Working hard, playing harder

What a week it has been! And to think that at the end of my last post I noted that I expected life to get a lot quieter once lectures started, how wrong I was! I can see already that this is going to be a term with limited sleep, I think there was only one night this week where I got more than 5 hours sleep, and the lack of curtains can't be blamed for that! I have decided that my stint in France has to be described under the heading "one long holiday" while Germany will be known under the heading "work hard, party harder"!

On Tuesday the lectures began, with a full day, 8am until 6pm, it was an absolute beast of a day! I am quite simply not used, and unable, to concentrate for 2 hour stints at a time, especially not in German when half goes over my head and I consequently switch off. My first seminar started very badly. The tutor had sent us the work by email and we were told to print it out, but with it being the bank holiday weekend the library was shut until 8am on Tuesday morning, the time that the seminar was supposed to start. As we had been prewarned that lecturers arrive late we reckoned we'd have enough time to print out the work, and make it just in time. Oh how very wrong we were! We arrived late and got a proper ticking off from the lecturer, it took me right back to my school days. The words the lecturer used were that she was "stink sauer"...even if you don't speak German I'm pretty sure that you'll get the idea that she was not happy! Certainly not a good start, and that lecturer has been particularly cold towards my little group of late comers ever since!

The lectures and seminars this week have been a complete mix of things, I'll run through a few of the high-lights and memorable moments...

We aren't actually properly enrolled for any courses, so we have had to frantically send emails round to request special permission to attend the lectures, which are completely and utterly over subscribed. There is simply not enough space in the rooms, there are people flowing out the doors, sitting on the floor and stealing chairs from other rooms. I was in one seminar that only 5 of us took (more on this one later!), and during the 15 minute wait for the lecturer our room was gradually emptied of chairs, one by one 20 chairs were taken!!!

In my first linguistics lecture there were 25 people officially signed up and 21 on the waiting list. They all turned up and she went through every name saying if they were allowed to stay or not. She got to the end of the list and asked if there was anyone whose name she hadn't read out, so of course I had to put up my hand. She then remembered that I was an exchange student and said that yes of course I could stay as an extra. All those who had just been told that there was no space for any extras turned round and I could see a sea of angry faces, I have never felt so hated! In every class we go to we are known as the exchange pupils, although it can be very annoying we do get proper VIP treatment, just like in France with the mayor!

This class had another funny moment, it was a phon phon ortho class and so she was talking about sounds in different languages. She asked the class what the English for a word was, but as I hadn't heard the word she asked I couldn't reply, but someone else did. The answer was "sound" and she then asked for the French equivalent. No-one in this class studies French, so no-one volunteered the answer. She got a bit annoyed so, as I did know the response, I thought I'd better say it, which I did. Once again everyone turned round ("an exchange student who knows the answer?!") and she thanked me and said that she was glad that there was a French person here!!! Hahaha and to think that I hadn't known the English response. It hasn't been the only time this week that my nationality has been confused. I once replied to a tutor that I was from Grossbritannien and straight back she said to me how sorry they were about the earthquake, much to my utter astonishment! It turned out that she had misheard "Italien"! And of course the number of times that I've been taken as American is innumerable...!

I had one very enjoyable lecture about foreign words in the German language, there are soooo many, they even have dictionaries the thickness of a brick on them! Anyway what made the lecture so interesting was not the content (well for me maybe, but I won't share the ins and outs with you now!...although I can't risk adding in that the Germans use phrases such as "Ich habe es gebookmarkt!") but the lecturer himself! For starters his name is Wolf Peter Klein, what a name! Secondly he was so jolly it was unbelievable, he was very rotund, slightly balding and very merry! He was also really friendly and when I spoke to him at the end of the lecture he was very interested to hear how we were settling in, and very concerned about my lack of curtains...I wouldn't be surprised if he brought me a pair to our next lecture!

On Wednesday, I had a French lesson which was really good, I do actually seriously miss French and France, at the moment I have to say that I much prefer the French language. What was funny is my complete obliviousness to which words belong to each language, at one point the tutor asked us to name types of literature, I called out a German word, totally unknowingly, much to the amusement of everyone. Fortunately, the Germans seem far more capable of putting on a French accent than my French pupils were, so at least we can follow what's going on.

On Wednesday afternoon we have possibly the best course ever. It's entitled "Erfurt, the city of my studies" and it appears that we are going to spend every week going on a tourist walk of the town, perfect, particularly as the weather is still absolutely gorgeous. I think my description of it as "a nice spring walk with a very knowledgeable aunt" is spot on! But despite being an utter doss intellectually, it is really interesting, if anyone comes to visit me (do!) I will be able to tell you a lot about the city, probably far more than I could about York or anywhere at home!

As regards the classes there have been the good (morphology, with an extremely good looking young professor!) and the really really bad, French Lexicography being one of these! It was just absolutely cringeworthy! This "lecture" was the one where there were only 5 of us and thus was not really a lecture, more student participation required! The topic alone is highly complicated, and was conducted in the fastest German that I have ever heard (which is quite a statement for me to make considering the rate of my own speech!). What's more is that she persistently asked me questions, but didn't look directly at me when speaking to me, rather a space just above my left ear! I hadn't understood much so couldn't reply to any of her questions, oh it was awful! The minutes have never passed so slowly, two hours of pure torture. I won't be going back to that one, which is a shame as what I did understand was really interesting and right up my street.

