Et voilà - the end of my French fantasy

A new beginning or the beginning of the end? 

My time in France is slowly coming to an end with just three days until I board the plane to go back home. For good this time. Well, until next time anyway. That indescribable feeling of finishing the last exam - and the dread of last minute packing - has urged me to write another post.

Over the past four months, I've:

Made the most amazing new friends, including some fellow French classmates, members of the university's newspaper association and not forgetting "the Americans"...

The original family.

SkemaNews - my second family.

My France best friend.

Gotten used to a whole new school system - mainly the exams...

I tried my best!

Eaten new food - snails to be more precise...

And made new memories, memories that will stay with me forever and forever.

So there you have it, my successful second time abroad and the end of my Erasmus adventure. I'll try not to cry on the plane, but I cannot guarantee anything. The thought of snuggling up in a blanket, watching old-school Christmas films and cuddling with the cat is keeping me going though. I haven't stayed in England for more than 2 weeks in nearly 7 months. Hopefully nothing has changed too much and I won't experience reverse culture shock - and yes, I did Google it.

Where to next? I hope for my next adventure to be in Egypt, but you never know what might happen. I could end up in New York, Tokyo or even the south of France again. I will go wherever my heart takes me (without sounding too cheesy).

Note to self: buy a bigger suitcase or pack less clothes!

Like I said in my last speech, if you ever get the opportunity to go to a country that you've never heard of or know little about, I encourage you to go. You will come back richer in friendship, knowledge and, above all, in culture. That's all from me. Time to pack (or, more accurately, squeeze everything into my suitcase).

Over and out,

A Student Abroad.

"Everything passes. Both soaring joys and crushing sorrows fade away like a dream. However, the knowledge of having lived one’s life to the fullest never disappears" - Daisaku Ikeda

Time to start saying goodbye (or au revoir)

Wow, haven't these past 4 months flown by? I remember when I'd just moved into my apartment and panicking because the wi-fi wasn't working. But since then, the wi-fi has served me well - apart from a few glitches when Skyping - successfully accompanying me through 4 months of studying [and procrastinating - but we won't dwell on that one].

As well as few projects and presentations, I have completed two out of five "finals", one being for Speech where I delivered an informative speech about how amaaaazing Latvia is for a holiday destination, delving into its rich history, the language and the traditions. And yes, I mentioned being the only non-white person in my town of residence. I just had to. A few minutes before giving my speech, I did start to imagine how the class would react from me saying that. Would they look at me in complete horror? Would they see the humour in the idea? Are they actually going to be listening to me? 

Luckily, some people giggled. I did say it with some sentiment though: to not be afraid to explore, embrace cultures and share your own. I decided not to mention the one black man I saw though. Goodbye Speech, it's been a pleasure.

I took my second final exam for Business and Professional Writing yesterday. I spent all day before memorising three case studies. It's all well and good doing that, but I always find that two minutes before the exam, you get a sudden wave of stress. Hardcore stress. While the clock is counting down until you must enter the exam room, the following scenario vividly plays out in your head: you sit down in your allocated seat, desperately trying to hold on to each and every word memorised and then your trusted mind goes entirely blank. Luckily, this didn't happen and the exam went well. Goodbye "BPW", as it's most commonly known.

Among the great friends I have made in France are not only the other international students but also the Buddhists I met too. 

Our last Buddhist meeting/party together.

I may not have understood every French word they said in the Buddhist meetings... but they never failed to make me laugh.

Definitely one to remember.

I'm trying to keep this experience alive by soaking up as much sun as possible (I've heard so many horror stories about the weather in England) and eating as many French breakfasts as possible, consisting of a few croissants, coffee and pain au raisin. Yes, you read that right: coffee. I never drank coffee before coming to France. I'm undoubtedly an English tea girl. I never knew how one sip of sweet coffee would be so addicting. Last month, I went through a phase of drinking coffee every day. I was neglecting my tea bags. 

