La Rentrée May 4, 2009

Time is ticking by oh so slowly it seems! I am trying to take my time over the things I do and only do one or two things per day to keep myself entertained but already I’m bored. Life is so much more interesting back home! I will go out and socialise a bit this week but for now I’ve got a few bits of work to tat about with. Yesterday I had a lovely long lie in and then spent the afternoon tidying up some loose ends; namely finishing another Spanish grammar test I was sent over the holidays and emailing that off along with the written version of my Pais Vasco presentation. I also emailed my sociolinguistique lecturer to let her know when I’ll be leaving and asked for a final assessment, and I emailed the Forensics department at Keele to chase up the final year project list, which it transpires is being released this week.

Today I let my accommodation staff know the date I’m leaving, and rather handily before I got there I had a note under my door (as did everyone) letting us know what we have to do before we leave, so I didn’t have to ask that. I need to give them back a form with my bank details on so they can transfer me back the remainder of my deposit; when I went to pay this month’s rent they said they would reduce the amount (since I’m leaving before the end of the month) and that rather than pay again they’ll just take it out of my deposit. Other than that I haven’t done much today, just tatted about and went to the AG.

That really wasn’t any different than before the holidays, just perhaps a bit more lively. Numbers were trailing off as people got bored and couldn’t be bothered to come and vote but today it was very busy as it seemed everyone wanted to know what might have changed and what would happen about exams. Some people have done an about turn and are now voting against the blockades because they don’t want exams to be put back to September, but as many people pointed out it’s already too late really, and it won’t change the fact many lecturers are still on strike and several administrative staff have “resigned” so organisation of exams is very unlikely to happen no matter what the result of the blockade votes are. Anyway, today there weren’t enough “no” votes to make a difference. Here’s the motions:

1) Motion to ask lecturers that, in the hypothetical case of exams being scheduled, they only be on material covered in lectures or other notes and that they not take place in July or August – passed by visible majority.

2) Motion put forward by the CNU; to refuse any evaluations of this semester and that no exams of any kind be organised – passed by visible majority.

3) Continuation of strike – passed by visible majority (now entering week 14)

4) Continuation of occupation – passed by visible majority

5) Continuation of blockades – passed by 442 votes to 291 (bringing the total number of teaching days that the campus buildings have been blockaded to 26)

The next AG is on Thursday at 11am but I’m not sure I’ll go to that. I was getting a little bored before Easter of sitting through 2 hours of speeches and debate just to get the results of the voting, although there were a few interesting moments. I can’t see the point in Thursday’s meeting though as Friday is férié and there will be another meeting on Monday if the AG pattern continues.

So there you have it; a rentrée with no lectures! Vive l’université française!

Breaking into summer March 6, 2009

I am most impressed with the weather the last few days! Blue sky and sunshine, only a few brief patches of grey and no rain. It’s been warm enough to have my window open in the afternoons, although in the mornings it can still take a while for the cool night temperatures to warm up. Definitely looking brighter than the past few months though and it’s a welcome sight! Could this be the herald of a great summer? I certainly hope at least that the worst of the weather is over with. Rain I would expect in March and April but snow and ice I hope not to see again until next year!

The internet was down from Wednesday evening until about Thursday lunchtime, which was a bit frustrating because normally I would have lectures to fill the morning, but since Thursday was the “dead university” day I didn’t. I didn’t even bother walking down to campus although I believe all the buildings were locked and chained as they usually are on weekends or holidays. Instead I did laundry and took the opportunity to deep clean my room; including all those parts which don’t need so frequent cleaning (like my window), or that I usually ignore (in ‘I’ll do it next time’ syndrome), and beating out my rug. After a couple of hours I tried the internet again and discovered that it worked without having to go through the authentication stage (which is the part that hadn’t been working) so for a while I thought they might just have done away with it. But no, after a couple of hours I clicked to a new page and got the authentication page instead, so it was back. I was quite pleased with myself this morning when I managed to get up and out to my 8am lecture at the science fac (the only one I have this semester) – I felt a bit bad because I haven’t been for three weeks; last week being the holiday and I overslept the week before.

Tomorrow I’m going to do a bit of shopping in town; I’ve built up a bit of a list of things to do so that coupled with a lazy-ish morning should kill most of the day. Sunday I might go skating but probably will stay in and do some work and other random things. I’m not sure that many of the Cardiff guys are back yet; as far as I know most or all of their lectures are on strike still so they’ve probably taken the opportunity to stay in the UK for longer. If anyone’s around I might see what’s on at the cinema. Apart from that I intend to have a fairly chillaxed weeked.