I have an advanced grammar class which is taken by some foreign students and some German students who want to become German teachers. We were paired up, one foreigner with one German student and had to work through a gap filling exercise (slotting in the appropriate determiner, regarding gender and case). We agreed on all the answers, except one, and had a bit of a debate over this one. We were chosen to say our answers to the class and when we got to this answer she told the tutor that we'd disagreed. It turned out that I was correct, I was very, very happy and cried out to the whole class "exchange student 1, Germany 0" much to all of the Germans' surprise (and slight horror)!!! Ah, I am still very pleased that my grammar is better than that of a native German...if they can't learn it, how we can, I have no idea!

The teaching methods here and the general university atmosphere is so different too, which is certainly not helped by the fact that an awful lot of German students go home at the weekend. As I have mentioned, we have to do far more courses than in Britain, I now "specialise" in 10 disciplines, but they're in such less depth than at York. Having said that, one lecturer set us the task of learning the anatomy of vocal tract in German, Latin and Greek...you wouldn't get that in York. And I read in one of the mammoth chunks of reading that "the idea of a teacher of any discipline without good knowledge of Latin is unthinkable"...I know for sure that that train of thought is not shared in Britain, teaching of Latin went out years ago. However, a German friend of mine said that her Grandmother was an English teacher for 40 years and had not been to any English speaking country, that too is unimaginable. Apparently it was exactly like in the books when she finally went during her retirement!!!

Something that also struck me as very strange is the distinct lack of that famous German organisation as regards assessment at the end of the course, it seems to be something very much open to discussion! On the down side however, there will definitely be some major essays (12 pages of the history of the German language anyone?!) and I am already signed up for a 30 minute presentation on Metasprachdiskurse...dreaded already!

The final lecture related comment that I will make is that at the end of all lectures and seminars they all knock on the tables! I was a little shocked the first time I heard it but have since taken on this strange custom with great enthusiasm...I think that I will have knuckles made of steel by the end of it!

Well that's all that's been happening by day, and the nights have been equally as entertaining! I have been out every night this week, there is just so much going on, we have a large network of exchange students and have met lots of Germans and all invites are open to anyone. The highlights of this week would be: experiencing the Mensa turned into a hilarious nightclub (much more like a Danesfield school disco/Goodricke event than a nightclub!); meeting my 70 year old professor (more on that in a sec!); a rave in the cellar of a disused church on top of a hill (complete with more bottles of tequila than I have ever seen in my life, even in a supermarket!); gatecrashing the birthday party of someone I've never met (second time I've done that in 2 months!); an Ostalgie party (my thoughts on this will not be disclosed!) and Greek Easter (the orthodox church has a different date).

Finally I am starting to make some friends and have met such a variety of people, it's funny how we've all been thrown together and are already making friendships that will hopefully last far longer than our short time here. Going dancing with them is hilarious, from a Hungarian "gypsy hip hop" dancer, Khazakstanian twisted leg dancing and I have never tried my hand (or leg!) at so much Greek and Spanish dancing in all my life, I'm sorry to say that I'm certainly not getting any better at it though!!!

The culture differences stretch far further than the obvious things like dancing, clothing, food and language. For example, we were discussing where we come from and comparing my village of 90 inhabitants, with their cities of millions of people. And the way we view being out alone at night, I walked alone at night a lot in France (I think I walked the path home at every single hour of the day and night at some point during my time in France) and got completely used to it, while they're from dangerous cities with mafia! My Hungarian friend is never out with out her tool to give an electric shock and my Czech friend has a pepper spray for unruly men that she carries at all times! I would not like to meet these two and their weapons at night! It's true that Erfurt does have some very rough areas (we've witnessed all sorts of crime already), so maybe I ought to look into an anti-attack, or maybe self defence classes!

Another thing that I don't think I ever mentioned in France, but happened there too, is that in no other country (as far as I am aware) is putting up two fingers rude, so I am constantly sworn up as people tell me they want two of something! I remember Cecile doing this to a man in a shop in London and he was very taken a back!!! Talking about offending people, a friend of mine introduced a girl from Taiwan as from Korea, she was really not happy about that! And my Czech friend said the other day that "Britain is not part of the EU", ho hum!

As I mentioned earlier, I met my 70 year old professor and his wife the other day, they are really nice and extremely interesting. They've travelled the world and have so many funny anecdotes to tell. We went on the first of our hikes today, it was beautiful, we walked up a valley to a hidden pub that didn't have any electricity supply, then across fields, which were just immense expanses of green, i have never seen such big fields and space. The countryside is gorgeous here, especially as blossom is out everywhere, I can see that there will be plenty of cherry picking to enjoy later in the year!

Well that's the lot for now (and I mean a lot!), the final anecdote of the blog is this....I have a German friend who spent last summer giving out leaflets for a company. Completely normal, except the funny thing is that she had to get everyone she gave a leaflet to to pose for a photo as evidence that she gave it to them. How strange is that?!?!

Oh goodness and I was just rereading this when a Slovakian friend knocked at the door, she asked if she could get some of my photos. I replied and said to follow me in. She said "what?", so I repeated what I'd said again, to which she said "could you please speak in German or at least English?"!!! I'd spoken French to her twice utterly unaware. I can't believe it! I am going CRAZY, there are so many words and languages running round my head I can't cope! So, until next time, tschuess, a bientot, adios and goodbye!

