My last few weeks in France!

My last few weeks here have flown by as predicted and tomorrow I move to Seville! Aah!

The weekend after my last post I went out with a group of friends, we went to the good old Irish bar, where I think it’s safe to say a good time was had by all! And then some of us headed off to an actual club! I hadn't been to one before in La Rochelle since the bars are all good and open until pretty late anyway. But the others said that I had to experience the club ‘L’Oxford’ before I left La Rochelle! When we got there I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was ‘Ladies Night’ so it was free for girls to get in! Although the poor guys had to pay 12€! (although that did include a drink) We were happily dancing away when an announcement came on to say that as part of ‘Ladies Night’ there was a male stripper coming on stage! Which was... an interesting experience! Haha, we left shortly after that, only to find that it was pouring with rain outside and one of my friends had chained his bike up somewhere in the park on the way to the club but we couldn't remember exactly where, and it’s a big park! We spent a good 10 minutes looking for it in the rain while he panicked that his Mum was going to kill him if he'd lost it since it was in fact her bike! Haha, but luckily we eventually found it and headed home!

 In the Irish Bar

 

The last day of my assistantship was a Friday and normally I only work in the afternoons on Fridays but I’d decided to go into school in the morning to make the most of my last day! However when I woke up and looked out of my window I found that it had snowed a little overnight. There was probably less than a cm but on my walk to the bus stop I saw a number of people sweeping their drives, people wearing snow boots and cars driving ridiculously slowly even though the roads were already clear! I began to worry a bit that my bus wouldn’t be running, but luckily I got the to the bus station to find that it was! I arrived to a class full of very over-excited children, since they’re not used to snow!

 

Pathetic amount of snow!

 

At break time the headmaster brought out a rather impressive looking galette from the local bakery as well as another smaller, traditional gateau des rois.

 

Yummy galette!

 

There's no staff room at the school so all the teachers gathered around in the corridor to eat it, while my mentor gave me some leaving presents and I handed out mine too! I got a selection of regional products- two different flavour salted butter caramels, some galettes (little buttery biscuits), some chocolate seagulls eggs which were yummy and did not last long!! And a mug of La Rochelle so I can ‘drink my tea in Seville and think of them!’ I also had a bottle of Pineau, which my mentor said was for my mum because during my assistantship she’s sent various things over for the school such as stickers, the cracker kits etc. However I'm not sure it would arrive in one piece if I posted it to her and I think it'll be too heavy to take in my suitcase to Spain for my Dad to take home, so the challenge is to drink it all before I leave! Just kidding, I think unfortunately it's probably going to end up as a present for my landlord or someone! All of us teachers then had a big photo which involved union jack waving! (see below!)

 

My presents from the school :)

That afternoon I worked with a group of 7 who were the only ones who hadn't yet finished their decoupage boxes (that I talked about before that they were making for mother's day). Luckily they all managed to finish them eventually! At break time four of the children helped me to dish out the Percy pig sweets and biscuits that I had brought back with me from England after Christmas. When they came back in after break they enjoyed their Percy pigs while I handed out the little presents I'd got for them. I got them Union Jack pencils and little notebooks with four different designs- an English policeman, a Beefeater, a Horse Guard and a Queen’s Guard.

Notebooks for the children

They were really pleased with them and I then had to give all of the children my 'autograph' on the first page of their notebooks! After that, all the children gave me drawings that they'd done for me as goodbye presents, they were really cute! And with a bisou for each of them as they left the classroom, my assistantship was over :(

One of my drawings from the children, how cute!

Me with the class and their notebooks!

On Saturday night Heather and her boyfriend were staying in La Rochelle and it was my last chance for a last proper night out, so we did a bit of a bar crawl of some of my favorite places- La Calhutte, Le Mayflower, Mauvais Garçons and ending up in General Humbert's Irish bar as per usual! It was a really good last night out!

