Saturday
Grace and I went to the laundrette and recited French vocab to keep us occupied. I’d imagine je suis, tu as, vous avez etc for an hour and a half became quite annoying for the woman in there with us. When we’d put our clothes in the dryer I noticed it was 10.40 and we’d arranged to meet Hannah(the final exchange student) at 11.00 so Grace quickly ran home for a shower and I continued to recite my French.
We met up with Hannah in town and showed her where the supermarket was. We then went out to a cheap restaurant called flunch which I can never remember the name of and keep calling it flunge for some reason . It does a healthy salad type buffet and lovely Pecon pies that we’re all addicted to. Anyway we’ve recently read a sign that it has free internet access there too so instead of paying 5 euros for an hour at the café, we can have some pie.
That evening we went to the Irish pub again and another group of people overheard us talking and approached us wanting to talk to us. It’s not even sleazy men, there were women there too. Everyone is just so welcoming and friendly and curious about us. Grace noticed that throughout the night one man kept moving about the room, looking around and writing in his book. At first we thought he was a critic or journalist and then we came to a conclusion that he’s a writer writing a novel. He was looking at us for a while and so I said to the girls ‘what if we’re the main characters!’ Probably not. When the bar finished we decided not to go on to somewhere else. Hannah went home and Liz and I went back to Grace’s where we ended up talking about people’s handwriting and tattoos for about 1 hour oddly enough.
Sunday
Liz had stayed at mine again as her house is about half an hour from town and she lives in the ‘hood’ area of Rouen. Anyway we watched ‘Finding Neverland’ in French and then she left at about 1. I spent the rest of the day and evening in the apartment. This was the first evening we’ve all spent apart here. I kept my self busy learning or trying to learn French, and I cooked a risotto which….. actually tasted quite nice although I added more rice in at a later stage so some of the rice was still abit hard but still not a bad effort.
Monday
Well the girls and I all met at the fountain which is just down the road from me at 8.30 and headed off to the art school for our first day! We knocked on the office door and were welcomed in and offered tea by the English administrator called Christina. She’s been in Rouen for 11 years and said she could not speak a word of French when she arrived. She also told us an amusing story of how when she first arived she thought you were supposed to kiss everyone on the cheek so she leaned in to kiss the bus driver. I haven’t made that mistake but I keep either going to kiss the wrong cheek or bashing the person with my cheek too hard. Also I thought you were actually supposed to kiss people on the cheek but apparently you barely touch them. Oh well!
Anyway it soon became apparent that they didn’t know what to do with us. They assumed our exchange students would show us around but they’d already gone to Norwich to live our lives. The English lecturer and Erasmus representative at the school was due to arrive the next day. Christina gave us some tea and was greatful of the English conversation. She spoke of how she missed marmite which I of course related to. I have bought a little pot but I don’t have a toaster so I don’t know why I bought it really. Just a taste of home I guess. After our tea Christina kindly gave us a tour of the school. The school was built in 1213 so you can imagine how beautifully old and shabby it is. There are wood panels decorating the school, steep wooden stairs, an attic. It’s very small as there’s only 120 students in the whole school. The library has only 4 computers in it so Cecile should be happy with our huge library.
We couldn’t really do anything else that day as we needed to be assigned spaces which we presumed would happen after we’d spoken to the English lecturer. Alor we left and went to our favourite hot spot ‘flunch’ for lunch. I spent about an hour trying to connect my lap top to the wifi when it finally worked my lap top decided to run out of battery…. Rrrhhhh!
We had invited the Christophs over to Graces for dinner that evening. Grace cooked…brown rice and vegetables for dinner. The girls and I keep eating together and Grace doesn’t eat any wheat, meat, they’ve both given up cheese and chocolate so I too have become pretty heathy! Anyway it was a lovely meal. We played some guitar and sang wagon wheel to the boys, played some snap and some other game I can’t remember the name of. Then we all drove up onto a small cliff/hill and looked at a beautiful view of Rouen. It was absolutely stunning!
Tuesday
Well we turned up at about 9.30, were sent to another building a few minutes away where Patricia (the English tutor) would be. She was very friendly and welcoming and gave us vital lists such as names of tutors and what they specialise in. We stayed in her office chatting for about half an hour and then she took us into a room full with 3rd student and asked us to go and on the table facing everyone. Horror! I was the first to go in to the room and decided not to sit on the table but to face them on a chair instead. Anyway Patrica spoke in both French and English and tried to get the students to ask us questions. She’s planning to have group crits in which the French students speak in English and the English speak in French. She also wants us to attend a debate next week where supposed to discuss French politics in French! I don’t think much is going to come from my mouth.