Easter in Erfurt

I've been in Germany a week now and in some ways it's every bit as expected and in others, not at all. It's been a strange week, chiefly because it's a funny feeling to be back in the university system again, not least as a fresher who has to go on library tours (I think every library in the world is similar enough that once you know one, you can navigate them all) and introduce himself, where he's from and what he's studying. The only difference this time is that it tends to be done in several languages and several times!

My trip to Germany started with my flight and managing all my bags. Fortunately I had far less than in France and was flying with Lufthansa, who were pretty relaxed. I was so happy to be flying with them when I glanced over at my old favourites, ryanair, who were making everyone prove that their hand luggage would fit in a box, mine never would have, and nor did the passengers of that flight, who were pushing and shoving bags, many of which ended up stuck in the box! On arrival I was surprised by the sheer size of Frankfurt airport. We took a bus for about 10 minutes just to get to the building and then I walked in seeming circles to get my suitcase and to the train station, which is great, it's actually inside the airport, so no transfers needed or anything.

Considering my recent fascination with all things train related, I was highly surprised and disappointed with the train that I took! It was simply the oldest train and the seating arrangement was hilarious, chairs stuck seemingly randomly in a carriage, no proper rows or anything! Even the Germans seemed very bemused by this, especially as we kept pulling into stations next to faster newer trains! What's more I was highly disappointed that my train arrived into Erfurt late....I had always (seemingly wrongly) thought that German trains were at the height of modernity and punctuality.

I fell in love with Erfurt as soon as I stepped out of the train station. The town centre is always full of people, sitting outside enjoying ice-creams, sausages and beer in the many many street side cafes and bars. I have simply never seen so many of the above and know that, although I will be far from the bakeries of France, there is no way that I will go hungry or thirsty here! The town itself dates from 700s, so it's even older (and dare I say it), prettier and more historic than York could ever be! Outside of the old town centre you are really hit with awful communist architecture, which although completely ugly, give the city two really interesting sides to it. The university itself was Germany's 3rd oldest university, but had a period of closure, before being reopened only 15 years ago. The buildings are therefore all newish, but equally as concrete and ugly, and my residence is simply dire (from the outside!)! It reminds me distinctly of many tower blocks in China, and has a similar smell about it!

So, on arrival here, I was met by my student tutor Nadine, who is really nice. She's from Berlin but has just spent a year on an exchange in Dublin, so she has simply the strangest German accent that I have ever heard, she sounds positively Irish, but with a funny twang! You have to hear it to believe it! Incidentally, she thinks that I speak German with a French accent!!! I'm really not sure what to think about that, I don't think that I ever picked up a French accent, maybe it was all those lessons I spent with the French pupils who learnt German and something rubbed off on me!

She brought me here to my residence, which is ok. There's a basic kitchenette and then my room, which is simply enormous. It must be far bigger than our sitting room at home and, considering that I only brought my 20kg allowance of things with me is really bare! Plus it has no curtains! Why you would fully furnish a room and not bother with curtains I don't know. After a couple of sleepless nights with my towel covering about a quarter of the giant window, I now possess a cheap plastic table cloth which I have strung up, it looks ridiculous, but I think it could have a useful double function as a picnic mat when spring comes! Apparently the bedroom used to be for two people (there are 2 wardrobes...for my 5 pairs of jeans, and 2 book shelves...one for each of my books!), but I reckon that I could easily sleep 15 on the floor, it's that big!

Once Nadine had installed me, she took me along to the supermarket down the road so that I could stock up. The supermarket was less organised as any I've been to in Britain or France, and many things that I thought they'd have, they didn't (like more than 5 types of cereal). However they did have ample varieties (we're talking 2 aisles!) of sparkling water, which I absolutely hate, but remember that my German exchange was very fond of, I will have to be careful when choosing water! With most bottles you get money back when you bring the empty bottle back to the shop, so there were lots of these machines around and prices for bottles were rather complicated, as they take the money that you get back into account of the price.

I don't know where German's get this from, many with which I've spoken seem to think that Brits will only eat salty butter! I just don't get that! Nadine specifically pointed out the only salty butter to me, and looked rather pleased with herself to have done so, I meanwhile looked on rather confused!

There are trams everywhere in Erfurt, and as a student I get free unlimited usage of them, which is great, but does mean that there will be less cycling (if any, considering current lack of bike) and thus not so good for the developing ice-cream tummy! Anyway, when we got off the tram from the supermarket, we had to cross the road. There were absolutely no cars on the road, yet a whole group of about 20 Germans stood patiently at the side of the road, in my eyes they just looked plain stupid. Nadine informed me that in Germany you will be fined if the police catch you jaywalking. Madness! When alone, I have been thus far ignored this law, but can't quite bring myself to nip across the road in front of a group of patient Germans! Incidentally, the green men here are particularly cool (they're special to eastern Germany) so maybe they are worth waiting to see!

