Okay so it’s been a few weeks since I last updated my blog,
but that’s because so much has happened that I’ve barely had a second to take
it all in! Well, that and the fact that all the crappy TV I watch obviously
takes precedence over writing about my life. So, I’ll do my best to compress
the events of the last three weeks in just a short few paragraphs…
My first days at school were supposed to be centred primarily
around observation, to get a feel for the level of ability and maybe even to
get to know a few names before I started teaching myself. But within only my
second hour, I found myself with a class of 10-15 pupils, prompting them to ask
me questions about my life, but even the initial idea sent a shock to the
system – what if they don’t understand me?; what if they run out of things to
say?; or even worse, what if they don’t say anything at all? Although I faced
all of the aforementioned problems within the first lesson, I handled it well,
and as the week progressed and I’d exhausted the story of my life, the teaching
environment began to feel incredibly natural to me. I’ve already learned a lot
about my own history through their European classes; taught a lot of lessons of
my own, on topics of my choice; and discovered some of the English stereotypes -
apparently we’re badly dressed with a weird sense of humour and terrible food;
but we like our tea, red buses and fish and chips … they’re half right I guess?
Also on the point of lessons, it seemed never to occur to me that lessons equal
planning, which equals work in my own time – this was this the biggest revelation,
and has so far resulted in some stressful, last-minute attempts the night
before each class. I guess I’m still a little stuck in my uni ways after all.
The main reason for not having updated my blog is actually
because a few weeks ago I was reintroduced to something called a social life,
and it in fact came about in rather a strange way. I was sitting at the bus
stop after having a bit of a fail of a day in Lyon with Fran (I had to pay for
my train tickets twice, we spent most of the day being very lost, and then made
our last trains home with only seconds to spare), and I was reading on my
kindle when this girl who had just sat on the bench next to me started a
conversation, intrigued by the fact I was reading in English. I told her about
my situation and that I was struggling to get to know people in my area, and
she told me about the assistants at her school, a forty minute bus journey
away. Many ‘YAY’s later, I gave her my details, and within a few days I got a
call from the English assistant. I met up with him and the other assistants
from Spain, Italy, China and Germany on the Friday and spent the whole weekend
with them which was great! For once, I wasn’t spending time in my room just
reading, watching tele or begging people for skype sessions. It’s strange how
life works sometimes! My next mission
was to catch up on the weeks without alcohol, which I did successfully on the
Saturday night in the form of many tequila shots and vodka lemonades (which is
actually just a drop of lemonade and crap loads of vodka). I ended up chatting
to this French girl outside (how I got from dancing to that is still unknown to
me) and she invited me and my friend back to her house with a few other people,
where we sat chatting and drinking even more til 6am. Unfortunately, there was
a tomorrow, and I definitely paid for it. I'm not proud of having to TC at 10
at night, and having to pass on an invitation to a teacher’s house for dinner.
Not my finest hour to say the least.
After almost a month of living here I’ve found myself assimilating
pretty well. I’ve even adopted some of the French ways: drinking hot chocolate
out of a bowl (which makes so much sense – you can fit in way more than in a
mug!!); drinking black coffee, which I would have once regarded as sacrilege;
and finally eating a mini five course meal at lunch – a bit of salad, bread,
small main meal, yoghurt and fruit fills you up for so much longer than one
huge meal and it stops you from wanting to snack. You rarely find an overweight
French person! I’ve also been paid one of the biggest compliments I could ask
for – apparently my French has already improved loads in the last few weeks!
Again, a ‘yay’ probably wasn’t the most normal response, but who cares?! I
still haven’t got my head round the obsession with shops only being open
Tuesday-Saturday, but being closed between 12 and 2 every day, and I’m still in
search of a restaurant that will feed me snails and frogs legs (when in
France!), but all in all, things are running very smoothly right now. I’ve
managed to get some photos up on Facebook for anyone that hasn’t already seen,
and it’ll be another few weeks until I do my next blog as I’m back in England
on Friday for two weeks (yay!).