 Me and Heather in La Calhutte

On Tuesday I’d planned to go for a walk around the town and take some photos. Unfortunately the weather has been awful this last week with almost non-stop rain and very strong winds, and Tuesday was no exception, but after waiting all day hoping for the rain to die down I eventually decided I wasn't going to let it ruin my plans and braved it anyway! I'm glad I did as it was as nice way to have a last look around the town, despite getting soggy feet and muddy boots from traipsing through the puddles in the park! It was also worth it because when I got off the Passeur (little solar powered boat that goes across the harbour) I looked back across to the Old Port to see that despite the very black sky there was a rainbow right in between the two towers, and almost as soon as I stopped taking photos it disappeared! It seemed like it was fate!

Wednesday I made the trip to see Harriet in Poitiers one last time before I go to Spain as it won't be quite so easy to visit then! Also, it’s her birthday next week so I thought it would be nice to hand deliver her present, albeit a little early! Lizzie who also does French at Sheffield met us there too as she's an assistant near Poitiers. We went for lunch in the usual creperie so I could have a last French crepe! It was a lovely visit, even if it was only short! (4 hours!)

 My scallops, leeks and creme fraiche crepe, yum!

 Lizzie, Me and Harriet

My last day here has been a little hectic and very stressful when pretty much everything that could possibly go wrong with the online check-in for my flight DID! But it was made nicer by going to meet Christine for lunch which was yummy!

And tomorrow is D-day! My alarm clock is set for 5.30am (5 and a half hours time, I should probably go to sleep!) then I’ll have to make my way (half asleep) to the station with two big suitcases, hand luggage and my laptop! It’s times like these that I wish I was capable of packing light! I'm getting the train to Bordeaux and I'm praying that it leaves from platform A so I don't have to try and negotiate any stairs with all that luggage! Then, from Bordeaux station I’m getting a coach to the airport where I fly to Barcelona before finally reaching the last leg of my journey and flying to Seville where I'm meeting my Dad around 7.30pm :) I then plan to go to our hotel and pass out I think: P

And then follows the quest to find somewhere to live! I've been looking online and there seems to be quite a lot of accommodation available in Seville which is promising and I've made an appointment to go and view a flat, although I had intended to have a lot more viewings arranged but I've been so busy I haven’t had a chance! So I think my first week in Seville could be rather hectic and stressful! My dad's staying until Wednesday morning and we're staying in a hotel until then, so in an ideal world I will have found somewhere to live and moved in before he leaves but I don't want to hold out too much hope for that!

I'll try and post again sometime soon to let you know how the nightmare journey and house hunting has gone!

Hasta entonces!

Christmas run up, Christmas Holidays and my return to France

I started writing this post before I went home for Christmas but didn't have the time to finish and post it so I know most of it's a bit outdated but I thought I may as well finish and post it now for you all to read anyway...
So I'm currently writing this post on the train on the way to Poitiers where I'm catching a flight home for Christmas and I'm so ridiculously excited I'm practically dancing in my seat. That's not to say that I can't wait to get away from France, I've had an amazing time so far but I think 4 months without my family, friends, cat, decent cups of tea and various other English things that I'm missing, is quite enough! I'm only heading back for 10 days though and I can tell already that it's absolutely going to fly by and then I only have another 3 weeks left in the land of cheese, bread and wine before I pack up my life and start again in Seville, how terrifying!! And judging by how fast the last 3 weeks went it's going to feel like a few days!

The weekend after I went to Paris Heather came to La Rochelle for a night so we decided to go for a night out. She very kindly brought a bottle of wine to have before we went out but unfortunately my corkscrew had disappeared so after googling 'how to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew' we tried several methods (unsuccessfully) including banging it against a wall and destroying the cork with a screwdriver before we finally gave up and headed out.

 One of our desperate attempts to open the wine :P

 First we went for dinner in a restaurant that I obviously go to too often because the waiter now recognises me and speaks in English as soon as I walk in the door!! I would say that we had a yummy meal but unfortunately Heather opted for a burger forgetting that in France that actually just means a lump of raw meat shaped into a burger form! After that we visited a few bars before ending up in my favorite Irish bar, but unfortunately our night was a little marred by some guys that wouldn't leave us alone and told Heather that if you have a boyfriend you shouldn't go on nights out unless you're with him!!

