Fete du foot! With added creep.

There was another fete in the centre of Les Eyzies again today, only this time it was under the name of fete du foot.

There was nothing remotely football about it. In fact, it was exactly the same as the Fete Nationale. Which meant that it wasn't rubbish, as I don't like football.

Just as for the fete Nationale, I went with Anthéa to watch the fireworks, though we didn't make it to the train tracks this time and we watched from the bridge closest to the campsite. We also went for ice cream after again, which was fab. I had passion-papaya flavour and chewing gum flavour. I think I preferred the other flavours I had last time XD.

At what I could only describe as the square, though it probably has a real name in French, the set up was exactly the same with the same sweet stands, candyfloss stands, bar and dancefloor.

However, this fete was much more fun than the fete Nationale for a few reasons.

1. "Gilles Music" was not the entertainer tonight. Gilles music (if you are local or if you've seen my Facebook then you will know) is not a pleasant experience. He is the master of butchering songs that under any other circumstances you'd enjoy. I think I'd rather hear the Alvin and the Chipmunks rendition than his, and if you know me then you'll know I detest those stupid squeaky songs.
2. Amandine was there. Don't look at me and shout favouritism because it's certainly not that, but Amandine is probably the only person at work who slows down her speech to a level that I can understand in a very non-patronising way. I understood a lot more that was going on and I could take part in the conversations.
3. There were more people around enjoying the atmosphere (probably because the DJ was a million times better than Gilles, despite everything being mainstream English or what sounds like the equivalent in French music).

On the other hand, there are a few things about this fete that annoyed me. The first and most prominent one being men.
What is it with lecherous men and their thick skulls? I don't understand why anyone would think its okay to behave like that. So basically Amandine, Anthéa, Marie, Romain and I were minding our own business and having a drink (except me because I didn't like what they had on offer), and Mr Creepfeatures, who had been passing by us a few times and giving us looks, starts to approach us. He does the whole santé thing (a toast type thing. In English where you say 'cheers' and clink your glasses, or in this case plastic cups, together) to everyone, starting at Amandine, then to Marie, Romain and Anthéa. He finally gets to me and I hold my empty hands up to show him that I don't have a plastic cup to clink. So obviously he does what any normal, non-creepy guy does and CLINKS HIS GLASS TO MY BOOBS. Whut? Don't touch me. What makes you think that's OK? Oh you noticed I have boobs, why don't you go ahead and touch them? NO. Well after that he just leaves. Thank god.

But not for long. Maybe half an hour later after Pab has arrived and Anthéa and Romain have gone home, Creepy McCreepface decides he's gonna grab hold of my wrist. Why not, right? Why wouldn't I want him to touch me O.o
Its a pretty strong grip and I can't shake it, but he hasn't pulled me anywhere. I look at Amandine and blatently ask her for help. I think they all found it relatively funny. She looked at me and said something about pretending to be lesbian and touching my arm, because of a story I'd told her earlier about pretending to be lesbians with friends to ward creeps off. In the end, Amandine tells him that I'm with them, and I blatantly step away from him, my wrist still in his hand. He eventually apologises and lets go, only to TAKE HOLD OF IT AGAIN ABOUT 30 SECONDS LATER, JESUS CHRIST!

Merde.

After repeating a similar thing to before, he gets the message and buggers off. He doesn't come back and for the rest of the evening I only have to deal with another creepy guy who keeps staring at me and one guy who picks the end of my hair up and tries to use it as a wig. That's the second time that's happened since I got to France. Its also the second time that evening someone (male, of course) thought they could touch my hair without so much as giving a warning first. Just gonna start caressing my hair are you? No need to ask permission. Creep away, mister.

Despite creepy men, I had a good evening.

However, don't go out alone. I have no idea what I'd have done if everyone else weren't there. Make sure you have someone you can trust with you. Even in a little village like Les Eyzies, which I'd never have imagined myself feeling sexually harassed or threatened.. You can't really control men. I'll just add here that I was wearing jeans and a nerdy Adventure time/Final Fantasy VII tee. There was no way in hell my outfit said anything about wanting to pull, wanting attention or even making an effort.

Don't take risks. Men can be scary.

Kinder Eggs, Fridges and Hair Dye.

What a random title, right?
Well I have a few short videos that I threw together over the past few weeks, the latest one being the hair dye today, but I thought I'd finally upload them. The first of which was videod the day after Pab arrived. It was amusing, for me at least. Even if I did have to throw everything in the fridge away.

The next thing I found relatively interesting was French Kinder Eggs. They aren't like English kinder eggs. I knew this would somewhat be the case so I videod myself opening my first French Kinder egg. This is the almost-not-boring result.

