Lightbulb moment number 2

Thursday night, we went into Le Mans for a Soiree Concert (i.e a band night). I got drunk off cider as it is pretty much the only alcoholic drink I will touch in most French bars. I took Jordan out for a cigarette, and these two French men who were walking past asked us if the music was any good. The second I replied, they asked if I was English (we must have an easily identifiable accent when talking French).

Cigarette finished, went back in. But that was it. We were stuck then. Even though poor Jordan didn't know what he was saying, one of them continued trying to chat us both up whenever he saw us. I felt like Dave was trying to pimp me out, because every time the man said something to me, Dave would his, "go on, talk to him, practise French"!

I didn't feel very fresh when I got up at 7 on Friday morning after 4 and a half hours of sleep. And Dave was taking the mick out of me because I was so drunk off a glass of Asti and 2 and a half pints. But, as I said in my defence, I can drink as much as Jack! :P And to be fair, the only thing I drink at home in France is Martini Extra Dry, and that's like water to me now.

On Thursday day we had recieved a Post Office card for the B's, the people we rent the house off, saying that there was a letter that needed collecting. We needed identification though.

We asked Julie, and she said could we try to collect it, and explain that we live there? So Friday afternoon, we traipsed off to the Post Office. I explained the situation, explained that I had a bank statement, so I could prove that we lived at that address.

But the French love causing hassle where paperwork is concerned! The B's need to ring up the Post Office and get the Post Office to extend the normal 14 days that they will keep the letter before it gets sent away. And in the meantime, we need to get Julie to post the slip back to England so that they can sign the back, saying that we are allowed to collect it, then send it back. Then we can collect it.

But the important thing was (coz I don't give a flying fig about the letter, it's probably just an important bill, that we'll have to pay towards!), that I understood all of this perfectly, and managed to come up with a suitable response each time. It's the first time I've done something like that in France that I haven't felt like a complete and utter idiot. So I feel quite proud of myself!

Other matters - Dave has not had a French lesson since the first once. Technically he owes me six hours of French learning now. But he's very difficult to drag off his football game. The only French he uses is when he goes to the boulangerie and says "un pain s'il vous plait" "merci, au revoir".

And do you like my new layout? I spent ages playing around with new ideas. I think I'll keep this one for a while.

Look at my pretty picture

Look at my beautiful new picture frame with the picture from the official Tour Eifel shop! It looks really "French" and shabby chic. This is how I'm gonna style my bedroom when I get home. Dave's not happy that the frame cost €5, but like everything else in France, picture frames are expensive. Plus it stopped me from splurging a lot more money on the Topshop website!





Today was OK. I'm getting better at defending myself against the naughtier pupils. I had a boy today, and every time I said something in French, he would take the mick out of my prononciation loudly. Repeatedly. I was starting to feel really awkward. So the next time he did it, I told him "I can speak better French than you can speak English, so don't laugh." (Maybe it sounds a bit mean, but it wasn't mean at all at the time)

There was another in the same class who kept on shouting "motherfucker" and "biatch" and grinning. I told him if he carried on, I would tell the proviseur (headteacher). This seems to frighten them, as he looked serious and said "I stop".

I mentioned it to his teacher at the end of the lesson when she asked how the groups had been. Turns out he's on report card. Ah well. At least it was in English!

Back to reality (almost)

Sorry about the huuuge gap since my last post, but to be fair, most of you have seen me over Christmas. Back to France now, and back to some sort of reality.

I found it more difficult to come back this time than last time at Halloween, probably because we were back for more than a fortnight. I sobbed most of the way home, and until I fell asleep on Monday night. And Dave wasn't very comforting as he was fed up from the 700 odd mile journey, so I felt really lonely.

Not too bad now though, because I've started looking at flights for February half term! The lovely French school system are giving me two weeks off, but there's no way we're gonna drive that again until we're coming home for good. So we will be sans voiture and everyone out there with cars needs to be very generous with lifts please : )

So now it's time for major French crackdown. I've been a bit lazy so far, but I'm gonna watch French TV as much as possible and learn new words every day. I'm also going to try and eat in the dining hall with the teachers more (only done it twice or three times so far because I don't like the food - it's pretty much set meals and all fish/meat, rice and veg) They did have burgers on the menu once, but I bet they weren't bloody cooked properly! : P

I would like to invite my favourite English teacher and her husband around for a meal because I am absolutely amazing at French after a drink or two! Plus this way Dave could join in the conversation as well.

The snow is spreading across the Channel now, and I presume it's going to get worse before it gets better. It took us twice as long to get to school today because we had to drive the long way round on the main roads and we had to drive at 10mph.