Skating up a storm February 10, 2009

It’s been a slow start to the week again what with no lectures yesterday and only one this morning, but I’ve got some work out of the way. Even though half my lectures are cancelled there is plenty of reading material; at the moment I’m working through the Spleen et Idéal section of Baudelaire’s les Fleurs du Mal, and there are of course handouts to read that have been left by the lecturers on strike. There was a demonstration in Paris today for this education sector strike, with some discrepancy between the numbers of attendees; some say 50,000; the police say 17,000 – a large movement either way. Yesterday evening the Education Minister Valérie Pécresse announced that the proposed legislation would be “reworked” in light of the unrest it has caused, but reiterated that reforms would still be made in September 2009, at the beginning of the next academic year. The teachers still aren’t happy with that though, and see the government’s back-pedalling as evidence that they can win their case and have the whole thing thrown out, so it isn’t going to stop the strike just yet.

Along with parts of the UK, most of the north-west of France has been hit by a big Atlantic storm over the last 24hrs. The wind and rain built up all through Monday until it was really howling; last night and this morning there was rubbish and debris blowing everywhere and the wind snatched the

Vendée Globe pavilion damage

breath right out of my nose! It had mostly blown out by lunchtime though and with the exception of a few sudden downpours this afternoon, it is now eerily quiet; the calm after the storm! The Vendée Globe headquarters, on the coast at les Sables d’Olonne, was badly hit with their main pavilion and some equipment being damaged and wind speeds of up to 140km/h were recorded.

I did brave the weather today to go skating again, and I’m glad I did. As expected, it was much quieter than at the weekend, and to add to that it was on the big rink (the same one as in the pictures from the hockey match) rather than the smaller one which I’ve been on previously. To begin with however this didn’t seem like much of an advantage, because we were coned into 1/4 of the rink while the rest was taken up with kid’s hockey training. There were about 10-15 of us skating round in this little patch of ice and I was less than impressed, but then after about 45mins the kiddies packed up, they took away the cones and we had the whole rink. Ahhhhh the space! It was brilliant, suddenly it seemed like there were about 4 of us on the rink, not the same number as before. I worked hard on that rink; apart from working on circles, switching from forward to backward and general blade control, I spent 15 mins just skating round, concentrating on maintaining a good upright posture and strengthening core muscles. And I felt it; towards the end and afterwards my core muscles and thighs were aching splendidly, but this is good because it shows I’ve worked at something.

To cap off this post, I am happy to report that the accommodation staff have come to their senses and finally the kitchen is accessible with just our swipe cards, and we no longer have to faff with going down to reception to exchange a key for our student card. I don’t know what’s prompted the change – probably they just got sick of constantly exchanging and keeping track of the key – but I found out when I went down to get the key last night and was told “new system – the kitchens are open”. Whatever the reason, I’m glad as it should make things much simpler. I have touched base back at Keele this week with my accommodation application for 2009/10 being sent off; after finding out last week that they would email us forms (because obviously we can’t be at Keele to come in person as would normally be the case), we finally got them through today – and they want them back by tomorrow! Good job my internet is working at the moment eh?! Honestly sometimes I wonder if these people engage brain at all sometimes. Natalie – another Keele French student who is one of the group I’ll be living with next year – sent them an email last week to ask about our application, and the reply she got was “please come to the Darwin building to discuss this with a member of staff”. Err….didn’t really grasp the context of the email there did they?! Anyway despite some rather worrying moments like that everything seems to be sorted in that department and we should have a nice little flat for our final year.

A relaxed weekend November 17, 2008

I didn’t really get up to much this weekend, it was generally grey, dull and drizzly and not really conducive to going out and about! I caught up on some sleep and although I did go to town on Saturday, I was only there for about an hour. I wandered aimlessly about town and the market but discovered that I wasn’t really in the mood for shopping, so I got a mediterranean baguette from my regular boulangerie/patisserie for lunch and then did my grocery shopping at Champion. I think they have the best range of things although they aren’t the cheapest, but because they’re in town I don’t often do my shopping there; E. Leclerc is just a 5 minute walk from my halls so that’s where I usually go. Anyway I had been told by the Cardiff students that Champion now has an international foods section (it’s their nearest supermarket), including a British aisle! So I had to go an investigate. Sure enough, there were items like Bird’s custard and Bisto gravy, Marmite and Colman’s mustard staring at me from the shelf, but for the time being I contented myself with a can of Dr. Pepper until I can think of a good meal to use the other things in (not all at once!).

