The very last day of 2020 before the University closes until 6 January and I’m delighted to be able to bring the blog’s year to an end with the following lovely post from Emily, one of our final year students, reflecting on the strangeness of this past year:
‘I’ve written a couple of posts for the French at Stirling blog during the four years I’ve been at uni, and I find that they’re a great way to reflect on everything that’s happened over the semester. However, I don’t think any year has been more difficult to write about than 2020! What did we do, besides binging box sets and getting used to social distancing?
For me, the year got off to a great start; after Hogmanay I flew over to France to begin my semester abroad in Limoges, a nice wee town in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. This was a really fun experience for me, as the previous year I had been working as an English language assistant in a lycée so it was a good change to be the student instead of the teacher! When I was working as a language assistant I lived in a house-share with other French people and this was such a huge help in learning and improving my French, so when I was looking for a place to stay in Limoges, I knew I wanted to do the same thing. Funnily enough, I ended up in a flat-share with two other immigrants, Hung who was from Vietnam and Pedro, who was from Angola, and so we were all learning French together which was really nice (although the lads were definitely better than I was!).
Sadly, it wasn’t to last, and before the UK went into lockdown I made the decision to travel back home to stay with my parents in Argyll. This was quite a change of pace for me and a lot of other students too, as we’re used to juggling part-time jobs with studying and deadlines. For the first time since I was fourteen, I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have classes and I only had one or two assignments – in short, I had more spare time than I knew what to do with. Like many other people, the spring and summer months of lockdown all merged into one big blur of zoom calls, starting new hobbies (then dropping them two weeks later) and following the updates on lockdown guidelines, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel when restrictions started to ease up towards the start of the autumn semester.
This semester has perhaps been one of the biggest changes to normality for students, with the majority of classes moving online, however, I have to say that I’ve quite enjoyed it – there’s something nice about being able to wear your slippers to class! Despite not actually being on campus at all this year, I’ve really been enjoying my last year doing French at Stirling and it’s been really good to have the normality of a routine again after months of not very much happening at all.
This year has been really tough for everyone in so many different ways, but hopefully with the new vaccine being rolled out we’ll get back to normal and be able to see each other in 2021 – maybe in time for graduation!’
Many, many thanks, firstly, to Emily for finding the time and the energy to have written this blog post after what really has been an intense semester. From all of us in French at Stirling, a huge thank you to our students for their commitment, enthusiasm and kindness these past few months. We hope you are all able to have a calm, restful break over the holidays and we look forward to teaching you all again in January. In the meantime, joyeuses fêtes!!
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