Make way for Library Day!

The day we have all been waiting for has finally arrived. Red T-shirts, iPads, Kindles, interactive whiteboard, photo exhibition, book sale, tour guides… it’s all go for the Library Day! For the past two months the Library staff have been organising this spectacular event, to promote the Library and it’s resources ( even it’s ‘hidden’ resources) to students, professors, and staff.  It is all a bit of a show though, I have to say. The interactive white board was only installed last week, the iPads and Kindles are on loan, there are never TV screens with slide shows on repeat, and there are NEVER this amount of librarians present! But in all honesty, a lot of work has gone into this open day, and it has been great for me as I have had loads of translations to do for various posters/programmes/ info guides so I can’t complain.  There has been biscuits, tea and coffee available all day, a fabulous book sale consisting of donated second hand books in all languages, on sale for 1 or 2 euros each! I took the opportunity to buy Le Petit Robert for 2€ (! Literally, they are like 40 quid in England!) , Of Mice and Men (in French), A Midsummer night’s Dream (in French- check me out) and I have to admit… Twilight! (in French too though!) I was staring at all these 1€ Molière and Voltaire books thinking to myself , “ I really should buy these and read them, I am a French student after all” but… I just couldn't bring myself to do it.. Equally, I already have enough stuff to get back to England in suitcases; books are not going to help that! Especially not with Le Petit Robert which is HUGE!! 

Anyway, the day is going well, everyone is happy and chirpy and there are plenty of activities on offer. ( Although, like always, I am stuck at the desk hence why I am writing this!) Sadly, not many students have made an appearance, it’s been mostly staff but I think that’s due to lack of promotion, and also the fact that students here think they are too good for the library as they already know everything already.  The cocktail later might prove me wrong though. I have given a couple of tours in English and done a bit of interpreting here and there for various demonstrations. Makes a change to usual dull days here, at least I’m not doing pages of data input..

My weekend was brightened up thanks to Ella Dove, whom I visited in Le Havre for the weekend. I realised that she leaves in 5 weeks ( as if!) and I haven’t yet been anywhere out of Paris to visit someone so I had better get on that train before I have no one to see! It was a lovely weekend in Haut Normandy. I managed to see the sea! Before it started pouring it down with rain all day. Well, you’re practically in England in Normandy, so what do you expect. I didn’t mind, the weather didn’t stop us from having a nice lunch, shopping ( buy one pair of shoes, get the other for 1€!), taking a ride on Le Havre’s most thrilling attraction; the funicular, eating crèpes at a great crèperie, and enjoying the wonders of St Patrick’s day with Irish celebrations in the evening! I met her other assistant friends and we went to an organised evening of Irish dancing and beer in a very pleasant environment. Until this crazy Irish metal band came on and kinda killed the night. But it was fun all the same! Sunday, we went to a nearby village and looked around the cute market( we were inspired and have decided to buy a rabbit for our house next year) , wandered along the river and just generally admired the village. Being France, there was not much else to do that afternoon so we took a trip to the port, did a bit more shopping then chilled together before my train back to Paris in the evening. Thanks, Ella, for a lovely week end! 

So, what else. Well the only thing getting me through this week is knowing that I am going HOME on Friday , for my BIRTHDAY!! It’s only a flying visit back to Notts, but I can’t wait to see my friends and family for cake and champagne! I don’t have any Easter holidays, or any long breaks at all now so it will be one of my last trips back before the summer! During which I am hoping to stay out in France to work, so it light even be a VERY long time until I move back to England! As much as I have ahd enough of this job and am ready to leave, I am not ready to leave France! Am currently applying for various jobs in various places, but it’s so hard. If you know of anything, please let me know! My colleague got a little over helpful earlier and started phoning the tousit office in Deauville trying to find me a job…! It would be something at least.

No POW tonight as I am getting up at 5 (on my actually birthday- dedication!) to get to the airport, but I think I’ll go to the cinema as France has an offer on at the moment where all cinema tickets are 3.50€. Which is a bargain in Paris. 

The weather is very sunny, yay! It sucks that I have to be stuck at a desk all day during it though, but it makes running in the evenings more pleasant. I hope it stays this nice for this weekend! 

Nottingham here we come! So glad I only worked a 4 day week this week. Really have had enough! However, there is currently a debate going on between my colleagues as to whether I should put 'très bon niveau de français' or 'bilingue' under the Languages section of my CV... quite a compliment!

Run, Ruth, Run!

It's DONE! I ran my little legs off, crossed the finish line with a crowd of people to meet me, recieved my boquet of flowers and went straight to my TV interview. 

