The French in Rome

This post is all about my wonderful second-year housemate Grace French and her five-day visit to Rome!!

I saved up pretty much all of the sights for her visit as I knew that we would be doing absolutely everything we could together, and we did manage a heck of a lot. On one day we even did a 12 hour stint and didn’t even stop for lunch as we’d brought food with us which is what I call dedication!

We went to all the main sights, I showed her all the best gelaterias and in general we had a great time. I had forgotten just how much I loved Grace’s sense of humour! I have made some great friends in Italy but there are some people that you really just cannot replace.

One of the best parts of the trip was our competition with each other to take the best arty photo (which ended up with a lot of weird pictures at jaunty angles of very obscure things but which made us both laugh.) Another involved us beginning to simultaneously hum the Game of Thrones theme tune as we entered the Castel Sant’Angelo. We also had a lot of fun crushing ice cream cones which had been dropped onto the pavement, especially when I shouted “take that gluten!” which put Grace in fits of laughter. Just proves sometimes the funniest things are the things that just aren’t even funny at all!

Without further ado here are some pictures which I took along the way, some arty, some not :

Villa Borghese

 

rainy day on Capitoline Hill

 

Piazza del Popolo

Vatican

Castel Sant’Angelo/ view from Castel Sant’ Angelo

 

Sant’Angelo Bridge

Gelato :]

Colosseo and Via Giulia

Pantheon

Chiesa Sant’Ignazio: beautiful 3D painting including a very realistic illusion of a dome.

 

Palazzo Altemps: once belonging to the Altemps family, now a museum.

Fontana di Trevi

 

Piazza Venezia and steps leading down to it.

All in all I’m so lucky to be living in such a beautiful city and really happy that I got to give Frenchie a tour!

All Roads Lead to Rome

After having studied in Rome for a grand total of three months I am finally writing a post, hopefully I will squeeze it all in without rambling too much!

I ended up getting here in a very roundabout fashion, taking a minor detour to Lyon where I stayed for a week to close my bank account, get things signed and generally just wrap everything up. I chose to sleep on a randomer’s sofa for the week which was an interesting experience. I found it on airbnb and it was cheaper than the youth hostel plus I had the whole living room to myself and it was one of those massive old soft leather sofas that are ridiculously comfortable so I had a good night’s sleep each night.

The girl I was staying with was slightly kooky but very nice. There were a couple of things that were very bizarre… for example she owned a mannequin called Kirsten which was slightly creepy. She’d bought it from someone in Germany and because it had that name on it she decided to call it that. Kirsten stared at me sometimes when I was in the room on my own.

Her childhood teddy bear was almost exactly like mine as well, down to the fur and the eyes and everything, which was really odd. It felt a bit strange and surreal staying in her flat! She was very friendly though and she also had a pug dog who was very playful and also a bit naughty so that made up for it :]

I went on the carousel in the Place de Bellecour to take a last look at the city before I left and realised while I was up there that leaving made me quite sad… it’s amazing how attached you can become to somewhere even if you haven’t been there for a long time!

It was time to head off to Rome though and I was very excited to be going, if not slightly nervous!

Arriving to Italy, I quickly learned about the general lack of organisation…when I arrived at the baggage reclaim, there was a serious lack of baggage going on, and for a worryingly long time there was instead only a lonely pack of salami doing its rounds on the carousel. Welcome to Italy.

I found somewhere to live before I got to Rome and the location is pretty much ideal (at least compared to Lyon where I was basically living in the banlieu) It’s only 5 minutes walk from the Termini train station and about 10 minutes walk to the University, plus I am living with five Italian girls so I get to speak lots of Italian with them! One of my housemates also volunteers for ESN, the Erasmus support group/society thing. Support group makes it sound like we all sit in a circle and recount our embarrassing year abroad experiences. Society is a probably a much better word to use.

