J'ai la peau douce, dans mon bain de mousse

It’s official, I’ve been here for a month now! It’s sounds strange, but I don’t miss anything of home very much. Of course I’d like to see my friends and family and cats, yet I will see them in a few months again and that idea reassures. And in all fairness, my two great friends Sophie and Alexander have been here for 2 days last week! Here’s the story: Sophie's father, Frank, happens to have two houses and a lot of ground surrounding it in the nearby town of Champlitte, which is 70 km northwards of Besançon. I actually hadn’t known this till a few months back when I saw Frank again at a party. I had already chosen Besançon for my period abroad and we were happily surprised that Champlitte was thus reachable from here (for French standards)! So Frank had invited his sister Els, Sophie, Alexander and myself for 2 days at his beautiful medieval renovated remains.

Friday two weeks ago Els came to pick me up after class in Besançon. We took the road through the country, which is breath taking in the Auvergne :) And after arrival and having pleasantly installed myself in the very pretty house on the very pretty premises, we had dinner and started reminiscing about the past trip I had with Sophie and Frank. Later that evening Sophie and Alexander arrived, having been unpleasantly introduced to French traffic jams.

Next day we helped Frank out with his grape vine and garden, which are both of considerable size. We picked them and after having sorted them neatly, we stood and stamped on them to make grape juice which would in turn become wine. Making wine the traditional way is good fun, see pictures! Of course there were also moments of respiration (like scrumptious dinner and going out to the only open bar of Champlitte) :D

On Sunday we went back to Besançon and we had some dinner in my room. Which is quite difficult if you lack kitchen utensils and space..but we managed quite well. The following Monday it was the first day of my student assistant position. Next to my own classes I had 2 classes in which I just sort of sat there and agreed on stuff the teacher said. I had to read some paragraphs and tell about the Netherlands. Apparently there’s a considerably widespread notion that Dutch is a German accent. This sort of astounded me, since I thought that the fact that the Dutch language is the most difficult to learn in the world, was in fact widespread. Must have been a newsflash for the first years as well.. Then there was explanation of conjugation and just getting to know the French students a little. Not too demanding, yet if you’re doing the entire day it can be quite exerting. Plus, I had just come down with a little bug called the common cold, nothing to worry about since it passed in a week.

On Tuesday, after class, my guests and I went to see which I believe is the prettiest sight of Besançon: the Citadelle. It’s a huge stone settlement (stronghold) on top of a big hill, which I think was last used in the French Revolution for the aristocracy to hide in. There was a zoo within the walls of this impressive settlement and they had…monkeys! If anything, I think monkeys are totally awesome and there were monkeys galore of what not species! There were also flamingos, lions, tigers and other species of animals. See pictures. It was killer.

Then, unfortunately, Alexander and Sophie had to leave me again. It was sad, but not super sad because of the above mentioned argument. :) It was nice to have them over and perhaps we’ll crash Champlitte again in the Christmas holidays.

Since then I’ve been going to classes, have going out and just basically live here. The classes I’m taking have altered, I’ve swopped one (constitutionnel) with Français Langue Etrangère, which is a language class for foreigners adapted to your level. They’re all sort of demanding and at various times my head is still spinning an hour after having had class. Then again, these seminars take 2 hours and often they don’t even give you a break. Plus, hello, they’re in French. Yet this is how you learn the language; having no choice but comply. And if I want to be cut some slack, I say “Je suis étudiant Erasmus” with a thick accent and they tend to lay off a little…Sheer pity I think. For example, today I had my first tutorial for History of Law and I had explained to la prof that I was on an exchange and she afterwards said that she’d take that into account and that my exams would be different and that I were at liberty to change the day of my presentation. (PRESENTATION?????) So, I’m not getting out of anything, yet if I come across as thick, it’s not going to be held against me (nor hopefully my grade)...

Salut, chalut.

P.S. You may have noticed I don't sort my pictures in correspondance to my story, this is because I cannot be bothered.