Pain, vin, fromage et saucisson.

I think it's fair to say that despite having been here for over 6 weeks (God is it really that long already?) I haven't really lived the French life. I spend most of my time with the Erasmus group, who lovely as they are we always speak English, or curled up in my room catching up with British TV. It came as quite a shock then to get on a train to Vichy and spend an internet-less weekend in a small village in the countryside with a French family.

On the Friday evening my friend Marine and I hopped on to a train to make our way to her home in Brugheas, where her family had very kindly offered me to stay for the weekend to experience real French life, and what a life it is. I very quickly learnt the importance of food in the French home, especially when you have guests. I mean, we all know that France is the country of fine dining, but who knew that they have two 5 course meals a day? It's insane! Although I am very grateful and I did get to try many new things including the four French staples of pain, vin, fromage (all from the Auvergne region) and saucisson, and of course who can sample the great French cuisine without munching on les escargots?`

I think it's safe to say that most of the weekend was spent sat around the dining table, slowly digesting the feasts and enjoying the company. Marine's family is very sweet and traditional, and her parents take part in a weekly folk dancing group in Clermont Ferrand. Another exchange student from America, Jason, joined us on the Saturday morning and that evening was very enjoyable with Marine's dad playing the accordion and her mum teaching us all some of the regional folk dances. It was definitely one of the highlights of my weekend.

As for those rare moments in between meals, on the Saturday Marine took us on a tour of Vichy, only a short drive away. I know it is a popular tourist site, but Vichy really is quite a lovely town, even in the cold October rain. We visited a few main sites on the way, such as the Opera and La Mairie, but one of the most unique things about Vichy is its natural springs, famed for their healing properties. No visit is complete without going and tasting these springs, although I soon discovered that they were of an acquired taste, especially those of a sulphur base.

All in all it was a very lovely weekend spent in good company. I thank my host family very much and would love to get another opportunity to visit and experience more of that wondrous French life.

Me and Jason outside the Opera at Vichy

The Only Way Is Up

The last 3 weeks seem to have flown by, but at the same time have gone really slowly. I would make an excuse that I've been to busy to blog, but that's not true. I just haven't been bothered. Whenever I open a new document to try to write down some experiences nothing comes out, and when I do have stuff to talk about I just never get round to writing it up.

I know my last few posts have been quite pessimistic, and I'm not going to say that everything's plain sailing and I'm not homesick, because that just wouldn't be true. However, I will bring you up to speed on a few more positive experiences.

It sounds cheesy, but everything really is better when you make friends. Admittedly I haven't spoken to many French people yet, but the Erasmus people I've met are lovely and since becoming part of that group I haven't had down days like I did before I met anyone. I bumped into most people while touring the offices in the last few weeks because we ended up queuing together for so long, but last Saturday we had a 'journée d'integration' which was a great way to meet new people. Honestly, I didn't have high hopes - you don't expect much from "fun activities", but cheesy as it was I really enjoyed it. We separated into groups and had challenges like an egg and spoon race and apple bobbing, and then went around the city trying to sell pink loo roll to little old French ladies, or swapping a paperclip for something 'interesting' - we got a peach, a lighter and a bottle top, who knew? In the groups we also had to take 'funny' pictures at certain places around town - the highlight for me was when we recreated a wedding on the cathedral steps, using the toilet paper as decorations.

All in all it was a very good day, and on the Sunday a large group of us went out together again, this time to the Puy-de-Dome, a dormant volcano that overlooks Clermont. (Expect a separate post about that soon). Things have definitely improved since I last wrote, and I hope they will continue to. I'm not the most sociable person at the best of times and doing a year abroad really throws you in at the deep end, but we're all in a similar situation and have to stick together. I've found a group of good friends who I've been out with a few times in the last week and I hope we continue to have adventures together.

Topsy Turvy

The more time I spend in France, the more I seem to notice the differences between here and home. On Tuesday I was saying how similar it seemed to be to England, just a slightly Frencher version, but now I've been here a week it couldn't be further from it.

On the face of it, Clermont does seem to be like a larger, prettier version of Nottingham, but once you scratch the surface, everything just seems to be wrong. The first major problems I encountered were with the roads. It's fairly obvious that they drive on the wrong side of the road, and I know this should be relatively simple to conquer, but it must just be engrained into my subconscious to look right then left. There have been several moments (ok, a lot) when I've stepped out into the road to jump straight back because a car's come zooming round the corner that I wasn't expecting. Something I didn't know before either was that just because it's a green man doesn't mean it's safe to cross. I thought that was the universal symbol of road crossing safety, but apparently it can be ignored.

As the week has progressed, I've begun to get used to the little things like that, but the one major difference that I just can't get over is the university system (or lack thereof). Back in England I'm sure I've probably complained at some point about NOW not working (our online student portal), tutors not responding, or just a lack of things happening, but now I'm never going to complain again, and if I do, I welcome people to remind me of this week.

