Fridays - Ugh!
I just had the most amazing class with one of my faves, Seconde A, because they're lovely and adorable. I did the class on dreams - even though I'd only sort of organised it five minutes before class. So I made it all up as I was going along. It went really well though, we talked about strange dreams we've had and we nominated a "doctor" to analyse the dreams. I even told them some of my own, even the one where I envisaged France as a stinking, mouldy ship, and England as an exotic desert island. I explained I was unhappy at the time and I do like France really. As ever they amazed me with their range of vocab and I left the lesson feeling happy, contented and reminding myself that it's lessons like this that make being a teacher worthwhile.
However, I have seconde C next, the lowest class in the school, something like 17 of them, they all hate me, they never listen to me. Actually they don't hate me, they just don't want to work for me. I can't think of a single thing we could do that they would cooperate with or remotely enjoy. I'm hoping they'll take a hint from last week and not turn up. Though I need them to turn up so I can tell them not to turn up next week!!
Dave and his mum arrive today, hurray!! A few problems going on though; firstly I haven't tidied my room, secondly I haven't started packing, thirdly, I haven't planned this weekend very well. Fourthly, I haven't exactly arranged for anywhere for the mother in law to stay, I asked the landfolks yesterday but they said they'd have to find out. So I need to leave after next lesson to find out. I also haven't rented a parking space yet, but that shouldn't be hard. I have had no time to myself since last thursday!! I'm so busy it's unfair. I still haven't done my CV, and I had an email today saying I need to have handed in a third of my coursework by May 31st (this is the coursework I've barely glanced at yet) All in all, life's a bit shitty. At least the sun's out though, though it's still a bit chilly. Just can't wait for Easter!!
Oh, and it's also my brother's birthday next week and I haven't got him anything. And I'm dying to go shopping for myself, I need shoes!!!! I've decided too that I'm going to play a game with 2C cos I can't be arsed to think of anything else for them.
Ah yeah, and I watched Fawlty Towers with my premiere S - they didn't get it. Actually, no, I think they got it, but they didn't find it funny. They were like laughing too loud, being sarcastic, and just chatting all the way through. I tried though, I really did! The only bit they laughed at was Basil's impression of Hitler. They totally missed out on the one-liners, and they didn't laugh at the moose bit. Damn them. It made me feel silly cos I thought it was hilarious, and I hoped they didn't think all English comedy is like that - but then why shouldn't it be?? It's great! They have no sense of humour...
I hate fridays.
"I speak Eengleesh, I learn it from a book"
I just thought I'd get some stuff written down now before I get way to busy, and eventually sod off home for easter. Dave and his mum arrive in about 2 days and I haven't even considered packing yet. I just look at all my stuff and go "nah". I can't decide what I'm going to need in the final week, so packing stuff is just not useful. However if I don't make a start now I won't have time before I leave. Especially as I've been given an extra class the end of next weds, and we were supposed to be making our way home then.... Oh well. Shouldn't set us back by much.
I'm about to go into my 1S class with Fawlty Towers. I have no idea how it's going to go down. Personally I love it, and there are subtitles so they should be able to understand it. But French humour is... a different animal altogether. My biggest fear is that I'm going to laugh so hard I cry (like I did when I watched it yesterday) and they're just going to sit there straightfaced and not get it at all. And think I'm rather silly. It's the episode about the Germans, so hopefully we can all have a laugh at their expense. It's the classic one too where Basil's supposed to be putting the moose's head up, and at one point he leaves Manuel cleaning the desk, and he's hidden behind the moose head and starts talking to the major "Hhello, hhow are you today? I speak Eenglish, I learn it from a book" I nearly wet myself.
I realy hope they get it! Anyway, I'm thinking I'll prob get round to writing another entry before I go home so all in all - ths was pointless. Oh well!!!!
"It's all about the bollocks, innit?"
So Laura and her friend came to stay this weekend, and I swear I have never had a better time over here, we had an incredible time. It had seemed somewhat unlikely at the beginning as we basically wanted to do the whole of Paris in three days, but we managed it alright!!
They arrived on friday, making my decision to skip most of school that day easy. Met up with them in the afternoon, it pissed it down, a little bit frustrating at the time as it had been sunny up until then. Still, we went out in the eve, met Ed n Jules for a meal in St Michel (where else?) and then onto The Gentleman, a nice Irish/English themed pub that has happy hour between 2pm and 10pm. Awesome! Met a few of my other folks, James (mutton chops from now on), Emma and a couple of others I don't know so well. Had a nice night. Laura snogged a French bloke (I expected no less from her, lol) and we decided then that it was time to leave. Unfortunately we'd left it slightly too late. And when we arrived at St Michel metro station, I, in my semi-drunken state, didn't recognise it much and I have to admit, I took a wild guess at which train we should get. And when a double decker train turned up I still didnt think any different of it. It wasn't til we got on and these two blokes with a bottle of champagne started chatting us up that we realised we were very wrong with our choice. We ended up at Gare Austerlitz, and there were no trains back. However, we were still laughing, even when we raced out of the station to grab the nearest taxi. The taxi driver was rubbish, and unlike usual French drivers, decided to stop at every red light, and we eventually got to Chatelet at 1am, raced across the station, which is huge ("LEFT!" "RIGHT!") and had missed our train by 15mins.
