Strasbourg (Finally!)

So, I'm using Dana's wireless since mine is awful for uploading pictures! And this is my Blog for Strasbourg.

After several fairly major transportation issues (not nice to deal with at 7.30 in the morning!) such as our tube line not working and having to get two others twice as long in half the time and nearly missing our TGV to Strasbourg, we did actually get there!

Basically Strasbourg at Christmas is a German style market (like we have in England) but on an enormous, whole city scale. It's very nice, but to be fair, most of the stalls end up selling the same things and there's nothing really good to buy for 'proper' presents, but it is an experience. However, it really lives up to it's reputation at night as you can see from the photos:


Here is a blue tree (apparently representative of Quebec who is their guest 'country' (!) this year). It hurt our eyes...lots!
These are beautifully painted cookies (gingerbread?) we saw at one of the stands.
This is the massive 'horloge' or cloak in the Cathedral itself. Every quarter of an hour it 'dings' and an angel moves. It's at 12.30 that it really gives you a show. I have a video if you wish to see it, but basically the 12 Apostles move around the figure of Jesus, Death tolls it's bell reminding us that time is short, and a really scary cockrel crows!
This is the giant (28 metres!) Sapin Noel they have in Strasbourg, at night.
Random bunnies that were moving to music.
A full view of the Christmas Tree.
A gargoyle on the side of the Cathedral. He looked pretty cool, and I've named him Fred.


And finally Santa! Or, Pere Noel. It's a decoration, but I thought he was cute :).

So, yes, that was Strasbourg. I have more photos on Facebook - so check there. And to my parents, I'll show you them all when I get home :)

I'm home in less than a week! Yay! I doubt I'll update before then, so Happy Christmas, Joyuex Noel and Frohliche Weinachten to all :D

Nielle xxx

Just a quick one...

Umm yes, just a quick update. Have been to Strasbourg and when I can be bothered to wrestle with both my internet and the horrid picture uploader, I will update properly and put in some pretty photos. Those of you on Facebook can see them already as Facebook is a lot easier to manage.

Life is good - still loving school. Can't wait to come home though and have a yaysome Christmas. Plus have been infected with the biggest spiders I have ever seen. Which is scary but we're learning to live together.

Have been Christmassing lots so far and will continue to do so this weekend and the coming week when we'll be doing Christmas stuff with the kids (not mentioning Baby Jesus of course - silly French!)

Love Nielle xxx

Paris!

Ok, firstly bear in mind that these photos are not in the right order...I can't seem to get the hang of the photo uploader...

So, we got paid last week. Dana wanted to go clothes shopping in Paris, and I wanted to go with. Thus on Friday 30th of November, we headed towards Paris.

First stop was the Rue de Rivoli for some shopping! I didn't buy anything (French fashion can either be very hit and miss or they just don't do normal people sizes!) but it was nice to just shop. By the time we finished it was lunch time so we went to a lovely Restaurant on the Rue called Angélina's. Dana has been wanting to go here for 5 years so it was pretty cool. Incredibly expensive, but lovely atmosphere and amazing desserts and hot chocolate. The hot choc was literally molten chocolate (mmm!) and the dessert we shared was Hazelnut vermicelli/paste stuff (?) over whipped cream and meringue. Oh my God amazing! But we were so full!

Next stop, Montmartre. I visited Montmartre back in year 6 and like it then :). I like it even more now :) So here are the photos:

This is the view from a random place at the back of the church.


This is the view of Paris from the top by the Church.
The other side of the view, including the Tour Montparnasse which is right by where our train from Chartres enters Paris.

This is the downward view of the gardens. Don't be fooled it's a long calf-wounding way up ^^.
And this is the famous church the Sacre Coeur. It's white and pretty. And really beautiful inside. Especially when you enter just as the choir is singing and the organ is playing. It's so much more impressive than boring old Notre Dame (I really dislike Notre Dame de Paris!).
Ummm forgive my lack of general knowledge about Paris...this is the French flag flying atop some building (? - someone please fill me in. Especially if it's famous and I should know!) Its looked pretty all lit up. What can I say?

