Galicia Profunda

The other week we all got a lovely four day weekend, thanks to the public holiday el Día de todos los santos, All Saint's Day, which is celebrated on the 1st November, which conveniently fell on a Thursday, which gave us such a long weekend. Everyone apart from  a few people went home from the residence, so it was quite quiet for four days, but it was long enough to get the bulk of my work for Durham done, so every cloud....

The weekend after that I went to my roommate Anxo's house for the weekend. He lives in a little hamlet, just outside of a town called Lalín, which is, according to him, in "Galicia Profunda." Well one thing I can say is that "Deep Galicia" is fer-reezing! When we went out I had to put like four layers on and I was still cold! Anxo introduced some of his mates on the Friday night and we went out for a bit. When we were in one bar this man came up to me and asked me in English if I were English because he used to live in America and then he was talking to me for ages outside, quite drunk, much to Anxo's amusement. His dad used to own a club in Lalín and apparently he's quite a legend there haha. But Lalín is a really small place and everyone knows each other, which made me feel a bit like I proper stood out, especially when the barmaids asked me what I'm doing in Lalín, a bit confused that a non-Spaniard had walked into Galicia Profunda. Saturday Anxo drove us both to Ourense, where a few from the residence were staying because one of the Noelia's parents were away for the weekend. We got a little bit lost trying to find them and saw a lot of the little villages surrounding Ourense until we eventually found the group, who were at a botellón up some mountain (just for laughs I think), and went to where Noelia lives but we couldn't stay for more than a few hours because we had to get back for a birthday meal for one of Anxo's friends. Saturday night was a lot better, because I already some of the people. One thing that made me laugh is when Anxo was talking to someone and she was explaining something to him in Galician, and I was like, in Spanish, yeah you remember, it was last Thursday haha, cus I'd understood. Gave him a bit of a shock as I've just been saying I don't understand Galician because I don't really want people to talk to me in it, but then I proved I do understand some of it. At the end of the meal they gave us shots of a drink called licor café which is "a typical Galician" and is a coffee based liqueur, but strong! A few weeks ago it gave one of the girls from the residence quite a bad night, so I was a bit weary drinking it in shot form with a lad who wanted me to be a lion by finishing it - clearly it had started to affect him too. Last Thursday we did shots in one bar in Vigo and one was a mixture of vodka, tequila, brandy and licor café, words cannot describe the burn in your throat after drinking that, and stupidly it took me two attempts to finish it. lad.

Then the Monday afterwards my parents came to Spain for 5 days. Proud of Dad for getting him and Mum to Vigo from Santiago Airport and into the hotel despite the fact that it's a compliment to say that his Spanish is limited and Mum's just shocking at languages (she once ordered eine one-of-them s'il vous plait in Luxembourg, true story). So Monday and Tuesday I showed them around Vigo, where I live and all that bits and saw a few places that I hadn't seen myself, for example the iron-age settlement (castro) at the top of the big hill, which I'd never been to before. Unfortunately Wednesday was the European wide Huelga General (General Strike) which was a lot more severe than I had expected and we couldn't really do anything at all. I live in Vigo's main street and at about 1am people were setting off firecracker bombs and throwing rubbish everywhere and putting up posters and then in the day time there was wave after wave of protest marches up and down the city. We saw one group of people arriving at the port, which must have defeating the point of the not spending money part of the strike as they arrived on a commercial boat...but the party/union's name was CUT which we thought was quite funny as that's exactly what they're protesting against but yet they're waving flags saying CUT in English. On the news there were reports of police violence and all sorts going on,  so Vigo was relatively calm, even though a fire was started in the doorway of a shop that dared to open, it's right next to the residence (see picture: pic.twitter.com/njE7OAUd). It's a shame that they had to see Spain in such a position, whatever they say it's not a nice image for tourists to see, but I suppose it's the reality of the country's situation at the moment. Anyway, the next day they went off to Santiago, which I think they enjoyed and then back home. We managed to find one restaurant open on Wednesday evening so we ate there, it was actually alright despite being called CornerHut. The woman inside found it quite amusing that mum said gracias every time she bought us something, cutlery, napkins, sauces etc I think. We English are just very grateful people!

Not that much more has happened folks, uni's uni, haven't put my foot in it or anything to comment on tbh.

Y solo hay un deportivo

Independentistas gallegos

Stokies on Tour

Me and Xavi outside Balaídos

Near Nati's nan's house

View of Ourense

Natural Thermal Spa, Ourense

Thermal Fountain, Ourense

Millennium Bridge, Ourense

At the thermal fountain, Ourense

Buenos!

This has been written for a while but I’ve been waiting for the photos from Natalia so that’s my excuse for lateness this week!

Last weekend I went Aída and Natalia to Ourense, to spend the weekend at Natalia’s. Ourense is in Galicia, but is more inland than Vigo. Apparently it, and Santiago, are the only major towns without a sea in Galicia. Was really good, I got a double bed all to myself and slept like a God for the weekend. Natalia’s parents are really lovely, and kept asking loads of questions about things all weekend as well as showed us around Ourense, to this fountain with naturally really hot water and to the Millennium bridge where you can see all over the town, as well as just pointing things out all the time. We also went to an old lookout tower near to Natalia’s nan’s house and to this little bar in a typically Galician village. So I got to see and learn a good deal. We saw the fountain and the bridge on Friday evening after tea and by Saturday night I’d got a cold, so I think it was that because the temperature, especially at night, has really dropped in the past few days. But Natalia’s parents gave me some medicines and tissues and looked after me, so don’t worry Mum!

Food-wise I ate really well. As I said Nati’s parents are lovely and knowing that I don’t think much of seafood they didn’t serve any all weekend! (I forgot to mention that I ate octopus at Miguel’s! It was actually alright, probably because it was covered in paprika but I couldn’t eat more than a bit of it, covered in bread.) We had this cake called “Brazo de Gitana” or Gypsy’s Arm which is like a Swiss roll without the jam and with fresh cream. I also tried this thing, I need to ask Natalia what it’s called, which was like a sweet jelly sort of thing on a slice of cheese. I really liked it but have forgotten its name now, apparently it’s very, very Galician. I also ate churros con chocolate for breakfast, which is a bit like doughnut strips dunked in a chocolatey drink thing, very very very Spanish but the first time I ate them in Spain. I ate so much there I’ve felt like I need to go the gym all week!

On Saturday early evening we went to these thermal spas, which are natural. The water in them is like 60 degrees and nearly burnt. Was really good but a bit surreal to be so hot when, like I said, the temperature outside has gone so cold. Was really good though, I’ve always said I want to go to Iceland to go to these thermal spas or geezers or whatever they’re called and now I’ve done it, in sunny Galicia! Coming home Natalia’s parents gave me a load of really good quality cured meats, because they know that most days I take a sandwich  to uni rather than eating at the residence, because I have classes and they said it’d stop the boredom of the same sandwich every day. How nice!

