Home tomorrow ...

Sooo ... I'm going home tomorrow! I'm so excited, but it's really weird to think I've lived in France for going on 4 months already. A lot of this term felt like it was going insanely slowly at the time, but when I look back on it it's gone really really quickly.

I know I'm going to get so many questions when I get back, everyone asking how it's been, and I'm not sure I know how to answer!! So much has gone on that it's so difficult to put it into a few sentences! It's defo been really difficult. This is by far the most difficult thing I've ever done and is almost certainly going to be the hardest year of my university life.

There's no real point doing a recap because if you're that interested, you can just read my previous blogs. We've had an absolute nightmare with accommodation, a fire in our building and lots of wine at 5 euros for 5 litres. Loads of it has been really really good and some of it's been not so good, much like in Nottingham I suppose, though it is made more difficult by the language barrier and the fact that I'm in a different country from most of the people closest to me. The work has been ridiculously hard, though in the last couple of weeks something's clicked and it's become slightly easier. I've only had two pieces of work marked properly, one of them being my mock exam, and I got 8/20 in both of them, which is 2 marks off passing. And to be honest, considering most of the French people get between 6 and 8, I'm not too upset with that. It's annoying that I work so hard and I'm still failing, but hopefully with 4 weeks of revision time I can pull it up two marks. And there's only one exam that's going to be really hard, which is the module we have tutorials in. Everything else is literally just factual questions so it's just a case of learning everything and regurgitating it, which should be ok. I know that I'll be so glad at the end of the year that I've done it (provided I pass everything), I've just got to work through all the really hard stuff and try and still enjoy it at the same time, which I think I have managed to do mostly this term!

Today's been really really nice! I met up with three other girls from Nottingham who are doing Management and French and are studying at the business school - Nicola, Laura and Anna. Coincidentally, Laura lived with two of my really good friends last year (Alex and Lish), and they're all really lovely. We went for lunch - absolute mission to find a jacket potato but we found a pub and had lunch there then went for a bit of a wander. They said they'd found an Irish shop where you could buy mince pies which got me well excited but sadly we got there and they'd run out of mince pies!! Very sad times. Then I went to the Eglise de Notre Dame, which Helen and I came across by accident the other day and which is BEAUTIFUL, to try and talk to someone about organising a St Mary's tour. Unfortunately though, there were absolutely no "staff" there, but I had a look round the noticeboards and found an email address so I'm going to send an email that way to see if someone can help. Then I went to the Cathedral for the same thing, had a very lovely conversation with le Pere, who was very interested and said I have to email him with all the details and he'll post me the forms I need, so hopefully there'll be a little tour in the making there. After that I came back here, finished off my packing and then Sam came over so we could do Secret Santa and have dinner - him and Pat made us some LOVELY fajitas and then we did presents. Everyone was pretty happy, Helen had me and got me an egg that hatches into a dinosaur when you put it in water, a cow mug (yay!) and a PAINT YOUR OWN FISH!! It's amazing, you get two little clay fish and some paint so you can decorate them, I am VERY excited about doing that when I get back to Bdx. Helen, Mel and Pat are going out tonight but I'm going to stay in - I don't want to have to get any more money out and I don't want to be knackered tomorrow when I get back, especially as I have to get up at 7 on Monday morning for a hospital appointment!!

So yeah, it has been a good term in hindsight. I already feel like I can do anything after negotiating the French administration system etc for 4 months and managing to survive! I'm now just really really looking forward to coming home. My first couple of days are going to be incredible, I'm spending the whole day in Leicester on Monday, meeting a load of people for lunch and hopefully a few other people for coffee and stuff, then getting a haircut (finally - first one since the 2nd September!) and going out for dinner with Dad and Katie. Then Tuesday I'm off to Notts for the whole day, looking round a few houses if I can, meeting some more people and then SINGING in the Lord Mayor's carol service with St M's. I've missed singing SO much, and St Mary's even more. It's still so weird not having that kind of routine anymore, and the people at St M's are some of the people I've missed most, I can't wait to see everyone again. And then I've got so much more to look forward to, though I do have to do a lot of revision. But hopefully the fact that I'm having lots of fun will motivate me to work when I've not got stuff on, and then I can come back and hopefully pass all my exams ... and by the time I've finished my January exams, I'll be over halfway through my year abroad, which is a CRAZY thought.

So yeah, there's my first semester summed up as much as possible, and my last blog of 2009. Unless any of you want to find out what I'm up to in Leicester, but it probably won't be half as exciting as Bdx so I'm guessing not :P

Joyeux Noel :D