Noël arrive!!

It's been a while since I updated my blog, and I can't fully remember what I've talked about and what I haven't, so I guess I'll just talk about the most recent things...

Firstly, it's nearly Christmas!!!! I'm so excited to go home and spend Christmas with Adam, my family and friends. But, there's some nice Christmassy things going on here too. The other weekend we took a trip to Bayonne and saw our first Christmas market. It wasn't amazing, but I just loved looking round the stalls, seeing all the Christmas trees. (they tend to chop xmas trees in half here and pin them up outsite shops and things) We even saw Santa! Bayonne is a pretty little place, there's not a great deal to do, some good shops and pretty views though, it was nice to spend a day somewhere different to Pau.

Last friday, it was the much awaited Pau Christmas light switch on. The lights are unbelievably pretty, and there's loads of animals in one of the main squares, which I love, as anyone who knows me knows I love animals! There were even some little bunnys inside a windmill like structure. 
The light switching on ceremony isself was kind of random. There was a choir singing, and they were ok, actually really sweet and happy looking, it was just weird hearing them sing English songs with their strong French accents! Also, there was no countdown to the lights, they just randomly came on in the middle of a song!

After the lights, we had a party at Serena's for her birthday. Everyone had to dress as something beggining with S. I was a snowman, but there was a big variety of costumes: spies, soldiers, stars... the list goes on! It was lots of fun!

The next day me and Beth had to wake up ridiculously early (well 9AM but when you didn't get in until 3 that's early!) but it was worth it as we had an amazing day at our responsable Christelle's house, helping her prepare a soup for the wine tasting event the following day. Her house is amazing, she lives right next to the vinyards, in the countryside, with amazing views of the mountains. We peeled and chopped veg, and she cooked us lunch, which was delicious, and gave us wine to say thankyou! 

On sunday we had a movie day at Anna's, which was really nice, and we ordered pizza, which again took over an hour to come!! What's wrong with the pizza delivery service here!!!

This week has been nice, I've had some really positive classes, probably because we're doing Christmas and the kids actually enjoy learning about it. I made Christmas cards with the girl I babysit for yesterday, and she made one for me which was really sweet. This morning I played a Christmas CD (Thank you Anna!) for my class of 6/7 year olds and they were all dancing along, I think they really enjoyed it. Next week I'm going to teach them the chorus for jingle bells, which should be fun :D.

Tomorrow we're going to Bordeaux, I'm so excited. Apparently the Xmas market there is pretty good, and there's an outdoor ice skating rink, which I've insisted we have to do! 

I'll leave you with some photos from the past couple of weeks,

Bises xx

Christmas market in Bayonne

It was very foggy when we first arrived in Bayonne

Xmas tree cut in half!

Thankfully the fog cleared up

Pretty Christmas lights

Donkeys in Pau!

The first 2 weeks back at work have actually flown by, and there's now only 4 weeks left until the Christmas holidays. It's crazy how I've just gone back but will be finishing again soon! 

Most of my lessons have been going well, there's just one teacher who really annoys me!! Most of the time, she has nothing planned so I have started preparing the whole lesson. However, half way through the lesson she likes to take over, and make the kids recite everything I've just taught them. I feel so sorry for them, they're 6/7 years old and being made to remember words they've just learnt, they really struggle. It's definitely not the best way for them to learn! Also, she never makes it clear what she wants me to prepare for next time, so I'm always left wondering what to do for the best...

Other than working, this week I've been babysitting. On wednesday, the baby was poorly and literally cried most of the day. It was so tiring and there was just nothing we could do to comfort him, see as though we're practically strangers to him and he hasn't fully warmed to us yet. God knows how we would have coped looking after him all weekend. Thankfully, the parents realised that it was too big a responsibility to place on us and are going to take the baby away with them, and get friends to look after the other kids. Lucky escape I think!!

Also, on tuesday we had fajita night at Harriet's. It was deeeelicious, and nice to be able to sit around and eat a meal somewhere comfy, clean, and without being laughed at when you open the kitchen door! (That's another story - basically, one night someone had their friends over and they were eating and chatting in the kitchen, fair enough. What isn't so fair is laughing at me and Abbi when we walk in to our own kitchen to cook our tea!! They were just really rude, made no effort to speak in French or English to us, and basically made me feel unwelcome in my own kitchen, ugh!)