This weekend I went with Xavi and Miguel to watch the Galician derby football match between Celta de Vigo and Deportivo de A Coruña, which was a good laugh. Me and Miguel wore Stoke City tops, just for a laugh but I had my hoody on and bought a Celta scalf too. It was a really good derby atmosphere in the stadium and I have never heard/learnt so many insults in my life. I can now swear at people in Galician, because one of the chants at Depor fans was, “No son Gallegos son fillos de puta,” which you can google translate yourself. There was another chant which I thought was quite clever, “y solo hay, y solo hay, y solo hay y solo hay, y solo hay un deportivo, deportivo alaves” to the tune of oh when the saints, which translates as, “and there’s only one (5) deportivo, deportivo alaves,” i.e that Deportivo de A Coruña does not exist. I’ve never heard so many swear words in Spanish in my life, especially when Celta got an undeserved red card, Miguel shouted, “ostdia puta maricón joder!” which, again, you can google translate yourself! I’m really glad to have seen a Spanish football match because it’s more popular here than in the UK, everyone is obsessed by youtube videos of goals and following the English and Spanish leagues, girls as much as boys.

On a cultural difference note, self-deprecation isn’t really appreciated here too much either; when we were insulting the people of A Coruña, where incidentally I believe my Spanish grammar teacher last year is from, I said to Miguel, “No soy gallego, soy hijo de puta,” and he like no no no no no, no you’re not. I was like I know, was a joke. Ah well, live and learn. Also learnt that the phrase, “ser un pulpo” or to be an octopus actually has bad connotations. As I said that someone in the resi was a pulpo meaning they touch a lot, and I think I might have offended them. Word of advice: don’t use expressions until you fully know what they mean. Had to play the I’m foreign card to get out of that one! And a note about uni: on Thursday our English-Spanish translation teacher taught for about 30 mins of the 90 and kept asking why we all looked so glum and tired, and then she decided to send us all home, so that we can relax and cheer up. Haha, no complaints because I went to a part of the campus where there was botellón because it was the saint’s day of the Telecommunications faculty. I don’t think at Durham there’d ever me a load of people getting drunk outside the languages department, on uni property; but no complaints if it ever happens! On the way home I was desperate for a wee so had to get off in the middle of the bus route and find a bush somewhere, but thankfully my roommate Anxo got off with me and we went back to the resi together, rather than being empty bladdered and stranded by myself.

And that’s the imports from these two weeks then! See you soon! 

Como una Cabra

Miguel, Me and Snookie

One of the many 'anticrisis' demonstations

Ría de Vigo

Me and Miguel over Riveira

¡Buenos!

I'm getting progressively worse at updating this blog every week, I will  make more of an effort in future because half of the reason for this blog is to remember little anecdotes for my oral exams and I'm not going to remember any at this rate.

Right so where did I leave off on this gran historía de España? Vigo Zoo, well animal park. It was, we decided, the last good weekend we were going to have, and we were right. Although I got to crack the legs out a few days for lectures the weather has now turned miserable and rainy and cold compared to the heat of a summer in Toulouse and September here. So now the legs are well and truly hidden away until next year. But anyway the Sunday we went to the zoo it was really, really nice again so we thought it would be a good day to go to the zoo. Now...Owen asked his landlady where to catch the bus to the zoo and she told him it was from Plaza América, it wasn't. We had to walk about 20 minutes to what is basically the other side of Vigo to get to the bus stop that goes to the zoo, thanks to the information of a kind bus driver. This bus stop is about 500m from my residence, but like I say it was a nice day and being British I didn't complain too much about it. I've decided that Owen must look Spanish, because these women came up to us, conveniently for them, asking where to go to get to the zoo and looked proper shocked when they heard our accents as we replied and then just laughed and said thank you. But they can't have thought I was, someone in the residence said that I'm visibly foreign because I'm far too fair eyed and haired to be español, which is always nice to know but probably true.

Vigo Zoo is up in the mountains just outside Vigo and from it you can see all over the Ría de Vigo, the sea and the Galician mountains, it's such a nice view of the city and area. The zoo itself is actually quite small, and there wasn't much I hadn't seen before except BEARS. There are these two brown bears who are Spanish TV stars who are there. This woman was throwing peanuts to them and it sat catching them and was proper good to see cus I've never seen a bear before, I don't think. All in all it was a really good day and a good day to make the most of the last of the good weather.

One evening we went to see 'Of Mice, Of Men' in Spanish which was actually really good because it's one of my favourite books in English. I won't talk for ages about it incase people haven't read it, but I thought it was a really good translation of it, although they moved away from the book a little bit occasionally and they made George out to be really harsh to Lennie in parts when he always seemed more benevolent (to me).  There was this Galician family who came in and asked what seats we were in, and so when we told them they said "you're not from here are you?" to which we said no, we're English, Northern Irish and German and they said oh well you speak very good Spanish because we asked you in Galician, sorry. haha. We hadn't even realised! Apparently my roommate Anxo (which is Galician for Angél) speaks to me in Galician by false of habit and doesn't realise sometimes, oh dear! And when we were out it made me laugh that two of them started having an argument over a word, because one told it me (I've since forgotten) and then the other was sure that that was the Galician word and not the Castillian one.  Good to know that they know the difference.

Last weekend I went to stay with Miguel's family, which I really enjoyed. I felt a bit harsh kicking his sister out of her room and forcing her to sleep in the Grandmother's room but she didn't seem to mind. Linguistically it was quite tough, mainly because Miguel's Grandmother only speaks Castillian, i.e. Spanish, when she goes to the doctors, I don't really understand why only at the doctors but there you go, and so she kept slipping into Galician. But everyday the Dad did his Mum kept shouting to speak Spanish so I understand, to which he said, I think, hay que fallar gallego, you need to learn Galician. I think. I know two expressions in Galician, one is boas noites, goodnight and the other is cachurrita, which a term to refer to a girl that I'm never ever to say to her face, so make your own translation. I really appreciated that his mum drove us up in the mountains on Saturday evening to see the views of Riveira (his town) and also to some sand dunes. It was really nice and a lot quieter than Vigo, which I liked because I much prefer countryside/semi-rural places to big cities. I also got to meet some of Miguel's friends at the botellón in Ribeira which was fun too. You might have noticed that I've just spelt Riveira in two different ways. A lot of students of Spanish struggle when they hear a word to know the difference between V/B as there is no phonetic distinction in Spanish. Vigo is pronounced Bigo. Apparently no one knows whether it should be spelt with a B or a V, so it's quite reassuring that sometimes the Spanish get confused over their pronunciation too.

