I'm home, and home is good. I cried ridiculous amounts when leaving Daniel, Jojo and Caroline, but i'm happy to be home and surrounded by everything British and familiar. My year abroad has come to an end, and after 11 months of work, i'm tired. My body seems to be have been holding off on relaxing until i got home, and now it knows that it sleeps in my bed in Tewkesbury and wakes up to hearing English voices, my immune system has crashed, burned and is currently hiding under said comfortable bed.
Thankyou to any readers who have followed me along my journey :) I'll update you in a month or so, when I finally work out exactly how I feel about being back in Blighty!!!!
I'm writing this from the comfort of my home in Tewkesbury. I have made a mainly logistical trip home, the sort of trip that screams i'm-coming-home-now-because-i-won't-be-able-to-fit-all-my-crap-into-minimal-suitcase-space-in-may.
I got back last Tuesday, went to see the boyfriend for a few days in Bath, and am spending a bit of relaxing time at home before heading back to LR demain. When i get back, my friend Fran from university is coming to visit for a few days, then it's back to school for only two weeks! Once again, I say 2 weeks, I actually mean 5 days of work. Tuesday in LR, Thursday in Courcon, a day off on Friday as most of my pupils are going on a Latin trip, Tuesday LR, Thursday Courcon and Friday Surgeres. Done. Year Abroad will then be over!
After my trip to Bath, school went ok; it all becomes much-of-a-muchness... I tell people thatt i'll be leaving soon, they squeal 'oh god, we need you to record things for next year and write stuff down blah blah' but never actually ask me to do said important stuff! I still ADORE Courcon, the teachers and pupils are all just so talkative and enthusiastic, I feel like celebrity when the kids come up to me in the dinig hall to ask me how I am and what I've been doing! I really will be sad to say goodbye to this school. Surgeres is alright, I'm still receiving minimal support from the teachers and my mentor teacher (who hasn't spoke to me since my first day - considering she has to write a report on me at the end of my placement, you'd think she'd be a little more interested in me and my life!), and my La Rochelle school is still only employing me for an hour a week. I just don't understand why they even asked for an assistant, as I haven't done anything meaningful there in my entire 7 months here. the exciting lunch that I explained in my previous post was the most interesting anything has even been in that school. My mentor in that school has been an angel though and has apologised that my placement in this school may have put me off teaching for life, and that she feels guilty that the teachers can't 'use' me more, which I suppose is a bit of a consolation.
The last day of term i was meant be going to Surgeres, but a train strike in the evening meant I had no way fo getting home (it's only myself and one other teacher who teach from 4.30pm until 5.30pm in a school of 700 pupils, ridiculous). So I decided that I didnt need to try too hard to find a means of transport to get home - I've NEVER called in sick to ANY of my schools, I've always done what's expected of me, and the only times I haven't gone to school is when the teachers themselves have told me not to bother due to strikes or trips. So I took the plunge and said I wouldn't be coming in.
That night, I took the train to Nantes and spent the night in a hotel, eagerly awaiting the arrival of my two uni best friends, Amy and Carys! They arrived the next day and we stayed in Hotel Amiral, a definite recommendation for all potential voyageurs to Nantes! We went out with Amy's old French exchange partner who lives in St Nazaire, and consequently spent Easter Sunday nursing hangovers from hell. I hadn't seen Amy, who's working in Aix-en-Provence, in nearly 10 months! I travelled back to La Rochelle on the Monday, then flew back to Bristol on the Tuesday.
So as of tomorrow, it will be EXACTLY 3 weeks until I fly home for good. I often compare myself to those people who adore being abroad, relish in working in a different country and fully immerse without any issues - but I don't think I'm one of those people. I do love where I've been on my YA, of course I do, but I adore home too, and have been abroad for nearly a whole year and need to be back into a confortable, homely routine... I've only got these 21 days in which to soak up as much beautiful weather in the prettiest corner of France, so I'm going to make the most of it :)
The title of this post loosely translates as "Nowadays, we leave the house in the morning ready to teach, and come back in the evening as savages.", although it's a lot funnier in French with the word play and all that.
Another brilliant quote from today was from a fellow teacher. Sat on a small table in the canteen and joking around (I ADORE the notion of bottles of wine and cheese plates for the teachers in this canteen), Mickael took one look at what cheese i had smeared onto my bread and said:
"Don't eat that, that's cheese for lesbians, too soft. You need a cheese like this (waves smelly green and brown coated cheese in front of my face), with a moving, all-singing, all-dancing CRUST!"
Fantastic.
So, if some of you have been living under a rock or something, you'll know that TEMPETE XYNTHIA came to pay us a very cruel visit last Saturday.
There are 5 people dead in Les Boucholeurs, just south of where I live... it's totally crazy. Bex, one of my assistant friends here, was evacuated from her house on the Saturday night. My french family and I spent all day monday clearing up the mess left in Les Boucholeurs, helping Daniel's friend clear out his home, not managing to salvage anything... his interior walls had collapsed, his crockery was smashed into millions of pieces and was strewn all acros the street, no glad remained in any window frames... Even now, over a week after the storm, people are still pumping water out of their houses and some schools are still cancelled. The railway tracks from La Rochelle to Rochefort have been uprooted and have snapped under the force of the water so there will be no trains running past our house until April 1st at least... meaning Caroline can't get to school! :(
I've been cycling a lot more recently; Xynthia seemed to take with her all of the rain we were having (a rather destructive way to do it, if you ask me) and it's been lovely. Also, the pool I usually go to is still under 2 metres of water, so no swimming soon for me, and it's nice to get out and moving! I did a 14 mile bike ride by myself last week, around Salles-sur-Mer and La Jarrie, looking for pretty places to visit, and then this past weekend I cycled 20 miles in total! This past weekend we spent at Lee and Laura's again, making the most of 'free museum day' which happens on the first Sunday of every month. However it was FREEZING when we went yesterday so we cut our day short!
