First week back at school

It's like I've been transported back in time to my school days; there are no more lie-ins, I have to do work (the word tastes sour in my mouth) and I'm no longer prancing around here and there seeing my friends and doing whatever I like...
Nonetheless, it was nice to see the bright-eyed bundles of joy that are (at least some of) my pupils.

View from my new room. Actual room is too
 messy to publicly display. Note shutters!!

My most interesting lessons which I gave this week were on writing Lonely Hearts ads. The aim of this was to get the pupils to use all the personality words I had slaved over teaching them before the holidays.
Highlight: one truly moving annonce by a girl about how she wanted to find someone who loved her for who she was (my heart did melt a little).
Low point: most of the boys saying 'I want to find a beautiful girl'. Both because of the lack of personality description, and the maverick in me that thinks relationships should be based on personality first, and looks second.

I'm not going to bore you with the other lessons. Because they're, well, a bit boring.

My greatest achievement of the week was doing my first proper food shop, and putting my purchases on my very own shelf in the cupboard of my very own house! I hope I don't sound like too much of a loser for saying this, because what it actually betrays about my character is how inordinately lazy I truly am. I starved for 24 hours from Saturday late afternoon through almost all of Sunday on an apple and a satsuma because I wouldn't go to the shops because I was wallowing in my own lethargy. Albeit, when I did try and go the shops, they were closed because it was Sunday so I had to go into town to the only boulangerie which is open on a Sunday and I stuffed my face with carbs.

Thus, here is the saga of my accomplishment: on Monday, I walked the whole 200m to the supermarché (I know, right? How excessive) whereupon I began to wander aimlessly along the aisles, looking for brands which weren't there, and struggling to comprehend the images found on the available packages of food. A few observations were to be made from my excursion:

Pourquoi?

* what the heck is the obsession with tinned vegetables?? It is completely unnecessary - the supermarket has a fresh(ish) fruit and vegetable section, I saw it with me own eyes, gov'nor. Yes, I do like to partake in chilli con carne involving kidney beans from a tin, and yes, I do like to indulge in tinned pears once in a while to remind myself that I am in the bloom of my youth and must err onto the side of madness every so often. But seriously, the tinned vegetable aisle was taking the tinned asparagus (what I like to think of as the 'biscuit' in the world of légumes - an unnecessary addition, but 
 yummy all the same). 
* The number of brands of quality chocolate (Lindt, per se) were equal to the less sophisticated brands (Nestlé was out in force). Cadburys was not stocked. I made the best of a bad situation and stocked up on Malteasers (pronounced like Maltez here - it just makes me think about people who live in Malta...)
* Certain products have 'ticket gagnant' stickers next to their prices. If you buy these products, you get these 'winning tickets' and get money off your next shop. 

My social occasions of the week include:
* A Zumba class in which we learnt the routine to Gagnam Style, among others. Zumba music seems to be massive in (at least this part of) France at the moment - it was even playing in the canteen at lunch today. 
* Playing badminton and nearly being blinded by a shuttlecock. See an earlier post about this, but before I left my little French house with its cute blue shutters barred against the cold and wind into which I valiantly headed in an effort to m'integrer, my colocataire wished me 'Bon badminton!' They really do use the phrase for everything...

Amboise chateau, perched on top of substantial
ramparts

* Going to Amboise chateau with my French amie. Had a lovely wander round the ramparts, the stately home, and then the town itself where I bought a Nonours Guimauvre (a marshmallow shaped like a teddy covered in chocolate). 
* Seeing Twilight in French. I maintain it was to improve my linguistic abilities, but secretly admit that I really liked it! Or not so secretly, now that I'm smearing it all over the internet... 

Failure of the week? I still haven't completely unpacked the IKEA bags of stuff my parents brought me when they visited three weeks ago (although I did make a decent attempt). 
Lesson of the week? Must try harder when it comes to getting out of bed and being proactive...*

*This will be aided by my discovery of how to use the radiator in my room. Fortunately my emergency measure of sleeping in my sleeping bag in my bed under my covers will not be needing to be put into effect. Huzzah!