I write this because I can.

Here I am again mes amis! So last time I posted was just before we went to Toulouse! Suppose I should fill you in on that oul adventure while I'm at it. I was very excited to go and see my friend for her birthday who I hadn't seen in I'd say almost five months, one would say that's a pretty long time to go without seeing one of your closest friends. Too long almost, and I wouldn't disagree with them either. We had booked a train for around 12pm, and we were all pretty much ready to go so on we went on our journey but unfortunately it was not as smooth sailing as we hoped it would be! You see folks, the problem with us is that we overestimate how close the train station actually is so when we realised that we were in fact running late we started to walk a bit faster (I thought it was grand but I have that attitude to everything so I'm not a very good person to rely on), we even ran some of the way (don't laugh, I actually did run). After finding the platform our train was stationed at we made our way there, and you can imagine the relief on our faces as we saw that the train hadn't left yet. Out of breath and tired already we made ourselves comfortable for the journey ahead. All was fine, we were glad we made it and chatting away until my friend noticed...THAT IT WASN'T THE RIGHT TRAIN! *facepalm* What did we do? Well we gathered our things, faster than we've ever gathered anything in our lives and ran off the train. Turns out the train we had boarded was in fact destined for Marseille...imagine if we had ended up there! Quite a bit far away from where we had intended to go. Being the person I am, I thought the situation we had landed ourselves in was nothing other than hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing! Come on, how common is it that three adults (technically) miss two trains in the space of a couple of weeks?!?! It's pretty darn funny. Anyway, one of the nice people who work at the train station confirmed that we could get the next train, which we did do. This day has certainly placed itself in the little box in my brain reserved for the funniest moments! I mean, nobody died, we still got to Toulouse. All good in the hood I say!

We spent a nice time in Toulouse, I stayed longer than the others. As the friend that we visited is Italian, it was no surprise that she also had plenty of Italian friends, which is great! Apart from the fact that we don't speak Italian, but we all had the common language of French (sometimes English) which was a lifesaver. Toulouse is a pretty big city, and I liked it as a place to visit but I'm not sure I'd quite like to live there but that didn't stop me having fun. The second night I stayed there I went to a 'retro' party, I wasn't exactly sure what this was so I just threw some random pieces of clothing on and away I went; leg warmers, converse, tights and a bright blue top. I didn't think it through because IT WAS BLOODY  COLD! Oh and I almost forgot to mention, on my travels I also met these too guys who knew my cousin, okay yeah that's not so strange right..but they're in the exact same course as her. Tis a small world, even in France! All in all a great weekend was had and I certainly wouldn't be opposed to going back again for another few days. But before that I've got many other planned adventures!

Since then I've not really been up to much else. I've had a lot of exams and whatnot to get done but I know you don't want to hear the sordid details of that. They've put up all the Christmas decorations over here now which has made the place extremely festive, I love it. Christmas has always been one of my favourite times of the year! The atmosphere is indescribable! I will admit, it's strange not being at home during this time of year, seeing all the photos on Facebook of the decorations in Kilkenny is a bit weird. Christmas is always a thing I associate with home and family, so not being there feels a bit odd, it's not bad, it's just different. It's nice to experience how it's celebrated in another culture, there is a Christmas market in on 'Place de l'horloge' and it is filled with so much goodness, from gingerbread to snowglobes, theres something for everyone! There was also an extremely random antiques market on 'Place Pie' yesterday, I had a gooch around and it was fantastic. That's one thing I love a lot about France, it's so wonderfully random and it provides endless entertainment. I mean, there was a price list from a butchers, who would want to buy that you might ask? Well I for one would certainly consider it for the simple reason that I could say I owned one! They had plenty vinyl records, which makes me want a record player just so I can buy them ALL (okay, only some). Then they had this box of postcards that were written like yonks ago. It's all so fantastically amazing and I will forever be in awe. I wish we had markets like that back home. Like, they just set up and many of them just lay the goods on the ground, no hesitation as to whether anyone would steal anything. The lot would be gone in a flash back home!

I have a week full of exams next week, which is going to be mad craic altogether! But I'll sit them in sheer anticipation of my trip to Paris (including DISNEYLAND) which will be a great end to an even greater semester. And this is where I shall bid you adieu my lovlies.Until next time, whenever that may be!

