The Bear Adventures

Hiya!

I’ve have quite a bit going on since I last posted. Firstly I had exams, which are now over :D I’ve had some results back and so far so good! Here is a picture of me not revising during the exam period, but drinking sangria instead….as me and Gudrun decided we needed a break from revision:

In other news, I have a boulot!!! I’m basically helping two teenagers with their English a few evenings a week. I also have to heat up/cook an evening meal for them and do a bit of cleaning. My first “shift” was Monday evening, it went okay, although they’re both quite shy and not very confident with their English. Hopefully things will improve a bit as we get to know each other a bit more. It’s something to do anyway :)

Also Benn finally came to visit me this weekend. It was really good to see him again! On Saturday we went to Luneville, it was pretty hot and pretty dead but the castle was nice:

When we got back to Nancy, we saw a Ben&Jerry’s van giving out FREE ice cream, so of course decided not to pass that one up! The bad news is I’ve discovered a new B&J flavour that I really like….

On Sunday we didn’t do much, we took a trip on the tram just to see where it goes, turns out there’s a hospital and sod all else at the Vandoeuvre terminus….Later on in the afternoon we went to Parc Pepiniere to enjoy the sunshine. Not much else to report, we mostly just chilled out all weekend and ate lots of junk food….

The weather’s been really odd here. It’s really grey and meh at the moment. Over the last few nights there have been several thunderstorms and on Monday evening it went on for hours! It resulted in pretty heavy flooding, especially in Parc Pepiniere. I even got a phone call from Student Services (in Exe) yesterday evening to check I was okay and hadn’t been affected by it! :O That was quite nice of them!!!

Anywho that’s all for now, until next time! :) x

Hey there,

It’s the middle of exam time here in Nancy and just in case that wasn’t enough of reason for me to be struggling to motivate myself, it’s also really hot and sunny, so all I want to do is eat ice cream and sleep :/ (Okay, well I want to do that most of the time…)

Last Friday was Gudrun’s birthday so I helped her celebrate. We went to the Gourmandises chocolate shop and had the really rich hot chocolate that I can never finish. Then we went and did some window shopping (to walk off the effects of the hot chocolate.) In St Sebastien there’s this Mai de l’Europe thing happening, with lots of stands and flags all over the place. We found a big map of theEU and took the opportunity to take some more tourist-like photos of us pointing to our home countries on the map:

(N.b Was really annoyed to discover that Warwick had been labelled on the map but not Coventry…grrr)

Afterwards we went to a new tapas restaurant for lunch, which also had a lunchtime deal (3 tapas plus drink for 11€ - which is not bad for France really.) After stuffing our faces full of lovely tapas, the owner gave us a promotional condom each after we paid. Only in France…. Like a mint or some sweets would have been normal but a condom?! While it’s great that he’s promoting safe sex, the only thing I wanted to do after that meal was have a nice long nap! Here is the offending condom:

Exams have gone okay so far (I hope!) We had some drama on Monday because one of the girls in our translation exam was using a dictionary. Only the Erasmus students are allowed to use dictionaries and they must be French ones. I think she had a German one…. Anyway the lecturer said something to her and threw the dictionary on the desk in front of her, but didn’t ask her to leave or tear up her paper or anything…. Wednesday’s Interculturality exam was interesting. Basically I rambled on about everything the he’d taught us and even mentioned the UK, even though it was technically relevant to the question :D One of the invigilators questioned whether Gudrun, Laura and I were allowed to use dictionaries because it said no authorised materials on the paper, but luckily the French stuck up for us and we were allowed to keep on using them. Grammar went alright, although I realise I made a few VERY stupid mistakes and am now kicking myself about them!

Last night I gave myself the night off (well sort of the whole day but never mind) and went to the cinema with Gudrun. We saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in English, but with French subtitles. It was BRILLIANT!!! A very heart-warming British comedy.I recommend people going to see it or buying it on DVD (not sure if it’s still on in UK cinemas or not.)

