On Friday morning, I went straight from work to catch a train to Bordeaux. One thing to say about work before I move on to the weekend. We're now doing what do you eat for breakfast? And at this school, as in another, the teacher asked me what I ate for breakfast, and was very shocked when I replied with cereal and milk. Now I know England is well know for our big English breakfast, but do people really think we eat a fry up every morning?! Well the answer is yes, as that's exactly what both teachers have said to me, but I have tried to explain that it isn't a daily ritual for most people, and we sometimes eat them on a weekend or just when we fancy it. To be honest I can't even remember the last time I had a full English breakfast!
Anyway, The train journey was un eventful, and I arrived on time to get the bus to the airport to meet Adam. His flight had been delayed an hour - just what we needed when he was only visiting for 2 days right? But it didn't affect us too much, it just meant we missed a bus and had to wait 45 minutes for another one! Oh well!
We had a lovely weekend catching up and wondering round Bordeaux. I spent far too much money shopping, and we also went bowling to get out of the cold, which was fun.
All too soon it rolled around to Sunday morning and we had to leave the hotel quite early so that we could get breakfast before the bus to the airport. Originally I was meant to get a train at the same time as Adam got the bus, but I decided to swap my train and take him back to the airport!
I had to restrain myself from buying a ticket and getting on the plane back with him haha!
I'm now on the train back to good old Pau. It's only 4 weeks until Adam comes to Pau for the week, I'm really looking forward to that.
A plus
Xx
Monday, 4 February 2013
So last week didn't go quite as planned for several reasons:
1) CAF did not get sorted as apparently we are classed as students who work because of our MGEN social security, and they've never seen this before so don't know if we qualify. This must be a lie as other assistants have received money and definitely have been doing for years. French bureaucracy you are a frigging nightmare.
2) I came down with an Awful stomach bug on Thursday night which mean I a) had to phone in sick on Friday b) missed a birthday party on Saturday and c) couldn't go skiing on Sunday. I definitely had a miserable weekend and felt shocking. I think that's the most I've ever missed home, there's nothing worse that being poorly and stuck alone in a 10m square room for 3 days. Thankfully my friends were lovely and brought me various things to help me recover.
Luckily by Sunday afternoon I was feeling much better, and by Monday I was back to 100%, only to start with the sniffles and a cough later the same day. Seriously, I always have something wrong with me!
Monday has been my only day at work this week as Thursday lessons were cancelled due to a teachers strike, the government want to introduce school on Wednesdays for primary school in France (they normally have the day off) and the teachers aren't happy about this!
I haven't really done much with my free days this week, other than mooch around Pau in the sunshine, it was 18 degrees on Wednesday, in January, I couldn't believe it! Makes a change from the rain and cold, though I don't think it will last.
Tonight we went to the Zumba class that one of the teachers recommended for the second time. It was so much fun. It reminds me of the class I used to go to at home, and it's a smallish group of friendly women. I love all the Spanish songs, makes me feel very upbeat and lively!
Tomorrow I have work in the morning, and then I'm heading straight to the train station to catch my train to Bordeaux. I'm excited for the weekend, it's going to be fun.
I've also decided I need to start doing more french related things, as I feel , my comprehension has improved a lot but my speaking and reading skills are still not amazing. So I've borrowed Harry potter in French from abbi and I've started reading that. I've got to start somewhere, and reading a book that I enjoy and know well is good motivation.
After a bad weekend I've had a really positive week, and I'm looking forward to the weeks to come :)
Bises
1) CAF did not get sorted as apparently we are classed as students who work because of our MGEN social security, and they've never seen this before so don't know if we qualify. This must be a lie as other assistants have received money and definitely have been doing for years. French bureaucracy you are a frigging nightmare.
2) I came down with an Awful stomach bug on Thursday night which mean I a) had to phone in sick on Friday b) missed a birthday party on Saturday and c) couldn't go skiing on Sunday. I definitely had a miserable weekend and felt shocking. I think that's the most I've ever missed home, there's nothing worse that being poorly and stuck alone in a 10m square room for 3 days. Thankfully my friends were lovely and brought me various things to help me recover.
Luckily by Sunday afternoon I was feeling much better, and by Monday I was back to 100%, only to start with the sniffles and a cough later the same day. Seriously, I always have something wrong with me!
Monday has been my only day at work this week as Thursday lessons were cancelled due to a teachers strike, the government want to introduce school on Wednesdays for primary school in France (they normally have the day off) and the teachers aren't happy about this!