One thing I did want to mention though was British humour and that it goes straight over  people's heads here. Or rather, good old British sarcasm/banter. For example, I was asked if it's autumn in Britain too, to which I said yes, and the added with a smile that  it is the same continent as same Spain you know? Now, maybe I said it wrongly because I was just looked at like soz for askin' but I think it's just that the humour aspect of winding someone up went right over her head. Also one of the girls left on Thursday to go home and on chat I said to her "oh someone went without saying goodbye then..." to which she replied that I wasn't there so she couldn't have said goodbye. Fair play, I said, I'll forgive you then. And then on Sunday she asked if I was in a mood with her because she didn't say goodbye? I don't think it is sarcasm, I just don't think they understand the false seriousness of British humour, that we pretend to have a go at people to wind them up. I need to stop it or people will be thinking I'm a right moody moody.

The other Thursday was a strike day against all the cuts to education across Spain but I thought it would be a bit rich for me to strike seen as I let the student fees in the UK rise without protest even though I was and am against it. So, being the principled young cabellero that I am, I, along with three other people, went to class. Fight the system. But I walked past the protest on my way to class and it seemed that more people were making use of the Thursday proceeding the Friday that was a public holiday to go home, as there was like no  one at the protest.

I have my first piece of assessed work due in soon, it's a translation of an Australian menu and a linguistic commentary. Should be alright. Need to start cracking on my Year Abroad Written Task too, but I'm not sure what to do it on; I'm thinking maybe something about the Galician presidential elections that are coming up? But need to start the research and turn Durham-mode back on to get it done and done well. We're so lucky that's all we have to though, some have massive dissertations AND have to pass their exams. ¡Qué horror!

Right lads, I'm off, promise to speak soon! ¡Ata logo!

Más vale tarde que nunca

One of the bays in Baiona

Outdoor gym in Baiona

Estimados Lectores,

Been really busy last week so haven't had a chance to update for a while, so will keep this short and sweet. :)

Firstly, the other Sunday we went to a little fishing town called Baiona, which is about 45 mins away from Vigo. To get there we had to take the bus, but - being a Sunday - the information desk at the bus station was closed, so we were a bit confused what to do. This cleaning lady came up to us and asked us what was wrong so we explained we wanted to go to Baiona and she told us when the bus was, which was more than a bit useful. Right...I don't know if this a European thing or bus drivers just like to rip me off but the bus driver told me that it's only possible to get a 1 way ticket (Una Ida) and that returns aren't possible. The bus driver when I was in Lourdes also told me this, so I dunno if they think I've got dos dedos al frente (am a bit thick) or if they're genuinely telling the truth, but they always get two one ways out of me. Hmmm. Anyway Baiona is only a small place, with a lot of bays around the coast and one promenade. There's also a lovely fort, which I didn't go in but did a walk around it and it gave fantastic views of Vigo and of las Islas Cíes. So after the walk around the fort there wasn't much to do, so we chilled on the beach for a while, standard, and had some dinner. For something like 6EUR we had a main course, bread, wine and pudding. Ridiculously cheap and really nice too. But the waiter, qué maleducado! He asked us what we wanted and we were like well we don't really know what's on offer and he was like "chunter chunter chunter menus." Always helpful when you want to order food... And I saw him moaning at some woman who gave him a load of change. Bit unusual really because everyone else seems really helpful and nice, like when I need to a
sk directions or something but he deffo got up con el pie izquierdo (on the wrong side of the bed). Still Baiona, as you can see in the pictures is really really nice. We also found this outdoor gym, such fun!

I started the new module of Legal/Administrative Translation, which seemed interesting until our teacher (who reminds me so much of my old Business Studies teacher) started getting us to work out how properly to tax our clients if we were self-employed. Seems a bit odd, but it is a fourth year module so I suppose they're thinking more about their careers now. I feel sorry for the girl I was sat by cus I had to keep stopping her and being like "is this right?" But she didn't seem to know either so all good! Felt pretty clever when he asked me for an answer and I was like, well he should be taxed 21% but as a Portuguese company I believe he is tax exempt. Check me out Mr Spanish Tax Advisor. haha. The lectures are becoming easier and easier to understand, still quite challenging but enjoying them. My Spanish for foreigners course started this week, I was put in the B2 class, which is higher than I thought I was to be honest, but I think it's alright. It's really interesting because in the grammar section we've been discussing uses for tenses I didn't know existed, so it'll hopefully make me speak more idiomatically. And then in the conversation bit we talk about Spain and things, like this week we talked about stereotypes and some expressions (hence the two used earlier), which I really like.

I learnt a few Spanish customs from that class that I hadn't realised/known before. For example, Spanish people don't take their shoes off at home, and if they do always wear slippers. I hadn't realised but it's true. Apparently as well Spanish people don't take compliments, and if someone compliments you have to tell them that it's not true. Which I didn't know before: apparently they'll think you're big headed. So I feel bad now cus the same morning Roberto (the night watchman) said I had a lot of vocab, and I said thanks! :/ But then when someone said my computer was nice I remembered to say how old and slow it was. And when someone said my Spanish has improved I said oh well, I don't think it has. Pocito a poco I'm learning how to act like them. We also discussed how often the Spanish touch other people which is true, but used to all the kisses in France so am not as overwhelmed as I was in France at first. But with kisses you only kiss when you meet here, so it's a bit less full on that France but then they touch your arm or whatever all the time.

Last Thursday was a bit of an experience...we went for drinks by the port as normal and then went to our normal club...but Miguel is only 17 so he couldn't get in. (So are Natalia and Aída, but girls getting in clubs and boys not seems a common feature of all clubs.) But me and Miguel were miles away from the group and Miguel didn't have his phone so they'd all already gone in, so we decided to go someone else, but you have to be twenty to go there and so eventually we went to somewhere else. But it took us ages to go to Loft, the last place, because Miguel was telling everyone how unfair it was he didn't get in, to everyone he met in the street haha. But we got there eventually. Not as tired this time, think I'm getting used to Spanish night outs now. Also the Spanish cheese if growing on me; I've had this song in my head for two weeks now:

Feel sorry for anyone I give a lift to over Christmas ;)

Cathedral

Last Sunday we caught the train to Santiago de Compostela, which is the end of the pilgrimage route St James' Way. It was raining all day so it wasn't like we could chill in the park or anything so I might have a biased view on it, but I didn't think there was much to do to be honest. The Cathedral is really nice, but personally I think it needs cleaning up a bit and it'd look really really nice. The inside is magnificent and we saw St James' body, which was surprising small, it was in a silver box about the size of my laptop, so I dunno if it's just his relics, if not St James was a midget. Apart from that we had another ridiculously cheap lunch, this time with good service. I bought an umbrella which lasted 3 hours, that sums the weather up. But still, I'm glad I went to see it, even though there wasn't much there. It's a lot more classy than Lourdes, as there weren't all the religious tat shops that Lourdes has.

