A whistle-stop Tour Of the last few months

After another huge period of absence, i will again attempt to be more committed to this.


Its honestly difficult for me to remember all the things i have done recently, where to start. 


Well i guess i have a few big trips  that i havent had a chance to write about 


Ok so i think it will begin with my trip to Prague. We divided our little group into two cars, and began our journey at some ridiculous hour of the morning with a slightly rushed drive to Charlois  Airport in order to catch our flight. Two days before our departure, Chloe and I decided to do abit of research into the weather in Prague, naively thinking that temperatures would be of a similar level to here in Lille. We couldnt have been more wrong! After discovering  that the temperatures  might be reaching the extreme minuses i packed the furry russian hat and i felt that i was prepared. On our touch down i stepped off the plane to find myself gripping a completely frozen handrail. Its safe to say, it was incredibly cold! Aside from the fact that it was freezing the hostel we stayed at was really lovely and the staff were really helpful. Our first day after we had dropped off our bits at the hostel we decided to try and find somewhere nice to eat. we were thinking somewhere traditionally Czech so asked the people at the hostel if they could recommend anywhere. We followed their instructions and were shown into a nice looking restaurant with long wooden tables and a bizarre menu. Aside from the fact that it was all mostly meat and goulash, it seemed that it was not commonplace for the customer to be able to eat what they wanted. Chloe being a veggie and me often preferring a non meat option found it difficult to choose something, but had settled on a fried cheese option thinking it sounded quite nice. we had chosen to accompany this with a taste of Czech dumplings as this was what everyone else was having with their goulash. Unfortunately we were informed that it wouldnt be possible for us to have this.No explanation given, just no you cant have them. Its safe to say neither chloe or I were very full after our one piece of fried cheese arrived! After eating we walked around what is one of the most beautiful cities i have ever been to. The architecture of the buildings was beautiful and there was just so much to see! we took a boat tour on the river which was lovely, all nice and warm inside with a cup of hot wine, what more could you ask for! Apart from the fact that the man had a very heavy Czech accent and was often difficult to understand it was a very informative tour. That night we decided to go out for curry, bit of a random choice but it was really nice, followed by cocktails in a bar that was playing the whole of Michael Jackson's greatest hits! The following day Nick woke us all up bright and early to commence our day of activities including a visit to the Castle! According to my prior research Prague has the largest castle area in the world- look it up its in the guinness book of records. Being abit of a castle geek i was very excited! I Love all the spiral staircases and dungeons, etc, although Prague castle had more of a stately home feel in places, the cathedral in the centre was phenomenal and it was actually really interesting to read about a part of history i really know nothing about. Also during our visits we went on Charles Bridge, a very important tourist spot and a bridge that has been used in films like mission impossible. We looked around the little shops, some very touristy with all the tacky tourist accessories and some that were really lovely we  ate at a gorgeous little Italian restaurant which was doing an amazing offer for two courses and a drink. It kind of felt like someones house, all little nick nacks and mirrors everywhere.

After a long period of absence.....

Ok so i really haven't been keeping up with my Blog, it feels like its been so long since i have written anything


Im not even sure what my last post was about but im pretty sure i didn't cover our epic trip to Cologne before Christmas. Han Chloe and I clambered into Jess's KA to start our two and a half hour journey to Cologne. It seems crazy to me that we could get to Germany in such a short period of time. My Dad had mentioned to me that Cologne had a pretty impressive Cathedral but i have to say nothing could prepare me for the monument that greeted us at the top of the stairs out of the car park. In some ways it could be said it didn't quite look real, i do find it truly inspiring when you think about the age of the building that people could have created something that beautiful and intricate. For someone who has rather adverse feelings towards religion i find churches and cathedrals truly inspiring. I have to say the Christmas market in Lille had nothing on Cologne. We sampled some true German culture in Gluhwein- it was actually the first time that i had been ID'd in months, it was quite refreshing actually. Rowan met us later in the day and we ended up even going to a Christmas market on a boat, apparently its the largest one in Europe....


