Message from the Brummie!

Hiya!
Wow, it’s already been a month since I arrived in Birmingham!! I know, I should have written before, but I still don’t have an internet access at home, and I usually only use the University computers to check and answer my emails... So: where to begin?

Well, I live in a residential area near the University of Birmingham (which is only one of the Universities in Birmingham) in a nice house. I have four housemates: Fatma and Abdul are German and Stacey and Tina are English. I get along very well with Fatma and Abdul, they are really great housemates and we help each other a lot: I help them with their English, and they help me with my German.

Term really began on the 11th of September for me. I had to spend a week in a primary school to get familiar with the British educational system. Believe me; it truly is different from the French one. Actually, I struggle to find anything in common between both systems. Right, ok, there are little midgets and teachers in schools in both countries. But honestly, apart from that, nothing much in common...

Then, I began the University on the 18th of September. Carmen D’Arcy, with whom I had the interview back in May, is the tutor in French and Spanish, and Carol Gray is the German tutor. Most students have two languages (mine are French, of course, and German). There are about 25 students in the PGCE course in MFL (Modern Foreign Languages), and everyone is very nice and friendly. We all know each other now, and we go to the pub together at least once a week. Actually, I didn’t need to be worried about making friends, as only very few students in the PGCE course come from Birmingham (or were at the University of Birmingham for their studies), and most people are foreigners like me, which means that everyone is eager to meet people. The University is great, and I was pleased to know that it is one of the best in England! It is so huge that it would be quite easy to get lost in there! Fortunately, the Clocktower (see photo) in the centre can be seen from the distance, acting as a lighthouse.

Right, the people that I see the most are Nadine (French, from Moselle, moved in Birmingham 3 years ago), Mounir (French, from Paris, moved in England 2 years ago, married with an Englishwoman), François (French, I just can’t remember where he’s from at the moment, has been in Birmingham for 2 years), Nirvana (English, from London, lived in France during a year), Alex (German, from Munich, trilingual in German, French and English). There are others, of course, but I suppose I’ll talk about them later...

Gosh... There are just SO many things I want to say... But if I did, this message would be at the very least 3 pages long, so I’ll stop now, and if there are precise things you want me to tell you about, please, tell me, and I will, I promise, and you won’t have to wait for a month or so. Promis, juré, croix de bois, croix de fer, et tout le tralala!!!

Bizzzzzzzzz
Aline
PS : je pense beaucoup à vous tous, et je vous embrasse tous TRES fort !!!