laura

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 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.

So after the last few days of sleeping, classes, and more sleeping I suppose I’ve gotten back to a normal routine. The heating in my room does not function, what a surprise?! And on top of this I still haven’t gotten a request for heath appointment for my carte de séjour, so I’m still illegial. Go team illegial residence in Europe! I will go on Wednesday to the Prefecture to sort it out since it’s the only day where I have time. Apart from that, spending large sums of money on food to restock up, and getting settled has been good. Teachers are shocked to hear I was in a hurricane, and my French was a little rusty along (oddly) with my English, which had hardly been used in three weeks.

I’ve been informed that this Saturday, also known as tomorrow, Scott and Laura are having a conjoined birthday party celebration since their birthdays were on New Years, and obviously nobody could celebrate. It will also be a celebration party for most people who finished exams on Friday in the Erasmus programme. I’m an honourary Erasmus student so I qualify for all the awesome perks, like events! I will have to find golf attire, since they insist that there are tons of people in theme. This could be a struggle as I’m already struggling with clothings, but we shall see.

Also Charlotte took me out shopping during the huge sales here in Strasbourg to get some pairs of jeans since I’m struggling and I want something more ‘fitted.’ I found two really nice pairs which are a little small but they are great, and they actually fit and together only costed 40€ which is an amazing buy. 40% off each of them, and they make me look better too as opposed to dirty and boring! I am still in search of a ‘fitted’ top to make me hot, but the only thing that fit and wasn’t too large was 69€ and quite frankly I’m not forking out that much money for a bloody shirt. Maybe thirty, but that’s about it and it better be a nice damned shirt for that! The search goes on.