Granada gets in the festival spirit.

This week is the main festival week here in Granada, it was the religious festival of Corpus Christi during the week and the people of Granada decided to take this day and build their whole festival week around it.  This means that there are things going on in town all week and there is a festival site set up on the edge of town.  I've not been over there but I imagine it is very much like the one I saw in Seville, lots of tents, people dancing, dressed in traditional clothing and I'm pretty sure there is also a fair ground.

On Wednesday I went and saw the first of two parades, this one was called La Tarasca and was all about this lady and her dragon:

It was aimed at kids so there were lots of people dressed up with big heads and there was even a pirate ship, although I'm not sure quite what purpose that served!

The main Corpus Christi parade was on Thursday, in typical Spanish style it started a fair bit later than it was meant to but that give me a chance to have a wander round and see what else was going on.  On Plaza Bib Rambla there were a collection of cartoon pictures that were generally all about Granada and things that had happened in the year.  My favourite one was a picture of a lady slipping over on the pavements down one of the main streets, we've said before that we'd hate to walk down them in the rain!

Eventually the parade got under-way, it started with parts of the parade from the previous day along with a group of women dressed in traditional flamenco clothing and playing castanets.  There was also a small group of men that were playing guitars and some horses.

These were then followed by what seemed like hundreds of people carrying candles.  I presume they were representatives from each of the churches as there were so many of them.  Eventually I got a little bored of this and decided to walk the route in reverse in the hopes of either finding the end of the parade or something else happening.  This was a good move as I came across groups of people in all sorts of different uniforms representing the military and the police etc followed by the main float at the end.

At the end there was also a band playing, I can't even begin to imagine playing in that heat, especially the guys that passed me that were playing tubas and baritone saxes, they're enough effort to play when walking without the 32 degree heat! 

Other than that I haven't been up to anything blog worthy recently, it's just been exams and revision.  Got a friend arriving tomorrow until Friday so I'll be doing the touristy things again, got our Alhambra tickets booked and I'm glad to go again because it seems I missed a part where you climb a tower and get a really good view of the city, how I missed that I'll never know!  Also got a trip to the beach planned, got to try and top up the tan (or get one....) before I leave in less than 2 weeks!

Year abroad choices, the ones I made and what I'd do differently. My summary of studying in Brussels and Granada.

Having come to the end of my classes once and for all here in Granada and so being just a matter of weeks from the end of my YA once and for allI think I am now in a good position to be able to write this blog about studying on the year abroad.  The study/work placement/language assistant debate is one that every languages student goes through when making their plans for the year abroad, and everyone has their own reasons for the decisions they make.  I personally didn't want to be a language assistant as I really wanted to split my year between the two countries without having to spend my summers away if I didn't want to.  Also, as a French intensive student my French tutor advised me that teaching would not be the best way to improve my French and strongly recommended that I studied.  I think she was right with her suggestion as the language assistants spend most of their time in school pretending they only speak English, meaning they have to find other ways of getting out and practising, which of course is fine for some people, but for those like me that as I said on a previous blog seem to have regressed into their shells somewhat this year it probably isn't ideal.  The other choice was to find a work placement, but I decided I didn't want to do this and was told repeatedly that placements in both countries would be very hard to come across anyway.  So the decision was made that I would study.

When it comes to French we had Brussels, Geneva, Lyon, Rennes, Poitiers or Montpellier, the first two are specialist translation schools which appealed to me and so I opted for Brussels.  Let's talk about that decision first, the main thing I'd not really considered when it came to Brussels was how international it is.  I'd considered the bilingualism with Dutch but did my research and found that French was the dominant language in the city anyway. What I guess hadn't occurred to me was that with the presence of so many international organisations everyone spoke English, it didn't matter if you spoke to them in French because 7 times out of 10 they'd reply to you in English, usually thinking they were being helpful not knowing they were being quite the opposite.  The other thing with ISTI was that because of the size of the school in comparison to the amount of Erasmus students they took on I found that I was in a lot of classes with just Erasmus students and it was very hard to integrate with the Belgian students and get any language practise.  I signed up for a tandem programme and met up once a week with a Belgian girl where we would speak for the first half in French and then in English, but in honesty this probably was no where near enough.

As far as Lancaster is concerned we don't have a huge amount of choice when it comes to where we can study for Spanish.  We can go to Mexico, Bilbao, Granada, Girona and Lleida.  So, that leaves you with the choice of going thousands of miles away, to two Catalan speaking Unis, to the Basque country where you may be faced with a second language as well or Granada.  I toyed with the idea of Bilbao but settled on Granada in the end.  My concern about Granada was that it is known as a really big party city because of the amount of Erasmus students and that isn't really my thing, but this hasn't really been a problem, I've found it's been easy enough just to do what I want instead.  Although there are lots of Erasmus students in Granada there is also a huge amount of Spanish students so I wasn't ever in classes with just foreign students.  You do however have a totally free choice of what you take and there isn't really any guidance on what is too hard for Erasmus students so I have found that two of the courses I've taken haven't really been suitable and I'm sure that is going to show in my exam results- it's a good job that they don't really matter!

