Going for Christmas!!!

Well, it was my the last day at work before the Christmas break. I get the week between Christmas and New Year off which, while it's not a lot, I am looking forward to and could really do with.
Today went much like yesterday; I ended up waiting around for my boss to give me some information before I could complete what I needed to do. From talking to a couple of people at work earlier I think not answering emails and not responding to questions is definitely a French thing. I had to ask my boss to phone someone to ask them to update part of a presentation as I'd had no response from him despite several emails and phone calls.
Unfortunately I left at about 7:00pm so had a bit of a rush to try and finish my Christmas shopping. They don't seem to have the same conventions about late night openings (which was annoying) so I ended up going to the Champs Elysee. I'm afraid to say, the Champs Elysee doesn't live up to it's reputation. There's not much of anything there really. There are some car showrooms, some hotels, a few restaurants, and a few shops but it's not all expensive boutiques. I think it's all the lights everywhere that makes people think it's some magical road where you can find culture if you stop for a coffee there.
I was hoping to write a sort of review of how things have gone so far but it's 2:25am, I've just finished wrapping presents and I have to get up early to catch the train tomorrow.
I'm really looking forward to going to our house for Christmas (it's still in France; about 40 minutes drive to the east of Poitiers) as I haven't seen my parents for about 3 months now. i'm hoping to go home again early in the New Year but I'm not sure when yet.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.

-A-

Shit happens!

Well, it happened. I'd hoped to manage to last my stay in France without this event occurring. I guess it was inevitable really, I mean, after all, France is famous for it.
Yes, that's right, I stepped in some dog poo on my way out of the office.


I'm hoping to get off early tomorrow so I can finish my Christmas shopping. It should be ok as I had to stay late tonight.

Last week and the start of the last week

As you can see, it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post. I never meant to leave it this long but it's been really hectic and at the moment I just want to relax when I get in.
At the start of next year there is an IS Convention which I've been helping with some of the organisation of. There will be demonstrations, guest speakers and there's a short video being shown at the start (which was shot last Tuesday).
There are several things I've learnt at work. People take forever to respond, people don't read their emails, and people don't give out information unless asked.
I would've thought that when people see something like "Confirmation needed regarding IS Convention" in the title, and they are doing a demonstration, they would be fairly quick to respond. But no. "Can you confirm you will be attending the filming of the video to be shown at the start of the convention?". Apparently not.
The filming of the video went well. I wasn't there when they were making the clips as it was throughout the day, and the same day as a big meeting we have once a month for which I have to take the minutes and show the presentations.
I'm always quite surprised about the meetings. Mobile phones are left on, not on silent mode, and often on the table where they rattle when they ring. Often people answer their phone in the middle of a presentation and it's not unusual to see some walk out. They good thing about the meeting is there's always a good meal!
Tuesday was quite a good day (for food), despite being busy. there was a "Cocktail" in the evening after the meeting as some people are leaving at the end of the month. The cocktail consisted of a short speech by my boss, champagne and nibbles. I saw some people reveal their true opinions (among friends) about individuals after most people had left.
After that, I went to see some friends where they had cooked a load of curries (delicious!). It was good to be able to relax and chat (in English).

Monday I had left work after 12:30 (midnight) as I stayed to help my friend with something. We still didn't manage to complete it but we at least made some progress.

The Friday before last I went out to a really good bar on the Champs Elysee. I'm always worried that it's going to cost a fortune to go there but this place was brilliant. It's called "Culture bière" and, unsurprisingly, specialises in beer. It cost 8€ for a 75cl bottle of beer (wine bottle size)! Ok, not great compared to uni, but compared to 9€ for a pint, it's pretty good.

I started Christmas shopping on Saturday and, I'm afraid to say, Paris is rubbish for Christmas shopping. Perhaps I just don't know where to go but unless you want clothes or food you're pretty stuck for places to get ideas. The FNAC is great for a lot of things (think WH Smith's on steroids: massive selections of music, books, games, DVD's and electricals) but sometimes it's handy to have a Woolworths nearby.
Yesterday I went for a Pizza with a couple of friends from work (which was good as I need to do more socially with French people, at the moment I tend to go out with English people) having spent the day walking round Paris.

I'm going to our house near Poitiers on Friday for Christmas and then coming back on the 29th for New Year (finally found some people to spend it with! I was a bit worried as nearly all my friends will be at home over New Year) so I'll try and write something else before I go. There's still loads to do at work (I've been given translations to do last week and today so I'm not as far through the other stuff as I would've liked.) and I still haven't finished my Christmas shopping.

Anyhow, better go to bed or else I'll never get up tomorrow.

Nothing like a bit of gangster rap to put you in the Christmas spirit

There are several things I look forward to at Christmas. These include time with family and friends, presents, going slightly over the top decorating my room and, surprisingly, hearing the same Christmas songs played in all the shops. These songs include "I wish it could be Christmas every day", "Merry Christmas (War is Over)", and all the others. They don't seem to have many/any Christmas songs here. I've been told there's one that's well known but I haven't heard it yet. On my way past the Christmas market last night, I did however hear, what I will call "gangster rap" (ok, so there was a beat and no tune but I definitely heard the word "gangster" in the lyrics).
I was given an Asterix calendar by my friend at work and there are plenty of lights about but I get the impression that they're just up "because it's Christmas". There's no real atmosphere.
On Saturday I went round some of the Christmas markets. The one at La Defense is pretty big and the stuff they're selling isn't bad but at the other 2 markets I went to they were selling almost exactly the same things. Still I had a good time and it was good to get to know a couple of the people I met the other Friday night.
I had been invited to go to Strasbourg at the weekend but hadn't got round to booking the ticket (and had run out of money before the weekend) but I was told it was very good so I'll have to try and go another year.
I've bought a disposable camera so as soon as I've had it developed I'll put some pictures up. I'm still trying to get my digital camera fixed so be warned, once it works I'll be putting lots of pictures up.
I can't really remember what I did last week but things are getting very busy at work with organising the convention for the new year. I'm already tired and it's only Tuesday.