Concrete proof (if any was needed) that the French can and will find ANYTHING to have a demonstration about: today on my way to hospital I passed a group of people standing in front of a big hand-drawn placard that said 'VELOS & CHOCOLAT' (BICYCLES AND CHOCOLATE). Whether their key message was of the 'down with bicycles and chocolate' variety or more like 'more cycling and chocolate please!' wasn't clear. I think maybe there's a set of flashcards with random words on in every house that can be shuffled through at random if people can't decide what to be angry at that day.
Marie
xxx
Wednesday 31 March 2010
Tuesday 30 March 2010
Dermatology
Since it's my last day of the placement tomorrow I'm going to do another little mini-review of my time in the Dermatology department here in case anybody is interested but also because it all helps when it comes to writing our report at the end of May!
I've really enjoyed this placement much more than Gastro and that's mainly due to the Chef who takes charge of the Erasmus students here and organises our timetable. For the first week of the placement I spent all my time on the ward with the externes (like in gastro, doing the visite, helping them with odd jobs here and there and helping with the new patients) but then the following three weeks were spent in the 'consults' - outpatient clinics to you and I. This was good as I spent much less of my time sitting around while feeling like a bit of a spare part while everybody did administrative tasks around me, and much more of my time learning interesting medical facts and looking at rashes. The timetable was really flexible - I had way more free time than my last placement yet somehow felt like I learned a lot more and had a more varied experience of the service.
Dermatology in France is quite similar to the UK but there are a few notable differences. Firstly, on the 20-bed ward I'd say at least half of the patients at any given time were in with leg ulcers (dermatologists don't generally deal with ulcers in the UK). More bizarrely, I found out that in France dermatologists also take charge of most cases of syphilis, whether or not the patients have skin symptoms! It's a bit of a hotch potch. In addition, I kept noticing drugs being used in funny ways that I've never heard of before - for example topical Spironolactone?! (non-medics: in England, spironolactone is a drug that you take as a tablet and it makes you pee more. In France, they put the same drug in a cream and it cures acne. I never would have guessed).
The only drawback of this 'stage' was the number of students attatched to the department. It's a big service, but there were 10 externes, 2 Erasmus students and at least 6 third year students who had to come in in the mornings. AND often we had pharmacy students sitting in on the consultations too - apparently it's a requirement of their studies here. Now most of the externes were often busy on the ward or in Hopital du jour, but even with 2 or three clinics running alongside each other things still got a little crowded and there were some I would have liked to go to but didn't get the chance.
But all in all, c'etait super!
Not much else to report for now except that I have been shut away in bed this weekend with a terrible French disease that I am convinced I caught at our first adventure to the public swimming baths last Wednesday. That'll teach us to try and be healthy. I've recovered enough to go ice skating tonight though, hopefully that will prove to be a far less germ-riddled activity. And only two more days until I break this Nantes cabin fever that's setting in and go home for Easter weekend! Can't wait!
Marie
xxx
I've really enjoyed this placement much more than Gastro and that's mainly due to the Chef who takes charge of the Erasmus students here and organises our timetable. For the first week of the placement I spent all my time on the ward with the externes (like in gastro, doing the visite, helping them with odd jobs here and there and helping with the new patients) but then the following three weeks were spent in the 'consults' - outpatient clinics to you and I. This was good as I spent much less of my time sitting around while feeling like a bit of a spare part while everybody did administrative tasks around me, and much more of my time learning interesting medical facts and looking at rashes. The timetable was really flexible - I had way more free time than my last placement yet somehow felt like I learned a lot more and had a more varied experience of the service.
Dermatology in France is quite similar to the UK but there are a few notable differences. Firstly, on the 20-bed ward I'd say at least half of the patients at any given time were in with leg ulcers (dermatologists don't generally deal with ulcers in the UK). More bizarrely, I found out that in France dermatologists also take charge of most cases of syphilis, whether or not the patients have skin symptoms! It's a bit of a hotch potch. In addition, I kept noticing drugs being used in funny ways that I've never heard of before - for example topical Spironolactone?! (non-medics: in England, spironolactone is a drug that you take as a tablet and it makes you pee more. In France, they put the same drug in a cream and it cures acne. I never would have guessed).
