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