Monday 28 November 2011

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...

Sunday 27 November 2011

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....

Saturday 19 November 2011

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...  


Monday 14 November 2011

"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.


Sunday 13 November 2011

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/ 




Wednesday 9 November 2011

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.


Monday 7 November 2011

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:



Tuesday 1 November 2011

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!