It's basically the two year mark now since I left Perth in August 2011 to go on exchange. Emotionally I am more stable now but the impact of exchange is still profound. In February 2013 I applied to be a Peer Advisor for the UWA Study Abroad office and was accepted. Below is the application form I filled in. I wrote it with passion, I still feel the passion and I want this recorded online so I can reread it to myself at any time so I can fill myself with joy.

2013 Exchange Peer Advisor Online Application

Why are you interested in becoming a Peer Adviser?

My study abroad experience has been my best undertaking to date and has positively impacted my life on so many levels, more than I had ever anticipated. I wholeheartedly believe that exchange is a unique and privileged experience for students to learn, embrace life and develop themselves in ways they cannot yet know. This Peer Adviser position would be a natural and formal extension of what I already do on a regular basis: share my amazing exchange story with others and convince my uni friends to go study abroad and find out what I am talking about for themselves.

How did your period of overseas study through the UWA Student Exchange Program impact on your personal and professional goals?

The UWA Student Exchange Program's impact on my personal and professional goals has been huge and profound. It has completely revolutionised my perspective of the world and every life decision I have made since my exchange can be directly or indirectly related to the program.

First of all my personal goal of improving my French language skills has been completely satisfied and is something that I continue to be proud of. Exchange offered the best opportunity for me to practise the language in a legitimate, effective and enjoyable way and has, in my mind, validated my status as a French major at UWA.

In terms of the program's impact on my other personal goals; it made me realise that I want to be an ex-patriate worker, a globe-trotter and a wanderer. I have made it a life goal now to live on every continent and learn another three languages. Exchange has made me aware that I thrive in multi-cultural settings and that I feel at the height of life when I am far from home and faced with new challenges, new systems and a new way of living. 

I am fortunate enough to come from a developed country and to undertake a study abroad program. In my intense newfound happiness of travelling, studying at a different institution and speaking a foreign language - I came to realise that my privileged existence is an exception rather than a rule. Whilst studying abroad I became more aware that billions elsewhere were impoverished or suffering a form of social injustice whilst I was having fun. During my time abroad; UWA's Student Exchange Program allowed me a chance to evaluate my general direction in life and has helped me decide I want to be a champion of social justice and channel my career efforts down this pathway.

My professional goals are closely related to my personal goals. The UWA Student Exchange Program has made me realise that I am not interested in climbing the corporate ladder. Thanks to my newfound interest in seeing the world, I hope to develop some hard business skills in Perth before travelling abroad to volunteer and work for different social justice and development organisations.

What would you suggest would be useful for the Student Exchange Adviser to convey to prospective exchange students in the future?

I think it is important to emphasise that the bother, hassle and paperwork required in preparation to go on exchange is infinitely negligible when compared to the gains and benefits of actually going on exchange. The effort is incomprehensibly worth the ensuing life-changing adventure.

What types of promotional activities do you suggest would increase participation rates by UWA students in the Student Exchange Program?

Students in certain degrees can go to certain universities. I think the Study Abroad Office could highlight particular international universities that accept certain degree-undertakers during lectures to personalise the Student Exchange Program promotion.

For example, if there is a university that is well-renowned for science and has a exchange program with UWA, UWA could promote that particular university to students in science lectures and emphasise the prestige and degree-relevance of doing exchange there.

How would you encourage students to consider studying abroad?

I would promote exchange from a very personal and human perspective. I would highlight that life is too short for fears and doubts and share how much my exchange changed my life for the better. I would ask the student, "just answer this question directly ignoring all other factors, does studying for a semester or a year abroad sound exciting to you?" If the students answers yes - it shows that they have a little flame of interest inside and I would put all my energy into stoking it further alight by emphasising that exchange is a guaranteed adventure, an opportunity to grow, see the world, make friends and to discover oneself.

Familiar faces in unfamiliar places

Why hello there, I thought I’d post up a blog covering my recent travels around Europe; places comprising of Barcelona, the south of France, Venice, Berlin and London. I’ll just write a quick rundown of my impressions of each place :)

Barcelona 17-19 December 2011

This was the first stop for Wradle (Rachel) and I and let’s just say that it certainly set the bar high for the rest of the European cities we were going to visit!! Basically – it was love at first sight in Barcelona. The sun was shining, there were trees everywhere – there was SPACE.

What we seriously couldn’t get over was the wide open spaces on the streets of Barca. The roads are extremely pedestrian friendly. I loved how nature, i.e., trees and shrubs could be found everywhere dispersed throughout the city.

Don’t even get me started on their architecture… Their buildings, even just their everyday buildings are just soo nice. Wow. Great warm colours for their buildings as well! Wradle and I were content just to stop in the middle of streets and gape. It’s amazing that one can get tingles down one’s spine just by BEING on the streets. Wow.

Tip to anyone travelling to Barcelona – CHECK OUT any building designed by the Spanish architect Gaudí. Frigging amazing.

Marseille 21 December 2011

The feel of this great southern city in France is somewhat less charming than others I’ve visited – which is not to say that it wasn’t nice. Wradle and I only spent one day here so we stuck by the vieux port which is a KEY destination in Marseille – being a great port city of France.

First up, we went up to the basilica Notre Dame de la Garde which is up on a super high hill. It had GORGEOUS views of Marseille and the ocean. Wow. I really enjoyed that church visit :)

The other main thing we did in Marseille that day was take a ferry out to the Île de Frioul – only a 15-20 minute boat ride away from Marseille. We loved the amazing views of the ocean and Marseille on the boat ride over as well. So … wow.

