Striking, protests and good food. How very French.

More protests than hot dinners

When it comes to protesting, the French win every time, hands down. This week marks the billionth (or what feels like the billionth) national strike. 1 in 4 petrol stations have run dry, protesters have blocked all of France's twelve oil refineries, schools have been closed, shops looted (Lyon) and the public transport system is temperamental at best. All because Monsieur Sarko has decided to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 and the full state pension age from 65 to 67. Probème?

Actually, oui. According to my teacher, it's not so much the proposals that are making protesters chant like angry French people who haven't had a cigarette for an hour but Sarkozy's unwillingness to negociate/ discuss the matter. 'Il est trop autoritaire' said someone in the staff room today. 'And history has proved that the French don't get on with authoritative figures. Look what happened to Louis XVI'. Well said.

Aaaaah, the Revolution. I was wondering how long it would take before someone mentioned the French Revolution (23 days, if I'm correct). Can't get away from it. The vast majority of teachers in my school haven't been striking, although one of the P.E. teachers who did strike yesterday chose fishing over protesting. When asked if he travelled far to fish, he replied 'Non- pas d'essence' (no petrol). Ha.

So on a selfish note, I hope these strikes calm down soon (the rents are visiting next week and I'm going to Paris in a week and a half). The novelty of seeing daily protests has now officially worn off, I would like you all to shut up now and accept that Sarkozy is an idiot. That's what we do in Britain.

Food, glorious food

When it comes to food, the French win every time, hands down. On Sunday night, Jackie and I went to a soirée where we had raclette. Basically, everyone has a petit dish which you fill with cheese and put under a grill thing. When the cheese has melted, you pour it over potatoes, meat, vegetables, tomatoes, etc so everything is all mushed up and covered in cheese then eat! Was a proper French experience- very sociable meal and très bon.

Raclette

The food is also très bon at school- all the teachers eat together at lunchtime and it's always a three course meal with bread! It's no wonder there are so few fat French people- the cantine food is fresh- lots of salad and fish/chicken with vegetables. It's so sociable as well. Jamie Oliver would be well impressed. No need to come to France Jamie, they were well ahead of you...

Jackie and I went to Metz for the day on Saturday which (despite the rain) was a good'un. After a couple of hours in the brand new Pompidou Centre, we headed into a lil' café for a tarte de Lorraine and cider. Could get used to this. Also went to the cathedral, the FRAC (modern art gallery) and saw a LOT of protesters. It was like a war zone- flares and lots of angry chanting.

Lessons learned this week: the French protest even more than I had previously thought, Brian will be in the kitchen for the foreseeable future (the teachers even brought it up over lunch yesterday).

Le travail éloigne de nous trois grands maux: l'ennui, le vice et le besoin

Two weeks in France and I'm already quoting Voltaire. Boooooooom! It means 'work delivers us from three evils: boredom, vice and want'. Apparently. Last week, I started work.

My college is like Waterloo Road, only worse. One of the teachers told me the other day that if a student gets expelled, no other school will take them. And a child is only expelled if he/she poses a 'dangerous risk' to fellow pupils and staff. Gulp. Over 80% of the students have unemployed parents and many don't even speak French that well, given that so many of them don't even come from France. Teaching them English should be a hoot then! One of the students has a dog called Sniper for heaven's sake!! I'm glad I haven't seen bad-ass French film The Class, as I fear it would have scared me off this 'assistant business' for good...

Despite all this, I remain (assez) optimistic about le travail. All of the staff are lovely and they always make an effort to talk to me in the staff room at breaktime. I get my own set of keys, photocopying card and a pigeon hole!! I have arrived, clearly. Now all I have to do is plan lessons, as I'm going to be teaching these bad-ass kids for 12 hours per week...

The last week has wholeheartedly reinforced the whole 'Brian is in the kitchen' thing (see previous blog). Bloody Brian is everywhere!! And not just in the kitchen. Today in class 'Brian' was waiting for the bus and last week he was at home doing his homework (pimping himself out, clearly). He's the Myleene Klass of foreign language learning, always popping up here and there-whether you want him to or not!

The French are on strike today. Encore une fois! Is there anything they don’t strike about?? I’ve heard the word solidarité so often these last few weeks I feel like the bloody word will haunt me in my sleep. When a student was asked to take his pencil case out of his bag today, he facetiously replied ''I can’t- I’m on strike''. I had to laugh...

It's not all work though. There's been plenty of time for fun and games. Had a LOT of fun last Thursday at a French house party. Through Couchsurfing, Jackie (my flatmate) and I got in touch with a group of law students at Université de Nancy 2 so we went to one of their parties! The host had made sushi for everyone which was amazing and we played French Ring of Fire 'Gros Poulet' before dancing to a lot of Phoenix and Daft Punk. Woo! French friends! We're going out with them all this Thursday night which should be good- plus I don't have to get up on Friday for work! (Had to wake up at half seven last Friday after getting home at half three-just horrible!).

Seen the other assistants quite a bit too- we all went out on Sunday for lunch and then went to the free jazz festival in the park where we saw lots of French rap, which was an experience (if you know me at all, you will know I have a strange fascination with French rap. I will say no more). Went out with an American assistant on Saturday night who was here last year as well (and he lives in my foyer) so he knows all the good bars! One drink quickly turned into four (quelle surprise), but found some pretty cool hangouts!

Tonight, I'm going to meet some engineering students randomly! I replied to an advert in the American library asking for weekly English-French conversation and some students from the Ecole des Mines have invited me to their petite soirée! We're making crepes apparently. Mmmmm.

I'll finish there- places to go, people to see, etc. I'll leave you with this. There was a fight at school yesterday between two students: the kids have been learning all about violence this week in their English classes. Somewhat ironic, I feel. Definitely puts a new spin on 'active learning' anyway!

Un peu d'humour

Saw a French homeless guy (a.k.a. un SDF) the other day asking for money. The cardboard sign on his back read Pour la drogue et les putes- for 'drugs and whores'. Nice touch.

Not my photo, by the way- that would have been just too cruel.

Where is Brian? Brian is in the kitchen!

In case you were wondering, the title of this post refers to a sketch by Gad Elmaleh (the guy in Priceless, with Audrey Tatou) about learning English in France. Apparently, the same names appear in all the English text books- Brian, Sophie et al, so if you admit to being a native English speaker, it is likely a French person will at some point ask you where Brian 'eez'. Just for your reference!

My first week in the industrial east of France has come to an end and what a week it's been! Can honestly say it has been much more enjoyable than expected. I thought the first week would be a constant stream of paperwork, angst and early nights with only a DVD for company, but luckily Nancy is FULL of language assistants (namely English speaking). In true Brits abroad fashion, we have been frequenting Nancy's Irish bar (La Taverne de L'Irlandais) for the typically French 'demi-pêche'- Stella and peach sirop. Sounds bizarre but it's good stuff!

So the first few days here were taken up by constant shopping (and not the fun kind of shopping). Our poorly equipped kitchen was in need of some essentials so Dan (another English assistant from the best university in the world) and I visited 'Tatti' a few times for cutlery, mugs and pans. The name says it all really- it's a bit like Wilko's but even more, well, tatty! Ha. We did find time to visit the Irish bar and go for a pizza so it wasn't all grim...

BNP MEMBER ALERT!

Yes, today I have joined the BNP. Luckily this has nothing to do with the British BNP (the racist British National Party for all those who don't know), but I opened a bank account with the BNP Paribas! Amazingly I managed to sort out all the bank stuff without any difficulty- I was in there a good half-hour and opened a student account which is freeeeee!! Apparently you have to pay around 3 euros/month with most other French banks, so I wasn't having any of that! It even has internet banking which I'm sure will prove interesting trying to figure out. The lady who opened the account for me was lovely though, as was the lady who sorted me out with a French sim card and phone number, so don't believe all the French stereotypes! So after opening my bank account toute seule earlier, I headed straight for the boulangerie near the flat for a celebratory raspberry tarte. Well deserved (I think).

Les Soirs

Evenings have been pretty busy so far, namely because it takes about 20 minutes to boil a pan of water in our kitchen! My travel kettle has been an absolute life saver (cheers nan and grandad)! Jackie (my American flatmate) and I have been 'creative cooking' with our hob- chicken risotto and home-made ratatouille being the favourites. After going to a French pre-lash on Thursday night (but not going out afterwards), I finally experienced Nancy by night on Friday. And Saturday. Naturally, the Irish pub featured on both occasions. On Friday, we moved on to Les Artistes, a studenty cocktail bar which I feel is going to become another one of our haunts. I opted for a lager-cocktail, merely because I was intrigued. Turned out to be a good choice! Anyway it was a really lovely evening with all the other English assistants (shame we weren't speaking French though- next time perhaps?!). The evening ended with a 'lovely' photo of myself in front of Lyon's team bus, eyes bright with excitement. It's a shame Nancy lost 3-2 to them the following day...

A perfect Sunday

My first Sunday in Nancy was a beautiful day, not a cloud in sight. Walked down to Place Stanislas- the main square in Nancy (a World Heritage sight, no less) and it is just incredible! So many people, but the architecture is amazing. Needless to say, a LOT of photos were taken. After eating a heart-attack tarte-fromage in a bag, we headed for the park which has a ZOO! Was probably a bit over-excited about that, in retrospect. Nevertheless, we saw monkies, goats and even an albino peacock! You don't get that in Sleazes Park!

Needless to say, this perfect day ended with a trip to La Taverne de L'Irlandais. A pattern is emerging...

Baguettes, bars and blogging.

Bonjour à tous! Thought I'd better get round to writing something down about the year abroad, given that this will supposedly be the best year of my life, but where to start? I arrived in la belle France on Monday evening, laden with enough white t-shirts to last me a lifetime, not to mention a ridiculous amount of sandwiches. The journey was surprisingly hassle-free, apart from ten minutes of hell in Paris when I had to change stations...Arrived in Nancy just before 10pm and was met by the teacher, Sandrine who will be taking me under her wing this year. She seems v. nice, and made sure I got into my accomodation ok which was helpful.

The foyer where I am spending the next seven months of la vie is fairly basic, but I'm sure I'll get by. Bedroom is pretty huuuge, although they don't turn the heating on until November 1st apparently and it can get proper freezing at night already. Kitchen leaves a LOT to be desired- it's clean and quite modern but literally all we have is a fridge and a hob. Pas de oven, pas de freezer, pas de microwave. I'm gonna have to get creative with cooking- Come Dine With Me with only one saucepan anyone??

Lessons I have learnt thus far about the French:

• They are admin crazy, want photocopies of every little thing
• If it's not their job to do something, they probably won't go out of their way to help you (as I have found in the admin office in my 'foyer')
• French people really do carry a lot of baguettes around
• French people love Irish bars. Excellent news.

I was meant to be starting at my collège this morning, but received a text from my 'responsable' earlier on telling me not to come in because they've had a big meeting this morning (or something to that effect). Don't know if I'm supposed to be going in this afternoon or not- who knows? I'll make like the French and just give a shrug of indifference...