I really loved getting properly stuck into teaching last week :) and looking forward to more this week. It’s still at the stage where I’m a bit of a novelty, and apparently the kids are always asking when I’m coming to their class; bless them! We’ll see how long it lasts! I’ve been asked to prepare a lesson on Ireland for the quatrième classes as there’s a section on Ireland in their textbook. It’s actually so hilarious how stereotypical they are with different nationalities in the textbooks. Basically you aren’t Irish unless you wear green and drink Guinness, you aren’t French unless you eat cheese with baguette and drink wine and you aren’t German unless you wear lederhosen and eat bratwurst. It’s brilliant! Plus obviously the Irish character in the textbook is called ‘Patrick O’Neill’ haha.
My social life is slowly coming into existence. One of the ladies I met at church last Sunday, the English one has been so lovely. She’s called Christine. I met up with her and her 2 girls a couple of times for lunch/after school. I feel like I’ve known her way longer than a week! The girls are so cute and hilarious :) One of the English teachers told me to come round to her house anytime I wanted, so on Thursday night I decided to pop round and say hello. Turns out she was waiting for friends to arrive before having a few drinks and then going out for dinner, she pretty much insisted that I stay and join them. It was really nice, and they were so friendly, although it was difficult to keep up with their very fast French conversations – good practise!
Then on Friday I trained-it to Arras to visit Sarah, and managed to narrowly miss the effects of a train strike (standard France) so made it there for mid-afternoon. It was so lovely to see her, going for 3 weeks without seeing a familiar face (in real life!) is quite long! And I also got my first hug in 3 weeks, since I hugged Dad at the airport. For those of you who know me; all of you, I hope, will know how painful this was for me.. I love hugs and the French just don’t really do them. I’m pretty sure that’s the longest I’ve ever gone without being hugged! All is right now though, never fear! We did lots of browsing around shops, lots of eating, some sightseeing, some beer-drinking (haha) and lots of talking.. it was wonderful. I got back on Saturday night, so went to church again on Sunday.. There were more people there this week and I got to meet the Pastor and his wife and another English couple. It was really nice going back, having already met people the previous week.. I love them all already! I stayed for lunch again and chatted to lots of people in a mixture of French and English, but mostly French. After lunch I ended up going for a walk with Christine and the girls along to harbour and to the beach, it was a bit windy, but good to get some fresh air :) When I got home I had a bit of a faff with banks and sorting money – this is one of the things I hate about being grown up! I think I managed to get it sorted though, and by tomorrow, might actually have some money in my French account – WIN. I just realised earlier how cool the church here is.. I'm used to being surrounded by other students and people my own age at G2, so it's so good for me to have this opportunity to be part of a very different church and spend time with old, wise people :) There are also lots of French grannies who I have adopted and are so cute, I practise my French with them lots :) The family of God is such an amazing thing!
Don’t think I have much else to report at the minute, got quite a busy week this week and quite a few lessons to plan so that’ll keep me occupied! I’m going for dinner at one of the English teacher’s house on Thursday night, which I’m really looking forward to. Less than 2 weeks now until les vacances de Toussaint.. very exciting times!
À Bientôt mes amis J
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