P.S. Here is a pun that I came across the other day, I kid you not I laughed for hours just at the mere thought of it. It's just so darn 'punny'!

Random tales from a random brain!

Salut tout le monde! I hope all goes well where ever you lovely folk may be. This really isn't a post about anything remotely specific or interesting, merely a series of photos that display antics that occur in my daily life. I don't know why I willingly choose to display my ridiculousness across the internet but I do, and I have no regrets about doing so either.

On Monday I decided I'd be slightly domesticated and make Banoffee Pie (because let's be honest why study when you can make things?), anyway off I set to the supermarket to buy the ingredients. It hadn't occurred to me before setting foot into the supermarket that they would not supply the same products that I would normally buy in Ireland, I thought about just throwing in the towel and giving up on the idea of baking, but then I thought 'No, I can totally do this, I just gotta look carefully for the things I need'. So bananas, they were pretty simple..I mean they look the same in every country. Digestive biscuits, lucky for me they sell McVities so that was a pinch of salt. Butter and cream, same old story they have those in every country (as far as I know). Then it came to buying the sugar and the milk for the caramel, I needed brown sugar and condensed milk. Normally, as I said before I would have used Irish product but now I was forced to compromise. I resorted to choosing a sugar that definitely was not white, but it was not brown either, it was somewhere in the middle...I decided I would do. The only thing left to buy was the milk, at the time I didn't know what condensed milk was called in France and I had not thought to look it up before leaving my house, which in hindsight was a pretty amateur move...I should always be prepared. I headed to the baking section where I stumbled upon milk in a can, I took it upon myself to decide that this was condensed milk and to hope for the best. It turns out I was correct in my selection (for future reference its called lait concentré sucré, just so ya know), although while in the process of making the caramel I thought it tasted more like custard, it didn't stop me making it though (sure I thought what's the worst that could happen? we'd only have a vile tasting pie, no biggie, be grand said I) and nobody died; I call that a success. And we all had fun eating the end result (I know it's in a pot but it was the closest thing I had to a dish, life of a student eh?):

Another story (just humour me and pretend you care). So there's this plant that just randomly sits on the little wall thingy beside the kitchen sink:

Up until today I honestly thought it was an ornament (it looks like one right?) until my friend accidently knocked it into the sink and noticed that the soil was dry. I didn't even know there was soil. I didn't know I was supposed to water it. I didn't even bring it here. It came with the house, part of the package and all that. After further inspection we came to the conclusion that it is in fact a very real plant, of which type we do not know, which is on the verge of dying as a result of neglect. Nevertheless, I have tried to save it by watering it now, although I feel it may be a tad late for the littl'un. I will make it my absolute goal to see it through to the end of the year. I fear what might happen if I had something utterly important to look after, 'Oh I was supposed to feed it? I thought I just had to watch it'. I really am tragic.

The ridiculousness does not end here my friends. As you all know (I hope, unless you've got a TERRIBLE sense of time) Halloween has passed, and what does that mean? The Christmas season is upon us. So naturally, you want to celebrate no? We decided we wanted to buy some Christmas trees, put aside the fact that I will have to leave it behind and I already have one of my own in Ireland it's completely logical to buy another, after all it ain't Christmas without a tree. Obviously, a trip to IKEA was in order, you know to stock up on Christmas things. (and to buy a tree). So on we went through the usual routine of following the arrows on the ground until you reach the section you actually want, the IKEA folk were very clever by placing all the Christmas festivities at the end of the path, but not without teasing you with randomly placed Christmas trees and such. 'Tis a downward spiral when you enter the world of IKEA, there's just so many things that you want to buy. Actually no it's everything, I definitely want to buy everything. You go in to buy something specific and before you know it there's a rather large dent in your bank account. And the best part? You regret nothing, everything you bought is just so wonderfully useless that it's justified. Anyway, we got to the Christmas tree area to find that they only sell one size of tree which costs 40€ (whut?), this was rather disappointing, I mean what about the people who don't have large enough living areas to buy a big tree, or those who prefer to be a little more reserved in their Christmas celebrations, or students who merely want to spread their Christmas cheer while remaining inside their financial box, I strongly feel that IKEA has overlooked these major factors. Think of all the money they would make from very happy twenty something year olds, like ourselves. Anyway we pushed on through our disappointment and continued to browse the Christmas decorations, by the end of which we had decided we would buy some decorations for the non existent tree, so now I am left with these:

and no tree. But fear not. I have a plan, like all good things I shall order one on ebay and get it delivered to my house. ebay is my friend. You know when you start saying that ebay and google are your friends that you got to get out more, but if it brings Christmas to my house I could care less about being so ridiculous. It's innovative buying a Christmas tree on ebay, how many of you folks could say you've done the same?