Tomorrow I'm going the zoo, so will tell you all about that and another week in Spain soon!

Santiago de Compostela

LAS Fotos

Just some pictures from Thursday night of me with people from the residence.

Me and Miguel

Me and Natalia

Everyone

¡Mear!

The best beach in the world?

¡Buenas!

So two weeks in Spain already! Plenty more to talk about this time...starting with last Sunday, because I thought the last blog was too long for you all! Right well last Sunday me and Owen went to what I call the Islas Cíes, which are a group of islands/natural park just off the coast of Vigo. They're only open in the Summer so we thought we should go asap, before the boats stop running and we lose our chance to go. Because, if you need a reason to go, the Guardian reckons they have the best beach IN THE WORLD. Swear down: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/feb/16/beach.top10. Now, I dunno if Gavin McOwen has a little soft spot for Spain or what, but I wouldn't really say it's the best beach in the world. Like it's proper nice and all, really nice golden sand and rocky areas and it's peaceful enough, but my perfect beach would be like, next to a sea in which you can walk without dying. Remember, Galicia shares the same sea with the Titanic victims, many of whom died because it's so cold...seriously walk about 2 metres in and you'll understand how Jack from Titanic died from it. So yeah it's a lovely beach, but the sea should be warmer if it wants to be the best. The islands themselves really made me think of Lord of the Flies island, like it had the beach and then a little mountain rising up, pretty nerdy but that's the first thing I thought of when I saw them. I can't really describe how nice they are, so I'll put up some pictures so you can see. But it was a really nice relaxing day on these islands where like no one lives and it's all protected and stuff.

And then on Monday it was back to uni. Now in my last blog I told you what I was studying. Scrap that. The French-Spanish was more of a translation theory module so that's been changed to a different French-Spanish translation. The teacher's a bit mental in that she doesn't pause for breath and keeps flicking between Spanish and French. When she found out I was from England she made me summarise a French text in Spanish so that she could work out if my levels were high enough...and they were! So I'm allowed on that module now. :) Something really weird happened though...we were in class and doing a translation, then she wanted them in and I pushed a button and it all disappeared! ¡Joder! So I went up to her to explain and in my mind I was gonna explain in Spanish and then somehow French came out... odd. But she understood and said it was okay and to send it her later.

I also thought that doing a Legal/Administrative English - Spanish translation would be more useful/easy than the Audiovisual French-Spanish so I changed to that but that starts tomorrow. After that I'm happy with all my modules and can finally register and access the uni network..because at the moment people have to keep logging on for me so the sooner that's done the better. I signed up to do a Spanish course for foreigners and had to go to do a test for that on Wednesday, it was alright...I think, a bit like the grammar tests we have to do at Durham. So now I have to wait for the results to be put into a class at an appropriate level. And then I'll have more classes! But I only have 10 a week at the moment so can't really complain.

I also found a gym the other day and joined it. Really good to be back using weights machines as I've not really done any since like April! Walked out the gym really proud because it dawned on me that just 2 years ago I would not have been able to go in to a gym, understand the price structure, persuade her to let me pay in cash not with a bank account standing order and understand how to use the machines. Just felt really good. :)

Thursday night we went out again, but this time I went out with the people from the residence. I'll upload the pictures once Natalia uploads them to Tuenti. I can't get my head around the fact that we STARTED going out at half past midnight! We went down to the port where they do the outdoor prelash thing and it was really fun. A few of them suddenly felt confident in English and tried to try out their English which, as they were drunk, was hilarious. I also met a few new people, which is always great too! I learnt a new word, mear, which is a vulgar way of saying to have a wee. Because there's no toilets by the port...and if the police catch you in the act then there's apparently a 200 euro fine! So you have to vigilant when breaking the seal. Then we went to a club where they played typical euro-cheese, seriously is there anywhere that plays decent stuff?! I don't think so. And we called it an early night when we came back at 5ish because a few of them were a little bit too drunk.

This brings me on to what I wanted to say about time. The time difference between England and Spain is 1 hour...but nothing functions the same. Dinner is a 2, Tea is, at the earliest at 9. Buses seem to turn up whenever, you just have to go to the bus stop and wait for it to appear. Banks only open in the morning every day of the week. Coming in at 5 from a night out is seen as early...there's loads of examples I could go on and on. Lectures seem to end when the teacher has enough and nearly always start late...some lectures last 90 mins and others last 60 meaning clashes are optimised. Basically it's ignore what time the clock says and go with what time you feel it is. So when I'm late - which is NEVER the case ;) - when I come home I'm going to say I'm living on Spanish time, which is do-what-you-want-when-you-want-and-don't-let-some-clock-tell-you-what-to-do time. ¡A mi me encanta!

So there you go, my second week in Spain. The weather is still lovely, hopefully will last until October, which'd be really nice! Understanding more and more the Spanish people and feeling more and more confident with my Spanish every day! ¡Ciao, chicos!

Sunset over Las Islas Cíes

¡Qué guay!

¡Hola chicos!

So...the next step of MLAC on Tour 2k12-13 for me is a 4 month uni placement in Vigo, Galicia, Spain. I've been here a week so I now have plenty of things to tell you all about! I was at home for a few days, which was really nice. Was nice to see people, but mainly to actually sleep in a sleepable temperature for once, so I was actually nice and relaxed for Spain. It was a bit strange being home, like I didn't find it weird to speaking English all the time again, because obviously I kept in touch with people in France, but it's strange how embedded a language becomes in your head when you use it everyday. For example I had to stop myself saying "bonjour" to the lady behind the bar, because I dunno, my brain had sort of programmed itself to say that rather than "orate duck." But stopped myself in enough time for her to not think I was one of them foreign lot. So Spain... I flew out at like 9 something in the morning from Stansted Airport, which I've never been to before and quite liked; it's small and not confusing at all. To be honest I slept most of the way there in the car and then once I was on the plane and in the air I tried to read my kindle and read about a page before falling asleep...for about 3 minutes before the Ryanair stewardess made an announcement selling something or other. After she had finished the announcement in English and Spanish I fell back asleep, for about three minutes before the Ryanair stewardess made an announcement selling something or other. After she had finished the announcement in English and Spanish I fell back asleep, for about three minutes before the Ryanair stewardess made an announcement selling something or other. After she had finished the announcement in English and Spanish I fe...you get the idea of how annoyingly repetitive this was.

