So once again I’ve been slacking at the blog posting and
I've done so much I think I'm going to have to summarise it a lot or this post
is going to be more like a dissertation! (Okay so I tried to summarise but it's
still pretty long so I hope you don't get too bored reading it!)
After my last post my sister came to stay for the weekend
which was lovely but unfortunately it rained alll weekend and the sun came out
as soon as she left, how typical! We went to the aquarium in La Rochelle which
is supposedly one of the biggest in Europe, it didn’t seem that big though, but it was really good and I took a lot of photos
of the fishies!
We also did what we do best- shopping! We are such bad influences on each other, on her first afternoon here we both returned home with armfuls of bags and she had managed to spend half of the money she had brought with her for 3 days!
I also braved going back up the Lantern Tower, last time I
went up with my mum, dad and brother, just after I arrived in La Rochelle, my
brother spent the whole time laughing at me because I was going at a snails
pace up and down the stairs and refused to walk around the tower at the top
because it was so windy that I thought I was going to blow off! But luckily
this time there was hardly even a breeze and somehow the narrow, slippy, spiral
stairs didn’t seem quite as bad!
Me up the tower!
Me with my cocktail!
A couple of days after my sister left I headed off to Paris
to be paid 200 euros to go to a Comenius meeting which only set me back 75
euros in train tickets and 25 euros for a hostel room so effectively they paid
me 100 euros to go to Paris- can’t complain! However, the meeting was
incredibly boring and mostly the same as the meeting I’d been to in England but
it was probably worth it for the numerous tea breaks and free 3-course lunch with bread,
wine and coffee! And it was also a good opportunity to meet other assistants
and catch up with people from Sheffield (there are a lot of us doing
Comenius!). At the meeting they gave us a list of all the assistants in France
and where they are and it turns out that I’m the only one in the whole of my
region! After narrowly missing one of the renowned SNCF strikes by a day I
arrived back in La Rochelle and went back to school for 2 days before the
Toussaint holidays.
The first weekend of the holidays, Jen (another Comenius
assistant that I know from Sheffield) came to stay in La Rochelle for the
weekend with some other assistants from where she is so I showed them around a
bit, we went for a guided tour of the Town Hall which started out interesting
and fairly easy to follow (it was in French) but by the end we were all a
little bored and had given up trying to understand the guide's babbled attempt
to finish the tour on time! We also went for a night out and for dinner which
was nice!
Night out with the Cholet assistants in La Rochelle
Then the real adventures began, I set off to Bordeaux with a
massive suitcase in tow, since I had the choice of a tiiiny one or one I could
probably fit in myself and knowing that I am incapable of packing light, I went
for the big one. Although I later went on to regret this decision after a week
of lugging it around with me on trains, to and from stations and up steps etc!
In Bordeaux I met Rhian and Harriet, two of my friends from uni, as well as
some other assistants from Poitiers (where Harriet is). On the first day we did
a massive circle of the town in search of the Tourist Information Office and we
later found out that there is also a Tourist Information Office at the railway
station we had arrived at! But nevermind, we got to see quite a few of the
sights that way and we also went on the little tourist train to get an overview
of the city and get our bearings a bit!
On the last day we split into two groups- one to do cultural
things like museums and the other to go shopping! Now anyone who knows me would
have been able to guess that I went with the latter, especially since Bordeaux
claims to have the longest shopping street in Europe and the shops were fairly
inexpensive unlike in La Rochelle, so I seized the oppurtunity! In the end I
didn't actually end up buying that much but I did manage to find a Halloween
costume in Claire's Accessories. Halloween isn't really celebrated that much
here so that was about the only place we found that sold Halloween things and I
decided to go as a cat. Later that evening I got the train back to Poitiers
with Harriet and the other assistants where we went for a night out for
Halloween (hence the costume!), I was surprised to see that there were actually
a lot of other people dressed up in the bars! It seems to be a lot more popular
in bars and clubs than among children here!
The next day we went to the same Creperie that we went to
last time I was in Poitiers- so good! Then in the evening we went to one of the
other assistant's appartments where we made chocolate chip scones and chatted
which was lovely as I have really been missing baking since I don't have an
oven, and it was nice to make something typically english too!
The next morning me and Harriet got the train down to
Perpignan which took about 8 hours but it went fairly quickly as we spent it
napping, chatting, and reading, and we also had to change twice so that broke
up the journey a bit. When we arrived in Perpignan we went for tapas which was
soo good and we even had a crazy man serenade us with his guitar before
demanding money!
The next day we met some of the others from Sheffield that
are studying in Perpignan too and we set off early on a coach up into the
mountains, we got off the coach in a little village and trekked about an hour
to reach St.Thomas les bains- outdoor hot springs that you can swim in! The
outside temperature was about 12°C but the water temperature was about 35°C so
once you'd done the frantic run from the changing rooms to the baths, it was
bliss!
We also paid to use the indoor facilites which included a
steam room, jacuzzi and complimentary tea room although I was highly
disappointed to find they had no english breakfast tea and no milk, so no tea
for me :( We trekked back and got the coach just as the sun was going down
which made for very pretty views across the valley.
After accidentally getting off the coach then immediately
back on part way back, we finally arrived back in Perpignan quite late. We had
a quick dinner then went for a night out which included predrinks at Cameron's
house and teaching a group of baffled french people a drinking game called
'Zimmy' (which by the way I was awful at, which consequently meant I ended up
drinking quite a bit!). On the way into town we stopped at a bar to use the
toilets and me and Harriet accidentally used the mens because often in French
bars there's only one cubicle for everyone, but apparently not at this one! We
didn't realise why we'd been getting funny looks until we got back to the
others and Rhian asked us why we had gone in the mens!! After that we headed
onto the club where me and Harriet subsequently lost everyone and so resorted
to dancing on a table, as you do! But we soon found them again and danced the
night away!