Studying does have its pros and cons.  The good thing is that even if you're not speaking the language as much as you'd like you are hearing it, taking classes in it and writing in it all the time which has to be good practise.  It also keeps you busy, for me I need to keep doing things so I don't feel too homesick, so having a good amount of contact hours and work to do outside of that time kept me going and it wouldn't if I'd been teaching for instance.  The cons obviously are having to take exams, not really knowing what courses to take and the difficulty of integrating with native speakers.  It is also worth considering your unis rules on exams, as far as Lancaster is concerned we have to take them and the marks count towards our grade for the year, but we don't have to pass them, this works in two ways.  It is first and foremost a really good thing because there is no need to panic and stress about the exams, what happens, happens!  The problem with this is that my motivation to revise is pretty scarce so I find myself half heartedly revising and just wishing away the hours until they are over, possibly not the way I should be spending my final weeks here, but that's how it is!

Sometimes I do wish I'd worked, it would have given me a different experience for the year and I might have felt like I'd achieved more, but the issue with that for me is that I'd potentially be totally alone and unsure of how to meet people, especially other students because it is important to have that sort of "homely" contact from time to time.  I did however work for 6 weeks last summer in Valencia, I met all sorts of people and really enjoyed myself, but the work was boring because there just wasn't much of it so I spent a lot of time doing nothing.  That's the hard thing about picking what to do and where to go, unless you know someone that has done the exact same thing before it is all very much unknown.  I couldn't have spent the whole year, or even 6 months in that job, but it was good for the summer and to give me an experience of working in Spain.

So what am I concluding?  I'm not really sure if I'm honest with you.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it?  And maybe with it I'd have seriously looked into finding work placements that interested me and would be relevant to what I want to do in the future, but this time last year I didn't know that, and we had to make decisions in the November before we left!  For any future YA students reading this, it is important to remember that YA decisions are all about you, don't feel influenced by what other people are doing, and why they are making that decision, because they're not you!

A week with my family. Granada, Nerja and Gibraltar.

This week my parents and my Nana came out to visit me in Granada, the week covered my Mums birthday as well as my 21st so it was really good timing.  They stayed in a hotel right near to my flat which was really convenient as it only meant a 5 minute walk whenever we wanted to meet up.  They arrived in the evening on Sunday so we didn't do much, I just went back to their hotel and chilled for a bit. On Monday I had classes to go to in the morning, but after that we went to the Cartujan Monastary which was good as I'd not had a chance to go inside there yet.  Tuesday was my Mums birthday, and I had classes again, so whilst I was there they went back on the Sight-seeing bus as they'd enjoyed it the day before and then went to the Cathedral.  In the afternoon we had a bit of a wander and went out to dinner near the Alhambra to celebrate Mums birthday.  Annoyingly I started to feel ill on Tuesday night so made the decision to get a good nights sleep and not go to classes on Weds.  As it happened this was a good decision as my Nana dropped her purse in the taxi, long story short they were reunited but I had to make a phone call to the hotel and go and collect it.  I also managed to get some productive work done in the flat whilst they were at the Alhambra so it worked out ok in the end.  We didn't do too much on Weds afternoon because it was very hot, instead we got taxi back to the hotel, via a rather large detour.  A slight misunderstanding between the taxi driver and I meant that he began taking us to hotel Los Angeles not Los Aljibes, not at all close to each other...  In the evening we went for a wander round the shops in town and had dinner.  There was another student strike on Thursday and lots of lessons were cancelled, I presumed that meant my class was off too and so took the day off again.  We decided that as we had the whole day free we would go a little further and drive along the coast to Nerja, it was lovely weather and it was nice to get out of Granada.  At this point I believed that I would be spending my birthday the following day in Malaga but this was not to be!  The plan was to drive to a hotel in San Roque and then spend the day in Gibraltar where I have been wanting to go for ages but was pretty sure I wasn't going to have time to do.  It was a really good day.  So that we could fit it all in we did a taxi tour of the rock, meaning we got to go in the caves and the siege tunnels, see the apes and hear all about Gibraltar which we otherwise wouldn't have had time for.  After the tour we had a wander round and then walked back to Spain(!), where we had to cross the runway to get off of Gibraltar, very odd!  It was also very funny seeing M&S, Next and other British shops as well as telephone and post boxes.  On Saturday we travelled back to Granada via Puerto Banus and Nerja. Granada is boiling now so we went and bought a fan so that I don't melt when I'm in my room and I've looked up where to get the bus to uni, it actually means walking in the wrong direction but I think that walking up to the Uni in the midday heat would just be stupid so I don't really have the choice.  I only have 3 weeks left of classes now, and some finish in 2 weeks time and then I have my exams, so I don't have that many trips back up there anyway!  In fact I have 12 days of classes at the most plus 4 exams in the next 40 days before I go home!

All in all I have had a great time having them here, as always saying good bye is really hard, but  at least I know that the  next time I am with them will be in the airport in London and my year abroad will officially have ended.

The weekend we paid €18 for churros and chocolate!

This weekend I went on my last trip whilst I am here in Spain and spent a few days in Seville with Erin during the last weekend of the main festival there- Feria de Abril.  We stayed in a hostel right near the Cathedral which was really nice, comfortable rooms and nice staff which is always good!  After 3 and a bit hours on a bus I was finally in Seville and met up with Erin when she arrived from Barcelona.  Not really knowing where we were going but heading roughly in the direction of the cathedral we set off, typically we had gone the wrong way only to have to turn round and go back the way we had just came!  We did however eventually reach the hostel and drop off our bags in time for a wander round the city.  In the evening we went to a Flamenco show at the Flamenco Museum which was really good, and well worth the €14 euros we paid for it as there were 2 dancers, a guitarist and a singer, I wasn't sure what I was going to think of it but it was really enjoyable.  After that we, in true Spanish style, went and had paella for dinner in a bar close to the hostel.

