19th
I’ve decided Tuesday is definitely my favourite day of the week in Rouen. It’s incredibly quiet on Sunday and Monday, too quiet so it’s lovely when the shops are open and there’s lots of people around again. Grace, Liz and I did a lot of shopping on this day. Too much. First of all Grace went to the laundrette where a man started talking to her and I don’t know why but she thought he was reaching in for a gun, which was in fact his wallet. Mean while Liz and I found a lovely boutique where I bought 3 tops. Following on from a chat Grace had had with her mum, Grace, Liz and I decided that we were too scuffy to fit in here and that in actual fact we were being rude by not taking on their culture. This is how we justified our shopping trip. It didn’t stop there however. I realised that my coat too was not very French looking and that had to be rectified immediately so I bought a beautiful long trench coat which would be a lot more money at home. When we thought ‘ok we look smart enough now’, we decided to go out that evening.
We decided to go to the bar Cecile had recommended a few days earlier called boite de bierre. It took us along time to find it as we had gotten confused and thought it was near the art school. We asked in a kebab shop, and a lovely man signalled straight onwards with his arms. After walking for about 10 minutes we decided to ask someone in a hotel. We found it eventually and I’m glad we did. It was a very quaint arty pub full with decorations, malabu bottles for lights and and suit hanging on the wall. I said to others that it reminded me of a caravan because or it’s narrowness but they didn’t agree. I learnt a few things that night. One is that apparently in France, other than a drink with your meal, only alcoholics drink wine after 5 o clock. This was after I’d drunk two glasses and it was about 10-11. Oh well maybe I’ll have a beer next time. I learnt this off a French man who’d over heard us speaking and wanted to practise his English on us. We keep getting this when we need to speak French! He had spent a year on Ireland and was very pleased that I new the expression ‘what’s the craic?’. He also asked what ‘How’s she hanging’ means? We told him it’s ‘how’s IT hanging?’. Anyway we spoke to him and his friend for about half an hour when some more people gathered around the table when they realised we were English. The first men started being very pathetic and swearing and making gestures at them in a ‘we were hear first you can’t talk to them’ kind of way. Very immature and childish. It was all very surreal. All these men fighting over us! Despite this we all went on to an exclusive club which they could not have got into without us. Grace arranged with one of them that we should all go and see the simpsons film with them the next the day. I don’t know why as we’d already seen it a few days before and I think she’d seen it before that aswell.
20th
After waking up pretty late I decided to go for a walk where you make yourself get lost. I ended up going around in a circle and returning home without meaning too. Grace and I went over to Liz’s house where Orida has left her with a frog and two fish to feed. Liz has said in the past that she’s scared of frogs so she’s not too pleased that they are her flatmates. We ended up playing the guitar and singing. I taught them a song called Wagon wheel so Liz played the guitar and Grace and I sung in harmony. We planning on busking one of these days.
We decided not to go to the Simpsons that evening but to go to the Irish pub again. Only one of the two men could come in the end as the other was stuck in Paris. These were the less immature second group from the night before. Pierre and Christoph. Well this was a rather awkward night. A lot of the conversations went like this ‘what did you have for lunch?’ ‘what did you have for breakfast’ ‘Can you do this’ and someone would roll tong. Fascinating stuff.
In this conversation someone had asked him if he liked sports to which he replied no but he didn’t mind ice skating. From this we found out there’s and ice rink in Rouen. We decided to go the next day. Grace got very excited about this.
21th
I do not like ice-skating! Christoph met us in the square and drove us to the ice rink. It’s in leisure centre with a swimming pool also, which we’re planning to go back to. As for the skating, it’s a lot scarier than I remember. For some reason falling over felt as scary as the idea of hanging off a cliff and falling 100’s feet downwards. The problem was probably I didn’t get it out of the way and fall. I just wobbled a lot! I felt strangely old when I said to Liz ‘how can those children look so fearless’ as 7 year olds skidded past me. Christoph on the other hand could not get enough as he whizzed around with a big smile on his face. He seemed to find the inner child in him and said he felt like he was 15 again. So that was nice. Grace says she wants to go back every week. Liz and I never want to go again.
