Day 7 - Trop bourrée (Too drunk)

A day off meant sleeping late and I didn't get out of bed until 1.30, it was great! I realised that the reason my new room was so bloody draughty is because I'd left the window open, so I have a bit of a cold now, eugh.

At first, I didn't know what to do with my day. Valerie was having a small get-together for her birthday, but I didn't think the invitation extended to me... The other plan that I had in mind was to walk to Lausanne, which is about 7km away. I'd also received an invitation on Couchsurfing last night to go to dinner at a guy called André's house, with his house mate and a French girl. Not one to pass up on friends, I had accepted his invite and told him to text me.

I caught up with David who was back from his business trip in California. When the family are all together, I never know how to behave on my days off. While they were having lunch, I kind of awkwardly sat in the living room and read. They invited me to eat with them, but I declined just because I thought more food would have to be made. When I went to make a cup of tea, Valerie told me I didn't have to escape from them and I should sit with them in the kitchen, so I did! The reason I'm so weird about it is because weekends are their time as a family. It's the same as the other families I've worked for. I'm their employee and I worry that I'm a spare part. When I au-paired in Germany, I had the same dilemma. When the children had gone to bed, I stayed in my room, or went to the pub alone; it got past the point where I could join the parents in the evenings and I regretted it after. So I don't want to do the same here, especially because I really like Valerie and David. But at the same time I don't want to get in their way during family time. They both work a lot so it's rare for them. But it was really sweet of them to invite me over. I sat with them and chatted until Valerie started setting up for the evening. At this point, I got a text off André and decided to leave the family to their party.

The weather had gone crazy - in the space of about 15 minutes, it went from cool and quite calm to thunderstorm, hailstorm and back to cloudy! I set off on my walk to Lausanne, but as I passed Villette train station, I checked to see the times. I only had to wait 10 minutes so I decided the train would be a better option... And it was, as it started pissing down with rain again soon after.

I took the metro from Lausanne to Grancy and found André's house without a problem. I'd given myself loads of time to walk/get lost, but the journey only took me half an hour so I was really early. Maybe I'm finally gaining the sense of direction I've been lacking for the last 22 years...

I was greeted at the door by Aurore, a fiery redhead who is completely crazy, obsessed with sex and an absolute star! I then met André and his house mate Jonathan. At first, it was pretty uncomfortable. A lot of French was being spoken, so I didn't really know what to do with myself other than try to understand and smile awkwardly when everyone laughed at a joke. I've hosted people from Couchsurfing a few times, and met up with people for drinks in other countries, but being in someone's house was new to me. It soon picked up though. We sat and talked, drank wine, listened to music and had Swiss cheese fondue, which was delicious! We drank two bottles of wine and then the gold Smirnoff came out and we played "I have never" - dangerous. By 9pm I was completely plastered. I don't really remember much of the rest of the night.

We went to a bar in Riponne called the Great Escape. I remember it being completely rammed, we danced... and that's all I recall. I hadn't intended on staying over night, but André and Jonathan said it wasn't a problem. I vaguely remember the taxi ride home, and the next thing I know, it's 10am the next morning! It was a fun night for my debut in the (Couch)surfing world!

*(No photos were taken unfortunately! The camera I have been lending off Zoe was being used tonight!)