#19 - Strasbourg Diary #4

I can't remember when I wrote these but anything called "Strasbourg Diary ##" was written when I didn't have interent access.

I finally got a straight answer from the Lettres department today. I was asking about taking a certain course and if it would clash with another class I wanted to take. She was like, blah blah blah blah blah no you can't - unless you are Erasmus and then you can do blah. And I was like....I am Erasmus. And then she continued to explain things in detail for a few minutes and then added "but if you are Erasmus you can do whatever you like". So basically, I can choose whatever I feel like. But somehow now I have to try and register with the actual German department too.

So about my classes. I had a hard time trying to work this out, and I still haven't worked it out either. You would think that I would be given at least some help or information about how to do it. Not that it matters anyway, as the teachers are on strike (at least most of the 'french' ones are). So in the almost 4 weeks that I have been here, I have had 1 hour of classes - which was German. The one class that I had was the one cours that I was the most unsure about if I was even allowed to do.

I still haven't met any French people! It's too scary to talk to them by myself. When classes kind of 'start' though I am sure I will get to know some people. I talked a little last week with some people who were waiting for the same cancelled class as me but that's about it.

Apart from that, on Wednesday I happened to come across some internationals as I was going to go home, and got invited to go ice skating with them that evening. It was great! I hadn't been in ages but at least I didn't fall over! But I did tear my glove on the wall...And I still failed to get their phone numbers into my phone! So I am kind of still cut off, all lonely in my accommodation which none of them live right at the end of a tram line up north with no internet yet.

#18 - French Randomity

Once again I am back in McDonalds! I sitll don't have access to the internet in my room yet, I shoudl ave it in a week though so I can't wait. It means my evenings will be more interesting as I can actually do things apart from playing Freecell while listening to my music (which I was doing for 2 weeks).

I thought I would write a little bit about the random happenings that I have found in Strasbourg. Firstly, I should mention that on the tram stops, each one has their own little jingle. For example, one is some music, another is the soudn of children and so on. But approaching the European Parliament I thought I heard it say sugi no eki 過ぎの駅　and I kind of sat there for a minute thinking "was that really just Japanese, or has my time in Japan got me thinking and translating things into Japanese in my head?"

Last night, after a long time on McWifi (as I will now call it) I left to go home. When I stepped outside there was a girl who came up to me and she asked "Do you speak English?" How lucky she was. She had literally just got off of the tram from the airport and was looking for an accommodation. The trouble is she didn't speak French. So being the nice person I am I helped her find the place and get to her room and things (it was complicated to get into the building...) and so I made a new friend! Albeit randomly.

The last piece of randomity I want to mention happened today. Because there has been so much confusion and lack of information from my university in Strasbourg, I havn't yet chosen classes for sure. And I havn't been to any. So I thought new week, new start to a happier Strasbourg life. So I went along to go to the class I want to take today and maybe talk to the teacher a bit. So I went there, went in, spoke a little with the French girls sat there and waited. The teacher didn't show up. Another girl who takes the class came in and basically told us there is no class because the teachers are on strike. So...I have no class. And of course no one knows how long this strike will go on so I might not have class next week either. But, I at least managed to get the names of the novels I need to buy/read for that class. They havn't started reading them yet in class though so it's all good!

Oh yes, it also snowed in the night so there is snow everywhere! And not like puny English snow but like a nice even blanket that is not melting or anything. So that means it's COLDer than it should be.



My final note, I just uploaded the latest video blog to youtube so check it out! It is my adventure trying to find where my university is. I embedded the video above but if you can't see it then the url is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYk05z6XZ8Y

#17 - strasbourg diary #3

So last night was fun. I did go out to the bar. I met with the Oklahoma girl Cherry who was meeting a small group of foreign students at McDonald's to go to le Mosquito. So we chatted a little bit before heading off to the place.

Along the way I met so many people. It was like Monday night is like Erasmus night so lots of English speaking people. After the bar most people decided to go to a club so we ended in la Java for a while. I should have went home earlier about 12 when the trams stopped but I thought I would try to stay longer but it didn't work as I was tired, had no money (drinks are too expensive! like 5 quid just for a Smirnoff ice! Started the night with about 50 euros, had about 5 or 6 drinks and have 5 Euros left...) but because the trams were not running again I was going to walk. But then a lovely German girl named Caroline (Karoline?) offered me a lift back to Robertsau, which was probably a good idea as there was frost all around and it was freezing and I would have probably died...

Anyway, I am meeting a small group at McDonalds again today to talk about a weekend to Switzerland in April and because I want to go to Switzerland I need to go an bring my schedule...which I don't have one yet because I still don't have any classes at the moment. This university is so unhelpful.

