Bonjour tout le monde!
So now I am in the city of Nancy visiting my friend Chloe from UWA who is in France doing her exchange at Sciences Po and havin' a u-beaut time :D There was something so liberating when I was organising my itinerary for France to be able to go "yup I'm going to Annecy for two weeks and then Nancy for three nights and then I'll go Lille" :)
I guess I should start with finishing up some thoughts on Annecy. I was incredibly lucky I went to Annecy at the time that I did because I managed to catch the tail end of summer in the beautiful Haute-Savoie region of the south-eastern Rhône-Alpes of France. For a week and a half I was enjoying hot hot weather - 30 degrees everyday! Wewp :D Then, In the middle of the 2nd week - I got caught in a freak hailstorm at 6 in the evening walking home from school... it was scary stuff! A bit exciting too. A few huge trees got struck by lightning and felled too... It was insane how the weather had changed so much in an instant! After that short but violent storm passed - the weather gods decided to introduce Autumn - around the time I was preparing to leave.
In an earlier post - I blogged about how good my classes were. I guess I need to make a slight revision to that statement. Overall it was good - but I felt that in the new group I was placed in I didn't get to do enough grammar - and one of the teachers I had was somewhat harebrained - which made following her lesson difficult. Poo. I think overall the classes did help me - but perhaps my advice is if you want to do classes at IFALPES - speak to the school about your goals from the classes. E.g., if you want to do more conversation - the upper level groups are better but if you're more interested in revising grammar points - perhaps ask to remain in a lower level class - even if they think you're better than it.
My other point about IFALPES is that the quality of the building isn't too great... simply because the walls were very, very thin and if the class next door was being noisy - it could seriously cut into your concentration. Also it would've been nice if the premises had air-con...
But overall - Annecy was amazing - my host family were SO genuinely kind. My decision to come to France is just... wow. Such a good decision.
Now I'm chillin' out in Chloe's apartment in Nancy. Nancy is a slightly bigger, commercial city than Annecy but the atmosphere is very... understated. In a nice way. It's quieter, more laid-back than Annecy - purely because Annecy in summer is very toursity and bustling - with people packing the streets near the canals having lunch etc. Nancy seems a bit slower in comparison - which isn't a bad thing. Oh and of course - it has gorgeous architecture :)
I can't wait to get to Lille though. Not because I'm not enjoying my lil trips in Annecy and Nancy - but because I can't wait to have my own space so I can just EMPTY MY SUITCASE AND NOT HAVE TO LUG THE STUPID THING AROUND AGAIN FOR ANOTHER 6 MONTHS!!! I seriously... I was so lucky lots of people helped me with my suitcase on the train and out about on stairs... I literally couldn't lift 27kg worth of luggage on my own.
A bientôt :)
Jessica
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Ma première semaine à Annecy, France
So currently I am just into my 2nd week of sunny Annecy in the south-eastern Haute-Savoie region of France and having a very good (very hot) time!
Annecy first impressions
Although I had seen photos of Annecy before and knew that it was an idyllic holiday village with a gorgeous lake and sweeping mountains as a backdrop - I don't think I actually fully comprehended how gorgeous and idyllic it really is! My host mum is super nice - and so are her two sisters and mum who are visiting as well as her son. The apartment that I'm living in is awesome :) It's a small two-bedroom apartment that my host mum rents just a stone's throw away from the lake (it's possible to see the lake from the balcony) that's filled with beautiful knick-knacks. I think the thing that strikes me about this apartment is that it's filled with stuff but my host mum has managed to make it look all so neat and well put-together! I mean - my room is constantly filled with stuff but it just looks.. ...like there's crap everywhere haha.
I think the best way to describe Annecy is that it's a really, really big town. I wouldn't exactly classify it as a city because it's still got this sleepy-summer-town vibe to it but it's certainly got infrastructure like a shopping district, a handful of supermarkets and car-dealerships as well as a functional public transport system.
Furthermore Annecy's going to host the 2018 winter olympics so I can't wait to watch the telly then and be able to say "I've been there!!"
Weather
Hothothothothothot HOT! Lol. For the week that I've been here already it has not dropped below 30° celsius !! So good hehe. Sometimes it gets a bit baking to just be wandering the streets at 2PM in the afternoon. I think the weather is something else I did not expect to find in France. I mean I knew it was summer in Europe still and I know that parts of France can have quite a Mediterranean climate but I honestly not expecting how hot it was going to be here - especially since people have always told me how gorgeous Annecy looks in the winter! (Not to mention the fact that Annecy will be hosting 2018's winter olympic games.) It kind of makes me wish that Perth could have this extreme variation in the differences in climate. All we've got is HOT and then eh it's a bit cold - but no snow for me to go snowboarding (or any mountains for that either...)