In the Irish bar

On Wednesday I made the trip to Royan, where Heather lives to see the little seaside town for myself after all I had heard about it. When I arrived Heather was still at school so her friend Helena met me at the station and we went into town for a hot chocolate and a wander along the seafront. Then we met Heather and another assistant and walked to the casino at Plage de Pontaillac where we had a fancy lunch!

 The casino on the beach

Us on the beach after our lunch

After our lunch we went back into town and explored the little Christmas market and then they took me to see the cathedral, which I have to say is possibly the ugliest cathedral I've ever seen!! Its better inside though!

 Royan Cathedral

 Inside the cathedral

 On our way back from seeing the cathedral we popped into 'Le comptoir irlandais' where I was extremely excited to find mince pies which I'd been craving all week, they were expensive but I decided they were worth it! I also got a packet of shortbread to take as a little Christmas gift for the other teachers at school. It was a really cold day so following that we sought warmth in a café where I had my first mulled wine (vin chaud) of the season.

 Me with my vin chaud

Then we did some more shopping before being tempted by a creperie where I had a caramel beurre salé crepe, yum! Sadly it was then almost time to head to the station so after another quick browse in some shops it was time for my departure.

On Friday night there was a Christmas get together for all the assistants from the region in La Rochelle and although I'm not strictly a 'TAPIF' assistant, I gatecrashed anyway! It was nice to catch up with some familiar faces and to meet lots of new ones too, including Lizzie who actually goes to the same uni as me studying French as well but I didn't know her before! We began pre drinking at one of the other La Rochelle assistant's houses before heading to one of my favorite bars which has an underground dancefloor, plays the most ridiculously cheesy music and people dance on the bar!

 On the underground dancefloor

Some of the others then headed to another bar but a few of us stayed a bit longer before going to join them and then heading to Piano bar which had some kind of event on so they had a live guitarist and saxophonist who were jamming along to the music they were playing which was really cool!

 Guitarist and Saxophonist in Piano Bar

I left with four of the other British assistants and in true British fashion we went to a kebab place to get chips before calling it a night!

 Lizzie and Amy with their chips and kebabs!

I had designated that weekend to be my Christmas shopping weekend but on Saturday after a lazy morning I headed into town to find that it was absolutely heaving and most shops you could only just about squeeze in the doorway. So after buying two measly presents and a jumper and a shirt for myself I was defeated and headed home! I'd also intended to start packing but that didn't happen either which led to panic packing on Thursday and Friday!
The last week at school was somehow hectic and relaxed all at the same time, the normal timetable was mostly put to one side to make way for Christmas activities. For example, on Monday afternoon we took the children to the village hall to the the 'Christmas show'. I naively thought it would be a Christmas related show but no, it was about a dead, stuffed crocodile that came alive and travelled the world in search of his family! It was performed by two (possibly slightly deranged) women and lasted about an hour and a half so consequently quite a few of the children feel asleep!

 Bizarre Christmas show!

That evening Heather returned to La Rochelle as she was catching a flight home from here the next day. When she finally arrived much later than planned due to a typical French train strike we met another friend and went to a pub/restaurant where we all had puddings and then we headed onto a bar where we had a few quiet drinks.

 Heather and Christine waiting for our puddings!

Tuesday arrived with the promise of a Christmas lunch which turned out to be not quite what I was expecting, but yummy all the same! We began with an aperitif of red wine, the starter was some kind of paté thing so I passed and stuck with the salad and bread until the main course which was chicken in a white wine sauce with homemade chips. The pudding was the best bit, it was chocolate ice cream logs with mini meringues.

 Christmas dinner main course 

The other teachers

 Pudding!

