Hola et à Bientôt

It's only been two weeks since I last updated this, and I can't believe how much has somehow happened in that time!

On an administrative note, I have now received all but one of my exam results back, and have passed everything! Which, as far as I'm concerned, is a total miracle considering how clueless I felt most of last semester. I have also now got my timetable sorted, and I only have to be in on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, i.e. I have a longer weekend than week. I'm hoping to make the most of this spare time by travelling, because as far as I'm concerned exploration is just as important as studying when you're on a year abroad. Thirdly, I like pretty much all of my modules this term, which is a huge step up from last term! I even get to study James Bond films, which I'm really looking forward to, even if it does mean finishing at 19h15 on a Monday.

Anyway, on to the fun stuff! The week before last (14th) I was lucky enough to take a trip back to my current favourite city: Barcelona! Two of the friends who were leaving France had booked their flights back from there, and suggested a road trip. Alex was happy to drive, and I was happy to hop in the spare passenger seat, so we took off for an amazing few days. It was Alex's first time in Barcelona, so we went into serious tourist mode, walked for longer than I could begin to measure, and saw so much. Highlights included watching a man blow giant bubbles in front of the Arc de Triomf,

a cablecar ride over the city up to Montjuic,  

a walk around the inside of the Sagrada Familia, 

a nighttime trip to the highest point of Parc Guell, 

and a meal at one of the best burger restaurants I have ever come across!

And, of course, ice creams on the beach in January. Because 19 degrees is a ridiculous temperature for January!

For those of you who are concerned I was slacking, rest assured that I caught up on all missed classes as soon as I got home :P

This weekend was also really fun, because I had visitors! Jess, Rachel and Megan all do French at Birmingham, and are currently studying in Bordeaux, which is a only a few hours away on the train.

It was so nice having some girls around the house, and I got to do the tourist route all over again, which was exhausting but gorgeous!

We crammed a lot into a couple of days, with the beach trip, whistlestop city tour, two bar nights and meal out, so I would definitely consider this a very productive 4 day weekend. Here's hoping I can continue to make the remaining ones as busy and enjoyable! But for now, with everyone back home, its time to finish off this glass of wine and actually attempt to do some work.

A la prochaine,

Sarah 

xx

Je reviens

It's now a week today since I landed back in Montpellier. I feel like I should be saying that I'm "back to reality", but with all the city shifting and confusion, I don't feel like I even know what that phrase means any more!

Being home for Christmas was amazing. England is FREEZING, as expected, and I suffered from this sooner than I would have liked, when our car broke down on the motorway on my second day back. Aside from that slight hiccup, I had a great holiday, and caught up with so many wonderful people who I've missed so much, including a lot of family members who I haven't seen in over a year. Christmas was a family affair, and new year was a very messy house party in which I managed to infect what seems like half of those present with the cold that I inevitably caught from having been stuck back in the wind and rain.

(All the family pictures were taken on other people's cameras, so sadly I don't have any of those.)

I loved being home, but strangely I missed living in France in a way that I wasn't anticipating. I suppose there's something exciting about getting on a tram and having all your background noise in another language, or walking through the city and hearing international students from all corners of the world who are just as confused as you are. Although it was incredibly hard standing in the baggage queue at Gatwick airport and watching my family walk away, I feel like I could now never imagine going back and living in England my whole life. I love living abroad!

When I landed in Montpellier, Alex picked me up from the airport and drove me straight to the beach, which was a welcome breath of fresh air after being cooped up in a crowded aeroplane. However, all my charming illusions about France were quickly shattered, as I returned to university and was instantly reminded of that familiar feeling of complete disorientation and cluelessness, although thankfully it was a lot less severe this time around! I managed to turn up to a class that exists online but not in real life, talk to plenty of people who aren't French, and sign up for one class while accidentally attending the lecture for another. Pretty standard first week by any consideration, and hopefully things can only get better from here. Exam results are coming in, and of the 5 I have received I have so far passed everything. Fingers continually crossed for those which have yet to appear. 

On Friday night we had a "Diner Au Revoir", to see off all those who have briefly returned to sit their exams before finally going back to their home countries. It was an amazing night, and a great chance to catch up with everyone after the Christmas break. The next day Helen and I finally got round to seeing La Reine Des Neiges (Frozen), and were incredibly proud of ourselves for understanding everything. We will soon graduate to understanding political thrillers (we hope!).

Bonne année à toutes et à tous!
Sarah 
xx

It's Party Party Party Time!

Exams are over, the semester is done! I'm FRRREEEEEEEEE!! 