Food & drink
Overall food has been pretty good here. I haven't had anything MINDBLOWINGLY OMG WHERE HAS THIS CUISINE BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE kind of meals but yah - overall it's been good. I've been eating lot-sa baguettes broken up into little pieces - the type where it's quite hard on the outside but squishy on the inside. It's been good but maybe I just haven't been that much of a bread fan because I haven't orgasmed over it or anything like that.
I had the best restaurant-steak of my LIFE at a restaurant by the canals in Annecy. Seriously - restaurants in Perth don't know how to cook steak according to rare-med-well!! My medium steak ACTUALLY CAME OUT AS A MEDIUM STEAK!!!!! And it was soooooo delicious. So delicious. (and big)
Also I think here in France they really like their pommes de terre - potatoes! I have to be careful about what I eat with all these carbohydrates like bread and potates lying in sinisterely tasty wait on the dinner table!!
Not to mention I also had a serve of six escargots for an entrée to my delicious steak dinner! Heheh. They were on the good side of interesting - marinated in some green herbs and spices. A French teacher once said to me that if you like eating squid/calamari - you'll be able to handle escargot. And he was right. My next visit to a restaurant will entail me trying some cuisses de grenouille - frogs legs!
Wine. MmmmmmmmmMMMMMmmmm wine. The rosés, champagnes and reds I've tasted so far have been amayyyzing! Yummy. That is all haha. Actually as I type - my host grandma just offered me some cidre rosé - which is basically rosé cider and omg it's AMAZING. I have never tasted anything like that!!!!!! It's sweet but zingy at the same time. Yumyumyumyumyum
People/culture
Overall all the people that I have met in Annecy have been pretty friendly - with an exception of a few grumps who can't be bothered tolerating my slow French. I totally faux-pas'd on my first day in Annecy *facepalm* we had just sat down from lunch after I had been picked up from the train station and I had already started sipping my wine before the toasts!! Faux pas! Glass chinking and toasting is a pretty big deal. Before each meal a santé! is proposed and everyone has to chink glasses with everyone else whilst maintaining eye-contact and saying santé to each other - which means 'health'.
I guess I have already experienced a little bit of that European 'openness' that you hear about - how no topic is sacred and personal questions can be asked from day one. Literally after day 3 or so my host mum's sisters were already asking me if I had put on weight from eating the new food! I just said that I didn't know and rolled with it but I did note that it was something an Australian family probably wouldn't ask so casually to a stranger.
Language/language school
So as you may or may not know - I am actually in Annecy because I have enrolled into a private language course at IFALPES - aka Institut Française des Alpes for two weeks. In short - the language school/homestay decision was a frigging GOOD idea. My classes range from a little-easy to appropriately challenging which is just an awesome mix of grammar revision and challenging grammatical and conversational application of my French knowledge!! I was initially placed into group 4 (out of 8) but after two days it was very obvious to the teachers that the content was too easy for me... I mean at that stage they were learning HOW to form the conditional. Um. Yeah. After 3 years of university-level French I had already had the formation of various grammatical usages down pat - so then I got shifted up to group 5 where they're still revising grammar in general but adopting its usage in more complicated scenarios. E.g., on Friday I had to read an article on voting/politics in France and then we had a 2 hour discussion about it with the class!! Awesome :)
My last point there about 'awesome' segues nicely into what I think about the teaching quality at IFALPES. Basically - I think it's very, very good. I think it's got to do with the fact it's a private school so thus there is enough money there to hire plenty-o French teachers. Also - with my intensive 4-hour classes a day there is PLENTY OF TIME TO DO STUFF!!!!!! I think this is what's made the me the most happy. When I get a sheet with exercises to do in class - I actually have time to do it! As in the whole sheet - without stressing and clock-watching. The atmosphere in the classes is definitely studious but also a lot of fun because we have time to crunch out sentences and exercises and then time afterward to DISCUSS all our questions and concerns!
One thing in particular that I have noticed is that maybe half of the students here learning French already know English as a 2nd language. From this I can gather that having knowledge of English takes precedence over French...
One problem with my French that I've always thought I had was that my grammatical and writing skills in general were waaay too advanced for my speaking and listening skills and now that I'm in France I'm noticing it's absolutely true. I believe I was placed into group 4 based on the oral test where I had to respond to questions and answer but I believe I was moved up into group 5 after two days because I essentially blitzed a small grammar test they gave me. I was finished before anyone else... There is very little else I can do at the moment than work hard to fix up this disparity in my skills.
