Fear is a funny thing

The words on the photo taken at the London Dungeon last attraction. Well I do agree but not when it's my face offering amusement to everyone else. Yeah, yours truly managed to pull such a funny face when being dropped a down on the freefall attraction meant to imitate being hanged. It wasn't that scary but just the moment when your dropped comes as a surprise, hence my face which I later saw in an honorary place in the giftshop. Thanks a lot. Mr. Special obviously found it extremely funny, you can guess what I thought of it.

The experience on the whole was very enjoyable, very recommend. You were moving in a fairly big group and at every room there was an actor portraying that time and what happened: a ghost, Mrs. Lovett, a judge, Jack the Rippers next victim etc. All the bad things that have happened in London and every once in a while someone from the group was called forward to help with the demonstration or to be put in a cage. Mr. Special got his moment too, at the courtroom where he was found guilty of sheep stealing ( a little confusion there about the circumstances at first if you know what I mean) and booed, all in good humour obviously. 

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Playlist

Playlist time again :)

Starting with the theme song of one of the best animations. I just loooove the minions :)

Cassie magic :)

Jennifer Aniston stripping brought me here ;)

Another pearl from "The Originals" soundtrack

Estonia! :)

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

No dresscode?!

Imagine London West End, evening show of Phantom of the Opera and you turn up in jeans and a t-shirt, furthermore no one even blinks an eye at your direction. Perfectly normal behaviour. Quite sad actually. I was all prepared with my new black warm dress, nothing too fancy but still appropriate for festive occasions etc. when asked Mr. Special what's he gonna wear to the theatre he claims to be topclass and practically the equivalent to Broadway in the U.S. And you know what he said, standing there in his jeans, t-shirt and aber uni hoodie? "This!" meaning the outfit he had on at the time. What? I couldn't believe my ears, no way. To me going to a theatre is a special occasion that you dress up for, not something you turn up to in your favourite baggy pants. Boy was I wrong. Don't get me wrong, there were some people in nice clothes but they were more of a minority. In Estonia you wouldn't even get in through the front door looking like that and I think it's a matter of respect and how it should be. And again I'm not talking about some random backdoor theatre by new and upcoming actors, directors etc. I'm talking about a respected theatre with world-class shows that people buy tickets to months in advance.

They also sell little icecream tubes during the interval, again am I the only one who finds it a bit weird? What if you get it on your dress? Oh yeah sorry just on some jeans you wear every day, no biggie.

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Halfway done

My last night in my bed this year... Kinda sad actually, the time has gone by so quickly. Everyone else (Erasmus) is gone, I'm the last woman standing, because of exams (ok theres another Swiss girl here), I've had 2 in the past couple of days. Went pretty well if I say so myself :D although I'm not expecting any good marks but hopefully won't fail ;) Like usually I didn't really study study for them like normal students do :D Instead I waste time thinking and freaking out about it for a couple of days... I'm not proud of it especially this year since I don't really speak the language so should study extra hard but nooooo not me pleaaaaase.

The atmosphere of the exams is more relaxed in France than in the UK, students come to the exam hall with their huge bags etc. and leave them on the side, no biggie whereas in the UK you even have to take the label of the water bottle off, just in case... The empty papers mark where you can sit an unlike in the UK after everyone's took their seats our lecturer comes up and gives us our exam sheet, it isn't previously planned that these people sit here and those taking that modules can only sit there. So you can't run around stupidly in the hall because you can't find your designated spot. Yeah it's more laidback, they do not freak you out with all the regulations in case of fire etc etc etc. I'll say it again, I prefer this uni to Aber (if I had to choose and the language barrier didn't exist).

When I come back in January I'll start the tourism lectures immediately and I still have a couple of exams to do including an oral exam in human geography!!!! OMG an oral exam, pretty nervous and it's a hard subject but the teacher is really nice so fingers crossed :D Soon I'll have to finalise my timetable for second semester: only tourism and economics timetables are up at the moment, so I have to wait for the languages departments timetable too.

But between now and then: London (Harry Potter studios, Madam Tussauds, Phantom of The Opera, Jack the Ripper), Estonia (family time!!!!!!!!! miss you my precious people!!!!!!) and... drumroll... Amsterdam for New Year with Mr. Special :)
Exciting times are ahead of me, I´ll try to keep in touch but no promises lol :P

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Early Christmas

A sad one actuallyL. Almost everyone’s leaving!!! Next year only I and most of the Spanish people will be left and the other Aber girl until April because her German uni semester starts then and since she has a boyfriend here, she decided to stay here and not go home for those couple of months. Hopefully there will be a couple of new Erasmus students coming for the second semester. You might think why haven’t I found any French friends, but it’s not so easy you know! :D Especially as practically in every lecture I am with different people – my own fault. Don’t get me wrong I’ve found a couple of French friends :D yay but they’re doing a course that consists of one week of lectures, the next week working somewhere (internship at an hotel etc) then a week here etc and most of the students go home Friday evening and come back Monday so the town is almost empty on a weekend :D So the poor Erasmus students who are constantly here have bonded J I’m not even going to mention the language barrier that paralyzes me when I try to talk to someone for a long time :D I can cope with small talk and answering questions but holding up a long conversation is too much for me. Even now after spending 3 months here lol. Next semester I will make more of an effort to speak French, I promise!