The only drawback of this 'stage' was the number of students attatched to the department. It's a big service, but there were 10 externes, 2 Erasmus students and at least 6 third year students who had to come in in the mornings. AND often we had pharmacy students sitting in on the consultations too - apparently it's a requirement of their studies here. Now most of the externes were often busy on the ward or in Hopital du jour, but even with 2 or three clinics running alongside each other things still got a little crowded and there were some I would have liked to go to but didn't get the chance.
But all in all, c'etait super!
Not much else to report for now except that I have been shut away in bed this weekend with a terrible French disease that I am convinced I caught at our first adventure to the public swimming baths last Wednesday. That'll teach us to try and be healthy. I've recovered enough to go ice skating tonight though, hopefully that will prove to be a far less germ-riddled activity. And only two more days until I break this Nantes cabin fever that's setting in and go home for Easter weekend! Can't wait!
Marie
xxx
Tuesday 23 March 2010
2 weekends and 1 more trashy romance novel review (you lucky people you!)
Hello, friends, family and random people who may have stumbled across our little corner of the blogosphere
So a couple of weeks have passed since Rheons visit, and I have started my placement in gastro, the days are crazy long, the worst being 8 am till 7.30pm but they're going fairly quickly, and since i was prepared for them i'm trying to just greet them with graceful resignation rather than red-faced rage. Also the other externes are nice and helpful and I do slighlty feel like i'm getting better at the whole externe malarkey.
My parents keep telling me how useful this is all going to be for F1 and i continue to disagree with them. Most of what I do is taking histories and the ward round, with a bit of menial secretarial work on top. All of which i can already do in english, my prescribing knowledge feels like its gone back 3 years cos I don't know what any of the drugs are by brand name and I generally feel a lot like an idiot the whole time....but at least I'll be used to long days!
The weekend after rheons visit we went dancing at the LU on the friday night and got to experience the joy of french mens flirting technique - they dance up to you, they poke you or do something else equally annoying to try and get your attention and then when you don't instantly fall into a quivering heap of desire at their feet they dance away again. We also did a bit of shopping (including a 2nd hand bookshop but more of that later!), some wine tasting and made delicious thai green curry.
Another week at hospital flew by and then last weekend Marie's friend Laura came to visit us. Friday night italian disco at the LU wasn't really jumping so we ended up going to the club that had the indie night on, altho this time it was an african music night dj-ed and mc-ed by 2 particularly white looking men, but it was fun to dance to! I'll leave marie to add one of the sweaty pictures of us all if she so desires. Saturday we showed laura the town and did some shopping and then had delicious tapas for dinner then chilled out with a bit of high school musical 2. Inspired by the classic zac emo-golf course dance in HSM2 (if you haven't seen it then you really should)we played mini golf on sunday and threw some shapes:
I did lose horribly, but it was still fun;
on the plus side it seems spring is arriving as evidenced by blossom:
and baby ducks:
Somehow in between all this crazy excitement I managed to fit in one more trashy novel, no i don't know how i find the time either. So without further ado welcome to:
French Literature reviews with Alex part 3: Intrigue a l'hopital (intrigue at the hospital)
I have to say its good to know that french romance novel translators have become equally lazy in their title giving as the english authors have.
So, we've reached modern times and a medical setting which obviously means that linguistically this book was a useful use of my time.
The title wasn't lying either, this book actually manages to create a vague sensation of intrigue for maybe 2 chapters before it spills the beans, by telling us that our heroine Annie, and her ex-lover/new colleague (nightmare!) Nathan (who has rippling muscles underneath comfortable sweaters, just what every girl dreams of) don't entirely see eye-to eye ( i wonder how you say that in french?) on why they broke up. Turns out it was because annie was a crazy baby obsessed nutter who took nathans suggestion that maybe they wait a while to spawn as a rejection then refused to see him ever again. I know right - totally reasonable reaction, this woman isn't high maintenance.
Another sign of modern times is that annie has a GBF (gay best friend) who naturally has to pretend to be her boyf for a while to put off nathan in a slighly underused subplot that has of course been done many times before elsewhere.
