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