On Wednesday I attempted Christmas shopping for a second time and it was slightly more successful. Then, after 4 months without a haircut and the news that my usual hairdresser at home is shut Sunday and Monday and since I was wanting a haircut before Christmas, I finally braved going to the hairdressers in France. I didn't have an appointment so I had to wait about 15 minutes and while I was waiting they gave me some hair magazines to look at 'to get some ideas', flicking through them I was convinced they were at least 15 years out of date but checking the date confirmed that they were in fact recent and that France is most definitely stuck in the 90s as far as fashion is concerned! I then got a bit scared about what they were going to do to my hair as many of the models had half shaven heads! My fear didn't stop when the hairdresser began cutting my hair at lightning speed without much regard for what she was doing! Luckily she didn't cut it too short though, however she then dried it with a diffuser and my hair does not take kindly to being dried with a hairdryer. By the time she had finished I had an afro and it's definitely not a good look for me! She finished and beamed at me expectantly and being the polite English girl that I am, I said its good thanks, but left no tip! As soon add I was out of sight of the hairdressers I tied my hair up to avoid getting funny looks on my walk home and after some emergency styling I was relieved to see that I wasn't going to be stuck with an afro and it was actually alright, phew!
Thursday turned out to be another very Chrismassy day at school, at break time one of the teachers played Christmas carols on his guitar in the playground and the children all sang along which was very cute.

 Singing Christmas songs in the playground

The rest of the morning was spent finishing the crackers and painting little glass pots to make candle holders for Christmas presents for the childrens' parents.

 Finished crackers!

 Candle holders in the making

 At afternoon break we had what they call the 'goûter de noel' where all the children went to the canteen and had brioche, satsumas and hot chocolate and sang a Christmas Carol. Before they began to eat, my class pulled the crackers that they'd made amongst much excitement (and envy on behalf of the other classes who didn't have crackers!) They then wore their hats, which was amusing to see as they were much too big for them so must of them were around their eyes or necks! 

Cracker pulling!

 Wearing their too-big hats!

That afternoon there was yet more excitement when Father Christmas visited all the classes handing out chocolate Father Christmases and even I got one, I must have been good this year!

Father Christmas!

Friday afternoon was very relaxed as expected and was mostly spent watching the Grinch, which is even weirder in French if that's possible!
I spent Friday evening manically trying to finish packing and rearranging my bags so that my suitcase wasn't too heavy and my hand luggage wasn't too big!
And now we've gone full circle as we arrive at Saturday when I met Harriet and some of the other assistants in Poitiers and flew home for Christmas (see start of post!)

 Waiting in the airport restaurant for the flight home!

My 10 days at home went ridiculously quickly as predicted but it was so nice to spend some time with my family and friends after so long and I also had the chance to visit some family and friends that we don't see very often which was nice. And of course I got to have a good old English Christmas with the family and a good old New Years Eve in Bridgnorth with some of my favorite people :)

After my brief stint in England my parents brought me back in the car in order to take most of my stuff home because (as usual) I have too much stuff and I wouldn't have been able to take it all to Spain (I'm flying directly from France to Spain). After 12 hours and 675 miles in the car we arrived in La Rochelle on Wednesday evening and after my mum and dad checked into their hotel down the road from my house and we dropped my things off at my house we headed into town to get some dinner.
The next day after a very French breakfast from the local bakery we made the short journey to the Île de Ré, we've been there before when we stayed near here on holiday but i'd yet to visit it since I'd been living here and it seemed a shame to me to leave without paying it another visit since its a very beautiful island. Admittedly its prettier in the summer and the weather wasn't too great but at least it was a lot quieter than in the summer! Firstly we drove almost to the very northern point of the island to see the famous lighthouse- le phare des baleines, we climbed the 267 steps to the top and took some photos before heading back down and stopping at a touristy shop and getting some goodies on the way back to the car (mostly my favourite- caramels beurres salés).

 Le phare des baleines

 Climbing the stairs!

View from the top

 Me at the top!

Next we made our way to the main town- Saint-Martin de Ré, driving through a few other picturesque villages on the way. We ambled through the streets of the pretty seaside town before looking for somewhere to have a late lunch, and then remembering that that's not possible in France since virtually everywhere stops serving lunch at 2 or 2.30pm at the latest. So we settled for a sandwich from the bakery which we ate on a bench by the harbour before exploring the town further.

