The smells of Lille
Sometimes I’m walking in the street and I smell a familiar perfume, that of a friend or my Mum (yes, you Mum :) ) which is nice because it reminds me of certain people, but not so nice because it’s a stranger wearing the perfume and not the person I associate with the smell.
Sometimes I walk in the streets and I smell a really horrible sewer-y smell, but not like the sewer-y smells of England!!
Other times I’m greeted by the smell of freshly baked bread and pastries – yum! And highly tempting.
When I walk in to my flat I can often smell food, as if I have just cooked some dinner or other (the smell varies) even though I haven’t. This smell is all the stronger in my bathroom. This is very odd, and I have concluded that culinary scents from below must somehow drift into my flat, my guess being through a vent in the bathroom. I stand to be corrected on this if you know better?!
French lessons
I have enrolled in some French lessons until Christmas at one of the University campuses here and I hope they are going to be really useful. I had my first one last Wednesday and it went well.
Assistants' training
We had some training last Thursday, specifically geared at those of us working in secondary schools and it was surprisingly fun, as we took on the role of pupils, being taught songs and doing ‘exercises with froggie’! We also had to prepare activities in groups to present to the others and take part in the ones that others presented, thinking about the good and bad things and which methods are really useful for the children.
GBU weekend away
It took a bit of persuasion from my sister, but I plucked up the courage to go on a weekend away with the GBU (Christian Union) this weekend. It was a weekend for all the Christian Unions in the North of France, and I was one of three people who went from Lille’s GBU. We (me and two guys – Nathan and Thomas) travelled by car to Compiegne, an hour and a half away. There were about 25 of us at most points in the weekend (some who lived locally popped in and out). I had a great time there. I’ll say more in my next blog as I don’t have much time right now!
Besancon
I’ve not been here that long but it’s the school holidays already :) And I’m lucky because the October half term here is one and a half weeks! I’m off to see my great friend Emilie and her family in Besancon (East France) for 4-5 days and I can’t wait!
Fiona x
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Thursday, 22 October 2009
The story continues...
Catching up
This week I had a great time catching up with both my uni friends, Alison (who is living in Lille, studying at the University here) and Kiki, who I met up with in Paris at the weekend (she is an Assistante like me in Nantes).
A little more about school
I’m contracted to do 12 hours of face-to-face teaching, which I have discovered is actually two thirds of what a normal teacher does. The teachers seem to want to share me round a lot so I’ve been given a 3 week timetable and it could get quite confusing, especially with names!! Plus I’m going to be doing an after school club at one of the schools which is an extra hour. I thought this was going to be the most enjoyable hour of them all, but I have to balance students of all levels (and they’re mainly the youngest ones who don’t know much English) and the club is at 4.30-5.30 on a Friday, after the children have already had 7 hours of lessons, since 8am in the morning! I was in a lesson from 3.35-4.30 last Friday and it was very hard for them to concentrate at that point - never mind an hour afterwards! We shall see…
I’ve started to teach but haven’t done as much as I thought I would have to just yet, which is nice, easing into it. It’s been going well so far. I’ll talk more about this in future posts.
Humour – a hard thing when you’re new or foreign
I have realised that in England I have a number of friends with whom I can have a good laugh and I know that they accept me for who I am. Here, I have to start afresh with meeting people (not forgetting my other friends!), both English and French speakers. It’s hard, especially with the French, as my capacity to say what I want is somewhat reduced, so I can't have a laugh with them that easily and I also miss out on many of their jokes because I haven't understood! I’m sure it will get better.
