It's Friday night. I had planned the evening eating at the canteen and being sociable with my friends, but it's closed so I'm sitting at my desk post-feast of an orange and some pain au lait, writing my blog. Today has been busy although I'm not sure quite how; I find myself at 9.45pm, able to recall what I've done but not entirely sure how it managed to fill a day. In the first draft of this blog, I was going to list everything that I've done, but upon reflection I realised that the majority don't want to hear about watching TV and washing up. So here I discuss some hopefully more interesting segments of my life presented within a broader context of the end of my Year Abroad. Cue shocking, tremulous music.
* Year Abroad work. Two of the three required essays have been written, and the French verified by some of my lovely college teachers. Today, I re-wrote my CV and covering letter, which will be translated and checked again by a teacher once I've had the parents' approval of the contents in English. I'm going present shopping in a chocolaterie tomorrow to thank the aforementioned teachers for everything they've done for me since I arrived in Romo six and a half months ago. Not to mention helping me improve my French, this includes listening to my complaints about 1. students who don't care about learning English, 2. my short-comings as a teacher, 3. my lack of linguistic improvement. As well as all this, they have helped in keeping me occupied with various dinner invitations and other outings. So I think they deserve a few chocolates for all that!
* Saying goodbyes. I have had my final lessons with three classes now, and next week will be my last ever week as an English Assistant, at least in Romorantin, although I have no intention of repeating this experience. I think if I was to repeat it, I would try and recreate this last six months and I think it's a dangerous thing to do, as you can never make the past come alive in the same way as when it's the present. On Tuesday, I'm going to eat with the lycee teachers, and I've let my college responsable know my availability for a moment of goodbyes at the college.
* Bureaucracy. It wouldn't be France if there wasn't paperwork. It seems sort of right that I start and finish my experience with interrogating the bank about how to do online transfers, trying to get the remains of my CAF off the MAJO, and filling in Erasmus forms with my lycee responsable. I can remember filling in the original forms like it was yesterday.
* Staying positive. Even if I am finishing my teaching in exactly one week, I still have THREE weeks in France. One week teaching, one week in Provence and then Paris, and one week in Romorantin packing up my life, saying goodbye to my MAJO friends, and abusing the library facilities which I should have been making better use of for the last six months but never got around to, before my parents come to take me home. Tomorrow is going to involve chocolate shopping, dinner with Valerie and her family, then watching her son's handball match (again, it's the Circle of Life: watching her son's handball match is one of the very first things I did after my arrival in Romo). Sunday is equally packed with badminton in the morning, lunch with another family, then church in the evening. So don't worry, I fully intend on grabbing every opportunity presented to me during the next three weeks with both hands and finishing my Year Abroad off in style.
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