DIT seriously screwed up…

S’up Folks!

Looking for your opinions on this.

Currently, I am sitting my finals in a Degree in International Business with French and Spanish and yesterday we had a 3 hour exam on International Political Economy.

At 1pm we were handed the paper, everyone opened it quickly to see if our questions came up (which they did) and we began the paper.

However what was strange about this paper was that at the beginning of each question it began with “Students should answer along the lines of….” and it gave guidelines. Strange?? We thought so too!

However the majority of us genuinely believed that the lecturer was being sound and giving us guidelines to our essays as they needed to be 4/5 pages long and the “guidelines” given were in no way 4/5 pages long. At 3.41pm , head of department strolls in with a very abrupt “Eh what do you think you are doing?”. Not a hello, not even a how is the exam going, just straight in and BAM!

We were then informed that were actually given the marking scheme and NOT the paper!

So after 2 hours and 41 minutes this is discovered and we are told that it will have to be resit!

However there was uproar as people genuinely didn’t cop on (myself included).

Our opinions on the matter were considered by our International Marketing lecturer who met with head of school yesterday.

Honestly though do you think it is fair for us to have to resit the exam??

We were under exam pressure, opened the paper without reading the front and began!

Also how on earth did D.I.T manage to print of 200 marking schemes!!

We did a current assessment worth 50% so there is talk of making that our final grade. There is also talk of the whole incident being forgotten about and it being corrected as normal.

What you reckon?

Good work DIT 😉

Varsities!!!!!

Sooo this weekend is my last weekend ever that I could possibly win a medal from the varsities as it’s my lst year in college 😦

1,2,3.. awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Last year unfortunately DIT didn’t perform up to scratch with their scholarship players all on erasmus (ahem) meaning we are actually in the B varsities this year! Non the less it is a national competition and we will be hoping to win it!

We have royal college of surgeons in our group along with Griffith College Dublin, two teams that we have never played before. So it’s safe to say we have no idea what to expect but thats the fun of it really! This year they are in Limerick (University of Limerick) which is an awesome city for a good night out!

With my finals in ten days I think ill use this an excuse to let the auld hair down before going into hibernation next week studying. To think that in a month ill be pretty much finished studying for gooooooooooooooooooooooood!!

Who wants to burn the books with me? 😉

DIT FOR VARSITIES!! 🙂

Valentines day… Bleugh

So the 14th is coming up and although I’m buying myself chocolates and a card I’d love to hear what your getting your loved one on this “special day”. This year I am more bitter than ever towards the day and really have no idea why! You might say it’s because I’m single, and you might be right 😛

Something I would love to know is from guys who have ever taken a girl out on valentines day that they were NOT going out with. I would be well too embarrassed asking a girl out for dinner or something on the 14th as it could be not more implied what you are looking for. Also, for the girls, if a guy asked you out on a first date on valentines day would you be more or less inclined on saying yes than you would be had it been any other day of the year.

One thing is for sure I don’t have to stress over what flowers and perfume she would like. Yeeeeeeehaaaaaa!! its looking like work for me then for you Dublin folk reading it will be Coppers after where I am sure love will be in the air 😉

❤

Clampers.. what a joke!

Sup sup dudes and dudettes!

Something i really need to rant about is about the clampers going around Dublin , clamping cars that are parked “illegally”!

A couple of nights a week I do chinese deliveries. Now usually I park outside the customers house or apartment block give them the chinese and then scoot off to do another delivery. Last night panned out a little differently thanks to the clampers and I want to ask you guys did I get what I deserved.

I pulled up to an apartment block where EVERY parking space was “reserved”, meaning I didn’t want to park in one of the spots in case I got clamped (funny enough). So I decided to pull right up into a yellow box which was labelled “Fire access only” just so that I could see my car from the apartment block. I left the car unlocked and turned on the Hazard lights. I rang the apartment bell , waited for him to answer the door then exchanged the food for money (usual procedure). I turn around to see some guy taking pictures of my car. I shouted at him but was completely ignored! I got to my car then only to find it clamped for “parking illegally”. After explaining my situation to them I was told that there is nothing that they can do and that I should “call my mom” to help me out which seriously annoyed me!

The release fee was 120 euro and I am debating whether or not i should dispute it! I was gone literally 90 seconds! It felt like they were hiding in a bush and just jumped out once i had left! Also something that intrigued me was I left my car in an “illegal spot” thus meaning I had to be clamped, however I returned to the car while they were still there meaning technically that they were facilitating the car being left parked illegally! Am I not right?