Carrot cake
I’ve met a lovely Canadian-American girl called Frances who had a meal for her birthday at her flat last night. I went along and it was a great evening. There were about 10 of us in total and Frances had made a carrot cake for pudding, but not the icing. Knowing I also knew about carrot cake, being a fellow “Anglo-Saxon”, she enlisted my help in making the icing. The only problem being that in France, you can’t get the kind of ‘soft cheese’ (like Philadelphia) which goes into the icing and things like cheesecakes. Now Frances, had bought something similar to ‘The Laughing Cow’ cheese, in triangles, (having successfully managed to make a cheesecake with it last Saturday), for us to make this icing with. We tried… and it failed! The icing was fine on first taste, but there was an undeniable cheesy aftertaste which was no good. So we ate the carrot cake by itself or with condensed milk (actually very nice!) or whippy cream!
French pedestrian crossings
There is no need to press a button in Lille for pedestrian crossings; they simply give you a red man or green man. ‘Okay’, you say, ‘what’s so interesting about that?!’ Well, there are some crossings where it says a pedestrian is green to go, but in actual fact it is quite okay for a driver to drive across the crossing too! This is very confusing and means you have to pay lots of attention. I suppose the pedestrian has right of way when it’s green and cars should be looking out for you, but it's a bit unnerving stepping out with cars coming towards you and it can be dangerous where French drivers are concerned!
Fiona x
P.S. I have now got Internet in my flat which is great.
This week I had a great time catching up with both my uni friends, Alison (who is living in Lille, studying at the University here) and Kiki, who I met up with in Paris at the weekend (she is an Assistante like me in Nantes).
A little more about school
I’m contracted to do 12 hours of face-to-face teaching, which I have discovered is actually two thirds of what a normal teacher does. The teachers seem to want to share me round a lot so I’ve been given a 3 week timetable and it could get quite confusing, especially with names!! Plus I’m going to be doing an after school club at one of the schools which is an extra hour. I thought this was going to be the most enjoyable hour of them all, but I have to balance students of all levels (and they’re mainly the youngest ones who don’t know much English) and the club is at 4.30-5.30 on a Friday, after the children have already had 7 hours of lessons, since 8am in the morning! I was in a lesson from 3.35-4.30 last Friday and it was very hard for them to concentrate at that point - never mind an hour afterwards! We shall see…
I’ve started to teach but haven’t done as much as I thought I would have to just yet, which is nice, easing into it. It’s been going well so far. I’ll talk more about this in future posts.
Humour – a hard thing when you’re new or foreign
I have realised that in England I have a number of friends with whom I can have a good laugh and I know that they accept me for who I am. Here, I have to start afresh with meeting people (not forgetting my other friends!), both English and French speakers. It’s hard, especially with the French, as my capacity to say what I want is somewhat reduced, so I can't have a laugh with them that easily and I also miss out on many of their jokes because I haven't understood! I’m sure it will get better.
Carrot cake
I’ve met a lovely Canadian-American girl called Frances who had a meal for her birthday at her flat last night. I went along and it was a great evening. There were about 10 of us in total and Frances had made a carrot cake for pudding, but not the icing. Knowing I also knew about carrot cake, being a fellow “Anglo-Saxon”, she enlisted my help in making the icing. The only problem being that in France, you can’t get the kind of ‘soft cheese’ (like Philadelphia) which goes into the icing and things like cheesecakes. Now Frances, had bought something similar to ‘The Laughing Cow’ cheese, in triangles, (having successfully managed to make a cheesecake with it last Saturday), for us to make this icing with. We tried… and it failed! The icing was fine on first taste, but there was an undeniable cheesy aftertaste which was no good. So we ate the carrot cake by itself or with condensed milk (actually very nice!) or whippy cream!
French pedestrian crossings
There is no need to press a button in Lille for pedestrian crossings; they simply give you a red man or green man. ‘Okay’, you say, ‘what’s so interesting about that?!’ Well, there are some crossings where it says a pedestrian is green to go, but in actual fact it is quite okay for a driver to drive across the crossing too! This is very confusing and means you have to pay lots of attention. I suppose the pedestrian has right of way when it’s green and cars should be looking out for you, but it's a bit unnerving stepping out with cars coming towards you and it can be dangerous where French drivers are concerned!
