The End of my Year Abroad May 27, 2009

OK so it’s been nearly a week since I got back from France so I thought it was about time I wrote that roundup post I promised. At the time I was too busy in sightseeing mode with Mum and Alan and to be honest the reality of leaving for the last time hadn’t sunk in; I just didn’t know what to write. In our last few days there we had dinner at La Capitainerie, The Salmon House and Quai West, had tea at Jardin des Delices, visited Amiens cathedral and Jules Verne’s house, and Rouen. In Rouen we had a look round its cathedral also, comparing it to Amiens’. They are both built in the same gothic style as Paris’ Notre Dame, but whilst Amiens cathedral has ornate chapels, a bright interior and highly decorative tiled floor, Rouen’s in darker, shabbier and in much worse condition. It suffered greatly from bombing during both wars and restoration work has only recently got underway. In contrast, Rouen’s astronomical clock is a shining glory, and the museum is fascinating. You can see the pictures I took in Rouen here: Rouen.

A typical street in Rouen

The Gros Horloge astronomical clock

Rouen cathedral seen from the clock tower

So, how should I sum up my year abroad? The truth is, I don’t think I can. It was too much of a rollercoaster of different emotions and experiences to be summed up with one conclusion. In some ways I hated it; the first semester was so difficult in terms of settling in and getting my head around the way the system worked, the weather didn’t help, and then of course the second semester was frustrating in many ways because of the strike. I don’t think I truly felt settled or confidently understood the way things worked until about January. On the other hand, I had some great experiences, especially on my travels to Barcelona and Brussels. It was great being so close to Paris as well, and if it hadn’t been for the strike I wouldn’t have had so much time to do other things and make the most of it this second semester. This time in France has put me off wanting to live in the country in the future – things may not be rosy in the UK but neither are they in France; the issues might be different but the outcome is the same. However, the time abroad has brought me a greater appreciation of European culture so I would definitely still consider life in continental Europe rather than staying in the UK. In terms of language, I don’t feel my French has improved that much. I picked up some more specific vocabulary but I didn’t do enough difficult writing to improve that. My listening skills have improved a bit I think, but I have to say that day-to-day life conversations aren’t usually enough to improve degree-level French.

So there you have it; a truly mixed bag of conclusions from a year abroad in France. I look forward to travelling more after graduation and in the more distant future, especially in Europe. If (when) I spend some more prolonged periods of time in foreign countries I may resurrect this blog under a modified title to continue posting about life abroad. Until then, adieu and feel free to watch my Life in Cornwall blog, which no doubt will see some action over the next few months!

A Day in (and under) Paris May 14, 2009

I did head for Paris yesterday in the end, and gambled with the weather. As it turned out, it didn’t rain at all and was even quite warm with a peek of sunshine. Certainly enough for people to be out lounging and picnicking in droves in the Jardins de Luxembourg. I didn’t get everything on my list done, but I did see the things I most wanted to see. I ran out of time as I wanted to get the train back before 5pm in order not to have to pay extra on my train fare, but my feet were aching so much by that point I don’t think I could have faced walking round all the other things on my list! I can always do those another time; I doubt very much it’ll be the last time I go to Paris.

To begin with I headed the furthest south in the city I’ve ever been, to Place Denfert-Rochereau and the Catacombs. Although macabre and a little claustrophobic this was something I really wanted to experience. I had it down on my list to do on my first “grown-up” trip to Paris two years ago, but never got round to it.

Walls of bones in the ossuary

The Catacombs de Paris are an underground network of tunnels leading to an ossuary containing the remains of around 6 million people. They were created in the 18th century as a solution to the problem of disease caused by Paris’ many overcrowded city cemetaries, in particular the Cimetiere des Innocents which was in close proximity to the sprawling and busy food market of les Halles. The transferral of remain from les Innocents began on 7th April 1786 and continued for two years, with the remains being carried in carts accompanied by a religious procession under cover of darkness. Remains from all the cemetaries of Paris were deposited in the Catacombs until 1814. It became somewhat of a curiosity, with many noble men and ladies paying visits to the Catacombs. They were eventually opened to the public for a couple of days each week, and are now open every day except Mondays. The section of catacombs which are open now is 2km long, but in reality most of Paris is hollow underground! The carrieres are the former quarry galleries, of which some are open to the public, and then of course there are the vast sewer network which follows the street layout, and the 14 metro and 4 RER lines! All this tunnel-work under the city means that there is a whole department whose job it is to keep track of all the tunnels, maintain their strength and monitor all new building work to ensure no collapses occur.