After that we went to the little café upstairs for some hot chocolate where we watched a man being chucked out for smoking. He didn’t seem to listen as he then he ran off on to the ice rink with his cigarette. Just one of those things you can’t help but stare at. Anyway even though the conversation was still quite rigid and we find him a bit insulting when he makes jokes (I don’t know if it’s a language thing) he kindly invited to us to his house that evening for a meal.
A bit begrudgingly, because of the awkwardness of his humour, we went over to his house. I’m really glad we. He’s been very kind in taking us under his wing so to speak. He invited a friend of his, also called Christoph around too. He was much easier to talk to and had a sense of humour more similar to our own. He also pulled some interesting expressions which were very funny.
Christophs apartment was the smallest apartment I’ve ever seen. It was literally a bedroom with a little kitchen area to the side and when the bed was pulled back was a living room. We all huddled in and watched him cook an aubergine, pepper dish for us. We offered to help but he didn’t want any. After the meal we all went to le boite a bierre again. Love that place.
Friday, 22 February 2008
Monday, 18 February 2008
16th
Internet café. After departing the internet café> I’m sorry to say I made my first big mistake of the trip. I left the internet café in the hopes up meeting with Grace and Liz I’d been walking for about five minute, reached into my bag for my Rouen phone and could not find it. I assumed I must have left it at Grace’s house or in the bag with my lap top, which I’d handed to her earlier. So I decided to go home, use my other phone to contact them. They were in the peak of their shopping trip and told me they’d be home in about an hour. Back at Grace’s house I searched in a panic for my phone when Liz’s phone started ringing. On the phone it said Mary. I answered it and spoke quite awkwardly to French Man who had my phone. I’d left it at the internet Café. Disgraceful I know. So he agreed to keep the café open for an extra few minutes and Liz and I ran down the road to get it. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me. I alays seem to lose my phone and it always seem to get returned to me. I’m very lucky and need to learn a lesson.
That evening Liz and I went over to Graces for a meal. We had left over rice meal and salad. We sat watching rubbish on TV. Watching awful American reality teenage drivel programmes on MTV with ridiculously cringe worthy characters, has become a little ritual of our. It’s dubbed over in French so we’re hoping that it’s helping us with our French. But mostly we enjoy slagging them off. After watching four programmes back to back we decided that we were going a bit insane and needed to get out the house. So we went out to an Irish pub. People go out ridiculously late here we’ve discoved, even if it’s just to the pub. So we went out at about 11 decided to not drink to recover from the night before but when we arrived saying ‘deux vasse du vins blanc’ seemed like an easy thing to order. So we had 1 glass of wine. In the pub a French man had over heard Grace speaking, noticed we’re English and asked if she would speak to an English woman who had come up to him looking for any one English. I suppose she was homesick for jolly old l’anglais. As it happens her and her husband were from Essex so liz said she was from Canvey Island. There wasn’t really much to say after that.
Internet café. After departing the internet café> I’m sorry to say I made my first big mistake of the trip. I left the internet café in the hopes up meeting with Grace and Liz I’d been walking for about five minute, reached into my bag for my Rouen phone and could not find it. I assumed I must have left it at Grace’s house or in the bag with my lap top, which I’d handed to her earlier. So I decided to go home, use my other phone to contact them. They were in the peak of their shopping trip and told me they’d be home in about an hour. Back at Grace’s house I searched in a panic for my phone when Liz’s phone started ringing. On the phone it said Mary. I answered it and spoke quite awkwardly to French Man who had my phone. I’d left it at the internet Café. Disgraceful I know. So he agreed to keep the café open for an extra few minutes and Liz and I ran down the road to get it. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me. I alays seem to lose my phone and it always seem to get returned to me. I’m very lucky and need to learn a lesson.
