Tales from a Party

Hi guys, how is everyone doing? Hope all the overzealous natural forces at work is not hampering your daily life. France is being battered by a horrible storm with winds that can lift a human body off the streets! I couldn't sleep through the storm, the howls of the wind was too terrifying and the temperatures magically dipped so it was very cold as well. It's been horrible but mercifully over. I hope the people in Chile are coping well though.


Went for a party last Saturday and I must say I have attended better parties. It was supposed to be a house party by a classmate who moved to Paris away from the school environs. You are thinking fun yeah? Maybe a little.

So I went with another classmate since I can't find my own tail with a compass. We got to the apartment. It was a very nice one complete with marble elevators and English speaking neighbours! We met a few of them 'cos they let us into the foyer. And it's very close to the Metro. Fab!

We met the hostess in sweats and she grabbed me the Nigerian to come make the Jollof rice! Did I mention the party was supposed to start at 9pm? Oh I got there at 9.30 or so. The hostess is a fly African who grew up American. She rarely attends lectures too. I have seen her all of twice since we started classes here, we mostly see on FB!

She was dishing out orders like we were her servants, oh you get the chicken, LusciousRon slice the onions, don't add too much pepper in the sauce for the jollof rice. Oh you go get the paper plates, the store is down the road. etc

On a regular day, I don't mind doing some work to get a party started and ready but sheeeet I did not leave my cosy flat, brave the cold weather, and travel into Paris in heels and flowing hair to come cut onions and ish! When I start reeking of maggi and other condiments at the party what am I supposed to tell other guests? That I had an accident with a curry shop? Puhleeeeeese.

I swallowed my annoyance and made the jollof, lighted the candles and did other minor stuff that kept the party going. It was the kind of party that people come in groups and leave after 2hrs to go to another party or club. And the hostess (we will call her H) kept making disappearing acts for lenthy chunks of time to attend to her stud-wearing-jeans-sagging boyfriend.

I was chatting with some of my classmates when H brought a dude over that he is Nigerian and I should talk to him. Behold a Nigerian that pronounced his name till I got a mild headache. He is supposedly 'Femi' but the way he said it, I asked him to repeat it so many times it sounded like a song! Get this, he speaks the kind of English a 2yr old would speak- very limited and I don't speak much French past what would get me items in a store. His parents are Nigerian but he grew up here. Having a conversation with loud blaring music is terrible at the best of times but having one with someone you cannot communicate with is crazy, besides he ain't that cute so I am not missing anything! I tilted him towards a Norwegian that speaks French and escaped!

I thought I had escaped most of the horrors of the night until a batch of French people came in. They were very drunk from another party. of course they had to do the French air kissing thing. Imagine the stale alcoholic breath coming into your nostrils, its utterly disgusting and 'cos they were drunk the kiss lingered and I had to endure that from about 8 people! I thought I would throw up. They were actually waiting in line to meet a delightful looking lady- their words not mine.

Some time after that, the Naija guy slipped beside me and from what I could decipher, he asked me to walk up to his friend and ask him to dance for me that he can really move. (Do you guys remember those silly games we played in secondary school and early Uni days? Where a guy's friend will tell you to go up to him and ask him to do something? Yes that one) I turned calmly and told him I was tired and the last thing I would do, is walk across the room to ask someone to dance for me! He gave me that incredulous look like, I want to miss the offer of the century. I simply turned to another person and struck up conversation.

I was stuck at the party 'cos the trains stop working at around 1am, so I couldn't go home. We left around 4 after we discovered we could get a bus to our place instead of waiting for the trains to start working. I was so glad. We walked to St. Lazare ran to catch the bus 'cos it was already leaving. Unlike the UK, the buses wait to pick you when they see you running. They even wait at bus-stops close to malls for shoppers.

We got to the Gare and I walked home. It's Sunday the regular buses don't start work until 7.30am. You gotta love France!