The next day we were planning on making a big roast dinner
for everyone but because France is rubbish on a Sunday, all the shops were shut
by the time we got there so we spent the whole day waiting for the kebab shop
around the corner to open!
Me and Harriet left the next morning and headed back to La
Rochelle and Poitiers respectively. It's safe to say the idea I had before
coming to France that french trains are always on time is definitely not true,
our train stopped at Agen station for around 2 hours because of an accident or
something like that on the track. It was lunch time so we went out of the
station in search of a sandwich shop. Evidently everyone had had the same idea
as us as the little sandwich shop we found across the road from the station had
a queue out the door! We made it back to the train just in time to receive a
free lunchbox from SNCF because of the delay! In it we got a letter of apology,
a bottle of water, a tuna salad, some biscottes, duck pâté, pretzels, apple
compôte and haribo sweets! Not bad for a free lunch, if only we had known we
were going to get that before we went and bought our baguettes!
I finally made it back to La Rochelle station at about
5.10pm after leaving Perpignan station at 8.18am! After a quick stop at the
bank and the post office I finally made it back home and was very relieved not
to have to be dragging my suitcase around anymore! Alas, less than 24 hours
later I was off again, this time to Toulouse with Heather- one of the English
Language Assistants from near here. Although this time I opted for the small
suitcase and although that limited my packing options I couldn't face dragging
the big one around any longer! Unfortunately the train to Toulouse was also
delayed (beginning to hate SNCF, although this time because it was their fault
we get our tickets refunded!) so we didn't arrive until about 10.30pm and we
hadn't had any dinner as they didn't sell food on the train!! So we hurriedly
checked into our hotel and dumped our bags and then went to a nearby bakery to
get paninis.
Our hotel room
That evening we went to see Bloc Party play live, which was
the main reason for our trip to Toulouse but we decided to go for a few extra
days to explore a bit. The Bloc Party gig turned out to be an adventure and a
half! The concert hall was a lot further away from the city centre than we
first thought and not very easy to get to! We had to get the metro to the end
of the line then it was still a fair way from there, we foolishly assumed there
would be a lot of people around to follow, it would be well signposted, there would
be a bus or if all else failed we could get a taxi. But this is France, so of
course there was no-one to follow, no signs, the buses had already finished and
there were no taxis to be seen at the metro station and we even tried ringing 3
different companies only to be told that there were none available! Finally
after lingering around the metro station for about half an hour annoying the
metro guard who didn't seem too bothered about trying to help us, we found
another girl who was also going to the gig and as luck would have it she knew
where she was going! But... the adventure didn't stop there, we then had to
walk for about 45 minutes along a dual carriageway and then along a canal
towpath in complete darkness before finally arriving! We'd managed to
completely miss the support band, but that didn't bother me too much as I
hadn't even heard of them before and we only had to wait about 15 minutes
before Bloc Party came on. They played for about an hour and were really good.
The crowd were rubbish though, hardly anyone was dancing or even moving and
even fewer were singing (which I suppose is understandable seeing as they don't
sing in French!). I don't know if it was just this gig or if that's how they
generally are in France but it seemed a bit boring to me!
Me and Heather at the gig
The next day we did some more sightseeing, shopping and
eating! We went on a boat tour along the river and the canal which was good to
start with but it got a bit boring as it came back the same way as it had come
so there was nothing new to see!
Me and Heather on the boat trip
The journey home was fairly uneventful although slightly
delayed, again! Heather stayed in La Rochelle that night and we went out in the
evening which was fun! I wasn't planning on going out the next night but it
didn't take much to persuade me and I went out with some French guys that I met
when my sister came to visit and some of their friends, it was a very
international evening- 7 French, 1 Turkish, 1 Korean, 2 Brazilian and me!
I spent Sunday catching up on sleep and other things I'd
neglected to do over the holidays, like my journal, and I prepared myself for
going back to school the next day after what seemed like forever!
I've now been back at school nearly two weeks and it's flown by! I can't say anything particularly significant has happened at school, although one child told me he played cheese (it turns out he meant chess, but I was a little confused at first!) I'm enjoying helping the children make découpage boxes for Mothers' Day (yes I know it's a long way away but I leave in January so the teacher's trying to make the most of having extra help to do crafts before I leave!)
I also ordered some cracker making kits from England to make with the children before Christmas because they don't have crackers here and they seem to find them fascinating!
I've never been one to kiss and tell so all I'm saying is I went on a date and it was nice, but I think he was allergic to me! Okay, so maybe it wasn't me, but something was making his allergies play up and he spent the whole time coughing and sniffling with his eyes watering!
It's my 21st birthday next week so Harriet and
Rhian are coming to stay this weekend to help me celebrate, which I'm very
excited for! And if all goes to plan they'll be returning home with tattoos and
I'll have a new piercing! My birthday celebrations are continuing the weekend
after too-I'm going to Paris for the weekend and my family are flying over to
meet me there, I really can't wait because I haven't seen my mum, dad and
brother for 3 months and my sister for 5 weeks (oops just realised it's been
longer than that since my last blog post!)
I'll try and
post again after all my celebrations to let you know how they went! (I'm not
promising it'll be that soon after though :P)
Well done if you managed to read all that! I'll try not to leave it quite so long until my next post and maybe that way it'll be shorter!
Well done if you managed to read all that! I'll try not to leave it quite so long until my next post and maybe that way it'll be shorter!
