Au revoir à ma vie en France...

For the last two weeks of my time in France I spent time doing a variety of activities, mainly to say goodbye to people, but with the added purpose of making the most of my last fortnight in Rennes.

So I’ll kick off with the gospel concert I went to and then I’ll briefly fill you in about the rest.  It was the first time I’d been to a gospel concert in France and I have to say it was a bit of a strange experience.  Now it wasn’t really that different from a gospel concert you’d see in the UK.  It was a local gospel choir, about 20-strong, and the concert hall was packed out which was nice to see, we weren’t even sure that we were going to get a place.  The choir were very joyful, they got everyone to clap and stand up and echo things and the audience joined in willingly.  Yet the thing was that all the songs were in English.  Now, I do understand it’s normal for French people to listen to English songs but there was still a kind of paradox for me at this concert.  I knew (through a friend) that nearly all of the performers weren’t Christians.  Some of the choir ladies looked so French and here was this joyful praise coming out of their lips, and they were singing their hearts out, but a lot of them didn’t understand the significance of what they were singing and nor did the audience of what they were hearing, but there was a large attraction all the same to coming along to the concert or to spending weeks rehearsing these gospel songs and then performing them.  I really enjoyed the concert but it did stir up a yearning in me to see more French people really truly knowing the gospel truth and joyfully praising their Saviour in their own tongue (as well as English if they like)!

Following the concert, I said goodbye at the university, a teacher had organised a goodbye lunch for me and Martin and a number of staff turned up which was nice.  On the bank holiday Monday Michèle (lady I lived with) and her son Loïc took me and an American girl Joanna out for a lovely meal and walk in the countryside.

Dan, the English teacher, and me

In the final week I went round to two families from church’s houses for meals, went on a couple of bike rides, chilled out by some scenic ponds with a couple of friends, said goodbye at church and took a bit of English jubilee cheer along to English club with bunting and a flag, a quiz and games.  So all in all a good last two weeks.

The long-awaited photo of me and François,
the oldest member of English club, at 91!

The next chapter: It’s around 10 days since I got back and I’m pleased to say I’ve been successful in getting a job lined up for the end of the summer; training to be a Chartered Accountant with a French company based in London.  It will be a new challenge which I’m both nervous and excited about.

So all that remains for me to say is thank you for your support this year through reading my blog, and praying for me if you did, and goodbye for now (but I hope to see you in the flesh at some point!).  Below is an extra bit if you fancy reading on, about what I like about France and Britain.  The lists are not exhaustive, I’m really glad that I’ve had the chance to live in another country and have my view of the world opened up!

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What I like about France/the French:  - As soon as the sun comes out they sit on bar terraces at all hours of the day drinking, chatting and watching the world go by.  They’re allowed to stay there for as long as they want within reason and can even buy lunch from the bakery across the road to accompany their drink.  – The transport systems are normally clean and well-run and work on trust that most people are paying for their tickets and will occasionally get done by ticket controllers if not.  – Women aren’t expected to wear make up as much.  They also know how to dress modestly.  – They really do appreciate their food and aren’t willing to compromise on its quality.  They eat a healthier diet in general and children aren’t very fussy about their food.   – There appears to be more trust in other people and the assumption is that others are capable of doing the right thing rather than the assumption that they’re going to stuff up or find ways to play the system.  – They have really good childcare put in place before the age of 6 when the kids have to go to school. – French bakeries are great.

What I like about Britain/the British: – There are heaps of charities based in Britain looking out for all sorts of people in both our country and in many other countries around the world.  – We have good deals and offers in our shops.  – We dress in all the colours of the rainbow.  – We allow kids to learn about religions in school and we allow religious groups to use our school premises.  – We make good cakes and puddings.  – We get taxed every month in our wages (The French have to declare tax themselves in the May following the tax year (which runs from January to December) and then pay up).  – When we organise events we normally go all-out and do them well (but there’s something to be learnt from the simple way the French do things sometimes).  – We're generally more encouraging. – Creativity and imagination is encouraged from a young age.  This doesn’t really stop, we’re a bit crazy!

Less writing, more pictures!

Ok, in an attempt to make this shorter than the last blog post I shall give you a bit of a photo update!  

Two weeks ago I took a day trip to visit a lovely town called Quimper with my colleague Martin.  

We had a nice time wandering round the place and eating some delicious food! 

One Monday between English club classes I spent a lovely lunchtime in the Parc du Thabor in the sunshine.  The park, whose flowers are now blooming, looked beautiful! 

I re-visited ‘the chef’s workshop’ with a friend called Sandra and we enjoyed learning how to make a dish.

I spent 3 days babysitting 2 kids from church aged 5 and 9 with Manqi at their house for a bank holiday weekend.

 The girls are really lovely and easy to look after but I’ve never looked after kids for that long and Manqi is not used to looking after kids, so it was tiring for us but a good experience and we had a fun time.  We took them to a patisserie for a treat!

Manqi left me two days ago which was sad, she’s been such a blessing to me this year.  At the beginning of the year it wasn’t at all planned that she was going to come and stay at our house, but God knew what he was doing, praise Him!

I’ve also been really busy in the kitchen these last two weeks making food for various bring and share meals, and making a load of cakes for the people of English club.

Fiona x

Exams and an election - usually dull but not this time

Dear all,

On Monday evening I went round to my friend Halle’s house so we could spend a bit of quality time together before she heads back to America for the summer (this Friday).  She’s been a great support to me this year and we had a good chat over dinner and I slept overnight, then we had American pancakes in the morning with maple syrup and fruit.  It was a welcome break (even though I’d just got back) as Michèle’s daughter was staying over with her two small children who decided to scream and cry, get annoyed and make lots of noise constantly!  This made me glad that the kids Michèle looks after during the week aren’t that bad in comparison.

