♫ Driving home for Christmas ♫

Within what can have only been an hour of posting yesterdays blog it was already out of date.  The problem being that I found out that the Belgians are going on strike tomorrow and bringing pretty much the whole place to a stand still including cancelling all Eurostar between London and Brussels.  Cue me flying into a rather large panic about how on earth I was going to get home.  Thankfully Eurostar were allowing people to exchange their tickets for another day and so...here I am.

I was due to have 2 classes today, including making a presentation in one of them, dedicated as I am I made it into ISTI, early in fact, only to find that the teacher couldn't make it in, so my last day in Brussels was spent watching DVDs.

All in all I am back in England, ready for Christmas and that is about all I have to say for myself!

"Attention all passengers, there are meercats in this station"

This weekend, as many of you know, was my last weekend in Brussels before I go back to England for Christmas (2 more sleeps!).  I could've spent it making the last minute finishing touches to my coursework or doing some proper work on my essay for Lancaster but instead I got to be a tourist again for the weekend showing Henry everything that Brussels has to offer.  On Thursday I wasn't even sure he was going to make it with the snow in the UK and the meltdown it seemed to be causing at Manchester airport, as per usual!  Luckily, seeing as I had to make the epic journey out to Charleroi airport armed with magazine, kindle, tea and cereal bars- the flight only came in a little later than it was due to.

This weekend the snow arrived in Brussels too, it wasn't that impressive but I wanted to have proof of it.  Apologies for the awful photo but there is only so long you can keep the window open for- it was freezing!

On Saturday we went to the Atomium, tip: don't bother going to Mini Europe when you can just see the whole thing from the Atomium! 

I'm not sure if I wrote about the Atomium the last time I went so for those of you that don't know it was built in 1958 for the world Expo, so that basically makes it Belgiums answer to the Eiffel tower.

I don't know the area around there very well but we decided to have a wander, we were just looking for somewhere to stop for a coffee but actually what we found were the following:

 I don't even know what this is I'm afraid...

The Chinese pavillion, and opposite this.....

The Japanese tower.  Not the sort of thing you'd usually expect to stumble across in Belgium.

Saturday also brought with it a bit of a navigational fail.  We headed to Place Saint Catherine for the Christmas Market and were very disappointed when we got there and just found a few stalls, a creepy looking carousel and a little band playing.  We were sure we were in the right place though, after all there was a sign that said Place Saint Catherine...  Jenny then told us later that if we'd have just carried on walking we'd have made it to the real market which I must say was significantly more impressive than what we'd seen!

We were going have a look around but there was a service going on at the time, I can't believe I've not actually been in there yet!

Usually when you stumble across some road blocks and a significant police presence including helicopters, a water canon and riot shields your first reaction probably wouldn't be to investigate would it? Well we did, on the basis that curiosity only killed the cat so we should be pretty safe.(For any worried parents/family members reading this, don't worry!  We wouldn't have been stupid enough to get into the thick of it, we just wanted to know what was happening...)  From what we could tell there wasn't much going on, just a small group of protesters so the police reaction seemed to be a little OTT.  I asked a man if he knew what was going on, annoyingly he did tell me in English after having asked in French... but he told me something that roughly adds up to this.  Clearly there was a lot more going on than we had seen.  As I write this I have seen a lot more police around again today and more road blocks and things so it must still be going on.  On our wander we stopped for a chat with the king...

We went and watched the light show on the Grand Place, we were going to hang around and see a woman dressed as a butterfly do something but it was wet and cold, I'm not sure we missed out on much anyway.

On Sunday we went to the Christmas Market (the right one...) in the afternoon.  I totally forgot to take any photos, I think I was somewhat distracted by the huge hot dog I was eating.  We got to see some people showing off on the ice rink and look at all the stalls.  Before we headed there we went to a museum, I've already been but if we hadn't gone Luke probably wouldn't have spoken to Henry for about a week so we had to really.  I will happily admit that I didn't enjoy it when I went on my own, but I now realise that was just because I had no clue what I was looking it, when someone else is telling you what it is you're looking at it makes it a lot more interesting.  Can't promise I've retained much of it though, other than something about why the edge of some guys hat was folded up...

Yesterday we went to see the Palais de Justice, considerably more impressive than the equivalent in the UK.    

This photo was just taken outside, the inside is worth looking at too.  It's a shame that I'm not going to get to see it without scaffolding though. 

Seriously, how hard is it to find somewhere to eat in Brussels that isn't a tourist trap?  Very, I'm telling you.  Vietnamese food however = good (although I could've had the exact same thing in a Chinese...)

That basically brings us to the end of my last long weekend in Brussels for 2011.  It's been a bit of an epic blog today but I thought including the photos rather than just telling you to look on flickr was kind of me.  I really am on countdown now though, I have my suitcase here ready to pack, I've been cleaning the flat and doing the washing- I just want to go home!  Wish me luck I have a presentation tomorrow, or at least should do... fun times! 

[Oh yeah, and about the meercats (and lets face it the only reason a number of you are bothering to read this), it was just a simple case of misunderstanding on Henrys part when there was an announcement at Midi station warning about pickpockets.  Have to say the meercats would be a lot more fun though!]

