A Skiing-filled Christmas

What my last post failed to mention, was that Les Deux Alpes was the first of two skiing trips within a 3 week period! It just so happened that I was able to go skiing with my dad and boyfriend for a further few 6 days, this time to Cervinia in Italy. I'd never skied anywhere but France before, and didn't know much about the Italian side of the mountains, so I was definitely intrigued. I had heard several criticisms about Italian ski resorts, but they could have been farther from reality. The resort itself of Cervinia is one of the best I have been to. With a small church, narrow streets, boutique shops and rustic, typical chalet-style buildings, it had a cosy, christmassy feel to it that was impossible to ignore. The restaurants were all unique and amazingly decorated - and you most certainly paid good money for it. It is a well known fact that ski holidays are not the cheapest, but some of the restaurants in the resort were extortionately priced. Nonetheless, when the prices were high, so was the quality of food. You get what you pay for I suppose, I'm just glad it wasn't my (serious lack of) euros being hacked into!

The skiing: contrary to previous criticism, Cervinia is my new favourite resort! The runs were long, wide and plentiful, the snow was incredible ("so much fresh powder man") and the chairlifts were short and sweet. I have also now added 'ski instructor' to my list of previous responsibilities (one for the CV perhaps?) seeing as my boyfriend, who had never skied before, and my dad, who was as stiff as a plank of wood, was in need of my expertise. It's safe to say, I shan't be becoming an instructor anytime soon. Apparently "you just turn left, then right" is not helpful advice to a novice whose first ski experience is attempting to survive a steep, icy hill. After a while, however, my students were well taught and experienced, and my boyfriend was bombing it down red runs after just 2 days. I would like to think that my teaching skills were behind his new found prowess as a skier, but I remain doubtful.

On the languages side of things, I know absolutely no Italian except prego - a word that I still don't fully understand, as it seems to be used for absolutely everything. "Can I have a menu?" - prego. "Bye" - prego. "Hi" - prego. "Why do you say prego?" - prego. Maybe I'll just have to learn the language to find out...

All in all, I had a brilliant week, and was lucky to have 3 out of 4 skiing days with perfect conditions - aside from the day of tornado-style winds and snowstorms that was actually really fun! My final year university work did suffer, however, and I am now feeling the consequences of spending 2 out of 4 weeks holidaying in the mountains. But, how can I complain? It's not that hard a life...

Skiing in Les Deux Alpes, France

Since spending 7 months of my year abroad skiing every week (I still can't believe that was part of my degree!), I have felt myself to be quite the ski resort connoisseur. As for the sport itself - I definitely still need more time on the slopes in order to claim mastery. Nevertheless, by October I was having withdrawal from the white stuff, so paid to join Nottingham University's Snow Sport Society and join their Christmas trip. So, on the 13th December we embarked on a 22 hour coach journey from Nottingham to Les Deux Alpes, France. A journey so long and so boring that not even Fast and Furious 6 and all its guns and shouting could keep me awake. If you asked me what the scenery was like when wandering through the quaint French towns, approaching the beautiful mountains, I couldn't possibly tell you. I'm sure it was great though...

Pano Bar, L2A

Being only an hour and a half from Grenoble (and the cheapest to reach), I spent a lot of time in Les Deux Alpes last season, so I thought I knew exactly how the week was going to pan out. Oh, how wrong I was. It turned out, my sense of direction and memory skills are even worst when it comes to guiding myself around pistes that I should have known like the back of my hand. It was like a completely new resort, and with the addition of après at Pano Bar, I still don't quite remember how to get back down that mountain. Either way, I've always loved the resort - there are a huge variety of runs for all levels, with an abundance of blues (my favourites). Even better than the skiing - the après and nightlife is amazing. There are quite a few bars/clubs/holes spread around the resort - if my memory serves correctly, Avalanche and Brasilia were personal favourites - along with a plethora of podiums and stages that us students seem to love (my friend and I a little too much - I ended up falling off and dragging her with me, proceeding to cause a bloody, head injury to said friend, awkward...)

