Becoming acclimatised...

I’m afraid as I become more and more used to life in France I can think of fewer things to tell you about in my blog. Perhaps that’s not such a bad thing really! All the same, it’s already a month since I last wrote, so here are a few things that I’ve been up to.

So we got through January with really very minimal amounts of snow to my great surprise, I was all set to be snowed in at some point! The last week has been wonderful weather, perfect blue skies and a fresh breeze. I’m assured that the cold weather normally lasts until April at least, so there’s still plenty of time for the snow to come back.

I’ve started playing my oboe again, which hasn’t happened for a long time. I was asked if I wanted to help with the music at church by one of my friend’s who was going to be leading worship, so thought I’d give it a go. It was lots of fun and I really enjoyed being able to serve the church.

Two weeks ago, I went up to meet up with Emilie who studies in Besançon, an hour from me. We first met when she came on ERASMUS to Southampton, so it was so lovely to see each other again after well over 18 months! She showed me the sights in Besançon and I got to eat some dinner with her flatmates (the majority are also her brothers and sisters).

I think you’ll be glad to hear that I’m embracing one particular French way of life. Last week I took part in a protest about the education reforms with some of the other teachers! This basically meant standing outside the school for the first hour of classes, some of us holding placards and others just joining in with occasional chants. One of my favourites was “j’enseigne, tu enseignes, il enseigne, nous enseignons, vous enseignez…ils suppriment!” which roughly translates as “I teach, you teach, he teaches, we teach…they cut our jobs!” (I think perhaps it works better in French…) We even made it into the local paper, you can see me in the photo, if you’re looking closely…The teachers came dressed in black to symbolise the death of education in France, we even held a minute’s silence. It didn’t technically count as a strike as the teachers are allowed one hour off from teaching each month to attend a union information hour - which is what they used last week. I can understand the teachers concerns. Under the reforms, over 60 hours of classes will be cut from the school I work in, which means that at least 4 teachers will lose their jobs. The reform also proposes that the class size maximum will go up to 35 - the most I had in my classes in sixth form was 20 - among other changes, so I can understand their frustration. It’s so serious that there even considering a sleepover protest - bringing their sleeping bags to school to sleep in the staff room!

So, just a few more teaching days before yet another school holiday! Not that I’m complaining :) Looking forward to popping back to England for a week, going on a snow weekend (although with the recent weather it could just be a “weekend”) with the youth group and taking a trip to Paris to visit a friend. Watch this space for pictures of my adventures.

With love from France x

Sorry about the wait...

Looking at the date of my last post I feel suitably ashamed! I’m sorry that blogging really isn’t my thing. Nonetheless, I’m so grateful for those of you who keep up with my adventures (well day to day life) so I’ll try and do some summarising so you don’t get too bored!

My Mum came to visit me in Montbéliard in the week before I went home for Christmas. It was really nice to see her, and we did plenty of Christmas shopping together in the markets! Fortunately she made it home before the snow started falling again in Britain.

The special Christmas service that I mentioned in my last post went really well - it was lots of fun anyway! I managed to remember my lines in French and it was just really cool to spend some more time with people from the youth group. We even had a posh Christmas meal together that evening. Everyone dressed up and we even ate foie gras! (No snails though!)  

So the title of this blog post doesn’t just refer to my slowness in blogging. I spent quite a lot of time waiting during my journey home for Christmas! I expect most of you have already heard this story so I’ll keep it short(ish). Basically, I spent three hours waiting at Basel airport on the evening of 20 December, only to be told that my flight back to Gatwick was cancelled due to snow, with no alternative until at least the next morning, and only if the weather cleared up, but it looked like it wouldn’t! As you can imagine, I was pretty worried about how I was ever going to get home. I am so thankful for one of my friends from youth group here, who had seen the news of snow chaos in Britain on TV, and who texted me to see if I was ok. Her parents drove for 1 hour to come and pick me up, then 1 hour to drop me back at my flat. It was about 12am by the time I got home. I left my flat the next day at 7.30am to get a train to Paris, then another train to Calais, to then get the ferry (there were a lot more trains and buses that I haven’t mentioned there!) Calais was fairly chaotic, and the ferries were running late due to fog. Nonetheless, I met my parents at 10.30pm in Dover, and I was very glad to see them! (They had driven for 2 hours to come and get me, as we feared that I would miss the last train.) It was quite fun in the end, I think I was very as the ferry was full of Brits with stories to tell! It was clear that I'd had one of the better journeys!