Patricia asked a few of the students to show us around the art school again to decide on an area space for us to work. Liz and I are going to be next to each other as it’s a very large space and space is pretty scarce. We’re working where Grace’s exchange partner normally works but because he’s been away for 3 months, the person next him has taken over the area. We left in a little note so hopefully he’ll move.
That evening we went out for a drink with Kevin, simon and Tattoo. Simon rents the apartment Grace is staying in and Kevin is his friend who also came over the first night we arrived. He speaks English with an Irish accent as his mum’s Irish. Tattoo is their friend from school. We went to The Irish pub again. We were mainly meeting them because Grace wanted to pay Simon the rent but when she asked him about it he just replyed ‘Don’t worry we’ll sort that out later’. He’s doing two placements in a row so is just staying with friends to bridge the gap.
Wednesday
We went to a group crit for about 4 hours. I didn’t understand 90 % of it. After this we had some lunch and walked around in search of paint. We didn’t find big tubes and want to wait until we do.
Thursday
Lecture for 2 hours in French on the brain, brain cells and a lot more French I didn’t understand. This was I think the most bored I’ve been since we arrived. The man had a monotone voice so I couldn’t really enjoy the sound of his voice either. Anyway we really want to start painting but there’s always things arranged for us so we haven’t had time to go and buy the materials yet let alone start painting. We headed back at around 6.
Before the lecture we’d been sitting in the studio and were approached by a guy called Abeeb. His English was very bad but he invited us out for a drink with his friends that night. At about 11 we got a call from him after lots not understanding each other on the phone, Grace just invited him over to hers to pick us up. Abeeb brought two friends Lucile and a guy I can’t remember the name of. As Abeebs English was as bad as my French I didn’t feel embarissed speaking to him in French. We sat around drinking wine. The guy with no name had brought whisky but had nothing to mix it with so when he said does anyone want any coca I naturally assumed he meant coca cola. Me and liz said ‘yeah!’ and quickly took back our enthusiasm when we realised he meant cocaine! We should have realised that’s what he was talking about as he looked like a complete drug addict, could barely string a sentence together and I think a bit of his nose was worn away. All the signs were there! Anyway he left soon after that. All night we’d heard a party going on upstairs so Abib suggested we go. It wasn’t do much a party as a little room with a few people in but Grace got to meet her neighbour. All in all a pretty strange night!
Well we turned up at about 9.30, were sent to another building a few minutes away where Patricia (the English tutor) would be. She was very friendly and welcoming and gave us vital lists such as names of tutors and what they specialise in. We stayed in her office chatting for about half an hour and then she took us into a room full with 3rd student and asked us to go and on the table facing everyone. Horror! I was the first to go in to the room and decided not to sit on the table but to face them on a chair instead. Anyway Patrica spoke in both French and English and tried to get the students to ask us questions. She’s planning to have group crits in which the French students speak in English and the English speak in French. She also wants us to attend a debate next week where supposed to discuss French politics in French! I don’t think much is going to come from my mouth.
Patricia asked a few of the students to show us around the art school again to decide on an area space for us to work. Liz and I are going to be next to each other as it’s a very large space and space is pretty scarce. We’re working where Grace’s exchange partner normally works but because he’s been away for 3 months, the person next him has taken over the area. We left in a little note so hopefully he’ll move.
That evening we went out for a drink with Kevin, simon and Tattoo. Simon rents the apartment Grace is staying in and Kevin is his friend who also came over the first night we arrived. He speaks English with an Irish accent as his mum’s Irish. Tattoo is their friend from school. We went to The Irish pub again. We were mainly meeting them because Grace wanted to pay Simon the rent but when she asked him about it he just replyed ‘Don’t worry we’ll sort that out later’. He’s doing two placements in a row so is just staying with friends to bridge the gap.
Wednesday
We went to a group crit for about 4 hours. I didn’t understand 90 % of it. After this we had some lunch and walked around in search of paint. We didn’t find big tubes and want to wait until we do.
Thursday
Lecture for 2 hours in French on the brain, brain cells and a lot more French I didn’t understand. This was I think the most bored I’ve been since we arrived. The man had a monotone voice so I couldn’t really enjoy the sound of his voice either. Anyway we really want to start painting but there’s always things arranged for us so we haven’t had time to go and buy the materials yet let alone start painting. We headed back at around 6.