So how is that fixing up the disparity working for me at the moment? Overall - well. I have definitely been speaking a loooot a lot a lot of French since I've arrived. My host family speak no English at all - so that's been really great for making me use my French. However it's been really hard as well. When they speak slowly/normally/clearly it's very possible for me to understand what is going on and hold a conversation - however they're also a close knit family who at times speak French at a ridiculously break-neck pace whilst I stare on glossy-eyed and slightly drunk during meals from all the various wines I've been drinking haha.
What has ABSOLUTELY improved for me is that I have lost the inherent shyness I had for speaking French since I started learning the language. In Perth I suffered an inferiority complex where I felt that I could not speak French out of fear I'd be ridiculed for speaking wrong (which I knew that I would absolutely do). When in France - you blab out what you want to say otherwise you don't say anything at all!! After ONE WEEK of solid French speaking I feel that I could return to UWA and hold a conversation with my teachers in French non-stop. Although I am 10000km away from being fluent in French - it really has dawned on me that I am able to speak some French and hold a half-way decent conversation. I have all the tools for it stored in my head...
The other thing I have really enjoyed about my enrollment at IFALPES is that all the other students at my level are in the same boat as me... They all have some decent level of French and are serious about improving their French. For the first time in my life I have conducted whole days of continuous conversation in French with other people whose native language is actually English. It is seriously so amazing and it's made me so happy. So happy :)
So now I have another week in beautiful Annecy ahead of me and after that 3 days in Nancy with my friend Chloe from uni :) My confidence in French has leaped up wonderfully and now I am hoping that my vocab and listening skills will too. Sometimes I feel a bit down because my French family speak sooo fast and I don't understand them but then I remember this is the most French I have ever spoken in my life and that I have only been here for 1 week. I still have another 6½ months in here :)
As a passing note - I received an e-mail from Lille 3 saying that they've received my e-mail about my change-in-date for arriving at Résidence Triolo - so now I don't have to stress about that. I am seeeeeeriously keen for my upcoming semester in Lille!!
Jessica
Annecy first impressions
Although I had seen photos of Annecy before and knew that it was an idyllic holiday village with a gorgeous lake and sweeping mountains as a backdrop - I don't think I actually fully comprehended how gorgeous and idyllic it really is! My host mum is super nice - and so are her two sisters and mum who are visiting as well as her son. The apartment that I'm living in is awesome :) It's a small two-bedroom apartment that my host mum rents just a stone's throw away from the lake (it's possible to see the lake from the balcony) that's filled with beautiful knick-knacks. I think the thing that strikes me about this apartment is that it's filled with stuff but my host mum has managed to make it look all so neat and well put-together! I mean - my room is constantly filled with stuff but it just looks.. ...like there's crap everywhere haha.
I think the best way to describe Annecy is that it's a really, really big town. I wouldn't exactly classify it as a city because it's still got this sleepy-summer-town vibe to it but it's certainly got infrastructure like a shopping district, a handful of supermarkets and car-dealerships as well as a functional public transport system.
Furthermore Annecy's going to host the 2018 winter olympics so I can't wait to watch the telly then and be able to say "I've been there!!"
Weather
Hothothothothothot HOT! Lol. For the week that I've been here already it has not dropped below 30° celsius !! So good hehe. Sometimes it gets a bit baking to just be wandering the streets at 2PM in the afternoon. I think the weather is something else I did not expect to find in France. I mean I knew it was summer in Europe still and I know that parts of France can have quite a Mediterranean climate but I honestly not expecting how hot it was going to be here - especially since people have always told me how gorgeous Annecy looks in the winter! (Not to mention the fact that Annecy will be hosting 2018's winter olympic games.) It kind of makes me wish that Perth could have this extreme variation in the differences in climate. All we've got is HOT and then eh it's a bit cold - but no snow for me to go snowboarding (or any mountains for that either...)
Food & drink
Overall food has been pretty good here. I haven't had anything MINDBLOWINGLY OMG WHERE HAS THIS CUISINE BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE kind of meals but yah - overall it's been good. I've been eating lot-sa baguettes broken up into little pieces - the type where it's quite hard on the outside but squishy on the inside. It's been good but maybe I just haven't been that much of a bread fan because I haven't orgasmed over it or anything like that.
I had the best restaurant-steak of my LIFE at a restaurant by the canals in Annecy. Seriously - restaurants in Perth don't know how to cook steak according to rare-med-well!! My medium steak ACTUALLY CAME OUT AS A MEDIUM STEAK!!!!! And it was soooooo delicious. So delicious. (and big)
Also I think here in France they really like their pommes de terre - potatoes! I have to be careful about what I eat with all these carbohydrates like bread and potates lying in sinisterely tasty wait on the dinner table!!
Not to mention I also had a serve of six escargots for an entrée to my delicious steak dinner! Heheh. They were on the good side of interesting - marinated in some green herbs and spices. A French teacher once said to me that if you like eating squid/calamari - you'll be able to handle escargot. And he was right. My next visit to a restaurant will entail me trying some cuisses de grenouille - frogs legs!