 Saint-Martin de Ré

We went up the bell tower of the church which was an experience and a half, the stairs were so narrow and on one side the only thing stopping you falling a long way was a bit of weak looking chicken wire, its safe to say that health and safety would not allow it in England! But luckily it wasn't too high so there weren't too many steps to endure and there was a nice view of the town from the top.

 View from up the bell tower

After that we found a cafe to warm up in with hot drinks before returning to La Rochelle, with a supermarket stop on the way back to stock up on food since the parents offered to pay for it and we had the car so I didn't have to haul it all home like usual! And of course my mum and dad stocked up on cheap French wine which was a little embarrassing when we got to the checkout! After that we went into town for dinner and I took them to the restaurant that I go to quite a lot since they've heard so much about it!
The next day was mostly spent sorting out my things and packing up everything I don't need in the next three weeks to send home. We finally finished late afternoon and went for an evening stroll in town, passing by the market and a few shops and stopping for a hot chocolate along the way.

 Town Hall

 In front of the Old Port

 The Old Port

We were hoping to have an early dinner since we had a fairly early start the next day but when we started our hunt for somewhere to eat about 6.30 pm everywhere was either shut or completely deserted, in the end it got to about 7.30pm and we decided to just go into an empty restaurant, the good thing was that the service was very quick since it was so quiet! I decided to get oysters since I hadn't tried them before and I'm trying to sample lots of French food before I leave! I can't say I was overly keen but they were quite nice!

 Me looking nervous about eating the oysters :P

The next day my mum and dad arrived at mine bright and early for breakfast then we loaded up the car with all my things and they set off on the long journey back to England.

That afternoon Heather flew back to La Rochelle so we went for dinner and then to a few bars where we met some of the secondary assistants which was fun.

 Me and Heather with some of the secondary assistants

The next day we went to the cinema to see the 'Le monde de charlie' which is the French name for 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' it was really good! Then we went for some food and a hot chocolate before Heather had to go and catch her bus back to Royan.

Today has been my first day back at school and I had a warm welcome from the children, some of whom were worried that I'd already left since I wasn't there in the morning- even though I never work Monday mornings! It made me realise that I'm really going to miss them when I finish my assistantship in less than two weeks!

Hopefully I'll have time for another post or two before my time in France is up!

21st Birthday Celebrations!

So somehow I managed to revert this post to an earlier draft and unpublish it, I can't be bothered to add the pictures etc again but at least the post is back now!

 

 

So here is the promised blog about my birthday celebrations and yes it's late but you should've guessed that by now!
My birthday celebrations began the weekend before my birthday with the arrival of Rhian and Harriet in La Rochelle! We started the weekend as we meant to go on with food, wine, cocktails, gossip and our usual banter!

The next day we headed into town and did a bit of shopping and went to the new Zara which had only opened the day before so it was absolutely packed! We had lunch in a nice little creperie where we had the menu of the day which included both a sweet and a savoury crepe, and me and Rhian indulged in a bowl of cider too!

We left with little pancake babies and headed to the piercing studio to get my ear pierced. I'm a bit of a coward so I was petrified about getting it done and Rhian and Harriet weren't allowed to come in with me which made matters even worse but it turned out that I was being a coward for nothing because I hardly felt it!

After that we headed to the supermarket to buy supplies for a Chinese feast because we were missing Chinese food! We headed back to mine and chilled for a bit before preparing our feast and cracking open the wine!

After dinner we headed into town and firstly we went to a bar where the speciality is white wine with syrup in and there are 45 different flavours to choose from, it was absolutely packed but we decided to stay because the wine is good and they were playing good music! We met one of my other friends there before heading into an Irish bar were we stayed for a while drinking shots and dancing before we moved onto another bar where me and Rhian had our jackets stolen :( We started queuing to get into a club but the queue was massive and not moving and we were quickly turning into ice blocks without our jackets so we decided to just head home.