And this is where I leave you lovely peeps for tonight. What have you gained from reading this post? Absolutely nothing. Actually, I'm pretty sure you just lost five minutes of your life. I did warn ya. This blog is nothing but a look into my random thoughts and nothing more. It's bound to be mundane. Sure it might have given ya a giggle all the same. 

I'm off to Toulouse tomorrow and I shall inform you of all my adventures next week. Until then my friends.

Surprises and Adventures!

I think it's safe to say that I've been less than slacking on my blog updates. I've just been so damn busy with life you guys! Time is slippin' away from me faster than you can say boo! I am lovin' it though, France is definitely far better than I thought it would be before I came. To be completely honest I was extremely skeptical about coming here for a whole year but now I find myself wondering where the bloody hell the last two months have gone! So last week was Halloween. What did I do? I only flew home for a flying visit. The best part? I told nobody apart from my parents and two friends. (well SOMEBODY needed to know I was coming home in case something happened and I was lost in the world forever. ya know?). Anyway, nobody knew I was coming home and I wish I had been able to record their reactions. Endless cries of 'Oh my god' and 'Why are you in Ireland?' 'This isn't France' and 'Denise is in your kitchen', it was priceless. I'm pretty sure they thought it was a dream. I mean they weren't expecting me to be randomly standing in their kitchen or in their yard were they? I don't mean to give people near heart attacks. It just happens. Soz.

And if that wasn't enough I got to go back to a Dublin night club. Oh how much I had missed it. I don't normally like going out on holidays such as Halloween but since I hadn't been back in a while nothin' was going to stop me! Of course it was more packed than a subway at rush hour in New York (I have no idea what that is like but I imagine its similar to sardines in a can), and you know it was difficult to move but I had a good night. I dressed as a Pirate Captain....although at random points in the night I remember people coming up to me saying 'let me guess...slutty pirate?'. I'm not quite sure where the slutty came from, maybe it was the fishnet tights. Who knows? Who really cares all that much? Anyway. Twas a good night with many wonderfully random costumes. There was this one guy in particular who dressed up as Facebook. GENIUS. A very strange night was had by all, so strange in fact it was brilliant! You forget how much you miss the simple things when you've been away for awhile, but all the same I welcome the change in my lifestyle. It gives me room to grow and all that jazz. It's interesting to notice the little changes that have happened in such a short space of time. Who knew it was possible eh?

After my amazing trip back to Ireland, myself and two of my friends spent the day in Paris. I can honestly say that in that one day I spent more time on trains/metros than I ever have in my entire life. Blue lines, green lines, yellow/green lines, red lines, light blue lines. Dear lord, so many colours, so many lines. So many people. It was good though I love the hustle and bustle of it all, I'm strange like that ya know? We figured it out eventually though. Of course you can't visit Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower, I mean it's practically visible from most positions within Paris, the best part of seeing it was my friends reaction 'Is that it?'. It is safe to say that the Eiffel Tower was very underwhelming for him. and not the right colour either. But it's okay, because he says its grand like. We didn't go up it this time because the top of it was under construction but when we go back at Christmas time we will, at night time. WITH SO MANY LIGHTS! *if you could see me now you'd see my eyes light up with excitement like a child on Christmas morning*. We also walked up the Champs d'Elysee (there are plenty of shops there that we certainly can't afford, but they're nice to look at right?).

I think it's right to say that last week was a pretty eventful week for me, I loved every bit of it, from my friends' shock of my arrival to the sights of Paris. It was amazing to say the very least. I can't wait to get started on more traveling. What's life without a little adventure eh? Now I know this has not been the most exciting post in the world (I promise the next will be better) but it has come to my attention that maybe I find puns a little TOO amusing, so with that my friends I'll leave you one to giggle away at. Love to you all!!