I haven't really done much with my free days this week, other than mooch around Pau in the sunshine, it was 18 degrees on Wednesday, in January, I couldn't believe it! Makes a change from the rain and cold, though I don't think it will last.
Tonight we went to the Zumba class that one of the teachers recommended for the second time. It was so much fun. It reminds me of the class I used to go to at home, and it's a smallish group of friendly women. I love all the Spanish songs, makes me feel very upbeat and lively!
Tomorrow I have work in the morning, and then I'm heading straight to the train station to catch my train to Bordeaux. I'm excited for the weekend, it's going to be fun.
I've also decided I need to start doing more french related things, as I feel , my comprehension has improved a lot but my speaking and reading skills are still not amazing. So I've borrowed Harry potter in French from abbi and I've started reading that. I've got to start somewhere, and reading a book that I enjoy and know well is good motivation.
After a bad weekend I've had a really positive week, and I'm looking forward to the weeks to come :)
Bises
Tuesday, 22 January 2013
Il pleut toujours
I'm very jealous that whilst England and northern France have been covered by a layer of snow in the past few days, here in south west France we've had nothing but rain, rain and more rain, and it looks like its going to carry on like that for the rest of the week.
Other than the rain, things are good here, the weekend went by so fast as usual, we had a night out Saturday as Harriet's last night before she moves to Spain. It was good fun, except getting drenched when walking to the bar, and as it was very windy too my umbrella is now broken :(.
Me and Jess also went to an aquarium with a sealion show, which was great! And then we met the others at the cinema to see django unchained, which was really good.
Monday at work went quite well, and today I'm going to try and sort CAF out once and for all by taking in all the new documents they've asked for. I'm not holding out for much though, I'll have left by the time they actually decide to give me any money.
We're going skiing again this weekend, woo! And next weekend I'm going to meet Adam n Bordeaux, can't wait to see him!
It's weird to think this is only my third week back, it seems to have been forever. What's even more weird is that individual days go so fast, yet the weeks seem to last forever!
I'm not wishing my time away or anything, but I've got so much to look forward to in February and march that January is seeming to take forever. Everyone knows that January is a rubbish month anyway! In February I've got a weekend with Adam, my sister and her boyfriend visiting for 5 days and hopefully a trip to Toulouse with the girls. March is school holidays, which will be another visit from Adam and Milan with the girls. So much to look forward to, woooo!
Missing everyone back home, see you all soon
Kirsty :) xxx
Other than the rain, things are good here, the weekend went by so fast as usual, we had a night out Saturday as Harriet's last night before she moves to Spain. It was good fun, except getting drenched when walking to the bar, and as it was very windy too my umbrella is now broken :(.
Me and Jess also went to an aquarium with a sealion show, which was great! And then we met the others at the cinema to see django unchained, which was really good.
Monday at work went quite well, and today I'm going to try and sort CAF out once and for all by taking in all the new documents they've asked for. I'm not holding out for much though, I'll have left by the time they actually decide to give me any money.
We're going skiing again this weekend, woo! And next weekend I'm going to meet Adam n Bordeaux, can't wait to see him!
It's weird to think this is only my third week back, it seems to have been forever. What's even more weird is that individual days go so fast, yet the weeks seem to last forever!
I'm not wishing my time away or anything, but I've got so much to look forward to in February and march that January is seeming to take forever. Everyone knows that January is a rubbish month anyway! In February I've got a weekend with Adam, my sister and her boyfriend visiting for 5 days and hopefully a trip to Toulouse with the girls. March is school holidays, which will be another visit from Adam and Milan with the girls. So much to look forward to, woooo!
Missing everyone back home, see you all soon
Kirsty :) xxx
Monday, 14 January 2013
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Faire le ski
Just thought I'd update to let you know I went skiing yesterday and had an amazing time!!!
It was the first time I'd been proper skiing, as I've had a couple of lessons at an indoor snow slope in England but never been on the real slopes before! So needless to say I wasn't amazing at it and fell over many times, resulting in many bruises and aches muscles this morning, but I can't wait to do it all over again! I think (or hope) that in time I will improve, I don't think I did too bad to say it was my first time!
There was one particularly scary fall where my friends had gone a little ahead and I fell down a small banking. It took me ages to get back up and sort my skis out, and I was panicking because I couldn't see them. They were waiting for me of course, but just round the corner out of my vision! I'm thankful they were so patient with me as most of them are pretty good at skiing already!
