Alors on danse...

Having been in Nantes for over three weeks, we decided it was about time we went to one of the clubs. As it was a student night and the kick off to the new academic year, we all bought our tickets which were ten euros each but came with two free drinks. So anyway, we got ready and headed to Liam’s for some drinks and lo and behold the heavens opened and it started pissing down. The first time it had properly rained since we had been there- typical. Strike one.

Lou and I got off at the right tram stop and walked to find the bus stop relying on Liam's sketchy directions. We found it and when a bus came we got so excited that we got on it without even checking what number it was or anything. Duh guess which dickheads got on the wrong one? Claps for us! Luckily we got off at the next stop which was on the same route as the actual bus we needed so all was well.

We met Claire and Annie on the bus and then ran, cowering under my thin, pathetic cardigan in a desperate bid to keep our hair dry, to Liam’s. Ellie then arrived soon after, also soaked and we all drank and chatted to some French people, one of which was extremely drunk with fish on her face which was highly amusing.

It was soon time to get going to the tram and at the time it seemed such a good idea to don bright blue bin bags because God forbid our hair get wet. I’ve forgotten to mention that as well as the downpour, there was also a strike on today, thus the trams were awol. Strike 2. After getting off one tram, getting on another, Annie's card getting eaten by an ATM and being deafened by a herd of rowdy French students we got to Ile de Nantes and walked the twenty-five minute walk to the club, still wearing the bin bags.

When we eventually got in the club (begrudgingly parting with our beloved hair protectors) we faced another hiccup in the form of a huge, hot, sweaty wall of people. Never in my life have I seen such a busy club, and for someone who is claustrophobic like myself, it was far from ideal. Strike 3. I squeezed in a few dances to really random old school music with fresh air breaks every so often. It was so weird seeing everyone around us dancing and singing along not having a clue what the song is actually about. And it was even weirder to see Ellie getting her groove on with her shirt tied around her noggin- such a good look. After stripping off as many layers as appropriate, drinking our two free drinks, pushing and shoving our way through the crowds and realising that we'd walked around like twats with bags on our head for no reason as our hair was ruined from the sweaty atmosphere, we decided enough was enough and embarked on the mission ahead- getting home.

I think I need to write a little paragraph here to thank Claire and Lellie for sorting my life out whilst I nearly passed out in the club. Lel even started on some stupid girl- that's friendship. Ooh and also to my sister, for not picking up her phone and costing me a fortune on my phone bill, even though at the time it was vitally important that I remembered the words to one of the songs we used to sing in Brownies. Merci :)

Nantes is such an easy city to get around, except for the hours between 12.30 and 5am when transport is sparse. After along walk to the center, where I ever so gracefully fell in a pot-hole whilst Lou and I were doing our chav impressions (side pony tails and all), we arrived and rang all the taxi numbers we had. The freak that harassed me on the train appeared and it turns out that he did the same to our Italian friend Samantha and she had called the police on him, which as you can imagine only made our evening even more stressful. Ergh people like him should not be allowed to walk the streets. Anyway, we eventually got in a taxi and got home, all pretty gutted about the mare that had been our first night out.

It wouldn't have been so bad if the club had stopped letting so many people come in, but in hindsight it was still a pretty funny night. And 'at the end of the day when all said and done,' we will know next time not to bother with our hair, to be prepared for the heat of the club and to organise staying somewhere closer after. Better luck next time I guess.

The University of Nantes and the Curse of the Erasmus Students

Well after the first unsuccessful lecture that everyone was thrown out of (even though i accidentally missed it anyway), I am afraid to say that the rest of the week went just as badly. That afternoon, all eleven of us arrived at a second year French-English translation class. Had we not opened our big mouths and told the stupid woman we were Erasmus students, we would have been absolutely fine, and would have quietly got on with our translations. But no. We all had to encourage poor Becks to go and tell the teacher 'what we were' (Erasmus students) and from her reaction you'd think it was some kind of disease! *Cue the look of terror and the immediate banishment from the class.* Eleven keen foreign students we were no more.

