Les vacances & other things

I apologise for the delay in posting, but it's been a very busy few weeks!
My sister and her boyfriend visited for a week before the holidays, bringing my mum with them as a nice surprise! It was a lovely week, the weather was beautiful, and apart from having a horrendous cold, I had a great time. We went skiing, (got sunburnt) and finally I got my much awaited trip to the zoo! We ate too much and generally had lots of fun, whilst working a little bit inbetween.It was so nice to see them all.

After my family's visited, there was one week at work before the holidays, and I have never known a week to drag as much in my life! Finally, Friday arrived and in was definitely ready for a 2 week break, although I think my holiday was busier than my general working weeks are!

On Saturday, Adam arrived in Lourdes to visit me for a week. I met him and we missed the Tain back so had to wait 2 hours for the next one, dommage! The trains in France are so peculiar, there can be 2 straight after each other and then not another for hours! No fear though, we sat in a cafe and drank hot chocolate while we waited. We had a lovely week, doing various things such as skiing (didnt get sunburnt), walking around in the beautiful weather, and eating too much (noticed a pattern yet?!) we also went to Kim's for a lovely sunday dinner, and spent 2 days by the sea in Biarritz which was lovely.

Adam flew home on Saturday, and I left for Italy on Sunday. So Saturday evening was spent trying to pack everything I wanted to take into a hand luggage sized suitcase- not easy!
We left sunday morning to catch the train to Toulouse, having to walk to the station since the lazy French bus drivers don't start work until 1pm on Sundays. Sundays in France are a joke!

I won't bore you with every detail of my trip, but I had an amazing time. We spent 2 nights in milan, 2 in Florence and 3 in rome. Florence was my favourite city, it was so pretty, even in the aim. I definitely want to return when it's sunny.
We saw all the typical sights, had a lot of laughs (normally just before we went to sleep when we all seemed to get the giggles) and ate too much (serious pattern emerging now).

Now as always there's always some bad to go with the good, and we did seem to have a lot of bad luck in Italy. However, nothing too major and all things that we look at now and laugh about. To start, we found out we couldn't check in to our first hotel after 9pm. Our plane didnt even land until half 9 so this was definitely a problem. After a stressful day of ringing several different people( thanks abbi), we came to the conclusion that we had nowhere to stay that night, and no refund. Luckily, we managed to stay at the airport ibis, and so weren't homeless for a night!

We also had some bad luck with the hostels. The Florence one was dirty, had a creepy old man running it and just generally wasn't a nice place. In rome, the bunk beds broke (very amusant actually) the room was freezing and probably slightly damp, and at one point someone had to climb out of the window as the lock on the door was dodgey! Anyway, we survived.

In rome, on our first night, we went out for tea slightly later than expected. We met a friend who I go to uni with and had a delicious meal. We then had to rush for the last bus, which, to cut a long story shot, dropped us off 3 miles away from our hostel. (Lesson of the week: just because a bus stops on the same road as your hostel, it doesn't mean it is the right end of the road, in fact, it's probably 3 miles away at the other end of the road.) so, as it was late, and there was a creepy man about, we did the sensible thing and asked the nearest hotel to ring us a taxi. We then waited in the hotel reception for at least half an hour while our taxi took its time to arrive. We were glad to be somewhere safe, but lets just say it seemed a bit dodgey that people were checking in at 1am, in fact, one woman checked in twice...
Anyway, again, we survived and were all fine.

Our next bout of bad luck was less scary, in fact quite funny. I was tucking into a cheesecake at a restaurant, and thought it seemed very dry. I thought it was just the Italian way and was disappointed not to be enjoying my dessert. Abbi, however, was enjoying her chocolate cake until she looked at it properly and saw bits of green in it - mould! Bex also found it in hers, and so it seems my cheesecake wasn't just Italian style, but stale. The waiter was very apologetic and gave us free profiteroles, but lets just say we were put off, eurgh.

All in all, I had a great week with the girls, and returned to France a happy, full up, and tired girl!
I got so used to saying grazie and ciao and si that I actually struggled to speak French when I got back!

The first week back has flown by, and there's now only 5 more weeks of teaching left - scary!

Bye for now xxx

Toulouse, pancakes and carnaval...

Word of the week: louper - To miss/make a mess of something. E.g. 'elle va louper son bus' - she's going to miss her bus.

I've started writing down new words and expressions that I hear, in order to improve my spoken French. I probably should have started doing this a long time ago, but I guess I just thought constantly hearing phrases would ingrain them in my memory. That doesn't seem to be working, so new tactics! I learnt the phrase above when my teacher explained to my class that I had to leave quickly otherwise I would miss my bus. I did know what it meant already, but probably wouldn't ever think to use it. Next time, I'll know what to say!! I think I'll introduce word of the week as a permanent feature of my blog, so if you read my blog regularly you might learn yourself a bit of French!

So, last time I updated you I was about to go on my trip to Toulouse. However, before we left for Toulouse on Friday, we had an amazing lunch with our responsable - Christelle. She invited all of the primary assistants (I say all there's only 6 of us, and Serena couldn't make it, so 5), to her house for lunch. I've been to her house before, but even still I can't get over how lovely it is. We sat round the fire drinking our aperitif (gorgeous jurancon wine), and since I'd been up since 7 and only had a small bowl of cereal I was definitely ready for the 3 course lunch which followed! We had soup, chicken with potatoes and cake with creme anglaise, YUM! We stayed for a while afterwards chatting and then she drove us home so we could get ready for Toulouse.

