Oct 2007

I have internet in my appartment now so time for a bumper email to fill you all in on my exciting times...so much has happened I probably won’t get it all in, but the highlights anyway.

So yeah all going really well so far actually, better than expected I think! Really pleased that my French is improving already but have been somewhat thrown in at the deep-end with opening bank accounts and sorting out bills with EDF, phone contracts etc. You really do need about 10 pieces of identification for everything here! Spent most of Monday and Tuesday just sorting everything out, but no major mishaps. As I said have internet and landline working, and received first bills from EDF/water company yesterday.

Am really pleased with my appartment
it's a big room with sofa bed, a bench-table thingy, a desk and a couple of shelving units, a little kitchen, entrance hall, bathroom and plenty of cupboard space....my 24kgs worth of stuff looks totally lost here! I've introduced myself to a student on the corridor and she seems nice, and said its really quiet and stuff here so that's good. I am right in the town centre, the supermarket is really nearby for all my 3EUR wine and croissant needs! The station is a 15 minute walk away.

Perigueux is really nice, pretty and fairly busy although have kinda exhausted all the exploring there is to be done and don’t think there’s much of a nightlife! There is a cathedral by the
river, a couple of museums, a swimming pool, an old centre with little streets with foie-gras and chocolate shops, and the modern centre with lots of banks and some clothes shops etc.
Although I have to get used to the opening hours here: a lot of things close on a Saturday, Sunday AND Monday morning. There is a big market twice a week.

Haven't spent much time alone so far; I stayed with Rachel in nearby village of Montpon for first few days while the former person moved out of my appartment, and then had another assistant, Leonora from America, stay with me while she was in a similar situation. Have met most of the assistants now (at the training day on Wednesday which was mostly spent going through administrative stuff), there are 36
in the Dordogne altogether, but I think I'll spend most of my time with the Primary assistants in Perigueux so thats like 5 or 6 of us really. They're all really nice and we speak a mixture of French and English together which is good although bit worried that now I’ve sorted stuff out and made really good friends with English assistants I’m not going to be speaking much French, but we’ll see. Had a brilliant night last night with Rachel, Louise and Lynn (Leonora)…haven’t laughed so much in AGES, and am loving being able to sit outside till late in the evening and not get cold!

Joe is coming to visit in a week and a half (yay yay yay!!!) and mum and dad the week after...can't wait for them to see everything. I'd like to get home for Alex's 18th birthday or at some other point in the term to see Joe and stuff, but I'm going to have to see if it'll be possible to sort anything out with the schools (similarliy for the end of term). The Bergerac-Exeter flights are Fridays and Mondays. We'll see....am currently considering going home in halfterm as not sure what there's going to be to do here, but maybe that's a bit soon, and will be close to having seen Joe/parents here, so we'll see. sure something will sort out.

Next week we have some teacher training which I think will be quite good, and I'm ready to have something proper to do. And then I'll start teaching on the 15th. On Mondays and Thursdays I'll get a bus to nearby school and do 8.30 to 15.30 there (will be a very early start), and Tuesdays and Fridays I do 8.30 to 11.15 in a school literally 30 secs from me. Went there today and the headmaster is so lovely, quite young and very understanding and helpful...he's even going to get me a photocopying card; Im a real teacher!!! The children were all really cute too, saying 'ello' and 'goodbye' when he introduced me to them.

The weather has been warm, a bit too humid at times (although it looks like we might get a thunder storm later this evening), but pretty nice for October!

Ok, have got the blog all up to date, so hopefully can keep it that way from now on!

Had a bit of a lay in today after early start yesterday. Slept well at Rachel’s, watched ‘Save the Last Dance’ last night and were both totally shattered. Bed comfy and the room stayed lovely and dark with the shutters! Was quite nice and sunny when we got up, her neighbour (the lady she’s renting from) brought us round some walnuts and hazelnuts and told us we weren’t wearing warm enough clothes (we told her it was much colder in England!). Went up to library, a nice lady turned on the one computer with internet and said it was free at the moment because it was so slow; they were waiting for a new connection. She also did a photocopy of my passport for me (the one thing I forgot to copy and need for the landlord). Then went into town and finally got Rachel’s bank account sorted with a nice lady who introduced us to everyone who works at the bank. It was quite good because she gave us a copy of all the info in English (and some complimentary sweets) so I think when I have my address and ‘attestation de logement’ I’ll go into their branch in Perigueux…can do internet banking too. Then walked along the road to intermarché, the big supermarket here (although closing today to be replaced next week by even bigger hypermarché), and stocked up on some chicken! And other bits and pieces.