Back to why it’s an early Christmas though: Because everyone’s leaving their stuff that they can’t take with them to me :D Like pots and pans and plates and bowls. Coffee, salt, broom etc. :D My room is once again filled with stuff that I most likely have to throw away with a hardened heart, but it’s all good right now :D

And yesterday was a Christmas Party with free food and small gifts for everyone! Organise by some student Society and unlike Societies in Aber, here you do not have to be a paid member of any society to take part of their parties or activities J Sooo yay free food, and good food not just some snack you’d imagine, but pasta with vegetables, ham and cheese baguettes, baguettes with their Corsican sausage figatellu, little toasties with pate or salmon etc, crisps, mandarins, fruit salad for dessert and probably something else I forgot, oh yeah beer :D yeap... The good life in one of the richest unies in France apparently J Me likey. They played good club music unlike the crap you can usually hear at the clubs in Aber so I just mostly sat there listening to the music, it wasn’t a club atmosphere so no one danced and that would’ve been weird. At one point Father Christmas showed up and gave little gifts and Christmas hats for everyone. The little gift included candy and a small lighter :D You know you’rein France when a lighter is part of a gift for EVERYONE lol :D No complaining though free stuff is free stuff.

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

First snow!!!

To be honest I can't remember seeing the first first snow since living in Tallinn 3 years ago... And I haven't noticed that until last Tuesday when I was walking to the cafeteria to have lunch and saw and felt little snowflakes falling down :) I was sooooo happy, although a bit surprised since I thought it wouldn't snow here! So I stood there on the street for two minutes with a stupid smile on my face and wondering why this makes me so happy, lol, but it did and got me wonderind that I do miss the snowy cold winters of Estonia, in Aber we only get some cold rain slurry snowrain at best... eew me no likey, I want proper snow! :) 

Anyway don't be alarmed the only snow I can see now is on top of the high hills bordering Corte and the weather's back to normal warm (warm as in winter warm up to 10 degrees) which is rather nice, especially when it's a sunny day, that's the mediterrenean weather I was hoping for :) And not to worry I'll get my snow (I better!!!!) in Estonia for Christmas :) A perfect Christmas I hope.

Ooooh I wanted to tell you about the chinese lantern party as well that the town organised, well a party is a wrong word actually, like a festive gathering in town center. At first I thought that they were gonna light the town's christmas lights but it was even better :) Everyone was there, I've never seen that many people in Corte! Wow, crowds :D When you go to town during the day, and I don't often, then you can hardly see a soul there ooooh spooky :P But yeah there were hundreds, lol, of people with their chinese lanterns and they all released them at once, a couple got stuck in a tree or lantern but the view was amazing with them in the black sky :)

The view from the top of town

Palm tree and a snowy mountain tip

This is our christmas light!!! 

Street view

The main street is blinged up! + you can still see tables outside meaning that yeap people still eat outside!

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Like a holiday week

It's 3.45pm on a Monday, Arab wasn't on this week - only one more session left :(, getting ready to go to my Corsican test, final revision time. Then go out of my building and see students in front of the faculty building, took a few steps closer and see through the class doors that there are tables and chairs blocking the entrances... tha hell? Looks like the building's in lockdown, on the other entrance there is a huge banner in corsican saiyng something.. oh well go back to my room then...

Later on at dinner I found out that some corsican students have been arrested and apparently in France students should only be held in prison for two days but they've been kept there for longer (that's what I heard)  so now the Corsican nationalists amongst us have formed a solidarity - if they can't attend lectures neither can anyone else... not bad :D But it wasn't just the students, the building was properly closed (although the table barricades were funny :D) - you could see the caretaker walking around inside. Anyhow on Tuesday every lecture room on this campus was still barricaded with tables, so no lectures but the thing was that my lecture was supposed to be on the other campus and that had been functioning the day before... it's about a 20 minute walk there, should I go and check or not??? I was all ready to go when the other Aber girl who is also in that class told me that the campus is indeed closed as well, her boyfriend who normally has lectures there confirmed it, so we decided to go to the supermarche yay (btw thats the highlight of the day here :D what a sad life) and when exiting our residence we saw our lecturer, so apparently indeed, the lecture wasn't on :)

Wednesday everything was back to normal. My first lecture of the week could finally commence, with a rant from our lecturer about the protests :D She doesn't believe that the university should take part in politics (in this case Corsican nationalists) but since there is a lot of Corsican nationalists here, they force themselves on the uni if needed. Last year apparently they had just walked through the classrooms shouting things and making it impossible to teach anyone in anything. And she said there was a lot of people marching and disturbing her work making it impossible to do anything against that protest other than to just sit there with the confused Erasmus students who don't understand anything.

Thursday I was supposed to have another Corsican lecture. Got there, waited for ten minutes with the other students when they proposed leaving. Well... to be fair she was only late for 10 minutes which is not unusual for her at all, I'm pretty sure we've waited longer before but who am I to start arguing with the others so when everyone left, and the other Aber girl just got there lol we made a slow exit as well, would've been pointless for just the two of us to wait there... Later on the French class was cancelled for some reason as well, luckily checked my phone as soon as I locked the door behind me and saw the text that said no class, so instead I went for a nice walk and took some pictures of the snowy mountains. The town was soooo quiet.. Creepy :D

Got up at 8.40 on Friday checked the timetable, shoooot my lecture was about to start at 8.30 so got my things together and ran to the lecture room. And guess what, no one else was there -.- So waited for a bit maybe it was supposed to start at 9 then after all, saw another girl from my class and she didn't know anything as well. Since she had the numbers of other students she texted them and taraaaa... no lecture today + the afternoon one I was suppose to have with them had taken place Thursday... well perfect... I didn't want to go to my human geography because there was homework for that which I obviously didn't do, because I was planning on going to the other lecture...

Soooooo only one lecture that week... not too bad :D

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...

