International Bingo: The Final Score

As my faithful readers may recall, at the beginning of my exchange, my friend Chantal gave me an International Bingo card to complete. I'm going to go through each one and include a picture or link to a post about what I did. Otherwise, I'll just write "to be continued..." because I don't like giving up!

1. Eat escargot: To be continued... (Not making a great start here).
2. Go dancing: I wrote this into one of the blank spaces Chantal gave me and I thought it would be really easy, but I'm actually really glad I wrote this one because it encouraged me to take it to the next level and get involved with the Club Rock on campus. I wrote an initial post about joining the group here. It turned out to be an opportunity for me to make great friendships, learn new styles of dance, go out for soirées just to dance...

...to perform in front of the ENS student body at a gala...

...and to volunteer at an international dance competition. My dance instructor at the ENS was ranked second in the world for ballroom dancing (and she was crazy modest and awesome) and my whole experience has encouraged me to take up Swing Dancing as soon as I can. Getting involved with the Club Rock was one of the best decisions I made during my exchange and it wouldn't've been the same without my partner in crime (and my occasional dance partner when there weren't enough guys), Hattie Bowen.

3. Kiss a Scotsman: Bonus points for being creative?

4. See a French film without subtitles: Les Demoiselles de Rochefort and L'ensemble, c'est tout.

5. Participate in a protest/demonstration: I went above and beyond here. My first "demonstration" was in support of gay marriage in France, and it succeeded! (Check it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22261494) and my second demonstration I accidentally stumbled upon while I was in Lisbon which was protesting austerity measures imposed by the EU, as seen below.

6. Indulge repeatedly in amazing food: I wrote this blogpost for this one, but if I'm honest, my blog is practically a food blog. So much good food!!!
7. See some less popular sights: I'm sure I saw many. The one that stands out as less popular and incredibly unusual was the sculpture park in Oslo, Norway. Talk about a sculptor with repressed sexuality.

8. French-kiss a Frenchman: All this nonsense about finding European boyfriends and I couldn't even manage this one! I guess we'll classify this as "To be continued..."
9. Eat an éclair: I wrote a whole post about this one here.

10. Take a pastry class: While I didn't take a pastry class, I did receive a French pastry book as a present from Claudia for my birthday. I'm going to say it counts.

11. Kiss an Irishman: "To be continued..."
12. Explore Lyon: Well, I spent as much time as I could roaming around Lyon, and was even confident giving tours by the end of it. Here are two posts that I wrote about my adventures getting to know the city:
http://traveltessa.blogspot.fr/2012/09/lyon-partie-1.html
http://traveltessa.blogspot.fr/2012/09/lyon-part-2.html

13. FREE!!!!
14. Find an Amazing Handsome Guy for Chantal: I sent Chantal many pictures of eligible candidates, but she didn't seem to be interested in them. I can't understand why...

Maybe because they are both married... but what about this guy?

Too hairy? Last chance:

What's that? Soccer players cry too much? Alright, I give up.

15. Go wine tasting: Did a little wine tasting in Porto. And with just about every dinner.

16. Get good grades: It depends when you met me, I guess, whether or not this will surprise you, but I did really well in my classes. My friends from home will say, "Like this even needed to be on here!" except maybe Brittney who knows that when you go on exchange, other things seem much more important than school. My friends who met me during my time at ENS can attest to that! In any case, I got the credits that I needed to finish my Bachelor of Arts (my licence, the French equivalent) and I will be starting Teachers' College in the Fall. That will be an adjustment.
17. Make an International friend: I made a few... and I hosted most of them at my Thanksgiving dinner in October.

18. Make friends with a local: I made a lot of French friends through the Club Rock and even stayed with a few, as I talked about in my most recent posts about Marseille & Caen, not to mention my roommates!
19. Have a wild and crazy night: Our night in Leeds ranks up there, as well as quite a few nights in Lyon ;)

20. Play "Rules" with my International friends: In my posts about my trip to Australia, I talk about the invention of this great game, which appears to be a cross between King's Cup and Thumbmaster... in any case it is extremely fun and I managed to squeeze it in just before I had to leave. We played on St. Patrick's Day, so it was an international crowd and it was fun times had by all.

 Setting up the game (with Canadian playing cards!)

 After the first round?

After a few rounds?

21. Kiss an Englishman: You can see that Chantal's mind was a little pre-occupied ;) "To be continued..."
22. Have a romantic moment at a national landmark: "Romantic" is up for interpretation here. I'm going to go with the classical definition when referring to literature. A "romantic" novel features a lone hero riding about in the rain on horseback being tragic and awesome at the same time. This was basically all of my trips, except that I was with my friends... so I'm going to go with my final trip to Paris on my way home from Caen. Hattie left me to visit her godmother, and I wandered the streets of Paris by myself for a few hours. I came across the Pont des Arts, which is covered in locks that have people's names written or carved into them. The idea is that they put the lock on the bridge as a symbol of their eternal love and throw the key into the Seine. I didn't do this, but referring to my previous definition and being alone at the time... how much more romantic could I get?

23. Write Chantal a lengthy letter and snail mail it: I wrote this post about writing letters home. I love mail and letter writing (and writing in general), so this was too easy! My favourite letter that I received was a package covered from top to bottom, except for the address, in regular-sized stamps.
24. Take a shot in every country using my Canadian shot glass: I failed this one right from the beginning, having only spent 19 hours in Poland for a lay-over... but I did try my best to make use of my Canadian shot glass. On my tour of Ireland, for example, I used it to take shots of ecchinacea (medecine!) on the bus:

25. Keep a travel blog: SUCCESS!

Overall I'd say it was a successful trip. As a score, 21 out of 25 (if I'm being easy on myself) doesn't seem too bad! Especially when 3 of the ones I missed involved kissing people of different nationalities... and besides... I wouldn't kiss and tell! ;)