Edinburgh Exchanges

Life has been pretty quiet since I got back from Germany just over a week ago. I've been here 3 weeks now and time is suddenly hurtling along at an alarming rate! As such, an entire week seems to have gone by without me really doing an awful lot to tell you all about!

On Thursday there was a student party at Le Carré, a club which, like the other 2 in Dijon, is quite a way out of town. There was a free bus though, and the drinks were cheap (or as cheap as they seem to come here, although the prices would have had most Edinburgh students bolting for the door) so we decided to head along. There seems to be a completely different timescale for nights out in France than in the UK. At home, even on an especially hectic night out, I'll usually leave home around 9pm and be snuggled cosily in bed again by 4am - and that's including a long, rambling, drunken walk back to my flat, and, let's face it, a lengthy stop at the nearest kebab shop. In France though, the first bus to the club was at 11, meaning we didn't get through the doors until after midnight, and the first bus back was at 5am. As it turned out, I was eager to get that first bus home, because my first efforts at clubbing in France proved disappointing. The club was small, with strange, glowing pictures of aliens on the walls, and it was absolutely packed with people. The dancefloor, and the rest of the place as well, was so crowded that you literally couldn't move and it was also extremely sweaty and smelly. The tight-packed crowd also allowed a lot of opportunity for drunken hands to wander wherever they pleased, and I was very glad to finally step outside for some fresh air and grab the nearest bus back to campus! It wasn't all bad though - I did get to meet and chat to a few French students in the queue for the bus and I got a good listen to some French rap! I also discovered quite a few stereotypes that the French have of the British, or more specifically, of female British exchange students. I heard the sentence "But you are English! So why aren't you drunk? / why are you pushing my hand away? / why aren't you wearing furry boots? / why is your hair all the same colour? / but... you speak French!" more times than I can count that night. I have to admit, I was unaware that the British are considered drunken, easy, badly-dressed idiots by the majority of French students! My attempts to convince them that I am Scottish fell a bit flat too. I also have to say that it was all just lighthearted banter and all the French people we spoke to were lovely to us and eager to chat and try out their English swear words!

Most of the British Erasmus students went to Paris on Saturday, taking advantage of the 15 euro return train that delivers you to the capital by 9am and brings you back at around midnight. I decided not to follow the crowd, and instead caught a train to Besançon with my coursemate from Edinburgh, Sophie, to visit our mutual friend Heather. I should note at this point that, no matter how trusting the public transport systems in Europe seem to be - if you get caught stealing your 1 euro bus fare the contollers are merciless and there is no escape! After that little drama, my bank account and my pride rather leaner than they once were, Sophie and I headed to Besançon, about an hour away from Dijon by train. It's about the same size as Dijon but seems much more lively - there were people in the streets! At the weekend! Shops were open! We didn't take too much advantage of this though, instead going on a walk up to the old part of the town to see the cathedral, which is beautiful, although I have to say I prefer the slightly worn charms of the one in Dijon, and an astrological clock, which we peeked at from around the door to save ourselves the 3 euro entry fee! It was a gorgeous, sunny day and we eventually went and sat in the park eating waffles and people-watching. It doesn't sound like much, but I have to say it was one of the best days I've had since coming to France; it was so peaceful and relaxed and for once I wasn't worrying about bank accounts or classes or...anything at all, and it was an amazing feeling.

In terms of day-to-day life, things are starting to settle down a bit now. I'm in to the second week of classes, taking a ridiculous amount of translation as well as Civilisation Français, Français pour les Etrangers and English literature. I know my way to all of these classes and what I'm expected to do for each, which, seeing as I am usually the least organised person in the world (and have the worst sense of direction), I am rather proud of! I'm still finding everyday life in another country quite tiring though - at the end of every day I collapse into bed absolutely knackered and with lots of new vocab spinning around in my head. As I said, though, I do feel my language skills improving, something I proved to myself with a second attempt at French cinema the other night. Granted, though, the plot of Mamma Mia isn't too hard to follow!

This week has been a pretty fun week. I finally got my essay completed at 3am on Wednesday morning and surprisingly, even though yes I did finish it very late I wasn't stressed out about it at any point like I normally am at Edinburgh. I felt very restricted to the 2,500 words limit rather than searching for things to say, which is sometimes the case at home. I think this is down to the teaching system here- as I said, I'd already handed in and recieved marks for 4000 words on the subject so all I had to do was put it all together and expand where I felt neccesary. I definitley feel much more relaxed here about work even though I'm doing it on a more regular basis than in Edinburgh. We're getting the essays from last week back tomorrow. Thats a quick turn around, considering we only have one class a week!

I've been putting some thought into (read: procrastinating) what I want to do after graduating at Edinburgh. Somehow, from somewhere, Law seems very appealing and I've been doing research into conversion schemes and MAs in human rights/international law. I don't want to be a laywer, but I want to work for NGOs dealing with sexual/domestic abuse, human traffking and/or exploitation of women and children so I feel as though having detailed knowledge of the legal systems would be highly beneficial, esspecially as I'd like to be involved in the policy making, representation and legal aspects of NGO work. So this is my new little project. Today I looked at some of the law courses on offer at Helsinki, as I am able to take modules from all departments so I have much more flexibility than I would do in Edinburgh. I've decided to sign up for 2 courses initially- 'economic, social and cultural rights under human rights law' which is actually a social policy course so will be more in my comfort zone for the start. Then in January, a 3 week course entitled 'general course in international law' (someone is good at thinking of titles!) which if I like it, there are 2 continuation classes later in the semester.

This seems to be my problem in Helsinki. As the entire university is open to me, I want to do everything. I have to take 60 credits- so 30 each semester- in anthropology/development related couses, but these only equate to 6 hours a week in class. As I'm on exchange and I only have to pass, I feel like this is a bit of a waste of a year. Especially because I can't really join any societies or get a job due to the lack of Finnish, so I may as well spend more time in university going to classes because they look interesting rather than for the credits. Edinburgh are going to think I've gone slightly mad on the credits when I get home as I am doing 43 credits this semester alone, and that only makes 10 hours a week in university! I don't have any exams, and some of the classes are assessed by 'attendence and contribution to class discussion' so I don't actually have to do anything other than turn up. At the most, the require one 2000 word essay which I think I can push together given that I don't really need to do amazingly well in them.

So in short, I will return to Edinburgh not only with an education in anthropology, but also one in Mongolian and Law. At least, thats to date but I'll probably find something else I want to do- the Literature classes look really cool too!

