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