Lazy, la-la-la-la lazy

Hey there,

Sorry for not writing for so long! In the two weeks after my trip to Edinburgh I didn't travel as much so I was waiting to have things to write and then I just got lazy^^
So I'll try to summarize the last month!

I explored some areas of London where I had never been before, like the Portobello Road Market, which is all the more famous since the movie "Notting Hill" where Hugh Grant explained his love for the little market that sells antiques, clothes, jewellery, food, and all sorts of useless crap^^ For the fans of the afore-mentioned movie who are wondering if I saw The Blue Door of The Bookshop, well... It doesn't exist anymore. I guess people got fed up of the crowds of tourists who came just to take a picture of themselves in front of Hugh Grant's bookshop :-/

I also went to the National Portait Gallery--for the second time in a month. It was worth a second visit because there was a new exhibition, plus this time I payed 9 pounds to go and see Anne Leibowitz's exhibition, which was quite intriguing. The choice of mixing personal photographs of the artist, her family and friends with photos of celebrities was a bit unsettling... All in all I think it's worth giving it a look :)

On the 14th of November we had our housewarming party, which was quite a success!

Warming up the house

My beloved housemates :-)

Apart from that, I made my students listen to a song (again I know!) but this time they had to put the lyrics in order before we could discuss the meaning of it. I chose a song called 'J'aurais bien voulu' by Babylon Circus, a ska/reggae French band from Lyon. They are quite famous in France and they're even touring internationally: I saw them at a festival in Queensland last year! The kids loved it, they said it was quite funky and funny :-p

I also went to London in the weekend with my housemate E to see a concert (The Notwist, a German band who sings in English) It was kind of pop-electro-rock, I really liked it. Plus the venue was in a very studenty area. We then went to have a drink with some Italian friends of my housemates. Overall a good night except when we had to go back home… We had to wait for an hour at the station, so we had a nap sitting down on some flat lamps to keep us warm :-D


Admiring London by night...

Waiting for the Notwist concert to begin... This photo is for my sister xxxx

The week after I showed my students an article about Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni that had been written a year ago when they had just started going out. I was reassured to see that all my students except one knew who Sarkozy and Bruni were. We were able to talk about the 'gossipy' side of British culture and the fact that politics are more and more linked to fame and celebrity, in England and in France...

On the Thursday 27th of November it was my birthday, so before I went to bed on the Wednesday night at midnight my housemates knocked on my door and gave me a chocolate cake and a card!! How nice! I felt very lucky at that moment and went to bed with a smile on my face :-)

Yummm cake!

The next day I went to have some cocktails with my housemate K in Windsor, and then E and her cooked a delicious veggie gratin for me and even sticked a candle in it!

Cocktail time!

How cool are those hats hey?

And on the Fri night, we had a big 80s birthday party, it was a lot of fun!

Those vintage bubblegum machines are fascinating

All in 80s mode... ahahaha

The following Sunday night I went to London to go a Thanksgiving dinner organized by an American friend. There were quite a lot of people: Australians, Americans, Canadians, Lituanians, Swedish… And two British people. For a lot of us it was the first time we were celebrating Thanksgiving. Everyone had brought one thing, such as cornbread, cranberry sauce, salad, apple sauce, rice, stuffing, etc. We ate all of these as side dishes with the turkey that our friend had spent the afternoon cooking. Even I ate some and as a vegetarian I loved it! It was a lovely evening and I was glad to be part of it.


I went home quite early because the next morning I had to get up at 5am to leave for a school trip to… Paris! More in the next article... ;-)

A Scottish weekend

The Edinburgh castle

Last Thursday, I took the train in the afternoon to Edinburgh, Scotland. After a 4-hour trip I met up with F, my friend from Plymouth who had a 2-day training session there. I was quite impressed when I arrived and saw the castle sitting on a hill overlooking the city and many dark, old buildings… I dropped off my bag in a backpacker near the station and met up with an American friend of ours who studies in Edinburgh. We ate the most delicious Indian food! Then we went to a pub to have a drink with some Australian friends from London who were also visiting Edinburgh. I tasted one of the local beers (Caledonian) and it was not very tasty.


Edinburgh Old Town

On Fri I walked a bit in the Old Town, admiring the old buildings, the little dark streets, the touristy shops selling kilts, rugby shirts and cashmere scarves and playing recording of bagpipes. Then I decided to go to the nearby National Park and climb the mountain to go sit on Arthur's Seat, which is the highest point in the area. Once arrived on top, I had the most gorgeous view on the city and the sea. I sat down there for more than 30 mins, so impressed by the landscape… I was so happy it was sunny, I could see so far away!

View of Edinburgh from Arthur's Seat

Then I went down and decided to go to this bagel place my Lonely Planet guide recommended: Elephants and Bagels. It was near the university, so full of students. The food was yummy and the decorations very cute so if you ever go to Edinburgh you should totally check it out!

Cute drawings in "Elephants and Bagels"

My American friend joined me there and we went to have a walk in the Princes Street gardens, a park just under the castle. Needless to say, the park was lovely :-)

Princes Street Gardens

After a dinner in a pub with my friends I went to a Australian bar with F. We were overjoyed when we saw they had our favourite Australian beers that we couldn't find in France (or only in rare occasions and it cost us an arm), namely, Coopers Pale Ale, Coopers Sparkling (from South Australia) and James Boags (Tasmanian beer)!! The pub had big maps of different regions of Australia so that customers could pin the city they were from. Judging by the number of pins, there were a lot of aussies visiting Edinburgh!

