Day #66 - funfairs + where is the wifi

I am typing this from my deathbed. I have caught the common cold and have therefore been a coughy, coldy ill-bag for the past week. Some may call it man flu, I'm calling it The End of Days.

To make it worse, I was forced to the realisation this week that we are officially in l'Université de Rouen's essay season, except, unlike in Edinburgh, it's not so much an essay season as an each-individual-class-expects-an-oral-presentation-plus-a-written-essay-plus-an-in-class-exam-over-the-next-two-weeks season. Safe to say, peeps be stressed, and by "peeps" I mean "people with 7 different classes", and by that I mean me. Me. I have so much work.

an unrelated photograph of the sunset over saint-hilaire

Of course, I haven't actually been doing any work, because what's the point in that? I'm an ERASMUS student! ERASMUS students don't do work! ERASMUS students take long weekend trips to Barcelona for literally no reason and take instant photographs of each other drinking wine on balconies and riding bikes. That's it. There is no essay-writing. Most of my free time is spent sleeping or eating biscuits in bed, if I'm being quite honest with you. The rest is filled with trips to funfairs, day-drinking in cafés and going to the cinema.

My increasing laziness is only exacerbated by the fact that the French seem to have a sort of "you make it up" system. They can feed you as much information as you like, but none of it ever appears to be useful, and you end up waffling for six pages. The most common type of essay that I am asked to write in university is a synthèse, where they say to you, "Right, write about [insert topic here]," and you have to come up with your own problématique - that is, you come up with the discussion point, because the professors are too lazy to come up with their own questions. And the whole thing is in French. 

The other point is that the universities seem to be very wary of the Internet, as though it's not something that all of their students and professors access every single day. One of our lecturers legitimately said to us: "Why should the university pay me if I put your homework online?" Also there is NO WIFI IN THE LIBRARY. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WRITE ENTIRE ESSAYS WITH A LIMITED COLLECTION OF BOOKS AND THE PALTRY 3G ON MY PHONE???? It's enough to make anyone want to run away to Barcelona.

I quite fancy Barcelona, actually, if anyone fancies lending me a few euros for a plane ticket. I haven't been able to find the time, unfortunately, but I did use this Tuesday's jour férié (it's a bank holiday. Sort of) to head down to la Foire Saint-Romaine on the Seine.

the funfair (it's much bigger than it looks)

La Foire, or the fair, was absolutely flippin' massive - it's been there since the end of October and it's sticking around until November 23rd, but it's huge, stretching all across one bank of the river. There are 3 rollercoasters and 14,000,000 opportunities to win a goldfish, as well as food stalls - I tried my first croustillons - and other classic funfair rides. I was there for an hour and a half or so and I only managed to get about a third of the wandering in. If I was feeling lazier, I would have taken the bus to get from one end to the other, except there is only one bus every hour and a half on the jours fériés so I had to use my feet like any other common or garden peasant.

The fair is clearing off just in time for Rouen's Christmas market to get settled outside the Notre Dame (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen, guys, I'm local now) and I have to say that I am possibly the most excited human being ever. Apparently the Christmas market is terrible, but from November 28th there will be a ferris wheel and an ice skating rink and mulled wine and that is all I truly want.

nice lil photo of the cathedral taken from the top of the funfair ferris wheel

 I hope that the exam season works itself out, in a way, because I've been occupying my brain with far more exciting things, like planning trips to Lyon to see the Fête des Lumières and trips to Paris for the Christmas market at the Champs-Elysées and the jardins du Trocadéro (the bit right in front of the Eiffel Tower). Rouen itself is currently in the middle of something called the Semaine de Zazimuts (me neither), but that means that there's loads of little things going on around the town; for example, I'm going to go watch a Charlie Chaplin film on Saturday, accompanied by a live orchestra. Pas mal.

I haven't got much else to say besides that. I feel like I spent my first 6 weeks here wishing I was busy, and now I am, I just want to stay in bed all day with a cup of Earl Grey and maybe paint my nails. My French has improved tenfold though, and I am a happy little bean in spite of the fact that I have about three friends with whom I can actually speak fast, fluent, flawed English. And that's OK! As long as I pass all my classes and I am allowed to return to Edinburgh for fourth year, where I will be able to speak fast, fluent, flawed English for the rest of my life if I so desire.

being just slightly problematic at the funfair

Hope all is well my good friends.

Josie

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Day #59 - goin' home, and comin' back

This week's blog entry is probably going to be quite short because nothing particularly French has happened for the past 2 weeks, as I haven't actually been in France. Yeah, that's right, I caved! I caved and went crawling on back to the UK with my tail between my legs.

edinburgh: eternal king of autumm

When I booked the trip, only a couple of weeks into my time in Rouen, I was actually quite nervous about heading home. I have this habit of getting comfortable in a certain place and not wanting to leave, so I just knew that if I went back home, there is no way I would want to get back on a plane and come back to a country where there is no proper sliced bread and people don't make me cups of tea without asking and the dishwashers don't work properly (thanks, Mum).
However, I solved this by going to stay with my boyfriend for a while, where there is no proper sliced bread and people don't make me cups of tea without asking and the dishwashers don't work properly. Crisis neatly avoided.

OF COURSE I'M JOKING. But I did go back to my university town for a week before I headed back to my parents' house, and it was just what the doctor ordered. I felt like Dorothy must have after she woke up and realised all her relatives hadn't actually died in a hurricane in The Wizard of Oz. I stepped off the plane and my bus driver called me 'love'. I overheard an angry elderly Scottish couple arguing about pork pies. When the bus rounded the corner and I saw the castle and the Scott Monument and North Bridge with Arthur's Seat beyond it, I could have happily burst into tears. I walked around a lot, there was a Halloween party, and I saw a show at Bedlam. The trip reminded me that, yeah, Edinburgh's still there, and the people are (mostly) still there, and very little will change while I'm away.

Sounds kind of silly, but I really hate change, so it was nice to see. 

marry me

Seeing my family was also lovely, and I got a suitcase full of clean clothes (shout-out to my big sister! Yeah! High five!) and about 4,000,000 cups of tea.

And I needn't have worried about France being terrifying the second time round. I managed to navigate the Parisian metro system and get back from Charles de Gaulle airport in time to go out for my friend's birthday meal in the centre of Rouen. I think heading back home actually gave me the opportunity to step back and breathe for a little while - something that going somewhere new wouldn't have offered - and now I'm back in Rouen I can see it for what it actually is, without all that newly-moved-in jangly nervousness that clouded my brain when I first arrived in September.

Only downside: I missed a couple of classes while I was away, and it looks like I'm actually going to have to do work from now on. Bonjour, essay season. Ah, well.

Sorry if my blog isn't as funny as it used to be. I'm afraid that I'm actually becoming accustomed to life in France. Eeech.

Josie 

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