La Fille du Chat Noir

The Strasbourg diaries: this week so far

So, have you been wondering what happened to me this week? Probably not, but I shall tell you about it anyway.

Monday: The week started with a fabulous me showing up drunk at lectures after a good drink with an old friend and falling down the stairs of my faculty. Perhaps not the greatest of starts, one would say.  

Tuesday: Aside of lectures, nothing much has happened. I did however get the chance to catch a good game of football at my local pub with a couple of friends, which hadn’t happened in a long time. I still maintain: Arsenal, you suck balls.

Wednesday: After a day beautifully spent skipping every possible sort of commitment, I threw my usual Italian dinner party, cooked some delicious Italian carbonara (perhaps not all that delicious, since I’m an appalling cook) and watched Milan beating Barcelona 2 sore bottoms to 0. It was glorious.

Today: I woke up to the smell of bacon, which is like the best way of waking up ever: that was pretty glorious too. And now I’m trying to avoid revision for my 12pm presentation by typing up this post. I wish a very nice day to all of you who are desperate enough to read my posts!

Picture above: Strasbourg Cathedral

I have once more proved to be the most inconsistent person ever by failing to type a new post in almost a week. Anyway, I just wanted to share with you guys this ‘pearl’ I stumbled upon on my way to lectures.

The bar is supposed to be called ‘Au coin des pucelles’ (for the non-francophones it means something like: The virgins’ corner): too bad the ‘i’ actually fell off (or was perhaps cunningly removed) and the name is now ‘Au con des pucelles’ (roughly The virgins’ vagina).

Frenchies, you amaze me once more.

You know it is going to be a good day when you wake up to this. There is something about snow that instantly puts me in a good mood (that and the spicy barbecue beef I had for lunch).

Now I shall dedicate myself to a solid 3h study session, as I just figured out I have a private law exam next tuesday.

Sim is not amused.

First Valentine’s day alone in 5 years or so but hey, I has wine! I have however already come up with a cunning response to such a cheesy day.

Me and my sicilian buddy. As much meat to feed an army. Three bottles of wine, 30 beers and a bottle of pastis. Hardcore bollywood films. The plan is to eat as much meat as we can before exploding and having our limbs scattered over a wide area, then drink as much as we can until we drop to the floor unconscious. Sounds like a plan.

The Strasbourg Diaries: How the eagerness to discover new things beats the cold +updates.

So Strasbourg has decided to be capricieuse  and delight us with ridiculously low temperatures. My new wool coat, scarf, gloves and hat did not prevent my hibernation when I went to visit the European Parliament earlier today. As the plenary session ended last Friday, there was no chance of bumping into any MPs or assist to their hilarious debates; however that also meant that I could take lots of pictures anywhere inside the Parliament and comfortably sit on one of the MPs big chairs. Although our guide through this massive building was very quirky and well prepared, the visits itself was quite a disappointment to me, as I already knew everything that has been said about the Parliament, its remits and history. However, visiting the Parliament is definitely in my top 10 things to do in Strasbourg -post coming soon-, especially if you don’t know much about it and wish to find out more. 

Speaking of the European Parliament, the requests of moving the official siege of the Parliament to Brussels are becoming more and more insistent of late, trying therefore to deprive Strasbourg of its rightful siege which the city holds since 1952. You may say that running the Parliament in Strasbourg is a quite pricey business, however it provides great benefits to the town’s economy and its citizen. Moreover, the European Parliament has come to represent a symbol of peace in a region -Alsace- that has been torn by war many a time, and represents the emblem of a Franco-German alliance. An initiative carried out by a number of EU citizens and politicians alike demands Strasbourg to be confirmed as the single siege of the European parliament: you can find their Facebook page here. If you agree with the cause, please do show your support and sign this online petition. 

[Me and the boyfriend being very cold outside the European Parliament]

Now back onto ‘personal’ stuff, I’d like to invite you to take a look -if you haven’t already- at my previous post on the ‘Speak to the Future’ campaign. The latter aims at promoting the learning of a second language and raising awareness on the benefit this has on your employability and mindset. As a language lover and multilingual individual, I firmly sustain this project for which I have made a pledge. You can check the initiative’s website here, and read my post here.

Moving onto something just as important, GaragErasmus - a network of the Erasmus generation aiming to promote innovation in production and cultural services in Europe - is raising awareness on the Erasmus programme by sharing the experiences of students that are currently studying abroad thanks to the Erasmus programme, as well as people who benefited from the programme in the past. The first story is my very own, which you can read here -caption below-.

To conclude this very boring -but hopefully informative- post, I’d like to inform you that if you wish to discover the Eu and its member states, as well as european literature, cinema, music and much much more, you can follow Fréquence Europe every Wednesday at 19h30 on 102.9FM! If you’re abroad, listen to the podcasts here. I will be one of the speakers, so quality stuff is guaranteed!