The next day we had a lazy morning and then we took Harriet to the train station and sadly waved her off. Then me and Rhian headed to the cinema to see the new twilight film (okay it's not that new anymore, I'm a bit slow!) It was weird seeing it in French because all the characters had different voices but it was still good and afterwards we had McDonald's for dinner! The next morning I took Rhian to the train station and then went straight back to work!
Wednesday is my day off so I had planned to have a really productive day but it didn't really happen (as always!) I did however manage to do a bit of packing and planning for the weekend and I had a good long Skype chat with my best friend which was lovely :)
Thursday was my actual birthday and unfortunately for me there was no such thing as a birthday lie in as I got up even earlier than normal so I could Skype my mum and dad before I went to school! My day at school was long but actually quite good, they'd had a new interactive whiteboard installed so most of the day was spent playing around with that! I made rocky road for the children in my class and all the other teachers, they all loved it and demanded that I translate the recipe for them! I also took some Percy and Penny pigs that my mum had sent me!

After school I went for dinner with some of the other language assistants, we went to a nice French restaurant and the food was so good!

After that some of us hit the bars but I didn't stay out too late since I had to get up to go to Paris, and more importantly to pack for Paris! I went first class on the train as it was only a couple more euros so that was a nice treat, it wasn't anything that special though as there were no free drinks like in first class on English trains but I did get a very comfy seat and managed to snooze a bit on the way. I met my family at the station amid lots of hugs! My dad did his usual trick of saying 'oh the hotels not far, let's walk there'. We finally arrived at the hotel after a 20 minute trek with our suitcases, navigated by myself may I add! Then I opened all my cards and presents from friends and family that my mum had filled her entire suitcase with! I'd also given her a list of English things and things I'd forgotten to bring to France to bring me!

After that we finally headed out for a late dinner just down the road from the hotel, it was a nice meal apart from the fact that they clearly forgot about my meal and finally brought it out as the rest of my family were finishing their meals along with the excuse that they had dropped the first one on the floor in the kitchen!!

The next day after a very French breakfast in a bakery across from the hotel we headed to the grand boulevard where Galeries Lafayette is found (like the French equivalent of Harrods!). We spent a good quarter of an hour marveling at the bizarre Luis Vuitton window displays which included a breakdancing panda and penguins with handbags before finally going inside, we went to see the rather tacky (but still impressive) Christmas tree from the ground floor before heading up a few floors to see it from the top, then we had a bit of a wander and I was in my element when we found a Paperchase inside!

We didn't stay too long however as it was very busy! After that we went in H&M which is just next door and I did some shopping (as usual!) Then after traipsing around for a good half hour looking for a restaurant that everyone was happy with we ended up in a nice Italian restaurant but I was a little disappointed that the rest of my family didn't want to eat French food while they were here! The foods was really good though, especially the puddings which were huge and overloaded with chocolate, just how I like it!

Next we headed over to the Île de la Cité, we went to see the Sainte-Chapelle but after going through security we saw that there was a ridiculous queue out in the cold so we took some photos from outside and left again to head to the Notre Dame de Paris.

When we got there we found that there was also a pretty big queue to get in or to go up the towers but we decided to wait it out to go up the towers and we finally made it up just before sunset which made for some very pretty views across Paris.

After stopping to refuel my brother at subway (he needs feeding every hour :P) we headed to the theatre where we were going to see a comedy show. We were a bit early so we stopped for a break in a little bar just next to the theatre. Then it was time for the show, it had been my idea to go and none of the rest of my family seemed that enthusiastic about it despite the fact that it was all in English! But it turned out to be hilarious and they all really enjoyed it. It was called 'How to become Parisian in one hour' and I highly recommend it, he's doing a tour in London in March too!

After the show we navigated our way to the famed Champs-Élysées where we made an obligatory stop at Marks and Spencers for sandwiches for dinner (which we proceeded to eat in the street, can you get any more English?!) as well as an array of other English goodies including Percy pigs and mince pies of course!

Me and my dad then had a very quick wander through the Christmas market while the rest of my wimpy family sheltered inside from the rain which annoyingly arrived just as we wanted to spend some time outdoors!