I feel really odd writing all of this. Almost as though I've suddenly grown up and I can admit to learning things for the pure sake of learning them rather than for the credits. Its not as if my social life will really die either- everyone else is doing the same, so we always hang out in the evening to watch a film or chat meaning my days are usually spent in my room on the internet, the gym or wandering around Helsinki trying to find something which isn't crazily expensive to buy.

Next week it is half term... so in this paragraph I have reverted back to being a child who needs a holiday after a few weeks of classes. Well, in actual fact this is week 7 and I have now lived in Helsinki for 8 weeks- and you know how many of my aims from the first few posts I've achieved? One. I finally bought some boots- 65 euros in the SALE but they're lovely. How many do I still have to do? Loads. Including important ones such as sending back my course registration form to Edinburgh- offically they don't actually know I've properly arrived yet, and registering at the police office so I can be a Finnish resident and get cheap travel. I'm going home via Vienna on Saturday for a week. This time its home home, so Derbyshire, where I haven't been for longer than 24 hours at a time since April. I'm off to see my best friend from home who is on erasmus in Vienna for the year. The entire population of Helsinki is coming too, well 4 people I know are. Two live there, one is going to visit a friend and the other is going as hes Australian and wants to go everywhere in Europe whilst he has the chance!

I'm still missing Edinburgh. There is so much going on right now which I would be a big part of if I was at home- EGP had their new people recruitment night tonight, and then my EGP team are having a reunion in December which I don't think I can go to as its impratical to come home for a few days, leave, then fly back to London a week later. If it was cheap I'd do it, but the flights are expensive. I am really glad that I'm here and I do love it, but I do wish that there was a budget airline RyanAir style route from Helsinki to Edinburgh, meaning I could go home for important stuff and it would only cost me £30 or something. My friend in Vienna can do that- she keeps complaining about the cost of her flight home, but in reality, she can actually go back. It feels as if Helsinki is so close yet so far from home. If I was in the USA or Australia or somewhere I'd know I was on the otherside of the world and I couldn't come back as it was way too expensive and impratical to fly for 10 hours to go home for a meeting at the weekend. But here, I am a 3 hour flight from London and only about 1000 miles away with a 2 hour time difference, so it feels like because Europe is so 'close' to the UK I should be able to get back for things like this, but I can't because of the silly transport links. Ryan Air flies to Tampere- who would ever want to go there?? Easy Jet have started flying to Gatwick from here which is great. Its just annoying that Edinburgh isn't that little bit closer to London!

Ah well you can't have everything. The fair people from last week are still here- you can win an England football shirt as a prize. Clearly the thing all Finnish people want to win!

So another week has passed and I have to ask myself again where exactly it has gone! I think this week has marked a turning point for me with regards to settling in here; since classes have started and the group I've found myself in becomes ever more comfortable with each other, I have really started to feel at home. The strange thing is that the more I feel at home here the more I miss Scotland. I have to explain here that I am really attached to Scotland and I love all of its traditions, the people, the landscape, the dialect - everything! So even though I've settled into something very much resembling my life at home (only without the presence of my family and Scottish friends) I feel an increased need to eat shortbread, read Burns and ceilidh dance just to feel closer to my homeland. This feeling is amplified by the conversations surrounding everyone's own countries - their politics and traditions - which occur often.

Othr than that, this week has been mostly taken up by classes which became gradually easier as the week went on, especially after I acquired a dictaphone to record them - something which I think allowed me to relax into it more, worry less about understanding everything, and taking really good notes in German, and so I was able to understand almost everything of the last lecture. I think I can see my language skills slowly improving but I still take ages to do any reading and I find it so frustrating when I know the answer but just don't have the words to express it. I keep telling myself to be more patient with regards to language acquisition but I really just wish I could swallow a dictionary (and my grammar book). I had my first language lesson today and it went really well - the class is really targeting the aspects I find most difficult which after paying 250 Euros for it I'm glad of! There is a lot of homework though and on top of the reading for my other classes I'm beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed by it all- knowing that if I had to do the same work in English I would be thoroughly underwhelmed doesn't help either.

Before I move on to the more fun aspects of my week I will explain the title of the blog. Here I'm taking four classes (not including the 6 hours of language lessons); 3 Vorlesungen (lectures) and 1 Proseminare. The lectures are all assessed by a final exam - either written or oral, and so there are no assignments throughout the year, just reading. The Proseminare is slightly different, like tutorials here, they're in smaller groups and generally have assignments, however the one that I'm taking only has one 5-10,000 word essay. After discussing it with the tutor, I've decided to write my essay on Roland Barthes and haikus; it frustrates me a little that if I was writing this essay in English I'd actually be really looking forward to tackling the topic, instead I'm just worried about writing such a huge amount in German! However, it is still something I'm very interested in so hopefully that will come across even if the language isn't quite perfect.

Other than classes and finally managing to attain my student ID card and bank card (thus getting a semester public transport ticket and the ability to do washing), there were a few nights out. Thursday was Sarah's birthday and so we celebrated by hitting Charlie P's karaoke night (I can feel a birthday tradition in the making)- it was a great night, made better by the fact that I only had to crawl across the road to get home (unlike Sarah who spent 2 hours trying to work the nightbuses but managed to get home fine with a few stories to tell! ;-) Friday was the official erasmus opening party which I didn't enjoy so much. A combination of being overlytired and the fact that it was incredibly hot and overcrowded with pushy, drunk people meant that I would rather have stayed at home, but it was good banter with the people we were with and we still managed to catch the last ubahn home.

On Saturday I went to Schoenbrunn zoo and gardens with two friends and it was an awesome day! We bought a ticket for 16 Euros which let us into the zoo, the greenhouse and the desert house (I can't think of a better english translation than that!). The zoo was founded in 1752 and so is the oldest zoo in the world (according to wikipedia, although I'm only sure that it's the oldest in Europe) and this made it all the more interesting. A lot of the smaller animals like lizards, bats and peacocks were free to wander around which was cool but also made for a number of 'scream as a bat flies at you' moments which we laughed about later! It was a really relaxing trip and we all ended up reverting to our childhood as we wandered around such a traditional zoo, taking pictures and talking about disney films.

Saturday night there was a big pyjama party in our halls. A couple of guys organised the first major get-together for everyone in one of the kitchens - it was nice to be able to chat to more people, also wearing pyjamas to party is one of my favourite things ever!

This week I'll be spending most of my time trying to get on top of reading for lectures before we head off to Salzburg this weekend - which I'm really excited about as a few of my friends went last week (I had lectures and so unfortunately couldn't go) and loved it. I've also just been informed that one of them has bought 'Sound of Music' on dvd which we'll definitely be watching before we go!

