Back to the grindstone...

Hello everyone!
How are you all? I hope no one has been snowed in already (Apparently, last week that did happen in a village in Devon. Luckily not ours!)
Durham is getting cold. And in true student fashion, you do see the most incredible sights entering the college bar. Last night, we witnessed a guy walking in in a bikini and cling film. Crazy or what. We have had a warning from our Senior Tutor about not wearing warm enough clothes outside, and about getting enough sleep. In true Russian fashion I have been crossing my scarf properly, so as not to leave a cold bit at the front, and wearing enough clothes to make any babushka proud. And, so far, I have been getting (just about!) enough sleep...
Work has started to get serious. Already, it is almost impossible to do the amount of preparation for each class, before you even start thinking about "independent learning" things. Motivation at this point is obviously key. Tim's wii is obviously not.
I had my first bassoon lesson the other day - it was good fun. Apparently, I have picked up a French accent in my playing. My teacher put that right straight away! I have just officially been granted permission to keep my car in Durham this year as well, which will reduce the journey from a 2 hour slog with about 40 mins walking to a nice comfortable 35 minute drive. Nice.
We have had two formal dinners so far - the first was a slight disaster as far as we were concerned. Not only did they run out of food (in particular the College chocolate cake which is gorgeous, and that we have managed to just miss another 4 times :( ) but also they didn't have enough seats for everyone, they didn't tell us what time it started, and they didn't tell us the dress code. We successfully guessed the start time, but we were sent back to smarten up a little (it was a Sunday formal, for which the dress code in 1st year was very casual - we used to go in our slippers!). But it was all fun in the end. And we were all sorted for the second one.
The new freshers are a bit of a rough bunch. They push into the dinner queue and steal food. And they seem to love queueing. Sometimes, the queue for a meal will start about half an hour before the meal. This has a knock-on affect for us, as it means that we spend a lot of time in the queue as well, otherwise, (and this has happened!) College runs out of food. We decided to liven things up a little in the first week, and get the queue to join hands and sing Auld Lang Syne. Unfortunately we chickened out. But it would have been hilarious.
Talking of food, it is nearly tea time, so I had better go.
Have a nice week!
Lots of love
Sarah
xxx

The Sarah List

Hello
Well, I thought as the year abroad has come to its end, I thought it would be a good idea to make a list to remember all the other Sarahs/Saras that I met during the year. I personally think it was quite impressive really. I hope I haven't forgotten anyone!


Me (obviously!)

Sarah Mullins (Another Agape worker, in Oxford. I met her originally at the staff training conference before I went to Russia, and then she came to visit us on the Winter Vision trip)

Sara Jeangeorges (an Agape intern in Newcastle - I also met her at the conference, although we had met before)

Sarah Walker (A STINTer, in the Russian city of Ekaterinberg. I met her at the conference we had in Budapest in January. Before that I do seem to have had a fairly Sarah free time)

Sarah Hole (A Durhamite, who came to St Petes in February for her year abroad)

Sara Huxley (Another Durhamite, who came in Feb

Sara Pikora (The American girl who shared my landlady in Grenoble)

Sarah Hellewell (Yet another Durhamite, this time at Eau Vive)

Sara Townsend (Another American girl, at Eau Vive

Sarah Brook (Someone in my Russian class here)

The girl with Sarah on the front of her hoodie last night in tea....