Things take an exciting turn before reaching their predictable end when annie is stabbed right in the heart by a tattooed ruffian, I think they were going for some ER-esque excitement here with the emergency thoractomy and what not except it was in no way as well written and if it were ER the staff member probably would have died instead of getting a happy ending. But we being in mills and boon territory it's all fine, and annie gets better and just feels a bit sleepy and sore and then her and nathan get married and have babies, once the thoractomy scar heals i assume although maybe not, i was getting pretty bored by this point.
Whilst i always consider the people in these books to be total jack-asses this pair were a particularly fine example. So overall i'd have to declare it average, but with some nifty medical language that I may well use if ever called upon to do an emergency thoracotomy on a tattooed ruffian.
much love
alex
So a couple of weeks have passed since Rheons visit, and I have started my placement in gastro, the days are crazy long, the worst being 8 am till 7.30pm but they're going fairly quickly, and since i was prepared for them i'm trying to just greet them with graceful resignation rather than red-faced rage. Also the other externes are nice and helpful and I do slighlty feel like i'm getting better at the whole externe malarkey.
My parents keep telling me how useful this is all going to be for F1 and i continue to disagree with them. Most of what I do is taking histories and the ward round, with a bit of menial secretarial work on top. All of which i can already do in english, my prescribing knowledge feels like its gone back 3 years cos I don't know what any of the drugs are by brand name and I generally feel a lot like an idiot the whole time....but at least I'll be used to long days!
The weekend after rheons visit we went dancing at the LU on the friday night and got to experience the joy of french mens flirting technique - they dance up to you, they poke you or do something else equally annoying to try and get your attention and then when you don't instantly fall into a quivering heap of desire at their feet they dance away again. We also did a bit of shopping (including a 2nd hand bookshop but more of that later!), some wine tasting and made delicious thai green curry.
Another week at hospital flew by and then last weekend Marie's friend Laura came to visit us. Friday night italian disco at the LU wasn't really jumping so we ended up going to the club that had the indie night on, altho this time it was an african music night dj-ed and mc-ed by 2 particularly white looking men, but it was fun to dance to! I'll leave marie to add one of the sweaty pictures of us all if she so desires. Saturday we showed laura the town and did some shopping and then had delicious tapas for dinner then chilled out with a bit of high school musical 2. Inspired by the classic zac emo-golf course dance in HSM2 (if you haven't seen it then you really should)we played mini golf on sunday and threw some shapes:
I did lose horribly, but it was still fun;
on the plus side it seems spring is arriving as evidenced by blossom:
and baby ducks:
Somehow in between all this crazy excitement I managed to fit in one more trashy novel, no i don't know how i find the time either. So without further ado welcome to:
French Literature reviews with Alex part 3: Intrigue a l'hopital (intrigue at the hospital)
I have to say its good to know that french romance novel translators have become equally lazy in their title giving as the english authors have.
So, we've reached modern times and a medical setting which obviously means that linguistically this book was a useful use of my time.
The title wasn't lying either, this book actually manages to create a vague sensation of intrigue for maybe 2 chapters before it spills the beans, by telling us that our heroine Annie, and her ex-lover/new colleague (nightmare!) Nathan (who has rippling muscles underneath comfortable sweaters, just what every girl dreams of) don't entirely see eye-to eye ( i wonder how you say that in french?) on why they broke up. Turns out it was because annie was a crazy baby obsessed nutter who took nathans suggestion that maybe they wait a while to spawn as a rejection then refused to see him ever again. I know right - totally reasonable reaction, this woman isn't high maintenance.
Another sign of modern times is that annie has a GBF (gay best friend) who naturally has to pretend to be her boyf for a while to put off nathan in a slighly underused subplot that has of course been done many times before elsewhere.
Things take an exciting turn before reaching their predictable end when annie is stabbed right in the heart by a tattooed ruffian, I think they were going for some ER-esque excitement here with the emergency thoractomy and what not except it was in no way as well written and if it were ER the staff member probably would have died instead of getting a happy ending. But we being in mills and boon territory it's all fine, and annie gets better and just feels a bit sleepy and sore and then her and nathan get married and have babies, once the thoractomy scar heals i assume although maybe not, i was getting pretty bored by this point.
