La rentrée

So I finally made it to the Université d'Aix-Marseille in France, and after one month of no work, no studies and no major responsibilities i'm back to the grind. Sort of. You should see my timetable....most of my lectures / seminars are in the afternoon and i've specifically dropped modules which start at 9am AND don't sound toooo interesting either .It's all for the greater good. If I wake up too early i'm moody and unhappy, and therefore I'd be unhappy for the rest of the day: If I wake up later and go to the modules I have in the afternoon already, i'm more likely to do better in them, and enjoy them more if I drop the shit ones early on in the morning!

Method in the madness.....

I really didn't realise how different university here is to the UK until this week: the workload is already a lot bigger, the lectures are true lectures with minds full of historical dates and names of kings and writers and penseurs to soak up somehow, lecturers sometimes turn up late with no apologies, students turn up late and apologise profusely, the building is covered with political graffiti and 'down-with-capitalism' posters (French students seem enormously more politically active than back at home which is great), and French students seem very work-orientated rather than pissing around in class chucking paper balls at each other like in kindergarten. Serious studies happen here, and for someone who has come from universities where students regularly take the piss and waste the lecturers time, that's quite a refreshing thing actually...

Also, i've realised that admin is absolutely capital in these parts. For my Traduction class, I need written confirmation from my tutor at my home university to verify that it is course-related and I have the sufficient language level to participate, despite having already discussed and planned which modules to take with my home lecturers. I can't enrol for the class until I have that and the class starts soon so it's a big mess of paperwork and trying to wrestle my lecturers into action, which is tougher than it might sound. Fucking academics.

I have une fiche pédagogigue which has to be taken to every exam , un certificate de scolarité which has to be guarded 24/7 and never lost on pain of certain death, une fiche d'évaluation which to be honest I still don't know what to do with, as well as all my other Erasmus shite to wade through; arrival forms, exit forms, grant forms, learning agreement, changes to the learning agreement forms, changes to the changes form etc etc.....

It's going well though, and it's only my first week/few days back so I have plenty of time to make a tit out of myself as usual by getting lost or walking in the wrong class (which seems to be my speciality).
But I like it here. I'm looking forward to my courses, although i'm sure this blog will be the only thing keeping me sane with the immense workload we have ahead of us!

Almost there.....

Progress! Finally!

Sorted out the application process for Provence! I had to apply here online first and now I have to post of the application with two photos, a photocopy of my passport and a phtoocopy of my EHIC card, of which I have neither, because i'm a drunk and I lost my passport in the back of a taxi somewhere in Newcastle after too many tequilas, and because i'm too relaxed to bother with (free) insurance. Whoops!

So it's a day trip to Durham to visit the passport offices to get one sorted pretty sharpish in the near future.

All that needs done now, is to send off these forms, potentially apply for halls and also potentially apply for an intensive language course (a week-ish) before the start of my semester in France, and do a similar thing for Germany.
And it's true that Erasmus aren't giving you anything for free....to get these monthly grants you have to jump through so many bureaucratic hoops and fill in so many forms!!! Nothing's easy while on the continent, I assure you of that.....

MODULES

for Aix-Marseille I've chosen:

• ALLA02 German Civilisation + Littérature
• ALLA08 German Grammar
• EFE212 French Civilisation + Littérature
• EFE213 French Grammar
• IAAC13 Translation (Erasmus)
• and ETHL07 Intro à l'Anthropologie de la France.

I wasn't allowed to choose Beginner's Greek, since my lecturer didn't think it was appropriate to take it as a uni module ,but I can freely take it as a community language class, or evening class if they exist.
Pretty gutted. Still, i'd like to take on as many classes and do as much as possible in this year....I felt like he was holding me back, but I kinda understand his decision now....

François Hollande, le nouveau président socialiste de la France dans les yeux de Plantu, le dessinateur qui fait des images sur la politique regulièrement pour 'Le Monde', comme un capitaine du Caravelle, ici Christophe Colomb:

Quand il est parti, il ne savait pas où il allait. Quand il est arrive, il ne savait pas où il était. Et tout ça avec l'argent des autres......

France is only 500-ish miles away (so, why does it feel like a million miles away?)

If that image doesn't grab your attention, then i'm not sure what will......

All will be explained further throughout the post :P

Okay, so i've been working on my application to both universities recently, and been feeling prettttty good about it all. I'm really really excited to go away, can't wait to go to be honest!

Emma from the International Office at Sunderland Uni has been infinitely more helpful that my actual lecturers / year abroad supervisors, who i'm not going to name or talk about in too bad of a light anymore (since I am a changed, more positive, individual :D)

I've chosen my modules for Provence, i'm taking French grammar, German grammar, Cinema (some sort of 'Cinema through the ages' module) and Erasmus Translation. Don't have my application to hand so I don't know for certain that these are the modules though.

For Koblenz (which is primarily a teacher training university) I'm still undecided. I found their website really unhelpful and ridiculous to navigate, same with Université de Provence, but on a greater scale.
It's all good practice though....(actually reading the website text helps a lot!!!!)....as i've learned quite a lot about the French education system, certain acronyms and what the word for 'module catalogue' is (une plaquette)

For anyone next year who may be looking at this for help in choosing modules for Université de Provence, the place to go to find out module details is here and look for la plaquette when selecting a module, to find dates and times and course codes and all the rest of the boring stuff......

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The photo, by the way was taken by a friend on his year abroad in Darmstadt, Germany. He went to a gay club in Frankfurt, and was absolutely astonished to see how different it is to English 'club etiquette' (not sure if oxymoron :P). This guy was just walking around completely bollock naked, pun most definitely intended, without a care in the world. Quite refreshing really....if not a bit creeepy :P

I'll be reporting back on here with the quality of the nightlife, I am determined to go to uni over on the continent but i'm finding a second home in the form of a nice drinking establishment over there! I think i'll miss my local pubs and bar-banter. Hopefully the Germans will teach me something about beer, and the French, wine ;)