Half-way

Well, yes, I am half-way through my contract here.  Although, not half-way through my time away, as I'll be travelling for two months after the end of my contract.  As expected it has gone so fast, but yet, I feel like there is still so long to go.  With winter weather, illness, no travel planned and a few up and down moments in the last couple of weeks, I'm definately missing things and people from home a lot more.  But, it's to be expected and to have gone nearly 4 months without really feeling like this has been pretty impressive I reckon (and it's a very mild dose!).

So what have I been up to?

Well, it was great that there were 6 days of beautiful, bluebird days in a row, which brought with it very cold temperatures, where some days the frost never disappeared!  I was spoilt in that a friend of mine took me for a day at the beach on La Manche/The English Channel.  It was a good 3 hour drive and we got to the coast to a litte village that is heaving with people in summer and was nearly deserted this cold, mid-winter's Saturday.  We went for a long walk along the beach to a point where we could see a cute, little coastal village.  We saw a muscle farm and we were able to see Jersey and Chausey Islands.  By the time we got back it was dark and we headed to Granville for dinner and back to L'Aigle late that night.   A lovely day!

As I am half-way through my contract, my timetable has changed around slightly so other students can get to spend time with the language assistant.  I still have Monday and Wednesday off, and I have the same number of hours on Friday - my busiest day, and now I have less on Thursday and more on Tuesday.  In terms of the work, its no big deal, just different students with different requirements which all seems pretty straight-forward.

This Sunday I headed into Paris for the day, because I was missing church, so I got up and took the train to Paris to go to Hillsong.  I meet up with my friends Jason and Rebekah and then we went out for lunch afterwards.  Being Sunday the streets of Paris where rather deserted.  They wanted to take me to this street they'd been to the day before that had heaps of character and where they had found a cute little restaurant for lunch.  Well, we turned up and this is where all the people of Paris were.  The street was full of people and there were cute, old people singing Edith Piaf and people dancing in the street. It was awesome.  It was a classic Parisian moment.  I was gutted I didn't have my camera with me.  Then we found the cute little restaurant.  Little being the operative word as it was so teeny tiny.  It was called the Maison des Tartes (House of Tarts).  For 8 euros, we got a drink, a savoury tart and a dessert tart.  It was great!  After that we walked through the 5th arrondisement past the Pantheon to St Michel.  Here's a pic I stole from the google images of Rue Mouffetard, where we had lunch.

Then I went to see an old friend, Tunde, who is Hungarian and who my Eau Vive friends and I all met when we were in Provence in 2005.  I haven't seen her since then, and it just happened that she is working on canal boats and her boat is in Paris at the moment. 

From there I decided I needed to participate in a bi-annual French ritual.  Les Soldes!!  Les Soldes are the sales that take place Jan/July every year when the shops try to get rid of their stock to make room for the next season's range.  Everyone has been going on about how good these Soldes would be because of 'La Crise' (the Recession) and how the shops need to get rid of so much stuff.  They've been talking about as much as 70% off stuff.  Some people think that the Soldes have been a bit over-rated this year and I'd have to say I think for the most part they are right.  None-the-less, after a week with a few disappointments I needed some retail therapy, so I joined the other half of Paris at La Defense shopping centre, Le Quatre Temps, and I fended my way through the narrow pathways in each store, with racks overflowing with clothes and shoes, and products strewn across the floor, pushing and shoving just to get in the door to each shop.  It was hard to get a good bargain but in the end I succesfully bought two items both 50% off, so I was pleased with that and it was time to get the train back to L'Aigle.

The latest adventure was a trip today to the Dr's.  I've had a really bad cough that just won't go away and keeps me awake at night and I'm sore from coughing so much.  Diagnosis - Tracheitis - inflammation of the trachea.  What was classic was that I had to pay the Dr directly (I've been to the Dr in France before and I don't remember doing that).  Plus, she didn't take card so luckily, I had enough cash and to give me change she just gave it to me from her purse!  Then, in typical French fashion - they love their medicine, I got loaded up with a pile of different medications.  I'm supposed to have a magic card thing which means I get reimbursed for a decent amount of what I spent today but again, typical French beauracracy means I don't have this card yet (and I wonder if I'll ever get it before I leave, as I know that has happened to many people) so I had to fork out for it all.  After, I caught up with some friends who proceded to tell me that what I have is contagious (all though the Dr didn't tell me that) and that I can't do the Bises (the custom of kissing on the cheek when you meet people) while I'm sick.  So no Bises for a while, but the irony is I've had this cough for well over a week and I've been in front of classes of students and I've given 'les bises' to everyone I know here several times over, so its a bit late for taking such precautions now I think!! If they are going to have it, they will have it by now!!