I taught my first lesson where 12 pupils out of about 30 were in, and then the teachers said I might as well go home because there were even less for my afternoon lessons (only 2 or 3 of the younger class as a lot of buses hadn't been running. Some of the older ones live in town)

I'm getting the blame for all of the snow! "It's Kim's fault, she brought it all from England!"

We got back and cleared all the snow from the pavement in front of of house. We've been told it's law in France, but we would have done it any way because by the time we got home at 10, every other bloody person the the little housing estate had already done it.

We were toying with the idea of making a French snowman, but we were wet and cold, and my gloves don't have any fingers! If the snow is still there tomorrow afternoon (and I'm pretty sure it will be), we might build a comedy snowman!

Bof

Two hours of lessons tomorrow, and Wednesday off, as usual. So work on Thursday and Friday, and then Saturday, I'm going to PARIS!

We have absolutely wasted this weekend, as we usually do. I'm starting to get really annoyed at Dave because he turns the alarm off in the morning before it gets loud enough for me to hear it, so we sleep in far too late.

My French is really really crap compared to what it should be by now, and we don't go anywhere interesting where I can talk to people. The only chance I get to speak French is when I'm yelling at kids.

We've had a French estate agent showing two French people round our house (it's for sale, but people can only move in after we've finished with it!). We just had a mad rush trying to get the house looking presentable for 6.30 - and they turned up 20 minutes early, so unlike the French!

I'm finding it so difficult to type now. You wouldn't think that 5 letters in different places would make such a big difference but they really do. I have been spending a lot of time on the computers at school, in between my lessons, and now I can't type on either a French or an English keyboard.

Yawn

We set off at 6.20am and we would have been perfectly on time were it not for the rush hour traffic in the last 5 km. I got there at twenty past 9, but nothing had started yet, everyone was sat around drinking coffee.



I was sat listening for 5 hours in total, but the usefulness could have been condensed into 20 minutes. Or it could have been online, which would have saved us the trouble of getting there. It was alright for everyone else there, the majority of them lived in Nantes, and had walked or cycled there!

I did get some useful worksheets which I may use in a lesson tomorrow, and an address to send my Social Security number to, but it really was a useless day. All it succeeded in doing was making me feel bad about myself, because most of the people there were so much better than me at French.

But the journey home was much better. The sun had come out and we managed it in 2 hours 15 minutes. Dave made us a nice chilli for tea, and we watched Hollyoaks.



Tomorrow is mine and Dave's 2 year anniversary. We weren't really sure we to go, we really wanted to go to Paris, but it's a weekday and we're trying to not waste too much money this first month, just in case. So instead, Dave's going to make us a nice Italian meal, with starter, main and dessert, and we're going to get dressed up and eat it in our nice dining room.

I'm worried about tomorrow's lessons. I'm sure I'm not supposed to have got lumbered with actual lessons, I don't know how to explain the grammar or anything. But ah well, I'll just have to grin and bear it. I might start enjoying it in a few weeks.

Le travaille

Today was my first day at work. I'm not teaching anybody yet, for the first week or so I'm just observing the lessons, and sussing out the levels the students are at. Dave was taking secret pictures of me as I was walking in at 8 (you can tell which ones are Dave's pictures because they all look a bit rubbish!)



I had a lesson 8 til 9, then I played on the Internet until my next lesson at about 11 until 12. Then I got taken to the canteen by one of the English teachers, which was a mad experience. It's a set rate of 3.10 Euros, and for that you get a salad from the salad bar or a plate of ham or cheese, a dessert, as much bread as you want, a hot meal and there is a bowl of fruit at the end.

I ate in the teachers' bit, and some of the non-English teachers chatted to me a bit, but I struggled hearing them, the people to my left and right were both talking to other people as well, so I had trouble tuning them out. I got there in the end though.

I met the "problem class" and whereas they don't seem as difficult as some of the idiots I went to school with, they do seem like a handful. I will be taking half the class for the first half hour, and the other half of the class for the second half of the hour. (So 15 at a time!) But Magalie, the teacher told them that if somebody causes problems for me once, then they will stay with her the whole time for the rest of the year. So if that happens, then I'll only have to deal with them once.

One weird thing that I've noticed though, is that all the teachers have given or will be giving me a page with a picture and name of every student in the class. This way, I can pick out the trouble makers. This is common practise, from what I can tell, as there is a word for the sheet of pictures.

Here is some more pictures of our house, one taken from the couch, and the other of the garden the other day, when Dave's first wash had just been hung out. Look at all the polo shirts! They are fruit trees in the garden, but it's too late for fruit now, it's all shriveled up and bad. And that's a tray of Grandma's tomatoes on the plastic table, that we were lying in the sun trying to make them go red!

Oh and Mother Dearest, I have also added a picture of me, just for you. If you go down the page, you will see the picture of me before I went into the school on Monday. I'm warning you, I don't look too happy at Dave making me pose for a picture!)