Last night we went out to a restaurant for tea. We've been there once before, for Beth's birthday. The service was awful but the food so yummy we decided to give it another try. This time, not only was the service awful, but so was the food!!! They got our order wront (a burger, how hard can it be?!), and I ended up with a basically raw in the middle burger. Anyone who knows me will know that this is definitely NOT how I eat my meat. Luckily, Jess had been given my well done one, so we managed to swap half. Even that half didn't taste too good - not impressed! I find it really weird how the waiters here aren't bothered if you're unhappy with your meal. In England, we would have been apologised to, and probably something knocked off the bill. Here, the waitor tried to blame it on us and insisted that we ordered the wrong dish! I know my French is far from perfect but I definitely didn't ask for a double burger and I did ask for it 'bien cuit'!

I know I seem to be moaning a lot, but it was still a good night, after all it's the company that makes a good evening, not the place, right? I'm lucky to have made some really good friends here and we have a lot of fun. We're looking in to going canoeing before Christmas, which I'm sure will be lots of fun, and skiing after, since we're so close to the Pyrenees. I'm really looking forward to skiing, just hope I don't come home with a broken leg!!

Bisous

Kirsty xx

Pau looking beautiful in November

More Mexican food - it's my favourite restaurant!

Pretty view while waiting for my bus home from school

PS. I can't believe how nice the weather has been for November. It's not boiling or anything, but much warmer than I thought it would be, and most days it's so sunny. Not like England which I imagine is grey and dull round about now?!

Toussaint

Today was my first day back at work after the Toussaint holidays, it went surprisingly well, but anyway, I'll tell you about the holidays first.

The first week, as I mentioned in the last post, I spent at home. It was so lovely to see my friends, family and boyfriend, but also just lovely to be back on English soil again, with homecooked food (thanks mum), a comfy double bed, and to just be back to normal life for a while! I spent alot of time with my sister, as she was on half term too, which was lovely, I went to the pub quiz, which I have missed a lot since being in France!! We even managed to win the bonus round choccys and the music quiz (thanks to Hannah the music expert!). We also had the annual family firework night, which was good as I saw a lot of family at once. All in all, I'm glad I made the last minute decision to fly home, as I had a great week catching up with everyone.

I flew back on the Sunday afternoon, and arrived 2 hours early for my train from Biarritz to Pau. I saw that there was an earlier train, and so paid something like 6Euros to switch to this one. The customer service guy failed to tell me that actually even though the train left an hour or so earlier than my original train, it did stop for 40 minutes somewhere, and so in fact got me home at THE EXACT SAME TIME!!! Waste of 6Euros much?!

Anyway, I was happy to be back in the flat, and excited for Adam arriving the next day.

I spent the second week of the holidays showing Adam around Pau, and we also spent 2 days in Toulouse. It's so pretty there, the river at sunset was beautiful. We ate out every night except one when I made us fajitas, I'm not sure Adam enjoyed the experience of cooking in the hellish kitchen which after a week of not being cleaned was pretty filthy. I think we tried most of the restaurants in Pau: Mexican, Indian, Chinese, etc.! They were all very yummy!

I did make one faux pas in an Italian in Toulouse however. Somehow, I had a really dumb moment and forgot that 'thon' means tuna in French. I don't know what possesed me to think it was pork, as 'porc' is pork, so it's not that hard! But anyway, I assured Adam the pizza would be good, and it arrived with a mountain of tuna on - he was not impressed!! I blame the waitress for rushing me, and the fact that I had to read out all the ingrediants to Adam because they were in French, it's not my fault I got confused!!

Thankfully, I didn't make too many other errors, and we managed to eat well the rest of the week. It's a shock to have to start cooking again this week, but I can't keep eating out so much, I'll end up A) the size of a whale and B) skint!!

We spent a lot of time chilling this week, and stuff such as bowling with my friends. Managed to get through the whole 7th season of How I met your mother, which I've been waiting forever to watch - it was worth the wait!!

It was a brilliant week, I can't wait to have more visitors and show them round my adopted home :). It was sad saying by to Adam this morning, but it's not too long until Christmas, and I'm sure the time will fly, it has done so far!!