As well as the Catacombs I had a small list of curious places in Paris that I wanted to see; such as the oldest tree, planted in 1601; the oldest house, built in 1407, and a wall with a cannonball from the revolution of 1830 still embedded in it. I had lunch in a lovely café called Berko on Rue Rambuteau, which consisted of a salmon and spinach quiche, salade du jour and a small sweet tart for €9.50. It looked like this;

Lunch

Pudding

Unfortunately the two cake shops on Rue Rambuteau I wanted to visit; Pain du Sucre and Pralus, were both closed, so I continued on my wandering tour of curious places to an Astrological Tower near the Louvre entrance to les Halles, an ornate entrance to the Palais Royal metro station and a WWI mobilisation poster still on a wall of a building near Place Concorde. By that point my time had run out, so I didn’t get to see the Chinese house, art nouveau building, or the house designed by the same architect who did the curly-wurly metro signs I like, but never mind they can wait for another day!
As always, full sets of photos can be found here: Album 1, Album 2 Album 1 also contains photos from trips in 2007 and 2008; yesterday’s pictures start with the Catacombs on page 2.

I didn’t get back too late in the evening so I went out with Sonia and some other Erasmus/ISEP students to Retroviseur to enjoy the usual Wednesday night Jazz. They were actually selling a CD of their music for 5 euros, which I considered a good investment. I didn’t take any more film as I was too involved in conversation but as I plan to take mum and Alan there next week I might take some then.

I will leave you with a couple more photos from Paris.

Jardins de Luxembourg

A hazy Eiffel tower overlooking Place de Concorde

The Finish Line In Sight May 2, 2009

Just as Obama is at the end of the beginning having just finished his first 100 days in office, I’m finding myself at the beginning of the end with just 20 days left of my year abroad! I will be officially checking out of France on Friday 22nd, barring any travel restrictions due to H1N1 flu or port barricades due to strikes! It feels strange to come back to Amiens and not immediately book my next flights home, but the tunnel and hotel are already booked for mum to come over with the car for moving out. Today’s journey back from Exeter went normally with no hitches. I felt more alert than usual this morning but it was still satisfying to know that there will be no more 3am starts for that 6.30am departure from Exeter!

I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing over the next three weeks – well two weeks really since Mum and Alan arrive on Tuesday 19th so for most of that week we will be doing stuff out and about before I have to pack. We may go to Rouen for a day as it’s not far and I stayed there briefly last summer as part of tour with Concert Band, but I’d like to see more of the city. Other than that I will probably just be finishing off my work, skating, maybe take a day or weekend trip to Paris and if Sonia has any money and/or energy left after her mammoth easter holiday travelling we might take another short break to somewhere.

I’m a bit out of touch with the strike situation but as far as I can tell from reports posted online nothing’s changed. I expect there will be an AG on Monday as usual so I can get up to speed. For simplicity’s sake now it would be better for me for the blocades to continue, as otherwise I expect some of my classes would resume although I doubt very much there would be any assessments this month, let alone before I leave. One of my modules was signed off before the Easter holidays, and after I turn in another assignment that’s sat in my email I will get a grade for Spanish grammar. I’m going to write two commentary pieces on plays for my French Literature module and email them off, although I haven’t heard from the lecturer in months. Once I let my Sociolinguistique lecturer know when I’m leaving I expect she’ll send me something to complete by way of assessment, and I’m going to try to get my Spanish presentation emailed to the lecturer for that class. That will only leave Spanish translation, Medieval French, Approche Litteraire du Picard and History of Scientific Ideas with no grades, although for the first two I have grades from last semester.

Here’s to hoping everything runs smoothly over the next few weeks! I have enjoyed this semester more than the first but I’m still excited to have made it and be finishing the year, and I can’t wait to be home for summer proper!

Home for Easter April 18, 2009

I’m writing this from back home in Cornwall, where I shall be enjoying the next two weeks! The sun is shining and it very much feels like summer already. My journey back went much more to plan than last time (and the diversion via Southampton), so I was home at a sensible time last night and went to town today to stock up on my UK magazines! I did think my luck had run out on me again yesterday though, at the TGV station. Earlier in the day I’d looked at the SNCF info page to make sure there were no problems, and noticed that two of the early morning trains running on the northbound side of the line I use were delayed by up to an hour due to a broken down TGV between Avignon and Aix-en-Provence (in the south). However nothing was listed for my train which was early evening so I didn’t worry too much. I got an earlier coach to the station than normal because I wanted to take some film of the trains passing through at high speed (which I did; see below), so I had about 1 hr instead of 10mins to wait for my train. When I got there I saw that there were two severely delayed trains on the board; both coming up from the south and it was still due to this broken down TGV. There was no delay listed next to my train, but I didn’t want to take any chances. If I found out there was likely to be a delay I still had time to get a taxi down to the airport but if I waited until the train was meant to arrive and then found it was delayed it would be too late, and I’d miss my flight. So, I asked and explained why it was important but it turned out there were no delays southbound, at least before Avignon. So I got to the airport on time with no problems!