Back to the skiing... If I had one criticism of the resort, it would be that the gondola and chair lifts seem to last forever! When you're not feeling your best at 10am having had 5-6 hours sleep, and you're forced to sway up a mountain practically in a vertical manner for 20 minutes, you can't help but dislike 'the whole skiing thing'. However, once you've reached half way and proceeded to jump on a more open, stable chairlift, there are so many runs to choose from, you're spoilt for choice. Or if you can't decide just yet, there are some amazing views that I couldn't stop taking pictures of (NB: a lot of mountains look the same, no matter where they are in the Alpes; resort-named folders would be helpful in the future).

Besides the skiing, I was hoping to maybe brush up on my French a little, but I completely forgot that a) about 90% of ski resort workers in bars, restaurants or otherwise are English, and b) the remaining 10% that are in fact French, love to speak English. Oh well, I did manage to successfully order a baguette and a pain au raisin (or two), so I'm really pleased that my £3,300 yearly tuition is being put to good practice.

Standard 'picture-on-skis-with-mountain-background' picture

Top Tips for Language Assistants

For those of you who left simple, rainy England over a month ago to begin a whole new complicated and exciting life abroad as a Language Assistant, I would firstly like to say: complicated and exciting sounds so much more appealing right now. More importantly, I have compiled a list of 'top tips' - some things that, in hindsight, I wish had been thrust upon me when I was left abandoned and bewildered in France a whole year ago...

• Firstly, the issue of speaking too much English. Yes, you're being paid to teach English, but that isn’t to say that you need to keep speaking it outside of those 4 walls. As daunting and intimidating as this may sound, if you have older students go for lunch with them, or even a drink, and speak your target language. (Note to primary assistants: maybe skip this point, I'm sure your small, 'quirky' apartment is much nicer than a prison cell)

• Be insistent and perseverant with the teachers at your school – ask to speak in your target language, but do this politely, perhaps by offering to speak English on the odd occasion if they have a linguistic query. Also get to know them more, and accept any invitations, bar the strange, uncomfortable ones like going salsa dancing with just your 60 year old colleague and her husband.

• If you don't fancy meeting students outside of school, this tip is both humorous for you and beneficial for students. If you have secondary school(s), tell the students that you don’t understand their native language. This way, you not only give them no choice but to speak English in lessons, but the look on their faces at the end of the year when you tell them you’ve understood everything is hilarious. (Sounds cruel, but the French students found it both embarrassing and hilarious, as did I)

• Try and live with native students. If you struggle to keep the language up at school, there’s an abundance of youths who would love to live with a foreigner because we’re oh so intriguing.

• Immerse yourself into the culture by attending festivals (food, music or otherwise), going to the cinema, eating in traditional restaurants, learning some slang or perhaps donning their (in Europe, often very 90’s) clothing. There is also the option of joining some sort of class (cooking, dancing etc), which are normally advertised in the local newspaper, or ask advice from your colleagues.

• Find yourself a foreign boyfriend/girlfriend! A few of my friends managed to flirt their way through the European techno music into the arms of a charming, young French/Spanish man. Just like constantly chatting with a close friend, except the things that you're learning are a lot more useful! (I'm referring to language skills, of course…) 

• Enroll at the local University, either for sports or just attending courses in your target language. For example, I joined Grenoble University's Ski School to receive discounted travel and ski passes, as well as French speaking ski lessons. Or if snowy mountains aren't as easily accessible as they were for me, a friend of mine was part of a University choir, and another in the girls football team!

• One for the organised ones among you: set up a sharing folder on Dropbox for all assistants to put in their lesson plans. Honestly, this was a great tool for the weeks when my creative spark was a little deflated (read: I had a crazy weekend and consequently was feeling too lazy to work).

• TRAVEL! Take advantage of being even further submerged into Europe, or if you’re really lucky, another continent. Invest in that railcard, save your wages, and book those cheap flights, because it’s so much cooler saying you’ve "popped to Milan for the weekend, as it’s close" than an expensive, extensively planned trip from England.

• Embrace the oddities of (insert country here)’s population. If you fancy some more reading, I wrote an article a while back for a great online magazine about one particular stereotype of the French. Whoops, plugged it!

http://www.yuppee.com/2013/02/13/lost-in-translation-or-simply-rude-life-from-across-the-channel/

One final tip: remember that learning a language is a slow and steady process, don't expect to find living abroad easy, but do expect it to be an incredible, eye-opening experience – one that I would do all over again if I had the chance!