As the days went by, I became well aware of this developing coffee habit and knew I had to do something about it before it got serious. I started to slowly wean myself off the coffee and go cold turkey. It was hard, I'm not going to lie, but tea is my true hot drink. Now I'm just drinking coffee every now and then until I leave. 

I suppose one good thing has come out of it: I have plenty of tea bags left over for my last week in France! 

"The differences between people need not act as barriers that wound, harm and drive us apart. Rather, these very differences among cultures and civilisations should be valued as manifestations of the richness of our shared creativity" - Daisaku Ikeda

Feeling the Christmas spirit in France

Yesterday was the first Saturday in a long time that I haven't stayed in my room all day studying - and it felt so good to be out again. Okay, I'm making it sound like I've been imprisoned in my room for 3 months. It's not that bad, honest. It just felt good giving myself a break away from the stress of university work and to enjoy the south of France once again! On a bitterly cold (but sunny) Saturday afternoon, my friends and I decided to check out Noël à Nice - the Christmas market. This was not procrastination, by the way.

And so we arrive: Nice by day.

I've never seen Nice so busy before: it was heaving with people! My friend and I decided to have a quick look at the market stalls, while we waited for our friend (who had an exam) to come and join us. We kept to a policy of "just looking, not buying" until our friend came - but it was so hard. Everywhere I looked I saw something adorable. Hand-decorated mosaic mirrors, jewellery of all kinds, homemade gingerbread and even different flavours of tea! How I resisted buying the chocolate orange tea, I'll never know.

Preeeetty.

Our main plan was to go ice-skating on the outdoor rink, but time just flew as we were being dazzled by little Christmas goodies. About an hour later, our friend had arrived in Nice so we left the market for a brief moment to meet her near the train station. It was time to do some shopping. On our way back to the market, it had already gotten dark. You know what that means... Christmas lights!

Nice by night.

Lovely Christmas decorations!

Trying to be sensible, I only brought a little bit of cash out with me, otherwise I would have bought everything in sight. The great thing about market stalls is that you can "haggle" you way to a good deal and our precious student Euros can go a long way. We saw a crowd of people so, like people do, we went to have a look. A man, a very talented man, was making clay pots - a different one each time - and giving them to people.

My pot in the making.

My best part of the evening was getting a free clay pot. The worst part was trying to get a freshly-made clay pot home without someone bumping into me. Guess what? Someone bumped into me. Luckily, it had already started drying so there wasn't too much damage done. From that point on, I held on to it for dear life. Well, as much as I could with two shivering hands. With that said, I nearly dropping it on the train ride home when trying to save my friend's pot from falling... But it survived:

"Mum, I made this for you!"

The pot looks quite big in the photo above, but it's actually smaller than my hand. I might paint it... but then I don't want to ruin it, especially after all the trauma it went through just to stay in one piece! I'm not sure how it's going to be transported home safely, but if it can survive being knocked over twice, I'm sure it can survive a 2-hour plane journey.

And so to my best photo of the night:

I want this in my house. Now.

I am definitely in the Christmas mood now. We plan to return to the market, with more friends and slightly more money, and ice-skate! And maybe get another pot:

"Could I have another, I mean, a beautiful clay pot? Oh no, you've never seen me before Monsieur."

These next two weeks are going to be hectic for me. 5 final exams, 2 assignments and 1 presentation later, I shall be packing up my room, saying my goodbyes and catching a flight home. Oh gosh, the packing - *sad face*

"The important thing is to firmly fix our gaze on our own weaknesses, not run away from them, but to battle them head-on and establish a solid self that nothing can sway" - Daisaku Ikeda

Three weeks...

A strange pattern has emerged. This is the third time I am writing my blog after three weeks. You're slacking, Gabrielle. Clearly, this means that a lot has happened in the meantime so I will try to give you a brief but interesting overview of "the latest" in my life.

