Come on France, get some toilet seats

Sorry for the fact that I haven't posted since last week. I had a really lazy weekend, and I was meaning to post something when we got back from Rennes on Monday, but I had lessons to prepare, and I really need to go to sleep early these days. The same with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night. Tonight, I'm finally free.

At the minute, Dave is watching Benidorm. We have just spoken to Jack, and we are sharing un bouteille de vin mousseau.

When I get back to my school, I'm going to ask one of the teachers if it's possible to change one of the lessons. At the minute, I have six for 55 minutes, and I'm supposed to practise talking with them, but it's so difficult to keep 5 interested whilst talking to someone. I think it would be easier, and better for them if I had them for 10 minutes each, because at the minute it's one girl who talks all the time (not her fault, I ask someone a question, and they give me two words as an answer, so she feels bad, and says a bit more) I think this way, they would have to talk a lot more. I'll see what she says.

This week was very uneventful. The only slightly exciting thing was, this morning the teacher of my 8.15 lesson was late, and only arrived at 9, so I had a full class of 24 on my own. I split them into four groups of six, and wrote "food and drink" on the board. I said, "In your teams, write down as many English food and drink words as you can. I gave them a point per correct answer, and wrote the scores on the board, then did the same with household items and animals. The teacher arrived, just as I was marking the last round. I put the scores on the board, and everyone cheered and groaned, and then I left and everyone shouted "bye Kim".

Rennes was lovely on Monday. It's the capital of Brittany, and during the summer it's a big touristy place, but now all the tourists have left, and the people who served us in the restaurant were confused as to why we were there! 200,000 people live there, and 60,000 are students, so when we weren't talking, we probably fit right in. There a loads of really old, pretty buildings.



Tomorrow we are going to a big second hand place. I can't wait! My Auntie Louise reckons you can get battered ping pong tables for 20 Euros, so I'm working on Dave to get one to go in the massive basement. It's in Le Mans, so we can have a look around the shops afterwards.

Sunday, we are going to a brocante (car boot sale). We're hoping to find a gas heater for cheap, (they're about 100 Euros new) so that we don't have to use our heating. We;ve got it on now though for the first time, and it's lovely!

Loosing weight... I think!

I didn't post yesterday because I drunk too much after I'd posted the blog on Thursday night, and I felt rough as sin all day Friday. And yes, I was teaching, but I managed to scrape my way through the day.

Lessons yesterday were fine, the first class (hospitalility students) were a little difficult, they sat there and looked gormless until I physically started doing it with them.

Second class I watched, and wandered round the class and helped with pronunciation when they were practising reading a song out in groups.

Last class before dinner (the class of boys) I was still observing. Magahli the teacher wasn't happy with the way they were behaving, so she said she's meeting with the Principal about them, and I may not be teaching them next week yet, unless their behaviour improves.

The class after dinner (the one where I was dropped in the deep end last week) I was better prepared than last time. I had an article from the Daily Mail a few years ago, about the French and drinking. I was trying to stimulate a discussion on alcohol, but they weren't that interested! We watched a few anti-binge drinking adverts on Youtube which they laughed at, and they told me a few drunken stories. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but at least it got them talking in English a bit, which is the whole aim of me being there.

Today I got dressed, and I put on my purple cardigan which I haven't worn since before we left for France. And it's loose! It used to be tight and cling over my stomach, but now it hangs looser so I must have lost weight! Grandma's scales say I'm heavier than when I came, but everyone knows that Grandma's scales are always wrong, and it's the way your clothes fit that count!

I'm so glad, I'd almost given up on the idea that I was going to lose weight whilst I'm here, but now I must have. I have been eating normal, sort of healthy meals since I've been here (you can't get salt & vinegar crisps, it's pretty much ready salted or nothing, and we're an hour away from the nearest Subway!)

We've got a lasagne in the oven for tea, and we're looking forward to X-Factor. I hope those annoying twins go - everybody else has really good voices, and it's not fair that they should stay and steal someone else's place.

Some funny things that made me chuckle

We didn't do much yesterday or today. Yesterday we just played on the Internet, went to the supermarket then watched X-Factor. Today we just watched the Hollyoaks omnibus, then played on the Internet (by playing, I don't mean it was fun, I was trying to prepare lessons for Tuesday).

So I'm going to put up some funny pictures I found instead. The first two are in the supermarket yesterday, and the third was taken just ten minutes ago, and I was waiting with my camera ready for twenty minutes until it happened again!







