You don't want me to come in tomorrow, you say? Oh, ok then, if you insist...

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 :)

It's been a while!

I've neglected this blog for far too long!!!!!

Work has been quite steady, not boring as such but the kids are already starting to get antsy and definitely ready for the end of term.
I went to Paris for Lindsay and Fran's birthday celebration - my first time in Paris - I couldn't believe the price of things! There was a problem with my hostel room so i ended up staying at Jack's (and Jamie's, but he wasn't there!) for the night. I spent the afternoon watching the rugby with some other Bath students who were in Paris, Gina, Emma and Rebecca, then met the girls later on for a celebration in Bastille! It however tipped it down and it took us nearly 30 minutes to find a taxi!
The only downside to the weekend was the infrequency of Sunday transport - our metro back to Montparnasse usefully stopped a long way from the station, so instead of clambering onto the bus with the other 200 disappointed passangers, we got a taxi... which took FOREVER. I made my train however, unlike the people who chose to get the bus (ha!), but it was delayed at Niort, meaning I'd missed the last bus back to Angoulins... then I endured an hour's wait for the last train... then a 15 minute walk in the rain to my house... I was definitely ready for bed, and not ready for work at 7am the next morning!

Work that week was ok, lessons I'd planned went fine etc... I'm still slightly resentful that my Friday school gave me a class of year 10s to myself during the last period, 16.30-17.30 = NIGHTMARE. But I plan around their excitement and they've learnt that Rebecca DOES shout and get annoyed!

Last weekend, Caroline and I were invited to Francegiving, a big Thanksgiving house party and dinner for all the Frenchies and Americans (and 3 token 'others - me, a German and a New Zealander!) that the host, Marcus, knows. It was so nice to see what a traditional (ish) Thanksgiving would be like - I ate SO much food! We drank lots of good wine, demolished more food and watched the France vs New Zealand rugby match... I forgot how riled I get about rugby when I'm around people who are also passionate about it! We got a taxi home in the early hours and slept off our food hangover the next day :)




This past week has been fruitful in places - I recieved 2 CAF payments, meaning I get half of my rent reimbursed every week - BRILLIANT! :D
Monday, I went to La Rochelle and stocked up on teabags from the big supermarket, and bought some new jumpers so that I can face the 'fierce' winter! Hardly fierce compared to the UK, as we're on the coast, but bless my 'parents' for caring.
I've been working on my special study, worked Thursday, and got sent home from work on Friday due to feeling like death warmed up.
After a good night's sleep, Saturday passed nicely. Caroline and I seemed to have finally worked past all cultural/family differences that we had with our 'parents and this weekend has been very restorative; we did things we used to do when we'd just moved in, such as going to the market and going to buy bread - simple things but so nice. Yesterday, I went to see a Christmas-time gospel choir with one of my teachers, Isabelle, and her daughter. She then took me back to her house and we ate raclette and watched Miss France with her 3 daughters... the commentary consisted of "Elle est moche... elle est moche.... elle est pas belle du tout... encore moche..."

We had a big Sunday lunch with the 'parents' and the 'grandparents' and have spent the day eating Jaffa Cakes and drinking tea :)
I've got 4 full days of teaching this week (which means I've got a 5 day weekend again later on in the week!) but it shouldn't be too bad :)

Also, just to end with a nice anecdote... On Thursday I looked at the register and there was a girl called Megan's. Yes, Megan's, with an apostrophe. I asked Isabelle why she was called that, and she told me:
"Oh, I asked that on her first day here - I asked her why someone had spelt her name wrong... in fact it turned out that her parents named her after where they met - Megan's Nightclub..."
Only en France!!!!!

Disregard for disability...

This week has been pretty good... I made the most of my 5 day weekend, I saw a friend from uni, I planned my classes, I swam a lot... though 5 days off was very bizarre. Only 30 days left until I come home! Also, I’ve only had about 50% of the reimbursements that I have been due since mid October, not impressed. Though this is France, which seems to be a resounding excuse for poor company practise here! There’s also a strike for secondary schools (from what I can gather) next Tuesday!