There is also a gelateria right on my road complete with a bench outside which looks like some kind of friend bench for gelato-eaters. It’s become a running joke now in fact that I am addicted to gelato, with my friends joking that I’ll drop in there after a hard day at lectures and they’ll find me sprawled out on said bench late at night and have to carry me home after I’ve had a bit too much. The fact that the people now recognise me instantly and reach for a cup because they know I’m coeliac is probably a good indication that I have been in there rather a lot!

On the subject of being coeliac… I had expected that life would sometimes be tough for a coeliac in Italy but there are actually lots of places for me to buy gluten-free from. Upon telling some of my friends that I was going to Italy I was met with very sympathetic looks as they imagined me being inundated with offers of pizza from well-meaning Italians, and of course that has happened, but I have also found gluten-free restaurants and even an entirely gluten-free bakery, the first one I’ve found in my entire life.

I also managed to find somewhere to carry on doing kickboxing, at least temporarily, and have had the great pleasure of being fostered by my very own Italian Kickboxing family! I will miss them when I leave but I will then be able to return to my Bath Kickboxing family who I have missed a heck of a lot.

As for the university itself… it sprawls over a huge area and has some very impressive and beautiful architecture. It even has some of its own museums!

 

As it turns out most of my classes are in Villa Mirafiori, which a small campus about 30 minutes walk, or 2 metro stops, away from me, so still very close. This is where all, or most, of the languages classes are and the architecture is quite old and interesting. It’s also surrounded by trees and flowers, which is where it gets its name from! It also makes it a very nice, relaxing place to sit in between lectures and read some books from my very long French Literature reading list!

 

All in all, I really love my classes, primarily because the other Italian students are so friendly! Finding out when exams are can be very difficult and quite frustrating at times, but as it turns out none of the Italians know what’s going on either! And of course it does give me something to talk to my classmates about, not that I need an excuse though as they’re quite talkative anyway! :]

I also had the great pleasure of going to the MACRO museum. I don’t usually enjoy contemporary art but there was one exhibition in particular that grabbed my attention:

As you can see I’m having lots of fun!

That just about sums up my time at uni in Rome so far! Una bella esperienza :]

Zipwiring adventures, Fête des Lumières and back to Angleterre.

After a very busy few months where I completely forgot to write anything (whoops) I thought I would give a quick update on how I spent the rest of my time in France, so here goes.

In November I had my friend Lucy down to visit me for a weekend and we decided to try out zipwiring at the adventure park in Lyon. I’ll admit I was slightly apprehensive before I got going, mostly because I was very confused about what I was meant to attach to what. There were various different things which I could vaguely see where meant to attach to something but I had no idea where to, and therefore was slightly worried that I’d attach the wrong one and fall to my death. (maybe a slight exaggeration there)

Once I got going though I really enjoyed it and it turned out that I am good at being a monkey. The same could not be said for all of us though, as one of my friends unfortunately fell and found himself dangling with no way of getting back up again, which meant that he had to be rescued by the friendly adventure park man. This was then made more hilarious by a french family who started providing a running commentary on the situation, which was punctuated by the mother shouting very loudly at him “You have a nice ask!”

The main point of this post though is the Fête des Lumières, which was safely the best experience I had in Lyon. The festival of lights happens every year in the buildup to Christmas and lasts for four days, during which time the whole city is covered in illuminations. Here are some pictures which I took of Lyon during the Fête:

 

Place Bellecour

 

I usually end up taking quite blurry photos because I’m under the (perhaps misguided) impression that they look better that way. That’s just me though.

Around this same period, I ended up having six exams over the course of three days. This did mean that the whole of my January was free, but the only slight problem was that when I’m stressed out I don’t eat. If I do this for a couple of hours before an exam and then eat normally afterwards then that’s fine, but not eating for three days is a bit of an issue, especially when it results in me feeling faint and dizzy! The worst exam was I think Linguistics which I am glad to never have to study again. I really didn’t think it would be that bad when I chose it as after all I do love language, but I found much to my disappointment that you can’t really dissect something without killing it.