Also, I need food! I thought I had bought a lot but obviously it didn’t last too long....I also need cutlery, plates, saucepan and whatever else, a bin for my room, an internet cable, coat hangers, someone to fix my light and radiator, and lots of other things...like a CLASS SCHEDULE and being told when lessons start. It might have been two weeks ago.

#16 - Strasbourg Diary #2

I asked the guy at reception how to turn on my light. He told me there was a light switch as soon as you walk into the door. There is...but it's hidden underneath a ledge at the back of the bookshelf. What??? Anyway, my light still doesn't work because...I don't know. I think either the light is dead, or the switch itself is dangerous. When I flip it to on (?) it makes a big crack of electrical sound so I think it's kind of dodgy... Also, the heater is not a heater. It does not heat. My room is cold and I am forced to use the itchy and irritating blankets when I sleep.

I have pretty much decided on what classes I want to take here. I have different sets to choose from in case I can't do some classes (so then I would do the other ones I decided on). I need to go and see my Departmental Tutor because I still haven't seen him. He is apparently only in on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. And even then it is 50 mins at the most. So I have to wait until Wednesday afternoon so I can see if I can do those classes. I have no idea how I would find out where these classes are or what room, let alone when classes actually begin. They may have began already, but typical France, I still no nothing more about it than before I even chose to study French at uni :/

Tonight there is a kind of party at a bar. I do not know where this is and nor do the people I met know. Nor the time :/ I know at least one of them is going with people from her cité but I don't know where that is either and she doesn't know when she is leaving. I'll probably end up not going because France just irritates me so I'm not really in the mood to go drink and I am not gonna walk about the streets in the cold looking like a tourist and not finding the place by myself. I tried texting Cherry but she hasn't text back so...I don't know what she is going or not.

It's not the easiest thing to meet people in this place. The accomm is basically a long corridor with rooms with doors that are all closed. I don't see anyone walking about them often, I don't know if people stay in their rooms or are all out or what. All I know is that for the whole day yesterday some idiots were playing music on their guitars in the room above me really loud and not all that great. And then when they finally stopped at about midnight, someone was playing a TV or something or jsut talking very loudly. So in all - CROUS is noisy. So anyway, I thought that maybe the best way to meet someone is to hang about in the small kitchen at the end of the corridor and quasi- cooking until someone comes in. How sad is this. But I might try it later.

I don't care about keeping up with learning French anymore. Not at all. I hate France and if I had the choice to live here for free I would not take it. This whole year abroad is going so slowly, I just want to go back to Birmingham so I can get on and finish my degree. The novelty of living abroad has very much worn off now.

And if I am denied entry into my final year for French then I really will cut someone.

Thanks France for giving me less interest in my degree.

#15 - Strasbourg Diary #1

Well since I didn't have access to the internet for ages, I had written a couple of blog entries to post later when I had access. So now I am backdating them. Here is the first one :)

I am now in student accommodation. Yeah! The lady at the university rang them up and pulled some strings so I could move in straight away instead of waiting until February. The room itself is fine, if it was England then it would be a brilliant place to stay in but as it's France, people are not that social so I don't know if I will even meet my neighbours....

Also...I am pretty sure there is mould growing across all the corners of the ceiling. That or it's food.

So today is a Saturday, I don't know what to do. I have unpacked just about everything except my clothes which are still in my suitcase because it is always a big ordeal trying to sort out where you want which clothes to go. I'll probably do it tomorrow or Monday though. Later today I think I will probably go to the supermarket and buy some food and other things because I have nothing here, and it might be nice to eat today (hopefully I can remember the way to walk when I went with my friend who was here for first semester). Although, I'll probably stop at the pizza store on the way to the supermarket because I want pizza! And it's cheap and you get one free or something and I miss pepperoni. Oh no I shouldn't have said that...now I want a pepperoni stuffed crust! I had one at home I don't think I finished it all though...I could have taken it with me!!

I have a three lights in my room. One is by the sink, one by the bed which is small and only for the bed(?) and one that is along the window for the desk. However, I can find now switch or anything on how to turn this desk light on...so I don't know what I should do. For now, in the day with the blinds open there is enough light. But when it's night I'm guessing that doesn't really work well anymore.

My window looks out directly into the path of a building. So I should be careful about leaving my blinds open as I don't particularly want people to watch me in my room. I'll probably be seeing a lot of this building though, as you have to face directly out of the window when you sit at the desk. Maybe in time it will become my muse for when I do homework.

I think I will update this blog more about France than I did about Japan, as in Japan I was always around people so I was always doing something outside of my dorm. In France though, at least for now, I know nobody (I still don't even know when any lessons start) and I am in the accommodation the farthest away from the universities. I will also be trying to update on anything Japanese that I forgot or ran out of time to post, so watch this space!