We said goodbye to Andrew from our house this week, so to see him off I made lasagne, we went to the cinema, had a cake from the bakery and then Manqi organised having breakfast with him on his last morning (although he ate his in his room and then came down to join the rest of us!).  He was eager to be off back to England and has done well to stick it out this year as living abroad was very difficult for him.  I think it’s stretched him in a good way.

On Saturday Martin and I had to invigilate exams (yes, Saturday) for the students from our department in lecture theatres.  I did two, one at lunchtime and the second one from 5-6pm, both in the biggest lecture theatre, with enough space for 281 students to take an exam (though thankfully a lot didn’t turn up – it would’ve been a tight squeeze).  What ensued in the exam hall was a cultural shock to me.

Before we turned up half of the students had entered unauthorised, and the head of department was despairing of them saying half of them had taken answer booklets and scrap paper to write notes on even though they were not allowed, so could we go and take everything back off them while he got them to sit in rows with a space between people.  They were all chatting away merrily and more students arriving by the minute.  Bags with them, mobile phones still out, coffees/cans of drinks on the benches, sitting next to their friends (no seat allocation).  No rules were stipulated at the beginning except ‘you’re not allowed any other materials except your pencil case’.  It took us a while to get all the papers handed out to a couple of hundred students and they were still talking until they got their papers.

When they did make a start they went quiet.  It was a multiple choice paper with 40 questions which some people had finished in 15 minutes and wanted to leave.  We said they couldn’t leave until 30 mins had passed because it would be too disruptive otherwise (seeing as other people would have to stand up to let them out).  Well, when our colleague gave the word that they could leave, (at least) half of the exam hall stood up and left, chatting as they went!!  Giving the others some noise to start whispering amongst themselves and leaning across to share answers.  Unbelievable.  The ones leaving partook in this too, or some would be saying goodbye and ‘bon courage’ to their mates.  We only had 2 students out of 200 left at the end of the hour!  It felt like there was a real peer pressure to get up and leave.

In the second exam, one girl took a cookie out of her bag and ate it.  I had to have a stern word with some students that I suspected of cheating, to put a stop to it.  Apparently it’s well-known that cheating is rife in these exams.  A lot of the teachers don’t seem to care and the feeling is ‘let’s try and minimise the damage’.  Manqi said that as soon as you walk into an exam hall you can tell if the teachers there are going to invigilate well or not.

Both teachers who had set the papers admitted to me that something in the paper was a certain way so it would be easier for them to mark.  Can’t blame them too much as they’ve got so many papers to mark in a short timeframe but it seemed a bit of a lazy attitude that I’ve not come across so much in England.  Our teachers seem to take more of the view that the exam paper must be ‘x’ way so as to best test the students or so as to allow the students to show what they are capable of etc.  Of course exam papers in the UK are scrutinised by external examiners too which means they can’t just do whatever they like.  We also chatted to some of the good students after the first exam, who said that they hadn’t seen half of the content in their lessons, and the teacher said he had never seen 20 or so students that were sitting the exam in his classes.  Oh my.

The other interesting thing this weekend was the elections of course.  France has a new president and in the Rennes area (strong backing for Hollande) there’s a lot of optimism about the change coupled with a pessimistic ‘we’ll see’.  I went along to the local polling station with Loic and Manqi on Sunday at 7pm to see the votes being counted and Loic got involved.  There were 5 ‘offices’ in different classrooms with 4 tables set out, 4 people at each, and they were given the envelopes in batches of 100.  It was six hundred and something for Hollande versus two hundred and something for Sarkozy for each of the ‘offices’ for our polling station.  There were quite a number of votes which were void too.  One person had managed to put Marine Le Pen’s name into an envelope, which made everyone laugh!

They hadn’t even finished counting votes and we found out the result via the Internet that Hollande was the new president and we got home to see Sarkozy was giving a goodbye speech.  I was baffled, I knew there hadn’t been time for all the votes in France to have been counted in one hour.  Well no, the actual figures were confirmed a lot later that evening but they had announced their president on forecasts and exit polls or something (If someone actually knows how it’s done maybe they could explain it to me)!  It was so tight between Hollande and Sarkozy that Loic, Manqi and I discussed how strange it would be if the vote swung to Sarkozy later that night.

Fiona x 

What next?

Above is a question I’ve been asked with an increasing frequency for a number of months now.  The real honest answer is, I don’t know, but I’m trusting that God does.

I feel a strong ‘pull’ towards moving back to the UK, so that is what I plan to do in June.  I’m also leaning towards finding a job in which I can use my French language skills (but not teaching!), preferably in an office-based environment as this has previously suited me.  I am also looking to learn new skills which would allow me more flexibility for work in the future (i.e. accountancy/IT skills).  Might all sound a bit vague, but it’s a start.  And in the current job climate, it might not be a bad thing to not get too specific!

As for where to look for jobs, where to live and who to live with…that’s all unclear too.  To a large extent these things are interdependent.  I’ve had it pointed out to me that moving back in with my family might not be very easy as I haven’t lived at home for more than 4 weeks for 5 years now.  One thing which is fairly obvious is that most French-speaking jobs are in London.  But I don’t fancy the commute into London every day.  Can’t have everything though.

Since last November I have been applying for various UK graduate schemes which start in September, but have not been successful in getting past the online tests for the few that have shown interest in me (which is strange as it was the maths which proved the problem, yet this was my strongest point at A level).  Though if these jobs aren’t right for me it’s better to get rejected at this stage than much further down the line, so from that point of view I’m relieved.

Voilà, hope that wasn’t too much to get your head around.  I really want to make a move in line with what God wants and where I can reach out to those around me to make an impact for Him.  Prayers appreciated!

Fiona x

A bit of fresh air

Bonjour!

So the week after much movement, I didn’t move much.  I spent a week doing a mix of marking, chilling out, sorting out and trying to build up my fitness levels a bit for the cycle trip which I’ll tell you about below.  The Tuesday night was the highlight of my week as we (Manqi and I) invited our girl’s Bible study/prayer group to our house for a meal and short discussion.  We had lots of vegetables to eat from the veg basket which Michèle orders every week so we had to get creative with that (I think we managed to use about 8 different veg in some form or another!) and the meal was enjoyed by all.

