Grr at the French keyboard ...

Wow, I can't believe it's June already! The last couple of weeks really flew by. I'm having to write this on a PC in the Salle Informatique; as my own computer decided a few days ago to inexplicably stop working - for no apparent reason, the screen is just completely black, everything else still works but I can't see anything! Really useful. And this is taking ages to write as I'm still not used to the French keyboard ...

Anyway, despite all this, I did think it was time for another blog update. The last one I did was when I was halfway through the big Advac conference. The last week of it went really well too. There was a lot more going on, more excusions and stuff, so I felt there was a lot more responsibility on my shoulders. The day after I wrote the last blog, I alone took a group of 40 participants to a restaurant where we had a gorgeous meal of fondue and other local cuisines. A bus had been organised to take us to and from, but as per usual coming back there are always people who have wandered off or have forgotten what time to leave; it's actually really stressful doing headcounts and trying to track people down! I was paranoid for ages I'd left someone behind! The following Wednesday, there was an evening trip to Chateau du Menthon, a castle tucked away in the mountains, where we had a guided tour (of which I had to do instant translation into English, a difficult feat when the old French woman guiding was completely batty and didn't stop for breath) and a buffet afterwards. It was hilarious to see all these people who after a couple of Mojitos were forming conga lines and doing the macarena - I actually spent a good 15 minutes teaching a poor Indian guy who was feeling left out how to do it!! It was a really fun evening, although again still lots of responsibility, as I was again in charge of making sure the clients got home safely.

On the final day, I finished early, and sat in on a special lecture from a BBC news correspondent that was about how television is edited, body language and tips for being interviewed on TV ( not that I probably ever will be, but just in case haha) It was super interesting, something I've always been quite curious about but never really studied or looked into.

Then finally it was Saturday, end of the conference and time for me to go and see my lovely Andreas! We had the best time, I just couldn't believe how fast it went over; honestly, I blinked and it was Wednesday, and time for me to go home! We went for another lovely 12 euro meal in Neuvy, I met some their family friends who were absolutely lovely, and drunk quite a lot of wine and had plenty of cuddles! I just wish I could've stayed longer, it's always hard coming back. So today we are planning our next get-together; I've liked having something like that to focus on; it's broken up my time here and given me something to look forward to each month. Until next time! xx

1 million copies later ....

Ah, almost the weekend! Not that it really matters for me, as I’m working all the way through it! It’s around halfway through the huge ADVAC conference that I mentioned in my last blog, and wow, when they said huge they meant huge! The last few days have been hectic but rewarding.

I didn’t realise say much about it last time, but here I will explain a bit more about what ADVAC actually is. It’s an Advanced Vaccinology Course, mainly dealing with infectious disease and vaccination in developing countries, with selected participants from all over the world taking part. Each day there are seminars and lectures organised (in English, all the participants must speak English) the conference room discussing a different topic. I have got the faintest clue about what any of it means (far too scientific for me!) but it seems pretty interesting.

What I also didn’t realise is that the job I’m doing under ADVAC for these two weeks is an actual job people apply for – an “ADVAC assistant” as it were haha. When the staff at the reception told me that I’d be helping out with this conference, I didn’t think it was an actual job; on the first day, Katia, the lady organising it, gave me a job spec with the different criteria and qualifications you must have. I think I met like two – and one of them was fluency in English – done – but I’m doing okay with it. The job mainly involves tending to clients queries, which are always ridiculously varied, so far ranging from trying to find sanitary towels and paracetamol for a lady to reprogramming room keys for clients, organising numbers for meals, and printing all documentation for the conference, and wow, is there a lot of documents!! Just today, in one morning, I have used 1 and a half cartons of paper, each with 5 reams of 500 sheets inside ... basically, A LOT of paper!!!  Printing and photocopying initially sounds easy, when I heard that was what I’d mainly be doing I was like, oh yeah eassssy ... but actually, it’s a lot harder than you might think – dealing with blockages, industrial size ink cartridges, staples, the different types/weights of paper etc ... but everything’s going well, and I’ve made minimal errors – and when I have made mistakes I’ve made sure to recycle the paper!!

