Well I’m at home again, it’s strange to be in a place where people speak English to you all of the time; it’s confusing. I’m writing even later than usual but with all of the travelling this weekend (Villeneuve d’Asq – Lille- Ebbsfleet- Essex- Stanstead- Edinburgh) I’m letting myself off, plus its half term. I deserve a rest…

Anyway last week was yet again hectic, I don’t know where the time went and yet sometimes it felt like it was dragging because of lack of lab related work.

Last weekend was a relaxed affair, very Anglophone centred; but wine as enjoyed and fun was had and girly shopping ensued resulting in the realisation that it’s just impossible to shop for party dresses in France. I suppose it’s the wrong time of year for it… That wasn’t really the point, we had fun and raided Auchan afterwards, shopping in a three is difficult, especially when it’s treated like a national sport; I don’t think there’s a team event!
We went to Wazemmes market on Saturday, not a good place to drag a vegetarian around but Sarah wanted to find some things to take home- we were unsuccessful and ended up in our usual café sitting outside (in the sun), why can’t we do that at home? I can’t imagine any café having seats outside in mid-October, it’s just not done!

We’re all noticing changes in our language… now not only can we not talk perfect French but our English is suffering too, for example Andrew keeps saying starting product and not starting material because in French the word is ‘produit du depart.’ I also seem to use the verb ‘to get’ less because there is no French translation- I’m pleased about this one, personally I can’t stand the word, it’s so… vulgar, no word should have that many meanings…
Labs were odd this week, they started off well because I had things to do but because half term was approaching there was no point starting anything new so I ended up writing things up (or attempting to); not a bad thing, but a boring thing. Saying that I wasn’t in labs all that often anyway, my timetable is filling up rapidly with courses so Tuesday and Thursday I was in lectures- I am appalled with the way French students talk incessantly throughout a lecture, and not even in whispers, there is a constant babble and the lecturer will just carry on pretty much ignoring everyone and speaking at just above the usual conversational level. This is bad enough for people who don’t have to concentrate on understanding the language but for me it’s a nightmare- I can only just pick out the lecturers voice, if everyone was quiet I’m sure I’d get more out of it.

I’m glad at least that the material is easy, I’m doing 1st year courses, apparently equivalent to our 3rd year but we’re covering topics that we did in 1st and 2nd year. This is a good thing because I’m there to learn French, not Chemistry. Japanese is the real test though, no one knows I’m English so I have to try to catch every single word and he speaks so fast. If I wasn’t so absorbed in learning Japanese I might have given up by now but the language fascinates me, it’s so different to English, and I managed to learn most of the Hiragana- although the prof. taught us even more!

The main focal point for this week was Rachel’s 21st; somehow I managed to get way over excited and orchestrated the buying of decorations and silly presents. Sarah and I attacked Rachel’s room with streamers, balloons, banners and coloured paper cut-outs of stars and 21’s… Sarah spend large portion of Thursday afternoon cutting things out… We had an Anglophone shopping trip on Wednesday which entailed 5 of us trudging around Auchan at one time- it needed to be organised like a military operation with contingency plans for when we got split up and a good idea of what we needed- sweets and wine mainly…

The party was great fun and I think Rachel had a good time, her room was full of all of the Erasmus students speaking whole mix of languages mainly French- it’s hard to remember who prefers speaking which language because some people really are not confident with their French. The party wound down at twelve since it was a Thursday and we all have labs to go to (well Rachel, Andrew and I) but we were still up until two AM talking to some random French guys who live in the same block. I was shattered come Friday but it was worth it.
It’s half term now and I don’t know if I’ll write next week since I’m in Edinburgh for the week visiting y boyfriend and besides we all know what Edinburgh is like- mainly wet and cold (same as Lille then.)

Lydie has a lot planned for my return, lots of tests and things being sent to places for testing and it all sounds a bit too real… I’m not good enough to be doing real chemistry…

Until Next Time…