Blog time no see

Yet again, I've slipped slightly off the bandwagon with this blogging business, and as I'm on my way back to England again for the penultimate time, there's rather a big gap to fill. As ever though, I shall do my best to be brief.

For those of you that speak to me on a more regular basis, you may know that the first few months here weren't the easiest. The location, combined with poor public transport, and an average population age of about 60 made it a little hard to assimilate. But this time round has definitely been the busiest and best so far. I became the token English at the local badminton club that runs every Tuesday, and have been adopted by a few French families, as well as the standard weekly trips to Lyon, which has all kept me fairly busy. Oh and I sometimes do a bit of work here and there...

So yeah, la vie est belle en France at the moment which has taken my mind off missing friends and family and all the home comforts. I do have one complaint, however. The emerging of a social life has meant that I've been put in rather awkward situations on a regular basis. Why? Two words: European kisses. I had one particularly awkward incident with a teacher in the staffroom a few weeks ago, who came to greet me in said way. As he leaned in for the kiss, I recoiled a little, completely forgetting, and once I realised and went in for the kiss too, it was too late as he'd already pulled back. This resulted in some kind of pigeon-like head dance which must have looked really strange to anyone else in the room. And then there's the times when neither one of you go quite far enough to touch cheeks, and then overdo it and end up giving each other more of a Scottish kiss than a European one. Even when you're in a group of people, and you don't know all of them, you're expected to do it to each person. I know I'm not socially inept so I'm going to say it's my Englishness which makes me dread this so much. Or just the fact that I always seem to make it incredibly awkward in my forgetfulness. A good old-fashioned 'bonjour' definitely suits me better.

Aside from that, things are definitely running smoothly, and people have been regularly commenting on my good level of French, which is a huge confidence boost as I only have another 6 weeks after the holidays to improve. With that in mind, next term I'm going on the school trip to Greece for 10 days, so English won't be an option. Although I am missing St. Paddy's day celebrations at the expense of this, so I may have to convince the teachers to have a little drink with me on the ferry, or just sneak off and ride solo. So yeah, with that and a potential trip to Montpellier on the cards, I've got a lot to look forward to during my final stint in France - an incredibly surreal concept!

I'll be back in England for the next 2 weeks so I will probably see you most of you around!

À bientôt!

P.S The hunt for snails and frogs legs continues...