Two months in Erlangen already - OMG.

Wow, I really need to be better at this blogging business. Once again it is ages since I last posted. I have now been in Erlangen for 2 months. I can barely believe it! A week after I arrived, my orientation course began and I met some of the most awesome people ever, including a Hungarian guy called Balazs, who claims to be here to party and studying is just a thing on the side. His catchphrase in German is "Ich bin hier zu Party, studieren ist eine Nebenwirkung!" He also loves to use the word awesome. I say this word a lot but he says it in almost every sentence! Balazs created our Erasmus Erlangen group on Facebook - this earned him the nickname of "Capitano." Best nickname ever!

The orientation course was very helpful; the people who organised it helped us to set up bank accounts, register with the local authorities and organise health insurance. I can't believe how much more helpful the Germans are than the French! I had to do all of this sort of stuff myself in Lyon, it was not fun at all. Other things included in the orientation course were a tour of the university library and a session of "intercultural training." The latter was interesting, albeit a little strange. We did a quiz about Germany, and we were taught about various social norms such as how far away to stand from someone. Apparently the acceptable distance to stand from a German is 1.2 to 3.6 metres. At the intercultural training I met the second group of exchange students, who made our already awesome Erasmus group even more awesome!

The orientation course wasn't all bureaucracy and boring stuff, we also had 3 day trips. I will write about those in another post because otherwise this post will be insanely long and you will all get bored or else strain your eyes. So I will move on and talk about my intensive language course. I took a placement test which would determine the class I would go into. I found the test to be alright, it was a simple fill in the gaps type thing. The next day we were given our results and told some more about the course. When I found out that I had been placed at level C1, my heart sank because I thought this meant I was going to be in the bottom class. However I then realised that according to the European testing standards, A is the lowest level and C is the highest. You can see why I got confused! Once I realised I was in the top class, I was relieved but I also began to panic, because I was expecting to be in one of the middle classes. I was worried that I would end up feeling way out of my depth. When the course started the following day, I actually felt comfortable at the level I was at. After all I wasn't expecting this course to be child's play; I wanted a challenge. As a warm up exercise the teacher asked us to get into small groups and discuss how we felt about the course. I was in a group with Anna, a Polish girl I knew from the orientation, Balazs and two other people. Balazs instantly started complaining that there was too much homework. This frustrated me because he seemed to think that this course was going to be like primary school i.e. lots of talking and hardly any written work. He had said that he didn't care whether he made grammar mistakes or not. I wanted to scream at him! If you don't care about mistakes, then why on earth are you doing this language course?! Anyway, I digress. The language course lasted 4 weeks and it was seriously intense, but I got a lot out of it. I definitely think my German improved. Some of my friends in the lower classes didn't get nearly as much out of the course as I did. Even in the B2 class (the level right below mine) the exercises were incredibly basic; the sort of German one would have learned in second year. I felt sorry for the people in these classes, since they couldn't move to a higher class, so the course was pretty much a waste of time for them.

After the language course ended, there was an international evening - a party where everyone brought food from their own country. I made little triangular jam sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Very English picnic! I don't quite know why, but they were really popular! The variety of foods was really interesting: the Japanese people brought sushi, the Americans brought mac & cheese, one of the other Brits made bangers and mash - yummy! My friends Becca and Kim made pancakes. I had a great time, there was good music, good food and cool people. One of the funniest moments was when Balazs made an announcement over the microphone, saying "why is there no beer?" I laughed so much! Later on, the Japanese students did a traditional dance for us. It was fab! Unfortunately I had to leave this amazing party early because I was going home the next day and I still had to pack. Details about my time at home in another post. I promise I'll post sooner this time!