Santiago Train Station

I actually flew to Santiago de Compestela, which is another town in Galicia. A man I met in Toulouse had explained that there was a shuttlebus into town where I could catch a train or a bus to Vigo. But to be honest I was a bit tired and still quite unsure how to actually get to Vigo. But as I was walking to the airport terminal someone asked me if I were doing an Erasmus, I think she'd seen my learning agreement which was in my Important Documents plastic wallet (how organised!) and explained she was doing one in Santiago itself and was going to the city centre, so together we worked it out. I then bought a train ticket to Vigo (first time spoken Spanish in Spain to a Spaniard and I was understood ;)) and waited at the station. Despite Spain's relaxed reputation the train arrived bang on time, proper nice inside as well, or was I just comparing with the Holocaust train with wings I'd just flown there on? Anyway the train took about two hours to get to Vigo even though it's not that far away. It just stopped everywhere. And this time I managed to read my kindle/stare at the Galician countryside a bit. What shocked me was just how green it was! Like when people say Spain you think like scorched browny deserty colour - well I do - but no, Galicia is almost like home for its greenery, it's really nice. Being a Sunday, the information desk at the station in Vigo was closed, but that wasn't really much of a shock, I have lived in France for the past two months! So I still didn't really know where I was, but I had no map or anything. My housemates in Durham will know how much I prefer walking to wasting money in taxis, but I had no other option because a. I didn't know where I actually was and b. I had a dead old fashioned suitcase you can't wheel about because it was lighter than the one I took to Toulouse and every kilo counts on Ryanair! So I whacked out the address of where I'm staying and got in a taxi. The residence I'm staying in is in a pedestrianised zone, so at first the driver told me that he can't take me exactly there so I was like yeah okay fine. Then he decided he would actually take me all the way there and just kept saying pedestrians, police and slapping his hand. I just shrugged (too much time in France) cus tbh if he had have got into trouble I didn't actually ask him to break the law.

My room, hello Old Bear!

I'm staying in a Residencia Universitaria, which is like a private halls of residence kind of thing. I really like it because I'm surrounded by other Spanish students and also I get all of my meals included so I can eat Spanish things (like the other night we had a proper tortilla española) which I wouldn't necessarily elsewhere. There are two beds in my room but I'm on my own..for now. But I don't see anybody coming now that term has started, and we share a bathroom between 4 of us. It's nice, they're all very nice people and keep including me in things. The only little problem is that they ALL seem to go home at the weekend. Only 3 stayed this weekend, the only two who aren't from Galicia and one lad who didn't want to. So weekends are quiet. I've been made to join Tuenti, which is another social network, because the Spanish don't really use Facebook. The directora, Maria (what else?), is really nice and said if I need anything to go and ask her and she'll help me out, and she asked things like what to do if I'm ill and all sorts. I know she has commercial interests in mind really but it's nice know if I have a serious problem there's someone to listen to. Some of the residents saw me looking up some words in Spanish and, sincerely I think, said if I ever need any help academically then to just go and ask and they'll do there best, which I think is a really nice thing to say too.

So uni started last Monday with a talk for Erasmus students. I met up with Owen, who is also a Durham students also doing an Erasmus here, at the bus stop and we had a good catch up waiting for the bus. The stereotype of Erasmus students sticking together is very true, as so many people asked if we were English and then talking about uni because they heard us speaking in English to each other. We met three people from Bristol who all seem nice and as confused as we are, which is kinda reassuring. We also met some lad from Manchester who was absolutely hilarious...I haven't seen him since. Some woman was taking photos at the introductory lecture and he shouted out dead loud, "why's she taking photos?" in his Manc/Yorkshire accent. Could not stop laughing. So after the lecture I went to the international office to try and get my Learning Agreement - needed for Erasmus money - signed but was turned away because too many people needed help for finding accomodation, so it was signed the day after, so I hope it will still be valid! We'll see.

Went to a few classes, one was called Expresión Escrita e Oral: Español, which seemed interesting until the woman gave us a sheet with apparently 26 "errors" on it, and I couldn't see a single one! But she did say that even for the Spaniards it was hard. I thought that'd be an interesting module but unfortunately I had to drop it today because I found out I actually signed up for Beginners German so had to change things and ended up with a clash. I am now studying: English-Spanish, French-Spanish and German-Spanish translation and also French Audiovisual-Spanish (fifth year!!!) translation and have signed up for a Spanish for Foreigners course, which starts next week. I think to be honest that they will be better for my Spanish and if they're too hard then us Palatinates don't have to do exams so it doesn't matter!

Aie aie aie, talked for ages already...should update this more often. I'll leave this weekend and talk about that another time. Will talk about Thursday night and then let you rest your eyes a bit. Well no, let's talk about Tuesday and Wednesday first. Tuesday night I went out with everyone from the residence to "tomar algo," go for a drink. We all ordered beer and the bar-lady bought out three portable draft pump things, never seen them before but they're really cool! Like there was a good 10 pints in this jar she attached to this red thing and then we pulled our own glasses! ¡Qué guay! Wednesday the internet broke! ¡Qué horror! We all just went into Natalia and Aída's room to chat for a while and then went to watch a film called "Spanish Movie" in Cristián's room. It's like the Scary Movies but a spoof of loads of Spanish films. It was the first Spanish film without subtitles I've watched, which is why I wanted to mention it because I was happy with how much I understood of it, although as someone pointed out, the humour was quite international, i.e. slapstick. Good though.

The view from my room

Thursday is Jueves Universitario in Vigo, which is just Vigo's student night. I went over to Owen's piso (flat) because his flatmate had a little get together with some friends. It was really good, had a great chat about Stoke City and Rory Delapp with a lad called Gonzo. We went down to the port, which is really close to my residence, did I mention I had a sea view?! and did something called botellón, which is just drinking in the streets basically, but there were hundreds of people in the one place doing it! Was such a good atmosphere, would be cool if in most places it weren't illegal in the UK! Finally at like 3am we went to a club and it was the cheesiest place I've ever been in, even cheesier than Ride Club in Vienna and we did the Macarina in there! Now, I'm quite an old man in my ways sometimes, especially regarding sleep...so by 5 I was literally a walking zombie and I bailed and asked Gonzo and Cris to take me home (as I didn't know where home was located from the club). Owen stayed with them and they went all morning! Hardcore or what! No, not for me, I need to a sleep and cuddle with Old Bear...I mean my Rugby ball!