And I did take some film of the trains speeding by; it surprised me how often they came through; I filmed 5 in the space of 10 minutes (you can see the clock on the platform) and in the hour I was there at least 15 came through. For those who like facts and figures, the TGV trains average 200mph but the fastest recorded was a test-run modified version which reached 357mph! Although the TGV lines (LGV’s – lignes grande vitesse) allow the maximum speeds to be reached, if necessary TGVs can also run on normal railtrack at a reduced maximum speed of 137mph, which gives them the advantage of being able to serve the old city centre stations. Freight and regular passenger trains can use LGV lines but it is not usual practice, since mixing low- and high-speed traffic can have the obvious consequence of one train catching up a slower one ahead! There are also issues of disturbance and instability due to the wind-turbulence caused by a TGV passing a slower train on an adjacent line. There is a wealth of information about TGVs and other high-speed rail services to be found on Wikipedia should you want to know more!

Anyway if you like keep an eye on my Life in Cornwall blog (link on the right of this page) because I might post something there this fortnight, otherwise see you back in Amiens!

Brussels : City of a Thousand Languages April 12, 2009

The Mannekin-Pis, an icon of Brussels

Sonia and I were granted our wish for great weather this weekend; after leaving Amiens in a dull and unpromising grey morning, we arrived in Brussels just before midday to wonderful sunshine and a warm city. It took us a while to find our hotel because the map I had printed from google was wrong. Fortunately Sonia had also written down directions and hers were different, so we tried those and found it! For the price (€30 each for a twin room, 1 night) the hotel St. Anne was amazing; it seemed to be brand new, everything gleaming in a white, minimalist and modern-art style. Breakfast was a generous buffet, included in the price and featuring bacon and eggs as well as the usual continental fare! It was just a short walk from a raft of restaurants, bars, shops and the main old centre of town, so ideally placed for us.

After we had checked in and relaxed for 5 minutes, we headed out to start exploring, deciding to go to the furthest point out and work our way back. So with street map in hand we navigated uphill through the Sablon/Marolles area, to the Palais de Justice and viewing point at Place Poleart for views over the city. On the way back down we wandered through the narrow streets of the old quarter, peering at the old antique shops, and the amazing number of fancy window displays in the chocolate shops, until we reached the bottom and the teeming corner where the Mannekin-Pis stands. This tiny statue/fountain stands barely a foot tall and is constantly surrounded by a melee of tourists having their picture taken with it! Just a short walk into the centre of this area brings you to the Grand Place, surrounded by the magnificent buildings of the Town Hall, King’s House and ornate Guild Houses.

Something we did as we were walking round the town was try to find various comic-strip murals that have been put up as part of the 2009 celebrations of the comic strip. I bought a guidebook including map from the Comic Strip House and in the end we managed to see about half of the murals. Some were too far out of our way to walk to, but most are clustered in the centre of town so it was those that we saw. In keeping our eyes out for them we also came across many other pieces of street art or sculpture, all unusual or of much higher quality than your average graffiti! My favourites out of these were some graffiti sketches of pigs, which now adorn my computer desktop! To round off the afternoon, we decided to go back up the hill to wander through the large Parc de Bruxelles, between the old Palais Royal and the Parliament building; but since our feet were aching we got the metro this time! It was lovely in the early evening sunshine, and the park was full of families and couples who had obviously been enjoying some of the first nice weather of the year.

We chilled at the hotel for an hour or so until it was about time for dinner, and in the process of searching for a good looking place we experienced the multiculturality of Brussels come to life! Anyone who has been in the narrow streets of the St. Germain area of Paris in the evening would recognise the scene; tiny cobbled streets lined with restaurants on both sides, all with tables and menus outside until there is barely room to walk between them, and all with maitre d’s touting for your business, trying to persuade you that theirs is the finest menu or the cheapest price. And also as you find in Paris, the different world cuisines tend to gravitate towards each other; so you have little Italy, Greek street and Chinatown, the German style, French style and the list goes on. In the event, Sonia and I battled our way through all of these to emerge in Place Agora Plein; a blissfully quiet oasis after the noisy, crowded streets we’d just escaped. We picked a small, simple place who didn’t hassle us and had an equally non-fussy dinner of steak-frites. Sonia got her long-awaited bottle of Kriek cherry beer, which I tried and liked, and I chose another beer which turned out to be a success; Lindemann’s Framboise (raspberry) beer. After dinner we went to find Delirium Café, a famous bar which has over 2000 beers on offer. The bar itself was incredible, never mind the beers they serve; it was covered in beer signs, trays, mats, mugs, bottles; all stuck to the ceiling and walls or indeed cemented into them. It was packed and playing lively rock music; the pictures don’t do it justice and in retrospect I should have taken some film! We only stayed just long enough for another beer and to take in the atmosphere, since we didn’t want to be up too late with a full day to take in more of the city in the morning.