Should I do the British Council Language Assistantship?

It's coming up to the precious deadline for applications of the British Council Assistantship programme, and I can't believe it was a year ago that I was attending meeting upon meeting, weighing up my options for what would be a truly incredible, eye-opening year. Spanning across 5 continents, and with 15 countries on offer including Latin America, Austria and China, I'm sure the needs of most language degrees would be met. Of course, they include plenty of placements within the usual France, Germany, Italy and Spain, so there really is no excuse!

So, you've just started second year, and already your year abroad coordinator is pressuring you to make a decision of how you will spend your time a year from now. You will be told it's stressful and of utmost importance to make the decision a swift one, but really there are just 3 options: study, work, or become a language assistant.

As you may well know, I was a language assistant in Grenoble, France throughout the past year. However, I'm going to (try to) give an unbiased opinion on the programme as a whole, as I wish I had had more advice when making my decision. Firstly, one of the main things that attracted me to the assistantship, was the simple application process. Yes there is an application form, but no it is not difficult. They are not looking for someone whose life ambition is to become a teacher, nor do they want someone whose life revolves around children. They simply have an application to make sure you're not completely incompetent, and that you are the type of person who will actually fulfill the 12 hour contract (yes, a mere 12 hours a week - more on that later). At Nottingham, we were told that our places were pretty much guaranteed, but this may not be the case for all Universities. Either way, the application form asks the same questions a part-time job would - just sell yourself! What's more, as I also had the Russia part of my year abroad to arrange, I found it much easier to apply for this one programme rather than writing a CV and cover letter in French, and distributing it to hundreds of uninterested foreign employers.

Another big attraction is the aforementioned 12 hour contract, with a decent monthly wage to accompany it. Of course you have to work outside these 12 hours, but the job of organising lesson plans is a lot easier and funner than you may think - plus, what job doesn't require you to do the extra bits?

What's more, depending on where you are placed, the social side of the assistantship is almost guaranteed. There will be other assistants in your area, and not just from the UK. You never know, you could come back having learned a new language, or you could spend the whole time struggling to understand their humour, let alone accent.

'I don't want to become a teacher, so the assistantship is irrelevant' - false. I have no desire to become a teacher, if anything, the assistantship further confirmed this. However, the skills that you acquire from teaching English as a foreign language are invaluable, and transferable to plenty of career paths; organisation, creativity, leadership, and moreover it shows desirable personality traits, such as being confident and enthusiastic enough to inspire others (or at least stop them from falling asleep of a Monday morning).

I did, however, promise an unbiased opinion, which brings me on to the top concern of the assistantship - will I always be speaking English? I would be lying if I said that it was a wasted concern, but it does of course depend on the age of the children, and your location. For example, if you are placed in a big city with many other assistants and teaching English to secondary school pupils, you may find it harder to push your target language than someone who is in a remote town, teaching in a primary school with children and teachers who can't even say 'hello, my name is'. My retrospective answer? Either way, it's down to you to decide how much you want to immerse yourself in your target language and culture. Focus on your weak points - whether that be confidence issues, listening or oral skills, and push yourself to work on these throughout your time abroad.

I have plenty of tips for those of you that have already started, or are planning your year abroad, so my next post will be dedicated to just that! Take from this what you will, but as well as mentioning the straight details, I think it's just as important to iterate that I would not change my experience in France, including my choice to become a language assistant. I met some great people from around the world, developed all kinds of skills, and most importantly, learned a great deal not only about France and its language, but myself. Who knew I would survive living on my own in a country that feels so close, yet so foreign from my own?!

How to survive Russia #2

Following on from my previous post addressing manners (or lack of) in Russia, it seems only fitting that the next subject be on one of my favourite things to discuss/take pictures of: food.

I don't know about you, but whenever I visit a foreign country I spend hours trawling through what the lovely people of Trip Advisor have to say about the restaurants, cafés and local cuisine. If I ever went abroad and ended up in a tourist trap restaurant eating a burger and chips, I would be angry that I didn't spend longer trawling. If you want to experience the culture of somewhere different, you need to leave your own back at the airport terminal from which you came.

