So, FINALLY here is my first update of 2010. I would have updated before now but things were very hectic during exams and then I was at home for a few days, and I thought it was inappropriate to update my French blog from England!
Well, exams were basically horrific. I came back to Bdx on the 3rd Jan, I had an exam on the 7th, one on the 11th, two on the 12th and one on the 13th, then an oral exam on the 18th. I have never been so stressed in my life as I was in the first week, to the point where I actually considered giving it all up and going home and forgetting about the rest of the year. Obviously, now, I'm SO glad I didn't do that, but I did come pretty close. It was a mark of how stressed I was that I lost half a stone in a week - I NEVER get so stressed I can't eat! But yeah, at the end of the first week I decided to book flights home after my last exam which was on a Monday, so I had 6 days at home when I could properly relax, like I couldn't do over Christmas because I was either revising or seeing friends but feeling guilty about not revising. It was SO nice to go home, it was exactly what I needed. Geo came down from Manchester for a couple of days as well, which was lovely. And I bought some snazzy new running shoes so I'm very motivated to get back on the running - in fact, I went for my first run in them last night and they do actually make a difference, they knocked about 5 minutes off my time to run 5km.
So after 6 lovely days in England I came back on Sunday and was actually really looking forward to the term - and I still am. When I was talking to my mum and dad during stressful week of hell, I worked out that I think that part of the reason last term tended to drag on a lot was that I had nothing to do at the weekends. It sounds really silly, but in Nottingham I look forward to every weekend because I've got my singing. Here, I have no structure to my weekends at all. So the weekdays go quickly because I have lectures but the weekends drag on. In fact, because I don't have any of my music, all I'm really doing is going to uni, doing uni work and seeing friends, which is strange for me because for the last however many years I've been busy and on the go all the time. So what I've decided I need to do is try and make sure I have something to look forward to most weekends, and do something different if I can. I'm going to see the Magic Flute at the Grand Theatre with Helen and Mel for Mel's birthday in a couple of weeks, hopefully I might be going down to see a friend in Pau with another friend who's in Bdx the weekend after, then the weekend after that I'm coming home for a week. By the time I get back it's pretty much March, then the second weekend of March I should be going to Toulouse with my friend Hannah who's living in Nyons this year, Geo should be coming down for our anniversary, Kim and Charlie are going to come and see me at some point in March, and hopefully I'll be able to organise this St Mary's tour for the second weekend of April. Then I'm home for 10 days or so at the end of April so that I can revise properly in my own space, then 3 weeks of exams and then I'm done! So when I look at it like that it seems really short, and it actually makes me feel a little bit sad that it could be over before I know it - which is why I'm determined to make the most of the time I've got left and make sure I enjoy it as much as I can. So in some ways I think I needed my little week of panic to kick me up the arse, and I definitely needed those 6 days at home to recharge my batteries!
So yeah, now I'm back and into lectures again, doing the same amount of modules as last term but this term I have to do two third year ones rather than just the one like I did last term - so that could be a little bit harder and will mean I have slightly more to learn for the exams, but I'll be so much more prepared for the exams next time round that that shouldn't matter too much - I think part of the problem before was that none of us really had any idea what to expect from the exams, and even now none of us know how they're going to mark it or how well we have to have done to pass. I guess we'll find out on the 16th Feb. Incidentally, that's my mum's birthday so if I fail she's going to get a tearful phonecall on her birthday ... oops. Nothing much else exciting has happened in the couple of days I've been back, watched two films already, had McDonald's with Hel on Sunday night (massively off-track with the diet but there was no food in the house), and then it's just been lectures the last couple of days. So there's not really much to report, except that I'm much more chilled out and really looking forward to this term now, which is good! I will update again when I actually have something exciting to say. Ciao.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Saturday, 12 December 2009
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
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
Thursday, 10 December 2009
And one more thing
Something else now ticked off the list of "Things to do whilst in France":
I ate frogs' legs last night.
I am now coming to terms with the French mantra, "If in doubt, cover it in garlic."
They were very nice though. Like chewier, deep-fried chicken. Covered in garlic.
C'est tout.
I ate frogs' legs last night.
