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!