Update for my life

Okay, so this is the first time I’ve had internet in God alone knows how many days. Here is possibly the longest blog post I’ll ever write seeing as I have to sum up everything that’s gone on since Sunday when I last entered the realms of the internet.

I am in an incredibly strange living situation at the moment. I’m still staying with my prof referent but I’m literally living in one corner of one room because she has just moved into this house so my ‘room’ is full of boxes. I can honestly say I don’t feel upset, I don’t feel ‘homesick’ per se I just feel a bit awkward living here because it’s not the best environment at the moment…there is a lot of stress due to her and her family still attempting to sort their new house out and also move everything out of the old one so I’ve spent quite a few evenings sitting in my room listening to screaming matches between them all. All in all I cannot wait to move out of this room and stop living out of a suitcase. And start cooking for myself and basically just stop feeling like such a flipping burden the entire time! So that’s my living situation at present, I am stuck in Franqueville-St-Pierre with no internet (until now) and no one nearby so I basically spend most evenings sitting in my bed (in, not on, because it is freaking FREEZING in this house and in this region of France in general I suppose) and watch the extensive DVD collection I brought with me and try to ration my Game of Thrones book as I only brought one other book with me and if I finish both before I get internet access then I really do think I will go mad.

Right, let’s move onto a more positive note!

Rouen is an absolutely beautiful city (even though I’ve only managed to go round it TWICE after being here for six freaking days, six days that feel like 20) and I can’t wait to live there. And not here. I’m currently searching for apartments with two other English assistants who I met at the training day who also don’t have apartments yet, one of whom is eerily in the exact same situation as me with her prof referent moving house currently! I went round her house to search for apartments with her as the other assistant lives quite far away, and it was such a different atmosphere! Even though she may be moving out it is so much calmer. I suppose it’s due to the fact she just lives with her 16 year old son whereas here there are three boys, 8, 10 and 12 as well as husband and wife so the stress is massively intensified. But anyway, the point is that the apartment search seems positive and hopefully I’ll find somewhere decent soon and get out of this mad house!

More positives, my school seems genuinely really good. The actual layout reminds me of one of my University buildings more than a school, but maybe lycées are different from regular sixth form colleges in the UK. There are 1400 pupils who ALL study English as a compulsory subject so how the hell I’m meant to see all of them in 12 hours a week I have no idea. I guarantee by the end of my seven months there will still be students I’ve never met. The colleagues I’ve met seem really lovely, all the English teachers are great, some are a really good laugh and also all the other French members of staff seem really welcoming. My French is bloody abysmal though, I don’t know what is wrong with me, I mean I’m meant to be doing a degree in this bloody language. I think it’s because some of the conversation French is different to how we’re taught it in school, so for example no one has ever asked me in French ‘where do you come from’ before because in school we were always taught simply ‘where do you live’. So yes, I am genuinely stumbling in my mind when French people ask me where I’m from. Eventually a lightbulb in my brain turns on and I tell them Brighton. They all love Brighton because it’s so close. One of my fellow English teachers (can I even say that? I mean am I really an English teacher?) kept making the same joke every time he introduced me to someone: ‘she comes from Brighton! The British Riviera!’ Bless. Here is my first observation of French people: if French people wear glasses, they only wear what is known among the Warwick French students as ‘Béatrice glasses’. These are the little round spectacles, kind of like the ones that elderly senile lawyer from the Aristocats wears, you know, the ‘TARARABOOMSEYAY’ guy. Anyone who gets that quote is my new hero.

I’m teaching kids aged from 15-18 and their levels are INCREDIBLY varied. You get one class of 15 year olds whose English is genuinely good and are eager to speak to you and then some who genuinely look at you like you’re an alien. Same with the 18 year olds. I'm meant to be following one of the 18 year olds around and seeing all her classes next Friday...might be a bit weird.

I finally have a bank account now, got it with the post office and EVERYTHING was free which was fantastic. Still don't have a French phone number though. Watch this space.

One of the strangest things about central Rouen is there is this man who walks around trying to get charity money from you with a trolley...of three cats and a rabbit. I just don't get it. I mean the cats themselves must have cost money as they're Burmese cats which cost like £200 odd in England...it's just the weirdest thing ever.

I'm still searching for a bookshop.

Tomorrow I have to go to Dieppe to get my birth certificate translation from this translator who has been dodgy as, she's messed me around LOADS so if she doesn't turn up tomorrow I will go mental seeing as I'm already paying 35 euros on top of 16 extra to get the train to Dieppe and back! Really not impressed. My advice to any students next year who have to get a certified translation of their birth certificate is email all the translators to find out how near they actually are to the town centre so you don't get messed around like I have! At least I'm going out for drinks with the other assistants after so that's something to look forward to.

Right, I'm going to go to bed now and leave this here.

Bisous!