Last weekend Dad popped over the channel and I met him in Paris for the weekend. Paris was the same as ever, beautiful and freezing! The past 2 times I've been there have been in January and February, and it has always been so cold, this trip was no exception, although the cold was a bit more worthwhile this time, as we did get to enjoy snow on Sunday afternoon, yay!
I took a train after school on Friday (I still laugh whenever I say that phrase, I feel like I'm 12 again!!) and arrived in Paris that evening. I hopped on the metro and was serenaded by a tuneless busker, nice! When I arrived Dad and I headed straight out for something to eat, and ended up in a small restaurant down some side street. It turned out that we'd gate-crashed some poetry night, where a few locals gather together and recite their works! This was hilarious, for starters they were an odd bunch, a complete mixture of French characters (there were twiddly moustaches in abundance!) and secondly I'm pretty sure most what they'd written was a load of rubbish (here's where I find out I actually went to a private recital of a famous French poet!). But they took it very seriously and we were shushed many a time!
Talking of moustaches, on my way home I captured probably my best photo yet of a typical French moustache! I may post it on here at a later date!
On Saturday we left the hotel early and headed for what my guide book described as a flea market. The goods were more what I'd expect to find on the White Elephant stall at the village fete, but it was fun rooting through the junk and we stumbled on a few interesting old bits and pieces. Nothing worth paying the extortionate prices for though. We then headed straight to the centre of Paris and visited all the usual tourist hot spots: we climbed the Arc de Triomphe, from which the view was amazing and I enjoyed watching a car circulate round twice before the driver eventually pulled in and seemed to have given up hope of getting anywhere! We then walked down the Champs-Elysees to the Louvre. Then on from the Louvre we walked all the way across Paris to the Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. This was the early afternoon and, like La Roche, Paris was surprisingly empty, there really was practically no-one about in the back streets.
On arrival at Sacre Coeur, however, we were met by the crowds! It was a beautiful, clear day and everyone had come to take photos. We walked on beyond Montmartre, away from the masses, to what is claimed to be the world's largest flea market. We browsed through all the goods, lots of interesting and bizarre pieces, mainly very overpriced. I can well imagine lots of American tourists buying token French pieces, an ugly bit of furniture can look a lot better when accompanied by "I picked that piece up at a flea market in a quartier of Paris!" We rooted round boxes of all sorts of things, the funniest being a 2p piece that we found, they were trying to sell it for a few euros!!! Last thing I knew the exchange rate wasn't that high!
We then headed back and had supper in a restaurant called "The Frog and the British Library", great name! Although incidentally, during my time here I've come across many French people who don't know that our nickname for them is frogs. How many of us know we're called Rosbif, I wonder?! They played the France-Australia rugby game, so that was fun to watch surrounded by the French, all very angry with the result!
On Sunday morning we hired bicycles and cycled right along the length of the Seine, from the far east to the Eiffel Tower, taking photos of many sights, including Notre Dame etc en route. Many a beautiful view, although it was bitterly cold, the snow was coming! On arrival at the Eiffel Tower we stopped to take a photo and I was accosted by the Chinese for photos! I couldn't believe it, in China I could (sort of) understand their obsession, there were simply no Westerners in some areas. But in Paris?! We were surrounded by them, why on earth they pounced on me I don't know! I am officially declaring myself as a Chinese pin-up!
We then cycled extremely hazardously round the Arc de Triomphe, I was beeped at a few times, but we both made it off the roundabout scratch free! We then left our bikes at the top of the Champs-Elysees and walked down, until I remembered that I'd left my camera in the basket, yikes! So I absolutely sprinted all the way back up (it's actually up-hill, and I've just googled it, it's 2km in length!) and down the side street where we'd left them, and unbelievably it will still there. Thank goodness for quiet Parisian side streets. I may well moan about how quiet France is on a Sunday, but in this instance I was very thankful, it must have been there for about half an hour. Phew!
We then walked all the way back down the avenue and surprise surprise I bumped into a Hannah, one of my old netball friends from York, we couldn't believe it, what are the chances of that?! Such a small world! We then moved on to the Pompidou Centre, so that I could get a photo of supposedly the ugliest building in Paris, I didn't really think it was that bad, perhaps it was a bit modern for its time, but it doesn't look to out of place nowadays.