Anyway, that just about wraps up my French adventures, so now it’s on to Roma :]

The Magical Disappearing Money Act

The last few weeks have absolutely whizzed by and I’m now halfway through the term already, but then I guess time flies by when you’re having fun! I’ve met some fantastic people and had some great experiences, but unfortunately (as you have probably guessed from the title of this post) my funds have seriously dwindled. I would like to say that it’s been due to all the fun that I’ve been having but as it turns out the vast majority of it has gone on things that I actually need. In fact in terms of going out I’ve mostly picked things that are either dirt cheap or, even better, free.

I am not sure whether this is depressing or reassuring. In one sense I am proud of myself for having managed to have an amazing time whilst not spending much money. I also recognise that studying abroad is a lot more expensive than at home. After all I’ve had to pay for flights, along with things for my flat, and other things which I couldn’t avoid paying for such as my assurance habitation! Therefore I can’t really be too disappointed in myself. On the other hand I can’t help but feel a little bit disappointed because my grand plans for travelling around France and possibly over to Geneva this term may not really be feasible! This is the hardest part  though due to the way that student loans are spread over the year and there is always, of course, the absolute life saver that is student overdraft. I should also be receiving CAF and Erasmus grant soon (forever hopeful!) and I have found out that all of my exams are in December. I suppose then that the only solution is to hibernate in my little study hole over Winter and emerge when exams are over and my bank account has topped itself up again as if by magic.

Winter doesn’t really seem to be showing many signs of coming yet though. In fact, if anything, the weather here continues to be absolutely gorgeous! On Saturday the sun was shining so I decided to go for a bike ride along the river with my friend Dee which was a nice relaxing way to spend a sunny afternoon :]

Speaking of things I’ve been getting up to … on Thursday there was an International Student night thrown by the City of Lyon which I went to with my friend Çağla :] It was at Transbordeur (a concert venue just outside of the city) and entry was by way of a free invitation which also gave us a free drink each. There were stalls for a lot of different associations set up by the bar area and the concert area itself had a DJ playing. All in all I had a really great night, mostly because I have made such good friends here. I also love the fact that Erasmus gives you an opportunity to talk to people from so many different places around the globe. On the way to the party we got chatting to some Germans and Hungarians and once I was there I don’t think I’d be able to count the different nationalities of the people I spoke to on one hand there were that many. One interesting side effect of being around people from so many different countries is that people try to guess which nationality you are when they first meet you. I have been surprised to find that an overwhelming majority of people think that I am either Norwegian or Finnish, as was proved yet again when a girl wandered up to me purely to ask whether I was from Finland as she had made some kind of bet on it with her friends. I suppose that if a complete stranger is willing to make a bet on it then I must look Finnish in some way, shape or form, although this is not something which I had really considered before. I also have had a great time, both at this party and generally being in this city, because Lyon is so welcoming to international students. The fact that we get our own free party just goes to show how welcoming this city is. We even got given free scarves as we were leaving, which I thought was really nice of them! Riding the Velovs back to my flat was also quite fun as the streets are completely empty and it looks like you’re riding through some kind of ghost town. Obviously it means you have to curb your drinking unless you want to end up looking like this man:

I have to say I didn’t really fancy drinking anyway though, which is becoming a bit of a common theme lately really. I can’t decide whether this is a sign of finally becoming a grown up or just becoming really boring, but I have decided to accept it. On that note, it is now past my bedtime but I should be going zipwiring in the near future so hopefully I’ll be able to give a bit of an update about that soon :]

I thought for ages and all I could think of was this lousy title…

I have realised that during the course of my ramblings on various different things I have neglected to inform you what I’ve actually been doing, and to tell you a bit more about my life in France, so here goes.

I found myself a studio in a residence in Villeurbanne which I’m really quite happy with. There are a lot of people who are still looking for rooms so I am happy to be one of the people who managed to find something before they arrived, as opposed to one of the people trawling the pages of Facebook and leaving comments that sound increasingly more and more desperate! What makes it even better is that it isn’t that expensive (in fact it’s cheaper than the university accommodation I didn’t manage to get) and it’s also very nice! I have my own bathroom, kitchenette, a nice big double bed and more importantly some privacy and some quiet to study in which I certainly wouldn’t have got if I was still in a youth hostel!

