So, Happy New Year to all my readers, I hope 2013 bring you everything you want and more. Right, enough of the cheesy stuff. I thought I'd update my blog because, although it might not be long, I've got a few things to mention and if I don't do it now, I'll forget most of these things, or the new post will be ridiculously long.
As I'm sure you know, I went home for 12 days over the Christmas break and honestly, the time flew by. I knew that it would because I'd be busy seeing family and friends and time always seems to pass quickly on 'big event' days such as Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. The journeys to and from Paris CDG weren't as horrific as I had imagined them to be. Most of the trains ran on time, and even when they didn't I still got to the airport two and a bit hours before my flight. All was going well (ignoring the screaming kids, howling cats, and rude passengers) until I arrived in Birmingham. Well, actually until I got to the Baggage Claim area. I whizzed through customs because I have the new type of passport so I went through the machines that check your passport/retina and when I got there, there were NO queues. Win.
So I got to baggage claim and after about 10 minutes, I began to panic. I was seeing the same pieces of luggage come round and round the conveyor belt again and again. Finally accepting that my bag, for some unknown reason, had not made it to Birmingham, I filed a complaint/filled in a lost bag form. I was told that it would be on the next CDG-BHX flight (sorry for being lazy there), which was due to arrive that night at 10pm. Admitting defeat after travelling for about 16 hours, I felt as if I was crawling through the 'Nothing to Declare' area. I was greeted by my parents in the Arrivals area, then nearly died at the extortionate £17 car parking fee - which didn't include a receipt - so I couldn't try to claim the money back. Cutting this story short, 3 days and many calls to Air France later, a nice guy turned up on my doorstep Christmas morning with my bag. I still have no idea why it didn't go on my flight, I checked in with hours to spare.
Being at home was wonderful, I went out for so many meals and caught up with some amazing people. I even managed to pop up to Leeds for two days and saw three friends up there, one of whom is Kirsty, who is also on her Year Abroad in Pau. You can read her blog here. Something that still makes me smile is when I think of when we went bowling, I was playing the best I have ever played and scored a fair few strikes/spares across the three games. I only managed to win one game though, and even then, that was because the system had messed up and have given one of Kirsty's scores to me.
I've been back in Lannion since Saturday night and already it seems like the holidays were ages ago. Even by Monday lunchtime, teachers were asking when the next holidays were coming up. I have a new timetable which will be put in place next week; it's not pretty at all, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I also have a clean kitchen. Yes, a surprise, isn't it? You might not have seen the photo on Facebook, but I sent a photo of the dirty pots to my landlord and explained that someone in the house isn't pulling their weight. I got back to the house on Saturday and the kitchen was spotless. I have since found out that the landlord had come round to check how everything else was and then spent six hours cleaning the kitchen. Six hours.
So, that's all for now. Not really much planned in the upcoming weeks apart from an Equal Rights demonstration in Lannion next weekend and, when I finally build up the courage, I'll be asking for a day off, so I can see some wonderful people in London in March.
A bientôt xx
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