My last blog entry finished with the words: "But more of that in a little while"...I guess that has been kind of an overstatement...It has been QUITE a while. Once more, time appears to be a force that is simply unstoppable the harder you try. This semester in France is now galloping towards its completion and frankly: it scares the hell out of me. By now deep friendships have formed, filled with as much intimacy as premature nostalgia. In my view, there's been many enjoyable moments, much laughter and lots of happiness & joy. I'd love to simply grab these fragile days, hours & minutes by the neck, with all the force I can master and prevent them from transforming into mere memory. It seems that I allowed the Poitiers bubble to become reality. And this new perceived reality has sucked me up completely, whilst steadily approaching its end. I am already so full reminiscence – that I am kinda giving myself the ick. But all is not lost. My hope is that back home I have no time to be so bloody self-indulgent. London, I am sure will be successful in reinstalling some much needed cynicism, distance and objectivity in me...
But now – what has happened in the last few weeks?!
Well, for starters I had some awesome visitors from Germany that were willing to face the 18 hour drive to France. Sascha, Lisa and I spent 5 awesome days together that were predominated by...aehm, mostly eating. It’s always been a preferred entertainment option of mine, I guess. But here in France this tendency has reached a new plateau and has become more of a steady hobby. Another good reason why I shouldn’t prolong my stay in France much further – saves me from the embarrassment of having to book two seats on the train home. On the few occasions that Sascha, Lisa and I weren’t eating, we were discovering the area around Poitiers. To my own detriment, I suggested to drive to Amboise – a little town nearby with a stunningly beautiful castle. In my haste however, I overlooked the fact that Sascha has a keen interest in history. After 3 pictures and about 5 minutes in Amboise I was ready to leave – but thankfully the ice cream I got kept me going for a little longer.
The day after we went to La Rochelle, a beautiful little town that is situated around a harbor. We spent an enjoyable day there, even though we failed to pull-off the level of “poshness” that seemed to be expected of us. A few waiters sniffed out this weakness and consequently treated us a little bit like second-class tourists, which made our visit all the more fun.
By the time, Sascha and Lisa had to leave, they had grown accustomed to the beautiful weather and the highly-entertaining French rudeness that non-French occasionally experience...I think if they had stayed just a day longer, they would have fallen in love with this country to about the same degree that I have.
Once the mid-term break was over and all of my fellow students had returned to sleepy Poitiers, two camps seemed to have been firmly established: Team GMOOH (short for “get-me-out-of-here”) and Team NPINLAIAETLWOMSL (long for “No, Poitiers is not lame and I am enjoying the last weeks of my student life”).
The sentimental first paragraph makes it blatantly obvious which team I reside in...So this is what the NPINLAIAETLWOMSLs have been getting up to:
· We went through approximately 100 litre of French wine and about 5kgs of yummy cheese
AND
· We spent roughly 25 hours per week in the park: often reading & studying, even more often just chatting & laughing.
Some of us were also eager for some excitement – and after one Paintballing and one Gokarting session, the risk-seekers as well as harmony-loves were clearly identified.
Other highlights of the last weeks included:
· Another trip to Bordeaux – this time I was accompanied by not 1, but 2 Stefanies. I had a lovely time with the girls – even though my credit card was upset with me for an entire week after that.
· A non-stop road trip through Belgium, Holland and Germany. I was dreading the drive at first, but I was wrong. I spent ¾ of the time asleep and the rest of the time being highly-entertained by my co-road tripers.
· Easter in Northern Germany. This stay alone would deserve 5 additional blog entries.
My favourite quotes were:
- “It’s lovely to see you again, Christin. But before I talk to you, I should let you know I just got married.”
- “It seems you are too well educated to cycle a bicycle.”
- “Seeing you again makes me think: This stamp on my wrist might potentially grant me more than just access to a club tonight”.
Yes, I was equally shocked when confronted with these remarks...However, when I didn’t suffer from verbal abuse (and just for the record that was the majority of the time) I really enjoyed getting the chance to spend some leisure time in Germany with people that I normally miss on a constant basis.
So that was the recap. And now this time of leisure & pleasure is finally coming to an end and will be exchanged with some good-old measure of anxiety & pressure. Oh, that even rhymes. So yeah, the exam season is about to unfold. And since I don’t want to make any more unsubstantial promises, I reckon it is safe to say that the next time I will get the chance/will have the discipline to write I will already be back in London.
