ARRIVEDERCI ITALIA - BONJOUR FRANCE! - A SHORT VISIT TO SEE LAURIE!

Easy Jet!

The Rhône Express

I am back in Pavia again now after what has been a lovely trip to Lyon in France to see Laurie. My trip out there on Wednesday was very quick and I was so pleased to find out that Easy Jet don't weigh hand luggage! So for once in my life I wasn't shaking with fear as I passed through the gate. (I hate Ryanair! - they REALLY need to adopt this policy!). It seemed that no sooner had I got on the plane, we were getting off again, and when I checked my watch the journey was only 45 minutes long which has to be the shortest flight that I've ever been on I think. 

 A quick hop on the Rhône Express which connects the airport with the centre of Lyon, and I was then in the centre at the Part Dieu train station where I had been given instructions by Laurie to catch a train to 'Bourg-en-Bresse' which had one change. This was fine, and I ended up getting on the correct train apart from the fact that it left late from Part Dieu which resulted in me missing my connecting train so I was stuck in a station called 'Amberieu en Bugey' for a while whilst I had to ask when the next train to Bourg-en-Bresse was. Luckily I didn't have to wait long, and I enjoyed the sunshine for a while whilst I waited for the train to arrive.

Soon enough I had arrived and Laurie and her parents were there to meet me on the platform. It was so lovely to see her again, and after a session of kisses and hugs with her and her parents, they drove us to a cute pizzeria where we met up with Laurie's sister and her partner and their 9 month old little baby girl Khlèo. We all sat and chatted in the sunshine (All of them in French of course, however Laurie and I were speaking in Spanish!) and munched away at our pizzas! At first it was quite difficult for me to adjust to speaking in Spanish again and I kept saying sentences but with Italian words mixed in! Luckily Laurie helped me to get back into it, and I think she even learned some Italian at the same time! The trouble is that now I have my head entirely in Spanish and I can't think in Italian! Argh why does it have to be one language or the other? Anyone know how I can keep both languages in my head at the same time?

The pool

Laurie by the pool

The lake

On Thursday morning we headed over to the pool where Laurie works during the summer near her house. It's part of a camping site called ‘Mépillat’ which also has a lovely lake where people can go fishing. The pool was pretty big, clean, and the weather was lovely; however there weren't many customers at all. I think all day only 1 person came to the pool, and then around late afternoon 5 more or so turned up for a swim. Laurie said that yesterday though they had 80 customers- the numbers will increase as we enter the summer months!

 In the evening after her shift had finished, we headed back to her place for a meal with her parents, sister and Khlèo, and then just ended up chatting away the evening. On Friday we went back to the pool for another of her shifts from 12-4 and then her Dad came to pick us up and take us to the train station in Bourg-en-Bresse where we jumped on a train going to Lyon Center. It took about an hour, and then we went straight to Morgan's flat to drop off the suitcase and wait for his friend to arrive before we all went for a wander around the new shopping mall (La Confluence) near his flat. For dinner we just opted for a Mc Donald's meal as it was pretty easy for me then seeing as I'm a veggie. I had a goat's cheese wrap meal which was lovely- it doesn't exist in Spain, Italy or England so I had to enjoy it whilst I had the chance, and we all sat outside overlooking the canal. We then all headed back to the flat to get ready for the evening where we saw that the sky was turning the most lovely shade of pink. Morgan started producing the most delicious mojitos ever, and soon enough Laurie and I were singing along to Rihanna's songs, having a karaoke session. Shots then followed the mojitos, which was then followed by more champagne which resulted in a very tipsy group of people. We all then were driven by one of the guys who hadn't been drinking to the club where we all had a great time dancing during the night.

The reservoir area near Morgan's flat

The new shopping center near Morgan's flat- Mall Confluence

The pink sky from Morgan's apartment

Morgan making the cocktails

MOJITOS!

Laurie and Me in the flat with our mojitos

Laurie enjoying her karaoke session!

SHOTS! (lethal I swear)

Champagne on Morgan's balcony!