Well, that's all for now.  3 weeks left of the term and then its holidays.  I'm off to Prague and Vienna for a week.  I'm looking forward to that, especially as at the hostel in Prague my room got upgraded to a private room due to a mix-up.  If you know anyone who wants to join me let me know 'cos I'd love a travel buddy!!



Bonne Année!

Bonne année tout le monde !  Happy New Year everybody ! 

Well, I hope the festive season was as good for you as it was for me.  I spent around 10 days in St Raphael/Frejus soaking in the sun and warmer temperatures at my friend Laure’s family home.  Her family were so lovely and so welcoming.  It was really nice to be in a family environment again, especially for Christmas.  They were a family away from home.  They looked after me very well, and I was very spoilt.  We spent most of the time relaxing and reading.  We ate a lot of good food, and it was great to experience real French family life, which I haven’t seen a lot of as I’ve never been in a family in France.  It was so good to be back in Provence.  It really is one of my happy places.  There is just something about it, I love it.  One evening we went to the movies to see Hugo Cabaret – an excellent film.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Another thing that is very popular in Provence is to make Nativity scenes with Santons, which are figures made in the region to represent traditional life here.  One person's home I went to had the biggest nativity scene I've ever scene.  There is a lot of work and effort that goes into it and it was very detailed.  There were farmers, a waterfall, even people playing petanque.

Then the second wave of the international visitors Chez Laure arrived with Rebekah and Jason from the United States.  We spent the afternoon soaking up the beautiful sun and gorgeous coastline of St Raph, and even dipped our feet in the Med.  It was lovely!

On the 23^rd, the third wave flew in from London, with the arrival of Miriam (Australian).  We had to pick her up from Nice so we went there for the evening to see the old town, the Christmas markets and the lights.  Here flight was delayed so we made the most of it to eat dinner and look around a bit more.  I really liked the old town of Nice, with the lights etc it really felt like a set of a movie. 

The 24^th was the day we celebrated Christmas.  We spent the day preparing, including practicing songs we were going to sing to the family – a new experience for me, I was definitely out of my comfort zone.  There were 16 of us in total with some of Laure’s  extended family and the international contingent.  We ate a big meal in the evening, including Kir Royale (cassis syrup with champagne, mmm), foie gras, duck confit, roasted chestnuts and other things for the entrée.  Followed by two big roasted Chapon (castrated rooster) with vegetables for the main, followed by Buche de Noel and a dessert that Laure made that I can never remember the name of.  It was very good and then we had the presents.  So many presents!!  We all stayed up until about 3am.

The next day (the 25^th) we woke up to do it all again for Christmas lunch.  I think they had planned another meal entirely for the lunch but there were so many leftovers and we were still so full, we ate the rests for lunch and then worked our way through the Christmas food over the following days.

The 26^th we were treated to a surprise visit from Dave and Magali from Aix-en-Provence that Miriam, Jason and Rebekah and I knew from when we were there in 2005, it was great to see them and we spent the whole day around the table, eating and talking.

The 27^th I sadly said goodbye to what had felt like my home away from home.  But, I was off to Albi (1 hour from Toulouse) to see Nathalie who I had not seen since she was last in New Zealand at the beginning of 2010.  It was great to catch up with her again and she was a great host, showing me some of the region and having me try some of the specialties.  We went to Cordes-sur-Ciel a village perched on the top of a hill, beautiful with stunning views.  Then we looked around Albi and saw its amazing cathedral and rose coloured stone buildings.

Cordes-sur-Ciel

Albi

Entrance to the Cathedral at Albi

Albi Cathedral

On the Friday we went to Toulouse where I met a couple of her friends and they took us around Toulouse and then I stayed at her friend Gilles house until later that evening when I jumped on the night train back to L’Aigle in time to spend le Reveillon (New Years Eve) with my friends here in L’Aigle.  That was another big French meal where I tried more foie gras and Calvados.  We had a lot of fun dancing and singing the night away. 

This week it has been back to work which is a bit of a shock after the festive season and so many late nights to not have much time to recover, so everyone has been pretty mellow.  The weather sounds a lot like how it is in NZ actually.  It pretty much rains all the time and if it isn’t raining it is cloudy.  I have seen the sun about twice for brief moments.  I don’t have much planned for January yet but to be honest with weather like this I don’t really want to travel in it, so I’m planning on relaxing here and saving some money and trying to plan my trips for later in the year.

