Difficulties in the run up to Christmas

Another week has finished and I find myself ticking the days off until it is time to pack my bags and head home for Christmas. Many people may think that this is the easiest time of my time away so far. I only have 3 more weeks left until I can come home, classes are winding down, Christmas decorations are beginning to appear and the ski season is about to start. It would be silly of me to disagree with this. Yes, this is all true, however I can’t say that it is the easiest time so far, in fact, I would go so far to say that it is the hardest time. As classes are beginning to finish to leave time for studying it means that I have less things to do and therefore less of a routine. This means that I have more time to fill and while I should be filling all this time with studying, it is not possible to study every waking minute of every day and therefore there is more time to dwell on what everyone is doing at home and what I would be doing were I at home.

It is coming up to Christmas, a time for family and a time for friends. I am lucky to be able to say that I have met some great people while I have been here and we are all able to share different experiences with each other and lean on each other for support when we need it. It is an interesting experience to see how another country and another culture celebrate the Christmas festivities. However, I can’t wait to get home and do things that are ‘normal’!

Enough dwelling on the difficulties and time to move onto what I have been doing and what I have in store to try to enjoy all of this extra free time that I have! Of course, I still have to do some work and concentrate on university. However, in addition to that, I visited the Christmas market yesterday in Grenoble. It was quite spread out but it was nice to have a wander around the different stalls, whilst drinking some mulled wine (of course!) and see the Christmas lights all on. However, it was very cold and so we didn’t spend loads of time having a look at different things.

Tomorrow I plan to buy some Christmas decorations and attempt to make my room slightly more exciting and festive than it currently is!

We have planned to go to Annecy next Saturday as it is the first weekend of their Christmas market and I have heard many great things about the town. When we get back that evening we have got tickets to go to see Grenoble take on Toulouse at rugby in the Stade des Alpes. The following two weekends will hopefully be taken up with some trips to the ski centres and then, finally, we have a trip to Paris to look forward to before flying home.

The start of the Christmas season

Another week gone by and therefore another week closer to going home for Christmas! Where has the time gone this semester? It feels like only yesterday that I was writing about moving into my room and finding my feet in Grenoble!

This week I found out that I am able to come home sooner than I had originally planned. I paid the fee to change the date of my flight and I am now officially going home 4 days earlier than originally planned! We are heading up to Paris the day before we fly and are going to spend a day and a half exploring Paris at Christmas (I did this last year and absolutely loved it!) and seeing the various Christmas markets before heading out to the airport and flying home! I am unbelievably excited about seeing all my lovely family and friends again!

Next weekend we have made plans to go shopping for Christmas decorations so we can decorate our rooms and get into the Christmas spirit here! I feel that as I have heard that some of the Christmas lights near my hometown have been turned on, it is acceptable for me to decorate my room! And I am also not ashamed to admit that as I am writing this, I have Christmas music playing!

This week hasn’t been very eventful here. I went to a cooking course over on the other side of town on Thursday night which was good. It was nice to do something different. However, while we were there, one of the bus drivers in town got attacked and therefore all of the tram drivers and bus drivers exercised their droit de retrait. This means that they could all stop working and go home. A bit of an issue for us on the other side of the town! Thankfully we finally managed to get hold of a taxi company and although taxi’s cost a fortune here compared to at home, we got back to our rooms safely!

Today has been a day of doing university work and cleaning interspersed with a much needed trip out of my room to get a coffee! I know that it would be too easy to stay in my room without leaving some days as I have everything I need in hear. But I make myself go out at least once a day as I know that I would end up driving myself crazy!

Tomorrow evening we are heading through to Lyon for a meal for one of our friend’s 21^st birthdays.

I think that is all my news for now! However, on a side note, I have just read this back through and realise that I always refer to ‘we’. For those of you who don’t know, I am here with one of my friends from university at home. Without her, I am pretty sure I would not have been able to deal with living in a different country, speaking a different language and studying law in said different language. However, I do also have to thank those who continuously make the effort to keep in touch with me, you all know who you are and it means so much to have so many people supporting my adventure here!

