I am really beginning to love my little studio, and feel really at home here. Sometimes it's lonely, but most of the time i'm just really enjoying having my own space to relax into after a busy/stressful/emotional/tiring/fun day (and there has been at least one of those each day this week so far).
I finally got the key to my letter box on tuesday, and i've been enjoying opening it up and finding letters waiting for me. Post is always exciting. Today I even had to go down and collect a registered letter from an actual french post-lady. It took me a while to realise what I had to do to get it though. My intercom is a bit dodgy, so i can speak to people outside, but i can't hear them, so if someone buzzes then i mainly just buzz them in blindly. bit rubbish.
The registered letter was from the bank, to allow me to prove that I live where i said i do. So now that's all sorted, I am now in possession of my Carte Bleue (debit card), and have money in my account! this now means that i am able to set up my own internet connection in my flat, subscribe to the CAF (which is like housing allowance for students), and get an advance on my salary. wooohooooo!! I calculated online that I am entitled to around 250€ a month from the CAF: a nice tidy sum that will cover over two thirds of my rent. french bureaucracy may be annoying at times, but there are certainly some benefits.
I think it's pretty safe to say that my week didn't start as this though, and it has certainly improved immeasurably over the past 5 days. My first day at school on monday was fairly stressful, as i was going in blind, with no real clue of what i was meant to be doing. It also was the first time it had rained properly in the 2 week's i'd been living in provence - a bad omen if nothing else. I went into the school at 9am in the morning with no lesson plans myself, hoping to find that the teacher(s) would have some sort of an idea of what to do. sadly, they didn't, and i was mainly left to my own devices for 4 45 minute lessons. All this combined resulted in me crying in the staffroom in front of the headmistress and one of the teachers i'll be working with. what a way to break the ice!! I think it was a mixture of homesickness and the unexpected that just tipped me over the edge. i'm quite embarrassed about it now - i will have to go in this monday pretty bloody confidently. Need to get lesson planning!
Tuesday was a much better day - the teachers i worked with had lesson plans and told me what i should plan for the following week's lessons. One teacher (the headmistress, coincidentally), shocked me a bit during her english lesson by saying "shut your mouthz!" to get the children to be quiet. not quite sure what i should do to stop her from saying it. i don't really feel i can tell her that it's not the done thing. Anyway, as it turns out, i may not have to go back into that school for a couple of weeks, as there is another strike planned for next tuesday. two out of the three teachers i'm working with are striking, and the bus drivers may also strike, so I'm not sure if i'll even be able to get to school or not yet. another day lounging around in cafés then...
on wednesday i spent the whole day in Nimes at a training course. despite my 5:45am wake up to catch the train, it was a really good day. it made me realise that this is an actual proper job that i'm doing, and i have to put some effort in. I think before, i didn't realise what being an 'assistant' entailed. Now i do, i'm really excited to get going and start planning more. I really want to help the children learn something!! we got told about this video. i don't think i can be as enthusiastic as this man, but i will certainly give some of it a go!
On thursday I spent the day at the school where Elise works. Again, it went better than the day before, as I had already spoken to the teachers, and I had an idea of what I would be covering. There were some really naughty children in the classes though. really really naughty. there is one boy in particular in a CE1 class (6-7 years old), who you can tell is really clever, he is just bored in lessons and so is really disruptive. I think i'm going to try and think of some ideas to help control him a bit. keep him interested and busy working on something.
Then today, I met up with an english lady called Jill, who works in Jules Ferry on tuesdays as an english teacher, the school i'm at on mondays. she is employed by the mairie, and so works in a few schools in the area. i was given the impression that i would be working with her in the school, and i think the fact that she wasn't there on monday was also a contributing factor to my break down. Anyway, she was really nice and gave me loads of sheets i can use to teach various different topics, and she has said that she will keep me informed of what level the children are at and what she has covered each week, so i have more of an idea of what i can plan for my lessons. She seemed a bit aloof, so i hope this actually does happen. I arranged to meet up with her several times last week, and today was the first day that i actually managed to pin her down. so fingers crossed.
Helen and I got the bus to Leclerc today and spent AGES there browsing through everything. I didn't get much on the basis that I will buy most of my fresh stuff from les halles on sunday. It was bloody brilliant last week: i bought loads of stuff for really cheap! an avocado, some green beans, a courgette, a cucumber and some grapes for 3€ !! it is my new favourite. Definitely going back every week from now on. we also went to the cinema last sunday and saw 'eat pray love' dubbed in french. i don't think either of us had much of an idea what was going on, but it was a nice thing to do all the same.
Every day is getting better, and it's getting to the stage where thinking that i ever have to leave this amazing place makes me quite sad. I imagine that it is properly getting into autumn back home now. i've avoided looking at the weather forecasts, but october in england/wales is normally a bit of a miserable affair. Autumn is arriving in provence, but only very slowly. the leaves are turning and starting to fall, but temperatures rarely fall below 25ºc each day, and the sky is almost always unquestionably blue. It really does feel like summer still. That said, i'm really looking forward to it getting colder here, and being able to wrap up warm. Autumn/winter are my favourite times of year back home, so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out here. In any case, i've booked my flights to come home for the Toussaint school holidays. In two weeks time i will be back in rainy england for 12 days. i can't wait ♥
Proud of you.
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