At the weekend (13^th-15^th Apr) I went to the campsite I used to work at in Saint Gilles-Croix de Vie (on the coast in the Vendée region of France) to see my friend Jen and her Dad who are part of a small team putting up tents in preparation for the summer season.  We went out for a meal for Jen’s birthday on the Friday, and on the Saturday visited a little island called Noirmoutier where we sat by a nice castle for lunch and wandered round a bit, then headed off in the car to find a good stretch of beach which Jen remembered from previously being there.  Only we couldn’t find it and we spent ages driving round and getting lost which was a shame!




















To exit the island we went along to the ‘passage de Gois’, a special road which allows you to cross from the island to the mainland when the tide goes out.  I enjoyed waiting for the tide to go out and seeing the first cars go across, then going along ourselves (photos above).  The rest of the time was spent chatting, enjoying food, playing games and inspecting tents, it was good to catch up with them.

Last Monday I travelled home on the train, stopping off for coffee in Lille with my friend Nicola, a brilliant way to spend the waiting time between the TGV and the Eurostar!  This past week back in England has been brilliant.  I’ve enjoyed Mum’s cooking (goes without saying?!), a game of badminton with Dad, going to housegroup with my sister and spending a day at Stratford International Station participating in the second training day for the Olympics volunteering programme I’m part of.  This was topped off by the International Café Isle of Wight Cycle Trip 2012, a fantastic weekend which I feel privileged to have been a part of.

It’s the fourth time I’ve been on this cycle trip which has happened in April/May time for the last six years, and it’s just got bigger and bigger every year.  A team of Christian students (although we’re not all students now) takes a group of international students (largely non-Christians) to the Isle of Wight, leaving early Saturday morning from near the university, cycling down to the docks to take a ferry and then we cycle across the island in two groups (with lots of breaks and two different routes), taking in the scenery and trying not to lose people on the way!  Our destination is a guest house on the south of the island, where we enjoy dinner and comfortable beds, then hold a church service on the Sunday morning before setting off back to Southampton via a different route. This year there were around 70 people on the trip (including team).  Despite the weather forecast showing imminent rain for both days the whole week before, God was amazingly good to us and we had sunshine (with some clouds) on the Saturday and on Sunday it only rained on and off from the middle of the afternoon onwards!  He also blessed us enormously with a lack of serious bike problems and accidents.  We were able to share our faith with the students and get alongside them.  The sense of achievement and togetherness is great afterwards and we’re praying they’ll remember it for years to come and come closer to God because of it. I really enjoyed catching up with old friends and making new ones.

I’ve got another 5 or so days here before I head back to Rennes for the final stint.  I would really appreciate your prayers concerning my ‘next step’ as I don’t know what to do next!  (More to come on that soon).

Love,

Fiona x

Clocking up the miles

Within just one week from Saturday to Saturday I set foot in Dorset, Eastleigh, Southampton, London, Rennes, Martigné-Ferchaud, and Vannes! It was hectic but I mostly had a good time. Let’s start with my trip to England…

The wedding in Dorset was a lot of fun and seemed to speed by. My friends and I enjoyed getting ready in the morning and waiting for the beautiful bride to arrive at the church. Afterwards I mingled with some university friends I hadn’t seen in a while and ate scones with jam and cream, then we followed on to the reception venue, which was a school although you didn’t really feel like you were in one! After a little while waiting we were able to go through to the tables, where we enjoyed a delicious 3 course meal, and there was a humorous twist in the middle as someone on each table had been designated as ‘the chef’ (with an apron and chef’s hat) to carve the beef for the main course! After the meal we listened to the speeches and then went off to the hall for a Ceilidh which was a lot of fun.

I then spent a couple of days in the Southampton area, meeting up with friends for a catch-up and spending some quality time with Mel and Tom who I stayed with. On the Tuesday I spent a day in London at the first of three training days for the London Olympic Ambassadors volunteer programme. (For those who don’t know, it’s a scheme which will see 8,000 volunteers welcome people to London, at the airports, stations, where the big screens will be and many tourist sites, throughout the summer. I’m looking forward to it). In the evening I met up with Mum, Dad and Katie for a meal in Pizza Hut which was soothing to the soul.

On Wednesday I was ‘de retour’ for Rennes, after an hour and a half’s delay to the plane taking off which was frustrating, followed by an afternoon of coming up with a backup plan for how to do the listening test on Thursday if a certain piece of equipment wasn’t available to me. Praise God, all went well (eventually) and on Thursday I carried out the tests confidently. I also said goodbye to the students (with mini eggs!), as that was the last time we were in the classroom together. It hasn’t really sunk in yet, I’ll probably see a few of them about, but it’s a weird mix of relief and being sad to see them go.

On Friday morning I did some work at a lycée (6^th form college) for a guy from church who’s an English teacher there. He brought me in to do mock baccalaureate oral exams with 12 of his students and despite the pressure to get it right in terms of marks I actually quite enjoyed it and some of them were really good.

On Friday evening, Manqi and I ventured off to Vannes (which is about 110 km/70 miles to the South West of Rennes) to see our friend Ruth who has come to stay with us a number of times throughout the year to come to church in Rennes. We booked a journey with a car sharing scheme for the way there, but the lady texted us to tell us her car had broken down, so at the last minute we had to find another car to go in, and then they were 35 minutes later than what they’d said so we arrived at Ruth’s at 9:15pm tired and hungry, but she had kindly waited for us and provided us with a nice meal. The following day we wandered around Vannes which is lovely, and went on the bus to a nice picnic spot and really enjoyed ourselves.