Sunday night brought a welcome break from the quiet of campus with an evening of fine dining in St. Leu. Katie, Alice, Joe, Vicky and I all went out for dinner to a place called “A La Capitainerie”, which is  one of the many restaurants lining the river on Quai Bélu in St. Leu. We chose from their set evening menu, which included an aperatif, starter, main, dessert and coffee for €26.90 or £22. This is very good value for Amiens, and even more so for St. Leu where a main course alone can be up to €20. I chose duck terrine to start, followed by lamb shank and chocolate soufflé, and it was all delicious. The restaurant itself is huge but we were sat in the covered heated front terrace which made it quite a cosy setting. There were quite long gaps between courses, which would have annoyed some people, but actually made for a very relaxing meal. Because you have time to chatter away between courses, you talk less during each dish and therefore appreciate the food more, because you’re not hurrying to finish a mouthful so you can say something before the conversation moves on! It was quiet while we were there; there were never more than 5 tables at a time, but I noticed that they were still serving starters and mains at 10pm as we were finishing our coffee – on a Sunday! That would be unheard of in the UK in a similar situation, I’m sure of it.

I had no lectures or anything today so I took the opportunity to tidy up my room, chuck out the recycling and do some laundry. Ah yes, the laundry saga continues! Washing is no longer free – I knew that was too good to be true. Instead you have to pay by moneo card, which you can get free from the restoU. However, I’ve never needed one up til now so I had to trek over and get one, which took a while because it was lunchtime. Unfortunately the top-up machine wouldn’t recognise my bank card (didn’t surprise me much, it’s not french), and the only other method of topping up is with coins, minimum amount €10……which I didn’t have. So, I trekked off to Leclerc down the road and bought two pens with a €20 note, and then proceeded to ask for most of my change, in well, change. This annoyed the cashier but I was past caring. The system I have to deal with has caused me problems, therefore I shall cause problems for someone else. Deal with it! So I got my €10 in coins and topped up my card, got my laundry washed. Then the dryer wouldn’t accept my 20cent pieces so I got them changed for a €1 piece, which it accepted, but refused to switch on. So my room now smells of damp laundry and I have things hanging everywhere, because by that point I really couldn’t be bothered to drag my heavy, damp laundry into town to a launderette.

At least tomorrow should be nice and simple, I have a day full of lectures!

A Little Sunshine November 8, 2008

Not much has happened the last two days, just had a couple of lectures on Friday (I failed to get up for my 8am lecture despite going to bed early the night before), and I found out about another Partiel, for Spanish Translation, which will be in a fortnight.

Today I spent mostly……actually mostly doing nothing. I didn’t get up particularly late today but somehow the time vanished! I did go to the supermarket, I cleaned my room a bit and did some revision for my Ancien Français partiel which is on Monday. Apart from that really not a lot happened, but somehow the day disappeared. It has been windy today but quite warm with the first blue skies and sunshine since I landed in Paris, so that was welcome. Things are looking up a bit and some sunshine always helps that. Unfortunately it looks like rain until Thursday now but I hope the weather will hold out for our trip to the zoo tomorrow!

I was playing around with the widgets on my computer dashboard today and I now have 5-day weather forecasts for Truro, Stoke-on-Trent and Amiens, so I can see what the weather is supposed to be doing for me and my friends and family. It’s a glossy little widget and updates regularly; including the main header image which even changes to a moon when it’s nighttime!

There was one moment of excitement/panic this evening when the fire alarm went off. It’s gone off a couple of times before but always during the day when they’ve been doing maintenance work, and everyone’s ignored it. Given that they don’t seem to bother with drills here and there’s a minimum of staff here on a weekend evening though I had to assume this one was genuine. As it turned out someone had been cooking without turning the extractor hood on and had smoked out their kitchen, and it was switched off and everyone (that is, the 20 people who turned up in the foyer out of the 200 or so rooms in the block…) headed back to their rooms within 5 minutes. It did get me to thinking though how awful it would be to have a real fire, and whether I should prepare an emergency pack that I can grab off the shelf with vital paperwork and contact details in. I hate to be one of those people who plans for all remote possibilities, but then, I would also hate to be stuck in only the clothes I was wearing, minus a lot of vital and useful information to sort things out!

Le chat November 6, 2008

Well I had a second exam today, this one Spanish grammar / listening. We had a few exercises on accentuation, a few on the difference between j and g, a dictation and a comprehension listening exercise. Overall it was ok, but I know I messed up the accent questions because they go too fast and I don’t have time to think about the rules to determine if the word needs a written accent or not.