That evening Liz and I went over to Graces for a meal. We had left over rice meal and salad. We sat watching rubbish on TV. Watching awful American reality teenage drivel programmes on MTV with ridiculously cringe worthy characters, has become a little ritual of our. It’s dubbed over in French so we’re hoping that it’s helping us with our French. But mostly we enjoy slagging them off. After watching four programmes back to back we decided that we were going a bit insane and needed to get out the house. So we went out to an Irish pub. People go out ridiculously late here we’ve discoved, even if it’s just to the pub. So we went out at about 11 decided to not drink to recover from the night before but when we arrived saying ‘deux vasse du vins blanc’ seemed like an easy thing to order. So we had 1 glass of wine. In the pub a French man had over heard Grace speaking, noticed we’re English and asked if she would speak to an English woman who had come up to him looking for any one English. I suppose she was homesick for jolly old l’anglais. As it happens her and her husband were from Essex so liz said she was from Canvey Island. There wasn’t really much to say after that.
A little while later two men (late 40’s-50) also overheard us speaking. We must have loud voices. Anyway their English was very bad and they wanted to know if we would help them with their English and in return they’d help us with our French. It took a long time for us understand each other. We told them that we are students at the art school on an exchange and they seemed to think that we wanted to teach them art. But yeah we’ve arranged to meet up every week, same time same place to help each other with our languages. All in all it was an enjoyable night. We met lots of friendly people and I’m glad we left the house and mtv behind for the night.
17th
The previous night we’d decided to go to see the Simpson’s movie at 12.30 the next day as this was the only time it was showing. We keep kept to our promise, picked up Grace and headed to the cinema. Of all things to watch in another language The Simpsons is pretty easy to follow. It was Sunday and no shops are open on Sunday or Monday in Rouen so we decided to head back to ours. It felt too cold to just casually walk without an aim. On the way back we noticed that the Cathedral was open for vistors so we stopped in for a visit. The stained glass windows are absolutely beautiful. A Japanese tourist started taking photos of us so we decided to leave.
Back at Graces we had some late lunch and looked through simon’s film collection and decided to watch Kill Bill, in French of course. Liz had arranged to meet Orida back at Cecile’s house so after the extreme blood and death in Kill Bill we went back to mine and awaited her arrival. She was supposed to come between 7-9 so the three of us sat there, playing the guitar and singing. It got to 10 o clock and we thought ‘where is she?’. She told Liz she was having problems with her bag and could she meet her the next day. Liz wanted to get the transition of houses ever and done with so it was quite annoying. Oh well.
17th
The previous night we’d decided to go to see the Simpson’s movie at 12.30 the next day as this was the only time it was showing. We keep kept to our promise, picked up Grace and headed to the cinema. Of all things to watch in another language The Simpsons is pretty easy to follow. It was Sunday and no shops are open on Sunday or Monday in Rouen so we decided to head back to ours. It felt too cold to just casually walk without an aim. On the way back we noticed that the Cathedral was open for vistors so we stopped in for a visit. The stained glass windows are absolutely beautiful. A Japanese tourist started taking photos of us so we decided to leave.
Back at Graces we had some late lunch and looked through simon’s film collection and decided to watch Kill Bill, in French of course. Liz had arranged to meet Orida back at Cecile’s house so after the extreme blood and death in Kill Bill we went back to mine and awaited her arrival. She was supposed to come between 7-9 so the three of us sat there, playing the guitar and singing. It got to 10 o clock and we thought ‘where is she?’. She told Liz she was having problems with her bag and could she meet her the next day. Liz wanted to get the transition of houses ever and done with so it was quite annoying. Oh well.