Before we all parted for Christmas we met up to exchange secret santa presents, it was a lovely evening with my present from emily being a Orchid, i was so happy. She clearly was paying extra special attention to my moans about how much i wanted one on one of our frequent trips to IKEA. It looks so lovely in my room. We had a really nice meal at this sort of Posh Burger diner place followed by a yummy cafe gourmand- these have become my new favourite things when i cant decide on a desert meaning that i get to sample a few mini ones instead. 


As well as this i stayed in Lille for an extra long period of time before Xmas as i had a very special visitor in the form of Joshie- we stayed till the tuesday before Christmas and had a lovely time sampling all of Lilles christmassy delights and even making a slightly terrifying trip on the wheel. On the Friday night he even got to meet Chloe, Cait , Han, Flora,Nick and Jean, its so nice to have him part of my life out here, as even if he did come with me to Lille in summer it has now become my home and it feels a whole lot different showing someone around now. Our journey home wasnt lacking in drama, we had concerns about even being able to get back, what with all the problems with the eurostar. I was convinced we were gona be having Christmas en France! However it all turned out to be fine, we even managed to get a train pretty much at the time we had booked. Though i cant say that the French were overly helpful in delivering information. When i asked what was happening with the changed i was greeted with the typically french shrug of the shoulders and "oh you just get on the next one..." when enquiring when the next one would be... you can guess the response....yes another shrug, well what did i really expect!!!!! Though i do have to say being upgraded to first class with extra leg room and free magazines wasn't anything to complain about. All on all i think we were really lucky as i know alot of people had real problems getting out of England. 
On our return to Lille, Jess made another mammoth journey by driving the whole way from the lake district to lille all in one day , whilst making a pitstop at mine to pick me up obviously. The boat ride over wasnt particuarly enjoyable, i do feel that when you are younger you dont notice the journey as your too busy running around duty free or on the top deck. I have to say that the eurostar is definately my preferred mode of travel  now. But anyways we got back here with little drama though i have to say the prospect of having to return to work straight after new year was not something i was looking forward to.


I was pleasantly surprised and even proud to see how much my kids had remembered since before xmas. I had visions of returning and when i asked whats your name? Would be faced with a sea of blank faces. However i was indeed proved wrong, they were amazing, they remembered pretty much everything! And they loved the little treat i brought back for them, in the form of crackers! Christmas crackers are somewhat of a novelty for the french as they dont really have them over here. 


Since coming back we have already had some lovely nights, we met up on the wednesday night to go for dinner at L'Omnia a restaurant just off the grand place that used to be a brothel. Its pretty cool actually all red velvet and candlesticks inside. As well as this Chloe Jess Emily Nick Han Rowan and I made a trip to the outdoor ice skating rink that was in Lille, we managed to catch it ont he last weekend. It safe to say i was a little wobbly at first and in comparison to Emily and Nick who had incredible skills i was terrible but i was very pleased that i didnt fall over and it was a really good laugh. Aside from the little showy kids who thought it was amusing to skate past really fast and really close. 


This Wednesday was the first day of the french sales...As a huge fan of the sales in england i wasnt holding out much hope that France would deliver. However, i have to say i was pleasantly surpised... As the shops dont tend to have sales mid season the post christmas sales are a really big deal, with 90% of the stock being on sale. We had a fun day. 


One thing i would like to comment on is the arrival and departure of our new friend Cait, we both met and said goodbye to her in one week. It was a sad time as we were really looking forward to forging another friendship.However a severe mix up on her university in Canada's part mean that she had to return back home after less than a week in France. Though i dont doubt that we will stay in touch. 


Finally this weekend emily held a soirée and hers seeing as Alexandre is away on an internship. I have to say it was the best party yet, it put Jess and I to shame as we normally provide our guests with a measly couple of bags of crisps. Emily on the other hand has been baking all day creating different types of cookies and Nick made us a traditional American dish of taco salad, it was so good and it safe to say whoever hosts the next soirée has alot to live up to! 


Things to look forward to: We are making a little roadtrip to Amsterdam this weekend, which should be awesome, im really excited to explore some of Europe as my experiences are somewhat limited. In particular i can't wait to visit Anne Franks' house it has always been my dream to go and see it.


