Ca y est!

My week

Helped Jackie celebrated her 23rd birthday. Made birthday breakfast. Worked. Had people round for Jackie's birthday. Worked. Tutored. Worked. Cooked. Did 'Bagel Wednesday'. Worked. Drank with people from work. Went to a jazz concert. Shopped. Bought stuff. Procrastinated.

All packed up and ready for Eastern Europe! Hopefully I'll return with plenty of traveler's tales.

My guilty pleasure

The whole series is on YouTube, profitez-bien!

Goodbye world wide web, see you in 16 days...

Tchin Tchin

I’ve got it bad. That feeling that time is slipping away and there’s nothing I can do about it. Vive la nostalgie! It’s hard not to think about ‘the end’ now- as one assistant drunkenly said to me the other evening ‘It’s too sooooon!’ Only 8 weeks or so to go until I will leave Nancy with only a crappy Dunlop suitcase and great memories from a great seven months.

Friday night was hilarious. I was invited out for drinks with two of the teachers-Nathalie and Valérie from school. I often help Nathalie out with her SEGPA students- students so academically poor they have separate classes from the other students. They’re a handful, it’s not an easy job teaching them I've got to say. After helping in one of her lessons on Thursday, Nathalie invited me out for drinks on Friday night. We met up in Opéra, a nice little bar just behind Place Stan. Spent a couple of hours speaking lots of French (not that easy in a loud bar when you keep having to say ‘Pardon? J’ai pas entendu'.) Love how open the French are about their relationship history- I learnt that Valérie, originally from the South moved to Nancy for a man who later broke up with her. Also learned that Nathalie spent two weeks in Manchester when she was my age and was basically a massive slag. Love it.The most hilarious moment was perhaps the advice they gave me ‘Il faut manger local’ meaning ‘You must find a French hottie’. When in France, and all.

While we're on the subject of 'manger' i.e. food (when am I off this subject?), I went for lunch again this week at Anne’s house- an English lady who’s been living in France and Belgium for the last fifty years or so. Had soup, salmon (as my closest friends will know is the key to my heart) and chocolate mousse. Once again Bouba, her chihuahua was sat on my lap for the entirety of the afternoon. It’s been so nice to swap living abroad stories with Anne- we often talk about the differences between the French and the British. Two of the main ones we found;

· The French don’t let many people get close. In England, I’m used to talking to little old ladies at the bus stop about the weather or the news or some other topic that binds us together for a few minutes. Then we’re off. In France you don’t talk to anyone. You stay silent, don’t make eye contact with anyone and when the bus arrives it’s a free-for-all. Takes a while to get used to.

· The French are very reluctant to invite you into their homes. I get on well with lots of the teachers at school, but am yet to visit any of their homes, even my responsable who lives a mere 3 minute walk away from chez moi. It’s strange. Luckily I have a big group of assistant friends and French students to keep me occupied, but it would have been nice at the start to have been invited for a meal or an aperitif at someone’s house. It’s not easy, packing your life up and moving to a town in foreign country where you don’t know anyone. My first week here just felt surreal- nowhere near as tough as I was expecting but I just felt like I was living in a bubble, that everything I did was just a dream. I still feel like that sometimes- I have plenty of ‘Oh my god I can’t believe I live in France’ moments. When you are invited into someone’s home for a meal, like I have been with Anne it's great. The French spend hours eating a meal, discussing, debating- there’s always an aperitif and a cheese course between the plat principal and dessert. This is my kind of life! I just wish I saw it more often!

A week from now I will be in Krakow, Poland, knackered after having spent the night camping out in Charles de Gaulle airport. Niiiice! I can’t wait to explore a part of Europe whose language I cannot speak for once. Can’t wait to buy local food using different currency and, of course, Auschwitz. It'll be awful, but what else would it be? Moving on to Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Prague- it'll be knackering, but I’m sure we’ll have the time of our lives. Protitez-ing bien we are spending next Saturday in Paris, starting with the tourist trap that is the Café des 2 Moulins, Amélie style...

As Humphrey Bogart says in Casablanca, "We'll always have Paris". Mais oui.

Here's to the next 2 months.

Cheers!