Unfortunately the organisation for some other things has gone slightly awry. For example, I have a shiny new Carte Bleue which unfortunately is completely useless as I have been given no PIN code for it. Each and every time I venture into the bank I am greeted with a disdained expression and a strained voice explaining to me that I have to wait for it to come by post. The only slight issue is that I have been waiting for this ever since I opened the account over a month ago. I also am waiting to receive my “numèro d’allocataire” from the CAF office which is also (you guessed it) very late. My application can’t progress until I receive this as there is still one document which they want from me (a photocopy of my student card). What is annoying about this is that 1] not everyone has been asked for this. 2] it wasn’t on the list of documents for me to bring in and 3] they won’t take individual documents on their own unless you have already received an allocation number. The outcome of this is that I am stuck waiting for things to arrive and constantly being told “it’s in the post” which I’ve begun to wonder might be code for something a little more rude!

As for the university, there are two campuses for Lyon II. One is beautiful with lovely architecture and is right on the quai meaning it has a gorgeous view of the Rhône. The other is tucked away in the banlieue and looks like some kind of grotty underground nightclub that has been taken over by anarchists. There are ridiculously steep wheelchair ramps that have no wheelchairs signs on them, there is never any toilet paper and when I went to find one of my courses I was promptly told that it did not exist. I heard someone at one point describe it as a university run by anarchists and I thought initially that maybe this was an exaggeration, however I don’t think that he was far off. There is certainly more of a revolutionary spirit to this place. On my first day, and indeed on many days since then, I have had anti-capitalist flyers thrust into my face whilst running to my lectures which usually have “manifestation” emblazoned across the top of them. I have to say though that despite the disorder I have come to love studying at Lyon II. Things may not be very well-organised but it definitely has a lot of spirit to it and I’m actually going to be pretty sad when I have to leave! I have decided to take Translation, French Linguistics, French Literature, Italian and Arabic, which are mostly very interesting. Translation is made really quite epic by the fact that my teacher’s voice sounds exactly like Moss’s from The IT Crowd, which never fails to bring a smile to my face. I have also discovered that in France they give you credits if you take up a sport! With that in mind (and also because I was missing kickboxing so much!) I decided to take up Boxe Francaise. The class is quite small and the trainer is not nearly as hard on us as I’m used to back in Bath, but nevertheless I’m really glad that I signed up because it makes me miss kickboxing just a tiny little bit less.

The social life here is really quite epic… and when I say that I don’t just mean because there are a lot of wild Erasmus parties (although of course there are those as well.) I’ve met so many great people from all corners of the globe and learnt so much about other countries and cultures, all while socialising and trying new things. So far I have eaten traditional Lyonnaise food in the bouchons of Vieux Lyon, gone wine-tasting and strolled around the Parc de la Tête d’Or and the zoo which is inside of it, amongst other things. Over the next few weeks I plan to venture further afield from Lyon and explore a bit more of France and I am planning on going zip wiring in the adventure park in Lyon which I am really looking forward to! I have also learnt that all of my exams are in December which means that I will have the whole of January at my disposal. I will also (probably) have received my Erasmus grant by that point, which means I can take advantage of my free time by travelling around!

All in all, it’s been a great 1 and a half months, and the rest of my time here looks like it’s going to be just as amazing! I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading :]

Est-ce que je pense à l’anglaise?

After over a month in France of adjusting and settling in I have fit myself into a semblance of a routine, and with all the regular French practise I have found myself actually thinking in French. This in itself however, along with some reading I’ve been doing, has got me thinking…

Does the language that you speak affect the way you think? A lot of people seem to think so and I have to say I’d be inclined to agree with them. Chinese, for example, is what can be called a “futureless” language. It makes just as much sense to say “it is raining tomorrow” or “it is raining in three weeks” as it does to say “it is raining now.” Of course in English these constructions sound ridiculous. Why am I pointing out these grammatical inconsistencies? Because studies have shown that native speakers of so-called “futureless” languages are more likely to plan for the future. 