I also borrowed the translation texts off Marion that were given as holiday homework in the class I skived the Friday I came back to Keele, and spent most of the afternoon doing that ready for tomorrow. I also did laundry and I am glad to say that not only is the halls launderette finally working again, they have done away with what I suspect was the cause of the problem – the machine connected to the washing machines that you have to put money into to get them to work. As a result, I no longer have to pay €3 for washing, it’s free, and all I have to pay is €1 for drying. That’s 80p at the current rate. I reckon that has to be one of the cheapest washing+drying services you could get!

You may be wondering by this point why this post is titled “le chat”. Well, he’s long overdue a mention but everytime I’ve seen him I’ve been going out of the building and forget to note it down to blog about later. He’s a smallish tabby who I’d seen several times before the holidays, but always pacing up and down outside the glass front doors, meowing to be let in, or wandering around the car park and playing under the trees. On Tuesday however, I walked through the foyer on the way out to a lecture and there he was, large as life sat surveying the hall from the top of the reception desk! The reception and cleaning staff were around and about but nobody paid him much mind. Yesterday morning he was back inside, but walking around instead. I half expect to see him outside my door next! I guess he’s trying to make more of an effort to move in for the warmth in winter but no one seems to mind him coming in. It’s possible he even lives in the building, I know someone downstairs has a dog because I hear it barking and see it being let out for walks. I haven’t figured out if he has a name yet but if I spot him when I have a camera handy I’ll be sure to get a piccy up here!

I have a few more lectures tomorrow, one of which requires another 6.30am start which I’m dreading given I only just scraped myself out of bed at 8.15 today….I shall be going to bed super early tonight otherwise I know there’ll be no hope. There’s nothing else to do anyway. I think me and the Cardiff lot will finally get around to going to the zoo this weekend, although whether that will be saturday or sunday I’m not sure yet. I have found a sunday bus service from campus to town but it’s quite confusing because they modify and join up what are normally two weekday services… Anyway after that it’ll be Monday and one less week until Christmas on the calendar.

Technological Disaster October 25, 2008

Well, you may have been wondering why I haven’t posted in the last week, and the reason is that my computer blew up on Sunday morning! Unfortunately I think it’s the hard drive and I shall have to buy a new one, but well I’ll have to wait and see what the repair people say. I’m back in England at Keele now for a week, so I will probably post less anyway this week, what with all the catching up I have to do with friends and everyone! A bientot!

Une soirée chez des françaises October 17, 2008

Well, last night I went out in the evening with Marion. We caught the bus to town after she finished lectures and went to her rented room where she lives during the week. It’s in a townhouse in one of the main streets which has been converted into individual rooms. Her brother, who is older and also doing a language degree, is in colocation (private-run shared flats) on the other side of the street. Anyway we dropped some things off at hers and then went for a walk through town, stuck our head in the Australian bar but there were only blokes in there so we decided to head for St. Leu instead; more expensive but nicer. However Marion realised she’d forgotten to buy a bottle of wine for dinner that night (we were going to eat at her friend’s house) so we headed for the supermarket, then decided we couldn’t be bothered to head for a bar and just hung out at hers watching tv, comparing music tastes and chatting about cultural differences. Mostly we had been talking in English, because she wants to improve her conversational skill.

Eventually her friend called to say she was home so we walked over; her friend has a really nice apartment, quite big really. She also comes from Beauvais. It was a bit of a makeshift dinner since her friend had been kitesurfing that day and wasn’t really prepared! It was good fun though. She is also learning English but that’s because she’s taking a tourism course. From that point we spoke mostly in French, at first she was speaking English or getting Marion to translate but once they realised I understood the conversation started flowing a bit more. We had a good long chat about music, education, cultural differences, tv, all the usual topics! They got me to check their homework and explain some things, and checked some things their teachers had told them; for example they’ve been told not to translate “moi aussi” literally into “me too”, but to use another phrase. But I can’t think of any alternative, at least no commonly used way, of saying “me too”!

I think this weekend will go quickly, and then before I know it Friday will have come round again and I’ll be heading for the UK. Today seems to have gone quickly anyway, despite getting up at 6.30. Our washing machines are broken again so I had to go down to Thil, and once again ran into Faith. I’ve hardly seen her because she does law so our paths never cross. She’s obviously used to speaking French among her friends though because she sat down and started to chat to me – in French! That goes onto the top ten list of surreal moments in my life; chatting in French with someone you know speaks English as a mother tongue! Eventually though her sentences became more English than French and we ended up talking completely in English.

