With regard to teaching, there's not that much to say, really. I'm averaging 9 classes a week, because some are being cancelled due to end of term tests and inspections. I don't mind this at all, I'm all for the extra time in bed extra. What isn't funny though is when a teacher has a planned day off, tells the students and the other teachers, but fails to tell me. This happened to me the other Monday morning, I got to the school for quarter to eight in the morning to be told that the teacher was not going to be in that day. I took a deep breath and headed for the staffroom and set myself up on the computer for my (now) 3 hour gap until the next lesson. I only live a 15 minutes walk away from the school, but for those of you who know me, I was too lazy to walk back again.
I found ways to pass the time, which included voluntarily marking some work, and just before 11am, I went to make some photocopies. This is when I bumped into the teacher of the 11am class and I was told that she didn't need me either because the majority of the class had an exam and the three that remained are nowhere to be seen. Another deep breath and a smile through gritted teeth, I volunteered in a random class because I felt like I should do something as I had just spent 3 hours in the school. I helped out in a class of seconde students, had lunch and went home. I never got an apology from the 8am teacher and at one point, I even had to remind her that she wasn't there that day.
The past couple of weekends have been rather busy and social. The first weekend of December, I was invited to a belated Thanksgiving meal with two other assistants and their teachers. It was a lovely evening and started to get me in the festive mood.
Last Saturday, I went to St Brieuc and met up with a few assistants there. We went to the market, had a pub lunch, went back to someone's house for popcorn, cake and coffee and then once I got back to Lannion, I spent the evening with two other assistants, eating pizza and chatting.
This weekend has been amazing, but now, for a reason which I'm not too sure of, I ache. Friday night, we had a party in Perros Guirec, there were 12 of us in the end, I got to meet new people and catch-up with assistants I had already met. After plenty of food and drink, we decided to go for a midnight walk to the beach. We could have walked along the road and down a few steps, but no, for some reason unknown to me, we climbed down the wet, slippery, uneven rocks, with only the light from our phones. I have no idea why. Once we were actually on the beach though, it was lovely and the stars were very bright.
Today, I spent the afternoon volunteering as a Christmas Angel with the LGBT-H association that I've joined. The association has set up a stall at the Christmas market and we're selling teddy bears, candy canes and Christmas hats to raise money so we can then buy toys for the children in the local hospital. I'll be back there on Wednesday too, for the whole day, which should be interesting.
I've just come off Skype with my parents so now I'm really excited for going home. This time in 6 days. I'm jealous of those leaving on Wednesday but I'm sure Saturday will come round soon enough. I'm also really in the festive mood, despite a few issues regarding presents.
(Picture 1: The group of assistants the morning after the party in Perros
Picture 2: Poster advertising the Christmas Angels operation
So, it's less than four weeks until I go home for Christmas, which seems like a long time, but also not, at the same time. This update is going to be focused on non-work stuff, because I'm now back in a routine at the school and the only things to say in addition are that; 4 of my classes have now gone on work experience, which is good because I've got rid of my stressful class, but in return I've been given a class at 8am on a Monday and another one on Tuesday which means I now do 3 hours straight, but that doesn't bother me as much.
On the social side of things, I've got a fair bit to say actually, so let's get started. Two weeks ago, I found myself sitting in on a Saturday with some friends, pizza and knitting. Two friends already knew how to knit, one was just learning and I sat there determined to remember what my Nan had taught me nearly 10 years ago when I wanted to make some mittens for my nephew. (I only succeeded in making one, I gave up after that). After spending ages trying to work out how to cast on, I gave up and got someone to do it for me. It hit me later (after calling Nan) that I don't think I was ever taught to cast on. Well, I knitted a few rows but the whole thing was very tight so gave up. Again.
I'm sure you're wondering how the choir is going (especially those of you in GA back home). It's going well, despite not being able to read music or completely understand what the director is saying. We've started learning Queen's 'The Show Must Go On' which is such an amazing song and I'm glad it's in the repertoire. Being the token English member of the choir, I was asked to help with pronunciation. Scary. But, I bit the bullet, said 'screw you' to anxiety, read out the lyrics, then proceeded to stand at the front so I could hear everyone. As for GA music, I've not even opened the learning tracks or anything, but I will know them for when I return in September.
In the back half of last week, I acquired a stalker. I went to the launderette on Wednesday because I was feeling super productive. A guy came in and started talking to me and asked what I was doing when I was finished at the launderette. I explained that I wasn't looking for a boyfriend and would feel that going for a coffee would lead him on. He then asked about going for a coffee just as friends. Because I'm incapable of saying no to people, I agreed to meet him Friday. I never did meet him because in the two days before meeting him, I sensed that he was really clingy and obsessive so called the meeting off. On Friday alone, I received 10 'blocked' calls and 5 blocked messages - blocked because I've downloaded an application to deal with him for me.
On Saturday (November 24th), I went to Rennes for a demonstration in support of equal rights. I was originally going to go alone because I didn't think anyone would want to go with me. I finally decided to post a link in the Facebook group for the assistants in the académie of Rennes and in the end, there were 6 of us at the manifestation. It was a lovely day because as well as being part of a really positive atmosphere, I got to do a tiny bit of shopping too, I bought my Secret Santa present, had a look round the market and ate another one of those lovely galettes (savoury pancake).
You might remember me mentioning an association called &BraiseZ, well I am now officially a member and on Sunday, I went to St. Brieuc for my first AGM. It was rather confusing at times, especially when 20 people decided to all talk at once, but I feel that I understood the most part. I'm also going to be getting involved because I have been asked to do a translation for some correspondence. Yay.
That is pretty much it, I could have written more, but my concentration is dissipating. Plus, I've got to get up early tomorrow for an 8am lesson. Wooo.
