So after I wrote that nice summing up of my time in France post, I thought it was only right I should write a post about the trouble that Free have caused and are still causing us even though we've been out of the country for three months.
So we subscribed to an internet service with Free for 29.99 a month. This came out of my French bank account by direct debit. The service they provided was patchy at best, with us not even being able to get internet connection in our living room when the Freebox was in my bedroom. Bear in mind our apartment was only 62m squared. In order to cancel your subscription with Free, you have to fill out a form at the beginning of the month you want to be your final month and send it to them recorded delivery (costing you 5 euros anyway) and then they acknowledge they've received it and your account should be closed at the end of the month. You then have to wait to pay a 49 euro closure fee, which I thought was pretty ridiculous but there was no getting around it so we resigned ourselves to paying it.
Anyway, the end of April came and we sent off our actual box, got the receipt for that and went on our way back to England. Then, in the first week of May, I received an email saying that they couldn't take the direct debit out of my account to bill me for May. I responded saying that they shouldn't be billing me as our account should be closed, to which they sent another email saying they'd never received anything about closing the account. So we had to get Louise's mentor teacher involved (who is the loveliest woman on earth) who then repeatedly attempted to contact them on the phone and got nowhere. She then sent copies of the receipts, and after waiting to hear from them they billed me for June. So we sent the letter again. They then finally acknowledged the closure of the account, but said it would be closed from the 1st July, and that we still had to pay May and June. Which we obviously were not going to do. Nathalie attempted to contact them on the phone again, to no reply.
I then received another email from a company that deals with unpaid utility bills in France, saying that we had to pay the bills for May and June or they would take legal proceedings. So now, Nathalie has had to send ANOTHER letter to this other company, with further copies of the receipts, hoping that they will finally deal with it all. I was also told they wouldnt attempt to take the direct debit of the 49 euro closure fee out of my account so I could pay it online, but guess what, they've still attempted it. So now I'll probably have another fee hiked up on top of that.
It's all been pretty stressful and horrible. I would say to anyone going on a year abroad in France to avoid them at all costs, they may look like a good deal but their service is pretty shitty and also they are clearly crooks that want to extort as much money out of you as possible. It's the last thing you need when you're moving country.
Tuesday, 8 July 2014
Le fin
So I realised I never wrote a post about the end of my time in France. I really wasn't very good at keeping this blog up.
The last few days we spent in France, towards the end of April, were really bizarre. We had to pack up our entire lives, as we had an unfurnished flat and had to return it in the way we found it, completely bare. So we spent three days completely stripping this apartment of all the life we had managed to fill it with in the first place, which wasn't the most fun thing to do in the world. The cardboard boxes we had turned into coffee tables eventually became cardboard boxes again, filled with all my odds and ends, and the ugly white sofa got returned to whoever actually gave that to us in the first place, but luckily carrying it down eight flights of stairs was a hell of a lot easier than carrying it up there. We got a pretty good workout from de-furnishing (is that a word?) that flat. But it was kind of heartbreaking. Seeing those bedrooms and the living room completely and utterly bare again, bringing back the memories of when Louise and I were literally sitting in the empty living room with just a mattress as furniture waiting for the electrician to come and turn the power on whilst we read free supermarket magazines to keep us amused. It was, in the Rachel and Monica sense of it, the end of an era. But anyway, we stripped the apartment bare, some tears were shed, and then we ended up going our separate ways.
It was a strange seven months, that's for sure. Absolutely full of ups and downs, but still a great experience that I'll probably never have again. It went so fast, towards the end it was unbelievable. We actually felt like we needed more time to sort everything out.
But I was glad to be home in the end. Although Rouen was a great place to live and even though I didn't have the best experience in the world the whole time I was there I would still absolutely recommend it as a place to live.