Aussie beer anyone?

After the pub we went to an indie-rock music night in a club and had a really good time. It was kind of hard to get up the next morning, but we were excited about visiting the interior of the castle! It was quite expensive: no student discount so 10 pounds per person, with 3 pounds extra for the audioguide :-/ The visit was interesting, since the Edinburgh castle is quite different from the Windsor castle: it's darker, with a prison and lots of exhibits about war and weaponry. We had a good view from the city as well.

View of Edinburgh from the castle


Enough with the bagpipes!

We then went to a pub to taste some local food, so I was brave and had some vegetarian haggis with neeps and tatties (turnip puree and mashed potatoes). It was actually quite good, spicy and salty. The rest of the afternoon was spent in museums like the National Gallery and the City Art Centre to check out some Scottish paintings, some of which were remarkable. We also went to an exhibition on space, with Star Wars figurines, miniature robots, space Barbies and Kens, fun facts, and most of all, clothes you could try on like the costume of Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story (Buzz L’Eclair in French), Walle’s head or space outfits… With my friend F we tried on everything (well, not everything, since the clothes were made for kids, we couldn’t fit in some of them^^) and the guy in charge of the exhibition was laughing in a corner, hihi.

I know, I'm such a kid^^

In the evening F and I took the train to Newcastle Gateshead on the North East coast of England, about 1h30 from Edinburgh, to visit a friend from France who's been living there for the past 3 years. Apparently Newcastle's reputation is that of a party town, with plenty of bars and clubs to stay out until late... Which is exactly what we've done :-p
The next morning I managed to get up to go have a look at Newcastle's quayside with all the bridges crossing the river. One of them, the Millenium Bridge, is very modern and impressive; when boats need to go under it, the two parts of the bridge close as if it was the lid of an eye.

Newcastle

The Millenium Bridge and the Baltic museum in Newcastle

More bridges in Newcastle

I had enough time to go to the Baltic, a big industrial building which is now the contemporary arts museum. From the 5th floor I had an amazing view of the city (but unfortunately no photos were allowed) and I also saw several intriguing exhibits, such as one by Steve Mc Queen where you enter a huge room, plunged in darkness, and once your eyes get used to it, you can see that there are lots of mirrors where you can see yours and the other visitors' shadows, while little lights are projected on the walls and thumping and thundering noises fill the room and make children cry^^

After a brief walk I took the train back home. Strange experience to take the train for long trips like that, because people actually get drunk in the train! Indeed, it is illegal in England to drink on public transports such as buses and metros, but is legal in trains. So between Edinburgh and Newcastle, about a dozen of 20-something-year olds drunk at least 5 beers each (in only 90 mins!) and were being totally ignorant of the fact that they were travelling in a quiet coach. On my way back, this time 4 50-year old women were boozing on cheap wine and chuckling between two pretzels. I’ve got to say, and sorry for those who will think I'm being conservative or stuck-up, but I found that a bit disturbing that people were getting wasted in the train like that :-/
Anyway after a long trip I arrived home around 11pm, utterly exhausted! Luckily I had prepared my lessons for this week. I showed my students a video of French boys dancing tecktonik, this dance that became very popular last year among teenagers in France. For those who wouldn't have heard of it, it's quite funny to watch, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYaZYmTwOxA

I showed my students a couple of articles explaining this trend and I was surprised to see how tolerant they were. I mean I'm pretty sure that French students would have burst out laughing in the first few seconds of the video, seeing the clothes the dancers were wearing and their weird disarticulated moves. But my students were watching attentively, and said things like it's very different from what we see in England, it's interesting, asking me if I knew some dance moves (God, no!!!), etc. My first student on Monday morning asked me out of the blue if I was going to come back next year, because she gets on with me and understands me well! So cute! I said I didn't know yet but that it was good that they changed assistants every year or every other year, it makes things more challenging and they can hear different accents and way of speaking.

Today I taught my primary school kids how to count, and when we started some games to check if they had understood and memorized the numbers, I realized they were confused between 2 and 12, which are ‘deux’ and ‘douze’ in French. Apparently they can’t hear the difference between the two sounds… Anyway it’s just one of the many examples to illustrate that I’m learning more everyday from my experience as an assistant and I’m glad I made this choice. Overall I had an awesome weekend and an interesting beginning of the week, even if I desperately need some sleep! ^^ Hope you are all well, drop me a line when you have the time :-)

Holidays

Ok first of all sorry everyone for not keeping my blog up-to-date... but I have a good excuse: I was on holidays. ahah now you hate me even more. Anyway... Thanks a lot to the people who wrote me emails to give me some of their news, I promise I will get back to you personally as soon as I can!!