Wine. MmmmmmmmmMMMMMmmmm wine. The rosés, champagnes and reds I've tasted so far have been amayyyzing! Yummy. That is all haha. Actually as I type - my host grandma just offered me some cidre rosé - which is basically rosé cider and omg it's AMAZING. I have never tasted anything like that!!!!!! It's sweet but zingy at the same time. Yumyumyumyumyum
People/culture
Overall all the people that I have met in Annecy have been pretty friendly - with an exception of a few grumps who can't be bothered tolerating my slow French. I totally faux-pas'd on my first day in Annecy *facepalm* we had just sat down from lunch after I had been picked up from the train station and I had already started sipping my wine before the toasts!! Faux pas! Glass chinking and toasting is a pretty big deal. Before each meal a santé! is proposed and everyone has to chink glasses with everyone else whilst maintaining eye-contact and saying santé to each other - which means 'health'.
I guess I have already experienced a little bit of that European 'openness' that you hear about - how no topic is sacred and personal questions can be asked from day one. Literally after day 3 or so my host mum's sisters were already asking me if I had put on weight from eating the new food! I just said that I didn't know and rolled with it but I did note that it was something an Australian family probably wouldn't ask so casually to a stranger.
Language/language school
So as you may or may not know - I am actually in Annecy because I have enrolled into a private language course at IFALPES - aka Institut Française des Alpes for two weeks. In short - the language school/homestay decision was a frigging GOOD idea. My classes range from a little-easy to appropriately challenging which is just an awesome mix of grammar revision and challenging grammatical and conversational application of my French knowledge!! I was initially placed into group 4 (out of 8) but after two days it was very obvious to the teachers that the content was too easy for me... I mean at that stage they were learning HOW to form the conditional. Um. Yeah. After 3 years of university-level French I had already had the formation of various grammatical usages down pat - so then I got shifted up to group 5 where they're still revising grammar in general but adopting its usage in more complicated scenarios. E.g., on Friday I had to read an article on voting/politics in France and then we had a 2 hour discussion about it with the class!! Awesome :)
My last point there about 'awesome' segues nicely into what I think about the teaching quality at IFALPES. Basically - I think it's very, very good. I think it's got to do with the fact it's a private school so thus there is enough money there to hire plenty-o French teachers. Also - with my intensive 4-hour classes a day there is PLENTY OF TIME TO DO STUFF!!!!!! I think this is what's made the me the most happy. When I get a sheet with exercises to do in class - I actually have time to do it! As in the whole sheet - without stressing and clock-watching. The atmosphere in the classes is definitely studious but also a lot of fun because we have time to crunch out sentences and exercises and then time afterward to DISCUSS all our questions and concerns!
One thing in particular that I have noticed is that maybe half of the students here learning French already know English as a 2nd language. From this I can gather that having knowledge of English takes precedence over French...
One problem with my French that I've always thought I had was that my grammatical and writing skills in general were waaay too advanced for my speaking and listening skills and now that I'm in France I'm noticing it's absolutely true. I believe I was placed into group 4 based on the oral test where I had to respond to questions and answer but I believe I was moved up into group 5 after two days because I essentially blitzed a small grammar test they gave me. I was finished before anyone else... There is very little else I can do at the moment than work hard to fix up this disparity in my skills.
So how is that fixing up the disparity working for me at the moment? Overall - well. I have definitely been speaking a loooot a lot a lot of French since I've arrived. My host family speak no English at all - so that's been really great for making me use my French. However it's been really hard as well. When they speak slowly/normally/clearly it's very possible for me to understand what is going on and hold a conversation - however they're also a close knit family who at times speak French at a ridiculously break-neck pace whilst I stare on glossy-eyed and slightly drunk during meals from all the various wines I've been drinking haha.
What has ABSOLUTELY improved for me is that I have lost the inherent shyness I had for speaking French since I started learning the language. In Perth I suffered an inferiority complex where I felt that I could not speak French out of fear I'd be ridiculed for speaking wrong (which I knew that I would absolutely do). When in France - you blab out what you want to say otherwise you don't say anything at all!! After ONE WEEK of solid French speaking I feel that I could return to UWA and hold a conversation with my teachers in French non-stop. Although I am 10000km away from being fluent in French - it really has dawned on me that I am able to speak some French and hold a half-way decent conversation. I have all the tools for it stored in my head...