In spite of the fact that I sat 12 exams in the space of 12 days, it actually wasn't nearly as bad as I had first anticipated. Especially because "exams" at Paul-Val are definitely not the same as the exams I'm used to. I had invigilators leaving the room multiple times to take phone calls, students hiding phones on their knees to use as a reference in the exam, unchecked notes permitted on the desk, people walking into exams half way though and, my personal favourite, being given two articles, no exam paper, and the instruction "I don't know... Just write a summary or something". So, all in all, it was definitely another learning curve, and further proof that nothing this university comes up with seems to be able to surprise me any more. On the plus side, where it took me two and a half weeks of running around and stress to sort myself a timetable for this semester, I managed to formulate my semester 2 timetable in less than a couple of hours. Clearly practice makes perfect.

Thankfully I was also able to fit some fun in between all the revision. Alex and I decided to profit from the warm weather (still in double figures most days) by taking a December jaunt to the beach to see the sunrise.

I also managed to do an extensive amount of Christmas shopping, and some back street exploration with Helen, which resulted in a few interesting discoveries!

Once exams were over, life just kept getting better! I went to visit Barbara on Wednesday, and during our stroll around the lake, we were lucky enough to come across a "ragondin" (that's a coypu to those of you in England) who was more than a little bold!

Yesterday was our house Christmas meal, and it was spectacular! I became Raphael's sous chef for the evening, and we ended up with a 5 course meal, nothing of which I had ever tried before. Homemade savoury biscuit things for apero, then fish, crab, veal (which is apparently reared kindly in France, for all you concerned animal activists out there) and some sort of ice creamy nut thing. 

And of course, a great deal of wine. A very unconventional Christmas meal for someone so used to the traditional roast, but it was a change that I definitely enjoyed! I even got to witness Raph flambe the meat in spectacular style, without setting anything else in the room on fire. Impressive!

And now just two days before I fly home!

Sarah

xx 

It's (not) beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's December!!! For those of you who aren't aware, I get incredibly excited about Christmas. The second the 1st December comes around I have my advent calendar at the ready and my Christmas Spotify playlist on loop for the duration of the month. If anything, this year I'm more excited than ever, because in 3 weeks I finally get to say goodbye to the stress of exams, get on a plane, and go home to the family and friends that I have missed so much. 

Life has been pretty quiet since Barcelona, with the exception of a couple of loud nights out. The block on campus has finally been lifted, which means that I'm back in lectures full time this week, and on a full timetable of "partiels" (that's a friendly word for "exams") next week. I go from a feeling of calm and controlled optimism to a feeling of panic and dread approximately 5 times a day, although the Christmas spirit is definitely making life much more bearable!

Last week we had snow!

For those of you who are as confused as I was as to why Hugo jumped off the sofa in excitement and Raphael came running into the living room, here is a zoomed version of the above image.

The temperature still has yet to remain below double figures for more than two days in a row, and apparently this sort of "snow" almost never happens. The cultural differences still never cease to amaze me!

But just because it doesn't look like Christmas, doesn't mean it can't feel like it! Because Montpellier has finally turned on its lights and opened "Les Hivernales".

Alex and I took a walk through the stalls, where he confidently informed me that he had tried every mulled wine available, and therefore knew where to buy from. I never try to argue with Germans about alcohol. In addition to all the pretty lights, sparkly stalls and tasty looking food, they've also opened an ice rink!

And I very patiently waited my turn to sit on Santa's knee.

Sadly I now have to stop procrastinating and start planning. There are presentations to be written and exams to be revising for. Hopefully I will emerge on the other side of these next two weeks in one piece, although I can't promise anything!

Joyeux décembre à tous!

Sarah 

xx

Impromptu Barcelona

Nearly two weeks since my last blog post, and I've spent two days in uni. Whether it's a blessing or a curse is getting difficult to tell at this stage. On the one hand, I'm loving all this time off, but on the other hand it is now 3 weeks until my exams, and I'm still feeling almost entirely clueless and confused with regards to what will actually appear on my exam papers and what I'm going to be expected to write. Stress levels are mounting by the day, and I can't say I'm coping with them entirely well. Although I did manage to complete a 4 and a half page essay for my literature history class, which felt like quite an achievement, especially when Raphael proof read it and described it as "très bon".

 * * *

However, this blog will not be focusing on the horrors of work, because I went to Barcelona! Last Wednesday was my first day back in classes after the blocage was lifted, and as I sat in my first lecture feeling that now too familiar feeling of sickness and dread whenever I thought about the exams to come, I decided enough was enough. I texted Helen and she agreed, as did Monique (when she finally woke up :P). I suggested Barcelona and the next thing I knew, everyone was on board, everything was booked, and we left the next day!

For those of you in England, or in France who have not yet tried it, the system of "covoiturage" here is amazing! It essentially entails going on the website with your point of departure and destination, and enables you to book spaces in the car of someone doing the same journey. It's an incredibly cheap way to travel compared to the trains, and it saves you dragging your luggage all around the stations. This was my first experience of it, and it meant that, after a lovely relaxing journey listening to the impeccable music taste of our driver, we pulled up in the centre of Barcelona and were guided to the metro by the 4th covoit passenger.

