Word of the Blog: Barres de chocolat. This means a six pack, so I suspect it's slang. Used by my boss' daughter to describe a topless guy in a music video. But hey, he was hot.
Happy Halloween everyone! If you are going out trick or treating or going to a party, have an amazing time!
I won't be, as I'm working tonight, speaking English and watching Erin Brockvitch with 19 French teenagers. Watching films with the teenagers in the evenings during the stages is one the perks of my job, so far I've watched Slumdog Millionaire, EdTV and The Boat that Rocked (or, as they call it in France: Good Morning England, which I think is a far betetr title). The latter happens to be one of my favourite films, but I did feel like a bit of an idiot, as I've seen the film so many times, I started laughing before the funny bits happend, getting me more than one weird look.
On the down side, I do have to watch Step Up (or Sexy Dance as it's known in France) which I think is one of the most annoying films ever. But hey, it could be worse. I could have to watch Never Say Never, the film about Justin Bieber. On second thoughts, I wouldn't watch it even if it was part of my job. I'd "accidently" break it into tiny pieces so no one would ever have to undergo such torture. Or, even worse, I could be forced to watch Twilight. Without a bottle of vodka/wine. *Shudder*
However, it's a shame we are not doing anything for Halloween here. The stage is taking place in a huge old house, with would make an amazing haunted house. Especially as there's a suit of armour on the stairs which freaks me out in the daytime, and would absoutely terrify me in the dark with scary music playing.
The stage has taught me one thing though. I'm probably not going to be a teacher in later life. Or least, definitely not a P.E. teacher (at this point, I'd like my mother and school friends to stop laughing. I know a girl who did everything she could to not be in the team at school is unlikely to a sports teacher, but you never know). My throat aches from getting said teenagers to play tennis/ a board game according to the rules. That's only 19. If I had to teach in a state school class of about 30 kids, I wouldn't have a voice left by the end of the day.
But the boss made my day by buying me a bar of dark chocolate! Which given the word of the blog, makes me laugh everytime I look at it.
Small things, small minds.
Wednesday 31 October 2012
Monday 29 October 2012
29th October, Laval, France
Word of the Blog: Flasher sur qqun.
This describes the moment you see someone and you think they are hot. I love the fact that the French have a verb for this...
I learnt the above word whilstonce again at the Irish pub. The Irish pub is like the Foyer's spoons and it's almost inevitable that if you go out in the evening you will end up there. This has nothing to do with the fact it's Irish or that the drinks are fairly cheap, but because it's a ten minute stumble door-to-door from the foyer (so a two minute walk on the way there). I've had some great evenings there, but I hope to discover some of the other bars in Laval as I want to make the most of the time I'm here.
Anyway, I do believe in my last blog I promised you a description of Laval's transport network. Well, if you sitting comfortably then I'll begin (and if you get that reference, respect). Laval has a very-widespread bus network, with around 14 bus lines. For a town of about 53,000 inhabitants, you would think this would be enough to get you where you needed to be just by getting on one bus, perhaps changing if you are going out of the main town into of the surburby bits. Not so.Despite having a bus stop roughly 10m, it sometimes feels like you have to take at least two buses to get anywhere useful. Getting to work for example. To get to a suburb of Laval, about 7km from the foyer I live, I have to get a bus, then get a taxi-shuttle service and even then I still have a 20 minute walk. The joutney takes about an hour, and it's rather annoying knowing that in the car it only takes about 10 minutes. In Cheltenham, let alone Bristol, I reckon you could take just one bus to get almost directly to where I work and it would take half an hour, max.
Anyway, I could literally go on for hours about the transport network, so I'll change the subject. I've just started my first, full student stage here. 19 French kids who are taking their BAC (French A-levels) this year or next year have come to the Langue & Nature for a week, in order to improve their English through a week-long immersion. It's only day 1, but they all seem nice and incredibly polite. However, some of their English really needs work. It was acyually quite scary marking some of their tests and seeing what basic mistakes they kept making. If I were in their shoes and taking my BAC this year, I would be afraid, very afraid...
This describes the moment you see someone and you think they are hot. I love the fact that the French have a verb for this...