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from the week, and I will try and update more regularly, I've just been pretty busy lately! And I'm too tired to write much more now, it's been a long day.

Amusing ourselved with warped pictures!

Toulouse

Merry go round at Toulouse

Evidence of the tuna pizza

Toulouse by the river

Ready for our night in Toulouse

River Garonne - so pretty

The bridge lights change colour

River Garrone

On our forest walk

Ciao xx

Buses, trains and planes, à bientôt Pau!

As it's now officially the holidays, I thought I'd give you an update as I have plenty of time (not that I'm enormously busy any other time!).

Originally, I was going to stay in Pau for the whole of the 2 week holidays, but as my flatmates and friends all seem to be jetting off or going home for at least a few days, I started to get really jealous! So, on Saturday morning, after discussing at length with my sister, I booked a last minute flight home, and I mean last minute, as the flight was Sunday evening!! The flight was from Biarritz to Manchester, which worked out perfectly for getting a lift home, as it's only around a 50 minute drive. So, bearing in mind my flight wasn't until 5:45pm, I left the flat at 11:30am to walk to the train station, a 50 minute walk or 10 minute bus ride, but since the lazy French don't start their Sunday bus service until 1pm, I had to walk, otherwise I'd miss my train. The train journey was around 1 hour 40, which was fine, and then I had to catch a bus from Biarritz train station to the airport, which is fine, except the fact that I didn't know if the bus was going to turn up or not, as according to the website it wasn't running!! Thankfully, it did turn up, otherwise I'd have had another 40 minute walk!!

Surprisingly, I wasn't feeling nervous as I usually do with flying, especially on my own! And after a boring wait in the tiny airport that doesn't even have a duty free (shocking right?!) we took off on time. The view was amazing as we took off, first the sea, and then I got to watch the sun set from the sky, amazing! 

I've probably bored you enough with my travel, so I'll just say I made it home safe and it's great to be here and see everyone, looking forward to the week ahead :)

Other than travelling home, I guess I should talk a bit about my week in Pau, what I can remember anyway! I had a good week at work, with a lot of positive classes. One girl gave me a note thanking me for coming to help them with English, which was really sweet! I was wished 'bonnes vacances' many times, and I still can't get used to the southern French accent, where they actually pronounce the 'es' on the end of words such as 'bonnes'. It's pretty strange after being taught not to pronounce it for years and then suddenly everyone does pronounce it!! Again, I better stop before I bore you all with my linguistics talk, otherwise this really is going to turn in to a boring blog post!

We went to a Halloween pub quiz on Wednesday, which was fun, even if I didn't know a single answer! And on Thursday it was Beth's 21st, so we went out for a lovely meal, I ate a delicious burger and was brave enough to try a mussel. It was surprisingly ok, don't think I'd choose it for a meal as they look so disgusting, it took me 10 minutes to dare to try it haha. Then on Friday we had a night out for her birthday too. We pre-gamed in the hallway, until we were told of by a security man, which was annoying as we were only talking and playing a bit of music, and it was only 10pm!!! So then we moved to the kitchen and finally caught the last bus in to town. It's a shame that by the time we got to the bar I was soaking as it was torrential raining! The highlight of the night was definitely buying Pringles from the bar, Yum! I have a very attractive photo of me and Beth making duck beaks with them, but unfortunately I can't share it with you as I'm on my dad's laptop and don't have the pictures. But if you can't wait to see it check my Facebook, it's there haha!

Saturday was spent, as I mentioned earlier, booking planes and trains, and then going to town to print off my boarding pass, it's such a pain not having a printer! 

And now here I am, at home! Looking forward to spending the day with my sister today :). I'll update more about my week at home at the end of the week.

xxx

Jambon et fromage

It's seems as if I'm living on baguettes filled with jambon et fromage (ham and cheese) at the moment. Partly because the bread is so good that I can't resist, but also partly because it's rather difficult to make anything else!!! The kitchen situation just doesn't get any better, today apparently even the microwave wasn't working...!