For me, one of things that has been the most exciting is meeting and talking to people. Every day, I meet people from every continent, its amazing; USA, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Colombia, Lithuania, Mali, South Africa, Guatemala, Cuba... the list goes on. I’ve actually become friends with the guy from Guatemala – he comes to see me each morning to print out his documents for the day, and the guy from Cuba always shouts, “Jennifer! ‘Ow are yoo?” when he sees me. If I told him I spoke Spanish I’d never get rid of him! Another hilarious thing is that so many people have told me how nice my accent is; as much as I’ve tried to tone it down so that people can understand me, the Geordie still shines through!

It has been pretty exhausting though. I’ve been doing really long hours – 7.30 til 2.30 each day, no break. Yesterday I even stayed until 4, I had to mind someone’s French children while they went to a meeting, so I sat and watched 101 Dalmatiens with them – not as good in French! You have to be prepared to try anything, and deal with any query – I think my time at Waitrose has also helped with this, helped me learn how to deal with clients and facing problems. Yesterday morning, 5 minutes after I’d started my shift, a Romanian woman came running up to the reception desk, panicking that her laptop had broken, she was writing a book and hadn’t backed it up, she hadn’t be able to sleep with worry, could I help her. I had literally no idea, and asked all the typical IT Crowd-style questions; “have you tried turning it off and on again?” “is it definitely plugged in?” I went with her to her room to see if I could do anything. When we got there, she switched it on, it started up but froze on a black screen. She looked at me expectantly, if I could do anything. I basically just clicked the mouse, pressed a few random buttons, no idea at all, when suddenly it started working – she screamed and hugged me!! She couldn’t thank me enough. I still didn’t even have a clue what I’d done! Later on that day I saw her again at lunchtime and she had told her entire table about what I’d done – now everyone sat with her thinks I’m great at fixing computers when all I think I did was press escape! Either she was just a little bit dim with computers, or I got really lucky!

I’m finished for the day now, just been chilling in the sun with a book I found in the villa. Internet access has been limited lately, because the conference, I can’t really use the computer room or be in the hotel in my spare time. I can sometimes pick up the wifi outside, but it’s not great, so I’m limiting my use of it. You don’t realise how big an influence the internet has on your life when you haven’t got 24/7 access to it, its quite hard, especially when I’ve had work to do. Thankfully, my Intercalary Project is all finished and handed in thanks to my lovely dad on Wednesday, so that is one less thing on my plate! Now I can just concentrate on the job, and the printing printing printing ....

Easter Break!

Oh wow I can't believe that it's already been a week since Easter! This is going to be a week behind, but never mind! Time is definitely passing quicker for me now. 


First off, I have to talk about my wonderful Easter break. After slogging it out all week, finally it was time to go and spend a blissful few days with Andreas and the English family he's staying with in Chateauroux. Everything was all set, I'd booked my trains tickets in advance and I'd planned every step of the journey. Chateauroux is not far from Limoges, which is where the nearest airport is, but unfortunately there are no direct trains from Annecy, so just to make things complicated I had to go via Paris, and change trains. Obviously me being me I was worried about this, especially since I'd be doing it alone and I only had 30 minutes to get off one train at Gare de Lyon, find Gare d'Austerlitz and the right train there. Andreas, who had done the same journey after spending the weekend with me in March, told me it was easy, oh yeah the stations are well sign-posted, you'll be fine ... yeah right.


After 4 hours, I finally arrived at Gare de Lyon around 1.30. As I came off the platform and into the station, there actually were plenty of signs. I didn't realise at this point that all these signs were just saying basically "Gare d'Austerlitz - outside" so once I was out of the station, there was nothing. In a typically womanly fashion, I wandered around aimlessly trying to spot something that might help me; I had zero idea where I was nor any idea in which direction Gare d'Austerlitz was. Never in my life had I felt so lost! Ticking was ticking by, I'd already wasted 10 of my 30 minutes to get there. SERIOUS panic began to set in ... I asked several people for directions, but typically, everybody gave me different instructions. One woman, who spoke English, told me to get on a bus ... at this point, I thought I was doomed! After yet more blundering around, I ended up on a footbridge over a road. As I was crossing the bridge, I happened to look down and catch a glimpse of a sign: Gare d'Austerlitz! Woop! I went running towards it, my bag flailing, dripping with sweat, trying to keep my pants up ... it was not my best look I'll admit.  After a few minutes sprinting, I finally I got there, and managed to get on the train with 3 minutes to spare. I threw myself into the seat next to a bemused Spanish man who looked at me quite worryingly. The best part was, after all my Olympian-like efforts, the train was delayed at the station for 20 minutes - if I'd known that, I could have had a leisurely walk and stopped for a coffee!!!


