#26 - It didn't work

I have jus sent an email to Birmingham saying that I do not want to be in France anymore. Also text my dad the same thing.

I am not going into university tomorrow (/today, it is almost 6am) because frankly I don't care. I'm done with it. Not been happy since I have been here and I have been thinking about leaving for a long time now.

So I don't know what's going to happen now. Not entirly sure if I will be allowed to study French into my final year, but to be completely honest I have lost interest in French and German over the past couple years. All I really want to study is Japanese. Initially I did it because it was different or soemthing to that extent, but going to Japan just showed me that I really do love the country and especially the language, and that's all I really want to be doing. But of course, with only about another year of study until graduation it does feel like a waste of time (and especially money) if I don't get a degree in French. But if I don't then I will still be happy - because I won't be here.

#25 - Is this a French thing?

You know how when you go into the toilet stall, and you have the toilet? There's the white bowl and then above that there is the toilet seat? Well, apparently not in France.

All the toilets I have used in France have not had a toilet seat! And I find this kind of strange. I wonder, is it a French thing? Maybe it's jsut a Strasbourg thing.

Who knows!?

#24 - Monday

I awoke this morning after going to bed needlessly late after doing nothing on my laptop. The air was cold, and as I got up from my bed to turn off the annoying sound that was my alarm, I saw through the window blankets of whiteness. It had snowed again.

I wasn't sure if I could be bothered to go into university today, because it was early, and also because I wasn't sure if I would have lessons yet, or if the strike would be partially over. But I decided to go in anyway. I also took my camera and during the day took a few photos of Strasborug in the snow.

I went to the first class I should have. The teacher and the rest of the class came too! It was a French Literature class. Because I hadn't been there in the first week I hadn't recieved the copies of extracts of various things. It didn't matter too much, as we basically had to write down what the teacher was saying.

This surprised me a little. It wasn't jsut writing down notes, it was a dictation. Suddenly, as if some unheard starting signal went off, everybody's heads went down to their paper and starting writing. I sat there thinking "what..?" and then "oh, I should be writing this down!" and then trying to recover the first half of the sentence that she said, and then forgetting what I was writing while trying to write the next parts. In all it did not go too well for my dictation skills.


At the end of the class, a few students came in to say some things about the strikes. From what I understood they mentioned a blog online where they were keeping up the latest information, and also various meetings and lunches to discuss action to be taken, and such other things. From this small talk and what I have tried to look up online, it all has to do with Sarkozy (President of France) and the economic crisis. There are reforms that are trying to be pushed through to change a lot of things in France. The latest (possibly) is to do with universities and research procedures, and uprooting the whole "disasterous" system (as Sarkozy put it) and going drastically against the way organisations are run in France. Then again, I don't have much of a head for politics so I could be completely wrong.


I decided to stop in the building at my department of Letters to check some class times and places and things. As I was walking around, there were lots of signs and posters saying "GREVE" (strike) and "OCCUPATION ACTIVE". At the time I was there around midday, they were jsut about to start a big meeting of the occupation activein one of the bigger rooms. I walked around, looked at the signs a bit, and took a few photos. I didn't join in because I am not French(!) and I don't really know what is going on so I don't want to brainlessly follow a certain standpoint.

In any case, although the strikes have been a bit inconvenient for me, I tink I now have the luxury of enjoying the time off of studying!

#23 - A New Leaf?

It appears that I can now access the internet in my room! I discovered this while changing almost every setting on my laptop. And now I am not connected to 1, but 5 networks. No, I don't understand it, either.

So it seems as if things are getting better. After my latest Strasbourg Diaries that I wrote, life was pretty horrible. I was contemplating not coming back after my visit home if things would not improve. But, now life is bearable, I have the internet, and I can do a myriad of things! So for today, I am happy!!!

:)

#22 - Strasbourg Diary #7

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

I've had it with France. I am so close to contacting Birmingham and saying you know what, I don't want to do French anymore. With no exaggeration this is the worst time in my life. And if someone has the audacity to say to me "oh, but it should be an adventure. You are just not trying hard enough" or "oh it's just culture shock" that will just push me over the top and I will seriously be hurting them. It is not culture shock at all. I have lived in France before, I do know how things work. And I have tried jsut about all I can to get things sorted by myself and to even meet the people who live next to me. I have tried everything I can to be comfortable here and it hasn't worked.