I was due to look after the kids at church on Sunday morning, so had to get back to Rennes Saturday evening, and Manqi was coming back too. We had planned to use the car share scheme for the return trip as well, but there were yet more issues - this time with places in cars - so on Saturday morning we decided we’d take the train back as it was a reasonable price and probably more reliable. Then Manqi realised she didn’t have her young person’s rail card so I said she could take a place in a car and I’d go by train. Her departure time was a little earlier than mine so I was left to my own devices to find the train station. To cut a long (and distressing) story short, I missed the train by minutes and although it wasn’t late at night, there wasn’t any other way of getting home until the next morning, so I had to spend another night at Ruth’s, finish prepping the kid’s group, instruct Manqi about what I wanted bringing from home, and go straight from the train journey to arrive at church at roughly the time the kids would be let out! I was very grateful for the support of Manqi and Ruth.

Au revoir for now,

Fiona x

Very much in France yet crossing cultures

Hi again,

I’m enjoying some lovely summery-spring weather and hoping it lasts until the weekend for my friend’s wedding. I’ve got my window wide open and I’m just hoping a bird doesn’t want to come into my room and say hello!

This week there has been a flurry of activity. I was quite pleased with myself for going to the pharmacy and the hairdresser’s for the first time in France. The pharmacy vocabulary was easier than the hair stuff, but both went smoothly! On Wednesday I was at work as usual when a colleague popped her head round the door and amongst other things told me that a teacher from Southampton University was visiting Rennes and she had arranged to have coffee with her at half five, and if I wanted to join them then I could. It turned out it was one of the nice teachers that I know, so I said I would like to. So we went for a drink and a crêpe and then my colleague had to leave to catch a train, but my teacher Juliet wanted to have a walk around Rennes for a bit so I gave her a little tour and we chatted away. She was very surprised by everything that I’ve been asked to do in my job and the lack of support given, but at the same time she was very encouraging and was impressed that I’d handled it and said it would stand me in good stead.

Last Thursday there was still no available video projector despite the fact I’d booked it again. So I’d made sure I’d prepared something else just in case which didn’t rely on a projector. I’m not taking the risk for this week as it’s the last class before their test, so I gave them homework with details of how to access the video on youtube at home and we’ll just do a short class going through the answers. In the evening after work I went on a prayer walk around Rennes with my house group which was good.

On Friday night we celebrated the 18^th birthday of one of my church friends, Sandra, who couldn’t wait to be 18. It was a relaxed evening with some of the food cooked Togolese-style and there was a fun African vibe to the soirée. Saturday night was also pleasant with our Indian friend Ruth staying over and cooking us a curry.

Then on Sunday my friend Halle came to see what our church is like as she’d been meaning to for a while and she is going to write some kind of guide for students as to what the different churches are like I think. A lady called Marie at church invited me round for lunch and said I could bring two friends so I took Halle and Manqi and we piled into the car with her three kids (9, 6, and 4) to go off to a village called Liffré to the north of Rennes. Another couple from church rang up to see if they could bring their lunch along and join us, so they did. We had a great time together eating and playing with the kids and talking to each other. Marie’s husband was away in Pakistan for a week leading worship at some evangelism meetings. He skyped during the afternoon for a bit and told us some of what was going on out there. They’d had more and more people coming to the meetings every evening (we’re talking increases of 5,000, so there were 30,000 on the last evening!). There were hundreds of healings (including the deaf, blind and lame) and thousands of people decided to follow Jesus! This was through the ministry of 3 ordinary guys who travelled across from France in cooperation with the local Pakistani Christians! Wow.

Fiona x

Mid-March mayhem

Hello everyone,

I’ve been encouraged to find out lately that a few more people read my blog than I thought! Thanks, it makes it worth writing!

C’est la fête !

Last Monday evening I participated in something nicknamed ‘la fête de la craie’ (Chalk party!) which consisted in going around the campus I work on with a bunch of other guys from the Christian student group chalking the name of a website called questions2vie.com (questions of life.com) everywhere to raise publicity for it. It’s a website which has been launched recently to allow French students to respond to and ask big questions about life and God. We split off in pairs to tackle different parts of the campus.

My friend Halle and I were sent to the part of campus which is most familiar to me – the part between the metro, the library and by L and B buildings. I felt like a right rebel doing it, but with the quiet assurance of my friend beside me and the fact that it was clearly going to spark interest (as soon as we started people were reading what we were writing) we soon started to have fun with it.

A colleague saw me in the middle of chalking and stopped to ask what I was doing, but it was alright as she’s a young Spanish lectrice like me so she didn’t think badly of me – to the contrary – she took a little card with the website marked on it and even said she might talk about it with the students! Right towards the end of the night as we were writing the website on the ground for the last time a security bod came over to us in a bit of angry state and asked us to stop. Oops. So we did stop – at ‘QUESTIO’ – shame we were in the middle of our biggest chalking! It looked a bit stupid leaving it at that, but we decided it best that we obey. We were worried after that that the bloke was going to go round with water and wash them all away (thankfully he was too lazy for that or God stopped him from bothering). Some of the others met a gendarme when they were chalking, but apparently he was cool with them saying ‘Oh it’s only chalk? That’ll soon disappear here in Brittany then!’

My friends at Agape set up a stand on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on campus too to raise awareness and discuss questions with students as well and I think they had quite a good response (hopefully not just to the carambar sweets!).

Washing machine continued

You remember the start of the washing machine tale from last week? On Tuesday I nervously sat down to make a call to the company, encouraged by Manqi, and kept being given different numbers to ring. So on the 4^th number and after having some difficulty to find Michèle’s file on the computer, we got there and the man changed the rendez-vous to Friday, thankfully 5 days before the repair man was supposed to come.

I welcomed the repair man on Friday, turns out the ‘repair’ wasn’t much of a repair and is something an ordinary person is supposed to do to maintain the machine from time to time. He opened the compartment in the bottom left corner which is where things go which have come out of your pockets and the like. It stank and there were a lot of clothes fibres clumped up with a coin and a few bits and bobs, a lot of water came out too. He had a bit of a job getting it open! Once that was cleared the machine was happy again, he stopped it and it unlocked normally after a minute or so. He explained that some of his colleagues would charge 150€ straight up for that as they’d been called out for something which is not really their job! But he explained that he was nice so wouldn’t do that (and I think he took pity on me due to the fact my laundry had been stuck in the machine for 8 days and I was a young foreigner). So I was happy to get my clothes back and they didn’t smell too bad, so I gave them another wash and all was well.