We did manage to get up early, had a good breakfast and then checked out, leaving our bags to collect later. First on the agenda was to head back up to Sablon to explore the market that happens on weekends. I had hoped there would be a good book market there but as it was the stalls were mostly brick-a-brack, pictures, jewellery and antiques. Never mind, I still came away with 5 early-1900’s postcards and two pieces of jewellery, so I considered it a success even if there were no books to be had! Again we wandered back down to Grand Place through the myriad streets, admiring the architecture to be found on every corner. And then a treat; the Museum of Cocoa and Chocolate! No sooner have you bought your ticket and they give you a tasting; this is my kind of museum! There were displays of everything from the horticulture of the cocoa plant, to processing, manufacture, historical methods, medicinal traditions, chemical properties and even chocolate fashion! There was also a small kitchen where a very friendly lady showed us how individual chocolates are made; from the solid 5kg block of chocolate that is melted, how to know when it is the right consistency; filling the moulds and allowing the excess to run out to leave the shells, and finally once it’s solidified, how to make it into a praline. And yes, we got more tastings! After this it was about time for lunch, but we only grabbed a quick light salad because both Sonia and I were craving chocolate, and more specifically the traditional and famous Belgian waffle! We bought our chocolates for later, but the waffles were for now; I opted for strawberry and chantilly cream whereas Sonia added chocolate sauce too. For the rest of the afternoon we browsed the shops and found some more comic strip murals, but all too soon it was time to fetch our bags from the hotel and metro back to Gare du Midi to catch our TGV back to Lille.

It is a strange experience crossing a border by train; no one checked our passports and it didn’t really feel like we had gone to another country! Part of this I’m sure is to do with the fact that Belgium is also largely French speaking, although of course Dutch and German are equally used. Another factor is that even in Lille, just within the French border and an international hub with trains running between Belgium, France and the UK, the three languages begin to appear on signs, so already the cultures are being mixed and you begin to feel like you’re in an international place rather than one particular country. I titled this post “Brussels: City of thousand languages” because I swear I heard every language known to man and more besides in two days there. Apart from the three “biggies”; French, English and Dutch, there were also German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Greek, Chinese and many other Arabic and Asian languages I couldn’t begin to identify. Evidence of cultural migration was everywhere; in shops, restaurants, services and just in the people walking down the street. It really is a completely international city, and somewhere I would definitely consider spending some time in if ever I needed to improve a particular language. I would say French and English were the two languages I heard most; and even though I spoke to people in French I was often answered in English, at least after a couple of sentences. This irritated me a bit because I don’t think I sound obviously English when I’m speaking French now; indeed I was always either asked “do you speak English?” or the person in question had heard me speaking English to Sonia before the language was switched. I can understand that, just as I try to always improve my French, the people I was speaking to may have been trying to improve their English, but I can’t help feeling that it was the “default-to-English” syndrome again and assumption about my level of French. One incident has stuck in my mind and that was when I was buying my waffle; there were no prices listed so when I got mine I had to wait until the vendor told me how much, which she did whilst turning away into the kitchen so I only caught 4… and not what came after. So I got four euros out and gave that to her, so she repeated how much more was needed. I heard “five”, in English (she’d heard me speaking to Sonia), so I gave her 5 cents, she shook her head and repeated herself; this time I heard what sounded like “five teen”, very badly pronounced, so I queried her; “fifteen? quinze?” in English then French, and she shook her head again, finally giving up on English and told me “cinquante”; fifty. At last! If she had just stuck to French, we would have understood each other perfectly and she could have moved on to the next customer already. The default to English syndrome really annoys me sometimes, especially in cases like this. I realise that for people who can’t speak French (or any other language) well, it is necessary, and I’m sure that I will need it in Dresden later this year; since I don’t speak a word of German. But when you have started speaking to someone in perfectly good French (or any other language) and it’s just a simple transaction why on earth must you switch to English!!