"Bollocks."
Luckily there was still a train going in kind of the right direction, so we got that one as far as Nanterre, and when we left there we found another train to Rueil Malmaison (four or five stops from St Germain, my place) and we thought if it stops there, it must have to carry on afterwards to St Germain, the terminus. We realised we were wrong again when they kicked us out and pulled the shutters down. So there we were, nearly 2am now, stranded in Rueil Malmaison.
"Bugger."
After waiting about 45mins, we eventually got a taxi back to St Germain. And then had to walk home. I forgot to mention that when we were at Austerlitz, Claire decided she needed a wee, and still did by the time we were walking home. She pissed on Paris.
Next day we went shopping, I spent money (but I have made my summer, if we ever have one!!) and then it pissed it down again so we went to Notre Dame to shelter and take some photos and discuss religion and all that (why do they need such huge decorative churches if they're not supposed to worship false idols and material possessions eh???) And then we chciha'd and had a quite early night, because the next day we were doing a lot of stuff.
Yesterday we started at st Germain market, then went to Arc de Triomphe, where we stared at the naked statues and as always pondered the significance of them having small penises but huge testicles (hence the "It's all about the bollocks") Then we marched down the Champs Elysees, did Sephora and Disney shop, and then took to metro to Louvre, did some photos of the pyramids and all that and then went for a glorious walk in the Tuileries, because now it was gorgeouly sunny and warm (and typically we'd all got big coats, gloves, scarves, brollys...) We sat for a while by a nice fountain, and then decided to jump all over some of the various statues dotted around for photos.
Next up we crossed to river to Musee D'Orsay, more photos, and then walked towards Invalides and got on another metro. And on to the Eiffel Tower! We bought tickets to just walk up the whole way (after Laura's comment that "it's not as big as I thought it would be") We walked as far as the third floor and luckily they wouldnt let people walk any further and we had to get the lift. Shame! My legs are aching today though I tell thee. As ever, amazing view from up there, and it was nice too to be able to just name stuff as I see it rather than look at the toursity board things (after all, I am no tourist!) Couldn't see chez moi though, which was a pity.
We spent about four hours going up and down there, and then decided to jump back on the metro as Lolly and Claire wanted to see the Moulin Rouge. I warned them that, of course, it is in the middle of the red light district, so prepare to be shocked, so when we arrived at Pigalle I imagined they would be ok. Wrong! Got out of the station and it's like "SEX SEX SEX" everywhere you look. The subtelest shop I saw was called "Supermarche Erotique" which I thought was quite cool actually. But the other two actually looked petrified the whole time we were there. Found the Moulin Rouge, took a few photos (though they refused to do can-can like poses!) and then shiftied up the road, trying not to look at any shops, til we got to Montmartre and the Sacre Couer. By now the weather was lovely, if a little bit sticky, so we decided to chill out at the bottom of the hill. I had just finished warning Laura about the men there who offer to make you string bracelets and then charge you 15euros for them (no doubt some stupid american would pay that and so they think any stupid toursit will) when we sat on a bench, and a guy came and sat next to me, and was like "Where you from? Give me your hand, I make you bracelet..." He'd got no further than that when I jumped up.
"NO! NO! Definately NOT! FUCK OFF!!!"
(Alright! I over-reacted slightly!!)
I grabbed Laura's wrist and we just ran up the hill giggling like mad. Well, that's one way to get up the hill quickly! So we sat back down, feeling we were a safe distance from the bracelet guys, when we were chatted up again by two other guys. Uurggghhhhh!!! I actually got into an argument with one of them, which ended up with him shouting "Suck maaii deeeeeck" at me, and me asking if he actually even has one. The other guy just came and stood in front of us staring and saying hello every so often. So off we went again. Eventually we had a very nice time looking at the sacre couer and going round the artists square, and had the traditional crepe (and got chatted up by the seller, though he obv didnt think we were "beyuteeefool" enough to give us free crepes) And that was it! We'd actually done everything we wanted to do in Paris. It was great. An amazing weekend was had by all. And I've got it all to look forward to again next weekend when Dave and his mom come over.