The last few days we spent in France, towards the end of April, were really bizarre. We had to pack up our entire lives, as we had an unfurnished flat and had to return it in the way we found it, completely bare. So we spent three days completely stripping this apartment of all the life we had managed to fill it with in the first place, which wasn't the most fun thing to do in the world. The cardboard boxes we had turned into coffee tables eventually became cardboard boxes again, filled with all my odds and ends, and the ugly white sofa got returned to whoever actually gave that to us in the first place, but luckily carrying it down eight flights of stairs was a hell of a lot easier than carrying it up there. We got a pretty good workout from de-furnishing (is that a word?) that flat. But it was kind of heartbreaking. Seeing those bedrooms and the living room completely and utterly bare again, bringing back the memories of when Louise and I were literally sitting in the empty living room with just a mattress as furniture waiting for the electrician to come and turn the power on whilst we read free supermarket magazines to keep us amused. It was, in the Rachel and Monica sense of it, the end of an era. But anyway, we stripped the apartment bare, some tears were shed, and then we ended up going our separate ways.
It was a strange seven months, that's for sure. Absolutely full of ups and downs, but still a great experience that I'll probably never have again. It went so fast, towards the end it was unbelievable. We actually felt like we needed more time to sort everything out.
But I was glad to be home in the end. Although Rouen was a great place to live and even though I didn't have the best experience in the world the whole time I was there I would still absolutely recommend it as a place to live.
Friday, 7 March 2014
The final stretch approaches!
Once again it's been over a month since I posted in here! I'm terrible at blogging.
In the last month:
SCHOOL:
Like I said before, timetable/lack thereof is ridiculous. Have had a chat with my mentor teacher about it and she's going to try and set up a one hour a day thing for the year thirteen's to practice their oral but who knows if they'll show up. Also she wants me to do a two hour a week 'fun games in english' club...I have no idea what I would do for this. Seeing as most of my lessons count as games anyway, in my opinion. But who knows, it could work out. Timetables seem to be the biggest issue I have at the moment.
TAYLOR SWIFT:
It was amazing. I cried. A lot. Seriously. I looked pathetic. But I don't care, it was just THE BEST.
VALENTINES WEEKEND:
Even though not spend with my boyfriend was really nice! Got to see my friends who are living in Germany this year and it was a beautiful 8 months apart seeing each other for the first time reunion. Got to do un-touristy things as well, like walking around Montmartre which was really nice.
MILAN:
Absolutely awesome city! I speak no Italian whatsoever, and neither do Louise or Hannah so we had the weird feeling of being completely helpless in a foreign country...never thought I'd find it such an unnerving feeling to not be able to speak any of the language. Milan was absolutely beautiful, the only thing that was a bit annoying was that we didn't get to see the Last Supper because we had no idea that we had to book like a month in advance to see a freaking painting! But all in all a lovely weekend. And very sunny too!
ENGLAND:
Has been such a nice break from everything. Really cannot be bothered to go back to teaching. For a birthday I really wasn't looking forward to it was actually really nice and chilled to spend with my family. Got to see pretty much everyone I wanted to as well, including Uni peeps.
So this is a very brief update of everything I've been doing. Brief as brief can be.
In the last month:
SCHOOL:
Like I said before, timetable/lack thereof is ridiculous. Have had a chat with my mentor teacher about it and she's going to try and set up a one hour a day thing for the year thirteen's to practice their oral but who knows if they'll show up. Also she wants me to do a two hour a week 'fun games in english' club...I have no idea what I would do for this. Seeing as most of my lessons count as games anyway, in my opinion. But who knows, it could work out. Timetables seem to be the biggest issue I have at the moment.
TAYLOR SWIFT:
It was amazing. I cried. A lot. Seriously. I looked pathetic. But I don't care, it was just THE BEST.
VALENTINES WEEKEND:
Even though not spend with my boyfriend was really nice! Got to see my friends who are living in Germany this year and it was a beautiful 8 months apart seeing each other for the first time reunion. Got to do un-touristy things as well, like walking around Montmartre which was really nice.
MILAN:
Absolutely awesome city! I speak no Italian whatsoever, and neither do Louise or Hannah so we had the weird feeling of being completely helpless in a foreign country...never thought I'd find it such an unnerving feeling to not be able to speak any of the language. Milan was absolutely beautiful, the only thing that was a bit annoying was that we didn't get to see the Last Supper because we had no idea that we had to book like a month in advance to see a freaking painting! But all in all a lovely weekend. And very sunny too!
ENGLAND:
Has been such a nice break from everything. Really cannot be bothered to go back to teaching. For a birthday I really wasn't looking forward to it was actually really nice and chilled to spend with my family. Got to see pretty much everyone I wanted to as well, including Uni peeps.