Just 6 more sleeps to go.

Being just 7 days (and 6 sleeps) away from heading home for Christmas I thought it was about time for a blog. Since getting back to Brussels from Lille nothing particularly noteworthy has happened other than having now got everything lined up for Granada, the deposit is paid for the room, the flights are booked and Mum is coming with me for the first few days.  One of the best things about having the room sorted is that I have a nice 3 weeks to spend at home after my exams are over in Brussels and before I head off to Espana.  (Lancaster, beware, I'll be heading up on the last weekend in January!)

The weather here has been terrible for the last few days, and it's a great time to discover a lack of shoes that are watertight, indeed it was actually my Uggs that kept my feet dry the most effectively, but I'm not sure the rain did them much good...I'm not actually sure where the rain is worse, Brussels or Lancaster, either way attempting to use an umbrella is futile.

Tomorrow sees me once again making the epic journey out to Charleroi airport and I'm not even leaving the country.  Please cross your fingers that the weather will be ok tomorrow because I really don't feel like hanging round in an airport that is pretty much just a shed on the edge of a field.  There is only so much reading I will be able to get done and work I will be able to do sitting at arrivals.

Today all the students in my now to remain unnamed department (although it hardly takes a genius to work it out) received a Christmas Greetings email.  Two problems with this, one was that they actually managed to get our departing Vice Chancellors name wrong, he is no longer Wellings but Wellington it seems, he has clearly had a great influence on the staff of the department.  They also mentioned a piece of work this is apparently optional but they say they advised us to do- no one has a clue about it, interesting!

Any work that hasn't been done and doesn't get done tomorrow will now have to wait until Tuesday afternoon (and lets face it, with only 2 sleeps until home at that point nothing particularly productive is going to get done) as I will be spending the weekend showing Henry the sites of Brussels, although if the recent weather continues we may have to swim everywhere.

Sorry that this post hasn't been very interesting, I'm sure I'll have another one or two posts to share with you before I head home for Christmas, then I'll go quiet for a while as I presume you don't want to hear all about my Christmas/New Year celebrations, revision and essay writing!

6 sleeps until home!

The penultimate weekend. A visit to Lille.

This weekend brought with it my last weekend away from Brussels before the end of my time here.  This time it was off to Lille, mainly to see the Christmas market.  The first strange thing is getting on the London bound Eurostar and getting off a Lille, it feels wrong!  I've passed through Lille Europe Station 3 times now either London or Brussels bound, it was rather strange actually getting off there and not carrying on to London.

Lesson number one- don't trust Google maps!  It had told us that it would take 20 minutes to walk a 1.2km distance to our hotel, I'm sure it wasn't that far and it couldn't have taken us more than 10 minutes to get there.  When we arrived we find our hotel, which is actually inside a shopping centre, and check in.  The room was ok, a bit rough around the edges you might say, and with the one and only plug socket in the entire room having the TV in it things like phone chargers, hair dryers/straighteners etc weren't exactly easy!

I decided to carry on my "cultural eating" and had snails for my starter on Friday night, I won't be bothering with them again I must say...I also had mussels, quite an adventurous meal for me really!

On Saturday we headed out and had a really nutritious brekkie to set us up for the day-NOT! I had 2 pain au chocolate and a croissant... (it was cheaper to buy 3 I promise).  We spent our morning walking around Lille including a walk round a park where I saw more runners than I have ever seen in my life.  After lunch we went for a quick nosey round the house Charles de Gaulle was born in.  Next stop-Christmas market, first off we went on the ferris wheel, I'm fine with heights usually but I must say this one felt a lot lot higher than I thought it would and we were sharing our "carriage" (for want of a better word..) with a lady who seemed to not realise until we were half way up that she suffered with vertigo...  Once we came off of the wheel we took a stroll through the market, I say a stroll, it was more of a shuffle as there were so many people you could hardly move.  We had mulled wine and what was essentially a hot dog before heading back to the room really rather early to escape the cold.

Sunday morning we headed out, had another nutritious breakfast and then went to explore one of the markets a bit further out of the town.  Then we went to the Lille Natural History Museum which was interesting, even if it did have a few too many stuffed birds for my liking!  Afterwards we headed to the bell tower and paid for the reward of climbing what seemed like a good few hundred stairs at the time, and now my legs feel like a climbed a good few thousand...the view was good though.  In the afternoon we went back to the markets to try and see the things we couldn't see on our previous shuffle and then had a wander round the shops as we had a fair amount of time to use up as our train wasn't until 6.30.  We also went to another museum, the name of which currently escapes me...

And here I am, back in the flat, preparing for my last full week in Brussels!  I'm really not sure where the time has gone to at all but I really can't wait to be back home for Christmas.  Before that though I get to do all the touristy stuff round here for a third time as I have a friend staying for a few days this weekend.  I still haven't seen the Christmas market on Place Saint Catherine, so I really mustn't miss that before I head back home!