We plan to go skiing as often as we can while we're here, it's only just over am hour away to the Gourette resort by coach, so we might as well make the most of it!
Last night I was feeling ill, as a cold mixed with a day spent in the snow is not so good! So I had an early night while the others went to a party. Today I felt a lot better but I'm still suffering with a bad cough! We went round to Anna's and watched she's the man, a great film! It always reminds me of when I used to play football and its so true that the boys always used to think girls could never be food at it. Definitely a subject I can relate with! Also makes me wish I still played, maybe ill join a team when I get back to England, I definitely think I could get back in to it with a bit of practice!
Xx
It was the first time I'd been proper skiing, as I've had a couple of lessons at an indoor snow slope in England but never been on the real slopes before! So needless to say I wasn't amazing at it and fell over many times, resulting in many bruises and aches muscles this morning, but I can't wait to do it all over again! I think (or hope) that in time I will improve, I don't think I did too bad to say it was my first time!
There was one particularly scary fall where my friends had gone a little ahead and I fell down a small banking. It took me ages to get back up and sort my skis out, and I was panicking because I couldn't see them. They were waiting for me of course, but just round the corner out of my vision! I'm thankful they were so patient with me as most of them are pretty good at skiing already!
We plan to go skiing as often as we can while we're here, it's only just over am hour away to the Gourette resort by coach, so we might as well make the most of it!
Last night I was feeling ill, as a cold mixed with a day spent in the snow is not so good! So I had an early night while the others went to a party. Today I felt a lot better but I'm still suffering with a bad cough! We went round to Anna's and watched she's the man, a great film! It always reminds me of when I used to play football and its so true that the boys always used to think girls could never be food at it. Definitely a subject I can relate with! Also makes me wish I still played, maybe ill join a team when I get back to England, I definitely think I could get back in to it with a bit of practice!
Xx
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Back to Pau and back to work...
I realise it's been a while since I posted here, but I've been really busy over the Christmas holidays!
I travelled home with Anna on the 21st December, and I have to say, there were some points when I wasn't sure if we'd make it home, and no, not because of the world ending, but because of a few mishaps with public transport! Firstly, Anna tried to get on the wrong train, then we thought our train was delayed by 40 minutes and we would miss our flight (luckily we had misheard and it was the later Toulouse train that was delayed - phew!) and finally we had an hour delay when we eventually arrived at the airport. To make matters worse, when we finally arrived in Gatwick, we had to wait at least half an hour for the bags!! But, by then, I think we were so happy to be back in England that we weren't too bothered about this (didn't stop me moaning about it though!).
Adam was there to meet me at the airport, it was so good to see him :), and after saying bye to Anna we went to find his car. Half an hour later, we found it, after looking on just about every floor as Adam had forgotten the colour, floor and letter of the car park where he'd parked, silly him! We then stayed in a hotel near the airport and travelled back up north the following day, calling to do some stressful last minute xmas shopping on the way!
I spent the next few days catching up with family and friends, spent the majority of Christmas eve baking with Lizzie which was great fun, and the chocolate fudge cake was delicious!! I then spent Christmas day with family and part of it with Adam's family too. I got lots of lovely gifts ( thanks everyone!), alot of which I tried to fit in my suitcase back to France, which resulted in me returning with a bigger case than I came home with (oops!).
I spent a couple of days in Manchester with Adam between Christmas and new year, which was good, I went ice skating again (3 times in 3 weeks I think I have an obsession!), and tried to do some sale shopping, but it was way too busy! I also went to Leeds and had a good catch up with my friend Justine, which was lovely. New years eve we went for a lovely Indian meal, and then to a gathering at one of Adam's friend's. I taught everyone the flip cup drinking game that the American assistants taught us, and it went down rather well :D.
After new year, it was getting closer and closer to the day I had to return to France. By the time saturday came and I had to travel back down to London for my flight the next morning, I had really mixed emotions about coming back. I was really sad to leave, but I guess this was to be expected, but I was looking forward to seeing my friends in France too. Leaving Adam at the airport wasn't too bad as I had Beth and Anna waiting for me at the airport. If I'd have been flying back alone I think it would have been much worse.
After a long day travelling we finally arrived back in Pau.