Oh dear, I think I wanna quit French : P (Only kidding!)

Today I went to the lycee at 10 to meet with my responsable, I met with the headteacher, the people in the office, and some of the other teachers. I got my own whiteboard pen, and a key which I think is for the photocopying room (I say I think, because the second time she explained it in French, I still didn't understand so I didn't dare ask again!) I also have my own pigeon hole, and the English teacher chuckles every time she says it - it sounds normal to us, but it must sound like a strange thing to call it.

I've been shown a timetable, but I had it taken off me so that they could find out the room numbers and give it to me on Thursday when I start work. It looks like I will have Monday and Wednesdays off work, and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I will be in from 8 until 5 (only 4 or so hours teaching, but with gaps in between which means I'm there for the full day)

They said most of the classes are very good, but there is one class who have caused problems in the past for other assistants. They have said if this happens, don't try to deal with it, just walk into the room next door and get the teacher to sort it out.

There is a picture of me in front of the lycee looking grumpy and nervous, but I've left my camera at home so I can't put it on yet. I'll update with the picture tomorrow. (Here we go, I have now added this picture. My hair was being awful and wouldn't look normal, so I had to tie it back, AND a massive spot appeared, which magically disappeared as soon as I got home)



My Mum has requested more pictures of the house from different angles, so I'll put some more of those up tomorrow.

Bank appointment tomorrow at half 10, then we have do drop off the bank details to Julie so she can get the Internet and phone line set up, and then nip in the insurance place and give them the bank details and fill in a form for house insurance (it's compulsary, and it covers you for public liability as well - I think that's the right word!)

Finally getting somewhere...

I finally feel like I'm actually getting through the list of things I have left to do. Today we went to the bank to open a French bank account, as I need an account for my salary to be paid into, and to pay the rent, phone bill etc out of.

I walked into the bank and made an appointment for next Tuesday. (I was offered Friday morning, but we can't do that, as that's when we're moving into out house) We walked out of the bank, and Dave said "That was too easy, I think you should go into your college."

So we walked up to my college, I went into reception, and I asked for Marie-France (my responsable - the English teacher who I have been contacting this summer). An English teacher from the school came to find me (the school and the college are joined together), and took me to the English department in the college. Marie-France was teaching, so the English teacher looked up her timetable, and said that she would be free in 45 minutes, could we return then?



So we nipped to a café for a drink, and some shade because it was swelteringly hot again today. Then we went back, and I knocked on the staffroom door, and asked for Marie-France. Marie-France came out of the room, and we spent a good 10 minutes talking, mostly in French.

I am going back on Monday at 10, to sign some paperwork, and she will introduce me to the headteacher and the other staff.

I don't know what we will be doing tomorrow yet. If Jordan isn't working, I could have a riding lesson. I would also like to pick up some French sim cards, as everybody wants to know our French numbers, but Dave isn't sure we need them yet, as it's an extra cost, and we will have a house phone at our house when our phone line is set up.

All of this French is making my blood pressure sky high...!

Last night, we were just finishing eating our tea, when a car pulled up. It was my Grandparents' French neighbours (Genvieve and Francois) back off their holiday.

Well anyway, they came in, and gave my Grandparents their gifts they had brought back. They speak a little bit of English, and my Grandparents speak no French, but it's amazing how much they can communicate. They did get stuck a few time, so I translated for them. But my heart was pounding. When they are talking to each other, I can pretty much tell what they are saying, but when it's directed at me, my mind just goes blank.

Both Dave and I also got our first French kiss, four kisses, two on each cheek. But over the border in Evron, where I will be working, they only do two kisses. It varies depending on where you live!

This morning, we got up at 9, and went to a brocante which is basically a car boot sale. It was in a little village in the streets, and there were maybe 100 stalls. We didn't see anything much worth buying - it was mostly kids clothes and kids toys. It's amazing what they try to sell on though - our country is such a throwaway society, but there were people selling used pans and some really battered stuff.

I took some pictures, but I must have looked like a crazy tourist! Dave was quite embarassed!







After we got back, my Grandad had an e-mail off somebody who was interested in buying his car. He had sent his phone number, and it was suggested that "Kim can ring him". But there is absolutely no way I can manage a phone call right now, I need to see someone's mouth right now to see what they're saying.

So instead, me and my Grandad went round to Francois and Genvieve's house. I was armed with my phrase book, as I know absolutely no French car terminology! I asked Francois if he would ring up, and answer the man's questions for us, with me acting as the go-between between him and my Grandad. So between us, we managed to make it work! The man réfléchit (he's thinking about it).

No idea what we're going to do tomorrow. I want to hit the shops, but Dave won't take me back to Le Mans yet!