Friends

Despite the cold I have been having quite a lot of fun lately. A few weeks ago I went to a nightclub with Alison and meet an Australian guy (Peter) there. It turns out he lives just around the corner from my place and we know a few people in common. I caught up with Peter again on Australia Day, when I went with a bunch of other Australian friends to CafeOz, an Australian bar in Paris which I usually avoid. They had a big party organised for Australia Day and we had a really fun night there.

Last weekend Peter had a cocktail party at his place which was heaps of fun, and afterwards the last few hangers on (Alison, VikiLee, Vicky (my hairdresser here who lives just across the road from Peter), Peter and myself) finished the night off in a bar in the latin quatier. On Tuesday night the same group (minus alison) had dinner at VikiLee's place. The four of us had heaps of fun, talking and laughing all night and ended up in the bar next door at 2am having vodka shots and long island iced teas. We plan to all get together again this saturday night and go out to a club.

I finally feel like I have a nice little group of friends. All of us are in our early 30's, live in the same area and are single (except for VikiLee). Although I have meet alot of people here and made some good friends I have really missed having a group to go out with. I have been really good friends with VikiLee and Alison for ages, and I have known Vicky for a long time too, so although this little group has formed just recently it feels a bit like old friends.

When I first came here I didn't want to have Australian friends - I wanted to make french friends. I do have a few french friends now, but in the end the best friends I have made are Australian, and while I still feel a little strange about that, I also realise it was unrealistic to think I could fit into French society so easily. It is such a closed culture and so different. Although Paris is packed with foreigners almost no french people have foreign friends. I don't think it is necessarily because the french don't like foreigners, it is just that they very rarely make new friends and their whole way of socialising is so different. All the french friends I do have here have lived overseas and have lost a bit of that really frenchness and have learnt to socialise in a different way.

So anyway, I feel more and more like i am settling in here, my french has improved and I feel much more comfortable with that now, my flat is great and I have a good group of friends. Now all I need is a visa so I can stay a little longer. My company is in the process of organising the paper work required to sponsor me, but it is harder than I first thought, and I have heard of a lot of Australians having their visa denied even with a company to sponsor them, so I just have to wait and see.