Laurie, Morgan and Me

The group

Morgan and Me

Laurie and Me dancing

slightly more than tipsy at this point .........

Morgan and Laurie

A pic which was taken by one of the photographers in the club

Saturday morning we all woke up a bit hungover and Laurie and I had a walk around in the sunshine to try and feel more alive: it gradually worked, and then around midday we went to a wonderful park which is just on the outskirts of Lyon. It is called 'Parc Miribel' and is a large exceptionally beautiful nature reserve of 2200 hectares which has been shaped by the river. It is a popular area for outdoor sports such as hiking, boating, horse riding, cycling, camping and the main feature is a 350 hectare lake surrounded by a pebble beach. It was packed with people and also there were lots of people sunbathing and chilling out on the surrounding hilly grassy areas. It was really a stunning area and we had a lovely afternoon just sitting around, swimming in the lake and chatting. In the evening after a quick rest, we went for a wander in the centre of Lyon and to a pub to watch the Spain-France football match. It was very crowded in there though, so we left and went for a walk in the centre.

View towards the lake

Along the beach front

Laurie by the lake

The boys in the water playing ball

Laurie and Me in the water

Me and Laurie

A modified shot of the beach & lake

Us two! :)

A shot along the beach

That's pretty much all from my short trip over in France. We didn't get around to sight-seeing in Lyon, however I am not too bothered as I have seen everything before in November when I went to visit Lizi and Sarah there. It was nice this time just to see Laurie and enjoy chilling out.  I loved the lake most of all I think- it was just a very beautiful area. My return yesterday was a very quick plane trip as well, and I especially enjoyed looking out of the window where I had the most amazing views as we flew over the Graian Alps in the east of France which boarder with Italy and Switzerland. It's amazing what you can see when so high in the sky! 

The Alps out of the window of the plane

 

Well here I am just about to start my last week of Erasmus. A calm week was planned today to do some last minute revision, 2 short oral exams in Spanish tomorrow, as well as the one for my film translation class, followed by one last exam on Wednesday for my Italian Acquisition class. Wednesday afternoon Flo is arriving and then on Thursday we're off to the 'Cinque Terre' villages until Friday. I have Saturday to spend with my friends in Pavia, and then on Sunday I am due to go to Milano Marittima to start my au pairing for the summer. There has however been a major problem which has just occurred and is pretty much another of those 'SOOOO ERASMUS' situations which I mentioned in my last blog entry. I had a reply email from my spanish teacher saying that my essays were good, and then adding that she won't be in Italy next week. This sounds fine, however alarm bells started ringing in my head as I know that I'm meant to have 2 Spanish exams with her tomorrow. I just thought to myself 'Whaaaaaaat!' when I read that email on Sunday and then quickly whizzed over for a look at the University homepage to double check the exam timetable. I was expecting to see that the dates for the 2 Spanish exams were still the 26th of June, however unsurprisingly, they had indeed changed- and the 26th of June exam day (tomorrow) has been cancelled and replaced with the 2nd of July. I had no idea that an exam timetable could change once it had been set (Well it doesn't in England anyway!) and even if it did, I would at least expect an email from someone letting me know! My whole month has been planned around those exams which have been due to take place on the 26th June since the exam timetable was first released as at first there were 3 dates to do exams- early June, late June and then early July. I decided that It was too late to do the exams in early June, and July was out of the window as I leave for au pairing on the 1st of July- so this is why I purposely picked the exam days at the end of June. This is however now a major problem as I need to leave for au pairing on the 1st of July (Tickets all booked and this has been arranged for over a month) as the family don't have anyone to look after Rebecca if I arrive any days later, and also I really don't want to mess them about. I have emailed my Spanish teacher explaining the situation, and I'm just hoping to God she can see that it's really not my fault that I didn't know the dates had changed and that hopefully she can see me for 10 minutes in her office somewhen to quickly do the exams on a day privately as otherwise I risk failing my Italian part of Erasmus which would result in an overall fail for the year. This is highly unfair considering I have done essays for this teacher for these 2 modules, and she's the one who had changed the exam dates just because she is 'going on holiday'. Why on earth is an exam date allowed to be altered, and also why weren't Erasmus students (ie: me) notified of the change? The organisation is just a disaster.   

