The Start of October Half Term!

My first impression of October half term in France was that I was going to spend a huge amount of time with other assistants, travelling and finally having more time together. What surprised me was the amount of assistants going home! A lot of my friends have gone back to the UK or have decided to have guests over (very jealous). My decision not to go home was preplanned when I left England and I guess if my birthday hadn't have been so early, I may have seen family or Matt now. What's done is done and I'm in France, so "profitons-bien", speak French and carry on!

I broke up from school Wednesday afternoon and since then have been super busy! Wednesday afternoon I caught the train into Lille and met up with Nia, Christina and Lucy. I hadn't properly met Christina or Lucy at this point so it was lovely to make new friends (and shop of course!) The evening resulted in Nia and I having our favourite meal, with diabolos (grenadine and lemonade, or peach and lemonade for Nia)

Wednesday night we ended up at Vanessa's flat chatting which was lovely, before Nia stopped at my house....and we ended up booking Paris tickets..oops! November the 11th here we come! Thursday was a day of cinemas and Douai and just great company! Thank you so much Nia it was a fab start to my holiday.

              

Friday was another adventure to Lille, to meet my pen-pal Jeanne. Jeanne and I have known each other for around 7 years or more, through writing letters, skype calls and emails in French and English. Before, she lived in Bethune, not too far away from Lille, yet I have never got the chance to meet up with her. Friday was this chance. It was lovely and sunny (and even a bit warm) and we got along so well! It was brilliant to walk, talk and catch up about our lives. I think we instantly clicked! Merci beaucoup pour une journée incroyable Jeanne et pour le chocolat chaud - et le gateau!

Luckily, I had been brought this lovely blueberry muffin...as it turns out my trains were all cancelled on the way home...it took nearly 4 hours but I met two lovely girls: Chloe and Oihiba, and we chatted through this stressful and long experience. I was so happy to get home but really grateful that Jeanne was so so lovely, and we had the best day together. Hopefully I'll see her after the holidays when she is in France.

 





A bientot Jeanne! See you soon :)




Saturday I went to see Bridget Jones with Caroline and her family - it was just as good as all the other films! Then we went to an official Italian restaurant in Arras ....wow it was incredible. I had lasagne and a diabolo again, but then a huge ice cream with hot chocolate sauce! What was a shock, was the wine. Here, this will be the second time I've had wine in France and it is incredible. Saturday's wine was expensive but it was so nice! The first time I had wine it was only 4 euro and still better than anything in England I'd had - I don't normally like wine, or alcohol so you can see the shock - so it was really nice to try different French wines so far!

 
Sunday is a day to myself, the French family are away but have left me so much food!!! (HAPPY).
I think it's good to also be honest on my blog posts - today is difficult. I woke up feeling home sick/matt sick and needing some TLC (I found it odd as I'd had such a good few days!) But these things happen. Luckily, I had some lovely words sent to me:

C'est normal d'avoir des petites baisses de moral surtout les dimanches car tu sais que tu pourrais être avec eux! Aller fais un petit Skype, relis 2-3 pages de Proust et remotive toi!  

(For none French speakers: It's normal to have these little dips in moral, especially Sundays because you know you could be with them (family)! Go skype them, re-read 2-3 pages of Proust and motivate yourself again!) You can now see why Jeanne est la meilleure !! Merci, thank you. This made me feel so much better. I've spent my morning in my PJs, skyping my Mom and then Matt for ages, which was unbelievably lovely. Unless you have distance, you'll never know how much these little things matter. The year abroad cannot always be exciting adventures and sometimes you do just want to be at home. I'm really lucky I've got such lovely french friends, family and of course Matt (SO MUCH LOVE) in my life (soppy) because it's making it all so much easier. 

So this is me, feeling better, off to watch crap French TV shows, eat my food and read read read. MOTIVATED once again. I think anyone on their year abroad can take Jeanne's advice - skype home, do your favourite things. So what's next? BRUGES Tuesday...PARIS SATURDAY!!!!!!

JR xxx

PS Thank you again Matt, you're my rock!

All gifs are from giphy.com and not my own.