The Champs Elysées, Arc de Triomphe end. These are the Christmas lights. It's pretty. Altough apparently now a hotspot for crime. Yay.

Champs Elysées, Jardins des Tuileries end.

Christmas lights close up. A little blurry. I was a little under sugared at this point and a little shakey...plus the lights moved. I still think the blurry kind of captures the general effect.



And again. Plus streetlamp :).

At this point we headed home. Me with headache and sheer exhaustion in tow.

Slept in on Saturday and then went to see what Chartres itself had to offer Christmas-wise. A little disappointed in the market, but it's about the same as Southampton's I guess, plus it's still very early on. And I have Strasbourg to really get me into the Christmas mood on Friday :)

Sunday went to a small produce fair which was kind of cute, but feared for our lives as incredibly strong winds practically blew the marquee down! And broke my brand new never before used umbrella too. And kept me awake.

In school we've been giving the kids their end of term tests. Most are doing ok...some doing pretty badly. Bearing in mind I set the test so they *could* pass! We have another orientation this Thursday - day off work! Which will be utterly pointless as it's about setting tests...three point who can guess what I've already done (clue, I've just talked about it -.-) Bloody French! Ah well.

I think that's about all for now. I imagine there'll be a big one for Strasbourg though (although I may upload most of the pics to Facebook since it's a lot quicker!)

Love

Nielle xxx

Thanksgiving

In America, Thanksgiving was on Thursday (22^nd). This (for those that don’t know) is a holiday to celebrate when the Native American Indians helped the Pilgrims find and grow food in their ‘new’ land. It’s almost bigger than Christmas in the States! To celebrate this festival, the American assistants planned a Thanksgiving dinner for pretty much all the assistants in Chartres. This amounted to about 20 assistants (including friends of assistants) in one girl’s flat! Our dinner consisted of Turkey (obviously), cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, vegetable dishes, rice dishes, pasta dishes, fruit salad, pumpkin pie and apple pie. We were rather stuffed. As good as it was, and as much as I love the American assistants, it was not a patch on a good old English Christmas dinner (especially cooked by my father and mother :)).

I had a very good evening with very pleasant company and a louder than normal Nielle! As in I was actually talking :P. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures, but other people did so when they’re up on Facebook I shall ‘steal’ them ^^.

In school news, this week has been very hard :(. For some reason the kids have suddenly decided to become louder and not pay as much attention – sometimes even when their normal class teacher is in the room! I think it might be because they don’t see us as ‘real’ teachers so they think they can play up a bit. If it gets much worse then ‘teacher Nielle’ will be surfacing. They’re still sweet though most of the time, and it’s certainly not putting me off teaching :). I saw something by another assistant: ‘sometimes they’re adorable snugglebunnies, and sometimes they’re the spawn of Satan’. This sums it up quite nicely :P

We’ve got the CE2s up to the weather and the months now and we’re starting ‘He is/She is’ whilst confusing them nicely with the fact that we also say ‘He’s/She’s’. Yay English! The CM1s and CM2s are pretty much doing the same thing. This is a combination of the fact that one CM2 class is half CM1 anyway, and the other CM2 class are the worst behaved so we’re going a lot slower. Plus it’s best to keep those at the same level doing the same thing else me and Joanne get extremely confused! The CM1 are kind of doing ‘Do you like…?’ but the CM1 we have at the other school are doing clothes. But we keep them kind of separate most of the time as they are so much better behaved and work faster; socio-economic status certainly plays a big part…(i.e that school is in the city centre and is semi-selective I think and the other where I have most of my classes is in the suburbs which are slightly rougher).

Don’t think there’s anything else, except that I’m off to Strasbourg in 2 weeks, yay! Be prepared for lots of pictures :)

Nielle

xxx

Back in La Belle France

I've been back nearly a week already! It's gone so fast.