So, to the gist of the title. Here are some statements from various teachers in my schools, about handicapped children and pupils with learning difficulties, translated from the French:

“Oh, don’t mind him; he’s just a stupid annoying child who has problems”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, we have a (raises voice) heavily disabled child in this class, I hope that doesn’t bother you”

“Don’t sit like that – what are you, a SEGPA?” (SEGPA is the name of the learning difficulties department of each school)

“They’re just all stupid and slow, they can’t help it”

“She’s got a speech impediment; just ignore her if you don’t understand her”

I honestly cannot believe the intensely rude attitude towards handicapped children! I work 2 hours a week with two 6e classes, both of which have mild learning difficulties (in my ZEP school too, meaning they are already ‘difficult’ children) – most teachers i know would make allowances, but teachers I’ve met here treat them like second class citizens who they have the liberty to laugh at...

There are 2 kids in wheelchairs, who are just as capable and intelligent, if not more willing to learn than the other kids – but the teachers make a spectacle out of them sometimes... I don’t know if I’ve just stumbled across a few bad attitudes.

And on a light note... some brilliant mistakes I heard today:

To translate “Je suis revenue” (I came back), a year 10 translated it as “I am income”... the misguided use of dictionaries amuses me! Also “J’ai été” (I was) became “I have summer”

“Ride a horse”, written by a year 7 as “Reit e hos” :)

Bless them...

Becoming a vraie Rochelaise!

Well, after a lovely week at home (well, I was with the boyfriend for the most part), I am suprisingly sad to be back in France! I spent a few days with my family in Tewkesbury then went to visit my boyfriend who is working in Catterick on the army base - such a surreal experience to be one of only a handful of females on the biggest army base in the country!!!

I must say, walking up the road after coming back to la belle France to see my nice warm house was a soul-warming feeling but I've had a bit of a rubbish day today! I think my body gets very worried by travelling lots and changes in environment and it feels like i've got a lot of 'going-back-to-school' chores to do... On the plus side, I recieved information about my CAF payments today, got confirmation of my Erasmus grant payments and got some exciting news about a house in Bath; but I still have a headache.
But even though being back here sucks in so far that I now have to get back to work, I feel like i'm slowly becoming more and more French, excusing the rubbish administration systems and becoming oblivious to the lack of proper manners! On the train and bus home from Bordeaux, I felt like i fitted in amongst the stone-faced passengers with their glares at anyone who dared play their ipod slightly too loud! I think, however, at the risk of sounding stereotypical about the French people of a certain age, that I am in fact too optimistic to ever turn into a grumpy old French woman who complains about where they lives despite its beauty and vibrancy! :)



So, in order to remedy this ill feeling, I went shopping!!! Now, most people would think this a fun, exciting thing to do, but oh no - not in La Rochelle. Known to locals as 'The Western Paris', you can see how it gets its nickname...

There are hardly ANY well known shops, and if there are, they are all incredibly expensive boutiques or designer shops, far and beyond the budget of my student loan and British Council salary! There are NO large chain clothes stores; the closest to this description is Pimkie, which is huge in France and probably closely resembles New Look in England. All other shops in the town are crepe stands and patisseries (which i'm not complaining about, I hasten to add!), over-priced boutiques for the older lady, jewellery shops andsmall cavernous bars.

Property over here is ridiculous. To rent a furnished room in a student centre-ville flat works out at over 500 euros per month, rivaling Parisian prices! Yes, the buildings ARE lovely, but houses even in the periphérie are extortionate. After being invited to a teacher's house for lunch last week, I saw a typical town house... yes, it was beautiful but everything in it was so minimalist and bare because the rent was so high! This is the reason I live 'far away' from the centre of La Rochelle - only about 5 kilometres, I have to get a bus, but the rent is stupidly cheap in the surrounding villages. Houses around here are very cheap but VERY run down, as they are properly rural and mostly falling apart unless you have the serious money needed to renovate them; for example, nosing around the local estate agents I saw:
"MAISON ANGOULINS BOURG, 5 PIECES. Pavillon de plain-pied en très bon état, comprenant : Entrée, salon/séjour avec cheminée et insert, cuisine aménagée et équipée, cinq chambres, salle d’eau, wc. Terrasse, garage, dépendances, jardin, puits."
All this, only 100m from the sea, in the centre of the village, for just over 200,000 euros.... utterly ridiculous.