Right lads, that's the start of Spain for you! Absolutely loving it and think I'll be very happy here! Not mentioned the weather in this one! It's sunny, but not too hot, which I like because I can sleep at night. Not enjoying the mosquitoes though but got some repellent so life's good! Tell you about first and probably second weekend next time! ¡Hasta prontísimo mis amigos!

One of the beaches in Vigo

Bonne Continuation

So voilà, here is my last blog post in la belle France, provided I finish before I have to board the aeroplane. I'm currently sitting in Toulouse-Blagnac airport waiting for my flight to Manchester to take me home for a few days. But let's discuss the past week or so first? Okay :)

So when my parents went home it was back to work as usual on the bar for a week. Work was fine but really really struggled with the weather these past two weeks, normal,y it gets hot and then cools for a few days and then builds up again, but the last two weeks it's just been mental hot 24/7. One of the things I'm looking forward to most about the UK is being able to sleep! Even the locals were struggling; Anne-Marie refused to give me la bise because, her words not mine, her face was soaking with sweat. Noice. Was a nice week because all of the staff were back of their holidays by then, so it was nice to have new-ish people to talk to and discuss different parts of France, some of which I'd been to.

The Friday after my parents came some random lad/ one of my best mates called Jim Hall turned up in France and stayed with me for a week. I think he liked Toulouse, although he said there's not a million things to do there. I think he struggled with the heat a bit but it's alright for some because he had a cheeky swimming pool he could cool down in. One thing he did comment on was the café culture, and how that carries on at night time, about being served rather than asking for a drunk at the bar. It's true and it was my new favourite word to complain in French 'chiant' that we had to wait a good 15 minutes for our drinks when it was busy. That's worse than Cuth's bar waiting time! But on the other hand if you're out to have a relaxing drink with your friends why do you need to push and shove and get sweaty and wind yourself up forcing yourself to the front of the queue? Not really relaxing if you ask me.

I will admit that when Jacques Vestibule was here we went to the cinema and watched a film in VOST (version originale sous-titrée) i.e. in English. We watched Total Recall. I've never seen the original but I know that the remake has some bad reviews but I thought it was really good. One thing though? What's with these remakes at the moment, Spiderman is also one...can people not make new stories and stop trying to improve things that don't necessarily need improving? Chiant! Anyway retournons à nos moutons, we had a good night watching that. The other day I watched Associés Contre Le Crime, which is a dramatisation of one of Agatha Christie's novels. After doing some research it's the third in a trilogy but I thought it didn't matter because I understood the plot and stuff anyway...at least I thought I did?

At the hostel this week I met a really nice man called Moises, who is from Santiago de Compostela in Spain, very very close to Vigo where I'm off next. He gave me loads of practical information about Vigo and finding accommodation and stuff. Really nice man, however, like most Spanish people I've met her talks. Non-stop. I feel kinda sorry for him to be honest because he came to Toulouse looking for work because the situation in a Spain is so bad at the moment, so his plan was to improve his French and then move to England to his girlfriend and teach French and Spanish here. But then his computer got stolen by whoever was sharing a room with him and various things have happened/been said during talks with the police that he has been totally put off France as a country and never wants to live here ever. It's an awful shame that someone could be put off an entire country because of one or two things. I don't know what went on at the police but France is generally a nice, welcoming country - at least that's what I found - so it's a massive shame that he will always carry this view of France now. So he's going back to Spain for a while before going to England and hopefully we can meet when I'm there as we're not far away at all.
On Sunday one of my Durhamite friends, Henrietta, was in Toulouse. She's working in Bordeaux over summer and her and a friend made a day trip out to Toulouse and I spent the afternoon with them. I found out something quite interesting, apparently there is a massive rivalry between Bordeaux and Toulouse, as the fourth city of France. I've only been told that Toulouse is the fourth city but Henrietta said that Bordeaux is. Apparently all of her friends asked why she was going to Toulouse because it's a disgusting city with nothing to do. I agree with the latter but it's certainly not disgusting. Jealousy because Toulouse is so pink and Bordeaux is architecturally similar to most French cities I reckon. Anyway, was great to catch up a little. When they went to go home to station was all cordoned off, with police, firefighters and the army all around it! Bomb alert apparently, the arrivals hall was still open though, which I thought was a little weird. It just reminded me that Toulouse is not the safest place to live in, however safe you feel. With bomb alerts, random shootings and bank hostages, it's not immune to crime even if you generally feel safe walking around...most of it.

So today has been full of goodbyes. Last night there was a little soirée to say goodbye, nothing too crazy, Solenn made a pot of tea for everyone because I like tea and it'll remind them of me whenever they drink it, which was nice. But none of them had milk in it so it was only a half-hearted attempt ;). I had a little meeting with my boss in which I told him what I thought of the placement. I learnt a new phrase, which sums up what people mean when they say goodbye, it's bonne continuation, good luck for the future. Also, I've been given a little cadeau which I'm not allowed to open until I'm on the plane, which will be very soon. So I'm going to go now, see you very soon England!

Oh by the way, in the airport there was this old woman who works there who was on fold-away scooter thing like we used to have when we were kids! Made me laugh so thought I'd share it.

Eh bien...au revoir la France et à la prochaine!

Tomber Dans les Pommes

It's been sooo long since I've updated this but I've been rushed off my feet the past two weeks so sorry for what is bound to be a long post!

One of the things I've been up to is making a full English breakfast for people one morning. As I said in my last blog post I've only ever cooked for two before so the pressure was on to cater for 20. But we got there alright. It included sausage, bacon, beans (courtesy of the English section of Auchan, which also sells cheesecake mixture, scone mixture, golden syrup and jars of curry, all for ridiculous prices!) hash browns and tomatoes. I think that is was great success, because there were lots of empty plates but the French keep saying that "on mange mal là-bas" (the English eat badly) so I just have to remind them that they gobbled it all up so it can't be that bad!

Another evening the Residence did a Dino Apératoire, which is just like little bits of food to eat. I made little portions of fish and chips (fish pre-made) which everyone liked as well! Never actually made my own chips before, only seen it done, so I was a bit worried about causing a chip-pan fire or something but we got there safe and sound. I also decided to make crisps out of the skins, which didn't go down as well, but l'économie protège du besoin - waste not,want not. It did get a bit confusing though because they kept calling fish and chips les fish and chips and then crisps are chips in French too, so I had no idea if they meant are the chips ready or are the crisps ready. 