Once I got back to the flat, which I share with 3 others, one of them was there. So I introduced myself and she and a friend kindly cooked me supper: first impression of Germans is that they are, contrary to popular belief, in fact very friendly! So they cooked me a nice supper and we chatted away, they were both really nice. They did have funny stereotypes about British people though, such as that we do not, in any circumstances, recycle! The friend (whose name I can't for the life of me remember...I only know that my flatmate is called Tini as it's written on her door!) carefully explained the whole system to me! However I did let the side down after we'd eaten. As they'd done all the cooking (they possibly wouldn't let me help as another of their stereotypes is that Brits can't cook!) I thought that I'd do the washing up. Which was fine, except that the friend handed various bits of my washing up back to me, as they had simple the tiniest flecks of things left on them...that's what a tea towel is for...wiping them off! I graciously re-washed them all! Ah German perfectionism is maybe something I'll have to get used to. Another funny example of it is that, in the Mensa, which is a giant refectory (have you noticed a pattern here...it sounds like I'm in America from the size of everything!), you have to line your knife, fork, spoon, tea spoon, glass, bowl and plate in a specific order before putting your tray onto the trolley to be washed...what on earth is that all about?! I don't think I'll ever get learn the order!

On the first official day we had a meeting with all the other Erasmus students, so as to get though a tall stack of paperwork. Oddly enough, the other exchange students are 95% female, there are only 3 boys. Apart from the 4 of us from Britain, there are 3 Greek girls and the rest of the students are all from Eastern Europe, Russia and Kazakhstan. There is a real mix of languages and I can already see that we will have more communication issues than I ever experienced in France. Many people are here to learn German, so speak very few words. What surprised me at first is that most do not speak English, but I have come to realise that to the eastern Europeans German or Russian is their second language and then the other or English comes next. So for some people communication with people from a country other than their own is really difficult, or they are maybe less willing, when one girl was asked by one of the Greeks if she spoke English, her response was "maybe". What is funny is that those who do speak English seem to communicate very effectively amongst themselves, speaking a funny pidgin English, that I find hard to follow, but they find very easy. I think one example was yesterday when one of the Hungarians asked a Russian "how kind their music is", I was perplexed by this, but he replied immediately with "rock"!

I feel rather bad referring to them all by their nationalities, but my goodness everyone's names are so complicated, making tracking them down on facebook near impossible! I have come up with a method of remembering people's names by associating them with something else, so I have friends who in my mind I think of as Horsie, Godzilla and Choochoo, although I'm pretty sure that these are not their real names, or at least certainly not spelt like that! In my phonebook I have a 4 point plan for knowing whose number it is: nationality, where/how I met them, name sounds like and distinctive characteristic! It is interesting though, the more people that you meet, the more people remind you of others, either in an explicit way by looking exactly like someone or in a way that you just can't put your finger on. Many of my new friends here have been discussing whether I am typically English or not, it is a topic of great debate! However they do all agree that I look like someone from the Gillmore Women or something, some TV programme I've never heard of!

My days here have been filled up with meetings, talks, module choosing and even a surprise exam! I was rather surprised to hear about that one, but it went well and did well enough to give me the freedom to choose any modules that I like here, so that's good, France can't have had too much of a negative effect on my German, although it is pretty incredible how much I've forgotten and what a strong tendency I have to put French words in to my German speech, and not even notice that I'm doing so. The test was marked with remarkable efficiency, we took it one afternoon, and the results were available by 8am the next morning. Impressive German working!

One of the talks we had was from a lady who runs a scheme called "Fremde werden Freunde", literally, "strangers become friends". This organisation puts foreigners in contact with an Erfurter, so that they can meet people outside of university life, which sounds like a really good idea. She got those of us who were interested to fill in a form about our interests, which we did. Then she was talking about something and I kind of switched off, tuning in only to hear her ask if anyone liked walking, so I piped up that I did. Possible error!! It turned out that she wanted to know this as there is a 65 year old professor who is looking for a foreigner to take on hikes, she got very excited (I was, unsurprisingly the only one unknowingly volunteer!) and wrote his name on the top of my sheet! So looks like I'm set for hikes with a German professor! In fact, this lady is another example of incredible efficiency, because one of my friends, Rosie, had a call from her contact that afternoon, less than 5 hours after filling out the form! They don't half move fast these German organisers! Having said that, I'm yet to hear from the professor!

Another observation that this lady has made me come to realise, is that there seem to be two main groups of Germans here. There are many who seem to regard the days of east Germany and the wall as the golden years, and give the impression of thinking it bad, or at least sad that the wall came down. This lady had been a Russian teacher, and along with hundreds of others, lost her job when the Russians gave over power of eastern Germany. And a German friend is having an "Ostalgie" (East Germany nostalgia) party next week, with themed food and all. Then there are also those who are pleased to have the freedom to travel and can't stand the communist train of thought.

One of the talks that us foreign students have had was entitled something along the lines of "avoiding cultural misunderstandings". It was pretty funny and I think the lesson to be learnt, as the tutor repeated this many times, was that what ever we do, we must never be late for anything, as the Germans value punctuality. The Greeks certainly have a lot to learn! However this was contradicted by the tutor telling us that, although lectures are written on the timetable as being two hours long, professors here will turn up 15 minutes late and usually finish 15 minutes early. I really hope this is the case, as according to my provisional timetable I have 10 hours of non stop lectures on a Tuesday, from 8am until 6pm. I am going to need those half hour breaks! Talk about throwing myself in at the deep end...that's 2 hours short of a whole working week in France...what am I letting myself in for!?