As most of you know, all the classes I do at my French university centre on the subject of Communication, but there's one that I have warmed to the most: Writing for Multi-Media. Not only is it taught by a professional freelance journalist (who works for the New York Times) but it also focuses on what I want to do in life - write. As our teacher is "in the know", she managed to get one of her professional friends named Jeanne Oliver to come in and talk about her travel website, a website with all the information you need to know about Croatia. She took us through the ins and outs of setting a website up, looking for inspiration, facing competition and keeping up-to-date with the time. But this got me thinking... maybe I could create a website one day. But, of course, there's no rush.

Talking of travelling, I've made another crazy life decision. I want to do an internship in Egypt. And yes, I've already applied and had a Skype interview for it. I told you a lot can happen in three weeks! I know what you're probably thinking: why Egypt? Well, I'll tell you. After announcing to my housemate about wanting to do an internship in Egypt, his initial reaction was "don't go there, it's dangerous", and that got me thinking. My response to him was "I want to see what we see in the media for myself". A typical Gabrielle response, but it's true. Of course, I see his point. There has been a major uprising and revolution, but if everyone had that sort of preconception about certain cultures, no-one would travel! I've always been fascinated with the ancient history of the country and I want to see how the culture is now, in this day and age.

Blame it on The Mummy.

Because I'm in France, I'm unable to do a face-to-face interview in England (obviously) so I managed to arrange a Skype interview - my first Skype interview. I was quite nervous at first. What do I wear? I should make my bed. What if the internet randomly cuts off? Who calls who? I am happy to say that despite my initial nerves, the interview went very well. I think I may have kept looking at myself on-screen, but nevertheless I said everything I wanted to say, I was honest and, most importantly, I didn't panic. A few days later, I received an email saying they were impressed with my responses and were sending my interview transcript to the national office for final acceptance. That's good enough for me!

I have also completed my second and last set of midterms for the semester. I think they went well, especially my speech. We were assigned to write and perform a persuasive speech. The first thing that came to mind was the abolition of nuclear weapons, so I did it. It's something I feel quite strongly about and I wanted that to come across in my speech. My speech began with a hypothetical situation, asking the audience to imagine they were the President of the most powerful country in the world and they had just been attacked by a neighbouring country - do you press the "red button" on your desk (which would instantly fire a nuclear missile) or not? After telling a few anecdotes and shocking facts, my speech was over. My teacher came to the front and said to the class, "we should be throwing flowers at Gabrielle, she had total conviction". The best [unexpected] compliment I could have wished for! It truly made my day.

What next? Ah, yes. Thanksgiving. I have celebrated my first Thanksgiving with my amazing American friends in France. That's a story for the grandchildren. The food was delicious: turkey, sweet potato pie, stuffing, the lot! And because we were hosting it at our house, my housemates and I were able to enjoy the leftovers.

Nom nom nom.

Well, I for one think that this is a successful summary of my life over the last three weeks. I am currently bombarded with project upon project, leading up to "finals" - like midterms, only these are at the end of the semester. I'll try to write another blog post soon, but if three weeks pass again, I'll be writing it in England!

I'd better make the most of my time left then, i.e. eat as many fresh croissants as humanly possible. Au revoir!

Paris: the city of romance and crêpes

I was doing my early morning browsing of the internet for the latest news and gossip (like ya do) and something suddenly sparked. I remembered my blog has gone three whole weeks without word nourishment!

Where to start, where to start. Ah yes, midterms. Who could ever forget midterms? Despite having a terrible cold, I managed to complete all of my midterms to the best of my ability. The easy part was over... the hardest part for me is waiting for the results. Every lecturer (or teacher) is different. Some like to be organised and mark them all in time for next week's class. Some are the complete opposite and have to prioritise which exam papers to mark when. And there are some who literally mark them in class a week after the exam. This happened for my 5th midterm. I was astonished... And I got 100%! Admittedly, there was a little party of Gabrielle's dancing around in my head.