So I feel like I should update this blog. At the end of my last post, I had just come back from spending a day in Rennes and meeting friends and of a friend. The rest of the holidays were spent going to drinks, going to the cinema and the market and just generally chilling with the other assistants in the town.
Brief film review: I went to see the film 'Amour' which is about a couple in the eighties and the film shows their everyday life as the wife's health deteriorates. As a non-native speaker, I can say that the film was easy to follow and the story flowed well. I was able to predict the ending but it doesn't mean that I don't think the film was really well made. If you have a spare 2 hours and 5,50€ (depending on where you are in France), I suggest you go to see it and if you're like me, take some tissues. I have a feeling that I'll spend a decent amount of my spare time in the cinema; it's good practice for my French, but also, the seats are amazing.
That's pretty much all I can say about the holidays, they were very chilled and well needed, but I am quite glad that I am (almost) back in a routine with working at the college again. I say almost, I unexpectedly got a day off today, for which I did a massive cheer (my lessons would have been at 8 and 9am), one class was cancelled earlier in the week because the students have a mock exam. I only realised yesterday, however, that the second class was cancelled. I received a flyer in my pigeonhole which told me about a protest/demonstration type thing that would be happening today and thinking ahead, I decided to go and ask the teacher, L, if she still needed me or if she would be going to the protest. As soon as we saw each other, I knew I had a day off. Both of us starting a conversation at the same time, we worked out what was going on.
Plus, starting the last week of November, I no longer have any of my lycée professionnel classes (including the really stressful class). Win. Having said that, L said that we could look at my timetable to see if I could work with other classes, presumably lower years.
There are a few things to mention from working these past two days. On Monday, I worked with 4 students on an activity which required them to imagine that they were very rich and that they lived in the year 2037. All of them got really into it, which was encouraging for me, that was until a girl wanted a translation for something specific from Harry Potter. I felt myself cringe inside. I wasn't really wanting to admit that I haven't followed the whole Harry Potter craze, but I didn't know what the girl was on about. I think I got out of the situation relatively unscathed. At the end of the lesson, we played a memory game which required them to name countries and each turn, someone would add another country. I was a great feeling to see the students in the corridor a bit later on and they were still playing the game.
For every positive aspect of the day, it is likely there'll be something to counteract it. Tuesday was a day where I wished I knew how to say 'it's just one of those days' in French. At the beginning of my first lesson of the day, I met the teacher and she said that she would send the students up to my classroom and that I didn't have to go to her classroom to collect them. So I headed up to my classroom to find that it was occupied by exams. Returning to the teacher's classroom, I found that my students had already been sent to find me. I had no students and no classroom. I went to the Vie Scolaire office where a nice lady found a room that was vacant and also sent a message out over the speaker system in which I was called 'Madame Wightman', it felt weird. After 10 more minutes or so, I still had no students. I had (wrongly) presumed that they had bunked off, but decided to check the initial classroom first. Back up to level four I went, to find 16 students waiting for me outside my classroom. The exam lady nowhere to be seen. Still, I took the students back down into our temporary classroom, to find that it was really small, the students didn't seem to mind about having to sit on the radiators though...
Tomorrow is my two month-anniversary in France and I would say it has gone relatively quickly. When I compare these two months to the Summer I spent in France in 2011, it feels like the most recent two months have flown by. However, it wouldn't be fair to make that comparison, a lot of things are different now. As I said earlier, I had a day off today. Originally, I was going to spend my extra time going to Leclerc, I know, I lead an exciting life. Instead, I had an epically long lie-in, then went for a walk around town, exploring and taking pictures. Here are some of them:
Hotel de Ville
(Flags of Brittany, France and Cotes d'Armor)
Quai d'Aiguillon
Some buildings in Parc Ste Anne
Oh, I forgot to mention two things. I came across an article earlier that my friend wrote, so I thought I would share it. It's particularly interesting for those on their Year Abroad or those who are planning one.
Also, observation #754: Dear France, you would do really well if you decided to make railcards and train tickets the size of a credit card, instead of their current size of a large block of chocolate. It would be so much more convenient.
I'll start off with some observations/little anecdotes:
(I realise this is quite boring and trivial...) Although food may be more expensive here than what I pay for at home, there is one thing that I am never going to buy the 'Carrefour discount' version of, ever again. Yoghurts. At home, I am more than happy to eat Tesco value yoghurts, no problem. These Carrefour one though, they look like and have the texture of curdled milk. The only thing that is good about the yoghurts, apart from the price, is the 'aromatised' part.
I found a slug in the kitchen sink the other day. What the hell?
Last week was the final week before half-term, or All Saints holiday and there's not that much to say about it, really. Monday was the first time where I had a difficult group to work with; I couldn't get them to listen to me or to speak in English, they always relied on the two British guys to translate for them and didn't really get involved with the activities I set. After the class, I spoke to the teacher and he said he would talk to them. I do believe something will happen; this is the teacher that makes the student wait to be told to sit down. The rest of the week was pretty boring, nothing exciting or unusual to report. Thursday, with one of my favourite classes, I took a lesson on equal rights which went really well, the only downside is that I ran out of time to have a proper debate.
I had no classes on Friday and have since then, been on holiday. I've met up with the other assistants in my town a few times for drinks. On Monday, I went to Morlaix with 2 assistants, stopped on the way to go to the beach and flew a kite, then when we got to Morlaix, we just had drinks and walked round the port because most things were shut.
