Year abroad so far!

I've been meaning to write a blog for some time now but still hadn't gotten round to doing it. I'm Samir and I'm a third year Politics & French student at the University of Bristol. I am currently working as a teaching assistant in Reims. I only work 12 hours a week so there's plenty of time to doss around & experience French life to the max! I've been in France for 3 weeks now & am absolutely loving it. Every experience has its positives & negatives and I've definitely experienced good days & bad days on the year abroad so far.

So where to start- Reims is a great city & its only an hour away from Paris on the train. Its in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France & has a population of nearly 200,000. I consider it to be fairly small as its smaller than both Croydon my hometown & Bristol where I've been living and studying the last 2 years. Its an important city in France as its where champagne is made & its cathedral is where the French kings were crowned. In addition, it is where Nazi Germany surrendered the war. There is a fair amount to do here too which is good & I'm hoping to keep busy as I don't work very much.

I'm teaching in a lycée called Jean Jaurès named after a socialist leader assassinated during the First World War. Its a pretty nice school and is known as one of the better schools in the area. It has an internat which is like a boarding house but its for girls only although boys also attend the school. The teachers here are very friendly & welcoming and I have to admit I'm very happy here so far. So far I've been to almost every English class to introduce myself & answer questions about myself, UK life. Its been a bit repetive but I've been asked all sorts of questions from 'Do you like football?' to 'What is your view of the special relationship between the United States & the UK?' The students here seem very well behaved and geniunely interested in learning & improving English.I'm living in a studio flat on the 5th floor of the boarding house. Its a pretty big room with a little kitchen & a bathroom. The room looks a bit bare at the moment but I'm sure it will look cozy when I've put pictures and all up!

The training itself for the job was rather boring & I don't think I gained very much from it but I had the opportunity to meet lots of other assistants from all over the world. The training was for assistants from all over the academie. Our academie includes schools near the Belgian border and ends near Dijon so its quite large. I've made assistant friends from all over the world including the UK, the US, Germany, Spain & even my native India! It was nice to meet so many great people & we went out in the evenings and I've had the opportunity to get to know many of them since.

So far I've been to the cathedral twice, been to the Moet & Chardon champagne house in Epernay which was an awesome tour! I also went to a chocolate exhibition in the city which was fantastique although I spent so much money on random items of chocolate. This last weekend I went to Paris to meet friends and relax & see some of the city so I feel I've done a good amount so far! We also have our October half term holidays coming up known as the Toussaint Vacances and I'm planning to visit Luxembourg & Belgium with a friend from university. I'm very much looking forward to a bit of a break & an opportunity to travel.

That's all for now but I will write soon!