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The road goes ever on and on

The Road goes ever on and on, Down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone and I must follow, if I can

I have shamelessly borrowed some of Tolkien’s words (nerd alert) because this may well be my last post before going home, and I may well only have a week left in Germany, but I’m telling myself to look beyond the sadness of goodbyes (there have been far too many goodbyes for my liking) because, as Tolkien says, the road will always go on.

So far, the road of my year abroad has been incredible - I won’t say amazing, because it wasn’t always easy and there were many times I wanted to turn back, daunted by what seemed like a mountain ahead of me, but I never did - and I’m so very glad I didn’t, because I have met some amazing people and seen some incredible places and proved to myself I can do things, even if I’m scared or nervous. I can’t say that my year abroad has taught me to be more organised, or how to travel lightly (how do I always ending bringing back more things than I arrived with?)  but it has taught me to trust myself and do things, and not to simply let life happen around me.

And do things I have:

I spent a long weekend in Berlin, just managing to avoid the rain. It was so strange to be back there after five and a half years: it hasn’t changed, but I have. Last time I was there I could just about ask for a hot chocolate; this time I have lived in Germany, can hold a conversation and write essays in German. Five and a half years ago, I couldn’t imagine living anywhere except London; now my mind has been opened and the thought of finding a new place to live, adapting myself to fit in, is incredibly exciting. Plus I’ve been lucky enough to be there with two of the best people on the planet.

baby face

the only thing that’s changed is the contact lenses...

I also finally got to visit Munich! I have wanted to see it (and Bavaria) for aaaaages - home to Oktoberfest, dirndls and the best German teacher ever (Mr Waltl, I still miss you - and your name makes so much more sense now). It’s an absolutely amazing city; I really, really loved it and I wouldn’t be sad if my road took me to settle there for a little bit... 

I also took a day trip to Dresden, also a pleasant surprise - I hadn’t really been expecting much, maybe a very industrial city, but I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be as beautiful as it was! I was honestly speechless walking around the baroque buildings and gardens. I have a feeling I’ll be back in Germany before too long, and when I am, I’ll make a point of coming back and seeing more of Dresden.

Then there was a cute trip to a National Park, the Hainich forest, where you walk up on a platform in the tree canopy. It was fun to be around nature (can you tell I’m a city kid?) and such a lovely way to spend one of the last days our group was mostly all together, with a little get together in the evening watching the bats and freaking out over spiders.

Among all this travelling, I have also been doing some work. Not only did I pass all my exams here in Germany (including the class with actual Germans!!), but I also got a good grade on my essay for York! We found out our grades for this essay while in Munich, sitting at a table in the sun with a glass of local Weissbier; there are worse ways to find out results, and it just made it even better that I got a good one!

It does seem strange to think it’s all coming to an end now - at least, my year abroad is - and it’s going to be weird suddenly understanding other people’s conversations and not having to be constantly thinking whenever I’m out and about. There were certain things I missed about home while here, but I know there’s going to be plenty that I’ll miss about Germany - the cakes, the bakeries, the Radler, the kebabs (I’ll never be able to eat another sorry British excuse of a kebab), the currywurst, the Bratwurst stand on the Domplatz, the Dom, the colourful buildings, the Krämerbrücke. I’ll miss people smiling and saying ”hallo” in the street. I’ll miss the casual ciao they use for goodbye. I’ll miss keeping my water bottles religiously so that I can get money back for recycling them. I mean, I’m looking forward to being at home surrounded by my cats and tea, but I think leaving Germany is going to be hard. I loved my time in Toulouse but I loved the people I met and the friends I made more than the city itself; I think Erfurt is going to leave its mark on me a little deeper. 

But I have seven more days here and I’m going to make the most of them: I’m going to go to Jena for Pommes and Currywurst one last time, I’ll make sure I buy that slice of cherry and chocolate cake, I’ll go into the Dom. Because this time next week, I won’t be able to any more.

But as Gandalf says, “this is not the end”, and there are many more adventures awaiting me; leaving Erfurt is made a tiny bit easier because I know that least it’s not forever and one day I will be back in Germany. One day.

And whither then? I cannot say!

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My Life as a Tourist

Karlskirche (St Charles’ Church), Vienna

Every time I post an update I tell myself I’m going to be better and do it more regularly. Every time, I end up forgetting and nothing gets posted for at least a month. This time it’s been a month and a half of radio silence and lots and lots has happened since then.

Firstly, I’ve been without a phone since the 2nd of May so there is an utter dearth of photos from this time, sadly. A whole month without a proper phone - hell, I tell you. I do have some photos on my camera but I also managed to leave the cable in England, so until I can borrow Ewelina’s, on the camera is where the bulk of them will stay...

