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!

My last free weekend before things get exciting!

Here I am at the end of my fifth week living here and I just cannot believe that time has flown by so quickly when I've not even been doing much, part of me is looking forward to how fast the next month or two are going to fly by with all the plans I have, but the other part of me dreads to think how quickly the end of May is going to roll around when all I'll have left to look forward to are my exams- and of course going home.

Today has actually been a really productive day, I got another 800 words of the translation for my dissertation under my belt so I'm really pleased with what I've done today.  I think part of what has kept me going so well for the day was listening to Campus Festival 2012 at Uni on Bailrigg FM (The Lancaster Uni student radio).  For those of you that are nothing to do with Lancaster uni, Campus Festival is an annual event that was started a few years ago and is getting bigger and better each year it seems.  All of the clubs and societies are given the chance to perform, run a stall or give demonstrations of what they do.  There is a really big stage which sees performances from all the main ULMS groups as well as a whole host of others like the dance society and the ballroom dance society, the Gospel Choir and the Glee Club.  Later in the evening there are loads of bands and then it all ends in the orchestra playing to fireworks.  Obviously this year I can't be there, but I've had the chance to listen to it online which I'm so pleased about.  As I write the last act of the afternoon/evening session has finished (It was LUGleeC and as I'm totally and utterly not biased of course.... I'd like to say they were brilliant!) and the evening session is getting under way.

I have been having a think today and have decided that going on a year abroad is harder to do the more involved in university life you are.  If you're the sort of person that doesn't really do much then you probably don't feel like you're missing out terribly.  If, however, you're the sort of person that likes to do everything, take every opportunity and really be a part of what is going on it can be particularly hard at times!  Take today for instance, I've listened to a band that I usually play with performing which has made me realise how much I really miss playing my sax and hearing a group that I helped to set up singing the best I've heard them.  Last week were the students' union elections too which I'm interested in and as much as it's great to have been able to watch/listen/read about everything that is going on it's just not the same as being there!  That said of course I am living in Spain and getting to see and do other things, it's not that I don't appreciate that, of course I do, it just makes me realise quite how much I appreciate Lancaster and everything I spend my time doing there.

I've been running thin on the ground for things to write about recently.  I've started really enjoying writing and would quite like to do it a bit more if only I had topics to write about!  I know there are a few people reading this blog now that are going on a year abroad next year so maybe if you, or anyone else for that matter, have any suggestions of something I could write about please let me know.  It feels really odd to be writing something and expecting a response, usually these are just my ramblings to myself but I have become somewhat aware that there are actually people out there reading this so why not?

The shortest working week ever.

This week I only had classes on Wednesday and Thursday because of the long weekend and the fact that I don't have classes on a Friday anyway.  Not really sure where the weekend went to as it is now Sunday night again!  I'm getting in the swing of things with my classes now, and am pretty ok with them all.  Latin is pretty hard, well it would be hard learning the basics of another language whilst being taught in your second language wouldn't it?!  I'm having to come home and look it all up again in English and then transfer that back into Spanish... it's ok, just going to take a bit more work than the average course for an Erasmus student I guess!  I've also got an exam this Wednesday for my history of women course, because the teaching is split into 4 parts with 4 different teachers we've got different assessment styles for each, of the 2.5 points available for this part I can get 1 point for just turning up to 4 classes and writing any old answer to a question he gives us at the end of class which is really handy!  I hope the next 3 teachers are just as helpful on that front and I'll be fine to just about scrape myself a pass even if the exams go badly.

Friday evening I went out with Jade, Abbie, Jack, Mike and Aimee to a tapas bar where had it been daylight we would've been able to see the Alhambra outside I think.  I paid 10.50 for everything I ate or drank all evening, and I had enough tapas to constitute a meal so that was plenty, plus we were drinking sangria, not fulfilling enough Spanish stereotypes here am I?  Shall I go to a flamenco show tomorrow and then to a bull fight just to top it off?!

As for today and yesterday I've not really done much, I've been over all my notes from my classes and got a substantial bit of work done on my dissertation so I'm happy.  I'm hoping to know by this time tomorrow the results of the Languages Society elections in Lancaster so I can stop boring you all with stuff about that, in case you've missed it I'm running for President, so wish me luck!  For now I'm listening to a live stream of the ULMS Wind Band and Choir concert from the Great Hall in  Lancaster, it's great how LA1 TV are doing this, I know a few more people on their year abroad streaming it tonight, it's great, can't wait to be back there in October playing with them all again myself though, my poor saxes are very neglected these days....