By them refusing to declamp my car they were leaving my car at a fire access thus causing an obstruction should anything bad occur. So I am curious to know what would have happened if I didn’t have the money? Would the clamping company be then prosecuted for leaving a car “illegally”?

It really got to me as I lost 2 hours work and 120 euro went straight out of my pocket and into theirs for something that I feel was unfair!

What you think? 🙂

Nothing beats a good hostel

Sup folks 🙂

This week I spent 3 days travelling Ireland with one of my best mates. As we both work and had a few days off we decided to take a bit of a local holiday. We took his car and set off for county Galway on Tuesday!

We decided previously to stay in hostels during our travels. Now most of the time people stay in hostels to save a bit of cash and go sight-seeing with minimum costs. However after thee three days I will be definitely choosing hostels from now on as my form of accommodation and it has nothing to do with the money. For Tuesday and Wednesday we stayed in a hostel in Galway called Snoozles. It was lovely! It had a kitchen , common room with pool table , a tv, sky digital and all the rooms were en suite. We booked into a 10 bedroom dorm. When we arrived nobody was in our room so we just left our stuff and decided to get some food. When we got back , we found our first roommate who was from the south of Ireland. He was a really nice guy and had just returned from travelling Spain. Sooner later we were joined by two more of our roommates who actually came from Lichtenstein. They two were extremely nice. Then we were joined by an American couple who had just finished travelling europe. So already we had 3 nationalities in our room just chatting away about our travels and plans. My mate and I took one of the roomies out with us (the dude from south of Ireland) and ended up in a pub called “Skeffs” which was a lovely spot then we followed a pub crawl which took us to a nightclub called “Central Park” which I found to be a very enjoyable venue.

Wednesday night however was our best night in Galway. More people ended up in our room and we all got chatting and ended up going out together! We only knew each other maybe an hour and yet we were all out on the town as if we were best friends since we were young. There  was 9 of us in total all coming from Brazil, New Zealand, France ,m Lichtenstein and Ireland. We found a pub to have a quiet few then went back to “Central Park” for a bit of a boogie ;). It was one of the best nights I have ever had and it was with a group of people I had never met before!

I understand completely that you could end up with a weirdo or four in your room but after this experience I would definitely be leaning more towards staying in Hostels just because of the atmosphere! Also it turns out that the girls from Lichtenstein, one of the girls from New Zealand and also the French guys are visiting Dublin next week, meaning we can do it all over again!

Anytime staying in a hostel was mentioned to me before I always laughed at the idea thinking I would rather just save the extra couple of euro and splash out on a hotel, but I take that all back now!

Maybe its just the Irish hostels that are so cool? 😉

Erasmus coming to an end

Hey guys 🙂

So today it was a whopping 29 degrees! We spent the day playing football which was awesome as its impossible to do something like that in Ireland. There were 35 of us just out enjoying the heat. Still cannot believe that I have less than a week to go! Going to be a crazy week at that too.

This was one part of Erasmus I was not looking forward to. The signing of all the papers in relation to rent, bank accounts, grants etc and if im being honest I never saw it coming. Well here it is!

To think that this time 9 and a half months ago I arrived with a prosperous year ahead and now its coming to an end. All a bit too emotional really 😉

For those of you who are going on Erasmus next year, I hate you! You are in for one crazy year! You’re going to meet so many new people, experience a brand new culture and go to class in a different language (every once in a while). 😉

I have met people from so many different countries while being here which is what really makes Erasmus amazing. Also the travelling opportunities opened as a result are endless as all I will really have to pay for is transport due to knowing somebody who has a floor I can crash on :)!

Might as well enjoy my last week here. Weather is going to be amazing and no more exams!

Viva Erasmus 🙂

Watching people on bikes, skateboards and rollerblades is really entertaining

Hey Hey 🙂

Today we spent the day chilling by one of the rivers in Lyon that has a mini skatepark beside it. Every weekend there are always guys messing around on  bikes, skateboards and roller blades who are crazily good! Here is a snapshot I managed to get of one guy jumping on his bike from one bowl to the next! I took it on a phone so it is not the best quality but you can still see how high he was getting! This picture is of him on his way down too which means he actually was higher. AWESOME!

 

Have a great weekend folks 🙂

Royal Wedding Fever.. Will someone help me catch it?

