The past couple of days have been busy busy busy stressful busy. Actually, mainly yesterday. Wednesday was my birthday. Rachael and I had to make a quick dash to the bank in the morning, and in the afternoon we met with a lady called Marjorie who is going to drive us to her school in Toury every morning, and who drove us around following the bus route to find the easiest way for her to pick us up in the mornings. Getting in a car and driving round a place you do not know with a lady you do not know is a fairly odd experience. Aside from that, I had a very nice day. I made myself breakfast in bed (well, no one else was there to do it for me) and opened my presents from my family on skype and had cake with my dad and Anita and Rachael and went out for a very nice dinner. I then proceeded to get a bit weepy when I had to say goodbye to my dad, as he was going home very early the next morning, but it was all alright really. It didn't really feel very much like my birthday, but seeing as I had already celebrated it with everyone several times before I came abroad I don't really feel like I can complain!
Yesterday Rachael and I had our initial meetings at our schools. She's the assistant at the school in Toury, whereas I'm a bit further away in Rouvray. I don't know the finer details of the arrangement myself yet, but basically, Marjorie is giving us a lift to Toury, and then I am getting another lift from there to Rouvray. Toury is about forty minutes away from us, Rouvray maybe another ten. The gist of it is - we were up at 7am and didn't get home until half past six.
We both spent the morning in the school in Toury, and at lunchtime the conseillere pédagogique (I don't know what that is in English - like, educational councillor/advisor?) of the region, a lady called Catherine, came to meet us there. She seemed very on it, which was reassuring, but she gave us a LOT of information in one go which I'm not 100% sure I can remember. She then drove me to my school in Rouvray. One conversation we had in the car amused me very much: she told me it was a tiny village but a very big school. When I asked her how big it was, she said "oh, it has six classes".
Yeah, so it was a pretty tiny school. It was lovely when I arrived though; the kids were on a break and were obviously waiting for us, and when we walked up to the gates they bore down on us like a swarm of bees, going "Hello!" "Hello!" "Hello!" (With the occasional "Bonjour!")
Catherine introduced me to the teachers and once the children had gone in, we went round and she told all the classes individually who I was, and then had me introduce myself to them. For the younger classes, I did it in French, but for the older ones I tried it in English and then asked them how much they had understood - they all seemed to get it pretty well. Once I'd done that they had a chance to ask me questions and, well, that was it. A selection of the questions I received:
"Have you met the Queen?" (Unfortunately not.)
"Do you know David?" (David was their last assistant - no, England's quite a big place.)
"How do you say my name in English?" (They seem to be obsessed with this.)
"Why do you like the colour red in England?" (I have to say this one threw me. I said I didn't think that we did like the colour red that much in England, and he pointed out that our buses and letterboxes and phone boxes are red. Touché.)
The loveliest was the little girl who put her hand up straight away when the teacher asked them if they had any questions and just said "Elle est jolie" (she is pretty). She is already my favourite. I have a gold star ready for her.
All in all, it was a very lovely welcome, but by the time I got back to Toury it was quarter past five (the school days are 8.30/9.00-4.30 in France) and Marjorie didn't finish till quarter to six, so I was absolutely shattered, extremely hungry, and had a terrible headache from the amount of information in French I had had to absorb, by the time we got home at half six.
Fortunately, I now have a weekend with nothing particular to do ahead of me, so I'm going to watch Downton Abbey and Doctor Who and sleep, before it all starts again on Monday. A plus tard!
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