This week started off well with successful lessons on Monday. Although, since this time I planned something in case I was left in the lurch again, typically the teacher wanted to do it her way this week! ( I still taught most of the lesson, she just told me what she wanted them to do). Afterwards, Brigette, the teacher invited me to stay for coffee, for the second time, and I thought it would look rude if I refused again, so I agreed to stay. Now, I don't like coffee at the best of times, unless it's very very very milky (basically warm milk with a drop of coffee), so when I was presented with a cup full of BLACK coffee, with no milk in sight, I was no amused! And, after giving me the worlds most disgusting cup of coffe, Brigette decided to leave me and talk to other teachers! I only stayed as I though she would actually talk to me! Anyway, I got chatting to another teacher whose name I can't remember, and it was pretty interesting, So, disgusting coffee aside, I was glad I stayed.
We went to zumba on monday night, which was fun, even if we did have to sprint to catch the bus there, I'd done a workout before I even got there. Really need to work on setting off in time for buses to cut back on the running!!

Tuesday was my first midweek day off, and I really didn't do that much until the evening when me and Beth went for our first evening babysitting. Beth was looking after the 9 year old girl and I the 3 year old boy, Elouan. He's adorable, although when his dad first left and we had to walk the rest of the way home from school, he didn't seem very happy at being left with me, who he'd only met once before. He hung his head and was silent for the whole journey, even though I tried to talk to him several times! Thankfully, when we got home, he came round when I said we could so a jigsaw together, and after that he wouldn't shut up! And, at one point, I got him to count to 7 in English and say 'I've finished' so not a bad evening!
The next day I was babysitting again, and met the baby of the family, Gabriel, who is around 1. He is so cute, even if he did sleep for most of the day!

On friday night we had a kind of night out, starting at Jess's for drinks and numerous drinking games (with handmade cards!), and then we headed out to the Galway (as usual). We only stayed for a bit though and then decided to go to the takeaway where I had my first portion of chips in around 3 weeks...YUM! We then battled the long walk home in the pouring rain, I managed to only slip once, which isn't bad for me!

Today we took a trip to Oloron to see the assistants who live there, which was good. The whole town smells of chocolate because of the lindt factory there, it's amazing! So after stocking up on chocolate we went for some pizza (we do a lot of food orientated things here!), and then back to Becky and Lara's flat, which is really nice! So jealous of everyone who has nice flats with working kitchen appliances!
We then caught the train home, and some of the others are now out again, but I decided to stay in as I don't feel amazing as I'm full of cold, so now here I am spending my Saturday night in bed writing my blog, exciting life I know!

I can't believe how quickly the weeks fly by here, only one more working week until the Toussaint holidays, where we get 2 weeks off, wahoo! Definitely one plus of teaching in France, they get a lot of school holidays!

Bonne soirée xx

At the Galway, our new local

Me and Anna

Of course there was a strike

Dancing in the city centre

With some of the girls

Delicious pizza!

 

3 weeks in!

As of tomorrow I'll have been in France for 3 weeks. It's strange as I feel like I've been here so much longer, but I think that's just because I'm settling in. Also as of tomorrow it will be 3 weeks until Adam comes to see me, so halfway there, can't wait!

This week hasn't been that eventful, I worked, which was good, planned and taught my own lesson with very basic handmade resources, went down surprisingly well to say I thought it was pretty boring! And on tuesday evening me Abbi and Beth went to see a family about doing some babysitting/English tutoring. The family were adorable, kids aged 1,3,7, and 10, and they'd lived in Scotland for 5 years, only returning to France last year, so they're wanting help with keeping up the kid's English. Their house was amazing, pool in the back garden and everything! So I'm really looking forward to starting to work with them on tuesday.

Also, I visited my third school for the first time on Friday. It's a nice school, a bit more modern than the others (actually have whiteboards instead of chalkboards!!) and it's right next to some sort of farm so you can watch chickens wonder round in a field whilst teaching!The teacher there is lovely too, actually had English lessons planned and seems to enjoy teaching it. She also said that if I ever want to try teaching the whole class I could, but if not, I didn't have to, which was nice of her. The class worked well, we effectively did the same lesson twice as the class is split in 2 and half go out to work on the computers while the others do English, then they swap, which is good as it means the groups are a lot smaller. 