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...?

I have a feeling Granada is going to be hard work...

So over the last 2 days I've been to the first lesson of all my courses, the way the Granada timetable works it means that Monday and Wednesday are the same and Tuesday and Thursday are the same.  I'm taking History of Women, Universal History of the Modern World, Introduction to Latin and a course on Spanish Dialect.  They all look like they are going to be pretty hard work and unlike in Brussels where I was in classes for just Erasmus students, except for my Law class, I am in classes with Spanish students studying for their degree in the subject, so it's harder to understand and certainly of a higher level.  I don't have to do well for Lancaster but I'd like to do OK so I think some effort is going to be required.  Mental effort isn't the only sort kind of effort I'm having to put in though, exercise features fairly high on the list.  Yes, I am living only 10-15 minutes away from the University, but the problem is the walk is entirely uphill, we're not talking a small hill either by any means.  Walking this at 8.30 in the morning twice a week is certainly not a pleasure, especially as on 2 days I have to descend said hill and re-mount (is that a word...?) it about an hour later.  Currently my legs are screaming out at me to stop, but seeing as I really don't have another option I am going to have to "man up" and get used to it, pronto!  At least I only have a 4 day week, so Fridays will be spent with the intention of moving as little as possible!

Next Tuesday is Andalucia Day, I'm not sure if anything special happens around here, other than everything grinding to a halt I presume, but what I do know is that the Spanish love their puentes (which means bridges) meaning that no only do we get Tuesday off but to bridge the gap between the weekend and the festival we get Monday off too!  I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with a 5 day weekend though, it's not as great as it seems, at home I'd happily do nothing for a few days but here I get easily bored and that just makes me miss home even more.  Shall have to try and make some plans for the time I guess!

I know I shouldn't wish away time, but now she has booked her flights I am really looking forward to Erin visiting in March, it's the first of the list of things that I'm up to and it gives me something to look forward to.  Especially as 3 or 4 of my best friends in Lancaster are celebrating 21st birthdays in March so I know I'll be missing out on all of that.  Everything I've planned basically happens in the middle of my time here, I've got nothing for the first month-ish and nothing in the last 6 weeks other than my exams.  Anyone fancy a holiday in Granada in March or May/June?!

In some ways it is fairly depressing and in others quite exciting that I'm already having to think about next year.  The depressing one is that I've started my translation for my dissertation, in the hopes that it'll give me a good start when I get back in September.  The exciting one is that I'm running for President of the Languages society at Uni, I've had to send a video of my speech though, I'm not going back to England for that funnily enough!  I'll let you know how that goes when I know, I think it's a good few weeks away yet though.

I think I've probably bored you with enough of my updates now, time to go and cook something at least vaguely edible for tea and probably have a shower to avoid getting up at 6.30 tomorrow morning! 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!

♫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!

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!

All set up for the 2nd half of my Belgian adventure.

As you'll probably know I spent my weekend in Lancaster and I had a great time.  Lets get the bad bits out of the way with first:

1. My Brussels-Manchester flight was delayed by 3 hours meaning I had to cancel my hairdressers appointment and waste 4 hours in the airport.
2. I had to literally run from terminal 3 arrivals to the station in order to make my train.
3. My Manchester-Brussels plane was showing all signs of being on time until we reached the gate and to put it technically "there is a bit of a tear in the wing, they're going to patch it up and it should be fine".  Long story short we switched planes (to one 41 gates away) after being more than an hour delayed.
4. Having to leave (Although as someone has quite rightly pointed out to me, I have to leave in order to be able to go back)

But aside from these 4 point I had a great time.  It was 100% the right choice to have made.  I feel happy now that half way through my time out here before Christmas (yes, it really is, scary how time flies right?) that I've been back and seen everyone.  Spent my time well by going to Wib Wobs, seeing LUGleeC perform and going to Sugar, as well as a hair cut, Halloween party, pub lunch and an afternoon spent on the Wii (and I didn't even lose Mario Karts!). I'm sure time is going to go even quicker for this second half because I've got so much planned.

I'm spending time with my grandparents over the next few days so I'll be back with you when I have anything to report!

Attending the world premiere of the lastest Speilberg film

Until today this week has brought nothing noteworthy really, just been getting on with things now, which is nice in a way and some what boring in another.

