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...

Some things I’m discovering to be true about France…

A list of things that I was told about France, and indeed have discovered to be true:

1. Strikes - It’s true, the French do love to strike! Today, in fact, is a national strike, a protest against the new retirement age reforms. Half of the English teachers are striking, so they decided that it wouldn’t be worth my journey to school today. (Just as well I suppose, the bus company are also striking, only running one bus out of every three, so my journey there would 

have been complicated.) I think all should be back to normal by tomorrow.

2. Bureaucracy - Unfortunately the French also love bureaucracy, to the annoyance of me and my flatmate. Hence, the lack (still) of internet in our flat. Poor Francesca (my flatmate, the other English assistant) has tried giving the internet company every piece of identity and important looking document she owns in an attempt to prove that she does actually live in France. I also had a similarly depressing experience this morning (although it was over pretty quickly in comparison). All is not lost though, we’ve been told that once we receive our cheque books from the bank we shall be able to buy internet - hoorah! Maybe in a week or so…

Before this post turns into a rant, I'll turn to more pleasant things...

3. Cheese - The French eat lots of cheese. I discovered this on Sunday night, although I did kind of already know this one. We (Francesca and I) were invited to a meal with the GBU (Christian students’ group/CU) at the pastor’s house. It turned out to be quite a multicultural meal, with Romanian, Moroccan, Ivorian, French and British foods. (Our contribution was some Marks + Spencer Scottish ginger biscuits - neither of us are at all Scottish, but I’m a bit stuck without an oven to bake anything, perhaps we’ll try a trifle next time!) Anyway, after the main course, Toni (the pastor) brought out a huge plate of cheeses (the French contribution), some nicer than others! It was a really nice evening though, about 10 of us chatting round the dinner table. I have to stay I did rather more listening than chatting, my French still hasn’t reached the level of easy conversation! I did manage to understand the rules to a card game we played after though, but I wasn’t very good at it, nonetheless. (No change there!)

Despite my earlier moanings, I am still feeling happy here. I’m off to Besancon tomorrow, to meet up with some other assistants from Southampton Uni. It’s the nearest bigger city, at about an hour on the train. No doubt, I will have more stories to tell.

With love from France x

The Beginning

So I finally made it -the Year Abroad, can’t really believe that! I’ve got somewhere to live, a French bank account, a French mobile phone, a job in a school… I’m definitely ‘living’ in France. And so far so good :) I’ve got a room in an apartment which is joined on to another school to the one I’ll be working at. It’s just me and another English assistant at the moment, there seems to have been some confusion over assistants coming from other countries, so it might just be us two all year, but that’s ok. We have a shower each, plenty of space, not much rent, so it’s good. - Well, apart from the lack of internet, but that should soon be sorted we hope. (I’m really sorry about my delay in writing anything here, thanks for the messages I had from so many of you.) Oh, and we did get locked out of the school grounds last week…had to climb over the 6ft fence…but a key is being sorted now.

I’ve been going into my school for a week now, mostly just observing lessons, but it’s good to find my feet. I’ll be teaching there for the rest of the year, so I’m hoping to get well settled in. The staff are really welcoming, and the school has a nice atmosphere. There are about 550 kids, aged between 15-18, and generally, they’re nice enough. (You can’t really call teenagers nice can you?) I have to say that the canteen is incredible! So much good food, I was really lost, couldn’t quite believe that I could have four courses having paid just under 3€. And everyone eats that much too! (Sorry, I know reading about food isn’t that interesting, I’ll stop now).

The town of Montbéliard is beautiful in my opinion (that's were I'm living). There is a château (castle - see photo above), and a park that I walk through to get to the centre of town, which is lovely. It’s not a very big place, population of about 25,000, but there seems to be plenty of clubs to join. I’ve even found a church to go to on Sunday, and a GBU (French for CU) which is linked to the University here.

It’s hard to fit one and a half weeks into a few hundred words, so I’ll being updating some other things a bit sooner I hope.

With love from France x