Weekend of travelling

First of all, I should apologise for not writing on Friday! I am afraid to say that Friday was a very long and tiring day! I had a three hour exam from 9-12 and then a lecture from 1-3 and another class from 5-7. The exam left me feeling exhausted and it was a struggle to keep concentrating for the rest of the day!

On a more positive note, I did some travelling this weekend. I made a last minute decision with one of my friends who is living in Perpignan this year to meet up in Avignon for a night and then stay in Aix-en-Provence the night after. Those of you who know me well will know that I spent the summer of 2012 working in a hotel not far from Avignon and therefore visited the town on a few occasions. I love it and it was nice to know that I could still find my way around without a map! Again, for those of you who know me well, you will know that my sense of direction is not good and therefore not having to have a map is a big achievement for me!

It was a lovely day in Avignon and it was great to have a wander around and see all the sites again. I met up with a school friend, who is currently living in Avignon, for a coffee so it was lovely to catch up with her again too. We stayed in a youth hostel in Avignon that night and after being woken up by some noisy guests at 4.30 and 6.30 it was a good thing that we were moving on! We got on a train and headed to Aix-en-Provence. I had never been there before so it was great to discover a new place that I had heard a lot about. The town is well known for its many fountains which are dotted all over the town. The main street is lined with trees with some cafes, bars and restaurants at the side. We were very lucky that the threatened rain stayed off and we could have a wander round and explore the town a bit more. We decided to walk out to our hotel that night as the bus that would have taken us there wasn’t running as it was a Sunday! It seemed to take forever and so we decided to eat at the hotel instead of doing that walk twice more that evening! The next day was Armistice Day. It is a bank holiday in France and so it is like a Sunday – not many things are open. Unfortunately we both had to head back to our respective French hometowns and so at lunchtime we said our goodbyes and each started our fairly long trips back.

This week is quieter and calmer than last week – thank goodness!

La toussaint holiday!

I don’t know where to start with this blog post! I feel like so many great things have happened since I last wrote!

So firstly, my Mum arrived on Friday. It was so amazing to see her and be able to show her round Grenoble. She brought a big case with her, mostly containing goodies for me! I didn’t think I would ever be so excited to see baked beans, squash and chocolate (OK, I knew how excited I would be to see Cadbury’s!). We went up the cable car to la Bastille and looked at the amazing views. Then we went to the University campus and did a lot of wandering around the streets while I pointed out my favourite place for coffee, and my favourite place for wine and my favourite place to eat……no wonder this year is turning out to be expensive! I realised whilst showing Mum around how much I have come to know Grenoble and how much I have come to love it. It will never replace home in Britain, but it is definitely my French ‘home’!

After I saw Mum off on Monday I headed off to Switzerland with Hannah for a little holiday. First stop was Geneva! We had found a cheap hotel and decided to book it for 2 nights. When we got out to the hotel, we discovered why it was so cheap! There wasn’t a separate bathroom in the room! There was a cupboard with a toilet in it and the sink and the shower weren’t in separate rooms! To keep a small bit of dignity, the shower had a frosted strip over the door! Thoughtful! We did all the tourist sites in Geneva and looked round the city centre! It was amazing how many glamorous people there were walking about! I did not fit in wearing my turquoise waterproof jacket!

After 2 nights in Geneva, we bought train tickets up to Lausanne. Neither of us could believe how expensive it was for a return train ticket for a journey that took 40 minutes each way – 40 CHF!

However, Lausanne was an amazing place and I really loved it! After checking into our hotel (luxury compared the last one!) we went up into the old town to explore and see the cathedral and then went down to the lake before going back into the centre and having the best, but most expensive, hot chocolate I have ever had! Nothing will compare now! The next day we explored the centre a bit more and then headed out to a big park where there was supposedly a lake, a tower and an animal park! Naturally I thought that meant there was going to be elephants and giraffes etc. When we got to the animal park though, we were greeted by cows, pigs, rabbits, sheep and goats! Not what I was expecting!

Unfortunately our holiday had to come to an end at some point and we got the train back to Grenoble. At least I still have a few more days off until I am back to classes! Hope everyone has a good weekend!