Onto something interesting.  Today Jenny and I decided to go and see some of the celebrations for the Tintin world premiere.  First thing I noticed as the bus made its way into the centre were the police, I hardly ever see police here and normally they're just directing traffic but there were loads of them round here today.  First there was a display of cars all featured in Tintin through the city.  Afterwards we headed towards the cinema where the premiere was being held to see an acrobatics display, we didn't stay for the whole thing- we began to freeze, so went and got lunch.  Afterwards we found ourselves in what we thought was a great place to see what was going on, right opposite the end of the red carpet.  We stayed there for a while and thought something exciting was going to happen when a load of police on motorbikes appeared and a black car followed.  Out came the cameras and from the car appeared....some Belgian royalty.  This could've been vaguely interesting if I hadn't been expecting Steven Speilberg to emerge.  We heard a policeman tell someone that he was expected in an hour so quickly popped into a shop for some warmth and to kid ourselves that we will actually read these Belgian and Spanish/Italian newspapers we've bought.  When we were in there what did I hear but "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Steven Speilberg!!"  I still don't quite get what happened, I don't think he arrived in a car where we were so maybe we still wouldn't have seen it, but still annoying huh?  Bit of a fail really, and I sort of wish we made it to see the celebs on the red carpet beforehand as Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) was there but we still got close to the red carpet, even if after the event:

So next weekend I'm heading off to Lancaster, I don't anticipate there being anything for me to need to share with you all before then.  I'm not sure when I'll be blogging next because after that my grandparents are visiting and once they've gone I'm off to Luxembourg for the weekend!  I hope I'll get back to you before then, I'm sure I will.

So far so good (Video)

I'd originally intended to video blogs but it's not really my thing so I'll probably make this a monthly thing, let me know what you think :)

Since when did I become so unfit?!

Sitting here with 3 apples and a bowl of grapes on my desk and a chocolate chip cookie in my mouth I'm trying to work out when it was I became so unfit!  Do I blame the YA? It would appear to be the easiest thing to do, and after all everything else gets blamed on the YA, but I don't think I can this time.  I am going to shift blame and say that it is down to University.  Don't get me wrong, the intention was there, I signed up for a membership, went swimming a few times and enjoyed it, but at some point it just went out the window, probably around the time that Glee, Swing Group, LUSU and work started taking more of my time!  I love to be busy, that's one of the things I miss most here.  I have a lot of time on my hands, I could be doing work of course.... That's how this whole thing started actually, I'd reached the point where I want to chuck this Faux Amis list out of the window and decided that a quick stint on the exercise bike would be a good idea.  Well, a quick stint is what I got!  I knew I was unfit, but I've never been this bad in my whole life!  From today I eat better (when this box of cookies is done that is), use the 4 flights of stairs (with the exception of with shopping) and work to lasting more than a couple of minutes on that flipping exercise bike!

So that was a little unrelated to the YA but hey!

Back to the YA stuff, so Jenny and I have booked our weekend in Luxembourg, I've not looked into it at all, I have no idea what we should do and see but we have a hotel booked for 2 nights so off we go! I'm trying to book up weekends to keep myself busy after realising this weekend that 3 days off is great in theory but you have to fill time, and even if you have plenty of work there is only so much time you can spend doing it.  I so far have a weekend back in Lancaster, some time here with my grandparents and the trip to Luxembourg.  I'm also hoping to pop over to Madrid to visit a friend (may as well as it is cheap!) and I might have a friend come and visit nearer Christmas.  Just going to see how much I can pack in!

A normal start to a normal week.

Today (as well as marking the start of my 4th week living in Brussels) was the first day of the first what you might call normal week out here.  There are no random public holidays and no trips provided by ISTI.  It is a normal week.  And boy, does it feel normal... it feels now like I've got more of a routine and I know what to expect of things now, I'm doing work and things just like normal...  I'm hoping this normality won't last or it won't become too boring, week 4 is too early for this! I have a lot more time out here yet and I don't want it to drag!

The other thing that has made today distinctly ordinary has been having the chance to moan about my department at uni.  There is nothing like it.  If I closed my eyes I could be back in Lancaster waiting for the latest piece of work that they want us to do and nobody understands...

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!

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!

"Tell your friends they can get the train back to Brussels, we're leaving without them"

First off, apologies for lack of blogging, I just didn't have the motivation to do it on Friday after our trip and didn't really get the chance to do it yesterday so here comes a bumper edition lol.