This is where i live
18th
Today I met Cecile finally! She’s lovely. She’s really friendly and I’m sure she’ll settle in fine in Norwich. I was extremely impressed with how fast she’d managed to back her bag for 3 months. It took her all of ½ hour when it took me about a day. I handed over my keys and all the information I could think to give her ie- taxis numbers and maps. Tonight we’re planning on trying out a pub Cecile recommended. Grace is also going to try and get a job there. Liz is going to Oridas tonight so I’ll be on my own. It’s a sad day. No I’ll be fine but I will miss her.
18th
Today I met Cecile finally! She’s lovely. She’s really friendly and I’m sure she’ll settle in fine in Norwich. I was extremely impressed with how fast she’d managed to back her bag for 3 months. It took her all of ½ hour when it took me about a day. I handed over my keys and all the information I could think to give her ie- taxis numbers and maps. Tonight we’re planning on trying out a pub Cecile recommended. Grace is also going to try and get a job there. Liz is going to Oridas tonight so I’ll be on my own. It’s a sad day. No I’ll be fine but I will miss her.
Saturday, 16 February 2008
the last few days
Yesterday day we walked to the train station, just so we can give people directions when they visit. We tried to remember the route that Cecile's boyfriend took us in his car on our first day but ended up just going around in a circle. We stopped to refuel with ridiculously cheap 30 cent pear juice from a supermarche. Kept on walking, following our instincts, as we were off the map. Eventually found a sign and then the station. We looked at the station, said ahh yes i remember being here and then came home. Oh i almost frogot we also stopped off at a pharmacy to get some mouthwash and floss for Liz as her tooth was hurting. It's ok now. What a fasinating blog i'm writing.
Last night we went out to a bar and club with two french men called Pap and Eddy. Pap had overheard Liz and i Speaking English when we were ringing on Grace's doorbell yesterday morning and offered to help us with our French. We thought.....we're in no position to be turning down friends so oblidged and texted him later. The night was...interesting. They knew very little English and as you know my French isn't quite up to scratch. We survived though. Despite the men thinking we were 'timide'. Liz professed that she'd only learnt french in her lunch break at school and new German better so they refered to her as the 'German one'. Grace was teasing them and then they accused her of being rascist despite her comments having nothing to do with skin colour. So she explained sarcasm to them. I was just just of as the tired one as i didn't really know what to say to them. Elle est fatigue!!!!
Today we havn't really done much. Grace and Liz are shopping for clothes at the moment. I'm going to meet them in a bit. Uploading these photos takes a long time so i'm going to do it another day.
Parle demain
Last night we went out to a bar and club with two french men called Pap and Eddy. Pap had overheard Liz and i Speaking English when we were ringing on Grace's doorbell yesterday morning and offered to help us with our French. We thought.....we're in no position to be turning down friends so oblidged and texted him later. The night was...interesting. They knew very little English and as you know my French isn't quite up to scratch. We survived though. Despite the men thinking we were 'timide'. Liz professed that she'd only learnt french in her lunch break at school and new German better so they refered to her as the 'German one'. Grace was teasing them and then they accused her of being rascist despite her comments having nothing to do with skin colour. So she explained sarcasm to them. I was just just of as the tired one as i didn't really know what to say to them. Elle est fatigue!!!!
Today we havn't really done much. Grace and Liz are shopping for clothes at the moment. I'm going to meet them in a bit. Uploading these photos takes a long time so i'm going to do it another day.
Parle demain
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
Rouen- day 1 and 2
Bonjour mon amis!
I'll start by telling you about the journey where every possible thing that could go wrong......went wrong! To begin with my luggage was much too heavy and i was being asked to pay an extra 70 pounds so i opened it up in the middle of Luton airport and handed half the contents over to ny dad. Thank you dad!After paying an extra 18 pounds, checking in and getting through customs, we wer'nt out of the water yet! Grace was given a boarding pass with my name written on it. With half 20 left before we had to board the plane, we rushed back and told someone behind the help desk.