It’s a shame, as I saw some amazing things in the month of May - I travelled 12 hours on a coach to Vienna (and made the return journey) for a weekend with Ewelina; a whole group of us went to Prague the weekend after; I took a day trip to Leipzig with my friend Bara but we ended up in a tiny but very cute town called Saalfeld (which was the seat of the family who would eventually become our royal family!); I eventually made it to Leipzig and saw the Nikolaikirche - where the protests against the DDR and the separation of Germany began in 1989.

Me being a tourist in Prague, on the Charles Bridge

Me being a tourist in Vienna, at the Hofburg Palace

Me being a tourist in Saalfeld, at the ruins of the Hoher Schwarm tower

Mum and Dad also came to visit at the beginning of June, bringing with them a new phone filled with pictures of my cat and plenty of Cadbury’s chocolate (some things never change) and I had a lovely weekend showing them my new home here in Germany. For the most part they loved it here, no doubt helped by the lovely weather we had (minus the strangely appropriate thunderstorm as we visited the Buchenwald concentration camp, which was not only used by the Nazis but later by the Soviets as well) though they were horrified at the sparseness of the accommodation - as mum said, none too quietly, “it’s so East German!” (mum you can’t just say that out loud here omg)

Despite the accommodation being...a bit grim, life in Erfurt is pretty wonderful. I feel content, with some great friends here, and most importantly, I don’t have the same fear of speaking German as when I first arrived. I still make stupid mistakes and sometimes panic if I don’t hear something the first time around but on the whole, I can talk to Germans without wanting to cry or punch myself in the face afterwards. In fact, a couple of weeks ago I gave a presentation in German to a group of German students, and I received a decent grade for it (and I’d fully been expecting to fail it). I will also be giving another presentation next Friday to a class of 15-year-olds, this time about my term in Toulouse! Anyone would think I enjoyed giving presentations, the rate I’m going! One of the best moments so far was a couple of weeks ago - some of us exchange students were having a “Gipfel” or “Stammtisch” where we get together and speak German, often with beer because it’s Germany, and because it was beautiful weather we went up the Zittadelle Petersberg, a hill which has a glorious view of Erfurt, and we sat there chatting and drinking as the sun went down over the city, the smell of another group’s barbecue and the music of another group on the other side; in that moment I was truly content. I’ve never felt more like an international student than in that moment and much as I miss the bustle of London and my cat and Cadbury’s and my friends, it made me more grateful than ever that not only did I have this opportunity but that I didn’t let fear and my own self-doubts stop me.

I still have my year abroad project to write which I’m not looking forward to, and my attitude up til now has mostly been “ignore it and forget it exists and deal with it later” but now there isn’t very much later left so I’m going to have to ignore the lovely sunshine and get the stupid thing written, but I know it’ll be worth it because on the same day it’s due in I’ll also be heading to BERLIN for a long weekend with my darling Alex, and I am so very excited to see it again and help her discover it for the first time!

With the advent of summer comes other lovely things - going to the local outdoor swimming pool for an evening swim, balmy evening walks, an excuse to eat ice cream and sit by the river, and exciting plans for a birthday barbecue (the weather forecast says sunny all day). We’ve only got another 2 weeks of lectures and then it’s 2 weeks roughly of exams, and then I’ll have another 2 weeks here to explore/travel as much as I possibly can before heading back to England. But there’s more excitement on the horizon, as I am going to be an au-pair for a month in Austria!!! Which is incredibly exciting and I’m really really looking forward to experiencing life there!

Town centre of the tiny Saalfeld

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Hiking in Die Drei Gleichen - 11 June

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The absolute Wurst

And on today’s episode of what Tilly’s been up to...

the view from the Jentower

1) Jena

Last weekend, the 22nd, I went with a couple of other international students to Jena (according to my tutor in York, it’s the best town in Germany...). The day started off cold and dreary and while Jena was very colourful (as it appears most German towns tend to be) it wasn’t exactly thrilling.

But then.

One of my friends was here last term and took us to this little hut where they sell Currywurst and chips and oh

my

god

it was the BEST thing I’ve eaten. The chips were amazing and the currywurst was divine and the mayo was parmesan flavoured and it was like heaven. Honestly it was worth going to Jena just for that if I’m honest - especially as we didn’t even have to pay for the train since it’s within Thueringen so we can travel for free :)

Currywurst mit Pommes

The weather then cleared and we went up the Jentower, Jena’s tallest skyscraper (which has a restaurant and a hotel at the top) and we got to see Jena from above. We also visited the botanical gardens, where there were loads of beautiful flowers and cool plants and also a stray cat the staff had adopted (I was too excited to get a proper picture because it let me stroke it and it was black and white and really pretty and purred really loudly and it genuinely made my day).