I may complain and the locals may get on their high-horses about prices and housing and the weather, yet despite all this, I defy anyone not to instantly fall in love with this city, its surroundings and its beautiful charms... :)

HOLIDAYYYY!!!

The French deem in necessary to give the kiddies 2 weeks holiday because it's Halloween, so I'm not going to complain! I'm off home tomorrow so i'll be back on here upon my return! :)

My first experience of French healthcare!

After feeling ill most of the weekend, Monday was certainly interesting.... I dragged myself into work for 4 hours on Monday morning (mainly because taking a day off means far too much paperwork!), meaning I got on a bus at 6.55am and was already halfway through a lesson before I saw the sun coming up! I battled on through until midi, then collapsed onto the bus home. It was decided that I needed to go to the doctors surgery. The nearest doctor is in the next town down the coast, Chatelaillon-Plage... and this is what got me - every afternoon, it's like British A&E, a total free-for-all, turn up when you feel like it and wait in line for see the doctor without-an-appointment sort of thing! So we got there, there were about 8 old people sat around waiting, who all jumped up when the doctor came out to see the next person in the queue. What did amuse me was that one man tried to convince the man sat next to him, who was in front of him turn-wise, that his illness was worse than his and that 'would he be so kind as to let him go first as it's really quite urgent'.... oh the French do make me laugh, even trying to cut corners in the doctors!

We arrived at about 4pm and waited, whilst watching terrible "surgery TV", until 7pm to see a bloody doctor. In addition to this, there was no receptionist, just benches to sit on and 2 doors that led to examination rooms. The doctor was lovely and helped me fill out all my documents (as I don't have my Carte Vitale yet, the obligatory card to show for social security reimboursements - it gets delivered to you around 3 months after first signing up to the Sécu, ridiculous! So I have paper documents in the mean time) and gave me a prescription. The only problem being that pharmacies in France close at 7pm, some at 7.30pm if you're lucky - so my French dad came to pick me up, and drove me to Salles-sur-Mer, about 10km away, to the nearest late night pharmacy! Then, at the pharmacy, they were shocked and stupified when I said I didn't have my Carte Vitale... so it took about 20 minutes to find all the stuff, input codes into the system etc etc etc....

But all in all, it was a very thorough (albeit long and painful) process... I had to pay 22 EUROS to see the doctor but that will be fully reimboursed thanks to the Sécu and my top-up mutuelle insurance. But now I know what Hélene meant in the briefing talks of "writing the thing in the thing and the putting the thing in the thing, then posting the things to the thing and waiting for the people to sign the thing and then getting the thing back"....

I'm now taking the medication like a good girl and am feeling a lot better. We were due to go to the 2nd Induction day in Poitiers yesterday, but conveniently the SNCF decided to strike! There were suitable replacement buses and a few trains still running, but we decided to adopt the French attitude and declare that "c'est pas la peine!"... I've got school tomorrow, then Friday off - Surgeres has a big sports day, hence no lessons - so instead i'm going to meet up with my first French exchange partner who lives close to La Rochelle; it'll be nearly 7 years since we saw each other, she's now married and has a baby! Strange, huh? Then a weekend of not doing a lot and then home time.... I love being a teacher sometimes!

Bloody Scottish...!

I'll explain the title of this post in due course :)

So, just a small update about this week. I went to my La Rochelle school for the first time this week - it's amazing! It's so modern, pretty much all brand new, with a brand new gym, pool, playing fields and everything! I met 3 classes, a 5e and 2 6e classes, one of which had learning difficulties, so we spent the entire hour covering how to say "Hello, I'm [insert name here]. How are you?"... "I'm fine thankyou", and some of the accents were pretty much incomprehensible!


Everyone was lovely, until I went to the staff room at break time and met one of the other English teachers, one who I wouldn't be working with. "Hi, I'm *******, pleased to meet you, if you hadn't guessed, I'm not English, I'm Scots. Nope, not Scottish as most people think - it's only the uneducated fake bastards who call themselves Scottish and not Scots as we truly are..." This put my back up instantly.

He then proceeded to talk to me about my placement, and his side of the conversation went along these lines: "You're placed in THOSE 3 schools? God, I have a car and I wouldn't want to be travelling out to those shit-holes. This is gonna be a tough year for you kid, no joke. The last assistant nearly got kicked out by December for being useless, so watch your back if you want to stay here. *sighs* God, I wouldn't like to be in your situation. Good luck kid, you're going to need it..."

