So this is the last post of January, a month which has passed incredibly quickly. Not that that's a bad thing, February is sure to be an exciting month. Today I am currently killing time before greeting the English exchange who arrive today, our pupils are simply bouncing off the walls with excitement! The English seem to be briging nice weather with them, as our skies have returned to blue. This is excellent news as I don't fancy another weekend quite as wet as the last one! Tomorrow we (all the assistants of La Roche) are off on a tour of Brittany with Helene Crepeau (I just love her surname!), the organiser of twinnings here and a work experience boy called Marc, we think! The travelling is kindly financed by the mayor, very kind of him!
Unfortunately we didn't do so well in choosing the dates, as it appears that the winner of the Vendee Globe (the sailing race whose start I went to back in November) is anticipated on Saturay night/Sunday morning. It's a great shame to be missing it as it's apparently the best street party in the region, especially as he is so conveniently arriving at the weekend, all the more people will be going. Again they are expecting several hundred thousand people to descend on this tiny town. I am feeling especially close to the race as I have written my French essay on the subject and feel like I have followed it all along, right from day one. It's coincidental that he's arriving the same week as I finish my essay, I sent it on Thursday, wooooo, work finished!
I was watching a television broadcast from one of the sailors the other night, and the token American, Rich Wilson, was being interviewed. It was especially funny as he was replying in French, yet the TV channel subtitled it (in French) because he had such a strong American accent! I feel very much the same sometimes, my accent has hardly improved and even when I know I'm speaking perfect French they can't understand me! To be fair though, it's also the same with my pupils, whose English I can't always grasp, the teacher often has to repeat to me what's been said.
This week at school I feel as though I have been an "IT assistant" rather than "Comenius assistant". I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but technology really is not one of the French's strong points. I spent one lesson working as printer repair girl, spending nearly the whole hour collecting spools of paper, as pupils continually pressed print even though it wasn't working. Admittedly even the printer instructions are in English, so they had no chance at sorting it out. It is funny the English they have successfully picked up courtesy of the printer, they all know the words "toner" and "cartridge" now! They are also oblivious as to how to do simple tasks such as formatting pictures and setting headers and footers, I wonder what on earth they do do in the IT classes (which are few and far between). I have also spent many hours this week typing up the Comenius guide to our town, to be sent to the schools in Spain and Italy who are part of the project. I fear my eyes are becoming rather square!
Yesterday was a major day of strikes in France, they have nicknamed it "Black Thursday", which I suppose makes reference to the really bad situation and that everything shut down for the day. As I am technically not allowed to strike, I had to go to school anyway, and continue typing the Comenius project. But my other 2 classes were cancelled ad I cancelled the English club, due to lack of pupils. School was really eerie, there were only 8 teachers who showed up (out of around 60) and I think about 10% of the pupils were there, I imagine the rest couldn't get in as there were no busses or they knew that all their teachers were going to be absent. It was so strange walking round an empty school, it had a sort of sad feel to it, it is never ever that quiet. Lunch was particularly funny, the canteen were also very understaffed, so lunch was basic at best, the few teachers who had come in were not impressed at all!!!
I suppose what made this strike different to the others was a) the sheer number of people who went on strike, last time I think only about half the teachers did and b) that this time it wasn't just teachers, it was people from all the public domains, the lack of transport was particularly noticeable. I'm disappointed that I did make it out to see the actual demonstration, but they say that if nothing changes (which they don't think it will) there will be another one soon!
My favourite quote of this week comes from Cecile, who was running a scrapbook making workshop one evening. Apparently there is no French translation for "scrap" so they have turned it into a French verb, "Je vais scrapper"! It sounds utterly ridiculous! There are many Anglicisms I hear everyday, "le meeting", "le blog" and of course "le weekend", but this one is really taking it too far! Tu aimes scrapper?! Other things which amuse me too are when words have slightly diferent meanings between the two languages, lately I have noticed them saying "impeccable" a lot, which translates as "perfect" but the thought of someone relying "impecable" in English to a suggestion is quite funny.
Well that's the lot for now, I'm sure there'll be an update on Monday following on from this weekend of excitemet! I'm off now, ready to welcome the English and start February with a bang with our road trip up to Brittany, let's hope that she doesn't live up to her reputation of being very wet!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Worst Weather Since 1989!
It's been, as ever, a busy few days and I can't believe it's only 5 days since my last post, many goings-on to recount!
Thursday was a busy day at school, but not in the way it should have been. I turned up at school at break time to find quite a hubbub in the staff room. There was a great debate circling around one teacher who was in tears, I had absolutely no idea at all what was going on and couldn't make out a word, lots of very rapid French speech early in the morning is never good! After the bell had gone for the end of break and the crowd dispersed, fortunately one teacher explained (slowly!) what had happened. As it turned out, one if the English teachers had been hit by a pupil and been knocked over. In falling she'd hit herself against something and had a really large gash on her hip, she then had to go to the doctors. Incidents like that at school are far from common (although it's not the first dramatics), but I can't say that I was oversurprised, there are some rough pupils here. Anyway, the silver lining of the matter was that my classes for the morning were cancelled!
Thursday's events didn't end there however! As usual, Thursday is the day of my English club. I had told the vie scolaire (the people who organise things like extra curricular activities) that there was to be a limit of 15 pupils allowed to the club, and so last week it was full. This week however, 24 turned up! Despite being very pleased that it's popularity has grown, coping with all these pupils was an absolute nightmare!!! I had an activity prepared, which they ended up doing principally in French (I gave up trying to enforce English!) and they finished it a bit early so took to drawing all over the board with the markers. It was 45 minutes of absolute bedlam and I think that the fact that it was a wet break and they were all highly charged with energy helped to lead to absolute chaos! I just do not know how teachers cope with a class full of 30. I think the main problem I have, is the complete lack of any authority. However I think that I would rather a riotous club (having fun, all be it not in English!) than me being strict and a group of diligent silent pupils turning up, like I had the first week. Anyway it was a stressful hour and I think this week I will go for a level of energy in between the two extremes!
