And so, after much partying, catching up, meeting the new ERASMUS students and the general banter of returning after New Year, the hard realisation of university life is again upon us. And my goodness, is this semester gonna be hard!
Let it be known that, in Glasgow University especially, most students in Scotland do not have particuarly long weeks, given the exceptions like medicine, dentistry etc. In my case, I usually had, say, a 13 hour week at uni, sometimes having only one or two classes per day. My longest day on record is 4 hours in one day, that's to say, 4 hours in a row, not over the space of a 9-5pm day. It was either a few classes in the morning, or that one particular day. I finished at 1pm every day bar that day last year. I had what you called an easy academic life. Nothing particuarly challenging, with subjects I was fairly comfortable with and a daily dose of QMU banter.
That is, of course, until I came to Poitiers, and enrolled at the Univ. de Poitiers - widely regarded as the hell hole. My university timetable now consists of:
Monday: 10am - 4pm
Tuesday: 9am - 7pm (!!!!!!!!!)
Wednesday: 12pm - 1.30pm
Thursday: 8.30am - 12.30pm
Friday: Off :)
Now. Despite Tuesday being quite literally hell on earth, I would say it is a balanced timetable. I would gladly stay late and have more classes in one day so that I can have 2 afternoons and a Friday off uni. But it is hard. I have 3 translation classes (Theme, Version and a mixture of both); a British civilisation class (why not?); 2 literature classes; an essay/ mini dissertation class and Lingua, ie french for foreigners (the 7pm class :/)
It's a fairly competant timetable, but one I am actually enjoying. The first week back was amusing enough! Hannah drank copious Green tea (the "Posh" kind of green tea, might I add :P), Zoe endlessly fretted about translation classes but turns out she has a knack for them, and I sang about being trapped in cabinets. It all started in the Theme translation class when the class was trying to decide what word to use: wardrobe, cupboard, drawers, cabinets... Which lead to an impromptu break out of The Mighty Boosh's song "Captain Cabinet" (Youtube it if you aren't familiar) which goes alone the lines of:
Captain Cabinet, trapped in cabinets!
Can he get out? Will he get out? Course he will!
We sang this for the best part of the day. At lunch, we spent an hour talking about what we each call various cupboard-esque things in the house, for example: Zoe calls a display cabinet a dresser, when Hannah and I agreed a dresser is what you have in your bedroom to do your make up at etc. Hannah calls what Zoe and I regard as kitchen units, G-Units (no correlation to rap, at all!), and so forth. We also discussed cubby holes, and what they were exactly - we still aren't sure. Before going to the next class, we laughed saying "How funny would it be if the next teacher mentioned cabinets?"
It turned out to be fantastic. On discussing a rather dull French - English translation, a part came up where the narrator was talking about neighbours. I can't exactly remember the exact words, but the teacher ended up saying: "... I mean, it's not like they were trapped in a cabinet!". I actually thought my head would explode I tried so hard not to laugh. Still, we sang the song over and over, laughing about it probably too loudly, as the French kids obviously thought we were mad. This continued in British Civilisation, as we carried on to be unnecessarily loud and outlandishly British in the class, further ostracising us from our fellow class mates. Still, we don't all need French friends, do we?
Sadly, I have contracted the lurgy and my glands and neck are swelling out of control. Think of an upside down snowman, and you'll get a rough idea of how I look.
Trapped in cabinets!!!
Monday 24 January 2011
Sunday 16 January 2011
The great return
Return date to Poitiers, France: Thursday 6th January 2011
Christmas and New Year:
Bonne Année tout le monde and welcome to part two of my ERASMUS adventure! Well, it has been a month since I last updated, so I guess I better give a quick run through of our plane journeys, acitivies over Christmas and New Year, and ofcourse the madness that has ensued since my return to the ever ridiculous Poitiers.