So it's winter break this week and I have signed up for a trip to Amsterdam on Wednesday. I have back-to-back presentations immediately after the break so I will be quite busy. I am looking forward to the trip though.
So thats how the past week has been. Have a fab week guys!

Illegal Valentine

So it was Valentine's day yesterday (like y'all didn't know that). Hope everyone did something fun.

I went out on a double date with my friend and the 2 guys who have been helping us get settled in this place. They both speak English and are students like us. One is Senegalese (tall and dark like Akon, that's where the similarities end!) and the other is Camerounian. (I called it an outing until I told another friend who insisted that since the guys paid, it was a date!)

They are both fab. We knew the Camerounian before we came over to France, he helped us get our flat. We shall call them S and C respectively.

They are quite brillant and make us laugh a lot and they are the go-to guys for anything we need and don't know where to get. They also say Nigerian girls are dangerous :D especially Lagos girls hahaha! When they talk they go, come on this girl is not just Nigerian she is comes from Lagos. That's me by the way.

They had nothing doing on Valentine's day, so we decided to go to Paris. I have no objection since I am not doing anything.

After getting primped and ready we set off, on getting to the train station, there was no one at the ticket stand and we wanted young people's day ticket (which is about half the price of the full ticket, sold only at weekends) and not available on the self ticketing machines. The guys had their Navigo cards so no problem on their side. They decided we could pass through in two's! That we did. You should have seen us (I held the guys jacket so we just go like one) (is that illegal by the way? got to check their rules here don't want to be in some Frnech jail)

We did that until we got to our first destination, Champs Elysees. After walking the length of the avenue with not a single free table at any restaurant on that stretch and people standing at every available space (it's Valentine's day and a Sunday!), we backtracked to the train station got a ticket for the metro and went to another place, this time Chatelet les Halles.

We bought tickets for a movie, had about 45 mins to kill, so we decided to get dinner. The food was horrible to say the least. I had something called Tagliani Saumon (some kind of flat spagheti with salmon and cheese. Salmon tasted like rubber and not like salmon at all and the cheese was just a milky concoction. Macdonalds an escalator down would have been far better). The guys' pizza wasn't much better, it looked like biscuit with congealed cheese and tomato! To cap it off their loo was locked and we were not allowed to use it.

So, after taking a leek (such a guy word) at the cinema loo, we went to see our movie. It was a good one, Brothers, very sad and poignant. I hated that feeling, it's Valentine's day afterall who needs to feel so sad. We should have seen George Clooney's In The Air. We came out and saw another movie was about to start in another screen room, someone said (I can't remember who) we could go in, so we went in and took seats. This time we saw Sherlock Holmes. An OK movie. I liked it though. Nothing like Jude Law to get me smiling :)

By the time the movie ended, it was 12.30. The guys had classes in the morning. We caught the last train home. We got to our Gare (station) only to find policemen on the platform and we were the only ones there. We made our way to the escalators. Remember we didn't have tickets. On getting to the exit, there the police were again we made as if we were going back downstairs- but there are no more trains for the day, it was 1.35 by the way and the policemen knew what was up so they called us, it was embarrassing.

I rooted in my handbag for a ticket, I have the one for buses, trams and the Metro but not the one for trains which was what I needed to exit. The guys in uniform let us through laughingly though and our friends said we were tourists in France for Valentine's day. How cheeky! but we got through.

My thoughts were, if they catch us, we are going to jail! I could literally see the headlines---- Nigerians attempt to get through the station without tickets! A la Mumutallab breaking News! And I saw my Dad's face. He called me when I was coming here not to go clubbing or anything like that 'cos exchange students are targets for robbery and worse. And I did the whole Yes Dad, of course not Dad thingy! Thank God there was no incident. We laughed about it all the way home. We walked again no buses or taxi in sight. Got home at 2.22am.

It was much fun. I can't remember ever breaking so many rules in a single day. Wouldn't be doing that again sha. I will wait for the ticket guy to show up and purchase mine like a good citizen before venturing anywhere. All that sleuth-like business is not my thing! Have a fab week people.