kehl

I knew that going to Era again would be quite the experience. And the experience it quitely was. We embarked on our journey to Alfred Weiss on Friday at about 21.00 and got there at about half-nine, because it’s so damned far away in the sketchiest part of Strasbourg. Funny enough I found out where the really gross places are, like where all the Eastern-European prostitutes are. And also where the gypsies live; oh Strasbourg how divers thou art.

We got to Era in our normal taxi stuff, and it was jumping, that is to say lots of trashy people that I really didn’t want to deal with. What is the cure for this you ask; 1€ drinks galoore. So I just downed them like crazy in hopes that I would become drunk enough to deal with the grossness of the German-French people. Nope. It was horrible, so we left early and everyone was pretty sober except Ginette, who is poor and got everyone to pay for all her stuff;  no comment.

All in all a night that was just a flop.

Saturday night was better, we went to Salamadre and I spent money on vodka-caramel; you’re my lover. I had an awesome time and met a bunch of really funny Germans. In the process I got Ginette in social problems by calling her on a lie; that’s her problem. She’s afraid of Europeans!

We went to Winterbourg, in Lorraine yesterday for a choir performance in this tiny little protestant church. It was quite lovely and everything; so I had a good time despie the horrible weather. We all carpooled and I spent the whole day with my choir, in other words all French people. They are all really nice, but with difficult names to remember, except Olivier, cause I love that name. Oh and Stéphanie, that’s easy! Anyways, they served us cake and these amazing little fruits from Lorraine’s history which I loved. They were citris prunes or something, but the excess of cake is what killed me. I was exhausted from coming home, and my voice hurt after singing for 1 full hour without break or water. Oh well, I need to train myself; I sang fairly well though! Yay go me.  

So what am I doing up at 05.00 in the morning? Just coming home from a disco in Kehl. We decided last minute to go there to check it out. It actually turned out to be a really classy place despite being a million miles away. Bloody cab fare was horrible though on the way here from Strasbourg. At about 20€ there, and at 04.00 it was 30€ total for 12 people. That’s right, we broke about a million laws and fit 12 people into a little minivan. My hips hurt from being squished. 

Anyways, discos in Kehl are, interesting. Classy and yet dirty at the same time. There was nobody there, which was weird, so we took it all up but I can imagine how some nights it’s jumping. Linguistically it’s a bitch, but right now I’m in no conditon to be making in depth analysis of Germany. Anyways, untill tomorrow!

Wie Ghets Deutschland!  

Ova’n’out  

Another fight against Germany, but this time it was more of a Franco-Germanic alliace against me. I woke up early after going to sleep early (in the realm of 22.30 or so) but I decided to sleep in a bit longer and I ended up being much more tired than I originally was, so I was a bit upset about that. After rolling out of bed I SMSed Nic to see if he wanted to go see the Luxembourgoise Philharmonic Orchestra tonight, and he said sure, so I decided to go over to the Palais de Musique et de Congrès but alas they were closed and my feet hurt. I felt so waisted at this point since I walked the entire length of the city and was in a suburb, but I took the tram back to Observatoire so that I could go to Kehl to do some grocery shopping.

The bus there was alright, despite the French-Moroccan students that were hoarding around me while at the bus, and were speaking in some weird dialect of French that I couldn’t understand. It was gross too since they were putting their faces on the windows (how unsanitary), and apparently some schools go on during the weekends; but luckily not me.

So I get to Kehl in no time, and then I walk down the main street to the market, and go to a Woolworths to get some stuff. I bought a cheap toaster, hangers, and a laundry basket (finally!) and then had to struggle with communication with the cashier who didn’t understand what I was saying in English or French. Sigh; life goes on. After that I went to the discount grocery store where I buy groceries, and struggling to find yoghurt and such since everything is only in German and no translations at all. It’s really difficult to figure out what I needed and wanted, but everything is cheap so I don’t think I really cared.