Toulouse was so much fun. We stayed in Ibis Budget, like in Bordeaux. It's so cheap and pretty decent for the price! After dropping our stuff we went out for dinner, ( Tea for us northerners). Actually, that's just reminded me of a funny moment in school. The children were reading letters, and one of them said 'I eat my tea at 6 o'clock'. They all looked at me really funnily, and the teacher said 'but surely you drink tea, you don't eat it!' So I explained that in fact tea was not only a drink us English folk like to drink, but another word for dinner. They seemed quite baffled by this!

Anyway, I digress, back to Toulouse! We went out for dinner/tea at a lovely Italian restaurant. I had a calzone which I haven't had for ages, and really enjoyed it. We then went back to the hotel to sleep ready for a busy Saturday! On saturday we took in the sights: le jardin des plantes and the Jacobins church. It's all so pretty! We also made a pit stop on the way back to the hotel for hot chocolate!

In the evening we ate at Hippopotamus, an American style restaurant - it was so good, had a gorgeous cocktail and Ben and Jerry's ice cream for dessert!! We then went back to get ready, and then headed out to a bar/club after asking at the hotel where was good to go. The place was ok I guess, but we arrived kind of late so it shut after a while and rather then traipse round in the rain to find somewhere else we decided to head back to the hotel. We headed home at lunch time the next day and arrived in Pau late aftenoon. 
The rest of the day was spent napping/skyping because as you know everything is fermé le dimanche in Pau!

This week has been ok, we had SNOW on Monday!!! I didn't think we'd get to see any here in Pau, so I was undersandably excited. Not as excited as my class however, who decided to jump out of their seats, and run to the window shoutinf 'IL NEIGE!!!' at the top of there lungs. I can understand, they're only 6, but I just couldn't get then under control and since the teacher had left me alone with them it was a bit of a nightmare!

The morning over, I recieved a nice phone call at lunch time telling me my afternoon classes were cancelled, which I was happy about as I didn't want to risk getting stuck in the snow in tiny Artigueloutan! The snow cleared in the afternoon though anyway and was replaced by rain (quelle surprise!) I spent my afternoon in a café (comme d'habitude) with Clem and Anna, and treated myself to some new boots (they were in the sale so it's allowed!)

Tuesday was pancake day (mardi gras), so we all went to Anna's and made pancakes. They were soooooo yummy, and of course I asked for mine well done - so dad if you're reading I hope you're happy!! I actually lost track of how many I ate, that probably says it was too many, but we had a variety of fillings including cheese, golden syrup and the most delicious spread ever, speculos. 
After, we went to the end night of the carnival, and I'm so glad I decided to go as it was so much fun. There was a band playing in a tent and they played such a variety of music, I really enjoyed myself. It's a shame we missed the majority of the carnival being in Toulouse but at least we got to see some of it.

On Wednesday we went to see Les Mis, finally it was released in France! I loved it, and may have shed a tear or two...oops!

On Thursday I had work for most of the day, which was ok, and then in the evening I went to zumba with Abbi.
It was weird not to be going out for a meal/seeing Adam on Valentine's day, but Valentine's day in France is for l'amité (friendship) too, and I'm glad I've got some great friends here to spend my year abroad with :).

My sister and her boyfriend are coming on monday for 5 days, and I'm really excited to see them and show them around Pau!

A+  (This is one of my favourite french abbreviations. It's short for à plus/à plus tard, which means see you later!) xxx

Evidence of the snow in Pau!

Toulouse (pictures stolen as I forgot my camera!)

Me and Jess at the Italian

Me and Anna ready for the night

I haven't done that much this week, but there are a few things to mention I suppose!

On monday I had a really positive lesson with the class that I teach on my own. They're only 6 years old and they often struggle to remember what I've taught them, however this week when I asked them what they remembered, they could actually name some of the rooms in the house in English. I was very impressed!!!
I also drew a house for them to label all the rooms, and they enjoyed doing this but struggled to read my non-cursive handwriting, so I've vowed to try a bit harder to make my handwriting look more like the French's (easier said than done!!). 

On tuesday, I ran my boring errands (renewing bus pass, preparing Thursday's lesson and food shopping) and then went to meet Anna for a drink in town. After, I met Beth to go to babysitting where the kids were actually really sweet and behaved for once!!!
Then in the evening we went to see the silver lining playbook, or happiness therapy as they have renamed it in France (even though is was version originale!). I really enjoyed the film, I miss going to the cinema as at home I would go once a week, and we don't go that often here, but that's because there's generally not many good films out! I'm looking forward to seeing Les Miserables when it finally gets released in France.

Pau looking lovely in the sun

On Wednesday I had a bit of a lie in and then went in to town (again), and had some lunch before babysitting. All I can say about babysitting is it's the easiest 25Euros I've ever earnt! Everyone but the baby went out and he slept all the way through, so I just read my book! We were originally meant to go skiiing on Wednesday but the weather was predicted to be horrible (and it was), so we postponed again! I hope we get to go again soon!

Yesterday evening we baked a cake for Anna's birthday (which is today), which was fun! I also finally bought some hot chocolate and marshmallows and this morning I tested it out - delicious!!

One of my lessons this morning was cancelled, so after planning a lesson for them I didn't get to use it! Annoying, but I'll just do the lesson next week instead. 

I'm looking forward to going to Toulouse at the weekend for Anna/Bex's birthday, and I'll give you an update of what we got up to when I get back!

Me and Adam in Bordeaux

Bises xx

Un weekend à Bordeaux

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

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

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

Skiing pictures!