The Adventures of April Part 2

SEE POST BELOW FOR PART 1

So I arrived back in Lille by train from Paris Monday after I saw my mom and sister off at the airport. I did feel kind of lonesome hanging around by myself waiting for the train, but felt more and more comfortable the closer the train got to Lille and by the time I arrived felt pretty much back to normal.  Having Deirdre and Mum in France feels like this sweet but unreal dream.

But life has continued and I've done my best to hold on tight as it does it's best to wear me into the ground.  I just don't understand how I am ALWAYS SO BUSY.  I don't understand how some people can pass entire afternoons where they just sit in bed and watch netflix... I'd LOVE to do that but can only estimate having that much free time in my life to be approximately 6 months from now.

But I'm still having an amazing time! It was so great to be back at school Tuesday to see my friends, although I didn't miss school very much.  There were lots of hugs and even more bisous when I saw mes copines.  Also lots of screaming and laughing and speed talking as we tried to catch up on eachothers' lives for the past 2 weeks.  Then classes began and I found myself back in routine as per usual.  Valentine and Mathieu bought ANOTHER new bike while I was gone (can you believe the positivity and faith of these people) with an even thicker lock chain, and have informed me I can use it to ride to school but they'd prefer if I didn't go anywhere else too adventurous with it.  I nearly got whiplash from the force of my whole-hearted nodding in agreement.

Wednesday night I went to a Sticky Fingers concert at El Diablo! Ian, Ana, Martin, Troy,  Embla, Veronica, Paco, Clancy, Sam and I met up in Lille Wednesday evening and walked to the kind of sketchy run down old back street where the concert was.  It was this tiny venue that was clearly somewhere that only ran punk rock kind of gigs, but it was so cool.  Not to mention how chill it was.  They're a cool Australian band and the band members came out for a chill and smoke before they performed.  No big deal or anything but we shook their hands and had casual conversation with them on the side of the street before they started playing.  They were super laid back and easy to talk to, and their gig was so much fun.  It was tiny!  We could have stepped up onto the stage and danced with them as they played.  When they were done playing there was more socializing and then Valentine came to pick me up because sadly... I had school the next morning and couldn't spend the whole night talking my way in to being in the band.

Ian, Vero,  Mr. Australian Lead Singer, and Mr. Australian Long Haired Ginger Bearded Bass Player outside of El Diablo

Thursday I got to miss almost an ENTIRE day of school! YESS!!! Marion texted me Wednesday afternoon to invite me to lend my face to some French makeup artist students for testing... sounds scary I know but I mean I MISSED SCHOOL. So obviously I said yes.  The dealio is that Marion's older cousin is studying fashion and styling at a school in Roubaix.  She's coming to the end of her last year and the final project is to design and create 8 outfits from your fashion line.  So she designs the clothes, makes them, finds models, and there's a year end fashion show and photoshoot and everything.  I got to visit the school and sit in on a class and felt like I was sitting in the biggest of French cliches.  Beautiful and stylish French girls were sitting along two long tables with beautiful pieces of fabric scattered around working on their projects, a scary looking French woman with questionable style sitting at the front of the room (the prof) speaking and occasionally yelling at whatever student she was helping, and all of it happening in a high ceilinged, classic white room that makes you feel like you're sitting in a scene from some French indie movie.  So anyway, most of the fashion students partner with makeup artist students at a school in Lille so that they have semi-professional makeup done for their models that looks good and works with their project.  And in the meantime the makeup artist students get the chance to showcase their talent and their capabilities to their teachers.  The french call it a binome, it's a beautiful win-win situation.  So Marion and I visited Clotilde (that's her cousin)'s school really quick, grabbed some lunch, and went with Clotilde's fellow classmate Charlotte into Lille on the metro.  We arrived at the makeup school and I felt like I walked onto the set of America's Next Top Model.  First off, beautiful and/or uber stylish-to-the-point-of-ugly-but-still-stylish people were everywhere.  And the room had brick walls and was filled with rows of those big mirrors lined with floodlights that all stars sit at to get their makeup done.  Marion was being Clotilde's model and got whisked away pretty quick, so I, being Charlotte's went and met the makeup artist and got sat down.  And from then on was simply "the model" with no other role than to sit there as they smacked makeup onto my face.  It was weird because the profs would come and go and comment and critique.  At one point there were at least 5 or 6 French people crowded around my mirror giving their opinions on what I looked like.  It was a weird feeling! Charlotte's fashion line is very soft and pastel-y with big flower prints, and she wants her models to have natural and wispy straight hair (so they did nothing to mine...) and very nude and natural faces... almost to the point of looking dead.  Look at how I ended up.

Marion getting her hair done

sorry for the lack of smiling but honestly... that made it scarier

AS YOU CAN SEE I had a little bit more of a sombre result than Marion who ended up looking like a gorgeous French runway queen.  But it was pretty funny.  Plus it was so cool watching all the other makeup get done, and the range in variety! It made me so badly want to go to the year end show to see how all the different projects end up.

The last cool thing that happened this week was going to my friend Marion's, who I met through Louise, 18th birthday party in her grandparents giant country mansion.  (Different Marion by the way!) Basically her grandparents have this HUGE house and property out in the countryside that they lived in alone until they passed away.  Since it's so big, it costs way too much to be redone, so no one wants to buy it.  So Marion's family go every once and a while for a weekend in the spring/summer but for the most part it stays empty and unused... until Marion or her brother decide they want to have a party and invite 20 of their friends out to stay the night.... like last night.  There were about 20 or so of us French teenagers who had this giant mansion to ourselves. It was buttloads of fun.

Louise and I <3333

THE mansion.

Now it's late on a Sunday and after I post this I'm probably going to bed.  Back to school for one week starting tomorrow before there's a 2 week vacation HALLELUJAH! Then only 7 weeks left in France once vaycay is over... trying not to think about it...

Well anyway you're all caught up on my life if you've made it this far folks.
Bisous and until next time xx