When something goes wrong you think it's the worst thing until something else goes wrong, making that other wrong thing seem pretty insignificant.

So, I went to Annecy to take a holiday with one of my best Uni friends, it's on the other side of France from me so it was never going to be a straightforward holiday, and the strikes mean travelling=chaos. I did not quite realise the extent of the chaos.

So the day beofre I was meant to leave I discovered that all my trains had been cancelled, an hour queue at the station solved this problem- I found that I could get a few other trains and it would all be fine. This was no prob, other than having to take a coach for the last part of my trip. Our hotel was nice and annecy with its snowy mountains was great, we ate a LOT and walked a fair bit too. It was a lovely stay.

Then we got to wednesday, the day we were meant to be going home. After standing outside for an hour waiting for our coach ( all my trains were cancelled again) the doors to it were finally opened. Then there was a scrum of cold people, enough to fill the cancelled train, getting on a coach with no way near enough places for everyone. I took our stuff and put it in the coach's luggage space whilst my lovely friend went to get a seat. Words can not explain how close I was to not being allowed on that coach. Thankfully, after a little ticket waving, and the fact that a seat had been saved for me I was alowed on. just.
While angry frenchies pleaded with the driver that they deserved a place I had one of those 'thank goodness that drama is over' moments. Unfortunately it had just begun.

I arrived in Lyon only to discover that the suitcase I had put in the coach hold was not there. yep, not there. After a bit of frantic searching I was told to go to the welcome desk at the station to see if they could help. Following my tearful explains and my friend's amazing help the station managed to find out that Annecy had indeed got my suitcase. It must have been pulled out accidentally when people who didn't manage to get seats pulled their stuff out. That's the nicest explanation of why it got left there, I want to think that one. However, the station said that the only way I was going to get it back was to return to Annecy to retrieve it.

Now Annecy is about 2 hours from Lyon and the next train was in the afternoon, there was no way that I could go back to Annecy then to Lyon then to home again. I was going to have to stay at least another night in the hotel.
Because my friend exudes superamazingness she decided to go with a very grumpy, upset me. We got back to the station in the evening and, despite being told that we wouldnt be able to pick up my case until 10 the following morning, managed to explain what had happened and it was retrived for me...

...With the padlock open and my laptop, charger, phone charger and camera charger all not in it.

Yeah.

So the next day we ventured back to the station again to double check that it hadn't all turned up, it hadn't. Then off to the police for reportage funsies we went.
So, we couldnt go home on that day either.

I have never been in a police station before. I had never made a police report before. Why did my first time have to be in french??

I was a little scared because apparently it was the law that I went in alone to be asked all about it. The policeman wasn't that scary but the room was (chains and stuff for handcuffed french). It was actually all ok. I don't know how but my french was alright enough.

On friday we managed to go home. We had to take the coach. Yet again it was a scrum of people, not first come first serve but rather survival of the fittest.

I managed to find a way home too, going up to Paris then down to Libourne then across to Périgueux, explaining to the confussed conductors along the way why my ticket said lyon-périgueux when I was in Paris.

So I'm back, laptopless but with a pretty good knowledge of french geography and words such as 'padlock' and 'police report'.

OH and my parents with all my stuff couldn't make it anyway due to the strike.



the black line is the route I should have been able to go
the red line is my journey out
the blue line is my journey back

:)

'For us retirement is 60' oh really France- well it's already 65 in England so sit down, shut up and write angry letters instead if you really must.

I have been here 5 weeks, 5 WEEKS!!!

So, I have worked for 2 weeks and now have the holidays :) yey!! I am pretty tired though and have a cold, so it is already needed. Teaching has been going quite well generally, its hard work but really satisfying when the kids area able to say something that you taught them.

One of the schools is a long way away, so I can't come home for lunch. School canteen lunch was really good this week. Alphabet noodle soup then croque monsieurs (way more than a glorified cheese toasty), cheese and then apple and plum compot. yum. Only in france would school dinners be a 3 or 4 course thing. There is bread all the time and a separate cheese course in the meal!

So my holidays are looking quite busy, grève permitting Im off the the beautiful Annecy to meet up with a friend, then hopefully my lovely family are coming out to see me next weekend.

If you haven't already heard from the news, France is kind of a mess right now. It's not too bad where I am, because, lets face it, Périgueux is not the largest town ever. It is annoying however; transport, post and the schools are all in chaos. I, selfishly, really hope it doesn't effect any of my plans, especially the parentals arrival because I really do want to see them but also they have my coat and its getting cold here. brrrrrr.

:)

p.s I miss you all!

Péri Péri love.

I have been missing home a little the last few days, its got cold here! But, here are some pics of ma ville.
Périgueux...

