Bienvenue à mon Blog!
In the first of many blogs I want to fill you in on my experience of moving to a different country, trying to remember how to speak French (it seems the words disappear from your head when you want to use them) and starting at a University where everything isn’t quite as clear as Durham.
I was lucky enough to have my family help me move to Paris, and so my first few days here were filled with sightseeing and more importantly food shopping for when I moved into my temporary house. Note the word ‘temporary’, as in I haven’t found anywhere to live yet… This is but one of several things I still need to sort out. Given that I’ve only been in Paris for 11 days, I’ll let myself off.
A classic Eiffel Tower selfie.
After a few days of figuring out the metro and meeting up with friends from Durham and my hometown, it was time to start University. The campus itself is an interesting place, with several sculptures dotted around and a large building that serves no purpose whatsoever. However, my first day was not quite what I expected. It turns out that classes had already started 3 days before the international students’ welcome day. Obviously not an ideal situation, but as my new friends and I are all in the same boat I’m not too worried about it just yet!
My University for the next year!
On top of that my classes I had previously chosen hadn’t been registered yet. This meant a visit to the Physics department to sort out a schedule. So far, I had been getting by with short sentences in French, however this was a completely different situation. Suddenly, I was thrown into the deep end – trying to understand some very rapid French and coming up with a response in a normal amount of time is something my brain hasn’t managed to achieve so far. It’s safe to say I’ve said ‘pardon’ an awful lot for my short time in Paris. We got there in the end though, or at least I think we did.
Although everything hasn’t been quite as smooth as I’d hoped, I’ve still managed to squeeze in a fair few cultural visits which has shown me that I have definitely made the right decision to move here! It’s also possible that I’ve visited more parks and museums here in Paris in a week and a half than I’ve visited in the UK in total. I’m proud to say I have taken full advantage of the photo opportunities. Who knew there could be so much nature in a capital city?
Durham Students Abroad 