So that pretty much sums up my whistle stop trip to Paris, as I had to head back early so as to avoid the strike. Today there is a strike of TV reporters, so that means we've seen 3 strikes in the past week, not bad going! According to Cecile, French teachers are really the professionals when it comes to strikes, so I can hope for a few more this year!! Apparently a proposition has been made for all workers in France to go on strike in the new year, this just strikes me (ha what a pun!) as an opportunity for a public holiday, how can everyone strike at once?! We will see!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Only In La Roche!
I've now hit the two month mark! On the one hand it feels like time's ticking by very slowly and that I've been here since forever, I've passed the stage where things are new and exciting and French is a novelty (although having said that some things never cease to amaze me, I still have enough material for a regular blog!). However, on the other hand, yikes a third of the way through, I don't want the easy life to end, Germany is going to be hardcore (I've hardly spoken a word of German since June) and I have a mammoth essay to write before then, which I haven't even started contemplating. Eeeek! I shan't let that get in the way of my fun though, it's not assessed!
I actually had some school at the end of last week and it was very hard to get back into, I just don't suit 8am starts! On Friday in my IDD class an interesting point came up, some pupils wanted to do some work at home for their project (which lasts until February) and they were actually forbidden by the teacher, I couldn't believe it. The reason being that according to the teacher this would be unfair on those who don't have a computer at home. The French principle of equality taken too far if you ask me. If the pupils want to do extra work, let them, it's not often that pupils are so keen! Plus those that don't have a computer are perfectly capable of going to the mediatheque if they like.
On Friday I also went to a sort of history club, there's a nationwide competition that the children are going to enter and I am hoping to help them with their work. Fortunately it just so happens that the subject is the Resistance, which I actually studied myself at A Level, what are the chances! All that work might actually come in useful, not that I can remember any of it. Think I might be spending my Christmas holidays swatting up on my old notes! They're also hoping that I might be able to translate any German that they come across into French, hmmm not so sure about that!
In my European studies class we were discussing mobile phones and I was highly surprised that only 12 out of the class actually had one, these pupils are 15 years old. I can't decide whether that would be the same in the UK (I don't think so), or if the French are less inclined than us to use technology. They're certainly not as open as us about giving their telephone number out and there's practically no technology at school, not even OHPs in all classrooms! And they've only just got a network installed on the computers.
One other note from school is that in English on Monday we were discussing personalities and I mentioned "organiser" and the pupils misheard and thought that I described myself as a "womaniser". That was pretty funny!
The rest of my days at work have been fine, all is ticking along as normal there, although we do have inspectors in this week which is stirring things up a bit! We also have a strike tomorrow, so I will get another day off! I do love it when the French go on strike! It's practically the national sport! However I may eat my words later in the week, I'm going to Paris for the weekend and apparently there's a train strike on Sunday, so I might not be able to get back, fingers crossed all will be ok.
On Friday night all of us assistants went round to Manu and Marta's for a typical Spanish meal that they made for us all. We had a bit of a fright the night before when we misheard Marta saying that she'd "started cooking" for "started cocaine" but all was well! In fact, it was absolutely delicious, we had tortillas, a gazpacho-like soup, croquetas, a delicious chocolate pudding and some nice salads. Am definitely going to have to get the recipes and learn to make all of that!
The weekend was pretty quiet, just generally hanging out, I've been playing lots of cards and watching "Qui veut gagner des millions", no prizes for guessing that show (incidentally, they have 4 life lines, the slackers!) and Pop Idol (notoriously bad!). Things got more exciting on Monday night, I had a hilarious time! I will explain all...There is a serious problem with birds in town, there are quite simply thousands and thousands of starlings, everywhere. They swoop around in hoards of several hundred, make an absolute racket and really, really smell. So admittedly they are a bit of a local pest and problem for the council. However I don't think that the solution proposed by the council is the best! They've held annual "bird scaring" nights for the past 2 years (the fact they've had them before probably shows the inefficiency of this solution!). We got a leaflet informing us that twice a day, at specific times, all residents should leave their houses and make as much noise as possible! The first of these sessions was on Monday, so of course we went along, keen to join in the fun! And what fun it was! I took a couple of bottles to bash together, but we saw and heard everything from whistles to saucepans to cymbals to metal watering cans to drums and tap taps, provided free by the council. There was also an industrial wind blower driving up and down the street, a man with a megaphone playing a recording of some sort of predator bird and to cap it off fireworks being set off in the street aimed straight at the trees or generally anywhere, talk about lack of health and safety regulations! It was just a mad racket, and of course the birds were very disturbed and flew around wildly, adding to the pandemonium! To think that the council workers were paid to do this! It can only have taken place in La Roche, France! Mind you, it will be interesting to see the consequences, I will keep you informed. On another note, what also interested me, was that there were absolutely know protesters, surely in England there would be RSPB supporters out?