We then had the choice to try the next two version lessons or to go to the pub. No prizes for guessing where I went... to the pub. A few three euro pints of beer later it seemed a good idea to play a game of Guess Who with slobbery rizla on our foreheads. Never has such a strict version of said game been seen before! With whisky forfeits, double negatives, Alan Titchmarsh, Noddy, Nick Griffin, Gary Glitter and someone I can’t even pronounce in the mix, it was Matt who lost, not being able to get Dumbo, even knowing it was a cartoon elephant. Bless him!

After a tactical pasta box (take-away pasta is such a good shout), we all parted ways and I was left on the tram with a hysterical Lou giggling about God knows what to God knows who.

A much better end to such a ridiculous day.

Making any progress?

Introduction take 1:
Since I last blogged I would love to tell you I had made a huge amount of progress, however that would be a huge lie. I still haven't officially got my bank card or set up an electricity bill, I managed to miss my first lecture, I've spent way too much money on stuff i don't really need and I am currently sat in a café stealing wifi (again) in a huge mood because I am disappointed in my lack of organisation.
I have made a few discoveries which I will outline for you though!


Introduction take 2 (minus bad mood):
I have now been in Nantes for three weeks and haven't really got any further than I had last time I blogged but that's not to say I haven't had a good week. I have embraced the "welcome week," sorted my timetable and found out I have no lectures on Mondays or Tuesdays which is awesome, after a bit of a mare figured out my way to Rennes airport to meet mum and have started to get used to the relaxed attitude the French have towards working life where they can close whenever they fancy for lunch and NOTHING opens on sundays.
Here are some of my discoveries this week-


1. The French aren't always as reserved in the face of alcohol as we are all led to believe. After so many people telling me that in France it is frowned upon to be rowdy and really drunk whilst out socialising (two qualities I possess in copious amounts), I, my friends, have found proof otherwise. Our adorable french friend Kévin took Claire and I to a bar called Le Shaft for a sports initiation night where there would be, and i quote him, "drunk and ripped guys." So along we went, Claire and I nervously not knowing what to expect and only knowing Kévin. We were instantly met by chorus' of what I can only assume were equivalent to our see-it-off chants and boys and girls downing hideous coloured shots and huge funnel things of beer. I literally could have been in Exeter. We learnt that "see it off" is "A la fin" whilst trying to practice our French on guys who promptly re-located to another table, Claire and I are obviously not that interesting. Good one. however it was so nice to see French student life is not as different as we think and that I won't be a complete wimp by the time I get back to Exetaaah.

2. I ATTRACT WEIRDOS. I'd love to tell you I attracted beautiful French guys who just fall at my feet absolutely encapsulated by my beauty (lol!) but that is definitely not the case. I am convinced it is my eyes (alright, alright they are unusual but i still don't see the Malaysian thing, and I've only been asked if I was Chinese once so far- score!) No matter where I am I get freaks trying to talk to me. Livvie and I discovered that it generally helps if you look at them confused and start speaking in what I drunkenly believe sounds authentically Chinese. So far it has been successful. In the words of Ellie- "bon plan."

3. I got my lack or organisation and disregard for minor details from my mother. After a lovely few days with my Mum, who as per won over the hearts of my friends with her culinary delights, it was only this morning that she was leaving we realised how bloody ditsy we both are. Mum had set her alarm for 7am so we could get up and get her to the train station for 9 to board her flight at 1pm. I am not a morning person at all as anyone who knows me well will be well aware of, so when Mum said it was 7am I did not question it as I silently cursed her for waking me up. We both got ready and were on route to the station thinking we had loads of time. It was only when we got to the train station and her train wasn't on the board that we realised mum hadn't changed the clock on her phone or watch so we were an hour late for her train. A train to Redon (halfway between Nantes and Rennes)and an 80 euro taxi fare later, Mum arrived at the airport. Massive fail on the Adams family front.

