Dec 2007

Just to let you know that the teachers at my school were all drinking glasses of wine at 10am this morning during recreation as someone had brought in some sausage made of sheep's blood and they just HAD to eat it with pain and vin. Seriously I had only been up for 2 hours or so and kinda wanted to puke.

Right now however I am eating CADBURYS chocolate; one of many little treats which arrived in an awesome package from Joe today. Yay, thank yoooooou! Mwah!

Something I realised when talking to Charlene; I enjoy my job. I know I only actually teach for 12 hours, blah blah blah (I am in eternal guilt about this, it's awful) but it is stil a job, and I basically spent all of today lesson planning/marking etc. But yeah I enjoy it. I may not like getting up in the morning, but I don't have that awful dread I used to have the night before going to BHS (my part-time, shop job), or the "arrrgghh" feeling of University.

This is excellent methinks.
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En parlant avec Charlene, j'ai pensé à quelque'chose: J'aime mon emploi. Je sais bien que je ne travaille que 12 heures hebdomadaire (c'est terrible la culpabilité que j'ai pour ça), mais, tout de même, c'est un emploi. J'ai passé la plupart d'aujourd'hui en faisant le planning/corrigeant les cahiers etc. Mais, j'aime beaucoup faire ça. C'est vrai que je n'aime pas me réveiller tôt le matin, mais je n'ai pas l'effroi insupportable que j'avais pour BHS (mon boulot, dans un magasin a mi-temps), ou le sentiment ARRRGGGHHH (!!!) de l'université!

C'est excellent je trouve!

This happened a week or so ago but I don't think I ever wrote about it here.

Anyway. I think I did mention that University students had been striking in against changes to the way Universities here are run (put simply, they feel they are being turned into businesses). Well, the lycee students decided to join in; they are aged 15-18 I think (i.e. future University students). Their strike did not just entail a sneaky day off of school...they created a "blockade" preventing people from entering the building. This basically meant sitting or standing around in the cold all day. The reasons for the strike/my own views aside what was striking was that this happened at all, I just cannot imagine it at home...

I was surprised and kinda impressed by three things:
1) That the students were politically motivated enough to feel the need to strike. (Apparently this is the reason headteachers don't just step in and stop them; strikes are seen as a sort of rite of passage to adulthood and demonstrate a certain level of education/political awareness)
2) That the masive student body was organised enough to arrange this.
3) That they had the stamina/determination to maintain the blockade all day.

What do you think?

I'm going to write in English today as I don't want to alienate my lovely readers from Angleterre! he he!

So last night was The Big Night Out in Montpon. We arrived at about 6.15 and did the bisous with all the Kickboxing chaps and their girlfriends/wives/children etc etc; Rachel is the only girl in the Montpon Thai Boxing association. The event was being held in the "foyer"...sort of a big town hall. We stood around for about an hour while they got ready etc. About 10 children turned up for their free introductory lesson, they were mostly Rachel's pupils which was funny, and it was cool to see them being taught the basic moves of kickboxing and then getting a little certificate each. Next up was Rachel's starring moment...she'd prepared a self-defence display with two guys; they gave her some grief and then she kicked some SERIOUS ass, but unfortuately couldn't go full out because the coach had forgotten his err "coquille".

It was really impressive but kinda a shame because not that many people had turned up to watch. Those who has turned up seemed mostly to be old people who just wandered out to the kitchen and sat down at the tables with their plats of sausage, crisps etc. Not quite the "fete" we had expected, so we decided to give the meal/karaoke (?!) a miss and headed back to Rachel's to eat. I think the situation was summed up quite nicely by Rachel's friend Jimmy, a French guy who teaches English: "Oh you are going home? I think that is a good idea actually. I think it will be very boring", when said in a French accent and considering how odd the evening had been this seemed very funny.

We tried watching a film last night instead, but being the party animal I am these days I fell asleep before 10.30pm and then woke up in the middle of the night asking Rachel "Did you see the cat?". I think I was dreaming about the cats in fridges and baskets I have been teaching this week...ha ha ha! Apparently when she seemed slightly perplexed by my nocturnal question I just repeated it slowly and loudly, like SHE was the stupid one..."Did. you. see. THE CAT?".

Today Rachel decided to take me on a new walk in Montpon...through some fields basically passing a "farm" with 10 alsatians trying to jump the fence and gnaw us to death and then, the particular highlight, a traveller/circus camp in the middle of nowhere which all the locals had warned her to stay away from me, and which came complete with a couple of llamas standing guard by the road, and various other cages which may well have housed tigers!