I am now coming to terms with the French mantra, "If in doubt, cover it in garlic."
They were very nice though. Like chewier, deep-fried chicken. Covered in garlic.
C'est tout.
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Only in France
Today, I had my last lecture for one of my modules - international public law. About an hour and a half in, the lecturer was chatting away about international treaties, when suddenly we all heard a man's voice shouting from the back of the lecture theatre. I thought at first it was one of the students like, contesting what she was saying or something like that, but then this man who I'm not sure was homeless OR drunk, but definitely looked both, comes waltzing down the steps holding a guitar and a box. He went up to the big table behind which the lecturer sits and put his stuff down on it, took his coat off etc and then went and spoke to her and shook her hand. She was looking slightly confused at this point but let him carry on with what he wanted to do. And as it turned out, what he wanted to do was to serenade the lecture theatre. He sat down in the lecturer's chair, adjusted the microphone and then started playing his guitar and singing! I have no idea what he was singing but all the French people seemed to like it! Then when he finished, everyone applauded and he took his box, left his guitar on the table and walked all round the lecture theatre asking people for money! A French girl my friend Sophie was talking to said that he does that quite a lot - he'll just wander into lectures and the lecturers don't really know what to do so they just let him get on with it. He took bloody ages to leave as well, once he'd got his money he went back down to the lecturer and started talking to her again and was talking to students on his way back up the stairs - he must have been hanging around at the back because the lecturer suddenly went "Vous sortez, s'il vous plait!" ... and then he was gone.
Just thought I'd share that little snippet. Can't imagine that one ever happening in B62.
Just thought I'd share that little snippet. Can't imagine that one ever happening in B62.
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Your sex is on fire. Oh no, wait ... that's your flat.
So, if any of you have been stalking me on Facebook in the last couple of days you'll know that something quite scary happened yesterday - definitely blog-worthy!
There we all were, me, Mel and Helen in our room and Pat in his, dutifully doing our TD work. Patrick heard fire engines outside and looked out of the window (his room looks out onto the quays). A woman on the other side of the room started waving at him and shouting "Descendez! Descendez!" (for non-Frenchies, the literal translation of that is get the fuck out). Then he looked down and there were two fire engines outside our house and quite a lot of smoke! The three of us obvs had no idea by this point, until Patrick shouted "Girls, there's a fire in our building, get out!" I'll be honest, for a second I thought he was joking but from the tone of his voice it was pretty obvious he wasn't. So we all grabbed bags, put shoes on etc - I even thought to save my TD work on my laptop! Sadly, Helen struggled to put her shoes on whilst simultaneously performing the all-important task of checking her text messages in the face of death ........... and that was the last we saw of her :(
JOKES! She did however take a VERY long time faffing with her shoes and locking the door despite me shouting "Helen, don't lock the door just get the fuck out!" Anyway, we obviously had to evacuate so we ran downstairs, knocking on doors on the way and stuff. Then followed a VERY LONG TIME waiting outside in the cold behind red and white tape cordoning off the area, watching firemen put the fire out, with no one telling us what was going on. It became clear though that there had been an electrical fire in the basement of the building, underneath the shop that the proprietor owns on the first floor of the building.
Eventually we got fed up of waiting and not knowing anything and went to get some food. When we came back there were still firemen there - in fact, three fire engines, two police vans and two ERDF energy vans! The proprietor was there as well - that was the first time we'd actually met her and she was really lovely, even gave us an English handshake rather than the typical French cheek kisses. She basically told us what had gone on and said we couldn't sleep there tonight. Obviously though we didn't have anything with us so we asked a fireman if we could go up to the flat quickly to get more things for the night. He took us up with him - obviously there was no electricity so it was pitch black but it was SO smokey and the smell was disgusting - that really acrid burning plastic smell but worse! So we ran around grabbing overnight stuff and once we were out we phoned the Sheffield girls and asked if we could go round there.
Patrick went back to his room in halls for the night, and the three of us stayed with the Sheffield girls - it's actually really lovely to know that in case of emergency we have got friends who will always let us stay with them! So yeah ... and now, we're not really sure what's going on. We're waiting to hear from the proprietor about when we can go back properly but not sure if we'll be able to stay there tonight, and even if we can, when we'll have electricity, gas and hot water back.