On Thursday afternoon I had one of the lessons with pupils doing their Comenius guide to the stones of the town. It was an amusing hour, from my point of view, possibly not from that of the teacher, who wanted the work finished by the end of the hour, which it was not. The pupils were in a funny mood, again I'm blaming the wet break for this! Firstly they all find the work pretty dull, (possibly quite rightly!) and can't believe that the Italian and Spanish pupils will be interested in the history of stone in our town. Secondly, some of them spent a lot of the afternoon pretending not to understand a word I told them, a classic joke, which incidentally I'm pretty sure I used myself at school, so I still find this more funny than frustrating!
On Thursday evening Marta, Miguel, Manu and I went to a student event in La Roche. It was a really fun night, there must have been several thousand students there and the music was very good, not too much of the usual dodgy French stuff!!! I think what made it such a success was that for the French students, it was a really special event. Unlike at British universities, here in La Roche, they don't seem to have organised events every week so this one was the only time they all come together. I do feel sorry for them not having the weekly Wednesday night fun that we do, they are truly missing out. In fact on the whole, from talking to students here, the French student experience is totally different to ours. Most seem to have lessons from 9 until 6 every day and shed loads of work on top of that, unimaginable!
The final event of Thursday was once I'd got back to the foyer in the early hours of the morning (remembering here that European nightlife doesn't begin until midnight!). There was not one, but two fire alarms, talk about a bad end to an eventful day! It was raining and we had to stand outside for 20 minutes each time, I think after the second one it was about 6am, classes starting at 8am, not good at all!
Fortunately I only had one class in the morning as afterwards I'd arranged to go on a school trip to a concert with the youngest year group. I was expecting to be listening to a visiting African group and following on from such a bad night's sleep I thought it might wake me up a bit. Imagine my surprise to find myself at a concert of Schuburt and Bach! Either I completely misunderstood, or we went to the wrong concert! Unfortunately I think the former is the case, and the teacher must have thought my questions relating to African music very strange!
The morning was even more eventful, as it turned out that we were being filmed for a broadcast on Canal 15, a TV station here. However this does mean that I spent the latter half of the concert trying to shush pupils who were bored of Schubert and making so much noise that the TV team were worried that it would ruin the quality of the sound. The first time that they asked us to be quiet, a man came over and addressed my group, I'm pretty sure he thought that I was an oversized pupil as some of his words were addressed directly at me!! I then took a more proactive role in the shushing of pupils, but every time I got out of my seat to creep down the aisle, I forgot that the seats were the sort that jump up, so it made a bit of a crash every time! Oh dear!
After that eventful end to the week I was really looking forward to the weekend away that we had planned. Iliana, Manu, Marta, Miguel and I had booked to go to Poitiers and Niort for the weekend. We feel like we've pretty much exhausted all that La Roche has to offer, so time to venture away. The weekend before I rang up to book the hostel in Poitiers. We decided to book it in my name, as although not the most simple, it's far shorter than that of the others who all seem to have about 4 surnames! However, my name is not simple from a French point of view and the man couldn't for the life of him understand what I was getting at! When we arrived it turned out that we were booked under Laure Longwoat!
We spent the Saturday sight seeing in Poitiers, on possibly the wettest, windiest day of the year! By 10am we were already soaked to the skin, but we didn't let that deter our fun! Poitiers is really good for tourists (although the tourist information office was absolutely useless!), as there are lines painted on the pavement and you follow them round and are shown all the main sights. So we did this, and I have to say that I have never ever visited so many churches. I haven't counted them yet, but from the ones that I can remember I think that we saw at least 11! Needless to say, we were feeling very spiritual by the end of the weekend, but also grateful to the churches as they were the best shelter from the elements! The rain and wind absolutely lashed down all day, our photos are pretty grey. Marta had to buy an umbrella but by the end of the weekend it was in such a state, 3 broken metal sticks and permanently inside out, we had to throw it away.
On Sunday morning we took a train to another town called Niort, which, like every town in France, was dead to the world on a Sunday morning. So we pottered around, chiefly looking at more churches! Eventually we stumbled upon the market...and people! The market was packed and typically French, lots of delicious smelling cheeses and hams, fresh vegetables, wines and of course the token accordion player playing French music! We then visited the museums, one of which was really extensive, with everything from modern photos, to a display on the 20th century French school (which was really interesting) to 3 rooms full of stuffed birds, not my cup of tea at all!!!
Once we'd exhausted all photo opportunities of this small town we returned to the station, only to be greeted by signs saying things like "warning do not attempt to travel today" and "most trains cancelled or severely delayed". We were utterly bemused by this and wondered what on earth was going on. When we got to the desk to enquire about our tickets and what had happened the women just looked at us incredulously and I think the conversation went along the lines of:
Us: What's happened?
Lady at desk: Have you not seen the news in the last 24 hours?!
Us: Er no, we've been travelling.
Lady at desk: Well have you not even been outside today?!
The lady then informed us that there had been hurricane force winds, 3 deaths and the trainlines were completely impassable. She then preceeded to tell us, accompanied by nods from the people around us, that France hadn't had winds this bad since 1989. There were many murmurs and nods of agreement to this! "1989, oh that awful weather"! It reminded me distinctly of a Vicar of Dibley episode where they all harp on about the "Great Flood of 1992" or something! So admittedly we had realised that the weather had been really bad, but not quite to such an extent! The annoying thing was that there were limited train services, it took us about 4 hours longer than it should have done to get home, much waiting around at the station.
However despite all the mishaps it was a fun weekend. I think my Spanish has come on in leaps and bounds, spending a weekend with 4 native Spanish speakers is certainly a way to learn a language, even if it did mean that for many chunks of the day I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about! I also think that my English is becoming slightly tainted, I'm picking up all sorts of funny grammar structures from them, they do speak English very well but some times their choice of verb or adjective is just a bit off the mark, it makes me chuckle! Thinking of choice of words, in the Comenius language guide we have here at school, "cheerio" is written as the number one form of saying goodbye in English, I think I will really crack up if all the Italians and Spaniards say that to me when they come on the visit!