Anyway, my weekend with Andreas was wonderful. It felt like it had been ages since I'd seen him. On Easter Saturday we went bike riding into Neuvy, the nearest village, and stopped for the most amazing lunch at a cafe; charcuterie assortment, steak and frites, cheese plate, pudding, coffee, a bottle of wine and water for just 12 euros each! It was amazing. Needless to say I was a little unsteady on the bike afterwards ... but I managed!

I know what you're thinking, where did I get those sexy shoes?! 

On Easter Sunday, we mostly just chilled out. It was a gorgeously hot day, so we spent most of our day just lazing in the sun. The day before, we had bought some things to have a picnic in one of the gardens the family owns, so we did that in the afternoon. It was lovely, very French! 

On Easter Monday is when things were actually celebrated. In the morning, we all got up early to go to Easter Mass at church. Although it was far too crowded and I couldn't hear or understand   much, it was really nice to be there.

A segment of the procession we failed to join, in the thing they are carrying is allegedly two drops of Jesus' blood .... allegedly.

And already, it was Tuesday, and time to go home! Time had flown by far too quickly. I really didn't want to leave, I'd had such a good time - everyone was really friendly, the weather had been great, and it was generally a lovely place. I can't believe it's already been a full week!

This month is set to be pretty busy for me. As well as my Intercalary Project, which seems to have become the bane of my life, needs to be submitted mid-May. I've changed it about a gazillon times, but hopefully what I've got is good. I want to make it good as it's the only piece of assessed work for this entire year, so basically is the mark for the year, no matter how well your languages skills have progressed or what you've learnt. So I'm working hard on it!

Also, beginning on the 15th May, Les Pensieres has a huge Vaccinology Workshop lined up. There's 135 guests from literally all over the world set to arrive, using all the bedrooms (some are even staying in neighbouring hotels) and conference suites. It's being conducted in English, so I've been roped in to help out the woman who's organising it. I'm doing crazy hours: 7-12, then 3-5, but hopefully it will be pretty good. I'm quite looking forward to it!

Lastly, I have to mention that its my little sister 18th birthday one week today that unfortunately I will not be with her to celebrate ... although I have sent presents! 

Longest blog ever! I think I'm all caught up now :) xxxxx

Faire du stop ...

It's been quite a while since I wrote my last blog, so long in fact I've just spent the last 15 minutes trying to guess my way back into my account on here - ended up having to get a new password sent to me - so either it's been way too long or I just have a rubbish memory! Maybes I could be excused this time though, as I am busy filling it with lots of new French vocab!

It's been quite a whirlwind since I last wrote, quite a lot of ups and downs. I'll start with something positive; I'm a month and a half through my stay here, and I really feel like my French language has seriously improved, even my colleagues have said so. Probably the most daunting thing I have to do in my job is answer the telephone, I don't really like doing it in English never mind in French, but after making about a million mistakes I am (gradually) getting better at it - although my heart still does a little flip each time it rings! As well as professional language, after spending time with Axelle, one of the stagiaires living in the villa with me, my conversational French has improved too - practise makes perfect!

This week's been quite a rough week, not the best I've had since I've been here. To cut an extremely long and complicated story short, after thinking I'd lost my iPod last week and fretting and racking my brains to think where I'd had it last all this week, it turned out the other girl I'm living with (there's three of us living in the villa) had helped herself to it from my suitcase in my room ... on Tuesday night, we caught her red-handed with it when we found it in her bag - I'm happy to have it back, but obviously it has caused a lot of tension between people now, she has had a formal warning from the head of the company, and is leaving on Tuesday. Not something that I really needed, as it was a shock to me to find out she'd done it, as I thought we were friends.

Apart from that, everything's been fine - I went out last night with Axelle which was nice, and we even managed to "faire du stop" back, which I was very dubious about, but a very nice French lady stopped and gave us a ride back to Les Pensieres. I'd never in a million years done something like that by myself, but everything was fine; hitchhiking fills everybody with fear in England, but it is different in France, a lot of people do it and people are just more used to it. So that was a first for me!