Slice of Life

So many of you are probably wondering what do I actually do here when I only work 12 hours a week...?

Well, first of all, the job is pretty good.  Its like the holiday version of my normal job back home.  I prepare an activity for the class, go in, run it and walk away.  That's it. 

What kind of activities? Well, for the Secondes (Year 11 equivalent) I try and link an activity to what they are doing in their classes, e.g Murder Mystery.  Last week, I did an activity on what Christmas is like in NZ and this week we will sing the Pukeko in a Ponga tree song (The 12 days of Christmas - NZ version).  That will be probably be quite challenging for them but I'm sure it will be fun in the process.  Some classes are preparing for their Bac examinations at the end of Terminale (Year 13 equivalent).  This involves analysing a document in English for 5 minutes then having a conversation about it for 5 minutes, so I get sample documents and we practice this together.  They have a varied level of motivation, which can be interesting/challenging at times.  Another group I take for History/Geography in English and they have to research an idea then at the end of 6 weeks give a presentation to the class in English, which I mark. The last round was on NZ, and three groups talked about the Rugby World Cup! :) This same group I see again later in the week and we do games to improve pronunciation and to promote conversation.  I also have two groups of students who are post Yr 13 and are working towards a technical certificate but have to talk about their work experience in English for thier exam at the end of their course.  So I basically spend time talking to them in English, which is interesting as they are not very strong in English and it can take 5 minutes to get one sentence.  So that's 12 hours of my week.  I work 3 days and the gaps in between classes I use to prepare lessons, plus those days we have an hour lunch break when we eat a MASSIVE meal at the canteen.

I've also managed to pick up tutoring for two girls who asked for some help so that is a little bit of extra on the side.

So what do I do the rest of the time? Good question!!  So I have Mondays and Wednesdays free.  Well, I usually sleep in, catch up on emails/messages with friends, sometimes do my blog, plan my next trip or sort out photos from the last trip.  I often have to go into town to sort something out so I'll walk into town (about 10 mins walk) and look around.  I sometimes have to do my washing at the laundromat, so thats another trip into town.  Usually have to go to the supermarket and/or the boulangerie for food/bread/pastries.  The last few Mondays I've been away making the most of my three day weekend.  Sometimes I do Zumba or go running with my friend Sandrine.  I've been reading a lot of books.  Sometimes in the evenings, I'll hang out with my friends here, or we'll go to someone's place for dinner.  I don't know but somehow I seem to fill my days.

Most weekends I've been away, but the few that I am here for, usually Friday night I do something with my friends (this Friday it was the Christmas Party at our place), chill out Saturday, look around L'Aigle - Christmas Markets this weekend just been, watch DVD Saturday night and chill out again Sunday.  Sunday you can't do much as everything is closed.  But like I say, the weekends I am here are rare so usually I'm ready for a quiet weekend anyway.

Coming up... off to Paris this Saturday and early morning train Sunday to St Raphael where I will be until just after Christmas.  Then, heading to Toulouse on the 27th to catch up with my friend Nathalie, who lived in NZ two years ago, for New Years.  Looking forward to spending time with friends, to seeing Provence again and enjoying (hopefully) warmer/sunnier weather.

Hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year, wherever you are.

One week closer to Christmas...

and I'm getting excited, after spending a lovely weekend with the wonderful people with whom I will be spending Christmas. 

My friend Miriam from Australia (we became friends while we were both living and working at Eau Vive in France in 2005) was in Paris for the weekend during her trip to Europe.  By coincidence, Jason (another guy who worked and lived at Eau Vive with us in 2005) and his wife Rebekah (both from the States) are also in Paris this year doing the same thing as me.  Our other mutual friend Laure (French) lives in Paris now too.  So, a reunion 6 years on was in order.  All was set for a reunion Saturday night.

I headed off to Paris Saturday morning.  I had some shopping to do and spent the afternoon with Rebekah, we were wandering towards the Centre Georges Pompidou, which I still haven't seen yet, but got distracted by the pretty christmas lights.  While heading towards the location of these pretty lights we spotted a little wine shop that was offering free wine tasting.  So we popped in for a bit. We had a fantastic time.  Nearly two hours later we had sampled a dozen or so wines.  I have never tasted wines so good!! We tried 3 cognacs (aged 10, 15, 25 years old), the sweetest Pinot Gris, Rieslings and Gwertz's from Alsace, and some sweet red wines.  We also tried a 1969 and a 1959 wine.  Just beautiful and you could taste so distinctly all the different flavours.

