saussison chou.

So today i had my first day at school! Well, i didn't actually do any teaching, i just had to go there to meet the headteachers and try and get a timetable sorted. it turns out i'm actually at 3 different schools (!) so my week will be quite hectic. the first headmaster i met is a typical french man: well worn jeans, worn leather shoes, casual shirt coming untucked from underneath a huge pot-belly, and unbuttoned almost to nipple level... amazing. within my first 2 hours at school this morning, i had met several teachers, drunk some coffee (noir, bien sur) and taken part in the school staff photograph out in the playground!! all the children are so sweet, i can't wait to get started. it seems as if they're keen to take advantage of my being an 'expert' and having a 'native accent' in any way they can! I will apparently do 3 hours at each school, and i have 3 more hours in my contract per week to do conversation classes and go to meetings etc.

I had lunch with a woman named élise, who is a teacher at one school i'm at, and who is also playing host to an American girl who will be an assistant in the secondary school in the same town as me, who i have been getting to know through facebook. The american girl had no idea that élise is a teacher, let alone a teacher at my school - this is all purely by concidence! she arrives this weekend, so i think we will all go for dinner together at some point once she's here.

I also started the ball rolling about the studio flat today! I'm waiting for the landlady to email me back with a date that we can go to sign the contract. It's all very exciting!!

I'm finally starting to feel like i fit in here now - after going to the schools and introducing myself, i don't feel like so much of a tourist. everything's going really well!! I'm looking forward to the next few days - i honestly have no idea what will happen next, but i'm sure it will be something interesting!