Am back at school today and have just been accosted by 2 teachers who were very keen for me to log into facebook so that they could have a look at the profiles of the English pupils who are coming next week! Fortunately I can't access their accounts. They were interested because they've received the sheets on each pupil and judging by the photos, they're quite a funny bunch! Let's just say a lot of bleached blonde hair, pink clothes and big hooped earrings! The English girls have also written lots of really funny things on their forms, such as "I shower every day without fail", I wonder what on earth they're getting at with that one! Maybe they've heard some myth about the French not being very clean!!!
Today is the start of the Chinese New Year, and as ever, the lunch at the canteen was themed. Yet the teachers did seem rather unimpressed with the Chinese cuisine and many jokes that their cuisine is far superior were cracked! What was also funny was hearing them trying to speak the few Chinese words they know, listening to Chinese in a thick French accent is absolute comedy. I'm not an expert, but even I can tell that that was bad!
The other main conversation at lunch today was interesting, I think it started with the claim that all French pupils who are called Kevin or Jason are naughty, there are 3 or 4 here at school, and it's quite true. They then came to the conclusion that anyone with an British or American sounding name must be bad, the logic behind this is that the mothers spend too much time watching imported TV and are therefore uneducated! A bit of a far fetched conclusion if you ask me but amusing none the less!
Just a few other observations which I've noted of late and that I'll leave you with, before I finish this outrageously long post!
All the French people that I know who have been to Britain lately love Primark. And with the current exchange rate is cheaper than ever for them.
There are some French words that, however hard I try, I will never ever be able to successfully pronounce, aout (French for August) being one of them. This is particularly problematic as it is of course my month of birth, how mean of them to choose such a difficult word!
Many Europeans don't own a kettle. Seriously! Several French people and nearly all the Spaniards don't have one, they either put water on the stove to boil (on the rare opportunity that they want a cup of tea), or use their fancy coffee machine. Marta couldn't even think of the word to translate it into Spanish for me!
Americans really do know nothing about football, or rather soccer. We were all astounded that Clare didn't know who Ronaldinho is, and when playing a celebrity game persistently called him Ron Eisenhower!
So that's life in La Roche up to date, thank you for reading, until next time, cheerio!!!
Thursday was a busy day at school, but not in the way it should have been. I turned up at school at break time to find quite a hubbub in the staff room. There was a great debate circling around one teacher who was in tears, I had absolutely no idea at all what was going on and couldn't make out a word, lots of very rapid French speech early in the morning is never good! After the bell had gone for the end of break and the crowd dispersed, fortunately one teacher explained (slowly!) what had happened. As it turned out, one if the English teachers had been hit by a pupil and been knocked over. In falling she'd hit herself against something and had a really large gash on her hip, she then had to go to the doctors. Incidents like that at school are far from common (although it's not the first dramatics), but I can't say that I was oversurprised, there are some rough pupils here. Anyway, the silver lining of the matter was that my classes for the morning were cancelled!
Thursday's events didn't end there however! As usual, Thursday is the day of my English club. I had told the vie scolaire (the people who organise things like extra curricular activities) that there was to be a limit of 15 pupils allowed to the club, and so last week it was full. This week however, 24 turned up! Despite being very pleased that it's popularity has grown, coping with all these pupils was an absolute nightmare!!! I had an activity prepared, which they ended up doing principally in French (I gave up trying to enforce English!) and they finished it a bit early so took to drawing all over the board with the markers. It was 45 minutes of absolute bedlam and I think that the fact that it was a wet break and they were all highly charged with energy helped to lead to absolute chaos! I just do not know how teachers cope with a class full of 30. I think the main problem I have, is the complete lack of any authority. However I think that I would rather a riotous club (having fun, all be it not in English!) than me being strict and a group of diligent silent pupils turning up, like I had the first week. Anyway it was a stressful hour and I think this week I will go for a level of energy in between the two extremes!
On Thursday afternoon I had one of the lessons with pupils doing their Comenius guide to the stones of the town. It was an amusing hour, from my point of view, possibly not from that of the teacher, who wanted the work finished by the end of the hour, which it was not. The pupils were in a funny mood, again I'm blaming the wet break for this! Firstly they all find the work pretty dull, (possibly quite rightly!) and can't believe that the Italian and Spanish pupils will be interested in the history of stone in our town. Secondly, some of them spent a lot of the afternoon pretending not to understand a word I told them, a classic joke, which incidentally I'm pretty sure I used myself at school, so I still find this more funny than frustrating!
On Thursday evening Marta, Miguel, Manu and I went to a student event in La Roche. It was a really fun night, there must have been several thousand students there and the music was very good, not too much of the usual dodgy French stuff!!! I think what made it such a success was that for the French students, it was a really special event. Unlike at British universities, here in La Roche, they don't seem to have organised events every week so this one was the only time they all come together. I do feel sorry for them not having the weekly Wednesday night fun that we do, they are truly missing out. In fact on the whole, from talking to students here, the French student experience is totally different to ours. Most seem to have lessons from 9 until 6 every day and shed loads of work on top of that, unimaginable!
The final event of Thursday was once I'd got back to the foyer in the early hours of the morning (remembering here that European nightlife doesn't begin until midnight!). There was not one, but two fire alarms, talk about a bad end to an eventful day! It was raining and we had to stand outside for 20 minutes each time, I think after the second one it was about 6am, classes starting at 8am, not good at all!
Fortunately I only had one class in the morning as afterwards I'd arranged to go on a school trip to a concert with the youngest year group. I was expecting to be listening to a visiting African group and following on from such a bad night's sleep I thought it might wake me up a bit. Imagine my surprise to find myself at a concert of Schuburt and Bach! Either I completely misunderstood, or we went to the wrong concert! Unfortunately I think the former is the case, and the teacher must have thought my questions relating to African music very strange!
