So far, so good

Seeing how well my friends have managed to keep their blogs updated I feel shamed in to posting a brief update on my first month in France. I am however a little weary of jazzing up and publishing my New Years resolutions post as I am convinced I have failed the majority of them already. At least there's always next year... 

I certainly feel like I am settling in a lot quicker than my previous semester in Martinique (despite still having to deal with reams of paperwork, the entirety of my admin was sorted within the first three weeks... not three months) and I can just about travel anywhere in town without getting too lost. To give you an idea of the size of the place, the suburb I'm living in (Mont St Aignan) has approximately twice the number of local residents than Bangor, and that's not including the additional 10,000 students in Bangor and the 20,000 students here. Let's not even start on the centre ville de Rouen.

I have a lecture timetable as random as the nearest store’s opening hours (9 hours one day, none the next) and most of the lectures seem to have gotten over the fact that an English exchange-student might actually be capable of speaking a foreign language. The courses here are offered in French and English (some classes are taught only in English) which the majority of foreign students choose. The number of people that have asked me "wouldn't it be easier for you to take your classes in English?" ("well... yeah, but that's not going to improve my French") is not even funny. But so is life.

I have also, despite being in an 8h30 lecture, experienced a wonderful ‘French moment.’ If I hadn't been there in person I would have thought it had been set up for a film. For the first time, I heard a French student, wearing a very stereotypical French blue and white striped t-shirt, say ‘oh-la-la’ in general conversation . Unfortunately no beret was being worn at the time (although I have seen rather a lot!) and no onions on strings were being waved about but we can’t have everything. I feel like my French experience is complete. All I need to do now is return to the 2€ store to get a baguette bag (yes, they really do have oblong fold-away bags especially designed for carrying bread back from the boulangerie) and I can fly back tomorrow. You cannot get more French than that.

Until next time,
EmJ x