Okay that's all from me for this entry; we'll have to see what happens in relation to those two exams- but fingers crossed.

Dear Erasmus, I will really miss you, but I really won't miss attending these foreign universities!

A lovely quote which caught my eye at the airport in Lyon and I was quite pleased as I ACTUALLY UNDERSTOOD IT!!! It really is true what it says... ''Travelling is a passion, as much as ambition or love''

GIUGNO A PAVIA! (June in Pavia)

The University of Pavia

The piazza and the Duomo!

Life has been pretty quiet and uneventful here since I last blogged, so this might be a shorter post than normal! With only 10 days left of MI VITA ERASMUS, things have started to be wrapped up here in Pavia and I must say that packing has commenced! It has been quite sad de-posterising my room and packing up items which are no longer needed, however it is helping me to move on and look forward to the next stage in my life which is my au pairing in Italy this summer. I can't believe that I move to Emilia Romagna next sunday and the family are meeting me in Bologna from the train station. I'm incredibly excited to meet them and get settled into my new life there. They have some neighbours who are two girls who study at the University of Bologna, so hopefully I'll have some new friends straight away and I'm also looking forward to seeing my Italian friend Federica who is coming to visit me in Milano Marittima for a day on the beach during the first week of July. It will be lovely to catch up as I haven't seen her since she was on Erasmus at Leicester last year. 

Before I start feeling even more sad at leaving Pavia (trust me the tears will start), I will just say that the last two weeks or so since I came back from Venice have been lovely as I've been able to finally get my essays finished, enjoy the city and show my friend Elizabeth why I am in love with this country. As I say, I've had a few pieces of work which have been due in, and after Venice I wanted to get them all finished and handed in before Elizabeth arrived. The completing of the work wasn't such a problem, however trying to find a certain teacher was! I wanted to see my 'Film Translation' teacher last week and we had arranged that I would go to her office for 11am to have a quick chat about my last minute queries with the essay. The day came and I set off for the Uni around 10.30 thinking that this would give me ample time to find her office- how wrong could I have been! I presumed that as she was listed online as working in the Linguistics department, her office would be in the same area as all of the other linguistics teachers. Knowing this, I casually wandered over to that part of the Uni and was a tad confused when I couldn't see her name on the list of teaching staff who have offices in the building. I waited around for a few minutes to ask a few people, however they too seemed confused as to why her office wasn't with the others. It was now nearing 11am, so I decided that I should go and ask at the 'Help Center' which is at the entrance of the Uni. I politely asked where I may find the office of this particular member of teaching staff, and they were incredibly unhelpful as they had no idea who she even is! Some Help center! Anyway I then decided to go and ask in the 'Centro Linguistico' where my language course was held as they are always so friendly in there and actually have time for foreign students. I was greeted by a receptionist, and he was really helpful and informed me that the teacher I was looking for has her office in the Linguistics library! (Of course.... now why didn't I know that?.....) He tried to explain where the library was, and I pretty much got the instructions more or less and soon arrived at the library. By this point it was now around 11.30 and I arrived outside her office door to be greeted by a sign in Italian informing me that today's tutor period will be held in 'L1'. Okay, fabulous I thought to myself.... now begins the hunt for 'Aula L1'. I quickly sent my trusty Italian friend Barbara a message and she quickly replied (Thank God!) saying that it was in the other part of the Uni which is called the 'San Tomasso' building. I knew where that was, so hurried over there as quickly as I could and then I began the near on impossible task of navigating through the rabbit-warren like corridors to the Aula L1. Around another 20 minutes later I finally found the correct room, and entered to find a gigantic hall with my teacher at the very end at a tiny table. HURRAH I thought to myself- an hour and a half later and I finally find her! That's just SO Erasmus right? It's a phrase that all of us Erasmus students will utter when something annoying/typical happens abroad which you know wouldn't happen in England because of the lack of organisation in foreign universities! I haven't had many of these 'So Erasmus' situations, however over the year I can remember not so fondly a few occassions. From Salamanca I remember the Wifi breaking down for the first time, the terrible hunt for modules, teachers on their phones in exams, teachers turning up late for exams and allowing students in even later! In Pavia when the washing machine broke down, the washing flying off the line and the embarassment of collecting it from below, a spanish lesson where the teacher turned up half an hour late and then let the class go 40 minutes early and now my very long hunt for this one teacher. Other students have had the same experiences though, including the water stopping in the middle of a shower once my friend had lathered up! Fine time for a water-cut! OHHH 'So Erasmus!' we might utter - Never would any of this occur in trusty England! 

