Change of plans. Now this blog is going to be both my writings space and a little journal from my year abroad in Besancon, France. Hope you'll enjoy ;)
Somewhere in France,
4.09.2012
So here I am, sitting in a TGV train to Besancon, my new
home. It sounds strange calling it home, doesn’t it? A home where I barely
understand the language, never been to before and don’t know a living soul. Hmm… that
really must be a place called home ;) Anyway I’m being surprisingly calm. The
only thing I was worried about was the subway in London. Maybe I would have
been peaceful if I didn’t have to carry a massive suitcase, a huge backpack and a medium
size handbag that could easily fit my laptop, Kindle, English - French pocket
dictionary and a make-up bag. Fortunately I was lucky enough to attract strong
gentlemen who were so eager to help me carry the suitcase downstairs that I
couldn’t say no ;) Maybe it was my mind control? Who knows, never mind. I
will never forget the worrying look at some lady’s face when she saw me
struggling with my luggage. Her ‘Good luck’ was so encouraging, and by that time also the nicest thing that happened to me that day. Now I’m sitting in the
train, wondering if my accommodation office would still be open. If not, where
am I going to sleep? I don’t even want to think about it… everything went
pretty smooth so far, let it continue please ;)
So the new chapter in my life begins today. I’ve got a year
to learn the most beautiful language in the world, buy a bicycle, find my
Jean-Pierre, and then travel France and Europe (or at least visit Paris, Cote
d’Azur, Geneva and Rome ;)). Challenge accepted.
Besancon, 5.09.2012
After arriving in Besancon it occurred that I have to take
another train from the suburbs to the city centre. Panic in my head, how the
hell am I going to buy the ticket? I can’t speak French! Luckily, the French
are not far ahead from the British and there were many self-service ticket
machines. First thing I’ve done was changing the language into English ;)
Worrying a lot I found my ‘voie’ which was easy enough although with my entire
luggage, it took me additional 3 minutes and I only had about 10. After 15
minutes journey, here I am – exhausted, with a heavy luggage and badly wanting
a cigarette. And again I was lucky
enough to receive help from a very nice middle-aged man, who I couldn’t
understand at all at first. Yet he was so patient with offering help to me that
I was thanking him about 5 times during our way from the platform to the taxi
rank.
Cigarette! That was the first thing I wanted to do while
waiting for a taxi. When I finally arrived at the campus I was amazed. It was huge, green and even though it was really late, there was still lots of people
around. I got out of the taxi, went to the accommodation office and there was a
surprise waiting for me. It occurred that my ‘dossier’ with all my documents
didn’t arrive which was weird considering the fact that I paid almost 10 pounds
for plane postage that was supposed to arrive in 2-3 days… I had a lovely chat
in French, trying to explain that I did send it and it must be somewhere there.
No results. Finally I got the keys to a room on the 4th floor in
Batiment Pierre Gascar. No lift of course, but a man from the accommodation
office helped me carry the suitcase. Even for him it was too heavy ;) Still
excited I wanted to see the room and start unpacking my things but I met some
nice people instead, who also helped me with the luggage, and I was invited to spend
some time with them outside the uni restaurant. I was happy, making
friends already yay!
My new room though wasn’t that exciting. It’s not big, but I
expected that. It has everything that it should although the wardrobe is a bit
scary and odd and I haven’t decided yet if I am going to keep my things in
there. We’ll see. There’s no proper kitchen here, although there is a small
kitchenette with two burners and a sink. Everyone have a small fridge in their room ;) It’s not a 5 star hotel but will do for the year. After kind of settling in the place and
refreshing myself I hurried to meet people outside the restaurant. I thought
all the Erasmus students don’t even try speaking French and they stick with
English. To my surprise, all the people I met spoke French and it was really
good French, not like mine. I felt a bit left out but if I understood or was
asked something I tried speaking. That’s always a first step, isn’t it? It was
a nice late evening and I met few Germans, Spanish, an Irish one and a French. Later on I managed
to unpack some of the things and arranged them somehow in the room, I still
haven’t finished though.
Next morning, I woke up with my whole body aching because of
the luggage. I still needed to sort out my ‘dossier’ and go shopping with my
German friend, Marina. I was pretty sure there should be at least a small shop
on campus, but no there aren’t any. The closest one, Intermarche, is about
10-15 minutes away which is ridiculous. I did all my necessary shopping for few
days and of course forgot about the adapter and now my battery is running low.
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