Dissertation Discoveries: 1

Hello to all :)

As some of you might know, I am currently trying to write my Dissertation. 4000 words of French does not come easily to anybody I think but I'm starting to find my topic a little more interesting and so I'm hoping the words start flowing out soon. 

My chosen title is: Andorra - A French principality more than a Spanish one?

Now then, Andorra is not struggling nation in Africa as America seems to have thought in 2008 (see video below) but rather a tiny landlocked nation on the borders of both France and Spain. You may not have heard an awful lot about Andorra because it isn't exactly a country but a co-principality. There is no reigning monarch in Andorra. It is the responsibility of both the President of France and the Bishop of El Seu d'Urgell in Catalonia to look after Andorra and its people.

However, during the 1930's, a Russian adventurer by the name of Boris Skossyreff decided that he would seize power over Andorra and called himself 'Boris 1 King of Andorra' for a total of 8 days.

The French president was in favour of this change, as were the general council of Andorra but the Bishop of Urgell was asked by a minor advisor to involve the civil guard. And so, after consulting with the French President, the Bishop involved the Spanish civil guard and Boris was taken away to Madrid for questioning and later expelled from Spain!

I found this fascinating when I discovered it yesterday and I guess it just goes to show that just about anything can happen if you have a dream!

Well, it's back to research for me. 

Thanks for reading :)

Ciao! x

Ma Nouvelle Obsession! (French Blogpost)

Salut à tous :)

Récemment j'ai trouvé une nouvelle obsession et ça me fait sourire. Ma nouvelle obsession est chanteur français qui s'appelle Matt Pokora. Il avait chanter beaucoup avant que cette année mais je ne le savais pas. Son album nouveau s'appelle "A La Poursuite du Bonheur" et c'est tellement fantastique. Je vous conseillerez de l'écouter parce qu'il chante vraiment bien et c'est un album très jolie. (En plus...il est un beau gosse!)

C'est dommage que c'est seulement une semaine depuis je l'trouvé sur YouTube parce que Pokora a eu un concert le 7ème juin dans Toulouse, la ville où j'ai passé une partie de mon année Erasmus. J'aurais resté si j'avais su!

La chanson que j'aime le plus s'appelle "Juste un Instant". 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ-uPxVYsbA

J'espère que vous le trouverez aussi cool que moi!

Merci de lire

Kally x

Revision

Salut!

I have a French exam at 13:30 today and I'm currently doing the whole last minute revising thing. I don't think it should be too bad because everything we have learnt here has been revision for us anyway so in a way I'm quite looking forward to it; crazy as that seems. I'd be interested to compare my results from the initial French test we did to this one to see if I have actually improved my French. I feel like I have whilst writing my Dissertation but I guess we will only really know next year. 

Whilst revising I came across some of the classwork that we did a few weeks ago. We were practicing the conditional tense. Incidentally I've just noticed by looking at the date that it was actually 2 months ago but for some reason I had written the date as being 1990. *Fail* I guess my age was really on my mind since it was a few days after my birthday, ha. 

Anyway, to practice the conditional we were given an example paragraph and then some starter sentences to do our own and one of the sentence starters was "If I had a magic wand" - clearly Chris and I went completely Harry Potter on this paragraph. 

"Si j'avais une baguette magique, j'irais au Hogwarts. 

Si j'allais au Hogwarts, je parlerais avec Harry Potter. 

Si je parlais avec Harry Potter, je serais plus populaire. 

Si j'étais plus populaire, je serais mieux qu'Harry Potter.

Si j'étais mieux qu'Harry Potter, je serais Hermione Granger."

"If I had a magic wand, I would go to Hogwarts. 

If I went to Hogwarts, I would talk to Harry Potter. 

If I talked to Harry Potter, I would be more popular. 

If I were more popular,  I would be better than Harry Potter. 

If I were better than Harry Potter, I would be Hermione Granger."

Clearly I have ideas of grandeur in this paragraph and this was long before I found out that my true Hogwarts house is Ravenclaw. 

Maybe you could use this in future as revision to come up with your own paragraphs :)

Ciao x

The Sectrets of Nicolas Flamel

Hey guys, 

This may sound a little bit weird and given the title you're already feeling a little confused. Well the story here is that I bought a book in the pound shop equivalent here, which is called the 2€ shop. The book is called, as the title suggests, The Secrets of Nicolas Flamel.

It's written in French but I think it will make for an interesting read and also some good practice for my translation skills; so over the next few days or weeks (days if I don't find any Dissertation inspiration) you will be able to follow the secrets of Nicolas Flamel along with me as I translate them. 

I intend to post both the French version and my own translated version since I know that some people who follow this blog do study French and I'm open to queries on my translations and your own interpretations.

Learning is fun, you know? :)

The nerd in me is really excited in this project, and I suppose I have Cazz to think because I felt the need to reintroduce people to my nerdy self after reading her blog tonight. Thanks!

So, I'll see you soon to explore the secrets of Nicolas Flamel!

