I know the title of this does sound quite arrogant and egotistical given that I will essentially be writing this post all about myself, but it was suggested to me and in theory it isn't an overly bad idea. I'm pretty sure I am not the best qualified to talk on the subject- my friends without doubt know me a lot better than I know myself, we literally have no secrets, but as my mates are elsewhere, mainly in England or dispersed all over France and the rest of continental Europe, you'll have to do with me...sorry.
The question now is what to say that I haven't already mentioned on the profile part of my blog...
Actually I think my friends are probably a decent place to start and I'm sure they'd all be flattered to know that they are getting a mention! I have already mentioned in a previous blog that I am going to visit my best friend in Grenoble very soon, so we have a starting point. Her name is Céallai (prounounced Kelly, as she is of Irish origin she uses the Gaelic spelling) and she is two years older than me, not that you'd think it to look at us nor the way we act when we are together- people have mistaken us for sisters many times. We both went to the same Secondary School (after Céa moved from a previous school in a different part of Manchester) and we met when I was 13 and she 15 during rehearsals for a production of Oliver that our school was putting on as we were both in the chorus. Her Dad used to be Head of Languages at school (for the first three years I was there) and had taught me French in my first year, Year 7, so that was an easy conversation starter and ice-breaker. The year after our forms were in classrooms oppsoite each other so we always had to wait on the same landing, so there was many a conversation to be had. As she is two years older than me, she left school when I was in third year, Year 9 and consequently moved to France, initially to Tournon-sur-Rhone in the Ardeche, it was only when she went to university that she moved to Grenoble where she still is now and lives with her natively French boyfriend. I haven't seen them since the last time I went to visit in summer 2006, so I can't wait to see them both again!
My two best male friends both have the same name but spell it differently, one Kris, the other Chris. Kris is in Paris this year working as an assistant like me at a Lycée professionel in Créteil and Chris is spending the year as an Erasmus student at university in Pamplona in Northern Spain. I met Kris 5 years ago when I started college as we were both in the same form and we both took French (as there were only three of us in our French class you get to know people really quickly!) and even though everybody out of my group of friends from college has gone to a different university we are all as close as ever and at the moment I speak to Kris almost daily. He is northern and Boltonian in every sense of the words, seriously if you think I am broad and Northern, it just doesn't compare! He is hilarious though with the same sort of sarcastuc wit and humour as me, he can make anything (within reason) funny, which is what you need sometimes. As I said before I have no secrets with my friends and as Kris and my other friends would vouch they have no secrets with me, which is the best way to be. They say you meet your friends for life at university but I think I found some of mine at college!
Other Chris I met at university, we both lived in the same university residence during our first year, but in different blocks. I got to know him mainly through mutual friends as he knew an Australian erasmus student that I did and the first time we met (typically!) was in our halls' bar where we had gone to watch the football- he is a die-hard Barcelona fan as he is half Spanish (his mother is from Barcelona, his father from London) although you really wouldn't think it to look at him as he has very fair skin and ginger hair! Not exactly your stereotypical Spaniard, but he is completely bilingual (English and Spanish). He lives in London, so we only really see each other at university in England , although we do speak on MSN/Skype/Phone a lot. At some point during my time on the continent I am going to go to Pamplona to visit him and hopefully to practice my Spanish which has somewhat suffered in favour of French this year, though hopefully with a bit of practice it will improve again. We are going to live together next year back in Leeds too hopefully so I'll have an excuse to be able to practice my Spanish after having had my French improve this year!
Not exactly mentioned much about myself up to now...mainly because as I say I am not exactly the best qualified...I like to think of myself as independent, confident and as much as I am stupid at times, intelligent (as Mum says, academically I am very intelligent when it comes to common sense I lack it!) I like to think that I have continued a family tradition in the fact that I am a musician as my great-grandma used to play the piano and my great-grandfather used to play the violin. My great-grandma was professionally qualified and played in theatres/cinemas to accompany silent films or otherwise in church or at home. Her piano is now at my cousin's house as even though I live in the house that was her's as my Mum and Dad bought it from her there wasn't the room, but at least it has stayed in the family. My great-grandfather used to have a Stradivarious violin, which believe me is the best manufacturer of string instruments ever and to buy one now would cost thousands. As a violinist/violist myself I would have killed to have at least seen it, but we believe it was given to distant relatives in Australia which is a shame in a way. Having said that I doubt I'd ever have dared to touch or play it even if we still had it as I'd be too scared of breaking it or damaging it in any way given the value of the instrument. The fact I play the flute too was my own decision- I started playing the recorder at primary school which I took to and really enjoyed, so when I started at Secondary School I swapped my recorder for a flute and had lessons through school just as I did with my violin until I started private tuition aged 14/15. My cousin, Dan who is a few years older than me is also a musician, although a lot more seriously than me as he studied music at Birmingham Conservatoire and has a degree. He has played the trumpet from being young and sees music as his career, both as a performer and a teacher.
At home I live in a typically English, red-brick, terraced house, which was built in 1902, a year after the death of Queen Victoria, Britain's longest serving monarch (having said that our current Queen isn't too far off changing that statistic!) and before it belonged to my great-grandma it was a vicarige. I find history really fascinating, I studied it at school up to GCSE level and in a way wish I had continued it at college, but I still take a very keen interest. Last year at university I took a module in French history from the Revolution of 1789 to 1914, which I really enjoyed. I did my essay on feminism, which nicely leads me on to my next point, I consider myself a feminist. I know a lot of people, both men and women hate the word and although I'm not going to go and handcuff myself to parliament or set churches alight as they did when the Suffragettes were campaigning for votes for women in the early 20th century, I do use the word quite openly to express my beliefs on certain things and I really don't see why it should strike the fear of God into people as much as it seems to!
Anyways, when I started I wasn't exactly sure how this post was going to go, but I am pretty sure I have gone off on enough tangents for one night! :)
Why can't I write essays as easy as this? Where is the justice? haha :P
No comments:
Post a Comment