Our hostel was incredible! They gave us a 12th floor bedroom, which meant that we were greeted with this view upon arrival.

It took us approximately 5 minutes to scrap the idea of a quiet night in. We took a taxi to the hostel-endorsed night at Sutton, but when we realised the queue was approximately 2 hours long (apparently Bruno Mars was due to make an appearance), we crossed the road and went to what ended up being one of the best clubs I have ever been to: Bling Bling. The decor was amazing, the music was perfect, the drinks were affordable, and there was a chocolate fountain!!

We began our first day with a trip to the Sagrada Familia.

This was followed by a wander round the Parc Guell , which celebrates the work of Gaudi. And is situated at the top of a massive hill, which meant incredible views across the whole city!

We got ice cream, which was a strange experience for mid-November! Then after sitting down for some tapas, we may have ended up getting slightly diverted by the shops of La Rambla, and buying what felt like enough to support half the Spanish economy.

On Saturday Barcelona decided to rain, so we spent the morning treating ourselves to brunch in one of the prettiest cafés I've ever been to, called Pudding.

After a massive and delicious meal, it was onwards to the Arc de Triomf.

We then took some very sophisticated shelter in the Picasso museum, admiring art and trying not to give away our total cluelessness. On the way home Helen and I sampled some paella, and back at the hostel we all tried on our massively touristy tshirts.

Then it was off out again, for our last night out before returning home. We arrived at Razzmatazz, which is apparently one of the biggest clubs in Barca, at about 11pm, only to be told they didn't open until 1am. So we took the directions of a total stranger and ended up at a pub just round the corner. And it was amazing! It was so busy that we couldn't sit down at first, and then they had a 3-man acoustic band playing, who played such a good set!

We managed to sit ourselves next to some friends of the band, and by the end of the set we were all on our feet, dancing with the people from all the surrounding tables.

When the pub finally closed we headed to Razzmatazz for an hour or so, which meant that when we finally crashed back at the hostel it somewhere around 5am. This made checking out at 10:30am a very unpleasant experience. Sadly our last day consisted of terrible service at a café, a lack of churros, phone theft (RIP Sulley), an hour and a half wait for our covoit, and some rain. So it was almost good to be home by the time we were finally back!

* * *

It rained all day Monday, and the highlight of my uni day was the walk home, where I saw a man on a bike wobbling around because he had one hand on the handlebar, and the other hand clasped onto an umbrella and a baguette. 

It was probably funnier if you saw it in person.

Sarah 

xx

"On a des cours aujourd'hui...?"

I wasn't expecting to be able to update this blog until at least the weekend, but it seems that students at Paul-Valéry get very angry about money (more details to come), so I have an unanticipated amount of time on my hands!

* * *

Last weekend was a lot of fun, as Raphael had more friends over! David came again, and this time so did Pierre. As a result the house was very loud and very lively all weekend, and multiple games of "Qui N'a Jamais" means we all now know each other better than is probably necessary. We didn't have a great deal of luck when it came to going out, but we made many delicious cocktails, and we even had the privilege of seeing LeffeMan in action on the streets surrounding our house.

Tuesday was very bizarre, because everyone left! With it being Toussaint, the boys went home for the week, so I had the flat to myself... and silence felt very odd. I managed to sleep a lot, host a small cocktail soirée and, of course, go out for Halloween!

* * *

Saturday was one of the best days I've had a long time. Alex had told me a few times about a place called Cassis, which is down the coast just east of Marseille. And when he found out he had the weekend off uni, we decided that it was about time we took a road trip to visit it! We got stuck in a bit of traffic when we lost our way in Marseille, but eventually, 3 hours after leaving Montpellier, we finally arrived!

Cassis is a very small town, and all along the coast it's lined with "Calanques", which are basically just inlets of water. Alex knew where he wanted to go, so I followed him up a very big hill/small mountain (not really sure which!), and the views were absolutely perfect.

We reached the top just as the sun was setting, and the sky went from bright blue to purple, to orange, to pink.

What's more, we got back to the car at 7pm to see this readout on the monitor!

So we sat on the beach for a picnic and some ice cream. A very unexpected way to start November!

* * *

It was amazing having the boys back on Sunday, the house just isn't the same without them! But the impending thought of uni starting back again and the stress of all the assignments and presentations I knew I had for the first week back ruined the fun a bit. However, after a perfectly normal start to the week, I turned up to my lecture this morning, only to find that the building looked like this.

Every lecture theatre and classroom on campus had been barricaded with tables, chairs and barriers, as part of a "bloque" to protest against the austerity measures Paul Valéry is facing. Which meant that, for the second time since arriving, I had a day off! And according to the protest group online, the block will continue until Tuesday, when there will be another general meeting to decide what is going to be done. 

Vive La Résistance! 

Sarah 

xx