Tuesday and Wednesday (yesterday) were spent in Rennes. On Tuesday we went to the Jardins de Thabor and had a nice walk round - both days were really sunny so we were really lucky. After visiting the gardens we were given a little tour of the city centre because we had met up with one of my friend's friends, who is French and lives in Rennes. After sitting in yet another café/bar, we then decided it was time to have dinner. Now I'm a fan of pancakes, but there might have been a bit too much that night. For the main meal we had a galette, which is basically a savoury pancake, mine had chicken and cheese in it and an egg on top. Oh and butter. Lots of butter. So much that my plate was still swimming in it after I had eaten the galette. It was sooooo filling and nice though. Normally, I am the first to want a dessert, but that night I could have passed on one... wish I had. For dessert, we all ordered a crepe, a sweet pancake, mine had Nutella in it. I managed t eat it, but oh my, I was full afterwards. Wednesday, we didn't do much. Just went to the local market, walked round, went to another café and to a boulangerie and then made the 2-hour journey back to Lannion.
Today, I'm just staying in and chilling a bit (literally, if you think of how cold my room is). In between relaxing, I've cleaned the kitchen, well almost all of it. I still need to clean the floor and leave passive-aggressive post-it notes for my housemates for when they return. I am not an obsessively clean person, I would like to think that my cleanliness habits are about average, but I could not take it anymore. In the sink were pots that had been left there for about 2 weeks, if not longer, and there was no sign of them getting washed up soon as my housemates have gone (somewhere) for the holidays. So I bought some washing up gloves and got cracking. *shudder* It was vile. Tomorrow I plan to finally make the trek to Leclerc and buy a light bulb to replace the one in the shower room.
Other things to mention in this post include:
I found a really cheap return flight from Dinard to East Midlands for Wednesday (31/10) and return on 07/11 but I didn't buy it for two reasons. I was running out of money and I had no idea how to get to the airport and then when I did find a route, it looked rather long-winded and expensive. So, I didn't get to go home during the holidays even though I'm very jealous of all of you who have been able to.
I said that I was running out of money. My money situation has now been resolved. I, surprisingly, got paid on Tuesday, so that's a nice 794€ in the bank. I honestly didn't think I'd be paid on time because of the whole French bureaucracy thing, but also because I thought that my Social Security hadn't been sorted out completely. I must have been wrong. I'm still waiting for my carte vitale though.
More money situation has been sorted, I think Student Finance has finally, that's finally realised, that my parents' income is well within the eligibility area for the maintenance grant. After filling in more forms, sending more letters, photocopies of P60s and getting the Erasmus lady from uni to contact SFE, I think it is sorted. I'm just waiting for the letter to confirm this and for them to tell me how I can get the money I am missing from the first installment. Talking of Erasmus, the first part of that has gone into my bank too. Oooh it's so difficult to not buy ALL the things.
With the rest of the day I plan to buy some birthday presents thanks to good ol' Amazon and snuggle up in bed, keep warm and watch back-to-back episodes of Ellen.
(NB: Captions mess up the layout of the post. The first picture is from Les Jardins De Thabor and the second is the Hôtel de Ville, Rennes).
Some things, with children, are known internationally. I was walking through town yesterday and I saw a child holding hands with both her parents and on the count of three, the little girl was lifted up and swung forward. I remember doing this as a child and I've done this with my nephew and nieces. It really made me smile.
The ready meals in France are of a better quality than at home, as is a lot of food, some would say. Whilst, tonight, I had my second ready meal since I've been here (this might be a huge surprise to some of you), I've already noticed this difference. For the equivalent of about £1.60 (2€), I have just eaten, chicken, couscous and vegetables. The couscous was not all hard and stuck together, the vegetables were still crunchy and the chicken was there in a reasonable portion. At home, you can pay less than £1 for a value brand meal which only suffices as a 'really can't be bothered to cook/don't have the money' meal or for about £2 you can buy a supermarket's own ready meal, but in my opinion, unless this meal is of the Italian pasta variety, the meal isn't that delightful, mainly because of soggy vegetables.
Sometimes, the French and the English have the same attitudes, in particular when it comes to roadworks. I walked past a sign which told me that the (pedestrianised) street I wanted to go down was blocked. As I was about to go a slightly longer way, I witnessed a load of people walking straight down the street, without a care at all. I followed them.
The attitude towards recycling really depends on what you're doing. In the school I work at, many of the students' worksheets are on the back of waste paper. The other extreme, however, was witnessed the other day when I received 3 or 4 separate letters (all in one envelope, to be fair), all of which were about 3 sentences long. Why they couldn't all be merged into one average length letter, I do not know.
The trains over here really are a lot more expensive than I thought. I, wrongly, came over here with the impression that UK trains were the ones with rip-off prices, but no, even with a railcard, I'm looking at 100€ to get to Paris, which is ~4.5 hours away. At home, I could do that (say to Brighton or Portsmouth) for £30-40. The coaches are really well priced though, I'm looking at getting a return coach ticket to Germany for 95€.
I've now been living in my little French town for a month. This was something that crossed my mind when walking back from a bar. Tonight, I had my first almost-proper social time since I've been here. Over the last two weeks I've been meeting people in the académie of Rennes who are also an assistant like I am, and on Tuesday, I met some more people who either live in my town, or very close by.
As I've not updated this blog for a week, and it's now quarter to midnight, I will just give a brief overview of what happened on the days of the week which are worth mentioning. Let's start with last Saturday. This was a day where most of the assistants in the region met up to meet each other and have a good day in the big city. As you could have predicted, it rained ALL day but it didn't stop us from sitting outside at cafés and walking round the streets looking for the best creperie. I spent most of the day talking in English as I was with a group of native English speakers and a token German who could speak English better than she could French, so there was no question about it.
