Crappy weather aka flooding

New Year began with flooding, even we got the notice to evacuate, despite the fact that we are not even on the seafront. Well, luckily nothing happened, but house was a mess later, because we moved all the stuff.
So now, another stormy weather is expected and the uni is evacuating seafront students again, they even pay for the train tickets home, if someone chooses to go home, instead of staying with friends or where ever they offered people to be. And the lectures are cancelled today and on Monday, kinda annoying, as it pushes lectures in one module into exam week lol.



Ems

Teething problems

Vol 2 actually

Got all my exams done (well not all but the ones I decided to go to) and was actually pretty proud of myself :) Although don't expect any high grades or anything :D I'd be happy with only a pass at the moment ;) The results should be available at the beginning of February, don't know where or how I can access them but I'll figure something out.

And now the second semester has started... bambambam... the first week when Tourism lectures started I still had exams in other classes so naturally didn't go to the lectures :D not a very good start, the second week I just wanted to rest, so again missed the first lectures of some Tourism classes but oh well... By now I've managed to go to some of the classes so it's looking up :D But yeah all my motivation is gone, don't want to walk into a classroom filled with people looking at you stupidly like you sure you´re in the right class? and then having to introduce myself... awkward... And this time most of my lectures are early in the morning like 8.30 wayyyyyy to early for me - torture!!! Last semester was a bit better, 11 o'clock starts etc. So yeah I just want to sleep in my bed and wait til it gets warm and sunny and start going to the beach lol :P

My timetable for this semester then:

Monday:

9.00 - 11.00 Langue regionale - Corsican

11.00 - 13.00  French-English translation in tourism

18.00 - 20.00 Arabic - this was supposed to be at 14.00 like last semester but was changed last minute so I missed the first lecture due to my laziness... surprise

Tuesday:

should start with 8.30 with either products and markets or techniques d'accueil but I seriously can't be bothered going to them since the first keeps on changing it's slot on the timetable and is on some thursdays as well when I have other lectures... So I decided to knock these two on the head before even going to them but had to list them in my learning agreement to get 30ECT points...

every other Tuesday 13.30 - 15.00 Initiation au logiciel Amadeus - the computer program that is basically essential in the tourism industry :) so happy about this module

Wednesday:

8.30 - 12.30 Analyse des Territoires Touristiques every other week and this week actually started at 9 so not too bad, the lecturer is very nice :P Pointed out that if there's something I don't understand I should raise my hand and ask immediately but I don't do it so I feel a bit bad :P

14.00 - 16.00 French grammar for the french themselves, so dreading it. Starts in March.

16.00 - 18.00 French as a foreign language for the Erasmus students - there's barely anyone there this semster :(

Thursday:

9.00 - 11.00 Phonetics - every other week, don't know what to expect and the fact I didn't the introduction to it las semester isn't helping as well but I'll just tell them that I only came for this semester or something :D

11.00 - 13.00 Corsican with another departement ;)

Friday:

8.30-12.30 either Valorisation des Patrimoines Corses or Gestion Relation Client - haven't been to any of them yet -.-

luckily no afternoon lecture this time so early weekend kind of :)

Wish me luck

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

The Dam

Second year in a row I've spent New Years Eve away from home. Last time in London with Ruby ( I never got around to write about it though :( ) and this time Amsterdam with Mr. Special :) 

We got there on the 31st and were welcomed by the hotel administrators warning: Beware of the fireworks that people blow up randomly on the streets and she wasn't exaggerating: every now and again you could hear a big boom somewhere. The culmination obviusly came at midnight. Before that we went to have our last meal at an Italian ristorante close to our hotel, it had been recommended. Ummm... not so good though :D At first they wanted us to sit right next to the door that didn't close properly... well no, do you have any other tables? Upstairs they did, so we could sit next to the window which was better. Now my favourite food is pasta carbonara probably but if not made properly it can be awful so I'm always too afraid to order it and this time probably with good reason. My next usual meal is lasagne which is always alright, so I ordered that. Lets just say I wasn't fond of it this time :( To be fair it wasn't a proper Italian restaurant: the people running it weren't Italians - just some frauds :D