Last, but not least, well maybe least, I dunno, you tell me... anyway, I decided to do a video on hair dye because people always ask me about it. What do you use? Do you do it yourself? How long does it take? How long does it last? etc. etc. Here you go! Here is my answer! And my new hair. Shout out to BAINES for making me get off my butt and video something. Hope it isn't dull AF.

La Grotte du Grand Roc

Today I went to a cave, which is called 'La Grotte du Grand Roc'. It was very stalagmitey and very stalactitey. I've been to a cave with Stalagmites and Stalactites before though, so it wasn't as exciting as it could have been. I didn't remember it all too much though, so it was nice, and it's very pretty. It certainly wasn't boring. I did get annoyed at the whingey little kids though. I hate summer holidays because as much as I like children, I don't like children that don't shut up, even when their parents are halfheartedly directing the occasional 'Shh' at them. It's all well and good if you don't care/can still understand what the tour guide lady is saying, but I'm not French, so I have to pay a fair amount of concentration to be able to understand, and your whingey little kid is making that impossible. (But don't worry if you're not French, they give out a little transcript in English of the tour... I just wanted to hear it in French..)

Anyway, it was still really good. If you're ever in the area I would recommend you go and see it. I don't think it's very expensive, but I didn't have to pay to get in because I work for Amandine at the campsite, so they'll let me in for free so that I can tell everyone to go and visit :D

I took quite a few pictures, despite flash not being allowed. Because I have my lovely new DSLR, it can take dark pictures without a flash without too much problem, but obviously because there's not enough light, the shutter speed slows down a lot and it means you have to stay really really still otherwise the picture will end up blurry. A lot of pictures ended up a little blurry xD

It didn't take too long. I was lazy today, and didn't get up for ages. By the time I left the campsite it was about 2:00pm, and I was out of the cave before 3:30pm. It's quite a small cave. It's also cool inside (temperature-wise). Marie told be to take a cardigan or something, but I'm English. It wasn't really cold at all. It was just cool in a lovely, refreshing way. It is quite hot outside though.

Anyway, that was my lovely trip into a cave. I'm hoping to go to the Grotte de Font de Gaume before I leave because that's the really impressive one with cave paintings, and one of the only ones that is still open to the public, but has relatively restricted access (there's a limited amount of people that can go in per day, so you have to get there and queue at around 7:30~8:00am ish).

Thanks for reading!

Fete nationale!

1:25am
The fete nationale in Les Eyzies. I feel disappointed, but that's mostly of my own doing I think.

The fireworks were wonderful- although the display itself was not really anything special, the fact I was sat on a train track on a bridge over the Vezere river watching them, as they echoes really loudly off of the nearby cliffs was really pretty amazing. It was a nice moment.

Me and Anthéa then went to get ice cream which was super fab :).

Not much drinking was done, mainly because I dislike wine and beer and that was all that was on offer. There was a guy singing with a square for dancing. He sung both English and French song and he did it awfully. Unfortunately he's coming to play at La Riviere too... He performed Elvis's Blue Suede Shoes but didn't quite get the lyrics right... Most of the words were missing their beginnings and endings and furthermore he  absolutely butchered Muse's Uprising. Luckily though they did just put music on in the end. It was desperate crazy ladies and really old people on the dancefloor for the most part.

Anthéa left quite early and I stayed with Marie, Pab and Mickey for a while. I didn't feel uncomfortable, but I missed a lot of most of the conversations. The conversations I did understand were quite funny though. And Marie was unintentionally hilarious at one point (at least I thought so) when pab had said in French that the French song playing was always played at weddings because French people don't know how to hold parties. He said the next one was at funerals, but I didn't understand the word, and Marie just said 'its when you are dead'. The way she said it made me laugh, even though she wasn't trying to be funny. I enjoyed talking to them. I feel like it's still quite early to be home, but hanging around and watching people drink would have gotten a bit awkward after a while.

Anyway, that was my July 14th. Interesting.

Dentists and disorganisation.

11:48
I thought this would be an important post to make, since people may wonder about the experience or what happens when you need to see a dentist in France. I do. That is why I am sat here in the waiting room of a dentist's surgery.

First off, I want to mention how little information I have. Whether that is my own fault, or other peoples fault, I don't know. I was told: go to France. I'm in France. Do I have insurance? I don't think so. All I have is an EHIC.
When I woke up this morning, I did not know what time my appointment was, as it was booked for me by my employers. Nor did I know how I was to get there, what I would need to do, how much it may cost. Nothing. I've tried looking on the internet but I can't find much up to date information on this. Sat here in the waiting room, all I can assume is that it's going to end up costing me loads of money which for one reason or another I won't be able to claim back.