So! I will try to summarize my 'half-term break' as they call it here. I had 10 days without classes which means I could travel a little bit further than London. I went to visit my friend F in Plymouth, a town near the sea, in the south west of England in the county of Devon. It was bigger and livelier than I expected, apparently there are more than 200 000 inhabitants, quite a lot of them are students, and surfers! (Crazy British people^^) When I arrived on the Saturday my friend took me to a free multicultural festival called the 'Respect Festival', which featured reggae, hip-hop, African music and dancers from India, Fiji Islands, etc. There were lots of stalls with artefacts, circus activities... Pretty good start of my stay in Plymouth :-)
While I was over there I also went on a hike between two villages (Looe and Polperro) in Cornwall, a region even more West. Needless to say, the landscapes were beautiful, the small villages so cute, the Cornish pasties yummy. Would have been perfect with a bit of sun instead of rain, wind, and even hailstones (that one of my students this week wrote 'hellstones'... I had to correct his English! lol) The 2-hour hike turned into a 3-hour session of mud surfing, and I don't even know how I managed not to slip and fall in the mud^^

We also went shopping, checked out a few student bars (one of the played Cat Empire at one point, my friend and I wondered how the staff knew this Australian band...? That was a cool moment)

After 5 great days in Plymouth my friend and her housemate came back to Slough with me for the rest of the holidays. Of course we spent all our time in London, going shopping at the Camden Market, eating out and drinking 3-pound cocktails in a bar at the Millenium Dome (aka O2), fighting our way through the rain and the wind on South Bank and walking on the Greenwich meridian line.

On Fri night, it was Halloween, so we met up with some friends in a bar, then crashed a student party in the SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) which was fun but finished quite early (the live band and the bar closed at 11pm, what the hell?) I thought Halloween would be really huge in London, with everyone in the street dressed up... But not really. Maybe it was just big in some clubs and special places, I dunno.

On Sunday morning I went back to the Windsor Castle, which I really find more interesting than the Tower of London that we visited a couple of days earlier. Ok, at the Tower, the guides are really entertaining, tell anecdotes, scare children, but apart from that the buildings are in my opinion less impressive than the rooms in the Windsor castle and there's much less to see.

After these exciting but exhausting holidays, it was good to sit down and relax on Sunday night, and to see my housemates again! I can't imagine how hard it's going to be in May when I'll have to say goodbye to them for good :-(
This week at school was quite good, my students were really nice. Probably because I asked them to talk about holidays and tourism! I used a kind of 'bingo card' where I put different expressions they had to use during our conversation. It worked really well! They gave me advice on which cities to visit in England, asked me which country I preferred, etc.
With my primary school children today I had a lot of fun, I made them revise what they've learnt so far with several games, like Simon says (which is 'Jacques a dit' in French) and they were really into it!

Also I found out yesterday that I'm going to go on a class trip for 5 days at the beginning of December, with 37 students and 3 teachers to... Paris!!! Yeah baby! We're even going to Disneyland, and I get to go for free, yeepee. I'm excited! I will get to spend more time with my colleagues and get to know the younger kids a little bit better, since the kids going on this trip are in Year 8(=classe de cinquième in France)

The other exciting trip to come starts tomorrow: I'm off to Edinburgh in the afternoon, and coming back on Sunday night! These long weekends are awesome :-) Which makes me think, I haven't started packing, it's late, and I have an early class tomorrow morning... So I'll post pictures when I come back from Scotland, byyyyye for now!

Checking out Harry Potter’s school in Oxford

First of all, here is some info for the people back in Lyon: I booked my flight for Christmas! I will be back in lovely Lyon on Thursday 18th of December in the evening and will leave on the 30th of December in the morning to celebrate NY’s eve with friends in London. So I’m hoping to catch up with as many Lyonnais friends as possible!
Back to my English life… Last Friday I went for a day trip to Oxford with 2 of my housemates and my québécois friend. It took us about an hour train to arrive. After eating a Chinese buffet we walked in the streets full of students, had a quick look at the castle (but did not go inside, a bit too expensive), saw the exhibition in front of the castle (Yann-Arthus Bertrand’s photos ‘La Terre vue du ciel’, which I had seen in Sydney, and I think my mum has the book as well—this guy is everywhere), and then we went to Christ Church University, the most famous college in Oxford. It was used in the first two Harry Potter movies, for scenes in the dining hall and in the stairs. It was pretty impressive and quite odd to think that students actually have their lunch in it even now! They were walking on the campus, avoiding tourists like us who were taking pictures of their beautiful university!



On Saturday I went to Windsor for X’s birthday, we had fish and chips (my first since I arrived 3 weeks ago!) and yummy birthday brownies. I met X’s friends including a guy who was at the same uni as me in France (Université Lumière Lyon 2)!! We realized we had friends in common (Oscar for instance, if you read this) and that we knew the same teachers… We’re both French teaching assistants in the same region now, such a small world :-D
In the evening I went to London and met up with my québécois friend as well as my Italian housemate and two of her Italian friends. We went to a series of concerts in the Millenium dome, in a club called ‘Matter’. The night was organized to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the independent music recording label Moshi Moshi... So I only knew one band among the 6 or 7 artists that we saw on stage. But it was a very good night, with different pop, rock, folk electro bands and DJs, like Kate Nash or Florence and the Machine to name a few. The concert of Hot Chip (a British pop electro band) that I had heard before on the radio was really good, everyone was dancing and singing :-) We left the club around 3.30am but it was such a hassle to go home, with night buses being derived because of roadworks, the tube being closed until 7am, our day travelcards that expired at 3am, the wait for a train home at Paddington station… Anyway we arrived home in the morning, ended up going to bed at 9am!!!! Lol.