Anyway that’s about all for now, I’d better get back to the grindstone. TTFN x

Hiya,

Exams are almost upon us here in Nancy! So like any good student I’m writing this instead of revising….hehe. It’s been a pretty good couple of weeks here :) I only have one more seminar left, which is German oral tomorrow morning, then I’ll just have my exams left - all 7 of them - considering I’m only doing half the credits I normally do, I’ve had like twice as many exams to do! Anyways, here’s what I’ve been up to instead of revision:

On Friday evening Gudrun and I went to the unibecause we’re so insanely cool like thatto see a student play called “Ubu roi” - apparently it’s a pretty famous play about some noble guy in Poland who kills the king and assumes role as king, there’s a lot of fighting and it ends with them all on a boat singing. YEAH, soooooo I had a fair bit of difficulty understanding what was going on :/ Also it started with a sex scene….only in France! However my friend Amandine was part of the chorus, it was lovely to see her and pretty awesome to see her acting! Another cool thing about the play was that me and Gudrun only paid 2€ each to get in, thanks to our NancyJeunes cards. Okay I need to stop saying “cool”…

Okay, back to my adventures. On the Saturday Gudrun and I went to Luxembourg for the day! :) Let’s just say I’m in love…with a country! I’m really glad I finally took Ulrike’s advice to visit Luxembourg because aside from the fact it was only 15€ return, it’s a wonderful country and the capital (also called Luxembourg) is so beautiful and very European. We had a very long day (our train left at 8.20am) of sightseeing and window shopping - we’re such massive tourists! Haha. The weather was also fabulous! It was really really hot though, especially during our tour on this:

It was really awesome and quite original - a bus in the shape of a train, but we were effectively being driven around in a greenhouse (minus the plants!) so it was about a million degrees inside it. Here’s a picture of us enjoying the sights:

Afterwards we went for lunch and then went for an explore, finding an amazing children’s playground in the park. :) After this we continued on and persuaded some other tourists to take a photo of us next to one Luxembourg’s many bridges, overlooking theville basse (which is probably the best “old town” I’ve ever seen!) So here’s the photo of us, looking slightly windswept (despite the heat it was pretty windy up near theville haute:

Well that’s about all for Luxembourg and this week’s adventures. However I did manage to book my tickets for Frankfurt this week :) Can’t wait to see Alice and Bekah and go back to Germany - it’s been almost a year!!

Righty-ho, I’d better bid you farewell. Revison beckons….Until next time! :)

I said goodbye to a wonderful woman during the Easter holidays. It was an absolute honour to have known and loved her. She died peacefully in her sleep at 4.05am on Sunday 8th April at the Marie Curie Hopice in Solihull. Although it is/was so hard to say goodbye and let her go, I am happy that her suffering has come to an end.

I found this hebrew proverb, which I thought I’d share:

“Say not in grief ‘he is no more’ but live in thankfulness that he was.”

                                  Nancy Jenkins Griffiths

                         3rd February 1929 ~ 8th April 2012

Hey peeps.

I’m back again! Here’s what I’ve been up to for the last week or so.

Spring has sprung in Nancy! We’ve had some really lovely weather over the past couple of weeks, last weekend I decided to go for a stroll because it was a lovely day and also it would mean that Mum couldn’t moan at me for spending so much time indoors ;) I’ve also realised how much I love this time of year (at least in Nancy) it’s sunny and there’s beautiful blossom starting to bloom on the trees, like a rays of hope. Here’s a photo of said beautiful blossom:

Also this week we didn’t have our German Interculturality lecture (YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!) because M. What’s-his-face was a conference or something in Stuttgart or somewhere so couldn’t make it. This meant we weren’t subjected to his ramblings about n’importe quoi and rants, including the famous “Il y a un train” which apparently is how French students will skive off lectures by saying they need to catch a train and therefore miss the lecture… Anyway back to the main point, basically I finished at 11am on Friday so I met up with Nelly for lunch (okay so we went to Maccy D’s, don’t shoot me!) and we then went for a wander around St Sebastien and I saw lots of pretty clothes I’d like to own but don’t need. I really need to stop watching SATC - it’s making want to buy high heels, pretty dresses and drink cocktails…. But basically I spent a lovely couple of hours chatting in French with Nelly :)