Tuesday was the stage d'accueil, the training day. I woke up late, but managed to scramble out of bed and walk to the school for just after 8am, to meet Philipp who then drove to the school. The morning was spent listening to men who worked for the local equivalent of the British Council and filling in forms to do with Social Security. This was the moment where I realised I'd made a mistake. I had remembered that I needed to bring my birth certificate with me, but didn't realise that they only wanted a photocopy, along with a copy of my passport and bank details. After a few minutes of panic, it was sorted that I would send the documents the next day. I knew there'd be someone who would forget the documents, but as I am normally a very organised person, I never thought it would have been me. There was one form which made me shake my head, almost in disbelief, but more in a 'this is so typically French' way; it was one form, three pages long, which asked for the same information, three times. If I didn't know my name and address of by heart before that form, I did afterwards. The afternoon was spent with an English teacher who gave us ideas of things we could do with the students. She also showed us some images which may be risky to use as class material; things including anti-smoking ads (above) and anything containing abuse, but at the end she handed out some images which we could take and use for ourselves - one of which showed a man kneeling over a dying/dead child just so he could get a good photo of something else. Right, because THAT makes sense.
************About a week later... ************
Yeah, I'm really sorry for not having updated this sooner, I was either too busy, tired or just couldn't be bothered. You should feel lucky this is getting updated now, I've not touched my French blog since I arrived.
I can't remember what I was going to write for the rest of that week, so it can't have been that important. I'll tell you about this week instead, but include the weekend. On Saturday I met up with a few of the assistants who live in Lannion, or nearby and we went for a drink. It was here that I learnt a new phrase, both the English and the French versions - apparently, it was like we were at a 'Sausage Fest/Fete des saucisses' because for most of the evening, we were the only women in the bar. Sunday wasn't very interesting, I had a lot of lesson preparation to do and other chores, but the highlight of the day was talking to the entire family on Skype via my sister's iPhone - being passed around from pillar to post did give the effect of being on a rocky boat, but it was good - especially seeing my 2-year old niece trying to turn my 9-year old nephew into a frog!
Monday
This was quite a scary day. I doubt that I've already mentioned it here, but I agreed to help a teacher with the oral tests for two of her classes that I don't actually work with. She had asked me if I would do it, and I didn't want to say no and it sounded like a challenge, so why not? Only when I realised that the only suitable times were either Monday at 8am or Tuesday in the between two other lessons did I begin to regret it. Monday morning rolled around, I crawled (not literally, which might surprise some of you) into the staffroom to find the teacher downing a mug of coffee to wake her up - if only I drank coffee too. They all find it really strange that I don't drink coffee, tea, wine or that much in the way of alcohol - it is often the case that exceptions prove the rule or stereotype, though.
Anyway, the oral tests, the first girl I sat down with was very shy and hardly said anything, but I'm also tempted to think she hadn't prepared either. The second girl did really well but by the time she had finished, the teacher was giving a monologue to the class about how she was disappointed that no-one had prepared, that she was sorry for dragging me out of bed and that they would all be penalised for this (I managed to make sure that the second girl I spoke to wouldn't be punished as she had done reasonably well. I'm making it seem as if this teacher is horrible, she's not, she's lovely, to me and also to the students, if they do what they are meant to do, this is the case with a lot of teachers and as I was a 'teacher's pet' at school, I never saw the nasty side of my teachers.
One final note for Monday was that, in the afternoon, I had a class with a trainee teacher, which is fine, nothing wrong with that. We all walked into the classroom and I noticed that the students were taking ages to sit down... but then I realised that they were waiting to be told to sit down. Woah, I felt like I had gone back a few decades or moved to a different culture entirely. This teacher is a young guy, so it was not as if he was being a stickler and all traditional. None of the other classes are like this, the students just walk in and sit down, like we're all used to. After thinking about it a bit later, this class was predominantly boys who are on a vocational course, so maybe the teacher has taken that approach to set some sort of discipline level. I re-introduced myself to the class (saw half of them the week before when the teacher was absent) and got them to ask me some questions. This was the first time that I came across the 'do you have a boyfriend question'. When they realised I was single, one cheeky student asked for my number. I smiled at the teacher as I was SO tempted to make up a random number to see how the students would react, but I didn't and decided to ignore the question altogether.
Tuesday and Wednesday
Tuesday was rather normal, except I had the other lot of oral tests, but these went much better than Monday's. Although it made me smile when the students tried to argue about the score I had given them, because they didn't understand my English accent. I told them that my accent was not that strong and that I knew they had understood me as they tried to reply but couldn't. Wednesday was normal, but went for drinks in the evening, this time I pushed the boat out and had an apple juice. Oh yeah.
Thursday
This was the longest working day I've had so far. I finally got to meet one of my classes. I hadn't seen them before due to them having exams or elections for the délégués, the class representative. Another gem came from a question which one of the students asked me; 'Do you have a French origin?' I replied that no, I didn't, all my family were born in either England or Ireland, I just happen to have a French name. It was at this point that the teacher added 'but you never know, maybe the next generation will be born in France, it often happens with language assistants'. Fantastic.
I should have had 4 lessons that day, but the third one ended up being cancelled because the teacher was absent and by the time I had gone to the Vie Scolaire office and returned to the classroom, all the students had disappeared. This was okay though as I spent what was now my two-hour gap, preparing a game for the final lesson of the day. On small pieces of paper I wrote the names of people, places or animals, some turned out to be rather challenging, and the game would require students to ask questions to find out who or what was on the piece of paper. It went well, despite the students not putting their hands up and getting rather excited - but it got the students to practice questions which is exactly what the teacher wanted. For this class, I work with the teacher, which is more than fine by me because I have back-up support and because she's lovely (same one who suggested I might have children in France).