As well as this we have yet another holiday coming up in February in which we have planned a trip to Prague, Hana did some amazing research and found us some flights for only 29 euros return. I literally cant wait it should be amazing. For the rest of the holiday i have planned a trip back to England to see everyone in Southampton and more importantly to head home and swap over to a more spring appropriate wardrobe. 


Anyways that is all for now, i will try and be abit more commited this term and not leave it so long between posts 


xxx

Another Battle with BNP!

Monday teaching went pretty well, singing head shoulders knees and toes repeatedly to each of my three classes was particularly enjoyable! I must say though after the 25th time of going through it i wasnt even bothered about how stupid i looked and sounded! 

Dinner our with Flora at a lovely italien restaurant was lovely, if extremely filling, thought i was gona burst when i left, Jess and I definitely made a mistake with our choices and realised this as soon as we saw how big the starter was!!!

Wednesday began fairly well though i did find it particularly difficult to get out of bed, not quite sure why but it really was, plans to go to the British Cultural centre were abandoned and i spent my morning catching up on tv. Met up with the girls to go for a coffee and to arrange out secret santa, went to a lovely little cafe and had a really enjoyable time, right up to the point when Jess recieved an email from our best friends the BNP claiming that they were closing our bank accounts and that it would be necessary for us to go to the bank and withdraw any funds still remaining there! Its safe to say we were gobsmacked. completley obvlivious to what we had done this time, we set off straight to BNP- with Chloe as our backup. Jess was livid and not sure she could string a proper sentence together in french so felt it was neccessary to have a person who was removed from the situation with us. After leaving us waiting for 20 mins we went to complain only to be told that Celine was in fact to busy to come speak to us and that the bank would be shutting in 10 mins anyway so there was no point waiting. It was slightly strange that originally we were told that she was in a meeting only to be later fobbed off with the excuse that she was writing 'un grand dossier.' We have a sneaking suspicion that maybe she just didnt wana speak to us.... Cant think why! We had got to the point of despair and really didnt know what to do so turned to our forever trusty Anne to help us. She agreed to come with us to the bank the following day and Jess and I were both very relieved as having a native french speaker come with us was certainly going to improve our chances of actually getting to the bottom of what we had done wrong this time! 

We arrived and were seen by Celine straight away, she was surprisingly polite to us and overly helpful, cant think why...Maybe Annes' subtle guilt tripping in which she detailed how she was very much responsible for us and our 'wellbeing' whilst in france and the great amount of pressure we are under and the difficulties we would face if, in fact we did close our accounts with BNP and moved somewhere else. The problem was swiftly resolved by us being told that we would be sent ANOTHER letter that we would have to sign for to prove where we live! Cannot even believe how ridiculous this country can be sometimes.However its just a relief now that they are not closing our accounts! 

Friday was abit of a pointless day as far as teaching was concerned as two of my three classes were cancelled due to the teacher taking them on a school trip so i was forced to travel all the wya to school at 3.30 to teach one class for 45 mins, im so glad its only 3  stops of the metro! Last night i went for a drink with Hana Chloe Flora and Jess and Rowan as he is visiting this weekend, we went to a really cute bar. It was all lovely until mine and Hana's drinks arrived in a tiny glass and consisting of pure alcohol! We knew that our drinks were cheaper than everyone elses but they were still in the cocktail section! A bottle of limonade was definitely necessary to tame the overwhelming taste of rum! 

All in all this week has been pretty good, Lille got a small flurry of snow though it is too wet here to settle so i think its safe to say we will experience all the cold of winter without the bonus of a pretty white covering. Cant say im that disappointed as i think sometimes can be more hastle than its worth!

Harry Potter Tonight- Excited doesnt even cover it! 

Our first French curry, internet installed, and French TV!!!!!