2) Weimar

The weekend before last we went to Weimar! I didn’t know much about Weimar besides the Weimar Republic, but now I know it’s also known as Thueringen’s “city of culture” and it’s where two of Germany’s most famous poets and writers, Schiller and Goethe lived - hence why it also bears the name “City of Poets and Thinkers”.

Weimar: Stadt der Dichter und Denker

It was also very colourful.

Yesterday (28th) I went to a food festival where they had food stalls with street food from all over the world. It was pretty something, even if it all smelt so good I just wanted to buy everything (minus the insects. I wasn’t really tempted by those...)

It’s another bank holiday this coming Monday, to celebrate the Tag der Arbeit - the labourer’s day. So yet another long weekend! On Sunday evening it’s also a holiday known as Walpurgisnacht, to celebrate Saint Walpurga, and in folklore it’s also a witches’ night. (It’s pretty strange that we don’t celebrate Saint Walpurga in England seeing as she was English...? According to Wikipedia she came from Devon???) There’s apparently going to be a vigil by a big bonfire in the Domplatz so hopefully I’ll get a chance to see that!

And in other exciting news, next weekend I will be in Vienna, and the weekend after that in Prague! One happy traveller here - thank goodness my Erasmus grant came through! ( #brexit hahaha)

Anyway. I’ll be sure to post photos of my upcoming travels but until then, have a picture of a moody sky.

Tschüss!

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Erfurt: Fischmarkt; Schlösserstraße

Eisenach: the Bachhaus; the Wartburg castle and view; (look at the colourful sunny houses!)

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Tilly finally reaches Thüringen!

the Domplatz Erfurt

(written 02.04.2017)

Hallo Leute!

I have now been in Germany for a week and a half, and compared to my first week and a half in France it’s been a breeze.

I arrived last Thursday with my two suitcases at Erfurt Hauptbahnhof feeling very apprehensive and doubting that I really could do this whole move-to-Germany lark, where I was met by my tutor/mentor here – the university has a system where a current student helps you out when you arrive, gets you settled in and everything. I was more than a little grateful for this, because at this point I’d forgotten nearly all my German and was cripplingly nervous about having to speak it.

So, she brought me to my accommodation (which is alright, considering all the bad things I’d heard about it) and throughout the last week has helped me with all the administrative things – such as going to a health insurance place and getting exemption, registering with the local council, paying my rent and all that jazz. The enrolment at the university has been so easy as well: I simply showed a few documents and then I received my student card – which makes me wonder why on earth it was so bloody difficult in France?!

The campus is quite nice here – there’s lots of grass and the buildings are nice, and thankfully it’s not a constant building site. (I’m looking at you, Toulouse.) The living situation has been one of the best things so far – I’m in a flat with 3 other girls, and after 5 months of having a creepy neighbour who’d literally follow me to the kitchen silently just to make me feel uncomfortable and consequently being too scared to even go and make a simple cup of tea, I’m loving having a little kitchen and being able to make food and tea whenever I want and not be made to feel like a prisoner in my own room! We speak a mixture of German, English and even French in the house – so hopefully I’ll be able to improve my German while not forgetting everything I learned in Toulouse.

After a week here, I’m feeling pretty optimistic. The biggest thing I’ve noticed since arriving is the way I don’t feel like an alien simply for being foreign – people in shops don’t ignore me or give me dirty looks when I mispronounce something or struggle over the words, and I haven’t yet felt like I shouldn’t be here. It’s a very welcome change from France, where shop assistants often glared at me and other students simply refused to talk to me when they realised I was foreign. To be fair I have only been here a week, but first impressions count.

On Friday I went on my first field trip: we got a train to Eisenach, the home of Bach and where Martin Luther hid for a while after he published his 95 Theses. It was a very pretty town and the views from the castle there, the Wartburg, were stunning. It helps the weather has been gorgeous, bright sunshine nearly day – which I didn’t really pack for, so I’m hoping we’ll get spring before it skips straight to summer! I already have a bit of sunburn…)

Erfurt’s famous “Krämerbrücke” - the only bridge to be completely lined with houses north of the Alps!

I’ve walked around Erfurt quite a bit since arriving; it’s really quaint and very definitely German, with all its churches and tall narrow buildings in bright colours. It’s impossible to feel sad walking past houses painted sunshine yellow. It feels quite small and everything shuts on Sundays, so I guess I’ll have to get used to going for lots of walks. But I’m feeling optimistic: we went for drinks with a few other Erasmus students and an actual German yesterday, and I managed to speak German and understand German and I enjoyed it.

Classes start tomorrow, however, so we’ll see how I’m feeling after a week of seminars!

Liebe Grüße und bis bald!

the view of Erfurt from the Zittadelle Petersberg

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Hampton Court - 15th February 

The Pennine way (Kinder Scout) - 4th March

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York - 23rd - 30th January

Brussels - 10th - 12th February

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So long, farewell...

