J’ai fini!

Last week my hours at one of my schools changed, from Thursday to Tuesday. They needed help with doing oral exams for the Year 10s (Fourth years for some of you amongst my readers) and so they asked me to swap. This was convenient for me and I enjoyed a change of activity. It also gave me a glimpse into another part of being a teacher. For some of the kids the experience was very painful, because they are not used to speaking that much in English and they hadn’t even revised simple things. They had to answer questions about themselves and their family first of all, then they had to talk about a famous person in the past tense (a bibliography, they were given information to go from) and then present a famous person as their friend (again, someone who they were given information about). They had 5 minutes prep time and then came in to sit in front of two teachers. One would be speaking to the child and the other making notes and writing some marks. The rest of the marks would be decided at the end by both teachers.

It brought back memories of preparing, waiting and sitting in front of my old French teachers. It’s not really that nice an experience so I empathised with them. Unfortunately at one point I did unprofessionally burst out into laughter at what a boy said, and so did the other teacher! There were a number of pupils who mixed up ‘he’ and ‘she’ when talking about men and women which was fairly funny, but then one lad seemed to have no concept of ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he’ or ‘she’. He came to the last section and had already said a few amusing things along the way, but for this section he was talking about a woman. He had to describe her appearance, including the clothes she was wearing and where she was born, etc. Well, I saw a dress at the bottom of the page, I was pretty certain he wasn’t going to say ‘She is wearing a dress’. Sure enough he started the sentence with ‘I…’ and carried on with ‘am wearing a dress green’!! So it was funny not only because of the actual sentence, but because I had anticipated what he was going to say! My other favourite exchange, this time a girl, was the question “What are your hobbies?” followed by the one-word response “Spider”!

Friday was my last day of teaching, at my preferred school in Pérenchies. I’ve grown a real attachment to the teachers and other staff there; they’re a really nice bunch. I gave some ‘thank you’ cards and presents to the teachers I’m closest too and I made them some cakes (welsh cakes and mars bar crispie cakes), and I got a bit of a shock, because most of them had never seen a cake made with rice crispies!! It’s funny how some things are so much part of what you assume to be common. Anyway…they loved the cakes and I received lots of nice words, verbally and in a card, and a necklace too. I even got a present from the Head teacher, which one of the English teachers said was quite an honour, because it had not happened before with previous language assistants!

A lot of the kids at both schools were sorry to see me go as well, and I them, I’ll miss them. I unexpectedly was on the verge of crying saying goodbye to one of my favourite classes! In various classes, a lot of them (mainly girls) wrote things on the board at the end of the lesson for me and it was really sweet. Even some who I didn’t think like me! There are of course some pupils who I won’t miss…!

This afternoon I’m going to say goodbye to the English teachers at the school in Armentières; they wanted to say a proper goodbye and have invited me for a drink. This, again, hasn’t happened for previous assistants, so I’m really pleased. It shows I’ve done a good job and they appreciate me for it. In turn I want to praise God that he has enabled me to do a good job at the two schools for Him.

Back soon with more news, lots going on at the moment!

Fiona x

Profitons-en ! (Make the most of it!)

This week has been another busy one, and I don’t think the business will let up until the end of my stay really, the time which is left is filling up fast.

Last Thursday evening I went to Pascale’s house for dinner and to say goodbye. We had an aperitif on the balcony in the early evening sunshine and then a lovely three course meal, with her husband and son. (I’m wondering if I should’ve said four course meal… we had two puddings, because there was a slight misunderstanding and I took one along but she’d made one too!) They’re a friendly family and I really enjoyed my time with them. My cultural knowledge grew when they showed me a clip of a national competition which used to happen every year for around 30 years in France and was really popular but no longer runs. It’s basically a dictation, and the competitors write as the host speaks, trying to not make any errors. The person with least errors wins. Dictation? What’s so interesting and challenging about that? There are lots of endings of words which are pronounced the same but spelt differently in French, and the dictator throws in plenty of difficult words that are not very common. It’s also something for all ages to participate in, as they have a children’s category and many of the French love their language. Whole families used to sit in front of the television giving it a bash. Afterwards the host of the competition goes through the whole text explaining where people have gone wrong and why.

On Friday night, I had my good friend Lucile for dinner and a sleepover. We also attempted baking scones but it didn’t quite work as I’ve got the wrong kind of flour. I’ve always thought of baking as being fairly simple (depending on what recipe you attempt of course!), but it becomes a whole lot more complicated trying to reproduce stuff in a different country. Anyway… we had a really lovely time together.