Dino Apératoire

So I've shown the French a little bit of our cuisine and it seemed to go down well, especially among a group that we have in at the moment. It's a group called the League de l'Enseignement which, for this group anyway, provides holidays for mentally disabled people. They spend a lot of time in the bar area, watching the telly and playing pétanque. So I've been taught how to play pétanque by them, which makes me feel a little bit more French. We had a game of residents vs the group, and I'm not sure who won because I still don't understand how the points system works. The one thing is that they don't understand that as an English person I don't always understand what they say, especially when they start speaking really quickly or they give numbers for where they're from. France is split in to departments which are numbered, so when I ask them where they're from and they say 25 and I say I have no idea where 25 is, they just keep telling me it's the 25 and don't give a place name. I only know that one of the group, Marcel, is from Nimes, but the others are from 25, 31, 82 and 16. You know as much as I do. 

We've started playing football on a Thursday evening now, which is great because it means I don't have to work because I go there as one of the "animateurs." Really enjoying it, we bumped in to a team which was training and they offered us a match so we played. I took up my old Tean Rangers position of left back, although I played a bit yesterday on right back and think I was better there, even though I'm left footed. I was shocked how much energy it took out of me though; I've started up running for about the past year but it's so much harder to play in a match than run constantly for an hour. I think I might change my exercise routine to incorporate stopping and sprinting to make me more used to it. I kept being called "anglais" on the pitch, which annoyed me a bit at first; I was like I do have a name, but nicknames stick I suppose.

Film-wise I've watched the new Batman film, in French, which I really liked even though it lasted so long. I've also seen a film called Bowling which is set in Brittany, more precisely in a town near to Brest, which is where my friend Vern is doing an ERASMUS exchange in September. It looks a really nice, rural part of France; sure he will be very happy there. Heat-wise I'm still not coping at night at all, it's just too hot and I need a duvet or blanket over me to be able to sleep, so I spend most of the night awake uncomfortable, which would explain my new-found coffee addiction (when in Rome). Someone suggested buying a fan, which is a very good idea but I think it's a bit silly when I'm going home in just over a week, but it's top of the list of things to buy when I'm in Spain. But hopefully by the sea and in the north of Spain it'll be a bit cooler at night time.

Pique-nique

Cordes-sur-Ciel

One day Fabien, who works at the Residence took some of us on a day trip. He's from Brittany so he wanted to explore the region a little bit too. We went to three places, the first of which was called Gaillac, which is where a famous wine comes from. It was a nice little village with not a lot there, but we had a picnic in the square and then a coffee after a walk around. Apparently it's weird to eat quiche that isn't hot, according to everyone else that was there, but I don't think I've ever eaten it hot. Fabien just shook his head and said "vous anglais," "you English" so sorry if I'm just the weird one who eats it cold because now he and the others think it's an English thing and we're weird. Then we went to a small town called Cordes-sur-Ciel, which is built on a hill, and you have to walk all the way up the hill to get there. The weather was lovely and at the top you could see miles and miles (or should I say kilometres and kilometres) of unspoiled countryside.  The town itself reminded me a little bit of an island in Brittany/Normandy which is just one town, called Mont St Michel. After a nice walked around Cordes we drove to a town called Albi, which from one view reminded me so much of Durham. See for yourselves at the end of this post! It's a nice little town, has a really impressive cathedral (no castle though!) where there was an organ concert going on, which was actually pretty good but we went after a few tunes because Anthony decided it was too scary! Haha! We managed to come home just before a huge storm arrived and we all slept in the car on the way back so we weren’t that tired when we got back, so we stayed up talking about the differences between people, mainly the opposite sexes, with Anthony (French), Brenda (Togolese) and Evelina (Romanian), which was quite interesting if not massively stereotyped.

My parents came out to Toulouse last weekend, which was really nice. They both said they really enjoyed it, because we don’t normally go into the cities when we’ve gone on holiday to France before. I hadn’t realised quite how big Toulouse is but we were all so knackered after walking around all day that we had a cheeky takeaway pizza one night because we were too tired to go in to town. One evening we went to an Indian restaurant – my first Indian in seven weeks!! – which I thought was really nice…but Mum got a bit ill afterwards, so not so sure. We had wanted to go to Carcassonne on my Monday afterwards but didn’t want to go without her, so we got a 90% refund on our tickets, 10 minutes before the train was supposed to leave! Which is great, I don’t know but I don’t think you’d get anything like that in the UK, apparently in France you get 50% back even if you didn’t catch the train, which I’m sure doesn’t happen in the UK.

Tuesday night I was really poorly too, which makes me think it was actually a bug, and Anthony had exactly the same problems on Thursday night, so I think something’s just going around, but yeah, spent Tuesday night awake doing poorly person things, which really annoyed me because Wednesday was a bank holiday and we were supposed to go canoeing. But I woke up after a few hours sleep feeling alright-ish so still went. J

St Antonin Noble Val

So France is legally a secular country, a country without a religion. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a day off work to celebrate the assumption of the Blessed Virgin in to heaven, especially as it means a day off work. What I found really weird was that it was on a Wednesday, on the actual day of the Assumption whereas in the UK we nearly always have bank holidays on a Monday near to something. But it was quite good to break up the week, especially as I needed a day of recovery. So I decided to go to canoeing because I probably wouldn’t get the chance to go with the same people again. One of the residents, Nina, gave me some disgusting medicine to block me up a bit and I felt better after sleeping for a while. We went to a little town about 1 ½ from Toulouse, called St Antonin Noble Val, and did a 10km canoeing course along the Aveyron river. It proper felt like being in the middle of nowhere and gave some amazing views. Me and Anthony shared a canoe, but were a bit lazy as we were both knackered and just found the current instead of rowing for most of it. We stopped by some rocks for a swim at one point and you proper felt like you’re in the middle of nowhere, really liked it. I love getting out of cities and back into the countryside, as I’ve mentioned before. By the end of the day I was so tired from the illness, barely eating and all the rowing that I don’t think we made it out of St Antonin before I fell asleep all the way back to Toulouse and then pretty much the second I got home. But, apart from a fair bit of shoulder pain and a massive bruise on my back from the canoe smacking my back, I felt a lot better the next day.

Albi or Durham?

Abli or Durham?

So there’s a whistle stop tour of the past two weeks for you all. I have about 10 days left, and will update before I leave. It’s so weird to think that the “year” abroad that everyone has talked about since the end of GCSE’s is now the 10 months 10 days abroad! 

L'habit ne fait pas le moine

Coucou! Hello! I know I only posted the other day but thought I'd post about my weekend before I forget the majority of it and end up ranting about things instead. But first I wanted to mention that one of my colleagues booked me and the other stagiare on a guided tour of Toulouse on day, which meant no work and that we got to learn loads of things about the town that we wouldn't have known otherwise. So that was nice and thought it deserved a mention. Also there’s a new chef at work and he’s giving smaller portions so I’m not feeling quite so bloated anymore, although it could just be that I’m getting used to it and not noticing that mountains of food we’re confronted with.