Technology mishaps

Two weeks ago I came to playing a podcast to my listening class on my speakers only to realise it was far too quiet for them all to hear at the loudest setting. Panic! So I had to think on my feet and apologise to them. I gave them a choice of leaving and I would send them the link to the podcast online so they could do the task in their own time, or staying and I would listen to the podcast through earphones and project what was being said with my own voice so they could do the task in class. It was quite amusing to have to do it that way but 3/5^ths of the class stayed so that was how it worked. For my second listening class I dashed back over to my office and the staffroom and gathered extra equipment which would allow them all to do it normally.

Then last Thursday I had a shock when I wanted to use a projector for a listening task – listening to Jamie Oliver on youtube. I had put my name down for the projector two weeks previously and when I was in the day before I noticed another teacher had added her name to the sign up sheet, but wanted the projector for a longer time so she would take one earlier in the day. There are two so this should be fine, but occasionally one has been going walkies recently, so late on Wednesday afternoon I went to check if they were both there. Yes they were. Phew, things were looking good for Thursday. Thursday at 13:20, 10 minutes before class, I go to collect my projector and there aren’t any there. Then the other teacher who’s signed up walks in and I ask her ‘Are you using a video projector now?’ She said ‘Yes, I’ve just come to collect one.’ My face fell and I said ‘There aren’t any’. She was annoyed like me, especially as she had booked it for her students to do presentations with. How is it that both of the projectors disappeared between the end of the day on Weds and lunchtime on Thurs for neither of the two teachers who signed up properly to be able to use them?? I don’t know but it’s rubbish! I had to change my lesson round completely and I’m hoping I can get one this week.

Homesick

I’ve had quite a bad bout of homesickness recently, been quite down and missing my family a lot. Only got to hang on a week and a half now before I set off for England for a wedding and a short break.

Fiona x

Events of the past fortnight

So it’s been nearly two weeks since I last posted because a lot’s been going on!

First I’ll tell you about Katie’s visit which was rather successful I think. She arrived on Friday morning (3^rd March) bright and early on the plane and I couldn’t resist buying her a mini pain au chocolat from the bakery near the airport to say ‘welcome to France’.

On Friday afternoon, one of the highlights of the visit happened – a cookery class on how to make macaroons! Katie loves baking and she loves macaroons, and had attempted to make some at home but they didn’t go that well as they’re tricky to get right, so I decided to treat her to a lesson from a real French chef as to how to do them. Of course, I would have to accompany her and that would be nice for me too! I did nearly chicken out of booking it, doubting my French capabilities and whether I’d manage to translate what the chef was saying with all that potential specialist kitchen/meringue vocabulary, but then realised it was likely to be my only chance to do this and I should bite the bullet as a lot of it would be demonstrated anyway. There were 6 of us signed up for the lesson and all the ingredients were laid out ready and we had fun mixing, heating, piping, scraping and filling things in order to make some beautiful and tasty macaroon specimens. We made two kinds of macaroon case and four kinds of filling. As it happened the chef did do a lot of talking, but I kept up with him more or less, apart from the occasional moment when my mind drifted while involved in filling the macaroons and Katie wanted to know if he was giving any useful tips to the ladies next to us in response to their questions.

On Saturday morning we went to the marché des Lices (which I have recently learnt is the second largest market in France), to have a good browse, buy Dad some much-anticipated goat’s cheese and munch on a galette saucisse. We proceeded to wander round Rennes and the park ‘le Thabor’ where we saw some small birds trying to jailbreak and the interesting names of many varieties of rose (though of course the roses were not in bloom). Mid-afternoon we settled down to a drink and cake of the highest French standard in a lovely patisserie.

On Sunday we went to church and then afterwards we were invited to a family’s flat for lunch, fortunately an English-speaking family with three lovely kids (the ones I’ve done some babysitting for), so we had a really nice time there. On Monday we visited English club where they enjoyed meeting my sister and Katie was also charmed by them! Lunch was in a creperie for a good price and then we had a nice walk along the canal with changeable weather.

I took Katie to see the ludothèque too and we borrowed a game to play that evening with Manqi, Michèle and Andrew. Katie left the following day at lunchtime. We also fit in watching TV, going to the supermarket, and making muffins during our time together as well as lots of chatting of course!

Washing machine

The latest frustration here is a broken washing machine with my clothes locked inside it! Not fun as the repair man isn’t supposed to be coming until 21^st March and my clothes have been stuck in there since the 8^th. The reason for the repair being that far away is that Michèle arranged it according to her availability and she's away this week. I've got to put on my best telephone French tomorrow to see if they can send someone sooner!

Birthday

This weekend just gone I had the privilege of enjoying a Saturday birthday which is always nice. I had a lie in, ate a pain au chocolat for breakfast with Manqi, opened a few cards and presents (including a card which arrived from England with no postage courtesy of my Uncle!), and phoned home. Then I had fun making spring rolls with Manqi and we went on a short bike ride too. At 5:30pm my friend Halle joined us and we chatted away while finishing preparations for the evening. From 7pm a number of my friends joined us and we ate a meal together followed by a lemon drizzle cake and butterfly buns that I’d made. I was sung to in French and Chinese and found that 24 candles on the cake took quite a bit of puff! It’s the first time in a while I’ve had as many candles as my age. My friends all got me presents which I wasn’t expecting at all and some of the kind words in the cards they’d written were really touching.

Well I’d better leave it there for now, eh?