So until then...

This week has been miles, miles better than last week. Why? I don't know really. The only difference has been that I've got rid of that one course, and somehow the workload has seemed more copeable-with. This was the last week of Catalan Intensive Basic 1, we had the exam on Friday. It went pretty well I think, it was all multiple choice except for at the end where we had to write a paragraph or so. The thing about multiple choice exams is that you never really know how you got on, because every answer is made to look like the right answer! Catalan Basic 2 starts on Wednesday, which should be good because it focuses much more on being able to speak conversationally.

Anyway after the exam most of the class went to the pub for a wee celebration, it's a really nice international group, with people from every corner of the globe. I'm the only real English-speaker, and there's even one German guy who doesn't speak Castillian Spanish already, he's just learning Catalan and that's that. So we all speak a mixture of Spanish and Catalan, and then the German guy speaks to me in English when he doesn't know the Catalan words!

Later on Friday I went to a birthday party in Gràcia with one of my Erasmus buds, we walked round in circles, lost... and then realised we were in the right place all along. It was a good party, although most of his birthday presents were ladies' underwear and plants! Very random! Then even later that night I went down to Ciutat Vella to meet up with other people. After the bar, we went to a very odd nightclub where we were like in a very dim room upstairs... there was nobody else there and no music (?!?!) so we promptly trotted off to another club, and then another one a while after that. It was an eventful Friday night... my liver was probably a bit busier than it had been the rest of the week, but that's what it's there for!

Saturday was, as you'd expect, a bit of a write-off. Didn't really get that much work done. Thankfully I didn't stay in all day, at night I went round to a friend's flat for a while and then we headed off to L'Eixample to go to a bar called El Gato Negro (the Black Cat).

This pub had the largest menu of chupitos (shots) I've ever seen in my life. Think A1 sized posters... like outside a cinema. And then write the names of shots in columns. There were 4 of these things on the wall, all with funny names. One example (which I'm not going to translate!) was Mi Polla En Tu Boca. I'm sure you can figure it out! So when you get asked “what would you like?”, you have to tell them! In the end we settled for Harry Potters on a recommendation. Then they were set on fire, drenched in sugar and oranges and whatever, yum yum yum.

After zat, we went to a small discoteca, it was certainly not a touristy place. They played Toxic and Hung Up though, so I wasn't totally lost! All the rest of the time I was like “what's this song called?” So on Sunday I was downloading lots of music which I'm used to hearing in the clubs so I can try to understand the lyrics and stuff. It's better to be able to sing along! ;-)

The rest of Sunday was spent working. I manged to write my program in Miranda for LP, and my bash script for SO... and spent even more time pondering the mysteries of threads in Java.

The weather is still good, by the way. It's like shorts weather most of the time (although not for lectures), but there was rain one afternoon.

I don't know why but I think I'm looking less like a tourist, people automatically speak to me in Spanish now! Actually the other day I was approached by some annoying charity people in Plaça de Catalunya (you know, like the kind you get on Princes Street... please give £20 a month so that we can give free bibles to private school children, etc etc). Anyway they started asking me for money so I just put on my tourist face and said “sorry, I don't speak Spanish”. Hehe, yes I know I'm going to hell, but it worked...

It would be impossible for me not to acknowledge this worldwide finance crisis, despite how depressing the subject is. Norway has remained rather our of the bubble for the most part, thankfully, with many here not even knowing that such a crisis was taking place (that is a fact, one person needed to have the whole thing brought to their attention.) I have been doing all I can to not think about it, despite the fact that a very gradual rising panic is setting in regarding prices of living back home in my final year. Therefore, it was with glee that I received the email the other day informing me of the imminent payment of my ERASMUS grant: life here is so excessively expensive that I have reached the point where I no longer even realize the vast amounts of cash that I am spending! Budgeting is an absolute no-no if want to avoid inducing a mammoth panic attack, and food/drink bills are probably my biggest monthly expense (as an example, six cans of cider sets me back around 200 kroner, approximately £20, though would be even more expensive in any bar, explaining the popularity of pre-party drinks in this country).

Also on a finance-crisis-ey niote, the current hostile situation between Britain and Iceland makes me slightly coy about my nationality when considering the close nature of the Scandinavian lands. Newspapers last week ran the headline “Finance War: Iceland’s Prime Minister Geir Haarde is furious following British colleague Gordon Brown’s use of terror laws to secure the money that Brits have saved in Icelandic banks.” Whilst I’d be foolish to believe everything that I read, Britain’s actions certainly throws a spanner in the works with regards to Alex Salmond’s constant lauding of the successes of independent lands such as Norway and Iceland, and desire to reflect their success in the future, should Scotland become independent. I am forced to think about where my ‘loyalities’ lie in such times: the finance crisis has so far made little impact upon my life in Norway, which enjoys a stable economy, but Iceland’s situation is beginning to unsettle Norway ever so slightly. I have no great political agenda, but cannot deny that since my arrival, I have constantly identified myself as “Scottish” rather than “British,” and am always careful to address the difference for anybody who struggles to understand. Moves such as Gordon Brown’s last week affirm my decision to do this, with Britain not identified as number one bestie in the European stakes, I’m sure most people would agree. Becoming an international student has absolutely played a part in addressing my national pride in a way that I never imagined, but has also created confusion for me: whilst proud to be Scottish, there are many, many things that I wish that I could change within society at home, and would hate for people to associate with me on the basis of my nationality (this stretches beyond people’s initial drug-andswearing-fuelled connections to the film Trainspotting, by the way). However, with the current instability of more than just finances across the world at the moment, many things are likely to change in the near future, and everything has become impossible to predict. I continue to be a Scottish ERASMUS student until further notice, and this will continue to cause slight problems at parties with our English friend who wishes she could identify herself as British but feels that she can’t once myself and our friend C say Scottish: these are the ridiculously trivial things that I’d identify as the politics of ERASMUS, the little issues that raise their ugly heads frequently, considering that everybody’s second question upon meeting after asking your name is asking where you come from. However, please don’t get me wrong: it’s mid-term now, and things in Oslo are generally looking rosy, hideous finances aside.

I’m writing a bit late this week, it’s Sunday but the internet still isn’t working at Eiffel, I’m still holding out a little hope but it’s not looking good, so I’ll be posting this from the lab again.

After the cheese and wine party last Friday (was that only last week? Time seems to be going strange) the weekend continued in the same vein, no work and lots of socialising. A girly shopping trip to Lille on Saturday with Rachel and Sarah was just what we needed after the night before and we sat outside ‘La Presidente’ café with hot chocolate enjoying the autumnal sunshine.