I did NOT need this sort of doubt about my role first thing on a Monday morning! Contrary to his (rubbish) opinions, I am currently coping very well with my transport situations, I like all my schools and am actually passionate about what I'm going to be doing, unlike your last assistant. I wanted to get up onto a chair and declare to everyone that I am here to break their preconceptions about the last assistant and be an invaluable resource for the kids and the teachers. Everyone else has been so helpful, then along comes one teacher I'm not even going to be helping to tell me that he already has ideas about language assistants and how difficult I'm going to find it. I'm perfectly aware that a lot of this year is going to be hard but I've accepted that and will deal with the problems when they arise!

Sorry about that. Other than that, this week has been alright, apart from falling ill on Thursday, and choosing to go into work and show willing rather than fill out ALL the paperwork in order to take sick leave... But i'm resting this weekend in order to get better for a packed pre-Toussaint holidays week! On another positive note, I have finally decided what to do for my Special Study and will begin research after the holidays :)

I'm not going to lie... things can get difficult.

Ahhhh, home! On your Year Abroad, of course you're going to get homesick and miss people - hell, I'd give anything to be back in Bath with my boyfriend and my friends, or back home with my family having a Sunday lunch and going for walks... Oh god, now I'm going to get upset! It is hard, but for me, being in France with a French family but also an English-language housemate is a lot easier than it was when I was in Barcelona this summer all by myself. Also, with the wonders of Skype, MSN and webcams, I can arrange to talk to my family and friends really easily and I know it's only usually a maximum of 6 weeks until I go home again!
But (what a rebel, starting a sentence with 'but') this blog is not about my whinging or pining for home, this is about the difficulties I've ALREADY encountered with teaching (things that are prevalent across Europe I'm sure), and more importantly, les professeurs.

1. Some teachers don't teach in English. This is incredibly frustrating, as I can compare between teachers who speak only in French and teachers that speak only in English. Two of my classes are taught mostly in French, mainly because the teacher's level of English isn't that good. These classes are pretty terrible at English and forget to put verbs in sentences (even the infinitive would suffice, it's correctable!) and worst of all, look at me blankly when I speak because they're not used to hearing English or my accent due to the teachers' lack of English. It's hard to remember that it's not the childrens fault that they're not great at English, as I often find myself getting frustrated if they don't know a simple tense or verb. On the other hand, most other teachers speak ONLY English (except a few difficult task instructions of course) and the difference is astounding - they can translate simple paragraphs at age 12, they don't read off sheets when they're asked questions and they speak in full sentences. All I want to do is know the reasons for not speaking English and encourage the teachers to do at least 50/50 class! Although I'm sure they complain about having 100% English-speaking classes, it seems to be paying off at a very young age... I'm looking forward to seeing the progress in both camps.
   
2. Some teachers don't correct mistakes. They simply bark "The difference between singular and plural - you don't understand it." at 12 year olds who need at least some sort of prompt as to where exactly they're going wrong, not just a vague topic. Even if the teacher tells them a grammar book chapter to read up on, or tells them that they'll review it quickly at the end. I feel like interjecting and telling them what's up and explaining it in a simple fashion, but it's not advised to go against teachers and their methods...
   
3. Two of my teachers are incredibly archaic in their teaching stances. They never give praise, even if it is simply "well done". In one class, I sit at the back and am used like a tape; if there is an article to read, she asks me to read it, and I duly oblige. The other teacher also sits me at the back, asks me to mark some vocabulary tests whilst she conducts speaking exams - essentially one pupil doing their speaking exam in front of the ENTIRE class of 25. I remember being 12 or 13 and not wanting to appear better or more hardworking than anyone else, and also despising speaking out loud in front of people, so at the pupils' age of 12-15, carrying out tests in this fashion is a terrible idea (but I simply CAN'T tell her that!) as the pupil is shy, the rest of the class misbehaves, making the entire class a waste of time for me, the teacher and of course the pupils. One teacher also tells the pupil what their mark was, in front of the class, provoking ridicule if it is too high or too low, subconsciously making the kids aim for mediocre marks!