Anyway here are the photo albums: Brussels 1, Brussels 2, Comic strips, statues & other street art

Lazy weekend March 29, 2009

I have taken it easy this weekend, as the title suggests. Slept in yesterday and this morning, and haven’t done too much work. I finished my essay on The Tempest on Friday, so ran over a final draft and then emailed that and the other piece of work I did to my lecturer. Also emailed my answers to some set questions for Sociolinguistique to that lecturer. With Easter looming I am beginning to plan alternative forms of assessment with my lecturers so that in the event of there not being any exams I can take, I have something to show Keele for this semester! In other modules where I cannot contact the lecturer via email (because they don’t use it) and I can’t physically get into the buildings to find them in their office, there’s nothing I can do so I feel I should do as much as I can where it’s otherwise possible. To that end, the other piece of work I made a start on today is my presentation for Spanish on the subject of the Basque country. Normally this would be brief notes because the presentation is meant to be given orally, accompanied by a handout with diagrams or pictures. Because it looks unlikely I’ll get to give this presentation, I am writing it and formatting it as if it were a written presentation so even if it never gets marked by a lecturer here, I can show Keele that I was doing something. After I’ve finished that I’ll be done with the work for classes, but there’s plenty else I can do – learning Russian and practicing some free translation between French, English and Spanish are all on my list to do.

Something else I got done this weekend was finalising the trip to Brussels that’s been in the pipeline over the last few weeks. To begin with I mooted the idea of four days in Brussels, then it got switched to Bruges, then reduced to two days and moved back to Brussels, and now finally we have settled on that – the train tickets are booked now so there’s no going back! I met Sonia yesterday in a hidden-away Salon de Thé called Alice-Anne which has Wifi access for the price of a drink; useful to know in case of a future internet emergency. We are going early in the morning on Friday 10th April and returning in the evening on Saturday. “We” is me, Sonia and her friend Allie, whose family friends we are hopefully staying with. They live just outside the city apparently, and have kindly agreed to let us stay with them! The train journey is in two parts; from Amiens to Lille-Flandres on a regular intercity train and then from Lille-Europe to Bruxelles-Midi on a TGV. The stations of Lille-Flandres and Lille-Europe are only a short walking distance apart; Lille-Europe is the international station through which TGV and Thalys trains pass to Belgium and also Eurostar between Paris and London. The reason we decided on Brussels rather than Bruges is because of the train journey; with the one we’ve chosen we are always travelling north, whereas to get to Bruges made less sense, since it involved getting 3 trains; intercity south to Paris-Nord, Thalys north to Bruxelles-Midi (not via Lille) and then Belgian intercity to Bruges. So since we’d be travelling through Brussels anyway we thought we may as well just go there. I have yet to do my super-internet-research-whistlestop-tour planning but never fear I will have a manic list for our two-day stop!

Tomorrow brings another AG, another vote on the blocages – so until then I don’t really know what to expect for the week ahead. I want to say that blocages will continue, but following Thursday’s negative AG I’m not so sure as I would have been a week ago. Anyway it doesn’t really matter, because the promised sunshine is back and I have plenty of other things to fill the next few weeks, so time will pass quickly even if I don’t have lectures. I hope the presidence gives an answer on what they’re going to do about exam scheduling soon, so I (hopefully) have some ammunition with which to email Keele and justify me leaving in a month instead of two.

Back in France Again February 28, 2009

Well I’m back again, and although I enjoyed my week at home it absolutely sped by and I couldn’t believe it was time to leave again this morning. My flight over to Exeter last Friday didn’t go completely according to plan; although there were no hitches getting to the airport and the plane took off on time, about halfway through the flight the captain came on and told us they’d had a weather update from Exeter which informed them of some low-lying fog which might prevent us from landing there. He said they’d review the situation when we arrived but that we may have to land at Bristol instead. When we got to Exeter and started the descent, it was clear it was taking much longer than usual. About 20mins after we should have landed we got an update to say that we were just hanging around a bit longer to see if it cleared, as the fog was a bit patchy, but that a decision would be made soon. After a further 15 minutes of circling (I later found out we were stacked with 3 other flights), with visibility less than half the required distance and not improving, they made the decision to divert – but we went to Southampton instead of Bristol, along with two of the other flights. The fourth went to Birmingham. We landed at Southampton at about 10pm, and were told that onward transport would be arranged to take us to Exeter. The first coach that turned up was quickly filled with families with young children who were given priority, and it looked like it would be a while before any more coaches would arrive.  At about 11.30 I managed to get in a taxi that was drafted with a family of 3 who had flown from Aberdeen. We arrived back at Exeter (which was very foggy, along with most of the surrounding area) at about 1.30, where mum had waited for me. We finally got back home to Truro just before 3am, about four hours later that it would have been if we’d landed as scheduled at Exeter. Not an experience I would care to repeat, but it could have been worse!

I didn’t do much on my week at home; I did some gardening, got my hair cut, did a bit of shopping particularly for books and helped mum out at work a bit. On Thursday I went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic (good funny girly flick) with Emma and then we went for Pizza Express after, where after much deliberation and a bit of flirting she finally plucked up the courage to give our very fit waiter her number! I look forward to hearing the outcome of that… I managed to get some of my food fixes; Pizza Express was one of them and I also had a pasty, fish and chips and an Indian takeaway, although we never did get Chinese in the end. I feel like I’ve eated so much but really it wasn’t, it’s just that my eating habits are very different while I’m here in France so when I go home and back to normal meals it suddenly seems enormous! Much appreciated though, I do like good food.