Kally x

Cravings From Abroad

Hello readers!

Sorry that it's been a while but at this point in my Year Abroad, I doubt that there is a lot I can really tell you. Toulouse is an amazing city and I've come to feel very lucky for having had the chance to live here; even if we discount the mad gunman that you'll have read about in the papers or seen on the news.

Whilst I was in Girona, before Christmas, I experienced quite a lot of cravings for home foods but I have come to find that the cravings are much worse here. I find myself wanting toast, party rings, walkers crisps and Chinese food all of the time.

I think that maybe once you've been home for Christmas in between the two countries and you have the chance to eat and drink all the things you want to at home, it gets much worse.

Anyhow, I've only got about a month left here now because I need to go back and get myself a summer job! There are posts all around the Internet about how much more employable you are once you've completed a year abroad but I doubt this covers summer jobs!

We shall see :)

Ciao. x

Erm, hi.

I disappeared. I don't have an excuse for it, I just did. I do have an excuse for being back and that's because I have to write my Proposal for my Dissertation. I'm having trouble with it right now so I thought I would blog. 

My first problem is that the Modern Languages Department at my University appear to have glorified our Dissertations. I don't even feel right calling it a Dissertation but for the fact it makes me sound like a normal student. It's only a 4000 word essay. That's all it is, is a long essay. Why the need for such pretentious titles?

They want me to create chapters for each point that I discuss practically. I don't see the point because each section will just be very small. 

My other problem is that I'm seeing problems in my own question. I guess those will be wrinkled out by the tutor when she tells me if I can or can't do this question. We'll see. 

I just wanted to complain, I guess. 

While I'm here, I should say that Toulouse is amazing with some pretty things to see. I've got trips planned to Carcasonne, Perpignan and Andorra. The latter for my Disseration work. 

I'll see you soon. x

Absence.

Hello!

Firstly, I'd like to say that I'm sorry for being absent from here for so long. I have been making videos to update people but I forgot about this blog a little bit. I guess I just don't think that my life is that interesting at the moment - or at least not enough to be updating a blog. I see a blog as a serious way of communication what's going on in my life, whereas I just see my video blogs as a bit of fun and a little bit of a challenge I guess. Having said that, the "I Love Study Abroad" website has chosen this blog as one of their top blogs so I will be updating this with a mind to explaining things to future year abroad students but also for my friends who want to know what I've been doing. 

I think the main thing to say at the moment is that I'm not enjoying the university life here. If I push aside the fact that I have to be up at 7a.m every Tuesday and Thursday to go to basic French classes; then I can focus on the real issue. This would be that the university here is just a million miles away from what I'm used to in Bangor. In Bangor I get a very nice way of living in my department and I think that my friends would agree that it's more like a college experience for me, in that my class numbers are small, we're a small department where everybody knows everybody and the teachers chase you up when you're not in class - not to mention the fact that we still call our work "homework". With that in mind I expected a similar experience here because I don't know anything else and so I was shocked to find bigger classes, teachers that aren't so bothered whether you're there or not and lectures that last an hour and a half each. I can't say that I've been to a lecture before now that wasn't an English one, with my friend Cazz and she can back me up when I say that I fell asleep in it. 

So it's very difficult for me to pay attention in my lectures here. I don't enjoy them. My French lectures are difficult because they're so easy and I rarely learn anything since it's a basic class but Bangor requires that I take the module. The Spanish class is more like linguistics and that's difficult enough to understand as it is without adding the fact that it's all in Spanish, is quick paced and the people at the front love to ask questions. The following class is okay in that it's something I know because it's oral and written Spanish, but it's taught in Catalan. I don't mind it being taught in Catalan because I can vaguely understand what's going on but after the previous lesson I'm always so tired that I can't be my bubbly self in that lesson. 

Before I came here; I dissed my university over things but now I can see that compared with the university here, they're really quite alright. We didn't enroll here until our 6th or 7th week. They're very relaxed here when it comes to doing things like that. It would have been easier to do it online but they just don't have that set up here. 

Regarding future Bangor students to Girona university; I wouldn't exactly recommend it unless you're willing to put up with learning a language at basic level. Since it's required for all students doing more than one language to study at a university, it's very difficult to escape the fact that you're either going to have to sit in a basic French/Italian lecture twice a week or you're going to have to pay €300 to do an intermediate course - which again is something you probably already know. 

With other universities over Europe and the UK; I've come to find that it's very different. We lead a relaxed life in Bangor and so indeed on our year abroad. Other universities like Lancaster are required to do extra things that we're not. There's a dissertation and a project for them. For me it's two sides of questions while I'm here and then an oral exam when I get back. 

So this is why I got myself a job. I'm a part time teacher/teaching assistant and work in some of the local schools teaching English to Catalan children. It's a very exciting and rewarding job and I hope to take the experience to France with me and use it there in a positive way and compare how well it goes in both countries. 

I'm going to leave this here for now because it's very long but I'll be back soon with more information about things :)

Ciao x