Gets me every time. 

Ramblings of a traveling student...

Because of the fact that I can't sleep and am just laying in bed staring at the ceiling I decided to make better use of my time and inform all you lovely peeps how my stay in France has been so far. So I've been here for just over three weeks now (I know time flies eh?) and I can honestly say that without a doubt the most hardest/horrible/funny now but not at the time moment that I've had was the journey we took getting here. I mean I cannot describe to you how utterly ridiculous we looked, we obviously had not thought that far past the plane journey. Let me put it into perspective for you: There were three of us, I had two pieces of luggage (one small suitcase and one large), each of my friends had three pieces of luggage (both had a large suitcase, one had two more small suitcases and the other had a backpack and a small suitcase), that equates to three people and eight pieces of luggage. I'm pretty sure we looked something like this:

Now you have the image, multiply that by three and there you have us. So now you're probably thinking okay grand, it was just a plane journey and they were there. No. I wish it was that simple. We got a plane. Then a bus. And after much conversing with the staff at the train station, a train. Then another train. Then we had to walk. With. all. our. luggage. And can I ask one simple question. WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO HAVE THAT MANY STAIRS?? I mean come on. Three people. Eight pieces of luggage. Several flights of stairs. Surely you can see the picture I'm trying to paint right now? We had to make a random friend named Sammy at the train station to help us. Even the train had stairs. What is this? I'm not exaggerating either. French people really love the bloody stairs. 

After that less than desirable trip to the city of Avignon, I find myself standing alone (my friends had to go to their accommodation, at a train station, with just the address of my house, waiting for a taxi, that never came. I decided I'd take a stroll up the street to see if anyone could help me, thankfully some kind man directed me to the tourist office where he thought they would be able to help me. Off I go on my way to said place, creating absolute havoc along the main street of Avignon with my two suitcases. When I arrived at the tourist office the lady was able to provide me with a map and directions, which I was very grateful of. But since I was late to meet my landlady and I was swamped with luggage I asked her if there was somewhere I could grab a taxi, she replied with a mere 'you don't need a taxi, it's 20 minutes walk away'. This was not an acceptable answer to me so I tried again. Nope. She replied with the same unhelpful answer I left thinking did she not see all that luggage? Finally after much difficulty I arrived at my landlady's house. What did I find? SHE WASN'T THERE. I had to wait outside her house with my two suitcases looking like a stalker for an hour and a half until she arrived home to inform me that I couldn't actually stay in my house for another week because the electricity was cut off. Surely that was something that they should have checked no? Exhausted and Fed up with the days events I barely managed a nod to all her questions and settled into my guest house. To say that the day was a bit of a nightmare would be an understatement, although it has provided us with a good story about our arrival. 

The rest of my stay has been quite enjoyable though, regardless of the few random days when I feel a little homesick in which case I just eat some spuds and I'm grand cause, ya know,  I'm Irish and all that. We've had a lot of time to do various things too though, which I will present to you in a series of pictures that will give you a snippet of the goings on, I'm not going to write it all because I'm too lazy and it would be far too boring for you. And let's be honest....who doesn't love pictures?

So here we are just chillin' by 'Pont d'Avignon' as ya do:

It's the place to hug tree and poles, I mean, why wouldn't you given the chance?

                         

These have 'Fanny' written on them. Like...why? Avignon is quite random..

I've eaten a ridiculous amount of bread and cous cous:

     

Crepes and BN's, I'll be a whale when I return:

                        

We even visited the Pope's Palace:

                              

I got interviewed (you can tell by my face I'm not very comfortable):

And the best part? We danced 'Sur le pont d'Avignon'...now how many of you can say you've done that?

Somewhere between all the picnics, visitin', and banter we've started into actual college work, but that doesn't mean we're going stop dancin', huggin' and explorin'...there's a plenty more for us to do. It just means we've got to be ninjas and juggle uni work and the oul travels, but hey, no mountain too high, no river too deep right? 

So there you have it people, a brief summary of what I've been up to the last few weeks (even though most of it was about my journey here)  and proof that I'm still alive, I'll keep you posted on the happenings in Avignon. 