So yes, Toussaint. Didn't do very much exactly, but got in some quality sleep and internet time :) Plus lots of warmth, Paul-ness and general family goodness. So it was nice. Got to see Chloe too and go out for a meal and to the cinema, so that was nice :)

In fantastic news, now have internet, although it does mean having to sit in my (cold) kitchen to do so. But ah well, small price to pay, n'est-ce pas? And it means that I should be on the internet less often too...which despite what many may think, is actually a good thing :P

Ok, so, back to France, teaching is still wonderful, although tiring. Have already been out for dinner with everyone and we've had a 'cocktail party' which ended up us all sitting round a computer watching weird French dancing on You-tube whilst sipping like two drinks each. Fun though :)

Got bored yesterday lunchtime and since my parents are getting/have got me a camera for Christmas, I thought I'd take the opportunity of a beautifully sunny day to take some pictures of my new home town. So here they are :)
This is the view from the back of the Cathedral. It has very pretty gardens where in the summer, lots of people come to picnic :)This is the Eure river, one of the two after which my département is named. It's pretty, no?
The same again, different side of the river.This is a random door that I was sat in front o. To either side there are very steep steps that I had just climbed down and then up again, which explains my sitting down...I thought it was pretty and kind of odd, so I took a photo.This is the Cathedral of Chartres. It's pretty :)This is the corner of my bedroom. Yes, that is a brick wall. And yes, it is indeed the wall of the carpark behind too...
This is my kitchen...note lack of microwave/oven/anything useful for cooking...

So there we go, my first ever photos! Yay! So you can all see how crappy my appartment is but how pretty my town is :D

Love

Nielle xxx

Time to come home(!)

Already! It’s terrifying that I’ve been here just over one month. It’s gone by so fast! So yes, I’m about to come home for Toussaint which is a 13 day break which encompasses Halloween, or, All Saints Day. Or, dependent on internet, I may already be home…but it’s all the same really :)

What have I been up to...well, last time I had just tried snails for the second time, so this Saturday, Dana and I went to the market again (do you see a pattern here? :P) and this time I bought my veg for the week, as it’s cheaper and nicer than Carrefour. We saw figs. I’ve had a bit of fresh fig before and vaguely remember liking it, plus I like fig rolls (or Fig Newtons as they call them over the pond…strange Americans :P), so Dana bought one for us to try. After booking our tickets to Strasbourg in December (for the Christmas market – supposedly amazing, and the source for all my Christmas presents this year I think) we tried the fig. Figs are GOOD. They are sweet and yummy and make Nielle happy :D.

I’m currently in the middle of my first ‘full’ week of teaching as previously I’ve had either orientations or the joy that is Mercredi Liberé (once a month, the half day on Wednesday turns into a full day off :)) It’s pretty tiring – to the point that I managed to sleep for an hour and a half this afternoon! But it’s so enjoyable! The kids pretty much all love me – to the point of giving me the ‘bisous’ at the end of each lesson, and one girl of 8 came up to me and sais: “Tu es trop belle” – you are very beautiful. As you can guess, I blushed. A lot. I already have favourites in each class – is that bad? (*innocent eyes*) And thing is, it’s just increasing my desire to have my own class and to teach them everything (i.e. maths, English, science etc etc). So I think I’ve made the best decision to do this for my year abroad and a pretty good decision on my future career. Yay :)

We’re doing Halloween this week in class. This is fun. The kids get so excited, and we had our CE2 class of 8 (8-9 year olds) dress up today. They were so cute! Tomorrow (Thursday 25^th) we’re doing a whole day of Halloween with sweets, decorations in the classroom and games. At least it’s a nice easy day for us!

I’ve finally given in on the heating front. Basically I said that I wouldn’t turn the heating on until at least November, because it’s a) expensive and b) ridiculous. But Chartres (and I think England too) has taken on a cold snap and it’s bloody freezing! So I have my radiator on in one room (i.e. my bedroom) and it’s toasty warm now. I was at a point of wearing 5 layers, including a thick jumper, a duvet, gloves and a blanket around my shoulders! I thought that was getting silly, hence heater-y goodness. I have also taken to having candles, because they seem to provide a semblance of warmth, cost €1,89 (yes, I found my Euro sign key!) and smell gooood! So yay.