Day one
I'll start by telling you about the journey where every possible thing that could go wrong......went wrong! To begin with my luggage was much too heavy and i was being asked to pay an extra 70 pounds so i opened it up in the middle of Luton airport and handed half the contents over to ny dad. Thank you dad!After paying an extra 18 pounds, checking in and getting through customs, we wer'nt out of the water yet! Grace was given a boarding pass with my name written on it. With half 20 left before we had to board the plane, we rushed back and told someone behind the help desk.
Day one Grace, Liz and I were greeted by a man holding up a sign, which has always been my dream. It said Erasmus on it not ‘Mary’ but it was still exciting. He recognised that I was wearing red, which I had arranged to do and came over to say hello. We carted our bags to Cecile’s boy friends car, where we crammed them in and got dropped of to our homes for the next three months. Liz is living with me for a week as her exchange partner Orida is working in Rouen for a week before coming to Norwich. My apartment is tres nice. It has lots of character. I feel quite sorry for Cecile as I cleared all trace of character from my room so she could have space. Oh well! So Grace went to her house which is a 3 minute walk from my house and Liz and I sat in my apartment feeling quite daunted, out of our depths and wishing we’d learnt more French before arriving. Luckily I bought a large supply of tea bags with me and tea is always the most comforting thing in times of distress so we went on a search for milk and other groceries.
Our troubles were not over yet though. More problems arose in the queue for the food. I had a bag of cherry tomatos that…..i had not weighed. The women tried to explain but I just stared at her blankly and then she asked if anyone in the queue spoke English. No one did. I left all my shopping and I walked back to the isle I had found them before deciding the tomatos really weren’t worth all this trouble so I left them. When paying for my shopping I was asked if I wanted a bag. Liz and I keep on getting really dumb founded when ever anyone says anything to us in French even we know what they mean, we just freeze and stare at them blankly. I’m hoping to stop doing this.
We brought brie among other things, settled in properly and went over to grace’s house. Grace had texted Kevin, a friend of simon (the man who owns her house) a few time so we decided to invite him round. We had a lovely evening playing cards, drinking wine and singing ‘American Pie’ which is one of the only songs I know on the guitar.
Day 2
We awoke and had pain au chocolate for breakfast. It was quite a slow morning as we didn’t leave the house until about 12.00 to meet Grace. We just decided to explore and be tourists for the day. First stop the Saint Ouen Cathedral. This was the first of our run ins with the police. It seems there is some sort of a conspiracy against us. They follow us around where ever we go. We were just taking photos there and Grace and I thought it might be fun to jump off a little wall and then 8 police men appeared out of no where. We quickly moved on. The next thing we did was buy our 3 mobile phones so we could all be in contact with each other. Our other phones only allow texting and were very expensive. This will always be place I made an idiot out of my self. I don’t know why but, from no where I came out with ‘merci pourquoi’- thank you why. I meant merci beaucoup. The sales assistant gave someone else in the que a confused ‘what a weirdo’ expression and smiled politely.
So we took our matching red phone which were a bargain of 30 euros and went to buy credit from another shop. We then proceeded to explore. I think the pictures speak for them selves. It’s absolutely beautiful here. It almost seem to too easy to take good photos as every where you turn is stunning.
We then went to the local supermarket and did a proper shop. Liz decided to cook dinner for us. She made a lovely lentil curry. Grace added to that with a chick pea dish. I poured the wine and promised to cook the next night. So we scuffed that down as fast as possible as we had planned to go and see ‘Sweeney Todd’ at the cinema at 6.30. It was in English but there were French subtitles which I’m sorry to admit, I ignored. After the film, which was very good indeed we went back to grace’s house and had some camomile tea. Very cosy.
Day three
We left the house about 10.30 in search of an internet café and to hunt out the art school. The first café we went into turned out to be just for people looking for work or somewhere to live. We eventually found somewhere and we had difficulty with the mixed up key boards and decided to write our blogs on our lap tops back at the house. There was also no assessable @ sign so Grace had the bright idea of typing in ‘at sign’ to google and with abit of copy and paste we were away. After Face book, myspace and such like had been checked our time there was done.
