Salut mes amies!!
Firstly, I am happy to announce that i am alive, well and just about coping with everything that being une etudiante francaise throws at me. Today is the evening of my 6th day (crikes Iv been here for a week) and i have 100% fallen in love with the town of Nancy. It is beaut. I would even go as far as to say that it is more beautiful than Paris which is obviously a big statement.
The town itself represents an idyllic view of a typical french town, with streets after streets of grand stonewashed buildings with massive doors, and windows with private balconies and shutters. In the centre of town is place stanislas, a big square with venecian influenced architecture, lined with cafés in which it is easy to pass hours with a glass of vin rosé watching the world go by. There is also a new york style central park called Park a la pepienere, great place for chillaxing, using the outdoor gym, going to the zoo (there is a zoo in the middle of this park) and for attending concerts at the outdoor theatre - just lovely.
So aside from my lonely planet-esque quide to Nancy, my arrival here on friday was, as expected a little bit turbulent. Thanks to sally the sat-nav, we located my halls fairly quickly and on arrival the moody, unwelcoming and quite frankly fat receptionist asked me for my halls confirmation letter. At this point, i nearly exploded with anger because i did not receive such a document despite furious telephoning and emailing the residence. So she gave me an evil glare and proceeded to shuffle through piles of paper until she came across my application with my mug shot attached. Anyway - i finally got the keys to some halls down the road to the one i applied for. A dirty, depressive looking equivalent to the halls i applied for. The room i had been allocated was DISGUSTING, yellow stained thin mattress, disgusting sink and desk chair and the window was probably the only window in Nancy without a shutter!! Now, I wouldnt describe myself as a princess in most situations and i normally get on with it. However, the thought of living in that dingy room for the whole year practicaly reduced me to tears. So, long story short - I complained to said horrible reception lady who phoned the 'directrice' to see if i could be re- allocated to a better room. A better room which i am now tucked up in bed in, a better room with a window shutter, an en-suite, lovely mattress etc etc. HAPPY DAYS.
So after dumping my bags in my better room I left to make my way to the welcome meeting for erasmus students in the faculté de droit (the law school). I obviously got lost as i only left myself 15 mins to get there and i was obviously 25minutes late - standard behaviour. Although it seems that being late is easily forgiven here which bodes well for me as i would be late for my own funeral. The lecturer jabbered on in french for a good two hours explaining how great this year will be for us - even though theres gonna be loads of work. I quickly noticed that there was a large section of brit kidz in the meeting and Monsieur Gassier warned us that the brit kidz are renowned for hanging out together and this is something we must not do because we will not improve our french. And what did we do? We all got together that evening, pre drank a bottle of €2 vin rosé and continued to get suitably trashed together at the welcome evening in the LOVE BOAT. The LOVE BOAT for future reference
is absolutely amazing, we brit kidz absolutely can not get enough of the LOVE BOAT with its playlist mainly consisting of hits from the 90s' (Shania Twain and the Spice Girls) and it is likely that we will surpass many a soiree there. I did, however, integrate with the other erasmus students, have met lots of lovely german girls, a greek guy who is 'mon meillure amie' (basically my new gay best friend) - i hope Monsieur Gassier will be proud. But the brit kidz are deffo winning in the popularity stakes, they are all lovely, up for a laugh and bring a little bit of home with them.
In other news - i have succesfully managed to set up my own french bank account, french phone, i have bought and eaten lots of baguettes, and attended and understood a few sentences of REAL french law lectures. I would say im nearly a fully fledged french citizen. Very nearly.
Start booking in your visits people - i cant wait.
BISOUS XXXXXOOOO
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