Friday, up at 6am to be at ISTI to leave at 7h50...I knew from then on that it was going to be a long day, but I'm not complaining, it was a totally free day trip and I got the chance to see parts of Belgium that I hadn't had the chance to go to yet.  We started at the furthest of our three destinations, but bearing in mind this is Belgium it still wasn't that far away, at Ostende. In my personal opinion Ostende seems to be the Belgian equivilant of Southend/Great Yarmouth without the arcade (a.k.a there isn't really much there other than the beach! -please don't be too offended Katy!)  Whilst we were there we went to a Modern Art Museum and saw works such as this:

Modern art really isn't my thing...

After our very enthusiastic guide had finally accepted that we were bored and no we did not want to see just one more small piece and released us we had a little bit of free time to explore.  When we came out of the museum Nikki and I decided that it was a good idea to stick with the grroup (Remember this...)because then if we got lost we'd be in a huge group and they couldn't possibly leave without all of us.  We presumed that everyone was heading to the beach as that seemed the most obvious place to be going but sooner or later it became apparent that they were just leading us in one big loop so we decided to split from the group and go our own way to find the beach.  That went fine, found it without an issue and got the essential photos:

Then we realised that we'd gone against our own advice and quite possibly had no idea where we were or quite where we were meant to be heading back to and the map they'd given us was hardly precise.  So, in fear that we'd be late and be left in Oestende to find our own way back we decided we'd best start heading back towards the coach.  We'd been told to head towards a huge boat called the Mercador and that the coach would be parked just down the road, unfortunately Nikki must've had both her eyes and ears shut at this point and I just don't have a mind for navigation, just ask the girls about when we went to Spain...  Turns out in the end that we were there significantly before everyone else and ended up waiting for 30 mins for a group of Chinese students to get back.  The woman in charge was not happy and told us that next time we would be leaving whether we had everyone or not which I thought was probably an empty threat because you'd never see that happen at home.  In Bruges we didn't really get a chance to see anything because the staff lead us round like a flock of sheep, clearly worried they were going to loose people again.  It seems like a nice place though and I'll have to go back at some point.  In Gent we had a chance to visit the Chateau des Comptes and enjoy some of the views, once you've climed all the stairs that is.

This time we had a bit more time to explore Gent and have a look at the numerous churches that you can see in the photos above.  We still hadn't learnt about navigation though and someone trusted me with the map, soon Jenny and Nikki learnt that lesson and Jenny did most of the navigation to get us back.  Once we were on the coach one of the Spanish girls got a phone call from a couple of the other Spanish students that weren't on the coach, presumably they were lost somewhere in Gent.  About ten minutes later over the speakers came words to this effect "to the girl that was just on the phone, please tell your friends that they can get the train back to Brussels as we are leaving without them" and off we went! We were shocked, they really did mean it!

Once we got back to Brussels I did the really lazy thing and went to Pizza Hut on my way home, it would've been just as quick for me to cook for myself though and it was expensive so that will serve me right really!

Saturday morning held an exciting trip, I went to what must be the biggest Carrefour known to man!  I needed to get a few bits and pieces and it seemed like a good way of using the time.  I know now that I can't keep going there though, I'll end up spending a small fortune on things I don't need!  I did manage to get a travel mug though which means I can take my good old british cup of tea made with PG tips bags to ISTI with me.  I also invested in a couple of little grammar books that I need, there were a whole range and if I was made of money I'd have got them all, but seeing as I'm not a Grammar book and a Conjugation book will have to do.  Annoyingly I have some at home but didn't pack anything so useful to bring out here...

I've got the flat to myself this weekend so I invited Jenny and Nikki round last night for dinner and to watch a film.  As far as I know I didn't poison either of them so I count it as a successful evening!  Despite the fact that the film we watched was a bit odd and pretty much in Franglais which was a bit annoying.

I'll apologise now for any of you that are following both Lucy and I as this last bit could be a little similar to what she wrote as you may have been able to guess seeing as she was speaking about a conversation I had with her!  2 weeks in it finally begins to sink in that this isn't just for a few weeks, I'm not going to come back and start Michaelmas term at Lancaster in 2011 and everyone else is.  It's a very strange feeling and I think has bothered me more than I had expected.  As I said to Lucy it's a shame that we are spending our time here wishing away the days until we get to go back and see everyone again but as she quite rightly said it doesn't mean we're getting any less out of this great experience.  I'm thinking of popping back to Lancaster mid-term, just not sure if seeing everyone settled in will make things worse for me or if seeing them all is just what I'll be needing by then.

I should think that is enough blog for today, apologies that it's been quite a long one!

"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 :)