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''