Escapades in Erlangen

I have returned! It has been way too long since I posted. Things have been so crazy that I just haven't had the time. I had a lovely Christmas although it was too short, damn French and their weird holidays! When I went back to Lyon everything just exploded. I had 2 exams - Ancient History and German History. The former was 3 hours of pure torture; I had no idea what I was supposed to do and I ended up writing one pathetically vague paragraph. German History wasn't quite as bad but it was still a nightmare. When I got my results I found myself in the s*** like I have never been before - I had missed some exams and failed some others. I wanted to cry! In fact I did, while having a long and scary Skype call with my parents. I was convinced that I had blown my entire degree and I wouldn't be able to go to Germany. However I eventually discovered that the exams in France don't count towards my degree, so I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. After all that faff, Mum came to Lyon to help me move out. I thought I had managed to get my flat into a decent condition before she arrived, but when she did come to my flat, she went absolutely mental! So we embarked on an epic cleaning mission. Mum spent most of the day cleaning the hob, which was encrusted with black muck and goodness only knows what else. At the end of the day we were both shattered! Long story short, we flew home the next day and I had 3 weeks at home to look forward to. Nothing of great interest happened during those 3 weeks, except for when I went up to Birmingham to visit Sophie, Kiddy, Beth and James. I had a cuppa in their house and then went to the Soak for lunch with Beth and Kiddy. After that I met up with someone who had been begging for me to come back to England ever since I left for France: Rucksana. We met up in Joe's and chatted for ages :) Rucksana I love you so much!

While I was at home I realised that three weeks is an incredibly short amount of time when one has so much to do, and before I knew it, Mum and I were beginning the journey to Germany. We flew to Frankfurt and then the real adventure began. We had to find the train station, and Frankfurt airport is huge. While we were wandering around following signs for what seemed like forever, a faint memory surfaced of Robert Evans mentioning in one of his many off-at-a-tangent random stories that Frankfurt airport is a nightmare. Oh how I hate those crippling moments of deja vu! Eventually we found the station and waited for the train to Nuremberg. Once on it we had a comfortable 3 hour journey and then the nightmares started again. Oh F***, I thought to myself as I saw no sign of an escalator at Nuremberg station. We had to drag the luggage up and down several staircases, which was no mean feat especially with Mum's bandaged finger - she had cut it on the cheese grater during my 3 weeks at home. The train to Erlangen was somewhat grotty, but that was the least of our problems. Having looked at a list of the stops, I was convinced that we needed to get off at the second stop from Nuremberg. However, when we got off, I silently cursed myself again - I had got us off at the wrong stop. Instead of being in Erlangen, we were in some middle of nowhere place called Unterfarrnbach. I was mentally kicking myself while Mum managed to find a timetable, but she couldn't make any sense of it. Thankfully I thought to look up a timetable on my Deutsche Bahn phone app. We waited about half an hour and eventually got on a train, and this time we got off at Erlangen, where my buddy, Tabea, was waiting for us. She walked us to the outside of the station and gave me some maps before leaving, and then we got in a taxi to the hotel. I was still feeling like an idiot over the train mishap, but I was also relieved that we had made it. On Tuesday we went to my new residence and met with the Hausmeister, or caretaker for those who don't speak German, to collect my keys. He showed us to my flat and explained how everything worked. I love my new flat, it's much nicer than the one in Lyon! I have a proper wardrobe instead of just a space with some hangers, and more shelves than anyone could ever want. Unfortunately, capacity for cooking here is even less than in Lyon as I only have a hob, not even a microwave. I'm doomed!I have a lovely view though; my room overlooks a church and there are lots of trees which are bare at the moment but I imagine the view would be even better in the spring when the trees have their leaves on. Living opposite a church means I get to hear the clock tower striking, just as I did living in Victoria Halls last year. Aaah the memories of Selly Oak :) Another bonus is that the weather in Erlangen has been great, clear and sunny all day, although it's still very cold. After we unpacked one of the cases, I met up with Tabea and she showed me around. We had a walk around the town centre and Tabea took me to a huge shop called Kaufland, which appears to be Germany's answer to Carrefour. It sells just about everything! We had a look around there and then we went to a cafe in the old town.  It's hard to believe I've already been here almost a week! Yesterday I went shopping with Tabea and we went to the Schlossgarten - that's the castle garden. It's a lovely place to sit and hang out, and I am told it's even nicer in the summer. I have discovered that Fasching, a German carnival that is known in other cities as Karneval, starts in Erlangen on Monday. The Kölner Karneval (Cologne Carnival) is undoubtedly Germany's most famous, but I am excited about Fasching. Tomorrow I'm going to a Fasching parade in Nuremberg with Tabea and her friends.