So this is a very brief update of everything I've been doing. Brief as brief can be.
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
February's a comin
It's been a while so here's an update.
With regards to school, things just seem to be getting stranger to be honest. My timetable has pretty much crumbled, due to there being a lot of stresses with teachers dealing with extra classes, trainee teachers etc so there hasn't really been time to make my timetable again. It's an odd situation to be in. I'm trying my best though, I guess that's all I can really do.
This half term has been pretty great so far as I've had plans for pretty much every weekend!
Last weekend I went to Paris to meet up with my course friends from Uni who are all over France this year; Izzy (Toulouse), Harriet (Nantes) and Siobhan (Nancy). We had such a lovely weekend together, it was so nice that after not seeing them since June we were completely as if we had seen each other yesterday. I also realised that I wouldn't be able to live in Paris. It's a great city, but everything is just too hectic and confusing and it's just too goddamn big.
We got very lost. Even after I've been there so many times. But we eventually found our way around.
We went to the Louvre, but pretty much just because Izzy and Harriet wanted to see the Mona Lisa. We went to the Musée d'Orsay which is one of my favourite museums ever, and it was pretty cool because I found the four Monet painting he did of Rouen cathedral and felt very French being like 'that's the cathedral that wakes me up every morning bitches!'. We went to an amazing patisserie called Angelina's which I only realised once we got inside that I'd been to with my parents when I was 16. It was IMMENSE. The hot chocolate was freaking unreal. I couldn't finish my cake. I regret that.
We found some really nice bars as well, although I would advise ANYONE visiting Paris to only go to bars at happy hour because it is ridiculous prices after that. All in all it was a lovely trip, although we also tried to visit a fashion museum which was closed, boo.
This weekend I'm actually going back home to see Taylor Swift with my sister for her 18th birthday present...that's a few months early, but hey, I can't control when Taylor Swift decides to tour. I cannot describe how long we have been waiting for this. It's gonna be AMAZING. We may cry. A lot.
It's gonna be nice to spend some time at home and see my family too, as this has been quite a hectic few weeks for them, what with the cat dying a couple of weeks ago.
I get back from England on Monday, and then on Thursday my boyfriend is coming to visit me which I am super excited about because NO ONE HAS VISITED ME SO FAR OR EVER SENDS ME MAIL so this is a big thing. It'll be so nice to actually show someone around Rouen! Like a real French citizen.
And then the weekend after that is Valentines Weekend which, obviously I will be alone for, but not so alone as on the Saturday my friends who are working in Germany this year happen to be coming to Paris for the weekend so I get to see them which will be lovely! Completely brilliant coincidence.
And then, my final week of teaching until the next half of term! After that, we're off to Milan for a few days which will be freaking awesome and I can't wait for, and then off home for about ten days. So basically, February is the best month ever. And then after February, I get to have my birthday at home which is lovely as I'd much rather be with my family for a grown up horrible birthday like 22 then have it here where everyone is younger than me and all WOOHOO JUST TURNED 21 LIFE IS AWESOME whereas I'm all like shit I'm so much older than everyone shouldn't I be looking into getting a job and my own home right now ahhhhhh what is life baby dont hurt me dont hurt me no more. Or something like that.
So that was a brief sum up of what has happened and what is happening. I really should update this thing more.
Monday, 6 January 2014
Bonne année et bonne santé
So it is officially 2014! Which is pretty hard to believe. What's also pretty hard to believe is I only have four months left here! Nuts.
Got back yesterday night after a very very long day of travelling, but a much easier ferry journey than the one I had when I went home, during which I almost threw up. Nice.
I had an absolutely lovely Christmas break. I just wish it had been longer, two weeks is just not long enough. However, the upside was that every day felt great because I was utilising as much of my time as possible to see the people I love. It felt very weird to be coming back yesterday but now I'm back it feels like I've been back for ages. Being in France has really messed up my perception of time! Everything feels longer than it is but also goes quickly at the same time, which I realise makes absolutely no sense at all but hey. That's just how I roll.