The trip back today went without any problems really; my train from Paris Nord was delayed by about half an hour but not enough to make much of a difference. I have already booked my flights for the Easter holidays because they’ll only get more expensive if I leave it, and with the small aircraft they use on that route there would be a small risk of the flight I want getting fully booked. I have no plans to go anywhere until then at the moment, so I’m looking at the longest stretch of time I’ll have been here since before Christmas; 7 weeks. It doesn’t seem like that long but I have a horrible feeling it will drag because I’ve got used to only being here for a short period before going home, and because for the time being the strike continues so I have more free time than originally timetabled. Mum says she might grab a weekend over here to make up for the one she missed before Christmas, which would be great, but I’ll believe it when the flights are booked! If I get really bored I might see about organising a weekend trip somewhere. The one-day demonstrations and continuous strike still continue, despite the fact that the government has now assured the unions that no positions will be laid off in 2010 or 2011, just in 2009, and that the whole reform is going to be completely rewritten. The unions still aren’t happy though and want all plans for reform to be scrapped entirely and for any future reforms to be open for full discussion before they are drafted and announced – basically so they could kill the idea before it took root in future, instead of having to fight it as they are now. The government is clearly moving backwards though so perhaps this strike will end before the semester does.

One last little thing; I got thinking about the blog this last week and how I would like to continue a “daily life” blog after this year has ended. However, I clearly can’t continue it on here since this was set up specifically for this year and it wouldn’t make much sense to write about other stuff on a blog called “A Year in Amiens”! To that end, I have created a second blog, called “Life in Cornwall” (there is now a link on the right hand column), but it won’t just be about life in Cornwall, but also life at uni and travelling elsewhere. I expect I won’t post too frequently on it for the time being since this one is the current focus, but while I’m home in the holidays I probably will.

Off on my holidays! February 20, 2009

Not much to report from the last couple of days, I just thought I’d briefly check in before I head home for a week. Had a couple of lectures but not many; my one remaining lecture on Wednesday was cancelled because the President of the university called a suspension of lectures for an afternoon of meetings and “reflection” on the crisis affecting the education system and the actions being taken to combat it. Then there were more small demonstrations on Thursday morning so another one of my lectures was cancelled, and I’m ashamed to say I didn’t make it to my 8am lecture this morning because I overslept, but I really didn’t sleep well last night.

After the holidays, the strike will have technically lasted one month, but because one of those weeks we wouldn’t have had lectures anyway I suppose you could say it’s still only been three weeks. However the government aren’t budging any further on the issue; the only ground they’ve given has been to appoint an intermediary to carry out a review and possibly alterations to the reform, but they still insist the reforms will in large part go ahead as planned in September, and so the teachers and many of the students are continuing to protest. Yesterday students at the Sorbonne staged a sit-in in one of the amphitheatres and between 200-300 students were forcefully removed by police in the middle of the night. Valérie Pécresse has said that the intermediary is currently drawing up a second draft of the reforms and that it will be presented to her “over the course of the coming weeks”. And of course, she will take her time looking over it before sending it back to the drawing board no doubt. I think this is going to turn into a stalemate between the government and the unions; who will cave first when it becomes apparent that this could go on indefinitely, or at least until the reforms are pushed through in September? At this point I can see the distinct possibility of this strike continuing right up to the end of semester. Political processes are rarely done in a day, and actually the rest of the semester only comes down to a few weeks now. After this week’s holiday, there will only be 7 teaching weeks left until Easter, and after Easter most modules will have their assessments almost immediately, at least in a normal situation. If it takes another 2 or 3 weeks for Pécresse to get that report, and then another 2 or 3 weeks to review and revise it….well that’s the semester gone then! There is a possibility that some of the lecturers will creep back to work, even if their unions or the faculty in general is still supporting the strike. I have certainly picked up on notes of apology or guilt in the replies of the lecturers who are on strike, when we ask them ‘how much longer? Do we bother trying to write this essay or not? Have you left us any notes this week?’

Anyway, we shall have to see. These things can drag out for weeks and weeks or they can suddenly change in a day, no one seems to know where this one’s going. I am going to deal with my final packing and tidying now and then head off to the airport. While checking online that everything was running as normal this morning I noticed that the morning flight to Exeter was delayed by about half an hour, but there’s no obvious explanation and nothing indicating mine is affected. Cornwall, cat cuddles, beaches and food here I come! I have concluded that the one and only thing I truly miss and crave while I’m in France is food. My list to satisfy this week includes; fish and chips, Chinese takeaway, Pizza Express and Lobb’s farm shop pie. I don’t know what it is but everything about food is different here, even things that to all intents and purposes should be the same.