Until next time with love,

Fiona x

Half term

So let’s start with the guitar lessons which I mentioned in passing last time: I’ve started playing the guitar, which has been very enjoyable. I had been wanting to play for a while and so when the chance came up to start learning alongside Manqi and Loïc with a guy from church, and I didn’t even need to buy a guitar because there was an old one lying around in the house that would do, I said yes. Jan Niels who teaches us is a very talented guitarist and a good teacher. We’ve been having two lessons a week because he’s going to go to New Zealand soon to earn some money to carry on studying so we’re making the most of him before he goes. I am now impressed by all guitarists as they make playing look easy!

Last Saturday I celebrated Manqi’s birthday with her and on Tuesday I celebrated another friend’s birthday by going to a crêperie and the cinema in a small group of girls, we saw ‘The Descendants’. I went to the ‘Champs Libres’ for the first time on Wednesday. Quite a lot of people had talked about it saying it was an interesting place to go to, and it comprises a library, the Museum of Brittany, a planetarium and a science exhibition space. I went there with a Welsh girl who works at the university like me and we booked a session at the planetarium then went around the science bit. In the planetarium we learnt about ‘Rennes, cette nuit’ (Tonight in Rennes) which was a presentation about stars and planets and what we could see from Rennes. With it being half term there were lots of kids in there and some of their comments made us laugh.

On Friday a young couple from church had me, Manqi and Halle round for dinner which was really lovely, I felt comfortable there. Then late that evening two of Manqi’s Chinese friends arrived from Amiens where she lived in France before coming to Rennes, so on Saturday we got treated to a Chinese meal which they wanted to cook for us with six dishes spread out on the table.

A large part of my week was also spent marking tests for hours upon hours, and aside from that I’ve enjoyed not having to get up early, went to church, caught up with two good friends on Skype, ate out with a couple of colleagues, did a bit of exercise, played board games and played the guitar.

I'm really missing my family at the moment. Just as well my sister is coming over to visit on Friday - can't wait!

Fiona x

Scones, board games and a visit from Ellie

Well hello again,

I forgot to tell you in my last blog that I have in fact tasted some very good scones here on the other side of the Channel. Three kinds in fact – raisin, cherry and chocolate chip – baked by a French bakery in Rennes. They were given to me by Dan, the English club teacher, because I’d missed a special event the English club had put on called ‘Tea Time’ due to the fact that I was working, where scones featured as refreshments. If I’m having a homesick moment I might have to hunt down the bakery to have a taste of home. Not quite as good as Dad’s, but close!

Last Friday night I went to a board games evening hosted by the ludothèque with Michèle and Loïc. Two men joined us to play a game of ‘Dominion’ which is a popular board game with lots of different versions in France. The original version of the game was on loan so one of the ludothèque staff members made us a game mixed up from cards from other versions. I had never played before and neither had one of the other men. The game lasted quite a while (longer than it should have) and when we finally got to the end and counted up our points, I was the winner! (I knew I was in the running for the win but I think the French guy opposite me who came second was quite surprised because he thought he had won!) The other men left and then we played a simple game in which frogs jump from lily pad to lily pad (with the member of staff from earlier too) and I thought it quite amusing that I was sitting there with three ‘frogs’ playing a frog game.

My friend Ellie came to visit me from Sunday afternoon to Thursday lunch time and we had a lovely time together; she’s such an easy guest to have and it was so good to catch up with her. When we got back to my house on the Sunday after a little transport mishap on the way back from the airport we ate dinner with Manqi and played some wii video games for a bit.

On Monday I took Ellie to the English club in the morning where she met two of the groups, then we went on a walk around Rennes and found a crêperie to eat in and filled our tummies with tasty food before continuing to wander around. We started to wonder what to do that afternoon, because the weather wasn’t good and the place that I had planned on visiting was closed (the French don’t bother opening a lot of things on Mondays!). A lady from the English club that morning had suggested we go and visit the Parliament building and so we went to the Office of Tourism to find out more. The lady sold a tour to us even though it was all going to be in French and I would have to help Ellie understand.

So at 4pm we set off with a tour guide, a family from Rennes, a couple from Germany and an old lady from Belgium! Going with a tour guide is the only way to access the Parliament building because it is used as a practising law court, and I have to say even though history and politics isn’t usually my thing the tour guide was excellent and the visit was very interesting. Afterwards we hunted out a patisserie which does fancy cakes and each bought one for an after dinner treat. Later on we watched a film.

On Tuesday we took it easy in the morning, went for a wander round the park then cooked a nice spaghetti bolognese for lunch and some apricot and almond muffins to take to my friend’s later on. I then had a guitar lesson while Ellie read a book (yes, a guitar lesson, tell you more about that next time!) and we left to go to my friend’s flat for the girl’s prayer/Bible study group that I go to on a Tuesday night. That was a good evening, reflecting on God’s love.

On Wednesday I had to get up early to go to work for a couple of hours and then I met Ellie at the coach station in town so we could set off to explore the town of Fougères (to the NE of Rennes). It took an hour and ten minutes to get there and we arrived around lunchtime so our aim was to find the town centre, wander a little and then find somewhere to have lunch…only when we came to finding the town centre (we’d been dropped off at the station), we wandered through it without realising that it was the centre! It’s a small place which is quite spread out, and it didn’t help that a lot of shops closed for lunch so it seemed a bit dead. We enjoyed our lunch in a local Bar-restaurant and then set off to find the pride and joy of Fougères, which is a medieval castle. It took us a while to find that too, but when we did we enjoyed the view!

After that we climbed up high to a viewing point with a beautiful outlook, then back down and up to a garden and church and rejoined the centre of town before heading home. In the evening we chilled out over a nice meal and games, before getting up early in the morning to have breakfast together and say goodbye as I went off to work. Thanks for coming Ellie!

It’s now February half term over here, so I’ve got a week off which is nice. I don’t think I’m going to do much with it, but it’ll be a bit more peaceful in the house.

Love to you all,

Fiona x

Making use of my time

Hello one and all!

This past week or so has been mostly good. I’ve done so much I can’t remember it all!