Here at my residence we are making a calendar to sell to raise money for a charity fund we have. Every month there is a themed photo with the residents who have a birthday in that month. So Tuesday night was the turn of August, and me of course. Unsurprisingly (as females are extremely outnumbered here), I am the only girl with an August birthday. So we decided that for our shot (which is beach themed) we should all wear beach clothes and the boys would hold me lying across their arms, we'll then photoshop the picture onto a beach scene. We shot the photos last night, which was really funny, fortunately they were strong enough to carry me! It was also outrageously cold, it is nearly December after all. Hopefully I'll be able to buy a copy of the finished product!
It is also "International Solidarity" week here at the residence, so this evening our meal was themed by country (they do love this sort of thing, it's rather like our European week at school was!). The starter was British...it was "Cornish Pasties"! Now firstly, I'm pretty sure it's not normal to have pasties as a starter, very weird concept if you ask me! But secondly, they weren't Cornish Pasties at all! Rather more like a squashed square sausage roll, the filling was just meat (no potato, carrot or swede!) and not even the sort you find in a pasty normally. So I was disappointed (although in retrospect, I don't know why I was actually expecting a genuine pasty, they were bound to get it wrong, especially serving it as a starter!), but it was funny none the less, I just wonder where on earth they got the recipe from!
Well that's the lot for now, I'm just wondering what to do with the rest of my evening, it still feels very odd not to be out on a netball social on a Wednesday night, my body clock is actually set to arrive at Ziggy's in 3 minutes time....!
I actually had some school at the end of last week and it was very hard to get back into, I just don't suit 8am starts! On Friday in my IDD class an interesting point came up, some pupils wanted to do some work at home for their project (which lasts until February) and they were actually forbidden by the teacher, I couldn't believe it. The reason being that according to the teacher this would be unfair on those who don't have a computer at home. The French principle of equality taken too far if you ask me. If the pupils want to do extra work, let them, it's not often that pupils are so keen! Plus those that don't have a computer are perfectly capable of going to the mediatheque if they like.
On Friday I also went to a sort of history club, there's a nationwide competition that the children are going to enter and I am hoping to help them with their work. Fortunately it just so happens that the subject is the Resistance, which I actually studied myself at A Level, what are the chances! All that work might actually come in useful, not that I can remember any of it. Think I might be spending my Christmas holidays swatting up on my old notes! They're also hoping that I might be able to translate any German that they come across into French, hmmm not so sure about that!
In my European studies class we were discussing mobile phones and I was highly surprised that only 12 out of the class actually had one, these pupils are 15 years old. I can't decide whether that would be the same in the UK (I don't think so), or if the French are less inclined than us to use technology. They're certainly not as open as us about giving their telephone number out and there's practically no technology at school, not even OHPs in all classrooms! And they've only just got a network installed on the computers.
One other note from school is that in English on Monday we were discussing personalities and I mentioned "organiser" and the pupils misheard and thought that I described myself as a "womaniser". That was pretty funny!
The rest of my days at work have been fine, all is ticking along as normal there, although we do have inspectors in this week which is stirring things up a bit! We also have a strike tomorrow, so I will get another day off! I do love it when the French go on strike! It's practically the national sport! However I may eat my words later in the week, I'm going to Paris for the weekend and apparently there's a train strike on Sunday, so I might not be able to get back, fingers crossed all will be ok.
On Friday night all of us assistants went round to Manu and Marta's for a typical Spanish meal that they made for us all. We had a bit of a fright the night before when we misheard Marta saying that she'd "started cooking" for "started cocaine" but all was well! In fact, it was absolutely delicious, we had tortillas, a gazpacho-like soup, croquetas, a delicious chocolate pudding and some nice salads. Am definitely going to have to get the recipes and learn to make all of that!
