Oh yeah.....school.

Right. School. The whole reason I am here in the first place, well sort of.

So its January 7th and it is my first day of school. Not only do I feel like its the first day of school, but I feel like it is the first day of Grade 1. The whole, new school, new friends, new city. Everything. I wasn't nervous but incredibly excited. Who are my friends gonna be? Where is everybody going to be from? So many questions.

So the day before, I set off on the adventure to find my school. I was informed Valenciennes was the stop off the metro. Perfect. I'll get right on that. So I get off and now what? No signs, nada. Right, I'll just keep walking and hope someone knows the street Im looking for. I asked for directions and said to turn left and keep going. Oh I kept going all right, and no sign of my school. God streets are long over here. I walk into a university and ask where "Sciences Po Lille" is; my university. I was told it was back the way I came.....all the way at the end of the street.

I am thinking no way. I must have passed it. You fool. So I walk and walk, and about 20 minutes later MY SCHOOL. Amazing. How did i miss it though? Right, cute little couple sent me left and I should have gone right. No biggie, got the whole tour of the street.

Inside, my school is a gorgeous mix of bright colours. My favorite. Green, Red, Orange, Yellow. Yes, yes yes. This school has my name written all over it. Minus the political part. But I'll get to that later. So I find the room that we are supposed to meet in the next day and I'm off to the races. Now I have to find the metro again. I am literally at the end of the street so I turn right, and look what it is....the freaking metro. I have been walking for an hour, when literally my school is a minute from the metro. Awesome.

So back to my first day, I found the school no problem, clearly since its a 20 second walk. And up to the room. Walk through the door and see three other people sitting there. I introduce myself and sit down. I now know I was sitting with Nicoline from Denmark, Luca from Italy, and Peter from Sweden. Next in was Ilzcally from California and on they came.

Then entered the man of the hour: Guillaume. He is the one we received hundreds of emails from before coming, and was the man that had all the answers. Turns out he is hilarious. He has a ponytail on the top of his head and can speak English, French, Italian and a bit of spanish. Damn. We decided we will all marry someone with a ponytail on the top of their head.

So he took us through the basics of how school is gonna go, how classes will work and how we have to get things done. Now one thing you need to realize about the French is that nothing is done electronically. You go in and ask for a bank account, they will mail you letters and until you receive those letters you do not have access to your bank account. You pay for health insurance and they will mail you the card, until you have that card, there is no insurance. You want a discount VIVA card for the metro, you apply, send it in and wait for the letter to come in the mail. Nothing is done instantly. It's unbelievable. And nothing is just one letter, you have to wait for two or three to come. Insane.

So that afternoon we had to set up our banking. I learned that your prenom is your first name, and name is your last name. My banking said I was Eaton, Sarah. Super. Good one Sar.

That night we went to a bar called the Drugstore. Nice. Classy name. Its like a 70s little place with cheap drinks. Stella is 2.60 EUR for a glass. Amen for non imported beers. Yessss. This is also the night Paddy and I created "THE LIST". A list of things we wanted to do in the next 6 months; some appropriate, some not.

The rest of the weekend became a blur with going out to a nightclub called Latina, that played spanish music and we had a blast. We danced our butts off, and because we are in Europe, these places close at 6am. My feet are still hating me.

The other thing to note is that.....weekends do not exist. Monday-Sunday you party, everynight is a bar night and everynight we have wine. I have been here for four weeks, and I can honestly say there has been one night where I didnt have wine (I was sick). Amazing. And wine is so CHEAP. Its 1.50 EUR for a bottle, some are buy one get one free. Okay. No wonder everyone here drinks wine from a young age.

Then came that Monday evening we went to Led Zeppelin (great name btw). Paddy (my new bff from the USA...but she is German = amazing combo) and I saw "a meter of beer" on the menu. 20 euros, but a meter. We're thinking maybe they mean a litre? Who knows, but "let's go for it". Worst. Words. Ever. We ordered a meter alright....each....and when we ordered at the bar and said a meter, the bartender put her hands out horizontally, literally as a meter. Oh boy. What did we get ourselves into?

That's when the good ol Heineken 10 cup horizontal meter came out. We had each just ordered 10 beers of Heineken. Amazingly dangerous. We each brought our meter back to the table with people staring at us in wonder and sat down. It became Canada vs Germany in the meter beer race, and Canada knew she was gonna lose.

Shockingly enough we made a ton of friends, and were known by everyone as the girls who drank the meter beer. A night to remember alright, and this was Paddy's first sleepover. I clearly lost the meter race, and Germany had to take care of Canada, but memory wise that night will be up there for years to come.

That night, we added and checked off a meter beer race to the list. A night that went down in history.