Le Miroir d’Eau in Bordeaux

Okay, I can be the first to admit that my blog was sort of a fail: 3 blog posts during my time in France, abysmal. But New Year, new resolutions – I will actually keep a better record of my time abroad in 2017. Yes, it’s taken me 2 ½ months just to type this up, but baby steps.

As my last post was in November, I’ll give a quick recap of everything that happened since then:

We did indeed visit Bordeaux and Albi, and I loved them both. Bordeaux was gorgeous, depite the cloudy weather, and we stopped inside a Cave aux Vins and got a spontaneous tour of the literal wine cave, including an impromptu lesson on how to professionally taste wine (minus any actual wine, unfortunately, as we didn’t pay...)

Albi was also beautiful, and we got to see it in all its sunny southern autumnal glory. It’s an old town that felt lived in, unlike the old town in Carcassonne which is very definitely for tourists. 

Albi in autumn

December started off with a visit from maman, where we ate lots and did the touristy things I hadn’t done yet, such as visit the museums, see the pretty buildings and wander around the Christmas market (which admittedly I did do, a lot). It was so lovely to have someone from home come and experience my French home with me – and it was a far cry from when I’d first arrived three months before, uncertain and nervous. Can’t say my French had improved that much, unfortunately, but this time I was confident enough to try even if it was wrong.

maman et moi

Le Rugby! We went to see a rugby match at the Stade Ernest-Wallon. It was Toulouse vs Brives and of course, Toulouse won (Toulousain, Toulousain). I know next to nothing about rugby but it was a great experience, especially as Toulouse is especially famous for its rugby and it’d be sacrilege to go to Toulouse and not see a rugby match.

toulousain, toulousain

Raclette night with the Erasmus society – a quintessentially French dish, it’s just melting cheese onto whatever you fancy but usually it’s potatoes, vegetables and charcuterie (cold meats). Mon Dieu, it was the best thing ever and I’m just sad I only got to have it once because it was heaven on a plate

My friend from London, Holly, came to stay and I showed her around Toulouse for a day – complete with house party in the evening where we discovered that according to the French, English food is all “boiled meat and marmalade” – not quite sure how that idea came about, but there we are. We then got a coach to Limoges and met another friend – Imogen – and wandered around the strangely empty town before having an entirely bizarre dinner experience. The restaurant we picked turned out to be run out of someone’s house and there were only two waiters, who shook our hands and chatted to us as we were the only customers at that point… the food was delicious but it was very surreal! We then headed back to Toulouse the next day and I introduced them to the beauty that is aligot and tartiflette at the Christmas market, before all heading home together the day after.

definitely not lost...

Which brings us to January: it was spent in a weird haze of SO. MANY. EXAMS. And the stress of knowing I had to move out before all those exams were done (not that the exams counted for my year abroad grades, but it’d be a bit embarrassing to fail them all the same…) I appeared to have double the number of exams than everyone else, which was super fun; exam protocol in France is exactly how you’d expect for a country that stops for 2 hours for lunch every day and finishes the working day whenever it fancies. There were no rules – people ate during exams, people sat wherever they wanted, you started when you got given your paper not when they’d all been distributed, and I definitely saw people whispering and passing notes to each other. Some people didn’t even do their exams – they signed a piece of paper and then walked out and left. I later found out this is because many French students receive money from the government, so they “attend” lectures and exams by signing their names but really just get a year of freedom paid for. (Or something like that. Can’t say I blame them really, when uni only costs about 250€ and not £9,000.)

I moved out of my accommodation on the 13th of January (couldn’t leave fast enough if I’m honest – Chapou was horrible and I couldn’t wait to get away from my Creepy Next-Door Neighbour) and stayed with my friend Katie for a few days before moving into an Airbnb – and my host had a cat! Hubert was adorable and would lie on my chest, which made me super excited to get home and see my own cats again. My sister came for a few days and got to see the sights, before heading home and taking some of my many suitcases home with her!

It was a very sad day saying goodbye to everyone, but I made such wonderful friends out there that I’m sure we’ll be keeping in touch and seeing each other again. I can’t say my time in Toulouse was perfect – far from it: at times I wanted nothing more than to be back in York in that freezing house in Danum Road. I was lonely in Chapou, at times I hated the uni, there was no noticeable difference in my French over those 4 months and I felt like I’d failed. But every time I went to the cinema or out for coffee or dinner with my friends I would always feel better – I may not have got better at French but I’d met some amazing people from amazing places, and I’d learned how to adapt and live in a new place. Which in my book is an achievement, even if it wasn’t the one I’d originally been hoping for.

So for now it’s au revoir to France and a big old bis bald to Germany... 