On Saturday evening it was time for a youth group social, namely a laser game and pizza night. This suited me down to the ground. There were only 7 of us (including 3 leaders) which was a bit disappointing, we found out at the last minute that 3 weren’t coming. Nonetheless we had a great time together; I’m really going to miss the group. I didn’t play the laser game to my usual standard coming 5th out of 7, but it was good to see some of the others happy with their positions! The pizza, cake and ice cream with a few games of Maffia squeezed in afterwards was fun too.

On Sunday, I went to the French speaking church in the morning and headed off to the beach with Nathan and his family afterwards. (The weather last weekend was amazing!) We stopped off for a picnic on the way next to a river and drove on to ‘La Panne’, in Belgium. We strolled along the beach and I dipped my feet in the water, we sat down for a bit of cake and chatter and then later on we walked along the promenade. After that we went to a restaurant and they stuffed up the service quite considerably which spoilt the meal a bit, but what they served was tasty. We had another stroll afterwards and the sun was beginning to set, it was beautiful. It was a fantastic day.

Monday here was a bank holiday and the sun continued to shine. I went to eat lunch at Catherine’s house and her daughter and two grand-daughters were there too. The baby didn’t stop smiling and giggling, which was lovely and very infectious! Afterwards, Catherine and I headed out to a place called Arras which was lovely. We went on a tour of the ‘boves’ (underground tunnels) and up to the belfry to a beautiful view. We also wandered around the town a bit and I got a lesson on architecture and furniture and all sorts. In French of course. I’ll admit, (but maybe you already guessed?) that I didn’t understand everything! Still, she was happy chatting away and I was doing my best to understand!

Over and out for now,
Fiona x

A picnic in Belgium, a bank holiday and other bits of news

On Wednesday I went for lunch with my friend Nicola and one of her friends from home. I thought it was just going to be lunch somewhere in Lille, but she phoned me up and suggested we go to the end of the metro line and walk into Belgium from there, and we’d take a picnic and eat it somewhere when we got there. This was a novel idea, so I agreed and off we went. Thankfully Nicola knew the way as she’d done it before, but it was really cold and although there were a few shops here and there, we didn’t find anywhere to sit down. It seemed better to eat our lunch while walking anyway, because if we’d sat down for any length of time we’d have been even colder. We got excited at the idea of a hot drink in McDonalds when we saw a sign, but there were signs pointing in two different directions and we didn’t find it! We did enjoy a browse around a chocolate shop and an amazing cake shop, and decided to head back to Lille for a drink. It was lovely to spend time with the pair of them and Nicola had made a tasty packed lunch which made up for the walking-while-eating!

On Thursday, it was a bank holiday in France. I worked in the morning (in my flat) and then I went off to join a ‘rally’ with my French church in the afternoon. We drove out to a picturesque village in the countryside and someone had diligently prepared a set of quiz questions and we went round in teams to fill it in. There was even a coffee stop, with someone from the church manning a picnic table with drinks and biscuits!

Half way through the route we came to a hall, where we played ‘la bourle’, a traditional game of the North region of France. It’s a game where you roll 1.5kg cheese-shaped rounds and there are different point zones, depending on how far you roll it. If you roll it too far though, it ends up in the zero point zone at the end of the alley! The alley is curved too, which adds an extra dimension to the game. I hope the picture helps. Each team threw 12, and there was first a trial, then the real go. The maximum number of points was 4 for each item, so maximum total 48. Our team did better in the trial – typical! We ended up with 23. I loved having a go, it was very enjoyable. I was told by a friend to ‘throw for England, throw for the Queen’! I am sure there are more complicated versions of the game than the one we played. I wonder whether a Frenchman came up with it while rolling cheese once upon a time!

Thursday evening saw the British cultural evening at C3, for which we did a presentation, put together a good spread of British food, and I prepared two games with British coins, toss-a-penny and shove-a-2-pence! There was a really good turnout and we saw a number of new people, I think that was down to the theme.

On Friday I went to work as usual, even though a good number of Frenchies were ‘doing the bridge’…i.e. because they had a bank holiday fall on a Thursday, they decide to say ‘au revoir’ to Friday to make a four day weekend (typical French attitude). And it’s certain whole schools or workplaces which do this. Needless to say, the station and streets were looking a bit bear on Friday morning! Friday at Pérenchies (my preferred school out of the two) went very smoothly, which I was grateful for. Then in the evening I met up with my friend Marie who’s in Lille just from time to time, with her boyfriend Ludovic. We went to a mussel restaurant, so there wasn’t much choice for me not being keen on seafood, but it was a nice evening out.

On Saturday, I did various bits and bobs and then headed round the corner to the celebration for ten years of evening services at Christchurch. It was so lovely to hear how it started up and think about those who had gone before us, laying down the foundations for the evening service which is now very popular, and from which I have benefitted a lot in my time here. The evening was loads of fun, starting with a service and then onto food, chatting, a short quiz, and dancing.