Fiona x
P.S. I have now got Internet in my flat which is great.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
The second week
Hi everyone!
On Wednesday, I had a day-long meeting with the other language Assistants (those doing the same thing as me) in the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais. There are hundreds of us and we spread out over primary schools, secondary schools and colleges in a fairly large area. It was nice to meet up with people in the same position as me, and it made me very grateful that I’m not American, because it costs them so much to get here and get back that they’re stuck here for the whole 7 or 9 month contract! People have found a whole range of accommodation, ranging from free to costly, countryside to city, with families, flatmates or alone. One girl I met is currently without a fridge and having to keep things cold on a window ledge! Thankfully she’s found somewhere else to move to in a couple of weeks. On hearing this, another girl said if it were like that for her she would’ve turned round and gone home!
As promised, I’ll talk about churches. There is an English-speaking church round the corner from my flat which meets both Sunday morning and evening. I’ve been along to the evening service both Sundays I’ve been here. There’s a meal afterwards which most people stay to, and it’s really good (not just the meal, the service too!). I am determined that I should join in with a French-speaking church too, and I have been to two different ones in the mornings, both of which seemed good, but I didn’t manage to introduce myself to anyone as everyone seems very busy talking to each other at the end or is eager to leave. There’s not tea and coffee like in most English churches. Maybe I’m at fault for not hanging around long enough. Maybe the key is to get there nice and early to try and spy someone out to sit next to and chat with…I don’t know, but I’m not giving up.
Here’s a strange thing – I am constantly in exchanges where I need to use my French, and this means that I often come away from situations having taken a knock to my confidence, as my spoken language and comprehension is only good enough to stumble through. On the other hand, constantly dealing with new things (some of which I have never had to deal with in England before on my own) or perhaps doing something better a second time round means my confidence grows! Again, I am of two minds when it comes to wanting to speak. Sometimes I want to speak all the French possible this year and create extra opportunities to speak French. At other times I just want to hide away and do the minimum speaking possible!
I start teaching on Friday in one school which is a daunting prospect, from the point of view that after only 2 weeks observing and little information from the teachers, it’s hard to really gauge the level of the kids. It’s nice because in this school, they’re giving me the freedom to teach what I want, but with that comes more responsibility. Each first lesson I have with a group will be crucial in setting the standard. I am going to have to be confident with them and more strict than I’m used to being. I’ve been in various positions of leadership before but it’s nearly always been in a pair or team, and/or in a less formal setting.
One hard thing in school here is that the state school system by law is laïque which means that it is secular, and anything religious or political is not allowed in the classroom. You may have heard about the uproar over the banning of Muslim headscarves a number of years ago. By law I am not permitted to say anything about my political or religious views. When I have been involved in so much Christian activity and the music I listen to is mostly non-secular, etc, I have found that I have had to edit my answers to certain questions that the children have asked and not be fully myself.
I’m finding things quite hard at the moment. I don’t know how to explain it all, but encouragement is coming from friends and family and God, so that’s good. There’s so much to do still before I’m sorted with all the French admin…every time I think something is sorted there’s always another part to it! Constantly making first impressions on people is tiring. I’m also feeling quite lonely. Thankfully I’m meeting up (separately) with Alison and Kiki this week, two friends from university.
If anyone fancies it I’d love to have someone/people to stay between mid-November and mid-December.
Fiona xx
On Wednesday, I had a day-long meeting with the other language Assistants (those doing the same thing as me) in the region Nord-Pas-de-Calais. There are hundreds of us and we spread out over primary schools, secondary schools and colleges in a fairly large area. It was nice to meet up with people in the same position as me, and it made me very grateful that I’m not American, because it costs them so much to get here and get back that they’re stuck here for the whole 7 or 9 month contract! People have found a whole range of accommodation, ranging from free to costly, countryside to city, with families, flatmates or alone. One girl I met is currently without a fridge and having to keep things cold on a window ledge! Thankfully she’s found somewhere else to move to in a couple of weeks. On hearing this, another girl said if it were like that for her she would’ve turned round and gone home!