Sunday we went to the ‘Palais des Beaux Arts’, it was free (the first weekend in the month) so almost every other Erasmus student was there too, a lot of them we knew and it seemed odd to know people in Lille. It’s worth a visit there are a lot of sculptures and paintings but mainly I enjoyed seeing the building, it’s like Beasts castle- maybe I’ve mentioned it before…

We attempted to do some work on the Sunday evening… its very hard to get yourself into work mode because although I’m in lab all day everyday and when I’m not I’m in lectures, it still doesn’t feel like Uni. Not proper Uni, I can’t quite convince myself of how important this year is and subsequently am now building up quite a pile of stuff to do. Add onto that my voluntary move to do a French test (why?) and learn Japanese I’m thinking maybe I’ve bitten off more than I can chew.
Well, I like making things difficult.

Japanese started on Monday in frighteningly fast French, which I mostly understood, the emphasis in the class is equally on written and spoken Japanese; I would choose a language with four alphabets… I really enjoyed it though and will definitely be making a large effort to keep up with both the French and the Japanese. Talking of French, I’m now pretty sure my French teacher hates me, Andy moved to my class this week and she loved him, just to make the difference more obvious! I was politely brushed over again and again; this may be a good thing- less talking, but also less learning.

I think I got a bit further in labs but I sort of feel I’m going backwards as one of my experiments didn’t work, can’t understand this as it worked before, and some of my analysis has been a bit off… I have been feeling a bit ill as well so have put off practical work in favour of writing up and writing a ‘proposition’ for my literature survey, yet again biting off more than I can chew by writing it in French.

On Tuesday we partook of more culture by attending a concert held by the university orchestra in which Sarah was performing, she plays Flute, I thoroughly enjoying it but then again I have the musical prowess of a teaspoon so I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t perfect, besides they played Pirates of the Caribbean, I adore the music so I was happy. Also free wine and food was offered after so we could stand around looking arty and, in my case, pretending to know something about music.

I am learning though- Andy gave me a piano lesson this week, theory (sort of) and all, I don’t think I’m a natural and it takes every ounce of concentration but I enjoyed it and hope to carry on but I haven’t practiced- I hope he doesn’t tell me off…

I got trapped in ‘Le Furet Du Nord’ (bookshop) again, and I only went to the small one at V2 (shopping centre), I only wanted to buy a Japanese book in case I couldn’t keep up with the French but ended up buying a fiction (an English fiction (mainly because it was eight Euros cheaper) book which is bad because when I read I tend to leave reality and get less done than usual.

What this means is that I now have an even bigger pile of work to do, since this weekend I’ve been out with my parents and tonight am hosting a film watching session involving nachos cooked courtesy of my newly acquired (thank you Mum and Dad) microwave and possibly wine…
Oops, work is going to have to wait… ‘Til tomorrow at least; arg another week with more lectures but on the upside I have Japanese again and there will only be one week until half term! Yay.

Oh well here goes, until next time…

Hi, my name joe. hope i can get more travelling experience with all of you. cheers,

Well the weekend did indeed prove to be more exciting than the first week! Four of us made a fairly impromptu decision to go to Germany for three days for Oktoberfest, but when we discovered how expensive it was to get to and stay in Munich during the festival, we decided to go to the smaller, closer, cheaper version in Stuttgart instead! The Cannstatter Volksfest is held in what seems to be a giant car park outside Stuttgart every year and was started by Wilhelm the 1st as a harvest festival to celebrate the end of a severe famine in 1818. Now, though, it's just a giant beer festival, although there is a 24 foot tall totem pole made of fruit to remind everyone of the event's origins!

We had a meeting on Thursday afternoon with the head of the English department to help us organise our timetables, so we arranged to catch the train from Dijon to Strasbourg in the evening. The meeting, of course, lasted longer than we expected it to and we had to make a mad dash for the station, which is about half an hour away from campus - thankfully we had trundled our suitcases along to the meeting, which got us some extremely strange looks from the French students! The trip was fairly uneventful and we got to our hotel in Strasbourg with no problems and spent a rainy evening wandering around in search of a pub. There don't seem to be very many pubs in Strasbourg but we eventually found one called Marco's and had a good evening in the end. The next morning we had a 2 hour TGV trip to Stuttgart where we planned to wander the streets in search of a hotel, because we hadn't managed to find anything online before we went. French train stations are confusing places, but we found the board with our platform number on it and made our way onto the train in good time. We were a bit confused as to why our TGV train wasn't all new and shiny and sleek-looking like the one on the opposite platform, but we assumed that the regular trains would just go faster than usual on a TGV scheduled trip. Nevertheless, we watched the sleek-and-shiny version whip out of the station with some regret, knowing that those versions had buffet carts. We removed our shoes, got our MP3 players out and were settling down for the trip when the tannoy beeped and a tinny, electronic voice announced that were welcome on board this TER service to Bale, calling at pretty much every destination except Stuttgart. At this point, the other passangers were extremely amused to see four panicky, barefoot British girls sprinting off the train, trailing headphones and shoes in their wake, screaming and shrieking and wondering how on earth we could have made such a mistake! It turned out that we had indeed got the right platform when we had looked, a good 8 minutes before the TGV was due to depart, but the platform had been changed at the last minute. 'This is France you know' the man at the information desk told us sternly. In the end, he agreed to put us on the next train to Stuttgart without charging us any extra and, 4 different TER trains and 3.5 hours later, we were there!

In the end, we found a hotel without too much hassle, we simply presented ourselves at the tourist information desk outside the train station and announced that we needed a hotel. The woman on the desk made every effort to comply with all of our requirements (a youth-hostel, or a 1 star hotel in the center of Stuttgart and with easy access to the Ubahn so we could go to the beerfest) but in the end the best she could come up with was a 5 star hotel 40 minutes out of Stuttgart with easy access to the Ubahn. She assured us that we were very lucky to find anything at all because that weekend the city was playing host to the beerfest, an important tennis match and a Champions League football game.