Right, rant over. Hopefully once my 'observation period' is over, The children are brilliant and most of the teachers are inspiring, but I'll hopefully be able to inject some useful English into these classes... except after seeing some of the teaching methods, I think it's going to be a harder job than I first imagined...!

So, if this is the "arse-end of the earth"...

... Then I'd HATE to be in a really rough area of France!

I picked up my bank card today! I'm officially French now - I pay my Sécu, I recieve the CAF (well, i've sent my papers off), I have a bank account and I sneer at people who don't like coffee...
The abundance of vests and bum bags at school today really did amuse me, and I'm still getting used to being called "Madame" by pupils...

The worst bit of today:
In the canteen at lunchtime, I stacked my glass on another glass instead of putting it in the free space in the crate (I know, shock horror). The staff member then started shouting at the top of her voice, calling me "petite fille" in a derogatory way and "stupide" amongst other things, all because they thought I was a pupil, i.e. 15 years old. Then for a few hours later, a few teachers thought it'd be hilarious to tease me about it. Brilliant.

The best bit of today:
I ended up helping with a learning difficulties class this afternoon, helping them with their grammar. I read out part of the article we were working on and they sat there and gawped at me, not out of not understanding, but out of admiration - at the end, one boy piped up and said "Miss, one day I want to speak English as well as you"... This is what makes teaching worthwhile!

xx

The first few days of teaching...

I don’t feel like I’ve stopped since Thursday....

Let’s start with the dull academic stuff and then move on. In all fairness, neither of my days of teaching were dull at all! On Thursday I went to Courçon, which is a tiny tiny tiny rural high school in the middle of nowhere, a town that a lot of French people in this region refer to using a phrase not dissimilar to “the arse-end of the earth”... but i was pleasantly surprised! I was driven there by a teacher who lives in the same village as me; a PE teacher with a facial tick - it was a perturbing situation speeding down the motorway at 120 km an hour as he twitched and I flinched...

I arrived at 7.55am, only 5 minutes before the start of class - oh yes, in rural schools, classes start at 8am! I was taken to the staff room to meet my responsible, Elisabeth. I’m one of only 3 English teachers, and I find it fascinating that they can all vary so much from teaching just one subject. One is fantastic and the kids love her, one is mediocre and a bit soft on the kids discipline-wise, and one is old, rude, stuck in her ways and archaic in her teaching methods – needless to say, her 5e are awful at English, so they may be a bit more of a challenge for me.

(Just for reference, in France, the 'college' goes up to just before GCSE age, with classes being called 6e (year 7) and going up to 3e (year 10). They don’t do GCSEs but they do a small assessment upon going to the lycée, which is y11 and then 2 years of the Baccalaureate, the A-Level equivalent.)

First thing in the morning, I was helping in two classes of 5e, year 8s, one of which was top set and brilliant, and the other of which were bottom set and stereotypically badly-behaved, French chav-equivalent (lots of large silver chains and talk of Tupac) and generally rude. These were taught by the best of the 3 teachers, who commanded a lot of respect from both classes (although i feel that the bottom set would fail to be controlled by even the very strict headmistress who ironically looks sheepish and tiny like Anna Wintour, with the same hair and trousers suits, but can shout like a foghorn) The next class were year 9s and taught by the not-so-great teacher, so the class was a bit lacklustre; then my next class were also year 9 but taught by the useless teacher. I think she is just so stuck in her ways, and I think, after doing some amateur psychology, that she feels demeaned and almost threatened by having me in the class, as her English isn’t terribly good. She used me to read paragraphs out and not a lot else. In all of these 4 hours of teaching here, I was used to interact with the classes as at the moment they are learning about personalities and how to describe yourself, so they were asking me questions; then I was allowed free reign of teaching and so fired some questions back at them, introducing some new vocabulary too. The questions of “Do you play a musical instrument?” got quite tedious after a while but it was only my first day and i am only meant to be observing at the moment. I spend 2 hours that afternoon recording numbers, texts and poems for the kids to listen to and use for years to come in their listening exams... so sitting in the staff room with a ‘casque’ on, a sort of skype headset with microphones and earphones and portable recording equipment, was highly embarrassing, as at times the staff room was packed and some teachers laughed at me... but it was even funnier when the English teachers came back from classes and played back some of their year 8 speaking exams; one of the best sentences being “I play often the vélo”, which none of us could work out what it meant. I just hope that that never happened when i was in school... mortifying!