Hannah, Hannah, Jess, Lorna and I successfully managed to take the plane from Poitiers to London Stanstead, not before I weighed everyone's cases a million times and proceeded to be "the mother" to ensure that we all had the necessary documents etc. The plane ride was mostly funny, as we decided not to be the quiet and conscientious types of travellers; Still, after just over an hour on the plane we landed safely and London and bid a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Lorna, as she went to catch the train to her brother's. So, Hannah x2, Jess and I had a Burger King, got some Irn Bru, and sat at the arrival's section, watching the many happy reunions between families and friends at this festive season. It was touching especially to see grandparents reunited with grandchildren etc, especially with one old man in particular who was greeted by his wife by having a flower put behind his ear. True love never dies!
There was also the odd moment where people kept walking past the people who were arriving, as if trying to find a check in desk at the arrivals section? Departure: You're doing it wrong! After an hour or so, Hannah McAvoy and I had to head through security to board our Glasgow flight. Not without any complications, mind you. The 3 most annoying people in the world just so happened to be in front of us in the queue, one of them schreeching with contempt as she was asked to simply remove her boots and jacket "for security reasons". Like any sane person, she "made a joke" that went something along the lines of "But then you'll see my pistol", which caused a bit of an upstart between security staff. Eventually we got through, got on the plane, and each made it safely home to Scotland. In the freezing, baltic cold.
Christmas and New Year were excellent, mainly because I say everyone and was out almost every night, including 1 too many trips to Word Up! The highlight of the trip though had to be Dunning's 20th birthday in Dakota, where far too many £2 whiskeys and lemonade and shots were consumed! It was a great laugh all night with some amazing banter and amazing photos; see my facebook if you want a laugh!
My parents once again spoiled me with money, food and gifts over the Christmas period and I was far more settled at home this time and miss them more this time around. Fortunately, my sister and her boyfriend will be coming to Paris for our birthday (5th Feb, if you want to know), and my parents in March, so I don't feel too bad about it all! I managed to fly alllll by myself from Glasgow to London, then met Aoife and Bethany in the queye for the Poitiers flight and made it safely back to Funkytown and spent the night at Renaud's, eating copious amounts of cheese and retelling stories about parties we had been to. L'amour :)
The first fortnight of the second semester:
It has been an INSANE return to reality over the past 2 weeks (Well, just under 2 weeks, if you really wanna be picky about it). As previously mentioned, I stayed with Renaud until Friday, then it was back to centre ville for the first party at Dimitri's and the introduction of some of the new ERASMUS folk, then Saturday was another trip in centre ville and a party at Adrian's old house. Sunday was spent mostly doing nothing, as was Monday, but then Tuesday rolled around and brought on a 5 day binge. Ok, I wasn't drunk every night, it was more just a few drinks every night, except Thursday, and maybe Wednesday, and last night. But still. The was so much banter to be had! And some much needed time with a friend who was leaving. Lorna Canon will be sadly missed, but we will see her in Austria in the near future! In the mean time, Hannah G has taken over her life, I mean moved into her old flat, so balance has somewhat been restored.
The most notable events have been: The giraffe Lorna, Hannah and I shared in Café des arts whilst chatting to the very friendly and awesome barman (not Steve); The drinks and heartfelt talk at Lorna and Hannah's before hitting the karaoke then randomly meeting people in the street and walking with them for ages; when Katie, Hannah Mc and Marta came to mine and we listened to Trance music WAY too loudly, and then Crazy Lady shouted at us IN ENGLISH: "This is our space too!" . We had said to the new German guy: "Yeah", "Come out with us" and "Aye!". It's OUR space too then, idiot. We also went to the Pilori that night which was a new experience for me and it was a laugh. Then last night with the exciting cocktails from Minima and a trip to est ouest proved to be more than enough for me and I went home for some sleep. But couldn't sleep till after 6 am. Boak.
This semester will hopefully have even better experiences than last semester, with better weather, new and old friends, and a host of new banter.
Bisous x
Christmas and New Year:
Bonne Année tout le monde and welcome to part two of my ERASMUS adventure! Well, it has been a month since I last updated, so I guess I better give a quick run through of our plane journeys, acitivies over Christmas and New Year, and ofcourse the madness that has ensued since my return to the ever ridiculous Poitiers.