At half 4, my teaching day finished, but I couldn't go home. I decided to finally throw myself into joining the college choir. The choir sessions are an hour and a half long, but by the time everyone is settled and had the cigarette break at half time, there is only about a hour of singing time. There is more of a language barrier than I thought there would be, but I like a challenge and I am sure that I will pick the terminology up quickly - unlike the choreography. For those of you in the choir back in Leeds, you will know this, but for anyone else, I do not have much co-ordination to be able to sing and dance. The choir is currently learning three songs; May It Be by Enya, an African song called Amavolovolo, and Dextera Domini, which I believe to be a religious psalm. Have a look at a video which shows an example of the singing and dancing routine that I will be learning.
That's about all for now. Not currently got any plans for the weekend, but I'm sure something will crop up. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologise for the lack of photos, my camera appears to have died... I am so annoyed about this, but will look into buying another one along with boring things such as a railcard and wellies. Next week is the last week before a two-week holiday, and I would love to go travelling in that time, but it'll be such a shame to be camera-less.
As I've not posted here for a few days, I have quite a bit to write about, especially as I can now say that I've made it through my first week of teaching! (*^_^*). I've decided to reduce to bullet points half of the things I want to say and they can come first.
In the past 3 weeks, I've seen a couple of dogs which I believe to be stray, no possible owners were anywhere to be seen. I know the English are stereotyped by the French to love pets, possibly more than children, but I wasn't expecting to see abandoned dogs. I'm hoping there's some decent explanation for this and that I've got it all wrong, because it's quite disheartening as I don't know what I could do to help - without knowing for sure if they were stray.
I tried caramel tea on Wednesday. I'm not a tea/coffee drinker at all, but I thought, it can't be too bad can it? After adding 3 sugar cubes, I still couldn't drink it. It smelt of caramel but certainly didn't taste of it.
Remind me to never again live with guys, unless I already know them. The two guys I'm living with a really messy. They've not done the washing up for days, I'm not an obsessively clean person, but my, they are stretching my limits.
As bureaucracy goes, I've come across the first situation where France is just being slow. I am still without a password for the school network and I still don't know how to print or photocopy. Apparently, they'll 'keep me up-to-date' and put the password etc in my pigeonhole... Next week I'll attack the nightmare that is social security.
Wednesday evening, I finally made it to the launderette. After spending a total of 6,50€, I managed to wash a few tops, 2 pairs of jeans, a towel and some underwear. Jeez, I'm going to spend so much on washing. Moreover, as I walked into the launderette, I realised I had company. A man started talking to me but I couldn't quite understand him. After I started loading the machine, I realise that he wasn't actually washing anything himself, he was just using the place as a shelter while he got off his face by downing many beers. Thinking about it, I'm not actually sure if he sensed I was there, he was too busy talking to himself and his chérie.
So how have my classes gone in the last few days? Pretty damn well, I believe.
Wednesday: I just had one class as one teacher was off ill. The lesson I did have was spent in a computer room, where the students insisted that the internet wasn't working, but they did manage to create an orchestral atmosphere by repeatedly causing the computer to play the 'error' sound. I knew what they were doing, they knew that I knew that, but we both knew that the teacher was rather clueless.
At the end, she told me that she sensed that the students could have done work if they wanted to, but they chose not to, now they have to do the work at home, their problem. I remember the times when I couldn't be bothered to work whilst in class and as a result I had to finish it in my spare time, but now I look back and I can't think why I thought it was a good idea. This teacher also asked me to help with the upcoming oral examinations which I happily agreed to, then regretted it, when the only time which was suitable was Monday at 8am (and another one, but I'm needed for both).. Urggghhh.
Thursday: Normally, I will have 4 lessons on a Thursday, but this week I only had 1 as I wasn't need in the rest. The lesson I did have was the most challenging so far. The teacher had told me earlier in the week that I would be working with a small group of students and discussing the US Elections. Perfect. Cue me doing some panic-research into US politics, before grabbing several satirical cartoons. The lesson was slow to start as I ended up confusing them and it took a while for them to settle and listen to me, but afterwards I feel it went okay. I was certainly relieved when it was over, but I felt I did well. Not sure what the students thought, but, hey ho.
Today (Friday): Every other week, I have 1 lesson on a Friday which is slightly irritating, but at least it's not horrifically early, 11am and it's not every week. When I introduced myself this time, the teacher made sure that some students asked me some questions and I got questions such as; 'Do you like France?' and 'Why are you here?' For the rest of the lesson I just observed whilst the worked in groups to study an American TV commerical (read: advert). Yes, the students are, of course, learning American English. This first struck me when I watched the teacher spell words with missing 'U's and substituting 'S's with a 'Z'. This could be interesting, but hey, at least I'll get to teach the students British vocabulary and pronunciation.
After the lesson, I had a brief chat with the teacher, who is really lovely, she said she felt bad for me having to come in on a Friday, especially for her lesson as she's sure I'll 'get better examples from other teachers'. I told her to not be so hard on herself and that I didn't mind coming in.
What's funny though, is that before meeting each new teacher, I'll have an image in my head of what I think they'll look like, which is created purely on the basis of their name (usually surname only). The teacher today was the biggest contrast I've ever been faced with. I had imagined her to be a well-built, middle-aged woman with greyish hair and glasses. Well, the glasses were right...
Other things that I feel I should mention include the successes and failures I've had today. I have ordered a French SIM card. Yes, finally, I know. The part where I failed though is that, due to attempting to get this card, I now have a blocked debit card for websites which use Verified by Visa and to sort it out I have to call an 09 number... great. Not looking forward to that. I believe it would have happened, even if I had been filling in the form myself because having a quick look around on the good ol' internet, I'm not the only one it's happened to. However, I feel that my friend Kirsty needs a mention here because without her, I still might not have a SIM (okay, I'd have gone to SFR and got a less good deal) and I'd still be without Norton Security. So, yes, thank-you, again. :)
I also managed to send a letter to my grandparents today. Not exactly a big feat, but I was served by a really friendly woman in the post office who talked me through the whole process. There is a sponge which you press your stamps onto so you don't have to lick them. That's cool. Well, it was once I realised what i had to do with it... She also told me that it is an absolute must to visit Brest. Yes, Madame, I'll be doing that.