À la prochaine mes amis.

P.S. I really need to remember that they drive on the other side of the road....this could become a great problem....

That time I was ridiculously bored..

Two posts in one night? That shows how little I actually do with my life. 

Right. So some of you might know that I have a brain full of ridiculous and pointless facts that nobody in the entire world could possible care about. And a lot of them are pure ridiculous and probably not true anyway. If I could remember my college work as well as I remember these then I'd be doing far better. Here's a few for ya to ponder! 

1.     Cat's are lactose intolerant (you're not supposed to give them milk. It's a myth)

2.     Walt Disney actually had a fear of mice (so obviously it's logical to create a cartoon about a mouse)

3.     Everyone's tongue print is different (I really don't know why I know this but I do!)

4.     Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth (I just thought this was funny)

5.     It's impossible to lick your elbow (everybody knows this)

6.     Apparently (because it's probably not true) people who suck ice cubes have more sexual desires than those who don't (ridiculous right?)

7.     French speaking residents of Belgium are called a Walloon (maybe I'll be one, one day!)

8.     You can't hum while holding your nose closed

9.     It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open (please don't try it)

10. Coca-Cola says that only two people know the recipe and they aren't allowed to travel on the same plane in case it crashes. (what if one dies, then the other dies, will there be no more coca-cola?)

11. It's not possible to tickle yourself

12. Ketchup used to be a medicine

13. SWAG originally meant 'Secretly we are gay'

14. Coca-cola would be green if colouring wasn't added to it

15. Prostitution has been observed in penguins and chimpanzees (what a random thing to observe)

16. On average a person spends an overall of 2 years on the phone

17. On average right handed people live nine times longer than left handed people (if this is the case I am royally screwed.)

Okay methinks I should end it here. There is one thing and one thing only that we have learned from this post: I really really need to find something better to do with my time, this is starting to get ridiculous. 

Changing Tides

Okay I haven't posted in about a month. The reason being I was extremely busy getting things ready for France and then I was on holliers in Italy! So here I find myself sitting in a guest house (my actual house doesn't have electricity) in France. Where did the summer go eh? I was thinking the other day before we left Ireland how different I thought my life would be now. It's really amazing how your life can change in such a short space of time. I know for a fact that my life is far far different than it was this time last year. It's exciting and scary all at the same time, I think that applies to everything though. It's the uncertainty that scares us all a little bit. Don't deny it now just because you want to seem hardy or whatever, there's always that small part of us that would like to know how our future is going to pan out because lets face it, the dynamic of our lives changes each and every day. I mean if you think about it, really think about it, there are so many questions you could ask yourself that truly demonstrate the unpredictability of life. That person you swore you were going to marry one day? How often do you talk to them now? Maybe a lot, maybe not so much. But it's not the same right? What about that best friend that you had plans to travel the world with? I bet you only talk once or twice a year now. The classmates you once knew at school? You only catch up with most of them when you bump into them on the town or on nights out. Am I right? What did you always dream of becoming when you were little? Bet your aspirations have changed a great deal now, unless you're that small percentage that has had the same dream since they were five. All of these are pretty reasonable questions. They may seem harsh but they're not really. I guess it's just the way life goes. I mean, it's natural to lose contact with people as life goes on. And maybe it's lack of effort on your part or theirs, or both but it just happens. See, this was one of the fears I had about going on a year abroad, that I would lose a lot of people who are very close to me without either parties noticing it. But then I realised that if I make the effort with everybody that's not going to happen.

I mean of course I've lost contact with a lot of people over the years, not because we wanted it to happen, but because our lives were heading in different directions. It doesn't mean I don't still care, because I always care a great deal about people who have played a significant part in my life, it just means that we were at different wavelengths and grew apart.  Yes, it can be sad but if that's what was destined for us, so be it. Think about it a little. If you had kept in constant contact with every single person you once knew how would you ever fit new people into your life. No each person is the same. And that's what's so exciting about meeting new people. A breath of fresh air is what I like to call it. You'll always have the memories of times shared with previous friends and whatnot but it's also great to make new memories with new people. Just because you may not talk with them every day like you used to does not mean that you don't have a bond anymore. If anything it really shows who your true friends are. The ones who send the odd text or Facebook message, or the ones who'll stop to have a conversation on the street with you and it'll be like you never stopped talking in the first place, these are the people that will always be your friend, no matter how long you don't speak for, or if you both live in different parts of the world, or even if you don't see each other for a long time, they'll always be there. These are the ones to cherish.