Thanks to the mixup with the trains and the time spent at the tourist office, it was early evening by the time we arrived at the festival. My first impressions were of noise, food-y smells and lots and lots of neon light! The festival is set up a lot like a carnival, with lots of rides, food stalls and picnic benches. There were lots of families and young teenagers about and a really cheery, festive atmosphere. We headed over to smallish beer garden where we purchased our plastic cups of wine (which earned us a dirty look from the barmaid - who drinks wine at a beer festival?!) and sat at one of the picnic benches where we got chatting to some middle-aged German men who wanted to know all about life in the UK. We stayed for a few hours and then went of in search of the party. The Cannstatter Volksfest has seven massive beer tents - each holding around 5000 people, and filled with long wooden tables and benches. Each of them also had a massive queue of people desperate to get in. We merrily pushed our way to the front (surprisingly no one complained, and no one else tried to push in - everyone waited patiently in their place in the queue) and smiled winningly at the security men until they let us in. The tent was huge, noisy, smoky and grubby, there were Germans clad in lederhosen slipping about on the floor, which was covered in spilt beer and ketchup, but the party atmosphere was palpable. Our friends at the beer garden had told us that the Stuttgart beer fest was identical to its more famous twin in Munich, except that it was 'much more German'. This was extremely true. I didn't see anyone else there who wasn't German, but this made us something of a novelty. Everyone wanted to talk to us, to ask why we weren't in Munich, to teach us German words and dance to German folk music with us. After purchasing our Jaegermeister (more German than wine, but still not beer!) we once again defied the stereotype of the British love of queues and rampaged our way to the very front of the tent, next to the stage, where we clambered onto the nearest table and danced to the YMCA. I have to say, Germans have extremely good taste in cheesy English music! Every 15 minutes or so the band would hold up their drinks and sing a song and everyone in the tent would do the same and then toast each other and all drink out of someone else's glass. Unhygenic it may have been, but it was fantastic fun!

We spent two days in Germany, mainly at the festival although we did attempt to do a bit of city-centre sightseeing in the pouring rain. By the time we headed back to Dijon early on Sunday morning we were exhausted and smelling strongly of smoke. Germany hasn't yet adopted the smoking ban and we hadn't packed enough clothes! It was strange to have been away from Dijon, even for a few days, because I still hadn't completely adopted it as home. It felt as though we were coming back from a holiday, except the place we were returning to was just as unfamiliar as the holiday destination had been. A combination of this feeling, exhaustion and stress about not yet having my timetable organised when classes were starting the following day, sent me spiralling into a truly horrible bout of homesickness which lasted a couple of days. I spent my time in floods of tears in my room, frantically searching ryanair's website for the next flights back to Edinburgh and telling myself how much I hated France and what a mistake it had been to come. Then my amazingly amazing best friend made a timely entrance on msn and reminded me of the state she had been in a week or so earlier and of all the words of wisdom I had thrown her way. She came to Europe a week before I did, and told me that I was having the exact same experiences as her, only a week later and that everything would look much sunnier soon. As usual, she was right. I attended my first classes and found them, for the most part, perfectly manageable. I met lots of new people and made a real effort to spend as much time as possible doing new exciting things, or even mundane things, to keep my mind off home and give me other things to think about. And now, thankfully, I feel much better, and slightly guilty for saying mean things about my lovely new home, even if it was only to myself! I've enjoyed my first week of classes so far, although I'm taking quite a few translation classes, which are part of the English as a foreign language course, so I've spent quite a lot of time listening to tutors explain that, in English, you have to write the days of week with a capital letter, and that quotation marks look like this: " ". Some of the classes have been useful though, and I can feel my French, and most of all my confidence in speaking it, improving all the time.

Bon dia a tots! And another one bites the dust (another week, that is!)

Well that was week 4 of my classes, and it was pretty intense. Before leaving Edinburgh, I had to choose the classes which I intended to take here in Barcelona. UPC (the Uni here) recommended that I took 20-25 ECTS credits, but nah, Edinburgh said I needed at least 30. So! I put myself down for 30 credits of Informaticsy things. Then when I arrived, of course I started Catalan Intensive Basic 1... which is finished this coming Friday, and I'm also down for Catalan Basic 2. To cut a long story short, this semester I would be ending up with 38 credits.

Of course, my timetable sucks big-time. I have two 11-hour days, two of the days start at 8am, a clash between two subjects , and solid blocks of 6,7 and 8 hours of classes with no breaks. I found last week, uni-wise, to be extremely tough going. I had an assignment which I was really difficult because in the lab session I fell behind everyone else trying to make sense of the technical mumbo jumbo in Catalan lying in front of me.

My Peripherals and Interfaces lab on Wednesday was also really difficult because of the Catalan (for some reason I'm fine with lectures in Catalan... I just get completely lost in the labs). On Wednesday night while still in classes at about 8.45pm I suddenly realised... WHY THE HELL AM I STILL HERE?!?

So I made the decision to get rid of one course... and I'll still be left with slightly more credits than I need anyway. Especially since my grades here won't count towards my degree classification, this wasn't a hard decision!

So, I emailed Edinburgh to see what they said... yes, no problem, go for it.
Emailed UPC to get taken off the list for PI; no, sorry, you cannot change your Matrícula after week one. WHAT?!?!?! Anyway after a bit of persuasion they have made an exception or something and have taken me out of the course.

If anyone reading this is coming to the UPC ? it's a great university but beware! Don't take on too much work because you might not be able to get rid of it!

There is light at the end of the tunnel though, this coming Friday I'll be finished the intensive Catalan and PI will be gone, so things should hopefully be more manageable.

Aside from all this university nonsense, what else have I been up to? Hmm...

On Tuesday night I went to a club called Sidecar with a bunch of Spaniards from my residence for an Anti-Karaoke night. It was not what I expected at all (for example, there were no drunken renditions of Angels, Brown Eyed Girl,or Bohemian Rhapsody. Here's a wee video to give you an idea..

So yeah, that was fun. Less fun, on Wednesday I went to get my infamous NIE/DNI number (Número de Identidad de Extranjero). As advised, I got up early and went and queued outside the police station for an hour before it opened... what they say is true, it is a complete performance from start to finish. Basically it took me from 8am to 12 noon to get a print-out with a number on it... waiting in this queue, going to another police station, trying to find a bank which will let me pay the fee, going back, queueing again. But, it's done now, and I met some nice people waiting in line too! My advice ? make this priority number one, get it out of the way as soon as you arrive in Barcelona... you won't regret it.

On Friday I went out for dinner to an all you can eat buffet place, but I didn't "salir de marcha" for a change, because on Saturday morning I was catching the Renfe to Port Aventuras!

Port Aventuras, a.k.a Universal Mediterranean (where the Halloween festivities have already started!) Having been to Universal in Florida, Port Aventuras wasn't quite as good. It was more like Alton Towers (not that there's anything wrong with Alton Towers!). Anyway, really fun day! They have some awesome rides, including Furius Baco which goes from 0 to 135km h-1 in 3 seconds.