As promised, I’ll talk about churches. There is an English-speaking church round the corner from my flat which meets both Sunday morning and evening. I’ve been along to the evening service both Sundays I’ve been here. There’s a meal afterwards which most people stay to, and it’s really good (not just the meal, the service too!). I am determined that I should join in with a French-speaking church too, and I have been to two different ones in the mornings, both of which seemed good, but I didn’t manage to introduce myself to anyone as everyone seems very busy talking to each other at the end or is eager to leave. There’s not tea and coffee like in most English churches. Maybe I’m at fault for not hanging around long enough. Maybe the key is to get there nice and early to try and spy someone out to sit next to and chat with…I don’t know, but I’m not giving up.
Here’s a strange thing – I am constantly in exchanges where I need to use my French, and this means that I often come away from situations having taken a knock to my confidence, as my spoken language and comprehension is only good enough to stumble through. On the other hand, constantly dealing with new things (some of which I have never had to deal with in England before on my own) or perhaps doing something better a second time round means my confidence grows! Again, I am of two minds when it comes to wanting to speak. Sometimes I want to speak all the French possible this year and create extra opportunities to speak French. At other times I just want to hide away and do the minimum speaking possible!
I start teaching on Friday in one school which is a daunting prospect, from the point of view that after only 2 weeks observing and little information from the teachers, it’s hard to really gauge the level of the kids. It’s nice because in this school, they’re giving me the freedom to teach what I want, but with that comes more responsibility. Each first lesson I have with a group will be crucial in setting the standard. I am going to have to be confident with them and more strict than I’m used to being. I’ve been in various positions of leadership before but it’s nearly always been in a pair or team, and/or in a less formal setting.
One hard thing in school here is that the state school system by law is laïque which means that it is secular, and anything religious or political is not allowed in the classroom. You may have heard about the uproar over the banning of Muslim headscarves a number of years ago. By law I am not permitted to say anything about my political or religious views. When I have been involved in so much Christian activity and the music I listen to is mostly non-secular, etc, I have found that I have had to edit my answers to certain questions that the children have asked and not be fully myself.
I’m finding things quite hard at the moment. I don’t know how to explain it all, but encouragement is coming from friends and family and God, so that’s good. There’s so much to do still before I’m sorted with all the French admin…every time I think something is sorted there’s always another part to it! Constantly making first impressions on people is tiring. I’m also feeling quite lonely. Thankfully I’m meeting up (separately) with Alison and Kiki this week, two friends from university.
If anyone fancies it I’d love to have someone/people to stay between mid-November and mid-December.
Fiona xx
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
First week
So…just over one week has passed and a LOT has happened! But I’ll be selective in what I tell you, so you (hopefully!) don’t get bored.
Arrival
Mum, Dad and I set off early on Sunday morning, went through the Eurotunnel and arrived in Lille in good time. The journey seemed to take an age - even though I slept through part of it - I think it was the anticipation of what was to come. When we arrived at the flat, we received a warm welcome from the couple who own it. It is well-equipped and the couple had tried to think of everything I would need. They got together information about Lille and trains to my schools, as well as baking us a cake and providing some flowers from their garden! I am really pleased with the flat; I don’t think I could’ve done much better.
Japanese
On Monday night I went out for a Japanese meal with Marie, her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s brother. It was really strange to hear French spoken with a Japanese accent and gave me confidence when ordering, because they aren’t as likely (as French people) to know I’m not French!
‘Tagged’!