Part of the wednesday markets, complete with old people...

Fish heads anyone?


:)

My first day at school (since 1994)

I taught over 80 kids today!For half of them it was their first ever english lesson.
Everything was fine, I did lots of singing with them. It was a bit scary being a responsible teacher after only a week of training. I'm sure you are meant to have a PGCE or something?!?
It was an hour walk home though :(. stupid french strikes.
I'm tired, this working milarky is hard.
:)

On a scale of 1 to awkward, today was like living in one of those dreams where you are naked in a very public place.

NB// this blog is also long. I can't believe Im one of those annoying people who writes too much. I apologise, I'll try and get it more succinct in future.//

Oh my word, today has been weird. It has been like a nightmare, but not a scary one, just one that when you wake up you go ‘oh thank goodness that was only a dream, that situation was so awkward!’. Except this time its real.
So I had to be at my supervisors office at 8 this morning. A 6.45 am start was not a great way to start the day for a student who usually gets up at 9. I had better get used to it.

The idea, well at least what us assistants thought, was that our supervisor would drive us around to our schools, introduce us, we would have a nice friendly chat about the school and what they would like us to teach, hand us a timetable and that we would leave better informed and confident we could do out job. OH NO.

So I only got shown to one of my schools, the one furthest away.
In French primary schools here there are a number of problems about introducing yourself:
1) there is no reception/ secretary
2) the headteacher is a teacher, so he/she is in class all day
3) all doors and gates are pad-locked
4) schools have multiple entries

At my first school I was briefly introduced to the head, although I don’t think he told me his name. Then I met a teacher and said that I was an language assistant, asked what they had already done, ‘not much’ was his response. I asked if I could see a pupils workbook or something, his response ‘they don’t have one’.

I'm working there tomorrow. tomorrow is a general strike in france. 4 out of the 12 teachers will be in so I think I am expected to be there too. The head, the only one who knows who I am, will be on strike.

Therefore, I am going to have to try and get a bus that I do not know, to a school that I do not know, to find teachers I do not know and I do not know what I am expected to teach. So I will be playing ‘spot the teacher’ and hoping that they will be nice and understanding. Im going to try and frantically prepare some classes tonight for every age range and level!
Oh and by the way we aren’t talking a small group of five, we are talking me in front of a whole class of children for 45 minutes!

After being stranded by our supervisor at a school on a hill outside of perigueux we were told to go and visit the rest ourselves (I kid you not). One of the girls luckily had a car and we all squashed in and drove home. Some of the assistants had not visited any of their schools! All of us were very confused for one reason or another. We feel like it is all a complete mess with the poor schools not knowing whats going on and us feeling like, even though its not our job to sort it out, we must.

I went to my second school briefly on my own, the head was nice but going to a meeting. I start there on Thursday.
I went to my third school, I got the wrong one.
I went to my third school. I could not find anyway of getting in.
I eventually found a buzzer intercom thing and spoke to a teacher. I thought that I had already met the head of that school at a welcome drinks thing on Friday. I kept asking to see the head. Of course I had met the inspector (above the head, not much to do with the school) and not the head, the head, of course, was teaching and had no idea that I had been told to come and present myself to them. He had to come out of his lesson (me asking to see the head all the time!) only for me to realise that he WAS the head. Anyway, he got someone to cover his lesson whilst he talked to me.

This is where I encountered another issue, there is a large disparity between what our supervisor has said and taught us and what the school wants and advises. This puts me in a little bit of an awkward situation. Actually a big awkward situation. Who do I please? Also, teachers differ amongst themselves as to how they want their class to be taught. I had to play the diplomat, in French.

All this was carried out with my inadequate French. I don’t think much of my English would have been adequate to deal with today. I am so beyond my depth. So so so beyond it. I simply do not have the experience, wisdom or language to be dealing with this!

I must say that whilst feeling totally overwhelmed Im still smiling. Its yet another laugh or cry situation and I’m going with laughing, cos it doesn’t make me have a red blotchy face.

It’s going to be one steep learning curve, it’s pretty much a vertical wall.

bonne grève à tous!

:)

La semaine dernière...

So much happens every day to me, so I apologise if this is long, you don't have to read it - I feel like I would be a bad blogger if I skipped all this out though. I will summarise!

So last week I had my 'stage'- training. Monday seemed a bit pointless, a day of waiting around. We heard a talk about medical care and insurance and social security. All very confusing, especially as Uni made me take out pretty comprehensive insurance before I left. Im sure I could end up with 4 different insurance plans over here that cover the same thing, everywhere I go I seem to be offered the stuff. I will be one insured human.