Birthday weekend in Paris February 2, 2009

I am happy to report that the weekend in Paris for my 21st birthday was a great success! I arrived by train from Amiens, mum and Alan flew from Exeter and dad from East Midlands, and we all managed to convene within a couple of hours of each other in a café next to our Hotel near the Luxembourg gardens. The café and the hotel are both directly over the RER line B; the nearest station is less than 20 yards away and so with every passing train there is a great rumble and, as we discovered, the cupboards rattle even on the first floor! We checked in and left our bags in the hotel and went out to spend the day in the city, starting with a walk down Boulevard St Michel to the river, and then down to Notre Dame. There were no queues so we went inside, which was a first visit for everyone except me, and pretty much new to me too since the last time I went in was about 11 years ago, on my first trip to Paris. After this we went to les Halles shopping centre, built on the site of the old produce and cattle market which was moved out of the city when the authorities decided it was too disease-ridden to remain where it was. The new centre is built in glass and metal reflecting the style of the old Halles, and much of the old structure (without it’s glass) has been left.

I bought a Mango t-shirt and a dress but overall the sales shopping didn’t produce the bargain finds I’d hoped for. My presents more than made up for this though; I recieved books from Mum and Nan, other assorted presents from Nan included a CD of music from 1988, a mini iced fruit cake, cat playing cards and a bookmark, whilst I got jewellery from both Mum and Dad; a matching necklace, bracelet and earring set of beaten pewter spirals from St. Justin jewellery and a three-gold (yellow, white and rose) link bracelet from the Birmingham jewellery quarter respectively. Sophie from Keele also sent me a lovely pair of Pilgrim flower design earrings which I wore to dinner on Saturday night.

Dinner at les Deux Magots was wonderful; the restaurant was cosy but not crowded, traditional but not old, and the service was professional but not clingy. Overall it felt special and not at all stuffy or pretentious. I had millefeuille of goat’s cheese and tomato to start, followed by veal stew in white sauce with rice for main and crème brûlée for pudding. This was of course washed down with wine and some bubbly to toast the occasion. While we were eating we all noticed that the place was constantly busy; when we arrived, and the whole time we were there and when we left. It was a complete mix of people there as well; old and young, couples, groups, friends, and solitary figures with notebooks and papers. Some had full meals like us, others just a drink or a salad, some sat there all evening and hardly ordered a thing. Some people seemed to have come especially for dinner but many others just seemed to have dropped in after a day’s shopping for a coffee and a chat. I was glad that it has not lost its original ethos of a casual meeting place for friends and strangers alike, and has not become self-important as a result of its significant history. At the end of the evening I picked a single white rose from the huge bouquet in the middle of the restaurant to press as a memento of the occasion.

Sunday brought not much of a lie-in because we all wanted to have plenty of time in the Louvre before Dad left in the afternoon for his return flight. We had breakfast in a café on the riverside corner of Boulevard St. Michel and then walked down to the Louvre. Although it’s out of season, it’s free (as are most museums in France) on the first sunday of the month, so it was busy. We started off by heading for the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo by way of the Winged Victory (my personal favourite) and then explored the Greek and Egyptian galleries, along with the Medieval remains of the old fortress. We left to have lunch off Rue de Rivoli and then saw Dad off to the airport. For most of the rest of the afternoon Mum, Alan and I went to the Eiffel tower, and indeed up it, as far as the 2nd floor. This was quite an achievement for Mum as she is scared of heights! She did manage a walk around the platform although on the inside edge and with Alan between her and the fence! Again this wasn’t a first for me but it has been 11 years since I last went up and the view of Paris was better than I remembered. En route to the Tower on the RER line C, we noticed a man sat in the carriage we were in who had a tabby kitten on a lead! The kitten seemed quite happy, although curious and unsure of the noise every time the doors opened, but not trying to wander off. Most of the time he sat on the man’s knee, wobbling around with the train’s movement trying to stay balanced! I would have taken a picture it was such an unusual sight, but I think that may have been a bit rude!

