Everyday Excitingness

So it’s Tuesday the 19^th March as I write this. So I’m more or less half-way through my final half-term as a Language Assistant, since I only work four days a week, and one of them is only for an hour!The last week and two days have passed very satisfactorily. I have lost any passion I once had for teaching, but my extra-curricular goings-on are keeping my spirits high.

 The mediatheque. I fully regret not finding this gem earlier. I knew of its existence, and had ventured in a couple of times and picked up a book. However, I now know of its FREE INTERNET and computer section, and since internet at the house has gone again, and you have to pay for the internet at the MAJO (albeit at a very reasonable price), I have been spending most of my free time being a little internet-hermit at the mediatheque. I have also made friends with a charming lady who is married to a Frenchman, and who I might have exploited into helping me write my intercultural competence essay... (I mean that I have exploited her ideas, she’s not writing it for me – I’m not that lazy.)

An illustration of one of
La Fontaine's Fables

Six months into my Year Abroad, and I am starting to read French classics: I have read Moliere’s l’Avare (the Miser) and Le Petit Prince which is simple beautiful and I refuse to ever read in English. I am also working my way through La Fontaine’s Les Fables which are brilliant. They are typical fables, some taken from Aesop, but written in verse (but I am told not in verse which was conventional for the era) and they present some morals in a really thought-provoking fashion. As Michael told me, as he was smoking and drinking Pastis with Kyann, La Fontaine ‘a bouleversé ma vie!’ (‘turned my life upside down!’ Reading shall soon be commencing for my French modules for next year, which I already know since the French Department are lovely enough not to cap limits for modules: 1. A feminist literature module revolving around mythology and 2. A study of France in the run up to the Revolution, an era also known as the Ancien Regime.

I have also discovered some quality French singers. These are rare, but with Carine’s help and the CD section of the Mediatheque, I have become a huge fan of Johnny Hallyday and Claude Francois. Check them out.

Dinner invitations from teachers. Despite having the last six months to invite me, many teachers are now realising how little time there is before I leave, and wanting to invite me around for dinner. Last weekend, I dined with Virginie and her family. I met her at the lycee where there was an Open Day, whereupon the English Department greeted me with actual CAKES which they had baked. Oh cake, how I have sorely missed thee. Mousse and macaroons sometimes just don’t do the trick. While stuffing my face, I had a conversation with a girl from the college about how to make my lessons interesting. She suggested making posters. I pointed out that making posters doesn’t involve speaking English. I was told to think of something original, in that case… After clearing up the classroom, we went to the canteen where there were nibbles and champagne, and after staying briefly we said goodbye to the head and deputy head and began the hour long journey to Bourges, home of Virginie.

Raclette machine: grill cheese below,
warming plate on top. Pour onto meats
and potatoes.

We had a late lunch (circa 2.30pm) which I’m told is Italian time for lunch – I shall find out for myself in mid-May! How exciting! – and we had raclette. I am an ENORMOUS raclette fan. For the unenlightened, it’s a type of cheese which you melt and put on top of boiled potatoes and eat with cold meats and salad. It's also the name of the dish i.e. "we're eating raclette tonight". The last time I had it was with the family next to Disney Land. We then took a leisurely walk around the town of Bourges, which I had visited when my parents came to see me at the end of October, but I thoroughly enjoyed because of our conversation. Problems at the lycee, French culture, Italian culture… It was varied and fascinating, and almost entirely in French. Such fun.

Back at the apartment, we began watching a French comedy called ‘Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis’ (Welcome to the home of the Ch’tis), about a man from southern France who goes to work in the very far north of France where they speak a different dialect. It was very funny, and interesting to see the intra-country stereotypes between the far north and south of France. Before we could finish it, it was time to go and have dinner. Warning: before reading the next sentence I suggest you sit down. I was more than happy to have skipped dinner as I was still full from lunch (shock horror) but we went to a creperie, so I forced down a Galette Incontournable (Unbeatable Savoury Crepe: ham, mushrooms, egg, tomato sauce, cheese. Yum.) along with some cider drunk out of a bowl, and finished it off with a Pear and Chocolate Sauce Crepe for pud. It would have been rude to refuse.

I am only half joking with that last sentence. Here, one of the things that I love, is that you invite people around for entire three course meals to get to know them better. The French really value mealtimes: people come back from work and school to eat as a family (and the two-hour lunch break enables this), so I slot in like a hand in a glove.

The evening was finished off with the rest of the film, before I went to bed, exhausted. I awoke to pains au chocolat before Virginie and her partner walked me to the train station and I began the journey back to Romorantin in the rain. Sadly the boiling hot weather has retreated and been replaced by rain.

That evening, I went to church. I love my little church family, and singing the hymns in French. Bonus: Lydia invited me to come round and eat with her and her husband before Bible Study on Wednesday. I’m just clearly a delight to host and generally be around.

Yesterday was back to work, with an awful first three hours at college, but a good two hours at the lycee in the late afternoon which cheered me up (after I had drowned my sorrows in mini-cookies, which gave me a socking headache from sugar over-dose). We then all ate together at the canteen, and the food was a lot better than usual, and then just chatted for a couple of hours about nothing in particular.

Today, I have four hours at the lycee. I predict a good group at 1pm, no-one at 2pm, and two people at 3pm, and normal set-up at 4pm (one person presenting a news subject to me and then discussing it for half an hour, then swapping and repeating). Then this evening a group of us are off to La Pyramide to see ‘Of Mice and Men’ / ‘Des Souris et des Hommes’. I have sneakily read the Wikipedia plot summary to make sure I understand vaguely what’s going on. Although, sadly, Wikipedia actually tell you the ending, which made me gasp out loud and genuinely shocked me. So I’ll have to pretend to be equally horrified tonight.

Next weekend is looking INCREDIBLY exciting, but I’m not telling you until I have experienced it. So you’ll have to wait a while for that blog post! Signing off.