So yeah! There you go. I thought it was definitely something worth blogging about! In other news ... there isn't really any other news. Less than two weeks till I'm back home now and I really can't wait. It's our last week of lectures, then we have one week pretty much free to go to the Christmas market (which is beautiful), shop, ice skate, admire the Christmas lights... and start some revision!
There we all were, me, Mel and Helen in our room and Pat in his, dutifully doing our TD work. Patrick heard fire engines outside and looked out of the window (his room looks out onto the quays). A woman on the other side of the room started waving at him and shouting "Descendez! Descendez!" (for non-Frenchies, the literal translation of that is get the fuck out). Then he looked down and there were two fire engines outside our house and quite a lot of smoke! The three of us obvs had no idea by this point, until Patrick shouted "Girls, there's a fire in our building, get out!" I'll be honest, for a second I thought he was joking but from the tone of his voice it was pretty obvious he wasn't. So we all grabbed bags, put shoes on etc - I even thought to save my TD work on my laptop! Sadly, Helen struggled to put her shoes on whilst simultaneously performing the all-important task of checking her text messages in the face of death ........... and that was the last we saw of her :(
JOKES! She did however take a VERY long time faffing with her shoes and locking the door despite me shouting "Helen, don't lock the door just get the fuck out!" Anyway, we obviously had to evacuate so we ran downstairs, knocking on doors on the way and stuff. Then followed a VERY LONG TIME waiting outside in the cold behind red and white tape cordoning off the area, watching firemen put the fire out, with no one telling us what was going on. It became clear though that there had been an electrical fire in the basement of the building, underneath the shop that the proprietor owns on the first floor of the building.
Eventually we got fed up of waiting and not knowing anything and went to get some food. When we came back there were still firemen there - in fact, three fire engines, two police vans and two ERDF energy vans! The proprietor was there as well - that was the first time we'd actually met her and she was really lovely, even gave us an English handshake rather than the typical French cheek kisses. She basically told us what had gone on and said we couldn't sleep there tonight. Obviously though we didn't have anything with us so we asked a fireman if we could go up to the flat quickly to get more things for the night. He took us up with him - obviously there was no electricity so it was pitch black but it was SO smokey and the smell was disgusting - that really acrid burning plastic smell but worse! So we ran around grabbing overnight stuff and once we were out we phoned the Sheffield girls and asked if we could go round there.
Patrick went back to his room in halls for the night, and the three of us stayed with the Sheffield girls - it's actually really lovely to know that in case of emergency we have got friends who will always let us stay with them! So yeah ... and now, we're not really sure what's going on. We're waiting to hear from the proprietor about when we can go back properly but not sure if we'll be able to stay there tonight, and even if we can, when we'll have electricity, gas and hot water back.
So yeah! There you go. I thought it was definitely something worth blogging about! In other news ... there isn't really any other news. Less than two weeks till I'm back home now and I really can't wait. It's our last week of lectures, then we have one week pretty much free to go to the Christmas market (which is beautiful), shop, ice skate, admire the Christmas lights... and start some revision!
Saturday, 21 November 2009
By the way
New address.
Emma Fox
2eme etage
19 Quai des Salinieres
33000 BORDEAUX
France
The world
The universe
Etc.
Send me things <3
Emma Fox
2eme etage
19 Quai des Salinieres
33000 BORDEAUX
France
The world
The universe
Etc.
Send me things <3
So, I haven't updated for over a month now ... but this time there is a valid excuse! It's been a pretty stressful month ... just after my last post my dad came to visit which was really lovely. Then it was our half term and only a few other Erasmus people were still around so it was a bit lonely. And then we had the biggest nightmare ever with accommodation!