This term I'm going to try harder with my teaching. I got quite lazy towards the end of last term. It's difficult though, because some teachers really don't give you any direction at all. I think I'm going to have to email them to ask them what they want me to specifically talk with the volunteer classes about because they do have an exam at the end of the year and I'm sure they should be talking about specific topics, it's just that there's such a lack of communication I never get told anything!
Hopefully planning a trip to Milan for the February break, and my February apart from that is pretty kickass.
Every weekend something great is happening. Just need to fill up January now!
Anyway, I need to start making dinner. Because I'm a housewife and all that.
Ciao x
Got back yesterday night after a very very long day of travelling, but a much easier ferry journey than the one I had when I went home, during which I almost threw up. Nice.
I had an absolutely lovely Christmas break. I just wish it had been longer, two weeks is just not long enough. However, the upside was that every day felt great because I was utilising as much of my time as possible to see the people I love. It felt very weird to be coming back yesterday but now I'm back it feels like I've been back for ages. Being in France has really messed up my perception of time! Everything feels longer than it is but also goes quickly at the same time, which I realise makes absolutely no sense at all but hey. That's just how I roll.
This term I'm going to try harder with my teaching. I got quite lazy towards the end of last term. It's difficult though, because some teachers really don't give you any direction at all. I think I'm going to have to email them to ask them what they want me to specifically talk with the volunteer classes about because they do have an exam at the end of the year and I'm sure they should be talking about specific topics, it's just that there's such a lack of communication I never get told anything!
Hopefully planning a trip to Milan for the February break, and my February apart from that is pretty kickass.
Every weekend something great is happening. Just need to fill up January now!
Anyway, I need to start making dinner. Because I'm a housewife and all that.
Ciao x
Thursday, 12 December 2013
Bonnes Fetes!
I've realised it's been almost a month since I wrote in here so time for an update.
Life is good! After living in our apartment a month now everything is FINALLY working; all the electricity, all the plumbing, and all the furniture has been moved in. I mean, we still have some great items like our coffee tables which consist of an amazon box and the box our wifi thingie came in. But that just adds to the glamour of the Year Abroad I think.
The weather in Rouen is absolutely FREEZING, there's no doubt about that. Luckily it hasn't actually snowed yet and I'm hoping it holds off until I'm at home as the last thing I want is to be stuck here alone over Christmas! That's my only worry at the moment. Please ferry company, just take me home next Friday!
Which brings me onto my next happiness, I'm going home next Friday! It will have been almost 2 months away which is the longest I've ever been away from home before. I can't wait to get home and see everyone again, even though I have no idea how I'm going to fit in seeing everyone I want to see in the meagre two weeks we have at home before we have to come back again for another 7 weeks!
So 8 days til home, and 2 days til...DISNEYLAND! Going this weekend with Louise and cannot freaking wait. Gonna be so much fun. Also definitely going to end up buying myself a cuddly toy. At 21 years old. That's okay, right?
As cold as it is, Rouen is still lovely in the winter. We have a Christmas market here which is really cute. Lots of mulled wine and also hot orange juice with spices in it which is so yummy. I also tried roasted chestnuts for the first time! They taste kind of weird. Like potatoes. Not sure really.
So the market is lovely, they also have an ice skating rink by the Hotel de Ville. Not that I would ever do anything more than watch others there. After the Roller Disco Disaster of last year I don't want to add blades and ice to that scenario.
Louise and I are also now members of the SPO Rouen basketball supporters club. Yep. Somehow that happened. All I know is I now have a card that says I'm officially a supporter and I have the scarf and shirt to prove it.
We had our final training day last Friday. I've complained about them a hell of a lot but actually the last two were really good. Especially compared to other departments in France which I've heard not only just gave assistants one but also it had nothing informative or helpful about teaching at all. I now have loads of advice on how to actually be a more than substandard teacher. After the training day we went to the best fast food place in France (in my opinion): Holy Cow. Simply amazing. I've probably talked about it on here before but I don't care. It deserves recognition.
Have I got any more news? Teaching in general is okay. I have my one favourite class that I actually genuinely look forward to teaching every week because the kids are so lovely and actually get into it and enjoy speaking English to me. The rest of my classes are alright, there are a few that I cannot stand. I have a couple of classes that are all girls, about 7 of them or something, and it's just impossible to get them to speak English. They just giggle and talk in French all the time and it's so hard to control them. Those are the classes I cannot stand because I just know we'd both rather be at home. And I wish it was in my power to just say "right, go home, you don't want to be here and neither do I", but unfortunately I'm not allowed to do that.