On friday evening we went to see Taken 2 at the cinema, dubbed in French of course! Don't think it was quite the same effect in French but managed to understand most of it hurray! Then on saturday a few of us took a trip to Lourdes. It was nice, a lot of pretty buildings and churches, but also a lot of sick people making the pilgrimmage there, which was quite sad to see. Realised just how unfit I am when after walking up and down a spiralling staircase my legs were trembling and aching! Granted it was pretty steep!

Having a drink in 'Le Garage'

Friends at the top of the castle in Lourdes

Then in the evening we had a night out, 'pregamed', (as we now call predrinking thanks to our American friends), in the kitchen, which was really fun, and resulted in us all being just a little bit (ok maybe more than a little bit) tipsy for the bus ride to town. The rest of the night was great, me and Beth could finally apprectiate the Europpean music after learning 'Ai se eu te pego' beforehand. apparently it was a massive hit in the summer but neither of us had heard of it before last week! Definitely a new favourite now though!!

The killer spiral staircase!

Today is defnitely a chill day, with a dominoes planned for later!! (Yesssss), I've been wanting one since I got here as we pass it every day on the way in to town! Other than that, I guess I'll catch up on my sleep ready for work tomorrow! So nothing too exciting today!

Lourdes

The funiculaire from town to the train station

xx

Le weekend

So this weekend's been pretty good. Started for me at around 11 on friday, after a short meeting with Christelle. Usually my work hours on a friday are 9-10:30 anyway, so after an early start, I have the rest of the day off, which is good.

I spent most of friday just chilling, and then in the evening I ate crepes with the flatmates, made by our French flatmate and his friends, yumm! After that, we had a night out, so after a some quick predrinks, we caught the bus to our new local, the galway. It was a good night, and we'd assured ourselves that even though we didn't get home until after 4:30 we'd still be up at 9 to catch a train to Biarritz for our day at the seaside. Obviously, this didn't happen!! So what was meant to be a day lounging on the beach turned out to be a pretty uneventful day sleeping! Although we did go for a Mexican meal in the evening which was delicious!

Today we went to see our first French movie. OK, I'll admit it was a kids animated film, but hey that still counts as taking in the language right?! Anyway, the plot was pretty random but did make us laugh so it's all good! And I managed to understand most of it which is them main thing!

Tonight I'm going to chill ready for a busy week at work (I say busy, I'm working tomorrow and then have another 2 days off, so hardly busy!), as I have an early start in the morning

The school I work at in Artigueloutan

Beautiful day at the park

The casino

Place Clemenceau

Bisous xxx

First day at work!

Today was my first day working as an English language assistant in primary schools. I arrived at my first school a little early at 8:40am (without getting lost yey!), and asked to see the directrice (head teacher). However, she told me they weren't actually expecting me this morning!! Strange seen as though I was told I had to start today. She seemed a bit unsure what to do with me, as she said the staff weren't expecting me and therefore they hadn't planned anything, so I explained I was happy to observe just to get a feel for the school and the teaching methods. The first lesson, with a very nice lady called Anne, was very successful, the children were 8 and 9 years old and worked on introductions, and I helped them with their pronunciation. It seems it's very hard to pronounce Kirsty in French, so I had various different names in the classroom. Although, according to my friends here, I don't pronounce my name properly anyway, so it's difficult to tell who's in the wrong!

The second lesson, with Michelle, was slightly more...interesting. Basically, she said I should just teach them whatever, and left me to teach some 6 and 7 year olds who barely spoke a word of english the days of the week. I had no planning, no resources, just my voice. It was probably a very boring lesson for the children, but I was quite proud that I managed to get through that half an hour without having a panic attack!!

The afternoon session was in a different school, in a small village called Artigueloutan (it took me a few days to learn how to pronounce that, but I'm just about there). It's a fair bus ride away from Pau, and I arrived 45 minutes early due to the stupid timings of the bus, but the directeur assured me 'ce n'est pas grave' and showed me to the classroom of the lady I'll be working with. So now, each Monday and Thursday, instead of sitting waiting to start teaching for 45 minutes, I get to work with the kids for a bit longer - suits me. Again, this lady was very lovely, and basically had the kids interview me in English, and they created a mini biography on me. It was interesting, especially when I got asked 'Are you a boy or a girl'! In this school, there's only one English teacher, so all the classes come to her for English, which is pretty cool. I saw a class full of 4 year old French kids, so cute!