On Saturday we woke up to the sound of the rain, brilliant timing for the rain to arrive in Seville the weekend we were there, but as there was nothing we could do about it we just got on with it.  First up we went to the Alcazar, it is an old palace and parts of it are actually still in use, if you paid a bit more you could get a guided tour of these parts, but we had so much we wanted to fit into our day we didn't really have time to do that.  At times it really reminded me of the Alhambra here in Granada, but it was significantly cheaper to get in (€8.50 normally but €2 as students!) After this we went to the Cathedral, with another brilliant student discount, down from €8 to €3!  We were very impressed to have paid to do 2 things for the same amount as the full price entry to just one!  Once we'd seen the Cathedral we headed to the Bull Ring and booked ourselves in on a guided tour and museum visit (of course, student rate applied again meaning that for the 3 things we visited that day we paid under €10 in entry fees- brilliant!) After all of this it was just coming up to 2.30 and we were pretty hungry so stopped for lunch.  The starter was artichokes and ham, which I think would've been really nice, if it hadn't been soaked in so much olive all that it actually tasted like eating a plate of olives (which I really don't like....)  bit the fish we had afterwards more than made up for it.

A trip to Seville this weekend would not have been complete without a visit to the site of the Feria.  We really didn't know what we were expecting when we headed over the river to the site, luckily by now the rain had stopped and the sun was doing its best to shine through, giving us great weather for a wander around.  The feria site is full of tents called casetas that the people of Seville and the surrounding areas hire out for private parties for their friends and family.  There are also some public tents but not very many.  The feria is the opportunity for the locals to show off quite how much money they have with the size and decoration of their tent but most importantly by the clothes they are wearing.  Most people are dressed in traditional Andalcian style, with the woman in full flamenco dresses and the men with the old suits and hats.  There are also loads and loads of horses at the feria, some pulling carriages and some being ridden, clearly being used as an opportunity for people to show themselves and their families off to everyone else that is there.  Once we'd finished wandering round we decided to stop for chocolate and churros (these were actually called bunuelos, their bigger and doughier, but it's the same concept).  We sat down, got served very promptly and then once we had the food in front of us the waiter said "€18 euros por favor" we had no choice but to pay it but we couldn't believe our ears!  €18 for a bit of dough, sugar and hot chocolate!!!!  We couldn't even finish them all, we made a valiant attempt, we really did, but we were beaten and couldn't eat any more.  Once we'd got over that shock we started to head back to the hostel, via a trusty chino shop to purchase some shoes for €4 euros which are the most comfortable things I have worn in my life as my feet were slowly dying from the blisters my usually very comfortable sandles were giving me.  In the evening we practically had to swim to go out for some food and a drink, it had been hailing previously and was pouring with rain - when you're both wearing canvas-y shoes this is not a good thing!  That said we did have a nice selection of tapas at a bar a little off of the beaten tourist route.  When we got back to the hostel we spent quite some time drying out the shoes with a hairdryer before eventually going to bed- after everything we'd fitted into the day we were exhausted!

This morning we had time to waste as we had to be out of the hostel but my bus wasn't until 2.30 so we decided to pop into an exhibition at a building called the Archivo General de Indias where there are lots of maps and other things from the discovery of the Americas.  Seeing as it was fairly early in the morning and we'd not had the best nights sleep we didn't really make the most of this exhibition and ended up skim reading and looking at the maps and pictures because it was very in depth that our brains just weren't ready for it quite yet!  Other than that we spent our time wandering around, in and out of little tourist shops, drinking coffee and eating lunch before it was time to head off again!  We did happen to come across a little street market that was selling lots of old coins, stamps and other things including old postcards, they were all written and had been sent to people at one time or another, some of them were really interesting as they had Viva Franco! and Viva Espana! Stamped across them.  We could've looked through them for ages.


Now I'm back in Granada I am very glad that this is a puente weekend, because Tuesday is the 1st of May and therefore a festival day across Spain we also get Monday off as well because, lets face it, what is the point in going into work just for one day? Got to love Spain for that!  Hopefully I'll get some work done over the next couple of days, I certainly will if the weather stays as rubbish as it currently is because I won't want to be stepping outside!


This time next week my Mum, Dad and Nana should've landed in Malaga and be arriving in Granada!  I can't wait to see them, they are staying for a week over my Mums birthday and mine too.  I have classes on 4 of the days but only in the mornings so I should be able to spend plenty of time with them.  The scary thing is quite how fast the time has flown, once they leave I have just 2 weeks left of classes, including a visit from a friend from Lancaster and then 4 weeks of exams before it is all over a done with!

I'm settled in, now what?