I made two batches of muffins which were both a success much to my delight as it’s not always easy to get foreign recipes right in France. The first lot were carrot in honour of using up a few spare carrots and the second were choc chip and caramel in honour of my colleague/friend Martin’s birthday.

I’ve done a bit of babysitting for a family at church who have three little ones, two girls aged 8 and 5 and a Down’s syndrome boy who is 18 months old (I think). I’ve also been back to the ludothèque and have been playing games in the dining room a number of times with various members of the household.

Last Friday night, I watched a film called ‘Finger of God’ with friends from church and it was a very powerful film showing footage and sharing stories of miracles that God is doing in America and other parts of the world. It challenges your faith to see people who pray boldly for healing and other things, and are willing to go to great lengths to make Jesus known.

We had snow at the weekend, like most of you, and a few of my friends went out to play in it at 11.30pm at night whilst I contented myself with taking pictures from my bedroom window and closing it before I got pelted with snowballs! Earlier that evening I had tried a traditional French meal from the Alsace region of France called ‘choucroûte’. I’m afraid it will definitely not be taking a spot amongst my favourite French dishes, but I was glad to try it! If the cabbage hadn’t been marinated in some sort of vinegary concoction then it might’ve gone down better, although the beer it’s traditionally accompanied by wasn’t to my taste either (though I could see how the two went together).

I suppose I should tell you how the second semester lessons are going as I’ve neglected the topic so far and we’re in week 5 of teaching. I’m currently teaching 3 kinds of lesson; ‘listening comprehension’ as before, then one called ‘compte rendu’ in which the students read texts and do summaries of them, and a third kind which is entitled ‘writing’ for which we were given an old grammar booklet to work with. I was not thrilled by the idea of teaching the latter, and that remains the case. I just haven’t really got the knowledge to teach it properly. Imagine teaching the nitty gritty of the English grammar to non-natives with no training…I know X is X and Y is Y but I don’t really know why or how. Apparently it was never really meant to fall to Martin and me to teach this kind of lesson, and having asked around the teachers, it seems they all teach it in different ways…!

Anyway, in general things are going ok from a teaching point of view except the classes are bigger than before so I can’t give the students the support and help I’d like to give and it’s slower to learn names. There are some groups with a bit of a lazy attitude and others with a good one and I just do the best I can.

Bye for now,

Fiona x

Busy bee

Hi again,

I’ve been very busy recently, not really sure where the last two weeks have gone! Most of one week went on the organisation of the Chinese new year party. So let’s start with that.

The Chinese dumpling making was an experience; the day we did it we spent all afternoon making 200 of them in a team of about 6/7. There were several stages involved: - Chopping vegetables into tiny pieces - Making the dumpling dough - Combining meat or eggs with the veg to make the fillings - Measuring out the dough and rolling it out in small circles making sure the middle was thicker than the edges - Filling and sealing the dumplings - Open-freezing them. I wanted to take pictures of all the different phases but got so involved that I forgot.

For the rest of the week until the following Sunday Manqi, Loïc and I spent a lot of time organising and discussing the evening, folding napkins, shopping, and pre-preparing some food (Manqi and her friends). I also spent a fair amount of time organising the Sunday school club for the Sunday morning, which was about praising God with instruments. So the Sunday came, I hit the ground running and I didn’t stop for most of the day but the party was a huge success J There was a really good atmosphere and it seemed as though everyone enjoyed themselves. We had an aperitif followed by a game using chopsticks, then the Chinese fondue accompanied by other dishes for the main meal and then cakes for pudding. The cakes were for Michèle’s birthday and we had asked different people to bring along a cake that could be cut up into squares and triangles, in order that we could form a large number 60 out of them (my idea!). We then stuck 59 candles in and rolled the cake table towards Michèle on a trolley! It should’ve been 60 candles of course but one broke when my friend was putting it into its holder! It’s ok…nobody noticed!

I’ve been to volunteer at English club twice now when they have their conversation classes on a Monday and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. They’re really grateful for me being there and some of them were delighted that they could understand me! (I was speaking slowly and clearly of course!) I think they’re a really interesting bunch of people and they have so many stories to tell and different reasons for learning English. The oldest member of the club is dear old François who is 91 years old and has been going to the club for 20 years! He goes because he wants to keep loneliness at bay and keep his brain going, and he’s a real character.

Yesterday I went on a day trip to Nantes, which was organised by some tourism students at the university. This particular group are on a course run by the history of art department, and they have language classes given by my department because they are obligated to speak two other languages. We nearly didn’t even make it to Nantes, as when we were ready to set off at 8:15am in the morning, our coach didn’t arrive. This was followed by a phone call to the company who told the students that the coach hadn’t been confirmed properly and they didn’t know whether they were going to be able to send one! Thankfully at 9:30 (an hour and a half later!) we were able to get on a coach.

The students took us for a tour around the ‘Isle of Nantes’ which is a shipyard and a Museum, then we had lunch in a restaurant, travelled to Clisson Castle and had a tour there and then went on to a vineyard where again they gave us a talk which was followed by a wine-tasting. At each point of interest we all split into 3 groups; one tour was done in French, one in Spanish

and one in English (not because there were people who couldn’t understand French, but because this was what was required of the students for their practise). I thought they did really well as they had to research and remember a lot of stuff and acted like proper tour guides (some more than others)! On the way home they gave us a quiz with prizes of a bottle of wine and petit beurre biscuits which are made in the Nantes area. My team did well and was in the tie-breaker, only to lose out narrowly. We still got biscuits though which suited me more than the wine (bit easier to share out too)!

Fiona x

Saying goodbye and fresh opportunities

Bonjour tout le monde!

