Bonsoir a tout le monde!
So I am now three and a half weeks into my time in Cannes and am starting to realize that I really only have a week and a half left here! I can't believe that! It is as if I arrived here, blinked, and then was suddenly at this point in time! It certainly shows how time can fly when you are having fun!
And I certainly am having a fantastic time!
I think this year, the time in Cannes is going so quickly because I already knew the place and the people at the language school when I arrived. As those of you who are regular readers of my blog will know, the first month in a new placement is always very difficult and always goes slowly due to the natural settling in period that all year abroaders go through. However, this year in Cannes I was lucky enough to be able to launch straight into the life as although I did not necessarily know everyone really well, I knew people well enough to feel settled and at ease very quickly.
However, before I go into more about the social side of my five weeks in Cannes, I am going to tell you a bit about my work in the language school as that is what I do five days a week. I am having a fantastic experience at the French school this year as I have had an extremely all round experience. I have attended adult French classes as a student, helped with jobs around the school, and worked as an assistant in the childrens French classes. I have liked having a varying timetable as it has given me a real insight into the running of the school and it has also given me some very valuable work experience whilst continuing to practice my French. I am finding that my French is improving a lot as I have spent a lot of time talking to the teachers at the school and speaking to the children in French as much as possible in order to immerse them in the language.
Alongside the mornings at the school, I have also been on a lot of school trips this year which always take place in the afternoon once the school day is finished. These are trips that are put on in order to give the students the opportunity to explore the beautiful region that we are lucky to be in as well as providing a good opportunity to get to know fellow classmates in a more informal environment. Thanks to the school excursions, I have managed to visit both Ile Saint Marguerite and Ile Saint Honorat, Grasse, Gourdon, and Les Gorges du Loup. I have also visited Eze Village, Ile Saint Honorat for a second time, and Nice this week as my parents came to visit for a few days and we went and saw a bit of the region which was lovely. It was really nice having them here and it was nice for them as they did not know the Cote D'Azur before so it was a new destination for them.
Although the travelling is amazing and I am really enjoying my internship, something that has really touched me in Cannes has been the kindness of the people. I already knew that the people were lovely as I was very happy here last year. However, this year I have spent a lot of time with a French girl who works at the school and she has been absolutely amazing. She has been a lovely friend, shown me the everyday life of the local young people, and has made me feel extremely welcome from beginning to end by inviting me to events in the city and also to her house. Five week placements can be hard in terms of settling down and forming proper friendships due to the fact that they are so short. However, I am so grateful to her for making my stay in Cannes so enjoyable and making me feel as if I have been here for much longer than I have. It is nice to feel this at home in a place that I have really only spent about two months in as I know that for that reason it will always have a place in my heart and that I will definitely want to come back again in the future. I have also got to know lots of people through my friend from the school as she has introduced me to lots of her friends who have also been really lovely and made my stay top notch. As I always said when I was in Sevilla and Grenoble, my very favorite thing about doing a year abroad is meeting so many different people and making new friendships that I would have never made without my languages and this fantastic opportunity to work abroad. I can really see that there is so much beyond the boarders of our home countries that is just waiting to be explored and there are so many incredible people out there who I feel extremely privileged to have met throughout my travels this year.
I know this post is verging on a bit emotional but you will be pleased to hear (or maybe not so pleased) that this is not quite the last post. There is still one more to come. However, you are probably feeling from what I am writing that the thought of the very end of my year abroad being in a week and a halfs time is quite emotional as it has well and truly proven to be a rollercoaster of a year but one that has brought me so many positive life changing experiences that I look back on very fondly. However, for now I am going to round off for the night as I will be writing a detailed summary of the year next week in order to bring the blog that I have enjoyed writing so much to a conclusion. In the meantime, I will try and add some more photos to the 'Photos-Cannes/Cote D'Azur page' so that you have plenty to enjoy until you next hear from me.
So for now....bonne nuit et a la semaine prochaine! :)
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