The morning was even more eventful, as it turned out that we were being filmed for a broadcast on Canal 15, a TV station here. However this does mean that I spent the latter half of the concert trying to shush pupils who were bored of Schubert and making so much noise that the TV team were worried that it would ruin the quality of the sound. The first time that they asked us to be quiet, a man came over and addressed my group, I'm pretty sure he thought that I was an oversized pupil as some of his words were addressed directly at me!! I then took a more proactive role in the shushing of pupils, but every time I got out of my seat to creep down the aisle, I forgot that the seats were the sort that jump up, so it made a bit of a crash every time! Oh dear!
After that eventful end to the week I was really looking forward to the weekend away that we had planned. Iliana, Manu, Marta, Miguel and I had booked to go to Poitiers and Niort for the weekend. We feel like we've pretty much exhausted all that La Roche has to offer, so time to venture away. The weekend before I rang up to book the hostel in Poitiers. We decided to book it in my name, as although not the most simple, it's far shorter than that of the others who all seem to have about 4 surnames! However, my name is not simple from a French point of view and the man couldn't for the life of him understand what I was getting at! When we arrived it turned out that we were booked under Laure Longwoat!
We spent the Saturday sight seeing in Poitiers, on possibly the wettest, windiest day of the year! By 10am we were already soaked to the skin, but we didn't let that deter our fun! Poitiers is really good for tourists (although the tourist information office was absolutely useless!), as there are lines painted on the pavement and you follow them round and are shown all the main sights. So we did this, and I have to say that I have never ever visited so many churches. I haven't counted them yet, but from the ones that I can remember I think that we saw at least 11! Needless to say, we were feeling very spiritual by the end of the weekend, but also grateful to the churches as they were the best shelter from the elements! The rain and wind absolutely lashed down all day, our photos are pretty grey. Marta had to buy an umbrella but by the end of the weekend it was in such a state, 3 broken metal sticks and permanently inside out, we had to throw it away.
On Sunday morning we took a train to another town called Niort, which, like every town in France, was dead to the world on a Sunday morning. So we pottered around, chiefly looking at more churches! Eventually we stumbled upon the market...and people! The market was packed and typically French, lots of delicious smelling cheeses and hams, fresh vegetables, wines and of course the token accordion player playing French music! We then visited the museums, one of which was really extensive, with everything from modern photos, to a display on the 20th century French school (which was really interesting) to 3 rooms full of stuffed birds, not my cup of tea at all!!!
Once we'd exhausted all photo opportunities of this small town we returned to the station, only to be greeted by signs saying things like "warning do not attempt to travel today" and "most trains cancelled or severely delayed". We were utterly bemused by this and wondered what on earth was going on. When we got to the desk to enquire about our tickets and what had happened the women just looked at us incredulously and I think the conversation went along the lines of:
Us: What's happened?
Lady at desk: Have you not seen the news in the last 24 hours?!
Us: Er no, we've been travelling.
Lady at desk: Well have you not even been outside today?!
The lady then informed us that there had been hurricane force winds, 3 deaths and the trainlines were completely impassable. She then preceeded to tell us, accompanied by nods from the people around us, that France hadn't had winds this bad since 1989. There were many murmurs and nods of agreement to this! "1989, oh that awful weather"! It reminded me distinctly of a Vicar of Dibley episode where they all harp on about the "Great Flood of 1992" or something! So admittedly we had realised that the weather had been really bad, but not quite to such an extent! The annoying thing was that there were limited train services, it took us about 4 hours longer than it should have done to get home, much waiting around at the station.
However despite all the mishaps it was a fun weekend. I think my Spanish has come on in leaps and bounds, spending a weekend with 4 native Spanish speakers is certainly a way to learn a language, even if it did mean that for many chunks of the day I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about! I also think that my English is becoming slightly tainted, I'm picking up all sorts of funny grammar structures from them, they do speak English very well but some times their choice of verb or adjective is just a bit off the mark, it makes me chuckle! Thinking of choice of words, in the Comenius language guide we have here at school, "cheerio" is written as the number one form of saying goodbye in English, I think I will really crack up if all the Italians and Spaniards say that to me when they come on the visit!
Am back at school today and have just been accosted by 2 teachers who were very keen for me to log into facebook so that they could have a look at the profiles of the English pupils who are coming next week! Fortunately I can't access their accounts. They were interested because they've received the sheets on each pupil and judging by the photos, they're quite a funny bunch! Let's just say a lot of bleached blonde hair, pink clothes and big hooped earrings! The English girls have also written lots of really funny things on their forms, such as "I shower every day without fail", I wonder what on earth they're getting at with that one! Maybe they've heard some myth about the French not being very clean!!!
Today is the start of the Chinese New Year, and as ever, the lunch at the canteen was themed. Yet the teachers did seem rather unimpressed with the Chinese cuisine and many jokes that their cuisine is far superior were cracked! What was also funny was hearing them trying to speak the few Chinese words they know, listening to Chinese in a thick French accent is absolute comedy. I'm not an expert, but even I can tell that that was bad!
The other main conversation at lunch today was interesting, I think it started with the claim that all French pupils who are called Kevin or Jason are naughty, there are 3 or 4 here at school, and it's quite true. They then came to the conclusion that anyone with an British or American sounding name must be bad, the logic behind this is that the mothers spend too much time watching imported TV and are therefore uneducated! A bit of a far fetched conclusion if you ask me but amusing none the less!
Just a few other observations which I've noted of late and that I'll leave you with, before I finish this outrageously long post!
All the French people that I know who have been to Britain lately love Primark. And with the current exchange rate is cheaper than ever for them.
There are some French words that, however hard I try, I will never ever be able to successfully pronounce, aout (French for August) being one of them. This is particularly problematic as it is of course my month of birth, how mean of them to choose such a difficult word!
