan, pictured above at the two extremes.

When I met Anne she was so interested to say hi and such, and then out of nowhere she started to think that I was familiar to her for some reason and couldn’t quite put her finger on who I was. After I repronouced my name as osky, she started to freak out screaming “OMG IT’S OSKY.” Apparently I was a legend with everyone and they all though that I never existed becasue they had never seen me. So after we laughed it up a bit she decided to refer this occasion as a ‘rare Osky-bird’ sighting but I assured her it wouldn’t be the last time. After she took another sip of her wine, she realized that I hadn’t met Dan yet, who formed a disccusion group, topic on me of course. I hadn’t formally met him, but we messaged each other in Facebook many times, so it was a huge thing. I heard some screams in the back of the pub and then a huge crowd of people gathered to meet me because they were so curious as to whom I was. Dan was the most excited since he finally was able to meet me and in his most gentlemanly introduction he attempted to pronounce my full name and gave up half-way through. He was shocked that I was there but very happy and then we had this picture taken by Anne since she was convinced she would never see me again. She’s so lovely though. We went to Salamandre right after Rock City and by this point everyone was in rough condition, but since it’s dancing I could blend in and pretend to be drunk too. It was awesome to just dance around and not have to worry. Notice above how suddenly I became a cartoon thanks to the magic of technology and Matt’s computer.

After hours and hours of running around dancing and such we finally called it a night and walked home in the freezing cold evening, but not before more pictures of the golfing stars. The music that night sucked, quite frankly, but it didn’t matter since I was meeting so many people and then was subject and witness to embarrassing moments which I won’t detail, since I don’t want to ruin the future lives so many future lawyers! Next up, or so I’m told is going on Monday night when we celebrate Siân and Dan’s finishing of exams (finally) which means that trouble is a-foot again, but thankfully no theme.