Time for some music

Well now, have no idea what songs to post (except one) but will come up with something then :D

Have never been a big fan of Lady Gaga, but I listened (mostly because of R. Kelly, really like his part) that song over 300 times during 3-4 days

Heard that song in Strictly, sadly I liked their version too much and there isn't quite like the Strictly one anywhere online

Something from Estonia, as always

Ems

Exams and assignments have finally arrived

And you can only guess that I’m not too happy about it :D So far everything’s been fine and I’ve been lucky enough to have picked the modules that do not have too much homework, the others have had to or always talk about having some work to do. But my luck is finally ending L Before Christmas I have to tackle 2 exams (technically I should do 3 but the last one is Tourism Law, so it’s super difficult and I’ve missed more lectures than I’ve attended since the lecturer keeps on changing the time of the lecture -.- For example the last session was supposed to be 9AM Saturday yeah wtf?!? Saturday 9AM, ok if it’s only once I guess I can live with that but looked at the timetable again yesterday evening and oplaa I had that lecture during the day and at that moment as well... whaaaaat? Why are you doing this to me? Anyway decided to knock that lecture on the head and just not go to the exam, was going to fail anyway so why go and embarrass myself. Now I have more time to revise for the other two exams and maybe even pass :P). Those two exams that I am going to do are Marketing and History/ Sociology of Tourism, shouldn’t be too difficult?

But before that I have to do a presentation (15mins?) on the touristic communication of the Baltic Countries and Estonia. Ummm yeah not too sure what it has to be yet :P lol I have three weeks to do it and I’ll figure something out. Another good thing – my French teacher is letting me do my presentation in our French class before so I could improve anything that needs improving before I go in front of my actual class and prof J Isn’t that nice J I might have a big chance not to fail that module lol :D

I’ve already had 2 tests and there will be more :D First one was in French – the harder one that is meant to teach grammar to French students so yeah, but taking into account that it came as a surprise for me I didn’t do too bad and when I got it back it didn’t say that I’d failed so all good J The second one was in Arabic and yet again totally out of the blue. Should pay more attention to what the teachers say perhaps? Lol Anyway she started dictating some words and I was like oh shoooot I have learned the alphabet like that yet!!! What to do, wrote my version of the pronunciation down and hoped for a miracle that came :D On the third word she asked some other guy if he didn’t need to use the alphabet meaning that we can have the alphabet in front of us... pheeew. This made it a bit easier. Then she wrote some words down and we had to find a similar French word... yeah well no comments :D and third task was to translate a couple of phrases she wrote down meaning that we have to be able to read it and then translate, if that’s what the exam is going to look like it’s fine because I’ll actually study for the exam :P But since everyone was struggling she started talking through everything except for the first task and basically gave us the answers J That is teaching: not having the mindset that if students do not know then they’ll have a bad mark but then I have to help them get the answers, which she did J

Next Monday I’ll have a test in Corsican that requires a lot of revision because last week I just sat there without understanding anything :D We’ll see what happens.... ;) There was some talk about a test in the other law module I’m taking but I’m not too sure... :S Since it is our last session next week how could she give us feedback?? Surely I have to know how I did and then work on it, in my case everything, so I’m thinking of skipping it because I can’t do a test in that no way, I’ll fail without a doubt! But at first in the lesson she only said that we’re gonna work on some cases e.g. how to use the theorie we’ve learned (well I haven’t learned anything yet). + I was thinking of just letting that module go as well and not turn up to the exam.

In History and Sociology the week after next we have to be in groups of three with a computer and each one of us has to have a list of some reason why the tourist do or don't do something... yeah didn't really listen, so I'll have to ask someone and then be like please please please can I be in someone's group, lol :D although since I do not speak a lot most of them think I don't understand anything in French so why would they want me in their group? Oh well :D If I have to I'll just skip it, but I kinda can't because I wanted to make sure the lecturer knows that I'm an Erasmus student :D

Aaaahhhh I don’t know life is so hard right now :P

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Crossing borders

When in Nice the Italian border isn’t too far away, not to mention the small tiny Principality of Monaco. Mr. Special’s favourite place in the world now. He kept talking about it the whole entire trip after we’d been there “Can we go back? Please please please?! Just for an afternoon?” 

So I’ll talk about Monaco first. Got out of the train but we didn’t have any maps – very typical of me. But as soon as we exited the train station I saw a sign that said exotic gardens and since we had planned a visit there it was perfect. Although since we didn’t know how far it would be there were a couple freak out moments when we couldn’t see the next sign and didn’t know if we were on the right track but the soon we saw a sign again :). Although we went in another way, there is a museum right next to the gardens that offers a combo-ticket, which is free for under 26 year olds :) whippiiiii. He had to pay 10 pounds LOL. So we visited the gallery first and he whined all the way through like could you please shut up for one second. It was a modern art gallery so as he’d say: just red blobs on the wall, I could do the same. Luckily (for him) it wasn’t a huge gallery :P. I wasn’t thrilled about it but hey, it’s not too bad to get some fine culture ;) into our trip. Finally found the exotic gardens and guess what he whined practically all the way through them as well. Let me enjoy my cacti in peace please!!!! He wasn’t that bad lol. The garden was huge and since it was on a hillside you could see it spreading up the hill, when down or downhill when you were up. So for me it was a totally new experience, I’m used to seeing most of the garden in front of me all the time and see where I’m going to end up if I take one route, but there it was like a maze with stunning views to Monaco. I liked it a lotJ. Aaaand there were fishies in the pond. 