Have a good weekend!
Lots of love
Sarah
xxx

Mamma Mia

Hello everyone!
Well, it has been a quiet few weeks since I last updated this. Mostly, I have been working on my year abroad essays (possibly not really enough, but there you go), and restarting work with the return of 2 girls and the arrival of another. Three out of the four young'uns on the team go by some variation of the name Sarah. I think that is the highest percentage I have ever come across. But it is a good name, I will say that.
We celebrated going back to work again by going to the cinema on Saturday night to see Mamma Mia. Although highly cheesy, it was great. Now we have been singing along to Abba songs all week, and listening to the cd as we cook and wash up. Its good fun. The only problem is that one of the girls is really not at all a fan of anything remotely cheesy, but she didn't want to seem fussy so she came along anyway, with the hope that, being in French, it would be at least "educational"! We have had a lot of fun winding her up about things being educational (usually in a very scathing tone) this week. Unfortunately, she didn't really learn much from the film, as most of it was based around the Abba songs, and although there were French subtitles for them, I guess they weren't especially academically challenging.
I went shopping in Aix today, which was nice. I went with Rebecca, the daughter-in-law of the director. She is the mother of Noa Eve, who is about 14 months, so she welcomed the opportunity to leave Noa with Granny and moosey around the shops for a bit. The weather is much cooler now, and a bit more cloudy too. We had a lot of wind (the Mistral) at the weekend - it was amazing to feel the difference in temperature. We almost never eat outside anymore, which is sad.
But what is really sad is that on Friday, I'm going home, and this whole year abroad thing is coming to an end... This summer has just flown by. But I can't wait to be back up to Durham again (having finished all my essays!) and to get back into things properly. It will be strange though of course.
Talking of going home, I really need to go and start packing. I'm hopefully going all the way home on the train. If Eurostar decides to behave itself. There is a possibility that I might be stranded in Paris or London but I'm hoping that most people will have cancelled their travel. Fingers crossed. And maybe some toes as well.
Have a nice week!
Lots of love
Sarah
xxx

And then there were 2

Hello!
Well, it has been a busy few weeks. I survived my week of slavery in the kitchen here at Eau Vive (and didn't burn anything - it was the chef who burned the Tarte Arlesiennes - I just had to scrape off the burnt bits and make them look good...) whilst practising my bassoon madly as I was preparing to head to Nice to do a music course there for a week. In the process, I found some more bassoon enthusiasts, in the form of 2 boys - one 9 and one 11. The 9 year old had a very impressive mullet, but I won't hold that against him. They decided it was a really cool instrument, and sat and listened while I played some of the more painful bits without complaint. Actually, I think that the only complaint will be from their parents....
I had an amazing week in Nice. I was having lessons from Laurent Lefevre, who plays in the Opera National de Paris. I ended up having between 40 mins and an hour lesson each day that I was there, and we also could sit in on other people's lessons. There were 9 bassoonists there in all, although some of them played the French instrument, which is slightly different to the German system instrument that I play. I was told that I should be practising for 5 hours everyday, and of that, at least 2 hours should be on scales. Hmmm.
The conservatoire at Nice was a really modern building, and our bassoon room had a lovely view of the sea, and all the planes taking off from the airport. It also had the much needed air conditioning after the walk up the hill. We discovered on the penultimate day that there was also a bus that we could have got up there, but by then it was too late. The hill was far worse than anything that Durham has to offer (except Cardiac hill...) and when you added the heat of at least 30 degrees plus the bassoon on your back....
Unfortunately, as I was working hard at the Conservatoire each day, I saw very little of Nice itself, but did manage to get out for a walk along the Promenade des Anglais with a friend from Eau Vive who happened to also be visiting Nice (he also tried to take me to a football match - but didn't succeed there!)
I returned to Eau Vive last week, and got straight back to work for a "stage" which was training people who work for the church here in France about the law and accounts and that sort of thing. It was fairly complicated, intense and heavy going from what I can gather. I was no longer working in the kitchen but was moved onto watering the flowers and doing some other odd jobs, including washing walls and preparing breakfast. I spent a lot of time catching up on sleep as well, especially by the pool.
The stage ended at the weekend, and slowly, the rest of the team have been leaving for the 3 week shutdown. I decided to stay and attempt to write my year abroad essays, and do any odd jobs which need doing around here (so far, lots and lots and lots of washing, which is about to develop into lots and lots and lots of ironing!) There is another guy who has stayed, as well as a young couple and their daughter Noa Eve who live here. Even if this will make you sick, the weather here is amazing - there isn't even much wind right now.
Exciting events of the last week include a trip to the beach on Sunday (after church), me attempting to drive the Peugeot 106 here to go to the post office and not hitting anything, and a lizard falling into the washing up. (The lizard survived - luckily I had already pulled the plug.)
Right, it is getting late, so I need to go to bed!
Lots of love
Sarah
xxx

Eau Vive again!