I learnt the above word whilstonce again at the Irish pub. The Irish pub is like the Foyer's spoons and it's almost inevitable that if you go out in the evening you will end up there. This has nothing to do with the fact it's Irish or that the drinks are fairly cheap, but because it's a ten minute stumble door-to-door from the foyer (so a two minute walk on the way there). I've had some great evenings there, but I hope to discover some of the other bars in Laval as I want to make the most of the time I'm here.
Anyway, I do believe in my last blog I promised you a description of Laval's transport network. Well, if you sitting comfortably then I'll begin (and if you get that reference, respect). Laval has a very-widespread bus network, with around 14 bus lines. For a town of about 53,000 inhabitants, you would think this would be enough to get you where you needed to be just by getting on one bus, perhaps changing if you are going out of the main town into of the surburby bits. Not so.Despite having a bus stop roughly 10m, it sometimes feels like you have to take at least two buses to get anywhere useful. Getting to work for example. To get to a suburb of Laval, about 7km from the foyer I live, I have to get a bus, then get a taxi-shuttle service and even then I still have a 20 minute walk. The joutney takes about an hour, and it's rather annoying knowing that in the car it only takes about 10 minutes. In Cheltenham, let alone Bristol, I reckon you could take just one bus to get almost directly to where I work and it would take half an hour, max.
Anyway, I could literally go on for hours about the transport network, so I'll change the subject. I've just started my first, full student stage here. 19 French kids who are taking their BAC (French A-levels) this year or next year have come to the Langue & Nature for a week, in order to improve their English through a week-long immersion. It's only day 1, but they all seem nice and incredibly polite. However, some of their English really needs work. It was acyually quite scary marking some of their tests and seeing what basic mistakes they kept making. If I were in their shoes and taking my BAC this year, I would be afraid, very afraid...
Wednesday 10 October 2012
10th October, Laval, France
Word of the Blog: le cavalier/la cavalière. Traditionally this referred to a horseman/woman, but now means male/female dance partner. It confused me the first time I heard it, as I thought it meant knight, and wondered what knights had to do with Rock'n'Roll dancing.
I'm trying to think of an excuse as why I haven't yet updated my blog despite being in Laval for over a month now...but my mind's drawing a blank. I reckon I could get away with saying I've been too busy (which isn't entirely untrue, it does feel like I've been here much longer than a month) but at the same time if I've had time to watch Russell Howard's good news... (thank goodness for UoB's VPN (no idea what it sounds for though) otherwise I'd haveve missed both good news AND mock the week!) I've probably had time to update my blog. So yeah, sorry about that. I'll try and be better in the future.
Anyway. Laval. France.
If you type Laval into Google, it'll come up with Laval, Quebec, which pretty much sums up how small Laval is. It's also kinda in the middle of nowhere, which I'm only just starting to get used to, as how much I've complained about how small Cheltenham is, it's actually quite big compared to Laval. Laval is in La Mayenne department of France, which is techincally in the Pays de Loire region of France. However, the majority of Lavalians that I've met don't seem to let a little thing like geography bother them, and instead that they live in Brittany, the region along from the Pays de Loire.
Still, the fact that Laval is small means that there aren't many Brits/Americans here so all the friends I've made so far are French (or at least French-speaking). I live in a Foyer in the centre of Laval, but I actually work in a Chateau which about 10km from Laval, but more about that later. A foyer is a bit like a university hall of residence, except anyone between 16-30 can live here, whether you're a student, working or unemployed. It's subsidised by the French government so isn't very expensive and there's an activity arranged every night Monday-Thursday, so it's been very easy to meet people.
Amongst the friends I've made at the Foyer is Mariant, a Spanish dentist who arrived to work in Laval at the same time as I did and we originally bonded over the fact that we are some of the only people who are actually around at the weekends (seriously, the foyer is dead Friday, Saturday and Sunday) as we don't go home like nearly everyone else.
We've become good friends and are planning to go to Mont St Michael this weekend, as Mariant, who has got a proper job and isn't an improvised student, has a car.