11 sleeps until home :)

www.flickr.com/bexnobes

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:

Brussels video number 3, and the last of 2011

My last video instalment of 2011, I hope you enjoy it and please let me know what you think!

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...

Now I remember why I prefer Spanish...

Reason number 1- (Yes I know this isn't normal but I'm using it all the same) Walking round on the last weekend of November and not even needing sleeves.

Reason 2- Tapas and Sangria, how much more stereotypical can I make this?  I'm sorry...

Reason 3- The language, it just comes to me sooo much easier than French does.

Reason 4- It's just better and I don't need to justify that.

Now to actually tell you about my trip.  If you've read my other blogs you'll know what an annoyance the airport I flew from is, it calls itself Brussels South (Charleroi), well, for anyone that doesn't know Belgium, Charleroi is a whole different town a 45 minute train ride away.  So it's a bit of a planes, trains and automobiles mission to get there but not as bad as I'd expected it to be if I'm honest.  For once in my life I didn't have a delay, up until this week every flight I have been on alone has had a delay varying from 30 mins to 3 hours.  So "that was *trumpet fanfare* Ryanair flight arriving on time!" love that little announcement just as you land.  Ellie met me at the airport and we went back to her flat, where we just chilled for a bit before realising it was actually quite late and we'd still not eaten.  We went to a tapas bar called El Tigre, for me about a year ago this would have been an utter nightmare, there were loads and loads of people, it was hot and just generally chaotic but I loved it.  With your drink they give you a mountain of tapas (and that would've been why I wouldn't have liked it about a year ago, I didn't know what I was eating), it was brilliant and very yummy.  From there we went onto a market which is full of bars and tapas stalls, again packed and very typically Spanish.  Just to carry on with the being typically Spanish theme we then went and ate churros in the sort of place  you'd only find in Spain, it was about 12.30 at night and the average age in there must've been ...55 I guess.  I said to Ellie that at home at that time it would just be the drunks and the students left out.  I even made friends with a lovely Spanish woman and her friends whilst Ellie left me unattended for just 5 minutes, she offered me some of their churros and everything!

The next day didn't get off to a great start as we didn't set any form of alarm and managed to lose our morning to sleep!  We soon got up and out and about and seeing all the sites of Madrid, or at least about half of them before we headed to meet Dan for a drink.  But that came later, first we had a very important appointment to keep with a Mr Noel Gallagher?  Don't know if you've heard of him, used to be in that band Oasis (Or to the Spanish Oh-wa-siis).  We just happened to pass the hotel he was staying at, asked the people there what they were waiting for and decided to hang around and see for ourselves.

In the evening we decided to go to the Ice Bar, now I've been to one of these before somewhere else in Spain but all I remember from that is that none of us were dressed appropriately but that it didn't really matter because they gave us a fair bit of free drink... (The lack of memory and level of drink are not linked before someone suggests it!)  This one was better than the one I'd been in before that you got a proper coat instead of the furry poncho thing I had before, but it was still just as empty.  We stuck it out for an hour though and amused ourselves so all in all it was still good fun!  After this we decided just to head back to Ellies flat and we made our own churros, some were more successful than others lets just leave it at that!  But the peanut buttercups we'd made earlier, despite looking awful, tasted really good!

Today was my last morning in Madrid so we got up at a decent time and headed off to see the rest of the city, got lots of photos which I'll put on Flickr as and when I remember.

The journey back to Brussels was uneventful and I'm now sitting in my room listening to cheesy music before I go to bed because when I wake up the reality of the washing, food shopping and work I have to do is going to hit me....

36 sleeps to Christmas

Someone I follow on Twitter informed the world this morning that we now have just 36 sleeps until Christmas.  I have to say I've not really been thinking about Christmas, I've been thinking about the fact that I'm coming home but not connecting it with that big event everyone talks about.  In fact I've been paying more attention to my plans for new year if I'm honest... I don't think it is going to feel like Christmas for me right up until the last minute.  Of course I'm going to need to do some shopping and the markets in Lille that we're going to see and the ones in Brussels should help make things feel a little more like Christmas but there'll be no decorations (my flatmate goes back to France on the 18th and so neither of us are actually here for it), I've got no advent calendar (Despite Charlottes lovely Mum buying one for me, I just couldn't get it in my case back from Lancaster) and I'm missing out on the Coca-Cola and John Lewis adverts that everyone is going on about! But all of that doesn't really matter, I reckon I'll hardly notice at all the way time is flying at the moment, soon enough I'll be trying to squeeze as much as I can in my case and making it weigh 10 tonnes for the journey home (Thank goodness for the Eurostar, I'm going to be lost when I'm back to 20kg or whatever it is for Granada!)

There hasn't really been much of note this week, hence the lack of blog posts until now.  I've finally had a "normal" week.  But that all gets thrown right back out the window next week when I'm off to see Ellie in Madrid.  I'm wondering what is going to come out of my mouth the first time I try and speak Spanish, bearing in mind the weekend I came out here straight after Valencia I kept saying "si" I can see a similar thing happening this time, I'll probably say "merci" to everyone...