Hello everyone!
Well, I have now been working hard at Eau Vive for a week - it is the Christian holiday/retreat centre in Provence where I spent 5 weeks last summer. I'm working as a kitchen slave under Cyrille, the chef. I mostly end up chopping tomatoes, peeling potatoes and washing salads, but its good fun, as we have the radio on at the same time, so we can bop along to Nostalgie - a local radio station which plays cheesy classics. I will be here (and enjoying the good weather and the swimming pool) until the middle of September, but I am leaving for a week on Monday to do a music course in Nice.
The weather has been lovely and very hot so far - apart from a small blip yesterday afternoon. We have a group here at the moment of about 50 people, which means that we have a pretty much full house. Some of the people here are the same as last year, which is interesting. There are also a few people on the team here who I worked here with last year, so it is good fun to see them as well. It was like coming home when I got here last Friday! There are also some new people on the team here, including two girls who have just finished their first year at Durham. I symphasised with them for being in St Aidan's college though.
The other night, I had to do a 45 minute presentation in French about my time in Russia - it was a challenge, and I think my French was absolutely appalling, but the main thing is that I did it, and people seemed to be interested. They liked the photos anyway.
Right, I can't think of much else to say, so I think I will leave it there for the moment, although I will try to add some photos later.
Lots of love
Sarah
xxx

Another week...

Hello everyone
I hope that you are all well, and that summer is with you, wherever you are. Here the weather is a little on the changeable side, with thunderstorms all day yesterday, and possibly the same later on by the looks of things.
Uni is going the same as ever. I'm exactly half way through my course here now, so I have finished the first elective option which was for the first two weeks, and have just started the second - I chose to do Civilisation. I'm hoping that it will be quite interesting.
Since I wrote last week, I received some bad news from home. One of my friends who I was at school with (at St Swithuns) died after battling with bowel and liver cancer since last September. I won't be able to return home for the funeral, due to being here in France. I'm trying to remember how God is Sovereign throughout all of this - He has been amazingly supportive.
I had a quiet weekend, but one major step forward was that I did manage to get my Russian year abroad essay written so that I can leave it for the next little while, and I can now concentrate on my French one, which I'm hoping to do about Liberty.
Right, I think it might be time to start my homework!
Lots of love
Sarah
xxx

France!!!

Well, I should probably have changed the title of this blog by now, but I think I will leave it…

I made it to France last Sunday. After an epic train journey (French trains, it seems, are unlike their Russian counterparts in that they do not always run on time. Also, unlike in Russia, on a Sunday, there is only a very small chance that there will be someone around to help you) I arrived in Grenoble at 9.30pm to meet my landlady, to unpack a few things and to prepare myself in general for arriving at the university by 8.30am the following morning and facing the entrance test. It was also pouring with rain at this point.

The next morning arrived, still on the cloudy and wet side of things, but despite that I found my way to the university (on the tram – really quite exciting and efficient!) and met what seemed to me to be hundreds and hundreds of Americans and Chinese students, all on a programme for the summer. I think I am the only English person to be studying at the Centre, which makes life quite interesting. There is a fairly huge mix of nationalities in my two classes, from Vietnamese to Brazilian.

The test was fine, and actually I was placed in the highest level available, so I am quite pleased with that. The classes so far have been fairly challenging, but I am happy as I think that is going to be the best way for my language to improve. The Americans are still very keen to talk French all the time, including when they are just with other English speakers – I’m not sure how long that will last for, but it is a good effort at least!

My flat is in the centre ville which is very convenient if a little noisy. I am living with an old lady, who rents out rooms to students to make some extra cash, and an American student, who happens to also be called Sarah. Coincidence that. The flat is very old, and has lovely features such as amazing wooden floors and a very shallow stone kitchen sink. My room is enormous!

I haven’t had a much chance yet to explore a lot of the town, but what I have seen has been really lovely. The weather improved after Monday, and it is now really hot here. I went to see the Museum de la Résistance this afternoon which was really interesting, as it showed how the area had been involved in the Resistance effort through all the different stages of the war.

Right, I think it might be bedtime, as tomorrow is another early start (classes always start at 8.30. Never am I going to complain about a 9am lecture. Or at least, not for a while…)

Have a good week!

Lots of love

Sarah

xxx