Kids, eh?

I forgot to share, over Christmas, something which happened on my last day of teaching before the holidays. I was talking to my CE1 class (the youngest in the school) about Christmas traditions that we have in the UK, and was telling them about the Queen's speech. Because they all seem to be pretty obsessed with the royal family out here, the teacher pounced on that and started talking generally about the Queen to the class. So she asked them what the Queen was going to be next summer, as it had just been announced that Kate was going to have a baby. One the kids, obviously slightly confused, went "Pregnant!"

I swear, I was so unprofessional, I just sat down and laughed till I cried. I felt a bit bad but I just couldn't stop myself. Fortunately the whole class seemed to find it hilarious, although I think after a while they were just laughing at how much I was laughing. Last Monday the teacher even brought it up again to the same boy who said it, which I thought was rubbing it in a bit unnecessarily.

In other news, I am very very distressed that I am not going to be able to see Les Mis for AGES. I thought last year that it was coming out in December, so I'd be able to see it over Christmas. Then I found out it was the middle of January, so I resigned myself to seeing it in French. However, it's not coming out here till the 13th February. FEBRUARY! Not. Impressed. At all.

Return to reality

Well a rather belated Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year to you all! (Do you see what I did there? I switched the 'happy' and the 'merry' round, but it didn't work, because people really do say Happy Christmas, and I don't like it at all, so I won't be doing that again.) I hope the holidays treated you, my doubtlessly huge readership, very well. I certainly had a very nice time, although it did seem to pass extremely quickly.

So I'm back in France after two very lovely weeks at home for Christmas. I'd like to say I'm pleased to be back, but I feel at the moment that would be a lie, mainly as my tasks for the day include a trip to the supermarket, taking down my Christmas decorations (also known as "the most depressing chore in the world") and a mountain-sized pile of laundry.

It will be nice, however, to see all my lovely well-behaved children tomorrow again, and once everything gets back to normal and I'm into the swing of things again and my laundry bag is empty I'm sure things will be just fine.

Obviously not much has happened to me yet on the next step of my Great Adventure, as I have only been back in France for approximately fourteen hours, so I will leave it there and just hope everyone is enjoying the start of the new year, and next time I will try and have something more interesting to say. A bientôt!

Un film français

Today I saw this film:

I'm not going to lie, they were talking very fast and as a result there were whole conversations that I didn't understand, but I understood enough to follow the film (and even got the majority of the jokes) so that's all that matters really. It was a good choice in that sense, because it wasn't a complicated storyline, and was just a light-hearted, quite fun film to watch. Not a complete waste of two hours and complete immersion in French to boot :)

O Christmas tree

Apparently being overly enthusiastic about Christmas
decorations rubs off on people! Yay!

Christmas has arrived chez nous! And we've got the Christmas tree to prove it! Isn't she pretty and shiny and cute?

Christmas is a-comin'

It's December, and that means I feel legitimised in listening non-stop to Christmas songs and grinning in an overly cheerful manner every time I walk past Christmas decorations. There are a LOT of Christmas trees in pots in Orléans town centre and believe me, people seem to find it very odd when they see you walking down the street with a goofy smile on your face.

I spent last weekend in Paris with Josh on a mini-Christmassy-break which was extremely cold, extremely expensive and extremely awesome. I love Paris. I want to marry Paris and go on honeymoon with it in Paris at Christmastime. Oh, and spending time with my boyfriend is alright too I suppose.

We went to the Sacre Coeur which is my favourite church ever, walked through the Jardin des Tuileries where I had never been before, didn't recognise the Louvre until we were right on top of it, and decided to follow the Christmas lights to find somewhere to have dinner and accidentally ended up in a rather-too-posh area of town. I tried to persuade Josh to go up the Eiffel Tower but he is a baby and afraid of heights so we gave that one a miss.

That's not the Louvre, is it...?

In school for the past two weeks I've been teaching 'Jingle Bells' to my older classes because they're singing it at a Christmas concert they're doing in a couple of weeks. I feel there are both pros and cons to this endeavour. On the one hand, they know the melody because there's an equivalent Christmas song in French called 'Vive le vent' which goes to the same tune. On the other, bar the words 'jingle bells' there are some pretty complicated phrases which they have a bit of trouble putting together.

Me: Repeat: 'what fun it is.'
Class: 'What fun it is.'
Me: 'To laugh and sing.'
Class: 'To laugh and sing.'
Me: 'A sleighing song.'
Class: 'A sleighing song.'
Me: 'Tonight.'
Class: 'Tonight.'
Me: 'What fun it is to laugh and sing a sleighing song tonight'.
Class: 'What fun mumblemumblemumblemumble tonight!'