Its sunday and i really should be extensively planning my lessons but im really finding it hard, having the responsibility of teaching these kids from scratch is started to make me feel very under pressure. In addition to this i have so much work to do for uni and its really starting to get my down, especially as certain people i have met out here don't have the same workload, i feel like this year is designed to improve my language but all this work  Southampton is expecting me to do im worried it will start to negatively effect my experience here as eventually i am going to choose to stay in and do  work over experiencing french life! I do think the project we have been assigned will encourage us to keep up our work ethic so i do understand i just thought that every uni would set a similar task.

Yesterday Jess and I went into town in search of a cheap  home phone and certain cables we needed in order to connect out new orange tv box! After an interesting visit to some giant electrical store we discovered what cables we would need and after a trip to carrefour we managed to get them. Though i will have to say France does seem to be lacking in certain things i really wanted to find some nice  birthday cards and i just cant find anywhere that sells any that are appropriate for guys, its really odd.



In the evening we met up with Hana, Flora and her friend Alex from uni. It was our first experience of a french curry! Although the restaurant resembled any other curry house in England it seems that french curries are in fact, abit different Flora and Jess  both had Korma's and said they were lovely but different from English Korma's. I on the hand had a spinach veggie curry it was absolutely gorgeous, very different from anything i have ever had before but was so nice. We headed onto Le Zeppelin after this and enjoyed some cocktails. I will  say that i do really enjoy the french way of life, the way that you really can go out for some drinks in a bar with good atmosphere and music but not so its so loud that you cannot have a conversation with people. Eventhough drinks prices are taking a real getting used to! Friday night being a perfect example with drinks in Smile hitting the ten euro mark and bottles of champagne actually costing 2000 euros! I think these kind of prices are just unfathomable for us English students! The club had a similar vibe to the only other club we have experienced in Lille (seven heaven), it seems that french music consists of bad clubbing  "tunes" and trance remixes of good songs!!!!! We were so excited everytime they played a song we recognised but were horrified by the remix of "I've had the time ofmy life" from dirty dancing, was pretty awfull! Though i was pleased to see some of the french girls in more dressy clothing meaning that we didnt feel so over the top in dresses! There were even some girls in heels, couldnt believe it!!!! Though i will have to say the highlight of Friday night had to be predrinks at mine and Jess's flat! We had such a great time, dancing and singing to old school pop including Busted, Aqua and spice girls!!!! Though im not sure how much the people above us really appreciated it, i think that living in a appartement building is going to take a bit of getting used to. Though me and jess couldnt even tell you who is actually living above us seeing as we have never seen the same people head up the stairs! 


Lessons at school  on Friday at Mme de Maintenon went pretty well, the kids are really great but having the teacher comeback nearly 15minutes after she was supposed to did start to get my stressed as my lesson was planned for 45 minutes with the last task being for them to use their new knowledge of colours to colour in a Union Jack, had an awkward moment when two of them  finished really quickly and i had nothing else left for them to do,in the end i just asked them questions  about whether they enjoy learning english and if they had visited england. 

Need to get back to my planning now, have written a little speech about Bonfire Night for my class with the headteacher  and im hoping to be able to show them a dvd of kids building a bonfire and lighting fireworks. Im thinking now that with my other classes tomorrow i might do abit of "head,shoulders, knees and toes" cant wait to have to sing in front of the class! Im hoping i can just sing along to the song on my laptop maybe even just mouth the words so that they dont have to listen to my terrible singing voice! 


Oh and also Lille is currently building the xmas market and there is now a massive Ferris Wheel in the grand place!

For the first time i actually feel welcome...

So today actually turned out to be a fairly good day,  as usual my lessons at DV (perfect school) went brilliantly, we did some small  group discussions on what foods the kids liked followed by some gamesof bingo and then learning objects in the pencil case was pretty good. Though i have to say the more time i spend trying to teach english the more i feel lucky that i never had to learn it as a foreign language, it is actually quite difficult particuarly for the French who find certain sounds impossible ,to pronounce! It was difficult to watch the kids struggle with the difference between rubber and ruler, rubber started to come out as something resembling "wubber" not quite sure how but the kids really struggle with the rrrr sound. 