#14 - I'm in France now!!!

The day I arrived to Strasbourg...what a mess. I had basically no information from the uni I'd be going to about my course or classes, and heard nothing back from the 3 e-mails I sent to the student accommodation place, so I generally had no idea what I was doing.

Helen met me at the airport which was very nice of her because otherwise I would have probably not have made it into Strasbourg. So first we went to the accommodation. When I talked to the people there about moving into any free room they have until my contract starts (February) but not only did they have no free rooms, there was a waiting list for them too. But that was irrelevant because I wasn't even on their database.

So now I am living in a hotel for a couple weeks until I can move in. Most of my time has been spent playing games on my laptop because I don't know anyone in Strasbourg and all the uni places I went/needed to go to were closed even though it was during their explicit opening hours.

I have very little sorted out so far. I need to take some photos of myself for various forms and things but I know where I can do that (it costs 4EUR I believe...) and today I managed to get a copy of the guide pedagogique for the year I am doing so now I have to somehow choose modules and lessons from it, which I don't understand because it has both a stupid layout, no clear information, and it's in French.

I have managed to meet a few ERASMUS or international students by accident. I was on the phone to my dad outside an office and after I hung up a girl came over and said she heard me speaking in English and asked if I was ERASMUS, which I am. And today I saw her on campus today as well and she invited me to go with her to a cafe to meet up with 2 other international girls, so I now know at least 3 people that are NOT French. Woo. (They are Hungarian, American (from Oklahoma!) and Japanese!). And apparently there is some sort of Erasmus party at a bar called Mosquito on Monday so I will probably go there and see who is there apart from the 3 girls! Also, I was told there is another American at least who is male and who also shares my non-interest in girls...but apparently he's not good looking!

So I guess for now I need to try and make sense of this guide and choose my course....I dunno. France sucks at helping you do anything.

I did walk around the area a bit and took some pictures of buildings and things that seem important but now my camera is out of battery, and because it is japanese it obviously has a Japanese charger. And the thing doesn't fit into the Japanese adapter that I bought so...I can't charge it :/ Maybe I could try and steal one off the Japanese girl Akie-chan....hmmmmn....

Also, the internet is expensive in my hotel (EUR4.50 for an hour) so I shall not be using this much if at all...which is why I have not updated anything since forever.

#13 - returning from Tokyo

Tokyo was ... interesting. But not in the sense that there was a lot to do, because there was hardl anything. Nor was it due to the people, and there were hardly any there. In fact, Tokyo has severely disappointed me.

For the first night we got there (31st) we did not have a hotel room because everything was booked. We had planned to stay up all night until the afternoon of the first but we were so tired from not sleeping on the night bus that we had to sleep somewhere, and we decided to try a comic park. A comic park is a place to go to read manga and/or use the internet for a certain amount of time. Most people tend to sleep in them as well so most have showers and sometimes beds. So we slept fro a few hours in a chair in out own private booths. It wasn't immensly satisfying but it was better than nothing. For the rest of the night and day we walked around Shinjuku until the point that we began to hate it. Both us us felt that Tokyo was stupid and I just wanted to go home. There was nothing to do :/

The night of the 31st, New Years Eve, I texted some of my friends that were in Tokyo and tried to find out where the best place to go to celebrate was. So we agreed to meet in the temple near Tokyo Tower, where they release hundreds of balloons at midnight. My friends did not show up on time so I didn't see them. It was also freezing cold so we were not in the best of moods. Hundreds of people pushing and shoving you is not much fun either. When the baloons were let go I did record it on my camera, only to find my camera had actually decided it would record nothing. So th whole reason we went there was lost.

Our hotel was in Ikebukuro which is quite a good location especially for trains and the subway. It was part of the Sakura Hotel group and not too bad. I don't remember exactly the order of where we went in Tokyo, but we also went to Shibuya where I met up with a friend from home and walked around and had Starbuck's over the biggest zebra crossing in the world. Shibuya is far better than Shinjuku in my opinion. My friend disagreed.

I met up with the other uni friends who are currently studying in Tokyo and we had a small meal which was nice. The food was good too so I was happy. It was nice to see everyone again as I hadn't seen them since June or July! and won't see them again until September or October.

We also went around Ikebukuro where our hotel was which was a nice little walk. On the day we left, Sunday, we went to Harajuku wanting to see all the costumes and cosplay, only to find out that nothing - and I mean nothing - was happening at all because if New Year's. Which was disappointing. We didn't see anyone in any costume, so we ended up waling around the area shopping and buying things.

So if I had any advice about Tokyo - don't go for New Year's.