So today I've just had a wander to the shops and tidied up, bit boring.  I'm working tomorrow and all next week, then on Friday I'm off en train to spend five whole days with my lovely Andreas in Chateauroux - can't wait! I've also just had a lovely catch up with my favourite ever Yorkshire girlie Becky, who has filled me in on all her drunken stories hahaha ....

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Jour de Congé .....

The weather is so glorious today, I'm making the most of it sitting outside with strawberries and a good old fashioned English cup of tea!


Today I have a "jour de congé" (a day off) as I did a full shift on Sunday. The shift went surprisingly well, as it was the first time I'd been left by myself for an actual full shift, but everything went well; I did my work, the guests arrived as planned and I manage to deal with everything. The only minor blip was when the taxi arrived WITHOUT the guy it was supposed to be picking up ... when I spoke to the driver, he was like, "oh I waited for 10 mins, then I left." So I had to try and track down the whereabouts of this guy, without much luck! I found out yesterday he had missed the plane and arrived on Monday instead of Sunday - crisis averted!


Two new stagiaires also arrived on Sunday, as I mentioned in the last blog. The are both really nice, both French speaking, but one of them wants to practise her English so we do a bit of both. It's nice having other people around in the villa, both nights so far we have been up til the early hours chatting and playing French Trivial Pursuit which surprisingly I won, although I was given QUITE A LOT of help!


Today I've also managed to open a bank account with the Banque Postale, which was nice and simple are all the confusion I had in banks last week; as far as I know the Banque Postale is the only place that do short-term accounts as I was turned away everywhere else. I'm pleased that's (almost) up and running, as I'm due to get paid soon. Apparently it has to be assessed at Grenoble first to get the okay, but the woman said there shouldn't be any problems.


Hmm, I don't really know what to do with myself for the rest of the day ...  the girls are at work until later tonight, I'm the only one lazing about! I'm done everything I needed to this morning. I also went to H&M and treated myself to a new pair of pants and sunglasses, which I'm wearing now and just realised I've left the price sticker on - 12.95 sticker, not very chic :)  Oh I do plan on booking my rail tickets tonight for when I go to Chateauroux to spend Easter with Andreas - I even managed to change my rota around for next month so I have 5 consecutive days in a row off woop! Can't wait!


Now time for a little laze sous le soleil ... 

Ducks like Mustard-Flavoured Crisps

Wow, it has been ages since I last did a blog! Since moving back into the villa I've had no internet access, and this last week I've just been working non-stop! So now on this gorgeously sunny Saturday afternoon, from my comfy wicker chair overlooking the lake, I can finally write the latest!

I think the first thing to write about is the wonderful time I had last week with my lovely Andreas. On the Friday, I successfully managed to bus it all the way from Annecy to Geneva (with the buses the way they are here I consider that an achievement in itself) and got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. After waiting an hour or so, being hassled by an insane Scottish lady and almost killed by a child whizzing around the terminal on a scooter, I finally met Andreas as he came out at arrivals. Typically of course he was the last one! It was so great to see him, to see a familiar face at last! We had a big cuddle and after a wander around the shops in the airport, we were back on the bus.

Our weekend together was absolutely blissful. We did lots of walking together, shopping, and eating - perfect! Annecy itself was already pretty lively; the whole weekend, there was a Venetian festival on, basically people walking around all dressed up masquerade-like, which was interesting. i'm not really sure why they chose Annecy to have a Venetian festival, there must be some link ... either way it was pretty interesting to see. On Saturday we went to the most gorgeous little bistro called Le Regann, where we had the most delicious lunch, and befriended some tourists who were visiting from Dijon. After exploring the shops and lazing in the sun, we stopped off for a Quick burger and walked back to Les Pensieres.

Wandering around Annecy ... 