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TWO MONTHS ALREADY

Well once again it’s been far too long since my last update but finally, finally it’s here. In all honesty it’s kind of a good thing that my posts are pretty thin on the ground, as I’ve just been too busy to properly sit down and think!

So what have I been doing the last month that’s meant I’m too busy to write a blog post? Well.

1.       Carcassonne

A couple of weeks ago the Erasmus association at the university organised a day trip to Carcassonne. It’s a city with an old medieval quarter, about an hour and a half south of Toulouse. The coach was 2 hours late to pick us up, so our time there was a bit shorter than planned but it was enough to walk arounf the cité and go into the castle – the views from the ramparts were stunning – before finding something to eat in a little square surrounded by old fashioned buildings.

yah that’s me + a castle

2.       BARCELONA!!!!

2 weeks ago we had a week’s holiday and I spent half of it IN BARCELONA. IT WAS AMAZING. I went with some of my friends – there were 10 of us in total! – and were there for 5 days. We took a coach from Toulouse to Barcelona, which took about 5 hours. We stayed in a hostel that was pretty central – really close to the Sagrada Familia!

I really loved it there – not only was it over 20 degrees every day we were there, even though it was late October, but the buildings were amazing and I especially loved how leisurely  it was. We sometimes didn’t leave the hostel for dinner until half 10/gone 11pm and we didn’t have to hurry – if you tried that in France you’d be going hungry!

Our first day there we went to an amazing café for brunch (the first of many while we were there!) and spent the day wandering around exploring and visiting the modern art museum. It was very modern (in other words, it was all weird and edgy with really deep and obscure meanings – for example, a pile of shredded paper represented everything that’s wrong with capitalism….?) but one exhibition was a 6 minute-long video of a cat drinking milk. Don’t ask me what it meant, but at least that one was nice to look at. We had Venezuelan food for dinner in a cute little restaurant near our hostel which stayed open extra late especially for us, and then headed to the beach for drinks in one of the bars there.

While we were there we saw the famous Parc Guell and unfortunately the queue was too long to go inside and see all the famous Gaudi buildings but from what we could see from the outside they were pretty special. The views from the park were amazing, and (almost!) worth the climb to the top!

Probably the highlight of the trip was the food – we had paella and tapas and way too much sangria. But it’s Spain, and Spain without sangria is hardly Spain at all!

We got back late on the Tuesday and Toulouse felt strangely comforting, almost like being back home. Though perhaps it was just a relief to be able to understand things again – I may be learning Spanish but Catalan Spanish is something else entirely!

+ me being photographer

3.       Partying…..partying….partying

Luckily I’ve found a group of really lovely people over here who are also on Erasmus placements. It’s quite funny when we go anywhere and people can tell we’re not French and ask us where we’re from – it’s probably easier to ask where we’re not from! The fact we’re all on Erasmus means none of us has any real obligations or stress in terms of university work, which has meant hardly a week has gone by without one party or another. Last week, we had 3 parties in 4 days. (All I can say is, thank goodness we had a bank holiday so I could recover afterwards!) Sorry to all my 3rd year friends back at home who are dying because of dissertations and deadlines and stress…

happy halloweeeeen

We’ve eaten out quite a bit and found some really good restaurants, and we’ve been to the cinema a couple of times too! We saw Bridget Jones’ Baby and the Girl on the Train – both in English with French subtitles (I may be living in France but my French is still not good enough to watch a film in French without subtitles!). This was proven by the film we watched in my fictions policières class – a French 40s mystery classic called “le Corbeau”. When we discussed it afterwards, it turned out I’d been wrong about…pretty much everything. Which didn’t do wonders for my self-esteem, but there you go.

It’s still hard and I still struggle to speak French, the words still feel too strange and wrong in my mouth and I know my pronunciation is horrendous. I’m definitely starting to panic now that I’ve reached the 2 month and halfway mark of my time here in France: how am I going to reach fluency in 2 months?! Obviously, I’m not, and I have to remind myself I’m not supposed to be fluent after this year, but I’ll hopefully be a damn sight nearer than I was 2 months ago and that’s an achievement in itself.

Sometimes I find myself regretting doing 2 languages simply because the academic semester of only 4 months really isn’t long enough to get to grips with the language, but at least I’m looking forward to going to Germany now. Compared to how I felt about it before coming here, it’s basically a miracle. It does make me laugh in my German classes here though – all the other students are French and to them I have a really great German accent (when in reality it’s so bad I want to cringe) but compared to the French, I guess I do: at least I can pronounce those pesky ‘h’s. It was pretty hilarious when they tried to read out the tongue twister “Hinter Hermann Hannes Haus hängen hundert Hemden raus” – they simply could not pronounce the h sound.

