A month and a couple of days into Lyon life and I have FINALLY (basically down to Gavin lol, because he has one and made me jealous :-P ) decided to make a blog to cover my year abroad!
I can't believe I've been here over a month already; time is going pretty quickly! The weather has been really nice, although it's starting to get colder here in the evenings now, which is NOT what I signed up for on this stupid year abroad :-P I expect constant sunshine!!! Lol! I'm getting a tan though :-) a fact of which I am a little TOO proud, but am hoping to come home and brag about it lol.
I booked my flight home for half term the other day, at the MOST UNREASONABLE TIMES KNOWN TO MAN, thank you easyjet. I'll be arriving in England at 10pm on Friday 23rd October and leaving at 6am on Thursday 29th October, so hopefully will be able to see as many people as possible within those couple of days there :-)!
Life in Lyon is having it's ups and downs... For example, trying to phone Lyon Domino's and the stupid woman not understanding where my halls are so they can deliver, even though I spelt out the address about a million times, grr! BUT my faith in French people was slightly restored yesterday, when Hannah, Bethan, Steffi and I went into this little boutique and met this lady called Mina who spoke English and was really friendly, she gave us her shop card and stickers :-P turns out she'd lived in London about 22 years ago (I wasn't born then :-P) and spoke really good English, so we had a Franglais conversation with her (us French, her English/French) for a while, and said if we ever needed help with anything to come and see her :-) so that was really nice.
I've done a bit of sightseeing since I've been here which has been good :-) however, have also done a lot of shopping which is maybe not so good as I am now convinced I am poor (I should not have been offered a credit card lol stupid Natwest!!) but am looking forward to the Erasmus grant coming hopefully in late November if not before!
J Lo and Gavin are hopefully coming to visit in a few weeks time which is muchos exciting! Gavin's coming to France today (also happens to be his birthday so bon anniversaire because I know he'll read this lol) and J Lo arrived yesterday (I thought he was a French person when he phoned me off his french phone haha!!) but they're doing assistantships in Nantes and Orléans respectively, so will hopefully meet up a bit over the year :-D
I've been out and about clubbing a couple of times since I got here; and have to say that French clubs are the most hottest places in the entire world, (and I've been through Death Valley in America so trust me, that's saying something lol) I don't understand why they can't get air con over here!! And both times the clubs have been packed as well, because they were both Erasmus Socials, but even so, VERY VERY hot lol. Have been out with to a couple of Irish bars as well, and maybe got a tad drunk lol, but we always seem to meet interesting (or weird lol) people when we go there, plus get to speak French (which I can now certify that I definately DO speak better when I'm drunk :-P ) so that's always a bonus!! I met someone from Chambéry there the other day, and seeing as I've been there before (to the airport) to go skiing I managed to have quite a long conversation about that lol, so that was good! And the guy I was talking to actually thought I was French (I think he might've been a bit tipsy :-P ) but either way, it's always nice to hear stuff like that because it makes me think I might actually be getting somewhere language-wise lol!
French lectures have turned to be an interesting experience lol.. I'm studying a French for Erasmus students course, Sociology, Translation from English to French and a module called Languages and Cultures, all taught in French, of course. Am pretty impressed that I'm managing to pick things up and take notes in them etc, although I think I need to start remembering to bring my dictaphone to lectures so I can replay them over later lol, which will hopefully be ok!
Today am planning to get up ( :-P ) and go to the French market stalls which are about a 5 minute walk away from my halls, literally just around the corner. They sell loads of fresh fruit, vegetables, roast chickens, regional cheeses, homemade jams (I could go on lol) etc, so will take a few pictures of that and put them up on here at some point :-)! Then I think the plan is to have a roast dinner :-D (I miss them!!!!!) and do some homework (it's a tough life lol), and then go to a pub quiz this evening which should be fun :-). There's a transport strike in Lyon atm which makes everything take 100 times longer than it should to get anywhere lol, (it took me an hour and a half to get to the campus I needed to go to the other day; I could've got a flight back to the UK in that time!! Damnit! Lol) which makes making plans difficult as it's impossible to get anywhere, but hopefully it will stop soon (although it COULD go on for up to 99 days, and the workers still get paid if they strike!!!) because it's a massive inconvenience to everyone!
Will write again when I can, hopefully in the not too distant future! Sorry everyone for the massive first post, but there's so much to say haha! Hope all reading this are well :-)
Bisous! Jess xx