Many Europeans don't own a kettle. Seriously! Several French people and nearly all the Spaniards don't have one, they either put water on the stove to boil (on the rare opportunity that they want a cup of tea), or use their fancy coffee machine. Marta couldn't even think of the word to translate it into Spanish for me!
Americans really do know nothing about football, or rather soccer. We were all astounded that Clare didn't know who Ronaldinho is, and when playing a celebrity game persistently called him Ron Eisenhower!
So that's life in La Roche up to date, thank you for reading, until next time, cheerio!!!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Town of Eternal Christmas
So it's now mid-way through January, and Christmas is still very much alive here in France! Many houses still have decorations up outside, the lights are still up in town and we still have a tree in the residence (albeit rather sparse now!). I am beginning to wonder when on earth they will bring it all down, but I'm not complaining, it is rather nice to still have lights up in town, it does make it much prettier by night.
Of course with January, as mentioned before, come the galettes des rois! Last week I had one on three occasions, two of which were very funny. One of these occasions was last Monday, when we had been invited to a galette evening by the lady who organises the town twinnings. There were about 12 of us assistants there, and according to her, the tradition is that the youngest person has to sit under the table throughout the whole process, so that they can't cheat! Of course this was me, and I also have the longest legs, which made the whole scenario even more amusing! The second memorable galette occasion was at school, when we had them for pudding last week. And I was the one who won, thus meaning that I had to wear a crown all through lunch, when I was presented it I waved like the Queen, which went down a treat! The French love all things connected to our royal family!
Last Monday we assistants were all invited to a "VIP evening" with the mayor, which was pretty funny, why we're considered VIPs I don't know, but I must say that we capitalised from the occasion! The evening consisted of a meet and greet with the mayor, who was very jolly, and provided us all with wine and nibbles. We then went into a large hall with all the other VIPs, who as far as we could tell, were mainly key business people from the town, and watched a dance display and a film about the town. Then it was the turn for the mayor to speak and he gave possibly the longest speech I have ever listened to, it makes school assemblies seem seconds long! It was all about what a fantastic town La Roche is, but I have to say we beg to differ, as did half the audience I think! Following that we moved to another room where there was a splendid buffet and more drinks, so we certainly made the most of that, well worth listening to the speech for! The French certainly do know how to lay on a good buffet.
My English club went with much more success this week than last time, not only did the original 7 come back (to my surprise!) but they also brought 8 friends with them! I had organised a British culture version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", which they really seemed to love. The million pound question was: what do the British do when they go wassailing, the options being: paint their faces yellow, dance round their houses, wear red socks or hang toast on trees. They just couldn't make their minds up which it could possibly be, it was so funny hearing them say things like "the British couldn't be that silly, could they?!" In fact, they found the real response the funniest! The problem now is finding games that they will enjoy as much as they enjoyed last weeks', ideas on a postcard please!
Last weekend I went to Nantes, where I met a few new assistants from Le Mans, only one of which I'd briefly met before, at the pre-departure meeting in London. In a one sense it was strange to be spending the day with 4 complete strangers from around the world (1 English, 1 Welsh, 1 American and 1 German) but I seem to have done a lot of that lately, I feel totally comfortable with the prospect. That's definitely one of the best things about this whole experience, meeting new people and getting along with them. I suppose also that the day went smoothly because Nantes is such a great city, really buzzing and there was so much for us to see and discuss. We had a really nice day. In the morning we did touristy things, we looked at the castle, the cathedral and lots of other beautiful buildings and quaint streets and in the afternoon we hit the shops. Such a treat to go to a town with shops other than C&A and Etam! As the sales are still going strong it was very difficult not to spend my entire month's wages in one blow, I just about succeeded!
Nantes was the start of 7 weekends worth of visits that I have coming up, I'm so excited about them all! It is going to be an expensive time, but I've decided that it's well worth it, never again will I have so many exciting new places on my doorstep. However, some of my trips are back to the UK! Of course there's my trip to York and Exeter, but I am also going on a trip with the residence to London of all places! We were supposed to be going skiing, but that was all fully booked, so when we were brainstorming other places to go, London came up and everyone got excited, so we're off! I would have preferred to spend the weekend at practically any other city in the world that I haven't already visited, but of course majority ruled and they're all so keen to visit. The slight problem is that they are all expecting me to be their guide! I'm not sure how well that will go, plus I don't think London will be quite as they're all imagining, traditional pubs and fish and chip shops aplenty! Plus it's bound to be raining, oh woe!
Talking of weather, the weather here has been at the very extremes, in the last ten days I think that temperatures have ranged from -11 degrees to +15 and I've worn every thing outside, from scarves to t-shirts! The sky is always blue here (well not always, it was grey in Nantes, which was unfortunate for my photos! But at least 6 out of 7 days a week), so it's becoming very difficult to predict what to wear by looking out of the window. Roll on the summer, I've had quite enough of winter now. I'm hoping it'll be nice again before I leave France, I rather fancy passing a few more days at the beach!
So life is ticking along nicely here at the moment, plenty to do at school, our Comenius project is keeping me busy, although I have heard enough about stones to last me a lifetime! Out of school I'm spending more and more time with the Spaniards, and it's with them that most of my trips are taking place, they're keen to visit France too. And to my disbelief, Marta has never visited Paris before, but I think they will do that trip when I'm in Britain. We're actually running out of weekends together, as she is the first to leave at the end of February. We will miss her a lot. It's funny how in a short time we have all become so close and have so many little routines and jokes. So even though we'll only have known each other for 6 months by the time I leave, it's great to know that next time I want to visit Spain or Mexico I definitely have someone to visit!
Well that's all for now, I'm off to bed, ready to rest my head on my bolster pillow, one of those French things that I never will get used to!