After spending a couple of hours up the hill we decided that the old town should be right in front of us and we had to go down the hill to then go back up to old town. And tha’ts what we did, without a map and without any signs to help us this time, but I wasn’t worried. Another first I experienced while in Monaco: public lifts in the streets to take you up or down the hill. Bizarre... But they are really handy although you’re not always sure where you end up in :) Found our way to the stunning old town and having a walk through it, didn’t visit the Palace but just seeing it was enough for me :). Then the Japanese gardens. Compared to the exotic gardens I thought the Japanese one was a bit bland... Yeah yeah I know it is autumn but still I’d expected more because the exotic gardens had so many different plants. Japanese gardens were considerably smaller to be fair but still, I wanted more :D Not to say that it isn’t worth going to, because it totally is and Mr. Special liked the Japanese gardens better than the exotic ones.

It was around four o’clock when we decided to find a place to eat – a pretty normal time to grab something to eat right? Oh no no no no not in France or Monaco because the vast majority of restaurants close their kitchens around 2-3 and re-open around 7 in the evening again -.- In the meantime they just serve drinks. What a stupid system! Luckily we found a small cafe that still served crepes and galettes :) mmmmm so good :)

Had a quick look into the Monte-Carlo Casino – Mr. Special was like a little kid while there, he was sooo excited. To me it was a bit too fancy, people were drinking champagne etc. I just felt that I don’t fit into that lifestyle. And I thought it’d be bigger because of seeing films and tv-shows about Las Vegas casinos which are huge. But it only had two rooms, one with the card tables and lots of room around them, there weren’t a lot of people there because it was in the middle of the day and the other room with the machines and again a lot of room to walk and mingle and whatever they do. I don’t know... It just was a bit weird for me... Haha I’ll never become addicted to gambling because I’m too afraid to go into a casino – which is a good thing :) lol.

Cactus :)

The view to Monaco from the Exotic Gardens - the old town part is on the right side corner

"me and Mr. Special" 

lol actually just some random people but use your imagination ok ;)

Fishies :)

Cacti

From the top entrance of the exotic gardens -

 Most of Monaco is down there :P

Japanese Gardens

Fishies again so are they exotic fishies or Japanese fishies?!?

The Monte-Carlo Casino

Our tiny trip to Italy’s border town coming up soon :)

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Nice Nice

So back to my lovely lovely holiday week that is now over L I want to go back!!!!!!

Besides visiting all the nice little fairytale towns we also visited the bigger ones.

At first we had planned 2 days for Nice but since we failed going to Eze and Menton at the same day we had to leave only one day + the evenings because our hotel was there, to discover Nice and I can say now that only one day is not enough! The old town with its narrow streets between high buildings is a sight to see. I think that the end of October was the perfect time to visit too, because the weather is still  warm and nice but there aren’t as many tourists around as in the high season. The streets were still full of people so I can only imagine how horrendous it might be trying to find your way around and look at some on the narrow streets when there is constantly someone breathing on your shoulder or trying to pass by, or maybe it’s just my imagination and it isn’t so bad during the summer. We managed to squeeze in an organic wine-tasting. At first I was a bit disappointed when I found out that it isn’t the obvious visit the wine cellar etc but just sitting around the table and drinking wine :D but the guy in charge was so good and knew so much and knew how to deliver his knowledge without making us feel like we were in a lecture. He made it fun and no I wasn’t drunk after that :D It lasted for about 2 hours – scheduled 1,5h – and we tasted, the six of us, 6 wines. And by the end you could take any bottle that still had something in it with you and I did, lol :D red wine – Mr. Special hated it. But he loved one sweet white wine that he bought two bottles of and on rosé.

Do I need to mention how awesome the promenade des Anglais is? It goes on forever! Airport on one side and the port on the other ;)

On a Friday we found an awesome Chinese takeaway practically next to our hotel. Why didn’t we find it sooner – I wasn’t keen on going and finding proper restaurants in the old town so would’ve loved to have that takeaway lol I’m a simple country girl and can’t handle fancy fancy restaurants which does not mean that we didn’t go to any but means that although the food was nice and interesting I still would’ve preferred spending 10x less money on it :D Anyway at the Chinese takeaway you could actually see what you were ordering – like a market rather than a restaurant where the kitchen is hidden and you know what you ordered only after paying. So at first we were like OMG i want this and that and this and trust me it was delicious!!!!!!

The castle hill – a huge park with a stunning view to the city, there used to be a castle there duh, but now all there is the ruins of a church (if I remember correctly, plese don’t quote me on this!!!). And it is high up! So if you´re lazy and can’t be bothered to take the stairs you can take the lift. A free public lift... That’s perfectly normal.

Ooooh.. I managed to amaze Mr. Special with my ability to navigate without looking at the map every second. We decided to go to the Russian Cathedral, so had a quick look where it is and we went but the road wasn't obviously straight and when a minor turn came he was like "how do you know where you are going???!!!" Because I looked at the map and remembered my general direction where to go!!! When he tries to navigate like that he has to stand still in the middle of the street and look around with a confused look on his face but I will just look at the signs and buildings while moving and I do not look like a stupid tourist.

