♫Everything in life is only for now♫

That blog title loses a large proportion of its somewhat philosophical quality when you know it's taken from Avenue Q doesn't it?  Sorry about that, but I feel that it is particularly relevant to me at the moment.  As a lot of you probably know, I went up to Lancaster for the weekend as it was the only chance I was going to get whilst I'm back at home.  I won't bore you with all the details of what we did but needless to say I had a lovely weekend as ever and I've realised how lucky I am to have friends that I can just fall back into place with as if I never left.  Being in Lancaster is a little strange though, I do feel weird going onto campus to an extent I feel as if it is completely normal but on the other hand I feel a bit like I shouldn't be there when I had to go into my department and went to say hi at work.  The problem is it is all over with far too quickly and before I've even realised it we're at Monday and I had to go home, luckily I got to do my goodbyes in stages so the waterworks didn't come all at once!  The thing I need to remember is that last semester absolutely flew by in the blink of an eye and as long as I try and fill up this one with plenty of things (and maybe some classes, work, dissertation and exams...) I'll be back in England at the end of June sooner than I think.  The hard thing is saying goodbye to people and knowing you're not going to see them for 5 months, last time it was a lot easier to just pop back to see everyone but what with Granada not being the easiest place to get to and most of my friends being in final year it's just not practical at all.  The other thing though is to keep things in perspective, I was sat telling a friend how hard it is for me to say goodbye for 5 months and then remembered that he spent the whole of last year in America... talk about complaining to the wrong person!

For now though I'm still in England for another couple of weeks but once I do go I know its only a matter of weeks until I'm off on holiday and get to see some of my friends in Majorca for a week, another few until my parents come out and then a few more until home time again...I really shouldn't wish away time like that, the next thing you know I'll be writing my first blog post from the house in Lancaster!

I'd better love you and leave you now as I have some serious work to be done on my essay if I have a hope in hell of getting it done before I leave for Granada!

I'll leave you with the song I quoted in the title.

 ♫ Everything in life is only for now ♫

♫ I left my heart in San Francisco ♫

So I didn't leave my heart in San Francisco, I've never been there, but I do feel like I have left a significant portion of my brain in England and another part of it has already packed and left for Granada, not hugely helpful when I could do with a generous portion of brain remaining here to get me through these exams!

I realise this is my first post for 2012 and the first post since I have been back out here, but I've not really had anything interesting to talk about, anyone that is following my 365 project certainly knows that nothing has been going on in my life that doesn't either involve revision, cough "potion" or anadin!

Being as this is my last weekend here I guess I could be spending it doing exciting things, but why change the way I've spent all my time out here?  I've enjoyed my few months in Brussels but there are some things that I wish I'd done differently that I will be trying to learn from in Granada.

1) Speak the lingo!  It is what I've come out here to do and I've hardly done it.  I've been too easily pushed into just speaking English because that's the language other people insist on speaking to me in.  Well I should've just kept replying in French until they got the hint.  Granada change 1: Speak Spanish as much as possible (living with 3 Spanish girls this should presumably be achievable...) and make some French friends to make up for lack of practise here.


2) Get out and see things.  When I got picked up in the taxi to go to the station before Christmas it dawned on me how little of my own area I know.  I know the area around me if I turn right from my flat, the route to ISTI and the supermarket, how to get into the centre and where the public transport can take you but what if you turn left?  It became quickly evident that I didn't have a clue!  There were shops and all sorts that I'd never seen before.  Granada change 2: Wander round the area, get to know where I'm living, take it all in!


3) Get a social life.  One of the hardest parts of being out here has been the lack of social life.  In Lancaster I do plenty to keep me busy and meeting people all the time, last year I was doing something most evenings whether it was work, LUSU, Swing Band, Glee etc I was meeting people and I had a social life.  This concept became alien here, I didn't just instantly make friends and for some reason gave up really easy.  I've also managed to build this image of myself as someone that never goes out, which actually isn't true and I'm not sure how I've managed it.  At the start I think I was too worried about spending too much time with English people, well now I've just ended up spending loads of time on my own instead so that was a silly decision! Granada change 3: Socialise with people,  if invited out for the stereotypical tapas and sangria go for it and enjoy the chance to meet new people.


