Au revoir or adieu?

So it's taken me over two months to finally sit down and write this post, for which I apologise.  My seven months as a language assistant were full of highs and lows, but the final few weeks were the most extreme in that respect, perhaps even in my life to date. 

Photograph from Andrea Rotunno

At the end of March we said goodbye to our 'Mother' and neighbour, the two German assistants. Unable to say goodbye just once we spent several evenings and too may tears clutching to the glue of the family unit we had constructed for ourselves. 

Over the next few weeks our group drifted apart, goodbyes becoming less of a shock, and more and more casual (a "see you around" to the other Brits...), almost as if our Year Abroad was already in the past. We started to admit to looking forward to going home, but with a lighter timetable (God bless the bac blanc) we socialised more than ever before, knowing that we had to profiter du temps ensemble - make the best of our time together. 

I never expected to live with 5 girls from 4 different countries, much less for them to be the best housemates I ever had, but now there's always a place in my heart and home - wherever it may be - for the assistants of Quinet, Lalande and Carriat 2012-13.

As for you, readers and blog, I leave you with our legacy:

My other job

As an assistant I was finding I had a lot of spare time; I'd heard from previous Year Abroad-ers that tutoring was an easy way to earn some extra cash, but in my case I was only approached halfway through the year and, despite several reminders, nothing became of it.

However in February I saw a post on the 'Assistants de langues en France - Lyon 2012-2013' Facebook group advertising job vacancies at an English language school called Afterschool in Lyon. I applied almost half-heartedly, expecting heavy competition and no reply, but suddenly I was observing a lesson, having a short interview and talking about gaps in my timetable. Due to the school holidays the earliest I could start was March, giving me a total of only 8 weeks there before returning to the UK.

I have a variety of students, from private business clients looking to learn very specific grammar and vocabulary points to a class of four misbehaved nursery school children. It's well-paid and both easy (no need for elaborate motivation tactics when the students are paying €50 for the lesson!) and challenging (teaching grammar in English takes some getting used to), and it suits me perfectly to be doing a skilled, rewarding and interesting job on the side rather than yet another bar or café, and according to my boss, I'm quite good at it!

I only wish I'd thought of it sooner. So my advice to 2nd year language students is to look up language schools in your area, or the nearest big city; I take an hour long train in twice a week for it, but I meet up with friends from Erasmus for lunch or dinner and do shopping etc. around work while I'm there.
Don't make the same mistake is I did; get in there early and you could be almost doubling your income!

A fortnight-long half term, you say? Part II

After the weekend in the South of France I went home, but as a tourist. I had offered to show my country to some friends who had never been to Britain before. We started with a day in Geneva, since our flight was from there, in the afternoon. The place is eye-wateringly expensive, but worth a wander around the lake and the old town, although perhaps in Summer as we spent most of our time looking for free places where we could go to hide from the February chill.

Arrival in London, and after an unfortunate incident with a mislaid camera we arrived at our hostel by overground. (The Gatwick Express is a rip-off unless you're in a serious hurry; check nationalrail.co.uk to see the many stations you can get to in London for a fraction of the price.) We stayed for two nights in the YHA Hostel at St Paul's. Brilliantly central (obviously right by St. Pauls, but also near Fleet Street and across the river from the Tate Modern and The Globe), well priced (£15pp per night - prices vary according to season, though), clean and comfortable, what more could you want? Well, maybe free Wi-Fi would be nice, or a 'youth'-priced breakfast, but for the basics it performed well.
Our first night saw us desperately seeking a restaurant which would serve us something 'typically British' (ie. not McDonalds under any circumstances) at 9.30pm. After trying several pubs without success, a brainwave struck and we found a perfect Indian restaurant. Now some people might think this is a little odd, given our search for British food, but Indian culture has become such a part of Britain that it is said the best curries are now to be found in the UK, as some of India's top chefs have moved here. (Apparently Chicken Tikka Masala was created in Glasgow!) In  any case it was (or felt like) one of the best meals I've ever had, and for very reasonable prices. (Indian City, 4 New Bridge Street. £10-15.)