Wish I'd Brought My Sunglasses...

Time is creeping up on me. Every weekend I want to explore and last weekend I did just that, armed with a mini army of Geordies to escort me. For those who don't know, 'a Geordie' is an affectionate term for anyone who hails from Newcastle upon Tyne, possibly the greatest place in the world and my university city incidentally (or not...). I digress.

Why do ticket inspectors never check tickets?

Dan, my Geordie friend (and fellow language assistant) and I met up at Nancy Gare at 12pm last Friday morning armed with Lidl cereal bars, crap home-made sandwiches and Orange KitKats. During the course of the weekend we travelled from Nancy- Colmar (2 ¼ hours), Colmar-Basel (40 mins), Basel-Strasbourg (1 ½ hours) without our ticket being checked. Bof!

Bit of geography for you.

Ticket was finally checked 3 minutes before arrival in Nancy (Strasbourg-Nancy 1 ½ hours) the following day.

Ahh the French and their 'I don't give a shit so it's not my problem' attitude continues...

Colmar

The Petite Venise area of Colmar

I admit it, before coming to Nancy I had never even heard of Colmar, a small city halfway between Strasbourg and Basel. However literally EVERYONE at school has been telling me to visit ever since I started in October. Unfortunately, had no time to visit during the Christmas markets, reputed to be some of the most beautiful in the world.

The February afternoon Dan and I spent in Colmar was B-E-A-utiful weather wise, bright sunshine, etc- luck was definitely on our side. It became apparent early on that everywhere in Colmar is beautiful, there's no shabby shite end- even around the station was pretty. If you've ever been to the Petite France area of Strasbourg, you'll know how beautiful it is. Colmar is like this partout. I wonder if the cute twee houses ever get on the inhabitants' nerves, whether they want a bit of grime and dirt à la Brussels.

Food was also a high point of our trip to Colmar. Had a Forêt noire- i.e. a black forest gateau. Heaven. And after meeting up with our assistant friend (and Geordie) Sian who is spending her year abroad in Issenheim, a tiny village close to Colmar, we headed out for pizza. It would have been nice to try some traditional food from Alsace- sauerkraut or something like that but pizza is always a winner.

Granted there is not a great deal to do in Colmar. Walking around 'oohing and aahing' at pretty buildings is the main attraction, although there are a couple of museums and a museum dedicated to Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi- the guy who designed the Statue of Liberty (of course, he was from Colmar). Maybe if the weather had been awful, I would have come away with a different impression. Yes I was lucky, but come rain or shine Colmar is a place not to be missed.

God I sound like I'm presenting 'Holiday' or something. Désolée.

Basel

After realising it would only cost another 10 Euros or so to get to Basel, we figured it made sense to kill two birds with one stone and visit Colmar/Basel in the same weekend.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Basel was to tick another country off the ever expanding list of ‘Places I have been to’. However I also wanted to play around with Swiss currency (dangerously akin to Monopoly money) and leave the ‘safety’ of the European Union for the first time in nearly 6 years. Not nearly as dangerous as it sounds, Switzerland is about as bad-ass as Tom Cruise. I didn’t quite know what to expect from Basel but was pleasantly surprised.

Went to the Botanical Gardens, attached to the University of Basel, the oldest university in Switzerland, had a 12CHF meal in McDonald’s (about 9 euros, Switzerland is EXPENSIVE), spent a LONG time in a beautiful chocolate shop and saw the (very red) Rathaus, or town hall for those who don’t speak German.

Basel is a city of trams. So much so that ‘death by tram’ is probably the greatest risk to your health. Nearly got mowed down by 3 of them- they’re almost as bad as the street cleaners inNewcastle (incidentally, just why are there so many in the toon?!). Thanks to the tourist office, we found out that Line 16 is the picturesque route, showing tourists all the sights, slowly weaving its way through upmarket neighbourhoods of Basel. Great fun!

After our kitsch little tram ride we headed towards the banks of the river Rhine, desperate to catch some rays. Seems like everyone else in Basel had the same idea- the banks of the river were packed, so much so that there was no room for us! After eventually finding a comfy place to perch, we proceeded to sunbathe for almost an hour. IN FEBRUARY. Extraordinary. Weather hit around 14 degrees Celsius, but felt warmer in the sun. Brilliant atmosphere anyway- lots of students, families, young professionals. Switzerland is effortlessly cool, no wonder Roger Federer bought a pig farm there with his winnings from his first Wimbledon title. Oink.