But apart from those few annoying teenage girls (I hate teenage girls) most of my students are okay. Even if there is far far FAR too much PDA going on in the school corridors for my liking. Also, something I find hilarious is that French boys are too manly to faire le bises (cheek kisses) so instead of just saying hi to each other they have to do some weird handshake. Very amusing to watch.
Also I HAVE A BANK CARD! Which was probably made obvious through the disneyland news.
Right, I'll leave this with a few pictures:
Rouen basketball.
The gals at Holy Cow.
Rouen Christmas Market
Rouen Christmas Market
Life is good! After living in our apartment a month now everything is FINALLY working; all the electricity, all the plumbing, and all the furniture has been moved in. I mean, we still have some great items like our coffee tables which consist of an amazon box and the box our wifi thingie came in. But that just adds to the glamour of the Year Abroad I think.
The weather in Rouen is absolutely FREEZING, there's no doubt about that. Luckily it hasn't actually snowed yet and I'm hoping it holds off until I'm at home as the last thing I want is to be stuck here alone over Christmas! That's my only worry at the moment. Please ferry company, just take me home next Friday!
Which brings me onto my next happiness, I'm going home next Friday! It will have been almost 2 months away which is the longest I've ever been away from home before. I can't wait to get home and see everyone again, even though I have no idea how I'm going to fit in seeing everyone I want to see in the meagre two weeks we have at home before we have to come back again for another 7 weeks!
So 8 days til home, and 2 days til...DISNEYLAND! Going this weekend with Louise and cannot freaking wait. Gonna be so much fun. Also definitely going to end up buying myself a cuddly toy. At 21 years old. That's okay, right?
As cold as it is, Rouen is still lovely in the winter. We have a Christmas market here which is really cute. Lots of mulled wine and also hot orange juice with spices in it which is so yummy. I also tried roasted chestnuts for the first time! They taste kind of weird. Like potatoes. Not sure really.
So the market is lovely, they also have an ice skating rink by the Hotel de Ville. Not that I would ever do anything more than watch others there. After the Roller Disco Disaster of last year I don't want to add blades and ice to that scenario.
Louise and I are also now members of the SPO Rouen basketball supporters club. Yep. Somehow that happened. All I know is I now have a card that says I'm officially a supporter and I have the scarf and shirt to prove it.
We had our final training day last Friday. I've complained about them a hell of a lot but actually the last two were really good. Especially compared to other departments in France which I've heard not only just gave assistants one but also it had nothing informative or helpful about teaching at all. I now have loads of advice on how to actually be a more than substandard teacher. After the training day we went to the best fast food place in France (in my opinion): Holy Cow. Simply amazing. I've probably talked about it on here before but I don't care. It deserves recognition.
Have I got any more news? Teaching in general is okay. I have my one favourite class that I actually genuinely look forward to teaching every week because the kids are so lovely and actually get into it and enjoy speaking English to me. The rest of my classes are alright, there are a few that I cannot stand. I have a couple of classes that are all girls, about 7 of them or something, and it's just impossible to get them to speak English. They just giggle and talk in French all the time and it's so hard to control them. Those are the classes I cannot stand because I just know we'd both rather be at home. And I wish it was in my power to just say "right, go home, you don't want to be here and neither do I", but unfortunately I'm not allowed to do that.
But apart from those few annoying teenage girls (I hate teenage girls) most of my students are okay. Even if there is far far FAR too much PDA going on in the school corridors for my liking. Also, something I find hilarious is that French boys are too manly to faire le bises (cheek kisses) so instead of just saying hi to each other they have to do some weird handshake. Very amusing to watch.
Also I HAVE A BANK CARD! Which was probably made obvious through the disneyland news.
Right, I'll leave this with a few pictures:
Rouen basketball.
The gals at Holy Cow.
Rouen Christmas Market
Rouen Christmas MarketWednesday, 20 November 2013
Uphill battle
It's been a while since I wrote anything and seeing as my last post was thoroughly depressing it's probably worth updating this.
