3 Weeks In

Bonsoir!

So we’re three weeks into the autumn semester and time seems to be going so quickly! The past week has been pretty good though there have been some frustrating moments with regards to French bureaucracy while the sad news is that summer seems to be coming to an end with things turning cold very quickly!

France definitely has a very blasé attitude to general life and the lack of organisation and communication has been quite testing this week. With timetables full of various types of lecture (French Language, French Culture, French History, French Literature plus some additional Spanish modules,) I thought this would be a testing week and it was, but only because almost every lecture I tried to attend had been cancelled, had changed day or room number or simply didn’t start this week, yet none of this information was passed on to anyone. If I had been the only person waiting for the class then I could understand but with both other Erasmus and native French students waiting for classes that never happened, the fault definitely fell on the side of the University. While nice to have a few extra hours free, it has felt a little like a waste of time waiting around for things that never happened, but it’s clearly just the French way! Every lecture is 2 hours long which can also be very tiring, especially if it’s as fast as the History lecture I attempted to go to. Needless to say I didn’t last the 2 hours there, but the point of these 2 weeks is to try things out!

The other issue I had this week was with my French bank account and subsequently setting up a phone contract. I received a letter from the bank informing me that my card was ready to be collected however when I arrived at the bank, they told me it wasn’t there. She asked for I.D. and so I gave her my driving license but ten minutes later she decided this wasn’t good enough and wanted my passport. I didn’t have it with me but DID have a photocopy, good plan I thought, yet 10 minutes later it wasn’t good enough and so I had to come back to my room for my passport. I eventually received my bank card and so off I went to the Virgin phone shop to set up a phone contract. 20 minutes later, the lady informed me that I had the wrong card. I later discovered that in France you have 2 bank account cards: 1 for chip and pin transactions/cash withdrawals and another for online transactions. I need to pay my phone bill online and so needed the second card but as of yet, I’ve only had one letter for the first card mentioned. So, I have to wait for another letter to collect another card to then be able to set up a phone contract – I hope it comes this week!!!!

Otherwise, Tuesday evening saw a number of us go to la place du palais du justice, a big town square in Chambéry where there was an open air film screening arranged by the University’s cinema society. It was an English film with French subtitles which was interesting as you could compare the spoken English to the written French and how it differed in word choice and context, always important in translation! Though I enjoyed, it was SO cold. I wore the thickest thing I had, a large winter knitted jumper (I’m waiting for winter coats e.t.c. to be sent from home) but by 11pm I couldn’t stop shivering and so I was glad to see the credits roll which meant I could get home and into the warmth: I’d definitely like to go to another of their film screenings in the coming semester however!

 

On Tuesday I also managed to overcome a big fear I had about being abroad – having a haircut! I am quite fussy and had images of me leaving the salon with no hair or something awful. I took along a post-it note with a few French phrases and specific vocabulary which the lady there found hilarious. Usually at home, I like to take the time to sit in silence and relax a little when I have my haircut but instead I chose to take full advantage of the fact this lady had to concentrate on me and we chatted about where I was from and what I was doing in Chambéry. She even finished off the session by using one of those wire head massagers – SO relaxing and so I’ll definitely go back again, even if just for the massage!

Being in such a big group (Team GB,) there are many birthdays and this week we celebrated Alice’s birthday on Friday (she’s Italian, but we’ve adopted her!) while on Saturday it was the turn of Lauren to celebrate turning 22 (she thinks she is old..) Lauren lives a in large communal residence and so the party there was SO busy with a number of nationalities, languages and cultures mixing together – I spoke a lot of French and Spanish that night which was good!!

 

Charles, Pia & I Celebrate Lauren's Birthday!

 

On Sunday the sun shone a little (which was lucky, there’s been SO much rain and several thunder storms this week,) and we once again decided to go to Bourget du Lac, 15-20 minutes away on the bus and at 1.20eur each way, it’s worth it! It was much colder there than it had been on previous occasions and there was certainly a shock when first jumping into the water but it was refreshing nevertheless! After such a busy few days and weeks, exhaustion was an understatement of how we all felt and I slept from early evening through to the next morning, 14 hours at least. I didn’t feel refreshed nor did I feel as tired as I had which was a benefit of such a long sleep I guess!

Yesterday (Monday) we tried to attend a French Contemporary History seminar but nobody turned up again..... Erasmus grammar in the afternoon however did go ahead and the lecturer discussed mistakes many people had made in the little essay on our regions we had written the week before – She seemed to remember every error I had made and kept asking for examples from my work but I think she thought the area I had described was so beautiful she just wanted to come and visit!

Today we began classes at 9am with Translation from French to English and it was the first time I felt like I’d actually completed some proper work and learnt something – success! Next we had a two hour class on 18^th century French history. While I managed to understand the majority of what was said, I found the lecturer spoke too quickly and so while trying to write something down and listen to what was being said next, I would forget what I had been writing mid-sentence and so I’ll definitely need to go back through my notes and find some sort of structure. I managed to highlight key dates and names as the class went on and so I think a bit on independent research is necessary, as it will be for the rest of the term with regards to this module I suspect. At 4pm we had a class on ‘perfectionnement en français,’ which is essentially a continuation of the 2 week language course we had upon arrival in Chambéry. I also found out that for that course I received 16/20 for the written assessment (all French grades are out of 20) which is equivalent to 70% and were those credits allowed to count back home, that’d be a 1^st   in Cardiff so I was happy!

Tomorrow I don’t have a lecture until 4pm which is on French Civilisation and is aimed at Erasmus students so hopefully that’ll be somewhat enjoyable and I can keep up with what goes on! Other plans this week include possible Salsa dancing with Sarah on Wednesday, going to French Choir with Alex, Sarah & Beth on Thursday (The theme this week is chansons anglaises/English songs – easy!) and I also believe we will be going to the local ice skating rink towards the end of the week for Ailie’s birthday. Hopefully I will soon be the owner of a French phone contract and an online bank card (I need to pay rent next week!) I’m also off to CAF with all my documents tomorrow so that’ll hopefully all be sorted too. All I need now is to have an official and structured timetable and I can get busy with French work while also planning visits to other places or arranging for friends to come and visit me! J

A bientôt les amis