It's less than 2 weeks until I go back to Bath for a long weekend, and I'm seeing Fran, a friend from uni who is an assistant in Nantes, this weekend :) After today at school, only 15 more days of school EVER again in France. Wow...
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 :)
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 :)
Firstly, BONNE ANNEE! Meilleurs voeux and all that, “happy, healthy and wealthy” etc :)
As I write this, people are looking at me funnily, as I have decided to eat lunch on the Café de la Paix’s street terrace because it’s so beautiful today! The locals don’t seem to appreciate that my laptop and I are simply having lunch and taking in the winter air, not deliberately getting in their way. I don’t know if it’s me, but everyone seems to be rushing today. Place de Verdun is overrun with students and people milling, yet the sky is so clear and peaceful compared to the hustle and bustle of this gorgeous, small city. I’m wearing 3 tops, a big coat, a scarf and gloves, and the waiter has just called me Mademoiselle Gelée, and une courageuse jeune fille! Then they blamed it on the fact that I’m English. Welcome back to France, huh?
In all honesty, my mood has taken a giant U-turn today. I had a particularly hard time saying goodbye to my boyfriend and England on Saturday and may have accidentally started hysterically crying at the neighbours’ house when trying to have a civilised dinner. Whoops... But after a day of wallowing in my own self-pity, I’ve been back to school this morning that reminded me why I’m here. I’d demonised my job when I was in England, saying that I didn’t even want to teach so why should I bother doing this placement, blah blah, and for me, anything in comparison to what I have at home and in Bath is going to seem a bit merde at times – but then I woke up this morning in my nice cosy room, looked out into a slightly frosty garden, saw my ‘parents’ padding around upstairs in their pyjamas all sleepy-eyed and making coffee (always leaving some for me), heard a train go past, put on my clothes and felt reassured by my surroundings.Waking up on Sunday wasn’t as good; I woke up in a bad mood and went to bed in one, despite having spoken to Andy and Jack and my Mum on Skype!
Being back at school today made me realise how lucky I am to have my job – as so very eloquently put by a very good friend of mine, also an assistant – “At the end of the day, we’re just assistants, and the success or failure of the kids is not our problem, it’s the teachers". You’re the teacher, they’re the brats.” I try to make it easy for both myself and the kids, and this term I’m going to try out some stuff that will make them responsive rather than be sulky teenagers and resent some overly chirpy English girl wittering on at them for 55 minutes. When I walk through the school and feel like a celebrity because all the kids shout “Hello Rebecca!” down the corridor at me, it makes me feel quite positive about the whole experience. Am I really changing the lives of some children? Judging by the stupidly large amount of pupils who fail their Brevet, their end of collège GCSE-equivalent, my teaching will do nothing except bore them to death for an hour of their lives... but hopefully some pupils will one day reminisce about this school year and say to each other “Do you remember that awesome English assistant we had?” Well, I can hope, can’t I? :)
Welcome to the world of an assistant - come the end of term, no-one wants you!The kids are tired, the teachers are tired, I'm tired, and all people can think about is 5pm tomorrow evening when they don't have to see each other again for at least 2 weeks.
This week I had no school in La Rochelle because I did double-hours last week, I was taken home from Courcon at 1pm today instead of 5pm, and got a text from my responsable in Surgeres saying that I needn't bother going in tomorrow - WIN!
Saying that, my suitcase is packed, i've raided iPlayer for all good shows and my house is currently having severe and frequent power cuts due to my French dad messing around with the electrics. I've read all the books I have here and I'm not even going near my Special Study until after the holidays.
So... I'm tempted to recap this term... but I think I've blogged most of what has happened.It's definitely been interesting. Horrible in parts but people and places have redeemed the crappiness that ocurred in the first month or so. I've had some awesome experiences and already feel like it's going to be difficult to tear myself away from my little house and my little French family. But i've got the next 4 months to worry about that :)
I'm off home on Saturday; I'm hoping and praying that the journey to Bordeaux airport will be hassle-free and that the snow doesn't hinder our journey - also getting worried about BA strikes... gahhhhh... but i'm trying to be positive and get in the Christmas spirit, even though all I want to do is go home right now! I'm loking forward to getting home to my family and my boyfriend (after a term if 7 weeks it gets DIFFICULT!), 'real' food (although I'm positive my French family would disagree with that!), my bed, my cat and the fact that it's CHRISTMAS :D
It's also amusing, in a small way, that there are a lot less 'Merry Christmas' signs and a lot more 'Happy Holidays'... and the French refuse to acknowledge America's influence... as one of my classes always reminds me "C'est un état LAIQUE!!!" :D
Bref, Joyeux Noel a tous!!! Joyeuses fetes and all that jazz :)
20 years old, student of French, Spanish and European Studies at the University of Bath, embarking on what may be the most interesting year of my life, but in France! Hobbies include drinking tea, being organised, sewing and making clothes, buying far too much from Paperchase, anything panda-related, a nice drop of wine and awkwardly speaking foreign languages.
Essential YA things to remember!
- Bring tea bags - ESSENTIAL. - The French WILL laugh at your handwriting. - Most internet shopping will not have the option to be delivered to France! - Never turn down an outing or invitation to dinner. - Pretend to like coffee or they'll look at you funny. - Pack LOTS of pictures and invest in hang-up photo pouches whilst out here. - However much you try, your room will never feel like it's YOURS. - Prepare for 4 seasons in one day. - ALWAYS carry a dictionary! - Get a 12-15 SNCF card, it's a lifesaver. - Make a list of paperwork/things to do BEFORE you get to wherever you're going! - Get out there and TALK!
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