Whilst i always consider the people in these books to be total jack-asses this pair were a particularly fine example. So overall i'd have to declare it average, but with some nifty medical language that I may well use if ever called upon to do an emergency thoracotomy on a tattooed ruffian.
much love
alex
Monday 15 March 2010
Castle Showdown
Because as they say a picture is worth 1000 words, here are some more photos of what we have been up to.
When Rheon visited last weekend we went for an explore around town to show him the sights and the conversation took an obvious turn: If Nantes castle and Caernarfon castle had a fight, who would win?
CAERNARFON
1) Older
2) Has been featured on the Google home page
NANTES
1) Better gargoyles
2) It's got a moat
VERDICT - DRAW
We also took some pictures of the famous elephant, I am amazed that with all the mentions he's had on this blog we are yet to show you what he looks like.
Meet Jules:
Here is some footage of him in action, for those of you not on Facebook:
And here is a photo of Alex and I standing exactly on top of his head! With hindsight I really wish we had done the 'Titanic' pose. Maybe next time.
Another thing we did was discovered a little bit of nature sitting right on our doorstep - I don't believe it's taken more than a month to do this but we explored the banks of the local river Erdre and it's lovely! You can walk or take boats right along it, and even a bus that's disguised as a boat, and there is even a little chateau not very far away at all. Plus we saw some sort of wildlife, which looked like a beaver, but might have been an otter, and maybe just a relative of them both.
And finally because no weekend in France is complete without one, here's a photo of a demonstration:
Ta-daaaaa.
Marie
xxx
When Rheon visited last weekend we went for an explore around town to show him the sights and the conversation took an obvious turn: If Nantes castle and Caernarfon castle had a fight, who would win?
CAERNARFON
1) Older
2) Has been featured on the Google home page
NANTES
1) Better gargoyles
2) It's got a moat
VERDICT - DRAW
We also took some pictures of the famous elephant, I am amazed that with all the mentions he's had on this blog we are yet to show you what he looks like.
Meet Jules:
Here is some footage of him in action, for those of you not on Facebook:
And here is a photo of Alex and I standing exactly on top of his head! With hindsight I really wish we had done the 'Titanic' pose. Maybe next time.
Another thing we did was discovered a little bit of nature sitting right on our doorstep - I don't believe it's taken more than a month to do this but we explored the banks of the local river Erdre and it's lovely! You can walk or take boats right along it, and even a bus that's disguised as a boat, and there is even a little chateau not very far away at all. Plus we saw some sort of wildlife, which looked like a beaver, but might have been an otter, and maybe just a relative of them both.
And finally because no weekend in France is complete without one, here's a photo of a demonstration:
Ta-daaaaa.
Marie
xxx
Thursday 11 March 2010
bits and bobs
I am aware that I promised an all-singing all-dancing spectacular update of Rheon's visit last weekend but Alex and Rheon, who took all the photos, haven't sent me said photos, so a small summary will have to do:
1) It was very lovely
2) We went on the elephant - kind of a disappointment! Apparently elephants are nicer to look at than to ride on. Jules is kind of slow and doesn't take a very scenic route. Plus, it's a right rip off, and your entrance fee only allows to to choose either the elephant OR the gallery of all the other creatures, so we still haven't seen them yet.
3) We found a decent club night in Nantes! Something I feared would never occur. It was called 'Hang The DJ' and had a decent Mancunian playlist, the crowd (ok Alex and I) went wild with excitement on hearing mention of 'Salford' by Tony Wilson on the introduction to Transmission by Joy Division. Oh what I wouldn't give for a half an hour browse round Salford Shopping City right now.
In other news I don't have much news, only brief observations of the curiosities of French life. Did you know, stats fans, that a pie chart here is called a Camembert! I love that.