Ooh and we made a bet: whoever spots a British licence plate gets 5 pounds from the other one. I saw the first one in Villefranche sur mer - because obviously it had a big GB sticker on it. And since basically all the other European countries have the little country mark on the licence plate I thought that the UK has one too - because how on earth would I know what the UK licence plate looks like otherwise. But Noooo the british are freaking too good for that apparently. So when Matt actually screamed and scared me to death on a street in Nice because he'd spotted a british number plate I refused to give him any money since it didn't have the country marker on it! So how would I know - then while we were arguing another one drove past without the marker and he saw it. No way I was giving him any money!!! He wasn't too happy about it :D Then on the last day when we got a taxi to the airport I spotted a british licence plate yet again and indeed it had the little blue UK spot on the plate so HA! but since we were even he'd seen two and same for me I didn't make him pay this time - look who kind I am :)

The Russian Cathedral

The view to Nice from the Castle Hill

A part of Promenade des Anglais from the Castle Hill

Nice port

The narrow streets of the old town

A shop in the old town

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Getting lost in little Frenchie towns

The week has flown by and been well spent, in my humble opinion at least. Most of the week we spent discovering little towns in Cote d’Azur and may I say WOW WOW WOW. They have been breathtaking and jaw-dropping just amazing. At first when planning out our week we were like a day for these 3-4 towns because they were so close to each other by train and the train went every half an hour but 2 towns a day is the most you can do I think. Yeah they look tiny and they are but you can get lost in them and not in the sense of omg I don’t know where I am but in the sense of wow lets go there and there and then take that street and make that turn etc. So you’re standing in a street corner hoping you could split yourself into two and take both the left and right turn so you just wander round just to get a feel of the town and not looking at the map all the time to know exactly where you are because it doesn’t matter. You want to take a picture of every view (keep in mind we visited the coast and a couple of town in the mountains) of the breathtaking light blue sea, of every beautiful and colourful shutter bordering the windows, of every building, of every street and so on and so on. But pictures never capture the beauty the way eyes and the memory does. Later you’ll flick through the photos and yes, you’ll have some pearls, some pics that are wow but all the rest are just another picture of another beautiful street, view, building etc but nothing compared to what your eyes saw in reality.

To give you an idea of what the hell am I talking about I’ll try to pick out just one! Can I do that? Which one is the best photo of every town? Keep in mind that I’m not a great photographer either but I try :P

Mandelieu-La Napoule

We went there for the castle and although it wasn’t the proper huge one that you think of when someone mentions the word castle it was still worth going to and the surrounding garden was marvellous.

Gourdon

The tiniest little town almost on top of the mountain range. Only 3 streets but so worth going to! Had lunch at a restaurant with a view to the valley – to a girl who comes from a flat country: our highest point (everyone says it with so much pride in their voice and so do I J ) 318 metres and it’s called the BIG egg mountain; that view was unbelievable.

 Do you see those two? buldings? Yeah that's the village :D

 St Paul de Vence

Beforehand when trying to plan where to go we read some forums etc and everyone said that this town is a must see so expectations were high. Drumroll. And they were met: little narrow streets going up and down containing one art gallery after another, little cafes, everything you could ever ask for when trying to absorb the prettiness of small French medieval towns. Picturesque everywhere you look.

Villefranche sur mer

Town that Mr. Special picked out, then forgot about, then remembered again, then didn’t think we had the time to go (I insisted that we’d make time) and then loved it and talked about going back the rest of the trip. Underground street!!! Well maybe it isn't actually underground but under buildings? can't remember anymore and forgot to check at the time but yeah on that street you can't see the sky!

Beaulieu sur mer

A 20-minute walk from the previous town – Mr. Special wanted to take the train at first because it is so far and could be miles away and blah blah blah but luckily I insisted and got my way because it was a lovely walk on the promenade! At first we didn’t actually plan on seeing the town because we wanted to go to the Greece Villa and then take the bus to Eze but it got too late (by the time we would’ve got there it would’ve been dark), so we had a nice little stroll on the streets of blublublu (Mr. Special can’t pronounce the name properly).

Eze

On our third attempt to go there we finally succeeded :D First time we got off at the train station of Eze but turns out it’s Eze sur mer and not the actual touristy village everyone wants to go to – you could get a bus from the station but we thought we wouldn’t have time that day. The second attempt was when we visited Villefranche and Beaulieu and wanted to do Eze too but it got too late. So now we were up early and ready to go and knew where and how to go. And it was worth having its own day :) It had an exotic garden and I've found a likeness to gardens on the mountains so different to the usual gardens that you see in front of you. Also I noticed a Relais & Chateaux hotel which had rooms on the street! Yeah the hotel wasn't just one building - or maybe it was :P but you had streets in the hotel then. And we walked past one room that had the do not disturb sign on the doorknob :D lol wink wink.

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Bring on Cote d'Azur

It feels I’ve only been in Corsica for 5 minutes but it’s already time for my first holiday, just to be clear: an official holiday from Uni – no lectures. And just before the holiday started I had some good news: on any of my courses I do not need to write any essays or dossiers or whatever coursework – just the exam!!!! Well that makes my life a bit easier – until the exam of course and tourism exams are already before Christmas – when do I have time to revise????

But now a full week without any lectures what to do? Travelling around Corsica sounds nice but it’s such a hassle at the moment so I came up with a plan to go to Nice and the surrounding areas (Monaco, Cannes, St. Tropez etc) for a week since Mr. Special would have to fly to Nice anyway (and then take a ferry or god knows what to get to Corsica) so I decided to meet there J When else is a better time to go to Nice when I live practically next to it?

A bit of drama and stress always follows me around – it’s my curse. So on Tuesday I learned – totally by accident – that we have another tourism law lecture on Thursday at 14. I had planned that time to for packing and cleaning and preparing. Oh well. So went online to look at the timetable and it wasn’t there – i knew it was taking place but just didn’t know where... Of course that would’ve been easily found out by texting someone from that lecture but since it had homework to be done (pretty hardcore if you can imagine – law!!!) I was like naaaaaahhh I’m Erasmus, no one cares anyway :D although I kinda already told the lecturer that I would be there and he was supposed to tell me the exam date then... Oh well... I’ll just say I forgot, or didn’t know the room (which is true!), or didn’t understand or whatever if he remembers in a couple of weeks – which I hope he doesn’t :D. While looking at the timetable I noticed that my Friday 9 o’clock lecture was cancelled – good news, that meant that I could take and earlier train to Bastia and have a wander round there J Asked the other Aber girl to come with me for the day.

