Rennes - One Year On.

Reading Time: 4-5 minutes.

Ah. My blog: it's been a while! This time, however, I have no excuse for not updating it. I'm no longer busy with day-to-day life in Rennes. It's not like I've been doing loads this summer either, changing the world one rubber duck at a time. There's been no work experience either. My skills have not been honed in business insight, but in Pokémon White (No, it's not childish! It's an intricate game of strategy!) So what is my excuse?

At least I had some Easter eggs I hadn't been home to eat

Well, there hasn't been much to report, and I have already proved myself incapable of writing small  snippets like most bloggers. Instead I choose to subject the reader to paragraph after paragraph of verbosely written and excessively and extravagantly protracted lexicon in an attempt to make them submit to a dictionary and a therapist. So, I thought I'd wait until there would be enough material to write the usual novella, but I've given up already upon neglecting my blog for too long - I'm scared it will run off with someone else.

So, I chose today to break my silence. Today is a very special day. No, it is not my birthday - that's in eleven days (hint hint) - this is far more important. While my birthday commiserates the day of my birth, I'd like to think today commemorates the first year anniversary of the birth of International Ollie. No, it's not another unfunny alter-ego: it's just the new Ollie that emerged from an exchange year in Rennes with a newly discovered passion for being part of international groups, traveling and foreign languages....

Basically: a year ago today was the day I moved to Rennes.

The day itself was not the most exciting. I was up at 4am for a drive to Poole through randomly windy roads that involved my dad running over an owl. Then my friend joined us on the ferry to France and I settled in Rennes that afternoon. I remember the gallette I ate that evening with delicious Breton cider to go with it, but I could not fully enjoy it as I was so nervous about Rennes. I remember my fears. Would I survive in another country? I hardly survived second year - would this be just as bad if not worse? Would I make any new friends? Would I improve my French at all? Would I be wasting a year?

I remember those fears so well, because it felt like yesterday...

Now here I am, one year later. I'm alive, I'm bilingual (by my dad's standards, not by my own insatiable ones) and I have not only a large network of friends from many different countries, but someone very special waiting for me on the other side of the Atlantic. While a year ago I felt very pessimistic about my future, I am now extremely excited for what the future holds. One more year in the UK, then I am free to explore and enjoy this world.

Me and my girl at a music festival in Rennes.
Such good times!

But for now, new fears have surfaced. For example, how can I convince my professors at university that the aforementioned transformation was what made my year abroad? For them, the main aim of the year abroad is to learn about the different business culture in France. And they wonder why society mocks them!

After a wonderful year's copulation with Erasmus life and all its joy, I am now left with the unwanted pregnancy of two fat essays to write for my own university to count the year towards my degree.

I hate essays. They are horrendously vague, you never know how much reading is enough, and they are subjectively marked to the the assessor's own mysterious standards. A time-consuming failure to appease whose method is in the ability to either survive reading a mountain of informative but terribly written gobbledygook written by authors who are as boring as their bibliographies, or to sleep with the assessor. It's a guy this time. To the books!

Other fears? That I will balls up this final year the same way I did second year and have nothing to show for four years but a mountain of debt and many much more successful friends who will refuse to offer me a job because they will know how useless I really am... nah, I'll be alright.

I am actually quite pumped to get back to Warwick and finish this degree. It's getting me through Post Erasmus Depression for starters. As anyone who had an awesome time at Erasmus (which should be the majority) would know, after living in this dream reality that's as cosmopolitan as It's A Small World but without the annoying music, it can be rather difficult to readjust to normal life in your own country. Having had the best time of my life, realising I am in my element when in an international environment, and falling for a wonderful girl from another continent, it may come as a shock to discover that I am, in fact, no exception.

I want to still be in France. I want to feel like I can be myself without peers from my own country looking down upon me for being weird. I want to practise foreign languages without being suppressed as a show-off. I want to still see those incredible people I met there, especially my girl. I don't know when I can next see her. It all depends on how frugal I can be this year - something I've never been good at.

But my Welsh friends and Warwick are getting me through. These essays and preparation for the final year, as well as catch-ups with my friends, are keeping me busy, drawing my focus away from the heavy feeling in my stomach and heart. In four weeks time I'll be starting the all-important final year, and there will be much to keep me occupied.

Apart from my studies, I have the great honour of being part of BandSoc's fantastic executive committee. I should explain: every society (or club) at the university is ran for students by an executive committee (or 'exec' for short) of elected student members. After missing out on my first attempt, I have been elected onto an exec as Treasurer for the Band Society, or BandSoc for short.

BandSoc focuses on bringing musicians together to form bands and to provide them with somewhere to practice, gigs to play, and a supportive network of other musicians. It was lots of fun for me in my first two years at uni, so to help run it this year will be a great experience, especially helping to organise the annual Battle of the Bands competition, in which I hope to play again.

I looked more impressive
than I sounded...

Moreover, I am going to be promoting the Erasmus scheme to school students as an Erasmus Ambassador for the British Council, through (shorter) blogs and speeches. I guess I'm doing this not just so others can enjoy what I've enjoyed, not just for the experience, but also to be part of Erasmus still, stubbornly holding on.

Finally, I've got myself an awesome job teaching English online to French people for a French company. It will be convenient, being in my room on a computer. It will be fun. I'll feel like I'm directly helping others, and I'll be saving up the earnings to go traveling when I can, especially to Mexico.

All in all, there's plenty to look forward to. I still have some great friends in Wales to entertain me for the next couple of weeks, then it's a busy year full of new experiences, and then a lifetime of uncertainty, freedom, and, hopefully, fulfillment.

It may not be Rennes this year, but it's not too bad at all!

Rant over

Ollie