Everybody knows that the French love their dogs but perhaps do not realise to quite what lengths they will go to display this. Yesterday I was strolling round to Alex's for tea and as I turned the corner I was met with a woman with a frizzly poodle-type dog, wearing an argyle jumper. Fair enough, I thought, a dog in a jumper, a bit embarrassing but each to their own. As I got closer I realised that the pair had paused while the dog did its business by the hedge and the woman was meanwhile talking to it in a high pitched 'coochie coo' baby voice. But then as I got a few steps closer again I almost fell over in disgust as with my very own eyes I saw the woman bend down, head to pavement level, and sniff the dog's bottom when it had finished before picking him up in her handbag and carrying on their merry way! Put me right off my risotto that did. Always been more of a cat person myself.
This week we have encountered some problems with French bureaucracy when trying to apply for financial aid for our accommodation. We're entitled to about 80 euros a month (which when you think the accommodation costs about 140 euros a month is pretty great) but maaaan they make it hard to get it! They've asked for about a million documents and a French bank account, all hurdles we have managed to dodge so far, but now want a copy of our birth certificates with our parents names on them. Alex has lost her birth certificate long ago whereas I have one but it doesn't have my parents' names on it.
And to make matters worse I have just e-mailed our Erasmus supervisor to ask for help with this pickle and by accident in my exhausted, hospital-frazzled state signed off 'Felicitations' (congratulations) instead of 'Cordialement'. OH NO.
This is probably a sign that I should be sleeping right now instead of blogging. Night night, lots of love,
Marie
xxx
1) It was very lovely
2) We went on the elephant - kind of a disappointment! Apparently elephants are nicer to look at than to ride on. Jules is kind of slow and doesn't take a very scenic route. Plus, it's a right rip off, and your entrance fee only allows to to choose either the elephant OR the gallery of all the other creatures, so we still haven't seen them yet.
3) We found a decent club night in Nantes! Something I feared would never occur. It was called 'Hang The DJ' and had a decent Mancunian playlist, the crowd (ok Alex and I) went wild with excitement on hearing mention of 'Salford' by Tony Wilson on the introduction to Transmission by Joy Division. Oh what I wouldn't give for a half an hour browse round Salford Shopping City right now.
In other news I don't have much news, only brief observations of the curiosities of French life. Did you know, stats fans, that a pie chart here is called a Camembert! I love that.
Everybody knows that the French love their dogs but perhaps do not realise to quite what lengths they will go to display this. Yesterday I was strolling round to Alex's for tea and as I turned the corner I was met with a woman with a frizzly poodle-type dog, wearing an argyle jumper. Fair enough, I thought, a dog in a jumper, a bit embarrassing but each to their own. As I got closer I realised that the pair had paused while the dog did its business by the hedge and the woman was meanwhile talking to it in a high pitched 'coochie coo' baby voice. But then as I got a few steps closer again I almost fell over in disgust as with my very own eyes I saw the woman bend down, head to pavement level, and sniff the dog's bottom when it had finished before picking him up in her handbag and carrying on their merry way! Put me right off my risotto that did. Always been more of a cat person myself.
This week we have encountered some problems with French bureaucracy when trying to apply for financial aid for our accommodation. We're entitled to about 80 euros a month (which when you think the accommodation costs about 140 euros a month is pretty great) but maaaan they make it hard to get it! They've asked for about a million documents and a French bank account, all hurdles we have managed to dodge so far, but now want a copy of our birth certificates with our parents names on them. Alex has lost her birth certificate long ago whereas I have one but it doesn't have my parents' names on it.
And to make matters worse I have just e-mailed our Erasmus supervisor to ask for help with this pickle and by accident in my exhausted, hospital-frazzled state signed off 'Felicitations' (congratulations) instead of 'Cordialement'. OH NO.
This is probably a sign that I should be sleeping right now instead of blogging. Night night, lots of love,
Marie
xxx
Wednesday 10 March 2010
Literature reviews with alex - part 2
This week I made my way through "un eclair de flash" - which i think roughly translates as a flash of light.
We've moved into the 80s now and boy have times changed! Our heroine is Kate - a young secretary because clearly the 80s was too long ago for women to have proper jobs.
By a form of accident that's too boring to explain Kate ends up in the company of dashing superstar singer Luke Hastings and has to stay the night at his house.
Plot wise it's definitely a step forward from the man of granite, in that there kind of is one. Luke suspects Kate of setting him up to get a story to sell the papers, kate fancies the pants off luke but doesn't want him to think she's that kind of girl (which she totally is).