Well I think this post has gone on long enough, so I'll end it here.
Liebe Grüße aus Deutschland/Best wishes from Germany!

Christmas time, going home at last!

Wow, it has been forever since I posted! The only reason for that is simply that nothing interesting has happened to me that's worth blogging about! Yeah my life is THAT exciting, lol. So other than working my butt off, I have had a visit from my mum and my auntie. We went to the Christmas market in Lyon, which is absolutely amazing! I've been to German markets before but this is totally different. There are all sorts of unique things on sale! Funnily enough I didn't buy very much, rather my mum and my auntie bought various presents for me! Among which are a Lyonnaise silk scarf (Lyon is famous for silk) and a silver necklace. I can't wait to get them! I turned 21 yesterday, yay! On Friday I went out for a meal to celebrate, and the lovely Claire Wilson came from Grenoble to see me! After the meal we went to La Fête des Lumières, which is an annual light festival in Lyon. The lights were absolutely stunning! Forget Paris, Lyon is the true City of Lights! The pictures are just a snipped of the fabulous lights!

I can't believe I have already been in Lyon for 4 months. The time has vanished! I am going home on Sunday and I cannot WAIT!!! There are so many things from England that I miss: my mum's roasts, and just my mum's cooking in general (I have no oven here, just a hob and a microwave, so my cooking skills are incredibly limited), having a big house - I get cabin fever really easily in this one room studio! I just miss England! But there are some things about France that I won't miss, for example strikes and annoying receptionists! Being back home will be lovely even though I'll only be there for 2 weeks. I can't wait to spend Christmas with my family! It's gonna be so different this year because it's my first Christmas without my grandparents. We used to have a tradition where my mum and my auntie would alternate hosting Christmas and my grandparents would stay with whoever was hosting. It would be wrong to continue that tradition now that both my nanny and grandpa have passed away. RIP, I miss you every single day. So instead we are going to a restaurant for Christmas dinner with my granny and my other auntie. It will be nice to do something different.
So that's it from me for now!

Toussaint - Nice is nice!