So I decided I wanted to get out of Toulouse for a little while, and as I have every other Monday off I decided to go for a long weekend in the Pyrenees, which aren't too far from Tolosa. My boss had recommended I do something called covoiturage, which is pretty big in France apparently. It's basically car sharing and it's a LOT cheaper than the SNCF trains. It's also really good for your French because you're cooped up with a random French person for a few hours. I would really recommend it to anyone going to France on their YA; the website is covoiturage.fr. And I know I said that the French are a bit chicken oriental on the roads but it seems that their motorway driving is a bit more civilised. So no worries!

The woman who took me to Lourdes was called Julie and she lived somewhere in the mountains. She was quite talkative and told me exactly how to get to the moutains from Lourdes and even dropped me off at my hotel, which was nice. Still a bit taken a back by all this "bise", French way of greeting business. It just seems really strange to kiss someone you don't know and have literally just met and I wonder if I come over a bit stand-offish sometimes when I'm caught off guard and don't expect it. Also what way are you supposed to go? Me and Julie had a bit of awkward moment when we chose different ways to go and nearly met in the middle. Bonjour random person I've just met! It's a lot easier to just say hello and that be enough. 

So I got to Lourdes and was dropped off at my hotel. It cost 25EUR a night and was actually quite nice for that price. It's owned by a family who lives in the hotel too and they were very friendly, even when I forgot the code to the door and had to ring the doorbell and be met by the owner in his dressing gown! I read somewhere that only Paris has more hotels than Lourdes in France, which gives you an idea that it is packed full of people. Catholics believe that Mary appeared to a girl called Bernadette there and told her to dig in the grotto and the water from where she dug has cured people. Apparently. So Lourdes has become a place of pilgrimage, which would be really nice, like it's all in the mountains and stuff I imagine it'd be quite peaceful, if it weren't absolutely rammed with shops selling all sorts of religious nonsense. Glow in the dark statues, singing replicas of the grotto, I love Mary wristbands, mints with Bernadette's face on it... for people who have such nicely decorated Churches it'd appear that most Catholics have no taste. But it's not what's sold in Lourdes that ruins it, it's simply the fact that it's so commercialised. Like people go there, many with a genuine belief that they're gonna be cured and then people are cashing in on what other people believe in. Whether it's true or not isn't important, it just feels a bit like exploitation of people's faith. But down by the grotto, which is out of town a bit it's quite cool. There's nothing else around, just the grotto and the church that Mary asked to be built. And the spring in the grotto is closed off now but it's pumped to some taps a bit further down, so after googling if it were drinkable I filled up a bottle, mainly because it was free to be honest and just to say I've drank Lourdes water. But I don't understand it at all, because Bernadette herself even said that it's not the water that cures it’s faith and prayers but whatever. One thing that was quite cool was the hill next to the basilica, where there are huge Stations of the Cross in life-size statues.

On Saturday evening I went to watch the candlelight procession around the basilica, which was cool because the only light was from the candles. There was a service going on at the same time and it was going on in French, English, Spanish, German, Italian and Dutch, I think. Linguist’s paradise! Was just standing there listening to all my languages, was surprised how much Italian I understood from not speaking it at all; I think that’ll be my next language to learn! Although the Italian people really annoyed me when I was in Lourdes, because they wouldn’t move out of the way. Ever. Like I know I said in my other blog that the French don’t move when I’m running but at least in a shop if you ask them to move they do, whereas in Lourdes it seemed that whenever there were Italians blocking  shop doorways they wouldn’t move, even when I asked. So then you have to barge them out the way and it looks like you’re the rude one, when you’re not. Probably a generalisation but it’s how they came across in Lourdes.

So after the procession I had a cheeky kebab and watched some of the Olympics. I saw parts of the opening ceremony and thought it looked really good. I watched French women’s handball and basketball, both of which France were winning in. The French are loving that they’re third (at the time of writing/last time I checked) and we’re nowhere near that. So taking the banter and waiting patiently for Team GB to start winning more.

Sunday I took a bus to a little town in the Pyrenees called Cauterets, which is a ski resort in the winter. I walked up and down a mountain next to the village, a height of 1330 meters (4363 feet) which is a little bit less than Ben Nevis and is higher than England’s highest mountain, Scaffel Pike, but I did start so much higher up too. I then took a bus to the Pont d’Espagne, which is a bridge in the middle of the mountains. There’s also a like a bit higher up, but I didn’t have the time to walk as far as that, and I don’t think I would have seen much as there were cable cars that you couldn’t even see more than three in a row, because the clouds were so low. But it was really nice to be in the countryside. Like I really like Toulouse but I can’t deny that I’m a country boy at heart and so it was really nice to be out of a city and in the fresh air, with barely any people around for a while. And I enjoyed a break from the heat as well; the heavens opened the second I got to Lourdes (pun intended) and then it didn’t really stop all weekend, but was like being at home and seen as I’ve been suffering with the incessant heat it was a lovely break! On the bus back I was so tired from the travelling, sightseeing and walking that I fell asleep! It was a miracle (pun intended) that I woke up just as we arrived in Lourdes because who knows where I would have ended up else!

The Sunday night I went to the cinema in Lourdes to watch Je m’appelle Bernadette, which basically retold the Lourdes story. The film was in French and then the people with the most requested subtitles got subtitles too. So the man asked what subtitles I wanted and I was like, none it’ll be okay. But he seemed a bit concerned that I wouldn’t understand so I assured him it’ll be fine I don’t need subtitles, so then he put Dutch ones anyway, so proved I was fine.

A woman called Maryem took me back to Toulouse by covoiturage; she comes from a town in the Pyrenees called Luz-St-Saveur, which is somewhere where I stayed on holiday with my family when we were camping in France once! So we had a nice talk about the Pyrenees and about England, because her sister is doing an ERASMUS in Sheffield, lucky her. Just as we were about to leave the motorway we drove past a three car pileup, and there was one girl lying on the ground and another lad with his head in hands and blood everywhere. 100 meters later there was a car in a ditch whose bonnet was completely crushed and the airbag was out. Never seen a car crash properly before, so shook me up a bit to see. I remember that in French translation we did a translation that said France has twice the amount of accidents on the roads than the UK, scary times!

So now I’m safe and sound in Toulouse after a weekend away from it all. On Friday I’m cooking a full English breakfast for guests, so fingers crossed that it goes well. Cooked some epic breakfasts when my mate Jim has come to visit me in Durham and we did a really good one round his a few months ago. Unfortunately there won’t be any Staffordshire Oatcakes to have with the breakfast, so it won’t be as good as our normal ones. Plus I’ve only ever done one for two people before. Ah well, impossible n’est pas français!

A plus!