Apart from all the formalities during the day many evening entertainments have been organised for us by the student tutors, so these have given us things to do, which is good as I have had the flat to myself since Wednesday when Tini went back for Easter weekend. On our first night we had karaoke which was really good fun. Everyone was very keen to participate and I have to say that, although it really was rather like watching the Eurovision Song Contest minus a Turkish belly dancer, the people here are far better at singing in English than any of the French that I ever heard sing! However, there was one hilarious moment when someone attempted to sing "Instrumental, 20 seconds"!!!

On the second night we had a bowling evening which was also good fun, not least because the waiter looked exactly like David Beckham, I had to do a complete double take when he asked me what I wanted. I was so taken aback that I was unable to find words to order something. Who knew that David Beckham earns a few extra pennies in a bar in Erfurt?!

On Friday everything was closed because of the bank holiday so I went for a nice walk and discovered a few of the back streets of the town. It has beet really warm and gloriously sunny here, mid twenties I think, and the Germans all seem to be stripping off, I saw a couple doing their gardening in swim wear! Fashion-wise Germans seem to be very modern in their style, I can't count the number of middle aged women I've seen with pink hair and a few tatoos! They are really so different from the French and I've also noted that there are far more overweight people here than in France, where there really were practically none.

Friday evening was fun as we went on a guided tour of the historical town centre. The tour was led by a man dressed in period costume and we got many laughs from passers-by as we were led through the centre of town. The highlight of the evening was when we arrived at a street which is called something to do with a crotch because of the way the street forked. We didn't know this particular piece of German vocab, so he tried to explain it by likening himself to Madonna and doing a dance, it looked hilarious, I don't think that Madonna would be seen dead in his get up!

On Easter Day we had been told that the Easter Bunny would be arriving in town in style, in a helicopter! So a group of 9 of us when to the park, where all the action was to be happening. There was a group discount it you were more than 10 people, but as we were only 9, we weren't eligible. That wasn't to deter us, and we grabbed a random old man and told him to join us too! He was rather surprised and confused by it all! It was a vast and beautiful park and there were stalls and amusements all around, as well as thousands of people enjoying the sunshine and lively atmosphere. There was also an Easter egg hunt, but between 9 of us we didn't manage to find a single one, very disappointing! Then the helicopter arrived and we waited excitedly to see the bunny step out of it. Suddenly everyone streamed across the ground to the helicopter, so we followed, but on arrival there was nothing there, only the pilot (who was definitely not the bunny!). Yet no-one seemed disappointed and some people were saying to their children "ooh isn't it small"...the only logical conclusion that we could come to was that it was invisible/pretend! What a con! We were highly disappointed, but at least there were plenty of people in rabbit suits walking round to make up for it!

Tomorrow, Easter Monday, we are going to the zoo, so at least then I might get the chance to see a real bunny!

Apologies for the length of these posts, I'm amazed you've read this far! I should think that when lectures start (eeek!) life may be less interesting, so these posts may become shorter and far between, we will see! Until then, Happy Easter!

Oh I will leave you with one anecdote I remember from last week. There was a group of us standing waiting to go to bowling, a Slovakian, 4 Americans and me, and then another girl that we didn't know arrived. We asked her where she was from, and she said she was from Lithuania. So the Slovakian piped up "Well at least there are 2 Europeans in this group then!" What about me?! She had genuinely left Britain out of Europe and sided us with America instead, ho hum!

Airport or Erfurt?!

New country, new era! And as the more observant among you may have noticed, new colours on the blog!

I have arrived, and for those of you who were utterly confused as to whether I was going to "Erfurt" or "Airport" I can confirm that it's a real city and looks set to be great fun...watch this space!

Au Revoir France

Wow things really did get on top of me at the end of my stay in France, so much happened in the last few weeks that I didn't get time to blog it all, I will do my best to fill you in now. I've been home a couple of weeks and tomorrow I leave for Germany, exciting times, but more on that later. For now, I will try to reflect on my last few weeks in France, at least the outstanding events that I still remember. My memory is like a sieve, I'm so glad that I have this blog; otherwise I know that I would have forgotten every single anecdote. Since I've been home people keep asking me to recall one of the stories I've put on here, but it often takes me a minute to remember what it is they're talking about, I've got so used to the eventful days in France that they seem almost too mundane to tell people about.

A couple of weeks before the end of my stay we made a list of lots of things that we/I wanted to do before we all head off in our different directions, so a lot of the things I'll be talking about are from this list, including this trip to our town's museum. The museum is something that I'd always put off for a rainy day, but with it being France, that rainy day never came. So on a sunny day we thought we'd venture over. The museum was hilariously bad, there was almost nothing in it, except a few model trains and a few posters about the said trains. Thus confirming what I have discovered since living in France, that the French are absolutely obsessed with them, above all the high-speed train, which is their pride and joy. Not that I'm complaining, I reckon that I've spent over £1500 and at least 100 hours on trains since I've lived in France, and not a week has gone by where I have made use of at least 2 and when you add to this the almost daily crossing of the tracks, I don't think a train has gone by unmissed. We can now almost definitely class ourselves as experts when it comes to the French rail network. We have probably travelled in every type of train imaginable, slow old ones, modern fast ones, trains with old fashioned compartments, sleeper trains and even, a personal favourite, the high speed double decker train! Two storeys of pure bliss!!!

