I made a decision!!!!

Having been looking for somewhere to live for nigh on 2 months now, I've decided to go into independent halls for the time being. At the moment, I'm not sure how long I'll stay there- I am going to sign a 3 month contract this afternoon. They are fairly expensive and not particularly special, but it does mean that for the past week I have not had to look for houses, which has been so nice! Got to the stage where I was horrendously frustrated, didn't want to be looking anymore and didn't really see any new ads from one day to the next. Even if my solution is temporary, it is a solution and if you know me, this solution involved a decision....I MADE A DECISION all by myself. :)

So, apart from that, things have been good. Been going to my classes, which are interesting, but very difficult as well! I have one lecturer (for philosophy), who speaks way, way, way too fast. Had to ask her for a copy of her notes because I simply couldn't keep up. The lecture is on a friday afternoon for a start, in a big room with not many people. She doesn't have a very loud voice so some of the time I was straining to hear, and even when I did either I didn't understand or couldn't keep up! Never mind, she seems quite nice and very understanding. As regards to my translation classes, one is great, the other is dire. My english-french translation tutor is awful. He mispronounces english words and conducts the whole thing in french. I'm not saying I want an easy life and for it to all be in English, but if I was studying english at uni and my tutor spoke in French, I'd wonder what was the point. Anyway, his pronunciation actually made me laugh the other day, and for a uni tutor, that's never good! The whole class take the mick out of him, and to add to it, he has massive typos in his original english pieces, which just lead to everyone thinking that he's a bit of a joke! My tutor for french-english is, however, awesome. For a start he's english, and he's absolutely mad! Really entertaining- spent 2 hours going through 4 sentences, but somehow it was actually useful! So yeh, uni is going well, and so far so good on that score.

One thing that is majorly getting in the way at the moment is that the transport drivers are on strike. 2 days last week I couldn't get into town or uni, and it hasn't stopped there. Barely any of the lines/buses/trams are working properly, and if I want to come back here, I have to be on the bus at just gone 7pm. So basically, they're a pain in the arse, and they're talking about this strike lasting 99 days...I can't wait!!! Luckily, when I move (tomorrow), I'll be about 10 mins walk from the centre of town, which means that I can walk to places if I need to or I can use the bikes that they have to hire all over the city. That way, life will be much easier and I may be able to have a social life.

As yet, not made many friends at all. The french actually care about their uni work and with no equivalent to freshers, it's been a bit weird. There have been some erasmus outings, but due to my location, I haven't been, and I don't really want to spend all my time with english people, or with people who speak french as well as I do. I have my eyes on the prize and for now I'm just thinking that eventually I'll find some people! I'm going to meet someone I was put in contact with through a partnering scheme and hopefully she'll be nice and I'll be able to meet people that way. At the moment it's not bothering me, but in halls I'm going to be in a self-contained studio flat type thing, which means that I won't be surrounded by people like I am here. But it's halls, and there are bound to be people, so I'm thinking I might just have to knock on some doors and introduce myself! We shall see.

So far so good, I'm looking forward to having my own space and being able to come and go as I please because I'm not miles from everything. Have to make a trip to Ikea some time this week..hurrah!!!
A+
xxx