The two month mark!

Two months have passed already; I have done over a quarter of my time here! In some respects I feel like I have been here for no time at all, and in others I feel like I have been here for ages! There are constant reminders that Christmas is coming. A week or so ago I was greeted with flashing green and red lights when I stepped off the train into the station on my way home from work and looked up to see a ‘Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year’ sign. The lights are actually quite tasteful and I like them, but it never pleases me to see too much Christmas stuff before the end of November! However, I don’t think it’s as bad here as in England, because I was able to buy Christmas chocolates in the English supermarkets before I came in September but it was mid-November before I saw similar things popping up here. There is a Christmas market which is very popular in Lille, I haven’t yet had the chance to visit it but hope to soon.

It has to be said that there are not many bargains in French supermarkets compared to the ones back home. Naturally I look out for the few that there are, in case they’re of interest to me. I’d come to the point where I needed a new deodorant so checked out the shelves to see many labels saying 3€ or more for one. Then I spotted an offer on a cheaper deodorant and it looked alright to me… I worked out I could almost get 2 of those deodorants for the same price as one of the others (buy one get second half price) so I plumped for 2 hoping I wasn’t making a mistake. I got them home and started using one after my other ran out. Normally I only have one deodorant going at any given time (like you, I suppose?) but one day I thought ‘I fancy seeing what the other one smells like’ so sprayed it on and realised to my dismay that it’s a rather masculine smell and I have in fact bought a manly deodorant as well as one with a more feminine odour!! (I had another look at the can, and it’s blue, so that should’ve been all I needed to know, right?!) I left it on thinking that it wasn’t that bad, but smelt the manliness a fair number of times later on in the day. I don’t know whether it was just me being sensitive to it. Anyway, I don’t know whether I’ll be using it again…maybe it’ll come in handy if I get desperate with my Dad’s Christmas present?!

I have seen some interesting school bags in France. It’s mainly primary school aged children I’ve seen with them. They’re normal back packs except for the fact that they have a set of wheels and a handle you can pull out, like for wheelie suitcases! And there’s more…one boy was pulling his along after school and it had light up wheels! Very cool and very practical in my opinion! I think the secondary school kids think they’re ‘too cool’ for them, or maybe they don’t make the handles long enough!

I hadn’t thought that coming to a new country would mean the discovery of other cultures as well as the French one, perhaps naively. But it does mean mixing with other internationals sometimes and it’s very interesting. I enjoyed my first Thanksgiving meal last night with the GBU (Christian Union). We invited friends and ate different traditional dishes together round a big table in a church. Can’t say pumpkin pie shoots to the top of my list of favourite puddings but it was pleasant. I helped Frances, my Canadian-American friend make a dish with sweet potatoes, pecans and marshmallows on Wednesday evening, which was fun.

I’m going in to work at school tomorrow, which is a bit of a shock to the system…school on Saturday?! But there’s an open morning and lucky-old-I get to sing Christmas songs with the 11 year olds whilst prospective parents are looking round. I’m a bit nervous as we’ve not had much time to prepare, but one if the teachers assures me all will be fine! I know I’ve not said much about my teaching experiences at the moment…I apologise if you’ve been wanting to hear more about that. I’ll be back within a week hopefully to say more as this post is already quite full.

Love to you,
Fiona x