In Marseille – I also saw the most beautiful dusk over the port in my life. I won’t even try to describe the depth of the blue I saw that evening. *shiver*

Some things to note about Marseille… Well firstly, at least every second or third car there had a ding!! The roads there are craaazzyy busy, confusing, narrow and tight. Holy crap. I was SO glad we decided not to rent a car ‘cause it would not HAVE been a calm experience.

The metro closed before midnight. This… shocked me. Marseille is the second largest city in France – I just couldn’t comprehend that their main transport links shut that early…

Finally – there’s a RIDICULOUS amount of pharmacies in Marseille. It was literally every 3-4 minutes of walking that we could see a pharmacy. …what???????

Oh not to mention – I had me some bouillabaisse for dinner that night – which is a regional dish consisting of a type of salty-ish soup and a platter of seafood and bread and you get to dunk the fish etc into the soup :) I can happily say I’ve had me another traditional French dish!

Menton 22 December 2011

Menton is the little French town on dreams on the Riviera. When I was researching places in France to do my exchange – I originally wanted to go to the Sciences Po campus in Menton due to the beauty of the town. Basically – Menton is right on the border of Italy (literally within walking distance, which is what we did do).

Stunning is the only adjective I have really. So beautiful… I was very, very happy to have made it to Menton. When I decided to go to Lille instead – I always told myself that I would make it down to Menton.

Monaco 23 December 2011

Monaco, which is super close to Menton, is also a very nice place which is to be expected since it’s on the Riviera!

Basically – it’s a place for rich bitches. I think the most noteworthy thing is that we lost five euro playing the pokies in a casino :P

Venice 24^th – 27^th December 2011

Venice was probably the place I liked the least during our travels. The canals themselves were of course pretty cool but the city was a very confusing place to try to navigate. Had we not had our maps with us at ALL times – we would’ve been so screwed.

I think by this stage of our trip, we were starting to feel a bit numbed by all the amazing new places we were seeing. It gets tiring being wowed by new cities all the time! I know, I know, first-world problems :p

Berlin 28 – 31 December 2011

Berlin – wow. It was a definite sea-change to the other cities we had visited so far. It’s all fairly modern with a distinct difference between east and west Berlin. The former having many more uhhh practical buildings whilst the west had gorgeous modern structures reflecting the section’s wealth.

I HAVE to recommend the Sandemans free walking tour. It was amazing to walk around the city and have its history recounted in a really interesting and accessible way. Berlin was like high school modern history come to life – a feeling I really love.

New Years in Berlin was also… wow. It’s the first time I’ve actually felt that elusive New Year’s vibe in reality out on the streets. Everyone was out on the streets drinking, setting off fireworks and randomly dancing! It as so great :D I loved how the city made you feel alive. Furthermore, the city of Berlin put on a free concert with cool lighting and effects and everything :D Just… wow. :)

London 1 – 4 January 2012

Oh, to have cars that drive on the left hand side of the road! I liked London overall – but travel numbness had really hit hard by then. It’s a super multi-cultural place, and there were numerous times where I’d hear so many foreign languages on the street that I’d forget that I was in an English-speaking country. (England itself nonetheless…) It was also the first time I’d been in an English-speaking environment since leaving Australia so yeah… It felt really weird to know that it’s OKAY to speak English haha!

In London I did many-a touristy thing. I got onto one of those sightseeing buses and took heaps of crooked photos of places and things I don’t quite recall… By this stage Wradle and I had split up but I linked up with a uni friend from Perth and we hung out a bit as well :)

A favourite memory was our pub crawl through Camden Town in north London. Fell in the love with the music at the club Proud Camden – a definite re-visit if I ever go back to London

On my last day there – my friend and I went and did the London Dungeon tour – a bit cheesy! Topped off with posing with the waxworks at Madam Tussauds :p

Ski-trip in the Savoie soon this Saturday!

A language state of mind

Hey there folks, it’s been just over a month since I last blogged, time is so stretchy that I really can’t decide if that’s a long time or not! This particular blog is more of a language-y centric one – I realised that it’s time to comment on my language skills.

First thing I’ve noticed with my French is that it’s much easier to change between French and English. I remember when I first got here, if I spent heaps of time by myself watching something in English or skyping in English or whatever I found it really difficult to speak French for about 10 minutes after getting out of getting out of my little hidey-hole room.

There’s another interesting thing I’ve noticed about the way language is learned. I find that I just use some phrases so reflexively that I’ve realised that people learn languages through the memorisation of complete phrases. Undoubtedly my French education has helped me so much with knowing what constitutes a grammatically correct sentence but all that knowledge doesn’t always come out fast enough when you’re trying to speak. Hence, writing rather than speaking is always easier!

In French, there are two forms of saying ‘you’ which is the tu/vous form. The former is informal and the later is formal. The language structure changes (e.g., the conjugations) according to the form you use. Because I am not French and I don’t have this inherent social hierarchy conditioned into me, I have a lot of problems with the vous form. When I’m simply forced to speak rapidly, I use the ‘tu’ form most of the time by accident because I’m simply used to speaking to friends. Sucks! I’ve had so many “oh shit” moments just after I’ve used the ‘tu’ form and there’s nothing you can do about it after you’ve said it :(

Overall, I’m also finding that I’m expressing myself :) It’s a good feeling! I don’t always speak perfectly and sometimes I have to explain what I want to say in an incredibly round-about fashion but I get there :) Most of the time as well, people can explain a word that I don’t understand in French. It’s always a good thing when you can receive an explanation for a word you don’t understand in the language that you are learning – means that your vocabulary is decent enough!