The view from our balcony here in Pavia

The University again! Che bello!

Another nice event that has happened recently organised by Lizi was a British picnic to celebrate the Jubilee back in England! There were just a few of us, and we all brought some nibbles to the park near the Ticino River for a proper British picnic. I was intending on making a quiche, however my last attempt didn't turn out so well with the pastry so I decided instead to play safe and make some cute little sandwiches in triangles with British flags sticking out of them! They turned out quite well don't you think? Lizi made a poppy-seed and lemon cake and some asparagus twizzlers, Karolina made cinnamon puffs, Stefanie brought German bread and some cheese for us all to try and Marco provided the beer! It was a really nice picnic, but we wern't there long as we all had work and studying to get back to and it also started to rain quite heavily on my return to the flat!

A table shot of the picnic

My cute little English sandwiches!

Lizi's asparagus twizzlers!

Karolina's cinnamon puffs! (with apple in the middle!) YUM!

Stef's german bread!

Stefanie, Karolina and El with their British flags!

Marco and Lizi in the middle of singing..... was it the British anthem by any chance guys?

Last Wednesday was a lovely day as Elizabeth arrived in Pavia! I went to meet her from Milan Central station early in the morning and we then went back to my place to have some lunch together. We then had a lovely day chatting away and catching up on a lot of news whilst I showed her around Pavia. She really liked the Uni, and we were both touristy for a while snapping away! Still, Pavia is gorgeous, so I want to have as many photos as possible to remember it for ever and ever! We then both wanted a sit-down so we went to our trusty 'Ritual' cafe on the piazza to bask in the sunshine and enjoy some cappuccinos. We then went for a walk down to the river, and sampled some ice-cream before heading back to the flat so Elizabeth could get some sleep as she didn't have any the night before! Whilst she was happily snoozing away I used the time wisely to finish off my Film Translation essay. We ended the evening with a meal on the piazza in 'Bella Napoli' and afterwards walked home in a rain storm! I think that the temperatures during the day had just been so high, so it ended up raining for a few hours in the evening. It was strangely lovely sitting under the canopy on the piazza eating pizza whilst the rain was pouring down!

Elizabeth and me touring around Uni

Elizabeth in one of the Uni courtyards

Uni

Tre Torre!

Elizabeth on the piazza

Cappuccinos!!!!

Elizabeth by the Ticino river

Our pizzas on the piazza!

Pavia in the rain!

Thursday we were originally unsure of what to do for the day; however as we had planned to go to Milan on Friday, there weren't really any other options available. Elizabeth had never been to the lakes before, and as cheap train tickets were available, we decided to head over to Lake Como for the day. We went straight to Como and then jumped on the first ferry to take us up the left hand side of the lake. The trip lasted around 2 hours and was a great way for Elizabeth to get a feel of the lake and see the pretty towns and villages scattered all along the banks. I went to Belaggio before with Gemma, so Elizabeth and I decided to stop at Menaggio which is on the left hand side near the joining point of the two sides of the lake. We had a wander around and it was a really cute tiny place, however there was no 'forno' (Bakery) for us to get a snack for lunch, and in all honesty I was quite disappointed with the town. It was pretty, however it seemed to lack character unlike the other spots on the lake which I have visited. We didn't stop around for long as I wanted Elizabeth to see Varenna which has to be my favourite town by far. We jumped on a ferry, and were over there within 30 minutes. 