Moving on the job, which is the actual reason I'm in Laval. I work in an actual Chateau, which is quite cool, and since its family-owned I feel like I'm living in a Jane Austen novel half of the time. I work as a general assistant, doing all sorts of things, from translating to processing applications, for a language centre called Langue et Nature that specialises in immersions. This basically means that people come to us to learn French/English.
I'm lucky that everyone I work with is lovely, including my boss, though it is quite an experience being in a car whilst she's driving. She's one of those women who you know must be fairly old because she has children in their thirties, but it's impossible to judge her age more than that as she has more energy than anyone else I've ever met. She was also born and bred in the French countrysides, so drives down the middle of the road and it seems like that she considers speed limits optional, which is great fun whilst going down a hill, but less so in the middle of a town.
Anyway, I've just realised I have to get up at 7.30 for work tomorrow (if anyone has sensed something off in my tone whilst they've been whining about 9 o'clock lectures, this is why...) so I'm off to bed. Hopefully I'll update tomorrow night, in which I will describe the weirdly efficient/inefficient Laval transport network which means I have to get at a bus and a taxi, followed by a 20 minute walk to get to work.
Despite that, I love it here!
I'm trying to think of an excuse as why I haven't yet updated my blog despite being in Laval for over a month now...but my mind's drawing a blank. I reckon I could get away with saying I've been too busy (which isn't entirely untrue, it does feel like I've been here much longer than a month) but at the same time if I've had time to watch Russell Howard's good news... (thank goodness for UoB's VPN (no idea what it sounds for though) otherwise I'd haveve missed both good news AND mock the week!) I've probably had time to update my blog. So yeah, sorry about that. I'll try and be better in the future.
Anyway. Laval. France.
If you type Laval into Google, it'll come up with Laval, Quebec, which pretty much sums up how small Laval is. It's also kinda in the middle of nowhere, which I'm only just starting to get used to, as how much I've complained about how small Cheltenham is, it's actually quite big compared to Laval. Laval is in La Mayenne department of France, which is techincally in the Pays de Loire region of France. However, the majority of Lavalians that I've met don't seem to let a little thing like geography bother them, and instead that they live in Brittany, the region along from the Pays de Loire.
The Mayenne River that runs through LavalStill, the fact that Laval is small means that there aren't many Brits/Americans here so all the friends I've made so far are French (or at least French-speaking). I live in a Foyer in the centre of Laval, but I actually work in a Chateau which about 10km from Laval, but more about that later. A foyer is a bit like a university hall of residence, except anyone between 16-30 can live here, whether you're a student, working or unemployed. It's subsidised by the French government so isn't very expensive and there's an activity arranged every night Monday-Thursday, so it's been very easy to meet people.
Amongst the friends I've made at the Foyer is Mariant, a Spanish dentist who arrived to work in Laval at the same time as I did and we originally bonded over the fact that we are some of the only people who are actually around at the weekends (seriously, the foyer is dead Friday, Saturday and Sunday) as we don't go home like nearly everyone else.
 | ||
| Mariant (right) and Me |
Moving on the job, which is the actual reason I'm in Laval. I work in an actual Chateau, which is quite cool, and since its family-owned I feel like I'm living in a Jane Austen novel half of the time. I work as a general assistant, doing all sorts of things, from translating to processing applications, for a language centre called Langue et Nature that specialises in immersions. This basically means that people come to us to learn French/English.
I'm lucky that everyone I work with is lovely, including my boss, though it is quite an experience being in a car whilst she's driving. She's one of those women who you know must be fairly old because she has children in their thirties, but it's impossible to judge her age more than that as she has more energy than anyone else I've ever met. She was also born and bred in the French countrysides, so drives down the middle of the road and it seems like that she considers speed limits optional, which is great fun whilst going down a hill, but less so in the middle of a town.
Anyway, I've just realised I have to get up at 7.30 for work tomorrow (if anyone has sensed something off in my tone whilst they've been whining about 9 o'clock lectures, this is why...) so I'm off to bed. Hopefully I'll update tomorrow night, in which I will describe the weirdly efficient/inefficient Laval transport network which means I have to get at a bus and a taxi, followed by a 20 minute walk to get to work.
Despite that, I love it here!
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