There’s a massive Carrefour supermarket here and I decided to go in to get a few bits and bobs wearing my backpack (nothing strange about that). So I strolled in to the entrance and got called back by two security guards and I realised that it was something to do with my bag. The only times I’ve known security people to be interested in bags is when they want to check what’s inside, so I started opening it for them to check the contents (I wasn’t sure why they’d want to when I was just going into a supermarket, but hey, I’d go with what they wanted!) and they chuckled at me saying ‘It’s not security!’ (I thought ‘what on earth is it, if it’s not security?!’), so I closed my bag back up and the man proceeded to put a black plastic tag through the zips so I couldn’t open it. Very strange and very annoying! It must be some kind of mechanism to help prevent shop lifting. I groaned when I thought of my reusable carrier bags trapped inside but I presumed they’d be able to do something at the checkout. A little while later, I reached the checkout, gestured at the black tag and said to the cashier ‘I’ve got bags inside’. To which she responded ‘Can you go and ask my colleague over there, I haven’t got anything to undo it with.’ So, panicking inside, but with no option, I approached the cashier she’d gestured towards and interrupted her transaction mumbling ‘excusez-moi madame, mais…’ and holding my bag up to her. Thankfully it didn’t take long and it seemed as though she’d already had to do it 100 times that day!
GBU
I went to Lille University’s GBU on Tuesday night (the equivalent to the Christian Union) and it was really nice and friendly. There were 13 of us packed in to the living room of a flat. I had been told how small Christian groups were in France, but it really struck me that this group was for the whole university, whereas in Southampton on the same night, a group of that size was meeting just from a small hall of residence. I don’t think the GBU is as well known as the CU, but even so…
Schools
I have started at my two schools and for the most part I like what I see. The teachers are friendly, with many of them making an effort to say ‘welcome’ or ‘hello’ or ‘nice to meet you’ in English. It was really nice to find out that most of the pupils enjoy having classes with the English language assistant and a lot of them have been happy to meet me. So that’s a good position to start from. I’m in a period of observation for two weeks, so that I can see how the classes here work and start to gage the level of the kids’ language, etc. It’s really quite different to being in an English classroom.
So far I’ve done some observing from the back of the classroom, but mostly I’ve been standing in front of classes next to the teacher in order that the pupils interrogate me! It’s often been questions and answers in English but some classes (particularly younger ones) have been allowed to speak in French. It’s a bit daunting and the teachers are learning about who I am at the same time as the pupils. You can’t help thinking ‘what are they thinking about me?’…sometimes their reactions are clear (like in one class, when asked ‘Do you like marmite?’ I said ‘yes’, they were all disgusted!) and sometimes they’re not. I was even clapped once for saying that I’d watched a certain French film (a film about the North of France)!
At one point I was sitting in on a double lesson which was not a language lesson, and I was due to leave after the first hour. When the first hour was up the teacher (the librarian!) said the kids could have a 5 minute break and lo and behold, all the girls came crowding round my table, with one girl in particular very eager to ask me questions in English! I just about got to my next lesson on time.
There is a lovely Christian teacher in the English dept at one of my schools, Laurence, who lives about 5 minutes away from me which is great and she has said if I need any help I can go to her :)
Signing off
I went to a French-speaking church and an English-speaking church on Sunday, but this post is long already so I’ll leave talking about churches to another time.
So all in all I’ve had a very good start to my time here. Much better than I thought it would be in fact. And I know that it’s in no small way related to God answering the prayers of many of you, so thank you. I’ve had to face up to a lot of things that are very new or that require me to step outside my comfort zone this week. I praise God for sustaining me and giving me courage to do things I wouldn’t normally do.
A bientot,
Fiona xx
Arrival
Mum, Dad and I set off early on Sunday morning, went through the Eurotunnel and arrived in Lille in good time. The journey seemed to take an age - even though I slept through part of it - I think it was the anticipation of what was to come. When we arrived at the flat, we received a warm welcome from the couple who own it. It is well-equipped and the couple had tried to think of everything I would need. They got together information about Lille and trains to my schools, as well as baking us a cake and providing some flowers from their garden! I am really pleased with the flat; I don’t think I could’ve done much better.
