Pâques, coupes de cheveux et la famille...

This post is a little out of the norm - this is a year abroad blog, after all, and I'm not abroad right now - it was for that reason that I didn't bother to post when I was home for Christmas or anything like that. But I feel like sharing, so a post is going up anyway :)

For the first time in a little over three months, I'm home and back with my family, which is really just so very lovely, because in all honesty I was getting to the stage where I was about to tip into full mental breakdown if I didn't have a break of some description! And obviously, I missed them and my friends.

Next time I'm in the UK, my time in Paris will be over ...

I've already been here a week! I had an early morning flight out of Orly last Saturday morning, which was just perfect really because I was home and cup of tea in hand by 11am. Downside - I had an exam until 10pm the night before which did mean I was pretty tired, but luckily, getting to go home offset my rubbish sleep deprived mood haha. 

What have I been doing now I'm here? The biggest thing would have to be my haircut - a few weeks back, I decided to donate my hair to the Little Princess Trust - http://www.littleprincesses.org.uk/ - they're a charity who provide real hair wigs, free of charge, to children across the UK who have lost their hair as a result of chemotherapy. Anyone who watched Comic Relief last year might remember that Jessie J had her head shaved - she donated her hair to the same charity.

This was actually a pretty big deal for me, because as anyone who knows me could tell you, I'm pretty attached to my long hair, and whenever I go to the hairdresser, cutting my locks short simply wasn't an option.

Nu-uh, no way josé.

But then I saw a video on YouTube of someone else who had decided to do it, and I googled the charity...

Fact is, when I was seven, and even now for that matter, I know that if I were to lose my hair for whatever reason, I'd be utterly devastated. I thought about it - a lot. Long story short: as my hair is [was] very long, I had plenty of it to go around. My hair also grows faster than anybody's, so it's not even like my hair will be that short for long.

So - I talked myself into it and decided to share the hair love. I got the chop. Here's the before, during and after:

My hair has not been this short since I was about 3 years old - seriously - so it would have been pretty devastating if I hadn't liked it. Luckily, I actually don't mind my short new do, although I already know that I'm going to grow it long again. I prefer it that way, and there's a lot more you can do with long hair than short. I've also realised, since I washed it for the first time, that short hair actually takes work. I thought it would be more manageable now, but nope!  

Still, never mind - that's my good deed of the month taken care of and I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Easter Sunday is tomorrow [Happy Easter, if you celebrate it] and the rest of my time at home is going to be spent in the company of my textbooks [booooooooo] and my family - I've had a few lovely days out, at Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, and elsewhere too.

Yesterday, of course, was Good Friday. We were planning to go and see my Nan and Grandad in Essex but then my Dad had to have an operation so that was off the cards. Me, the mother and brother went to see my other Grandma for the day instead, and we also went to see the new Muppet Movie :P

And being Good Friday, I've obviously been scoffing lots of Hot Cross Buns. One of the best parts about being home is the lovely large quantity of food that I've missed while in Paris - and I'll be stocking up before I head back to France next Sunday!

Vicky xx

Joyeux Anniversaire, Parisa!

Salut, tout le monde.

I had a galop on Saturday, which [bleurgh] is better left undiscussed, and I have another one on Friday evening, but the time in between has been broken up rather nicely in my opinion, because today is my flatmate Parisa's 21st Birthday, and that obviously means celebration times [yay!]

Last night we went out to celebrate in a 'tribute-to-London' night out - basically, all the things Parisa misses about London. We were going to start out at the Sunken Chip on the Rue des Vinaigriers - because, obviously, Fish and Chips rule. But it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, boo! :( So that's somewhere I've added onto my 'to do' list.

Instead, we went to a restaurant near our apartment for a curry, which as everyone knows, might as well be Britain's national dish these days (behind, perhaps, fish and chips and a Sunday Roast).

It's called the Restaurant Buddha on the Rue St Hippolyte, and we got a lovely meal and really good service for a very reasonable price considering there was seven of us, so I actually really recommend that if anyone is on Paris and wants a curry!

After that we headed over to Le Tiki Lounge on Rue de la Fontaine au Roi, which was in tribute to Parisa's favourite London club, Mahiki.

The bar itself was a little hard to find - there's almost no evidence to tell what it is from the outside, and if you happen to he on the other side of the road, it's easy to miss (we did!)

Still, the Cocktails were pretty good, and not overly expensive either which was a bonus!

I'm a massive cocktail person myself - my own 21st birthday present from my parents was a set of beautiful cocktail glasses and a mixer set. So any night out involving cocktails of any kind is almost sure to be a hit with me!

We did the obligatory countdown to midnight and sang Happy Birthday to ring in Parisa's 21st properly :) and, despite being a touch hungover, I got up bright and early this morning to make a birthday cake. Anyway - Joyeux Anniversaire, Parisa!

Now, I just have to get my Obligations Galop out of the way on Friday evening, and then on Saturday I'm going home for Easter, which I'm seriously excited about seeing as I have not seen any of my family since January which is a touch too long for my liking! 

Just a few days to go now :)

Vicky xx

Décisions spontanées :)

When I posted last weekend, I had basically braced myself for another couple of boring weeks - exams will do that to you.

Still, in my experience, spontaneous decisions tend to be [touchwood] the best ones - I remember in my first year, my best friend and I went out for the night, and woke up the next morning to realise that we had bought tickets to see the Royal Ballet perform the Nutcracker, and that turned out to be a brilliant decision :)

Anyway, on Thursday afternoon I spotted an advert on Facebook that led to this decision...

Best thing about the @thirdyearabroad ? Spontaneous decisions. Harlequins v Stade Francais in Paris tomorrow night, just cos I can. :)
— Victoria Goodsell (@9victoriag) April 3, 2014

So on Friday evening after I'd finished classes for the day, me and a few others tootled over to the Stade Jean Bouin in the west of Paris for an evening of rugby.

I was umming and arring for a while about whether I was going to support the Quins or Stade Francais, seeing as my brother is a London Irish fan [which according to him, makes me one too by default], and Paris is, after all, my adopted home city. I ended up going with Quins, though, partly because they have a few England players on their team, including the Captain, Chris Robshaw, and partly because I thought they were more likely to win! Shameless, I know, but I was right - Harlequins won. The final score was 6-29.

Granted, it was not the best game of Rugby that I have ever seen - there were a few exciting moments of course - Harlequins got two tries, one of them by Mike Brown who was brilliant during the Six Nations. And also, there was one guy on the french team who kept dropping the ball, which actually ended up being quite entertaining because it happened at a few crucial moments. But really, it was quite a stop-and-start kind of match, which was a shame.

My flatmate Parisa emerged from the stadium declaring it to be 80 minutes of her life she'd never get back [although in all fairness, she's not really a rugby person in the first place, and I think it was all she could do not to wince every time one player tackled another!] Still, I am a Rugby person, and exciting game or no, I enjoyed it. And, as my brother says, the games that are the hardest to win are always the least interesting to watch.

Either way - in my opinion, a night spent out of my books and doing something other than revision, and in good company too, is nothing to whinge about.

À bientôt,

Vicky xx