Ok, so maybe not. All of the opposite in fact!! The whole event was just a whirlwind. As I was in the last category of runners to leave ( the slowest category) I was hanging about in my 'pen' for about 45 minutes after everyone else had began ready and raring to go, getting very cold and more and more anxious- and hungry! I was expecting to get more energy and motivation along the route though, because there would be hunderds of spectators there to cheer us on, with banners and chanting etc... But no. Apparently Paris doesn't do support! I was so grateful to have my Dad, family friends, boyfriend, Godparents and friends from here come to cheer me on, I saw them just a couple of times but it definitely helped! Seriously, the streets were pretty bare and I was relying on people to be encouraging me to go on! But anyway, I had a nice run through the park at Chateau de Vincennes, and saw Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame, Bastille... and a lot of people peeing haha. 

BUT, I crossed the finish line. Eventually. 21km is quite a long way; after each km I kept thinking ' what, that was ONLY a km??!' . It was a great experience, I don't know how much of it I actually enojyed (probably the Snicker bar at the end was the best bit!) but I can say I have done the Paris Half Marathon as my first. And mayybbeee it will be the first of many, but I want to go back to running for pleasure now as opposed to it being a chore! I had the most wonderful reception at the finish line though I must say, my mum had waited for me, and my family, friends and boyfriend were there which really brought tears to my eyes! (But I cry at everything). So thanks to everyone for their support, even if you weren't there on the day you helped by asking how my trianing was going and I know a lot of you listened to me moaning about hurting and being tired and whiney.. It's over now! What AM I going to do with my free time?! 

Well, part of this eventful weekend included a day in Disney Land!! I had booked Monday off work thinking that I would be pretty dead. (I wasn't , thankfully, clearly didn't run hard enough! ) and my parents, godparents and their children and I had a wonderful trip to see Micky and the gang :) It's about 15 years since I last went, and despite the cold it was a fun filled day enjoyed by all! I don't really remember much from when I first went, lots of colours and happy songs and charatcters everywhere. Was slightly different this time though! Cold, not as colourful, the haunted house definitely wasn't as scary as I remembered! And I was disappointed with the lack of costumed characters around! The parade didn't seem as spectacular, no fireworks or lights or anything. But I enjoyed the day quand même. I even went on rides! For me, the girl who won't even go on fair ground rides, this was quite an achievement! Ok, so I didn't conquer Space Mountain, but I did Le train de mine and Indiana Jones, twice! Nothing beats the teacups though, and obviously It's A Small World, just classic :) 

So it was un week-end très chargé, as my parents arrived on Friday, I organised dinner for 14 on Saturday night, did the run on Sunday, watched the rugby, Disney Land.. Well, I say I organised dinner for 14, there is actually a story behind that. I used a French website called La Forchette to help me find an Italian restuarant which I could book for us all. So I went ahead and booked and they rang me several times to confirm. Found the map on google, printed it off and got directions etc. Managed to get everyone to meet at the nearest métro point and take them to the resaurant. Only to arrive and be told that this wasn't the right Pane et Vino I had booked.... that one was in Clichy and we were in Paris. Woops.  But thankfully they had space for us at this restuarant and we suceeded in having a very pleasant dinner, although I did notice the waitress kept coming in and out with supermarket shopping bags... It's almost as though they were literally making everything to order!

Work has actually been fairly productive this week. We are organising a 'Library Day' soon which everyone is getting rather excited about, which means lots of translations for me to do. I can't complain, and I actually have enjoyed doing them as I get to see what we will have on offer and stuff. Plus it gives me something to do! I was also given the responsability of contatcing several database companies to ask them for samples of user guides, so that was quite good.

Have had the second vist from a Southampton professor as part of this language study so that has taken up some of my time this week. He shadowed me on wednesday morning- at least he tried, my colleague kept chatting to him about the elections!We did some language tests and he stayed to observe my evening activites too. I had some positive feedback from him which was nice. Like I have said before, it's hard to actually know how well my French has come on. My parents said they were very impressed too, so I think it takes being around those who don't speak French that well to realise that you are better than you think.Even if I do still continue to confuse 'pleurer' and 'pleuvoir' !!

A colleague has invited me to a comedy/theatre/improvisation thing tonight near her. I'm not quite sure what I have signed up for, but it looks fun and you get a bowl of soup included in the ticket price- winner! I am going to meet her in Versailles and her friend will give us a lift to the event, and depending on what time it ends she has kindly offered that I stay the night at hers if there are no trains. I don't have anything else planend tonight, and one thing I have learned from this year is to just take opportunites when you can, and it will be a good exercise for my French so I though, why not?! Other than that, nothing planned this weekend, but I should crack on with my project so you now... there is always that!

A trip to Le Havre and back home in the next couple of weeks to look forward to. Otherwise it's now back to putting magnetic strips into periodicals and then putting them on their respective shelves... yay.