Oops!

Disclaimer: This was meant to be up last night, but the stupid computer couldn't handle the image uploads and took forever to do so. So I fell asleep while waiting, as you do... Ah well, nevermind! Here is yesterday's post!

Wow it feels good to be back writing this blog! I am so sorry (mostly to myself) that it has taken so long to update this. It's just that March has been such an incredibly busy and hectic month, and I don't really know where to begin there! So, in true Ollish fashion, I shall put it off and look to April.

HANG ON A MINUTE! Who are you again?

The delay in updates was taking the piss...

Oh yeah! Firstly, however, I should reintroduce myself and this blog, considering it has been nearly two months since the last installment of my story. I am Ollie Lloyd, a 21 year old Welshman who is studying in Warwick Business School in England. However, after two years of undertaking a strangely over-academic business education that I cannot help but ridicule, I found myself on a ferry across the sea to the city of Rennes in Brittany, France, to 'study' at the local business school ESC Rennes, and learn more about the wonderful world of business.

However, in the seven months I have been here, I have learned far more than I ever thought I could, and this has not just been about marketing, The things I have learned have included how to survive in a foreign land, how to befriend and learn from people from all corners of the world, and why you should not go to an Open Bar the night before your first class with Lord Baldemort (more on that later). 

But most importantly - I have learned about myself. I now know what makes me want to get up every morning (at 12pm of course! I am still a student after all!). I also now have a sense of empowerment that neither Sheepland or Englandland could give me. I have experienced my own renaissance, and boy oh boy does it feel good! I feel that I can achieve anything, that the world is my oyster (it's a cliché expression I know, but when you have befriended and created connections with people from every continent, it kind of makes sense to you!).

Now I am not here to boast, because a) I'm not of that disposition and b) I have nothing to boast about. I am still a lazy idiot who likes to leave his essays until literally the last minute. I still lack the coordination to successfully flip and catch a beer mat without spilling my own pint. I have not found any discernible talent that will make me amazingly rich. No - I just feel more content, and it's all thanks to living in this small dog turd-covered city. 

Reunion with a few of my favourite people, chez moi.

Okay I hope this optimism has successfully set the tone for this post, because it is definitely nothing like my last one. Limbo is long gone. The term has started, and Rennes is buzzing with life once more. Indeed, there are nothing like as many international students as there were last semester, but there are still some great new people. I have also become closer with some who have also been here since September. What I have learned is friends are no different than essays in the sense that it is about quality over quantity. Five friends who you are extremely close with and can do anything together beats having fifty acquaintances. Trust me, I know!

Seems like you have a LOT to catch up on!

You're absolutely right, strange schizophrenic sub-heading! It shames me to say, but over half the second semester has passed, so I have an appalling amount of writing to do to bring the story up to date. The amount I need to talk about has grown exponentially like a snowball gathering snow as it rolls down a mountainside: and finally getting round to writing it down has become increasingly difficult as the task has grown. With March being so busy there was no time for me to set aside to finally get an update online. April, however, has brought me time. Lots of time. 

So you can expect a blog post every day this week. We're going to do a lucky magical number seven. Seven days in a week, seven deadly sins, seven wonders of the world, seven Horcruxes, seven dwarfs, seven members of S Club 7....okay I'm going off the point. Basically seven posts for the first seven days of April - and it will cover everything.

Day 1: April and its significance.

Day 2: The classes this term.

Day 3: Life in general - fun and friends.

Day 4: You can't go to France for a year without a visit to Paris!

Day 5: Why next year won't be too bad after all.

Day 6: Why my internship hunt is finally over.

Day 7: I finally outline the rest of Ollie and Sitzel's Great European January Adventure! 

Hopefully that should get everything back on track! Then we can forget this ever happened and move on with our lives....

So where are we on this list today? Oh what a surprise - the first post!

APRIL AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE, by Oliver R. Lloyd III. 

So why is this upcoming month so important? Simple - because it's the last.