This week flew by, with very interesting classes. I gave my students a list of topics and they had to talk about the positive aspects of one topic, then I was saying the negative aspects about it, before moving on to another topic. It is called the optimist v. pessimist game. It is quite good because students didn’t have the time to get bored of one topic so we had good discussions. The topics were very diverse too: fast foods, football, blockbusters, technology, the Euro, cars, alcohol, the opening of shops on Sundays, etc.
Apart from teaching I also had some great evenings with my housemates, settling in our new home. I went to London today and explored the Borough market near London Bridge with some friends, I ate the most delicious vegetarian food ever. Also admired London Bridge of course.

And good news, we finally got Internet at home so I’ll be able to update my blog more often! But for the moment I’m going on holidays (already, I know!) in Plymouth in the south west of England for 5 days, I’ll be back on Wednesday!

Cultural exchanges

On Thursday I had an information session in London organised by the British Council for all the French teaching assistants of the region. I arrived about an hour late (stupid public transports) but it didn’t really matter, they hadn’t done anything important… I think they knew most people would be late—French people have quite a reputation here for being late (can be quite convenient :-p)
The day was interesting, with several guests who came to talk about bringing French culture in the classroom. They gave us ideas of activities (games such as ‘what’s in my bag?’ or ‘I went to the market and I bought…’) then some 2nd year assistants answered some questions. When the training ended I went to have a drink in the city with about 6 or 7 assistants, was funny to be only with French people! When my friend J from Québec joined us the others laughed quite a lot… Yeah, we’re really not used to that accent in France! Makes me think, I learnt quite a few expressions this weekend thanks to him!

Non-French speakers might want to speak this next paragraph because I’m going to quote a few typical québécois expressions that are different from standard French (and thus very funny and/or strange for me)
So for instance I learnt the verb ‘pogner’ (which comes from ‘poignée’ in French, meaning handful) that Québécois use to say ‘buy’, ‘catch’, as in ‘pogner des tickets’ or ‘pogner une fesse’^^ Then while my friend was helping me assemble my Ikea cupboard, he said it was no problem because he was a ‘bisouneur’, which in Québec is synonymous of ‘bricoleur’ ( someone who likes DIY, like repairing a light bulb, building furniture, fixing things in the house basically) This word sounds very funny to me because ‘bisou’ in French means ‘kiss’! Among other things I realized that my friend said ‘gnugnuche’ instead of ‘nunuche’ (a word to talk about someone who’s a little dumb or cheesy), that the Québécois don’t know the expression ‘tu me saôules’ (= you’re being annoying) but that they use ‘tu me gosses’ or ‘tu m’achales’ instead; or also that ‘a job’ was feminine in québécois whereas in French it’s masculine: they say ‘Je vais à la job’ to say ‘je vais au travail’! And the Québécois version of the series ‘The Office’ is called ‘La Job’, instead of ‘Le Bureau’ for the French version! My friend joked saying that this was probably due to a wave of feminism in Québec :-D

My Spanish housemate taught me a couple of things too: ‘Hola’ actually means wave! Makes sense, since you’re waving to say hello :-) We also talked about the smurfs (‘les Schtroumpfs’ in French) and I loved the Spanish word for them: ‘los pitufos’. Apparently you can use this word for kids or short people as well in Spain, how cute! My Italian housemate also told me that they often call her native region Calabria ‘Calafrica’ because it’s so down South^^ I also learnt German things but I need to check with my German housemate how to write them!
That was a short article about random fun facts about languages. For an account of what I was actually up to during my weekend, see next article :-p

Our house... in the middle of the street

My pretty sweet kitchen


My street (my house is one of those in the background)


My bathroom


The view from my bedroom window, on our huge back garden



My new bedroom... Home sweet home


FINALLY !!!!!!
I have a house, yay! We signed the papers at the agency last Monday, gave them the money and they handed us the keys to our new home… As soon as we left the agency my housemates and I rushed to Tesco (sorry Oscar who thinks they’re evil) to buy necessary things like duvets, pillows, towels, mugs, plates, cutlery, pasta, chips, alco…, erm, I mean, sparkling water :-p We looked quite funny, the four of us at the till, in the bus, on the road, carrying our huge bags. I felt sooooo happy and excited!
When we arrived at the house we saw that there were actually a lot of things already in there! The kitchen had almost everything: cutlery, mugs, cups, plates, knifes, pots, pans, even the oven glove and wooden spoons! The landlord had also left cleaning products, garbage bags, a vacuum cleaner, a mop… The lounge had a band new couch and armchair; I think my double bad is brand new too, and the landlord had put two Ikea boxes under my bed… with brand new cupboards in it that I only had to assemble! In short, I was on cloud nine. Anyone who wants to visit is welcome, there is plenty of room for guests!!
My housemates left to go back to their respective places because they didn’t have the time to move all their stuff that night; I, on the other hand, was able to go fetch my suitcase at X’s place who lives about 5 mins from our new home (thanks again for hosting me for so long!!!) and so I was the first to sleep in our home, along with J, my Québécois friend who was there to visit the lovely city of Slough (ahah)