Though obviously we'll give the red light district a miss this time! And I'll try not to argue with any French guys. And I'll try not to eat as many crepes. And I don't think we'll be going for a chicha....
Happy Birthday Dear Bloo-oog....
Oh yeah, and I've just noticed that my blog has been "alive" (though on and off) for a year and one day. Happy Birthday Bloggy!! I've also noticed that I've done something to fuck up my front page though God knows what or how!!!! Grrr bloddy computers!!!!!!!
Computers - They're stupid anyway, but FRENCH computers....
Gah! I wish I wasn't so damned computer illiterate. But then that's the whole point of me going out with someone who is computer literate - it means I don't have to be. But of course, he's over there, and I'm over here and... what's a girl to do?
Leave it until she sees said literate person, that's what.
I wanted to add some links to this site, but I haven't the foggiest clue how to go about it. (All my CS friends are prob now going "is that it? What a loser" but you forget easily, I'm illiterate on computers!) And to make matters worse, whenever I connect to blogger over here, it gives me all instructions in French. As if it's not hard enough that on a french keyboard, most of the letters are in the wrong place. Now my French is good (well, better than it was) and I'm thinking I can understand what it's yakking at me about but to be honest - I haven't a clue. I can see the words but the meaning escapes me. It says do this that and the other, and then shows me a page full of script that could well be in Urdu for all I understand of it. It does tell me I have to do some typing on this script somewhere. Less usefully, it doesn't tell me where exactly, and it doesn't tell me where I can find this magical page of script. I realise here of course I might be unjustly blaming the french for my own stupidity, but then it's worked for the past 6 months, why should I stop now? Any advice on how to work a computer will be gratefully recieved...
Exciting things happening today at my school! As I arrived bright and early at 8am this morn, I noticed a load of lads standing outside and not letting the kids with bikes through the gates, but thought nothing of it. Went and had a play on the computer, look out the window and about a third of the whole school are standing outside, blockading the school gates (now, French people blockading and going on strike?? God Lord, it's virtually unheard of!) It's all to do with some law the ever-ridiculous government is trying to push - something about giving kids who leave school a job to keep unemployment down, however in this job they end up with no rights and can't join unions etc etc and after 2 years the employer can fire them without warning, because the kid was only there as part of the scheme or something. I don't really get it and I might have got it wrong, but that's how it sounds to me. So kids all over Paris (and I assume France generally) have been doing demos and stuff. And our kids chose today, outside the school. They made a poor choice - last week we had glorious sunshine and nice hot weather, and today? Pissing it down and there's some heavy freezing cold fog going on, haha. But they were getting pretty violent before lunch, and when I went home I hoped that by the afternoon there might have been enough damage to close the school or something, maybe a couple of small bonfires, some windows smashed, something like that. But alas it wasn't to be. After lunch, they must have decided it was boring and too cold, and that lessons were infinately better than freezing to death. Knowing my kids though, it's more likely they just ran out of fags.
And of course, I condone violence as part of the protesting, it's supposed to be peaceful and just standing up to the government (not that they listen of course) - but this is my school we're talking about, non-violence is not an option. Just ask some of the litter-bins they kicked over outside the school. The mean buggers!
I gotta love my kids though, they love to think they're the dogs bollocks. They seem to forget that teachers were young once and know pretty much everything that they're thinking, having experienced it themselves. They also seem to forget that I'm only 4 years older than some of them! They really do make me feel ancient sometimes!
I only have 58 more years to live, aarrrggghhh!!!
I have just found out that apparently, I'm going to die on Friday, 12th September, 2064. And worryingly I've done it a couple of times and it still comes up with the same answer. I don't know why but for soem reason Sept 12th is a significant date for me, I don't know why though, I can't remember what happens that day. Well, now I know I suppose...
www.deathclock.com if you're morbidly curious yourself. And don't select "sadistic" as your mode, it decreases your life expectancy by about 45years! The damn thing was telling me I was going to die in ten years time (though spookily still on the 12th sept...) It evens tells me how many seconds I've got left, lol. And to think I'm wasting my precious seconds on these inconsiderate bastards at my school (ok, it's only one or two classes, but still!)
I'm still having my massive rethink of life in general, I still don't know for sure if I want to go inot teaching still. Some days I have a really nice time teaching here, and other days it really does feel like a huge waste of time and energy for little gain. I've been reading Alex's progress on finding somewhere to do his PGCE and it really doesnt sound all that promising. Especially as for the course I want to do, I've found, there are only 4 universitys in the country that do it. One is in London (too expensive), another in Manchester (er...), another in Leicester (shithole), and the other... somewhere near Stoke I think. Gah. But fuck knows what I'll do instead. I feel like if I don't go inot teaching, this year in France will have been a waste. OK so I've learnt a few life skills, my french has improved tenfold, and I've really learnt what it's like to be alone. Is that really going to help me anywhere? Not unless I choose to come back and do this again...