Also, on Wednesday, I finally met up with Philipp, the German assistant and we went for a coffee to get to know each other a little more. Other bizarre and interesting experiences I had that afternoon include; being interviewed by Pauline, a student journalist, going to the beach in the rain and having a photo shoot by said journalist and meeting Albert, a rabbit who thinks he's a dog.
I think this post is long enough now, so I'm going to end it here. Tomorrow I am going to Rennes to meet up with all the other assistants (and I've saved money again on train tickets because Philipp is going to drive there). I will let you know how that goes.
So it's the end of my second day at the school and I've been to 40% of my scheduled lessons (yay, if this was a degree, I'd have just passed...). The past two days have been really good, despite the fact that there seems to be a rather large lack in communication.
Yesterday morning, I arrived 45 minutes before my first lesson because I headed up to administration to hand in all the documents for Social Security. I wasn't expecting my school to be doing this for/with me, so that was a nice surprise. After my birth certificate and everything had been photocopied, I sat back and thought, wow, that was relatively painless. This was until the secretary handed me a folder. Not a few pieces of paper, but a folder. It turns out that, just when you think you've reached the top of bureaucracy mountain, you'll be hit by an avalanche. A few hours later, I tried to fill it in, but only got as far as the basic details such as name and address. There's a whole load of sections on the form which I don't think I can fill in, I don't understand, or I don't know where to start (current doctor section, being a prime example). Great.
Also, I gave my ERASMUS forms to my responsable, the problem is, he doesn't think that it's up to him to sign it. Still he walked away with my one and only copy of the forms. I'll chase him up in a few days. I'll cry if they've got lost...
Just before my first lesson, I headed for one of the language staffrooms to find the teacher I was going to be working with, as I got there, she was about to go for a cigarette and invited me to go along with her. We had a small chat, her talking in English as she wanted to practice, and me replying in French. The first lesson went well, the students were given cities in Australia to research for their written assignment. As the class settled in, Mme Mille (not capitalising surnames here, it would look weird), introduced me to the class and gave them the chance to ask any questions. The only two I got were about where I was from and my age. That was pretty much it, until towards the end of the lesson where I used the program which allows the teacher to monitor what is going on at the different computers. That was fun, but you know, simple things...
For the second lesson, there was much less of an introduction, just a 'this is the new assistant, be nice' kind of approach, but I was more involved in the class as I was listening to groups of students doing orals presentations about the website CouchSurfing.com.
Next was lunchtime, and if I've understood correctly, you get a 3 course meal for about £5 and it's good stuff, too! Originally, I was going to eat in the staffroom as I still wasn't sure about how to put money on my lunch card etc, but a teacher took me under her wing and showed me the ropes. What was really bizarre and a difference I'm not sure I like, is that the teachers eat in the same room and mingle with the students. However, what is good is that I can have a good lunch at noon and then just have something simple when I get home for dinner. It's so good to have an hour and a half for lunch, although I can see there are going to be times where I'm just waiting for the afternoon lessons to start.
I was meant to have a class yesterday afternoon, but my timetable didn't tell me which room I was meant to be in, none of the teachers knew and I hadn't met the guy either - I believe he's a trainee teacher.
Today, I went and sat in the main staffroom before my first lesson and had a chat with a teacher, if he told me his name, I don't remember it. He asked me how I was settling in etc and told me that I'll be pretty much fluent in a month. A month?! Can't see it. He was saying how he wanted to try picking English up again but the native English teacher is always too busy to help. I suggested that I was thinking about setting up conversation classes for any teachers who wished to practice their English. He seemed pretty chuffed with that and told me I speak French very well :)
The bell rang and I headed to my first class of the day (at half 2). I got to the classroom to find a different teacher, Mme Bowman, in there (thankfully I recognised her otherwise I probably wouldn't have said anything). I said I was slightly confused and double checked her name, it turns out that she was running late and the other teacher should have been along soon. 5 minutes later there were no students or teacher to be seen. Mme Bowman said that the other teacher was probably ill, and somehow all the students had managed to find out prior to the lesson. I went back to the staffroom to leave a note in her pigeonhole to apologise for not turning up but I would see her soon. I was then taken to the 'Vie Scolaire' office, where I was told that the missing teacher was currently off ill and that she won't be in school tomorrow either. I'm so grateful to Mme Bowman for taking me there as it has saved me going in to the school for 8am tomorrow, only to find the lesson cancelled. As this other teacher was absent, it meant that all my lessons for the day had been cancelled too.
After taking a deep breath, smiling and saying goodbye, I left the school. The afternoon was not totally wasted though as I went to the bank to transfer money into my account. I now have a French bank account that is not in the red! Wahoo.
I don't fancy drinking the tap water out here, apparently there are agricultural chemicals in the water. It's good that bottled water is cheap - 6 x 2l bottles for just over 1€ - the problem is walking back to the house with it. From now on, I'll buy a few bottles at a time, it'll only cost a few cents more.
I now own a cheque book. This makes me feel like an adult. Even better, each cheque has a photo from somewhere around the world. How cool is that?!
Even the smallest of conversations can help boost confidence in a second language.
I don't like the idea that I'm going to have to go to a launderette to do my washing, but again, it'll be something different to try out.
I feel like I survived my first meeting with my responsable and other colleagues in the school, more to come on that.
I miss having an ensuite.
Oven trays seem to be almost non-existent over here. You know, the small flat metal things you put food on and then put that in the oven? Non?