As you may well know from my previous blog posts I've been here for 5 and a half weeks now and haven't really been up to much.  Don't worry, it's not like I've been locked in my room for all this time or anything, I have been out and about but I've not had any big plans or gone any further than the beach.  That's been good for the settling in period but this week I've been hit with the feeling that I really need to do something, because if I don't I start realising how I miss everything and everyone at home and it's far too early to be doing that.  Some of you probably read Lucys blog too and will have seen in her most recent post that she talks of the "post-settling-in and pre-holiday slump" and I think she has hit the nail on the head.  We've gone through our first month or so discovering everything that is around us, got into our routine and now need something to break it up a bit.  For me I think the realisation came over me when I got up at 7 on Monday to head up for my classes and was no longer so willing to do it and just wanted someone else to go for me.  I had this in Brussels too, it was the point at which everything became boring/normal, and I had a few weeks until the next exciting thing I had planned, I think it was going back to Lancaster for the weekend.  This time around the timing couldn't be better, Erin arrives tomorrow and we're going to go and enjoy the apparently brilliant views up in the Sierra Nevada as well as going to the Alhambra which I've still not done yet.  After that I'll just have a few days to wait until I go on holiday and get to see Katy, Charlotte and Vicki for the first time since January.  As if I didn't already have enough to look forward to whilst I am out here I have now planned to spend the final week of the summer term in Lancaster so that I can go to Grad ball, extrav etc, meet a few people that I need to see and also collect my keys to the house for next year, but most importantly catch up with the people that by then I won't have seen in months.  It does mean however that I will be spending around 1 day at home between flying back from here and driving up there, and in that time I'll need to buy a dress for Grad Ball... should be interesting!

Ah, got to love a good puente.

Last week finished off without to much excitement really, I've now settled on History of Women, Spanish Dialectology, Linguistics of Teaching Foreign Languages and Introduction to Latin, so long as I can register for them all this week then that's me set for the year.  I'm finding them all interesting and actually enjoying what I am learning which is more than I can say for the courses I did in Brussels.  That's the advantage of being here, I've got so much choice!

This week I have also written an article for Third Year Abroad about Granada which is intended to help people that want to come here next year, I did one about Brussels too and they can be found here.

For those of you that don't know what a puente is it's basically an excuse for the Spanish to take another day off of work/class etc!  Puente literally means bridge, and that is because if a holiday falls on a Tuesday they generally choose to take Monday off too.  Today is Andalucia day, not that you'd know it, in a very un-Spanish style nothing has actually happened to mark the day other than everything being closed.

What have I done with this lovely 5 day weekend then?  I have to be honest and tell you I've not actually done all that much!  On Friday after having spent the morning inside I went for a wander with Jack, we didn't go anywhere in particular but we did stop for a drink and end up with one of the stranger tapas dishes I've had, literally a fish.  I have no objections to fish at all, in fact I really like sea food so the fact that my food was looking at me didn't really bother me, I just can't help but think it was a bit of a strange tapas dish though!

On Saturday I went out with Aimee, Michael and Jack for another walk, this time up into the hills of the Albyzin where Aimee lives to appreciate the great views as well as while away a couple of hours at a bar where we once again were provided with whole fish for tapas, maybe it's not as unusual as I'd thought it was.

Sunday was a nothing day, I went through my notes from all my classes this week to try and get some sort of understanding of what I had supposedly learnt!  I think it helped... I hope it did because one of my classes is split into 4 parts which means I actually have a test next week that counts towards my end result for that course, bit scary this early on!

Monday was, to be honest, a fail of epic proportions... we had decided to make the most of the weekend and do something worthwhile and thought we should head up into the Sierra Nevada to appreciate the views.  This would've been a great idea, if we had booked our bus tickets.  Unfortunately we turned up at 9.30am just to find there was only one seat left on the bus, and for 6 of us that wasn't going to work.  We decided to make the most of actually being up and getting there by having a coffee in the bus station cafe, how exciting are we?!  After going back to the flat and realising nothing productive was going to get done I went to the shop to stock up on food etc and then went out for a wander again.  We went up to the monastry near the uni as well as up a hill that seemed to head to no where (it didn't, we just turned around and went back down) and then a lap around part of the city.  Tapas called yet again, but this time it was bread and meat followed by fried squid.

Which leaves me with today, and if I'm honest I'm not really sure what on earth I have spent my day doing!  I've read through my French essay for Lancaster and marked on the corrections I want to make but that can't have taken me all this time surely?!

Well, it's a hard life for an Erasmus student so tomorrow I have to head back to classes again, but don't feel too sorry for me now will you, I may have 6 straight hours of classes tomorrow from 8.30am but I only have 1 class on Thursday and then I'm done for the weekend again!  Maybe next weekend I'll actually get some of my dissertation done like I'd intended to do today...?

Lots of walking, lovely tapas and a new French flatmate.

After arriving on Monday and getting moved into my flat nice and quickly I have spent the last few days getting to know Granada as well as shopping for bits and pieces and making my room feel more homely.  Mum and I have done loads of walking and I reckon I've pretty much got to grips with where things are, I've put up a map of Granada on my wall in the hopes that I'll some how just magically absorb it and instantly know where I am, if only things worked like that, a bit like the theory of sleeping with a dictionary under the pillow, although I must say I have been tempted to try it!

Mum left yesterday after we'd spent our last day doing yet more walking (we decided to go up the hill to the Uni, no need for a gym membership with that walk every day, usually more than once...) as well as having a nice meal up by the Alhambra.  Saying goodbye was hard as it always is but I know she'll be back out again in less than 3 months and I have plenty of other things to look forward to before then.