Things have got better since I last wrote, we have now finally moved into the apartment and even though it may be up 8 flights of stairs (I better be super skinny by the time I move out of here) it's really lovely. Somehow we managed to get furniture up all these stairs, we basically re enacted the pivot scene from friends with a couple of friends helping us out! It took quite a few days to get everything up here though. I feel like we achieved a lot because never before have I built a bed or dragged a sofa up 8 flights of stairs. This is true independence I suppose.
With regards to the bank, I still don't have a card, surprise surprise. I went into the branch where I opened the account and they said they would sort it out and then when I didn't hear anything I went into the one across the road from me and they said nothing had been done, so I sat down with them for about an hour until I saw they had properly changed my address and made them my primary branch and sent out for a new card. So now HOPEFULLY the card should come in the next week. If I have a bank card before going home for Christmas that would be fantastic.
Things with my prof ref have calmed down too, mainly I think because I now don't have to rely on her for anything now that we've moved the furniture into the apartment and I've changed my address for the bank.
It's nice to know that I don't have to text her all the time to say what's going on with the bank because having to do that alone was stressing me out.
As for the teaching, I think I've finally figured out some kind of system for each kind of class. For example, I have two Terminale classes today (equivalent of upper sixth) who are really good and really keen to talk, so today we did debates etc in class and it was a really good atmosphere in the lesson. But I have a Premiere class on Tuesdays (equivalent of lower sixth) and I find it really difficult to get any of them to participate, especially seeing as they are a massive class (I had seventeen of them yesterday). So what I did instead was print out a kind of English language question and answer bingo game and have them go and ask others in the class, and then reward them with a chocolate bar. Yes, bribery is the answer. So I feel like I'm getting into a slightly more steady rhythm.
There's currently a massive fair in Rouen on the left bank which I think may finish this weekend, so we've been a few times. Seeing as both Louise and I are still waiting for bank cards (hers got eaten by a machine last week) we haven't been able to book anything more extravagant yet but we're hoping to go to Disneyland Paris before the Xmas hols!
That's all for now. Very glad I only have two lessons tomorrow and then the weekend can begin.
Things have got better since I last wrote, we have now finally moved into the apartment and even though it may be up 8 flights of stairs (I better be super skinny by the time I move out of here) it's really lovely. Somehow we managed to get furniture up all these stairs, we basically re enacted the pivot scene from friends with a couple of friends helping us out! It took quite a few days to get everything up here though. I feel like we achieved a lot because never before have I built a bed or dragged a sofa up 8 flights of stairs. This is true independence I suppose.
With regards to the bank, I still don't have a card, surprise surprise. I went into the branch where I opened the account and they said they would sort it out and then when I didn't hear anything I went into the one across the road from me and they said nothing had been done, so I sat down with them for about an hour until I saw they had properly changed my address and made them my primary branch and sent out for a new card. So now HOPEFULLY the card should come in the next week. If I have a bank card before going home for Christmas that would be fantastic.
Things with my prof ref have calmed down too, mainly I think because I now don't have to rely on her for anything now that we've moved the furniture into the apartment and I've changed my address for the bank.
It's nice to know that I don't have to text her all the time to say what's going on with the bank because having to do that alone was stressing me out.
As for the teaching, I think I've finally figured out some kind of system for each kind of class. For example, I have two Terminale classes today (equivalent of upper sixth) who are really good and really keen to talk, so today we did debates etc in class and it was a really good atmosphere in the lesson. But I have a Premiere class on Tuesdays (equivalent of lower sixth) and I find it really difficult to get any of them to participate, especially seeing as they are a massive class (I had seventeen of them yesterday). So what I did instead was print out a kind of English language question and answer bingo game and have them go and ask others in the class, and then reward them with a chocolate bar. Yes, bribery is the answer. So I feel like I'm getting into a slightly more steady rhythm.
There's currently a massive fair in Rouen on the left bank which I think may finish this weekend, so we've been a few times. Seeing as both Louise and I are still waiting for bank cards (hers got eaten by a machine last week) we haven't been able to book anything more extravagant yet but we're hoping to go to Disneyland Paris before the Xmas hols!
That's all for now. Very glad I only have two lessons tomorrow and then the weekend can begin.
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