The other day I was looking for music that is similar to the Corrs, I am now worried about the internet, it informed me that I should try listening to Atomic Kitten....I'm all for a bit of old school cheese, but I don't really see the resemblance between the 2?!  I eventually found something myself, Lady Antebellum, I'd previously thought they were a rock band....oopsie.  I'd recommend them though as something happy to listen to, they're more country than I'd usually listen to though admittedly.

I think I used up all my motivation to work yesterday, I wrote the majority of my essay (although I'm not convinced it will be long enough...) and now just can't bring myself to do the conclusion.  I did some cleaning late last night and have been to do my food shop this morning, I probably just need to stop procrastinating and get on with it now... instead I'm writing this blog quelle surprise...  

"Essex girls" "bimbos" and "cougars". Standard translation class really...

What began as a very normal English-->French translation class soon descended into something quite different.  We were looking at a text on Cornwall, all very thrilling, about the poor economy, it's rolling hills and ragged cliffs... when somewhat from nowhere the teacher starts explaining to the class about "Essex Girls" and my head drops onto the table in shame.  Especially as the train of thought that got us there was:

Bar work-->Young women-->Bimbos-->Blonde-->Essex Girls

(This later lead onto the teacher questioning the use of the word cougar in modern day English and also now French it seems)

I wasn't aware the Essex Girl stereotype had crossed the channel, well isn't that good news everyone?!  I hope all you The Only Way is Essex fans are pleased with yourselves!

In other news my year abroad tutor still has not emailed me back 3 weeks down the line, I am not impressed...

Tonight is all about procrastination.  I should be essay writing, or doing exercises on the subjunctive or... well anything but what I am doing.  Instead I am researching what on earth I should be studying after my degree to get me where I want and also trying to find myself somewhere to live in Granada.  Joyful times I assure you.

"Video" 2 October-November

Apologies all, this is not really a video, it was quickly put together on Movie Maker with photos and music and is seriously lacking in captions etc.  I don't have time to do as much as I did before and there is no video because me coughing and sniffing isn't something that YouTube needs to see!  I hope you enjoy it all the same :)

Thanks to LUGleeC for being used as the backing music.

A weekend in Luxembourg- we did a lot of walking!

Walking.  This seems to have been the theme of our weekend, and don't get me wrong, I enjoy wandering round and discovering places but I have a limit, and I think my legs have found it this weekend as they are no longer functioning at full capacity I must say....

The journey to Luxembourg city from here isn't too bad, just over 3 hours on the train.  It all went swimmingly, until the little screen on the train started saying "Terminus Arlon" (a town in Belgium...) and we started worrying just a little!  Luckily it must have meant that Arlon was the last stop in Belgium as the train soon continued onto Luxembourg.  Phew!  We arrived in a rather cold Luxembourg in the early afternoon and headed off to the hotel to dump our bags.  After filling in a form that seemed to want to know everything but my inside leg measurement we got into our room.  We decided that the best thing for us to do first would be to go to the tourist information centre to get ourselves a map (as you will later learn it obviously wasn't good enough...).  Seeing as it was still mid-afternoon we wanted to wander over to the European area and see everything over there and it made sense to get it over and done with first as it was on the other side of the city.  So off we went, in the direction that according to our map and the signposts would lead us to the area with all the EU institutions in it.  After a while we were faced with a long path, leading uphill, through the trees.  For some reason this didn't strike us as odd, I just remarked that they must send the tourists the scenic route as presumably all the people that work in the EU institutions don't walk this way!  So up we went...it didn't take too much longer for us to realise that we clearly weren't going to get there that night.  The problem was this being abound 4.30-5pm in November it was starting to get dark and we were on a rough path, through the woods and round an old fort, with no lights.  Brilliant.  The choice being either to turn back where we'd come- hardly a short distance, or continue we decided to march onwards.  Eventually we ended up at what you could loosely term as civilization.  I hesitate in calling it this as there seemed to be no people, shops or anything of the sort.  By now it was too late to be heading for the EU stuff and about time to be searching for food.  Problem.  Luxembourg is basically on 2 levels, the high town and the low town.  They aren't very well linked-other than by a great many stairs and you'll have a job locating them.  So this is how we spent a large part of our first evening in Luxembourg, trying to "escape" the Ville Basse and get back where human life could be found.  We managed this - via an epic flight of stairs and a series of rather steep hills.  Nice relaxing welcome to Luxembourg....  Food was soon located, and you know you're in a posh expensive restaurant when they take your coats and give you some pea-mousse thing whilst you look at the menu.  It was a fish restaurant and all the food looked (and tasted) very nice.  We did feel a bit like (bad pun coming....) fish out of water though as we were most certainly the youngest people in there.