It was raining and initially we had planned to start going to the main official event around 9o'clock. In an unknown city you just can't expect how many people would turn up and how early. I think in London we were at our place waiting at least 2 hours, probably more but it wasn't raining... So I was hesitant to go there that early. The journey should''ve taken us about half an hour or so... I think we started walking then about quarter to eleven... Everyone was out on the streets and now you could hear loud bangs and booms more often obviously.What was confusing though was that people went in every direction, usually you can follow a mass of people to a big event but not in Amsterdam since mini firework shows are all around town made by normal people so when we asked someone who was helping people and traffic etc, where do we have to go he just looked at us stupidly like stay here if you want (we were on some square), doesn't matter. We were persistant though and made our way to the main spot where luckily for us weren't a huge mass of people so you couldn't move or see anything but a nice crowd :) We got a spot were we could see a panorama of fireworks: the official city's show on the water, behind and around us fireworks by normal people. And the latter didn't stop until about 3 o'clock in the night and it was constant wow.... I've never heard anything like that before so a good experience.

Getting back to our hotel was an adventure in itself and yes we are the boring people who don't go clubbing and drinking our arses off :D There was practically no room on the streets to walk and every now and then someone in front of us would stop suddenly: someone just lit another firework right on the street where hundreds of people are walking! We will die this evening :D and soon enough we heard a loud bang next to us and a minor explosion under a row of motorcycles... no fire though so I guess it wasn't too bad but the initial reaction was like omg!!!!omg!!!

The three days we were there weren't enough surprisingly. I felt that there was so much more to see and do. We obviously did all the main tourist attractions: Anne Frank's house - well worth a visit! But be sure to book a ticket online because the queue outside the door is enourmous, about 1,5 hours... The Heineken Experience from what I kinda expected more, don't even know what but more like a factory sort of thing but it is made for masses and therefore doesn't have that educational factor that much as a wine celler would have I guess. Although I'm glad I've been :) The Tulip museum - didn't know tulips had that much history!!! For example that they are actually imported from Asia and once were very and I mean VERY expensive. Of course multiple cheese stores/museums :P That was our lunch because in every shop you could try the cheeses: free food yay ;) üüüüüü and we visited a sex museum :D when in Amsterdam...

Didn't go to any coffee shops or tried special brownies, because neither me nor Mr. Special are particularly fussed about that notorius side of Amsterdam, we did buy chocolate though that had a tiny tiny portion (probs just flavour though) of cannabis. I didn't even try that :D For some reason whenever I'm with him I don't want to eat chocolates or sweets really :D Oh boy how he was nervous of bringing it back to the UK with him in hand luggage: he now calls himself a drug smuggler -.- Dude relax... It's just chocolate... But a new thing he tried - I don't experiment with food because I'm picky - was a bacon and banana pancake... he liked it... Weirdo.

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

Home sweet home

I'm so glad I got to go home this Christmas. Although Skype and letters exist it still is nice to see your family and hug them (especially my little babies (brothers) who grow up soooooo quickly!!!!). And Christmas is the perfect time for that since everyone comes together to have a nice meal and chat like a family reunion - without the weird distant relatives of course ;)

In Estonia our main day or eve rather is the 24th. Families gather, have a huge dinner: pork, potatoes, blood sausages with cranberry sauce, sauerkraut, pumpkin cubes and so on... :D aaaand then all the families with small kids wait for Santa Claus to drop by around 8 o'clock or something like that and exchange for gifts everyone has to either sing a song or recite a poem, by heart obviously. Soooo fun.

In my case: me, my sister and now her boyfriend, my mom and stepdad, little brothers, grandparents and aunts family with 2 little girls gather in our living room and nowadays the "elves" put gifts under the tree, because Santa is too busy (and would probably scare the hell out of the little ones), when no one is watching. Magic ;) Everyone recites a poem or song and let fun begin, mostly for kids obviously. It's just so nice to see the excitement and happiness in their faces when they've opened a gift and been completely bedazzled by it lol. For the grown-ups the evening is obviously more about spending time with each other and having a nice chatter. Then the next day or a couple later the same with my dads side of the family :)

And of course my lovely friends :) I do miss them so much and whenever we're together it just feels like school times again, it's so weird like we've gone back in time and then we discuss all these grown-up subjects :D Bizarre :D This time we went to St. Patricks pub which was surprisingly not expensive :D and the second time of course Kompressor: my ultimate favourite pancake place :P

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...