La rentrée...back to school* time!

Or university as it is properly known*. It's crazy to think that after a few months at home, Nottingham is no longer on the horizon but at the front door. This time last year I was settling into a new life in France - where has the time gone? I really miss a lot of things about France - les Français, my YA family, the travelling, the food, bibliothèques, librairies and the damn cheap French books...

But now my family is only one hour away instead of 6 hours of travelling, I get to live with some of my favourite people (and annoy my friend Vince every day woo!) and have Matt visit! Already a lot easier distance wise than last year! I also get to properly study again, something I've strangely missed. Although I am really dreading grammar as if it was a small dose of plague ready to invade my personal French bubble, it'll be good to have to endure it with my course friends after a year apart!

This blog post is a quick summery-sum-up and what is going on during la rentrée.

Summer!

I know I've done a bit of a recap in my back to the UK life without france but I've done a lot since visiting Julia in Oxford, partying for Bel's birthday, going back to France, having my tutee come to stay with me and seeing Jasmine...

I've been to the South of England with Matt and his family, taking on many milkshakes and the beautiful UK scenes...

I've been to Liverpool Sound city and a mini festival in Coventry with a few friends and went camping... (I still remain unsure whether I'm a camping type of person)

Matt and I went to Chester Zoo having a really good day out with the monkeys

I've been taken out for almost too many great meals with family and friends!

I have explored Dovedale in the Peak District for the day

Reunited with Nia in Liverpool and exploring its town, university and fantastic brunch stop at Moose Coffee

 

Had a fantastic 3 days of birthday celebrations....

 

 

 

 with a brilliant night seeing Hot Dub Time Machine

French stuff...

Now for the nerdy part: it's nice to love what you do. I've spent the summer concentrating a lot on my grammar (which still remains awful) and writing a research paper on Stendhal. I've read a lot too Balzac, Stendhal, Zola, Proust, Baudelaire! I've tried to research into my dissertation, but this was done lightly as nothing at university has been confirmed yet! It's been a really good summer to cement what I know and to write my applications for master's degrees for next year. It's also horrible to think about - I'd prefer to finish the current academic year ahead before all of this, but the world and applications don't work like that! It's been a fantastic year to cement what I want to do as a career and get into the right mindset for university. It's going to be a hard last year, but I am really excited for this chapter with Linus, Zoe and Vince as housemates. It's going to be a good one I can feel it!

MyFrenchLife.org has allowed me to really channel my passions for French and French literature through writing. I now have my own French literature column that I have based on literary characters and the life lessons we can learn from them. Thanks to an amazing friend at the University of Nottingham, I was encouraged to take up this creative idea after a lovely catch-up and coffee. It's going a little crazy on twitter at the moment so I encourage you to give it a read. It truly shows you should never be afraid to put your ideas out there. MyFrenchLife and the lovely Judy have shown me that no idea is too big, too small or too niche! Un grand merci beaucoup. 

I have already started to post some of my articles on my blog - I hope you will all enjoy them!