It was Friday that has been the best day so far; a lot of things slotted into place and I finally visited the schools and saw where I was going to be working for the next 7 months...
First of all, I visited Collège Val D’Huisne. I’ve got to say, I had reservations about this school as it’s a ZEP (a school funded by the government for those in deprived areas) and I had been told a few horror stories by the past assistants, so you can imagine how worried I was. However, upon arrival the kids came running up to me shouting random English things at me and I also got told that I was ‘very beautiful’ by a few of the girls-bless them! This definitely was not what I expected...Emmanuel explained to me that it’s rare for the kids to see a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes- appaz its ‘uber sexy’... So as the morning passed, I continued to be treated like a celebrity and not a single person was naughty for me! I was thankful for being blonde and I sincerely hoped that it will continue like this....
Then I went to Collège Berthelot, where I didn’t get quite the same arrival. Turns out that they didn’t realise they had two English assistants and therefore didn’t know about me at all! And the secretary got annoyed at me for not having come sooner. How they didn’t know about me when I sent letters and emails I don’t know, but the secretary eventually calmed down (it was a Friday) and they assured me that it was brilliant that they had two assistants and that they’d do me a timetable ASAP. The other English assistant here is Alice- one of my first friends in Le Mans so this should be funJ. Again this afternoon I sat in on two lessons and the kids were just as excited to have some ‘vraies anglaises’ or ‘vraies britanniques’ (just for Alice) to talk to. One thing that really came across is how enthusiastic both Céline and Emmanuel (the English teachers at Val D’Huisne and Berthelot) are. They have a very laid back way of teaching compared to England and learn far more conversational English- something I really would have benefitted from learning at school...
Céline invited me and Alice to dinner that night and I have one word to describe it. AMAZING. Her house was about a half an hour drive out of Le Mans and was pretty damn big. The evening was filled with great food, wine and conversation and I finally felt relaxed. Their family was so hospitable, nothing was a problem so whoever said the French were rude and obnoxious (clearly me in the past) must have been lying. Everyone has been super friendly so far.
That night was the first time I slept properly in Le Mans. Alice and I slept in that next morning and even though we weren’t hungry, we had a huge breakfast before returning to Le Mans. Saturday afternoon consisted of doing all the bits and bobs that I hadn’t managed to do so far, such as unpacking and making my room my own. I also went food shopping and managed to get quite a lot of stuff for €30. Whilst doing so, someone came up to me and asked if I was English, guess it’s still dead obvious! Need to work on that...
This post is getting pretty long already and I’ve still got a lot to say so I will resort to a list of other exciting/notable things that happened this past weekend:
· I cooked for myself for the first time since god knows when...
· I got stood up by the bus- I’ve now learnt that you have to sort of wave it down like you do with taxi’s in America
· I met lots more assistants and students
· We all went to a free concert at ‘des expositions du Mans’ and watched an Irish band called Two Door cinema Club
· We took a trip to the Old City for the Sunday market which is so quaint and pretty
· I had my first experience of French cinema in a French cinema. It definitely was NOT a rom-com...
· And in order to facilitate my listening practice I started watching Desperate Housewives in French courtesy of Youtube.
I promise I will finally get up-to-date with this blog sometime soon,
Beaucoup d’amour xxxxx
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