As a lot of you have now seen, either in person or via facebook, I am now sporting yet another French haircut. Again done with as much gusto as the last one, yet this time the appointment lasted a record breaking 2 and a half hours! All that and I came out wearing something that looks like an 80s mullet! Hopefully it, like all good things, will improve with age. It does however confirm one characteristic of the French, their love of taking a very long time over everything, be it lunch or hairdressing, you simply can't rush them! I'm not sure how much of this has rubbed off on me, but I daresay a bit, which probably isn't a bad thing, maybe I'll be haring round at a slightly slower speed in the future!

For about the past month a teacher at school has been talking about an island that she wanted to take me to visit, so finally we went a few weeks ago. It's funny how just as I was about to leave invites from teachers to do things were coming thick and fast, they really could have asked me at the beginning of my stay when I had no friends and little to do, but never mind, it's always nice to be asked whenever it is. So one Sunday afternoon she picked me up with her partner and two small children Axel and Ewan (not in the slightest bit typical French names, what happened to Pierre and Jean?!), aged about 5 and 2 if I remember correctly. The boys were hilarious. The older one was extremely excited about meeting "a foreigner" and was highly disappointed that I didn't look or sound as strange as he had been hoping, I think he had been expecting a green skinned, purple haired gargling monster! The younger one however, was absolutely petrified of me! He wouldn't speak and every time I looked his way he'd try and hide or cry! Fortunately by the end of the trip I'd won them over and we had a really lovely afternoon. The island is called Noirmoutier and is off the west coast, not too far from Nantes. It was really beautiful and a special bright yellow Mimosa was out in flower and smelt lovely. The island had pretty beaches, rocky coves and lots of really expensive looking houses, apparently mainly second homes, so we benefitted from this and stole a bit of Mimosa from the garden of one to take back!

That evening once I'd got back from the island we had a random call from Marc, the work experience guy who'd come with us to Brittany. Although I had the strong impression then that he didn't like us (well, at least Marta and me!), he invited us to a bar on the other side of town where there was a band playing. So we went along to that and had a great time, we met his wild friends who were called something like Kindooie and Kinlee! I really have no idea what their names were! One was a postlady so she regaled us with tale of her work, I got the impression that work as a postman in France really isn't the same as that of one in Britain! The band was positively average but we very much enjoyed the French jigging that we saw! It was really kind of Marc to invite (and transport us!) and we had a really good evening.

My second to last week at school was surprisingly good fun. In one of my classes the pupils were to be watching Jane Eyre as they will be visiting her house and area when they go on the English exchange to Leeds. I can' remember if I've mentioned this before, but the teacher has told them all about the moors and that they are covered in heather, thus being purple in appearance. However I think the bit about heather went straight over the pupils' heads and they therefore have only retained the information that the hills are purple, something they seemed to find extraordinary. I'm pretty sure they've all got an idea of luminous purple hills, just like you might see in an episode of the tellytubbies! They will be highly disappointed when they arrive, not only because the image they have is wildly off the mark anyway, but also because I don't think that the heather will even be in flower!

The film itself also provided some entertainment. Firstly, the teacher, who is probably in her 40s, had assured the class (in particular the girls) that Mr Rochester is very attractive. The girls did not agree (and nor did I!) and he certainly made for amusing viewing. Secondly, Adele, his daughter, is French and so although she speaks English she has a thick French accent throughout the film, I think this interested them, although I'm not sure that that they could really pick up on how atrociously French her accent was!

My other European Studies class was even more entertaining, as over the past few weeks they've been studying Queen, and their song "We Are The Champions" in particular, which listening to repetitively was starting to drive me a bit potty! However after learning the words to the real song, they had to re-write their own version, a sort of parody. So we had all sorts of funny songs, going along the titles of "We Are The Bakers/Rock Stars/MacDonalds Addicts....the extent of their imagination is quite remarkable! And not only did they have to write their own lyrics to the whole song, but also perform it! This was absolutely hysterical, for me, the teacher and the pupils! I'm sure you can well imagine pairs of 14 year olds, utterly incapable of singing, let alone in English, trying to stand in front of the class and sing, with no accompaniment to keep the tune or rhythm! It was just so funny! The good thing was, that all of them, from the shy girls to the boys who are far too cool for this sort of thing, had a go. The teacher assured me that she will send me a copy of their singing (she recorded it!) but nothing has arrived as yet!

Other memorable highlights of that week at school is that la maitrise is now on crutches having done something to her ankle, and trying to maintain her dignity and French style while hobbling round with an old sock on her foot! I also had the last gathering of my English club, I didn't know that at the time, as I should have had one the following week. However courtesy of another strike it was cancelled and I got another day off. I really did (unknowingly) time it well by organising the club on a Thursday. Anyway that particular edition was more riotous than usual, I thought we'd play some sort of pictionary or hangman on the board. Foolishly I brought more than one pen for the whiteboard and by the end of the club there was just a crowd of pupils scribbling on the whiteboard, no English to be heard at all, the game have completely dissolved into graffiti!

On Wednesdays none of us work, so Miguel, Iliana and I decided to go on a train adventure (we really do love trains!). When we go to Nantes (which you have to do to go almost anywhere northern or eastern) we take a bumbly old train that stops at lots of random villages. So we thought that we'd take this train and get off at every village and see what it's like. It was a really sunny day and we took a picnic and did lots and lots of walking. It was really good fun and nice to be out in the countryside as apart from the trip to the island I really do only go to big towns and cities, courtesy of the train. It was nice to see French rural life a bit and we were very pleased to finally have a picture of all these places that were previously just a name.