Today I had a meeting at the Uni in the morning, it wasn't particularly exciting so I won't bore you with any details.  Later in the afternoon I met with Jack, Aimee and Michael for a wander around the city.  This short wander turned into a rather long walk when we decided to head up to Albyzin to some tapas bars.  We never did find them, to cut a long story short we walked up hill a long way and then back down again but it was through a very pretty part of the city so I'm not complaining.  When we got back to the bottom we had a drink, tapas and some more food in a street literally off of one of the main streets we'd started on!  We may not have achieved quite what we'd intended but it was a nice walk and a good way of using up a few hours whilst we can, this time next week we will have started classes.  We've decided that we'll try again next week and head up for a wander round where near Amiee lives as apparently there are some really good views, which there should be considering the climb to get there!

When I got back tonight I discovered that I have a new flat mate, and she is French.  I think I have already spoken more French with her than I did with my flat mate in Brussels the whole time I was there!  She doesn't speak much Spanish or English so this is the best way for us to communicate, good for me as I really need the practise, I shall make the most of it before she realises she is in Spain and so should really have a go at Spanish a bit more!

Tomorrow brings another wander in town and then we are going out for tapas in the evening so we can say we have been nice and cultural.  Maybe on Sunday I'll get around to looking at my translation for my dissertation?

¡Me encanta Granada!

I know I said it would probably be a few days before my next blog post but sitting here watching the Simpsons dubbed in Spanish (I'm sure I'll never get used to it along with Friends, Two and a Half Men and Sex and the City) with my Spanish flat mate I thought it was maybe time to update you all about how I'm getting on!

I left home yesterday at 3.45am so as you can imagine it was an early start!  All went well, the snow stayed away and we got to the airport without an issue, the bags weren't overweight and there were no delays to the flight, in fact the winds were so favourable that we we 30 minutes early.  When we arrived in Malaga we were early for the bus so went and had a coffee and bought our expensive lunch, but what else do you expect from the only bar/cafe at the arrivals of a busy airport?  The bus ride to Granada is 2.5 hours because it makes a stop at a few little towns on the way there, it was a pretty journey- at least for the portion of it I managed to keep my eyes open for!  I managed my first conversation on the phone in Spanish when we arrived and arranged with my landlady-to-be that we would meet her at the flat when she was ready, this involved more waiting around than intended but luckily it was warm outside so it wasn't really a problem.  By the time I'd got unpacked and sorted everything out there wasn't really much time to do anything else so we headed over to Mums hotel to drop off her stuff and then out to find some food.  As it was a long day I had an early night, at least I'd intended to but by the time I'd actually got in bed I'm not sure it was that early after all.  The nights here are really cold in the flat so layering up is 100% necessary, hopefully now as we're heading out of the winter and into the Spring the weather is going to improve.

Today was my first full day here and what better way to start than by getting up at 6.20, meeting Jack and Aimee and heading off to our first "event" (just a welcome meeting) at the Uni!  It is quite convenient for me with Jack living in the flat literally below mine as it meant I didn't have to struggle with finding the building today as we could go together.  The meeting wasn't exactly life changing but it was nice to actually go to something to do with the Uni and I even got to meet someone that knows a friend of mine from home that goes to her uni, it really is a small world after all!

After the meeting and a trip to Mercadona I met up with Mum and we spent the day food shopping and getting various other bits and pieces that I need to make my room feel a little more like home.  I'm holding off putting up all my photos and things yet though because I might be moving rooms when one becomes available in a week or so and if I put up my photos there is no way I will bother going anywhere, even if it is a better room!

Tonight Mum and I had a great meal in a restaurant near her hotel, basically it was a huge plate of grilled vegetables and then a bowl of really strong garlic prawns but it was a lot nicer than I am making it sound.  It was all washed down rather nicely with a jug of Sangria between us too.  We even had a dessert that we really didn't need, and I'm not even sure I particularly wanted it, we made a good team though because it was crepes with chocolate sauce, bananas and cream- I ate the banana and Mum dealt with the crepes.

I'm really pleased with how my Spanish is going so far, and it really proves to me how much better my Spanish is when compared with my French, unfortunately for me in Brussels I really didn't have ample opportunity to speak French and in fact here I have probably already spoken more Spanish in less than 48 hours than I did in a week, or possibly a month in Brussels!

That's all for now, the next couple of days I'll spend exploring with Mum before I head off to the Uni again on Friday and classes start on Monday.  There will be another blog from me again soon I'm sure.  Adios!

Adios Inglaterra, hasta el fin de Junio!

Here we are again, the night before I leave.  It's been great to be home for a few weeks but the only problem is now that I've got used to being here I'm off again.  Tomorrow morning at silly o'clock my grandparents will be here to take Mum and I to Stansted for our flight to Malaga.  We have spent the majority of today packing and unpacking and weighing and measuring... we got there in the end, partly thanks to Easy Jet and the fact they let you have an unlimited weight hand baggage as long as it is the right size to fit in the over head locker.  Result= My hand luggage weighs a tonne but I've got everything I want with me.  When it comes to getting it all back in June things aren't quite so certain, but I'll just have to cross that bridge when it comes to it in 4.5 months time I guess!

I guess I won't be writing for a few more days now, tomorrow will be spent travelling and getting myself moved into my room and working out what I need to go and buy from the shops as well as stocking up on food and going to a couple of meetings at the uni.  Getting the last minute worries about it now, but I know that once I've got there and into my room, met the girls I'm living with, been to the uni for the first time and my Mum has gone home I'll get settled into it just like I did in Brussels.  As I keep repeating this should be an easier term as it is my stronger language.  No matter what I tell myself though, I know the first week or two is going to be hard, it always is, but this time I know I've done it all before and it'll be fine.