During the days of having a cold, I had to give a 5-minute informative speech about Daisaku Ikeda, President of SGI (the Buddhist organisation I belong to and the author of most quotes on my blog). It took me about a day to write, including gathering research. It was quite hard to condense one amazing man's life down to 5 minutes, but I think I did a pretty damn good job considering! I received a better grade than the last one. I just need to work on slowing down when I speak. It can't be that hard, can it?

While preparing to go to Paris, which includes packing, unpacking and then packing again, it was announced that the Halloween party that my university was hosting had to be postponed, leaving it up to the international students to find an alternative. I was told at the last minute that my house was being used for the emergency venue. I wasn't planning on going to the original party. I had no costume. I did what any girl would do and smothered red lip gloss all over my chin and chest (I don't own red lipstick) - how to be a vampire in 10 seconds. I would just like to advise anyone going on holiday to never ever have a party the night before. Ever. Just for the sake of being full conscious when you reach your destination. It was fun though!

I was an innocent vampire.

So I managed to wake up in time, finish my packing (I'm getting better at it) and meet my friends on the bus to the airport with my housemate. As I got on the bus, I noticed that one of our friends was not there - hence my prior advice. That was the first thing that went wrong. The second was even worse. We'd found a brilliant apartment to stay in through a very reliable website. Us being us, we waited until the last possible moment to collect our money together and book one... sitting on the bus, our booking was rejected. So we were packed, on the bus to the airport and HOMELESS. Despite freaking out inside, we couldn't help but laugh at the situation. No matter what was going to happen, we were going to Paris. We sent quite a few emails to some apartment landlords and eventually got a response! We were happy again.

She made it to the airport!

As soon as we landed in Paris, the cold and rain hit us. Thank goodness I brought my big coat with me. We eventually made it to the apartment, after asking the local residents and trailing our suitcases behind us a few miles. We met the landlord, were given a quick tour of the apartment, dumped our bags and went hunting for food. The boys did some heavy-duty grocery shopping. The girls, on the other hand, decided that since we were in Paris, we'll go out to eat every night. We were on holiday after all! Plus, we were living on a great road for food. It was lined with cinemas so there were crêpe stands everywhere!

My first photo in Paris.

Guess what my first meal in Paris was? Can't guess? It was Chinese. We really should have eaten something French but we vowed that we eat something French before we left Paris.

It was an amazing 4 days and 5 nights...

My first sight of the Eiffel Tower.

Tourist pose #1: Place de la Concorde.

The Pharaoh and I.

One of the most famous streets in the world.

Tourist pose #2: Arc de Triomphe.

Tourist pose #3: Eiffel Tower.

Inner thoughts: "I'm so excited!"

My best experience of Paris was going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was freezing cold, we had to queue for just over an hour but we met some interesting people and saw some beautiful sights of the city.

Going up...

Watching the sun set from the Eiffel Tower.

Red nose!

The lights came on afterwards.

Eiffel Tower aglow!

Dinner #2: Italian (we are naughty tourists!)

After seeing the main sights in the centre of Paris, we took a trip to the Palace of Versailles. The sun came out just for us!

There it is!

Le chateau.

The famous Hall of Mirrors.

One of many gardens.

In awe at art and the garden landscapes, we hopped on a train (we paid, of course). Some were more eager than others:

A photo had to be taken.

The next day, the touristic spree continued - the Louvre Museum. The queue was horrendously long. My friend and I and two of the boys decided to have a race. First one to the Mona Lisa wins. My friend had been before so she knew a quicker way to get in. After pushing through the crowds and taking pictures to prove we had seen the Mona Lisa, we made our way out with glee written all over our faces.

The largest Louvre pyramid.

We beat you boys!

We entered the main hallway, looked up and the boys were standing in front of us. I felt like screaming "noooooooooooooo!" but I just smiled sweetly and said "have fun in there!" instead.

Notre Dame Cathedral.

After sightseeing, we decided to play a game. We got on the Metro, said a number (8, for example) and we would get off at the 8th stop. We ended up in Vincennes, a town in the suburbs of Paris.