Long story short, I don’t know how to define myself in terms of being a French speaker. I definitely speak the language and I’ve had hours upon hours of conversations with friends in the language and for the most part it feels like I can say exactly what I want to say. But on the other hand, I am NO way near being ‘fluent’ as it were. Becoming intimate with a language takes a long time – certainly something very very difficult to achieve in only 6 months.

One other fairly big thing I’ve noted is the Franglais in my head. The French is starting to take over, so I code-switch and have half English/French sentences in my head or I’ll use English words with French constructions. Crazy stuff.

So basically at the moment I’m on a train headed to Paris to start a wicked Eurotrip with my best friend :) I mixed drinks last night so for the first time ever/a very long time I actually have a hangover and it’s blarrrggghhhh so I will blog in more detail later haha

I ♥ TECHNO

I really do :)

Hellos! 

Tonight I'm just smashing out a quick blog, talking about the weekend I just passed in Ghent, Belgium attending the frigging awesome I ♥ TECHNO show !!! 

Basically, going to a electro-y music concert at some point during my exchange had been on my to-do list and yet again I can happily state that I have done what I've set out to do here!! Furthermore... well... I used to watch some youtube clips of electro/trance/dance music where the scene depicted would be some massive industrial rave party thing where the strobe lights were numerous and pretty and the industrial-sized venue is just packed out with people dancing - and I always thought to myself "I wonder if that could be me there one day". Well, yes, it definitely was me that night :D :D :D 

Highlights: Digitalism and Aoki. 

Where have Digitalism been all my life? Seriously!! Their performance has got to be one of the best - if not THE best shows I have ever seen. The image I'll never forget is the finale of their set - where the synth member of the band hustled over and stood next to the drum kit and smashed out the last amaaaaaazing beat with the drummer with one drumstick !!!!! There is something orgasmically intense about mixing real drums with synth. Wow. 

As for Aoki - well... that man seriously knows what he's doing - let's just say that. His set literally took my breath away :)

Kate, Alex and I sweated like PIGS inside the venue!! So hot!! But oh so good :D :D :D 

So far I am racking up a ridiculous amount of good memories on exchange ♥

AMSTERDAM|SARAJEVO|VERSAILLE|LOIRE VALLEY

 Folks – I have had a crazy last two weeks worth of travelling and cruisin’ about it!!! I’ll start from the beginning.

Amsterdam

(22^nd - 24^th October)

Oh god – what a f’fest! But in a good way? Everything worked out. The reason why I went to Amsterdam was to do a tour of the Dutch countryside and its main dyke: the Alfsluitdijk! I burned with curiosity over how the Dutch actually fought the sea. Luckily I was able to get on a tour about a week or two before it finished for the season!

SO. My good friend Inés threw a house party on the Friday night and of course I partied-hard :) My bus to Amsterdam was the next day at 4:30pm so I had plenty of time to recover and ready myself for my weekend trip. I ended up spending quite a bit of time at Inés’ on the Saturday just chilling out and helping clean up (haha the house was a mess) but I left just with enough time to get home and get back to the station for my bus etc… well… that was assuming that the public transport was running as per usual! I found out too late that my particular train line was down due to a fire or some other reason. What was normally a 15 minute or so trip home ended up taking about 35-45 minutes with another 35-45 minutes to get back to the city centre on the replacement busses.

You know – I’ve often had this nightmare that I’ve missed a bus and I’ve had to end up running after it – watching it drive off into the distance. I always thought I was too organised for that to happen… well… let’s just say the vision became a reality. I got to the station at exactly 4:30, with just enough time to be running furiously and willy-nilly (and frankly quite dangerously…) through the busy streets of Lille after this stupid bus! But… it got away. I had a “oh god, wallow in misery” moment for a minute or so as I sat on a bollard watching the traffic in dismay. I was shattered! Honestly I paid a fair bit for my last minute Amsterdam trip and I was really really sad that I was going to miss my tour. L L

Then, like how I usually do, I pulled my shit together, made the decision to try to salvage my trip and headed straight to the sales desk of the train station – where I was lucky enough to pick up train tix to Amsterdam for about 54€. Still a fair bit but a very, very good price for an ultra last minute purchase! So this new train was meant to leave at about 8pm but then it got cancelled! I couldn’t believe it when I first heard. I was already sooo drained because of the stress, the party the night before and not having eaten properly. LUCKILY there was another train to Amsterdam an hour after that so I was able to simply replace my tickets without charge. But still. This new train connection took me into Holland at fricking 1am – I was supposed to be there at 11pm the night before!!! Strained, drained, tired, stressed: all suitable adjectives for Jess that night.

The positives of my trip however was that my couchsurfing gig went off without a hitch :) my hosts were very, very nice and welcoming and I felt totally fine staying with them!
The tour itself was also amazing :) I got to see a clog making demo, cheese making demo, some windmills (lol), the enclosing dyke (Afsluitdijk) and some awesome little villages called Edam and Volendam! :D These little villages were amazing… so beautiful and peaceful with really great quaint little houses! Nothing like the suburban uniformity of Perth. Arrrgh :D loved it!