The other thing I have really enjoyed about my enrollment at IFALPES is that all the other students at my level are in the same boat as me... They all have some decent level of French and are serious about improving their French. For the first time in my life I have conducted whole days of continuous conversation in French with other people whose native language is actually English. It is seriously so amazing and it's made me so happy. So happy :)
So now I have another week in beautiful Annecy ahead of me and after that 3 days in Nancy with my friend Chloe from uni :) My confidence in French has leaped up wonderfully and now I am hoping that my vocab and listening skills will too. Sometimes I feel a bit down because my French family speak sooo fast and I don't understand them but then I remember this is the most French I have ever spoken in my life and that I have only been here for 1 week. I still have another 6½ months in here :)
As a passing note - I received an e-mail from Lille 3 saying that they've received my e-mail about my change-in-date for arriving at Résidence Triolo - so now I don't have to stress about that. I am seeeeeeriously keen for my upcoming semester in Lille!!
Jessica
Sunday, 14 August 2011
A Paris pour la première fois
Mesdames et monsieurs
I’m smashing out a small blog entry on the 3.5 hour train trip from Paris (Gare de Lyon) to the regional town/city Annecy.
So after a horrific plane trip from Dubai to Paris where the little boy in the seat next to me soiled his nappy not once but twice – I have been haunted by the smell of baby poo!
Everything after the plane trip has been really great though. I had ordered a shuttle transfer from Charles de Gaulle airport to my hotel in the 11ème arrondisement on my own back in Perth and I wasn’t sure what to expect because they couldn’t charge my credit card and told me to pay cash to the driver. This left me kind of … wary of the reliability of the service. However! The guy was there (he was actually the owner) with a sign with my name on it written faintly in a ballpoint pen with a friendly attitude. I expected my ‘shuttle’ to be a blocky van type thing but lo-and-behold Micky (the driver) picked me up in his spanking new shiny black BMW sedan!!!! NAICE!
My hostel was not quite as nice as the Sheraton in Dubai :p The pillows are bizarre – they’re this long flat affair and aren’t very squishy at all… The walls of the hostel were a bit thin but I fell asleep quite easily nonetheless.
I was hungry when I got to the hostel so for eats I went directly across the road from the hostel and got a chicken kebab!! And so I have carried on the tradition of eating late night kebabs on a Saturday night ;) Even in Paris! Hehe.
So I have been trying to speak as much French as possible – as long as the topic of conversation is about inane things I can cope quite well! I am making an effort to start every conversation in French – and only swapping to English if I really do not understand.
I thought arriving in Paris would be more of a shock. I think I was more impressed that my driver drove a BMW! This is not to say that Paris isn’t a completely stunning, ultra-European and beautiful place – it’s more that… I don’t know. I just felt relaxed about being there – as if I went to Paris all the time. It was pretty surreal. Travelling is surreal :D I think maybe it’s because I’ve been imagining this trip for so long that it was easy for me just to slip into the mentality of being in France. Also – speaking French is lots of fun (when I understand and am being understood…)
This morning at my hostel I had a breakfast of what was literally bread with jam and water. I wanted cereal but I didn’t think the milk was soy…
With my frikn 27kg suitcase I decided that I’d better not hoof it to the Gare de Lyon so my hostel ordered a taxi for me – which cost 11euro - 11euro well spent! I got to the station about 50 minutes early and was stress-free.
So now I’m currently zooming past the French country side which is pretty green with smallish sections of fields with not much growing in them. Interspersed through these fields are little farm houses or lil towns! Very quaint.
At 1:30PM today I will reach Annecy and meet my host family for the very first time! I’m keen :D Then I will go look for food haha.
A bientôt
Jessica
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Dubai - An Architect's Paradise
Dubai – An architect’s paradise
This blog will be a summary of the last 48-however many hours have lapsed since I departed Perth.
The flight out of Perth
The flight on Emirates to Dubai was pretty good! They do yummy plane food plus they had an awesome collection of movies and TV shows that you could watch on demand which is pretty good. I began to watch Sucker Punch, something I’ve wanted to watch for ages but I gave up after 15 minutes or so because it’s stupid. Just… really stupid. Full of skinny girls prancing around basically with no explanation why there is a random wise guy giving this chick weapons to fight… random warriors…???
Anywho! I basically slept a lot on the plane and didn’t study any French :p
Arrival in Dubai
I had no dramas picking up my luggage and meeting my hotel transfer guy, and I promptly sat into the driver’s seat of the car by accident hehe. Unfortunately my suitcase busted on the plane! Luckily it was just a 15cm tear along the rim of my suitcase but still… All I could think of when I looked at it was my dad was right and it did break.
Weather-wise; Dubai was not just stinking hot but more bizarrely muggy – with an oppressive wet kind of heat. Outside my hotel my sunglasses literally fogged up because of the heat and moisture! My hotel is situated next to the beach which would explain why.