Luke offers Kate a job and she's goes with him and his sister to New York, and this is where the trouble starts.
Kate makes the mortal sin of talking to another man - the "jeune new-yorkais" Steve. For this she gets moody looks, death threats and forced kisses. Now generally my motto is "each to their own" when it comes to bedroom behaviour but personally death threats dont really get me weak at the knees. But it's ok because in the end it turns out Luke was just acting like a violent, jealous wanker because he loves kate so much.....well that's alright then.
What the book fails to add is the epilogue where 2 years later Luke drowns kate in their pool because she smiled at the chauffeur. Probably un peu trop true to life for harlequin.
So after a promising start "un eclair de flash" ultimately fails on the basis of disguising a jealous temper and anger control issues as a sign of true love.
Score: - 5326
A review of "play-boy du desert" will follow soon, if you care. But after that you may have to wait for a while because I accidently bought some proper literature.
Bises
We've moved into the 80s now and boy have times changed! Our heroine is Kate - a young secretary because clearly the 80s was too long ago for women to have proper jobs.
By a form of accident that's too boring to explain Kate ends up in the company of dashing superstar singer Luke Hastings and has to stay the night at his house.
Plot wise it's definitely a step forward from the man of granite, in that there kind of is one. Luke suspects Kate of setting him up to get a story to sell the papers, kate fancies the pants off luke but doesn't want him to think she's that kind of girl (which she totally is).
Luke offers Kate a job and she's goes with him and his sister to New York, and this is where the trouble starts.
Kate makes the mortal sin of talking to another man - the "jeune new-yorkais" Steve. For this she gets moody looks, death threats and forced kisses. Now generally my motto is "each to their own" when it comes to bedroom behaviour but personally death threats dont really get me weak at the knees. But it's ok because in the end it turns out Luke was just acting like a violent, jealous wanker because he loves kate so much.....well that's alright then.
What the book fails to add is the epilogue where 2 years later Luke drowns kate in their pool because she smiled at the chauffeur. Probably un peu trop true to life for harlequin.
So after a promising start "un eclair de flash" ultimately fails on the basis of disguising a jealous temper and anger control issues as a sign of true love.
Score: - 5326
A review of "play-boy du desert" will follow soon, if you care. But after that you may have to wait for a while because I accidently bought some proper literature.
Bises
Monday 8 March 2010
Gastro review
As promised here's a little review of my gastro placement in case anybody reading this is thinking about choosing Nantes for European Option in the future!
Firstly I thought the placement was really well organised, the supervisor was really nice and prepared for my arrival. The staff were already aware that I had to do UPSAs, UCEXs etc and helped me make arrangements to get things signed off without me having to tell them first.
Secondly, the days were LONG! 7.30 am till 7.30pm was my longest but average was maybe 8.30-6.30. At first I thought it's just a French thing to have such long working days but apparently not, a few students have told me this gastro placement has a reputation for being hard work. The long days weren’t so bad when there were lots of new patients so I was kept busy taking histories and examining but otherwise the externes seemed reluctant to give me other tasks to do, particularly didn’t seem to have much faith in my written French e.g. writing letters and requests! This meant I got kind of bored a lot of the time and did a lot of sitting around. Whether this is related to the placement itself or just a reflection of the particular externes I was working with I'm not sure. They were very nice and friendly though - more 'these are our jobs, you don't have to worry about doing too much work' rather than just not wanting to include me!
I kind of felt like a lazy English student complaining about this but it is worth thinking about because as we’ve said before, after you factor in time for commuting to hospital and eating dinner etc that timetable doesn’t really leave much time to enjoy Nantes, make friends, arrange things like bank accounts and CAF, all the little things that Erasmus is all about.
Will blog again soon about Rheon's visit this weekend as soon as I've got the photos up!
Marie
xxx
Firstly I thought the placement was really well organised, the supervisor was really nice and prepared for my arrival. The staff were already aware that I had to do UPSAs, UCEXs etc and helped me make arrangements to get things signed off without me having to tell them first.
