Bored? No? No, Bordeaux!

It finally dawned on me that I have just over 3 weeks left until I make the journey all the way back to the great white north more commonly known as home. This made me realize just hoe quickly my 8 months in France will actually pass, so I’ve been booking in as my trips as my credit card will allow. This passed weekend my friend Zara and I took a day trip to Bordeaux, wine capital of France. Yes, I bought a lot of wine. As much as I could carry home in my arms and every second I wished I was either stronger, or had some sort of pack animal like a nice donkey that would be able to help a damsel out. Et oui, maman- I found the wine you recommended/requested and bought in bulk. Now Bordeaux was not what I expected at all. Its bigger and dirtier than the posh wine capital should be. There is way more immigration and it’s not as safe and secure as good old Poitiers. But there is something wonderful and prestigious about Bordeaux, the beautiful apartments, the Churches and arches crossing over pedestrian streets, breathtaking clock towers and did I mention all of that wine?!?! It was a wonder I had Zara there with me to guide me. She had lived there for a year a few years ago and knew her way around including all the great restaurants, cafes and shopping streets. By the end of the day I was so tuckered from the adventure I feel asleep on the train home and went straight to bed upon my arrival in Poitiers. I love being able to make little day’s trip like this one so I can experience that rest of France. Now if ever you would ask if I would return to Bordeaux that would be a no. The city itself I wouldn’t but the vineyards and chateaux around it, I would love to take a wine tasting class for sure. I’m quite happy to have gone, Zara and I had a blast and it’s one more destination I can cross off my list!

Birthweek is the new Birthday.

To most of you, the idea of birthweek may be a tad selfish and or ridiculous. But to me, the idea that we only get one day a year to celebrate ourselves and our life is just as ridiculous. So I take one week out of the year around my birthday to give myself things, do things and experience things I love, think I will love or have loved doing and all the wonderful sensations I get to experience just because I was born . Last year's birthweek included a half marathon, 21 km for my 21st birthday, an expensive coffee with my own latte art heart drawn in it, recovery yoga, a new dress and a thursden soirée with my friends. This year's celebration was a tad more exuberant due to being in a more exuberant place. For example, this year's birthweek included but was not limited to: a new and wonderfully seductive perfume, which I never buy and never would think to buy any other week of the year. I have never bought perfume and it is a luxurious and also one of my favorite indulgences. I can never pass up the opportunity to spray a little bit of perfume on! Another item was stockings, black ones with a ton of flirtacious character. This birthweek also included two trips- one in the near future- to Stockholm where I will be visiting my friend Sarah and have the luxury of re living life in Grande Prairie but also where I will get to experience the wonders that are Stockholm. Paris was me second trip concluding birthweek. And it was absolutely wonderful! Two of my closest friends made the trip with me and tromped all the way around Paris's tourist circuit. This was the first time I had actually gone into the Louvre despite actually being outside of the Louvre more times than I have fingers. It also entailed a delicious lunch on the Champs Elysees as well as visiting l'Arc de Triomphe, a monument dedicated to soldiers lost in the war only a few days after Rememberance Day. All in all, I got to do everything I wanted for one week and it was perfect. I had coffee with friends, went for long runs, cooked dinners and hosted parties, walked in parks spent extra time helping out my teachers. Anything that made me feel good, I did. This is the one week where I get to stop and enjoy everything about my life and think about how to make it better and if that's ridiculous, so is life.

I've never been to England, but I kinda like the Beatles.

I've barely worked a total of 8 hours this month and already they are sending me off on 2 weeks of holidays. It was a toss up between sunny Spain and rainy England... and well somehow the rain won out. So one foggy Friday morning 3 girls piled into a car and headed down the road to the very north of France. Now to me, a 5 hour roadtrip is nothing, I wouldn't even think twice about it, but to two English girls- 5 hours can take you across britan. It wasn't the 5 hours in the car that got me though, it was the 6 hours on the ferry. I can sum up that experience in about one word: nausea. For an entire 6 hours all I could do to stop myself from getting sick was sleep and for a few days after I was still swaying as I walked down the street. It was a great feeling being in England, but not for the obvious reasons of seeing something new and being in a foreign country. What I liked most about it was being back in a family setting with breakfast and dinners, bickering and inside jokes. To be an adopted daughter for a couple weeks was the nicest thing that I could have asked for! Besides this, I was extremely lucky to be able to travel around, hitting up Birmingham where we did a massive amount of shopping and visited some of Jess's friends from her university, Chattnam where this posh little city has lovely boutique stores and and all girls college that has the nerve to refuse Madonna's daughter, Gloucester where I stayed for most of my holiday and is home to the city of a lovely cathedral that Harry Potter was filmed in, the tailor shop of Beatrix Potter, the old foundations of roman history and also a not very good but very fun to watch pro rugby team. London was a quick day trip that had my feet screaming and my body aching by the end of it, but was completely amazing as well. Even the Queen was in at Buckingham palace and I couldn't help but wonder where Prince William and Prince Harry were. After London, we headed to Bristol to visit some more of Jess's friends and had a wild night of partying where I got to show off my new dress. And all things came to a close when I headed to Westin for the night to stay with Lauren and her amazing family where we watched X-factor and had a wonderful dinner where I was questioned endlessly about Canada. I loved every minute of it. And there we are, my entire Toussaint vacation, something I'll never forget.