After this first night I went to work on Tuesday with a big smile on my face and made my students listen to a song (‘La Belle et le Bad Boy’) by Mc Solaar, one of the most famous French rappers. They found it a bit difficult but very interesting and poetic, and we had great talks about the situation of young people in the French ‘banlieues’ (suburbs)
Then as I was waiting for one of my students, a teacher told me that he was at the Merits Awards ceremony. What is this, I wondered. So I followed all the students to the hall and my colleague K and I witnessed a really strange ceremony, something very different from ceremonies in French or German schools. So formal! A girl told off because she was wearing earrings, another was told to swallow his chewing gum. A student played a piece of music then there was a speech by the Head of School, who introduced the Sheriff, a woman officially representing the Queen. She gave the awards to about 50 students, and then did a brief summary of what it was to be a sheriff nowadays compared to before (when no one wanted to be one because it meant being hated by people for collecting taxes) She explained what her strange uniform meant, and put on her big hat with ostrich feathers on it :-D She told the high schoolers that when she was at a Merits awards ceremony back in the days, it was interrupted by the news of president Kennedy’s assassination… I found the speech quite interesting though a bit long (esp since I had to stand for the whole ceremony) Overall a very interesting experience for me who had never seen such a ceremony before!
Tuesday evening was our first dinner all together with my housemates. I had a very nice time, and I think it’s going to be a pretty good year socially speaking :-)
On Wednesday morning I went back to the primary school, and taught the Year 4 pupils about words for mother, father, sister and brother, using the Simpsons family as an example. They all knew the series so it was a success, we made lots of little games, with girls against boys who had to answer correctly to my questions, or in little groups and they had to imagine a family, etc. They were really cute, very lively and eager to learn. At the end I taught them a nursery rhyme about a turtle family that goes like this:

Jamais on n’a vu jamais on ne verra
La famille tortue courir après les rats
Le papa tortue et la maman tortue et le bébé tortue
iront toujours au pas.

With the Year 3 class, that is, the ones that never studied French before, I taught them the different ways to answer the question ‘Comment ça va ?’ (‘How are you?’), doing the gestures and playing games.
I was pretty happy because I was dreading this lesson (primary school kids have a short attention span and you have to talk all the time, keep them busy without losing them) but it went really well after all. I think they like it when I joke and make strange gestures, I probably inherited this from my mum ;-)
I’ll stop this article here otherwise it will be too long and I will talk about my busy weekend in the next one…

Wandering the streets of London

Back to where I left things off: Wednesday. I went to this primary school at 8.30am and spent 30 minutes in a Year 4 class (the equivalent of CE2 in France, basically children between 8 and 9 years old) teaching them basic French, like how to say hello, goodbye, the different ways to answer the question ‘how are you?’, etc. They had already done a year of French the previous year so they remembered a lot of things. Then I went to another Year 4 class for another 30 mins, they were equally cute and motivated. Finally, I went to a Year 3 class (aged 7 or 8) and there I had to take everything from scratch because it was their first year of French. It was a very interesting experience and intimidating experience to be in front of so many young children! They loved it when I mimed the typical way to say hello to your friends in France, with 2 or more kisses on the cheeks :-D

One of the teachers asked me something quite strange: how would you describe someone who is from Normandy (as in, the region in the North of France)? So I said, hmmm I don’t know, probably blonde and quite fair-skinned as opposed to French people living in the South? He laughed and said, well, if you ask any British people the same questions about Normands, they would describe them as tall and dark-haired! He then explained to me that this difference in popular culture was probably due to the invasion of England by the Normands in 1066, and how Anglo-Saxons had focused on their invaders’ physical differences rather than their common features… And at the time Normands may have been darker than now, I don’t know… I just thought it was interesting!

On Thursday since I didn’t have any classes in the afternoon, I went to London, walked around, went to the Photographer’s Gallery, sat in a café and started doing something I love to do when I’m alone in an unusual environment: observing people. Esp at this time of day when everyone gets off work and hurry to be home as fast as possible… One thing that particularly caught my eye was the large number of women dressed formally after a day at the office who had traded their high heels for comfortable trainers. It’s the kind of trivial thing that fascinated me, I don’t know why.

After that pause, I went to an Indian restaurant in Brick Lane for a friend’s birthday. We had to wait for a loooong time (well, we were 17 people) but it was worth it, the food was delicious and so cheap! And everyone was so nice! They were all students, since my friend (who I met last year at Melbourne uni) is on an exchange at UCL (University College of London). I met people from all around the world: Germans, Aussies, Malaysians, Indonesians, Americans, English and French people… A very good night :-)



On Friday I was off to London again, this time with K, my future housemate. We had lunch in Chinatown, an ‘all you can eat’ Chinese buffet for 4.95 pounds. Bargain! We took the Tube, walked around to South Bank and UCL to meet up with M, who I had seen the night before at the Indian restaurant. We admired all the buildings and had a latte in a lovely café inside the uni. I felt a bit nostalgic when I realised that I’m not a student anymore :-(

Also, it’s very curious, I’m not homesick, in the sense that I don’t miss Lyon or France that much. Of course, I miss the people who are back in Lyon, my family, my friends… but since I know I’ll be back for Christmas, it’s not that bad. On the other hand, being in a new city, speaking English every day, getting to know new people from all around the world… It reminds me so much of my first weeks in Australia that it makes me feel a bit sad. Oh well, I’m sure it will go away soon. I’m not complaining, for the moment everything is going well, if we don’t mention the hassle about moving in our new house :-/

After this afternoon in London K and I met E (my other future housemate) at the bus station in Slough and went to Windsor for dinner. We ate in a bar/restaurant, the food was so so good, the music and the bar itself pretty cool too though the people were quite noisy. We were surprised at how crowded the place was at around 8.30pm… People really go out earlier than in France, Italy or Germany!

