A week of bizarre questions!

Just grabbing a few moments before going for a welcome drink with everyone who's recently arrived here, there are quite a few of us who have arrived in the last week or so, including a couple of other assistants, an American and a Spaniard I think, although I haven't met either yet.

It's been another busy week since I last wrote, have been at school for a few hours everyday. Still just observing classes, and answering their questions, as the title to this post suggests, there have been yet more weird ones! I've been asked out of the blue if I'll be teaching them to swim (little do they know I'm probably the most incompetent swimming instructor they'll ever meet!) and if I've ever seen a leprechaun, of all things! That one really threw me, I thought I'd misheard, as I often do, today I misheard Zinedine Zidane for Lady Diana! They do study the strangest cross section of things in the English classes, one group's textbook is 100% focused on Brighton. They also asked me if my sister had a nickname, so I said that I call her Bean, to which they fell about laughing when the teacher told them this is translated to haricot. Apparently they think the English are obsessed with baked beans, something that they find a very odd idea.

The pupils are generally really nice and friendly towards me, although I did have a group jump out on me from behind the lockers as I was walking down the corridor, which gave me a bit of a fright and amused them no end! I have started spotting some when I'm out of school (I generally dart off quickly in the other direction!) and one girl came up to me today and said she'd seen me in Carrefour at the weekend, it's a bit strange to think that I can run into pupils wherever I go.

Another funny thing they've picked up is that the English don't like to swear and generally say "sugar" instead, quite true, but it's very funny to hear them come out with it, they just don't quite have the right intonation and it sounds very odd!

So in brief, other school related news is that I've started working on organising the "Semaine d'Europe" (European week) with the librarian, we're looking at putting displays up down the main corridor, getting the chef to focus his menus on different foods etc, that week is to be at the
October. I have made posters for a lunchtime meeting with interested pupils, it will be interesting to see how many show up! I've also been asked out to supper with a science teacher tomorrow night, who has a son who needs English conversation classes, so we might set something up, it'd be great to be paid to do something as easy as chatting in English! Teachers also keeping mentioning some Comenius project I'm supposed to be doing...I have no idea what this is, as far as I knew I was an English language assistant, but we shall see! I'm doing the inevitable putting off discussing what it is until it's absolutely necessary!

Apart from school I've been busy, on Thursday evening we had a party at another of the hostels owned by the same company as this one. We went there in cars, the journey alone was hilarious, two guys in the front, and Charlotte, Pauline and me crammed in the back. We got very lost, although Pauline and I had seen the sign for the foyer, we went round one roundabout 6 times while they debated where to go, completely ignoring Pauline and me. And all this was taking place to the tune of the Titanic soundtrack which we had blasting out at full volume! Needless to say, I felt very travel sick when we finally arrived! The event itself was a sort of buffet, followed by a really crazy band (see the photo!), who played French modernised nursery rhymes! There was lots of jolly French dancing! For the buffet, everyone brought something typical from their home town. I had no idea what to take, it's very hard to find any vaguely English food here, and don't have a kitchen in which to cook anything. Eventually I found some Scottish Millionaire's Shortbread, so that was ok, thank you for everyone who offered suggestions! It was such an amazing spread, the French really do know how to cook, most people had brought some homemade dish, absolutely delicious. Particularly considering most people are in their teens or early twenties, it was really impressive, I don't think most English young people could (or would) produce such a yummy selection of goods. I'm slowly but surely getting bigger!!! Particularly as I'm currently eating brioche and nutella for breakfast, and then two 3 course meals, with ample bread. I do not know why the French are not all obese and suffering from lung cancer.

For the first few days, people kept mentioning pudding to me, and I couldn't understand what they were so interested in: I explained to them that after lunch, we'll have something sweet, just as they do in France, I didn't see what was so special. Then I realised, it's Christmas pudding that they're on about, the French are absolutely captivated by the thought of it, they find the thought of it really weird and can't believe that it actually tastes nice. I may have to bring some back after Christmas, my excuse for not making my own is that it's too late to make it now, they find the idea that you make it months in advance equally strange. I have also tried what the French believe is custard, what they call creme anglaise, it rather different to my custard, so I'm calling it creme anglaise a la francaise!

On Friday night we stayed in and watched a film on TV and the French equivalent to Popstars (which, despite my dislike of such shows, I will admit it was funny). It's so nice to have no stress of work and to think that by spending an evening watching TV I am actually "working/learning"! The funniest moment of the evening was when the boys came in and poured a saucepan of water over Charlotte and me, for absolutely no reason! They really do play loads of practical jokes here, I'm really watching my back.

On Saturday we went shopping (and no, I haven't yet found myself some red ankle swingers!) and in the evening we went to a electroguitarre type concert, which was quite good. We then went on to what was called an Irish bar (having never been to Ireland I'm not one to judge...but it certainly didn't seem Irish to me!) so we had a dance there, and stayed until nearly 4, French discotheques tend not to open until 12/1 and stay open until at least 5, something I'm going to have to get used to! It was really good fun to have a boogie to some crazy French music, with some English bit thrown into the mix.

Once we'd got up on Sunday we went to the beach again, we have had 10 days of non stop hot sun (except one grey morning) and I'm sorry to day that my nose has taken another battering! The people here have never known me without a red nose, and the current joke is that I am in fact an alcoholic who came to France simply because red wine is cheaper and I have a large supply in my room! Apart from my nose, I'm also still rather bruised from ice skating last week, some bruises came up a real treat!

Yesterday I finally braved doing some washing. As anyone who as ever lived with me will know, I absolutely hate doing the laundry and will do anything at all to put it off. So I headed down to the laundry room to try and work it all out (I'm possibly the first person ever to visit a laundrette equipped with a dictionary in hand!). These things absolutely baffle me, plus I've never used a tumble dryer before, so I really didn't stand a chance! It was almost a success, I only shrank 4 socks and 1 t-shirt, I aim to improve next time otherwise by then end of the year I'll have nothing left. Then again that might not be a bad thing, it'll make transporting things home easier, especially now I've got my bike!

I hope you like the photo of my bike, I'm still besotted with it! The flag has had to be returned (apparently it was "borrowed" from a bank, I'm asking no questions!) but it is still looking pretty fit!

The final observation of this post is that the French tend to leave much less space between themselves, when they're talking or just standing next to each other, I'm finding it really unnerving having someone right in my personal space. Plus you have to kiss everyone, even those you'd rather stay well away from!