I'm Only Just Alive and in Paris

Well I'm alive. A lot has happened in the last week and as a result I have been neglectful of you, my friends at home, and neglectful of this website. I am sorry for this and I hope you can forgive me. Many things have happened since my last post and I hope at some point to fill in the gaps but for this post I will concentrate on one event.

My time in Paris is going very well and I am enjoying myself even amongst some of the difficulties that have presented themselves. On Friday evening (5th May) I went with three friends to a concert in the south of Paris, in Bagneaux to be precise. It was just a little concert with a few uni groups playing, including a particularly good group. It was a lot of fun, the alcohol was cheap and flowing, the music was great and the people were nice.

We left the concert at about 11pm to head back to town and we walked up a quiet neighbourhood street on the way back to the RER train station. About half way to the station we walked past a group of four young men who yelled something out at the girls. We ignored them and continued to walk. Then one of the girls thought that she had left her mobile phone somewhere and stopped and looked in her bag. I was walking with her and I stopped also and waited, while the other two girls continued to walk up the street. She found her mobile phone and put it in her jacket pocket and we proceeded to the train station.

Then two of the young men ran up behind my friend and tackled her while trying to get her bag from her arm. She held on in the hope that they would give up, which in hindsight was probably not the best thing to do. I grabbed one of the guys and pulled him off my friend. As I pulled him off he turned around and punched me square in the nose. I didn't really realise he'd hit me at the time and I fought with him while my friend was thrown with her bag into the ground and hit her head. My other two friends ran back to us as this was happening and attempted to help. I threw myself on the guy that was tackling my friend but somehow he got the bag, and with it the two young men ran away, with their two other friends. At this point I did my best to console the girls and people came out from their houses to see what was going on. One of the girls yelled for someone to call the police. Some men who were eating dinner with their windows open offered us some water and I accepted. As I walked and drank the water I looked at the girls and couldn't believe what had happened. It had all been so quick and I'd had no time to think. I walked back and fourth for a while and then suddenly the loss of blood hit me and I collapsed like a falling tree on the sidewalk. I remember as I was falling hearing the screams of the girls as they watched me. Then everything went quiet and then became loud again. I woke about 30 seconds later and the ambulance guys had arrived.

That's the main part for now. The second part of the story will be told the next chance I get. More photos are now up, including some of my battered face. But to see the photos of me you need to join Flickr because I want to keep them private. Once you join Flickr you get access to a heap of other photos of mine and of course it is free to join.