On Sunday amongst other things, I sorted out my accommodation for next year in Southampton :) I’ll be living in a nice house with 3 other Christian girls, Rosie, Jo and Sarah. It’s a relief to have this sorted and I’m really at peace about it, I think I’ll be happy there.
Sorry for so much news at once, good job I didn’t fill you in on the smaller details of all the admin and other stuff I’ve been up to!

Fiona x

I'm not sure how we're nearly half way through May, but hey, here goes...

Le Pas Opton

This weekend just gone I went to Uckfield, in Sussex, for a training weekend for the summer. It’s the first time that they’ve tried doing something like this before the season, and it’s a good idea in my opinion. It should hopefully mean people will be a bit less clueless when they get out there. The two main managers were there (the MD and the Site Manager), and they really encouraged us and challenged us to give excellence this summer, following in the footsteps of Jesus, and growing in faith in the mean time.

Other happenings…

Last Tuesday I did the Bible study with Marie and I think it went quite well. At first I was pretty nervous, but thankfully it wasn’t too big a group and I managed ok.

Yesterday evening I went to my French minister’s house for dinner. It was really lovely to spend a few hours with him, his wife and his two young children, getting to know them a bit better.

The weather has been really cold recently. We had a short bout of summer weather, and now we seem to have spring weather back, but with an added chill. It’s confusing, n’est pas?!

The countdown begins…

I’m really unsettled at the moment, because I know that I finish work in three weeks and I leave just a week after that for good. I’m starting to say goodbye to some of the kids this week, but the next two weeks will be harder. Because I’m drawing close to the end, I have loads of things to do, including my university project. I’m making progress with it but not as much as I’d like. There are various people to meet up with to say goodbye to as well.

I have a few regrets about places I haven’t visited and things I haven’t done which I hoped to, and people I haven’t spent more time with. But from another point of view, there's only so much time available, I always knew that it wasn’t going to end up that long a time frame, especially after you take out the settling down period. I’ve packed a lot in, I’ve met some wonderful people and seen some great things. I’m glad that I’ve enjoyed it more than I ever imagined and I’ll make the most of the rest of my time here.

Fiona x

C3, a challenge and a catch up

C3

First of all, it’s high time that I filled you in on what I get up to on Thursday evenings. At the English-speaking Church, we’ve started up something which is called C3 (Christ Church Café). This is similar to the International café I’m involved in with the Christian Union in Southampton. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, or a vague idea, I’ll try and explain. It’s an event for International students, and every week there are different themes for the evenings. Students come and chill out, speak English, drink tea (or other beverages), eat cake and make friends. It’s normally a really nice atmosphere, with different nationalities and cultures coming together. And of course God’s backing goes a long way. The ‘themes’ I talk about are anything, from team challenges to ice cream, and from British culture to food from around the world… There are group trips out and about too. Making friends with people and providing a fun place to hang out, we pray for opportunities to share our faith and our lives with the people that come. At the Southampton CU International café there are optional Bible studies every week now, for which there is a good level of participation. It’s early days for C3, as it started in February, and we pray that there will be a good team to carry it on and give it a new level of publicity in September.

The ‘give something up’ challenge

In youth group at the English-speaking church, we’ve been given the challenge to give something up for a week. The point is to give up something which perhaps hinders us in our relationship with God and every time we thought of that thing to praise God instead, an activity off the back of a study on the 'rich young man' story in Matthew, where he asked about how he could get eternal life and was living in line with commandments but not able to give up his wealth/possessions. I suggested to the other two leaders when we were preparing that we give up something the week before we set the challenge to the kids, so as we could understand what it would be like and show an example to them. I chose to give up facebook* because I know I waste time on there. It was hard, but a good and useful exercise to give it up. By the end of the week it became easier and I began to think I could manage with a bit less of it more often. This week the challenge continues as we carry on with the kids, but I’m changing from facebook to attempting to give up criticism…not at all easy, and already broken, but I’m going to do my best and I know I’ll learn from it!

*For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a website where you can send messages to your friends and share photos and various other things.

The rest of the week in brief

I’ve had a pretty busy week; on Tuesday evening I went to a concert that Marie from the GBU was in. It was done by an orchestra composed of students from all three universities of Lille and was very enjoyable. I’ve started to make headway transcribing the interviews I did for my university project, but it takes a long time. My teaching went fairly well in both schools this week, for which I am grateful. I also prepared a Bible study in French with Marie which we’re going to do this week on Tuesday. The weekend was full up, going to a French-Polish church to support a youth meeting there which someone from the GBU was involved in, and afterwards spending time with Nathan and his family. It’s also been nice to catch up with some people on the telephone.

Bonne semaine à tous ! (Have a good week everyone!)

Fiona x