Of course with January, as mentioned before, come the galettes des rois! Last week I had one on three occasions, two of which were very funny. One of these occasions was last Monday, when we had been invited to a galette evening by the lady who organises the town twinnings. There were about 12 of us assistants there, and according to her, the tradition is that the youngest person has to sit under the table throughout the whole process, so that they can't cheat! Of course this was me, and I also have the longest legs, which made the whole scenario even more amusing! The second memorable galette occasion was at school, when we had them for pudding last week. And I was the one who won, thus meaning that I had to wear a crown all through lunch, when I was presented it I waved like the Queen, which went down a treat! The French love all things connected to our royal family!
Last Monday we assistants were all invited to a "VIP evening" with the mayor, which was pretty funny, why we're considered VIPs I don't know, but I must say that we capitalised from the occasion! The evening consisted of a meet and greet with the mayor, who was very jolly, and provided us all with wine and nibbles. We then went into a large hall with all the other VIPs, who as far as we could tell, were mainly key business people from the town, and watched a dance display and a film about the town. Then it was the turn for the mayor to speak and he gave possibly the longest speech I have ever listened to, it makes school assemblies seem seconds long! It was all about what a fantastic town La Roche is, but I have to say we beg to differ, as did half the audience I think! Following that we moved to another room where there was a splendid buffet and more drinks, so we certainly made the most of that, well worth listening to the speech for! The French certainly do know how to lay on a good buffet.
My English club went with much more success this week than last time, not only did the original 7 come back (to my surprise!) but they also brought 8 friends with them! I had organised a British culture version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire", which they really seemed to love. The million pound question was: what do the British do when they go wassailing, the options being: paint their faces yellow, dance round their houses, wear red socks or hang toast on trees. They just couldn't make their minds up which it could possibly be, it was so funny hearing them say things like "the British couldn't be that silly, could they?!" In fact, they found the real response the funniest! The problem now is finding games that they will enjoy as much as they enjoyed last weeks', ideas on a postcard please!
Last weekend I went to Nantes, where I met a few new assistants from Le Mans, only one of which I'd briefly met before, at the pre-departure meeting in London. In a one sense it was strange to be spending the day with 4 complete strangers from around the world (1 English, 1 Welsh, 1 American and 1 German) but I seem to have done a lot of that lately, I feel totally comfortable with the prospect. That's definitely one of the best things about this whole experience, meeting new people and getting along with them. I suppose also that the day went smoothly because Nantes is such a great city, really buzzing and there was so much for us to see and discuss. We had a really nice day. In the morning we did touristy things, we looked at the castle, the cathedral and lots of other beautiful buildings and quaint streets and in the afternoon we hit the shops. Such a treat to go to a town with shops other than C&A and Etam! As the sales are still going strong it was very difficult not to spend my entire month's wages in one blow, I just about succeeded!
Nantes was the start of 7 weekends worth of visits that I have coming up, I'm so excited about them all! It is going to be an expensive time, but I've decided that it's well worth it, never again will I have so many exciting new places on my doorstep. However, some of my trips are back to the UK! Of course there's my trip to York and Exeter, but I am also going on a trip with the residence to London of all places! We were supposed to be going skiing, but that was all fully booked, so when we were brainstorming other places to go, London came up and everyone got excited, so we're off! I would have preferred to spend the weekend at practically any other city in the world that I haven't already visited, but of course majority ruled and they're all so keen to visit. The slight problem is that they are all expecting me to be their guide! I'm not sure how well that will go, plus I don't think London will be quite as they're all imagining, traditional pubs and fish and chip shops aplenty! Plus it's bound to be raining, oh woe!
Talking of weather, the weather here has been at the very extremes, in the last ten days I think that temperatures have ranged from -11 degrees to +15 and I've worn every thing outside, from scarves to t-shirts! The sky is always blue here (well not always, it was grey in Nantes, which was unfortunate for my photos! But at least 6 out of 7 days a week), so it's becoming very difficult to predict what to wear by looking out of the window. Roll on the summer, I've had quite enough of winter now. I'm hoping it'll be nice again before I leave France, I rather fancy passing a few more days at the beach!
So life is ticking along nicely here at the moment, plenty to do at school, our Comenius project is keeping me busy, although I have heard enough about stones to last me a lifetime! Out of school I'm spending more and more time with the Spaniards, and it's with them that most of my trips are taking place, they're keen to visit France too. And to my disbelief, Marta has never visited Paris before, but I think they will do that trip when I'm in Britain. We're actually running out of weekends together, as she is the first to leave at the end of February. We will miss her a lot. It's funny how in a short time we have all become so close and have so many little routines and jokes. So even though we'll only have known each other for 6 months by the time I leave, it's great to know that next time I want to visit Spain or Mexico I definitely have someone to visit!
Well that's all for now, I'm off to bed, ready to rest my head on my bolster pillow, one of those French things that I never will get used to!
Friday, January 9, 2009
Galettes Galore!
I've been back in France for a week now, considering the eventfulness of all previous journeys on the eurostar, my return journey was pleasantly calm, if extremely long. I also confirmed my status as Chinese Idol in Paris (as usual!)...Now being the wizened traveller that I am, and fully aware that it takes several metro tickets to get a large suitcase through the gates in Paris, I bought 6(!) tickets to get me through. As I was approaching the barrier, to my amusement there was a family of Chinese people, all of whom had successfully navigated the barrier, except for one of their suitcases, which was well and truly stuck between the gates, exactly the same situation that I'd been in back in September! They were at the seriously panicked stage, having tried, as I had, to push and pull both the suitcase and the gates, to absolutely no avail. So I put one of my tickets in, and the gates jumped open, and out bounced their suitcase. They were so grateful to me, it was really sweet, and I felt more like a local, than of course a fellow traveller like them. If you're interested, it only took 3 tickets for me to get my bag through!