But despite the changes I want to make in Granada I don't regret the way I have spent my time here, I have still seen plenty of what Brussels has to offer, as well as making the most of being able to travel to other places by visiting Lille and Luxembourg and flying to Madrid to see Ellie.

As much as this appears to be a bit of a round up of my time in Brussels I am sure there will be another post right at the very end/once I'm back at home next week preparing for that next chapter!

Sometimes you just have to do what you want to do and not what you feel you should be doing.

This weekend I have ummed and ahhed and ummed some more about whether to use my days off from ISTI in October to be cultured and make the most of every opportunity open to me being out here or to go back to Lancaster and check my friends are all still there in one piece, haven't forgotten me and that I haven't just imagined them!  I spent a lot of time thinking that going back to Lancaster would be the cowards way out, and it's not a "Year Abroad" if you come home and speak English for a weekend.  I really wanted to do it but I was fighting with the part of myself that has to always do things the right way and do what they told us to do in year abroad week.

Well, why should I?  I've taken the chance to do what I want to do and not what I think is right.  Instead of potentially spending my days off thinking of what I'm missing out on in Lancaster I'll be there.  Yes it will be hard to see everyone, settled in and enjoying their final year of course it will.  But that's going to happen regardless of whether I'm there or not.  If it is going to make me feel better and give me something to look forward to then, so what? Plus I'm using the money I earnt on my first little YA adventure to Valencia to pay for a break from this one!

I can now forget about it for 5 weeks, enjoy Brussels, enjoy French, try and improve, try and learn something, see the sites and have a nice little break in store.

Here's to week 2 at ISTI, wish me luck!

"Do you have any friends in Brussels?"

Last night whilst watching Friends (yes, bad French student...watching TV in English) with my flat mate and her boyfriend she asks me a question (again in English, I'll get better, I promise...!)  Now all I really heard of what she said were the words do, you and friends so excuse me for presuming that she was asking me if I watch Friends.  So I proceeded to tell her that yes, indeed I do, and in fact I probably know all the words as I used to watch it after school all the time.  She looked so confused and I wondered why, until she said "my question was actually do you have any friends in Brussels!"...oh dear, doesn't bode well for my French if I can't even understand English!

This morning Mum, Dad and I went to the Atomium, after braving my first solo trip across town on the tram.  We spent the morning there (I'll steal some of the photos off of Mum at some point).  In the afternoon we went to see the Manekin Pis, Mum and Dad were dissappointed at the size, take that as you will... Afterwards I headed off to meet James and Jenny from Lancaster and a girl I met on the internet called Nikki, coming on Erasmus from another UK uni as well as her friend Vera from Portugal.  We even attempted French for a bit, even if just for 10 mins before digressing back into English!  Off to ISTI tomorrow so maybe we'll get going with things, at least I hope so.

Tonight holds another proper tea with Mum and Dad and some essential Waterloo Road viewing on the BBC (Which I won't be able to watch the rest of unless someone can tell me a cheeky way of watching it without iPlayer?) before heading back to my flat.

Night all :)

♫ It's the final countdown ♪

I'm going to have that song in my head for a long time now I'm sure but never mind.

In 2 days time I will be in London waiting for the Eurostar to take my parents and I to Brussels.  Luckily for my lack of housing situation my parents are coming out and staying in an apartment for a week so it at least gives me half a chance of finding somewhere and moving in without resorting to a hostel.  We've (and by we I mean mostly Mum whilst I've been in Stafford-Thank you Mummy!) been looking on all the websites we can find for rooms.  We've got one appointment booked up and have sent some more messages so hopefully another few should come out of it.  I'll spare you from the nightmare-ish stories I've heard about other people trying to find accomodation, but just put it this way, Brussels is not that easy for an Erasmus student only staying for 5 months- believe me!

I guess I better get started on the packing tonight, very unlike me to have done as little as I have so far but I just haven't been at home enough to do it- which I'm fully aware is my own fault, but worth it because I got to see Nicola, Katy, Henry and Luke before I leave which is nice.

I'm just looking forward to getting out there now, finding myself somewhere to live, meeting people and getting on with it!  The fact that I'm going to have to speak French at some point is in the back of my mind but it may come sooner rather than later as some of the adverts I've been replying to are just in French.  In fact I think my only confirmed appointment is French.... wish me luck!