Lined paper also doesn't seem to be something that is known to the French. It's weird what you miss when living abroad. I'm sorry, but writing on squared paper is just wrong, that's for maths.
So I've decided to update this blog as a way to try and remain calm. I'm meeting my responsable tomorrow morning and it would be an understatement to say I'm nervous. I believe I've prepared fairly well for this meeting; I've written down a bulletpointed list (in English) of things I need to ask him, I couldn't be bothered to translate the list and well, at least I'll be practising my spontaneous French at 9am instead of reciting sentences.
Over the last few days, I've not done that much. Sunday was spent in the house because it rained ALL day and yesterday, I wasn't feeling up to doing much. It will be better when I have a routine. It will, it will. On Saturday, I was going to go to an event at the local library, well, I was until I woke up later than planned, it was raining and the event was taking place at a multimedia centre further down town. I really need to accept that it is going to rain a lot here. Welcome to Brittany. In the evening, I went to the local bar and had a cocktail, whilst I sat in the corner and read a book for an hour. There were two people there, who I vaguely know because I've been talking to them on Twitter etc, but I was too shy to go up to them. I came home to find a tweet saying that if I ever felt alone in the bar, I was welcome to go and join them. How lovely.
On Monday, I took the bus to St Brieuc to meet Angela, another English Language Assistant. Each way took about 1h40 minutes and cost 2€. Two euros. When I read this, I initially thought I had misundertood, either that, or the bus would be a tin can on wheels. Well, when a nice coach turned up, I was rather surprised. I decided to take this option over the trains, because despite the fact that it would have cost me 28€, as I am yet to buy a carte jeune, the 'train' leaving at just before 9am was actually, a coach and two trains - for an hour's journey - what the...?
So I met up with Angela, we walked round for a bit, had an early lunch, went to find the lycée for the training day and then went to the cinema. We went tosee a French film, called 'Camille redouble' without subtitles. Brave, but we didn't have much other option. At first, we were the only ones in the screen, by the end, there were four of us. Totally packed. I think we both came away understanding the most part of the film, even if we didn't understand what was being said.
Today, I went out in between the rain to collect some letters that had been redirected to the post office. But before that, I checked the post box to find not one, but 4 letters for me. All from the post office giving me information about my bank account. Each letter said something different. I appreciate the concept behind keeping details separate but... wow. At the post office, the window I needed was momentarily shut. No big problem, so I sat on a chair and waited. Seconds later, a woman asked if I was waiting to see her and I explained that I was waiting for the window to re-open and she just smiled, and walked me over to a different window (which I believed to be for something completely different). This woman was still grinning from ear to ear when I left. I'm glad to have entertained you, Madame.
Right, I'm going to find all the important documents for tomorrow and then try to get some sleep, despite feeling ridiculously nervous.
It can be really scary to sit and think 'oh my, I'm currently sat in a freezing cold house, in the middle of a small French town. In a week. I'll be teaching and then I'll be doing this and then that and oh oh, ARGH!' - believe me, I've sat here and done that. To be honest, it really isn't helpful either. I've been talking to a few friends this week, and I think we've all had a short moment when we've wished we were at home and going back to start final years in our respective UK universities. It can be frustrating, especially when French bureaucracy keeps on failing us. If you are seeing yourself in what I'm writing, know that you just have to make the most of it, you really don't have much choice about being in a francophone country for about 8 months (maybe more if you're not doing the BC Assistantship), but in the end, you're going to want to look back on your YA and have some good memories.
Pep talk over, well maybe not just yet. You have to push yourself, set yourself challenges. We all remember what it was like 2 years ago when we moved across or up/down the country to start Freshers' Week at university and all the challenges that followed. Take things one day at a time and you'll be fine. I know for myself, and those who know me well will also know, that this YA is a huge thing for me, but I'm determined to not be defeated by it.
Right.
So what have I been doing in the last couple of days?
Yesterday I went for a short walk round the market, I was only out for an hour so I don't think I managed to see it all, but in the short time I was there, a few blog-worthy things happened.
A few seconds after approaching the market, I was stopped by a charity worker who was getting me to buy some stuffed animals. Only have 20€ notes on me, and not wanting to risk not getting change back, I told him I'd come back. Well, in the end, I left the market by a different road, not intentionally, though.
I bought some nice earrings. They're flowers, which isn't like me, but the colour is gorgeous and they were only 2€.
2 middle-aged, maybe older men started talking to me and one gave me a free leaflet. I looked down, then I realised I'd been caught by the French equivalent of Jehovah's Witnesses, I think these men were evangelic (is that the correct term?). When they asked me if I believed in God, I was truthful and said no. I was then offered the English book 'Our Daily Bread'. I told them that I was fine, but I would read the free leaflet because it was French.
I helped an elderly woman with a metal rod, bring a traffic cone into her house. That's as much as I understood. She would have never reached it by herself, because I think if she walked out the door, it would have locked her out, but the cone was too far away to reach, even with the rod. Who knows why she wanted the cone in the first place...
I signed and returned my contents insurance. I picked up a pre-stamped envelope from the post office which had a label underneath it for 0,77€. Took it to the desk to pay this amount, but I started off by saying that I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. The guy said it was all done and put the envelope in what I presume was the 'outgoing' stuff. I just hope the people on the other end don't get charged. I can't see that going down well...
I went to the Tourist Information Office and was given a few leaflets and I also found out where the nearest photo booth was located. I also overheard a young guy saying that he was in Lannion for the year. When we left, I did something very out of character, but went up to him and introduced myself. I gave him my email address so we could contact each other. Let's see what comes out of that.