On the AirFrance (oooh yeaaaaaah flying with a proper airline – my wallet is crying but my heart jumps with joy) webpage it says that you can check-in online 30h before the flight. So tried doing that about 28h before. And nothing... Put in all my details and it said can’t find the booking!!! WTFUUUUUUUUDGE!!! No no no no no what do you mean can’t find the booking???? So tried another million times – nothing, in panic wrote them am I able to board the plane tomorrow etc. And went to print out all the receipts and confirmation for the flight because the library was supposed to close pretty soon. When I came back AirFrance had answered my e-mail by saying that everything seems to be fine and I can check-in online 24h before my flight. Ummmm..... who makes the rules in your company? You should stick to them and not panic the clients. But no real worries since AirFrance does have the opportunity to check-in at the airport and not on-line.

At 6 AM the other Aber girl had sent me a text saying that she still hadn’t gone to sleep and won’t come to Bastia with me L So instead of taking the early 8AM train I took the 11 o’clock train – otherwise I’d die in boredom – because I can’t really enjoy myself when I have to be somewhere (at the airport) at a certain time and spend the day before alone in a new town. So I had time to try to check-in online again, now about 12h before my flight. And still we can’t find your booking??? What the hell? I’m so done with this.

To consolidate myself I went to a chocolate fair in Bastia!!!! OMG macaroons macaroons macaroons, chocolate – purple, blue etc. Chocolate crayons and whatever else you can imagine!!! I was in seventh heaven. A part of me wished I had thought of taking cash with me, the other part was happy with the 10 euros in my purse. So I bought some chocolate crayons :P

It was so hot in Bastia with my jeans on and my little suitcase, so I was really happy when there were clouds in the sky :P Had an awkward moment at the automatic toilet because how do you know if it’s locked or not? Well I didn’t want to risk it + I think I went in too early – the other person had just left and I saw how the toilet cleans itself – it sprayed water everywhere – not on me thankfully :D but yeah the toiletseat was wet and since there was no toilet paper... Well I wasn’t in a rush...

I got to the airport about 1h 45min before my flight and I’m so used to having check-in open 2h before your flight, but mine wasn’t – another time to panic and go ask someone what the hell (this I’ve gotten from Mr. Special because I’m usually the one who suffers and figures things out on my own, but he always asks EVERYTHING from random people). But everything went fine J a little last minute no announcement gate change but luckily I figured it out J Turns out I flew with AirCorsica – a little tiny plane – only 4 seats per row so no middle seat and the woman next to me – who had a window seat decided to go sit somewhere else – WIN! Except for the guy in front of me who stank of sweat – have you ever heard of a deodorant or washing????  

And now I’m here writing this as I wait for Mr. Special at Nice airport. (not the actual time of publishing though).

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Monthly music

Heya I hope you're ready to tune into my favourite tracks of the month! Don't really have time to explain them sry but hte first two are from The Originals soundtrack or episode songlist or whatever

Like the old 00's rnb that I liked :)

Gotta love Ellie :)

This time a French song :) That I actually heard in Estonia the first time :P

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

My Lovely Room :)

When I first learned that the uni accommodation is practically guaranteed for Erasmus students and it's only a 146 per month I was extatic. yay, that would mean that I can live off my Erasmus grant quite alright and maybe even keep most of my savings???? Oh please let this be true that by the end of this year I'll still have some money in one of my bank accounts :D Filled in the application - which I've ranted about already in the summer I think... oh you know I love my little rants of why can't everything just be easy :D Anyway during the summer I'd read somewhere that french halls might not be modern at all and all that shhh so practically scared myself that I will spend my next year living in a dump... not so happy days.

The building itself is huge and consists of corridors with doors - to rooms obviously, so as opposed to the UK where you're supposed to share a flat with a number of people, here you're basically living in your own tiny flat. Yes, bathroom is included and private so the first time ever!!!! I get to own my own bathroom (without a bath :( ) and it feels awesome!!!! LOL Everywhere I look - my stuff and no one else touches them without me knowing :D. The bathroom is very nice actually - a decent size shower cubicle - which has a slightly unconvenient door (or maybe it's me trying to man-handle things) that comes off it's hinge sometimes when I'm not careful + it's connection to the wall has cracks in it... Don't know if I should report it or hope that it lasts for my year and the door wont fall off :D. A toilet (obviously), and a sink with a cabinet all white and nice and big - I really don't have anything to put in there so it's empty at the time :P A mirror with two lights - the only sources of light in the bathroom - I think I've mentioned it before that one of the lightbulbs wasn't working when I moved in, but hey I got it fixed, and today it broke again :D lol the same (new bulb) one, hmmmm.... that's interesting?