One of the main things that I have been asked since returning from Russia, was about the food and its stereotypes. So, now questions will be answered and advice given for any foodies like me.

I did not make this thing of beauty, google images did.

The first stereotype that immediately comes to mind is - борщ (borsch). Although it may have originated from Ukraine, the Russians have adopted it as their own, and I have to say, it's one of my favourite Russian dishes. With or without meat, and the thick, noticeable layer of oil coating, it's the best soup in the world (side note - I'm not a huge soup fan, so this may or may not be an exaggerated claim).
Aside from the colouring that's so bright it seems artificial, it's delicious. Be sure to go to Teremok (Теремок) for their borsch - it's the Russian version of fast food and it's great.

My own work of art - the soup

Unlike the borsch, other soups that I sampled were not as aesthetically pleasing. When I sent a picture of a vegetable, potato and egg soup that my lovely host slaved over the oven for, I didn't quite get the reception I'd hoped for - "I would rather starve than eat that" and "why did you throw up in a bowl and eat it?" You'll have to believe me when I say, it tastes better than it looks...



Aside from the soup, other traditional Russian foods include; blinis, cold/tepid meat pies, strange cottage cheese/scone type balls, shashlyk, smetana and a lot (I mean a lot) of cabbage and dill.
- Blinis can be filled with anything and everything. They can be thin like our British pancakes, or thicker and smaller topped with some raspberry coulis and smetana.

- Smetana is put with everything. In soup (see borsch and less appealing soup above), with sweet pastries and blinis, or sometimes I would even eat it on its own, because it tastes like a cross between natural yoghurt and sour cream.
- Tepid meat pies. Regardless of the temperature, they're delicious. If you're in St Petersburg (not sure about Moscow), go to the chain Stolle (Штолле). It's outdated and feels like a dodgy meeting place from the Soviet times, but it's cheap and the pies are good.

Strange cottage cheese scones with trusty smetana.

- Strange cottage cheese/scone type balls. They are exactly as I describe them, because there are no other words. I don't really know what's inside them, but I do remember cottage cheese being thrown about.
- Shashlyk is originally from Georgia (Russia, you gotta stop adopting other country's staple foods) and you may have had them in other parts of Eastern Europe, but I hadn't, and I loved them. Simply chicken on a stick. I had great ones along with lots of fresh, delicious sushi in Dve Palochki (Две Палочки).

I did find, however, that Russia is somewhat lacking on the lunch front, especially compared to the numerous patisseries and small cafés that you could grab a baguette from in France, or chains such as Costa, Pret à Manger and even the trusty old Boots meal deal. There are plenty of restaurants for you to delve yourself into Russian cuisine, it just depends on whether you want to spend a hefty sum on a sit down lunch everyday. I, for one, couldn't afford to do that for 13 weeks, so I am ashamed to admit that Subway proved to be a great back up!

You can really eat some amazing food in Russia, but you can equally walk into the wrong restaurant and eat something filled with ingredients that you never knew existed, and should cease to exist. My advice? Avoid chicken and anything wrapped in pork pie jelly that resembles dog food.

How to survive Russia #1

As melodramatic as the title may sound, this is how I saw my time in Russia - a (mental) survival guide. Even though I visited Russia once before, I was in some sort of University bubble with my non-Russian friends, spending 90% of our time in one dingey chain of bars, SPB (great 3 litre tanks of beer), and playing cards in numerous parks. The other 10% was spent in an apartment with a Russian host who was forever abandoning us for her dacha, or in a rubbish language school in a building that was about to collapse. So even with this experience, I didn't feel as though I had a huge advantage over those who had never been to Russia.

For those of you studying Russian, or equally for you tourists, I have compiled some pointers that I will spread across a few posts to help you survive the biggest country in the world. The first port of call - manners.