Salut mes amis !

Well, I’m afraid it has been way too long since last entry, but for all the best reasons. Charlene has been here this week so we have been busy busy.

Charlene est arrivée lundi après-midi. C’était parfait parce que son vol est arrivé à 13h, et le bus départ à 13.45h. Elle m’a attendue à la gare de Perigueux, et je l’y ai rencontrée après l’école. J’étais très heureuse de la voir, nous sommes amies depuis plus de dix années et peuvent toujours parler beaucoup des temps passés, des gens que nous connaissons tous les deux, et de nos vies actuelles. La plupart de mes amis sont des étudiants comme moi, mais Charlene a « un vrai emploi » (en fait, elle a deux), et maintenant que nous n’habitons pas dans la même ville, et que nous avons des vies chargées, des copains etc on ne se voit si souvent donc c’était génial de passer quelques jours avec elle. On a cuit quelques repas superbes chez moi, et elle m’a introduit au monde de fromage ! J’aime le fromage, mais pas ceux qui puent, mais elle m’a fait goûter du très bon fromage après les plats principaux, et maintenant je suis accro ! On a bu aussi du vin, bien sûr ! On a essayé le Nouveau Beaujolais 2007 (qui est un vin très médiatisé) et ce que m’a plaît surtout c’était le vin chaud. J’adore le Gluhwein d’Allemagne, et le vin chaud qu’on a bu ici était aussi délicieux. Pour moi, cette semaine c’était le début de Noël.

Périgueux est TROP jolie avec toutes les lumières et des décorations qui n’arrêtent pas d’apparaître (de plus on attend un patinoire !), et maintenant ma chambre en a aussi (c’est-à-dire les décos de Noël pas un patinoire) ! Naturellement, nous avons fait un peu de shopping...Pier Imports, l’un de mes magasins préférés à Périgueux avait un soirée de réductions hier, et on a en profité. Je dois arrêter d’acheter des cadeaux, sinon je vais avoir un problème de bagage !

On Tuesday afternoon Charlene and I went to Bergerac which was fun. We did the usual tour of the shops, old town etc. We ate the most amazing cakes EVER and then had a lovely long walk along the riverfront as we felt a bit fat! Better to have eaten and walked then never to have eaten at all, we decided. We also went to the Maison des Vins which was free, yay, and had a fun part where you got to stick your nose in tubes and smell various stuff, but otherwise kinda disappointing, we were out the other side in like 10 minutes and there were no tasters! Tragedy! Tuesday night we met up with the other assistants for drinks etc, we’re planning a Christmas Tea chez moi on the 19th December. Wednesday was exploring Périgueux.

L’après-midi on est allé à une réunion “Etudiants-assistants” à l’Université. C’était très bien de rencontrer des jeunes français ; ils étaient tous les étudiants de tourisme, parlaient plusieurs langues et étaient gentils, et on partagé « an International Buffet ». J’espère que je trouverais des amis là ! En janvier je vais essayer de mettre en place quelques « échanges des langues » ou je peux parler pour une demi-heure en français avec un Français(e) et puis on peut parler en anglais pour eux.

Aujourd’hui Joe a un interview pour un stage d’été à Londre, je lui souhaite très bonne chance ! I’ll be home in 2 weeks, yay yay yay yay yay!

I’ve had more than 100 unique visitors to my blog now, yay ! I hope no-one minds me writing a little bit in French? It’s all good…

Here is something educational/funny etc: http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/12/02/210-french-kissing-map/

Also two more of my classes have blogs now, and they’re really cool so you should like SO check them out:

http://lescm2dedavesne.over-blog.com/

http://ce1davesne.over-blog.com/

Tonight I am going to Montpon! Rachel is participating in a Telethon event; I’ll get to see her Kickboxing, and then there is a “grillade” and karaoke. The telethon is a national thing www.telethon.fr There will be 30 hours of it on French television, the website says : “Le Téléthon a été rapporté des Etats-Unis en 1986 par Pierre Birambeau, le premier président de l'AFM. Chaque premier week-end de décembre, l'Association Française contre les Myopathies organise cet évènement qui est son moyen quasi exclusif de collecte. » « The Telethon was brought from the United States in 1986 by Pierre Birambeau, the first president of the “Association française contre les myopathie”. Every first weekend in December, the AFM organizes this unique fundraising event.” The assocation aims to find a therapeutic solution for neuromuscular illnesses, but also to improve the daily lives of those who suffer from them. A good cause indeed then.