Today I arranged to meet with Gudrun to go for a drink, but we decided to check out the funfair that’s currently in Nancy, first. It is HUGE - they’ve basically crammed a theme park into Cours Leopold and Place Carnot. It was really expensive though - 5€ to go on the Ferris wheel!!!! Also it was basically the same types of stalls a rides repeated several times, but it was a nice trip out. It was so cute seeing families out and about with their kids. Here’s a picture of the Ferris Wheel:

Before going to Les Artistes for a Happy Hour cocktail, we wandered to Place Stan because we could see a crowd of people stood by the statue. It turns out that it was a street performer, it’s weird it was exactly the same type of performance as the shows in the UK (including the obligatory “don’t try this at home, kids” and “please give me money” stuff) the only difference was that it was all in French! Anyway after this we headed for a drink at Les Artistes. I had Tequila Sunrise:

Not gonna lie, the sweets are a major part of the decision-making process! I’d never had Tequila Sunrise before but it was lovely although I didn’t feel the effects of it, which I normally do after a cocktail/glass of wine so I guess it wasn’t that strong or maybe I just needed it? ;) Who knows? **Got so carried away with talk of tequila, I forgot to add this little gem: Being Erasmus students, Gudrun and I got onto the topic of people reacting to our (in)ability to speak and understand French. While we were complaining about the French discussing this, a lady from the table opposite who had been eavesdropping “couldn’t help but hear what we saying” asked us where we both from and said we spoke really good French. It was a nice little confidence boost, even though only somebody without a sould would  actually turn round and say “well actually you’re crap at French, no wonder you’re having issues” It was nice of her to say it, she could have just ignored us like everyone else. Anyway c’est tout!**

Anyway that’s about all for this time ladies and gents, until next time! :) xx

Alright my lover,

So I must confess that not a lot has happened since my last post, so this is a bit of a mish-mash of year abroadness that’s currently floating around my head.

On Friday afternoon, we had the ever delightful 2 hour lecture, which claims to be about interculturality but is mostly just an old man waffling about nonsense. Because it’s dealthy boring, Gudrun, Laura and myself decided to start a tally of how often he says certain things in the lecture, this means that we spend a lot of the lecture trying not to laugh. This week’s tally is as follows:

• The number of times he spoke in English:7
• The number of times he spoke in German:102 (He definitely spoke less German this week too!)
• The number of times he apologised:2
• The number of random rants we were subjected to: 5

If you’re wondering about the title, these are sort of unofficial nicknames me and Laura came up with:

Laura = The Chocolate Monster( because she mentioned liking pain au chocolat or something, when asked a question about something to do with bakeries)

Me =The Stupid One(because I refused to read out the text, implying that it was too difficult because I couldn’t be bothered to think about how to pronounce a fuckton of French numbers on a Friday afternoon, thus leaving M.whatever-his-name-is with the impression that I’m crap at French)

Gudrun =The Austrian(because she’s Austrian and everytime he makes some comment about Germany he asks for her what the Austrians do - it’s hilarious to see the look on her face when this happens!)

Also here is a list of random things that I still don’t understand about France:

1. The lack of toilet seats in the uni loos.
2. Why the loos at uni are mixed (as in here are some cubicles, sinks and behind that wall a few urinals…)
3. Why everything is so flipping expensive.
4. Why the people who wear uniforms (SNCF, the Police etc.) all wear ridiculous hats, it seems to be an all-or-nothing situation.
5. Why they haven’t exported Speculoos to the UK.
6. How “McDo” can justify charging 2.50 € for a McFlurry.

Well that’s about everything I had to say for today, it’s about time I went to bed. Sleep well and goodnight! :)

Hey there!

I’m trying to write this whilst dancing around to Shakira, currently Shakira’s winning!