St Petersburg may well be one of the most Westernised cities in Russia, but don't let that fool you into thinking that our ways are even remotely similar. This may seem obvious to some, especially when there are plenty of universally known stereotypes about the Russians - "they're rude", "they're cold people", "they look at you funny", "the police are crazy" to name but a few. As a foreigner you may prove some of these stereotypes to be true, but in order to keep out of the suspicious minds of the Russians, you need to smile politely, accept them as cultural differences and rant to your friends later.

Firstly, I found that when walking along the street it was perfectly acceptable for a fragile old lady with no teeth, or a drunken, bald man to stop abruptly in front of you and waste no time in demanding how to reach somewhere. When I asked a teacher in a lesson how to get to a place of interest in my polite, British manner, she told me I was a complete weirdo to have said "excuse me" and "if you would be so kind" and "please". Be rude, she said. Well, rude as you see it, of course the Russians wouldn't bat an eyelid.

If you are studying and living with a host, it will most probably be a lovely woman who wants nothing more than to fatten you up and offer you a cup of tea every hour (чай, хочешь? хочешь чай?). Apparently the British drink tea at 5pm everyday, so when I was consistently turning down my hosts offer of a hot beverage in 25 degree heat (no, I don't believe that this could ever 'cool you down'), she was left baffled and defeated. I stood my ground with the tea drinking, as I was hot enough already in a bedroom with closed windows so as to not let in the deadly mosquitoes that are big and loud enough to leave you cowering under your covers every night. The sampling of strange looking Russian food, however, was difficult to avoid. I'm always open to trying new things, but when it looks like curdled cottage cheese, or has bugs oozing out of it, I'd rather stick to what I know. The thing is about the Russians, is that they are very persistent, and the thing is about the British, is that we are very polite. Somehow a sort of tradition was made according to my host - I would eat 'black bread' with every meal. I think I ate bread maybe 2 nights in a row with soup before she saw it as a dinner ritual. She would say "oh, of course Yeva ('Eve' in Russian) will have some bread. She always does." I could never say no, even if said bread was as dry and as hard as a brick.

If you're ambling down the street playing tourist, gaping at the beautiful buildings or equally at the homeless person with a huge toy tiger, you'll probably miss the Russians steaming towards you with no intention of moving aside. They will walk into you, perhaps nudging you that extra bit harder just as a warning to never look away from their watchful, determined eyes again. You might turn around and pull a "excuse me?! Do you mind?!" face, but to no prevail. They will already be nudging another poor tourist who is simply appreciating their city.

So just remember, if your mumma taught you manners, you probably don't need them in Russia. They'll just think you're either ungrateful or a creep. Or if you're really unlucky, both.

The end.

This post is slightly delayed since I left Russia on the 17th August, mainly because I've been so busy being a jet setter and settling in back home. So, after three challenging but great months in Russia, and an even more challenging but great 7 months in France, I am back on British turf - and it feels bittersweet.

I spent the last few weeks in Russia ticking off 'touristy' things that I had always planned on doing but had the attitude of "I'm here for 13 weeks, I'll save that one for next month." I managed to see/do everything I wanted to though, so the system does work! On that note, I'm going to do a post about the top attractions in St Petersburg, because it's an absolutely beautiful city and I want the world to see that too.

When my time in St Petersburg was nearing its end, I felt both excited and sad. Excited, that after a long year I was finally going back to the UK and not stepping foot on a plane in the foreseeable future. There was however, a ten day break between leaving Russia and coming home, which I spent in numerous European cities - namely in Bulgaria, Budapest, Rome and Cannes/Nice/Monaco, but more on that in a later post! After this travelling stint, I couldn't wait to get home, unpack my suitcase and leave it that way. No more living out of a case, anxiously awaiting my next flight in a mere couple of days. No more throwing up on planes because I'm a baby and can't handle turbulence. To have even a week without this sounds like heaven to me right now!

However, I was also gutted that leaving Russia meant the end of my year abroad. I cannot begin to explain how great this last year has been, as cliché as that may sound. I have learned so much about myself, met some incredible people from around the world (I have American friends now!), and been given so many great opportunities in the process. Now that I'm home, I'm hearing of friends whose year abroads are just beginning, and to them I say - good luck, make the most of every moment and please don't splash it across Facebook and Twitter, because I will 'unfriend' you purely out of jealousy.