After struggling to carry all the groceries back to the bus stop I got onto the crowded bus and realized that there was gonna be no way I get back to Observatoire without people bitching at me about my laundry basket, so I got to Point de Rhin which is in France and began walking home (also since the bus was to arrive in another 20 mins). So I get lost following the signs to Esplanade, but eventually recognize something and see the N°2 bus go in the opposite direction so I knew I was in the right path. Meanwhile all the temperature signs say it’s 32°C which amazed me, but not really cause I was fucking hot. Apart from that crazy French people are wearing pants and sweaters, what the..!

(more…)

The day started with our meetings with Dr. Lee where he told us what we should do and what the course offerings are, the only thing he didn’t tell me is how to choose my option courses (but that will be figured out in time). He recommended that I look into some of the courses in the ‘normal’ university, so I went to ‘La Portique’ where the department is, but all the offices are closed and they aren’t very nice to students. So we will come back the next day, becasue we had to meet to go to the bank. So we get to the bank and we go in pairs to set up our accounts, Ginette and I go with this really really young guy, and he sits us down and talks to us about the accounts and such. Really nice, but really slow, and we were joking the whole time. We just about had to ask him to repeat everything because he talks so quietly it’s difficult to hear what the heck he’s saying.

So anyways, we are trying to figure out how old he is, and my guess is he’s a tad bit younger than us, but it’s tough to say because he’s tall and skinny (like all other French guys) and he’s being kind of coy with us. So all is swell and we were about to do my account, but then he (who we found out was named Jeremy) moved me to this other woman named Delores, who frankly spoke no English, and a type of French that was completely un-comprehendable. She kept trying to say words in English but they weren’t working out right, and I coudln’t understand anything, so it was a major struggle the whole time. All worked out (at least I think) and we just have to bring back one of the documents, and then we will be set. Now I just have to wait for that page from the Gallia. So we were walking to the Palais Univérsitaire, when Ginnette gets a call, then I get a call and it says ‘Blocked’ so I thought it was weird. I answered it and it was someone speaking French, but with an accent I couldn’t understand, and the reception was quite bad. It turned out to be Birahim my conversation partner, who was calling me, but he spoke horrible English, and I spoke horrible French, so communication was a major barrier for us. Eventually I mannaged to tell him that I would send him an email about when we can meet since the next days are very busy for me. He said okay and then we ended the conversation, then Ginette and I freaked out because it was Jeremy that called her. Apparently she ‘forgot’ to sign some papers, so we have to go back tomorrow to get them done. We were excited and convinced that he just wanted to see her/us again, so we came up with this huge plan to dress up really nice, and go over there, and ask him if he wants to show us around, because we are new, and then like hang out with us (after we find out how old he is). We, more specifically I, and most convinced that it will fail, but we figure that if anything bad happens we can just never go back to that agency again. *LOL*

We vowed not to tell anyone about this, and then we hope that we can start to form our own little French possie without the other Anglophones! I am exicted, because new friends are awesome, but I’m nervous that it will go over horribly. We will find out tomorrow!

So we decided to go to Kehl again at spur of the moment, and took a bus and then ended up ditching Crystal and Amber accidentally in a shoe store, then we shopped for awhile. I found an umbrella for less than 5€ (which is great compared to in Strasbourg), and we decided that tomorrow would be a busy day because we had to get some course info, go to the bank, get food, possibly go to Kehl, and definantly figure out where IKEA is and go there ourselves. So we took the tram back and then found our British friends at the Gallia resteraunt, and looking like idiots we asked them where the line starts and how it works here (as it’s different and confusing). So we ate and then decided that we were going for a drink with Jon, a guy from North Carolina who we met in the street. He’s studying his Masters programme here in International Relations, so Ginette is obsessed with him.