On Friday i went to Surgères. I had a bit of a downer on this place, even being my principal college, as when I went there last Tuesday, they didn’t seem to even know I existed. But I put on a brave face and went in to start. I had to get another lift from another teacher, except this one is a real Frenchie, for those of you that have seen Les Choristes, he looks like Clement Matieu but a little rounder! I started my day with 2 hours of classes with Nathalie, a FANTASTIC teacher. I will be teaching only 2 classes, but twice a day, in this school, and both are “Euro” option classes, meaning they are the brightest students in their year and were given the option to move classes and study politics and European history from the age of 12, and have 4 extra hours of English and 2 more of French per week, so they are super intelligent! Nathalie and I teach the Euro 4e, year 8s, and she is so fun and makes the lessons hilarious, but she takes her lessons all in English, which would NEVER happen the other way around in England (making me lament our terrible comprehensive school language teaching in comparison). The class was so happy to see me, reeling off perfectly-formed English questions about where I live, the English school system, English food, asking why I am here in France etc... I was stunned by their level of English and their behaviour! Year 8s in England would sit there and sulk, muttering that they didn’t want to be there and would refuse to speak French... very sad really.

I then had lunch in the canteen, getting funny looks from all of the pupils (in all fairness, I look younger than a lot of them and I'm by far the shortest ‘teacher’ in any of my schools!), then started lessons with Laurent – Laurent is amazing, very young, speaks English with a cockney accent (!) and he teaches the 3e Euro option, and once again teaches totally in English, doing subjects we’d never think of studying in our own language, let alone another one! I helped do a mainly speaking-orientated lesson first of all, getting them to ask questions about my life at uni, my friends etc, as they were studying ‘being a teenager’, and wanted to know if i went to parties, if i drank, if i had a boyfriend, all really quite hilarious stuff when i thought about it! In the second class, they study a different country every week, concentrating on the politics and culture and differences to France - this week was Ireland, so I told them about the Potato Famine and St. Patrick's Day, despite not being Irish! Aafter worrying so much about being in this school due to their lack of organisation, I felt like i was welcomed so wonderfully into such intelligent classes and fantastic teachers!

Saturday, we went for a long bike ride to the shops then to Chatelaillon-Plage, took some photos and felt sorry for the poor sods who thought it was a good idea to go in the sea on such a blowy day! Sunday, we were woken up very early to go to a market in La Pallice, which was interesting, but nothing special, and then dragged to a car-boot sale in the early afternoon... oh, such is the life in a tiny village! It is nice to see 'real family life' in France and not just avoid the local culture. Sunday evening Caroline and I took the train to Poitiers, as we had a Stage d’Accueil on the Monday at the Poitiers Rectorat and we were going to stay at Steve’s apartment, a friend from uni who is also doing a British Council Assistantship in Loudun, just north of Poitiers. We arrived, then decided to go out for dinner – whilst at the restaurant we ran into 2 other assistants, Brian and Natasha, who were staying in a hotel for the weekend and also due to go to the Stage the next day, so we ate with them, went back to their hotels for a few drinks and then eventually made it back to Steve’s. The Stage itself was insanely dull, full of seminars and talks about stuff Caroline and I had already done, like opening bank accounts, getting la Sécu and applying for the CAF (up to 70% of your rent reimbursed by the government, just for being a student!) We got taken to the Rectorat office place where we had out official welcome with a small buffet of lots of wine and homemade biscuits and cakes! We went out later on to celebrate Caroline’s birthday, had a huge meal (complete with smuggled vodka) and met up with more assistants for drinks etc....

It’s Tuesday afternoon, we’ve just got home and it’s lovely, so we’re planning on taking the bikes out to do a bit of shopping then maybe go to the beach... it’s a hard life! Plus we have a day off tomorrow, no school on Wednesdays... even better!

A plus x

Mon premier blog français :)

So, this is a weird experience... I have never blogged in my life, but I thought I’d give it a go! I apologise now for the mish-mashed nature of this... once i’ve told you everything that’s happened in the last week, I can post chronologically and sensibly, not just have word-vomit and blurt everything in one post.

