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
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