The secondary assistants started work on the Tuesday, us primary assistants had a whole week before we being let loose in French schools.
Tuesday involved our supervisor getting us to sing lots of songs about fruits and we played lots of language learning games. for the kids of course.
I have repeated the word ‘strawberry’ so many times now that it seems like a weird word.

Wednesday we had off.Because primary schools over here have Wednesdays off. I did lots of useful things like washing and buying food. I also am now the proud owner of some roller blades. Yes proud. It’s a lot cooler over here (except for the man I saw dressed entirely in lycra doing it) I don’t own that much lycra so I think I will be ok.

Thursday and Friday were more of the same, learning ways to teach english. I found out that I will be teaching in 3 different primary schools all over the place, they aren't that close to me either!

I feel like so much has been happening, from getting baguette munching jaw ache to my supervisor thinking that the English greeting was bowing slightly. From a class of 20+ year olds sitting reading each other children’s story books to doing a bible study with a French couple on Haggai (Aggée in French!) Oh, and attending the start of a choir practice only to discover it was an operatic one and eating a shameful number of chocolate biscuits at a welcome thing.

Oh and I have been given a huge slice of what I think is a pumpkin and I have no idea what to do with it... suggestions?

Only in france...

I have been doing lots of stuff recently everything is busy busy busy, I have just had a week of training. I will update what I have been up to soon but for now...

More insights into the french kind.

1) Food, its not just sustenance, its a way of life. Its an obsession. Small talk is not about the weather, its about food here. I was at dinner the other night with a French couple and we talked about food most of the time, they said that this was normal and that in certain regions when people meet at the office many don't ask 'how are you?' they ask 'what did you eat yesterday'. Then, apparently, they spend the rest of the day discussing what they are going to eat in the evening.
The périgord lot (where I live) are duck munchers. poor ducks, every part of them is eaten. I had part of a ducks throat the other night- actually very yummy.

2)What I will call the 'pfffftttt'.
noise made to indicate:
a)they do not know the answer to a question they have just been asked
b)they are guessing in their answer of a question- usually it can be heard preceding the 'bahhh...'
e.g person: quelle heurre est-il?
frenchie: pffffftttt, bahhh.... 8 heurre?

3) when entering a shop the shop assistant will say 'bonjour' you must also say 'bonjour' when exiting a shop the shop assistant will say ' au revoir' you also say 'au revoir'. It is apparently rude not to.

So, I leave you for the moment, better informed of course.
:)

Today was not a good day for both my alarm clocks to suddenly decide not to work.

I have been setting 2 of them at the moment, just in case. I have a 'stage' this week, which is training for my teaching job which starts next week. This morning I was meant to be at training at 8.50. I woke up and looked at my phone. It was 8.40.
I could not believe that both my alarm clocks had not gone off. that is seriously unlucky.

I am however very thankful that I am able to borrow a bike when I need it, and that I live right by a canal with a cycle path on it.

I pulled on some clothes, dashed out the house and cycled at top speed to the school I was meant to be in. I was sweaty, tired and feeling pretty ill after bombing it there on a bike with no breakfast in my stomach. I got there a bit passed nine. My teacher was late, he had no idea that I had been too!

I still have no idea what's wrong with my alarms.both are still showing that the alarm is set.

:)

I'm not stupid, just english.

I was invited out for a meal last night with some of the other assistants. There were actually loads of us, I had no idea there would be so many assistants because we were only told about those who were doing the same as us (primary schools) It was really great to meet lots of other people- most of them had only recently arrived so it was great to be able to reassure them that they would settle in and that it would all be ok!

The exercise class the other night went fine, although the instructor lady did ask "does anyone speak english?" because the song that was playing contained lots of not very polite words. In fact it was solely made up of such words. But obviously, everyone was oblivious to it and the instructor lady asked me afterwards what the french equivalents were. It made me chuckle.

I went to pilates last night, which was not such a success. It involved lots of stretching and breathing and a whole lot of instructions were rattled off really quickly. I tried to copy others, but got told off for having my head up blah blah blah. The issue was that when I had my head down I had no idea what I was meant to be doing, so the instructor had to keep coming over and making me do it right. I could not understand the instructions and Im sure everyone must have thought I was an idiot. I wanted to yell at them all "I'M NOT STUPID, JUST ENGLISH!"- but I didn't think that would go down too well, what with the classical music in the background and all.
Oh to add to this story the instructor was young and male. a rarity in Périgueux.
OH THE SHAME.

Im dog sitting this weekend, well Im feeding him and letting him out. Right now Im baking a hazelnut and fig cake- the fresh figs you can buy really cheaply from the market at the moment, and the hazelnuts are from the ground just outside my door. :)



I have kiwis growing outside my window too...


:)