So I survived my first day, and I think that's the hardest part over. I still have one other school that I haven't been to yet, and my first day there won't be until next friday, as this friday I have to attend a meeting instead of working. So after that, I think it'll be easy to settle in to a routine and get to know the children and teachers.

Other than working, I've been wondering around the city with the other assistants, enjoying the beautiful weather - for the last few days it's been really hot and sunnny, I even got burnt in the parc yesterday! I had my first bug epidemic last night when some giant creature decided to take residence on my ceiling, but luckily my lovely flatmate Abbi saved my life and disposed of it for me! Let's hope there's not too many more of them!

Looking forward to the weekend, a night out tomorrow and a possible trip to the seaside on saturday!
 A bientôt!xx

Arrived in France

So I arrived in France on Monday aftermoon, after a not so bad flight form London City airport. I flew with 2 other assistants, and we were met at Pau airport by a lovely lady named Christelle. Basically she's been doing everything she can for us since we arrived. She drove us to our flat, helped with the paperwork, even took us shopping!

The flats pretty basic but ok, feel like I'm settling in so that's good. Only downside is there's not oven, just 4 barely working hobs and a microwave. Don't think I'll be getting many nutritious meals while I'm here! Although there is a Dominos near by, so I may be calling them a little too often...

 My clumsy nature surfaced only minutes after arriving, I managed to whack my head on the car boot, resulting in an attractive lump on my head which had now thankfully disappeared! And since then I've amused people with my constant tripping up, which is nothing new I guess!

The week has been pretty good, I've had the typical French croissants, crepes and baguettes, and had a good night out last night with a few too many malibus. The 50 minute walk home sobered me up though, as the apparently 24 hour taxi rank decided not to answer their phone, so we were left with no other means of getting home!

Asides from the 4 other English assistants I'm living with, (2 English, 2 American), I've met another English assistant who actually goes to my uni, never met her before though, and her Spanish flatmate. Also a Canadian assistant who lives in a nearby town met up with us yesterday which was nice. There's also other assistants and friends of them etc who I've met, and everyone seems really nice, which is good :).

The mountains are so pretty and in fact so is the whole city. We've spent alot of time exploring, doing jobs such as opening a bank account and getting a bus pass inbetween. It was exciting to recieve my first post this morning, containing my new bank card, even if when the post lady rang me up before hand I thought she was telling me she was coming to clean my toilet! God knows how I thought that, but anyway, a few minutes later she knocked on my door and handed me my post, so lets hope she didn't realise my error!!

Today's been a very lazy day, which was much needed after the tiring week and late night last night. Overall, Pau is great, I miss everyone, but it's such an adventure :) xx

Welcome!

Hi, welcome to my blog! As this is my first post I'll explain a little about my self and why I've decided to start a blog.

I'm Kirsty, I'm 20 years old and a student of French and linguistics at the university of Leeds. I'm about to start my third year - which for language students is a year abroad. I'll be spending my time abroad as an English language assisstant in a primary school in a city in south-west France, Pau. I will be leaving England in 3 weeks to get settled in before my work contract starts, so I thought now is the ideal time to start my blog, as I can include my preparations as well as my time spent in France. I'm really excited about spending 7 months in France, as I love travelling and can't wait to experience the French culture. But, (there's always a but isn't there?!) it will be hard leaving my family, friends and boyfriend behind. But I will have to get past this, and make the most of this amazing oppertunity!

So, I fly to Pau airport on 24th September, and from then on I'll be staying in some halls at the university in Pau, which should be good as I'll get to meet lots of people my age. However, I'm not sure what it'll be like sharing a kitchen with 20 others! Thank God I've got an en-suite! Once I get there I've got over a week until the training day for language assisstants, so I'll have plenty of time to set up a French bank account, the internet, a phone, and do some exploring!

I'll leave you with a link to some information on Pau, and a couple of pictures, as I'm going to get ready now, I'm seeing Michael Mcintyre tonight, can't wait!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pau,_Pyr%C3%A9n%C3%A9es-Atlantiques