When you walk into my room the door on the right leads to the beforementioned bathroom - on the left is a huge wardrobe - not a walk-in one though :( but I could fit in there, probably... need to find out ;) On the door is a lifesize mirror. Sounds awesome already doesn't it? So step into the room and on the right (after the bathroom) is the bed corner (did I tell you my saga with the bed sheets and duvet and pillow?). For some reason I have two chairs in my room and as I don't really need two chairs to sit on I put the little bedside table on one of the chairs so it is more convenient to look shows and skype while being in bed (like I started doing in cwrt mawr and in my north parade flat actually - force of habit?). Opposite the bed, next to the wardrobe are shelves, on the side, so it's not the best. The reasoning behind it is that the previous habitant or maybe the one before him/her had somehow flooded one leg of the thingy (sry I can't think of the word) and when I tried to move it round to have normal long shelves it almost came off.... well oooops... Anyway next to the shelves is a fridge (and I've bought a tiny hob as well so I can now cook in my room - I will tell you the kitchen saga soon) and next to that opposite the door is the table taking up the whole wall so the bed and fridge are in front of the table, in the middle of it is a pair of shelves again. And I have a huge window with shutters - that I actually shut every night!!!! :D The other side of the building has electrical modern shutters but my side has old manual ones that have bits fallen off :D but no matter still awesome :)

Oh and I have a phone :S like an inner telephone system so I can call to other rooms and they can call me, should work normally as well since it has full number on it. But I haven't really used a landline in years so I just stared at it for 5 minutes like really?

Oh I wanted to tell you how I pay my rent as well... It took me 5 goes to finally get the rent paid and that's because for some reason their card machine does not accept foreign cards and the lady who can handle cash is never there -.- And whenever she was there I had classes -.- But finally they said ok fine, you can't come tomorrow? Today afternoon then ok? Why couldn't you suggest that in the first place???? And I almost forgot about it :D It was already after 4 when I realized oh shhhhhhh.... have to go and do that asap and prayed that it isn't too late - you never know with the French they might be on a coffe or smoke brak or decided that their day is over and gone home or whatever but luckily the fifth time is the charm ;) :D

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...

Un roman Estonien

It's time to tell you about my saga with the french bureacracy, well as much as I've got contact with it so far.

The first part is about getting to do some sports with the university, I've previously mentioned it before so in short: I needed a medical certificate and the sports office and the international office told me to go see the uni doctor but hey-ho the university doctors said no-no-no we are moving so we can't do it and told me to go see a doctor in town... that I'd have to pay for -.- geee thanks. So after wasting time unnecessarily for a week one Friday I decide right, let's do this and luckily there were the numbers for the docs in the pamphlet I got from the international office - so tried ringing a couple and no answer -.- It took me so long to get into the mental state of being ready to phone someone in french and say what I want and no one freaking answered!!!!!!!!!

So a couple of days later I tried going to see them without an appointment. On the outside of the building it said that in the morning everyone could come in and afternoon is reserved for appointments - so went in and when I got to the door on the first floor it said APPOINTMENTS ONLY!!! wtf? Why oh why? So went all the way back home - 10 mins - to get my french phone - I never have it with me when I need it. So phoned them on the way back - nothing - no one answered yet again although it was the right number and office hours. Rang every minute until I got back there then finally gathered my courage and just went in hoping that there'd be like a desk or something to greet patients but oh no no no no just a waiting room and closed doors. So waited for a bit hoping that the doctor would come out and ask who the hell are you. But no no no sat there like an idiot for about 10 minutes til another lady who had an appointment - how if they don't answer their phone - was called in and since I do not have so much courage to just barge in and ask excuse me. I left :D lol it was a nice room though :D There was supposed to be 3 other doctors in the area so went out to look for them. Surprise surprise didn't find any -.- at the same time constantly tried to ring the other doctor to make an appointment and yeah you guessed it no one answered. Finally found another doc, went in and sat there, I was about the 6th person in the queue. So sat there about 20 minutes, one person had gone in in that time, thought fff this, I need to go to lunch at twelve, so pretended my phone rang and walked out. Saw that the doc's office was going to be open in the evening 18-19.30 as well, so decided to come back then and sit through all the waiting. My lecture finished at 6 and I got there about half an hour later being yet again the 6th or 5th person. The queue moved so slowly and it was 19.30 already and I was about third or something by that time, but I was certain that they can't kick people out just because the office hours are over and they didn´t. Instead, more people kept coming in! I think the last one, before I left, came in about ten minutes after 8 or something...

So finally my turn and after how much fuss the uni did about having the medical certificate I'd expect to get a proper medical examination. Wrong, he just wrote a letter, not even asking if I have any allergies or asthma or all the usual questions everyone always asks. He just asked for my name and absed on that yeah why not, she's fit to do sports no problemo... WHAT??? It took me a minute + two hours waiting approx. but that paper with the doc´s signature doesn't mean a thing!!! Because I might have serious asthma or something making me unable to do sports and he wouldn't know because he didn't ask me anything!!! But at least he didn't charge me anything for it :) and now i could go and register for sports.

Opening a bank account went quite smoothly . had to choose from 2 banks, made an appointment in the first but then decided to go with the other instead - they dealt with me immediately. Got my proof of address from the uni accommodation, passport and student card and that was about it, we spent like half an hour or 20 minutes setting the account up with some basic insurance in case I lose my passport or something - only 8 cents a month so why the hell not? And yeah the deal is that it only costs me 16 cents a month for this year - since I'm a student, later on will have to check is it worth while keeping my bank account open or not... if it doesn't cost too much I might keep it open for a bit for when I've finally decided what to do with my life and if I would ever possibly need it or not.

And finally - where I got the name for this post: Library or mediatheque as it's called here. Decided to subscribe since I had my proof of address letter already written - so why not, might come handy and yeah here as well as in the UK you have to prove your address everywhere -.- Got that done and went looking for a book to read, thought of getting a childrens book - so it would be easier to understand but saw the drama section first and after spending a couple of minutes just looking at the books something caught my eye - "Un roman Estonien" by Katrina Kalda, wow this is a sign - I must get that and I did feeling so good :)

btw just to let you know it's holiday time soon for me here :)

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...

