Last day in France
After 3 and a half AMAZING months, today is my last full day here in Lyon. My suitcase is pretty much packed ready for the flight tomorrow. I have done all the extra little things that Bangor have asked me to do (insert portfolio rant here) and am pretty much ready to go. It feels so weird to be going back home to v.cold grey England tomorrow.
Lectures finished last week, and this week was the first week of exams (over here, some happen now, and some in Januray). Technically, I would have had 3 exams to sit, but Bangor say that they don't want us to put us through extra stress of making us pass them over there. I don't even have to take them!! I could, and get a good or bad mark and they really wouldn't care as long as we've been going to class and researching for our dissertations. So instead of doing all 3, I only decided to do 1, which was Anglais Theme. It was quite easy, but I felt that it would be the most useful to me, and would give me one extra piece of translation practise. It felt very weird last week to know that I will never take lectures here again.
Last weekend was the Fete des Lumieres (which means Festival of Lights), and is the biggest festival in Lyon during the entire year. It was truely beautiful to see Lyon lit up like that. There were many different light shows happening, such as in Places des Terreaux near Hotel de Ville and St Jean cathedral in Vieux Lyon, which was my favourite. I went twice during the festival, the second time with Bangor people, and the first with my friends from my Japenese class. We went right after our last lesson finished, and had an absolute blast - seeing the lights, eating churros and watching them playing games in the arcade. That night is actually very special to me now, because it is in fact the only time I properly went out with these guys; but what better time to do it, and as they say, better late than never. Les garres, vous me manquerz beaucoup beaucoup!! Je suis certaine que je reviendrai a l'avenir!
At the end of the night, we walked up to Fourviere, which is pretty much above Vieux Lyon. Now, to get to it, there is a very lovely hill in the way - for Bangor people, after going up this hill, you will never complain about Bitch Hill EVER AGAIN!!! It's not quite as steep, but it's about twice as long. I was thinking "I'm used to this"... until I got up to the half way point. Having said that though, it was worth it, because the view at the top was AMAZING!!! Perfect time for my camera to die :'( You can see the whole city from there, and all with the lights from the fete and the ferris wheel in Bellecour, it was stunning.
As well as the Fete des Lumieres, there have also been the Christmas markets in the city. Personally, I prefer the ones in Manchester back home, but it was still a lot of fun having a look around Perrache with Ellie and Lewis, another friend from Bangor doing a teaching assistantship. There, I had one of the best jacket potatoes I have ever had in my life (it had ratatouille in it!) and Ellie brought possibly the most awesome hat I have ever seen in my life! It was... (wait for it...) and Angry Birds hat!!! It had a tuft and tail and everything!!! We then decided to have a look round Croix-Rousse, which had a couple more market stalls, as well as some farm animal pens, and went into a pub called the Dogs Bollacks (yes you read that right) for a nice brew - that was the best hot chocolate I have had in quite a while.
So since it's my last day here and my last blog francais, I'm going to do for you guys a list about the main things I am going to miss from here:
Charlotte
Lectures finished last week, and this week was the first week of exams (over here, some happen now, and some in Januray). Technically, I would have had 3 exams to sit, but Bangor say that they don't want us to put us through extra stress of making us pass them over there. I don't even have to take them!! I could, and get a good or bad mark and they really wouldn't care as long as we've been going to class and researching for our dissertations. So instead of doing all 3, I only decided to do 1, which was Anglais Theme. It was quite easy, but I felt that it would be the most useful to me, and would give me one extra piece of translation practise. It felt very weird last week to know that I will never take lectures here again.
Last weekend was the Fete des Lumieres (which means Festival of Lights), and is the biggest festival in Lyon during the entire year. It was truely beautiful to see Lyon lit up like that. There were many different light shows happening, such as in Places des Terreaux near Hotel de Ville and St Jean cathedral in Vieux Lyon, which was my favourite. I went twice during the festival, the second time with Bangor people, and the first with my friends from my Japenese class. We went right after our last lesson finished, and had an absolute blast - seeing the lights, eating churros and watching them playing games in the arcade. That night is actually very special to me now, because it is in fact the only time I properly went out with these guys; but what better time to do it, and as they say, better late than never. Les garres, vous me manquerz beaucoup beaucoup!! Je suis certaine que je reviendrai a l'avenir!
At the end of the night, we walked up to Fourviere, which is pretty much above Vieux Lyon. Now, to get to it, there is a very lovely hill in the way - for Bangor people, after going up this hill, you will never complain about Bitch Hill EVER AGAIN!!! It's not quite as steep, but it's about twice as long. I was thinking "I'm used to this"... until I got up to the half way point. Having said that though, it was worth it, because the view at the top was AMAZING!!! Perfect time for my camera to die :'( You can see the whole city from there, and all with the lights from the fete and the ferris wheel in Bellecour, it was stunning.
So since it's my last day here and my last blog francais, I'm going to do for you guys a list about the main things I am going to miss from here:
- The friends I made here - as you can probably imagine from earlier, I have made some unbelieveable new friends here both French and Erasmus. Do not believe the stereotype that the French students act cold to others because it just isn't true. Take my "Japenese" friends for instance. They took me right under their wings and have been unbelivably pateint with my French and have given me so much help and support with it. Extra big shout to Samantha, Estienne, Camille and Jack =) Merci a tous
- Food - how it NOT be in there!! - just the smell of walking past the boulongerie in Tassin every morning, or the bouchons, or Maylis' meals, or Ninkasi. I have eaten more cheese here than I have in possibly years, although wine still gives me headaches. The only downside is that I have put on quite a bit of weight - thank goodness I'm going to be going horse-riding again soon
- Japenese - I am SO glad I decided to take it up, even though it was quite difficult, and typically, I only completely understood it last week!! Having said that, it was so much fun and i will try and see if I can keep it up - even if all it means is watching a tonne of anime ;)
- The family - like my friends, they have been very pateint with my limited language (it has improved, but I am still far from fluent). The kids are all adorable and I will surely miss them very much.
- The city itself - sure it has its grimy parts, but in the right place, Lyon , especially Vieux Lyon, is really beautiful (the only time I might call Manchester beautiful is during the Christmas markets and even that's pushing it). Like Vilnius in Lithuania, I love how it goes from cobbled streets and secret passages (which are called les traboules) to something more modern. I really love it round the 2 rivers as well (the Soane and the Rhone)
Charlotte
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