But then the game got a bit more serious. We got on the RER (the overground train in Paris) and, without saying a number, ended up going to Disneyland "by accident". We didn't actually pay to go in the park but did have a nice little wander around the store.

Proof!

Just kidding.

As I said before, one of my main goals for Paris was to try some real French cuisine, not just croissants and baguettes, but the hardcore stuff!

Either escargot or cuisses de grenouille - or in English, snails or frog's legs. We were roaming the streets, looking at the menus in every restaurant window to find the suitable meal. Eventually, we found one. It was 11pm. We were the only customers left. My entrée was escargot. My friend grabbed my camera and documented every move I made.

Snails covered in garlic.

Gradually realising that I was about to eat snails.

Now I've done all the touristic stuff, I will return to Paris to experience the true Paris. The Midnight in Paris experience.

Voilà! Midterm madness, Halloween hangovers and Parisian paradise. What else could possibly happen in my last month and a half here? We shall have to wait and see...

In the words of Audrey Hepburn, "Paris is always a good idea".

Mixed veg, midterms and mountains

As I was sitting in my room, highlighter pen in hand ready to attack the lecture notes surrounding me, I suddenly realised that I have neglected my blog for over 2 weeks now. Obviously, with being in France time is going very fast and consequently a lot of different things happen everyday. I think it might be quite boring telling you everything, so I'll just capture and condense it all down for you. And no, this isn't an excuse to procrastinate...

To begin, my housemate and I decided to cook a traditional Sunday roast dinner for our group of international friends. Little did we know how much time it would take to cook using a microwave oven. 4 whole hours to cook roast pork, roast potatoes, mixed vegetables and homemade Yorkshire puddings.

Yum!

I've sat 4 midterms so far. Luckily for me, the modules I have chosen each entail all that I am most interested in: film and journalism. I'm one of those people that prefer to study alone, in solitude and isolation, revising in my own time and being able to gather my own thoughts. But seeing as I'm in France, I thought it would be best to change it up a bit - to find a "study buddy". My friend offered for me to come to his home not far from Antibes to study for our film midterm (my second midterm). I hopped on the train for the first time (buying my ticket speaking in French only), met my friend and then we drove to his house.

When he said he lived on the mountains, I thought he was joking... He was serious.

Welcome to Saint Jeannet

I thought he was joking.

I must admit that I was in awe at the idyllic village and views for the most part of our study session.

A week after my first midterm for Business and Professional Writing, we were sitting in the lecture and the teacher said those words that no student ever wants to hear: "I have marked your tests..." Whilst squinting my eyes, my exam paper was put in front of me. With one eye open, I looked at the percentage written at the top of the front page... 98%! Both eyes were wide open at this point. Speechless.

A few exams ticked off the list, my friend and I decided to visit the legendary Monaco, less than an hour away from Antibes by train. We already knew the shopping prices in Monaco wouldn't fit our student budgets so we spent most of the time sightseeing and window shopping.

Monaco train station - a bit too excited?

A small chapel.

Paradise...

Mountains!

For our viewing pleasures ONLY.

My car.

Creative photography right here.

An "underground" nightclub.

Buddha Bar!

Just for the Union Jack.

My Monaco masterpiece.

There is so much more to be seen in Monaco, but the party in Cannes the night before made my friend and I exhausted by the time we had finished walking around the shopping mall. I'll definitely be back though.

I'm currently getting over my second flu whilst being here, which isn't easy to do when you have lectures almost everyday, a compulsory fitness class, the pressure of exams and weekly French lessons (which are going rather well by the way). Ginger tea, despite its gag-inducing taste, is my current lifesaver. I'm halfway through getting rid of my husky voice before my fifth and final midterm on Monday, a 5-minute informative speech.

So I've given you a very quick overview of a fortnight in Gabrielle's French life. Oh and before I forget, we've finally booked our tickets to Paris! 5 days of pondering the Parisian panorama and trying not to spend too much money - yeah, right!