Another BIG MOVE!

Feels like it's a while back now (in fact over a month!) but hope you all had an awesome new year. Fantastic! I had an excellent Christmas back home in Ireland with my beautiful family. This was my first time going back home since I left in September 2012, which also means I hadn’t seen my friends in over a year. It was like a reunion, it was great seeing everyone again. Now it’s back to reality!

Did I forget to mention, I now live in Poitiers in west central France (I know you’ve never heard of it; its south of Paris). Yes I moved again. From Lagos to Abuja to Dublin to Galway, back to Dublin, then to London and now I’m in Poitiers. I really need to settle down lol I’m beginning to get tired of carrying my whole life around with me. I need a permanent postcode! I’d actually love to get a job in France so I can stay and perfect my imperfect French. It’ll be so handy to speak another language. I have a Cameroonian friend who speaks Mandarin (apart from French and English), I mean she’s the coolest person to me right now (OK maybe not, but you get my drift).

Anyway back to Poitiers. I must confess, I was quite depressed when I first arrived here two weeks ago (even though I absolutely loved my 24 square metre studio flat). There was no internet and I was close to being broke. Could life get any worse? One couldn’t even get a sim card without having a bank account. There was just so much protocol I couldn’t stand it. Everyday had all sorts of things happening that were annoying. But, I am happy to say now that I am getting used to the quiet lifestyle in this country. Thank God I understand a little French or I’d have been totally lost here. Surprisingly, a lot more people than I imagined speak English here. The food here is of better quality than in London too. The only problem I have now is I can’t find a Church to fellowship at. I guess it’s just me and God in my flat then :(

Here are a few things I’ve discovered so far about this little town:

It is tiny! You can walk around nearly the whole city.

The male and female toilets are not separated (super awkward!!!), okay maybe just at the business school.

You need a passport to change your currency and it’s only the post office that can do it. They charge you €5 to change from sterling to Euros on top of the exchange rate. You cannot even exchange your travellers cheque except you open a bank account (I’m not sure how it works in other countries to be honest).

Nearly everywhere is closed on Sundays. Some restaurants may be open.

They have two hour breaks from 12pm till 2pm, except restaurants obviously. At this time most shops and banks will be closed.

The zebra crossing means absolutely nothing here, just a waste of paint! You may die if you don’t know that and just decide to cross the road as freely as you do in London. The drivers here are mental.

The city is really clean, you’d hardly find any litter on the floor but will find lots of dog poo everywhere it’s disgusting.

Most of the buildings are ancient.

French people love meat, fish and dairy. It’ll be difficult for vegetarians here.

Till next time,

Toodles!