Yesterday was my first day back at work, and I have to say, it went better than I thought it would. Except for nearly being left stranded in Artiguelouton, the tiny village where I teach, as the bus drove straight past me. Now, the buses are only every hour, and I'd been waiting 40 minutes for this one, so I went into panic mode when I saw it drive past, and started running, waving my arms and shouting "Attendez!!" at the top of my voice! Luckily, it stopped just down the road and it turns out the driver needed the loo and so stopped outside a building where she could use the toilet. So I was left feeling very silly but glad I wouldn;t be stuck in the cold for another hour! That's another thing - it's freezing here now! Colder than England! Typical that I went home when the weather was warm (20 degrees Xmas day according to my teacher!) and return to the freezing temperatures!
There's 8 weeks of teaching until the next holidays, which seems like ages, but I'm sure it'll fly by, and I'm going to try and make the most of my time here, as before I know it it'll be time to go home.
I'll try and update my blog more often so that I don't have to do long rambling ones like this!
xxx
I travelled home with Anna on the 21st December, and I have to say, there were some points when I wasn't sure if we'd make it home, and no, not because of the world ending, but because of a few mishaps with public transport! Firstly, Anna tried to get on the wrong train, then we thought our train was delayed by 40 minutes and we would miss our flight (luckily we had misheard and it was the later Toulouse train that was delayed - phew!) and finally we had an hour delay when we eventually arrived at the airport. To make matters worse, when we finally arrived in Gatwick, we had to wait at least half an hour for the bags!! But, by then, I think we were so happy to be back in England that we weren't too bothered about this (didn't stop me moaning about it though!).
Adam was there to meet me at the airport, it was so good to see him :), and after saying bye to Anna we went to find his car. Half an hour later, we found it, after looking on just about every floor as Adam had forgotten the colour, floor and letter of the car park where he'd parked, silly him! We then stayed in a hotel near the airport and travelled back up north the following day, calling to do some stressful last minute xmas shopping on the way!
I spent the next few days catching up with family and friends, spent the majority of Christmas eve baking with Lizzie which was great fun, and the chocolate fudge cake was delicious!! I then spent Christmas day with family and part of it with Adam's family too. I got lots of lovely gifts ( thanks everyone!), alot of which I tried to fit in my suitcase back to France, which resulted in me returning with a bigger case than I came home with (oops!).
I spent a couple of days in Manchester with Adam between Christmas and new year, which was good, I went ice skating again (3 times in 3 weeks I think I have an obsession!), and tried to do some sale shopping, but it was way too busy! I also went to Leeds and had a good catch up with my friend Justine, which was lovely. New years eve we went for a lovely Indian meal, and then to a gathering at one of Adam's friend's. I taught everyone the flip cup drinking game that the American assistants taught us, and it went down rather well :D.
After new year, it was getting closer and closer to the day I had to return to France. By the time saturday came and I had to travel back down to London for my flight the next morning, I had really mixed emotions about coming back. I was really sad to leave, but I guess this was to be expected, but I was looking forward to seeing my friends in France too. Leaving Adam at the airport wasn't too bad as I had Beth and Anna waiting for me at the airport. If I'd have been flying back alone I think it would have been much worse.
After a long day travelling we finally arrived back in Pau.
Yesterday was my first day back at work, and I have to say, it went better than I thought it would. Except for nearly being left stranded in Artiguelouton, the tiny village where I teach, as the bus drove straight past me. Now, the buses are only every hour, and I'd been waiting 40 minutes for this one, so I went into panic mode when I saw it drive past, and started running, waving my arms and shouting "Attendez!!" at the top of my voice! Luckily, it stopped just down the road and it turns out the driver needed the loo and so stopped outside a building where she could use the toilet. So I was left feeling very silly but glad I wouldn;t be stuck in the cold for another hour! That's another thing - it's freezing here now! Colder than England! Typical that I went home when the weather was warm (20 degrees Xmas day according to my teacher!) and return to the freezing temperatures!
There's 8 weeks of teaching until the next holidays, which seems like ages, but I'm sure it'll fly by, and I'm going to try and make the most of my time here, as before I know it it'll be time to go home.
I'll try and update my blog more often so that I don't have to do long rambling ones like this!
xxx
Thursday, 13 December 2012
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
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
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| Christmas market in Bayonne |
 |
| It was very foggy when we first arrived in Bayonne |
 |
| Xmas tree cut in half! |
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| Thankfully the fog cleared up |
 |
| Pretty Christmas lights |
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| Donkeys in Pau! |
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