Saturday-
On Saturday we had to head to the European area, after all the mess of the night before we had worked out where we'd gone wrong and how we'd ended up underneath the bridge we'd actually wanted to be crossing.  As it turns out it is probably for the best that we'd not made it there the previous night as there was a lot to see, it took us a good hour or so to walk round and wouldn't have been so good in the dark.  The geek in me wants to go and see the rest of it in Strasbourg now seeing as I've seen the European Commission and all the other bits here and now (here comes the list...) the European Investment Bank, European Court of Justice, European Court of Auditors and the European Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg.  I'm pretty sure we also saw where the main translation centre is too.  I've been looking into all the types of translation jobs they need in the EU, I'd love to translate for the Court of Justice but that would involve some form of Legal qualification which I don't have, well I can dream can't I?

After this we did a hell of a lot more walking!  I've put some photos on Facebook but for those of you not on there I'm about to stick them on Flickr too so I'll give you the link, just give me a chance to get them up there.

2 observations about transport in Luxembourg- there are loads and loads of Audis, especially in the European area where at least I'd say 1 in 3 cars were Audis.  Also Luxembourg, despite being tiny seems to be the European Capital of busses or something, there were hundreds of them, often with the very useful destination on the front of "Luxembourg".

After exhausting all the views and monuments of the city, writing postcards and drinking expensive (but very nice) coffee we went to the restaurant next to the one we'd been to the night before.  Whilst we were looking at the menu outside the waiter from the other restaurant came past and said hi, 2 young female students were probably a rare occurrence for that place, must've been easily recognisable or something!  When we were inside we were offered the English menu and caused some confusion when we asked for the French, and one of the waiters clearly wasn't sure as he insisted on speaking to us in English each time, although the others did at least stick to the French.  When we ordered the waiter asked me if I was sure that was what I wanted, did I know what it was?  I thought I did having read the English version of the menu outside but evidentially it was a different thing entirely.  What I was ordering, the internet now tells me, was part of a pigs large intestine.... yuuummmmm :S  I'm glad I didn't go for that in the end then...  As the exciting, party-animal, Erasmus students we are, we then returned to the hotel, got into our PJs and watched Danse avec les Stars.....

Sunday- To round off our trip we headed to the Museum of the History of Luxembourg City, presuming that the museum would be some what relative to the size of the city itself, it was surprisingly big though but a nice way to spend our last morning before heading back to the station and returning to Brussels.

I know I've already told you how much we walked, but seriously, my legs really really ache now.  I've had my exercise for the week.  Maybe I don't need to climb the stairs every day?!

My Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bexnobes/ 

The realisation that you're more than halfway through first semester...

...and therefore already a quarter of the way through the year abroad (not including Christmas and the gap between semesters).  Scary stuff.

I realised this when I said goodbye to my grandparents today and told them I'd be home in 6 weeks tomorrow, 6 weeks actually sounds like a short amount of time to me now, I've been out here for nearly 9 weeks I think and that has flown by like you wouldn't believe.  I remember booking all these trips and things to give me something to look forward to and I've been back from the first for nearly 2 weeks and going on the next one (Luxembourg) this weekend!  I've got into quite a little habit of crossing the days off on my D.I.Y calendar now too.  Call me sad if you want, I'm used to the abuse, I'm hardening to it...

I was hoping to do another video (yes I know the music has been removed from my first one, no worries I have a cunning plan to get round Mr Copyright Police next time) but lets face it, time is not on my side at the moment!  I'll try at some point but there are no promises!  There'd be no point at the moment anyway, it wouldn't be pleasant to listen to, my lovely germ infested, sore throat and bunged up nose have seen to that one...

In other news I've got myself an interview for volunteering at the Olympics, not doing anything exciting, in fact I'd be on the wrong side of the gate taking tickets and not seeing anything at all, but hey, it's something.  I might not get it anyhoo.

My 30th blog post

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 :)

It's all about trying something different.

One of the key things about going on a year abroad is doing something different.  Experiencing new things and doing things that you wouldn't normally try.  Or so Jenny and I kept telling each other when we decided to go to s "Speedy Friending" even that the ISTI Student Council (literally run by 3 student volunteers so I hesitate to call it a Student Union or anything similar...) were putting on.  We got there and went downstairs to find them still setting up and were eventually (when they noticed us there) asked to go back upstairs and join "the others", at which point we were a little confused as there weren't really any "others" there to wait with.  We did as asked though and waited upstairs.  When the time came for them to ask people down we were very hesitant to say the least and said on more than one occasion that we would quite happily leave .  One way or another we eventually decided to stay and give it a go.  I have to say I was expecting something structured where we all went round and introduced ourselves to different people but what actually happened was we all sat round tables and had to get up and tell everyone who we were, by about the 10th person that got up and said "Je suis anglais(e)" I wanted to be of any other nationality just because we totally outnumbered everyone else, with close competition from the Italians though!  After this we were just told to talk, well we'd all sat down with people we already knew and no-one moved to mingle at all and that was pretty much the end of it.  Afterwards there was a party, we didn't stay, but it reminded me of a school disco, just needed them to play a bit of Steps and for the boys and girls to split to other sides of the room!  The only plus side to the evening was that we got the chance to buy ISTI hoodies!