Not sure when it occurred but I must have passed some sort of line between aquaintance and friend with Marion because since yesterday we now greet each other with “la bise” (kiss greeting) rather than just Hi! I was right though, I can’t make the sound they do!

Une adjonction… October 1, 2008

Just had to add another post – I prepared my dinner but went to the kitchen and found it locked. No great surprise there, but I go downstairs and there’s no one on reception, the shutter is down. Great, so the kitchen’s locked and can’t be opened, they clearly don’t want us to eat properly. Other people seem to be going out for food but that’s not good enough, we’ve paid to use that kitchen as part of our rent and it’s taking the piss now that they’ve locked it and buggered off. My dinner has had to go in the fridge for tomorrow and I’ll have to have the same dinner I had last night, which is the only thing I’ve got that I can prepare in my room. Tomorrow they shall be getting a formal complaint from me – I thought the system was crap before but now I really have reason to complain.

Ticking over October 1, 2008

I meant to post yesterday but time got away from me in the evening and I didn’t in the end. As things settle into a routine and some semblance of normalcy I find there are less things to write about so I expect there will be fewer posts than the one-a-day rate of the first week! Tomorrow will mark the beginning of my fourth week here. This week seems to be going more slowly than the previous ones but I’m looking forward to Toussaint. After that I think it will go quickly to Christmas and the January exams.

Not much has happened since my adventures on Saturday, I’ve just noted down a few things. It makes me laugh now how much Keele went on about how welcoming people are here – I think the students who’d just come back from their year abroad must have been paid to say it. I know that some of the other Keele french students have managed to break into some french friend circles but there are many others who’ve found french students totally uninterested in us, and staff and lecturers dismissive and rude. A prime example came up in my Ancien Français lecture yesterday; the lecturer was trying to find a common two-hour slot of free time to reschedule a lecture later on in the semester, which turned out to be quite difficult. When a slot was proposed that I couldn’t make, I said so. The response? “Ah, but you’re Erasmus aren’t you? Well, you make your timetables fit however, I’m on about the rest of us”, after which everyone exchanged snide looks and laughs, and they continued with their discussion. Way to make me feel included, eh? Not to mention the idea that just because I’m an Erasmus student, it doesn’t matter if I miss class material. I still have to get the grades.

Something else that annoys me here is the kitchen. The door is controlled by a swipe card but more often than not it’s also locked by key. This means I have to either a) take my food to the kitchen (at the other end of the corridor), try the door and if it’s locked, take my food back to my room, go downstairs to get the key, open the kitchen and then go back to my room to get my food and back to the kitchen to cook it, or b) go to the kitchen, try the door, if locked go get the key, open the kitchen and then go to my room to get my food and back to the kitchen again. Either way is a faff and irritating. On top of that, the reception staff take your student card or at least your room number if they give you the key, so if someone else comes into the kitchen before you’ve finished you then have to pass the responsibility, which isn’t popular. Overall it’s a totally unecessary system and it doesn’t work efficiently.

One more thing; another general observation about life here – the French kiss. By this I mean the greeting, not the more intimate version! It is very common, and I’ve seen extreme examples of this formality being carried through; like the girl who was hurrying down the corridor but passed a group of 5 friends who were waiting for the same Spanish lecture as me. Despite being in a rush, she stopped and kissed each once on each cheek, before waving goodbye and carrying on her way! The noise they make is not a “mwah” or even any kind of expulsion of air, it actually sounds more like they’re sucking air in through their teeth. I can’t recreate it; I rather think it’s something learned from childhood. I have also seen men greeting each other with a kiss but in general a handshake is more common. It still looks bizarre to me as generally in England we only shake hands at a formal first meeting or in some other formal context; this morning there was a bloke sat on the bus and two separate friends passed by to sit further back; both shook his hand before moving on, even though like the girl in the corridor, they didn’t stop to chat. It also looks strange to me when I see young boys of anything from age 8-14 shaking hands – like something from a bygone age!

Anyway that’ll do for today, I will just finish with a quote I came across online this week, which I think can be suitably applied to my year abroad. It is from the Tao Te Ching, poem 64.

What lies still is easy to grasp;
What lies far off is easy to anticipate;
What is brittle is easy to shatter;
What is small is easy to disperse.

Yet a tree broader than a man
can embrace is born of a tiny shoot;
A dam greater than a river
can overrun starts with a clod of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles
begins at the spot under one’s feet.

Therefore deal with things before they happen;
Create order before there is confusion.