The next morning we woke early for breakfast at a lovely café called Fleet Street Pantry, then on to the West End, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, the South Bank, the Globe and the Tate Modern. We carried on until Tower Bridge, then went back to the Tate Modern for afternoon tea in the restaurant at the top of the building. So British and so classy, with a great view! Then we headed Camden town for dinner and drinks at a pub, making the obligatory stop at King's Cross to find platform 9¾... Fish, chips and beer all round (unquestionable British, for all you curry doubters).

In the morning we sped around Notting Hill, Westminster and Buckingham Palace, just making our train to Cardiff. (Side note: Paddington left luggage is a horrendous rip-off. Ask to leave bags at the hotel or go to Victoria Coach station where it's about half the price.)

The next day in Cardiff was St David's Day which meant loads of cute kids in the traditional Welsh costume and free entry to Castell Coch! Town was lively but not over-crowded and the sun was shining. Sort of. In the evening we went to a great and brand new restaurant called Mimosa in Cardiff Bay, with a half off our food bill as it was the first night! The food was great, with inspired Welsh influences, the design was cool, and I would easily go again.

The girls went back to France early the next morning, and I headed down to Exeter for the week. With the Year Abroad we're made to feel guilty about time spent at home, time spent speaking English, but I really needed it. Maybe I'm weak, but my friends are important to me, and I needed some with free of culture clashes. Strangely, being in France has made me realise how much I love Britain. Living in a foreign country you inevitably (and are encouraged to) take on their typical traits and ways of life which, for me, means becoming someone else. I enjoy many aspects of living in France, but I remarked back in Exeter that I felt like I hadn't laughed since Christmas. I never pictured myself being homesick but now I know that for me seven months is quite enough.

A fortnight-long half term, you say? Part I

Hello again, blog. And hello again readers, if you're still there. Sorry for the recent lack of posts, I've been bereft of my (Dad's) computer for the holidays but, as you'll see, it was all worth it.

First stop, Nice! We went on another brilliant Erasmus trip from Lyon and after 6 hours on the road we arrived in a slightly rainy paradise.

We also saw the famous Nice Carnival; the Bataille des Fleurs during the day and a parade in the evening. The theme was 'The King of the Five Continents', hence the international flavour to the floats.

We ventured to Monaco for a night out and the last day. The sun (sort of) shone on our morning in Monte Carlo as we visited the royal castle and the enormous marina.

When I'm a 'grown-up' I'll live here.

...that's after I win the lottery, of course.

Our Cultural Weekend in Lyon

 One very hungover Saturday myself and my flatmate decided to venture into our local town for an evening of culture, which meant actually getting a place to stay, rather than our usual stalwart of waiting for the first Sunday morning train... On arrival we made our way to Cool&Beds hostel, a great, cheap and clean place I've stayed at before, north of Vieux Lyon right on the bank of the Saône. Unfortunately they had no spaces left (!) so slightly disgruntled at our unnecessary detour, we turned back south and tried the Auberge on the top of the hill (halfway between Cathédrale St Jean and Fourvière) joking that if they had no spaces here we'd have to roll back down. Luckily for us they did, at only €19-something each for a place in a 8-bed dorm. I had to pay €7 extra to sign up for a hostel membership card thing, but I'm hoping this will come in handy again!

View from the hostel. Forgive the phonecam quality!

Spotted on the walk

After claiming our room and leaving our overnight bags we headed to Place Bellecour for the tourist information office to find out what plays were on that evening. There was a huge choice but we settled on 'Georges Dandin' by Molière in Acte 2 theatre. We weren't quite sure where to find it, so phoned up in advance, only to be led back to the same address we had visited on our first, unsuccessful hostel search! It's a small Lyon. 

It was a cute little attic theatre with one stage and maybe 100 seats (? - I'm terrible at estimates) all at one level and a pop-up bar with all drinks at €2! Such a shame we were so hungover... The play itself was very good: for us, mainly an exercise in language comprehension but we followed almost everything, even the humour which, despite the play being of Shakespearean era, was brilliantly intact. The ending felt a little abrupt, but who am I to question the plot-workings of a genius? 