Today I have no classes but as I have loads of work to do this weekend I decided to avoid it at all costs and use today to do all the other bits and pieces and get cracking tomorrow.  First, and thus avoiding anything useful, I went with Jenny to the European Parliament as they've opened up a new visitor centre.  It was very good actually, and if I'd not been carrying my coat, and my impulse by new shoes I'd have stayed longer although we were there for a long time!  I can see why it has cost them so much though!  You all get an iPod-esque thing that you use to read and listen to the information as you go round by swiping it against a panel next to the thing you're looking at, very clever.  There are all sorts of interactive elements to it, well worth a trip-especially as it is free!  I did it in French this time, much to the confusion of the huy at the desk who kindly told me to bring it back if I didn't understand it...thanks I may be English but some of us to bother to learn other languages...  I might go again and do it in Spanish, it may take a 3rd and final English trip to get there though!

Got to get on top of all my work this weekend because I've got some busy weekends coming up and I won't get the chance to do it. In for a fun couple of days...wish me luck!

There is always something to look forward to.

I think I'm making this my Year Abroad motto for now, remembering that there is always something to look forward to.  Especially at the moment, with all my travelling plans I will be going somewhere or seeing someone every other weekend from the end of this month which both keeps me busy and makes time go faster knowing there is always something happening around the corner.  Plus I guess that when I go to Granada travelling won't be so easy or as cheap as it is when you're travelling from the European Capital as they call it so I need to make the most of it now!

Here is my lovely looking calendar:

Today started off as one of those days where I wished I just hadn't got out of bed. I got up early so that I'd have plenty of time and not have to rush, well, clearly I needed to go a little bit faster!  I didn't have enough time to finish my drink, despite trying to cool it down with a generous helping of milk.  I then, following the "Healthy Bex" plan walked down the stairs and set of to the tram, quite quickly may I add.  Half way to the tram I realised I didn't have my travel card because I'd swapped bags....so back I go!  I didn't consider this to be a good start to my day.  Once I was back on the main road I could see the tram coming and was convinced I wasn't going to get there in time but my luck evidentally changed and I got on just as the doors were shutting.

Wednesday is not my favourite day of the week, it starts with 2 language classes, including an oral class that is continually assessed... and ends in 2 hours of 20th century French literature.  Today it was made worse by the fact that I had planned to meet my Tandem (Language exchange) partner for the first time and I really wasn't sure what to expect of it.  It turns out I needn't have worried as she is very nice and I even managed a comprhensible conversation with her in French for about 45 minutes.

This week has gone very quickly actually, tomorrow is technically my last day of the week before the weekend begins and I'm going to a Welcome Party-Speedy Friending (Which I presume to be like speed dating but to make friends?) I'd say that 4 weeks into classes this may be a little late but who knows, I'm just wondering what sort of sad people that haven't made friends after 4 weeks turn up to this sort of thing.  Oh yeah, that's right, people like me...oh god.  I'll let you know how it goes, at least I have a little more confidence in my French after today.

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!

I think we can call that Bex 1-0 Spanish

Today I have the two classes that are potentially the most beneficial to me but yet that I dread the most, the written and oral French classes.  Today we had to work in groups of mixed nationalities, so how I end up with myself and 3 Spanish people I have pretty much no idea.  I find the Spanish accent really hard to understand when people are talking in French and this became evident.  It basically went like this:

Spanish girl one: (Says something in French)
Me: Blank look-laughs
Spanish guy 1: (In Spanish) she doesn't understand
Spanish girl 2: (In spanish) She speaks spanish!
Me: (In spanish) yes, I speak spanish and I understand it better than French

Take that annoying Spanish guy that was trying to make fun of me!  More fool you, should've been listening earlier in the conversation when I told you I study Spanish too.  So after initally being embarassed that he was pointing out my lack of comprehension I feel I won that one, don't you?

In other news I've had an email from someone that is interesting in doing the Tandem programme with me which is where she practises her English and I practise French, worth a try I reckon.  Also, after sending quite a few emails yesterday, yet failing to attach my CV as I'd said I did... I've had replies from 2 schools already, one of which is a specialist languages college so good start I think.

Weather has finally turned bad, rainy and horrible today... never mind, it's Wednesday already, I have one more class today and 2 tomorrow and that is the end of the week- roll on the weekend, I've got plenty of work to do....

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...

Granada...Girona...Granada...Girona...GRANADA

So the decision has finally been made, and Granada it is.  Quick run down of why:

• Spanish vs Catalan- in my mind Spanish was always going to win, 0.5 units of next year are Catalan, my degree however? 50% Spanish.
• Location- I chose Granada in the first place because of it's location and the fact that I know it is a lovely city.
• Convenience- This way I can leave here on the 22nd ish of Jan, go home for a week or 2 just about and head out to Granada.

