It Was Eric Idle Who Once Sang...

Ladies and gentlemen, the impossible has happened! Nope, I am still being recognised as English and no, it's nothing to do with my face, but I am smiling! Boys and girls gather round, for I am being POSITIVE! In a scheme I am calling "Eh, that's France!" I have decided to brush all the weariness away! Fell asleep on a boat? Eh, that's France! Confessed that actually, Grease is your favourite movie ever? Eh, that's France! Eaten cheese with maggots in? Eh? That doesn't sound right, let me just Google...nope, it's right! THAT'S FRANCE!

I've been more built up today, like I know something is just around the corner. Usually a cyclist shouting obscenities as I bop about the city like a small child. 

Maybe it's the E numbers in my bolognaise crisps (as good as they sound) but things are looking up!  Let me tell you, InterPals, when you're lying in a dingy hostel bed at 8am, stuck to your pyjamas because it's so hot outside, listening to a group of French people squabble on the street and you think "Is this what my life was meant to be like?" that's when it turns around! If you're not there yet and you can still afford coffee, I envy you. I am the proverbial phoenix rising coughing and spluttering from the ashes to begin again! I don't know whether it was the incessant "ta geule!"s I heard from the window this morning, the fact that I ate grapes for dinner last night or the fact that I think I have said the sentence "Avez vous le WiFi?" more times than I care to imagine, but I feel triggered to go out there and carpe the ever loving hell out of the diem.
To the cyclist who shouted "JOLIE!" as I skipped merrily to the tram this morning, thank you, but je ne suis pas interessée! The lady glaring at my bare legs in shorts yesterday; I AM NOT SORRY! And to the man who sold my aunt some cheese with maggots in - WELL...that's still not right, dude. 
I have decided to overlook the fact that France - in terms of technology - lives in the dark ages, and I have crowned myself QUEEN OF THE STONE AGE. No 3G? No problem, I'll just live in McDonalds connecting to the free WiFi, inconspicuously eating les pommes frites every now and again! No internet connection of my own? That's cool, it's about time I met the neighbours! Though the whole "NO NETFLIX" thing does baffle me...
I will admit, somewhat embarrassingly, that I didn't take to this whole "year abroad" malarkey quite like everyone else. I was a nervous wreck, sobbing in quite the unladylike manner into a hoodie as my mum bid her adieu the other day. Wobbly and very hungry, I just started to meekly make my way about, figuring out where I'm going and when, setting myself little targets for uni and trying (really, Mum!) to speak French and not get caught out as a Brit. Now I finally have my own place (guided tour and gift shop hours TBC) I feel more settled and ready to make this work. I'm off to my favourite place in the world tomorrow, Ikea, so I'll be picking up some tres Francais bits and bobs to make myself feel more at home. 
I'm sure you're all over the moon to not hear me complain for once, and I am too. So until next time, French Friends...