Dana and I are planning to take some random European trips; we’ve looked in to Marrakech (not Europe, I know, but just as cheap), Norway (for the Northern Lights) and maybe Greece or Spain. Probably not all as funds are pretty tight. However we do qualify for welfare here (!) which means that France pays for about 2/3 to ¾ of our rent! Which wins. Made of pure win in fact. This means I should be getting cheques for €200 plus at some point in the future when I actually get around to applying.

I’m not sure if there’s anything else…but I am very much looking forward to going home tomorrow – so I can communicate properly with everyone! And be properly warm! And have showers that don’t go cold half way through because the hot water tank is ridiculously small! ‘Tis all good.

Love to everyone

Nielle

xxxx

Snails!

Why the random title you ask? Well, I’m in France aren’t I? Ok, so we went to the market on Saturday and saw pre-prepared snails (or escargots) so we thought we’d try them. So that evening, amid wine and amazing apple and Armagnac pie, we (Dana, Lisa, Deborah and I) ate snails. It was…interesting. I had snails years ago on a school trip in Year 6 and really enjoyed them then, but these ones seemed different. They were ok, but I don’t think I could get out of my head that I was eating something that is generally slimy and icky! Weird, huh?

On Saturday, we also went to an ‘Artisan Fair’. This was also a bit strange, and not worth the 7 euros to get in! Dana and I bought these very pretty hair things that keep your hair in a chignon…can’t get mine to work too well, but it looks pretty J. The food hall was the best bit though – especially when some guy is giving free samples of very potent aperitif alcohol in cherry and sangria flavour. Two less-than-shots later, starting to feel pretty good and more than a little ‘muzzy’! Not that I’m a lightweight or anything! The food hall is where we bought the apple pie, which really was delicious – the Armagnac gave it a little extra something and the pastry was all light and flaky. Very nice J

On Friday, we got together with as many of the Chartres assistants as we could for dinner – the 9 month-ers had just had their first day you see, so we wanted to all discuss how it was going, lesson plans etc, and just generally be sociable. So we went for an Indian – how French we are! It wasn’t great though – and they didn’t give us poppadoms! The French can’t do anything right!

This last week I’ve had a slightly fuller week of teaching – but I’m yet to have a full week – we had another orientation on Thursday. I’m still enjoying it though! Less tired too so that’s good. With the CE2s we’re doing colours and animals and a little of the numbers and alphabet. They’re starting to get there, and are so cute about it! The CM1s are doing ‘my name is’ ‘my address is’ and ‘my telephone number is’ and the CM2s are doing pretty much the same but it might just be revision. I’m getting involved mostly with the CE2s – basically teaching them, but the other two levels I’m just acting as the assistant – I go round and help them with their work, answer their questions (or try to! My French isn’t that good yet!) and give them a tick/look over what they’ve done. Joanne still does most of the teaching, but I think she wants us to have equal status in the classroom. I want to do a bit, but I’m very happy just assisting at the moment, and teaching a little when I know what’s going on/what I’m supposed to be doing!

Internet in about 2 weeks hopefully!...Just in time for me to come home :P Yes, I’m back in Angleterre on the 26^th of October, for Toussaint (All Saint’s Holiday). Feeling like I should really be staying in France, but I’ve got Paul to think about – it’s not fair on him if I stay. But I’m thinking about staying and maybe doing a bit of travelling in the Winter Break (February). I need to improve my French and I can’t do that in England!

Think that’s all for now,

Much love

Nielle

Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche: French for an ‘all nighter’. On Saturday (6th October) I went to the Nuit Blanche in Paris. Basically it’s art, or presentations and videos dotted all round Paris, in public buildings and areas. It goes on from 7pm til 7am (I think!) and there are literally millions of people wandering round the streets in the dead of night; it’s really an experience. Unfortunately since I’m a total wuss and can’t cope without a decent amount of sleep (!) we only stayed til 11, but we saw some pretty cool stuff. The best part was the Jardin des Tuileries; it was lined with 2000 terracotta flowerpots aflame. There were also some pretty cool convection tubes made of Iron with hot coals at the bottom – if you remember GCSE science, or you’re Kate with her cardboard carpet tubes, you’ll know what was going on – but what was even cooler was that the hot coals were in a movable basket so if you lowered it the fire went ‘out’ and if you then raised it again it fireballed at the top! (health and safety anyone?! – I was with Dana, Bonnie, Mark and Lisa who are all American and they were saying that in the US you wouldn’t be allowed in the gardens, let alone 4 feet from the fire! Go French lax safety regs!) They also had: floating firepots on the lake, great balls of firepots and a huge chandelier of (you guessed it!) firepots hanging over the end, by the huge, lit up Ferris wheel. It was pretty cool – and I’ve never seen the Jardins so packed.

