So I haven’t really had anything to write about on this blog for about a month now, as I was home over Christmas and assumed that my Christmas Day eating and sleeping habits (50:50 ratio if you’re interested) weren’t what this blog was meant to be used for. \u00a0However, I’m now back on the mainland and have already started work at my new placement (a receptionist gig in a youth hostel, but that’s for another post), so I thought that now was about the right time to start blogging again.<\/p>\n
So I’m currently in Marseille, a city which I have to say I was slightly nervous of moving to, due the reputation it has and the coverage it has received from the French media. \u00a0However, I’ve been here almost a week now, and having had the chance to experience the city first hand, I have to say that there is so far no real difference between Marseille and other major European cities, such as Paris or Barcelona. \u00a0All these cities have areas that tourists and foreigners are advised to avoid and all these cities have issues with petty theft and pick pocketing, especially in tourist areas. \u00a0But Marseille’s “problems” whilst supposedly much worse than anywhere else, if you choose to believe everything written in the media, are really no more noticeable than these other major cities.<\/p>\n
So..now that I’ve got that out of the way, on to the slightly lighter, fluffy stuff. I’m currently living out of a youth hostel in the Vieux Port area of the city, although not the one I’ll be working in (don’t tell my boss), which has given me a great central location from which to explore most of the city’s major land marks, like Notre Dame de la Garde, the church which towers above the rest of Marseille and offers great views of the city and its’ surroundings, and the Fort St Jean, which stands at the entrance to the Vieux Port and has a truly fascinating history, and also currently houses the Museum of European and Mediterranean Cultures (MuCEM), which I definitely need to visit at some point.<\/p>\n
Other sights I need to see are the Stade Velodrome, which I’ve seen from a distance from Notre Dame, and the famous Calanques, the national parks just a short bus ride outside of Marseille, which comprise of steep wooded mountainous terrain and awe inspiring white cliffs. Should be enough to keep me busy for a few weekends!<\/p>\n
All in all then, I think my first impressions here a pretty positive. I move into my rented flat tomorrow evening, so I have that to look forward to and then back into work. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep this blog updated so you can see how and what I’m doing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So I haven't really had anything to write about on this blog for about a month now, as I was home over Christmas and assumed that my Christmas Day eating […]","protected":false},"author":1082,"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":[51,42,249,32,277,197],"class_list":["post-1773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","tag-culture","tag-erasmus","tag-europe","tag-local-atmosphere","tag-working","tag-year-abroad"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4QQbz-sB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2026,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/cheap-dreams\/","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":0},"title":"Cheap Dreams","author":"Llewelyn","date":"April 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow, it's been a really long time since I wrote an entry here, so I guess I should start by quickly reviewing the last month or so...basically I've been pretty busy at work, especially as the high season is starting to roll around, meaning that we've had more and more\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\/04\/calanques-1.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\/04\/calanques-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/04\/calanques-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/04\/calanques-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1574,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/end-of-the-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":1},"title":"End of the Road","author":"Llewelyn","date":"December 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Although we've come to the end of the road, still I can't let go\" So sang Boyz II Men (bit of a dated reference I know), and the same's true of my time here in Barcelona. It's a shame really that I couldn't spend the whole year here, as only\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":1263,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/last-few-weeks-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":2},"title":"Last Few Weeks Update","author":"Llewelyn","date":"October 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I seem to have left a large gap between this and my last post so I thought I'd take the opportunity to say how I'm doing after just over a month here. Having arrived in Barcelona on September 3rd with a sense of wide eyed excitement I've only ever really\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":3572,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/settling-back-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":3},"title":"Settling (back) in","author":"Phoebe Grinter","date":"January 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Coming back to Verona after four weeks at home for Christmas to be greeted by exams is not fun. After all the comforts of home, the excitement of Christmas and all my friends being home for a few weeks, I have to say settling back in to life in Verona\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":1573,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/snow-place-like-vancouver\/","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":4},"title":"Snow place like Vancouver","author":"Lorna Hayne","date":"December 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We\u2019ve had snow in Vancouver!! They say it never snows here but we\u2019ve had snow on the ground every day this week, which has made concentrating on studying for finals so much harder! I have just finished my last final, exam season has been hard (hence the silence in my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Placements"","block_context":{"text":"International Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/international-exchange\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/12\/15722673_1503782226315845_117332147_n.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\/2016\/12\/15722673_1503782226315845_117332147_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/12\/15722673_1503782226315845_117332147_n.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/12\/15722673_1503782226315845_117332147_n.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4534,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/top-10-fears-and-cheers-revisited\/","url_meta":{"origin":1773,"position":5},"title":"Top 10: Fears and Cheers- Revisited!","author":"Niamh O'Reilly","date":"January 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"As hectic uni life took over my blogs had to take a step back but now it\u2019s a new term and I am so excited to get going again! Before I started at UBC I wrote a piece on what I was most and least looking forward to, I thought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "International Placements"","block_context":{"text":"International Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/international-exchange\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2020\/01\/E0B9037B-D1A3-415C-BF05-AA8A88D045F1.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\/2020\/01\/E0B9037B-D1A3-415C-BF05-AA8A88D045F1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2020\/01\/E0B9037B-D1A3-415C-BF05-AA8A88D045F1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2020\/01\/E0B9037B-D1A3-415C-BF05-AA8A88D045F1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1082"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1774,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773\/revisions\/1774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}