From here we went to The Wallace, a great Scottish pub (most pub-like 'pub' I've seen out of Britain!) towards Vieux Lyon. They serve fish and chips, and about a million different type of whiskey; I'll definitely be returning another time when I'm more hungry and in the mood for a drink!

In the morning the hostel needed us out by 10am so after a generous breakfast we headed back out into town. With nothing much else to do (the whole of France is like a ghost-town on Sundays) we went to see 'Django Unchained' in the original version - meaning subtitled, not dubbed (hallelujah!) - in Pathé Bellecour. It was admittedly a little early in the morning for all that violence, but it's a fantastic film: typically Tarantino, but not in a predictable way.

Afterwards we grabbed lunch in Quick (like a continental McDonalds - almost the only place open on Sundays) then headed to the Gadagne museum in Vieux Lyon, for me a revisit of their great Guignol collection. Finally, back to Bourg for a well-needed early night!

I can't remember if I've already shared this
puppet on this blog. But it's cute so I don't care.

Surfing in January?

Having always been told that the French for snowboarding is snowboarding, it would seem that all the cool kids (and fellow teachers, bemused shop assistants etc.) now use surf.

So for the first weekend of term I went surfing in the Alps. (Kind of.) Being friends with the assistants in the school across the road I managed to invite myself to their Amicale's ski weekend in Les Contamines Montjoie. The Amicale is basically an group in each school which organised social evenings and weekends for the teachers. For skiing this worked out brilliantly, as transport was in the form of car-share and the kind people who drove us wouldn't hear about petrol reimbursement. We got a huge group discount on ski-passes, accommodation and food, so the whole weekend cost under €50.

The weekend's activities included snowboarding, a picturesque sunny/snowy walk, drinking, night-time tobogganing and tonnes of cheese.

The next weekend all of the girls went on my school's equivalent of the same trip, in Les Plans d'Hotonnes. A teacher said they could lend me ski equipment in my size for free, so I decided to ski, for the first time in four years. After a shaky first button lift, it turned out - like everyone said - to be just like riding a bike.

Courtesy of my very talented (and pretty)  friends Andrea and Karolina

Much more fun than my thoroughly intermediate 'red-slope' skiing was teaching my friends some of whom had barely seen snow before, never mind snow-sports. All in all, plenty of laughter, falling over and recovery vin chaud gave us a second successful weekend. The only question is: when next?

L'Esprit de l'Escalier

avoir l'esprit de l'escalier: to think of a great response after the moment has passed.

This great expression doesn't really have a direct translation into English, but we all know too well the frustration of winning an argument in your mind after everyone's gone home. Somewhat ironically (or fittingly?), this happens to me a lot more in French than English, usually from taking a few seconds too long to understand or find a piece of vocabulary. Most embarrassing is when you're passing someone in the corridor: in the few seconds you have to exchange pleasantries I tend to come out with something a bit awkward, even in English:

But in French this all becomes ten times worse when you realise seconds too late that the person you just spoke to in fact said 'bonne année' (happy new year), rendering my hurried reply of 'oui, merci' (yes, thanks) entirely inappropriate and just a little odd. 

More frustrating are the moments when words as simple as Tuesday seem to have fled the mind, in favour of my inner idiot dancing around and shouting 'Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! It's Jeudi!' (which definitely means Thursday). I'm sure these things are part and parcel of starting back at school after two weeks in the UK, but I'm also sure they'll never entirely go away, which is possibly the most frustrating part of language learning.

Afterthought: Speaking of my two weeks in the UK, they were lovely (thank you for asking), and filled with mince pies, Terry's chocolate oranges, friends, family and all kinds of homely, Christmassy wonderfulness. That said, other than the usual 'back to work' blues, I'm not entirely put out at being back. Ever the optimist, I'm looking forward to the Winter term, which I'm sure you'll hear all about in due course.