I also bought some Christmas decorations for my room yesterday (well, some lights and some tinsel and I made some paper snowflakes and put glitter on them). Last week I asked my landlady if she decorated the house and when she wasn't very enthusiastic, I told her we absolutely had to and I'd buy a tree myself if necessary. Apparently I am scary Christmas elf lady because yesterday she said that if I wanted we could go and buy one this weekend. So yay!

Alright, I think that's all my news. I'll try and de-Christmassify my next post a little. Actually, no I won't, because it's December and I don't have to for twenty whole more days!

The great 'tu' versus 'vous' debate

One thing I've really struggled with since being in France is knowing when to use 'tu' and 'vous' (informal and formal ways of saying 'you' respectively, for any non-French speakers reading this). Which do you use for your landlady? Your work colleagues? Your boss, who is also technically a work colleague? Some people were helpful at the beginning, like some of the teachers at my school, who said I didn't have to use 'vous' with them because we were colleagues. Other people I just had to guess with.

Those aren't so much of an issue anymore, because if I haven't been told at some point, I've just picked one and am now rolling with it. My main problem now is that when I was arrived, I was so used to saying 'vous' automatically that I was using it with everyone. This included the kids at school. And believe me, there is something a bit intimidating about having eight-year-olds look at you like you're crazy when you do that.

So for over a month I have been training myself out of automatically saying 'vous'. Unfortunately, as a result, I am now using 'tu' automatically, with taxi drivers, shop assistants, people who ask me things in the street... people I really should be using 'vous' with.

Then there are certain expressions that you learn in a certain way - for example, I'm so used to saying 's'il vous plait' that I can't make myself remember to sometimes say 's'il te plait'. Equally, I always say 'a tes souhaits' and never 'a vos souhaits'.

Basically, you just can't win with the French language.

Toussaint and a day in Paris

So apparently I’m pretty lax at this whole blogging malarky. Sacré bleu.

Much, much has happened since I last wrote! Most notably was the Toussaint holiday. (A quick note on the French school holiday system: they have far too many of them. As you were.) So, having only really been at work properly for about three weeks, I had a two week break over Halloween and All Saints Day (Toussaint to the French). So I packed my bags and went back to England.

We won’t talk about my incredibly stressful journey home, which involved a taxi which showed up fifteen minutes late causing me to dash for my train, lugging an extremely heavy suitcase round a metro system with no escalators, and the loss of all record of my Eurostar booking. EVENTUALLY, I made it home for two blissful weeks where I could give my poor brain a rest and not speak any French at all.

The first week coincided with the half term week in England, which meant my mum was off work and so I spent the week with her in Bedford. My sister also came down from university at the weekend, which was nice, and we went Christmas shopping, which was even nicer (sorry, Natalie), and it was Bonfire Night (yay!) so there was fireworks-going as well. Then, on Sunday night, I gadded off to Leicester, to stay with Josh (who knew I was coming) and to see my housemates from last year (who didn’t). Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough off the mark to take pictures of their faces when they opened the door but believe me, the sight will remain with me for a long while.

 

So, activities during this week involved the celebration of Josh’s 21^st birthday, a bread-and-butter pudding date and a cocktail-drinking night out with my housemates, a Pizza Express date (that date was actually with my boyfriend), and... other things I think have already forgotten about. In summary, it was a very lovely week. It was a bit difficult leaving again, but I was kind of expecting that, and I was fine once I was back anyway. I do miss gravy though. Oh, and baked beans. And seriously, do they sell mince pies in France? I don't think they do, and it distresses me greatly.

Recent French adventures included a trip to Paris with Rachael at the weekend. I’ve only been to Paris once before and I’d forgotten how much I loved it. We did the sort of generic touristy bits – the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame – but there was also a slight Christmassy twist as there was a Christmas market along the Champs Elysées which we weren’t expecting and which I enjoyed immensely.  

I have no picture of the Christmas market so you'll
have to make do with the Eiffel Tower.

 We also visited this bookshop which is my new favourite place in the world.

Oh, books, how I love you.

And we even managed to find the most stereotypically Parisian café/bar place where we stopped mid-afternoon for crepes and mulled wine. Christmassy and French all rolled into one!

 

Finally, school anecdote of the week: after one of my lessons yesterday a girl came up to me and said “t’es belle” (“you’re beautiful”). My heart melted. Seconds later, another girl asked how old I was. When I responded with “21” (not that old!) she looked absolutely horrified and slightly sorry for me. You win some, you lose some.