From France with Love

I sit at the laptop typing this under severely stressed conditions:

1. I've not gotten enough sleep. It's 7am-ish and I slept at 3am-ish. Why? Coz I was at a party at this house that everyone here in the Fonty campus calls Shangri-la. If you've seen it, it's more like Shag-lah.

2. What's Fonty? Oh. It's short for Fontainebleau. I've switched campuses - gone over to the French side to 'experience' the life here and to meet the folks here and my, they really are a rather different crowd. The people party in a house or chateau instead of at a club. It also feels kind of grungy and DIY, but I'm not complaining about the drinks.

3. Yes, the drinks. So I drank a bit. There was some powerful stuff in a small cup, some bottle that I swigged from (hmm.... it tasted sweet), I distinctly recalled Smirnoff Ice, and various liquids of indeterminate quantity. So the problem was that halfway between being high and getting drunk, I realised that I was designated driver...

4. By which time, the folks I was supposed to drive home had pretty much abandoned me at Shangri-La. Hey, it's 2am and waaaaaay past our bedtime, so they say. Ptui!!! So anyway, I finally decided to head home, and this girl who copped a ride off me decided to cop a ride with someone else (Pissed... tell me lah! I was waiting for you like an idiot... Curses upon you and I hope you had bad sex with him!). Still, I had to send someone home...

5. Right, when you think about it, you're driving through the forests of Fontainebleau (Shangri-La is in a quaint little town called Forges which meant miles of driving through the forests), high, with someone's life in your hands (in the passenger seat actually) and she's still sober and begging for you to slow down (I was doing 90kmh most of the way and that usually means slow-coach here). How on earth did I make it home???

6. And now? Still pissed, still sloshed and I have to drive again to... guess what? Go wine-tasting somewhere south (where I've never been).

Life's a big adventure eh? Let's hope it doesn't kill.