This afternoon was intended to be for doing my reading for ISTI and take a look at DELC 310, this failed as instead I spent the entirety of it doing my application for Granada.  For a European University their organisation is really quite something else!  They have timetables and exam dates online and ask us to pick our courses now.  I have managed to put together a horrible timetable which starts at 8.30 every day (Must find somewhere close to live...) and on two days of the week ends at 9.30PM!  I do however get Friday off.  The reason this took me so long to do though was becuase seeing as I could access the exam dates I tried my best to finish as early as possible in the hope that I might make it back to Lancaster for Grad Ball and Extrav.  I finish on the 19th of June and my best guess tells me that Grad Ball will be somewhere around the 23rd/25th sort of time- bonus!  I've settled on Intro to Latin, History of Women, Cultural Anthropology, History of the modern world, and a course on Spanish dialects.  That might sound heavy but its actually fairly light subject matter compared with some of the other courses I could've done.  That's the important part of my day over with!

This morning I did a dictee (dictation, the Francophones love them...) with my flat mate for some work I need to do for ISTI and then we went out to lunch.  Was really nice to get to see a part of the city I've not been to, and as it is so close to me I'm not really sure how I've missed it!  I had a tartine which is apparently very Belgian and is essentially just an open sandwhich.  I also had a glass of Jus de pomplemousse just because I love saying the word!

That brings us to the end of week 3 folks, roll on week 4! This will actually be the first "normal" week I've had here with no random days off or trips to go on.  A bientot :)

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!

Another early start but hey- students never say no to freebies!

Today ISTI provided us with another free trip, this time it was to Blegny Mine and then to Liege.  It meant another early start as we had to be there for before 8am again but it was FREE.  I'm sure one of the first things Uni has taught me is that if it is free you accept it because it probably won't be coming along again any time soon!

First stop was Blegny Mine where we had a tour for about 2 hours, I didn't take any photos actually in  the mine (mostly because I left my camera in my handbag, above ground...) but there wasn't really that much to be taking photos of anyway.  It was quite refreshing to get in the cool below ground though seeing as it was so hot today, I can't believe that on the 30th of September we're hitting 28 degrees- in Belgium!  After the mine and a nice long lunch break in the sun we headed to Liege where we had a walking tour, our guide was very nice but it was just too hot to be concentrating on what she was telling us!  I understood the majority of it but retained nothing! (Except for the fact that the group of Spanish girls with us need gagging because they talked the whole way round which I thought was just plain rude....)

 The journey home took longer than anticipated but when we got back into the city 2 of the teachers just hopped off the coach, soon enough everyone was hopping off where they wanted to which meant that I got dropped off at the tram stop I usually arrive at-saving me the trip back from ISTI.  The driver wasn't best pleased I think but muttered something along the lines of if I do it for the teachers I'll have to do it for the students and so opened the door and let me off.


P.S Could Covis (?) tell me who you are, I'm intrigued as I know all my other "followers" and seeing as you follow Jack too I guess I know you from Uni?  Ta!

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!

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!

Break-through

Don't get too excited, I've not discovered a cure for the common cold or anything, but I did go out for coffee (see, said it was integral to life here didn't I?) with some other Erasmus students, only one of whom was English, I'd say that counts as a success!  I'm not really sure how it happened if I'm honest, I just know one minute I was standing outside a classroom with Jenny and the next we were walking to a cafe with 2 girls from Slovenia and an Italian girl.  The even better part was that *Shock Horror* we spoke in...French.  This may seem quite normal considering where I am but you'd be wrong, it is actually very hard to break out sticking with people of your own nationality.  Everyone sort of drifts together and it can be hard to start up conversation with someone, that or they try and practise their English on you instead which of course is not helpful!  I'd say half way into the first real week of classes that is a good start, next stop- speaking to actual French/Belgian people, wish me luck!

Look, I'm wearing a Lancaster University Glee Club hoodie do you really think I can give you directions around Brussels?

Today it has become clear to me that I must walk around with some sort of air that makes people think I know where I'm going, which generally is because I do, but I don't know the way to where they want to be!  The previous episode of this caused me to get caught in the rain after being helpful and sharing my map.  Today however someone pulled over in their car to ask me for directions, my helpful hints includes "c'est Rue General Jaques" *point* and "ca, c'est Rue Juliette Wytsman" *point* "Je suis desolee!" I was even wearing my Lancaster Glee hoody, it shoud've been a hint to him that I wasn't exactly a local!

Coffee. Something I've never exactly been the worlds biggest fan of but round here you're some sort of alein if you don't drink it!  I survived Valencia without touching the stuff but I don't think I'll get through the next year without being thought of as some kind of stange person without drinking it.  Step one- McDonalds cappuccino I actually quite liked it.  Maybe I can get into this coffee lark after all....

I also had my first class that I might actually be able to say was successful after yesterday with the useless lesson and the lesson where class and tutor were in different parts of the building!  Despite having said I had no intention of doing any literature classes I appear to have signed myself up for 2 but the tutor is good and his classes are enjoyable so I reckon it might have been a good move.  After queueing like a propper British person for my student card I appear to have purchased a blank card...I think it means I can top it up with cash and buy things but nothing useful like sign up for classes, use the internet or get on their version of LUVLE- helpful.  Especially as I got back to an email saying my real card is ready to collect but because of some funny rule I think I can only get it on Thursday afternoon?

I went to Carrefour and got some supplies for my cordon bleu cooking... after a year of cooking well with the girls I am back on my own and cooking for one isn't that much fun, I'm back to student style pasta and frozen delights.  I did have to take a bit of a guess at what nail varnish remover is too, its got the word ongles in it though so it's a good start I guess!

