Celebrations…

Well fasting’s over, and last night we
celebrated by…working. Oh well. It was a really fun night though, and
much humour was seen in and around the Vieux Manoir (sca)bar until the
early hours today.
We all ended up sleeping at George the whining
Irish’s place until around 11am when Joss and I caught the tram
home…quite tired. I thought that I was going to feel absolutely
horrendous, as I did have a couple of beers and some Kahlua, but this
morning I didn’t feel so bad at all. PMA my children…

The End Is Nigh…

Well Ramadan finishes tomorrow…the end
of fasting, the beginning of Eid celebrations etc. In some respects it
seems like just yesterday that I was beginning the fast…but when I
concentrate it seems like a very, very long month.
Perhaps it’s the
fact that I have never, since the age of, I estimate, 16 years old,
gone without alcohol for a month. Perhaps it’s that I didn’t have
anyone *really* who I was doing it with for support. Or perhaps it’s
that I’ve never done anything of this magnitude (days wise) and
actually completed it before.
It was very interesting, both from a
‘makes you think’ angle and a ‘self discipline’ angle…I thought I
would Lose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exercise more Lose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exercise-weight-Lose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exercise (perhaps i’m already at critical mass), and I
thought I would suffer from more fatigue which hasn’t materialised
(thankfully)…Overall, I would recommend doing this sort of activity
to everybody…maybe just for one or two days…just to see what it
feels like at 4pm when you are *so* hungry and know there’s an
agonizing 60 minutes before you can eat. It makes you think, and
appreciate simple pleasures a whole lot more.

I also realised that I haven’t had any sexual relations for the month either. Honestly. Damn. It’s bad being good.

Yo

Hmmm I don’t think there’s much news (which probably means
I’ll end up writing loads)…Just finished work and am now home in bed
eating cheese strings (thanks Marlini) and a brie sandwich (thanks
Géant) and drinking tea (thanks Tetley). Not drinking FUCKS YOU UP…it
turns you into a boring, lifeless, no-partying Lose Weight Exercise/”>Lose Weight Exerciser (i’m only half
joking). Not really, but still it’s annoying when your friends are all
going out and seem to genuinely want you to come and you respond ‘Yeah,
of course!’ when you know you have no intention of actually going. It’s
really fake. At the moment my idea of relaxing is in bed rather than at
a club or bar…it’s a different culture…Do I prefer it? I don’t
know…I don’t think so…

Going rock climbing tomorrow…that’ll be interesting (because I’ve
seen worms with more upper-body strength than me). Oh well…We’re
going with the Swedish climbing group which should be interesting to
say the least…

Other News

Hmm…what else…Ramadan is now in full swing and
I’m quite used to it now…it’s a bit strange because not eating
becomes less of an issue the longer it continues…now instead of
thinking (for example) that it’s time for lunch, I think that it’s time
to *do* something…One of my major problems is that in France the
shops take massive lunch breaks so I can’t check out the town while
everyone else is eating.

I’ve made friends with two girls from my Italian class which is pretty
sweet…One’s French but North African, the other is French but is
actually half Spanish, quarter French, eighth Italian and an eighth
Egyptian! Cool mixture. Last night we were in this girl’s room when the
French equivalent of Going For Gold was on telly so we had to
watch…some things are just top quality in any language…

Ok i’m off, look after your pets because it’s christmas soon…

Knackered

So it’s still Ramadan but I have encountered a new problem…well two problems, one old and one new.
The
old one is that I find it very difficult (read: impossible) to wake up
at 6am to eat…and even if I could wake up then I couldn’t eat anything
anyway because I just feel sick. The second problem is that now I have
given up drinking and smoking I find it VERY difficult to sleep…last
night I lay awake until 5am unable to sleep and being annoyed about not
being able to sleep. Oh well, I’ll have to find some other nocturnal
activities (which don’t infringe on any other Ramadan rules!)…

News? Well I have had two exams this week…one in translation class
(English to French) and I just finished one in grammar class (French
grammar). They weren’t very hard. I have come to realise that it’s not
so hard being an Erasmus student (he he he).

We might go snowboarding on Sunday for the first time. Sweet. We have to rent the stuff first though, but it should be cool.

Regarding the girl I kissed last Thursday…kinda funny…she shares a
class with the semi-crazy Italian girl and she’s been getting a number
of evil glares from her, and on Saturday night she called her a bitch
in a bar….Now I know I shouldn’t laugh but this kind of thing has
never happened to me before so I am allowed to be a little amused (even
though I wish it weren’t the case). We’ll see what goes down. Oh yeah
the Mexican chickita split up with her boyfriend. He he he.

I bought an expresso machine!!! It did cost a lot (40 quid) but it does
have a cappucino attachment and a regular coffee percolator. Cool!!!

For all of the people in the world who know Marlini (the majority I
think) she’s coming to visit on the 30th so if you have any gifts for
me (OH COME ON PEOPLE!!!) then give them to her so that she gets
stopped at customs…It’d be funny, admit it…

Ramadan

Yo today is the first day of Ramadan! I hope
everyone who’s participating hasn’t been tempted by a cup of tea and a
sandwich yet…but seriously for a second (ha!) good luck to
everyone…especially the Malaysian Congregation from Warwick (this
year and last year).

And Novia – If I had stopped smoking, drinking and eating on the same day…I would have died.