It was straight back to work on Monday, I had a class at 8am, which felt horrible! The freezing cold and darkness at that hour didn't help ease my tiredness and unwillingness to return to work. Temperatures this week have touched -11, it's just so cold to be walking and cycling everywhere, I am wrapping up warm in ear muffs, hats, scarves, balaclavas, gloves, you name it, I'm probably wearing it! But it's still unbearable. I read on the BBC news site today that it's currently warmer in Antarctica where temperatures have been as high as 5 degrees, I'm not sure who'd be more keen to learn English, my pupils (who have seemed equally as unhappy about returning to school this week) or polar bears!
I've been to quite a few English classes this week as I'm trying to promote my English club that I've set up. The pupils have asked me such funny questions about it, one girl was keen to know if I'd be providing snacks!!! They are being bribed by the prospect of being able to go to lunch early, this reminds me distinctly of my days of attending recorder club and choir, despite absolutely no music ability or interest, for the very same reasons, all those years ago. In fact, probably the year that my pupils were born, I still haven't got over the fact that some were born in 1997!
The first club session went with mixed success, only 7 came, apparently because the rest thought that it wasn't starting until the next week, but I'm not convinced! It would definitely have been better with more of them, they were all a bit nervous and didn't really know what to expect. I find that French pupils are used to what I find I rather rigid education system: in lessons they will quite often spend the whole hour writing while the teacher dictates, so are not at all used to playing games, thus they were a bit hard to get to be enthusiastic, plus they were all very shy. But they did laugh a bit, even if they were laughing at me, rather than with me!!! Ah well, any laughter is better than no laughter! We played "categories" for one game, food being the category. I threw in baked beans, which of course they've never heard of and when I explained, they looked utterly repulsed! I really hope that when it's their turn to go on the English exchange their host families give them some.
The English exchange forms arrived this week and I sat in the staff room listening while they tried to sort out the pairings. It was very funny listening to what the teachers thought of the pupils from their photos and what they'd written about themselves. They look like a really funny bunch from Leeds, all the girls wearing pink with hooped gold ear rings...the staff here were very amused! Our lot have gone for non-smiling passport photos, it must be the standard thing to do in France, I distinctly remember the photo of my French exchange partner, Anne, who looked very scary (and incidentally that first impression wasn't so far off the mark!). They're all getting really excited about their arrival, at the end of January, yet every single one of them wants their partner to have red or blonde hair! I'm equally sure that if they could bagsy an Irish one, that one also be very popular, the obsession with Ireland hasn't ceased with a couple of pupils asking me if I saw a leprechaun during my holidays!
The arrival of pupils from our Comenius school in Spain coincides with the arrival of the English, so that looks set to be a busy week. We had a meeting to organise what to do with the Spaniards and it seems that there will be lots of stone themed activities on offer for them, how exciting! La Maitrise has proposed that I go on the Comenius day trips too, so that should be interesting (?!), and of course an opportunity for me to practice my Spanish! At the meeting she said that she'd need a French teacher to drive the minibus, one of the young female French teachers, who'd volunteered to go on the trip was absolutely petrified at this prospect! However, it turned out La Maitrise had just meant a teacher of French nationality, even the French get confused with their own language, we foreigners have no chance!
Other memorable moments from school this week include one of the English teachers arriving with an accidental board pen moustache drawn on her lip, neither the pupils nor me dared to tell her, and we laughed all lesson! And I was really shown up in another class when I admitted that I'd forgotten that Price Harry's name really is Henry and couldn't successfully name all of the Queen's children, their spouses, children and official titles! I'm learning as much as the pupils!
In the staffroom we're having the staff toilets redone, which means that they were closed on Tuesday until next month. This has led to two amusing consequences. Firstly, it means that the staff coffee machine water supply has been cut and so no coffee. The staff are absolutely livid about this! Unbelievably angry! It was all anyone talked about at breaktime and at lunchtime that day, and they're proposing all sorts of measures to get it reinstalled! They had an official meeting today, I'm yet to hear what the plan of action will be, but judging by French standards I'm hoping it'll involve some sort of strike! Secondly, it means that staff have to use a secluded toilet on the top floor, for which the teachers can use the same key they use to get into classrooms with. Well, of course I don't have a key! No-one seems to have considered this fact, so I'm either going to spend the month cross legged, or make some investigations into getting my own.
Yesterday I posted a letter back to Britain, but forgot to write Britain on the envelope. I realised this literally as it was halfway into the post box, it hung tantalisingly between the flap of the postbox and falling into the box, but just as I reached out to regain it, in it fell. As I was on my way to school, I had paper and pens on me, so I wrote a letter to the postman and posted that in too! Not sure what he will think of this (or even if he'll understand my explanation!), especially as, in retrospect, he may not even know which was the one that I put in there! It will be interesting to hear if it turns up!
On Wednesday I went shopping and had a shock, ususally the shops are busy on Wednesdays, as that's all the pupils' day off, but this time they were rammed, chaos reigned everywhere, compared to the usual orderliness of French shops. Then I realised the date, the 6th, and something twigged. The 6th signifies the last day of Christmas and thus the shops are allowed to start 6 weeks of sales. Sales take place in much more defined time spans in France than Britain and so sales here are even more crazy, months of stock built up and let loose for the hoards to come and grab!
Christmas here goes on and on! Decorations are still around (although less than before) and they celebrate what's called "Galette des Rois" (literally, the King's Cake) throughout the month of January. And I mean throughout January! On the 6th they eat the cake, and in one of the slices there is a small toy. I'm pretty sure that in Britain this tradition may well have been abolished by now due to choing hazards, but in France it certainly lives on! Whoever receives this gets to wear a crown...and has to buy another cake! This process apparently continues throughout January, until everyone has had quite enough of galettes! It's certainly started here, they're quite literally everywhere! I fear that I may be rather full of them by the end of the month! Well that's it for now, I am off round to Marta and Manus, where Marta's boyfriend Pablo is visiting, and you guessed it, we're going to have another galette!