The weekend was pretty quiet, just generally hanging out, I've been playing lots of cards and watching "Qui veut gagner des millions", no prizes for guessing that show (incidentally, they have 4 life lines, the slackers!) and Pop Idol (notoriously bad!). Things got more exciting on Monday night, I had a hilarious time! I will explain all...There is a serious problem with birds in town, there are quite simply thousands and thousands of starlings, everywhere. They swoop around in hoards of several hundred, make an absolute racket and really, really smell. So admittedly they are a bit of a local pest and problem for the council. However I don't think that the solution proposed by the council is the best! They've held annual "bird scaring" nights for the past 2 years (the fact they've had them before probably shows the inefficiency of this solution!). We got a leaflet informing us that twice a day, at specific times, all residents should leave their houses and make as much noise as possible! The first of these sessions was on Monday, so of course we went along, keen to join in the fun! And what fun it was! I took a couple of bottles to bash together, but we saw and heard everything from whistles to saucepans to cymbals to metal watering cans to drums and tap taps, provided free by the council. There was also an industrial wind blower driving up and down the street, a man with a megaphone playing a recording of some sort of predator bird and to cap it off fireworks being set off in the street aimed straight at the trees or generally anywhere, talk about lack of health and safety regulations! It was just a mad racket, and of course the birds were very disturbed and flew around wildly, adding to the pandemonium! To think that the council workers were paid to do this! It can only have taken place in La Roche, France! Mind you, it will be interesting to see the consequences, I will keep you informed. On another note, what also interested me, was that there were absolutely know protesters, surely in England there would be RSPB supporters out?
Here at my residence we are making a calendar to sell to raise money for a charity fund we have. Every month there is a themed photo with the residents who have a birthday in that month. So Tuesday night was the turn of August, and me of course. Unsurprisingly (as females are extremely outnumbered here), I am the only girl with an August birthday. So we decided that for our shot (which is beach themed) we should all wear beach clothes and the boys would hold me lying across their arms, we'll then photoshop the picture onto a beach scene. We shot the photos last night, which was really funny, fortunately they were strong enough to carry me! It was also outrageously cold, it is nearly December after all. Hopefully I'll be able to buy a copy of the finished product!
It is also "International Solidarity" week here at the residence, so this evening our meal was themed by country (they do love this sort of thing, it's rather like our European week at school was!). The starter was British...it was "Cornish Pasties"! Now firstly, I'm pretty sure it's not normal to have pasties as a starter, very weird concept if you ask me! But secondly, they weren't Cornish Pasties at all! Rather more like a squashed square sausage roll, the filling was just meat (no potato, carrot or swede!) and not even the sort you find in a pasty normally. So I was disappointed (although in retrospect, I don't know why I was actually expecting a genuine pasty, they were bound to get it wrong, especially serving it as a starter!), but it was funny none the less, I just wonder where on earth they got the recipe from!
Well that's the lot for now, I'm just wondering what to do with the rest of my evening, it still feels very odd not to be out on a netball social on a Wednesday night, my body clock is actually set to arrive at Ziggy's in 3 minutes time....!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Time flies while you're having fun
Can't believe it's been another 2 weeks since I last wrote and that I'm nearly 2 months in. The holidays flew by, as they always do. So I spent the first part in York which was just great, really great. I shan't go into much detail but I will share some advice with you that I learnt en route. Ryanair only permit one item of hand luggage, and that includes anything bought in duty free. I didn't realise this, so bought a couple of bottles of wine as presents plus some lunch while waiting for my flight to the UK. I then read the sign. Eeeek, my suitcase was already jam packed full, what to do? There was no way I was leaving the wine behind. So I headed to the baby changing room (a practical choice, it had a table and I could lock the door so no-one would see the contents of my suitcase!). There I took out various items of clothing and put them on, thus creating more space, although making me rather hot and much larger! There still wasn't quite enough space, so I started stuffing my coat pockets with all manner of things, wash bag, phone charger...! Success! Although I must have looked an absolute picture especially when I removed everything into a plastic bag as soon as I'd boarded!
I missed York massively for my first few days back here, especially as most people here were either working or also on holiday elsewhere. But then I made contact with the Spanish assistants and we met up to play afternoons of poker and a German dice game (Knoeffel?!). I've been hanging out with them lots ever since and we've been having great fun. It's not doing my French any good, but my Spanish is coming along a treat! I've also recently met a collection of interesting Americans, a couple of whom also live in La Roche so we've also met up for a night of card games, I taught them Irish snap which went down a treat, although Marta believes she may have broken her finger in doing so!