So I got to my hotel room at about 6:30 am and snoozed for a couple of hours before heading down to the lobby to eat a $30AUD brekky :S (I was soo hungers). The nice man at the restaurant suggested I go to the Dubai mall to buy a new suitcase and so I did.
The fare from my hotel to the Dubai Mall in a taxi was about $13aud and I managed to find an even BETTER suitcase with four wheels that rotated in any direction for about $130. Not bad – obviously not having to buy another stupid suitcase would be better but that’s a pretty good price for what I thought was a good suitcase. I thought my previous suitcase was good but hey…
Anyway time for some impressions of Dubai. First of all – it’s clean and spacious. I think the best way for me to sum it up is like a very upmarket, trendy and self-aware version of poorer Southeast Asia destinations such as Thailand or Bali.
Similarities: everyone drives fast and as if they own the road (i.e., driving in between two lanes, not indicating etc)
Differences: nothing is shabby! All cars are newish and clean, not falling apart.
Similarities: the shape of the signage is similar to that of Southeast Asian countries and some of the roads had this low-built curbs with the black and white painted on the side
Differences: very spacious roads and pathways!! No overcrowding! (Although I was there on a Friday which is like a Sunday to them)
The title of this blog relates to architecture. Seriously this place is just shooting up and up with gorgeous skyscrapers. It’s pretty amazing! My taxi driver must’ve pointed out like 10 hotels as we drove along – all ‘very nice’ and ‘5 star!’. In a way the cityscape resembles what I expect any large city would look like but… desert style – quintessentially Dubai. I was driving along the main freeway with the taxi driver and it struck me how… exciting the city looked. It’s the middle of summer here at the moment – about 43degrees with low-medium visibility because of the sandstorm. I looked ahead at the city and the tall, sleek skyscrapers were all partly shrouded by a yellow sandstorm and frankly it looked so exciting – mysterious and powerful. I am NOT well-educated in the Star Wars universe – but the cityscape reminds me of one of the Star Wars movies I’d seen where they’d be landing at some desert town with the buildings shrouded in yellow-y dirt. Exciting stuff! Partway through my day it really, truly struck me that I was in a part of Arabia. I had flashbacks to Aladdin as I viewed all the square blocky villas where rich people and the royal family lived. It was awesome.
I guess the only other observation I have is that Dubai is a very cosmopolitan place. I’ve heard heaps of different languages in my day here – but where basic English is a necessity for travel-related communication. There must be sooo much money being invested here – buildings and proposed construction sites everywhere.
At ~4pm yesterday I got picked up for my desert safari tour which was pretty good! We drove out of the Dubai metro area for about 45 minutes to the desert sand dunes and our driver took us on some serious 4wding. Thank GOD I took a Kwells tablet, didn’t eat too much beforehand and sat in the front of the car otherwise I would’ve barfed lol. But seriously it was pretty cool, going over all the ridges and dips in the sand – at some points as the driver went over the ridges it felt like the car was about to tip over!! So I’m not sure how long that drive was – about maybe 15-25 minutes? I was feeling SLIGHTLY sick. It’s weird to describe. I am very prone to motion sickness so the erratic swaying of the 4WD was starting to make me feel a bit bleh and my limbs all tingly BUT he was going not too fast – not faster than 2nd gear generally so it wasn’t like being on a crazy rollercoaster. It was like a very slow rollercoaster with lots of sand :D
Unless you’re from the Pilbara (in WA’s north) you’re probably not really going to know what I’m talking about but some of the sand dunes and tufts of grass around in the desert with jutting rocky mountains reminded me of my home town Tom Price. Tom Price is a town on a mountain surrounded by shitloads of red-dirt mountains and dry-ness. The shape of the landscape in Dubai reminds me of the shape of the landscape in Tom Price – except somewhat more bleached of colour because of all the sand and lack of spindly dried out trees.
The next part of the tour involved driving out to this random desert camp site thing where there was sheesha (I tried liquorice – didn’t realise it was liquorice – I don’t like liquorice but I liked that I could taste it!), henna (when it was my turn the lady was given food by a lil boy and she had to eat it then and there because of Ramadan so I just didn’t bother going back), there was quadbiking (just going around in circles, kinda lame and you had to pay extra) and sandboarding (not very smooth – the sand didn’t let me glide!). We had our dinner there on these low tables where we sat on cushions in the sand and watched a traditional Arabian (I think) dance by this one man. There were meant to be bellydancers but because of Ramadan they didn’t perform.
So that was essentially my day in Dubai. I enjoyed it – but I don’t think I will bother coming back. There are other places in the world to visit and I’m not exactly in the luxury holiday market.