This is the last time that I'll be doing this, once I come back from Spain I'll be working for the summer and then off to Lancaster for final year, and leaving to go there is a hell of a lot easier than this.  I'm already looking forward to living off campus next year, I think the changes and independence living abroad gives you it would be hard to go back to living in the bubble that is the Bailrigg campus!

So this is it I guess, Spain- here I come!

A series of unfortunate events. Cancelled trains, flat car batteries and Danbury Hill...

Let me say, first of all, that despite everything I am about to tell you we had a really good weekend, just a few hiccups along the way shall we say?

Bad thing number 1: On Friday afternoon I get a phone call from Katy My train has been cancelled...luckily this was followed by an explanation of her plans for alternative trains via here there and everywhere it seemed, but she arrived with us, all be it about an hour and a half later than she should've done.

Satuday afternoon after lunch we headed off to London, we went in the car so that we could leave any bags from our retail therapy at Westfield Stratford in the car whilst we were at the 02 Arena seeing Olly Murs.  Good idea you'd think?  I bet you think you know what is coming next don't you?  I bet it's not what you think, well...not immediately anyway!  We headed back to the car before the show to drop off the one bag we had managed to acquire (disappointing shopping trip!) and [Bad thing number 2 coming up...]the boot wouldn't open.  This wouldn't have been too much of a worry at that moment in time if we could've got into the rest of the car, but the remote was having no effect at all.  After my genius suggestion of trying to get into the car the old fashioned way and actually using the key we were in, but now came the task of working out what was going on, was it just the remote? One quick glance at the dash and it's flashing lights told us that wasn't the case, it looked like the alarm had been going off. I hopped out of the car to take a look to see if there was any damage to the car, but there was nothing.  Meanwhile Mum had attempted to start up the car and all that did set off the alarm again, and you could only stop it by keeping your foot on the brake...Brilliant!  Time to call the AA out now then?  Whilst Mum was on the phone to the AA the realisation hit her of what had happened, she'd left the headlights on for the last 3 hours and the battery had run flat...(On hearing this news my Dads first reaction was didn't you hear the beeping?...) We were very lucky though, after first being told that the AA were very busy in the area and it could take up to two hours the man arrived with us within 20 minutes, telling us that the roads were dead and there was nothing going on- interesting!  So after sitting in the car running it for a while we headed back into the 02.

We had a great time, Olly even came right out into the audience and walked right past the row in front of where we were sitting (I have a video but it's really not worth posting it!).  At about 10.30 we headed out of the arena into a good few inches of snow... fantastic. Bad thing number 3, not too helpful when you've come in the car I'm sure you'd agree.  Thankfully when we got back to the car it unlocked and started up fine so there was no issue there.  The thing is the M11, M25 and A12 didn't appear to have seen any grit, despite the overhead signs that were telling us other wise "Salt Spreading" they said, but bearing in mind the road was totally covered I really fail to see how we were meant to believe that one!  There were cars slipping and sliding everywhere, and as usual the idiots who over take you thinking they can do better and then are inevitably the ones that cause you problems up ahead.  The real issue comes when you want to get back to Maldon, given the choice between the back roads or going through Danbury you're not really left with a suitable option!  In hindsight we'd have gone for the back roads though I think!  After already having been stuck and pushed once near the start of the hill we had to slow down after the car in front got stuck, predictably leaving us stuck too.  We struggled for quite some time, but we eventually saved by a lovely couple that live in one of the houses on the hill.  They had been going out for the past 2 hours helping people and we were just one of the cars they'd helped on their way that night.  With 4 of us pushing the car we eventually made it to the top and were on the way home once more.  It wasn't until we were turning into our own road that we got stuck again, but we dug ourselves out with the shovel Dad had sent us off with earlier on and got Dad to come and give us a hand and we eventually made it home.  From all the news reports we were the lucky ones, there were people stuck on the M25 for 6 or 7 hours that night, and people stuck in the 02 overnight because the underground had ground to a halt.  The extra hats, gloves, scarves and socks I'd taken with us don't seem so silly now, we may have needed them!

On Sunday Katy headed to Witham with her brother, she was meant to be seeing all of her family, but the roads were just too bad for them to be able to head down from Norfolk.  Once she'd gone we had a lovely walk down to the Prom in the snow and I think now our series of unfortunate events is over.  They do say things come in threes don't they?

Scarily enough this time next week I'll be in Granada!  Mum is coming with me for the first few days whilst I get settled in, but by Thursday I'll be on my own again and truly starting the second half of my year abroad.  I'll be out there until the end of June, and unlike when I was in Brussels and could easily hop on the plane or the Eurostar I don't plan to come home, it would take too long for it to be worth it bearing in mind I'd have to leave on a Friday and be back for classes on Monday morning.  I've already got plenty of weekend plans though so the time should fly, I've hopefully got a friend coming out to visit in March, and then I'm planning on going to Gibraltar, after that I've got a holiday booked in Majorca with some of the girls from Uni, following that 2 trips to Cordoba and Seville before my parents and my Nana come out for the week that covers my Mums birthday and my 21st!  After that it's just something like 6 weeks to go and I know at least 1 or 2 more people that want to visit Granada as well as having exams to do.  I've not even gone anywhere yet and I have planned out most of my time right up until the end!

