I love this time of year because not only does it mean Christmas is nearly here, but it also means I get to celebrate my birthday! I had a fantastic weekend: two of my friends from Cardiff came to visit and four of us managed to squeeze into the apartment of another friend. On the Friday, we went for a meal in this Indian restaurant close to town, called Inde et Vous<\/em>. It was very much blink and you\u2019ll miss it, being quite a small place but nonetheless the food was tasty, the ambiance was great and the price was reasonable so I would recommend! Afterwards we showed my friends la Maison Caf\u00e9<\/em>, a cute, retro bar\/caf\u00e9 which resembles a 70s house (see photo). Saturday was a really busy day which finished up with us in Havana Caf\u00e9, a Spanish bar with an area to dance downstairs, so we salsa-danced the night away\u2026 it was a lot of fun! This was slightly unplanned, given that I had initially decided that we were going to embarrass ourselves (correction: I was going to embarrass myself) at a karaoke bar, however when we arrived it turned out the place was shut. Note to self: do not trust google or naively assume that bars won\u2019t close without any apparent reason around here. Fortunately, Havana was just up the road so we were able to make a quick alteration to our plans. Despite the hiccup, I loved my birthday and I loved celebrating it in Nantes!<\/p>\n Visite de Cardiff <\/strong><\/p>\n At the beginning of this month we had a lovely visit from Nadia, our year abroad coordinator. We (as in the Cardiff language students) all got together to go for a meal with her and it was a truly wonderful evening because we haven\u2019t had many opportunities to catch up with each other so that night, we shared our stories about some of the stresses we\u2019d all experienced as well as some of the fantastic things we\u2019d all gotten up to. Of course, Nadia chose the perfect time to come since, by this point, we were all pretty stress-free and able to give a more balanced view of what life was like in Nantes.<\/p>\n It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n For me, being a November baby, I tend not to feel Christmassy until after my birthday has completely passed and, in fact, once it\u2019s hit December. But this year, I\u2019ve been feeling in the Christmassy mood for the past week and this was added to yesterday when I went to my first Christmas market of the year. Full of stalls selling jewellery, bags, ornaments, sugary snacks, mulled wine and snail slime beauty products (I was intrigued to say the least), the Nantes Christmas market has something for everyone so if you\u2019re coming to Nantes anytime soon (or indeed for your year abroad next year), definitely make time to visit it. I believe it will convert any Scrooge\u2026<\/p>\n On a weather note<\/strong><\/p>\n No sooner did I say the weather wasn\u2019t so bad here (see last blog), temperatures suddenly plummeted and the big, woolly jumpers came out. Yes, Nantes does get cold. And it especially gets cold at night.<\/p>\n French<\/strong><\/p>\n November has been a really good month for my year abroad (yes, I know I\u2019m going to be a little biased) but aside from all the celebrations, it really has felt like everything is fitting into place and I know so far I\u2019ve neglected to discuss in great detail the whole point of why I\u2019m here: which is to improve French.<\/p>\n Well, this month I really feel it has taken a turn for the better. I did part way through October worry that I wasn\u2019t making enough progress but I realised what was holding me back from truly making the most of this opportunity was confidence. A couple of weeks ago I had to make a phone call in French and prior to it I almost talked myself out of making the call. Afterwards, however, I was really pleased that I had firstly been able to understand the entire conversation but also pleasantly surprised that when I really forced myself into it, I could speak French. It\u2019s a journey and I have still a long way to go but I definitely feel this last couple of months has changed one thing: my confidence.<\/p>\n To finish off with (and why there is a silver lining if the karaoke bar is closed) \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cOur happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.\u201d \u2014 Lawrence Block<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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 […]","protected":false},"author":1420,"featured_media":2757,"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":[42,75,52,78,90,18],"class_list":["post-2753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-erasmus","tag-france","tag-going-out","tag-nantes","tag-studying","tag-travelexperiences"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4QQbz-Ip","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":285,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/making-it-to-nantes\/","url_meta":{"origin":2753,"position":0},"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":2682,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/nantes-month-one-ive-arrived-and-im-alive\/","url_meta":{"origin":2753,"position":1},"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":2780,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/lingomap-food-and-drink\/","url_meta":{"origin":2753,"position":2},"title":"LingoMap: Food and Drink","author":"Bayan Ali","date":"January 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Bonjour tout le monde! (Hello everyone!) Bienvenue \u00e0 mon premier blog pour Routes into Languages LingoMap. (Welcome to my first blog for Routes into Languages LingoMap.) This blog will focus on the topic of food and drink in Nantes. I arrived in Nantes on 28 August 2017 and I stayed\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\/Nantes-day-450x288.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2783,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/lingomap-being-a-young-person-in-a-french-speaking-society\/","url_meta":{"origin":2753,"position":3},"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":3309,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/lingomap-understanding-the-french-speaking-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":2753,"position":4},"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. Alors, pour mieux comprendre le monde francophone je vais vous parler un\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Flag of Nantes","src":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/d\/d9\/Drapeau_de_Nantes.svg\/532px-Drapeau_de_Nantes.svg.png","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2720,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/nantes-month-two-and-the-journey-continues\/","url_meta":{"origin":2753,"position":5},"title":"Nantes month two: and the journey continues","author":"Clarissa Le Neindre-Hubbard","date":"October 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought I may as well do something productive with my time whilst waiting for my laundry to finish and start my next blog. These past couple of weeks have been extremely busy but I'll try to summarise the best bits: Laundry Ok, so this isn't exactly the highlight of\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\/10\/Image-two-blog-338x450.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/11\/IMG_3562-e1511779858986-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753","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\/1420"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2758,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2753\/revisions\/2758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/11\/IMG_3429-450x338.jpg\")
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