Thing is, Dana and I weren’t going to even go! But Lisa persuaded us that it was pretty much a once in a lifetime experience and we should. I suppose we should have stayed all night, but my mental state after that would have been…interesting!

On Saturday morning Dana and I did the markets in Chartres – they’re really amazing. There’s a flower market (for you Freddie :P), a fresh produce market (with literally everything: cheese, fruit, veg, sea food, dairy, Chinese, roasting chickens, whole (literally – fur/feathers, head etc) hares, pigeons, rabbits and pheasant) and a clothes market. I live in a really cool city! After that we took a look at the old town. It’s really beautiful down by the river. And an absolutely gorgeous day to do it too :) We also chose to play in a 4-8 and 9-12 years olds playpark…^^

What else have I been up to? Well, there was the orientation in Orléans. Which was boring. It was nice to see the other assistants – even one from Manchester! - and socialise, but all they told us had been in various information packs over the summer! The one on Thursday which was for the Eure-et-Loir Primary assistants was much more useful.

I was in my schools on Wednesday (one lesson in each) we did the CE2 in my main school (8-9 year olds, literally just beginning English) and the CM1 in the other school (9-10 and had a year already). It was a lot of fun – singing and being generally silly, but it was great teaching. I just need to become more confident and use my initiative a little more. I guess that’s the problem with being with another person in the class – I relay on them too much! But I think by Christmas I should be fairly ok.

Still haven’t got internet sorted; I’m going to be sharing wireless with Bonnie who lives pretty much next door – so we have to sort ourselves out first…and then hopefully understand what’s going on…or get Lisa (who’s renewed her assistantship this year, so knows what she’s doing!) to help us.

Starting to miss people quite a lot now :(

Much love and huggles

Nielle x

After a Week

Ok, so haven’t really updated this too well. I’ve been doing a *lot* and the internet café a) costs money and b) has a French keyboard which is awkward and ebil.

So, yes, I’ve been in France for a little more than a week now. Have met with Cathérine and Joanne, both of whom are very nice and helpful. Have opened a bank account: after all the fuss, it was so easy! I had visions of needing every document under the sun, a huge deposit and not actually understanding anything! But our adviser is lovely. Doesn’t speak English, but lovely, clear, slow French. Set all three of us up with our accounts with no fuss or hassle :)

Have also got my French mobile. It’ll have been sent to you via Facebook if you’re someone I want to have it. Of course, if you are someone who thinks they should have it, and doesn’t, terribly sorry, but try Facebook or email danielleseal@gmail.com.

What else have I been up to? Generally exploring Chartres – my home for the next 8 months. Went to mass in the Cathedral this evening. Actually managed to understand most of the French, but as usual, I don’t get on too well with Catholicism…but it was still a good experience nonetheless, and since I haven’t been to church in about 3 months, I thought it made a good start!

Went to Paris yesterday! Such good VFM on the train. A single to Paris is normally 13 Euros (about £9 ish – so that’s amazing full stop) but with a “Carte 12-25” its 6,50 Euros…about £4. My general facial expression was: o.O. France rocks at transport! Puts England to shame anyway. So yes, and Paris is only 1hr10 away from Chartres anyway, so that’s great too. In Paris, went to a market, the Place de la Bastille, les Jardins des Tuileries, le Louvre (only outside) as well as various other little places.

I’ve decided that I want to make the most of being here: in terms of language, motivation of the kids I’m teaching (who seem lovely, btw after seeing them on Thursday) and travel. I want to see a fair bit of France, and I really want to go to Spain.