So now I’m looking forward to Paris. My language skills and general conversation will be subpar… I am wondering how I will cope when I get there! But – however – looking forward to it! My biggest concern at the moment is how I will fare with my 27kg suitcase and my heavy-arse backpack :S:S:S:S:S
A bientôt tout le monde
Jessica (with a French accent!)
Wednesday, 10 August 2011
Departing Perth within 24 hours
Allo tout le monde! Welcome to my new stream of consciousness blog.
I am currently ⅔ through packing!!! I am feeling pretty de-stressed :)
Ladies and gents - yours truly has committed to a solid half an hour of studying prior to her departure to France... ....amazing. I know that in my previous posts I have been harping on about how I will study in the week before departure but... um... yeah. Kind of didn't happen! I have come to the conclusion that I am sick of studying French. I still LOVE the language - do NOT get me wrong - I am still waaay pumped for France but I am so sick of studying grammar! Argh! I have reached my conjugational threshold! I just want to start using practical everyday French! I crave Saturday (when I land in Paris) because that will mark the day I begin to learn this beautiful language in context and NOT out of a bloody textbook. Hmpf.
So tomorrow evening I fly out of Perth at 10:30PM on Emirates :) Ten hours to Dubai with an ETA of 5:30AM local time. During this flight I hope to A) commence a novel I bought from an opshop, B) maybe catch a cool in-flight movie, C) get some sleep and D) STUDY FRENCH! Hahah. As much as I'm bored of grammar and its endless lists of rules and exceptions - I do need to brush up! Additionally my vocabulary is preetttty bad so I will be spending quite a bit of time perusing my sweet-as lil' phrase book!
In terms of textbooks that I'm taking over, I've got a compact, minimal approach. All I'm taking is my dictionary (très important tu sais), my Nouvelle Becherelle's art of conjugation (a small notepad sized book no thicker than 1cm that covers how to conjugate all forms of French verbs - the granddaddy of verb-books I'm told by my French teacher) and finally another notepad sized book called "French Grammar for English Students of French" which is simply AMAZING. It goes through all the grammar points that any language student must learn efficiently in English first and then French with effective and clear examples. Parfait!
Moving on now to admin stuff. Oh my god I am beginning to sense how French bureaucracy is somewhat subpar. I mean overall I've had pretty good communication with the staff at Lille. I've not had to contact them directly for anything but they have sent fairly timely e-mails to me about my enrollment and my accommodation. One particular correspondence about my residence at Triolo however has put a bump in my otherwise smooth travel plans. They've sent me an e-mail saying that I had to post a hard copy confirmation of reservation back to them by the 22nd of August. Fine. I printed out the document but ... where do I send it to???? What's the address? I sent two copies out - one to the actual residence and one to the Relations Internationales (RI) Office.
Well, if I'm being truthful - I actually sent 3 out. The first confirmation I posted had the wrong date - I realised I could move in earlier than I had written initially. So I e-mailed the RI office but then I got an automated response saying that the office was closed and staff were on holiday til - get this - the 22nd of August! Wtf! I bet heaps of exchange students are furiously typing away and sending e-mails with genuine questions and no one will be there to answer them... So I am SLIGHTLY worried that they may not have received my confirmation letter. It's scary to think they may give my room away... but alas I did send documents back to both the actual university and the residence itself PLUS I sent e-mails to the office so it should be 'confirmation' enough that I'm bloody coming and you'd better have a room for me!! I will try calling them when I'm in France, just in case there is someone in the office.
Oh I have another minor grumble... I'm not sure whether to swing by the RI office first when I FIRST go to campus on the 31st of August or whether to head straight to Triolo to claim my room... It's just a bit annoying because the residence is a 20 minute walk from campus and it'll piss me off if I have to double back with a suitcase.
Furthermore - the Lille public transport website Transpole (equivalent to Transperth) is useless!!!!!!!! Omg seriously. I spent, I kid you not, TWENTY MINUTES trying to find a public transport route from my hostel in Lille to the university!!!! The locations wouldn't load! When I finally got the stupid program to recognise the departure and arrival points I wanted the program wouldn't actually produce any results! This means I am unprepared!! Tsk tsk not happy! I will just have to wing it when I arrive in Lille and ask questions.
Aside from these little things pissing me off though - things should be okay! I'm going to chill out on the hotel in Dubai on Friday (43 degree day... oh my god pooltime) and do my awsm evening desert tour! I'll arrive in Paris on Saturday night - stay overnight and be on my way to Annecy on Sunday by train :) My host family will meet me at the station. I sent Sylvie an e-mail about me with a couple of photos but I got no reply back - so I will have no idea who to look for when I arrive at Annecy. She did say on the phone though that she would be in Italy on holiday so we'll see!
Basically - I'm super keen to start learning me some real French :) The two week course at IFALPES is a 20-hour per week course that'll be full of grammar... but... oh well! I am just so excited to be in France, speaking French!
