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