Sorry for the long post and that some of it may have bored you to death!  But to be honest...lets think about what sparked you to read this in the first place?  Is it your boundless interest for what I'm up to or just mindless procrastination any way?!

♫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 ♫

Am I really half way through my year abroad?!

So that's it, the first half of my year abroad is over, I'm done in Belgium, I've finished studying at ISTI and I won't be going back, it's scary to think how quickly the last 4 months or so have gone!  Our journey out of Brussels wasn't without trauma as the Sat Nav decided that it just didn't want to work!  So we started off somewhat following our noses before remembering that I had a couple of Brussels maps in one of my bags.  We eventually got out of the city and from there it is very straight forward all the way to Calais.  Today was spent unpacking everything, not a quick task I must say!  I'm back in England now until the 13th of February when I head off to Granada until the end of June.  I think my time at home is going to fly by seeing as this weekend I'm off to Lancaster from Friday to Monday, the following weekend Katy is down from Lancaster and we're off to see Olly Murs in London and the final weekend we have a party of a family friend to go to up t' north.  I've set myself the target of conquering DELC 310 in the time I'm home, it's do-able seeing as I've done a lot of the preparation for it, but it just seems so far away.

As ever we spend one stage of our lives thinking of the next, and although I'm off to Granada after this- and really looking forward to it too- I'm spending my time umming and ahhing about what on earth I'm going to do in the summer!  It's all about weighing up the value of experience vs earning money, going away vs staying at home.  It's all a bit of a nightmare, but I'll let you know when I've got more of a clue what is going on!

Did the last 4 months even happen?

I realise it's been quite a while since my last post, but seeing as I've been at home there hasn't been anything year abroad related to write about.  I had a lovely Christmas and then for New Years Eve 4 of my friends from Uni came down and we went into London to see the fireworks which was nice.  Since then I've been quite unfortunately revising for the exams I have to take when I go back to Brussels, and my return to Brussels is what I want to write about today...

The idea that I'm going back currently seems very odd to me, I think the problem is that this is the longest amount of time I've been away from Belgium for, yes I've been away for 3 or 4 days travelling or visiting Lancaster but never for more than that, now I've been here for 2 weeks and I'm not leaving until Monday.  I think I've got used to being here, it's not that I don't want to go, it's just that the whole idea feels very odd!  I think my mind has decided that I've moved out of the flat in Ixelles and won't be returning to ISTI again, especially not to take exams, and that the next move for me is to Granada.  In fact, to be totally honest, coming back here has just totally wiped my memory, the last 4 months seem so distant that it's hard to realise I've not just imagined the entire thing!  I think it's just because the time is passing so quickly, and it is only now that I am beginning to wish it would slow down a little!  When I go back to Brussels I will be there for just 12 days before my parents come out in the car to take me and all my stuff home, at that point I really won't be going back...! (Well not as part of my YA anyway, I'm not psychic, who knows about the future?)

Being home has given me a chance to have a good think about the last few months, what I wish I'd done differently etc, but I'll tell you all about that later, I'll write a Bye-Bye Brussels blog or something and bore you all with it then.

Whilst I've been home I've started up on the 365 (although this year 366) project, which means taking and uploading a photo every day for a year.  I have no idea if it will last but I didn't think that I'd manage to keep up this blog and well- so far so good eh?!

Here is the link to the project-
Facebook
365

The 40th Post

I feel that reaching my 40th post should be some sort of momentous occasion, but quite frankly there isn't a whole lot to write!

I know those of you that are not equally counting down until "home time" will be quite bored of this but -

I'M GOING HOME IN 2 WEEKS FROM TODAY!

Ok, it's out of my system now...

Tuesday was Saint Nicholas Day and as he is the saint for children here in Belgium we were paid a visit by him and his little helpers in one of our classes giving us fruit and sweeties, slightly random but another "cultural experience" I guess?!  Talking of cultural things, I understand it's nice to say bon appetite to someone when they start a meal, and my flat mate always says it when she sees me eating, by the other day I was walking down the street taking the very final bite of my croissant when a random passer by wished me bon appetite, I was a little bit confused... maybe I'm the only one that finds that slightly odd?

A box of M&S, yes, you heard it, M&S Mince Pies has turned up in my kitchen, I want to know where my flat mate got them from! Ahhh it's the simple things you miss...!

This weekend Jenny and I are off on our very last weekend away, this time to Lille to see the Christmas markets and just to generally be able to say we went to France for the weekend.  Once we get back I'll have been to Luxembourg, Spain and France as well as having seen various places in Belgium and having popped back to England for the weekend.  I some how don't reckon I'll be travelling as much from Granada but I am hoping to see as much of Spain as I can.

Oh and this is about as productive as my lecture got today:

So hungry I could eat a horse...