I’ll mention a few little tidbits of info I picked up from my tour :) Holland has ummm some ‘created land’ from this century because they drained more water and voilà – more space. The first section, built in the fifties I think? Has loads of roads and was designed as a driving-area because back then – everyone totally thought that cars were the way of the future! The second patch of land was built later… maybe the sixties or seventies I think? Awareness of the environmental impact of cars was more prevalent and so this newer city/area is a public transport haven – every dwelling in the area was within walking distance to some kind of public transport stop!! It was fascinating to hear about how the design of each area at different times reflected the mainline thoughts of the decade :P

There’s also a region in Holland where traditionally, of course, everyone wore fancy costume-y things and as for the kids, the little boys didn’t get their hair cut until 4 years old and their costumes also involved a skirt! So how to tell apart the difference? The boys had some distinctive embroidery on their clothes :)

I think one of my favourite memories of the trip was when the guide was discussing the four islands that belong to Holland in the north. She was saying that during low tide it is actually possible to walk from the mainland to the island BUT to NEVER go without an experienced guide. I anticipated that she was going to say “when the tide comes up and you’re lost you’ll be swept out to sea”. Instead what she said was “you’re lost, the tide comes up and then you get problems”!!! Hahaha, what a euphemism! Because of course Dutch was her native language – it was just such a funny way to describe the situation! “you get problems” = you’ll get swept out to sea and probably die. Heheheh :’)

Basically – life in Holland would be soo gewd. Damn. Their cheeses are tasty. I rkn they’re better than French cheeses too!!

So yeah, I got back to Lille on the Monday morning TOTALLY exhausted but pulled it together in order to do a linguistics test that Monday afternoon :P I couldn’t really believe it but three nights later I was going to go to Sarajevo! TIME! I just don’t have any anymore.

Sarajevo

So I stepped into arrivals at the airport to be greeted immediately by my long-time friend Amar! I had absolutely NO plans for Sarajevo! All I knew was he was going to meet me at the airport and that I was staying with his friends. It is really quite refreshing to be able to do a holiday like that! Just gooo with the flow.

Just to let you know: food in Sarajevo is cheap! :D

The first stop was the Yu café in the Ilidža district. So quaint J It’s decorated in remembrance of Yugoslavia… They had painted a picture of the mascot of their olympics on the wall :p

Randomly: SO MUCH SMOKING IN BOSNIA!!! It can get overwhelming sitting in a café somewhere and 80% of the people inside are puffing away!

Then on the Friday, Amar and his friends still had some classes so I tagged along to their uni: The International University of Sarajevo. I sat in on a Turkish language class (I couldn’t tell the difference between the Bosnian and the Turkish haha) and also an English language class. Let’s just say the English language class was interesting… The teacher wasn’t a native speaker and uhhh… yeah. I will comment no more on the teaching styles of the uni.

That afternoon was delightful! Amar’s friend Lejla took me to ___________ park (I can’t say/spell it in Bosnian) and it was gorgeous… After all the cigarette smoke of densely populated places in Sarajevo it was so good to be out and about in total nature with fresh air J

Saturday I had cevapi! It’s a traditional Bosnian dish: flat pita-like bread with little skinless sausages and chopped onion to be eaten with some yoghurt. So yummy! I spent Saturday meandering through the streets of Sarajevo with Amar and Lejla and tried sheesha (nagila?). What a headrush! I also went to Sarajevo’s twist tower and had a lovely overview of the city from the 35^th floor!

Saturday night was going-out night! The club was ummm different? There were tables everywhere and no actual dancefloor. The music was definitely different!! A live Bosnian band was playing kind of traditional folky-type Bosnian music? The girls were getting so into it and busting out the lyrics whilst I was sorta bopping along awkwardly on the side. It really wasn’t my genre nor my culture!! Then after 1.5hours of that, they switched back to more electro-y songs that were mixed quite well!

Sunday was a really chill day. In the afternoon Lejla and I went to the ruins of a small castle and again had a gorgeous gorgeous overview of Sarajevo at dusk. :’) Then we had dinner of potato pita (so YUM Jesus Christ) and cherry-choco cake. I was so happy… good food and good company and a brand new city. So happy.

Versaille

So I was back into Paris by Monday night and on the Tuesday was Versaille day! I was so happy because as I was waiting in line to by the 25€ ticket to get in to the palace and gardens, I found out by chance that because I am technically a French student with my visa and student card – I got free entry!!!!! Bam :D

The palace exterior was of course VERY very nice. Very grand. Honestly though: I didn’t like the inside. It was soo crowded with people and each room was jam packed full of luxurious, over-the-top French antiquities! Such as paintings and furniture etc. It was overwhelming and honestly not that special-an experience.

The gardens are another thing altogether though… I spent a good 2-3 hours simply meandering the grounds of Versaille! The gardens are immaculate and numerous… and the trees are trimmed in the cutest CUTEST ways!!!!! Hahah :D T’was a good day after all.

PS I don’t have romantic associations with Paris so much anymore. The first thing that comes to mind when I hear ‘Paris’ is “cher” or “expensive”.

The Loire Valley

So I took the TGV from Paris – Tours just in time for the tour’s 9:30 AM start :) The three other people in the tour were actually Aussies from Melbourne :P

First chateau: Chenonceau! Gorgeous! Totally different to Versaille… the whole place was so tastefully decorated and not overwhelming at all like the palace!

Then lunch. I got to try six different wines in total. Wines here in France aren’t classified by the grape or method of production but rather the region in which the grapes were grown! The lunch itself was a tasting plate of different kinds of meats and cheeses. Yummy!! The freshly baked bread that day was amazing… so amazing.

The second chateau was Amboise – my favourite I think. It was a royal chateau so grand and airy… I mix of gothic and renaissance architecture!

The third chateau: Clos Lucé is a bit difficult to classify as a ‘chateau’ as it’s not too big. Some argue it’s really a ‘manor’. It was the place where da Vinci lived when he was in France!

Basically – I loved the tour. It was just so… nice to be out and about somewhere completely different to Perth where the richness of the land, culture and architecture was just another world…  So yes, I had an awesome mid-semester beak.

My next lot of trips to look forward to is a concert/rave in Gent in Belgium called I ♥ Techno, then after that MAYBE Rennes, after that, Cologne, Barcelona, south of France, Venice, Berlin and London baby!! Oh not to mention a ski trip in there after exams :)

…I don’t know how I’m going to be able to come back home… I’m just having way too much fun.