I had a lovely time catching up with friends and family over Christmas. One of my assistant friends from the US, Eryn, came to stay with us over Christmas, since it’s a bit far to get back to the States just for Christmas. So it was great to have her with us, and my brother and Dad enjoyed teaching her about the different accents of Britain!

And now I’m back in France, and have been for two weeks. It took a little while to get used to being back, although fortunately I hadn’t forgotten how to speak French over the holidays. Quite a lot of my classes have changed with the new term, so I making the most of the experience I’ve gained and lessons that I already had planned!

It’s starting to dawn on me that I am already about half way through my year abroad! Well, you know what they say…time flies when you’re having fun :)

With love from France x

Snow business...

It seems like a lot the news is about snow, so I’ll start with that. In fact, it’s not really big news here. We’ve have a good two or three inches of snow on the ground here for almost ten days, but everyone is so used to it here - I haven’t seen a single snowman!

The Christmas market is great - plenty of interesting looking presents and the food is fab (good old hot apple juice too!) We also have plenty of pretty looking lights, and since the special guests come from Louisiana this year, there is even a band of jazz playing polar bears :) We also have an ice rink, hoping to use our free coupon to try it out in the near future!

I went for a tour around the market on Wednesday with Deborah, a German girl who I met while working at the Spring Harvest campsite in the Vendee over the summer. She's here doing an exchange with a French girl for two months, so it was really good to see a familiar face at youth group last week (if a little weird!) It also really helps when you're not the only foreigner!

Just two more weeks of school left now until the holidays, it’s time for me to plan some Christmas themed lessons! I’m thinking I will include some kind of suitably cheesy Christmas song listening activity. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to bring mincemeat out with me back in September to make mince pies for my students.

The jazz playing polar bears!

I’ll be going to Youth Group at church later tonight. They are preparing for “la fête de Noël” (special Christmas service), which is happening the day before I come back to England for the holidays. I’m glad to be taking part as well - we’re doing a drama based on the parable of the feast, and two songs. One of these is in English, so it’s cool to be able to help all the Frenchies with their pronunciation! (I’m sure they will have to help me with my French!) I’ve been cast as an extra in the first act of the drama, and a tourist in the second (very appropriate!) 

Hope you're all surviving the snow,

With love from France x

Life is a little busier...

...but here are some photos to show you that I've been travelling again - this time to Strasbourg.

That's Strasbourg Cathedral in the background - it was busy!

Also, we have snow (and plenty of it!)

Snow in Montbéliard

I promise to give you some more words in a few days time, not just photos :)




With love from France x

Back to school

So last Friday (a week yesterday) was back to school for me. Life at the lycée, is still going well. I have now taught quite a few lessons, and met nearly all the groups I will be working with up until Christmas. I think I’m still somewhat of a novelty for most of the students, so it’s not too hard to keep their attention and respect. It’s when they start giggling or just all look at me blankly that I know I’m talking too fast!

I took advantage of my railcard last Saturday for a day trip to Dijon with my flatmate. I’m afraid my day didn’t include any mustard, but rather visits to an art gallery, a few very impressive churches and a very nice cup of spiced hot apple juice and gingerbread tasting (see photo below).

Next it was back to Montbéliard for a party! (Yes, I know a party in sleepy Montbéliard?!)*. Some of our fellow assistants from the USA were having a party at their flat, so we joined the international crowd for a few hours before retreating to bed, since we did get up at 5.30am to make the most of the day in Dijon. It’s good to share teaching troubles and holiday stories. There’s actually a surprising amount of us who work in the area, so the flat was pretty full!

The Christmas lights and many of the huts for the Christmas market stalls are already in place in the centre of Montbéliard, but it will be two weeks until it all kicks off. So many people have told me that it’s the attraction of the year, so it’s all very exciting! I’ll be sure to post some photos when the time comes.

I think I’ve written enough now :)

With love from France x

*I just wanted to point out that although I described Montbéliard as ‘sleepy’ I still like it lots!