It's amazing how quickly the time is going here, I have already had the Toussaint holiday! That's a week off at the end of October, leading up to All Saints' Day, for those not in the know. Most of my friends went home for this week, but I went to Nice! My dad's cousin Ann Marie arrived in Lyon on the evening of Saturday the 23rd, and I met her at the station. That was a nightmare in itself, because I had no idea which platform she would be coming in at, and Part-Dieu, Lyon's central train station, is busier than New Street! We eventually found each other though, and we went to a cafe by the station. The next morning, I met Ann Marie at her hotel. I foolishly decided to walk, which was a big mistake. I crossed the river and then got incredibly confused and lost! I couldn't phone her because I didn't have any credit on my phone! I eventually found a taxi though. Once we finally met up with each other we walked to the old town. We both loved wandering the cobbled streets and hopping around the cafés! We found the most amazing shop which sells all sorts of funky patterned things, from ashtrays to hairbrushes! We visited the Cathédrale St Jean, which is very impressive both inside and out! We each lit a candle for my granny. We also went up to the basilica at Fourvière, which is a gorgeous white building on a hill. It looks like a castle, and is even more beautiful on the inside! I'm not religious but I always feel moved when I go to pretty churches and cathedrals! That evening we had dinner at a pizza place at Place Bellecour, and for some reason launched into an academic snobfest, because of me being a student at a high ranking university, and her having a degree from one - she has an MA in History from Trinity College, Dublin. We met at Part-Dieu on Monday morning and got on the train to Nice. It took us 4 and a half hours, so I'm glad I decided to book us into first class! We arrived at 3:30 and after checking into our hotel, which Ann Marie had stayed in when she went to Nice 11 years ago, we went out and explored a bit. We found all sorts of restaurants, and a very convenient market store where we bought some white wine and crisps. I had a vocab embarrassment while in this shop: I asked the shopkeeper for a corkscrew, but said the wrong word! I asked for a "tournevis" - which is French for screwdriver! I should have asked for a "tire-bouchon." Curse those second year vocab tests! Thankfully we did manage to ask the man to open the wine for us. We found a lovely Italian restaurant near the hotel, which we went to that night. I had lasagne and Ann Marie had spaghetti bolognaise, which in her words was "bloody amazing!" The next day, we went to the old town. You may have noticed a pattern here: Ann Marie and I both love old towns with cobbled streets, quaint cafes and unique shops! So we did our usual thing of wandering around, looking at the shops and cafe hopping! We found a shop which sells chocolate covered olives! Strange or what? In the afternoon we had a picnic on the beach and watched the planes landing, while trying to guess where they were coming from! It was fun because every plane took a different flight path. Our restaurant of choice on Tuesday evening was a place near a church called L'Abbaye (The Abbey) where I had steak and AM had mussels. She loves them! It was so hot there because there were heat lamps. We were roasting! On Wednesday, we went to Monaco and Monte Carlo. It was the best day trip ever! We saw the famous casino although we didn't go in, and we had drinks in the Café de Paris! We paid €11 for a coffee and a lemonade! I took a coaster from there and it is now blu-tacked to my wall! We also walked on part of the Grand Prix circuit, and went on a boat across the harbour. Then we went on a tour bus and got to see loads more! We visited the Prince's palace, which is one of the most stunning buildings I have ever seen! I wish I could have taken photos in there, but we weren't allowed. After arriving back in Nice we went to yet another restaurant! Ann Marie and I had a very interesting conversation about what I want to do after uni, and when I said to her that one of my options was going into teaching, she pretty much begged me not to waste my skills on a class of 40 odd kids! She told me that she messed up by not making good use of her degree, so she wants me to take time after I graduate to really think about what I want to do. So I promised her there and then that I would live my dream because she didn't get to live hers. The next day, we had planned to go to Galeries Lafayette, but it was closed for stock taking. We both thought this was completely pointless, because stock taking can be done out of hours, there's no need to close the shop to do it! So instead we wandered around some more, and went on a tour bus. I really enjoyed that! We had a very surreal experience while on the bus - we got caught in the middle of a strike! We had heard that there would be a protest from 1:30 to 4:30, and because of this we were stationary for about half an hour! While the bus wasn't moving, a protest van passed us, with 3 people on it and a man speaking through a megaphone telling people to come to the protest. Yet another strange French experience to add to the ones I've already had! We got to see loads on the bus though, including a beautiful Russian church. That was the only church we didn't visit in Nice. We found one called La Chapelle de Sainte Rita, or Saint Rita's Chapel. I had to take a picture of a design in the window, because my granny's name is Rita! Ann Marie suggested that I use this picture to make a Christmas card for her. So that's what I'm going to do! For our last night in Nice we went to an American style steak house. We returned to Lyon on Friday morning, and arrived at 2:00. We had another look around the old town and then went up to see the Opéra and the Hotel de Ville. Ann Marie absolutely loved this - the Hotel de Ville is one of the most impressive buildings in Lyon! We sat in a café outside it and watched the people go by. It sounds weird but I love people watching! There's a fountain in the square which Ann Marie said was like Rome's Trevi Fountain. Amazing :) That night we went back to the pizza place at Bellecour. A perfect end to a perfect week! I always love holidaying with Ann Marie :) On Saturday morning we met at Part Dieu and went to the shopping centre there, which I like to think of as the French Bullring. We had drinks in the cafe at Galeries Lafayette, and then went to some homeware stores to look at the Christmas decorations and other things. After that we went to the cutest café ever, it had all sorts of novelty clocks on the wall, including a digital one which was showing the time in Sydney. Why that was, I have no idea! We got back to Part Dieu in plenty of time, but we were waiting for what seemed like forever for Ann Marie's platform to be shown! There were lots of delays, not only departures but arrivals too! Eventually the platform did show up, and I said goodbye to Ann Marie on the platform. I had the best week ever in Nice, and I would definitely go back!