We met up with him, but Amber and her weiner 18 year old French Friends didn’t show up, so we were worried, but went to a café instead. The wine was wonderful, and we were there for hours just talking about tons of things! We walked over to Amber’s residence to see if she was there, as she didn’t answer her mobile, and we were worried. Ginette and I are convinced that she’s pissed off at us for avoiding her in Kehl, but it was accidental. Then we got invited to go out for drinks the next night with the British girls and guy, so we are doing that too. Jon was really nice and super polite, but I feel as if Ginette totally got drunk and was monopolizing the conversation. I couldn’t care less, but it was annoying to hear her voice for the whole evening. She’s soo smart, which is amazing to listen to, but I think that we disagree on some political level issues and that sort of irritates me, but she’s awesome anyways!

So as I said, Ginette and I have a hot date with the banker, and then we are going to IKEA. Woot woot, let’s just hope it doesn’t blow up in our faces!

PS: We were in Kehl and I couldn’t find a damned thing to buy to wear, as I don’t understand the sizes and they make them bigger here! So I am convinced that I need to find a pair of womens jeans just to get something that fits.. Bugger!

Baguette this morning with Ginette was good idea, we just need to find more competition and such. Also we sat around for some hours just talking and figuring out if we wanted to go to Kehl or not. We decided to go to ‘Place des Halles’ instead, which is the shopping mall (and quite small too). Amber was hungry as always, and we walked around looking for things to buy but everything was so expensive. Then Amber gets a phone call from Amimin (sp?) the taxi driver, and he says that he wants to meet her at the mall and doesn’t mind taking us around to show us the city. I was sketched out by this but everyone else seemed lazy and tired of walking (lazy asses) so I stayed with them during the day where it was some sort of a festival and thousands of people were around the streets. So he showed up and he was exactly as I imagined, a 25 year old Moroccan man, who was overweight and smokes excessively.

Against my better judgement, I decided to allow him to drive us to Kehl, and after going through the East side of town and showing us that he knows just about everyone, we arrived in Germany and walked around. Amber and him flirted a lot (for God only knows what reason) and he kept touching her inappropriately but she didn’t mind to care. We went into some shops, and Ginette coudln’t help but notice that German people weren’t as good looking as French people, how sad. After I explained to her that they are from a different ethnicity, everything seemed to make sense and we just giggled and made fun of Amber and the cabbie the whole day. The always hungry students found an Italian Ice Creame resteraunt where we were for like hours, and talking and joking about random stuff. The taxi driver seemed to ignore us, except when we talked about swear words, and he likes to say ‘J’arrive’ a lot, and it started to bug me.

Admist all of this excitement, Amber seemed to allow herself to get caught in a trap to go Aminem’s cousin’s wedding with him, and we laughed and joked about that. We found things that were so much cheaper in Germany, like sandals and health products; and made a mental note to come back here very soon on the bus. On our way back after leaving at about 18.00 the cabbie took us to a pack with a mini zoo and a bunch of African weddings, which was nice. We took some pictures and then got excited when we went to the ‘Conseil d’Europe’ and ‘Palais des Droits des Hommes’ which are all EU buildings. I took a bunch of pictures with Ginette and we found out they had an open house on Sunday, so we vowed to come back.

We got dropped back at the house, and wasted away the evening until Amber called and asked if we wanted to go out to a bar or something. Against my better judgement (again) I decided to go and rescue her from the creepy guy, and dressed up a bit to go to a really dingy little bar where people smell bad and the drinks are expensive. I had some pinapple drink while talking with them and the cabbie ignored all of us as his other friends seemed to be there. This German group infront of us kept staring at me, for some reason or another, and the French guy behind us was doing the same, I really wanted to scream when he hit me accidentally with his arm as he was putting his coat on, but I just shook my head and ignored it all. All in all, he ditched us and we left after paying for his drink and such, and then we walked Amber home because she was afraid to be raped or something (some guy followed her home the night before). All in all a weird day, and Ginette and I decided that we were done using the taxi driver to drive us around, since we thought he was creepy. Oh well, it would have all costed 300€ in the end, so everybody wins; we got to go to Kehl afterall, and Amber has a creepy friend, and some of the taxi drivers sexual tension was released by his touching of her arm (creepy).

Watch out European Union; you’re coming tomorrow!