Interesting thought actually. I had a dream last night that Dave cold heartedly sent me an email saying we were finished cos he'd fallen in love with someone else (I know who but I'm not going to say) and he never wanted to see me again etc. After the intitial shock, I decided that the best thing for me to do would be to stay in France for another year. (During all this, my ex was trapped in the lift, dressed as a clown, and was screaming abuse at me. Such is life.) It made me think, when I woke up, that in all honesty, Dave really is the only reason I'm going home. I couldn't give a toss about uni really, my family are used to me never being around, my friends would survive (maybe, lol), and this whole thing has come about because of Ed. He wants to stay another year in France, because now that me and he and Juliette have 'found each other', we're really starting to enjoy ourselves. And it all seems too late cos we only have 4 weeks left now. We've been doing some serious bonding over chicha in past weeks, getting some seriously heavy shit off our chests, some happy, some sad, some just damn frustrating. Apart from Dave, at the moment those two feel like the only people I can be truly, brutally honest with.
Speaking of Dave and honesty, over the weekend he told me about something I wasn't sure how to feel about and for probably the first time ever, I was absolutely and completely honest with him, and I told him everything that I was thinking. That's not to say I've lied to him before, I'm just one of those people who doesn't want to share every single little detail of my problems, there are always parts that I want to keep bottled up. But actually saying everything that popped inot my mind was quite refreshing and I felt a lot better afterwards. Perhaps this is one of the life skills I've learnt over here. I'll have learnt it from chicha no doubt.
Damn, lesson now, perhaps I'll add anything I remember later...
Brainfart of the Unpissoffable
Ugh, what an awful week! I don't know what exactly is so awful about it but I just know that it's not been one of my better weeks. And it's still only wednesday. I feel really weird and a little bit ill and sort of apprehensive about... fuck knows what. Maybe, just maybe, it's because nothing particularly awful has happened this week - and I'm probably expecting something awful to happen sometime soon. I'm just paranoid. Everything's fine.
Had a really nice day shopping on monday. I was looking for birthday presents for Dave, but also relishing the fact that I'd be getting out of the flat and visiting some of my favourite places. A few days before I'd been having a huge self-improvement drive and had ended up really making the effort to look good for this shopping trip. So I did my hair and make up, put on some nice simple clothes, and off I went, thinking I actually look half decent for a change.
Turns out that I'm looking better than half decent. In fact, men seem to be openly staring at me from the time I get on the train to the time I get on the bus home again (any girls that's ever been to Paris will know this is no new phenomenon among the leery beggary types of guys you see - but this weren't leery beggary types, they were normal guys!!!) Everywhere I went people were noticing me, shop assistants were following me round, offering me help and advice etc, a group of builders shouted mignon and whistled at me (apparently builder's etiquette is international!), and so on and so forth. It was quite nice, though I was obviously on full concentration-on-shopping mode (except in Sephora, when I was in full-on 'could I really justify spending 30euros on Clinique eyecream?' mode) So there I am, feeling wonderful, looking good, when oh no! One of those leery beggary fuckers is trying to chat me up. And somehow, he can tell I'm English. I hate it when that happens!!!! Do I have a huge sign over my head saying "ENGLISH - CHAT ME UP NOW!!"?? And I hate these horrible guys, they always follow you and I have to wonder what exactly makes them do it? Why the hell do they think they could ever have a chance with women?? Ugh. But anyway, back to the original point, this is what kicked off my paranoia. I suddenly realised that everyone must know I'm English and they must be thinking about how much cash I have on me, and, funniest of all, how many rude and disgusting words can they say in French and get away with (because, of course, they don't know I understand everything, stupid fuckers) So it put a pretty nasty edge on what had been a really nice day, but I got Dave's presents so it's all good.
My classes are getting more and more boring as the weeks draw on. The kids don't mind, it means they get to play games or read the english magazines, but it's mind-numbingly dull for me, cos I just sit there and supervise. But apart from being dull, I don't care. I had a class today who tried their very hardest, bless them, to piss me off. And I just let it all flow over me, there are no students here, I'm in my happy-but-a-little-bit-paranoid place. Thus I'm unpissoffable. Though I am slightly peeved now - I decided the best way to clear out all the meaningless crap in my mind is to go and have a chicha with Juliette, and we planned to meet at five, but it's just been announced that my help is needed with a class at three. Gah!! I also have to come in on a monday soon and go to a meeting I know very little about, and can't possibly be any help with. Oh well, only four weeks left at the school, hurray! And then I'll probably miss it like crazy and wish I could have stayed a little longer. On second thoughts.... maybe not.