So I'm sat in the waiting room, despite my appointment being at 11:45. Its 11:53. Guess its not just England where you're always late to go in. There's no receptionist here, or any such thing. Just 6 chairs in a small room with a door going into... A surgery? Or a corridor? I'm not really sure. I've waited here and a woman (dental nurse? Receptionist? Somebody...) Came to ask me if I had 'une carte'. Ah. A card. Urm. My EHIC card? So I handed her that, guessing that's what she wanted...

She kind of looked at it as if it wasn't what she expected, but then also told me to sit down because other people were still going to be first. It was quite rude actually. Being that she wanted things from me, and it was time for my appointment, I wouldn't say that it was wrong of me to assume that I would be going in. Nope. Okay then.

12:15
So I was called in and on the other side of the door it was just a dentists surgery with a desk in the corner which would have been the reception if they had one. The lady from earlier was a dental nurse but also did anything you'd expect a receptionist to do. They both spoke very good english, especially the dentist himself. I wasn't sure if he was English or French, but I didn't look at his name so I wasn't sure.

Essentially, he didn't do any permanent work- just put a dressing on it to stop the exposure (part of my tooth has been missing for the past year, but recently its been hurting). And he's prescribed some antibiotics and some kind of mouthwash. The appointment itself cost 30€, and the prescription stuff was just over 6€, but I paid by card (an English one) so god knows how much it actually cost.

Now I am on my way back to the campsite. He's said that I should go back to a dentist when I'm in England, but if anything is up before then, I should go back. Given I'm only back in England for just over a week, without a registered dentist at my mother's, its going to be interesting trying to fit it in. I'd rather do it before Japan though because, by the sounds of it, its just a temporary fix, and I don't want to have to work this out in Japan.

So that was my super exciting visit to the dentist. It wasn't as horrific as my visits to the dentist normally are, but I guess that's because they weren't doing anything permanent.

Results!

When I finished work today, I checked my phone as I do everyday, as there's no internet at home. First I saw that new people had followed me on twitter, but they mostly look like fake accounts XD. Secondly, I saw an update from my best friend, Larni. It said she'd passed and she was going to Japan. I froze. "Oh my god", I said to Anthéa, a colleague I had recently met and who speaks English. She likes anime and has Cosplayed Lucy from Fairy Tail. In other words, she's awesome ^^. "Exam results are up".

I was terrified and excited. If I pass, I'm going to Japan. No retakes, no uncertainty. If I failed, nobody had any idea what happened in that case, except retakes (which I will still be in France for).

I checked my results. I passed. I have a 2:2 this year which, for me, is fabulous. I didn't fail a single assessment this year, despite the mishap I had with handing in my French dossier 3 minutes late and facing a 10 mark penalty. I lifted my hands in the air and spun around a few times. My colleagues looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. "J'ai réussit a mes examens" I said, and they smiled in relief that they wouldn't have to cart me off to the loony bin.

That's it. I've passed. I'm going to Japan!

WOOHOO! I LOVE BEING GIVEN ZERO INFORMATION ABOUT POSSIBLY THE MOST IMPORTANT YEAR OF MY LIFE, AND THEN BEING EXPECTED TO DEAL WITH IT

This is a very angry and stressful blog post, but I feel like it's an important one. Especially if you're a UEA student, and especially if you're studying AB initio Japanese alongside another language.

I will start off by saying that although this time this is not the Year Abroad office's fault entirely, that they are absolutely useless and that you should not really trust a word they say without checking it out yourself or getting a second opinion. People may disagree, but this is my experience with them.

Now I will explain the situation.

I emailed the year abroad office asking for more information about when I'd receive my certificate of eligibility. On my Ryukoku application, it had told me that it would take 8-10 weeks between submitting my application and receiving my Certificate of Eligibility, which is required in order to get a Japanese visa. I worked it out and that placed it at mid-July. This is of great importance, because I told my French lecturers that I would need time out of my work placement to go back and sort my visa. Since this is a campsite, they said they wouldn't really be able to get me time off in August since it's peak season. They asked when I'd have my Certificate back in order to have a week off. I said the later the better, as I didn't know exactly when it would come, but it should be mid-July at the latest. They got me an unconfirmed date, but a definite week off in July to come back and sort my visa out.

Anyway, the year abroad office emailed me back saying basically saying that Ryukoku would send it early to mid august.

WELL NOW, that's all well and good, but what about the fact that I'M IN FRANCE! They told me not to book a flight home to England in July unless I was intending to stay until I went to Japan. I got really cross. They evidently didn't listen to what I'd said in previous emails and didn't grasp the fact that I wasn't on holiday, nor was this a voluntary work placement. It is compulsory. I sent them a very angry, and probably not all that polite email, explaining that, and generally getting really angry. I did also apologise as it wasn't really their fault, but they also should have told me that information without me having to ask.