Before the lecture we’d been sitting in the studio and were approached by a guy called Abeeb. His English was very bad but he invited us out for a drink with his friends that night. At about 11 we got a call from him after lots not understanding each other on the phone, Grace just invited him over to hers to pick us up. Abeeb brought two friends Lucile and a guy I can’t remember the name of. As Abeebs English was as bad as my French I didn’t feel embarissed speaking to him in French. We sat around drinking wine. The guy with no name had brought whisky but had nothing to mix it with so when he said does anyone want any coca I naturally assumed he meant coca cola. Me and liz said ‘yeah!’ and quickly took back our enthusiasm when we realised he meant cocaine! We should have realised that’s what he was talking about as he looked like a complete drug addict, could barely string a sentence together and I think a bit of his nose was worn away. All the signs were there! Anyway he left soon after that. All night we’d heard a party going on upstairs so Abib suggested we go. It wasn’t do much a party as a little room with a few people in but Grace got to meet her neighbour. All in all a pretty strange night!
Friday
The previous day Patricia had introduced us around at the lecture. We were just going to be introduced to the Lecturers but I thought wrong, we were presented to every single group of students we passed. Patricia was also looking for someone to take us to another building the next day where we would help the 2nd years put an exhibition. She found a girl called Marina who’s absolutely lovely. Anyway she stayed with us pretty much the whole day and we helped her put up her photographs. Patrica thought the best way of meeting people is when you’re doing something which is right.Went to Grace’s that evening where she cooked us a meal.
The previous day Patricia had introduced us around at the lecture. We were just going to be introduced to the Lecturers but I thought wrong, we were presented to every single group of students we passed. Patricia was also looking for someone to take us to another building the next day where we would help the 2nd years put an exhibition. She found a girl called Marina who’s absolutely lovely. Anyway she stayed with us pretty much the whole day and we helped her put up her photographs. Patrica thought the best way of meeting people is when you’re doing something which is right.Went to Grace’s that evening where she cooked us a meal.
Saturday
We spent the day getting jobs. We began at the laundrette where we took the guitar and gave passers by a renditions of Wagon wheel and American pie. We were talking about how we didn’t want to leave when the washing was finished and then Hannah had a brilliant that we could have our exhibition in there. We’re going to ring for permission. Shopping, we finally bought paints, a staple gun and canvas ulternative from a material shop. Canvas is ridiculously expensive.
Evening; We went out with Kevin and Simon again. Kevin met us in the square and we headed to Scottish pub where a friend of his would be doing some comedy which I of course didn’t understand a word of. Grace having given up or allergic to pretty much all food managed to get drunk on 1 beer. She was laughing in hysterics for all of the show so that was very amusing. After this Hannah spilt her drink all over everyone. We weren’t really making the best impression! We then went Cuban bar which was so cool, orange lights and stone walls. We had one drink in there where we showed our English side by downing a very small drink that was meant to be drunk slowly. Oops. After this it was about 2.30 but the night was still young…apparently so we went on to a club. All the music they played was English. On the way back a few people realised they’d left there things at Kevin’s so we went in to get them and ended up staying there until 7 in the morning. We played on the guitar and Kevin got his key board and we all sung Beatles songs. Another bizarre but good night …or morning.
We spent the day getting jobs. We began at the laundrette where we took the guitar and gave passers by a renditions of Wagon wheel and American pie. We were talking about how we didn’t want to leave when the washing was finished and then Hannah had a brilliant that we could have our exhibition in there. We’re going to ring for permission. Shopping, we finally bought paints, a staple gun and canvas ulternative from a material shop. Canvas is ridiculously expensive.
Evening; We went out with Kevin and Simon again. Kevin met us in the square and we headed to Scottish pub where a friend of his would be doing some comedy which I of course didn’t understand a word of. Grace having given up or allergic to pretty much all food managed to get drunk on 1 beer. She was laughing in hysterics for all of the show so that was very amusing. After this Hannah spilt her drink all over everyone. We weren’t really making the best impression! We then went Cuban bar which was so cool, orange lights and stone walls. We had one drink in there where we showed our English side by downing a very small drink that was meant to be drunk slowly. Oops. After this it was about 2.30 but the night was still young…apparently so we went on to a club. All the music they played was English. On the way back a few people realised they’d left there things at Kevin’s so we went in to get them and ended up staying there until 7 in the morning. We played on the guitar and Kevin got his key board and we all sung Beatles songs. Another bizarre but good night …or morning.
I'll add the photos tomorrow. I saved them along with writing and l'ordinator won't let me upload them!
My first painting.....
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