I’m Rebecca, MLES year 3 at the University of Bath, and I’m starting a 7 month stint as a language assistant in 3 colleges in the Charente-Maritime area of France, famous for their milk, boats and not a lot else. I’m getting used to being introduced as ‘la petite anglaise’ to everyone I meet; being short, stammering quit appalling French (which I’m hoping will improve) and looking only about 16 years old instead of my actual 20 are probably the reasons.

Despite the British Council insisting that I go to 3 colleges, resulting in two 60km round-trips twice a week without public transport (thanks for that, BC), I seem to have landed on my feet with everything else. I am teaching in a little commune called Courçon, which is located in the middle-of-nowhere, so relying on various teachers to take me and bring me back is not reassuring; in Surgères, a small town accessible by only 2 trains and 2 coaches each day, once again, relying on various teachers for lifts, and a school in what the locals describe as the “ethnic suburbs” of La Rochelle, which is a lot closer to where I live. La Rochelle and the surrounding area always strikes me as very comfortable, white and middle-class, so I was a little taken aback to hear the locals speaking with such disdain about the “ethnic outskirts”. The schools themselves are small but well equipped, with lovely teachers and pupils with a scarily good grasp of English!

I start teaching tomorrow, but until the Toussaint vacation (a 2 week ‘half-term’ at the end of October), I’ve been told I will just be observing lessons and talking over potential lesson plans with the teachers rather than teaching straightaway. I know a lot of people are being thrown in the deep end and being set to ‘real’ work straight away, but in some ways, however lazy it sounds, I’m quite glad I’ve got a few weeks to monitor class behaviours and teaching styles – and especially as I have 3 quite different schools, I’ll have a lot to plan and think about!

Ah, the all important subject of housing! I was lucky that I found somewhere before coming out here, on sites like appartager.fr and recherche-colocation.com, but was obviously taking a chance on them not being dodgy... so I’d recommend probably booking into a hostel then finding something, it just so happens that Lady Luck was smiling on me the day that i phoned Daniel and found this house! Double bed, 50 metres from the sea, all bills included, heated swimming pool... sometimes it doesn’t feel like I’m actually on my year abroad at all! I can’t believe how lucky i’ve been and i often feel guilty for having found it!

I’m sharing a house in a place called Angoulins-sur-mer, about 5km away from La Rochelle, with a couple in their mid-50s, retired and very parent-like, a French student called Cindy and an American language assistant called Caroline. Caroline and I live in the little sort of annex/cottage thing at the bottom of the garden; mine and Caroline’s rooms are joined by a shared bathroom, but we still have free run of the house and get all our food made for us! :) They also have a small motor boat that we got taken out in on Monday afternoon; it’s all a little surreal to be honest. The frivolities of boat trips and bike rides will diminish as I get into an assistant routine of getting up at 6.30am in order to get to my far-away schools.

Sunset from the terrace:

Daniel and Josiane, my new French parents, have been nothing but helpful since I moved in nearly a week ago. Their kids have grown up and moved away so i think they miss having dependants and people to fuss over, so they did a lot of research into what us assistants needed to do, what accounts we needed open and where we need to be; they have stacks of bus and train timetables, bank details and insurance forms etc. Yesterday we spent a whole day with Daniel, who took us to open our bank accounts at BNP Paribas (good accounts for assistants as they charge the least and let you take money out of non-BNP Paribas ATMs), then took me to my principal school in Surgères to sign my paperwork and get my attestation, then took us to the MGEN office to sign up for the Sécurité Sociale. I really have been so lucky in finding someone to help me do all the stuff that would otherwise confuse me!

Today is another sorting out day, I’m off now to La Rochelle en bus, to buy my 12-25 SNCF card (up to 60% train fare discounts, yes please) and a French mobile, because I can’t count the amount of times I’ve been laughed at when I’ve written my English mobile number down, complete with country calling code....

I found an old kettle just chilling out in one of the cupboards today which made me incredibly happy; I can make tea without boiling water on a stove. Josiane described my cup of tea as looking “like bile”, which was a lovely image. They just don’t understand such sophisticated culture!

I shall update this weekend with my first teaching experiences!

A plus tard xx