As the title suggests, I've been having banking problems, I've had my card swallowed twice and a mini debate with the bank manager, during which he said that England should just join the Euro and then I'd have no problems, which did nothing to ease my mood! It's been quite a challenge trying to understand French banking terms, whose English translations probably mean nothing to me anyway. Fortunately all is now sorted, fingers crossed.
I was invited out to dinner on Wednesday with a biology teacher, who would like me to give conversation classes to her 19 year old son, who is to spend 2 months next year in an English speaking country. I decided I needed a gift to take, so decided to buy some flowers. I think it was possibly the first time in my life I've actually been into a florist and had absolutely no idea what to choose, so overwhelming! I eventually chose some but then realised that I had to get the bouquet home on my bike...I balanced them precariously on the front and had a hazardorous cycle ride home, I think I must have looked an absolute picture! In a German class this week one of the pupils asked the teacher, much to her bemusement, how to say that I have a "beau velo" (beautiful bicycle), it's still very popular with the pupils!
I googled French dinner manners quickly before I left (realising that I've been breaking many French dining rules all month!) and went over. I had a really nice evening, with far too much delicious French food! However we did eat lots of asparagus, and I had a bit of a fright when I went to the loo later that evening! I have organised to speak English with Quentin (her son) and Cecilia (his girlfriend) every Friday evening. I went this Friday and passed a very easy hour chatting in English, being paid to do something that simple is great! And they gave me supper again. They were very excited about what we were eating that evening, but when I found out that it was mussels, my heart sank, I generally stay as far away from seafood as possible. However I figured I'd better be polite so I smiled and said yum! And in fact they were fine! I'm gradually broadening my eating habits. That evening was the first time I've properly spoken English since I got here and it was actually really difficult to get back into the French afterwards.
On Thursday I had a really interesting day at school, I spent the afternoon with the special needs class. It's comprised of about 10 pupils from all the years who simply would not cope if they were in the normal school system. At the start of the afternoon they could ask me questions, which was useful as it made me realise just how hard it is for them to grasp that I'm not French and I could gauge their level of understanding. Once they'd exhausted all the questions they could possibly think of I helped them with their work. I spent some time helping a 12 year old girl adding up numbers, she could only manage numbers under ten, with my help. It was such an enlightening experience, I never knew that I'd enjoy doing that sort of work, nor did I know that I'd have the patience to do so, but I think we both felt like she'd achieved something when she completed her number square. The teacher would like me to go back at some point later this term and run a lesson on something that interests me, to do with England. Not sure what to do yet (all suggestions welcome!), it's going to be hard to organise work of a suitable level for them, as they can all manage different things. Plus the school has almost no resources: no classrooms have OHPs, let alone a computer projector; I can't remember the last time that I did a presentation without powerpoint, eeek!
On Thursday evening we went to the cinema to watch "Entre les Murs", a French film set in a school in Paris. It won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and is brilliant, really funny, although it was rather like paying to watch what I can usually see for free at school! Go and see it if you get the chance.
On Friday we had a meeting about the Semaine d'Europe (European week) that I am helping to organise and which I think I have mentioned before. Friday's meeting was with a variety of teachers and the chef of the school refectory. We have decided that we want each day to be themed with food from a different country, so we brainstormed many ideas. I think for England we are having a soup starter (no-one, including me, could think of a traditionally English starter), followed by a choice of either fish and chips or a meat pie with potatoes and vegetables. I'll be interested to see how that turns out, I think the chips will be of the French variety, rather than the bigger chips that we have. English pudding was hotly debated, Christmas pudding was suggested (of course!), but they were worried that we do not have enough weeks to leave it to gain its true flavour (although I think that this is just an excuse so they don't have to serve it!. So I think that we've settled on jelly (another pudding which they believe to be a typically English inedible dish!) and apple pie and custard. They never eat custard (creme aglaise) warm, but I am insisting that it has to be hot, their response to this is that they'll all sit and wait for it to cool down!
I'm currently making flags to be put up along the corridor during the Semaine d'Europe and reckon I can now name all 27 countries of the EU off by heart, plus match the appropriate flag to the country, it's taking me so long...it's a long corridor! Next I have to translate "welcome" into each language...!
On Saturday, Charlotte and I took the train to La Rochelle for the day, which is absolutely beautiful, I wish I'd been placed there instead! It's got a wonderful old port with a castle guarding the entrance and the area surrounding consists of typically Frenh buildings, all very striking. A lot of the streets are cobbled (not like Dunster, but French style!) and we meandered round the shops, which had some seriously espensive items, think handbags starting at 300 euros, a little bit out of my student load budget! We had some delicious crepes and gaufres (pancakes and waffles), I could easily fall into the habit of going to a French bakery/patisserie every meal time, yum yum. I know I rant about it all the time, but yes food here really is just amazing!
The French really do have a different approach to weekends to us, even on Saturdays the towns are quiet, and on Sundays absolutely everything shuts down. Not a chance of finding a shop open (I have to actually plan my food for the weekend, no popping out to Carrefour) and there are absolutely no busses. In fact, public transport in France seems to be pretty bad in that respect, there are no trains or busses after 7pm any day of the week and taxis are always hard to come across. I do wish I had Vivien here sometimes.
This week I am doing yet more observation (when will I actually start work?!), so have already been to a few PE classes, chiefly basketball and gymnastics, the latter being really popular here. There was absolute carnage when one class of 11 year olds were putting out the mats, they're so small and the mats so big and heavy. They were supposed to be standing in a line and passing them along to the sports hall, but there were more pupils at the start enthusiastically grabbing mats from the pile and not enough pupils at the other end. The poor pupils couldn't keep up with the rate at which the mats were arriving and they were literally being dropped on top of their heads, so funny to watch! And the pupils have to do the plank! One teacher was really harsh, she was counting the 20 seconds they had to do it for, and once she got to 15 she started counting really slowly, any netballer will sympathise with the pupils' pain! The gymnastics they do is pretty spectacular though, especially compared to all I ever did at school, a couple of roly polys (is that actually a word?!) and a twirl! The French word of the week has to be "saute mouton" which literally means jump sheep and is French for leap frog...since when die sheep jump, I think our description is much better!
Today I went to a really interesting lesson, where someone from a different career will come in and be interviewed by the class, so that they get an idea of what different jobs are out there. Today's guest was the chef of the school refectory, and it was actually fascinating to hear about what he does, they start preparing our school dinners at 6:30 am! He has a budget of 1 euro 67 per person per day and he explained all about how he has to do about 3 hours of admin a day: preparing menus, budgeting, ordering food and doing hygiene checks etc, I'd never considered the amount of work that goes into it. What was funny was that earlier at lunch I'd been a bit put out because the choice was fish, or fish (so I had to eat fish...and admittedly enjoyed it!). Then in the lesson 2 hours later he explained how he deliberately writes the menu so that the children have to try new things and eat foods they would normally avoid, just like I had had to! It really is so different to school lunches in the UK, when I consider how at WSCC we could eat chips and chocolate cake everyday if we wanted to; Jamie Oliver is definitely on the right track/ 3 courses they may well eat, but at least they're healthy.
Goodness, I do waffle, sorry! I will now eave you with a couple of my quotes from the week:
Charlotte: "So what exactly is Wales?" She genuinely didn't know that it's a country!
Teacher: "Why is X away today?"
Pupil: "She's eaten so much she's now too fat to fit through the door into school!"
I know the pupil and can confirm she's certainly not overweight, even the teacher laughed at this one.
Teacher: Towards a boy who was playing up "You're an idiot"
Pupil: "I know, it's my greatest quality"
Well yes, you could put it that way!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment