Update

Super vite update!

So I am not very good at keeping a blog, that much has been established. Been here for two months now! Time has flown in, but at the same time feels like aaages ago that I first arrived with my parents and a massive amount of stress about finding a house and having to teach for the first time. Now I have an appartment with great flatmates (including our newest edition) and standing up in front of the class is no longer a big worry- lessons can even be a lot of fun! Nevertheless, there will always be challenges, like today when I was dropped off a little late for the bus home and missed it, meaning I had to wait two hours standing in a dark cold street in the middle of nowhere for the next bus- after the first hour I was contemplating hitchiking, but really I would never do that unless the only other option was to lie down and sleep in the street! So basically it's not been an easy day. In fact the kids at school today were great, and I'm really impressed by my CM2 in particular- I'm excited that I'm starting to get them to speak an actual sentence as opposed to just a word. Hurrah! Also looking forward to starting Christmas lessons. Only 3 weeks of school left so I might start Christmas next week!

Besides school, I've been really busy. Yesterday I went on a walk with some other assistants to Orgon, and walked 13km which I think is pretty impressive, although somewhat painful in my flimsy trainers. Parents are sending me walking boots and a rucksack in Chris's case for when he comes on Saturday, so next time there's a walk I'll be prepared. Then last night went with Stefanie, Claire and Claire's friend Coralie to see "micmacs à tire-larigot", a film by the same director who did Amelie Poulain, and it was really good. Didn't understand a lot of the speech but the gestures and actions in the film meant that mostly I got the plot.

I've also done some travelling- last weekend I was in Nice visiting my aunt and family. Had a really nice time- we also went to the movies- saw the Petit Nicholas, a really cute and funny film, and that time I did understand most of what was said as it was spoken by primary school children. We also went to an archaeological roman ruin site and the Chagal museum (I got in free- being under 25 and showing ID in France can do wonders in museums, works at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris too), and had a nice pub dinner. Look forward to visiting again at some point next year!

Thursday night before I went to Nice we had a wee soiree at the flat, using my bedroom as the salon since the kitchen really isn't big enough. It was a really nice relaxed calm night, with good food (none of it made by me- my contribution to the evening was to tidy my room!) and good company.

There's been quite a lot of other dinners and parties at people's houses, and it makes me really glad to be in Avignon where there's so many lovely people. There's another one tomorrow night, and then on Saturday Chris will be here :D! Can't wait to show him my little town (compared to Glasgow, Avignon is not exactly a city) it's the first time he'll have been here. Hopefully I'll remember to keep this updated and write up how everything went after the weekend!