They think it's all over. It is now.

That's it.  Done and dusted.  This time tomorrow I will hopefully be sat at home in Essex, the sunny climbs of Spain far behind me.  My year abroad began 350 days ago when I set off for Valencia in July 2011, it seems like such a long time ago and yet only yesterday...  Since then I have spent around 300 of those days out of the UK, the rest have been split between Belgium and Spain (with a couple of weekends in France and Luxembourg!)  I don't think it will really hit me that it's all over for a while yet, although I'm going home tomorrow I am heading up to Lancaster on Sunday for a week and at the moment I think it will just feel like another one of my visits, not that I'm actually back for good.  I guess it will hit me at some point in the summer when I'm stuck in the rain that I won't actually be coming back out to Spain just yet.

If you'd have asked me a few months ago if I could see myself moving abroad I'd have said no, I think that was because I'd been in Brussels, in winter, speaking my weaker language.  Ask me that question now and I'd have something different to say.  Hard as I have found it this year I think a lot of that can be put down to things not being on my terms, studying classes I wasn't enjoying and finding little motivation for them.  If the right job came along one day then I would certainly consider coming back to live in Spain again, and I'm surprised to "hear" myself say that.

Contrary to what many people will probably believe I have actually enjoyed this year, in my own way, and I've still got something out of it.  I may not have made loads of friends from all around the world and had "the best year of my life" but that's not to say that there isn't a lot of value in the year that I have had.  I have learnt plenty about myself, and I think I've learnt a fair amount about other people too.

Tomorrow afternoon I will return to the UK satisfied with my year, I'm not going to let myself have any regrets or things I wish I'd done differently, because let's face it, who is that helping now?

As for what's next?  Who knows!  I thought that by the end of this year I'd have a clearer picture of what I want to do with myself this time next year when I'm all done at Lancaster (This year better not pass as quickly as the last one has...).  However, I've probably just ended up with more ideas and confusion!  Oh well, nice to have options right?

I reckon that once I'm back in rainy old England I'll realise how much I liked being abroad and probably want to get out and see more of the world, let's just see though shall we?

I'm hoping to keep writing these blogs, although my life back home probably won't be interesting enough to write about unless you want to hear about my dissertation, going to work and writing essays, so I'll try and do them on languages/translation sort of topics as and when I can think of any.

So, that's it.  My year abroad is over. Thanks to those of you that have been reading this all the way along, and I hope I've been of some use/interest/entertainment to at least some of you!

What happens when your year abroad doesn't live up to the hype?

This year has been a big one for me in the realisation that just because everyone else says something and does something it doesn't mean it has to be the same for you too.  There were so many things that people said before I left Lancaster and whilst I was making my plans for this year that I felt so strongly that in order to make the most of this year I had to stick to them.  It has taken until now for me to realise how wrong I was. 

Everyone says that the year abroad is going to be the most amazing year of your life, you’ll make loads of new friends, your language will come on leaps and bounds and that you’ll never want to go back to the UK.  Well, that just isn’t always true.  Yes, for some people it is a great year, they have a fantastic time and the thought of going home fills them with dread ,but for others of us it isn’t the case, we get homesick and just spend the year wishing away the weeks.  I’m not going to tell you that I’ve not enjoyed this year, because I have, I appreciate the opportunities it has given me, and have had fun seeing new things and travelling to new places.  But I cannot and will not tell you that it has been the best year of my life, because it quite plainly hasn’t.  Don’t get me wrong, I am by no means complaining about the year abroad and the opportunities it has given me, I am just saying that it hasn’t lived up to the hype that surrounded it.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it?  With it I’d have gone to a place where I knew more people, or not worried so much about living with native speakers or all those other pressures that get placed on us.  I’d have done as many of those things that we were told not to as I wanted, knowing that it might not be the best for my language or my “experience”, but that I’d have felt a hell of a lot better for it.  In October I decided to go to Lancaster for a weekend, but that decision came after a lot of umming and ahhing about whether it was the “right” thing to do.  I should probably have made more decisions like this one, that were for my happiness not what I felt I should be doing according to everyone else.

I have not found this year, so far, easy.  In fact, I have probably found it harder than I have let on to many of you whilst I have been hiding behind the part of me that thinks that I am on my year abroad and so I have to have a fantastic time.

I guess that all I’m trying to say is, to all those people that are planning their year abroad, or are on it and sharing my experience.  It doesn’t matter.  We all have hugely different experiences on the year abroad.  Some love it, some hate it and some just have an “ok” time.  It doesn’t matter. 

Please don’t try to put a label on the year abroad, it can’t be done.

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 :)

First day of classes

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

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

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

That'll do for tonight!

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

Nothing is ever quite as straight forward as it seems...

This is going to be a quick one today but just to keep those of you that are interested in the loop.

I recieved a 7 page long contract, in French, for the room.  Well, I do say I want to go into Legal Translation, maybe it's a good start?  All well and good I thought, but some things are a bit confusing and a bit akward, one of them being setting up a standing order, easier said than done to an international account.  I also found out I've not seen a  picture of the room I will actually be having, so will be waiting a little longer. The rest of what I have seen looks really nice and I've spoken to my potential landlady and she sounds very friendly.  Fingers crossed all goes well, I should know pretty much by the end of the week!

As far as other progress goes I have a small pile of things to pack so far, not including anything essential like clothes. Leaving in 9 days and probably less than 50% ready!