I realise that what I have done is something that a lot of people I know will quite possibly never forgive me for, but I decided that not to do it would just be hypocritical really, I'm happy to eat Beef, Pork and maybe this is because we've helpfully given it another name so we don't say I'm eating Cow or Pig but it's just the same difference.  This said I decided to try horse last night.  I was attempting to be adventurous and cultural, or at least this is what I'm telling myself.  The funny thing is that I stood outside looking at the menu and saying "oh horse, no, I couldn't do that" and this gradually evolved into "but I am curious..." and then "I wonder what it tastes like" and finally "well, maybe I'll just try it then".  I'll be honest, it tasted like beef.  There was a hint of something I couldn't quite put my finger on but that could've just been the sauce.  That's enough about my horse eating experience, the reason we'd gone out was to see what was going on on the Grand Place, during the Christmas markets they have light shows and music and things and then on Saturdays they put on these extra shows.  Last night was essentially 2 people in a bubble (Snow globe) dancing whilst some rather freaky looking other people crept around the outside in a manner that I can only say reminded me of something like the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  Stupidly my camera ran out of battery, which is fine, I'll just pop back another time, but it did allow me to take this photo:

Inititally I was very confused as to why it was necessary to fence in the nativity scene, surely they're not worried that someone is going to kidnap the baby Jesus or something?  But then Jenny pointed out, and I'm not sure how clearly you can see it in this photo, there are real sheep in there, real live sheep.  But I'd like to wish good luck to the shepards as the sheep seem to be about double their size...

It does seem out here that they go all out on Christmas, I suppose my foundation for comparison is Maldon (the lights were switched on last night and I hear it was all of about 2 lightbulbs) (and I hope she doesn't mind, but if you want to read more about the Maldon Christmas lights read it here on Julias blog) but they seem to really go all out for it, can't help but wonder what it could be costing them though!

On an unrelated topic I've decided that the world really must be a lot smaller than we think, I've been looking at flats in  Granada and the landlord for the latest one suggested I might want to contact the people currently living there, so a quick search on Facebook and I'm there.  Well it turns out that there is a guy leaving when I get there, not only is he also from Essex but he goes to uni in Portsmouth with one of my friends from school.  In the summer I met someone in Valencia and we had a mutual friend that she went to college with and I met at Lancaster.  I'm getting used to having random mutual friends with people but I can't help but find it very weird and just makes the world feel like a very small place!

Well this  has been a brillant form of procrastination from the essay that I'm meant to be putting the finishing touches to, the presentation I'm meant to be learning and I'm sure there is more I could be doing.  So that'll be all for now!

The surprise test, the essay extension and the holiday to Mallorca

Great news when the first thing the teacher does when they enter the room is say the word "Test", especially when they have a grin right across their face when they say it!  English to French translation about the King James bible... so that was fun.  Not holding out a huge amount of hope for that one!  He did take pity on us English students towards the end and gave us dictionaries though.

After this would normally be the culture lecture but as I've done the essay I decided it was pointless to go, I later find out that he told them today that the deadline is now extended to January, when I've already finished it, just typical really.  I've got one more to write that I've not been given a deadline for yet, no doubt once I've written it he'll say January too...

The best part of today is that I've booked my flights for my easter holiday break to Mallorca with Katy, Charlotte and Vicki,  I just get a week off from Granada at easter so it will be a nice way to spend it.

Home in 3 weeks and 3 days, which I'm really looking forward to, and bearing in mind how fast time has been going lately it will be upon me so quick.  In terms of weekends I have this one to do work, the next in Lille and the following Henry is here, the weekend after that is Christmas!  Sorry, I know I've said the C word and it's not even December yet but it's just so close.

Apologies for the rather boring post, not 100% sure why I even bothered to write it...

Brussels- European capital of repetitive radio!

Come back Heart Essex, all is forgiven, I have found worse radio.  I listen to Radio Contact here in Belgium but seriously, I hear the same songs everyday. 3 or 4 times.  Add to this the fact that there is a hell of a lot of British 90s music (Fine at Sugar on a Friday but everyday?!) and Heart radio actually becomes quite appealing.  I stick to it for the French practise but if anyone can reccomend something better please do.  Having said this whilst writing I am being treated to a song I've never heard before!

This week there has been a real lack of anything interesting going on really as far as ISTI is concerned.  Getting into the swing of classes and even starting to get given work to do which for now is actually a bit of a novelty but no doubt it will wear off soon enough.  In the end I've taken 29 credits which is just 11 hours of classes and means that esentially I can afford to fail a few credits (namely the Law module and the English to French translation as they're the only non Erasmus modules I'm doing) because Lancaster just take our best 22.5 credits per semester.

It would be nice just to have a straight forward week or 2 without getting stressed about other things but the other day my mind turned to semester 2 and my plans to go to Granada, possibly the Uni in Spain with the most Erasmus students and the biggest "party" atmosphere.  Doesn't sound exactly perfect for me does it?  Why this has only just occured to me I'm unsure but I am now seriously considering starting a fan club for one of my Spanish tutors who even offered to Skype me to talk about it.  I'm hoping to switch to Girona where I think I'd be more comforatable, I know someone already there and someone who would be starting at the same time and I'd get to improve my Catalan at the same time, bonus.  (Another added bonus is that I would most likely be back in England in time to say good-bye to people at Grad Ball which would be quite nice but that really would just be an extra).  Nothing is at all confirmed about this at the moment but hopefully I'll hear back soon and know one way or the other.  I have nothing against Granada, it's a lovely place and I'm sure I'll have a great time if I do go there, I just think I would be more comfortable in Girona, despite meaning that I'll more than likely have to fly out straight from Brussels with my Mum bringing a case of "Spain clothes" to swap with me- not ideal!

I'll keep you updated with it all!

Got an exciting trip tomorrow down a mine and then around Liege, not got any exciting plans for the weekend other than discovering a shopping centre and town and hunting down a cheap but small case for my trip back to Lancaster.  Wish me luck and I'll blog again soon!