Starting again

I know it's been a while, but here I am again, writing from my new location of Amiens, France.  More specifically, a rather quiet hall of residence with the dulcet tones of a male neighbour singing in the shower floating down the corridor. I am currently attempting to meet people by leaving my door open, but term hasn't started yet so there's hardly anyone here.  At least le chanteur isn't too bad.

I've only been here a few days, but I am already looking back fondly on my time in Salamanca.  When I first arrived there back in July, I remember worrying about not making friends, or having anybody to go for coffee or celebrate my birthday with.  Six very short months flew by, and by December I found myself making teary farewells, exchanging contact information and making promises to visit various parts of Europe.  Although definitely not fully fluent in Spanish (whatever that means) I knew enough to say what I wanted to say, when I wanted to say it, and by the end I could understand the majority of what my colleagues were talking about over lunch. Mission accomplished.

Fast forward two wonderful (yet very short) weeks at home and I have become a nervous wreck whilst trying to explain to the Carrefour lady that the self service machine won't accept my money.  I don't think I have ever been this bad at French. There, I said it.  This time last year I was happily chatting away in an oral class about Facebook privacy settings or something equally as pointless, and now I can barely understand the over-friendly porter asking me how my time in Spain was.  My current level is equivalent to "je voudrais une baguette s'il vous plait" during a Year 8 French lesson.  Whilst I am horrified by this, I have told myself not to panic just yet, I've still got time, and I have been working out how to access French TV via the internet. Apparently they are still annoyed about Depardieu. All is not lost.

Amiens is not as pretty as Salamanca, and so far can only be described as grey, but looking on the bright side, I am a lot closer to home, and only an hour or so away from Paris, a journey which I am most definitely going to be taking advantage of.  Moving home from Spain and then away again almost straight away has been tiring - emotionally and physically - but I am positive it will be worth it, and before I know it I will become just another "Being in France was SO amazing" post-Year Abroad student. Watch this space.