I also spent a lot of the holiday hiring films and books from the "mediatheque" (sorry for lack of accents, blog won't permit them!). A mediatheque is basically a glorified library, where you can hire almost anything: books (more comic books than I've ever seen in my life!), films, cds, magazines, newspapers, and even paintings and sculptures, all for free! The staff there are starting to get to know me rather too well (as are those in the post office and tourist information centre!) and are extremely lax about when things must be brought back, they don't renew items, rather wave their hands and say next week will be fine!
As you may have gathered I've hardly been at school recently, I had 12 days off, then 2 days back, and then another 5 days off for Armistice, they created a long weekend out of it! So in 3 weeks I'll have been at school for 4 days, and always Thursdays and Fridays, I won't have had my Tuesday classes for a month. Crazy! This is the life, and it'll be even better when the strike starts! Talking of Armistice, I've had a poppy on this past week and I keep being complimented on my pretty brooch, the French don't wear the poppy as a symbol so think it's a new fashion accessory of mine!
My days back at school have been fine, in my European class they've been doing restaurant roleplays and we had one 14 year old boy dressed up in a pinny as the English waitress, extremely funny! And in my IDD class, where they're doing profiles of traditions of English speaking countries, I showed 2 girls a video of some maypole and Morris dancing on the internet. They found it absolutely hilarious and before I knew it half the class were watching and laughing! Admittedly the video was rather funny, jolly accordion music; lots of women wearing outrageous dresses made out of curtain material, smiling a little too much; men waving hankies with jangly bells on socks..., but I was surprised at the popularity of it amongst my pupils none the less. I suppose taken out of context it does look like a rather eccentric British custom! Thank goodness there's no video of me in my "Merry Maid" days, I think my pupils would lose all the respect they have for me! Another pair were studying Scottish food, apparently the "deep friend man bar" is popular in Glasgow, an absolutely brilliant mistake I thought!
Just an additional note, as a follow up to the entry where I mentioned funny names my pupils have, I have met a Muriel, a Margot a Pauline and an Ingrid this week at school!
Lessons apart, I'm still filling the other hours in the library, now that European week is over we've now moved on to Science week, which is at the end of this month, so I'm trying to think of fun displays on energy and transport. The European week was a great success, it even had a write up in the paper, and I got a mention! I'll be keeping a copy of that one. Plus the deputy has asked us to leave up all the displays for next week as we have inspectors coming and he wants to impress them!
Out of school, I've finally started playing handball! I returned to the leisure club and have joined in the training sessions, the men have all been really nice and I even went for a beer with them all in the club house after last week's session! I was still the only female, out numbered 12:1! However, I also went to the women's last week for the first time, they were really nice, a bit like a rowdy hockey club! Interestingly at least 50% of them wear knee supports, so I fit in well, even if it does mean that it's probably a high risk sport for knees, then again I don't think I'm quite at the level where I will be scoring goals by jumping into the air and sliding across the floor just yet! They've also taken to shouting random words at me in English whenever possible, for example when we stop for a water break someone will shout "DRINK LAURA DRINK" at me across the room even though I understand perfectly well what's going on! Very funny! They're all very good, I think it will take a long time for me to get up to a decent level but it's something to do, and of course I need to exercise to burn off all the delicious French food I'm still enjoying!
Talking of food, I sampled both snails and frogs' legs for supper last week! After the conversation class with Quentin, his mum (Marie, the science teacher from school) served them up, it's been a long standing joke that I must try them while in France, so now I have. And they actually weren't that bad! Well the snails weren't, I didn't take so well to the frogs' legs, particularly as we'd got onto the topic of all the dissections she'd had to do while training to be a science teacher! I polished off about 15 snails as my starter, they were in their shells and she'd filled the top with a sort of garlic butter, and I then had to use a cocktail stick to spike them out. It was rather fun, I just didn't think too much about what I was eating! I was a lot more squeamish with the frogs' legs; for starters there wasn't much meat so I had to nibble around the bones and quite often snap them at the knee joint, which I didn't like at all! They too were covered in garlic and I absolutely stank afterwards, and still the next day, I certainally know why the French have a reputation of eating garlic! Ah well, another thing ticked off my "Things to do in France" list! She took some photos and so hopefully she'll give them to me soon and I can put them up.