Saluuut mecs et dames 🙂

Ok so the big royal wedding is tomorrow and there is a massive deal being made about it, even here in France. I have been babysitting three french kids this week and they have asked can we watch it as they love princesses! Of course i said we could but they are only 3 amongst apparently 2 billion people who are going to tune in to watch this wedding take place. There has been reminders in papers , on kiosks etc along with pubs opening early to show the event here in Lyon.

Yesterday I decided to take time out of Erasmus life and watch the news. Has to be done once in a while! Anyway, it was all about the royal wedding.There were people who are camping outside the church to be the first to see the newlyweds , there were bookies who are offering betting markets for the likes of “will Kate be late or on time” or “10,000/1 for neither of the newlyweds to show up”. Wow!! If someone knows out there whether Kate is getting cold feet please feel free to comment this blog and we can split the winnings! :p

Sky news had a correspondent in New York to show the world the “Royal Wedding Fever” that is currently plaguing New York too. One New Yorker interviewed said that “Girls are brought up with Disney etc and wanting to find their prince charming, and I am just glad that a girl exists out there who has found her prince”. There are even some designers trying to predict the wedding dress that Kate Middleton is going to wear so that they can make major big bucks after the wedding. And not to mention the “Kate” hairdo that people have been apparently been asking for.

I am not moaning about the wedding at all. I am just merely trying to understand why this is such a big deal. There have been major rehearsals going on to make sure the day is completely perfect, which is fair enough as that is what most weddings will do, but not all weddings involve military marches and a crazy airshow. I would love to know why I have no urge to watch the wedding. I have no reason for not having an urge, it really just hasn’t interested me.

Anyone able to give me a hand to help me understand it more??

Happy Royal wedding folks :)!

I hope that you have a great day and that the projected rain forecast across England doesn’t happen!

🙂

Im In France so please talk to me in French!!

Ok so lately this has really been getting to me and i really cannot understand why the French persist on doing it. Anytime a French person hears me or my mates speaking French they automatically speak to us in English jus because we are anglophone, even if their english is terrible!

Yesterday for example me and two friends were lying in the sun when we were approached by a man looking for a lighter. The French for lighter is feu which literally means flame. However if you are learning a language you well know that some words have different meanings in other languages. Well this made me laugh. Just because we were speaking english , he came over and asked us if we could lend him a “fire”.  Naturally a laughed and replied “Desole je ne fume pas” which means sorry I don’t smoke. I just don’t get why he couldn’t just ask us in French! Once our accents are heard or even when people hear us speaking english they just presume that we are incapable of speaking French which annoys me as we have been living here since last september!

I know this might seem silly but its something that really gets to me. If a French person was in Ireland and they approached me, i wouldn’t answer them in French. I would respect the fact that they are in Ireland where we speak english and that they probably want to practice their english. Also personally if I were to reply in French I think that in a way that is going offend them. It’s basically like me saying “your english is terrible so we our going to talk in French” which may not be the case at all at all. Anyone out there have the same problem or ever had the same problem?

Ok rant over 😛

Happy easter folks!!

😀

Fete de la Renaissance..April 16th

Ok guys so today was “La Fete de la Renaissance” here in Lyon. Now for those of you who do not speak french, this means “The Renaissance Celebration”. For all of today french people here in Lyon celebrated the Renaissance and what it brought to the world. All i can say is, as normal with every “fete” in France, the French went all out.

We had seen tents being put up around our area and couldn’t quite figure out why exactly they were being put up. During breakfast then today we heard these really loud bangs. If I am being completely honest it did kind of freak us out at first. We ran to our window only to see a massive parade walking right by our apartment block! It was huge, and followed by massive crowds of spectators. They were approaching the “Musee de Gadagne” which is a museum right beside us here in the old part of Lyon. The parade then came to a halt, and people started partaking in fake sword fights, battles and there were even guys doing all sorts of crazy tricks with flags. To top it all off as well there was some crazy guy who had a mini hand-held cannon which he fired at random spurs. The noise off this thing was unbearable and at first when we heard it we genuinely thought someone had been shot outside our apartment! It was mental!

I have to say it was pretty cool to witness and as usual when it comes to demonstrations there doesn’t seem to be anyone better than the French. We regretted not exploring more today and seeing what else was going on but with Man Utd playing Man city and Real Madrid playing Barcelona in soccer , it would have had to have been something really crazy to distract our attention from the football. 😉

So there you go, the 16th of April means the celebration of the Renaissance here in Lyon. Its something to put in the diary for next year 😉

Its crazy but the French seem to have a special day for nearly everything. Sure why not eyy 😉