Not really speaking a huge amount of French: I’m spending a lot of time with English speakers, but we have promised to start speaking in French in a few weeks, but also haven’t really had much opportunity, though I’m speaking in French to every French person I ‘meet’. It’s fun though :)

It gets quite lonely living on your own. But films and music keep me occupied. Clearly missing everyone, but I guess it’s different because I’m off out doing things and meeting new people and having new experiences, while for everyone else, they’re doing normal things which I should be there for, so it’s easier to miss me I guess, than for me to miss other people. Does that make *any* sense? And of course, I am missing everyone, and it feels really weird to not be in Uni this year, especially since most people are graduating (woah!).

Love to *everyone*, and bear in mind that I want contact from everyone – so you’d better write to me in some format (letter, e-mail, text)!

Nielle xxx

2 Days!

Well, more like a day and a half now, but that wouldn't really be a very snappy title now, would it?

Still haven't packed. Don't really know where to start. Not good. Still finishing the last few bits and bobs: scanning important documents, printing off maps so that Dad knows where he's going (!) etc etc. Have so far managed to get a few things as classroom aides - including stickers! Yay! I like stickers, and this is how I know I'm going to like being a teacher :P. Have got my money, am trying to sort out a bank account in France, have tried phoning my contact in France and successfully (maybe) left an answering machine message in 'French'. So hopefully she'll get back to me...and if not, I have the lovely Catherine Ferant to sort me out on Monday.

I was rather under the impression that the whole French thing would let one 'sink or swim', but they've actually been surprisingly helpful so far: getting us accommodation, offering to meet us at the station, taking us to our schools. It's all lovely :) And most helpful for someone like me!

I'm off out tonight for tea with my Fiancé. It's our last few days to spend as much time together as possible :(. Sadsome.

Leaving on Saturday morning at ridiculous 'o' clock to drive to Folkestone (?) to get the train to France - it's so easy for us British, but I do sympathise with the Americans who have to come over - that journey cannot be fun. Stopping off at a hypermarket en route to Chartres to buy me fresh groceries and a bike ^^. Yes, I'm going to be vaguely active this year and actually ride places! The getting to Chartres, hopefully not becoming too lost, and meeting M. Roques to see my apartment. Spending night with family , unpacking Sunday when they're gone, and hopefully meeting up with the other assistants in Chartres. Quite busy I feel!

Finally, some sad news: I want to say rest in peace to our wonderful Linguistics Professor, Richard M Hogg who passed away due to a heart attack a few weeks ago. He really was a brilliant teacher who made Linguistics fun :) Also to Robert Jordan, the author of the 'Wheel of Time' series.



My next entry should be in France! Please send thoughts, prayers, post, email, texts, sweets and love - I'm going to need them all!

Love Nielle

First Post

Ok, so I'm not actually in France yet, but I have to start somewhere. :)

This is my 'blog' for my year as an English Language Assistant in Chartres, France 2007/2008. I'm at The University of Manchester doing French and Linguistics, so this is a compulsory year abroad for me - but very much wanted. I'm hoping that it will be a fantastic experience and that I'll enjoy myself immensely. I'm creating this as a record of my experiences that I can share with my friends, anyone curious and those taking part in the scheme next year.

What am I doing at the moment? Well, I've just finished my summer job - at the wonderful Paultons (! - no really, it's lovely) and am now just trying to prepare some lessons, spend as much time as possible with my boyfriend, and finish up all the forms and other official details. I'm leaving for France on the 22nd of September, which gives me a week to prepare everything I need (including a bank account and a new phone!), and settle in. I receive my Arreté de Nomination some weeks ago and am teaching in one Primary school; Ecole Elémentaire Pu Le Mail in Chartres itself; as far as I can work out it's about 5km from where I'm staying.

I'm staying in an apartment (not sure which yet - it's a choice of one of two) let by a M. Roques who on the phone sounds lovely :). I'm not expecting luxury, but its apparently fully furnished and equipped - hopefully I can make the rather Spartan Frenchness my own little home ^^.

Anyway, I don't imagine I'll write again until just before I leave, so good bye for now and wish me luck!

Nielle x