Charlotte and I had fun the other night, we made 31 crepes, the volume of pancakes reminded me distinctly of one of my favourite children's books, "There's no such thing as a dragon!". It was Yooshy's birthday so we had a mini party in the kitchen with plenty of French food and wine. After making so many I think I can declare that I now know how to make the perfect French crepe, Pancake Day round mine next year!
On Sunday I went with the Spaniards and Americans to Vendee Globe, which is the round the world boat race that leaves from here, it's the one that Ellen MacArthur is famous for doing. It is probably the biggest event of the year here, there were over half a million people expected, and my goodness, it was mad! There were people standing on cars, post boxes, telephone boxes and goodness knows what else in order to get a good view of the boats leaving the port. This year (it runs every 4 years) there are only 2 women entering the race and both of them are British. After the departure we went round the American's apartment and ended up staying the night too, as it was a Sunday trains back (as ever in Frnace) were next to impossible, plus there was a good party in swing! We somehow convinced one of the American's that I am Spanish, I do not know how we pulled that one off, maybe it was my pale skin and West Country accent that really convinced him...! So from now on I am officially known as the honorary Spaniard by everyone here! Incidentally, as a follow up to a previous comment on the carpeted walls found throughout France, his apartment was infuriating, the floor on which we slept was wooden, while the walls were covered in some luxury, thick carpet. I wanted to sleep standing up leaning on it, it would have been more comfortable!
So all is excellent here, so much so that I'm beginning to wish I was able to take two years abroad, or maybe I'll just spend my life flittering around Europe pretending to be Spanish! I now know why you're only allowed to take part in the Comenius programme once in your life, if not we'd all be doing it every year. I would recommend it to absolutely anyone and everyone, it's just simply brilliant, more than brilliant :) I've never met so many interesting and fun people from all over the globe nor had so much time to enjoy life. It's just great.
I missed York massively for my first few days back here, especially as most people here were either working or also on holiday elsewhere. But then I made contact with the Spanish assistants and we met up to play afternoons of poker and a German dice game (Knoeffel?!). I've been hanging out with them lots ever since and we've been having great fun. It's not doing my French any good, but my Spanish is coming along a treat! I've also recently met a collection of interesting Americans, a couple of whom also live in La Roche so we've also met up for a night of card games, I taught them Irish snap which went down a treat, although Marta believes she may have broken her finger in doing so!
I also spent a lot of the holiday hiring films and books from the "mediatheque" (sorry for lack of accents, blog won't permit them!). A mediatheque is basically a glorified library, where you can hire almost anything: books (more comic books than I've ever seen in my life!), films, cds, magazines, newspapers, and even paintings and sculptures, all for free! The staff there are starting to get to know me rather too well (as are those in the post office and tourist information centre!) and are extremely lax about when things must be brought back, they don't renew items, rather wave their hands and say next week will be fine!
As you may have gathered I've hardly been at school recently, I had 12 days off, then 2 days back, and then another 5 days off for Armistice, they created a long weekend out of it! So in 3 weeks I'll have been at school for 4 days, and always Thursdays and Fridays, I won't have had my Tuesday classes for a month. Crazy! This is the life, and it'll be even better when the strike starts! Talking of Armistice, I've had a poppy on this past week and I keep being complimented on my pretty brooch, the French don't wear the poppy as a symbol so think it's a new fashion accessory of mine!
My days back at school have been fine, in my European class they've been doing restaurant roleplays and we had one 14 year old boy dressed up in a pinny as the English waitress, extremely funny! And in my IDD class, where they're doing profiles of traditions of English speaking countries, I showed 2 girls a video of some maypole and Morris dancing on the internet. They found it absolutely hilarious and before I knew it half the class were watching and laughing! Admittedly the video was rather funny, jolly accordion music; lots of women wearing outrageous dresses made out of curtain material, smiling a little too much; men waving hankies with jangly bells on socks..., but I was surprised at the popularity of it amongst my pupils none the less. I suppose taken out of context it does look like a rather eccentric British custom! Thank goodness there's no video of me in my "Merry Maid" days, I think my pupils would lose all the respect they have for me! Another pair were studying Scottish food, apparently the "deep friend man bar" is popular in Glasgow, an absolutely brilliant mistake I thought!