Quoi? C'est déjà octobre??/What? It's already October??

Bonjour tout le monde!! Hiya everybody…

I think it’s safe to say that I have been a very bad exchange-student-who-has-promised-to-blog-all-of-her-overseas-experiences-in-a-regular-fashion… But yes, I firstly would like to apologise to everyone…

Life here in Lille in the past 6 weeks or so has been sooo hectic!! I honestly just couldn’t be f’ed going into a state of meditation in order to write a meaningful blog. This is a shame, as I know, without a doubt, that I won’t be able to recall my experiences as clearly as I would have been able to had I blogged on a fortnightly basis or so. As they say, keeping track of memories is like trying to contain water in the palm of your hands.

However, the issue of my blog has been nagging me guiltily – and I HAVE been wanting to write this latest update so here we go :)

I would like to forewarn you that this may be a LONG blog… There is just soo much to discuss in many different areas! Should I employ the use of sub-headings? I think so.

WARNING RANTING AND STRONG LANGUAGE AHEAD

The university admin/French admin & service in general

Oh my god. How to approach this land-mine of a topic… Most other exchange students here who come from first-world countries will probably agree with me when I say that the administrative system here at Lille 3 IS SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!! I have literally ranted on and on for days to other students and generally anyone who talks to me about how stupid, difficult to navigate and inefficient the system is here. ~I have to warn, this rant about Lille 3’s admin system is closely related to what I perceive of the French working ethos.~

~side note: French working ethos. AS a general, French service workers etc will NOT go out of their way to make your life easier. Maybe because it’s because of their shorter working hours (another separate rant) or maybe it’s because they have a national staffing issue?? Or maybe it’s just because they’re French and surly, don’t expect that because you’re a client/customer and therefore contributing to the employee’s livelihood that you’re going to receive acceptable service~

I will tie in these concepts of French inefficiency/laziness/poor work culture & practices with my experience at Lille 3. For example: the exchange students all had to go to this big talk/introduction lecture for studies at Lille 3. It was held in a lecture theatre with a powerpoint presentation. This lecture contained SHITLOADS of useful information. In French. With no handouts containing the exact same information as the presentation. Do you KNOW how hard it is to comprehend important information as well as take notes in a different language??? It still bugs me so much to this day that the Relations Internationales  (RI) Office didn’t print out any fucking handouts with the exact same information as the powerpoint presentation!!! I shit you not, after the presentation, about 20+ students surged forwards and overwhelmed the RI staff with questions concerning what was just presented. Then the staff had the gall to look frustrated at us. I was seriously thinking “wow, you’re really stressed and you’re now swarmed by confused students who don’t speak fluent French. Maybe if you fucking printed out handouts we could then take that information home, use a dictionary and understand the material in our own time”. This is just one example of how I don’t think the French understand the concepts of efficiency and effectiveness. I can think of a maxim that loosely says “the harder you work, the less you have to do”. I think the French should bloody learn this! Had the RI office printed out handouts and distributed the information in both a written and oral form – then they wouldn’t have a swarms of students asking in broken French questions that had already been clearly addressed!! The RI staff could simply say “read the hand out and come back if you have a question that’s NOT addressed in the hand out”. So simple!!!!!!! So much duplication of effort here in France ugh.

I mentioned earlier that the French have a “fend for yourself” attitude to service work. This first presentation at Lille 3 is example of that. I.e., take your own notes – we’re going to give you jack-shit in terms of any useful handouts.

 I also mentioned that I was not happy with the fact the RI staff had the gall to look impatient and pissed off with the international students for asking them questions that were related to being bloody international students!!! For those who will spend an extended period of time in France – you will meet those employees who will make you feel like you’re intruding on them, even when it’s their job to look after you. This is especially true for secretaries. It’s horrible to be made to feel like you’re wasting a staff member’s time when really, they’re getting paid to attend to your needs.

Courses

I was SOOOOO confused about how to sign up for classes when I got here. I thought I had to write my name on a list in order to attend a class. I thought it was a system from the dark ages but … I was willing to go along with it.

After much confusion, I finally realised that one cannot ‘sign up’ to classes here at Lille 3!! You have to look at the course guide (some were printed, some only available online, wtf?) choose the classes you want, go to the office of the UFR (i.e., the general faculty office), find the hours of the classes you want and then simply rock up. YOU SIMPLY ROCK UP.

Issue #1: When one is stressed, tired, busy and suffering from university administration culture shock, trying to write down the hours and locations of classes from a pissy little A4 sheet of paper whilst battling the 15 other students trying to do the same thing is FUCKING ANNOYING!! The university only released the hours and locations of classes 2-3 days before the official start of university!!!! What??

Issue #2: Because the university has allowed a free-for-all intake to the classes – teachers cannot anticipate how many students will attend the class. As you can guess – this leads to serious seating problems. My arse REALLY hurt from sitting on the floor for two hours. I suppose they are trying to give students the freedom to move around and try out classes in the first couple of weeks (as there is no roll for the teacher to call out before each class as no one signs up before the commencement of class) but there has got to be a better way!! (In order to finalise classes, one writes their list of courses down on a summary sheet and then hands that sheet into RI office.)

