Much has occurred since my last blog, I was pretty much ill for the entire of last week but I still managed to make it to school every day. I was very proud of myself, although I did have every drug all the teachers offered me to help me through it... On thursday I went to the lycée with the oldest class in the school to do a science day, which was quite interesting- they did some fun chemistry experiments and me and the other teachers tried to compete with the kids to make a meccano car... we failed drastically, thought we managed to make it right but for some reason the motor didn't work. Clearly I don't have a career in technology ahead of me! Anyway it was a very nice day for me cause I have thursday afternoons off so I ended up doing no teaching, and managed to get over my illness a bit more.
Friday was rather dramatic, one of those days where absolutely everything that could possibly go wrong goes wrong... I started off leaving the house late, got to my bike and the chain had fallen off. 5 minutes later managed to fix it back on and set off, although I hadn't noticed how icy it was- the day before it had rained and it must have got very slippy, because I managed to fall off my bike. Wildly embarrassing, the first time I've ever fallen off on a road before and pretty scary. Luckily a nice man in a van stopped and took me to the fire station (no, I'm not sure why) but they seemed to be happy to fix me up and send me on my way. Did get a cheeky boost of confidence at the same time- the fireman asked me where I was from, and guessed Quebec! That's almost native! Anyway I headed onto school after being patched up, still fairly shaky, and arrived late in a massive state, although all the teachers were incredibly comforting and made me feel much better. Seriously, I feel like I've suddenly gained 4 extra mothers. Later in the day I had a mare photocopying and scanning, all my papers falling on the floor and such, but luckily I was heading to Paris to see the beautiful Natalie-Aston that evening which made me feel better. Headed off on my train, which was lovely and comfortable and arrived in Paris with no word from her... messaged lots and started to panic as it got later but in the end it was all fine as it turns out she was just late and her phone had run out of battery. Anyway, the day ended a lot better than it started, and it was lovely seeing a friendly face and speaking english!!
I had a generally lovely time in Paris, didn't do too much sightseeing but did spot the Louvre, the Seine and the Academie Francaise. Managed to squeeze in a trip to H&M and pick up some falafel so generally a successful weekend. We also went to a bar and had some ridiculously overpriced drinks but we followed it up with chips which, frankly, is the only way to end a night. The best part of the weekend was of course spending ridiculous amounts of time talking about ridiculous things with Natalie (we've already planned our next trip, to Lille and Valenciennes). At the end of the trip though, I was coming down with yet another cold/ sore throat. Seriously, these kids I'm teaching seem to be trying to get rid of me. Not fun at all.
Here are some photos of Paris (and me being a fool)
Here are some photos of Paris (and me being a fool)
Anyway this week has started in an interesting way, done my second tutoring lesson with the husband of one of the teachers which is going well, and met an Irish woman, who works at the lycée. It was nice to have a bit of a chat in english and she said that I should ring her if I'm ever homesick and that she has lots of books in english, and that she has kids around my age so she'll get in contact with me. It's nice to talk to someone who completely understands what it's like- she said she came here way back when on her year abroad so maybe in years to come I'll come back here as a teacher... you never know!
Having a joyous time anyway, and lots of trips planned for the future to get to meet more people and stuff! posfeb* everyone!
*positive february