On Saturday I met up with K and we checked out places where we could find places with a wireless connection. Turns out the only places to have it were the local pub and… Mc Donalds. Will be useful when I move in my new house on Monday, since I’ll probably have to wait a few days before having the internet…


Today I went to London again. It’s been so sunny and warm those last few days, it really is like an Indian summer! So I went to lie on the grass of Hyde Park with a coffee and a sandwich. The park was full of Londoners, children, tourists… Speaking about tourists, I heard so many people speak French since I’ve been here, I almost feel like I’m still in France :-D I then I met up with J, my friend from Québec who is back in London after his trip to the Netherlands. We walked in the streets, had a look at St Paul’s cathedral and St Bartholomew’s church, and finished our tour in a yummy Thai restaurant. I came back home with a Greenline bus which cost me only 1 pound (depending on the time of the day you take these coaches, the ticket can be as cheap as 1 pound or on the contrary, 6 or 7 pounds)
Now I’m getting ready for another week of teaching! Hopefully tomorrow night I’ll be able to sleep in my new house, we’re going to sign the papers in the evening… fingers crossed!

When I grow up I want to be a teacher

Ok warning everyone, since I haven’t written any articles in the past week this one is going to be long ^^
Last week was quite busy! On Wednesday I went to the school for the first time, and talked to the Language Department staff who explained to us how we were going to work, with which students (mainly children who are in Year 11, 12 and 13 = Seconde, Première and Terminale in France), what they were supposed to learn for their exams, etc. I got my timetable, and was very happy to see that I have my Thursday afternoons and Fridays off! Long weekends to recuperate and travel, yay! On the other hand, it means that I start almost every day at 8.40m. And this is verrrrry hard for me^^ I also found out that on Wednesday mornings I would go to a primary school to teach French to little children! Awwww. Here is the website of the school: http://www.kps.moonfruit.com/#
On Mondays and Tuesdays evening from 4.30 till 5.30 I will also be working at the library (literally baby-sitting the children and then doing the closing, locking the doors, turning off the computers etc.)

Anyway, on Thursday, I shadowed a student all day, that is, I followed her everywhere, to see what it was like to be a student at Slough Grammar School. Unfortunately, since I arrived a couple of minutes late, I shadowed the wrong student for the first two classes :-D Is that my fault if there were two girls named Victoria in Year 8? (the equivalent of “classe de cinquième” in French, so the kids were about 12-13 years old) In the morning I observed a music class, during which the students were in pairs and supposed to play a melody on the piano; then a Spanish class, which was so much fun! The teaching techniques in the UK are indeed quite different from the ones used in France. Children’s participation is widely encouraged and they are eager to ask questions and do role plays, games, etc.
Then I found the right Victoria who I was supposed to follow from the beginning. She had a cooking class for 2 hours. Apparently cooking is included in their “technology” subject in years 7 and 8 (Sixième et Cinquième in France) In Year 8 they do 2 hours a week of cooking for 6 weeks and then they move on to another technology option like textile, etc. So in this cooking class there were about 20 girls and boys. They all had different recipes, because at the beginning of the year each child got to pick a country (I think they had a choice of 12 different countries) and then had to cook about 6 recipes of this country. Countries available were France, the UK, the Caribbean islands, China, Thailand, the United States, India… Of course they were not allowed to choose the country they came from. Then they got to take home what they had cooked. It was quite comical to see all these children make mango and lime mousse, shortbreads, banana cake, cookies, cheesecake… And I loved it when towards the end of the lesson they asked me if I wanted to taste what they had cooked! Yum :-p

Then I went to the canteen, which was so different from the French ones. There were only a few food stalls (but most of the kids had brought sandwiches from home) and they were using the tables to put their bags on and were eating standing up or outside! After that I went to see a maths class, with a teacher who at one point said to one of the kids sorry could you speak slower? I didn’t understand a word of what you just said, I come from Australia y’a know? I jumped on my chair and told my colleague K who was with me omg omg there is one Australian teacher in the school and we found him!!! Ahah. When he came closer to talk to us we noticed that he had a tie with kangaroos, koalas and maps of Australia on it^^ He told me he was from Townsville in Northern Queensland.
After school I took the train to London to go see Gotye’s concert, an Australian artist, in an area called Sheperd’s Bush, which I found out later is London’s Australian area :-) I caught up with a friend from Melbourne that I hadn’t seen in 9 months and met her really nice friends. I was so tired though that I fell asleep on my train home and I almost missed my stop!

I got up the next morning still very early (7.30am) to go to school and this time observe only language lessons. We started with a Spanish lesson (I learnt so many words :-p) then French lessons. I was actually quite impressed by the kids’ level of French!
After school I went to get a young persons railcard (thanks to which I’ll have 30 percent discount on all trains in the UK) and an Oyster card (the equivalent of a Técély card for the Lyonnais), which gives me cheap fares on London buses and Tube. I felt almost like a local :-p
Then I spent the evening with my new friends (the other assistants from the school) doing gratin dauphinois and drinking Australian Chardonnay. A very international evening, so much fun!