Sadly last Saturday we said goodbye to an American friend, Christy, who was in Rennes for 1 semester. She often stayed round here in Manqi’s part of the house and we went to church together etc, so we got to know her quite well over the 4 months. On Christy’s penultimate day, Manqi and I went shopping with her and in the evening we made home-made pizzas and cookies in a larger group. On her departure, breakfast was American pancakes followed by a send-off at the station. There were 6 of us there of 6 different nationalities! Christy is next to me and then in the middle there’s Jana from Slovenia, followed by Ruth from Holland and Manqi (Chinese), with Loïc (French) behind the camera. Unfortunately we’re also getting ready to say goodbye to Ruth too who leaves us next week, who, similarly to Christy, has spent a lot of time at our house. I’m going to miss them both a lot, but Manqi will even more so, as the three of them were particularly good friends.

I had the pleasure of discovering something this week which doesn’t exist in England (to my knowledge), it’s called a ‘ludothèque’. I’m sure you all know the word for library is ‘bibliothèque’, well this is the same kind of thing, except for games. So I’d call it a ‘games library’ in English. You step inside and there are shelves lining the walls packed full of games, and there are also some table games, and children’s toys laid out on a carpeted area. It was Michèle’s son Loïc who took me along to show me and he knows the people who run it a bit, they were really friendly. They can teach you how to play games and join in with you or they’re happy to leave you be to play games amongst yourselves. Much like a library, you can also set up an account and rent games for 1€/week. We learnt 5 or so new games in an afternoon which was nice, I really enjoy playing board games.Post-Christmas my life in Rennes has changed a lot. I’ve now switched to the second semester timetable, which (if you remember me explaining before) is a lot lighter. I now teach for 6 hours a week on just one day, 2 of which are overtime hours! So although there is prep for my lessons and some marking to do, my job has turned very much part-time. This will allow me to enjoy some time which I didn’t have last semester to explore the area, get involved in new things and spend more time maintaining or making friendships.

We are preparing for a party next week at church, which will be a celebration of both Chinese New Year (for Manqi and her Chinese friends) and Michèle’s 60^th birthday (Michèle = the lady who's house I’m lodging in). For Chinese New Year the tradition is to eat a fondue, but it’s a bit different to the cheese or chocolate fondue that comes to mind when we mention that word. You chop up a heap of vegetables and meat in small pieces and the fondue is basically water bubbling away which you cook the meat and veg in (and sometimes noodles or pasta too). But the water is flavoured either with some meat on the bone or a spice mix, so you can have anything from a mild fondue to a very spicy fondue. You kind of chuck the food in and leave it to cook for a bit then take it out again. With chopsticks of course! So we’ve tried the mild and spicy (though not as spicy as the Chinese would normally have it) versions in our house. I was present for the latter and it was nice to share in the experience. It’s going to prove difficult to roll it out for 50 people next week though. Tomorrow I’m going to help to make Chinese dumplings that we can freeze ahead of the party.

Earlier this week I contacted one of the local organisations which provide activities for over 50s in Rennes, because I’d spotted that they have an English club so I thought I might like to volunteer and help them out with that. I got a positive response so I’m going in on Monday to help and see what it’s like. I’ve also taken on helping out with the kids work at church as they needed people to help out with the 3-6 year olds. I’ve not done much with 3-4 year olds before but I’m hoping I can adapt quite easily from previous experience!

Fiona x

The Christmas holidays

The two week Christmas break was just what I needed, with rest and activity in good measures. On the first Sunday I accompanied Katie to church in London to see what it was like and I realised how hard it is to commute to church in central London and become a part of a church there.

In the afternoon I helped Katie make a gingerbread house which was a lot of fun, although a precise kind of baking for which we had to measure out the sides of the house, roof and chimney, and get the thickness of the icing right so we’d have a house that stood. It did thankfully, and then we had fun tiling the roof with white chocolate buttons and putting sweets all around it.

On the Tuesday evening of the first week I went to my friend Amy’s house for an evening with Katie and another friend, Afua. We had pizza, crêpes and a good chatter. For Thursday lunchtime I went to visit my friends Melody and Pedro in their new flat in South London. I wasn’t expecting it to take me an hour and a half to get there (no problems with transport), but it was so good to see them when I did.

Then on the Friday before Christmas our family spent an afternoon and evening in London, going to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition which was a selection of stunning photos, followed by Prezzo for dinner and Hillsong church’s carol service in Wembley Arena, which was packed out with people. For the last two we were joined by an American friend of mine from Rennes who was on her way back from a trip to Ireland via London.

On Christmas day, Katie took on the challenge of cooking the Christmas dinner for the first time and did a brilliant job of it. We’d normally go to church but Mum and Dad’s one and Katie’s one weren’t doing a service because they’re in central London and I didn’t want to go to church on my own, but afterwards I wished I had. In the afternoon we opened a good set of presents, went out for a walk, watched TV and then played a board game.

After Christmas we travelled north to go and visit family in the Manchester area for a couple of days – great Aunts, Aunties, Uncles and cousins. It was lovely to see everyone as we don’t get to see them very often. We even had the luxury of staying in a hotel, the highlight of which was using the swimming pool which had a separate Jacuzzi pool with one part which was exposed to the outdoors (only partly because it’s winter), so there was a cool breeze coming in and reacting with the hot bubbly water making it all steamy and you looked out to grass and trees. It was kind of misty and dream-like and I really liked it, but am probably not doing it justice in the description!

Dad took me out to practise my driving a number of times so I can get better (I have passed my test but need to improve my skills), which although frustrating at points has helped me a great deal, and I even managed to drive halfway to Manchester and halfway back which I was pleased with and it was a weird experience for Mum, having to be a backseat passenger (thankfully not a backseat driver!).

Nearly as soon as we got back I went away again, this time south, to a small place on the South coast called Winchelsea. I met up with a group of uni friends there, there were 13 of us in total. We went for a coffee, played games, walked along a beach and sand dunes, visited Hastings and Canterbury and ate good food. To see in the New Year, we had an 8-course meal (but weren’t stuffed at the end, thankfully the first 5 courses weren’t too heavy), did Secret Santa and watched a couple of the boys do a fireworks display in the cold and wet! It was a lot of fun and good to catch up with them.

Fiona x