4. I was born to shop. Since being here I have carried on, if not further embraced my shopping habits. Having found all the H&Ms and the shopping centres I have probably spent about 300 euros on clothes here. There goes my student loan...

5. French universities don't really care what you do as long as you do the exams. Although as a result of our train faux-pas this morning I would have missed the lecture anyway, I have just found out that everyone got chucked out of the lesson! MASSIVE MOOD IMPROVEMENT. I am doing 15 credits this term, 3 of which are evening classes in French for foreign students, one literature and cinema module and the rest are all credits in translation so it should be pretty sweet, but they are just so laid--back about it all which is fab.

6. Elle is now our flat pet. I don't know what it is, but Lellie (little Ellie) just cannot stand to be apart from Lou and I, sleeping over at every opportunity and reppin' the more rubbish of the Welsh cities, Newport, with the twang in her accent. She makes me laugh! A girl after my own heart who values sleep over most things and would opt for the later morning lessons without batting an eyelid.

7. *Cue soppy bit, get your sick buckets* You can make friends for life wherever you go. I have made such amazing friends while I have been here and really don't know what I'd do without them right now. Although I am missing home and my friends, (my flights home at the end of October are booked :D), and I am uber jealous of my sister's freshers experiences, I am having the time of my life over here.

A suivre...

Bienvenue à Nantes

So as part of my tedious degree in Mathematics and French, I am lucky enough to be able to spend a year abroad in Nantes, France. There are two of us from Exeter, myself and Louisa, and we have been here for about two weeks now. Seeing as so many people have told me how much of an unforgettable experience I am going to have over here I have decided that I don't want to forget anything so- viola! Mon blog! And what better way to start? I am sat in a quaint café with a cup of tea (feeling slightly too fragile to succumb to the French stereotypes and be drinking wine), with my new friends reflecting on the first two weeks of my “année sabbatique.”

When I found out where I had been placed I was so pleased, Nantes is paired with Cardiff and it wasn't until I got here that I realised how many similarities there actually are. The city is so much more beautiful than I ever imagined. It's lively and modern offering a remarkable student lifestyle, but still has such stunning architecture and the French elegance associated with cities like Paris without the touristic and cosmopolitan traits.

The weeks leading up to actually leaving I had such mixed feelings. Having had an amazing summer in Cardiff and at festivals with my friends, I was both nervous and excited. I was pretty impressed at how uncharacteristically calm I was, until it came to parting with my toiletries due to the weight limits on my case- that was a nightmare!

I flew out from Stansted on the 30th August armed with advice from so many people telling me to enjoy myself and to completely throw myself into the experience, and of course, the generation-typical word of warning from my Grandma- “Don’t you go bringing back any frogs when you come home!” I met Lou and her parents in the airport whilst frantically trying to get my suitcase down to Ryanair’s strict 20kg allowance and several pairs of shoes less, a few tears from Mum and some goodbye hugs later we were through security and already embracing French culture with a glass of wine.

We flew to Poitiers, about an hour from Nantes, and stayed with Lou’s Grandparents, Pat and Colin, for the first few days. They wined and dined us from the minute the bar opened at about 11am and I was treated like a princess. It was nice to be welcomed so enthusiastically when I was so nervous about my year ahead.

The day finally came when we were to move into our apartment Louisa had found for us over the summer (I will be eternally grateful for her amazing hard work in sorting out our flat). The car was packed with all our clothes, saucepans from Lou’s grandparents and a lovely set of bedding. Let me tell you about THE bedding. We’d had a lip-biting-to-stifle-the-laugh moment when Pat had ever so generously bought down the ‘beautiful’ bedding from Harrods for Lou. It was powder blue satin with blue frilly pillows and she was “not to get any ideas because it was very sexy.” Lou’s face was an absolute picture! Even the sheet was satin so she’d have been slipping and sliding all over the shop. The picture doesn’t really do it justice but here we go...