If the French university can't be bothered to tell me any information at all about them or how I should do things, or even what the things I need to be doing are, then I can't be bothered either. If the accommodation doesn't care enough to respond to my various emails about my moving in date, then I don't care about it either. If the teachers at university have decided not to teach lessons, then I have decided not to apply for them or go. If the accommodation doesn't respect their own time frames and procedures, then I can't respect them either. If nothing improves in the place I am staying, the outcome is simple - I'm not paying. If they kick me out, still not paying. If that results in not being able to come back to France because of debts or something, I'm hardly bothered about that, because frankly, I don't ever want to come here again.

I am frustrated, bored, bordering on clinically depressed, cold, and just had about enough of everything, that soon I really will lose it.

"Study at university in France, it's fun." Yeah, right.

#21 - Strasbourg Diary #6

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

Well at the moment I am in McDonalds. I came to use the internet and to eat. I have now eaten, and I want to use the internet...but I can't find the connection. I think it might be off today but I don't know... at any rate I am not very happy about that as this is the whole reason I came here so I can check to see if I have any mail from uni or from anyone else, and to look up some things that I want to find out. Apparently I won't do that now ! So that's wasted my day. As you can probably tell I still don't have internet in my room so I don't know what to do. I don't know if I am being charged with internet included or whatever, but if I am then I should refuse to pay or ask for money back because it has been over sous 7 jours and evidently I do not have a connection. Yay for France...

I have now ran out of things to do for entertainment alone in my room. I have played DS until the battery ran out, I have played all the games I have on my laptop, and replaying some, I have over listened to the music I have, I have been sleeping probably a bit too much. I can’t do any work for lessons because I don’t have either work or lessons. I can’t do my essay for Birmingham because I can’t look at websites. I can’t go out to do things because there is not much interesting to do in Strasbourg apart from shop and that costs too much money. I can’t go visit people because I don’t really know people here. So it looks like I will be back here on Monday to hopefully do the things I need to do.

The other night when I went out to go to buy food I came across some people speaking English so I asked if they were Erasmus students too and they were, and live at Robertsau. There is one who lives in my building on a different storey, and she also said that no-one talks to each other in the building and that there is nowhere to meet anyone in the building (no room or anywhere with chairs). She also said that she went to one of the other buildings and within 10 minutes she had met more people there than she had met in our building in 2 weeks. Typical. I get stuck with the worst room in the worst building, in one of the furthest away accommodations.

I keep refreshing internet connections hoping McWifi will show up but it doesn’t. I’m wondering if I should move seats and try somewhere else just in case there is no reception in this part for some reason... The chair in the corner with the plug opened up so I guess I’ll go over there for now......

...It didn’t work. If anything, less networks are available. I read the sign on the wall about wifi, it said it’s free and unlimited except for construction purposes, from 2-4 and some time in the evening like 8 o something. Well it is now 17.21. I see no reason why it is not on. Maybe it’s just because it’s a Saturday. I think I’ll just waste time for a few hours to see whether it turns on or not...

I am so sick of France now. I keep looking for good things about Strasbourg and trying to feel positive, but I can’t find any and I can say for sure that this is the worst time I’ve ever had in my life.

Add: Ok there was a really strange man walking about here, and he sat behind me before. I moved seat, and just now he walked around again and is now sat two tables in front of me, and is being very annoying by sitting and tapping his empty cup “to the beat” of the music playing...Now he said something to a little girl in the play area... Creepy.

#20 - Strasbourg Diary #5 - A Gift From the Fairies

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

Yesterday I was going to go into university to see if I had lessons, but in the end I didn't because I wouldn't have had any and I would have wasted another 3 Euros. Instead I just stayed in my room and did various things on my computer. I also didn't go because, as I was about to get ready, I noticed it was snowing outside, so I made an excuse for myself. A few minutes later though it had stopped snowing. But throughout the day there were little snowflakes just floating through the air slowly. Not heavy enough to set on the ground.

I am becoming more annoyed about the strike. I have had no lessons since I have been here which is just under a month. I am also very annoyed that I still do not have an internet connection in my room. It is supposed to take under 7 days. It has been longer than that. I have tried connecting before as it says you can sometimes do, but I can't even find a connection to the network most times, let alone keep it for more than 5 minutes. I am wondering if the lack of progress is also due to the strikes, or if it is because they had sent a form back that I forgot to date (there were two forms).

I have flights booked to go home. I am going on Saturday 28th February, and returning to Strasbourg Sunday 8th of March. I am not skipping term as you may think (not that it matters much anyway with no classes) but it is spring break. I also will take that chance to finish my essays for Birmingham which need to be in March 20th at the latest, and I will have access to resources i.e. internet, and I might try and stay at a friend's for a night in Birmingham so I can use the library at uni. Other perks of England include having a hot meal that is not McDonalds and being able to cook something, having people to talk to, television, being able to switch on a light when it is dark and not French.