Happy 2018 tout le monde!

Me peeking round a rock to say Happy 2018. I don’t know what this style of blog post is but it just came out like this – a diary entry – so we will roll with it. Here’s what I’ve been up to in the last week. Saturday 30th December – we had our infamous…

Wow – my life is a whirlwind.

Going back to last week when I flew back to France (am I still going on about that??? – yes), something so funny happened that I weirdly forgot to mention in my last blog post. So I was sat amongst a hoard of French school students who had evidently just done a school exchange in…

My (probably useless) advice for a year abroad in France.

Starting with the all important… HYGIENE Be prepared for the lack of toilet seats and the abundance of mixed-gender toilets in public places. BUY A TOILET SEAT (if you’re in halls, IKEA do the cheapest ones) Your quads will be insane after having to squat over so many seatless toilets French deodorant is really not…

Goals, the usual week of an Erasmus student and a little bit of homesickness on the side.

Un grand bonjour à tout le monde ! I’m starting this blog post with my goal for the rest of my time in France: I need to learn more “familiar” language as at the moment I’m convinced I’m still speaking French as if I’m stuck in the 20th century, je suis comme une “mamie”. My…

Adventures: Saint-Quentin and Paris.

So, where shall I start? I braved the French hairdressers and walked out with probably the best haircut I’ve ever had – complete with a new block fringe and healthy hair following a treatment and head massage (aka heaven). Last Thursday morning I headed up to Paris on the train – the fast train only…

Snow and the start of semester 2.

Unfortunately there was only so much lazing around I could do before having to make my own timetable and start lectures again.. so on Monday lessons began, but for a couple of weeks it’s like a ‘testing the water’ period so you can chop and change between lectures until you decide what you really want…

More embarrassing things happened to me.. are you surprised?

The biggest piece of news is that I finally bought ski boots; I used the Christmas money from both sets of my Grandparents to buy them – so thank you Grandma, Grandad, Nana and Grandpa I’m very grateful!! The boots I ended up buying were the ones I set my heart on as soon as…

Christmas, New Year and studying blues.

Long time no see.. or I guess I should say ‘post’ even though it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. I had a lovely 2 weeks at home for Christmas, the time literally flew by though and before I knew it I was back in Grenoble. I only saw about half the people…

Skiing almost-disasters and airport stress.

Last Saturday we went to Les 2 Alpes and it was the first time I’ve skied in 3 years – it was such a great day; Ciara, Evie and I did our own thing on the slopes all day. Only 45€ all in all for a return bus journey to the resort, a day’s ski…

Vin chaud and more clumsiness.

The Strasbourg Christmas markets last weekend were beautiful, and Strasbourg as a whole was a lovely city with some really great architecture that’s quite unlike that of any other city I’ve visited due to its Germanic influences. We drank a lot of vin chaud, I mean a lot, tried lots of cool food, and just…

Get me to the slopes.

This week has been full of days in the library, and moments of realisation of how much work I actually have to plough through before Christmas. So, I only have three weeks left in Grenoble before I fly home for Christmas, and my workload could probably have been significantly smaller by now had I not…

It’s ok not to be ok.

The funny things that happened to me this week: A man nearly stabbed me (with the sharp end of his umbrella) I threw my disposable contact lense packet into the toilet instead of the bin (then had to fish it out..) I tripped face-first over a massive rock and have bruised all down my shins…