It's Swings & Roundabouts

FIRSTLY, Apologies! I wrote this blog post on Monday but we’ve had no internet for several days in our accommodation and so I have only now been able to post it – I have however updated it up to today J!

I am a month into my Third Year Abroad. On one hand it seems like I’ve been in Chambéry forever, while on the other, time seems to be passing by so quickly and before I know it exams will be over, Christmas will be a distant memory and I’ll be off to Valencia to start the process all over again.

‘Swings and Roundabouts’ would be a good phrase to describe the current situation: as many good things happen, there are equally some frustrating and annoying events too.

As previously mentioned, the French bureaucracy and communication system does leave quite a lot to be desired and this became most frustrating on Thursday morning. We got up at 6.30am for our 8am ‘histoire de la langue’ lecture. At around 8.20 a French student checked online and realised the room had been changed (how he found this information I’ll never know?) and so all 20+ of us went to the lecture theatre as stated on the website. Ten minutes after arriving, another French student came in and announced that she’d spoken to a secretary and that the lecture would not be coming today. That was that. Were such a thing to happen in Cardiff, we’d receive both an email and text message informing us of the changes and so it’s a little irritating that such simple yet practical measures aren’t in place here. Subsequently, Sarah, Beth and I attempted to attend a choir session that evening but we arrived to find a sign on the door stating that the building was busy and the rehearsal had been postponed until next week. Incidentally, we could see into the building and it was far from being in use...

In all honestly, I’ve felt quite homesick this weekend and spent most of the time in my room. Being the organised person that I am, the lack of routine here has been pulling me down. At home, I’m used to working for the majority of my spare time and after lectures and completing work for them, I don’t have much other free time nor do I often have the energy to do much either. We’ve put in a lot of effort here to try and attend lectures and test classes but if I were to be honest, the success rate of this has been very low. I’m used to being on the go all of the time and so while of course I miss family, friends, foods and the British culture, I’m definitely struggling most with the relaxed and somewhat uninterested French lifestyle. Thankfully I have some of my very best friends here who helped to pick me back up and speaking with others at home reminded me of the amazing opportunities that I will have the chance to experience over the next year. Therefore, these issues and feelings are minor compared to what I will experience and they will not even feature as an aspect of my year abroad that I will look back upon in a years’ time and later on in life.  Reading through a booklet Cardiff gave me before departure, everything I  have been feeling is natural and part of the adapting process and I am sure it won't be long before I move onto the third 'section' of moving away where I adapt to the way of life here and love it!

Things are slowly beginning to improve and we have had SOME lectures at least, including our first piece of thème (French – English translation) to complete at home along with some exercises for our grammar class and also for Perfectionnement Français  (which is a continuation of the 2 week course I completed at the beginning of September.) Hopefully things will continue in this respect with the rest of my modules and I’ll eventually have the structure and routine I crave.   

Things are definitely starting to get colder and I’m thankful that my parents shipped my out a parcel with some winter coats, a gilet and some warmer shoes, things were getting a little cold in my Vans! Despite this, there have still been some glorious days of weather though things are definitely on the turn. Wednesday was a wet day, but that is a severe understatement. I’m used to the rain in Wales but experienced things on a whole new level on Wednesday as it did not rain, but it poured and poured and poured. We caught a bus back from our lecture which finished at 6pm and despite wearing a coat and carrying an umbrella, we were all saturated to our skin. I can’t wait for the rain to fall as snow, though the walk up the hill to University will be even worse than it is now (ALTHOUGH it does seem to be feeling easier to complete! J)

Sunday’s in Chambéry and France on the whole are generally quiet. In fact, hardly a thing opens. This Sunday however, it was all very different. Twice a year, Chambéry hosts a braderie. It is an event where local people set up a table in the street and fill it with things from their house they no longer want which they sell to those who... well those who do want the items! However, ANYTHING goes and it was surely one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. While there were no doubt some useful things on offer, there was SO much junk, so many broken items and so many items which had no purpose. Sunday afternoon, Alex, Jaime and I decided to go and wander through the bustling Savoyard streets to see what it was all about. I saw plenty of tires, clothing and children’s toys. There were even boxes of random plus where I assume you take along an item and try the different plugs to see if any of them fit... only in France! We bumped into some of the other Team GB contingent: Hannah had bought a denim jacket (1 euro) and a fur coat and Beth bought a snakeskin handbag, Ralph Lauren scarf and a denim jacket while Charles bought a pair of roller blades and Jessie bought a ski jacket for 7 Euros! If you were prepared to get up early and prepared to rummage, there were definitely some bargains to be had! Adjacent to the hundreds of ‘home made’ tables was a market which lined another sweet and offered a plethora of items from perfume to books and from handbags to jewellery. We stopped at a pick-a-mix stall (it was expensive but certainly worth the price) and we also bought some delicious churros (long doughnuts which come with chocolate sauce – yum!) On top of this, all of the ‘normal’ shops opened for the day and offered discounts on all of their items – I am sure they took in lots of money! Unfortunately I won’t be in Chambéry to witness the event again in 6 months time but it was wonderful to see the streets heaving with people, especially on a Sunday!