Saturday evening, after a change of plans, we ended up at Laure's place where Ian (our Irish friend who was also at Eau Vive with us in 2005) turned up as a surprise guest to our little reunion.  It was great.

Eau Vive crew reunited
Jason, Me, Miriam, Laure, Ian

Sunday was spent making the most of the fact that it was the first Sunday of the month, and all the monuments are free, by going to see St Chapelle et La Concergerie.  St Chapelle is an impressive chapel with amazing stained glass windows and La Concergerie is most famous for the fact it was one of the main prisons during the Reign of Terror during the Revolution, and many people such as Danton, Robespierre and Marie-Antoinette spent their last days here before being sent to the guillotine.

Then we sought refuge from museum fatigue and the pouring rain in a Salon du The, where we enjoyed mouth-watering tea and treats.

I was having such a great time hanging with friends in Paris that I hadn't got many of the things I needed to done, so I spent Monday morning doing some shopping, seeing the Christmas Markets on the Champs Elysees, then wandered through the streets past some things I wanted to see such as the Elysees Palace (where Sarkozy et co live) and the shop window displays of the big department stores Printemps and Galerie La Fayette. 

I was going to head back in the afternoon and then Miriam mentioned she wanted to see a movie, one I wanted to see too, but that was no longer playing in L'Aigle.  So, it was off to the movies to see Intouchables - highly recommended!  One good thing about L'Aigle (and there is more than one good thing about L'Aigle) is that the movies are half the price of the movies in Paris!

More time chilling out in Paris and then it was 7pm and I really needed to get back to L'Aigle so I got the last train back (thought at one point I was going to miss it - more running for the train).  I'll be spending Christmas with these people (minus Ian) and I'm very much looking forward to it.  Less than two weeks until the Christmas holidays.  My flatmate and I are hosting a Christmas party at our flat this weekend and the following weekend I'm off to stay with Laure in the South of France for Christmas and Nathalie in Toulouse for New Year's.

Joyeuses Fetes everybody!

Christmas is coming...

I finally feel like Christmas might actually be coming after spending a couple of days in the Capital of Christmas/Capitale de Noel - Strasbourg.  Their Christmas Markets have been going since 1570.  The Christmas Tree as we know it, and many other modern-day Christmas traditions, originated from this area. So, I think they can rightly claim they are the capital of Christmas.  It was a magical weekend.  It was cold, but not as cold as it usually is, as this autumn is apparently the warmest since 1900.  However, it was still cold enough to wrap up with scarf, gloves and hat and to feel like the mulled wine was merited.  There were lights and decorations everywhere so it truly was beautiful.  As my friend Neila described it, it was 'féerique' (fairy-like/enchanting/like being in a fairy tale), and she was right.  We also happened to be there in time to see the biggest natural Christmas Tree in the world get all lit up for the start of the Christmas season.

The start of the weekend was a little stressful as we got on the wrong train and realised one minute before it was about to leave the station that it was the wrong train and we had four minutes until our correct train was about to leave and we still had to find it.  We were towards the end of a VERY long train and had to run to find the right train which was equally as long.  We made it with literally one minute to spare.  Then, once I'd sat down after a couple of minutes I wanted to check something on our return tickets, only to realise they weren't in my bag and I had lost them. Long story short I had to re-buy our tickets - an expensive lesson.  Once we got to Strasbourg we soaked in the atmosphere and wandered through all the little streets, beautifully decorated, stumbling upon little markets here and there before turning a corner and finding the main market in front of the massive, beautiful cathedral.

We went into the cathedral and discovered a beautiful interior with people recounting the nativity story.  So we sat down and enjoyed the performance.

Later, we ventured off to find our hostel. That ended up being quite a mission, we found it eventually, but only after wandering around getting lost for a bit.  Once we found it we went to the kitchen to cook our yummy dinner we had planned, only to find the hostel did not have anything to cook with apart from two micro-waves.  So, spring-rolls with stir-fry, cooked in a micro-wave, was an interesting meal.  The hostel was right on the edge of Strasbourg and right on the edge of the Rhin river, which is the border of France and Germany.  So, the next day we crossed the Pont du Rhin to check out Kehl, Germany.

Right in the middle between France and Germany

Once back in France, we were off to discover more of picturesque Strasbourg, to enjoy the markets and sample more good food.  Then it was a very early start Monday morning to get the 6am train back to L'Aigle (the one I paid for twice!!).