Came back and had lunch etc, then went next door and played with the lady’s great grandson for an hour while she was on the phone to France Telecom trying to sort out Rachel’s landline and internet. Looks like it’ll be between 25eur and 50eur a month, the landline is meant to be connected tonight and they’ll send her a ‘box’ for the internet next week which she’ll then return when she’s done with it and cancel the contract.

The rain had started so we came back here for a bit but then braved it and got a bit wet on another little walk down around the lake etc. Came back and cooked curry for dinner (yummy!) and going to watch Borat in a bit. There is a cinema here but the film for tonight looked a bit too French!

Tomorrow (Sunday) we’re hoping to find Lidls in the morn (and swim in lake if weather better), and then later on we’re meeting two of the other assistants for a café in Perigueux before I move into flat. Monday we’ll go exploring! And I’ll probably do the same myself on Tuesday, then it’s the training stage on Wednesday.

So we arrived; has all gone pretty well so far but have been really glad to have Rachel for moral support! So, yeah, parents took us to Bristol on Thursday (with minimal tears and only £24 of excess chargers ;-) !) and flight was only 20 minutes late which isn’t bad I guess. Saw a bit of Bordeaux on the way through on the shuttle bus (defo want to go back and check it out more, particularly a strange ‘square-of-water-on-the-road’ thing), and then got the train from Bordeaux station. The train journey was about an hour and a half; the first half an hour was pretty uncomfortable as the train was absolutely packed and hot…and we had lots of stuff and were wearing all our heaviest winter clothes, but as the ‘citoyens’ got off at their respective towns we were able to sit down, look at the scenery and get a bit nervous. Oh and we had our first real conversation with a real French person, a really friendly, interested Uni student on her way home to Perigueux.

We were met by JP (the teaching advisor), and he was a really nice guy…although it was slightly scary to be taken straight to the apartment I’m going to rent; I thought he was just going to leave me there! But no, we just had a look around and I’ll move in on Sunday. It seemed pretty nice, very close to one of my schools and with the capacity to get internet (AND he reckons a patisserie is moving in underneath….mon reve!) but to be honest it was all a bit too much to take in so quickly. JP took us back to his house, where his girlfriend was waiting for us; their house was massive and they were really nice but it was quite hard-going; French small talk over aperitifs, dinner, cheese etc etc. Was pretty tired and quite glad to eventually head to bed. But unfortunately when I got there my mind was spinning like mad with random French and all the things I should have looked at in the flat but didn’t and it took me ages to get to sleep! But not too worried as JP is a local mayor and knew the guy who’s going to rent me that flat so I reckon he wouldn’t put me in too much of a dump, and the lady who is there at the moment has been for 6 years and told me it was really ‘calme’ and nice. I will write more about apartment when I get there…Rachel’s came with bed linen and all cooking utensils so hoping mine will too.

Friday, I decided to come and lodge chez Rachel in the nearby town of Montpon for a few days rather than staying with JP. Her apartment is lovely, as are its owners who live next door (we reckon they’ll be a good surrogate mum and dad). JP took us to see the schools Rachel’s going to be working at and left us to it for a bit. We had our first French lunch and walked in and out of town 3 times trying to sort stuff out….that’s to say, buy some chicken for dinner (surprisingly difficult) and sort out a bank account (very difficult…). But came across lots of nice surprising stuff on the way including an outside pool, the train station and a pretty little town centre with local shops. Her neighbour down the road (who has made a brilliant light-up map of the departments for his son that I really need!) tried to sell her a bike for her to get a work (after offering aperitifs at 4pm…have learnt it’s all about the aperitif) but was a bit cagey about the price so we decided to try walking to the school to see how long it took (15 minutes). The sun came out and we had a really lovely walk along the river/lake, and even paddled our feet…but weren’t as brave as the Frenchies who were swimming!

So yeah we’re spending Saturday here too, and on Sunday we’ll go into Perigueux. Rachel’s going to spend the first night chez moi and we’ll go exploring on Monday. Then, next Wednesday and the following Monday to Friday, I have training, so I won’t actually start teaching until the 15th.