Tomorrow from 9 until 5, I need to be in Nantes. Seeing as none of the other assistants have responded to my e-mail, I shall assume they have all dropped off the face of the Earth, and make my own way to Nantes. Dave has decided to drive me (rather than risk letting me catch the train on my own, loosing myself, and leaving him alone in a strange country!), which means we shall have to set of driving at about 6am tomorrow, and we shall be home hopefully before 8pm. So that means X-Factor and then bed.

Out Livebox should arrive any day now, which means Internet and phone wahey!

Dropped in the deep end

This morning went fine, I went to my first lesson which was about 20 girls and 3 boys who were about 15/16. I don't think they understood very much of what I said, and they didn't seem very interested in English until the end when the teacher played a silly song and they all joined in. That's worth bearing in mind for future reference!

I arrived at my second lesson, but she said I didn't need to be there this week, so I went on the computer in the staff room for a bit. I went to my third lesson, which was a group of about fifteen 17-19 year old lads, and one girl. These were electrotechnic students (that's what the teacher called it in English, I'm not quite sure what else to call it). Then I had a free lesson, until it was dinner time.

I went to the staffroom and found the teacher of the class in the afternoon. She had given me some books yesterday, and mentioned preparing lessons. I had started worrying last night in case she wanted me to start immediately. I said I had a 3 hour break, did I need to prepare something for the class this afternoon? This was in English (and I quote) "Oh no", she said, "you can just introduce yourself this afternoon."

That's fine then I thought, the same as the rest of the classes so far. I spent the dinner hour looking at exercises and word games on the Internet, as I was planning to eat with Dave at half 2 when I finished. I arrived a minute early, and waited outside the room with the students (six 17-19 year olds, these guys are specialised in English, so they are the same level as I was before I started uni.)

We waited for five minutes, and the teacher didn't arrive. By this point I hads started worrying. I took my key out of my bag, and let the students in. We sat down, and I introduced myself, and asked their names, and about themselves (in English of course!) Ten minutes had passed, and still no teacher. My neck had gone really red, and I felt boiling! Oh my God, I was going to have to do something off the top of my head!

I opened up the book for their level of English, and the first page had a picture of various American sitcoms - Friends, Desperate Housewives, Prison Break, Lost, NYPD and 24. So I asked if they had seen any of these. We talked about these programmes for a while, as most of them had seen these with French voice-overs, why they liked them, favourite characters, storylines etc. I asked them to describe their favourite French TV shows to me. Then we moved onto English-speaking actors and musicians. And somehow this managed to fill up the remaining 45 minutes.

It wasn't quite the mentally challenging conversations I've been told I must practise with them, but it wasn't bad for spur of the moment, and like everbody's said, at least now it can't get any worse.

I presume the same teacher's other lessons are going to be the same, so I need to prepare to lessons for Tuesday. I can't do it on Monday because I'm in Nantes 9-5 for my orientation course (which means setting off at 6am and getting in at 8pm)

Tomorrow is my first lie-in since last Sunday, so tonight I'm going to stay up late (not what used to be late for me, my new late is 12 or 1), chill out and drink lots of alcohol!

More of the house

Last night we nipped to my Grandma's to use the Internet, so I could post my blog. We haven't done much since.

We ate at at unusual times yesterday, because we were busy tidying and buying things for the house, so it was half 10 by the time we were ready for our tea. So Dave made us a pizza! Dave's half had cheese, mushrooms and chorizo on, my half was four cheese. I think it looks great, and it tasted even better! The only problem was, we only realised we didn't have a rolling pin after he had made the dough, so he had to use a pot of parmesan instead!



 Dave enjoyed watching Match of the Day last night as we have some English TV channels in our house. This morning we watched the Simpsons in French.

I had really bad allergies yesterday, my eyes were red raw, and I was sneezing every 15-20 seconds! So we put the feather pillows from the living room into the basement, but the allergies continued. This morning we realised the other pillows were also feathers. Now we've moved them, I think everything's fine.

I have a few more pictures of the house to put up. Please excuse the kitchen, we've done our best, but there really isn't much else we could do. We can't change the horrible floor, the horrible wallpaper or the horrible units. I'm hoping to find some cheap curtains, because the net curtains that are up all over the house make me feel slightly ill. And I've just ordered a Cath Kidston polka dot oilcloth to cover up the horrible table. And at least that old person kitchen smell seems to be leaving now - either that, or I'm just getting used to it!





But as you can see from yesterday's pictures, the living room and the dining room are really lovely. And I really enjoy having a balcony. It's a really relaxing place to sit.

Tomorrow I'm going to the lycee at 10 O'clock. I'm a little worried about the fact that I only have one pair of trousers and that one pair are much too small for me, but I think I'll be OK in jeans as long as they're not scruffy jeans.