Something I had read about but not really considered when I left Australia for France is that courses here really do not have any structure or planning. It is at the individual teacher’s discretion to teach whatever they want and however they want. This means NO UNIT OUTLINES FOR EACH COURSE!!! This was incredibly – INCREDIBLY frustrating during my first couple of weeks at Lille 3. While I understand the argument “different universities around the world have different ways of doing things”, NOT offering your students a cohesive course program with academic goals and weekly tasks/dates of assessments is just pathetic. Just really really pathetic. Ugh. This makes life particularly hard for students whose French is a second language. If I had a unit outline, I could read up on all the topics in the forthcoming weeks, do some research and then be somewhat prepared for class the following week. With this current system of disorganisation and vagueness – I have no clue! I am constantly on the back foot with the my education and I have no choice but to wait til the next class in order to discover what the teacher will be covering. Also, not knowing dates of assessments is really annoying for trying to plan holidays!!!

I would like to take this moment to highlight how this lack of syllabi is an example of the French working attitude of “fend for yourself, we ain’t doing shit for you”. Of course, after what I had just typed about the French’s lack of organisation – you could argue “oh, why don’t you just ask the professor for more information?”. I would agree, but what that means is that I, the individual, have to do double the amount of work (i.e., taking out extra time to speak to teacher’s privately whilst knowing that they probably can’t be bothered talking to you) in order to receive basic information!! Back at UWA – the teacher gives you a unit outline and BAM that’s all you’ll ever need in regards to the course content organisation and assessment mechanism. Here – everything is vague and mysterious and it’s just tiring and pathetic to have to ask such basic questions.

God, it feels like admin at Lille 3 has this subtle sheen of “let’s make things difficult for you” and it manifests itself in various ways. I will give you an example that may seem a lil bizarre but is frankly very ANNOYING AND INEFFICIENT!! The ARCHITECTURE of this university is STUPID! For example, the RI office. Normally when someone walks into an office anywhere, for anything (in Aus) you walk into a room with a reception area where you can sit down on some chairs to wait for whoever you need to see. Usually there is a receptionist. Here at Lille 3 – there is only one door to the RI office where the two staff members sit side by side and the door has no window. This means that you never know if they’re busy or free. It’s like the architecture reflects the closed nature of the French service-work ethos! I have seen so many students get turned down grumpily as they’ve gingerly opened the door to the RI in order to just fucking find out if the two staff members are free or not. I hate that feeling of trepidation, like I’m hugely inconveniencing the RI staff by having to make them do their job. (RI staff are actually nice though lol). But seriously!!!!!!! The design of the building is so stupid!! This not-knowing if they’re free or not is so inconvenient for the staff and the students. Fark. It’s a small thing – but it’s small things like that that can really piss you off and make you realise that you’re not at home anymore… 

So I don’t like how the courses are run. I hate and scorn the deep inefficiency of the Lille 3 university structure. I often wonder how the university administration doesn’t collapse on itself. But what do I like?

-I like my French language classes. Well-taught and interesting…

-I like the language resources centre… It’s a separate department dedicated solely to helping students learn languages. I.e., there are language exercises and other learning sources available on computers as well as loads of movies etc. It’s a language laboratory and students can use it as much as they like! In fact, I have to do 6 hours of work with the centre as a component of my French language class. I think that’s super cool :) A language centre like the one here in Lille 3 is what UWA is sorely missing.

-I like the sports program!! It is essentially free… I paid 10€ for the semester for the privilege of attending as many sports classes as I like and as often as I like! So I’ve been doing volleyball and pilates and I have been LOVING IT!

Language skills

Well, it’s safe to say that my French has picked up A LOT. In a day I will conduct 98% of my conversations completely in French – and that’s with the other anglophones here in Lille!

I believe that I have achieved my goals in terms of language. I am still not fluent at a professional/academic level, and when other students speak too fast or when professors use big words – I simply won’t understand what they’re saying. Having said that – feel free to have a general conversation with me in French!! I am definitely capable of handling that now which is very, very satisfying. I have found also that since I am using French on a daily basis – certain grammatical points I have never understood before are starting to make more sense now – especially reflexive verbs!

Sometimes I still feel sad that I’m not fluent and that I can’t understand EVERYTHING all the time… but then I remember how far I’ve come along and that I’m only here for one semester. :)

Tip: get drunk in order to speak lotsa French without inhibitions! I was pissed the other night and my American friend introduced me to this random French guy who wanted to hear my Australian accent… The French guy spoke English with a British accent so in my drunken state I couldn’t help but imitate the British accent… Furthermore, I couldn’t speak English properly! It was bizarre! I was using English words with French constructions (e.g., putting the adjective after the noun, e.g., “I am speaking English British” instead of “I am speaking British English”). After that I somehow began speaking my bad English in a French accent and then started speaking in French entirely by mistake. In other words, after drinking booze it was easier to speak French than English. God I love alcohol :D

Social life

I love my Erasmus friends! It’s wonderful meeting people from Brazil, Spain, Portugal and America :D I’ve made acquaintances with some French students but it can be pretty hard maintaining the relationship as we only speak in classes… 

I wouldn’t say I go out partying/drinking every night but usually at least once a week :)

Travels

Unfortunately since it’s been a number of weeks ago that I’ve done a few weekend trips, it’s hard to remember in super great detail how each trip was. I have been to Bruges (very pretty, some pretty hilarious moments lol), Amsterdam (what a trip) and yesterday I went to Calais for the day (amaaazzing!)