**dances around pretending to be Shakira**

Okay back to business. so I haven’t posted for a few weeks. Here’s a summary of things:

Les vacances -

So I went home for 5 days during the half term hols. It was lovely (aside from having to get up at 4.30am to catch my train to Paris.) I got to spend some quality time with my parents for a few days before Rob came home for the weekend. It was lovely being an only child for a bit :D I was also able to catch up with Laura and Helen, despite us all being rather busy. Unfortunately Gma was re-admitted into hospital while I was home, hopefully she’ll be out soon. Anyways it was great to be home and speaking English with no guilt whatsoever. As usual the holidays went far too quickly and I won’t be home again until the Easter holidays, although that’s just under a month away :)

Uni etc -

Uni’s going okay, nothing much to report really. I have a contrôle continu this week for Sémantique this week, providing I learn everything by Tuesday it should go okay, as my lecturer said I can use a bilingual dictionary for the words I don’t know. I was surprised to see Laura (from Exeter, not from home) in Friday’s delightful two hour soul sucking lecture. She got to experience the joy that isInterculturalité allemande - me and Gudrun have started a tally on how many times he speaks in English during the lecture (this week a record 19 times) and how many times he apologizes (this week 6 times.) We think we might add how much he just starts speaking in German too, despite the fact that you don’t need to know any German to do the course, this tally will be off the charts!

Epinal -

So yesterday Laura and I went to Epinal for the day because Nancy has been making me cabin crazy. It was a lovely day and the weather was really nice. We only just caught the train to Epinal due to some confusion on our agreed meeting point. It turns out that there are 3 “the place where the big screen is” and we went to different ones! We really should have bought a map and we basically spent the day wandering around in circles, although it’stotallyjustified all the Milka I’ve eaten since Friday…. We also found the castle ruins - why are theyalwaysat the top of a bloody hill?! From the top we had a lovely view of Epinal, although time ran away with us slightly and it was a bit of a mad dash back to the station, where I discovered I should have “composté-d” my ticket on the way back, but ah well I know for next time. :) Here are a few photos from yesterday:

(Above: Laura in this little tunnel thing next to the church that we had difficulties getting out of!)

(Here’s me on our way up to the castle.)

(This was my attempt an artistic photo through a castle window, please forgive me!)

Well that’s about all for now, bon dimanche! xx

Hey folks!

Sorry about the delay in posting, I would love to say it’s because I’ve been so busy being an Erasmus student and enjoying the French culture or some tripe, but this isn’t the case, I’ve just been too lazy to post anything!

So what’s been happening lately? Well not much I’m afraid, just been going to lectures, eating too much chocolate and napping! Altough it’s now the vacances! :D I’m very excited about going home for a few days, plus it’s just me with Mum and  Dad for the first few days, so I’ll get to experience life as an only child for a bit ;)

Lectures are going alright, some better than others! I have Laura and Rebecca for company in my Langue, Langage et Societe module, which is nice although I find I’m not working as hard with them there! German language is going okay, in oral class on Friday we were talking about some German comdian called Loriot (hence the title.) My sciences du language module is quite interesting, although we were studying syllables in Phonologie and breaking them down into smaller parts. It feels a bit like splitting the linguistic atom!! German interculturalite isn’t going so well… The teacher is lovely but very talkative and has a tendency to go off on tangents, so consequently I stop listening….. I’m enjoying English translation, although it has shown me why English translations are so crap in France - it is almost socially acceptable to use an automatic translator!!! :O If I told Helen Simmonds that I’d used Google Translation, I’d be lynched!

In other news, I’ve joined Exeter’s online gym and bought a gym mat because it’s too painful without one. You can stop laughing now! The diet of chocolate and viennese pastries is catching up with me, so I decided to take action. (Swimming has been put on the back burner until the weather warms up!) Also I can do the gym classes in the privacy of my own room, i.e. I don’t have to make an idiot of myself in front of anyone!

That’s about all for today, but before I go, here are some pictures from Strasbourg that Anna (from Finland, not the Austrian one) took and sent us:

Anyway, that’s all for this time. Bonnes Vacances! xx