My thoughts:

Things I like about France:
1) Christmas Markets with all the mulled wine, stalls, christmas presents and christmas tree

2) Being able to get warm pain au chocolats whenever I want :-D

3) Laughing at funny French people's names such as "Gaylord"

4) That I am in France and therefore in another country than England which is exciting

5) The Festival of Lights and all of the fireworks/lights that seem to be everywhere right now

6) French food; Lyon is definitely the gastronomical capital of France (if not the world in my opinion) and I absolutely love it

7) The Parc de la Tete d'Or with the lake and the zoo and the GRASS :-D

8) Walking around and discovering new things

9) My Tecely card and the magic it brings :-P

10) When people come to visit

11) The bus which takes me to the airport... :-P

12) My little room with it's very own little en-suite :-D

13) Going on nights out with my English friends and having AMAZING nights out even if the clubs are sometimes a bit strange/hot/not normal

14) Going to the pub to watch football when an English team is playing a French one and supporting England to the max :-D

15) Talking to people when I'm out and about and trying to improve my Francais

16) Being able to tell people that I live in Lyon; who else has lived in a foreign country all by themselves at my age...not many lol

17) That I'm here and making the most of it :-)


Things I don't like about France:

1) French bank accounts; opening it the first time round was bloody difficult enough; recently the bank decided that I wasn't using my account REGULARLY enough (p*** off) so they decided to "momentarily block my bank card" (idiots) to which I had to walk along to the bank and demand they do something; they said I had to apply for a new card, which, as I reminded them last time took A WHOLE TWO MONTHS to come through before (lazy inefficient *******) so they ordered it (after I went down to speak to them personally to make sure they were working on it practically every day for at least three days in a row; only way to make sure ANYTHING got done) and NOW I can't upload my photo online so have to go back AGAIN tomorrow. Kill. Me. Now.

2) French Administration; as above. Plus the stupid Professor Quirrel-wannabee who seems to have made it her mission to ruin my life, after I supposedly (it was Steffi, but I was nearest the doorbell so she blamed me) rang the bell a million and one times at the Welcome Desk one time because no one came after the first three rings.

3) When I accidentally drop my laptop on the floor and manage to a) break the DVD drive (it won't open; slight problem when my dissertation is all about FILMS and CINEMA *sigh) b) bend the laptop charger c) break half of the USB points and d) break something internally which makes the laptop turn itself off randomly when I am trying to work/Facebook/MSN/get on the Internet (which in itself is a very rare occurrence.) Although this point is not really France's fault, it happened in France and I therefore blame the country as a whole :-P

4) When it rains (which happens alot) because the rain in France is fat (no joke) so you get wetter quicker, and it also makes a HORRIFIC noise when I try to get to sleep and therefore cannot get to sleep, adding to my already daily insomnia. Thank you France.

5) When the shops/banks are closed at stupid times and the 2 hours of the day that the Lyonnais have annoyingly decided to devote to eating lunch; the result is that they only work for about 4 hours a day and even then are not REALLY working; kissing each other as a greeting every day and as a way of parting must take at LEAST an hour of their time, the other is spent being bored/trying not to do work/sitting on their a****

6) The local tramps and prostitutes; half of which like to sit around naked (or at least with something you'd rather not see on show)

7) When French people pretend not to understand you when they know exactly what you just said because you just PRO-NOUN-CI-A-TED IT CO-RRECT-LY, for the sole reason that you are English and therefore not French and want to make it perfectly clear that they know this fact, and to make you feel stupid and insignificant. Anyone remember the War...

8) Strikes which seem to be a daily occurrence and making getting anywhere/doing anything even more impossible than it already was in the first place

9) The blinds by my windows which mean that when I wake up at 1pm and think it's 10am it feels wrong to get up; it is also the reason for my insomnia I believe, because the lack of light/not waking up to light confuses me and I therefore think it's acceptable to go back to sleep when I wake up at 10am (even though I check the clock and it says it's 10am lol)




Having just re-read what I've written I have moaned about France a bit more than I think I needed to lol... because all in all I am really happy to be here and I'm having an amazing time; to be honest there's probably thing's about England that I could complain about forever even though I love it, so I'm not too worried lol.

Other than that, all is good this side of the Channel :-) exams are coming up (I've got them on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; painful lol) but we're exchanging Secret Santa presents on Wednesday and I'm coming home for Christmas for a month on Saturday evening; should land at Gatwick at around quarter past 8 British time so can't wait for that and to see everyone back home again :-). I went out clubbing the other night which was funny but good, and I've been going out the past two evenings to see things for the Festival of Light, and am going out for that tomorrow evening for a couple of hours too, as a break from revision.


I really can't believe how fast time's gone; come Friday I'll have finished my first term in Lyon, and after that I'll only have one more to go, so I'll be half way through the Year Abroad, which seems crazy. Four months has gone by so quickly!

Will post another blog before I come home, but until then I will be found head down in a dictionary trying to get my head round this stuff/shouting at some useless French bank staff member/trying to do some French exams... Wish me luck!

Bisous! Jess xx