Yes, I'm afraid so. It really has come around that quickly, and I really have missed out on a big chunk of the year in my blogging. Day-to-day life as a student in ESC Rennes as we know it will end with the month of April, as those on the undergraduate transfer programme finish their year then, and leave promptly to save themselves the expense of another month's rent. Among these people will be some of my best friends here: Matt the Englishman, Rob the Cypriot, the Irish girls and others! The Masters students will also finish this month, leaving Rennes a much quieter place.

As for us, the students on the IBPM scheme, our exams annoyingly finish on the 7th May, necessitating an extra month of rent. Many will leave that week, including my favourite Mexican Itzel, so they will not be staying much longer than those leaving in April, and the extra time will mostly be spent studying for the exams.

Me? I will be staying in Rennes a little longer to work for the ESC Admissibles team. I heard about this opportunity from Katie, with whom I will be undertaking the placement. Basically, we are welcoming the new students to Rennes who are due to start the Grande Ecole programme this year. We will cater for them and partying is compulsory, and for this clearly difficult and stressful job we will be renumerated considerably. 

A more important consequence, however, is that finally I will have some continuity. I can stay in Rennes now for another three months STRAIGHT. It won't be lonely after May because a few friends, including the excellent Ecuadorian Simon, are also doing the Admissibles job. 

A McJob in a foreign language can't be that bad...

Furthermore, being in Rennes for three months with no further trips away means that maybe I can find a job here to make the financial side of life here more comfortable. I am actually planning on applying to McDonalds. I had said I'd never work in food again after Pizza Hut, but as this is a job entirely in French, the benefits for my language will add to the money and somewhat mitigate what probably will not be a very enjoyable McJob. Failing that, I could volunteer. Give back to the community of the city that has changed my life, whilst improving my French at the same time.

I am still not fluent in the language, not really anyway. Knowing the linguistic ability of the average Brit, however, I could probably pass as fluent in French compared to others in the UK - but that's not really enough. I still struggle to understand spoken French when babbled at full native speed. It's no good being able to say something in French (albeit poorly) to a native when you cannot understand their response! 

But three months uninterrupted in Rennes should do the trick, especially considering the group projects and classes are coming to an end and all that remains is exam revision. This means I have more time to focus on becoming courant on an international level, not just for a Breeteesh guy. Increased watching of French TV and movies is in order, I think! I may also look at doing the DALF, the French equivalent of the TOEFL for English, to officially confirm my fluency. It depends on the cost of course. 

Anyway, with this listing of objectives, strategy and tactics I'm starting to sound like a marketing plan! The point is - I have been blessed with two extra months in France, and I plan to use them! 

For the rest of this month, however, I have another priority: to make the most of this last month with everyone still here. The weather has improved, and we have spent time in the park in shorts and T-shirts - and I imagine there will be more of that, but also anything we haven't done yet, such as trips to local places like Dinard, St Malo and Vannes, needs to be checked off the list, as well as the things we know we enjoy. Basically, we need to do whatever it takes to spend quality time together as a kick-ass cosmopolitan group!

The view of St Malo from my ferry back to the UK 

It will be an emotional month, probably even more so than December, but it will be great too! Like I said at the beginning, living in Rennes has been life-changingly (new adverb there) brilliant, so it is only fitting to see it out with a bang! 

So, in homage to my French Culture teacher Arsene*, who exudes jolliness through his love and appreciation of the spoken and written word, I shall finish this post with a short poem of my own. As you can see I'm no Wordsworth or Heaney. This is just a quick message to my peers at ESC Rennes for this upcoming month: 

The challenges that remain,

We shall all surmount.

So don't count these last days,

Make these last days count!

Bonne soirée**

Ollie

*I know there's supposed to be a grave accent on the 'e', but I haven't worked out how to do any accents on my computer apart from é. So please French grammar police, let me off there.

**I still haven't thought of a new sign-off line to replace the often inappropriate 'Rant over', so this will have to do for now! Wishing you a good evening or day comme les Francais font will suffice for now.