And just like that, another week and a bit has whizzed by. The weekdays passed in something of a blur, it's that time of year when there is so much work to do, preparation for my first exams in less than 2 weeks, my year abroad project to research, including interviews with some of the lecturers, sorting out work experience for my month off between France and Spain... And then it was the weekend again, and on Saturday morning, I got an early train to Toulouse, about 2 hours away, to meet up with Erin, a close friend from uni who [View Full Entry]

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Just as you start to become disenchanted with this place, it has a way of making you fall in love with it all over again. I was desperate to throw myself into things, partly to take my mind off leaving Britain behind and partly to make the most of my time here. We'd been told that there was a fair in town, and following Adam's vague directions: "You head towards the castillet and then carry on out of town" we finally reached it after wandering for a while and negotiating a dual carriageway. Charlotte and I, feeling up for an adrenaline [View Full Entry]

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After the weekend in Barcelona, my thoughts were mostly occupied with going back to the UK for a few days, so apart from getting angry at some of my classes for the incredibly rubbish teaching, the week was mostly occupied by printing off boarding passes, frogbus reservations and wandering around town in search of a decent overnight hand-luggage-sized bag, which I found in the end, after some hours of wandering. I had an early start on Saturday; up at 5:30 to get the 6:30 bus to Girona airport. I whiled away a few hours there before boarding on time and without [View Full Entry]

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Last Monday feels like a very, very long time ago, because so much has happened in-betweeen. On Monday I seemed to be racing around preparing for my Mum and little brother Rory to visit, on Tuesday morning, Fiona and I managed to completely miss a lecture by standing outside the wrong classroom (this is why lectures at 8 a.m. are a bad idea!) and then on Tuesday evening, said family arrived on the Frogbus, a bus which takes you directly from Girona airport (just across the border) straight to Perpignan train station. It was wonderful to see them, and we spent [View Full Entry]

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It's been a quieter week this week, the weather turned a bit grey and windy for a few days (it even rained once, for about 20 minutes!) and my body decided that despite the fact the temperatures were still in the high teens, it was time for the obligatory winter cold. Today though, things are returning to normal, the sun's back out and the temperature's back in the 20's, and my cold's disappeared with the grey weather. I also had to go and see a dentist, because I had a filling that was cutting into my tongue, so after finally managing [View Full Entry]

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I finally got all my paperwork sent off/handed in to all the right places this week! At last! With that out of the way, it was a case of turning up to lectures (I have finished an entire pad of A4 already - I think I used 2 during the whole of last year, they really make you write here! Although my doodles, which get ever-more abmitious with every passing modern history and Non-specialist Spanish lecture may also have something to do with my rapid paper-consumption), and then planning things for the evenings. On Tuesday we went to Tio Pepe's (where [View Full Entry]

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On a high after such a great weekend, the start of the new week brought me back down to earth with a bump. There was erasmus paperwork demanding to be taken care of, post offices who refuse to sell you stamps (don't ask!) and almost a whole day spent entirely doing two horrible translations. However, on Thursday, in the erasmus welcome meeting (yep, a welcome meeting after we've been studying here for 3 weeks) I finally got most of my paperwork and my timetable sorted. I hadn't got much planned for the weekend, but since Rosie's mum had come to stay, [View Full Entry]

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Yet another week gone, I can't believe I'm writing up another blog already! The week got off to a fairly ordinary start, with lectures now seeming routine. In-between starting to sort out the mound of erasmus paperwork that has to be sent back to Sheffield and trying to get to the erasmus office during its opening hours (not easy when they are open for a total of four hours over two days), the working week passed in a flash. I had moments of homesickness, but by the weekend, I was on top of the world again when I heard from my [View Full Entry]

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So another week has flown by under gorgeous blue skies - I still can't believe how hot and sunny it is, and nearly into October. I still carry an umbrella everywhere, even though it hardly ever rains - I guess it's a British thing! It was my first week of lectures, and after the headache of trying to put together a timetable out of modules offered by several different departments, we set off, not sure what to expect. Some of them were really good, especially medieval literature with an amazing lecturer, who is so enthusiastic about it, and was really welcoming [View Full Entry]

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Well, here I am, one week in, gazing out of my window at a cloudless blue sky. I can safely say, as first weeks go in any new place, this one's been pretty good! I arrived at Perpignan station last Sunday evening at 10p.m. to find absolutely no taxis. Inside the station, everything was shutting down and I couldn't find anything that might offer taxi numbers. The reception at my hotel was due to close in half an hour, so after waiting several more minutes in the dark, I phoned the hotel. The lovely man there said he would call a [View Full Entry]

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