On Saturday I went to the city of Windsor which is about 15 mins bus from Slough, and yet so different from where I live! Windsor is indeed very posh, with cobbled streets, luxury shops and… the Windsor castle of course. We stayed several hours in it, where we saw the guards, a chapel, a giant dolls house, numerous rooms including some used by the Queen herself to entertain guests several times a year…
I had a really good time, and now that I have visited the castle once, I can go back for free for a whole year! How awesome! So when you my dear readers come visit me, I’ll be glad to take you to the castle :-)
After this royal visit I went to do some shopping with E and K, my two colleagues and future housemates:

On Sunday it was so rainy and cold and windy that I stayed in all day with my new friends. And I finally was able to catch up on some sleep.
Yesterday I had my first proper day of teaching at school. My first lesson was at 8.40am. Basically, I have lessons with only one student at a time for 30 mins. I talked to 5 students in total (2 forgot to come), and it was very interesting. I asked them to introduce themselves and talk about their hobbies, where they live (very few live in Slough), if they had been to France, what they want to do after the baccalaureate, etc. They were all so nice and eager to learn. Then I replaced the librarian at the school’s library for an hour. Very encouraging day overall.

Today was about the same, with face-to-face lessons with students. I also found out that in the end we will only get to move in our new house on Monday because the owner (who doesn’t live in Slough) hasn’t put all the furniture in yet and can only do it this weekend. It is quite annoying but there’s nothing we can do to speed the process. The estate agents are quite useless; they keep saying contradictory things every day. I think my housemates and I will be so relieved when it’s all over and we’re all settled!
That’s all for now. Hope you are all well and please give me some news!

London baby !

I’m tiiiiiiiired… But so happy :-)
This Sunday I went to London! I took a train then the Underground (=the metro of London, also called the Tube) and met up with J, a friend from Québec that I had met in Australia.
We grabbed a sandwich at a chain called “Prêt à Manger” (so delicious) and went to sit on the big green lawns of Green Park. We got tanned a bit, then G, an English friend of mine I hadn’t seen in about a year a half came to join us. We had a walk in the park, went to see the Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye (huge big wheel on the Thames), South Bank, and then went to the Institute of Contemporary Arts to have a look at the free exhibition. I got a postcard for free at the bookshop which says: “Things are getting worse. Please send chocolate”

After that we decided to take the underground again to go to Camden. When we arrived I was amazed at how busy the area was! It was a Sunday so there was the Camden market, with lots of clothes shops, decorations, food stalls, strangely dressed people, bars, live music… Very bohemian and arty, loooooved it. G had to leave, but before she showed us a great pub called the Lock Tavern where we sat down to rest our feet and quench our thirst. E (my future housemate and colleague who comes from Italy) came a bit later with an Italian friend of hers and we all had drinks while listening to a DJ mixing electro and rock, and then watching a guy playing the guitar and singing à la Elliott Smith. I found out that a girl sitting next to me was from Belgium and had just come back from 5 years in Australia^^
On our way back to the underground station we decided to stop in a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. We ate yummy food and improvised language lessons on food :-D Pretty cool night.

On Monday I and my 3 future housemates—including M, the Spanish assistant that we finally met that day; he’s very nice—went to the estate agent at 9am for the details about the contract (furniture, possibility to rent the fifth room, an 8-month lease…) and they said they would contact the landlord and get back to us. In the meantime we decided to visit a few other houses in case we could find something better/cheaper. So we knocked on several agencies’ doors, visited 3 or 4 houses but none of them was as good as the first one. Except one which was huge and fully furnished, but the owners were only leaving mid-November… to go live in Melbourne, Australia! Hehe

We also went to the school to get some official letters proving we were working as teaching assistants so as to open a bank account and register at the medical centre. We walked so much that at one point we decided we would reward ourselves with a break at the local KRISPY KREME doughnut shop. These doughnuts are EVIL. So good.
This was an exhausting day, but very interesting and I got to know my future housemates better!

Today was pretty much the same, except that the weather changed. Exit the sun and the blue sky, it was cold and rainy all day. Very British! I met up with my future housemates again and did all the administrative things like opening a bank account, going to the medical centre to register and do a check-up, and most of all, negotiating with the estate agent about the house. In the end, we signed the “Confirmation of terms and conditions” and paid the agency fees, but said we would not move in before seeing the house again with the furniture in it. We also had a look at the two commercial centers which are really big, us girls were so happy (especially when we went to Primark, kind of a British H&M but even cheaper!) while M, the Spanish assistant was looking at us laughing and saying oh my God I’m going to live with those 3 girls. :-D

E taught us an Italian expression at lunch to say that you are always hungry and that you can eat pretty much all the time: you’re a “pozzo senza fondo”, literally “a well without a bottom”. I told her we had the expression in French (“un puits sans fond”) but that it applied to people who were big spenders.

Anyway it was all exciting but so tiring! I keep on getting up at 8am and going to bed after midnight, and it’s going to be even worse tomorrow which will be my first day at school! I have to be there at 8.30am :-O I’m finally going to meet the staff and the students! Hope it will go well…

Finding a place to live

My first day in Slough ended well: I went to the city center with X and I met my future housemates, who are also going to work as Foreign Language assistants at Slough Grammar School: K, the German assistant, and E, the Italian assistant. They were both so so nice! E has been in Slough since the first of September whereas K arrived on Tuesday. We decided to find a house to live in together with also M, the Spanish assistant, who was arriving only the next day. I hope it will be a bit like l’Auberge Espagnole (the Spanish Apartment)… for those who don’t know what I’m talking about, go rent the movie NOW!
Anyway, we went to the Slough library where I got a card for free. We looked for ads on the internet, called a few landlords and estate agents, visited a house (nice, but not enough room for 4 people) then after this hard work we went to the local pub to share our first impressions about the city and the school around burgers, chips and pints :-p

