I had my reservations about going to the weekend away as I knew the people there didn’t need to feel any loyalty towards me as I’m only around for one academic year and don’t live in the same place as them (it was a weekend for all the groups in the North of France), but everyone was very welcoming and I managed to speak to a lot of different people. I also built up more of a relationship with the two guys I went with from Lille. It’s hard to describe the atmosphere, but it was really loving and I felt at home there. It’s a real shame some of them don’t live closer.
There were some difficult points in the weekend. For example, hardly understanding a word of one of the speaker’s talks because he was talking quickly and the ideas were complicated even if you were a French native (I could tell from the many facial expressions around me and a handout he gave to us)! At this point I was very tired so could happily have dropped off to sleep, but thought this would be rude so I had to do some doodling in my notepad to stop me napping!
Thankfully the games they chose to play were very accessible and non-embarrassing, which was nice for me. There was one game with names of famous people in, however, which I decided not to join in with and I’m glad. It was one of those games with fast description for the first round, one word description second time round and then miming after that, and I would’ve been completely lost had I joined in. While they were playing, I ended up chatting to a Czech man who has lived in France for 10 years and he was showing me some of the cards which weren’t in use, trying to explain various famous people to me. Suffice to say, I have a long way to go in my knowledge of French actors/musicians/etc!
Back soon with news of Besancon. Got Mum and Dad with me for a few days which is great!
Fiona x
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