For my last weekend in France we decided that we wanted to go down south and soak up a bit of the early spring sun, which was actually really warm, it was already 20 degrees in La Roche. I went to the train station and asked a rather surprised lady at the desk to give me a list of times and prices for every train going to a city in the south of France that weekend. She was very taken aback and couldn't quite believe that we were going to decide a destination based on that, but it was the best way to do it, and we ended up organising a great trip down to Toulouse, stopping at Bordeaux on the way back up. Miguel, Manu and I embarked on the really long journey down on the Friday night and on Saturday we were met by a friend of Miguel's and her friends.

Over the weekend we stayed in the cheapest hotel we could find. It was fine in that it was clean, friendly and in a great location, but it was equally strange! The rooms had no windows looking out into the city...but plenty looking inwards to the corridors! And the corridors could have well been outside, judging by all the plants they had growing, there was ivy and other green plants growing everywhere. We decided against having breakfast in the hotel, but had we have done so I think that that would have been quite the experience as well, the breakfast room was absolutely tiny, with space enough for only two arm chairs and a coffee table, what they would do if 3 guests wanted to eat at the same time, I don't know!

We spent the weekend doing the usual sight seeing things, Toulouse being quite a pretty city with a nice river area and lots to do. It is known by French people as "La ville en rose", meaning the pink town, due to the colour of the architecture, but I have to say that we came to call it "La ville en orange" as we thought that pink is a much more glamourous term for in fact a very orange city.

As I mentioned earlier, we met up with a friend of Miguel's, called Caro, who also brought along a couple of other Spanish friends, Patricia and Lady (although her name is most probably not spelt like that it, it genuinely is how it's pronounced!). That evening we ended up going to a party, which was great fun and a truly international affair (having already been out numbered by 5 Spaniards all day I was rather pleased!). How we ended up at this party is the consequence of a very long chain of people, all friends of friends of friends. The chain of people goes something like this, and what's funny is that the chain did get broken, as neither Miguel nor Caro, our links in the chain went, so we really had known no-one there for more than 6 hours or so! So our friend Miguel has a friend called Caro from university who lives in Pau. She came to meet us in Toulouse bringing with her Patricia and Lady, who are assistants with her. Patricia did Erasmus in Grenoble 2 years ago and met an American called Paul. Paul knows a German who lives in Toulouse called Markus. Markus has an Austrian friend called Veroni (or something!), and it was her birthday and she was having a party. So you can see that our invite was the end of a really tedious link! It was a great do in someone's apartment and there were probably people from about 15 nations there! We were made very welcome although I did make one slip up, when someone asked me how I knew Veroni (the birthday girl) and my response was "Who's Veroni?" having completely forgotten her name! I was greeted with a rather bemused look!

On Sunday morning we left Toulouse and started our return journey, stopping off in Bordeaux for the day. As you may remember I visited Bordeaux briefly before and really liked it, I wasn't disappointed on my return, it's as beautiful as ever. Being a Sunday little was open but we wandered round the centre looking at the old buildings etc. We had lunch in a nice park with a lake and then sauntered along the rive in the afternoon. What was interesting is that last time I was in Bordeaux there was a huge fair in the main square, and this time there was one too, so I was beginning to wonder if it was a permanent fixture, although I couldn't quite believe that it was. In the end someone confirmed to us that the fair is only there twice a year and it just so happens that my trips have coincided with its visit.

That Sunday was also the day that England surprisingly beat France at rugby, so although we were unable to watch the match as we were on the train home, it provided plenty of topics of conversation at school that week, mostly with very annoyed PE teachers! During the train journey home one of my pupils popped up and sat a few seats away from us. She kept popping her head up to see what Miguel, Manu and I were doing (generally playing a raucous music game) and by the time I got to her lesson that Monday afternoon it appeared that half the class seemed to know that I'd been sighted on a train! The pupils' fascination and interest in seeing me out of school still hasn't waned.

The final week at school started with a bang and proved that life in a school is never uneventful, even after 6 months things never cease to surprise me. I left school about 10 minutes after the final bell and pushed my bike up towards the school gates. As I approached I could see that there was a very large crowd of pupils and a lot of noise. As I got closer I could see that a full blown fight had broken out involving between 20 and 30 pupils, I've genuinely never seen anything like it before. It was just a huge brawl with a couple of girls in the middle, and everyone else around fighting people off too. Fortunately, as I was beginning to wonder what on earth I should do, a couple of male teachers arrived and tried to break it up, without much success. To cut a long story short, it took 10 members of staff to separate everyone, one of the surveillants ended up with a broken wrist and a teacher has a cut on his lip. I felt like I ought to join in so told a few on the outer circles to go away, I was not feeling particularly courageous and inclined to act, but as I was wearing my cycle helmet I felt pretty well protected!!! Finally I discovered why it had all taken place, something between 2 girls, one of whom had called on mates from outside the school, who arrived on scooters, to come and do over the other, one of whom even filmed it on his mobile. La Maitrise arrived (still on crutches!) and looked very shocked at it all and informed us all that the police would have to be called to escort the girl home as it was too dangerous. Drama indeed, boy was I glad of that helmet!

