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!