Classes at Mme de Maintenon i think are always gona be weird but today i had my class with the headteacher, she asked me to prepare a little presentation on Halloween,not sure why when it was over two weeks ago but anyway, i had to prepare it all  in one night, it was abit of a mission as i had to research it all as the directrice had asked me to talk about all the background and where it derives from and i had no idea. Though what i talked about seemed to be fine and for the first time i  can actually say i felt welcome at that school,she even took a picture of me teaching, cant say i was entirely thrilled about it but i didnt have much choice. So that was pretty good and it seems likemy main job in her class is to do presentations on civilization and englishness- i know thats not really a word but she seems to want me to provide a cultural background knowledge to their classes which i have to say eases the .pressure on lesson planning as it limits it to only 6 45 minute classes a week, well fingers crossed anyway. Im hoping that its really gona improve my confidence as i not only hate speaking but standing up in front of people and speaking is so much worse! So i think this practice can only be a good thing really. Today in general has actually been pretty successful on the amount of french spoken front as Jess Flora and I had lunch with Gisela who is a spanish assistant and one of my schools and one of Jess' and her english is not as good as her french so we spend most of lunch talking french which makes a nice change!

Yesterday i took my three CP adn CE1 classes by myself, was scary again but actually the kids were pretty great and actually helped me out alot when i struggled to find certain french words,i think thats the great thing about primary school kids, they dont judge you at all. Though i have to say i do have a really a little know it all  who has already studied abit of english as he attended a school in Paris for a while and he had the cheek of trying to correct me when i was teaching them "My name is" claiming that he had been taught "my names'...." clearly the french are trying to cut corners and make it easier for the kids to grasp the phrases. However i do not see how teaching them bad grammar is useful, therefore i simply chose to ignore him and continue in my own way.

About to take a trip to Lidl to buy loads of veggies so i can make  some yummy soup now i finally have my blender, its amazing how such a little thing can make me so happy!!!!! 

Ikea, DIY and a visit from Erna

So Friday was a pretty unproductive day all in all, as i didnt hear from my school as to whether or not i was supposed to go into school i found myself with not much to do. Friday night we headed out with everyone to our seemingly favourite bar in Lille. The Loft Shisha bar, i feel that we have been there more than any other place in Lille. It was a good night, for some reason they had a DJ who seemed to be a master of the Gay classics, including Grease the saturday night fever soundtrack and ABBA! its safe to say there was alot of singing involved! 


Saturday began with another let down from the landlord, he was late again for our prearranged trip to Ikea. He did eventually turn up only to tell us we could just go and when we were ready for him to pick up our stuff he would just meet us. To be honest i think this was a much better option as i was concerned about having to make polite small talk in french as we were walking round the shop. so Jess and I finally got our last important bits, an actual bed frame being the key item that we still required, and a desk and some other little bits. We waited another twenty minutes for the landlord to actually turn up and pick up our bits in his van.  Erna arrived at about 4 and after giving her a little tour of the flat we headed into town to show her around and get something for dinner. We went to one of my personal favourite restaurants that Josh and I discovered whilst on our trip in the summer, La Creperie, it serves not only crepes and gallettes but these gorgeous tartines, its literally one of the nicest places i have been, the service is great and the food is so nice and really well presented. After our lovely dinner we took Erna on a little walk around Vieux Lille and decided to go for a drink in a bar. Funnily enough we ended up choosing a place called 'The Pub' it had a british vibe as well as some interesting american nick nacks. We each had a cocktail, it was so lovely to see Erna. In addition to that, the little packages of things sent over from my mum that Erna brought with her was a real highlight. This included actual pillows and my double duvet, after sleeping on a cheap Ikea cushion for the past few weeks i can tell you those pillows felt like the most comfortable things in the world! 


Today i woke up early to say goodbye to Erna as she left to complete the rest of her journey over to Holland. I should really be planning lessons after i finally got an email yday from my evil school finally telling me my actual hours! Instead though, i have fully assembled my new bed! I can tell you there is something incredibly fulfilling about turning some planks of wood and screws into an actual bed, and a pretty sturdy one at that, i was not entirely convinced on buying it at first seeing as it was the cheapest one Ikea did and in the showroom it didnt seem that good but i am actually really impressed, its just so nice to not be sleeping on the floor anymore. 

