Out and About

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. 

A bientôt, bisous xx

Quoi de neuf?

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.

It's holiday-time!

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).