Japanese
On Monday night I went out for a Japanese meal with Marie, her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s brother. It was really strange to hear French spoken with a Japanese accent and gave me confidence when ordering, because they aren’t as likely (as French people) to know I’m not French!
‘Tagged’!
There’s a massive Carrefour supermarket here and I decided to go in to get a few bits and bobs wearing my backpack (nothing strange about that). So I strolled in to the entrance and got called back by two security guards and I realised that it was something to do with my bag. The only times I’ve known security people to be interested in bags is when they want to check what’s inside, so I started opening it for them to check the contents (I wasn’t sure why they’d want to when I was just going into a supermarket, but hey, I’d go with what they wanted!) and they chuckled at me saying ‘It’s not security!’ (I thought ‘what on earth is it, if it’s not security?!’), so I closed my bag back up and the man proceeded to put a black plastic tag through the zips so I couldn’t open it. Very strange and very annoying! It must be some kind of mechanism to help prevent shop lifting. I groaned when I thought of my reusable carrier bags trapped inside but I presumed they’d be able to do something at the checkout. A little while later, I reached the checkout, gestured at the black tag and said to the cashier ‘I’ve got bags inside’. To which she responded ‘Can you go and ask my colleague over there, I haven’t got anything to undo it with.’ So, panicking inside, but with no option, I approached the cashier she’d gestured towards and interrupted her transaction mumbling ‘excusez-moi madame, mais…’ and holding my bag up to her. Thankfully it didn’t take long and it seemed as though she’d already had to do it 100 times that day!
GBU
I went to Lille University’s GBU on Tuesday night (the equivalent to the Christian Union) and it was really nice and friendly. There were 13 of us packed in to the living room of a flat. I had been told how small Christian groups were in France, but it really struck me that this group was for the whole university, whereas in Southampton on the same night, a group of that size was meeting just from a small hall of residence. I don’t think the GBU is as well known as the CU, but even so…
Schools
I have started at my two schools and for the most part I like what I see. The teachers are friendly, with many of them making an effort to say ‘welcome’ or ‘hello’ or ‘nice to meet you’ in English. It was really nice to find out that most of the pupils enjoy having classes with the English language assistant and a lot of them have been happy to meet me. So that’s a good position to start from. I’m in a period of observation for two weeks, so that I can see how the classes here work and start to gage the level of the kids’ language, etc. It’s really quite different to being in an English classroom.
So far I’ve done some observing from the back of the classroom, but mostly I’ve been standing in front of classes next to the teacher in order that the pupils interrogate me! It’s often been questions and answers in English but some classes (particularly younger ones) have been allowed to speak in French. It’s a bit daunting and the teachers are learning about who I am at the same time as the pupils. You can’t help thinking ‘what are they thinking about me?’…sometimes their reactions are clear (like in one class, when asked ‘Do you like marmite?’ I said ‘yes’, they were all disgusted!) and sometimes they’re not. I was even clapped once for saying that I’d watched a certain French film (a film about the North of France)!
At one point I was sitting in on a double lesson which was not a language lesson, and I was due to leave after the first hour. When the first hour was up the teacher (the librarian!) said the kids could have a 5 minute break and lo and behold, all the girls came crowding round my table, with one girl in particular very eager to ask me questions in English! I just about got to my next lesson on time.
There is a lovely Christian teacher in the English dept at one of my schools, Laurence, who lives about 5 minutes away from me which is great and she has said if I need any help I can go to her :)
Signing off
I went to a French-speaking church and an English-speaking church on Sunday, but this post is long already so I’ll leave talking about churches to another time.
So all in all I’ve had a very good start to my time here. Much better than I thought it would be in fact. And I know that it’s in no small way related to God answering the prayers of many of you, so thank you. I’ve had to face up to a lot of things that are very new or that require me to step outside my comfort zone this week. I praise God for sustaining me and giving me courage to do things I wouldn’t normally do.
A bientot,
Fiona xx
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