My second day in Slough was quite busy! X and I went to the centre again to meet K and E at the pub, because it said that they had wi-fi… But when I tried to go online with my laptop to look for ads about houses to rent, it didn’t work, and the staff was not helpful at all. So we did it old school and went knocking on an agency’s door, asking them if it was possible to visit a house we had seen in a newspaper ad. The agent said sure, go there directly to check out the house, the people are still there packing their things.
So, we took the bus to this lovely little area of Slough, called Langley (very close to X’s place, and about 30 mins walk from the school) and found the house. And what a house!!! So big, with 4 bedrooms upstairs (all very big, except one which is smaller), with cupboards included in the walls, a big lounge downstairs, a kitchen with enough space to put a table and chairs to have dinner in, a garage (for parties!!!! hehe), a back garden and a small front garden, toilets downstairs, 2 bathrooms upstairs (one of them is connected to a room)... It was very bright with lots of windows, and brand new! So very clean and pretty. Plus, the beds were included, as well as a washing machine, a drier, an oven, a microwave, a fridge and a dishwasher! We LOVED it! The rent was a bit more expensive than what we were expecting to pay but we figured that if it’s too much, we’ll get a fifth person to live with us!
We were so excited about the house that we called the agent to tell them we were interested. So we’re going back on Monday to sign the papers. Yay!
After these good news, I went to do a bit of shopping at the huge local supermarket called Tesco. They had so many things, including my favourite beer in the whole world (Coopers Pale Ale, from South Australia) and curiously, they had more Australian wines than French wines :-D I bought an organic baguette which was quite expensive but deliciousssss :-)
Tonight I just stayed in, I tried to watch a movie on TV but there were just sooo many ads, every 10 mins! It’s crazy!!!! Tomorrow I’m off to London to see some friends, I can’t wait!

Arriving in Slough

Hi everyone ! Welcome to my blog :-)

So, for those who would not know exactly what I’d been up to lately, brief summary. I came back mid-January 2008 from Melbourne, Australia, where I had the time of my life studying, travelling and partying. And meeting great people. But I guess everyone knows that already! So yeah, I came back to the lovely town of Lyon, France, where I finished my “Master 2” degree in English. I wrote a “mémoire” (the equivalent of an Honours’ thesis for you aussies ;-)) comparing American and Australian politics. I had no classes at all, just these 100 pages to write, so it was very hard to focus and do all the research on my own. But I made it eventually! Yay.

That was what I was up to these last few months. Now, I’m off again. To the UK. Slough, precisely, which is located west of London. I don’t know much about the city apart from the vague facts that it’s a big industrial town which was featured in one of my favourite British series, “The Office”. I remembered the poem about the city, written by Sir John Betjeman, in 1937

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens
Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,
Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week a half a crown
For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars
In various bogus-Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.

Charming hey? I had a quick look at the “Slough” Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slough) and found out Slough was also very ethnically diverse, which should be interesting. Many people laughed when I told them I was going there, wishing me good luck. Others reassured me saying it was not too far from Windsor, or London, and that the surrounding area was beautiful. We’ll see.

One sure thing is that it’s the beginning of something really new from me. That is, leaving my comfortable status of student in English to become a French teacher. Well, for the moment, not a proper teacher. Just a FLA: Foreign Language Assistant. My job description could be summed up as such: making my students (high schoolers aged 15 to 18) speak French. Talk about my language, my culture. I’m going to be working at Slough Grammar School, which, judging by their website, the brochures they sent me and the very nice e-mails from the staff, looks like a pretty good school! Therefore, I’m excited. And stressed, just a bit.

After spending a day and a half in Paris catching up with friends and family, I took a plane to Luton airport at 9 on Friday morning. I had a safe (and short!) trip, though I had to buy a bigger hand luggage because I was not allowed to have my laptop in a separate bag... I hate Easyjet and their stupid restrictions! (Erm, ok, that was the part "I’m-French-so-I-have-to-complain-otherwise-the-little-French-part-in-me-will-shrink-and-eventually-die") Anyway, I ended up buying the cheapest sports bag I could find in one of the airport stores to fit all my stuff in. The cheapest bag was also the crappiest. The zip is already broken. And my giant suitcase which had survived Australia also started to crack in several parts :-(

I eventually dragged my luggage to the shuttle bus station of Luton airport, where I took a coach to London, Victoria station. The trip was about an hour and 20 mins long. Oh well, I was able to catch up on some much needed sleep. Now, I was amazed by one thing when I arrived in London. Nope, not by the double-decked red buses (though, they are cute. But I got used to them back when I spent a summer in London in 2005), nor by the cute accent of everyone around me or the gorgeous weather. No, it was the free wireless connection in the Greenline Bus that took me from Victoria Station to Slough. I was able to surf on the internet for about an hour, from a bus. I’m such a geek, hehe.

Anyway, after getting off the bus, I found my way to X’s place, who is the other French Language Assistant who kindly offered me to stay with her the time for me to find my own place in Slough. She lives in Langley, an area of Slough that looks quite cute, with lots of trees and lawns and small houses. X is really nice and helpful :-)

This article is already way too long so I’ll stop here and talk about accommodation and everything in the next one! That’s it for my first day in the UK!