Calais was super chillaxed. I saw England from the beach. So happy :)

Next weekend I will be going to Amsterdam again so I can do an AWESOME countryside tour! I’ve always wanted to see the dikes of Holland and ergo how a country can exist partially underwater! Also, windmills and clog factories here I come :)

I have a study break coming up after that weekend so I’ve made plans to be in Sarajevo for a few days (simply cannot wait… I’ve heard it’s an amazing city). During this break I will also visit the Loire valley to do a guided tour of its chateaux (castles) as well as some wine tasting :D. I will also go to Versaille during the pause as well! It is so satisfying to finally get to tick off these locations off my list :)

At the moment, I will have to admit that there are some aspects of this exchange that have left a bad taste in my mouth: that being the French working ethos and the lack of persistent and natural friendliness of the Australian people. Overall though – I am just loving life… Everything is new, different, fresh and I feel as if I am really living :)

Until next time (which I hope is not too long away)

Jessica

Ville de Lille (et Nancy!)

Nancy

It has been a hectic past four days since I’ve arrived in Lille but I wanted to write a quick rundown of my séjour in Nancy :)

During the first night in Nancy Chloe cooked us a yummy lamb (steak?) dinner and we ate together on her ironing board table whilst feeling kind of stunned by the amount of questions we had for each other! It was always our dream to go to France for study and we used to talk about how we could totally meet up in France… 3 years on and it’s a reality :D

The next day we basically went walking about the streets of Nancy, visited the huge park as well as visited the Musée des Beaux-Arts – aka the museum of fine arts. It was my first trip to a museum in my adult life that wasn’t part of a school excursion or something like that and I have to say that I loved it!!! I’m not a particularly arty farty person – and yes sometimes my eyes glazed over when viewing some of the French paintings from the 18^th century or so. However when we hit the glassware/glass art section I was thrilled :D But the overall effect of this first trip made me appreciate art and exhibitions! God… maybe I really WAS so uncultured in Australia? :p Like I said – it’s not even because I consider myself relatively arty farty or not… Art history and knowledge of artists etc etc doesn’t really interest me – but I have suddenly found myself very very interested in visiting museums and other displays/exhibitions in Lille and the rest of Europe! I realised that I liked just LOOKING at things. The exercise doesn’t demand any more or any less than you just perusing and thinking “that looks pretty” or “god this painting is boring”. 

I suppose the follow-on effect of my newfound enjoyment of museums and exhibitions has also made me realise that holidays aren’t just about shopping. Lame and materialistic – I know – but now I understand better how to get more out of a holiday experience. It’s not just about leaving a deficit in your bank account after buying lots of clothes and jewellery that you can essentially buy elsewhere in the world – it’s about soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying new sights :D

I started this exchange with the mindset that I would do bulk shopping… In Dubai/Annecy/Nancy however I was VERY reluctant to buy ANY article of clothing purely because I couldn’t bear the thought of making my suitcase any heavier before arriving in Lille. In those two and a half weeks of restraint – I sort of just… came to terms with not shopping. It was very easy. Also I am going to try to set up a relatively stringent budget – so I guess it was very good-timing that I’ve found so much fulfilment in arts and cultural activities that cost a fraction of the amount of shopping that I intended to do… I would just like to make it clear however that I do still intend to do SOME shopping hehe :p

Anywho. So Chloe and I had dinner that night at an AWESOME Italian restaurant!! Seriously – the restauration (a real word in French hehe) is amazing. Pretty much of all the restaurants I’ve visited offer great ‘formulas’ – aka meal deals where you get an entrée, main, dessert and a drink for some special price. It’s seriously better value than what one usually receives in Australia. Also the food is good quality :D This Italian place is Nancy was not expensive (unfortunately I can’t remember exact prices) but reaaaaalllly yummy. Yummy :D

Oooh as a side note – the French say “hummmm” to indicate yumminess – much in the same way English speakers use “mmmmm” :p

That night we visited Chloe’s friend Alison who’s an artist and had an exhibition on in a gallery. We ended up staying the whole night just chatting and eventually helped her pack up her gallery. In this time we also ducked out to catch the Nancy lightshow (which is btw AAMZINGLY cool J). Spending all night in a gallery with a local artist displaying her work is something I probably would have never done in Perth… You’ve gotta love just going with the flow!

The final full day in Nancy involved ducking into the Musée des Beaux-Arts another time to catch all the stuff we missed from the day before and more walking around town J We finished off that Monday with a nightcap at a bar in Place Stanislas (main square of the city). What impressed me so much was that on a frikn Monday night in a small French city one could easily step out for a drink with a friend! It was seriously nice to be able to enjoy that kind of nightlife.

In short visiting Chloe in Nancy was awesome :D I had so much fun. There is something liberating about travel and just… rendezvous-ing with friends from home just because you can.

Lille

Lille in the past four days has been a crazy crockpot of happenings that seems to me will be hard to describe.

*To any possible Lille-exchange students out there reading this – if you need accommodation in the few days before you can move into uni residence/other permanent residence, I recommend booking with the Premiere Class Hotel http://www.premiere-classe-lille-centre.fr/fr/index.aspx  in Lille’s centre. 19 PLACE DES REIGNAUX
59000 LILLE)  I would say don’t bother with a hostel – they appear to be too far away from the train stations and Premiere’s rates are about the same as a hostel’s if you book early enough – 29euro. The advantages of this hotel is that it’s a stone’s throw away from Gare de Lille Flandres – in the street just opposite the station so it’s DEAD easy to find (which means less less less stress), it’s clean and secure and like I said – if you book early enough it’s as cheap as a hostel. The main drawback is that the reception lady was a bit… meh sometimes…*

Okay – so from my hotel in Lille where I stayed for a night – I contemplated taking the metro from the centre of Lille to my accommodation but eventually decided against it and ordered a taxi directly there. I am SO GLAD I forked out the 20euro for the 12 minute drive over to the residence. My friking suitcase was 27KG!!! Having walked around this area after I’ve unpacked and settled – I just knew for a fact I would’ve been completely lost, tired, stressed and ready to cry.

