As English language primary school assistants, we had our final training day on Tuesday which involved a parachute, some strange storybooks, nursery rhymes and some very competitive English assistants! It was a long day, although it was good to get some ideas to help us with our teaching.
On Thursday I had a very early start to meet my 'reférent' Vincent at the train station in Sète so he could drive me to my schools in Frontignan. Fortunately my earlier French lessons of years 7 and 8 came handy during this car journey, as I was able to tell Vincent all about where I live and about my family! He was excited that I was studying at the University of Warwick because he knew where Coventry was!
When we got to Frontignan, he showed me where the train station was, and how to get to my schools from there - they are so close to the train station that it's much easier for me to get the train from Sète to Frontignan on the days that I am teaching rather than the bus, which is great news for me because the bus takes about half an hour whereas the train only takes 5 minutes!
Then he took me into my first two schools to meet the head teachers and some of the staff. Bizarrely, these two schools are basically on opposite sides of the same building with a nursery in the middle, but they are still seen as two separate schools! The headteacher in the first school was particularly friendly and I could even understand almost everything she was saying so I think I'm going to like my Monday afternoons in that school!
After meeting the teachers in my first two schools, Vincent took me to my third school (which funnily enough is called Terres Blanches - which translates as White Fields in English, the same name as my first year accommodation!). This school is right next to his office, which is handy for me, as if I have any problems I can pop over next door! I met all the teachers in this school too, and as by this time they were teaching, I met some of classes too, and the children were very cute and shouted 'goodbye' in heavy french accents as I left the room! In this school one of the teachers ran me through the book that she wants me to do with some of the older classes which is a children's book based on Gulliver's Travels. It looks quite complicated, but she seemed to think that they would love it, so we'll see!
Afterwards, Vincent took me back to my first school and I sat in on a maths lesson, after first introducing myself in English. The teacher asked me to help some of the children who were struggling with their maths questions, which was a test of my language skills - especially when I couldn't think of the word for subtraction/minus in French!
Then, in keeping with French tradition, the class broke up for their two hour lunch break (yes, two whole hours!!) and I found myself sat in the middle of a group of very loud, fast talking French primary school teachers, eating my lunch. Needless to say keeping up with them was a challenge, but fortunately they didn't ask me too many questions, so I was able to just listen and try and understand what they were talking about - which was very varied! The conversation went from discussing the type of anti-mosquito product they used, to young people's smoking habits, to the forecasted storms this weekend! They were very nice to me though and made me a coffee (the French usually have it without milk, which is something I'm having to get used to!) and gave me chocolate and a local delicacy that I don't know the name of, but is basically a sweet ball of croissant with sugar on it - it was very yummy!
After lunch I was told to wait in the staff room, and then the teacher would send one of his students to come and get me as a surprise for the class. They had been told to prepare some questions in English for a visitor, and then they had to ask me them in as good English as possible. I had all the obvious questions, such as what is your name? And how old are you? But I also had some more unusual ones including what is your favourite day? And do you like hamsters?! The children were all very sweet and very excited to meet an English person, so that was good for me!
After that busy day of meeting lots of new people, Amy and I also attempted to visit the local hypermarché, which meant we had to get the bus and then walk a fair way with all our heavy shopping! It was worth it though, because now we have lots of lovely food stored in our kitchen, rather than the depressingly empty state it was in before!
We also bought a map of France which we've put up in our apartment, and we're going to pin on places we're going to visit in the next seven months.
I also finally manage to work out the French post system, and collected my parcel from my mum with a phone in it for me to use - so I can finally use my French number which is great!
I was also very excited because I was able to watch the Great British Bakeoff Final which was a nice taste of home (sorry about the pun!). Amy watched it with me, and it was very funny to see the show through the eyes of an American, as it really is so British, and it felt odd saying that it really was one of the biggest shows in the UK right now!
We were hoping to go on a day trip to Avignon with some other language assistants tomorrow, but Hérault (our region) has been put under orange storm warnings again(!!) so we couldn't really risk it, as nobody wants to be stranded in Avignon! So it looks like we'll have to stick to Sète so that we can definitely get home!
My first 'official' days of teaching are on Monday and Tuesday, and then the two week holiday is upon us, so I'll have to do some more exploring of the area then! Emily (my friend from university who also does French, and is currently living in Angoulême) is going to come down and stay with us in the first week of the holidays, so that should be fun.
Anyway, I will write again soon!
A bientôt!
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