Just an average February afternoon on the banks of the Rhine

After a quick stop in H+M (we had to use up our Swiss Francs somewhere...) it was time to leave Basel. It had been a brilliant day and a great introduction to Switzerland. Hopefully I'll return soon, sunglasses in tow next time....

La danse continue.

My current obsessions

Rastamouse- quite possibly CBBC’s greatest invention. Tells the story of mice with Jamaican accents who sing and investigate crime. Any mention of the word cheese can and should be interpreted as 'weed'.

Antoine Dodson- can’t help myself. Type in 'Bed Intruder song' on Youtube and you shall see why.

Désolé by Sexion D’Assaut. Song by French rap group that has been in my head since working in Brittany last summer. Amezzin’

Munster cheese: cheap as chips in Lidl, another current obsession...

BBC weather. We have a love-hate relationship. I stop by often, only to find out rain has been predicted.

Waka waka. Can’t stop playing it. I own both versions. Ouch.

Life is chugging along quite nicely, I've got to say.

I’ll leave you with this- did a ‘Holiday’ themed lesson with my 3èmes (15 year olds) yesterday. One of their tasks was to write a postcard using verbs in the past tense.

Here’s what one of my students wrote….

For those who can't read it: I went to Jamaica, I smoked The weed with Snoop Dogg, a star American. With Snoop, I bought a gun for the gang. I met 2pac and I visited his house. I went in America and seed The Game and 50 Cent and we drank.

The future’s bright…

Quoi de neuf?

For the first time in a while the answer to that question is pas beaucoup. After spending the last two weekends in Nancy, the thumbs are starting to twiddle I’ve got to say. Last weekend I was a little (shock, horror) BORED! Vrai dat, vrai dat.

As Billy Ocean once said ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’. I didn't exactly 'get going', but I did get off my backside and profité-moi-d bien from Nancy’s coffee shops and bars.

France is famous for its café culture, yes. But this culture is based on brasseries, not little cosy cafés where you can buy a cuppa and a scone and read The Guardian (oh, England). Brasseries were first set up in this part of France due to the sheer abundance of breweries (and proximity to Belgium-potential beer capital of the world). So brassed off (I do amuse myself sometimes) with brasseries, it was time for a change....

It was bloody brilliant to discover Kensington Coffee, a Canadian coffee shop that sells BAGELS. With smoked salmon and Philadelphia cream cheese! And proper cookies and muffins! Spent an hour or two in there last week with some other assistants, whiling away the time (my weekend did commence last Wednesday after all). The owner of the café (who would fit in well in a low budget, indie movie) told us he lived in Toronto for a few years and found that coffee shops like the ones in Canada (and every other English speaking part of the world) didn’t exist in France, particularly the industrial North-East. Et voilà! He opened Kensington Coffee!

This week I visited Kensington Coffee, le Phenix (standard Irish bar affair) twice, a café on the corner of Place Stan which does an afternoon deal of dessert and a drink for 5 euros (winner) and an Italian restaurant for an assistant’s birthday in which 3 hours of our evening was spent. 3 hours for a main course and dessert. Car-azy! Still, what else would I be doing??

Saw the new French blockbuster Rien à Déclarer at the cinema last week- about a French guy and a Belgian guy who are forced to work together policing the Franco-Belgian border. A bit slapstick, but highly entertaining. However made Belgians out to be complete nutters/ a bit racist towards the French. Also saw The King’s Speech, the British film that’s up for all the Oscars, which was amezzin’ (plus got to see it in original version thanks to the Cameo cinema just down the road, woop!).

The Rien à Déclarer trailer, for all you French cinéphiles.

Won’t be twiddling my thumbs this weekend as I am off to Colmar, which (if I’m led to believe) is one of the prettiest towns in France. Meeting up with a fellow assistant and going to Basel on Saturday too. Expect photos.

Another country to tick off the list. Tis a hard life.