Just an additional note, as a follow up to the entry where I mentioned funny names my pupils have, I have met a Muriel, a Margot a Pauline and an Ingrid this week at school!
Lessons apart, I'm still filling the other hours in the library, now that European week is over we've now moved on to Science week, which is at the end of this month, so I'm trying to think of fun displays on energy and transport. The European week was a great success, it even had a write up in the paper, and I got a mention! I'll be keeping a copy of that one. Plus the deputy has asked us to leave up all the displays for next week as we have inspectors coming and he wants to impress them!
Out of school, I've finally started playing handball! I returned to the leisure club and have joined in the training sessions, the men have all been really nice and I even went for a beer with them all in the club house after last week's session! I was still the only female, out numbered 12:1! However, I also went to the women's last week for the first time, they were really nice, a bit like a rowdy hockey club! Interestingly at least 50% of them wear knee supports, so I fit in well, even if it does mean that it's probably a high risk sport for knees, then again I don't think I'm quite at the level where I will be scoring goals by jumping into the air and sliding across the floor just yet! They've also taken to shouting random words at me in English whenever possible, for example when we stop for a water break someone will shout "DRINK LAURA DRINK" at me across the room even though I understand perfectly well what's going on! Very funny! They're all very good, I think it will take a long time for me to get up to a decent level but it's something to do, and of course I need to exercise to burn off all the delicious French food I'm still enjoying!
Talking of food, I sampled both snails and frogs' legs for supper last week! After the conversation class with Quentin, his mum (Marie, the science teacher from school) served them up, it's been a long standing joke that I must try them while in France, so now I have. And they actually weren't that bad! Well the snails weren't, I didn't take so well to the frogs' legs, particularly as we'd got onto the topic of all the dissections she'd had to do while training to be a science teacher! I polished off about 15 snails as my starter, they were in their shells and she'd filled the top with a sort of garlic butter, and I then had to use a cocktail stick to spike them out. It was rather fun, I just didn't think too much about what I was eating! I was a lot more squeamish with the frogs' legs; for starters there wasn't much meat so I had to nibble around the bones and quite often snap them at the knee joint, which I didn't like at all! They too were covered in garlic and I absolutely stank afterwards, and still the next day, I certainally know why the French have a reputation of eating garlic! Ah well, another thing ticked off my "Things to do in France" list! She took some photos and so hopefully she'll give them to me soon and I can put them up.
Charlotte and I had fun the other night, we made 31 crepes, the volume of pancakes reminded me distinctly of one of my favourite children's books, "There's no such thing as a dragon!". It was Yooshy's birthday so we had a mini party in the kitchen with plenty of French food and wine. After making so many I think I can declare that I now know how to make the perfect French crepe, Pancake Day round mine next year!
On Sunday I went with the Spaniards and Americans to Vendee Globe, which is the round the world boat race that leaves from here, it's the one that Ellen MacArthur is famous for doing. It is probably the biggest event of the year here, there were over half a million people expected, and my goodness, it was mad! There were people standing on cars, post boxes, telephone boxes and goodness knows what else in order to get a good view of the boats leaving the port. This year (it runs every 4 years) there are only 2 women entering the race and both of them are British. After the departure we went round the American's apartment and ended up staying the night too, as it was a Sunday trains back (as ever in Frnace) were next to impossible, plus there was a good party in swing! We somehow convinced one of the American's that I am Spanish, I do not know how we pulled that one off, maybe it was my pale skin and West Country accent that really convinced him...! So from now on I am officially known as the honorary Spaniard by everyone here! Incidentally, as a follow up to a previous comment on the carpeted walls found throughout France, his apartment was infuriating, the floor on which we slept was wooden, while the walls were covered in some luxury, thick carpet. I wanted to sleep standing up leaning on it, it would have been more comfortable!
So all is excellent here, so much so that I'm beginning to wish I was able to take two years abroad, or maybe I'll just spend my life flittering around Europe pretending to be Spanish! I now know why you're only allowed to take part in the Comenius programme once in your life, if not we'd all be doing it every year. I would recommend it to absolutely anyone and everyone, it's just simply brilliant, more than brilliant :) I've never met so many interesting and fun people from all over the globe nor had so much time to enjoy life. It's just great.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Photo update!
So as I mentioned in the other post, I did in fact not put up the photo of me but of someone else! Here's one of me, note how I'm smiling despite having been thrown onto my back!
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