Anyway, back to moving in. After a tedious half an hour nodding and pretending to understand what our “gestionnaire” was saying, writing “lu et approuve” and signing pages and pages of French documents, we were given the keys and unloaded the car. I was so overwhelmed by how homely the flat felt straight away. It was so open and spacious with double beds and a huge balcony- perfect! Although we have no oven, which is apparently normal in France? I’m unconvinced, no frozen pizzas for us this year.

We set about our first day of French life in style with a two euro bottle of wine (or two) and lots of cheese and pâté on our balcony. It wasn’t long before we nervously got ready and decided that is was our mission to go and make friends in the centre. Off we went, spurred on with confidence from the questionable wine, we went to a few bars, ended up drinking a few too many cocktails, got offered a job translating randomly by a German guy, had a huge heart to heart and only met a completely weird man munching on monkey nuts. “Ah Shit are these your peanuts?” So Day one- mission aborted. However I found a pub with a Welsh flag outside, I will forever be patriotic, no matter how sick I get of explaining that I am from “Pays de Galles en Grande Bretagne” NOT England.

Day Two

Aims

- Enrol in University

- Open a bank account

- Get a French phone

- Set up our electricity bill

- Make friends

- Kit out our flat

Results

We bought a bin and a mop. We ran around like headless chickens trying to enrol. We couldn’t get a bank account until we had a student card (which requires successfully enrolling in uni) and proof of address like a bill or something which we couldn’t get until we had a bank account- stress galore. We got French phones, mine is just about colour screen. Louisa cried at some crabs in the supermarket. We both moaned and sulked because our (so far) easy adaptation to French life had come to an abrupt halt with a mental slap in the face having realised that we can’t actually speak French and the hours of time we spent translating passages by Voltaire or Rousseau was, just as we expected, COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY USELESS. Oh and how could I forget? I got bitten alive and had some sort of ulcer thing growing on my arm from an allergic reaction. BANGIN’. We were emotionally unstable that day to say the least.

On a brighter note, we did make friends! When we got home the night before, Louisa had a friend request from a guy that a friend had put her in contact with from Cardiff University. It turned out that I already knew him through my old Drama teacher at school as we had both applied for languages at Exeter and now we were in Nantes together. Liam- it’s fate babes. We went for drinks with him and three girls (Claire, Ellie and Annie) who we got on with really well with straight away. It made me realise what a small world we live in when I realised that I went to primary school with Annie for a few years, and have so many friends in common with them all. It was so nice to talk about home and it really cheered me up after a pretty stressful day.

We arranged to meet them again for lunch the next day and cemented our routine for the next few days- card games, wine, mocking welsh accents and baguettes. Bloody baguettes! So unbelievably sick of bread right now, but with the French people’s laid back attitude to their working lives resulting in the most bizarre opening hours, baguettes have become a staple food in our diets. That night we had pre drinks in our flat, all of us were feeling slightly more comfortable now we actually had friends, albeit English speaking ones, and then we made attempt one of hitting the Nantes nightlife. After munching on carrots (the only decent food we had), a rowdy tram journey with phantom earthquakes and what Exeter “lads” would deem “BANTERRR” on the tram we traipsed round the city looking for a night club. Having dragged Annie away from heroin addicts as she desperately tried to practice her French we eventually got to the club and it was full. Nantes nightlife 1 Etudiants Etrangères 0.

We made several attempts after that to conquer the night clubs of Nantes but failed every time. For Claire’s 21st we tried again; after drinks with her lovely family we went to another club, but the no flip flop rule meant another failed attempt. The third time we wanted to go to the gay bar, but everyone wanted to save themselves as my friends were visiting the next day. And the fourth time, we walked for a good half an hour (with one boy on crutches) to find that the club was closed for one night only for maintenance. When we have eventually figured out the nightlife I hope to be able to give a more positive description, however I have found some amazing cocktail bars which do killer margaritas, so you can’t say I don’t have my priorities right- You can take the girl out of Wales...