It was straight back to work on Monday, I had a class at 8am, which felt horrible! The freezing cold and darkness at that hour didn't help ease my tiredness and unwillingness to return to work. Temperatures this week have touched -11, it's just so cold to be walking and cycling everywhere, I am wrapping up warm in ear muffs, hats, scarves, balaclavas, gloves, you name it, I'm probably wearing it! But it's still unbearable. I read on the BBC news site today that it's currently warmer in Antarctica where temperatures have been as high as 5 degrees, I'm not sure who'd be more keen to learn English, my pupils (who have seemed equally as unhappy about returning to school this week) or polar bears!
I've been to quite a few English classes this week as I'm trying to promote my English club that I've set up. The pupils have asked me such funny questions about it, one girl was keen to know if I'd be providing snacks!!! They are being bribed by the prospect of being able to go to lunch early, this reminds me distinctly of my days of attending recorder club and choir, despite absolutely no music ability or interest, for the very same reasons, all those years ago. In fact, probably the year that my pupils were born, I still haven't got over the fact that some were born in 1997!
The first club session went with mixed success, only 7 came, apparently because the rest thought that it wasn't starting until the next week, but I'm not convinced! It would definitely have been better with more of them, they were all a bit nervous and didn't really know what to expect. I find that French pupils are used to what I find I rather rigid education system: in lessons they will quite often spend the whole hour writing while the teacher dictates, so are not at all used to playing games, thus they were a bit hard to get to be enthusiastic, plus they were all very shy. But they did laugh a bit, even if they were laughing at me, rather than with me!!! Ah well, any laughter is better than no laughter! We played "categories" for one game, food being the category. I threw in baked beans, which of course they've never heard of and when I explained, they looked utterly repulsed! I really hope that when it's their turn to go on the English exchange their host families give them some.
The English exchange forms arrived this week and I sat in the staff room listening while they tried to sort out the pairings. It was very funny listening to what the teachers thought of the pupils from their photos and what they'd written about themselves. They look like a really funny bunch from Leeds, all the girls wearing pink with hooped gold ear rings...the staff here were very amused! Our lot have gone for non-smiling passport photos, it must be the standard thing to do in France, I distinctly remember the photo of my French exchange partner, Anne, who looked very scary (and incidentally that first impression wasn't so far off the mark!). They're all getting really excited about their arrival, at the end of January, yet every single one of them wants their partner to have red or blonde hair! I'm equally sure that if they could bagsy an Irish one, that one also be very popular, the obsession with Ireland hasn't ceased with a couple of pupils asking me if I saw a leprechaun during my holidays!
The arrival of pupils from our Comenius school in Spain coincides with the arrival of the English, so that looks set to be a busy week. We had a meeting to organise what to do with the Spaniards and it seems that there will be lots of stone themed activities on offer for them, how exciting! La Maitrise has proposed that I go on the Comenius day trips too, so that should be interesting (?!), and of course an opportunity for me to practice my Spanish! At the meeting she said that she'd need a French teacher to drive the minibus, one of the young female French teachers, who'd volunteered to go on the trip was absolutely petrified at this prospect! However, it turned out La Maitrise had just meant a teacher of French nationality, even the French get confused with their own language, we foreigners have no chance!
Other memorable moments from school this week include one of the English teachers arriving with an accidental board pen moustache drawn on her lip, neither the pupils nor me dared to tell her, and we laughed all lesson! And I was really shown up in another class when I admitted that I'd forgotten that Price Harry's name really is Henry and couldn't successfully name all of the Queen's children, their spouses, children and official titles! I'm learning as much as the pupils!
In the staffroom we're having the staff toilets redone, which means that they were closed on Tuesday until next month. This has led to two amusing consequences. Firstly, it means that the staff coffee machine water supply has been cut and so no coffee. The staff are absolutely livid about this! Unbelievably angry! It was all anyone talked about at breaktime and at lunchtime that day, and they're proposing all sorts of measures to get it reinstalled! They had an official meeting today, I'm yet to hear what the plan of action will be, but judging by French standards I'm hoping it'll involve some sort of strike! Secondly, it means that staff have to use a secluded toilet on the top floor, for which the teachers can use the same key they use to get into classrooms with. Well, of course I don't have a key! No-one seems to have considered this fact, so I'm either going to spend the month cross legged, or make some investigations into getting my own.
Yesterday I posted a letter back to Britain, but forgot to write Britain on the envelope. I realised this literally as it was halfway into the post box, it hung tantalisingly between the flap of the postbox and falling into the box, but just as I reached out to regain it, in it fell. As I was on my way to school, I had paper and pens on me, so I wrote a letter to the postman and posted that in too! Not sure what he will think of this (or even if he'll understand my explanation!), especially as, in retrospect, he may not even know which was the one that I put in there! It will be interesting to hear if it turns up!
On Wednesday I went shopping and had a shock, ususally the shops are busy on Wednesdays, as that's all the pupils' day off, but this time they were rammed, chaos reigned everywhere, compared to the usual orderliness of French shops. Then I realised the date, the 6th, and something twigged. The 6th signifies the last day of Christmas and thus the shops are allowed to start 6 weeks of sales. Sales take place in much more defined time spans in France than Britain and so sales here are even more crazy, months of stock built up and let loose for the hoards to come and grab!
Christmas here goes on and on! Decorations are still around (although less than before) and they celebrate what's called "Galette des Rois" (literally, the King's Cake) throughout the month of January. And I mean throughout January! On the 6th they eat the cake, and in one of the slices there is a small toy. I'm pretty sure that in Britain this tradition may well have been abolished by now due to choing hazards, but in France it certainly lives on! Whoever receives this gets to wear a crown...and has to buy another cake! This process apparently continues throughout January, until everyone has had quite enough of galettes! It's certainly started here, they're quite literally everywhere! I fear that I may be rather full of them by the end of the month! Well that's it for now, I am off round to Marta and Manus, where Marta's boyfriend Pablo is visiting, and you guessed it, we're going to have another galette!
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