Ever tried Polish cuisine? Nicolas RELANGE, who has a Polish mother, did us the honour by preparing deep-fried pork cutlets, herb potato salad and cucumber salad. Cedric couldn’t stop picking the cucumbers before the meal started. Nicolas threatened no more vodka! Imagine that! Yeah, there was vodka from poland too, which was advised to me to cure my ulcers. So far, my list of alcoholic cures includes Grog for sore throats, Margaritas for headaches and now vodkas for the disinfection of ulcers. Old wives' tales, you say?

The 24h Counter Strike challenge was going strong on campus with 16 teams of 6. Each player had brought their own computer and the most attention-grabbing one had to be the sleek LCD screen.

We watched Trainspotting at 23h30 in Nicolas' room. The vocabulary used was certainly rich!

Spent the morning looking for an internship for the summer. I might not have to do the internship as a labourer given my previous work experience. Some friends think that it's a waste of time while others feel that we do learn something from it. I haven't really decided and I sent some CVs on line. Wonder if anyone ever reads them? The country is a headache too. US, France or elsewhere? Should I make time to go home at all? What about that 3 week language immersion in Shanghai? I need to prioritise, man.

Lunch is spaghetti à la carbonara prepared by a real Italian, Riccardo CHIARELLI. I hereby confirm that the authentic recipe has neither fresh cream nor onions. You've been warned!

The exhibition on Andoulasia, a region in the south of Spain with many immigrants from the Middle East, must be really good, judging from the queue we saw outside the Insitute of the Arab World that afternoon. We make our way to Les Halles instead, the mega shopping centre in the heart of Paris. Ski pants are going gone! The only ones left cost at least 400F.Way out of my budget!

The "play" at the Theatre of Living Authors was somewhat of a disappointment. I enjoyed the lighting and the backdrop but I really don't need 1h of the live of Mary Madeleine on Saturday afternoon. The only pieces I've seen so far in Paris have been free one-woman shows. I've had enough of contemporary theatre for a while.

1h 15min before the next rendezvous. The guys with me, Marc and Alban, aren't too excited by the prospect of spending all that time shopping with a girl. But they don't have much of a choice. I buy a waffle with mashed apple to the disgust of Marc, who proclaims the batter to be that of crepes. Well, trust the Belgian. They are the waffle experts.

I manage to find a really interesting pair of black pants and Alban, a pair of VANS shoes. The prices are reasonable, given our exorbitant surroundings.

Dinner is at Quick, a Belgian fast-food restaurant. I really like this outlet cos' there's an internet menu which comes with 20 mins acces, a play area, cartoons for the kids and the toilets have only warm water. Most pple here are really surprised that I drink warm water. Apparently, the warm water taps are supposed to discourage people from filling their water bottles up. Well, not me!

We head to a bar where women sometimes dance on the table tops. It's actually a underground cave with jazz music that gets louder and progresses to more fast-moving grooves during the night. We're early so we manage to find a table large enough for us. This is the 2^nd time we're trying to get in. I sip a 20cl Kir with syrup at 30F while most of the rest take a glass of red wine at 20F which isn't too fantastic. I'm getting used to breathing 2^nd hand smoke..

We leave at 11h30 after Riccardo declares that a girl in the bar who couldn't stop smoking has chosen her future. The poor guys have been stuck with me the whole day and that's about the sex ratio in Centrale, 1 to 10. It's snowing when we leave and I ask for pictures to be taken. Ever nice guy Marc obliges with his brand new digital camera. You'll be able to see me all wrapped up here.

At the RER (Regional Express Railway) station nearest home (no, I don't stay in Paris, I stay on the outskirts), there is already a layer of snow on the cars. Fantastic! I almost get snowballed!

I will be off to the Agricultural Exposition soon. Cows, lambs and Little Miss Piggys from all over the world!