I went back to Roubaix yesterday, to return a set of pillowcases which I had accidentally taken from the house of my au pair family after I finished with them. It was lovely to see them again. The kids were all sitting round the dinner table like I'd seen them do so often. They were pleased to see me. Almost straight away, Clémence wasted no time in telling me that she had a new electric horse, and Thomas showed me what he was eating. I still felt 'part of the family' so to speak, like a big sister, but I was no longer part of the household. Things have moved on. The kids have moved on; Clémence has started school already; the baby's grown. I've moved on, too. I'm moved on into new and greater adventures.
It can be hard. Change is always hard. There are sadnesses which come with it. It's sad to leave the ones you love behind- even if it is only a few kilometres behind you - and the things you were familiar doing. It's uncomfortable when you have to leave something that you've grown accustomed to; a job you felt safe in; a routine you were familiar with. But more than that is the excitement and expectation which comes with stepping out into something completely new and different. To know that you're taking a step and moving out in a direction which will ultimately bring you to your goal.
I started university today at l'Institut Catholique de Lille. I will be studying here for the next two years, having transferred my credits from my Masters course in Glasgow University to a course called LCE2 (licence en anglais) which basically means I'm starting in my 2nd year of an English degree, here in France.
My very first lecture was at 8am - o horror of horrors - which meant I had to wake up at the enthralling time of 5.45am. I made sure to leave plenty of time to get to the university (which is about a 15 minute walk from my house). Unfortunately I hadn't bargained for the confusing room-number system which appears to be in place at la Catho (a shortened name which one often hears in place of l'Institut Catholique de Lille, which is the university's full or Sunday-name, if you like!). I was supposed to be in salle 276 for my lecture on American Government, but I could only find salles 269 and 280, with not much in between. I asked directions from a secretary's office, but this landed me in a greater sense of disorientation. Fortunately Suzanne (a lecturer at la Catho, also a friend from church!) found me in my disorientated stupor and got someone to take me to my class and explain my lack of presence for the first hour. I was just in time to hear lots of big words including 'Confederation', 'democracy', etc, etc. In fact, I had made it just on time to be early for my next class- a seminar on the same subject!! My terrorized heart was quietened when I realised that this frightening talk would actually take place, for the mostpart, in English. So I took enough notes to cover me for my 'missed' lecture.
After this was my 'English oral' class. I can tell this is going to be a challenging class. Or, not! In order to help us build-up our confidence in communicating verbally in the English language, we introduced ourselves to our fellow classmates, telling each other our names, ages, favourite ice-cream flavours, and which anglophone countries we'd already visited. I discovered in this class that two of my classmates are bilingual, so I won't be the only one feeling slightly and awkwardly competent in er... my English-speaking skills. There's a girl who has an Irish surname - she's 21- and a guy of 19 who's sounds very English; both are fluent in my opinion. My tutor for this class was a girl who is now coming to church, too! In fact she comes to House Group and she isn't that much older than me. I had lunch with her after class.
This afternoon I had my French-as-a-foreign-language exam which was to determine into which level I should be placed, i.e. there will be 3 or 4 groups of us arranged into competency. It was a fairly hard exam, but I felt it was a honest evaluation of my level. In some ways it doesn't matter how well I did; what matters is that I get placed in a group which challenges me but doesn't crush my spirit.
I copied out my timetable today. I'll definetely be at university a few more hours than I'd originally thought, but hey, it's the middle year of my degree and I can't expect a light-load. Much of my course is going to be very, very interesting and enjoying. Things like creative writing, German, linguistics and filmology. Even translation. I do enjoy a good translate every so often.
I should go to bed now and not sleep away too much of my last day of freedom tomorrow.
Tschuss and ciao.
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