                                    The menu, Jess i hope you dont mind me stealing this

Ok so again after a long absence on the blog front, i feel that i need to recap on everything i have been up to. 

After an enjoyable Toussaint i returned to Lille after a mission of a journey lugging a extremely heavy suitcase across London, without any offer of help from anyone! Was not appreciated, and neither were the blisters i developed on my hand! The first week back was long and punctuated by numerous visits to Mcdos in order to use their free internet, not an enjoyable experience when you have to repeat it everyday i can tell you! 

Ok so on my return i was optimistic about the start of my teaching career, though i have to say a little nervous too. I have one perfect school, the kids are amazing the teachers, so welcoming and friendly. They completely understand what my job is supposed to be, so i take out small groups of children to practice speaking, or we divide up the class and i take small groups. I never thought i would actually find it so rewarding but it truly is, when a child surprises you with their knowledge and understanding. However i cannot say that everything is going as well with my other school, after informing me that they could only provide me with just over two hours worth of work, its safe to say i was concerned. After all, i am required to complete six hours in each school, a fact that i did share with their headmisstress which she then proceeded to deny when my responsable came to my school to sort out the situation. i think i can honestly say that she now is no longer my biggest fan. I emailed her on tuesday asking her when i would be told my additonal hours and if it would be necessary to go to school today. I am still awaiting a response..... So all in all i cant say im particuarly happy with the whole situation. The classes i did teach i am expected to take completely alone as there is no actual English teacher at the school meaning that i have the sole responsibility of teaching the youngest kids! I feel completely unprepared and unqualified! 

Other exciting occurences this week, included finally getting my bank card! Do not ask me how i actually mangaged to get it, as both Jess and I have been told we only received it due to special circumstances as they still have not received the relevant notification from the post office to say that we signed for our letters. I think it may have had something to do with the fact that i looked like i was about to burst into tears, but anyway, i cannot complain as now i finally have it! 

A trip to La Piscine museum in Roubaix with Chloe and Jessica was one of the main highlights of my week, its a beautiful museum and gallery, though i will say that the Desgard exhibition did not really live up to all the hype. Previously an actual swimming pool, it has been converted to house some amazing works of art whilst still maintaining many of its original features such as the fact that you can still see where the pool used to be and many of the exhibits are housed within areas that clearly were the showers or changing facilities, sounds odd but it was actually really impressive and definitely worth the visit. As well as this, Roubaix seems to be famous for its fashion and houses pop up boutiques featuring fashion students/designers collections which i thoroughly enjoyed!

Also this week was Jessica's birthday, we went out to a really cool restaurant called The Berliner, it was really edgy and had walls inspired by the Berlin wall, as well as impecable service and a small but gorgeous menu. I could not bring myself to be angry with the waiter when there was a slight confusion with my meal but when it came it was just amazing, topped off with the most amazing white chocolate cheesecake i have ever eaten! After our meal whilst on out way to an Australian bar for drinks we were stopped by a teenage french boy who proceeded to tell us all about his trips to England and how his friends were 'keen on us' there is just something so cute about english spoken in a french accent. Though i did feel bad as i know how i feel when people think i speak french in a "funny voice" as i have been told by some of my children. 

On wednesday Cait and Louises' house mates were throwing a house party. So we all took the metro over to Roubaix, it was such a good night in which there were so many nationalities all in one room. Much French was spoken and it was not nearly as intimidating as i sometimes imagine it to be. After a couple of glasses of wine its always easier to feel abit more confident! 

Thursday in France meant that it was a national holiday so Hana and i fought our need to stay in bed after a long night on Wednesday and took the short drive across the border to Ypres. The weather was horrific but its something to be able to say that i spend Armistice day at one of the Key memorial towns in Europe. Unfortunately we missed the 11oclock service but we still had a lovely day visiting the museum and Menin gate followed by hot chocolate and waffles after we could no longer face the cold.  

All in all this week has been a good one, im hoping that my teaching issues in my horrible school will be resolved and im looking forward to a visit from my best friends mum tomorrow so im sure this weekend will be lovely!