I moved to Nantes a little over a week ago now and it’s slowly starting to feel more like home, a foreign, temporary home, but home all the same. Without wishing to jinx it, I think I’ve pretty much overcome the homesickness that got me down when I arrived, and so I can really start to enjoy my time here. Living here is certainly very different to being in Cardiff. One of the things that I’ve found the most difficult to adapt to is right here in my halls of residence. My room is fairly similar to the one I had in Senghennydd where the size of the room and ensuite are concerned, but the kitchen arrangement here is a bit bizarre to say the least. It’s shared between around 25 people and consists of a hob, microwave and oven combi grill with a tall table and a few bar stools to eat at, and you have to keep all your food and utensils in your room, which is something odd for me as I’m used to sharing with housemates back home. The location of my halls is great- not too far from town or campus giving me optimum opportunity to explore.<\/p>\n
The city is beautiful and very lively (except on Sundays when you feel like you’re wandering around a ghost town) and has lots to offer both tourists and residents alike. I’ve already got a favourite cr\u00eaperie, and although I’m trying to be good with money and not eat out too often, it’s hard to resist! I had my first taste of the nightlife here last weekend at an Erasmus event where we went to a very cool and quirky, yet annoyingly expensive bar. I also spent an evening beside the river with one of my friends from Chanzy where we tried a few new beers (raspberry is my favourite) and chatted away to ourselves in French, surrounded by locals who we were sadly too shy to introduce ourselves too, but hey it’s cultural and linguistic exposure nonetheless.<\/p>\n
I’m really enjoying it here now and really look forward to get into the swing of uni next week. Roll on Monday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I moved to Nantes a little over a week ago now and it's slowly starting to feel more like home, a foreign, temporary home, but home all the same. Without […]","protected":false},"author":1087,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[268],"tags":[249,90,58,197],"class_list":["post-1056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","tag-europe","tag-studying","tag-travel","tag-year-abroad"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4QQbz-h2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2682,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/nantes-month-one-ive-arrived-and-im-alive\/","url_meta":{"origin":1056,"position":0},"title":"Nantes month one: I’ve arrived and I’m alive!","author":"Clarissa Le Neindre-Hubbard","date":"October 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cYou can never understand one language until you understand at least two.\u201d \u2013 Geoffrey Willans It\u2019s all too easy to forget the reason we\u2019ve come on a year abroad, especially in that first month when we\u2019re busy settling in and adjusting to a new city and culture. But whilst I\u2019m\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":285,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/making-it-to-nantes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1056,"position":1},"title":"Making it to Nantes","author":"Chlo\u00eb Hathway","date":"December 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Bonjour from France! I\u2019m a third year BA French & Italian student, currently on my Year Abroad which is a compulsory component of my degree (lucky me!). Although I've been living in France for almost three months now (!), I thought I would start by telling you all how I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2014\/12\/IMG_2200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2014\/12\/IMG_2200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2014\/12\/IMG_2200.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2783,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/lingomap-being-a-young-person-in-a-french-speaking-society\/","url_meta":{"origin":1056,"position":2},"title":"LingoMap: Being a young person in a French speaking society","author":"Osian McGuinness","date":"January 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Bonjour \u00e0 tous! \u00c7a va\u00a0? This is my first blog post for the\u00a0Routes into Languages LingoMap blog. I am a third year Law and French student at Cardiff University, and I am currently on my year abroad studying law at the Facult\u00e9 de droit\u00a0(Law School) at\u00a0 l'universit\u00e9 de Nantes.\u00a0As part\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2018\/01\/fac-de-droit-blog-450x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1118,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/campus-timetables-and-lectures-in-nantes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1056,"position":3},"title":"Campus, Timetables and Lectures in Nantes","author":"Susannah Hadden","date":"September 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Having been in Nantes for almost two weeks prior to the start of lectures, I was really excited for them to begin, but as Monday grew closer I started to get a bit nervous too. I spent hours on Sunday trying to compile my timetable, which I've since had to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2753,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/nantes-month-three-birthday-celebrations-are-a-go\/","url_meta":{"origin":1056,"position":4},"title":"Nantes month three: birthday celebrations are a go!","author":"Clarissa Le Neindre-Hubbard","date":"November 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I cannot believe how quickly time flies\u2026 I only have two more weeks of lectures and then that will be the end of semester one of my year abroad. These past few weeks have been manic (hence my lack of blogging) but I\u2019ll try to summarise some of the things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/11\/IMG_3562-e1511779858986-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/11\/IMG_3562-e1511779858986-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/11\/IMG_3562-e1511779858986-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/11\/IMG_3562-e1511779858986-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/11\/IMG_3562-e1511779858986-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/11\/IMG_3562-e1511779858986-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3309,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/lingomap-understanding-the-french-speaking-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":1056,"position":5},"title":"LingoMap: Understanding the French speaking world","author":"Osian McGuinness","date":"May 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Bonjour \u00e0 tous\u00a0! Bienvenue \u00e0 mon troisi\u00e8me blog pour le blog Routes into Language LingoMap. Le sujet de ce troisi\u00e8me blog est de \u00ab\u00a0comprendre le monde francophone\u00a0\u00bb. Vous pouvez trouver mes deux premiers blogs en cliquant\u00a0ici et ici. 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