Our troubles were not over yet though. More problems arose in the queue for the food. I had a bag of cherry tomatos that…..i had not weighed. The women tried to explain but I just stared at her blankly and then she asked if anyone in the queue spoke English. No one did. I left all my shopping and I walked back to the isle I had found them before deciding the tomatos really weren’t worth all this trouble so I left them. When paying for my shopping I was asked if I wanted a bag. Liz and I keep on getting really dumb founded when ever anyone says anything to us in French even we know what they mean, we just freeze and stare at them blankly. I’m hoping to stop doing this.
We brought brie among other things, settled in properly and went over to grace’s house. Grace had texted Kevin, a friend of simon (the man who owns her house) a few time so we decided to invite him round. We had a lovely evening playing cards, drinking wine and singing ‘American Pie’ which is one of the only songs I know on the guitar.
Day 2
We awoke and had pain au chocolate for breakfast. It was quite a slow morning as we didn’t leave the house until about 12.00 to meet Grace. We just decided to explore and be tourists for the day. First stop the Saint Ouen Cathedral. This was the first of our run ins with the police. It seems there is some sort of a conspiracy against us. They follow us around where ever we go. We were just taking photos there and Grace and I thought it might be fun to jump off a little wall and then 8 police men appeared out of no where. We quickly moved on. The next thing we did was buy our 3 mobile phones so we could all be in contact with each other. Our other phones only allow texting and were very expensive. This will always be place I made an idiot out of my self. I don’t know why but, from no where I came out with ‘merci pourquoi’- thank you why. I meant merci beaucoup. The sales assistant gave someone else in the que a confused ‘what a weirdo’ expression and smiled politely.
So we took our matching red phone which were a bargain of 30 euros and went to buy credit from another shop. We then proceeded to explore. I think the pictures speak for them selves. It’s absolutely beautiful here. It almost seem to too easy to take good photos as every where you turn is stunning.
We then went to the local supermarket and did a proper shop. Liz decided to cook dinner for us. She made a lovely lentil curry. Grace added to that with a chick pea dish. I poured the wine and promised to cook the next night. So we scuffed that down as fast as possible as we had planned to go and see ‘Sweeney Todd’ at the cinema at 6.30. It was in English but there were French subtitles which I’m sorry to admit, I ignored. After the film, which was very good indeed we went back to grace’s house and had some camomile tea. Very cosy.
Day three
We left the house about 10.30 in search of an internet café and to hunt out the art school. The first café we went into turned out to be just for people looking for work or somewhere to live. We eventually found somewhere and we had difficulty with the mixed up key boards and decided to write our blogs on our lap tops back at the house. There was also no assessable @ sign so Grace had the bright idea of typing in ‘at sign’ to google and with abit of copy and paste we were away. After Face book, myspace and such like had been checked our time there was done.
When we’d left the café, we whipped out our maps, like the tourists that we are… for the time being and headed in the direction of the art school. It is absolutely stunning. We were calmly taking photos for about five minute until who should show up…about 10 policemen again. I hate the way they walk around in such large groups. It’s very intimidating. They are permanently watching us though! So we departed from there and decided to stop off in a café for some hot chocolate. This was very delicious but in very small cups. Liz and I then split off from grace. We listened to a learn French cd, recited it for about an hour and then realised we probably wouldn’t remember anything if we listen to it for too long so decided to learn it in small chunks and also by way of error ‘thank you why’. Tonight we are planning to go out to a bar and see where the night takes us.
Au revoir pour maintenant!
I will add the photos soon. I'm goung to bring my lap top in tomorrow.
Au revoir pour maintenant!
I will add the photos soon. I'm goung to bring my lap top in tomorrow.
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