So when I left you last, we had a beautiful, cheap apartment on the quays. Well, when the others went home for half term Mel left me with a list of things to do to sort out the apartment, including going to an agency that the proprietor had told us to go to for the internet. So I went to this agency, but it was an estate agent, and the woman there was really confused as to why I was there asking about internet and was asking me all about the apartment and then asked me if I had come there to pay my rent. So I sat down with her and she couldn't find the name of the proprietor on her database which really confused me. I was already a bit confused about the names because the name on the contract was different from the name we were told to write on the cheques. AND the contract had a heading which said it was a contract for three or six years, and Mel had already signed it. I basically convinced myself (and Mel in England) that these people were fraudsters. They were on holiday in Costa Rica at the time and Mel and I bombarded them with calls and emails and everything, completely ruining their holiday. We went back to the estate agent the day Mel came back and spoke to someone far more helpful who explained to us that the proprietors were an unmarried couple which explained the two different names, and the contract wouldn't bind us for three years, it's just the normal form contract for renting an apartment here and we can terminate it with 3 months notice anytime we want!
So once we had that sorted we posted the cheques and a letter apologising for disturbing them on their holiday, then we got a call from them when they came back arranging to meet them to get our keys and stuff. So we went to the apartment and they were there, they're both really really lovely. However ... when we walked into the apartment, there was a TV on the floor, two mattresses, two laptops and two suitcases from Montreal. It was quite creepy really, at first I thought there were squatters, then it occurred to me that squatters wouldn't have laptops ... either way, long story short, it turned out that one of the agents who the couple worked through had signed a contract to rent the apartment to these two Canadian guys while the couple were on holiday, but hadn't told them, and they hadn't told him they'd found us. So then the couple took us for a drink while they were frantically calling this agent guy and getting really cross with him. They basically told him he had to find us somewhere to live and not charge us agency fees, so we ended up arranging to go and see an apartment the following morning. It did end up being the apartment we are now living in, mainly because we had no other choice. It's not ideal - there are only two main rooms so the three girls are sharing a bedroom. The proprietor also wouldn't take 4 English students, so Patrick has had to get a room in university halls but he's bought a sofa bed and stays here lots anyway. Luckily, the bedroom we're sharing is massive, the building is gorgeous (Victorian, and on some kind of protected list) and it looks over the river still. The rent's not bad, defo much better than what we were paying at Teneo anyway. It took us over two weeks to get the internet so we kept having to go to McDonald's to use the wifi and now we've got it it's not great but at least we have somewhere to live!
So yeah, that's my accommodation story. In other news, Geo came to visit for a week which was amazing. We did three of the museums (cos we're all cultured, like) - Musee d'Aquitaine which basically shows the history of Aquitaine, the Musee des Beaux-Arts which is OK but quite small, it did have a really good exhibition by a modern artist called Francois Dilasser though, and then the Centre Jean-Moulin which is a war museum and was really good. And it was just really nice to see George again after over two months. It's only three weeks until I'm home now too so not too long!
I've had my first ever exam here today as well. It was 4 hours long which is insane - they're 3 hours but we get an extra third of the time because we're erasmus. I think it went OK but I don't really want to say that because it's so hard to know how you've done and it was definitely nothing more than "OK". Unfortunately now we've got TD work to do for Wednesday so we can't properly relax.
I'm starting to really miss England as well now. It's not so much missing the people anymore, though I do miss everyone, but missing the country! That sounds stupid but I miss everything being in English and being easy! I can't wait to come home over xmas, it's a shame I've got so much work to do but it'll be so nice to see everyone. And to sing! One of the things I miss most is definitely St Mary's and I can't wait to get back. I'm also in discussion with John (for anyone from St M's reading this) about organising a tour over here so watch this space ...
I can't really think of much else to say! You'd think more would have happened in a month but it literally has been mostly taken up with stressing about accommodation and revising. I've sent off three training contract applications now - for Burges Salmon, Pannone and Forsters, and I've got 8 to go!! I'm quite enjoying the application process though and I'm starting to feel like I've got the hang of the application forms now. Apart from that, really nothing else has happened. We're nicely settled into the apartment with everything sorted and now I'm just waiting on my erasmus grant, which I could do with pretty soon please Nottingham!!