In the UK I took the university system for granted. A lot of it was done online. We had open days, freshers week and always knew who we could go and talk to or where we could go if we had a problem. I never really appreciated the fact that we got told what modules we were doing and that our timetables magically appeared online until last week when I was running around like a headless chicken from department to department to find out what courses I can do, when they are and if I have any timetable clashes. Classes start tomorrow morning and I still have no idea what I'm doing. The only class I do know that I have is at 10am, when I have my rescheduled enrolment meeting after they were too busy with paperwork last week.

One of France's great loves (other than baguettes) seems to be paperwork. To do anything you need at least 20 copies of passports, EHICs, birth certificates and student cards (slightly problematic), and I don't think they even know what to do with them. We have to fill out so many forms for each department (there seems to be too many departments) and despite having about 3 coordinators each, there seems to be no coordination whatsoever between them. England, I'm sorry for anything negative I've ever said. I love your computer systems, I miss having everything in one place, and I want to give our year abroad coordinators a big hug.

An Unexpected Journey

Well, maybe not quite so unexpected. I seem to have been waiting to go on my year abroad for years now, but now that it's finally here it certainly seems like as great an adventure as Bilbo's.

I arrived at the field of an airport of Clermont Ferrand Monday afternoon, and let's just say that the city itself doesn't quite match up to the beauty of the surrounding string of mountains and volcanoes. Don't get me wrong, Clermont seems like a lovely place, but reality never quite reaches expectations.

Every time I go on Facebook it seems like everyone else I know starting their year abroad is having an amazing time, meeting so many people and settling in really well to their fancy new homes with the luxurious beach view. For me the picture is not quite the same. For one thing, being homeless somewhere completely foreign can be completely stressful, and not just in the language sense. You're not entirely sure what you're doing or what you have to do, you have your eyes glued to Google maps so you don't get lost (NB: still very easy to get lost), you find no luck ringing around for a home, and you're buried 6 foot deep in paperwork that you need done by Monday morning yet have no possible way of completing it in that time.

On a more positive note (today has gone a lot better, feeling slightly more optimistic), I think in a way that this is what makes the year abroad. Yes it is incredibly hard work at the time and there are moments where you just want to curl into a ball and cry while eating your body weight in chocolate, but I'm hoping that in a month's time (providing I'm not still homeless) I will look back on this and see it as a learning curve. Others may have breezed through their time abroad, but who has learnt the most really? The amount of people I've had to phone alone has taught me a lot in itself, not least about dealing with a new SIM card and what "wrong number" is in French (it took me a while, I ended up just hanging up).

In the end, I guess that the point of this is to go on an adventure, and what's an adventure without a few mishaps?

Review: The Tempest

As a fan of Shakespeare and Colin Morgan alike, it is no wonder that I found myself standing in the yard of the Globe theatre on Saturday afternoon waiting expectantly for Jeremy Herrin's production of the Tempest to begin.

A brilliant performance overall, the show was not without its highlights. As is to be expected, there was great comedy from the characters of Stephano and Trinculo, especially when I was sung to by Stephano as 'Mary' in a bawdy song, much to the amusement of my friend. More comedic elements were also brought in through the excellent performances of Jessie Buckley and James Garbon, playing Miranda and Caliban respectively.

The main man of the hour, however, was Roger Allam, taking on the principal role of Prospero. An incredible Shakespearean actor, he relished in the role and his interpretation of Prospero's Renunciation was something to behold, despite a premature round of applause.

For me however, the star of the show was Colin Morgan in the role of the spirit Ariel. I can't deny that I'm already a huge fan of his work (he notably played the lead role in the BBC series Merlin), but he really gave an outstanding performance, taking on every element of the character fully, from the light-footed leaping around stage and swinging from the above platform, to such an emotive relationship with Prospero.

The one downside to this though, was the fangirls attracted to the show by Colin's appearance. There was a group stood next to us that were clearly there just for him and showed little respect for the rest of the cast, who were equally incredible, and even for his performance. Their proximity to the young actor and whether he looked at them or not seemed to be the only things that mattered about the whole performance. This was rather distracting, but I'm hoping that this was just an exception.

On a lighter note, I must acknowledge the crew behind the show as well as the cast. It was a very well thought out show, and the task of recreating the tempest on stage was done very cleverly. The costumes too were excellent, especially that of Caliban. At the start of the show, I was rather confused by the costume choice for Ariel, but as the play went on, you got used to it and began to understand why that choice was made.

The final stars that must be noted are the musicians. The show began with a clarinet and mandolin on stage, and ended with a full on band and grand dance that was all in good fun. They were spectacular throughout the whole play, providing background music, but the finale was something quite special.

Overall this production of the Tempest was excellent, creating a great atmosphere. I would happily go again and would definitely recommend it, although next time maybe sitting down.