Finally we capped off the day with a quick dash back to the Louvre before it closed in order to see the Crown jewels, whose room had been closed off earlier in the day. We just had time to see it all and take some photos before the stewards started ushering people out. Dinner was traditional French cuisine in one of the side streets off Boulevard St Michel but all too soon it was time for me to collect my suitcase and head back to Amiens. I really enjoyed the weekend, not just because it was my birthday but because I really enjoyed the family time, and it’s made me look forward to my week at home in 3 week’s time even more. Although it was cold all weekend, it was sunny. This morning however we woke up to snow in both Amiens and Paris, and mum and Alan experienced a couple of hours delay in their flight departure. When they did eventually get back to Exeter there was no snow there as they’d expected, and it has all melted here after this afternoon’s rain. Temperatures look to be rising slightly over the next week so hopefully a bit more sunshine than snow will be the order of the day! Here’s a few pictures to sum up the weekend:

Old les Halles overlooking the new structure

Graffiti seen from my hotel room window

The two statues of les Deux Magots

The Pyramid entrance to the Louvre

Looking up the Eiffel Tower from the 2nd floor

Looking west from the Eiffel Tower

The full albums from the weekend can be seen here and here. I’m waiting for some photos from mum’s and dad’s cameras and will probably post some more later on.

New Year, New Outlook January 18, 2009

Well, another week rolls around and I’ve switched countries again! Last week’s jump back home to Cornwall went smoothly, and I really enjoyed having that extra time. The Christmas holidays went far too quickly and when I came back for exams I really didn’t feel ready to leave.  Now I feel better and am looking forward and up towards the months ahead.

I’m even getting used to the travelling! It doesn’t seem like so much of a journey any more, and I don’t end up so tired at the end of it. I noticed a big difference getting the TGV to the airport rather than the normal system; it seemed much quicker even with the bus transfer from Amiens taken into consideration. You don’t notice the speed of the train while you’re on it, but while I was waiting in the station a few others passed through without stopping and that was impressive! It made me jump the first time, because I heard a low rumbling but didn’t know what it was, then suddenly there was a WOOSH and this train was screaming through the station, literally screaming from the noise of the wind and the tracks. Three seconds of blur later, and it’s gone. In future I will look at getting the TGV first when I book flights, but they aren’t as frequent as the normal trains so sometimes I will be back to the slow system, just so I get to the airport when I want to rather than waiting around for hours, which is boring. On the way back to Amiens yesterday I was on the normal train, because I hadn’t booked a return TGV and it was a choice of waiting at the airport until the 11.37 TGV or slowly making my way to Paris Nord for an 11.37 train.

As my post title suggests, my outlook has changed and is brighter than before Christmas. This time I haven’t felt the same depression that previous returns to Amiens have brought, and instead I am looking forward to the months ahead. I’m sure that in part this is due to the fact I know I only have a few weeks between “home” events; the first being my 21st birthday weekend in a fortnight, when Dad, Mum and Alan will be flying over and we’re spending the weekend in Paris. Then after that it’s only three weeks until the February half-term holiday, for which I am likely to go to Keele as I did for Toussaint. After that there will be a 6 or 7-week stretch to the Easter holidays. Technically it’s 7 weeks, but the week before the holidays there is a 4-day weekend due to Easter weekend jour fériés falling on the Friday and Monday, resulting in only a 4-day week until the holiday. Combined with the fact that most courses finished their lectures early before the Christmas holidays, I think this makes it likely that in practice the Easter holidays will start a week earlier than scheduled. Then I’ll have about a month at home before returning for a few weeks of final assessment.

So suddenly it doesn’t seem so long until the year is over! There are other factors that are helping to make me feel more confident than before; my money is holding out well and having lived here for a semester I have a better idea of how far it stretches, so I know now that I can afford to take a weekend break or two between February half term and Easter if necessary. Also I am feeling more settled here in general; it still doesn’t feel like home, or even like being at Keele, but it doesn’t feel so alien as it did at first. And I have a new laptop! This is because I spilt coffee on my old one and the keyboard stopped working. A home repair attempt didn’t appear to work so on Friday (my last day in the UK) I hopped the train to Plymouth to go and buy a new one. It’s fortunate that we now have an Apple retailer within striking distance otherwise I would have had to buy online and wait! As it turned out, when I got home and started transferring files the keyboard on my old laptop appeared to be coming back to life. In the process of drying it the day before we’d melted some of the key tops, but if I can find replacements and it turns out it is working again I will either sell it or keep it as a spare. Anyway, having a new machine has given me peace of mind because I can be more confident than I was with the old one (especially after its November tantrum) that it won’t give out on me while I’m here.

The weather here has changed from cold and snowy to wet and windy; the wind has been howling round the shutter since yesterday and the rain is forecast all week. I appreciate the rise in temperature but I’m not impressed with all the rain! Tomorrow I have to go round and collect up my various bits of timetable and then try to create something that gives me sufficient ECTS credits and is actually possible to attend. This semester it’s likely I’m going to be taking mostly modules from the licence Lettres Modernes, which is mainly French language and literature. Hopefully I can also continue with the Spanish modules I took last semester and I won’t have to change groups. If there’s any space left in the timetable after that I will see if I can get some token science modules to fit, but it’s a problem because of factoring in travel to and from town. Once that’s done it’s back to normal routine of lectures for a few weeks!