I can’t believe I’ve not written for four weeks, sorry everybody! If I keep this up, I won’t have any readers left!
When I got back from Lille, I worked solidly on my university project for nearly a week, which in the end pushed me to my limits. But I did enjoy my topic and put in a good effort, so we’ll see what comes of that.
This was followed by having six of my friends from Lille GBU (Christian Union) to stay for the weekend. I went and met them at St Pancras Station late on Friday evening and brought them back to my church, where we were staying for two nights. Just after walking a few paces from the tube station, they spotted a red post box and were delighted! A few steps later and we were next to a black cab, which was equally pleasing, and so it went on! It was really funny for me to see them so interested by simple things like that.
We had a fantastic weekend together, in spite of London transport being awkward (to say the least). On Saturday we took a leisurely breakfast and headed into London. We went on the London Eye and then to a pub for lunch, followed by a walk over to Buckingham Palace and a short trip to Covent Garden. Then we went back to church for tea and chilling out. On Sunday, we attended the church service and had lunch lovingly prepared by Mum at home. We went back to London and saw the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and that area and went across to St Pancras to say goodbye. They loved it, I saw relationships grow over just two days and it was so lovely to welcome them all. We enjoyed touristy things in London, but equally we enjoyed sharing breakfast and teeth-brushing and a game of ‘Jenga’!
Next off, I went to Southampton for two days and handed in my work, saw my new house properly and had some good time with friends and Katie. This was followed by a quick turn-around, in order to leave for France for ten days. I went to Lille for the weekend (yes I’ve been back already!) and had a great time, then went from there to Besançon to see Emilie.
Emilie and I went to ‘la fête de la musique’ in the town centre on Monday night and it was great, really lively. The French have this day every year where loads of amateurs of all kinds of music can play in the streets and squares, just for the love of music, and there was a community feel to it. The next day we went to the Citadelle and had a fun time looking at the animals, the view, and a couple of exhibitions that were there. There were schoolchildren everywhere but it was really cute because they were all from choirs and they were performing at different time slots in a marquee.
On Wednesday we went across to Switzerland and enjoyed ourselves by a lake and had dinner at a friend’s house. Thursday, Friday and Saturday brought some time spent on the family farm. It was a really busy time because they were making hay, so we helped out. I got a pitchfork and alongside others baled hay into a machine which took it into the barn. We also got the chance to go out on an old tractor which spun the hay into rows and Emilie taught me how to drive it!! It was a lot of fun and she was very patient, thankfully! It wasn’t easy for her to teach me in English but she did very well – goodness knows what would’ve happened if she tried to teach me in French… I’d have had to concentrate on language and tractor driving at the same time!
On coming back from Besançon, I did another piece of university work and was very relieved to finish third year. I dashed off to Manchester, staying overnight, to see a family friend and my Grandma which was really important and I loved seeing them (especially you, Grandma). Once again after that, there wasn’t long and I was back on the train to go to Southampton for a friend’s wedding, which was brilliant.
Which leads me to now, I’ve got less than 4 days before I set off on the journey for the Spring Harvest Holidays campsite where I’m working as a barmaid for the summer. So I’m just preparing, sorting things out and saying goodbye this week and I’m supposed to be resting too.
Fiona x
