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.
