Not long now

Less than 2 weeks til France and I'm not sure if it's really hit me yet. I'm still waiting for my nationwide card to come through so I can actually spend any money in France without the insane charges I would get with my Bank of Scotland card... really should have phoned nationwide today but I'll do it on Wednesday if it's still not through. Other things I need to do are get some passport photos for my Carte 12-25 and get a letter of recommendation from my bank, but I just haven't been in the mood for paperwork these past few days. I also need to send off my paperwork to the University of Avignon as I'm hoping to do 3 hours a week of French there, but I just received an email from them and I'm not sure I understand it! Ah dear, at least this whole paperwork thing should eventually subside (fingers crossed!) after my first month or so in France. I'll be feeling much better once I've actually got accommodation anyway- people keep saying to relax but sadly I'm a worrying kind of person, especially as I've never lived away from home before.

But like I said, all I do on this blog is complain and I really should be over the moon- I'm going to France for 9 months! I have always wanted to do this, and while I never regretted not taking the opportunity while I was at university and doing Erasmus (I'd have had to have studied law in French and I'm still sure my language skills would not have been up to it) I'm really glad I can pick up the chance now and have an amazing time learning French and living the French lifestyle. It's also really great to be this close to France now after several months in limbo at the beginning of summer- it was aaaages before I found out if I was accepted to the programme or not, and I was considering being an au pair instead because it was taking so long to find out if I'd got in. Even once I knew I got in I had to wait to find out which academie- another couple of weeks- and then there was the waiting for the arrete, then there was the contacting my school and waiting for them to get back to me (they have now). All that waiting is over, and even though there's still all the paperwork and annoying organising to do, at least things are moving, at least I'm actually just 12 days away from life in Provence! I've been reading the guidebooks and it sounds like an amazing area. My school is actually part of the 'petit luberon', a sort of natural parkland with a few scattered villages across it which will be great for autumn/ spring walks and cycles, and hopefully I can live in Avignon and still have the city life with shops and restaurants. I can't wait to visit the Pont, and also the Palais des Papes, because I'm a bit of a geek and love history/ museums, and I can't wait to do some travelling around France. I'm also tres excited about going to Paris in October with my boyfriend, even though I'm practically forcing him to go as he hates flying, but I know in such a romantic city we'll have an amazing time. I was in Paris last summer and have already done the Eiffel Tower/ Arc de Triomphe/ Louvre/ Sacre Couer, but I wouldn't mind doing it all again (especially the Louvre, I only got to spend about 3 hours there last time which wasn't enough!) and I'd love to go to Versailles! And besides Paris I'm really keen on visiting Marseille, Aix, Montpellier, Grenoble and Lyon, as well as going to see my aunt in Nice and fingers crossed there will be enough time/ money during the 9 months to go to Italy, I am desperate to go to Venice! Scotland is technically in Europe but being on a little island is not really conducive to easy transport, so I'm looking forward to living on the continent as I think it will be much easier to travel around Europe from France.

Really what I need is a travelling buddy as I'm not too keen on train journeying and hostelling by myself, and I think besides getting a few days with him in Paris at Toussaint, my boyfriend will be working too much (in Scotland) to be able to go anywhere with me. So when I get to France I need to find a) accommodation and b) someone who's keen to travel! Maybe I'll even meet people who'd like to come visit Glasgow with me on one of my trips back. My lovely city is mocking me just now by being bright, sunny and warm when I have just checked the Avignon forecast for the days I arrive and it's cloudy and wet! Oh well, forecasts can be wrong...

Sorry this post has been rather a cathartic splurge, but it's good to be able to talk about it without boring my boyfriend/ parents to death! I had better go and do some more French though as I read about three pages of my book today and gave up and watched Jeremy Kyle so I think I still have a lot of work to do!