Yesterday marked two months of living in France, time is literally flying by here and I know that when I come back after Christmas it is going to go even quicker! I thought I would do a little summary of how things are going over here.
SCHOOL
School has become a normal part of my routine now, I seem to spend my weekends lesson planning, colouring flashcards and increasing my love for my laminator – I have a exciting life I know! For some reason I don’t particularly ever like the idea of going to school, I don’t know if it is the getting out of my bed, the walk/bus journey to get to school or the masses of photocoping I always need to do on a Monday morning… but it’s never something I look forwards too. However I do always LOVE it when I am actually there and teaching! It must just be my dislike of mornings. The kids are great and write me little notes, want to hug me (feels so weird as this would totally not be allowed in the UK, but teachers here allow it all the time. How odd), are super enthusiastic, and are actually really good at remembering what they have learnt from week to week. So when I’m lying in bed, not wanting to get up I need to force myself to remember how much I actually enjoy it! On a not so great note I have spent the last week practicing my cursive writing in a bid to get one of my teachers to stop re-writing everything I write because it is too “English” for the Children to understand – I swear she babies them, every other class can read it!!
I’m getting the hang of the video conferences now, I know how to use the software and have figured out how to make it a bit more interactive for the kids. I am so lucky in that for some reason these kids are mesmerized by an English speaking girl on their screen as if they were not I have no idea how I would discipline them over a screen as I can hardly make out their faces never mind match them to names!
TRAVEL
After finding our feet in Perigueux we have been a bit more adventurous with travel! Mum and Dad Visited, William Visited, I went to Brussels and Ghent during half term and more recently to Rocamadour. The weeks leading up to Christmas are very busy and full of exciting trips! Tomorrow we are going to Limoges after seeing how nice it was when we were there for a few hours last week, plus the chips where amazing and reason enough to return. The weekend after we are going to Toulouse, and the weekend after that I am going to Paris and I could not be more excited to see Hannah (you too Sam!), Paris will also be beautifully Christmasy and wonderful. And the weekend after I am back to Paris to catch my flight home to NI with William.
We have also started organizing our 2 weeks “winter holidays” in February, and after spending what will be a wonderful Week in Paris with Ali, Claire and Kat, I am catching a plane to visit Esther in Madrid – Very Exciting. After that I am meeting up with the Peri-girls for a week traveling Strasbourg, Metz, Nancy and Dijon before starting School again! I am loving all the opportunities I am getting to Travel here, I can already see that settling back into studying in Stirling is going to take a lot of getting used to. I do think I will try to make more out of my time in Scotland though, and try to see some more of the country 🙂
FRENCH
My French has definitely improved a lot since I moved here, I can understand so much more of what I hear compared to when I arrived. I have a lot more confidence in trying, and actually speaking French and manage to have day to day conversations with people and get through life. I do struggle with more in depth or odd topic conversations and definitely have soooo much more to learn but I have felt progress which is encouraging, I am getting to the stage now though that I now I need to brush up on my grammar if I want to progress more so I’ll have to get on to that! I am also trying to incorporate French into my life more, like music and reading the news in French and all the daily things I do anyways.
LIFE IN PERIGUEUX
I love Perigueux. It is pretty great, it is a wonderful size for a city-hater like me, not too big but at the same time not ridiculously small either. This week, once the Salon du Livre Gourmand had left town, the Christmas decorations have started to go up! I have not seen so many Christmas trees in one town – I have counted 5 so far and there isn’t one in the main Square yet! They have also started building little wooden huts for the Christmas market and oddly they have covered up some statues to make them look more Christmasy, they do look quite adorable I suppose. I have also heard rumours that there will also be a Ice skating rink, let’s hope so!
We had a cold spell a couple of weeks ago, but for some reason it has got really hot again – less than a month till Christmas and it was 20 degrees outside today. What even is that?! How am I meant to feel christmasy without hats, scarves, gloves and cold toes? I am also still wearing my “summer” coat. In November. At this rate I am not going to need my Winter one at all! Rant aside, the weather is actually pretty great as it makes travel and life in general A LOT easier, I just miss the cold a little. haha.
LIFE IN PHOTOS
As always I have taken far too many photos and am awful at choosing my favourites, so here is a little large bit of my life since my 3 weeks in France post.
C'EST LA VIE 