On Sunday I went to the cinema to see a pelí... "Reflejos." I think the English version is called Mirrors, but, being in Spain, I wouldn't know! As usual with this type of movie, I jamp* out of my seat like a million times, but it was a good laugh! Here's the trailer: (*Yes, I know jamp isn't a word.)

Looking back at when I went to see Ché, El Argentino back in Orientation Week, I understood about 600% more of the Spanish in Reflejos... which is a good feeling! I pretty much understood the lot, yay. I must be making progress. Well, I am. Still not fluent though, but patience laddy!

Afterwards we went to a Pizza Fiore for tea, and I must say... YUM. I don't think I ever want to go to Pizza Hut ever again!

Anyway that's it for today!

If someone were to ask me about the differences between the University of Edinburgh and the University of British Columbia they would probably regret it as I launch in to an excessively long tirade.  However, I think one of the first things I would mention is the fact that UBC is a campus university.  The campus does have a lot to offer, for example, on Wednesday, Mobile (a Canadian rock band from Montréal) were playing on one of the fields as part of a tour sponsored by MTV and one of the big mobile phone networks.  With the concert being at 4pm in the afternoon, attendance seemed to be mostly made up of bemused people heading to the buses rather than the rock fans of UBC but it was certainly an entertaining event.  These sorts of things, combined with the multiple shops, pubs, cafes etc means you don’t really need to leave campus too frequently.  However, I find it bizarre that an entire week can go by without having crossed the boundary line, and so when it comes to the weekends it then seems imperative that you venture in to the outside world.

This weekend I took the venturing a step further and joined the UBC Varsity Outdoors Club (VOC) on a kayaking trip up the Indian Arm fjord.  So, on Friday afternoon my backpack and I trekked in the pouring rain to catch the bus to Deep Cove, our starting point for the trip.  The delightful weather seemed to be doing its best to stop the trip and when we arrived at the kayak rental shop it became apparent that any possibility of taking boats out that day were pretty much non-existent.  Whitecaps plus a group of relatively inexperienced kayakers is a poor combination.  Luckily a member of the group had some very well placed parents living nearby so the trip turned in to an extreme camping experience which consisted of cooking in their backyard, wine and cards, and sleeping on the floor with a roof over our heads….. So not very extreme at all!  On Saturday morning we decided to give the kayaking another shot, this time with a rather higher success rate. 

The Indian Arm Provincial Park is a beautiful part of North Vancouver, the fjord has steep, densely forested sides which come down to the water’s edge and there are waterfalls and seals a-plenty.  This makes paddling up the inlet a fantastic experience - regardless of the excessive amount of water falling from the sky!  Towards the end of the day we found ourselves needing to get out of the way of the stormy weather pretty pronto.  We managed to find an area to camp just behind a pebble beach which had a derelict cabin.  Derelict translating to damp, stinky and covered in glass from the smashed in windows…..  Sounds nice eh?! Actually it was pretty luxurious in comparison to what might have been.  As the high winds and torrential rain continued we ate our yummy camp food and settled down for an evening of chatting and singing random songs with the aid of the VOC songbook.  Sunday morning we awoke to find the storm had passed leaving glass-like water and we packed up and set off back to Deep Cove. 

Feeling more confident of our paddling skills and in the absence of rain we felt it was still necessary to be soaked by the end of the day.  We went about achieving this using the water pumps that each kayak is equipped with as weaponry against each other.  Very entertaining and leaving us all looked slightly drowned rat –ish, especially as the rain chose to join in the fun and games as we arrived at our destination.  All in all it was a brilliant weekend; I met some really lovely new people who I hope to see more of round campfires and campus. 

I returned to UBC soggy and in serious need of a shower and a long sleep.  All those things accomplished I am now ready for the week ahead which sadly encompasses a lot of work that needs doing as the mid-term exam and essay season approaches!

Yet another week of activity after event after deadline after party, and I find myself sitting on my bed listening to the BBC From Our Own Correspondent podcast. Yesterday, one of my friends told me that I was beginning to sound American – so I’m listening to the most English thing that I can get hold of here – thank God for iTunes.

The main excitement for me this week was that on Friday I trekked into deepest Philadelphian suburbia to be one of the few thousand that Barack Obama would be addressing. Despite the early morning start, the lack of food, and not really knowing where we were going or how to get there, I ended up in a high school stadium with three of my friends, a handful of Pennsylvania political movers and shakers, Obama, and three thousand other people. And I was blown away.

If you’ve come here for the incisive and bipartisan political commentary, you should really find another blog since this one is about my experiences at an American liberal arts college. Having seen very few famous people in real life, being barely twelve feet from Obama himself was an awesome experience solely in that regard. Never mind the fact that he seems to be the first American politico with policies that even an avowedly liberal quasi-European (me) can agree with, or that listening to him speak makes me want to go out and change the world, or that he seems to have a very real (I’m touching as much wood as I can get my hands on) possibility of winning the American Presidency. Even after the speeches by local and state politicians had sufficiently fired-up the crowd, and the musical interlude had got us chanting and dancing, and the anticipation had become frantic, once Obama appeared we fell silent and clung to his every word.

Enough mawkishness for now – I am British after all, and I did promise last week to tell you all about the Screw Your Roommate Dance. I got screwed, as did everyone who wanted to be. Fear not, this is not sexual, it is merely the act of being set up with someone you don’t know by a mutual third party who then gives each person a line which is then read out in front of an audience of all those being screwed, and then the person with the other half of the line jumps up and shouts out their line, thereby uniting the screw couple into one awkward entity which then goes to dinner together. Complex? Sort of. Horrendously awkward? Fairly. Lots of fun for everyone watching? Of course.

My favourite part was when one guy forgot the words to his line, and stood stumbling over the words “What what in the butt”, whilst his screw date tried to save him from embarrassment by shouting out a line unprintable here, which he steadfastly ignored in his effort to complete his lyric. Dinner with my screw date was fine as a big group of us went out together, and we then repaired to a party where we all had a riotous time. Haverford may make us work our arses off, but they think up some pretty ingenious ways for us to have fun, too.

Next week is my Fall Break (half term – how quaint!), and I aim on being in Washington DC, Baltimore and NYC, so you may have to wait for your weekly dose of slightly confused ramblings on the American college experience. Ciao for now.

