A busy 5 days

The day I turned 22

Last Tuesday night I had my friend Nicola to sleep over, so that I wouldn’t be on my own on my birthday morning (If that sounds a bit silly to you…I would’ve been ok if I’d been on my own but I had the opportunity to not be, so I embraced it!). We took things leisurely and I opened my cards and phoned my parents (bit of a surprise for Dad at work at 8.15am in the morning, but once he got over his confusion he was on top form!). We went into Lille for a late breakfast at a boulangerie. Then the plan was then to do some shopping, but we’d been a bit too leisurely so we only had time to go into one shop before it was time to head back to mine to have lunch (I needed to be at my French lesson by 2pm)! The morning was just lovely; Nicola and I get along really well. From 2-5pm I went to my French lesson at the university and that was good as usual. Then I popped home to have a peek at the Internet and get ready for the evening.

I had invited 11 friends out for a meal in a restaurant to celebrate, but we ended up as 10 including me, as there were 2 missing (one due to illness, the other miscommunication). It was such an enjoyable evening and I feel so blessed by God to have been able to have that many friends happy to celebrate with me after only being here for five and a half months. They came from 4 different places, and were a mixture of Anglophones and Francophones, but I was confident the mix would work well because they’re all so lovely. And it did! :)

It was always going to be a bit strange being in a different country for my birthday for the first time, but I felt at home because my friends here are great and I still got lots of nice cards and messages from my favourite island! (Except my Mum and Dad’s parcel still hasn’t arrived, so if you know of its whereabouts, please do give it a kick in the right direction!!)

London for a day

Thursday morning I was up bright and early (or should that be dark and early?!) because I had to leave my flat at 4.45am in order to meet Laurence (friend and colleague) to go in the car to Armentières, for a school trip to London. I walked to Laurence’s and along the way saw something I wasn’t impressed with…plenty of fresh man tracks…by that, I mean there were numerous suspect liquid trails coming away from various sides and corners of buildings, particularly next to the theatre. Poor theatre. It hadn’t even been a weekend night the night before!

I’m not sure how I did manage such an early start, but I did, and the excitement began. We met up with the other English teachers and the kids (around 50) on the coach and after waiting for the late-comers and one who hadn’t turned up for 20 minutes which we went without, we set off – 5.50am. One of the boys when stepping on had said that this time in the morning was ‘not human’ and I sympathised with him! Anyway…journey over land and through the Eurotunnel and we got to our destination, the Tower of London, around 10.30 (British time) and spent a couple of hours going round in groups. Unfortunately, the kids (despite being a good bunch) didn’t seem that interested, and I was ready with some interesting stuff to tell my group about various things to do with the tower, but I didn’t think they’d listen so didn’t bother after one or two attempts. I really enjoyed the visit, but the kids were in need of something like a questionnaire so they could be more active and involved. I suppose it was natural that I was more interested than them, as it’s my history and I can understand what’s written (although I did look to read the French information paragraphs on more than one occasion!).

By 12.30pm, namely 1.30pm French time, the kids were really hungry, so we ate our sandwiches then proceeded to take a long walk along the River Thames, for an hour and a quarter. The kids aren’t used to walking that far and were pretty tired out by the end of it, poor mites were complaining next to me and I couldn’t even tell them how far we had left! I was a bit disgruntled as well because my shoulder bag had broken and I had to carry it around for the rest of the day, but thankfully my feet weren’t hurting. Destination: Covent Gardens. Mission: Let the kids loose and relax for a bit! We waved the pupils off to do some shopping for two hours and the teachers and I went for a coffee (In a crêperie, no less!). I selected a smoothie to drink and the other teachers all thought I was mad cos it was really cold…next time I’ll play it safe and have a hot chocolate I think, they really weren’t impressed! We then split up to have a mooch around ourselves, I stayed with Laurence.

We went in to M&S, joy of joys, and I bought a BLT sarnie, salt and vinegar crisps and yummy cookie to go with the apple I already had for the journey back. We got back to Lille at around 10.30pm, so a very long day! We were pretty cold during the day, being outside for so long, but I am reliably informed by my Dad that it was the best day to go as it was much windier before and wet the day after. I’m very pleased I had the opportunity to go, to see a school trip from a teacher’s point of view and for the trip itself, but it wasn’t as enjoyable as I thought it would be.

Friday/Saturday

The following Friday I taught at the other school all day long and was pleased with how the day went considering how tired I was. On Saturday I spent some time with a German teacher – ambiguous…is she German or does she teach German or both?! – answer…she teaches German. We had lunch with her husband at their house, then we took a trip out to Belgium for a couple of hours (I was bothered we’d get stopped as I didn’t have my passport, but not really much border control goes on where we crossed) and we returned to their house for a cup of tea and video of the grandchildren (one of their passions!) before she brought me back to Lille and went off to do something. They are such a welcoming couple and it’s really nice they invited me over.

Le cirque

The highlight of Sunday was going to the circus in the afternoon! I learnt just before Christmas that one of my colleagues at Pérenchies has a hobby as a trapeze artist! This, of course, intrigued me greatly and she said that she’d let me know when she was going to be in a show and I could go and watch her. So I said that I’d love to and I would. This Sunday the opportunity came round and I was there. It was a smaller tent than I had envisaged but it still fit a good 250/300 spectators in. It had a community feel to it, very friendly. I was sat among a reserved area for school because one of the teachers had organised tickets. So I was next to some of my pupils and their families and also some teachers and their families. It was strange to see them out of school. Brigitte, my colleague, did very well in her act. Amazing flexibility and balance (more than me I’d imagine and she’s mid-40s at a guess!). I was actually quite attracted by the idea of doing the trapeze myself! They make it look easy though. The show lasted 2 hours plus an interval. I got a lovely surprise to actually see some of my pupils in the show too! I was really impressed by them and will tell them so when I see them.

Well that’s all for now,
Fiona x

P.S. I’m sorry, it must be really hard to keep up with all these teachers flying round everywhere! Photos coming soon hopefully.