To try to further our experience of French culture we decided to go and see “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” in French. After I got over the giggles of seeing the Harry Potter trailer dubbed over in to French, with Voldemort shouting “’ARRRYYY POTERRRR!” I must say I became quite accustomed to hearing Nicholas Cage speak such eloquent French.

One of the main tourist attractions of Nantes was the mechanical elephants so many people had told us about so we went on a mission to find them. With Ellie moaning about how she was never going to drink again, and us all rocking the post-night out glow we got to the elephants only to be completely confused as to why someone would make a 20foot mechanical elephant. It was absolutely fascinating but just so weird.

We have already experienced our first strike. I could not believe how big it was! On a scale of one to ten on the havoc scale, it was an absolute pain in the arse. The crowds swarmed the tram lines in such masses only comparable to Cardiff on a Rugby International day. They had marches, speakers and make shift bars going on with little children running around with signs, it was crazy! However, I fought temptation and obeyed our international co-ordinator’s rules not to get involved with any strikes under any circumstances. No fun.

I had my first visitors yesterday, Sam, Ollie, Matt and Dale, came to visit on their journey down the west coast to surf. It was so lovely to see them and I had such a good night. Ollie was on crutches bless him but the boys fitted in well. Highlights were Liam’s flooring comment to Dale:

*Dale weeing in public* (LAD)

Liam- Oh my god your willy is so small!

Dale- Well the women at the clinic were impressed

Liam- What, impressed with your confidence?

Hahaha it really made me laugh. The night finished with the closed club, drunken cooking, lots of chats and group tooth brushing. All-in-all it was très amusant.

It’s been such an emotional roller coaster being here. I have laughed a lot and really enjoyed making new friends and immersing myself in French culture. Apart from the one mare of a day when we failed miserably at sorting our lives out, today was the first day I got upset. It is my sister’s leaving for university/birthday party and I just really wish I was there. It is days like this when you realise how far away you actually are and that it’s not like being at Exeter where I could just jump on a train when I needed to. I really miss my friends and family at home, along with the comforts of being looked after. However I am so thankful to the friends I now have here who have been my safety blanket whilst we all try and adapt to our foreign surroundings. I am pleased to say not all French people fit the stereotype of being rude and they are all really helpful when you start your conversation with “Bonjour, je suis une étudiante Erasmus.” I was so surprised by how many homeless people there are though. Some of the people are so beautiful, but then there are also so many sleazy men and some of the people have the weirdest fashion sense I have ever seen! They seem to be extremes here- really fashionable and chic people you would imagine to live in Paris and then people who walk around in parachute trousers and bandanas- très bizarre. Nantes, like I said, is an absolutely stunning city and it is fast becoming very homely. The vast amount of kebab shops and the fact they have H&M and Zara also make it feel more like I am back in Cardiff but just with a few more ornate buildings and a less aggressive accent!

Thus far, I have thoroughly enjoyed my first two weeks in France. I have made friends I feel so comfortable with, we have settled in to out flat, we are pros at getting the tram and have done the cowboys of the Wild West proud on the card-playing front (a card laid is a card played). We start university on Monday which will bring an end to our current day-to-day life of lazing in cafés and spending money on ridiculous things. Ellie has her bras, she has defrosted her mince and has bought her bin bags, Lou has embarked on a quest to find herself a French man, Claire and I have become wifi queens, Annie (Madame) has successfully become card-bearer and Liam has perfected being able to disguise his saucy talk with his boyfriend on Skype whilst in a room full of French students. I on the other hand still can’t speak French, have somehow run up a huge phone bill even though it is free for people to ring me and have lasted two whole weeks without my beloved BRITISH diet coke. I feel I have grown as a person.