The theory behind this? In English (as in many languages) the future is always one step ahead, one step away and it’s impossible to catch up to it. Why chase after something you can’t catch, when you could just enjoy the present?

If you see the present and the future as being inextricably linked however then your life is viewed through an entirely different lens. The future is now, it’s within your reach and you have the power to take control of it. 

Another interesting point made by some of the research showed a link between blame and English speakers. Native speakers of English are more likely to assign blame, for example we will say that someone has broken something even if it was an accident. Speakers of Japanese and Spanish though are far more likely to say that something broke itself. This has been shown in studies to make us far more likely to remember these events and to assign guilt to the party in question.

This is probably why I am so irritated by BNP having (still) not sent me my PIN code (they’re bloody useless.)

One other thing which I’ve been thinking about, and which I will probably fail miserably to explain (although it makes sense in my own head at least), is the fact that language in itself is essentially a kind of abstract representation of ideas, feelings, concepts. But there are holes, there are areas which inevitably are neglected. This could be shown by the fact that there are words in other languages which express what would take perhaps a whole sentence in our own (for example, “dépaysement” which I wrote about last time). It can also be shown in the examples which I outlined earlier. One gap, for example, could be the idea or the concept that an accidental event should not carry an assignation of blame or guilt as it does in English. 

This makes me think about the biases in my own perception and those of the people around me, and I think this is one of the many reasons why it’s so important to travel and to learn and study other languages. If not, you’re missing out on differing perceptions and views of the world which may not have even occurred to you. In fact, you may not even be sure of what perceptions your own view of the world is being filtered through! I feel that in general my experience living abroad and being exposed to all the new people, places, opportunities and languages that coms along with it is opening my mind up to new experiences and new viewpoints, which can only be a positive thing!

 

 

 

 

Dépaysement

This is a blogpost that I have to admit I have been putting off ever so slightly. The first reason is because since my arrival in France I have been unbelievably busy, mostly as a result of my attempt to keep up to date with the constant stream of paperwork coming my way and trying not to drown in it. This unfortunate side-effect of living in France is something that I had heard affectionately referred to before as “la bureaucratie francaise.” The one thing that I did not expect however, of a people who evidently love their paperwork, is that they wouldn’t actually be any good at it. So far, I have received two quite important documents, one from the university and the other from the bank, where they spelt my name wrong. This wasn’t because I told them the wrong name, in fact it wasn’t even because they thought it was how to spell my name as they had written it correctly on other documents, it was simply a result of a typo on both occasions. Unfortunately though, this being France, a mistake such as this sets you back by a good few hours in trying to sort it out. Add to this to the fact that when I arrived to my apartment I discovered that the electricity had been cut off, and you begin to see what kind of a time I have been having.

The second reason why I have put off this post is because, and I’ll be honest, I have been struggling ever so slightly and I didn’t want to come across as a moaner. I wasn’t really expecting to experience much of a culture shock moving to France. After all, my dad used to live here in the same city and I have visited here many times. I was however really quite wrong. The title of this blogpost encapsulates my feeling perfectly…. “dépaysement” translates from French as the feeling that one gets when not being in one’s home country. For me, this has manifested itself mainly in a feeling of confusion and frustration.

Aside from the paperwork and electricity issues another thing I have noticed is that a lot of French people are actually ridiculously rude. Just yesterday when I was in Carrefour a middle-aged man came up behind me and exclaimed angrily “bouge-toi, putain!” despite the fact that there were people in front of me so I had nowhere to move to. I also had a young gentleman approach me earlier and shout some french slang in my face, the only part of which I understood was “je m’en fou!” What he didn’t care about though I did not have the slightest idea, and I still don’t. In a bizarre twist he then said “Je te rigole! Bisous” and then blew me a kiss. I really am not quite sure what I should make of this. 