Secondly, the days were LONG! 7.30 am till 7.30pm was my longest but average was maybe 8.30-6.30. At first I thought it's just a French thing to have such long working days but apparently not, a few students have told me this gastro placement has a reputation for being hard work. The long days weren’t so bad when there were lots of new patients so I was kept busy taking histories and examining but otherwise the externes seemed reluctant to give me other tasks to do, particularly didn’t seem to have much faith in my written French e.g. writing letters and requests! This meant I got kind of bored a lot of the time and did a lot of sitting around. Whether this is related to the placement itself or just a reflection of the particular externes I was working with I'm not sure. They were very nice and friendly though - more 'these are our jobs, you don't have to worry about doing too much work' rather than just not wanting to include me!
I kind of felt like a lazy English student complaining about this but it is worth thinking about because as we’ve said before, after you factor in time for commuting to hospital and eating dinner etc that timetable doesn’t really leave much time to enjoy Nantes, make friends, arrange things like bank accounts and CAF, all the little things that Erasmus is all about.
Will blog again soon about Rheon's visit this weekend as soon as I've got the photos up!
Marie
xxx
Monday 1 March 2010
French Literature Reviews with Alex - Part 1
Number 1: L'homme de granit (the man of granite).
L'homme de granit is a piece of classic literature, in that it was written in 1971. With this in mind we meet our heroine Beverley. Beverley, we glean from the cover, has long blonde hair and is in an artist and also teacher at the local secondary school in the un-named derbyshire town where this unlikely story is set.
Beverley is friends with the eccentric and irascible Mrs Dunlopp who in her old age decides to go and live in New Zealand and also to take advantage of her young friends poverty by arranging a will that basically forces her to marry Mrs Dunlopps great nephew, with whom Beverley must share a house for the next 6 months. (p.s can you actually set up wills in such a ridiculous manner and whilst your still alive, cos if so i'm totally going to do it).
So enter the great-nephew, courdroy and sweater wearing man of granite himself Grant Gard. From the cover we learn that Grant has chiselled looks and a penchant for brooding. This is basically all there is to learn about him, plus the fact that he is an avowed mysoginist and says he'll never marry.
Now I know what you're thinking, young chiselled man, young lady artiste – there's gonna be some sexy time here. Well no, you'd be wrong. Just because Beverley is an artist doesn't mean she's a slag bag, oh no. And it's totally not her fault that one of her teacher colleagues and the son of a family who exhibit her art in their restaurant (Derek and Neil – so 70s) are like totally in love with her and keep trying to get her to marry them and kissing her whether she likes it or not. And she totally doesn't lead them on by telling them she won't marry them and then inviting them to parties and dancing with them, or getting them to take her places as and when it suits her. I mean, it's the 70s, it's not like she's allowed to drive herself.
So cue lots of Grant being a moody a-hole and calling Beverley a saucy wench every page, and Beverley wandering around being pathetic and wishing; oh if only Grant would love me because he's such a wanker and so very chiselled that it really turns me on. They do get married, even though they claim to still hate each other so that Beverley can use the money she gets to help her impoverished mother (who lives in birmingham – so, you know, must be poor).
In the end after much rather dull I-hate-you-oh-ok-kiss-me-then nonsense it turns out they were both only being idiots because they loved each other so much and it just took Beverley going away for a few days for them to realise this. And then they have a touching reunion where Beverley asks Grant if he'd like her to quit her job, but it's not necessary – he's quite the modern man and is willing to consider having a wife who works...maybe.
I hope you enjoyed this first episode in my tour of french literature, coming up soon we have “un eclair de flash” followed by a more modern piece; “le play-boy du desert”.
Bises
L'homme de granit is a piece of classic literature, in that it was written in 1971. With this in mind we meet our heroine Beverley. Beverley, we glean from the cover, has long blonde hair and is in an artist and also teacher at the local secondary school in the un-named derbyshire town where this unlikely story is set.
Beverley is friends with the eccentric and irascible Mrs Dunlopp who in her old age decides to go and live in New Zealand and also to take advantage of her young friends poverty by arranging a will that basically forces her to marry Mrs Dunlopps great nephew, with whom Beverley must share a house for the next 6 months. (p.s can you actually set up wills in such a ridiculous manner and whilst your still alive, cos if so i'm totally going to do it).