There’s a front desk at Residence Triolo – with another kind of deadpan meh kind of lady manning it (am I seeing a pattern with Lilloise receptionists?). After I filled out a short form – I was told to head over to the secretariat across the hall where I signed some more forms and paid my 227euro deposit and received my key.

After that the cleaner lady showed me to my room, to the small communal kitchen, the laundry room (where I am now waiting for my clothes to dry in the dryer) and where the big bins were located.

Overall I think the residence is pretty good. It’s clean and well-located to the shops and uni. I have a TINY fridge! It’s like a section of a fridge within a bar fridge! No freezer, no oven. It seems to be pretty quiet here though… I was hoping for there to be an awesome social scene like I know there can be in the residential colleges at UWA but I’ve read heaps of testimonies saying that Triolo can be pretty quiet and I think that I will encounter the same thing. I believe the difference between the UWA residential colleges and Triolo is that at UWA the colleges really foster a community spirit – with orientation for the students who live there and a communal meal plan. This does not seem to be the case in Triolo. It really just does seem like a room where I sleep and a kitchen where I cook… I feel… kind of alone! I received a sheaf of documents outlining the rules etc of life in Triolo but it was all in French so I only understood the general ideas. But… I didn’t (seem) to explicitly receive names and numbers of Triolo staff who I could call in case of emergency… If something happens to me (e.g., lose my keys or something) I’m kinda fucked til business hours the next week :S I guess this is contrasted with my knowledge that the residential colleges at UWA really seem to care for you – with assigned tutors each night who sort of ‘patrol’ the residence and are on call in case something goes wrong with the students or if someone needs aid.

I’ve visited two hypermarchés here in Lille, Carrefour in the city centre and Auchan here in the suburb of Villeneuve D’Ascq where the uni and residence is located. Auchan (and Carrefour) is HUGE. It’s a two-leveled super shop which is like a Coles/Woolies plus a Big W/Target/K-Mart combined!! *clears throat* Can anybody say economies of scale?? The price of stuff is pretty good here so I’ve managed to furnish most of my room within budget! I’ve had to buy a pillow, bed sheet, doona, floor mat, string for a washing line for my delicates that can’t be tumbled dried, plates, pot, cutlery, loo rolls etc etc. Thankfully Auchan is only a 7-8 minute walk from residence so it’s very convenient to buy stuff!!

The topic of Auchan segues into my next notation about life in France. These hypermarchés are SERIOUS about security. Usually in Australia the bored-out-of-their-brain staff does some half-arsed check of your backpack when you exit the store. In Auchan I had a security guard put a cable tie around the zips of my backpack in order to prevent me from hiding stuff in there! The cashier unzipped the container of my doona and dug around in its white depths to check that I hadn’t stashed anything … :/ I guess they just get stolen from a lot!!

THE UNIVERISTY. Don’t get me started about the university!! I am so confused!! Cyrielle Rohart and José Lagos Lama who work in the Relations Internationales office are nice and overall patient but I can see that they get a bit bored/stressed/slightly annoyed by the all the questions that students pose them - but I kind of think it’s their fault as the whole system of enrolment isn’t really that clear!! (Allowing leeway for the fact that I don’t fully understand everything they’re saying yet…) Like past students have noted – things in general just don’t seem as organised… They had a massive orientation-ish type presentation on Thursday but we all had to take notes by hand – why couldn’t thye have printed out all the info they gave us? (Which was on important stuff like how to enrol etc). I understand it kills a few trees but… when you’re a foreign student trying to get by … Notes with full info would help!

As far as I can tell, I literally ROCK UP to the units I want to take, write down the name and details of the class on a summary sheet and then hand that into the Relations Internationale Office…. It’s so bizarre, I’m used to pre-enrolling/signing up for classes where the teacher actually expects me :S  Oh well – we’ll see how it goes!

My actual classes don’t actually start until the 19^th of September – but I have twenty hours of intensive French starting from the 5^th of September for a week – four hours a day. Sounds good! :D But I mean seriously – going back to the whole (relative) disorganisation of Lille 3 – why can’t they give us a timetable of events for foreign students?? Cause I had no idea I had to do the actual INTENSIVE course before the extensive course which is 2 hours per week! I’m so confused! It feels like the French way of doing things is just find out as you go… whereas I’m way more used to a university system where everything is planned out step by step. Hell UWA has their academic calendars out 2-3 years in advance! Lille only released theirs about 2 months before the new semester! Oh well – one learns in a new country! In my heart I believe things will work out.

One other thing I’ve noticed in France are that service workers – especially in supermarkets and hypermarchés do not give a toss about you. In Australia – generally staff are chipper and put your needs first. In France – I swear to god people will just ignore you if it conveniences them. I asked an Auchan worker where the soy milk was and she just looked frightened and shook her head! Wtf?? In Australia that person would’ve stopped what they were doing to either point/show you where the product was or they’d get someone else to help you. When in France – fend for yourself.

Language wise? It’s hard! I have a woefully pathetic vocabulary and when the situation gets stressful my French breaks down completely. I think during the course of my intensive French lessons next week I am going to have to literally look up a website that lists everyday verbs/vocab and learn it. It’s ridiculous trying to have a conversation with someone and stop frequently to gesture stupidly and say “comment dire?” (how to say) and “je sais pas le mot en français” (I don’t know the word in French). Expressions get me as well! I can’t think of any examples at the moment –but it can be SERIOUSLY difficult trying to express complex ideas such as enrolment and one’s feelings…

Anyway I think I should leave my blog here for now – it has been terribly long but there’s been so much happening gah!! Next time I blog I hope things will be more calm :)

A plus tard

Jessica