This is what I've learned in the last few weeks, that you'll always have friends. No matter where you are or what you're doing they'll always be there. I mean you can never forget the memories you made with great people right? Make the effort to keep in contact with people, it doesn't have to be everyday or even every week, just as long as they know you're still there they'll be there. Life changes far to fast for any of us to take for granted the good people, don't let yourself down by ignoring the true ones while trying to impress the fake ones. The loss outweighs the gain, trust me.

Who needs grown ups anyway?

If somebody had told me that being a grown up was so difficult. I would have opted against it. (yeah like that's possible.). It's strange when I think about it. I remember the times when all I had to worry about was who I was going to hang around with that day, or what I was going to spend my next installment of 'pocket money' on. I mean, can anyone pinpoint the exact moment that they stopped being kids? It happens so suddenly that you can't even comprehend that it's happening until it's been and gone. In the blink of an eye you're faced with questions that you never even thought about before. What school should I go to? Should I trust these people? How am I going to afford to live from day to day? The things you always heard your parents talking about become real, become something that you have to learn to cope with. It's overwhelming to say the very least.

As we get older we realise that life isn't always a ray of sunshine, despite what we may have previously thought. It starts to get far more serious and challenging than before. It's one hurdle after another. Time and time again we have to prove to ourselves that we can surpass everything and anything, sometimes it's extremely difficult, other times not so much. We make decisions based on how we feel in the heat of the moment, these can be the right ones, or unfortunately a lot of the time they can be so very wrong. But this is nothing to feel disheartened about because in the end you made the decision, dealt with the consequences and moved on. It rapidly becomes a tiny tiny thing in a long line of other things. It becomes insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

I used to look forward to being a grown up. So many opportunities and experiences to be explored. New people to meet. New everything. It all looked so simple from that perspective. Like it was a piece of cake. Oh how very wrong was I? I mean I'm not saying life is bad. Cause it really isn't. It's actually quite beautiful to be honest. I do love life. Most of the time. It's just those times that seem so rough, so rough that it feels like they'll never pass. But they do and they will. In that moment though it's like there's this rain cloud that won't go away, you know the ones that literally stay for days? (okay, that means every cloud in Ireland,I know but just roll with me here). Eventually though, the rain goes away. And what to we find? No rain. Duh.

Lets be honest with ourselves here. We've all made mistakes, some big, some small. At some time or another we've made absolute gobshites out of ourselves. But it's okay, why you ask? Because we live in a world where one gains respect by drinking a large bottle of an alcoholic beverage in under an hour. In my oh so valuable opinion, this gives us the right to act like utter eejits because if that's how you gain respect these days. So be it. Gone are the days where respect meant role models and good attitude. Oh world, what it happening?

I tend to just throw caution into the wind these days. There's no point holding back right? I mean, each day we grow a little older. And although I'm still only a mere twenty (yikes) years old, it feels like I've been on the earth a whole lot longer. Maybe that's because of obstacles I've had to overcome or things I've experienced. I really couldn't tell you why. But I've learned that people are going to have something to say about you either way, so why not give them what they want? Give them something to talk about. Let them waste their precious time thinking about you. Then you'll have won.

In a particularly difficult time of my life a wise (most of the time) man (my Daddy) said to me 'sometimes I think these things were made to test us'. I for one, could not believe he had said it. I mean, I hadn't had a lot of 'inspirational' pep talks with my dad over the years so this definitely made me think. And I realised he's right. I mean what would be the other purpose of challenging times other than to test our coping capabilities. If these are all tests, I want to pass them all. I don't want to fail at life. What a disappointment that would be. The trick is to defeat life, not let life defeat you. Lets let that be a lesson learned.

Another look into my random thoughts. Until next time my little chickens.

"Where'd the days go, when all we did was play? And the stress that we were under wasn't stress at all just a run and a jump into a harmless fall" - Paolo Nutini