This week marked my return to Edinburgh, and now I'm back in Helsinki I can't stop myself from thinking about home. I was only there for four days meaning as soon as you've got yourself settled its time to say goodbye again. And I hate goodbyes so subsequently spent my last few hours in a mess of tears and cursing myself for being such a traveller. Its times like these when I wish I had a simple life with a desire to stay in the same place for longer than a few months. In the last year I've lived in the USA for 4 months (summer 07), Edinburgh for second year, Mongolia for 4 months (summer 08) and now I'm in Helsinki.
It also made me realise that Edinburgh is still happening, and I am not part of it. When I'm in Helsinki I think "wow, its amazing here, I love it, I'm so glad that I came" and forget that the Edinburgh world is still happening, but now I've been back I've seen all my friends in 3rd year and being president/other high up committee members in various societies and now I'd really like to be part of all of that too!

Its now week 6 in Helsinki, and I have an essay deadline for tomorrow. I've not really started it yet and its 7.30pm but I'm really not worried about it, unlike Edinburgh where I stress out like crazy in the last evening. Its because I've already sumbmitted around 4000 words on the topic in my weekly reflection papers on the readings, and I only need to write 2500 for the essay. These reflection papers have been marked and commented upon so I will just use them and add to it. I already have a basic idea of what I am doing, I just need to string it all together.

Today I decided to leave my Finnish class (yes, even though it does have a good teacher and I only joined last week after leaving my 1st class) as I have realised I don't actually have any desire to learn Finnish. It feels as though I am going to classes as I feel obligated to due to being in Finland and that I am doing it because I feel I should rather than because I want to do it. Its fine at the moment as I only have 3 classes, but in 2 weeks time I am starting another 3 and I'd rather concentrate on them than feel obliged to do Finnish. I can learn Mongolian here, which starts in October, and I'd much rather continue with that as I want to go back in the summer and do my anthropology dissertation work there. I'm actually interested in Mongolian, which is a better place to be in than I am with Finnish. If the Finnish class was going to teach me anything useful then I'd stay, but I can not think of a situation where I am going to have to ask someone when their birthday is and what their favourite subject at university is... I'm no longer twelve years old! If we were doing questions you get asked in shops, food names, transport problems and things which had an actual relation to my life in Helsinki I'd be much more up for learning the language.
I now have to email the teacher and explain that I'm leaving (scary!) and tell myself that I'm not just being the stupid Brit abroad who can't speak the language. I have my reasons!

This week it is international week in the university. I was supposed to go and represent Edinburgh at an Erasmus meeting today, but um, I kind of fell asleep (got back at 2am last night and was up at 8 for classes) and didn't end up going. Hopefully Helsinki students will still come to Edinburgh next year even through my failure to jazz the university up for them! There are a few interesting things happening, but it all feels a little fake to be honest. At the moment there is a huge argument happening between HYY (Helsinki University Students Union) and the International student societies and reprepsentative boards. Basically, here, the international students have to make their own societies and events as the general ones opperate all in Finnish and aren't really accessible, or bothered, about attracting international students. So there are a few such as the debates society and international soc, who cater for us. Now, this is when it becomes very EUSA-y ... last week room allocations for the year were dolled out, and although the international groups need a big room for their activities they were given a tiny one because one of the bigger Finnish run societies complained and has this group has more power within HYY, they won. And what has followed is a massive argument via email which fills my inbox every day. It all sounds slightly petty and VERY like EUSA stuff at Edinburgh. So now HYY has organised this international students week to show us how valued and amazing we are within the university. Great.

One of the biggest things happening this week is the final game of the group stages for our very own Erasmus FC. This is completely unrelated to the international week, by the way. The boys are utterley convinced they will win the leauge even though they have lost one game out of three, and still have a long way to go to reach the final. If they draw or win tomorrow, they will be in the quater final stages... which they clearly will given that they are on a par with Real Madrid and Chelsea, skills wise, apparently. I really hope they win as otherwise we will never hear the end of it, but then, we never hear the end of it if they do win either so its Catch 22. It is cool having an 'erasmus' thing as it means we all have something to share and get excited about, as the Finnish blocks in our building all have various Finnish things to do and we're stuck on our own in block C trying to create entertainment in our little community. Actually thats another thing which is annoying, in my accommodation there are 4 blocks. But all of the exchange students are in C block, meaning we don't actually get to see or communicate with the Finns in blocks A, B and D as the blocks are kind of like houses in Pollock thus totally seperate to each other.

A fun fair came to Helsinki this week. It was opperated by a very vocal, fat, English man --- "roll up ladies and gents, come n pay your money, only 1 euro a go, 1 euro a go to win some dead good prizes" --- and we wonder why the Europeans think we're idiots.

I should really start my essay now!

Wow, so this week has passed by in a complete blur, but definitely a very happy one!

Last sunday's erasmus night at Nelson's bar saw the start of a week of erasmus parties and discovering our local - Charie P's, an irish pub across the road from halls which plays fantastic music (the entire pub was staring at us as we gave a very loud and bouncy rendition of 500 miles on thursday night), has a great, studenty atmosphere and real irish barmen who we made friends with and consequently ended up with free drinks! Other nights out included Erasmus Karaoke and an outing to a tiny wine cellar in Stammersdorf (half an hour from the centre of vienna by tram, or 'bim' as the locals call it) both of which were good nights.

Other than that this week has been fairly quiet in comparison to the weeks before it. Or perhaps not quieter, just a bit calmer. I have finally managed to sign up for classes after a 5 hour wait in a queue on monday although I still don't have a student id card, a semester ticket for public transport (something I have discovered would be handy) or a bank card; without these things I cannot: take books out of the library, print anything off, wash my clothes (luckily I have borrowed my friend's card to do some washing) or collect my really awesome free gift from the University (an official uni wien bag!) So hopefully after tomorrow I will have all of these things, although I seem to have said that a lot recently.

Last wednesday was supposed to be my first class but the tutor didn't show up and so the class (Einfuehrung in die Lyrikanalyse) was cancelled. I atleast now know that the class is small (only 10-12 people) and that there are two other erasmus students in it. Tomorrow is my first lecture and I'm looking forward to finally getting started on some classes after an amazingly long summer holiday (exactly 5 months!)

Saturday night was the annual 'Lange Nacht der Museen' where every museum in Vienna (and I think nationwide) is open until 1 am, you buy a ticket for 11 Euros and it lets you in to all of them. I went along with a big group of friends and so it was really banterful. We started off in the interactive Haus der Muzik where you can conduct an orchestra and experience what it's like to be inside the womb (strange, that's all I'll say!). We then moved on to the slightly more grown-up Naturhistorisches Museen and Kunsthistorischesmuseen; the buildings themselves were an attraction and there was so much to see in both of them! We spent most of our time in the Naturhistorischesmuseen but still didn't manage to see everything and then went to the Egyptian, Roman and Greek exhibitions in the Kunsthistorischesmuseen after a well deserved coffee break! It was an amazing atmosphere with so many people there and it was good to do it all with friends - I definitely think I'll be back to all three museums at some point this year.