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!

1 week, three museums and a day "sans voitures"

I have reached the end of my first week in Brussels and it feels like I have been here so much longer than that now.  My parents only left on Friday and that feels like an age ago too.  I've had a bit of a geeky weekend, you might have gathered that I'm not exactly the usual "party-animal" Erasmus student!

On Saturday I went to the Musical Instruments Museum, it was good but not quite what I was expecting- but I don't know what I was expecting really.  All in all an ok way of passing some time though.  After that I decided to take a wander and try and find myself some lunch, I eventually found a shop a bought a salad that was labelled "Ready to eat", perfect I thought, except for the lack of fork...  After making a mess of eating my lunch I was fed up and decided to come back to the flat where I spent the afternoon watching French TV that I didn't really understand and doing some cleaning.  I did manage to fit in a quick Skype session with the parents whilst I was eating my healthy dinner, it had fish AND vegetables!

I decided that today was to be a better day than yesterday and decided to go to a couple more museums.  Today is "Dimanche sans voitures" in Brussels which means that cars are not allowed in the city from 9am until 7pm.  All public transport is free for the day and there is lots going on.  My first geeky visit of the day was to the BELvue museum which is all about the history of Belgium.  It was interesting and I might have learned something-hopefully!  After that I went and found my self a bench to eat my (2nd geeky thing) packed lunch-seriously, you would if you saw the prices of things round here.  I then decided to take a walk around but went quite a distance so decided to get the tram back to where I started!  So that Luke can't tell me off for not going I thought I'd get it over and done with and so I went to the Royal Museum of the Military, after some slight navigational issues that is!  I was actually very impressed by it, it was huge!  I wasn't paying too much attention though I must admit but as entrance is free a return visit will be on the cards.  The museum is in Parc du Cinquantenaire and today, along with the lack of cars, there was an Olympics event, London came to Brussels for the day apparently, there were even a group of police officers, I thought they were Belgians dressed up but they weren't, they were there as part of some Home Office thing promoting safety at the olympics...?

I have also decidedthat I need to stop being nice when people ask directions, this time I had no clue but showed them my map, it took them a while to find where they wanted and by the time they had the torrential rain appeared...typical.  If I hadn't helped I'd have been pretty much home and dry before it started!  Never mind!

First day of classes at ISTI tomorrow and my very first class is a non-erasmus class doing French to English translation so it is a bit scary that I'll be going totally on my own, I hope there are more Erasmus students there, but there are lots of groups so they might not be.  Wish me luck!

DIY Timetables

Today began with a French test (I say began, it wasn't until 11 but you don't want to hear about my breakfast I'm sure).  It was...interesting?  I must say parts of it I didn't have a clue about in the slightest  but other parts I think I did ok at.  We never actaully get the results, we just get put into groups 1-3 and A-D, well I'm in 3D so potentially the bottom set but who knows (all the Lancaster group are in the same class so I'm not bothered!).

I never thought I'd say this but UK unis spoil us, we don't have to work for what they give us, e.g we expect a timetable.  Think again.  Out here it is DIY timetable, although I must say at least ISTI is in the 21st century and everything is available online!  But still, it is more work than just logging on to LUVLE.  I've chosen the courses I think I want to do, got some French language, French to English translation, 20th Century French literature and then first year courses in Law and Philosophy.  28 credits (of which Lancaster will only take my best 22.5) and 11 hours a week.  Not bad when you see I start at 2 on a Monday and finish by 3 on a Thursday, nice long weekend there :)  At least that is the plan, just wait until something comes along to shatter it all again!

As this weekend is potentially the last one where I can do what I like without feeling guilty that I should be doing something else I'm going to make the most of it.  Some museums are free entry this weekend so I'm going to have a geeky weekend under the guise of DELC 310 prep (except for the musical instrument museum, that's just for me :P )

Well, bye for now!

"Welcome to ISTI...you have a French test tomorrow"

Today was a big day for two reasons, one, it was the last time I will see my parents until Christmas and two, it was the first meeting at ISTI.

I now totally agree with Lucy about the organisation of the Unis and will try not to call DELC disorganised again as we were told that as of yet there isn't actually a timetable.  This for a uni that has roughly the same amount of students as Furness college...  Basically the key to life at ISTI is the all important student card, that can only be collected at certain times on certain days and even then you might not get it!  We have to go in tomorrow for a French test in the morning, and in the afternoon we'll find out what groups we've been put in (if you're in the same group as me you know your French is bad!) and a timetable for the French classes.  The rest of our credits have to be made up from non Erasmus courses.  I'm looking at an introduction to law, a philosophy course and something economics/politics related but there are so many and we don't have to confirm our courses until the first of November so I might just go along to a few and see what takes my fancy.

Saying goodbye to Mum and Dad was as hard as ever but things will get easier once I'm stuck into classes I'm sure.  Signed my contract tonight for my room too so there's no going back now!

Wish me luck for tomorrow!