Lyon Memories

It's 51 weeks today since I left Lyon and ended my year abroad. As this time last year I was getting ready for a trip to Rome and enjoying my last days as an Erasmus student I can't help but compare it to my life at the moment which consists of revision and the odd trip to the gym.

So, in honour of my year abroad I thought I would share my top 5 Erasmus moments! I don't think photos can really do it justice but I'll give it a try:

The day we met Jesus at Fourvière.

Fête des lumières and celebrating surviving a trip on the Ferris Wheel of Death.

A night of broken chairs, show-tunes and shots.

Last night out with everyone. 

Trip to Rome!

Nostalgia beats revision every time! 

Le Week-End

I am now over half-way through my exams, so last night to celebrate I went to the cinema to see ‘Something Borrowed’, an activity I’ve had planned for the past three weeks, highlighting yet again that I really do need to get a life. Fortunately, it seems it was worth all the build up and I thoroughly enjoyed it, partly because of John Krasinski but also because of the lack of thinking involved, something that I have been doing way too much of lately. The cinema was also accompanied by wine and ice-cream, a move that I regretted this morning, particularly as I managed to drop the majority of my chocolate ice-cream on my brand new cream scarf.

As I now have a bit of a break between exams, and weekends in Reading can be quite boring, I decided to go to Liverpool for the weekend to get my fix of chips and gravy, cheap clothes shops and to see family, of course. However, just in time I realised that my surprise visit would coincide with a wedding to which I am not invited. Whilst I quite like the idea of crashing a wedding I wasn’t sure the bride would, especially as the last time I 'crashed' a wedding I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt having just jumped out of a paddling pool – I was about 5 years old. So, as my plan didn’t quite come together I’m having to think of other things to do in order to put off revision for my last two exams. One of the ‘fun’ activities I've come up with is writing a ‘Things to do Before I’m Thirty’ list, which is likely to include such gems as: building a tree-house; getting a dog and naming it Derek; creating my own library complete with a slide-y ladder and opening a tea room. Hopefully over the course of the weekend I’ll think of other, slightly more exciting things to add to it. But seeing as I’ve got less than eight years in which to achieve all these things I should probably get a move on!  

The family pet, unfortunately not named Derek. (Photography courtesy of Lottie Buckley)

Muggate

This week sees the start of my final year exams. Eek. However, I am trying to forget this fact, so instead I will focus on the curious case of the missing mugs, more commonly known (by me) as Muggate.

My story starts in October when I moved back to Reading to start my 4th year of studying French and English. I remember move in day well, I had come straight to Reading from Aberdeen, bringing with me, amongst other things, two mugs, one bearing my name and the other one being a present that had been sent all the way to Lyon. For a month or so everything was going quite well and I enjoyed many cups of tea, sometimes a hot chocolate, happily alternating between the two mugs. Then suddenly they both disappeared! I searched the entire kitchen, friends searched the kitchen and I even inquired at reception, yet there was no sign of either mug. Thus I consigned myself to a life without them and in time I learnt to love my new mugs. Then last night, whilst making a revision break cuppa, I looked in my cupboard and as if by magic the mugs were there!  

The mugs at the centre of the Muggate scandal. 

How they got there nobody knows. While it all remains shrouded in mystery I am just pleased that a bit of variation can now be added to tea-breaks! Perhaps the fact that I am so excited by this is a sign that I should probably get out a bit more, but for now I am just enjoying this reunion of a girl and her mugs. With this Osama Bin Laden business it’s unlikely Muggate will make even the local news, so if anybody has any ideas as to the whereabouts of the mugs between November and May, then please do let me know. I’m hoping I’ve watched enough Poirot and Miss Marple to solve this mystery.