This week I have also booked flights to visit my best friend in France at the end of the month and I really can't wait! Even though I've really settled in here and met some really awesome friends, I still really miss my Edinburgh friends and my family - so it'll be so cool to catch up with Hannah. A group of us have also decided to take a trip to Prague in November since it's only 6 hours on the train and we can spend a long weekend there. There's so much to experience this year and I want to do it all, I just hope my funds will stretch far enough!

So this week I've really started to feel at home here - I no longer need to take my map with me every time I step out the door; it's so much easier to just laugh about the crazy admin system when you know that everyone is going through the same thing, and even though I've been struck by the dreaded freshers' flu there are movie nights, hot chocolate and mutual sympathy with new friends to cheer you up!

So until next week...
Ciao!

Firstly, apologies for this hiatus in blogging efforts!

Things have been busy here for the past while: academic deadlines creeping up slowly, various social ventures to look forward to, and the cold weather becoming a daily feature! This morning whilst taking a walk around Sognsvann lake I noticed the first frosty patches underfoot, and the evenings are crystal clear, the cold is cutting! It's beautiful though; last week or so a few of us ate together and then went up to the same lake around 9.30pm, it was so black and dark, but the skies were amazingly clear, I have never seen so many stars in my life! We all froze to death lying on the ground and looking up at the sky for goodness knows how long, it was incredible to see such a clear view of the night sky, satellites, shooting stars and all.

Anyway, asides from the inevitable cold creeping up on Oslo and my previously untapped love for nature somehow making its way into the world (entirely unexpected trust me), things have been calm whilst also being busy, as silly as that sounds. The academic term is in full swing here, and we are half way through semester, unlike many of the universities in Europe! As such, I have important deadlines looming: two of my subjects require large essays which will be graded as a very simple pass or fail, and which I am required to pass before I can take the end of term exam. I have been working on these slowly, hoping that it really does pay off to begin these things well in advance. I have also found a lovely Norwegian friend who is willing to reprimand every grammatical error that I make, which despite sounding like a horrific basis for a friendship, is exactly what I need.

We have planned a November trip to Streptokåken hytta: a hyttetur is a Norwegian institution! It is almost impossible to explain, but almost every Norwegian family owns a second home, most often situated in the heart of nature somewhere, perhaps by a fjord, in the grandeur of the mountains, etc etc (they really don't do these things by halves). They are most often very simple, some without running water or electricity, and families take every possible opportunity to spend long weekends and often weeks on end during the summer months staying in their hytta together. The University of Oslo own at least one large hytte for every faculty in the institution, and we will be renting the Veterinary faculties hytte in November for a ridiculously good price. There are at least 10 of us heading out, including a friend who studies in the Swedish department who will be traveling to Oslo from Uppsala, and I can’t imagine that we will be having anything other than an almost ridiculously typically Norwegian weekend together in the middle of a freezing cold forest, with a massive log fire and lots of good food, drink and company! We are also already having to think about renting another for next semester when the snow comes, as the competition is fierce; these weekends are incredibly popular. A weekend of snow and skiing with new good friends would be the perfect thing to look forward to returning for next semester! And rather scarily, next semester is already on my mind a lot when i realise how quickly this semester is flying by. I have endless decisions to make concerning subjects for both my time here and my final year in Edinburgh, and it almost feels like thousands of things that I want to experience before returning home. I suppose these thoughts should motivate me, rather than depressing me slowly, ha ha.

Oh, and last but not least, rather importantly I have now changed my University degree: having previously been a Joint Honours student in English Literature and Norwegian, I have decided to go ahead and pursue Scandinavian Studies as a Single Honours degree. My so-far short ERASMUS experience has been the best thing to ever happen to my social and academic life, and my interests are far and wide when it concerns this area of the world and all it has to offer (barf, I know, how overly keen of me). Truthfully, the decision almost made itself.

Saturday morning again- this is a tradition in the making, I can tell. I’m still in bed in my new studio enjoying the space and the shower with actual taps rather than a push button. I’m also somewhat worse for wear after last night.

This week has been strange, I feel like I have just arrived again but this time it as more successful. Last weekend was wonderful, the weather was amazing; so sunny and warm (for Lille- renowned for its constant cloud cover, just like Edinburgh) and I spent the entire weekend enjoying it and completely relaxing for the first time. I sat outside whilst my clothes were in the laverie and just enjoyed the feel of the sun on my face.

But as always the weekend was far too short- I had to sort out all of the admin. for my move and just like before I was shunted from pillar to post concerned about the accuracy of my French; as a result of this I wasn’t in labs as much as usual, and it was useful to only have two lectures.

Labs are going much, much better; I still sometimes feel on edge and the lab itself is disturbingly quiet and sometimes people come and talk at me and I panic wondering if I understood correctly and then worrying about what they told me I would be doing. Although this week Lydie- my ‘maitre de stage’ (tutor)- said that I was doing alright so that cheered me up and I managed to collect dry solvent from a big scary machine (and the fact the instructions are written clearly on the front does not detract from my happiness.)

I have been thinking a lot about the work I have to do for Edinburgh this week; the literature survey and the essays, I know there will be a lot of reading for both but I’m excited about the literature survey because I might not have to do it on my project here, I would like to look into drug development for mental illness and am hoping it might be possible.

So, I moved into Gustav Eiffel on Wednesday with the help of Rachel and Andy (my new neighbours) and Sarah and Rob. They all came gallantly to my rescue and helped me cart all my stuff across campus in two Auchan trolleys, feeling very stupid I hasten to add, and running up and down stairs was tiring. The glass of wine (okay bottle-[alright bottles]) was well deserved although when I went to sleep I felt like I was in a bric-a-brac shop having to climb to my bed through the stuff that had just been lumped everywhere.

It feels like I’m back to square one though, needing to buy even more things for my room.

French classes started again yesterday, it made me realise that I actually have improved since I arrived. Not with grammar but the way I speak is more natural, more colloquialisms and not worrying as much about saying the wrong thing but I don’t think the teacher likes me very much. She asked everyone else loads of questions but only asked me one in the whole three hours.

We, I say we, I mean Rachel and Andy really (I let my room out to be the cloakroom) had a cheese and wine party- it had to be done, we’re in France after all! I got very confused about what language to speak after a few glasses and even came out with some Russian which the Czech people understood. Most people speak very good English, which makes me feel wholly inadequate but it is odd to hear yourself say something in French when you don’t expect to.

Anyway, it’s the weekend again,