Anyway, I shall leave it here for now. Thanks for reading my stream of consciousness-style blog :P
Au revoir!
I am currently ⅔ through packing!!! I am feeling pretty de-stressed :)
Ladies and gents - yours truly has committed to a solid half an hour of studying prior to her departure to France... ....amazing. I know that in my previous posts I have been harping on about how I will study in the week before departure but... um... yeah. Kind of didn't happen! I have come to the conclusion that I am sick of studying French. I still LOVE the language - do NOT get me wrong - I am still waaay pumped for France but I am so sick of studying grammar! Argh! I have reached my conjugational threshold! I just want to start using practical everyday French! I crave Saturday (when I land in Paris) because that will mark the day I begin to learn this beautiful language in context and NOT out of a bloody textbook. Hmpf.
So tomorrow evening I fly out of Perth at 10:30PM on Emirates :) Ten hours to Dubai with an ETA of 5:30AM local time. During this flight I hope to A) commence a novel I bought from an opshop, B) maybe catch a cool in-flight movie, C) get some sleep and D) STUDY FRENCH! Hahah. As much as I'm bored of grammar and its endless lists of rules and exceptions - I do need to brush up! Additionally my vocabulary is preetttty bad so I will be spending quite a bit of time perusing my sweet-as lil' phrase book!
In terms of textbooks that I'm taking over, I've got a compact, minimal approach. All I'm taking is my dictionary (très important tu sais), my Nouvelle Becherelle's art of conjugation (a small notepad sized book no thicker than 1cm that covers how to conjugate all forms of French verbs - the granddaddy of verb-books I'm told by my French teacher) and finally another notepad sized book called "French Grammar for English Students of French" which is simply AMAZING. It goes through all the grammar points that any language student must learn efficiently in English first and then French with effective and clear examples. Parfait!
Moving on now to admin stuff. Oh my god I am beginning to sense how French bureaucracy is somewhat subpar. I mean overall I've had pretty good communication with the staff at Lille. I've not had to contact them directly for anything but they have sent fairly timely e-mails to me about my enrollment and my accommodation. One particular correspondence about my residence at Triolo however has put a bump in my otherwise smooth travel plans. They've sent me an e-mail saying that I had to post a hard copy confirmation of reservation back to them by the 22nd of August. Fine. I printed out the document but ... where do I send it to???? What's the address? I sent two copies out - one to the actual residence and one to the Relations Internationales (RI) Office.
Well, if I'm being truthful - I actually sent 3 out. The first confirmation I posted had the wrong date - I realised I could move in earlier than I had written initially. So I e-mailed the RI office but then I got an automated response saying that the office was closed and staff were on holiday til - get this - the 22nd of August! Wtf! I bet heaps of exchange students are furiously typing away and sending e-mails with genuine questions and no one will be there to answer them... So I am SLIGHTLY worried that they may not have received my confirmation letter. It's scary to think they may give my room away... but alas I did send documents back to both the actual university and the residence itself PLUS I sent e-mails to the office so it should be 'confirmation' enough that I'm bloody coming and you'd better have a room for me!! I will try calling them when I'm in France, just in case there is someone in the office.
Oh I have another minor grumble... I'm not sure whether to swing by the RI office first when I FIRST go to campus on the 31st of August or whether to head straight to Triolo to claim my room... It's just a bit annoying because the residence is a 20 minute walk from campus and it'll piss me off if I have to double back with a suitcase.
Furthermore - the Lille public transport website Transpole (equivalent to Transperth) is useless!!!!!!!! Omg seriously. I spent, I kid you not, TWENTY MINUTES trying to find a public transport route from my hostel in Lille to the university!!!! The locations wouldn't load! When I finally got the stupid program to recognise the departure and arrival points I wanted the program wouldn't actually produce any results! This means I am unprepared!! Tsk tsk not happy! I will just have to wing it when I arrive in Lille and ask questions.
Aside from these little things pissing me off though - things should be okay! I'm going to chill out on the hotel in Dubai on Friday (43 degree day... oh my god pooltime) and do my awsm evening desert tour! I'll arrive in Paris on Saturday night - stay overnight and be on my way to Annecy on Sunday by train :) My host family will meet me at the station. I sent Sylvie an e-mail about me with a couple of photos but I got no reply back - so I will have no idea who to look for when I arrive at Annecy. She did say on the phone though that she would be in Italy on holiday so we'll see!
Basically - I'm super keen to start learning me some real French :) The two week course at IFALPES is a 20-hour per week course that'll be full of grammar... but... oh well! I am just so excited to be in France, speaking French!
Anyway, I shall leave it here for now. Thanks for reading my stream of consciousness-style blog :P
Au revoir!
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