A full week of lectures

The week we just had was full on uni work like I've never seen. Like school all over again - well almost. All because here there is a system for Tourism students who are doing an internship as well - work one week, lectures the other week - a good system I think :) but for some reason it seems that I have so many lectures when I talk to other Erasmus students who don't seem to be having any lectures at all basically, but I think it's due to the fact that I'm taking third year modules which are up to 3 hours long but most of the others are doing first year modules which are 2 hours max and even that's quite rare.

Monday

(2 weeks from now my weeks start 9AM with a two hour lecture: Culture Générale (first year languages department)) I thought this would be a bit easier than a third year tourism Geography module that I've missed lectures for already)

14.00 - 16.00 Arabe (first year law department) - I love this, I really do, I think it's so interesting (and really difficult). We are learning how to write . the thing about writing in Arabic is that you have to know the word beforehand phonetically because the vowels are marked as dots and lines above or under the consonant "letters". And understanding and learning it through French isn't as difficult as I had presumed to be honest... well it's all really basic so we don't have to do any translation yet. And guess what!?!?!?! Last week we did some writing and the teacher told me I had a nice hand-writing in Arabic! wow! :) YAY YAY I had the stupidest smile on my face :D But I still need to practice it a bit more to write qucker but I'm getting there :)

16.00 - 18.00 Langues et Culture Générales (second year business department) If you remember the first lectures I missed so I went to this one after I've already chosen the corsican language module and guess what. They're the same thing!!!!!!! Wtf have you named it like that then??? I had thought it was some lecture in France about culture or something but no! It's learning corsican language. Ok so now I have two modules that are basically the same thing -.- Shhhhhhhoot. But hey - different departments, different names, different teachers, different number of credits, so I should get away with that :D They've already approved my module choices so prob. no one will find out :D hahaha Evil :D but now it's a bit easier to get those credits :)

Tuesday

9.00 - 12.00 Droit du Tourisme (third year Tourism department) This module is every other week and since he uses powerpoint I can keep up pretty well :)

This week: 14.00 - 17.00 Marketing (third year tourism department) we've only had that on Tuesday's for two weeks. And thats it. normally it's on every other Friday morning 8.30 - 12.00. We have to write down what he says but since I've done marketing before I recognise some things so it's not that complex to understand :)

14.00 - 16.00 Techniques d'expression en francaise (first year languages department) basically it's french grammar for french people so extremely useful but at the same time extremely difficult. We are doing exercises and I have no idea what the hell is happening :D last week he always asked if I understand - well it's good to know that he cares and explains everything again but at the same time it makes me feel so stupid, like please it doesn't matter - I'll go home and go through everything again and explain it to myself ok.

Quite conveniently this weeks lecture was cancelled so I could go to the marketing one without missing any lectures :)

17.15-18.15 - Aquagym - yes that's a part of my degree here :) Can't fail that. well I can but only if I don't show up.

Wednesday

every other, so not the busy week this time: 9.00 - 12.00 Communication Touristiques (third year tourism department). I managed to go to the very first lecture on this module :D And it was sooooo interesting - she told us all about the tourism governing bodies of France, how the system works and so on :) unfortunately I noticed on the timetable that the next two lecture are going to be like an excursion on Moday - the whole day but since I do not know anything (because I'm an Erasmus student - it means that I'm not yet fully registered for the modules therefore can choose whatever I want - I'm not in the official e-mailing lists for modules etc. so I don't get any news of cancelled lectures or anything like that) I probably won't go.... Even if I wanted to go I wouldn't know where to meet up with anyone :D but it's kinda good - because I'm assuming it'l be a visit to some tourism office or something and we'd have to ask questions and what not and I'm just not ready for that yet - it takes time for me to get used to things :D + I won't miss my beloved Arabic lecture and I probably have a test in the corsican lecture.

13.30 - 15.00 Droit des Relations Internationales (second year law department) the hardest and most difficult module I have!!!! OMFG I don't understand a thing because it's really specific and uses the specific vocabulary. Well a definit fail but hey, I'll stick it out and do my best because it is useful and interesting, lol :D Ooooh last time the lecturer was talking about something (dont ask me what) and then turend to me and said she's not sure how it is in Estonia - I was like I don't know then she said something else and I was like yeah I think that's right. LOL that's exactly what I do when I don't understand a thing - first try to say idk and then just kinda agree :D I think we have some kind of quiz next week - why oh why??????????

16.00 - 18.00 Francais langue étranger - French language class exclusively for Erasmus students - the first two weeks have been quite a waste in my opinio because we haven't actually learned any french but seeing as we have to write exams here we should be doing more intense work in those lectures and maybe it'll start from next week, hopefully because the first week we spent getting to know each other - who does what and wants to improve what and the second lesson we spent at the library...

Thursday

11.00 - 13.00 Corse (first year language department) a.k.a corsican language, from the scratch :) It's not really hard since it's like a mix of french, spanish and italian, so you could use logic to understand

And that's it with Thursday!!!!!! Every week!!!!! Only two hours!!!! like a vacation :D

Friday

8.30 - 12.00 Marketing - this is where it is every other week.

9.00 - 12.00 Histoire et Sociologie (third year tourism department) every other week (so one week it's this and the next it's marketing). I don't really know what to say about ths lecture - the first three ones were with on lecturer - who talked a bit quick and really liked to talk (the students don't really like him - they don't dislike him but his just not one of their favourites) and the next ones are going to be with someone new.

From November I'll have Géographie humaine (first year law department) in the afternoon for 2 hours I think. Hopefully not too difficult to understand :)

This is my life this semester :) Not too bad :) but can't even compare to the timetable I had in Aber :D

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...