The small pleasures found in taking the register...

Fanny? Hedwige? Brayan? Logan? Stanislas? Melvyn? Tinaipha? Damien? Dylan? Milan?

When the response to me calling out their names is “Ear, Miss!” I sometimes struggle to contain my laughter; the names never fail to amuse!

Today was my first day back after two amazing weeks’ holiday back in good old beautiful Blighty! I saw some friends i hadn’t seen in a while, spent a fantastic Valentine’s weekend with Andy, went away with my family for a few days and even found time to make a snowman, making good use of my Atlantique Stade Rochelais scarf (and finally getting to wear my new cupcake print wellies)!

It’s less than four weeks until I get back to Bath for a long weekend, and already have plans for the weekends in between. After that, it’s only two weeks until my next holiday. Two weeks of vacation in April, two weeks of classes then it’s time to go home... Scary really. I told my teachers that I’ve only got 10 weeks of placement left and they all gawped, some exclaiming “Well, we should really start using you better shouldn’t we?” – thankyou for FINALLY realising this!

I’ve already planned all my lessons until April vacation for my regular 3eme classes in Surgeres, and believe me they’re going to work this semester! I sometimes feel like I do over plan, but I think it’s helped me out during this placement. I love knowing what’s going on, as all of you that know me have already seen in action... and even being so in control, lessons can change pace and topic so easily and quickly that I think this might be what throws me when i rigorously plan lessons only for them to be thrown out of the window. Then there’s planning whole topics that never get used! I suppose I shouldn’t complain, I just need to relax!!!

I’m definitely on the ‘home straight’ in general terms – I know it’s too early to be counting down until actual home time, but 10 weeks is less time than I spent on placement in Barcelona, and that went so fast in the end... I know it sounds pessimistic (my mum would agree with the use of that word but i know my dad would back me up in replacing it with ‘realistic’) but I have achieved all I need to on placement. My Spanish came on leaps and bounds and I still think it is my stronger language, and after coming back from home yesterday, French seems almost automatic and I can now fully express myself and join in full conversations with total strangers. My confidence has soared, I’ve made brilliant friends, seen sights and sounds I’ve never be near before, lived abroad all my myself... a pretty impressive list if I may say so myself!

But I’m not enamoured with teaching (possibly, no definitely, impaired by my bad administration experiences and my schools’ lack of organisation and motivation), and in all honesty, I’m not a ‘living abroad’ sort of person. Some people are and are revelling in spending as long as possible abroad, even though this past coming-up-to-a-year has been brilliant for me in most places, home time is going to feel SO GOOD. I’ve realised all of this after a good long chat with a certain Jack Penrose, a very good friend from uni who is used to my whinging, and it’s refreshing to hear that I’m not ‘wrong’ for having such a ‘bored’ mindset! However, I do not have ANY bad feeling at all about this placement or my year abroad in general. I know it’s a little early to be analysing my time abroad but after a brilliant period at home, I always feel a little nostalgic yet analytical.

I’ve been here since September - it’s gone so quickly already... countdown mode has sub-consciously started already, and I’m going to bet that these 10 weeks à suivre will go just as fast as the last 5 months :)

The end of another school term... AGAIN?

Oh, I do love the French for their abundance of vacances scolaires!!!! Once again, another entry written in a small rochelais café! La Renaissance, 2 Place de l’Hotel de Ville... this is similar to my view out of the first floor window right now :


It’s the last week of term and I have had a ridiculous day today – one class at 8am, meaning getting a bus from home at 6.45am... and finishing work at 8.55am. This of course is a good thing, as i have the rest of my day to do what i want (read as : do nothing), but it does suck that I’ve been up since 6am! I’m drinking a petit café crème, surrounded by business meetings – I think I’m in the wrong place.

Daniel’s parents are at the house for lunch today so I am passing a few hours here in town before going swimming and not turning up to eat with them. It’s nothing personal, they’re pretty nice people, I’m just getting very tired of the colocation lark and all its differences to living with my parents or living at uni. Essentially, I’m very ready to see my family and boyfriend again and I don’t think i could take a 2 hours lunch with 4 retired people. I haven’t updated this for far too long, I’m very aware.

School wise, things have been ok, I’m definitely still a lot more positive than before the Christmas holidays, even though some lessons have gone belly-up, I haven’t let that get in my way nor dishearten me. I’ve had some brilliant adventures with the other assistants though, such as my first American football game chez Lee and Laura, went to see Stade Atlantique Rochelais play in the rain, various trips to Chatelaillon, dinner chez nous, tea parties in closed schools (some of my friends live in the schools they teach in, so being in a deserted lycée on a Wednesday afternoon is quite creepy!)...

Last weekend was fantastic – we went to do les soldes in Bordeaux on the Friday (somehow we all had the Friday off work!), so ended up sitting in the bike compartment all the way there! I spent too much money, drank lots of demi-peches and got rained on! On the way back, we stopped off at the Carrefour near the station, bought beer and junk food and had a very enjoyable train ride home on the night train!!!



On the Saturday, Caroline and I went to Flunch for hangover food with Lee and Laura, and then played Jeopardy on my laptop all afternoon... then on Sunday, the parents were out so in the morning, we cycled to sunny Chatel to buy pastries, bread and wine, then we invited a few people over for a big lunch and Frisbee in the garden fun :) This is St Jean-des-Sables, the beach just one minute from our back door, then me looking ridiculous on my new bike in Chatel!







It sounds terrible that there’s not much to report on placement-wise apart from things being generally a little bit better than before! I do have one student who makes me very glad to be teaching – she is called Eloise and in my 3eme euro class. She always comes up to me after class and asks me for a list of vocabulary she’s read etc so i can explain it – she insists i explain it in simpler English so she can translate it into something she’ll understand later on! So, she’s read Twilight. All of them. In English. A few weeks ago, she came up to me and told me she was reading WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Bloody hell, i thought, i got confused by Wuthering Heights when i first read it a few years ago! She says that she understands most of it, and would I help her understand some of the key points and metaphors...? Well, of course I obliged, but was so happy yet baffled by this girl who speaks perfect English at age 14! No, she doesn’t have a British parent; in fact her father is German, so she has spoken German from birth! Crazy. Got to admire her though :)

So, I seem to be the only assistant in the area who has to work tomorrow, which sucks because i wanted to go on a picnic with the rest of them, but oh well... It’s nearly home time! It’s a beautiful day outside – it has been sunny since La Chandaleur (French pancake day, which was Tuesday – apparently if you gorge on crepes in the evening, it encourages the start of spring – any excuse for the French to mange!) so I think I’m going to go and enjoy it while I can :)