In pursuit of becoming a better blogger

I’m writing this from the comfort of my bedroom - which means no more internet café (yay!). This also means I should be better at keeping in contact, so please do keep emailing/facebooking me and I can now also use Skype (helen.chesters1), it would be great to hear from you!

So, I’m not so good at this blogging thing, I must try to write more often to avoid writing so much at once. I will update you a bit on what I’ve been doing. (I’ve included pictures this time, that should help a bit!)

I’m on school holidays now, until Friday, since I don’t work Wednesdays or Thursdays. There is plenty of lesson planning to be doing, as well as writing a proposal for my uni project, but I’ve had a bit of time to see more of France.

Last Sunday, I travelled to Annecy (quite a bit further south of here) to meet up with Chloe (a uni friend and fellow assistant). It’s a really beautiful place, with canals running throughout and a huge lake surrounded by snow-topped mountains. (As you can see from my photos) We did lots of walking and ate lots of lovely food, even did a bit of shopping. Unfortunately, I think this trip will be probably most remembered by us for the journey home on Wednesday...

It’s a bit of a long story, but here’s my attempt to shorten it. We had to take a coach between Annecy and Lyon for our journey home, which was already a problem because there were so many people and not enough seats on the coach. We made it though. But when we got to Lyon, Chloe’s suitcase was no longer where she had left it in coach’s luggage department. After much queuing at the station’s welcome area we established that it was still in Annecy and we’d need to go back to get it. Unfortunately the story doesn’t end there… Chloe had locked her case, but it was unlocked when she got it back and her laptop and various chargers and a UK adaptor were all missing. We think that they must have been stolen, so we had to visit the police station so she could get a report for insurance purposes. So we are still none the wiser as to why her case didn’t stay in the luggage hold all the way to Lyon, but when we did eventually leave on Friday (after again much shoving to get on to a coach!) both Chloe and her suitcase made the full journey home!

What an adventure! Nevertheless, we did both realise that we know enough French to deal with this, and Annecy is still very beautiful. I hope future travelling experiences will be less stressful!

Tomorrow night I’ve been invited out for another meal with the GBU (Christian Union) at the pastor’s house which will be lovely. I will be attempting to make microwave flapjack to take with me. I’m at a bit of a loss since I don’t have an oven, but I won’t let that stop me baking!

With love from France x

Three weeks in...

So I find myself in the internet café once again…at least it only costs me one euro to buy a coffee :)

It’s been about a week since my last post, so here’s a bit about what I’ve been doing.

I’m afraid I never made it to Besançon; the French rail workers have been on strike all week, which means there are very limited services. I didn’t fancy getting stuck in Besançon, so stayed in Montbéliard. Really hoping that this doesn’t last much longer, we are supposed to be going for an assistants’ training day in Besançon. AND, it’s almost the school holidays, I’m hoping to meet Chloe (uni friend and fellow assistant) on Sunday for a few days in Annecy, and would really like not to have to worry about getting stuck there!

The unrest is still very visible here. On Friday, I wasn’t able to get to school when I wanted to because students were in the street, blocking the buses from passing. They were running through town and just generally making lots of noise. We had about 50 police officers outside the school where I’m living. There were quite a few people missing at school yesterday as well, as part of the national day of strikes. The other big worry here is petrol. Lots of the refineries are striking, so petrol is becoming harder to come by. It’s quite unsettling, but fortunately there hasn’t really been any violence.

On a happier note, I began teaching this week. I’m taking groups of about 10 students at a time for conversation practice. It’s been going well, haven’t had too many awkward silences or confused faces! The ‘kids’ are only a few years younger than me, but they’re pretty well behaved, so it’s been quite fun.

Last weekend, I spent most of Saturday and Sunday on my church’s weekend away. When I was first invited I was pretty unsure about going, especially since I hadn’t know anyone for longer than two weeks, but it turned out to be fine! The church here isn’t that big, so I’ve now met a lot more of its members and they know who I am (the English one). It was exciting to hear them talking about where they saw themselves in the community and what they could be doing to better serve God. I’m finding it hard to see where I fit in, especially with my lack of communication skills! But I’m sure that it will become clearer once I’ve been here a bit longer.

With love from France x 

ps. Things are looking more promising on the internet connection front, watch this space...