Sunday was definitely my favourite day. Pretty much everything is shut on Sundays here so the day before we went to the supermarket to get some things for a picnic, so after a lovely lazy morning, we headed out to find the perfect spot to have our picnic - thanks to Andreas, who insisted we try a different direction (I'm clueless with directions even with a map, so once I've found one route somewhere, I tend to stick to it!) we found the most gorgeous little spot on a little wooden jetty, secluded from the road and the traffic, and right on the lake. It was wonderful, I took some pictures but still need to upload them! We even befriended a few ducks who took a liking to our mustard crisps, one of which even jumped up onto the pier and tried to steal them from us! We spent the pretty much the whole afternoon there, fattening up the ducks and lazing in the sun. Blissful!

'

Andreas' new best friend, Pierre the duck.

Monday came around all too quickly, Andreas didn't want to leave and I didn't want him to go! After getting him on the bus in the morning, I had to go straight to work, which was rubbish after the wonderful weekend we'd just had! I plan to go and stay with him over the Easter holidays, as I have a few consecutive days off again and plan to make the most of it!

This week at work I feel like I've made quite a lot of progress. I've worked really hard this week, done a lot of hours and even extra overtime. There have been a lot of conferences this week, the biggest being one yesterday for GlaxoSmithKline, so I was running around like a headless chicken, showing people to their rooms, organising taxis, sorting keys and food arrangements. I feel like now they have given me a lot more responsibility and more complex tasks to do, but I am up for the challenge! I feel more like an actual staff member rather than just a student there. I enjoy the job, and although it is challenging and there's lots of stuff to do, time passes really quickly. I also feel my French has improved too, and my English skills always come in handy too - during another conference last week, I was stopped by a French guy who asked me which university I was at in Newcastle - it turned out he had done a year at Northumbria, and knew all about Geordies and life in the toon - it was nice to be reminded of home, even from someone who wasn't even English!

Today has been a lovely, less hectic and a bit more of a peaceful day compared to last week. I've again been into Annecy, where again there is some sort of festival going on, this time circus-themed, with parades and stuff. Even now, I can still hear and see it going on across the lake. I'm making the most of having a quiet day today as I'm back at work again tomorrow, but this time I'm by myself on reception, welcoming some English-speaking clients arriving for yet another conference, and also there is another stagiaire arriving tomorrow so I will be welcoming her and showing her around. I'm looking forward to it, it will be nice to meet someone who is in the same boat as me, as so far I've been the only stagiaire! 

Bisous xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What to do on a two hour lunch break??

Another Monday has come around already! This week has flown by pretty quickly. I'm writing this on my 2 hour lunch break, as I'm not really sure what else to do with the time ... it took me about 20 mins to eat my dinner! Today I had to move my stuff back across to the villa after staying in the hotel for the weekend, as there is huge 70 people conference on all week and there will be someone using that room. STILL don't have the lock fixed, but I know they are working on it. I don't mind being in the villa so much now, especially since the nights are getting brighter and I don't have to stumble my way there in the dark after a long day's graft! The only problem is, I don't have an internet connection there, so I'm thinking of heading into town later this week to try and get one set up - since I got here, I've been using Les Pensieres' connection, but unfortunately it doesn't stretch wide enough to be picked up at the villa ...grr!

This morning has been pretty good, I've made up the weekly bouquets, (although my hands are now stained yellow from the pollen) written the menus for today's group's lunch, and throughout have been showing arriving guests to their rooms. Everything is going pretty well, and I feel quite a lot more settled in to the job. I've already learnt loads!

My weekend was good too; after a hectic full week last week, once again it was nice to have some time to myself to chill and relax and do some things in English! On Saturday I braved the buses for the first time - they are worse than Arriva, there is about one every hour or so but they are so erratic the timetable doesn't make any sense ... I waited at the bus stop for about 20 mins  before one eventually came along. I took it to the Gare Routiere, the station in Annecy, which has a huge shopping centre that somehow before I'd failed to notice, so I spent the afternoon wandering around there, it was nice to see some familiar shops! I got some groceries and a new bag, and also treated myself to a kettle for my room, so now I can drink all the herbal tea I like .... I'm easily pleased I know :) 

On Sunday I spent a day just lying around haha ... feels like I haven't done that in so long. I watched a movie, did some washing and Skyped, not very interesting haha.

I'm also counting down the days until I see my lovely Andreas, who is coming on Friday to stay with me for the weekend before moving on to Limoges for a couple of months. I can't wait! I plan to go to Geneva to meet him, that is if I can co-ordinate these buses okay, otherwise he may be left stranded for a while ....

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