Finns, fêtes and forgetfulness

It's been a while since I posted, so here's the latest update from Lyon. On Saturday I went to an Irish pub (they are everywhere here! English ones too!) with a bunch of my German friends, and some of my Aussie friends also turned up. The pub was quite good, although I didn't actually drink. It was quite strange hanging out with the Germans, because most of them speak English and French as well as German. One guy even said to me that he didn't know which language to speak to me in! But I did get to practice my German, which will be vital for when I go to Erlangen. On Sunday, I went to a restaurant in the old town called Les Pampres Rouges, to celebrate Miranda's birthday. As well as the girls from Birmingham, Alex's conversation buddy, a lovely girl from Grenoble called Pauline, and a Finnish girl called Hanna, went to the restaurant. I had a delicious salmon and pasta concoction, and then had an ile flottante (floating island) for dessert. Overall a very enjoyable meal. We then wandered up to the Hotel de Ville and got the metro to Croix-Rousse (Lyon's old silk weaving district, and the highest part of the city) and chilled out on a ledge looking at the view. As for the rest of the week, it's been pretty average. Getting better at understanding the lectures, although I haven't made any notes yet because I've been recording lectures. I really need to listen to those recordings! On Tuesday Helen, Alex, Charlotte and I went to Hanna's flat for wine and cheese on her birthday. She lives in the most amazing flat in a really nice student residence! It was actually one of the ones that I looked at when browsing adele.org to find a flat. She has the most amazing view, it's really pretty even though it's quite urban. But you can also see the Fourvière (a huge basilica on the top of a hill) and the mock Eiffel Tower next to it. The best part is that she has a balcony! So we sat outside drinking wine and eating cheese until about 9:00. Good times :)

That was all the positive stuff that has happened this week. Now onto something a bit more negative. This morning I had one of my scatterbrained moments: I completely forgot about my English/French translation class, and only realised when Charlotte texted me telling me not to worry if I'm late. I decided not to bother going, but later I was really scared that I wouldn't make it to my 12:00 class on time, because there had been an accident on the tramline, so the line terminated at a stop that was 3 or 4 stops away from uni. I then had to get a replacement bus. Grrrr. And now I will say something that I never thought I would say about Lyonnais public transport: BLOODY PUBLIC TRANSPORT!!!!! Other than that, the week's been good. I need to start researching for my essay for Birmingham, but it would help if I had the slightest clue what I want to write about! The word help springs to mind.....

My first week of lectures

So here it is. After having finished the intensive language course, I am now an official student at Université Lumière Lyon 2. The welcome week and my first week of lectures were interesting in many ways. We had a meeting with Lyon 2's Erasmus coordinator on the 13th, after which Helen, Miranda, Alex, Charlotte and I went to the campus at Bron (Lyon 2's second campus, which is about 40 minutes on the tram and much bigger and more modern than the campus which is 10 minutes' walk from my flat) to look at timetables and choose courses. I opted for English to French translation, Ancient History, German "civilisation", German to French translation and French to German translation. I was most relieved to find that I have Mondays off, but unfortunately Wednesday was the most brutal day I have ever had in my life. I will never complain about starting at 9:00 in Birmingham ever again. I started lectures at 8, and because all my lectures are at Bron, I had to get up at 6a.m. in order to get the tram on time. Which brings me to another frustrating discovery: the French seem to believe that trams should be crammed full of people until there is not a single square inch of space left. I literally could not move. I then had 5 consecutive lectures - actually I lie, because I got the wrong room for one of them and only realised after half an hour of waiting outside said wrong room. I decided that there wouldn't be much point in going to the right room, so I went to the cafeteria and took a long lunch break. The cafeteria at Bron is very different to that at the campus on the Quais (so called because it is close to the bank of the river Rhône); the Quais cafeteria is quite casual, whereas the Bron cafeteria feels awfully like a school canteen. One of the irritating things about this cafeteria is that the cashiers do not have change, since the idea is to pay for meals using what is known as a carte CUMUL (Carte Universitaire Multiservices). I do have such a card, but putting money on it requires a French bank card, something which as yet I do not have. By the time my day finished at 5:45, I was infinitely glad to return to my flat, and even more glad that I only had one class on Thursday and Friday. On Wednesday evening I found myself in a bit of a rut, because I hadn't met anyone new since I finished my language course, had barely spoken any French, and was feeling like I didn't know what I was doing here. That was soon remedied by a very long Skype call to my friend Becky, who is currently in Strasbourg. I love her so much, she really made me feel better.

