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