As I do so many German classes and I am the only Erasmus student in them, I’m finding it hard to make friends who aren’t Erasmus: the French students just aren’t as interested in being friends, whether because they find out I’m not French when I don’t understand the first time they say something they simply give up because it’s too much like hard work, or because they know most of the other students already (most of them are from Toulouse anyway so must be with classmates from school), I don’t know, but it means it’s harder to speak French when people don’t really talk to me. There’s only so many times I can make an effort to talk to someone only for them to reply in English and then ignore me the rest of the lesson (true story). But hey, at least I’m remembering how to German.

There are plenty of things happening soon – I’ll be going to Bordeaux next weekend, there’s laser questing and a trip to Albi with the Erasmus society – and most importantly, a cheese and wine tasting session. Donc la vie est belle.

A la prochaine!

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“Oui, c’est le Mirail”

written 10.10.16

Well I’ve now been here for over a month (scary stuff) and this will take my post number up to a grand total of 3… huh. To be fair I’m very rarely not busy, whether it’s with lectures, uni work or going out and doing cool things.

This post is a little bit about the university I’m spending this term studying at. I’d read many year abroad blogs from previous Erasmus students here at the Université Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, and most of it was…pretty bad. People had written about how the campus was covered in graffiti, run-down buildings that were even uglier than Derwent (reference for the Yorkies) and how lectures would be cancelled with no warning due to strikes. One student had described how the only way she could get to one of her seminars all year was through a door that was clearly marked “no entry”…

So. I was understandably apprehensive about my first visit to campus, but when I got here I was shocked but for different reasons. The campus is in the process of being completely rebuilt, and while all the buildings are completed they are still working on most of the pathways between buildings, so I had to get to grips with a campus that was basically a building site and with continuously-changing diversions and paths being blocked off, so that was fun! I now know my way around campus pretty well, probably because of getting lost so much in the first couple of weeks!

Along with its face-lift the university also has a new identity – up until last year (I believe) it used to be Université le Mirail (“mirail” meaning “mirror” in Occitan), but it was renamed as the area has a pretty bad reputation. So it may be a pretty grim area once you leave campus but at least campus isn’t so bad! However most people who don’t attend Jean-Jaurès and instead go to Capitole or Paul Sabatier aren’t really aware of the new name, and will insist on calling it le Mirail.

In fact, one evening when there just happened to be someone eating at the same time as us, my friend and I were chatting to this guy on our floor about how difficult enrolling at the university was and he gave a laugh and said “ouais, c’est le Mirail.”

When we asked if it was any better at Paul Sabatier, he just laughed again and his answer was “non, c’est la France!”

Pretty much sums it all up there, really.

However enrolment is now thankfully behind me, though now I have to deal with my “inscription pédagogique”: now that I’ve had time to attend lectures and seminars I now have to finalise my decisions and get a form signed by my coordinator here, plus update my previous Learning Agreement. Argh.

So the modules I’ve chosen are:

German : Civilisation; Grammar; Literature; Translation

Spanish to Level A 2

Occitan to Level A 1

Detective Fiction (because we read Agatha Christie!)

Aaaand Sociology because it’s 11 credits in total and I need those credits and also why not?

They’re pretty interesting and I’m glad I’m doing a lot of German – it’s definitely helping me get used to speaking German again and makes me slightly less nervous about going there in April… only slightly, but every little helps! Even if I do find myself mixing up the languages horrifically and saying things like “ich pense” and answering in German when I should be answering in French and so on. It’s not pretty.

I’m so happy I get to study Occitan – the département that Toulouse is in was renamed recently to be l’Occitanie, so it’s only fitting that I learn a bit of Occitan! The pronunciation is mental and very counter-intuitive but it’s really interesting, so I’m happy. It also took me 2 weeks just to find the module and its timetable, so at least it’s worth it!

I can confirm that the French stereotype of being disorganised definitely has some if not a lot of truth to it. One of my first German lessons was only half an hour instead of an hour long as the room we were supposed to be in was already in use by a different class; my first translation and literature classes were cancelled due to the teacher having supposedly broken her hand; the sociology lectures usually start late and end early (not that I’m really complaining to be fair). Oh, and the psychology department has been on strike since term started and the first lectures only started today. I don’t envy the psychology students, who were apparently told they’d have to catch up over the Christmas holidays…

Thankfully things are mostly starting to settle down into a routine and I can’t believe I’m only here for another 2 months, really (exams after Christmas for 2 weeks don’t count :’( ) I’ve done some pretty cool things since my last blog post, notably climbing the Pyrenees!!! It wasn’t easy and I haven’t been able to walk properly for the past 2 days but the views were so very worth it. We had to climb through the clouds, so we spent about an hour climbing up through cold wet greyness but once we broke through the clouds it was something else. I did fear for my life on more than one occasion and I probably should have had some extra insurance or something, as there were moments when I was one footstep away from a vertical sheer drop to one side of me, but hey, I’m not dead. I’ll put up photos of it when I have a working internet connection (of course my room has a broken Ethernet port, and they still haven’t fixed it -_- ). Next week it’s a day trip to Carcassonne with the Erasmus society!

