Baguettes, bars and blogging.

Bonjour à tous! Thought I'd better get round to writing something down about the year abroad, given that this will supposedly be the best year of my life, but where to start? I arrived in la belle France on Monday evening, laden with enough white t-shirts to last me a lifetime, not to mention a ridiculous amount of sandwiches. The journey was surprisingly hassle-free, apart from ten minutes of hell in Paris when I had to change stations...Arrived in Nancy just before 10pm and was met by the teacher, Sandrine who will be taking me under her wing this year. She seems v. nice, and made sure I got into my accomodation ok which was helpful.

The foyer where I am spending the next seven months of la vie is fairly basic, but I'm sure I'll get by. Bedroom is pretty huuuge, although they don't turn the heating on until November 1st apparently and it can get proper freezing at night already. Kitchen leaves a LOT to be desired- it's clean and quite modern but literally all we have is a fridge and a hob. Pas de oven, pas de freezer, pas de microwave. I'm gonna have to get creative with cooking- Come Dine With Me with only one saucepan anyone??

Lessons I have learnt thus far about the French:

• They are admin crazy, want photocopies of every little thing
• If it's not their job to do something, they probably won't go out of their way to help you (as I have found in the admin office in my 'foyer')
• French people really do carry a lot of baguettes around
• French people love Irish bars. Excellent news.

I was meant to be starting at my collège this morning, but received a text from my 'responsable' earlier on telling me not to come in because they've had a big meeting this morning (or something to that effect). Don't know if I'm supposed to be going in this afternoon or not- who knows? I'll make like the French and just give a shrug of indifference...