Fitting in with the French...new haircut!

Another busy week! Last Thursday I went to the hairdressers. This was quite the experience, he knew I was English as when I made the appointment I couldn't remember the French word for appointment and got rather flustered so just ended up saying "cut!" So when I arrived he gave me a few brochures and said to point out what I wanted, there was nothing whatsoever that I liked (think typical French bad hair!), so in the end I just pointed at pictures of things I didn't want (such as an awful fringe) and said "non!" I crossed my fingers! His own hair was interesting, he had sideburns coming down to between his nose and mouth and then sideburns/a beard/a moustache coming across his face thus joining the sideburns to each other! No typical twiddly French moustache but funny nonetheless! He took ages to do it, they do like to take their time with things: 2 hours over lunch, 2 and a half hours cutting my hair...! Then with gusto he whipped off the towel and said voila! And it's actually not bad, it ranks pretty highly on my list of previous haircuts, but then again considering the awful cuts I've had in the past (think the "page boy bowl cut") that's not exactly hard!

On Thursday night we had a party to celebrate the official start of the academic year (despite the fact that everyone went back at the start of September!). It was great fun, we played various games and they had a DJ in. I have to say I witnessed possibly the funniest thing yet that night, the French equivalent to the Macarena is outrageously bad! Indescribably so! Although I will admit to quickly trying to learn the moves and attempting to join in, very badly! They also played Coton-Eye Joe and the French don't dance to it like I'm accustomed to, their version involves a bridge and lots of promenading, good times!

On the music theme, I heard Robbie Williams on the radio this morning, yet it was in French! He sings "Supreme" completely translated into French, very impressive. Again I was caught out as I tried to sing a long!

I have finally found out a bit more about this Comenius project that people keep harping on about, that I'm supposed to be involved in. There was a meeting with la maitrise and various teachers, so I headed along too. It turns out to be a project between a school in France (our school), Italy, Spain, Romania, Greece and Bulgaria on "stone", be it in it's natural form, architecture, whatever. They have to do a project on it together other the next 2 and a half years. I am still bewildered as to how I'm supposed to fit into this, I don't speak any of the languages (except limited French), nor do I have any knowledge of stone! Plus I will be leaving before they really do much. We will see...! At one point during the meeting I had to stop myself from bursting out into laughter, la maitrise and another teacher were complaining about how disorganised and difficult to get in touch with the Italians are, talk about hypocrisy! It wasn't so long ago that I was complaining about how impossible it is to maintain contact with her!

Otherwise I've had a good week at school, more of the same regards lessons (they're still utterly obsessed with Ireland and leprechauns, I think they'll all be mightily disappointed when they one day go to Ireland and realise there are none!); I'm getting the hang of having the privileges of staff and am revelling in being able to jump the dinner queue; I've translated some recipes for the chef ready for Semaine d'Europe; I've been asked how to pronounce "once upon a time" in Welsh (absolutely clueless, much to the disappointment of the teacher!) and am still debating whether I ought to correct the teachers when they make errors in English!

The students are on the whole really nice, although I don't like it when they see me out of school, I simply cannot go into town/to the supermarket/for a run without bumping into one of them, it's like having 600 stalkers. At least it's more of a jovial "hello" they shout across the street to me rather than some abuse in French! Thinking about clothes and shopping, firstly I can't believe I've started shopping in Etam, it's a popular shop here, despite the fact it must have gone out of fashion in the UK about 10 years ago. Secondly, the current fashion for trousers is very funny, they're about the length of ankle swingers, with an elastic bottom and commonly worn in orange, hot pink and turquoise, all my pupils wear them, as do half of France. If you ask me they're more like something a pantomime Aladdin would wear!

We had another really hot weekend, I actually wore the suncream Mum has sent me, can't believe it, it's the middle of October and I'm needing sun protection. On Sunday I went for a bike ride, I traced a route on the map which I thought would take me out of town a bit and into the countryside. Well I was sort of right. I did get out of town, but found myself on a massive highway, with cars doing 90kph and signs to Paris, eeek! So there I was pedalling furiously (there is only so fast you can go on my bike, the wheels are tiny) in the midday sun, wondering where on earth I was going and hoping for some way of the road, I'm not even sure if it's legal to take a bike on such a big road! After about 20 minutes we (me and my bike, who is yet to be named, but commonly referred to as though it's alive) finally got to a roundabout and I was able to get onto a small road back to town, phew! But at least I did get out of town, all be it not in the way I expected. I have also learnt that a D preceding a road number probably means it's a major road, not a country lane like I had assumed!

I went to Carrefour yesterday and bought a huge bunch of grapes for a bargainous 55 cents (about 40p), very pleased! Some things here are really cheap in comparison to the UK and others, such as chewing gum, far more expensive, I found one small box for 3 euros, ouch! It's surprising really as the French seem to chew masses of gum, from the pupils at school to my bank manager, everybody is permanently chewing. Another discover at the supermarket was the "World Foods" section and there, sandwiched between Fajhitas and Thai rice, I found a little pocket of English cuisine. Heinz baked beans, Jacob's crackers, lemon curd, marmalade and mint sauce, all typically English foods that don't appeal to the majority of the French. The baked beans were outrageously expensive though, 2 euros 79 for a single tin.

On Sunday afternoon a whole group of us went to watch to of the boys from the foyer play a basketball match, it was a really tight game and so exciting to watch. I did want to get out of my seat and join in though, am really missing netball. Am still trying to join a club myself, have had some luck with a handball club, but I need a medical certificate in order to be allowed to play. This has led to one unsuccessful trip to the doctors, am going to try again today. So for the meantime I'm just playing sport on Monday night. Last Monday and again next week we have Aikido! I did not understand a word of what the instructor said (there's only so much you can do by following his actions), so of course that meant that I was often picked on as the demo as he could catch me 100% of guard. Next thing I knew I'd be lying flat out on my back, very funny! I quite enjoyed it, although it is a little scary to have a wooden sword at your neck!

Will add some photos at the end of this post, in no particular order, they're of La Rochelle, you can see the port, me enjoying a croque monsieur, Charlotte and me with our gaufres, the shoppig streets and the railway station. Plus there's one of me at Aikido, having just been thrown over his shoulder! Hope that you like them and that all is well in the UK.