I decided to write a blog.

I tried this once and failed dramatically at it. Hopefully this time won't be as disastrous.

This is me. My name is Gareth Hunter.

I am currently a BA French & German Student at Sunderland University.

I'm 21 and i'm about to embark a great, scary, terrifying adventure which will (hopefully) change my life, I'm about to go on my year abroad, as part of my languages degree. I thought that documenting the year abroad would be a great thing to keep for myself, as well for others to look at in the future to see how much of a struggle it can be, but also what an exciting experience this will be.

As of August/September I am living in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France for 6 months, and then in Koblenz in the Rhineland area of Germany 6 months after that.

To say i'm shitting bricks would be an understatement.



View Larger Map

I had to make a smaller map because Aix-en-Provence was so far off the map if Newcastle was to be shown too!

The really worrying this is that I have nothing sorted yet - through my own fault and seemingly all of the universities faults. Not only does the Université de Provence's website not show or document student accommodation, but it also gives no help into finding local accommodation.

Pretty much same with the Universität Koblenz-Landau; it shows only photos of the campuses and photos of the university library. 

I don't think i'll be living in the uni library to be honest.

I've lived away from home quite a bit since I was 18 (moving to Birmingham for a year, and instead spending a large part of it with my ex-boyfriend in Northern Germany, then living with friends in Newcastle instead of staying at home with my parents) so it's not such a major step for me; that major step is the language barrier and will be either my greatest achievement or my downfall.