Me on the ferry

The dock of Cernobbio- another village on the lake

A pretty little town on the lake

A lake view

The 'Isola Comacina' which is the only island on the whole lake

The town of Belaggio

Elizabeth on board!

Menaggio from the boat

Our ferry!

Menaggio's harbour

As you can see, we didn't really do a lot in Menaggio and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone who is visiting the lake for the first time. Luckily though I was able to show Elizabeth Varenna, and like me, she loved the place. It's just full of character, and I love all of the houses with their different colours! We were starving by now, so decided to park up in a restaurant and munch on some paninis before wandering the town. We went into a vintage shop and I fell completely in love with a unique leather bag which unfortunately happened to cost 140 euros. If it had been 40, I swear I would have bought it! It was gorgeous! I settled on a vintage poster of the lake though for my poster/postcard collection. After spotting a traditional Gelateria, we couldn't go long without getting ourselves an ice- cream, and enjoyed that whilst basking in the sunshine on some lovely steps with cushions. The scenery was fantastic- second to none. Check out the last few pics of Varenna. Agreed it's one of the loveliest places in the world?

Varenna's water-front

Elizabeth and Me looking out onto the lake

Elizabeth admiring the view

Us just after having our ice-creams

Me chilling out

Varenna's cute little harbour

A view from Varenna

Me on the water-front

Me posing

My favourite view on the whole of Lake Como

Us two!

Varenna's cutle little church complete with clock tower! - ps the lavendar in the foreground smelt lovely!

One of the tiny narrow alleys on Varenna. I just love the vines in this photo!

We left Varenna around 7 in the evening and managed to actually get the whole way back to Milan without buying a ticket! It wasn't our fault though as there wasn't a ticket machine at Varenna; however there was a sign saying that if you get on at Varenna, you must buy a ticket as soon as you get on the train from a conductor. We saw the conductor walk past a few times but she was in a hurry so we didn't stop her to ask for a ticket! (Plus..... we kind of believed she wouldn't check for tickets anyway). I have to say though I was edgy all of the way back to Milan as if another ticket inspector had appeared, we would have been in trouble.  

Exhausted from the day, we had dinner and then went to bed pretty early. Friday we headed off to Milan around lunchtime after eating here, and with Elizabeth's suitcase in tow, we went via metro to the center. I loved seeing the Duomo again, however now I love bringing people to see it as I have seen it so many times now that I can't count! We stopped for a few photos before Elizabeth went for a wander inside whilst I looked after the suitcase. We then went up to the Castle and relaxed out by the fountain for a while eating our ice-creams and taking photos in the fountain! I'm sure it is illegal to go in, however everyone was dangling their feet in the water which was lovely as it was such a hot day! - we both also went in the fountain for photos which was fun! 

Elizabeth and Me by the Duomo

Me jumping!

Elizabeth's rockstar jump!

Elizabeth by the castle with her ice-cream!

Us both in the fountain!

After Elizabeth went back, it seemed really quiet around, however I was soon invited over to my Italian friend Barbara's house for a pizza evening with her and her family. It was a great chance to speak in Italian and enjoy some Italian pizza! We then went back into Pavia afterwards for a drink in the centre and were surprised to see the streets completely buzzing like never before! All in all, it was a great evening. Right, I think that's all for this entry really, I have to go now as in an hour I'm off to the airport as I'm going to FRANCE for a few days! I'm so excited and I can't wait to see Laurie! A few days by the pool and speaking spanish will be fantastic I'm sure! Plus I get to see Lyon from a local's point of view! Next blog will be from all of the fun in France, Ciao for now! x

Barbara and her huge pizza!

Barbara and me with our drinks

A very buzzing Pavia!

Mattia and Barbara!

Mattia!