My 30th blog post

Well here it is, my 30th post, milestone eh?  Somehow we've arrived at the second week of November and I have little to no recollection of where October disappeared to...

Before I tell you what I've been up to I'm going to have a little moan about Ryanair and their lack of geographical skills (which frankly, for an airline, is rather worrying).  They fly into an airport that they call Brussels, but it isn't Brussels main airport.  Indeed it isn't even in Brussels, no, it is an hours train journey followed by a 20 minute bus journey away!  That's about the same length of the flight back to England!  Very annoying!  Especially as I'm flying from there to go to Madrid and I have a friend flying in there in December.  Cheers Ryanair! Your flights may be cheap but the costs add up afterwards don't they?!

Sorry, now I've had my little Ryanair rant I'll continue...

Where did I leave off?  I reckon the last thing I wrote about was probably going to Lancaster?  Since then I've been spending time with my grandparents as well as trying to cram in some work.  We visited Bruges for a day and also went to Antwerp.  We also went to the EU Parliament visitor centre which I did in English this time to pick up the things I missed when I did it in French.  Also discovered a room which we missed last time and that I actually think was one of the best bits because it explains how the parliament actually works etc.

It has actually dawned on me now that I only have 2 clear weekends in which I can do any work because for all the others I am either away or have someone visiting.  Basically I need to put my foot down and get cracking with it now.  The ISTI work is going to have to take priority and DELC 310 can take a back seat, but I really don't want it hanging over me in Spain...

Today I need to get some planning done for my Law essay, although not too much as I've not had the go ahead for my topic yet, and then I have a couple of classes to go to this afternoon.  Then I'm off out for a meal with my grandparents.

I leave you with a photo of a common scene across our days out this week and another to bear in mind:

Why did no one tell me I'd be in Brussels for the hottest October ever recorded?

Today has not been an exciting day so I'll save you the details and say that I went food shopping, did the washing and cleaning and then went and purchased a cheap suitcase for my little trip to Lancaster in 4 weeks time(!).

What I did want to talk about though is the heat!  I was under the impression that I've picked the Belgian equivilant of Lancaster and packed accordingly, jeans, hoodies, boots, warm clothes!  But we've currently got the same "Indian summer" as England is going through, meaning it is boiling!  Today was actually the hottest October day ever recorded out here reaching 27,9 degrees or something similar, lovely, if I wasn't wearing jeans...ah well, on the bright side (or actually rather more grey) it won't last and it's getting cooler next week.

Found myself a better radio station to listen to, (Bel RTL for anyone that is interested)

Tomorrow holds a dictee, some reading and I really better crack on with this work for Lancaster....

No news on the Spain situation yet, will let you know!

First day of classes

I say first day of classes but what I mean is that I had 2 classes in the afternoon.  After wasting time going into ISTI this morning thinking I was going to get some forms signed/given back to me so that I can get my hands on that lovely Erasmus money (one day in the next decade...) and not actually achieving this I was just about ready to get stuck into my first class when the time came around.  Problem one- 50% of the class were English Erasmus students, nor exactly the way to practise French!  Problem two- "Hello Class my name is Matthew Langlesley, I'm British and I will be taking this class..." and so he continued, in English.  An easy two credits would be one way to think about it but by the end of the hour I'd decided it would be a really boring class to stay in and on top of that he clearly didn't want us English students there.  So back to the drawing board with the timetable it is then!

I'm now going to be taking 2 literature classes when I'd intended not even to take one but I like the tutor, we had him for another class today, and I'm doing my best to avoid Spanish because it will totally confuse me!

Found out this week just how varied Unis can be with Year Abroad work.  We have to do an essay (between 4000 and 8000 words depending on if your working etc) and those of us studying have to have at least 22.5 credits that go towards, all be it a very small part of, our degrees.  Some unis don't set any written work, some very little, some you have to take 30 credits but they won't count for anything, some let you take as much or as little as you want... End of the day-Lancaster students seem to have more work to do than everyone else, typical!

That'll do for tonight!

P.S To all DELC students- I miss Annik and Birgitte and Anne and their efficient replies to emails, I won't take DELC for granted again lol!