Hannah, Hannah, Jess, Lorna and I successfully managed to take the plane from Poitiers to London Stanstead, not before I weighed everyone's cases a million times and proceeded to be "the mother" to ensure that we all had the necessary documents etc. The plane ride was mostly funny, as we decided not to be the quiet and conscientious types of travellers; Still, after just over an hour on the plane we landed safely and London and bid a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to Lorna, as she went to catch the train to her brother's. So, Hannah x2, Jess and I had a Burger King, got some Irn Bru, and sat at the arrival's section, watching the many happy reunions between families and friends at this festive season. It was touching especially to see grandparents reunited with grandchildren etc, especially with one old man in particular who was greeted by his wife by having a flower put behind his ear. True love never dies!
There was also the odd moment where people kept walking past the people who were arriving, as if trying to find a check in desk at the arrivals section? Departure: You're doing it wrong! After an hour or so, Hannah McAvoy and I had to head through security to board our Glasgow flight. Not without any complications, mind you. The 3 most annoying people in the world just so happened to be in front of us in the queue, one of them schreeching with contempt as she was asked to simply remove her boots and jacket "for security reasons". Like any sane person, she "made a joke" that went something along the lines of "But then you'll see my pistol", which caused a bit of an upstart between security staff. Eventually we got through, got on the plane, and each made it safely home to Scotland. In the freezing, baltic cold.
Christmas and New Year were excellent, mainly because I say everyone and was out almost every night, including 1 too many trips to Word Up! The highlight of the trip though had to be Dunning's 20th birthday in Dakota, where far too many £2 whiskeys and lemonade and shots were consumed! It was a great laugh all night with some amazing banter and amazing photos; see my facebook if you want a laugh!
My parents once again spoiled me with money, food and gifts over the Christmas period and I was far more settled at home this time and miss them more this time around. Fortunately, my sister and her boyfriend will be coming to Paris for our birthday (5th Feb, if you want to know), and my parents in March, so I don't feel too bad about it all! I managed to fly alllll by myself from Glasgow to London, then met Aoife and Bethany in the queye for the Poitiers flight and made it safely back to Funkytown and spent the night at Renaud's, eating copious amounts of cheese and retelling stories about parties we had been to. L'amour :)
The first fortnight of the second semester:
It has been an INSANE return to reality over the past 2 weeks (Well, just under 2 weeks, if you really wanna be picky about it). As previously mentioned, I stayed with Renaud until Friday, then it was back to centre ville for the first party at Dimitri's and the introduction of some of the new ERASMUS folk, then Saturday was another trip in centre ville and a party at Adrian's old house. Sunday was spent mostly doing nothing, as was Monday, but then Tuesday rolled around and brought on a 5 day binge. Ok, I wasn't drunk every night, it was more just a few drinks every night, except Thursday, and maybe Wednesday, and last night. But still. The was so much banter to be had! And some much needed time with a friend who was leaving. Lorna Canon will be sadly missed, but we will see her in Austria in the near future! In the mean time, Hannah G has taken over her life, I mean moved into her old flat, so balance has somewhat been restored.
The most notable events have been: The giraffe Lorna, Hannah and I shared in Café des arts whilst chatting to the very friendly and awesome barman (not Steve); The drinks and heartfelt talk at Lorna and Hannah's before hitting the karaoke then randomly meeting people in the street and walking with them for ages; when Katie, Hannah Mc and Marta came to mine and we listened to Trance music WAY too loudly, and then Crazy Lady shouted at us IN ENGLISH: "This is our space too!" . We had said to the new German guy: "Yeah", "Come out with us" and "Aye!". It's OUR space too then, idiot. We also went to the Pilori that night which was a new experience for me and it was a laugh. Then last night with the exciting cocktails from Minima and a trip to est ouest proved to be more than enough for me and I went home for some sleep. But couldn't sleep till after 6 am. Boak.
This semester will hopefully have even better experiences than last semester, with better weather, new and old friends, and a host of new banter.
Bisous x
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