 

Han & Beth in their matching denim jackets - 1 Euro!

 

 

Following lectures on Monday, Alex and I went to Monoprix to stock up our fridge and shelves as food was scarce in each of our rooms. On our return (a 5-10 minute walk,) we wandered into an event called le congrès national des sapeurs-pompiers (I wrote it from the back of a t-shirt! From what I can tell, it seems to be an event that promotes firefighters, the work their do and their job as a profession (though I may have to confirm or deny this at a later date.) There were lots of cyclists and a variety of ancient fire engines along with an individual dressed as some sort of fireman (a mascot, perhaps?)

 

 

Over the past few weeks, Alex, Hannah and I have been arranging for Anya’s boyfriend AK to come and surprise and visit her in France. He flew from London on Tuesday morning and we met him at the coach station to bring him back to our accommodation. When she answered her door, a look of total shock and happiness beamed across her face and it was so lovely to be able to make one of my best friends so happy – a good deed! J  That evening saw the celebration of yet another birthday – this time it was the turn of Ailie! We decided to go ice skating and so 20 of us made the short walk to the ice rink, which cost 4 Euros 50 – probably one of the cheapest things I’ve paid for in France!! They had music and lights as if we were on a night out and it was just SO much fun! I have only skated a few times many years ago but after a few minutes of finding my bearings I was gliding pretty fast around the rink. Some of the others later played ice hockey with some French people but unfortunately play had to end at 11pm as the rink was closing. We all had such a great time and at that price, I think we will all definitely be returning several more times before Christmas comes!

 

(Photos of Ice Skating seem to be having problems uploading at the moment, so I'll have to try again!!)

 

 

Yesterday however it emerged that Charles has fractured his wrist during a fall and spent this morning at the hospital – bless him! I on the other hand ache from my neck down to my knee from the one fall I had when a guy slid into me and I had to jump over a cone which was used to section off an area of the ice. As a result, Hannah & I went to a meeting he had arranged at the bank and at the end, the lady asked if we had our bank cards. I informed her I had only received the one card and had been waiting several weeks for a letter to come and collect the second – She told me it should be down at the reception desk and after a quick phone call she informed he it had been waiting for me for weeks...! Why nobody could have checked when I had returned to say I had not received any letters I don’t know but I FINALLY have both of my bank cards!!!! I also returned my CAF form earlier this week and it was THE easiest thing I’ve done since arriving on the continent. The lady on the desk at the door looked through my piles of forms plus documents as evidence (such as proof of being a student, photocopy of passport e.t.c.) and moments later she told me everything was fine – just like that! I now have to wait a few weeks but then hopefully they will deposit some money into my French bank account, meaning that I will receive roughly half of my rent back – always good to hear, especially as a student! Otherwise, hopefully the rest of the week will progress well with regards to lectures and I can finally confirm the modules I will study in order to inform Cardiff as to what subjects they can expect to receive grades in following my exams.

This morning we had our 8am lecture again and this time it went ahead as planned! Histoire de la langue was interesting and the lecturer is a little eccentric and there were several laughs which were definitely appreciated to keep us awake at that time of the morning! Following the class, Pia & I went to Virgin mobile and I FINALLLLLLLY set up a French phone contract and I can use my phone properly once more! At €11.99 per month for unlimited SMS, a bundle of minutes and internet, it’s not a bad deal at all and I can use bbm and whatsapp to contact people for hardly any price which makes it even better! Following this we went and did some food shopping at Monoprix and then our weekend had arrived!

I don’t know what the next few days will hold, but I have some pieces of work to complete for lectures and have to get on top of the notes I’ve made. I also think I should do some research into French history to help alongside the lectures as they’re 2 hours of quick and pure French, difficult even though we’re sitting in the front row! I’ll need to rest a little as I still ache from ice skating but apart from that, I’ll just have to see wait and see what France has in store over the next few days

Tout le monde, à bientôt! J