Soirée A La Discothèque

SO.  Story time. I realize I'm jumping into it without my usual "blah blah blah, here's the story:" Forgive the discontinuity. Also forgive me for not bringing my camera, but I wasn't sure what environment I'd be in.  The last thing I would want is for my camera to get stolen or have any combination of drinks spilled on it, so I just left it at home.

I work with a woman named Fabienne, and we're pretty good buds.  She teaches K-2nd grade at Bernaudin.  Anyway she telling me that she had a daughter about my age who lives in the area, and if I didn't have much to do on the weekends she would tell her to contact me.  I told her I never had anything to do, so last week I got a text from Marion, Fabienne's daughter, inviting me to a soirée.

How cool is that?  This girl I'd never met, and who doesn't know me at all, invites me to a party with her and her friends.  I get all this undeserved attention for some reason.  Well, as it turns out, she spent a year in Germany and totally knows what it's like to be in a foreign country where you don't know anybody.  One of the nicest thing that's happened to me since I got here.

This Saturday, the 15th, was the big night, and I didn't do anything all day except be kinda nervous to meet new people.  Isabelle gave me a ride down to the cinéma to meet up with Marion around 6, and I was there a little early so I sat down and waited.

There were three other girls standing on the other side of the cinéma talking amongst themselves who looked kinda sketch, but I try not to judge and I didn't know what Marion looked like so it very well could've been her.  Maybe two minutes after I sat down one of the girls came up to me and asked me what my name was and told me I was cute.  I was very flattered, but I was also very, very uninterested (to put it politely).  Thankfully, it wasn't Marion.  I entertained them for a few minutes while I waited, and she asked for me phone number.  I gave her the right one, but I'm changing back to my phone as soon as I get my bank credit card so I'm not sure how long that friendship will last...

Eventually the three girls left, and a couple minutes later I saw a girl standing a little ways from where the other girls were and we kindof had that eye contact where it was like, I think you're that person I'm supposed to meet here...?  I was very much reminded of when I got off the plane in Lyon, looking for Isabelle and Anouk.  Anyway it was definitely Marion, and we did the whole bise thing (the kiss on the cheeks) and we were officially acquainted!

Quick lesson on meeting people, even though I've been over this before.  When you walk into a room of people, like at a party, you say hello to EVERYONE.  For girls you do la bise, and for guys you shake their hand.  Short and sweet, but it's no man left behind. Also, depending on the region, you can kiss like 2-4 times, switching sides every time.  In my region we only do it twice, once on each side.  I think in Grenoble it's three times, because I met a girl who's from there and she did it three times and was like, "oh yeah, it's only two here."  In French though. Obvi.

On to the party.  Marion and I met up with her friend Alexandre, who brought his friend Morgane, the girl from Grenoble.  Alex is from a small town outside Valence, which is like 20 minutes away by car.

Quick antidote.  He told me about this tradition in small towns in Ardèche (remember the lesson on geography), where, around the age of 18, the guys form a 'conscrit' (basically a a group) with those who were born in the same year as them.  On the first weekend in May, they basically go caroling from door to door until someone invites them in for drinks.  They drink and sing and when the conscrit leaves, the family who invited them in gives them all money.  Then the conscrit goes on to the next house that will invite them in, where they'll drink and sing and get paid and leave and keep doing it until they're pretty much plastered.  This group of guys sticks together throughout the next 2 years doing the same thing on the first weekend in May, and then after the second year they take all the money they saved up from going door to door and they all go on an extensive vacation during the summer.  It's so cool!

So anyway, Marion, Morgane, Alex and I all drove up to St. Étienne to go to Marion and Alex's friend's apartment.  We met five other guys there: Romain (who owned the place), Morgan (a boy - no "e" at the end), Mikel, Vivian (also a guy), and Sébastien.  Then Romanne (a girl - notice the "e" at the end), Christopher, and his girlfriend Meghan showed up a little later.

We all sat around in the living room, eating pizza, chips, and drinking.  I stuck with the multi-fruit purée juice. So good.  Even though the first thing most people learn about me here is that I don't drink, they respect it and are always hospitable. I got to chat with most everyone, and we were all having a good time.  A couple hours later, maybe around midnight, I was starting to feel the tired.  Pretty thick actually.  I was probably crashing from the liter of sugary fruit juice I had just consumed, and I noticed some other people were starting to slouch in their chairs and on the couch.  Unfortunately, in France, when you're starting to get tired at a party that only means one thing: time to go dance.

Roman, the host, rallied everyone together and ushered us out the door into the street to go to a club that was nearby.  At first the bouncer wasn't going to let us in because there were too many guys and he could tell they had been drinking, but they told him that I had come all the way from America just to go clubbing, and he thought that was funny so he let us in.  There was no one inside.

In France there are little discothèques with a bar and a smallish area to dance in, and then some benches with little tables to drink at.  The DJ's at these places usually just play classic French and American tunes (I heard Michael Jackson, AC DC, and Prince) instead of heavy techno stuff, where you would have to go to a much bigger club to find.  So for the next three and half hours we were at this little club in St. Étienne dancing and taking lots of pictures and just having fun.

 On the walk back home Alex and I talked about the difference between clubs in the States and the kind of music we listen to.  He was pleasantly surprised that I'd heard of Daft Punk and David Guetta, because the last American he met only listened to country haha.

By the time we got back and were ready for bed, Meghan's boyfriend was missing, so we all stayed up and waited for Alex and Romain as they went out looking for him.  He came in on his own like 20 minutes later, and then we waited for Alex and Roman to get back.  Meghan was pretty pissed about Christopher being gone and they got into this big argument, and I'm pretty sure they broke up.

The moral of the story is that if you wanna party with the French, don't plan on going to sleep until around 5 a.m.

We woke up around 9:30 and were on our way back to Annonay around 10, and as soon as I got back I went to sleep.  Now I'm waiting for Isabelle to get home so she can take me to meet with an unidentified character to make the two hour trip to Grenoble, where I'll meet up with Morgane and her roommates so I have a place to stay for the night.  That way I don't have to get up at 6 in the morning tomorrow and take a bus for 4 hours and hopefully make it to the training center by 10h30 (that's how they do time, by the way), which is when we're supposed to start.

Big couple of days ahead of me.  Look forward to lots of pictures!