So that’s what I’ve been up to recently, and while I still miss certain things about home and the UK I don’t hate France. It’s different, and sometimes it’s hard, but I suppose that’s the point. I still get ridiculously excited when I manage to understand people’s conversations (which is still really hard, they speak so fast) or do something important entirely in French, but I reckon I’m allowed to.

A la prochaine!

[toulousetothueringen-blog]

The first week and a half

(written 16.09.16)

So my first week here in France has been spent alternatively partying it up with the other Erasmus students in Toulouse by night and struggling with the behemoth that is French bureaucracy by day. Honestly, you’re probably sick of me complaining about it by now but it’s not even a lie, the French seem to have thought about how they can make everything as complicated as possible!

So at the moment I’m stuck in a bit of a conundrum:

I can’t enrol at the university because my EHIC card is out of date (a new one is on the way, but unless it gets here by next Tuesday I’ll have to fork out 250€ for French health insurance -_-).

If I can’t enrol, I can’t get my student card.

Without a student card, I can’t access the internet at my accommodation or sign up to classes or use things such as the university library or restaurant.

I also still don’t have a bank account because when I turned up to my “appointment”, instead of taking me to a room and having a proper appointment, I was forced to stand there on the other side of the welcome desk while the woman demanded my passport, my proof of residency and my “code fiscale”. I had no idea what this “code fiscale” was and instead of explaining it she simply kept repeating “I need it, I need it” and said something about taxes while I kept telling her I didn’t have a clue what she meant.

Turns out she needed my national insurance number, and I have a few problems with this.

a)   It never said anywhere on the bank website that I would need my national insurance number, nor did the man tell me when I went last week and he set up the appointment. My friend who has set up her account with the same bank also did not need her NI number when she had her meeting with them.

b)   Why would they need an English NI number? What use is it to them here?

c)   Also why did the lady have to be so unhelpful? When someone says they don’t understand what you’re asking them, especially when that person is so clearly foreign, you could be a little more helpful than just repeating the word over and over again.

So, still no bank, so no phone contract and it’s getting precariously near to the due date for my French bank details to the French government who are acting as my guarantors for my accommodation. That’s another thing – I thought I could only use a French bank account for the guarantor so went through a tonne of stress and panic as I set up my CLE account, and then I get here and it turns out loads of people have just used their parents’ British accounts. I am so mad right now but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

So I’m mostly uncontactable as for some reason my phone refuses to connect to any network over here so I can’t even call or text home. Accessing 3G would also be pretty useful but looks like everything is trying to make my life as difficult as possible. Dad if you’re reading this, please talk to EE :(

So after a week of living here, I:

Am still not enrolled

Still don’t have wifi

Still don’t have a French phone number, and can’t call home on my British number

Still can’t order a gin and orange juice without a look of confusion (I ask for a “gin orange” in my best French accent, the bartender stares at me uncomprehending; “gin et orange” I correct myself, and still nothing; eventually I give up and say “gin and orange juice please” and he gets the idea. Don’t get me started on the time I asked for a blue Hawaiian cocktail either.)

However, I:

Have met lots of lovely people and already made some friends, go me

Have done a proper food shop and got way too excited over the cheap wine

Have tried “pastis”, the local specialty alcohol. It tastes of aniseed and is diluted with water. I didn’t dislike it though I couldn’t say I liked it either, but it’s certainly interesting

Finally have a travel card so can actually get around. (The Pastel card is absolutely brilliant – for under 25s all you need is a piece of ID and a photo of yourself, and for 10€/month you have unlimited access to the trams, metro and buses in Toulouse. Compare it London’s oyster card and it’s enough to give you heart failure after how cheap it is here…)

Know my way from my accommodation to the city centre and can get there without getting lost

So there is still hope for me yet.

One highlight of the week was getting a message from a friend from York saying he was in Toulouse (shout out to you, Freddie!). So we spontaneously met up and had a drink sitting on the Place St Pierre feeling very French indeed, and it was lovely to see a familiar face after a nerve-wracking first few days.

There was also the rather surreal experience of going into a rowdy-looking pub-style bar, where groups of people sat with about 20 pints of beer in plastic cups on their tables, and finding out there’s a hidden club in the back, DJ and lights and all. As we went in, people were body-surfing. It was… something else.  

So next week’s priorities are enrol, sort out the bank account, get a French phone and then choose my modules. Which is going to be a mammoth task as we have to go to each department, look at the timetables of every single module – which aren’t online, oh no, they’re sheets of paper stuck up in the different department buildings – and try and create a timetable without clashes which will be acceptable to my coordinators here and back in York. It’s gonna be GREAT.