Now I will have to go home at the end of my contract here in France, arrive probably the 24th or 25th August, and then go straight to the embassy to get my visa in time for my flight on the 3rd. This also pisses me off, as I was supposed to go and visit my aunt, Dot, in another country during the time between France and Japan, and now I can't. I'm trying to arrange to see her, but I'm not sure if we can see each other before I go to Japan now.

I did some calculations while writing out the email, and this is what I ended up writing in my final paragraph.

"Hopefully the visa application will go without hitch at the end of August, as I do not have any leeway here. I will be coming back on the 24th-25th August. The Japanese embassy website says "It normally takes 4 working days to issue a visa."... It also says that Visas EXCEPT certificate of eligibility ones have to be made more than one week before departure, but it says nothing about how soon certificate of eligibility ones can be submitted. Hopefully just the 4 days. Given this, if we assume the worst case scenario and I arrive home too late on the 25th to go to the Embassy, I will get to the Embassy and have the appointment on the 26th. 4 working days later means I would get my Visa on the 1st of september - 2 days before I leave for Japan.

WONDERFUL. I love stress and disorganisation! It's my favourite."

Awkward times

Friday 21:00

So I just came back from sitting at work. I have a day off today, but there's not really so much to do, especially when its raining and you're trying not to spend all the money you have.

I like to sit at work because its the best and only chance I have of socialising, either with my colleagues or with people as they come in and out of the bar. But today I was basically asked not to hang around if I'm not working. I feel a bit awkward now. And a bit pissed off. Its OK for me to sit in the corner and use the internet, though. But that's not what I actually want to do when I'm sat there. I'm waiting. I'm waiting for some form of human interaction. Conversation. Something.

Apparently, that's not allowed, and while I can sort of understand why, I don't think that my employers realise that I'm super lonely. There's no one at home. My new housemate is also working. I don't know anyone here. I barely know anyone in the entire country. I don't have anywhere else to go where I can attempt to see people.

I also wish I was told things like this before I actually did them. If there are rules, it'd be nice to know before I make a dick of myself. How did I find out I can't drink on the other side of the bar? I ordered a drink. (I still don't understand why my colleagues can drink, though). And I don't find out I shouldn't be hanging around the bar until I've hung around the bar quite a lot. Its pretty awkward and embarrassing. So instead of moving and continuing to use the internet, I went straight home. I'll watch some anime, on my own, and go to sleep.

Oh.

Adventuring around the Vezere

So today I took a trip with my new 'house'mate, Pab. (I'm not entirely sure why he likes to be called Pab, his name is Pierre just like every other French guy, it seems!). More on him later! Basically, he showed me around the area as he is a friend of the family that run the campsite and he's been here quite a few times before, it seems.

It was a beautiful day, and I took a lot of photos! No video this time!

We started off by La Roque Saint Christophe, which is basically a big rocky ledge where people used to live. Not just during the stone age/cave period times but also more recently during the middle ages! So there's lot's of history there! It particularly interests me because it interlinks with a book series that I've read and enjoyed called the Earth's Children by Jean M. Auel (I highly recommend this series!). If you've read it, it turns out that La Roque Saint Christophe is the 29th Cave of the Zelandonii in the series, according to a map I found online! More pictures can be found in my Google+ or facebook albums, which you can find links to on the right hand side of my blog, or if you are my friend on facebook ;)

Next we went to St Leon sur Vezere, which is a very cute, very beautiful little village. Unfortunately I didn't get to spend much time each place I went. It was mostly a little excursion so that I could tell people on the campsite a little about the local area, but I hope to go back to some of the places we visited, especially Sarlat. More on Sarlat later - I'm talking about St Leon sur Vezere.

Next up was Sarlat! A nice little town, smaller than Perigueux but it had a lot to offer! It was a shame that there wasn't any time for shopping! There was, however, time for... MCDONALDS! YEAAAAAHHHH.

I was way more excited about McDonalds than I should have been.

Also, those posh limited time only burgers in France... I got a 'California Chicken' type thing. I expected it to be a bit like a Chicken Legend with different stuff in it.

MAAAAN the chicken was shitty. Like such bad quality. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't anything Chicken Legendy. I miss them. When I come back to get my Japanese Visa I will eat a lot of McDonalds. I'll also be bringing back Cadbury's.

Anyway, Sarlat was beautiful!

Then we went to Beynac to see the castle and the pretty views, hooray!

And then we came home! It was really hot and quite tiring!! But a lot of fun! And so pretty!

Thanks for reading, again!

This is not what I was expecting.

This is not what I was expecting at all.