A bientot mes amis
xx
So when I left you last, we had a beautiful, cheap apartment on the quays. Well, when the others went home for half term Mel left me with a list of things to do to sort out the apartment, including going to an agency that the proprietor had told us to go to for the internet. So I went to this agency, but it was an estate agent, and the woman there was really confused as to why I was there asking about internet and was asking me all about the apartment and then asked me if I had come there to pay my rent. So I sat down with her and she couldn't find the name of the proprietor on her database which really confused me. I was already a bit confused about the names because the name on the contract was different from the name we were told to write on the cheques. AND the contract had a heading which said it was a contract for three or six years, and Mel had already signed it. I basically convinced myself (and Mel in England) that these people were fraudsters. They were on holiday in Costa Rica at the time and Mel and I bombarded them with calls and emails and everything, completely ruining their holiday. We went back to the estate agent the day Mel came back and spoke to someone far more helpful who explained to us that the proprietors were an unmarried couple which explained the two different names, and the contract wouldn't bind us for three years, it's just the normal form contract for renting an apartment here and we can terminate it with 3 months notice anytime we want!
So once we had that sorted we posted the cheques and a letter apologising for disturbing them on their holiday, then we got a call from them when they came back arranging to meet them to get our keys and stuff. So we went to the apartment and they were there, they're both really really lovely. However ... when we walked into the apartment, there was a TV on the floor, two mattresses, two laptops and two suitcases from Montreal. It was quite creepy really, at first I thought there were squatters, then it occurred to me that squatters wouldn't have laptops ... either way, long story short, it turned out that one of the agents who the couple worked through had signed a contract to rent the apartment to these two Canadian guys while the couple were on holiday, but hadn't told them, and they hadn't told him they'd found us. So then the couple took us for a drink while they were frantically calling this agent guy and getting really cross with him. They basically told him he had to find us somewhere to live and not charge us agency fees, so we ended up arranging to go and see an apartment the following morning. It did end up being the apartment we are now living in, mainly because we had no other choice. It's not ideal - there are only two main rooms so the three girls are sharing a bedroom. The proprietor also wouldn't take 4 English students, so Patrick has had to get a room in university halls but he's bought a sofa bed and stays here lots anyway. Luckily, the bedroom we're sharing is massive, the building is gorgeous (Victorian, and on some kind of protected list) and it looks over the river still. The rent's not bad, defo much better than what we were paying at Teneo anyway. It took us over two weeks to get the internet so we kept having to go to McDonald's to use the wifi and now we've got it it's not great but at least we have somewhere to live!
So yeah, that's my accommodation story. In other news, Geo came to visit for a week which was amazing. We did three of the museums (cos we're all cultured, like) - Musee d'Aquitaine which basically shows the history of Aquitaine, the Musee des Beaux-Arts which is OK but quite small, it did have a really good exhibition by a modern artist called Francois Dilasser though, and then the Centre Jean-Moulin which is a war museum and was really good. And it was just really nice to see George again after over two months. It's only three weeks until I'm home now too so not too long!
I've had my first ever exam here today as well. It was 4 hours long which is insane - they're 3 hours but we get an extra third of the time because we're erasmus. I think it went OK but I don't really want to say that because it's so hard to know how you've done and it was definitely nothing more than "OK". Unfortunately now we've got TD work to do for Wednesday so we can't properly relax.
I'm starting to really miss England as well now. It's not so much missing the people anymore, though I do miss everyone, but missing the country! That sounds stupid but I miss everything being in English and being easy! I can't wait to come home over xmas, it's a shame I've got so much work to do but it'll be so nice to see everyone. And to sing! One of the things I miss most is definitely St Mary's and I can't wait to get back. I'm also in discussion with John (for anyone from St M's reading this) about organising a tour over here so watch this space ...
I can't really think of much else to say! You'd think more would have happened in a month but it literally has been mostly taken up with stressing about accommodation and revising. I've sent off three training contract applications now - for Burges Salmon, Pannone and Forsters, and I've got 8 to go!! I'm quite enjoying the application process though and I'm starting to feel like I've got the hang of the application forms now. Apart from that, really nothing else has happened. We're nicely settled into the apartment with everything sorted and now I'm just waiting on my erasmus grant, which I could do with pretty soon please Nottingham!!
A bientot mes amis
xx
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