What I did with my paid two-week holiday...

Holidays over I thought it was about time I caught you up on what I got up to. Well, after spending the first chunk of holiday doing uni work I went to Biarritz for a bit of a break, to see some great people and catch up on bit of their news.It was so lovely!

The train journey down was great, countryside between here and Bordeaux then completely flat pine-forests the rest of the way. Forehead pressed to the window,I'm sure all the people around me must have wondered what I was grinning at as I saw the pyrenees in the distance.

It was just such a lovely change of scenery and life for me. A life filled with the buzz of people and lots of English speakers! I went to a church dinner and a lunch,a girls night, saw the sea, made lots of beautiful cupcakes and got to talk about pretty much everything.



Some of the cupcakes- they looked a whole lot better before I took them on 2 trains and a coach.

It felt good to be back there again and even better that this time I was able to understand the French being spoken. Even if my speech isn't exactly flowing at least my ears are now working. It was also cool to see a bit of what my friend Lauren is up to as a missionary in the South West of France. She's great and what she does is great but instead of me waffling about it all you should go and see for yourself and check out what her and the team are up to down there.

Annoyingly, my good time was slightly spoilt at the end of my stay when I got some kind of tummy bug. I'm pretty much recovered now though, which is good seeing as I started back in school today.

Weirdly enough I am on my last stint of teaching as my contract runs out at the end of April. "But where am I going to get my blog fix from?!" I hear you cry, well, fear not, I'm actually going to be moving to Biarritz for the 3 months after so I'm sure I will have new humiliating experiences and cultural differences to waffle about.

Hopefully things in the next few months here will be great,at least it should thaw out a bit. The first daffodils are out, a bit of blossom is featuring and there are definitely green shoots on the plants in my garden. YEY for the prospect of spring.

Still here, will update soon.

So I'm nearing the end of my holidays and will fill you in at some point soonish, just not now because Im recovering from some kind of stomach buggy thing and even typing feels like doing too much. yuck.

I am currently being invaded by the cat who is purring maniacally and doesn't seem to understand the notion of 'personal space'.



:)

Whatever happened to eight year old me? Hard work induced musings.

I was looking after the dog and cats this weekend and as a thank you my landlady brought me back some plant thing which apparently is Mimosa- it is so beautiful and smells incredible.

I'm mainly writing this because I'm meant to be working on my Uni dissertation thingy which is DULLLLLLL and makes me read about syllabification and trochaic articulatory filters and other things that I'm struggling to understand in English, and haven't got a hope of translating into French.

Ma vie over here is going pretty quickly, 5 months in and I'm used to it all but it doesn't stop me having moments where I realise where I am and what I'm doing, those strange moments when I stop and think and the weirdness of it all hits me.

My family are miles away, a distance that often feels more than it actually is. I live alone in a small chalet type thing in a garden in south-west France. I have a salaried job where I am responsible for the education of others. I have to deal with bills, paperwork, cooking, cleaning and mending things without assistance or moral support. And the only time I'm likely to be at my family home this year is Christmas and Easter.

I think it's the realisation that somehow without me noticing I'm beginning to grow up. It's funny how 'home'is a physical place where I spend less and less time but one that consumes my thoughts everyday, no matter how long I spend in other places it's always my most important place.

I'm sure everyone has these bizarre realisations when they take a look at their lives and realise they aren't actually that eight year old any more, thinking 'Anon' is a famous poet and 'Scotland Yard' is actually a yard in Scotland. And it's not bad, just weird.

have a happy Tuesday
:)

Ma vie à péri.

Late afternoon by 'L'Isle'

Life still seems revolve large amounts around food and meals out, I won't bore you with the details because I will be accused of becoming 'French' due to my talk about food and nothing else.

This week was a pretty normal week, it's so almost the holidays (2 week half term so the French can go skiing) the kids are getting tired again so I will be a glad of a break. I have been doing all the normal things, like the gym, where we had to do some push-up type things using a step and I ended up just lying there after about 4, arms and legs dangling, looking like a beached whale. Sadly the instructor saw this, mainly due to the giggles of those around me, and decided to stay right by me watching to make sure I did it. I cannot now lift my arms, thank you gym class, thank you very much.

Recently I have really been missing doing a Bible study with someone, so I asked Janny, Nicaraguan girl, if she wanted to meet up and do one. It's difficult/ bordering on comical because our common language is French, but well worth it. I was also missing caramel chocolate, but then outoftheblue I got sent some. YUM.

Something that has been amazing this week is the weather, cold mornings but clear, sunny and gloriously warm afternoons. It's easier to remember why it's great living here when it's nice outside, and here are some photos...


Wednesday's rollerblading (I'm that cool)


Having a 'coffee' break with the other assistants on market day.

:)

Colourful cakes and cauchemars

A friend here is one of the assistants for Spanish, she happens to come from Nicaragua and she is a Christian so I see her a fair bit at church and we chat (badly) in our common language. This week it was her birthday and I volunteered to make her a cake.

She said that she wasn't a particular lover of chocolate so that wasn't an option. I was a bit stuck because I wanted to make this cake really fun, then suddenly remembered a cake that one of my friends told me about, a rainbow cake.

So, six bowls and an obscene amount of food colouring later...

Sadly the colours weren't as bright as when I have made this one before, and I'm not quite sure what the frenchies made of it. Some liked it, others didn't really appreciate a good-old English sponge cake, which is basically what it was. One person explained to me that he had once tried scones in Ireland and not been able to go to the toilet for days after. I think generally they do find our cooking a bit 'heavy' compared to theirs!

Other than that, this week has been pretty standard, lots of singing songs about the months of the year and important things like that. I went to see 'The King's speech' at the cinema the other day with some other assistants, we actually found a time that it was on in English with subtitles. Really enjoyed it, although I felt sorry for the French because the subtitles really weren't a very good translation of the dialogue so they missed lots of funny bits, "pop" and "hubby" really didn't translate that well.

I feel like I should update you on my French too. Language wise I can have good days and then terrible days, sadly the terrible days are more frequent. I was told that when you start dreaming in French you are doing well. I dream in French, but only my nightmares are in French- coincidence? I think not.

:)

Food for thought.

Recently word had spread amongst us assistants that you could buy cheddar from the deli-counter. Sold in tiny tiny amounts, they would really not approve if they new about the giant block of rubbery cheddar that, as a student, gets put with most things.



At the supermarket it's easy to stock up on the basics, like horse. Did the french never learn the song, 'I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly'? What was it that killed her again...?



There is a large problem with baguettes. They are not wrapped. Wrapping is hunger proof, you can't take wrapping off subconsciously in a moment of craving food. With baguettes there are no barriers, it's fresh bread goodness and my mouth. I live about a 15/20 min walk away from my bakery, I'm hungry, it's in my hands, the top out of the paper yelling "EAT MEEEEE". Often, I get back home and put it on the table and stare disappointedly, wondering where half my baguette has gone.

:)