Then we headed back to the hotel exhausted and a little soggy from the rain and headed to bed ready for another busy day on Sunday.
The next day we headed out fairly early and after a quick stop at the bakery for breakfast we arrived at the Eiffel tower only for my brother to exclaim 'its pretty ugly really isn't it?' Haha!
After a relatively short queue to get tickets we ascended in the lift to the second level, we were lucky that the sun was shining but it was still very cold and windy. Now I have a little story to admit, when I was much younger we visited Paris before as a family and we went up the Eiffel tower, we were only going to go up to the second level but I was a bit of a madam and had a paddy and eventually my parents gave up and bought us tickets to go all the way to the top but I've never been the biggest fan of heights and when we got to the second level I cried my eyes out and refused to go any higher! Luckily I'm not as bad as I used to be and I'm slowly overcoming my fear of heights but even so I think the second level would've been enough for me this time too, although I must admit the views were much more impressive from the top level but we didn't spend long up there add it was too cold and windy so after making my way slowly all the way around clinging onto the wall or a member of my family we headed back down.

We stopped on the way to the metro to get crepes and hot chocolates to warm us up a bit then we made or way to Montmartre were we found a nice quiet restaurant to have lunch in. After that we took the funicular up to the top of the hill (which made me feel somewhat like I was back in Bridgnorth!) To marvel at the Sacré Coeur, by that time the sun was beginning to set so once again we had a lovely view over Paris.

Sadly that concluded our adventures in Paris as we headed back to the hotel to collect our bags then my family came with me to Montparnasse station before heading onto the airport.
Before starting my year abroad I was a bit disappointed about having my 21 st birthday abroad without all my friends and family but it turned out to be a great, it'll certainly be a birthday that I won't forget!

Has it really been over 5 weeks since my last post?! Oops!

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!

 At the aquarium

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! 

 Lots of shopping!

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!

 

We then also went up the Chaîne Tower which has a little museum in and you can also see out from the top but it’s not nearly as high as the other two towers. We also went to the Museum of the New World to get the cultural side of things in! I also took her to the park where there is a small animal park with goats, ducks, turkeys, peacocks and deer, which was a bad idea because she now wants a pet goat (for those of you that don’t know, she’s 22.)

 With the goats!

 

We also went out Friday and Saturday night and for dinner one night at a restaurant where they did amazing cocktails!

 

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.

Me and Emily with our impressive lunches! 

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

 Meal 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!

 Harriet and Rhian on the tourist train

 The next day we went on a wine tasting tour as we thought it would be rude not to when in Bordeaux! We were taken by coach to two different chateaux and vineyards and given a tour before tasting some of the wines. In my opinion there was far too much talking and not enough wine and it would've been much more fun if they'd given us the wine before the tour! Hehe. But I did actually learn a bit about how wine is made and I also discovered that I actually quite like some red wines (previously couldn't stand it!) but that worries me a little as I think it must mean I'm getting old (or turning french!)

Rhian, Harriet and me on the winetasting tour  

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!

 Our Halloween costumes! 

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!

 Yummy scones! 

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!

Rhian being serenaded! 

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!

 The outdoor baths 

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.

 View 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!

 Rhian, me and Harriet at predrinks

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!

  SNCF lunchbox

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

 

The next day we did lots of sightseeing, shopping and eating! We went on the little tourist train (becoming a habit for me :P) and looked around some churches, did a bit of shopping in the main shopping street and in the market and found an amazing tea room with the best homemade cakes!

 Om nom nom!

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

  Bloc Party

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

 

In the evening we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant which was really nice and fairly cheap, the only thing that let it down was our super grumpy waitress! After dinner we went to a bar but the power kept going on and off so we went in search of the student area to find another bar. We happened across an Australian themed bar, it was quite possibly the smallest bar in Toulouse with a ridiculous amount of people in it but it just so happened that as we got there, they were playing Bloc Party, so we went in! They continued to play good music so we stayed drinking demi-pêches until the small hours despite feeling like sardines and having to get up at 7am to catch the train home!

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!

 International night out! 

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!)

 Découpage boxes

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!

 Christmas cracker making kits

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 21^st 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!