This brings me now though to the reason why I have decided to post… aside from the problems I have encountered, I have to say that I really love Lyon and I also love the university, so it’s not all doom and gloom! The centre of town and of course the little winding streets of Vieux Lyon are both really incredibly beautiful! The uni is a lot bigger than Bath and they also have all kinds of weird and wonderful courses that I had never heard of before which can be taken as open options. (Being the nerd that I am, this is something that actually genuinely excites me.) The town is also huge so there is plenty for me to explore during my time here and having seen more of it I am now really excited about spending the next four months in Lyon! :]

When in Rome…

At the time of writing I have completed my Orientation course and done one full week of tutoring. The training was absolutely amazing and I feel so lucky to have met so many great new people! Meeting so many people from all around the world has really broadened my cultural horizons. I have to say that this isn’t something which I expected. I have spent most of my life actively pursuing my interest in different languages and the accompanying cultures that go with them, but I think I have come to the realisation that I may have neglected some of the other English-speaking countries, all of which have their own colourful culture and history. One particularly amazing part of the training week was when the two New Zealanders in the camp performed a Haka for all of us. They told us that they were doing it essentially to mark their respect for everyone who they had met, which I thought was particularly touching, as well as being culturally enlightening.

I have of course also come into contact with the Italian culture, which does not just mean eating a lot of gelato (although that does also come into it!) My journey across the Italian peninsula has taken me from Sanremo to Rome, and I have been soaking up the culture along the way. I find all the small idiosyncrasies of each particular culture really fascinating, especially the seemingly banal things. For example, in Italy walking around with your hair wet is not a done thing. Also, flip flops are to be worn as house shoes or on the beach, not when you are walking around the Porta Portese market. Of course you may see tourists walking around doing these things, but they stick out like a sore thumb. One great aspect of being sent to Rome is that I have had a chance to look around in preparation for next year, which has been a really invaluable experience. I have absolutely fallen in love with this city, and I cannot wait for next year!

Unfortunately, while there are have been many positive aspects of my trip here, I am going to have to cut it short and come back home after having spent half the original time here that I planned. As it turns out, I really haven’t enjoyed teaching as much as I thought I would! I don’t want this to look hypocritical, as I know in my last post I spoke about taking the road less traveled. I see no point, however, in continuing down a path that is difficult if I have no particular love for the destination. If I found it difficult but ultimately cared about the goal at the end then I would persevere. I think, however, that I may have confused my love of learning for a (potential) love of helping others to learn, and that ultimately teaching is not the right path for me, either in terms of a career or in terms of my own personal development. There are no hard feelings though, and I’m very much looking forward to my year abroad adventures. My next stop (after home) will be Paris where I will be staying with my lovely friend Charlotte, before finally I will be jetting off to Lyon for the start of the university year. Non vedo l’ora!

Let the fun begin…

Within the next few days I will be setting off on what will be the start of the adventure that is Year Abroad. It’s strange to think that the thing that I’ve been waiting in anticipation for over the last couple of years is finally going to happen and if I am perfectly honest I am a little bit scared. (Actually, scrap that, I’m terrified.) This fear has been intensified by the fact that (as of yesterday) the start of my year abroad has essentially been moved from late August to in only a few days time. After having been told last month that there weren’t any more open tutor positions in a summer camp I had applied for, I received the news yesterday that there were in fact more openings, so looks like it’s all starting a little earlier than I thought it would! After my brief stint as a tutor in Italy this summer, I will then be jetting off to Lyon for my first semester and then on to Rome for the second, after which who knows!

I have to say though that despite my initial trepidation, I think it’s worth noting that life, essentially, begins outside of your comfort zone. This is what I take Robert Frost to have meant when he wrote “two paths diverged in the wood, and I,/ I took the road less traveled.” Although I’m sure I will meet with many challenges, both big and small, over the course of this next year, what I will have gained by the end of it will be absolutely priceless. In fact, I have been reliably informed that this could well be the best year of my life, in which case it has a lot to live up to!