So that’s enough from me for now. Au revoir, ciao, bisous!

UPDATE!!! 20.09.2016

I have spoken to a fellow Brit and it turns out that an EU bank account is accepted for the guarantor process and you can buy a contract without having a bank account with the service provider Free, so I think since I’m only here for 4 months I can deal without the stress of this bank account if I can get away with it.

I’m now the proud owner of a cheap android phone and a sim card that gets me 50gb of data per month. 50. For only 20€ per month, and without the stress of a bank account. Yay.

I’m also now formally enrolled (PRAISE BE they accepted the scan of my new EHIC!!!) but I’ll save you the horror of seeing my student card photo, it’s not good…

(I did also write an account of my first 48 hours in Toulouse but it was looong and tumblr doesn’t want to upload the pictures in it, so you’ll never know about the Roundabout of Death or Gerard the taxi driver... unless I post it when the actual internet in my accommodation works, which knowing my luck won’t be til I go home for Christmas...)

[toulousetothueringen-blog]

Two Weeks To Go!

Two weeks and counting: is it time to panic yet?

I’m going on an adventure!

Yes, just like everyone’s favourite hobbit, in just two weeks I’ll be going on my very own adventure. My adventure will take me far from the rainy drizzle of England (though in true British style we’re bucking that trend and we’ve actually had a summer this year) to spend a term studying in sunny Toulouse from September until January, and then it’s off to discover Erfurt, in central Germany, for another term of studying.

It’s not what I’d planned to do, not at all – in fact my plans for my Year Abroad went through several stages before reaching any sort of finality and even at time of writing this I’m yet to finish my application to Erfurt – oops. But all will be well once I get my act together and gather all the required documents and send it all off!

Now that we’ve reached the two week mark it’s suddenly hitting me very hard that this is real: I’m going to spend the next year living abroad in two amazing countries. It’s like I’ve spent the last year living in a bubble – a bubble full of excitement and anticipation, where various things hadn’t really registered; such as the fact I’ll be speaking French or German all the time for the next year. Or that it’s not going to be a simple 2-hour train journey home if I’m missing my cat a little bit one weekend. Or even the little things, like NO TEA and NO CADBURY’S and I DON’T EVEN LIKE BEER.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly excited. I even made a list of all the things I’m excited about (I like lists; I also like ignoring the lists I make for myself of things I’m supposed to do. Thankfully this isn’t one of those lists).

REASONS TO BE EXCITED:

Meeting loads of new people

Improving my French and German 

Trying all the food! (Apparently Toulouse has its own type of sausage particular to the region, plus French food in general. Enough said.)

Living in two beautiful cities

Travel opportunities – Toulouse is basically in Spain and Erfurt is so central that (I’m hoping) it’ll be really easy to travel around

French pastries, all the cakes, Schwarzwaldkirschtorte (need I say any more?)

The “charming” accent toulousain

Schokolade

Rekindling my love of the German language and the culture, and hopefully proving to everyone that Germany is GREAT

However, while all the above still stands, now that departure day is nearing, all the little niggling doubts are beginning to set in and I’ve started second-guessing all my earlier decisions.

REASONS TO BE WORRIED:

I’ve accepted student accommodation in Toulouse, but after reading lots of other year abroad blogs I now worry that this was the wrong choice: that it will be all Erasmus students (like myself) whose shared language will be English. Am I limiting myself by choosing student accommodation? Should I have chosen to travel out earlier and find a flat share with locals instead? Only time will tell. I’ve accepted it now so can’t change my mind; all I can do is make sure that once I’m out there I make the most of it.

Understanding absolutely nothing during my entire time out there.

Most Germans speak practically perfect English and I can barely deutsch. I’ve become a lot less confident in German since arriving at university, and the thought of actually having to speak in it and live in it terrifies me. I know I want my love of German back – at one point I was close to dropping French in favour of German, I loved it that much – and it’s only by facing this fear that I can do this.

I wanted to go to Germany first and France second, so that if I loved my time in France I wouldn’t spend the next few months in Germany hating every second and wishing I was back in France. (The evolution of my year abroad plans is a long story, I’ll save it for another time!) I still worry that this will be the case.

So that’s putting a slight downer on the excitement at what’s to come – that, and the fact that I have SO MUCH STILL TO DO – like fill out 5 copies of the same student room acceptance form. (French bureaucracy, I can see us becoming worst enemies by the end of this.) All that paperwork isn’t going to do itself, however, so I should probably make a start on that.

And so this was post #1, hopefully of many, which will be documenting my time abroad. I hope I haven’t bored y’all to death. I promise the next one will be more exciting. Definitely. Probably. Maybe…

Until next time!