You may have noticed that I am continually discovering irritating things about France. The sad fact is that although lovely, France (and indeed the French) can be incredibly irritating. I haven't yet received my French bank card, so I had to go to the bank and ask them about it. They told me that I would have to collect it from my local post office because it is my first card. Well why didn't they tell me that in the first place! What is also irritating me is that I am expecting a parcel from home containing my new UK credit card and my British Airways membership card. After it not having arrived at reception, my mum had to phone the post office, and then I had to phone La Poste, who said that I could only get information about my parcel from England, but the post office at home said I could only get information from France. Helpful........not. So now it has been sent back to England and will hopefully arrive at my local post office soon.

As for the rest of the lectures, I have found them fairly good. Lectures here are 1 and 3/4 hours, and I have been struggling to concentrate for that long. Many of my translation classes have been interesting, but confusing at the same time. All I can say is thank goodness I have not discovered a French equivalent of Robert Evans. Those of you who study German will know exactly what I mean. It turns out that I am the only English person in my English-French translation class.  I wonder if this means that people will soon be coming to me with all sorts of questions. So far the only class I have found to be not very interesting is German civilisation, which seems to be a history class. You may think this would be interesting, but I have studied so much German history already, particularly in Landeskunde (I shudder at the memory of this) and Texts in Context. Speaking of, the first thing we have been learning about is Luther and the Reformation. When I discovered this I was struck by a wave of déjà vu, having studied Luther to death in Texts in Context. Yawn.

Anyway, I am probably boring you now, so I will leave you on this somewhat dreary Sunday in Lyon, and I hope that wherever you all are, you are having a more enjoyable time than me.

Withdrawal symptoms.

I have been dreading this day for a long time. The reason takes a bit of explaining: I am a huge fan of Strictly Come Dancing, and today there was a special launch show for the next series. Unfortunately, BBC iPlayer can only be viewed in the UK. So I am sitting in my flat suffering from a bad case of SWS: Strictly Withdrawal Syndrome. I'm sure many of my friends will understand this, and perhaps are suffering from it too. I must find some way of keeping up with Strictly while in France! Maybe YouTube....

In other news, I went to the cinema with Helen, Miranda and Charlotte today, we saw a film called Copains pour Toujours, which is the French title of a film recently released in the UK called Grown Ups. It was quite funny and not too difficult to understand. I also went to Ikea, and bought various things, including a toy mouse. I think perhaps I was inspired to do this by my friend Becca, who bought a white one called Gosig Mus, and even made a Facebook profile for it! Mine is called Fabler Mus (yeah, weird Swedish names, I know!) I may create a profile for it, as Becca has done, but I have no idea how to!

Now for an update on the PRUNE (that's my pre-university language course): I had a bit of a stressy breakdown in class yesterday because I didn't know what to do for an exercise, even though it was quite simple. I was incredibly tired because of the Erasmus party on Thursday night, which by the way was crowded, hot, smelly and some of the people were a bit weird. Overrated I think! As my friend Tess' dad says, fatigue makes cowards of us all. She was very friendly and helped me to calm down, and very nicely walked me back to my flat. We were also set our first major project, 750-1000 words about the necessities and restrictions on the protection of what the French call "patrimoine" - translates roughly as heritage. It's due in on Thursday - yikes!

I will potentially be going to Annecy tomorrow with the PRUNE, as there is a guided tour of the city offered as part of the course. There are limited places though, so fingers crossed. I went to Annecy last summer and loved it, so I'm really hoping to go again. 

Tomorrow afternoon, if I get back from Annecy in time, or even if I end up not going at all, I will be going to "La biennale de la danse" which is an event that occurs every two years in Lyon, where people gather and dance along a street. It should be very exciting!