Bon après-midi à tous J
Yet another week of Savoyard life is over and with less than 5 weeks left until I return home for Christmas, it is becoming ever more evident that the French half of my year abroad is drawing to a close. Something I read on Anya’s blog earlier this week struck a chord with me:
“The time here has already gone by so quickly and will doubtlessly continue to do so. So I guess it is a lesson to seize every opportunity and make the most of the next few weeks to come, because after December, it is literally exam period and then SPAIN!”
Yet another week of Savoyard life is over and with less than 5 weeks left until I return home for Christmas, it is becoming ever more evident that the French half of my year abroad is drawing to a close. Something I read on Anya’s blog earlier this week struck a chord with me:
“The time here has already gone by so quickly and will doubtlessly continue to do so. So I guess it is a lesson to seize every opportunity and make the most of the next few weeks to come, because after December, it is literally exam period and then SPAIN!”
As a result, this is exactly what
I hope and plan to do.
I got up at 6.30am on Saturday morning to walk Alex to the train station as she was returning back to England for her grandfather’s funeral and on my way back to Arpej, I stopped at the Saturday market to buy some apples, peppers and a baguette – it was incredibly busy for 7.30am. I spent the rest of the day researching, reading and making notes for my ‘History of the French Language’ essay due in the following week plus writing my presentation that I would present with Jaime and Sarah on the topic of ‘malnutrition,’ and also a little grammar and translation work. Saturday evening there were celebrations for Catrin’s birthday but I had to be disciplined and stay in to write my essay, knowing I had many things planned in the coming weeks and so this had to come first – Anya, Hannah and I ate dinner together and went to see Catrin and the others for half an hour before essay writing continued – I finished it in the early hours of the morning, it felt like a success! It wasn’t very complex language-wise as I had to recount events which had influenced the French Language which can’t really be dramatised, but hopefully it’s good enough! Sunday was another day of work until the third instalment of CDWM (Come Dine With Me.) The theme was “all around the world” with everyone dressing up as someone from another country or culture. I’d been busy working and so wore my ‘déjà vu’ t-shirt, being “French.”
The food was so good! – A pasta dish to start along with baguette and various meats, several main dishes (Spanish paella, a vegetable curry and Chilli Con Carne) and a dessert with meringue, a fruit coulis, ice-cream and squirty cream! Tomorrow (Sunday) will see the fourth and final CDWM evening which I will be hosting along with Beth, Hannah, Alex and Chris. Our theme is ‘Mexican’ and we bought a TON of food on Wedesday – an update to follow!
On Tuesday I gave my presentation with Jaime and Sarah which went quite well (I think?!) and on Wednesday, I saw my first ‘Grève’ (strike/protest) which was part of a wider protest taking place across several European Countries against austerity budgets to help cut deficits and end the recessive nature of the economy. France is infamous for its strikes – there always seems to be one somewhere! – And so it was quite nice to see one in this little town where suddenly at least 1000 people were marching through the streets shouting and protesting.
Strike!
PLENTY of Food!
Following the 8am ‘Histoire de la
langue Français’ class on Thursday, I had haircut and did a little Uni work. Another OIF
(Only In France) moment I saw from my balcony was a pink van driving around,
towing a trailer with a statue of an elephant while playing circus music and
announcing the arrival of the St Petersburg circus. As I said – OIF!
Only hours later, there was
another OIF moment – I popped to the big Carrefour supermarket to print some
photos of my time here in Chambéry. While there I saw a display for honey
accompanied by some sort of dome/biome which contained hundreds of bees working
away, demonstrating how honey was made. Crazy!
GRENOBLE
Yesterday seven of us (Beth, Sarah, Alex, Hannah, Jaime,
Lauren and myself) went on a daytrip to Grenoble, a city an hour south of
Chambéry on the train. The morning was cloudy, misty and incredibly cold as we
wandered around the city visiting churches, monuments, walking along the river and
stopping halfway through to warm ourselves with a chocolat chaud. In one church
I lit a candle for Alex’s grandfather and my grandfather who had died 2 years ago
this week, which was a nice to do. Later that morning we visited the musée de
Grenoble which eld ancient art collections up to modern day pieces along with
exhibitions on the Egyptian civilisation, among others.
As we left the museum, the skies cleared and the mountains
that surrounded us became visible which was great for what we’d planned after
lunch! We found a beautiful little restaurant which served steak and chips (and
proper homecooked chips, not French fries!) which was delicious and at less
than 12eur including a drink, was by far the best value for money meal I’ve had
since I’ve been in France! That
afternoon we all caught the little cable car (known as ‘les bulles’ due to
their appearance as little round balls) to ‘La Bastille,’ a series of forts
which sit on a hill overlooking Grenoble. As soon as the cars had reached the
rooftops of the buildings on the ascent, snow capped mountains became visible
all around. We spent some time at the top taking photos of the incredible
scenes – this truly is such a beautiful region of France!
Another Savoyard week complete,
Over and out!
Over and out!
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