I bought some photos for various ID cards I'll be obtaining. Seriously, if you're still in the UK and haven't got some like I was going to, go out and get some. For 5€, I got not one, not four, but 5 mugshots. Woo. I know you're not meant to look good on ID photos, but these are horrific. Jeez. Quite worrying how the background on the photos looks grey but... we'll see. It was better than paying God-knows how much for a photographer to take one.
A Hotel for Insects...
On the way to the bus station to get the mugshots, I walked past this. At first, I thought it was really bizarre. On the way back, I thought it was quite a good idea as long as there are no biting/stinging insects in there.
I was going to go to the library today, but I saw on their website that there's some sort of Open Day tomorrow, so I'll go then, and maybe talk to some people. Tomorrow evening, I've decided that I will be going to the local bar that I've mentioned before, Le Chapelier. I didn't go on Thursday because I didn't want to walk back alone in the dark, but then I realised, I think I'll be doing that a fair bit over the next 7 months or so. Plus, it really is a too short a distance for an expensive taxi.
I should go and update my French blog now, but I certainly won't be writing as much as I do on here!
So, do I think I've settled in yet? A little. I've now completely unpacked (not that there was a lot to do...). I had a bit of a wobble emotionally yesterday, but to be honest that was expected. It's scary moving to a country where you mainly have to converse in your second language; at times it is very stressful, so little panics and 'I want to go home' moments are okay. I think I'll feel better when I start teaching. Not because I think it'll be easy teaching, hell no, but it'll give me a routine. Routine, this is something that I've been working on in the last year, and as soon as I don't have one, I tend to lose myself.
Anyway, so what have I done since my last post? Apart from getting sidetracked by various comics and articles (in both languages), I've not really done a lot. I didn't do anything in the day on Sunday because the town is completely shut down. In the evening, the landlords came round to meet me and my other colocs (housemates), not all of them were there though. They seem friendly enough; both the colocs and the landlords. Then, I tried to Skype my parents, but the connection at home was having none of it.
Monday, I went to the bank, first at just gone midday, but then was soon reminded that France shuts down for the lunch hour, or two. As the centre of the town was only 10 minutes from my house, I returned and tried again a few hours later. At first, when I got into the bank/post office rolled into one, the financial advisor, who I saw on Saturday, was nowhere to be seen. After waiting about 15 minutes, I asked somebody who went and found her. She seems very lovely and talks to me at a reasonable pace - not too slow as if to say she thinks I'm an idiot, but not full-flown French. She also talks really loudly, but I think that's just her in general. At the end of the meeting she said she hopes everything would be sorted by the beginning of next week, so I can give my details to the CAF and my employer.
As I left the bank, it started to rain, but I still continued to walk to the Carrefour city - probably a tad more expensive than the E.Leclerc, but I don't fancy walking 25~ minutes with food shopping and giant bottles of water. When I came out of the shop, it was raining a bit heavier [wow, this blog post must be SO interesting for you...] but I made it back to the house without any major issues. Win.
Yesterday, I went round the corner (literally) to the famous steps of this town, Les Escaliers de Brelevenez and took some photos. It was very pretty up there, but the thing that made me smile was when I saw a group of teenagers being made to run up the hills surrounding the church and steps. Good ol' PE, glad I don't have to do that anymore. It also made me wonder if I'd be teaching any of them. For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, you can see the pictures there, if not, you'll just have to put up with the one in this post.
I haven't taken any photos of my room, as of yet, and I'm not sure if I will. Might take one at the end of the year. It's very plain and basic, but I can't moan. Considering I was petrified that this would be a scam, it has turned out alright. I have heard of people in the city of Rennes, who have been there for over a week and are still looking for accommodation. Not good.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow though. Thursday is market day here and apparently, from what I've read, the market goes on for over 9 hours and there are over 250 sellers. Definitely heading there tomorrow and I'm considering in the evening to go to that bar I've mentioned previously. Gutted that they've changed their hours (used to be open at 2pm!) and cut down on the days, but hey, I guess when I'm teaching I can't have a pina colada every day!
So, this is it. I'm in my little French town of Lannion. It was a long stressful journey to get here, but the main thing is that I got here safe and sound. It took 7 and a half hours (with 2 stops) to get to Plymouth port, so when I only arrived an hour before my ferry, I was panicking (that really doesn't look as if I've spelt it correctly...). I checked in and when I asked about access to the cabin, the check-in lady said someone would meet me at the embarkation doors. They didn't. I took the lift with my massive suitcase, holdall and laptop case, and then realised there was a fair walk to the ferry. Struggling along, I almost got to the end when a woman asked me if I wanted help, took one of my bags and gave it to her husband. Then there were about 40 steps to climb... thankfully, a guy took the case for me.
I found my cabin, got settled and tried to go to sleep. This was until they played the wake-up call music at 5am (5 hours later as we were still following British time). Another woman helped me with my stuff - notice how it's women who were volunteering to help me? - I had to ask the two men that did help me move my case a bit; upstairs or off the bus. I found my temporary housemate, Maxime, really easily. He helped me with my stuff and after I tried to get in the wrong side of the car, we left for Lannion.
Since being in Lannion and the house itself, I've managed to get half way through opening a bank account and I've been to the supermarket, only got enough to last me a few days though, so don't know what I'll do then as the supermarket is a fair way out. I've had a nap and now really feel as if I should start unpacking, but I have NONE of the motivation.
*a few hours later*
I've unpacked one bag, made my bed and had a shower. I want to go and get dinner, but there's people in the kitchen and I don't want to intrude... but it is my house too. Gah. Also, I want to avoid the awkward franglais conversation.
Think I'll leave it at this for now. I'm tempted to go and explore, but I think I'll stay in tonight. The little town is quite cute really, will take some photos soon. I don't think it's really sunk in yet that I'm here for at least 7 months now. Gulp.
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