So enter the great-nephew, courdroy and sweater wearing man of granite himself Grant Gard. From the cover we learn that Grant has chiselled looks and a penchant for brooding. This is basically all there is to learn about him, plus the fact that he is an avowed mysoginist and says he'll never marry.
Now I know what you're thinking, young chiselled man, young lady artiste – there's gonna be some sexy time here. Well no, you'd be wrong. Just because Beverley is an artist doesn't mean she's a slag bag, oh no. And it's totally not her fault that one of her teacher colleagues and the son of a family who exhibit her art in their restaurant (Derek and Neil – so 70s) are like totally in love with her and keep trying to get her to marry them and kissing her whether she likes it or not. And she totally doesn't lead them on by telling them she won't marry them and then inviting them to parties and dancing with them, or getting them to take her places as and when it suits her. I mean, it's the 70s, it's not like she's allowed to drive herself.
So cue lots of Grant being a moody a-hole and calling Beverley a saucy wench every page, and Beverley wandering around being pathetic and wishing; oh if only Grant would love me because he's such a wanker and so very chiselled that it really turns me on. They do get married, even though they claim to still hate each other so that Beverley can use the money she gets to help her impoverished mother (who lives in birmingham – so, you know, must be poor).
In the end after much rather dull I-hate-you-oh-ok-kiss-me-then nonsense it turns out they were both only being idiots because they loved each other so much and it just took Beverley going away for a few days for them to realise this. And then they have a touching reunion where Beverley asks Grant if he'd like her to quit her job, but it's not necessary – he's quite the modern man and is willing to consider having a wife who works...maybe.
I hope you enjoyed this first episode in my tour of french literature, coming up soon we have “un eclair de flash” followed by a more modern piece; “le play-boy du desert”.
Bises
Chanting dans le pluie
The weather is horrible here in Nantes but we're not letting that ruin our fun!
To be honest, the ecstatic expressions you see here on our faces are largely due to the arrival of ma cherie maman on Thursday, and with her the arrival of just SO MUCH chocolate, as well as teabags, magazines, make-up and lots of other goodies.
When she got here we went straight to my halls to drop all the gifts off and show her around - she was less than impressed with the living arrangements: "It's worse than you can tell from the photos on the blog" !!! Luckily I got to stay for the weekend with her in a lovely little boutique B&B, near the jardin des plantes, tres luxe.
On the Friday I had to go into hospital so Mum amused herself during the day but it was fine, there's plenty to do and see. So no excuse everyone else for not coming to visit! Here's a photo she took of me going to hospital and you can just make out the name, which I don't believe we've mentioned on this blog before: ''Hotel Dieu'' = God's Hotel?!! Worst name for a hospital ever!
Friday evening was ruined somewhat when I got some nasty food poisoning from a dodgy crepe! You'd think pancake and goat's cheese would be a fairly safe option for an evening meal but apparently not. Think I'll be giving up the chevre from now on (although to be honest I've eaten enough of the stuff since we got here). Luckily all was well again by early Saturday so we headed over to the flea market again where Alex tried on a variety of 80 euro furs and I looked for a vintage ball dress. Now everyone knows I love a good mooch round a charity shop but apparently this is frowned upon in France - charity shops are for the homeless and needy and it's not seen as cool or stylish to try and find vintage bargains in them In fact they might even refuse to serve you because they see it as stealing away an opportunity for a bargain that someone else deserves more! So it looks like slightly overpriced flea market pickings are the way forward for now.
For the rest of the day we wandered around some of the more touristy sights that we hadn't seen yet in the pouring rain - the Musée des Beaux Arts (very good), the cathedral (disappointingly bare). It felt like the whole weekend went too quickly! But it's only 3 more sleeps till we will have our next visitor as Rheon is coming on Thursday, I cannot WAIT :-D It's elephant time.
Only one more day left of gastro to go. Can't believe a month is over already! I think later this week I'll do a little review similar to Alex's because it will hopefully be useful for future students. Can't say I'm sorry to be leaving this placement though to be honest, it has been pretty hardcore, I'm ready for a dermaholiday.
A plus!
Marie
xxx
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