On the same day my class of pupils who'd done the Queen singing threw a mini leaving party for me at the end of my last lesson with them. They brought in lots of biscuits and gave me a card signed by them all and some presents too, it was really thoughtful of them and I was really touched, I had to hold back a tear! One of the presents was some earrings, and of course I don't have my ears pierced. They were a little disappointed at this so I kind of promised them that I'd get them done, hmmm, we shall see about that! They are nice earrings though...!

I had a very busy last week, tying up many loose ties and doing all the things I had promised to do and had not yet got round to doing. I had to go to the bank and shut the account, and considering all the problems I had at the beginning (see September posts!), they know me very well in there, and when I arrived I think they thought it was going to be another eventful afternoon for them. In fact all went well, but what is interesting, is that there is in fact no money in banks in France. There is no cash desk or anything at all of that sort. I had to fill out a form requesting the 9euros left in my account and give them 3 days in order to be able to arrange the money for me to collect. Very strange!

One of the things I'd promised for months was to cook a typically English meal for Manu, Miguel and Iliana...I've enjoyed their Spanish and Mexican dishes for so long that it was about time that I paid back their good favours. I decided that I wanted something almost unique to Britain (or at least to anglophone countries) so I went for a chicken, bacon and mushroom pie with roast potatoes and broccoli followed by bread and butter pudding with hot custard. It was to be quite a challenge for me as I've never even cooked roast potatoes before, let alone coordinated so many things at once with such limited equipment (my work in the pub is different...I can shout to the juniors to do things for me!!!). But I am proud to say that it was 99% successful (not 100% as I slightly burnt the pudding!) and very delicious, particularly the roast potatoes, which none of them had ever eaten before (and were bemused by how long they take to do) and the bread and butter pudding whose concept completely intrigued them. They were all so excited about the occasion and put up British flags and played the national anthem before we ate! Plus they made me wear the crown we still have floating round from all the galettes!

Wednesday signified the real beginning of the end as Mum and David arrived. As I was yet to visit Angers and Le Mans I took the train to Angers for the morning and had a look around. Then over lunch (when everything is shut anyway) I took another train to Le Mans which I spent the afternoon visiting, before Mum and David collected me and together we drove (very strangely as we were in our British car on the "wrong" side of the road) back to La Roche. I was really lucky as the French were having another major strike on Thursday, so I was able to take another day off school, yipeee! So on Thursday Mum, David and I discovered the coast together (something I'd previously only seen a bit of due to transport limitations), including a trip back to the island where we took a different route across, where you actually drive through the sea (provided that the tide is low). Afterwards we emptied my room (sob!) and David even managed to affix my crazy bike to the back of the car, so it has made it safely back to the UK.

On Thursday evening I decided to go to my final entertainment in the foyer, which I have neglected slightly since becoming such good friends with the assistants, but is still good fun and great for my French, a final stab at perfecting the language before departing for Germany! They had an improvisation evening and this was very enjoyable. We were divided into two teams and there were various rounds, where, for example, we'd be given a theme, such as "Friday Night" and we'd have one minute to devise a 3 minute comedy sketch and perform it to the other team and a mini panel of "judges", before seeing the other team do the same. They provided a huge array of fancy dress materials, seriously rivalling my collection in York (!) and it was a right laugh seeing everyone in various wigs and the like. I participated lots, including one sketch where I played my favourite French celebrity, Sophie Zavier, the host of Euromillions, which went down very well, the French love it when I put on funny French accents. So I think I now have the final evidence that I have well and truly mastered French as much as I ever will, a good leaving feeling.

My last day at school was a bit sad, I've really had a great time there, but I know that I will probably not keep in contact with anyone from school, so it was a true goodbye. The teachers hosted a party for me at lunchtime which was really sweet, they even brought rum along(!) but why they bothered to disguise it in juice cartons, when it's part of French culture to have wine at lunchtime, I don't quite understand! La Maitrise was late due to some meeting in town, so I got two speeches, one from the deputy and one from her on her arrival! They also gave me lots of presents which was really really kind, and they were well thought out, things like a French cookery book, as they know I've loved French cooking and a CD of my favourite French singer plus lots and lots of French culinary specialities and a Vendee Globe t-shirt, hahaha! A few pupils came by and gave me a goodbye hug which was really sweet, I will genuinely miss them all.

So saying goodbye was a sad affair (a tear was shed!) but I'm glad that I've got Germany to look forward to, it makes leaving not so bad as I know that exciting things are around the corner, and I really couldn't stay in that "job" forever!

The funny thing was that I sailed out of the school gates on my bicycle, for what I thought was the last time, only to get back to the foyer to find a note saying that I was to return to school as I hadn't given La Maitrise my contact details! When I returned I gave the secretary my contact details and she gave me a note that La Maitrise had left for me, her own details plus a little note saying that I'm more than welcome to stay in the gite at the end of garden anytime I like! Not sure that'll I'll be taking up the offer, but it's really very kind of her.

For my final evening in La Roche I thought that we had planned to go ice skating and then stay at Manu's (as I'd had to give up my room in the foyer that afternoon). We went to Manu's and then suddenly my friends from the foyer arrived, they'd all secretly organised a surprise party for me! So we had a great night, and I was so surprised by it all! As Iliana said, if my Spanish had really got good I would have known what was coming, as they kept discussing it in Spanish in my presence...so I still have a lot to learn! So it was a great final evening in France and little sleep was had, as is in keeping with the past 6 months!

Mum, David and I drove off early and endured a long journey back home, where my French adventure has begun and a German one is just beginning...