People told me that after I’d been in France a couple of weeks, the language would become second nature and I’d begin to start thinking in French. NOT TRUE. I’m sick of making all these silly English mistakes! A prime example: today we were reading through the notes of one of the new patients on the ward and saw in her past medical history that she’d had an ‘Amygdalectomie’. Now I was pretty intrigued by this. The amygdala? The centre in the brain that controls fear and emotions? She had that REMOVED? But why, and how? That’s crazy! I excitedly asked the other student about it and was confused by his apparent indifference; ‘Bahhh, I don’t know, I guess she must’ve had an infection or something’. It was only about an hour later that the realisation hit me that the French have two meanings for the word amygdale, and that one of those meanings is tonsil. Having your tonsils out, not quite so exotic.

I can’t decide yet what I think about the French health system. Would I prefer to be a patient here or on the NHS? Sure there are fewer superbugs around here, and resources are more plentiful, and it’s easier to see a specialist when you want one. In terms of interior design the French totally win as well, the rooms are really spacious with enormous windows...but on the other hand you know what, as a patient there are some tests I’d rather not have unless absolutely necessary (I swear they give out colonoscopies at the drop of a hat)! Also it seems that communication skills sometimes leave a lot to be desired! Last week I saw the nurses break the news of a man’s terminal cancer to his family while standing up in a little corner of the corridor while all the doctors were going round on the ward round. I know Alex has a few examples she’s planning on writing about too. They need some Manchester SPIKES teaching!

On Thursday we will be receiving our first visitor to Nantes in the form of ma mere! I’m very excited...however there is another STRIKE on the go, this time of air traffic controllers! I hope it doesn’t ruin our plans!

Marie
xxx

flea maret purchases

Hey,
we went to the flea market today and spent many an hour looking at a mix of overpriced tat and amazing items that i wished i could afford
but what i could afford was
this



and this



and just because i took them here are a few photos of hopital nord laenec where i'm working : pretty huh?



we also made an attempt at partying nante style last night - didn't quite go to plan. The club was behind this really non-descript door and all we could see were 2 bouncers who said they were open and we could come in but still....it was really weird, so we ended up going to a bar for a drink which was cool, then attempted to find another club which turned out to be miles away so we ended up giving up and having a kebab, still it was good fun and nice to get out a bit. Next time we will succeed in dancing!

bizz

A first

So, yesterday was the first encounter I have had where I've been forced to do that weird kiss kiss on both cheeks thing when greeting French people I barely know...tres Francais...

I think I just about kept my cool and pulled it off, but the restrained English woman voice in my head spent the whole time going 'WOAH THERE! WOAH! PERSONAL SPACE!'

Marie
xxx

france certainly needs its health system

Cos i swear being healthy in this country is just god damn impossible - skimmed milk doesn't seem to exist - or low fat mayo for that matter and everyone eats enormous meals at lunch time of like steak and chips and there are beautiful looking cakes everywhere and yet they're all as skinny as anything!
NO FAIR!

Our halls are having an international evening and we have to take some english delicacies - TIPS PLEASE - bearing in mind we have no oven


in case you all didn't know its St Bernadette's day today




You know i think we should do like russians do and celebrate our Sts days as well as our birthdays - good plan no?

BIZZ

snow day!

1 Inch of snow is apparently enough to stop all buses in Nantes! it actually makes me feel that the english cope slightly better with bad weather and that's saying something! Unfortunately for Marie the trams are still running so she's had to go in to hospital. I'm umming and aahing about whether to take the whole day off because it seems to be clearing a bit now.

I might have to go in this afternoon booo, still, for now - nap time!

bizz

Oop La!

Don't listen to Alex! There are LOADS of things she has fun doing in Nantes, and I've got proof! For example:

Going on le internet



Waiting at tram stops in le pouring rain



Trips to le Ikea



See! It's not so bad here.

The strike is over now, and the bins have finally been collected, which is a bonus! I feel like we're getting more into the routine of cooking and things, and we are slowly starting to make some friends. Last week we went to the Erasmus welcome party and met some French girls who are going to Nottingham for Erasmus next year, and tonight we're going with them to 'Café Anglophone' which is some kind of French-English weekly social. At the weekend we're going to meet up with some Romanian Erasmus students who we met on the first day. It's difficult having such a crazy timetable though because it just doesn't leave us enough time to do these fun things! The average day seems to be 8am-7pm so by the time we get back to the halls and make dinner, we just feel too tired to go out or be sociable. Plus I'm still yet to meet anyone living in my building to socialise with! It's a bit of a ghost town.

Over the weekend we did some sightseeing around Nantes (although to be honest rather than tourist hotspots a lot of our time was spent seeing the sights of various cafés with WiFi trying to get on Skype). Sadly the 'Machines d'Ile' park with the giant mechanical elephant ride was closed so we're saving that one for this weekend. We did the Natural History Museum, the castle, and 'le Lieu Unique' which is quite a cool place - Nantes is the biscuit capital of France don't you know, and le Lieu Unique is an old biscuit factory that they've converted into a centre with a bar, restaurant, cute little shops, a hammam, all sorts.



And here is me at le Lieu Unique. Sadly we did not see any biscuits there during our trip but there were lots of other biscuit-shaped items available.

I'm going to go now and make the most of my Wednesday afternoon off by having a realllly long nap :)

Marie
xxx