Snow Days

I never work on a Tuesday, it's my day off (yep, it's super annoying not having it on a Monday or Friday so that I can have a long weekend...) so I wasn't going to trek up to Sophia Antipolis today. But once again, my brilliant luck means that today was a snow day down here and everyone got the day off school! Of course it couldn't have happened tomorrow when I have to go in.... I'm still hoping the snow warnings continue.
There's just one thing that's slightly weird about having a snow day today.

This is the view outside my front door, can you see any snow?! The buses aren't running because there is a snow risk, therefore school is closed. Not a single snowflake has fallen from the sky today - just bucketfuls of rain. 

I love French logic. 

Je vous souhaite une bonne année 2012

You know that feeling when you return from somewhere and it feels like you've never been away? That's happened to me twice in a month.
The first being - returning back to England before Christmas for a couple of weeks, and the second being a mere 3 days ago, returning back to France after said 'séjour' to England.
(I have also had the complete opposite of this feeling when thinking about blogging. It feels like I haven't been here in ages - oh wait I haven't.)
Going back to England was great, and in some respects it felt like I was never away, (even though i'd been away for about 3 months) however in others it was really weird. Hearing English being spoken everywhere was especially strange, and I of course, took full advantage of Topshop. Having Topshop would make France amazing. Oh and Marks and Spencer Food Hall. And Nandos. And Primark...this could go on a while. Needless to say I definitely enjoyed my home comforts, just a shame that most of them seem to include shopping or food...weird.
When I got home, I was surprised to find that i'd kind of forgotten about Christmas. I know that I was going home for that precise reason, but I was counting down to when I was going home, not for actual Christmas day. So after this revelation I had to dash over to Bournemouth to do all Christmas shopping in a day. Was successful and a much easier way to shop for Christmas so therefore I recommend forgetting about it until a week before.
And then the flight back to France came, and I found myself with considerably more luggage than I had when I left. Hmmm, not sure how that happened. After the comfort and amazing-ness of Terminal 5 at Heathrow, a few short hours later I found myself dragging two suitcases and a handbag through the arrivals gate of Nice Cote d'Azur airport, onto a bus and through the drizzling streets of Antibes. Looked more mental and deranged than most tramps by the time I got to my front gate but none the less I was home. Pretty much everything is the same here since I left, as they still (as i'm writing this on the 5th January) have Christmas lights and decorations up. Why?!
One thing that has changed is that everyone goes out of their way to wish you 'Bonne Année' - normal at the beginning of January, I hear you cry. True. What is not normal are the massive signs throughout the town saying that the mayor of Antibes et Juan Les Pins (insert appropriate French town) wishes you a good 2012. I've been told that people will still say 'Bonne Année' to you in February or later, if they haven't seen you yet this year. I'm hoping this happens and will be sure to report if I get any later than the end of the week.

Not sure who Michel Platini is, or why he and the Renault 12 wishes you a good 2012. 

An English girl celebrating Thanksgiving in France

Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans! I obviously forgot about it and didn't even think until lunchtime when I walked into the staff room and was greeted by this beautiful thanksgiving feast! It was also very useful because I forgot my lunch today!
And this being France of course wine and champagne was on the menu. Felt a bit strange drinking before taking a class but some of the teachers were taking full advantage of it so I didn't feel guilty having one glass!

Most of the English teachers here in either the French, English or International section are American so they organised this feast! It was obviously a cold meal so none of the turkey etc... (which I only know about because of "friends" thanksgiving episodes - I may have been laughed at when I said this.) But I tried pumpkin pie (actually quite nice) and this amazing cake thing - looking to all Americans to tell me what it was, it was like a carrot cake with walnuts and things in it with icing? Sooo good.
Of course this is France so bread olives and chorizo was also available, I'm not sure I've ever been to a meal without these things being there.

Putting on lunches for all the staff seems to be a regular occurrence here, it's so nice. We've already had a Spanish meal and then the science department put one on as well but we ate just normal food. No Heston Blumenthal experimental food like I wanted. Shame. What would we provide as an English department? Fish and chips? Sausage and mash or a full roast dinner? I hope all of them (with lots of cheddar cheese thrown on top.)

The general moanings, groanings and annoyances of an English Language Assistant.

I'm currently sat at home trying to plan my next lessons, and I cannot for the life of me think of anything exciting to do. I think it's because I was at school not that long ago that I easily remember the boredom and exasperation of doing another lesson which seemed to be the same as the last.

Me and the class...

What I really want to do is to work with video clips of films/songs etc... because most films over here are just English or American ones which have been dubbed into French. A good source of language and culture, yes?! However I can't do this because I seem to work in a school off of the olden days. There are no projectors or computers in class. Most of my classrooms still have chalk boards, which is rubbish because my writing resembles many little squished spiders when using chalk so I then spend most of the class re-writing and spelling out words for the kids. Even more ridiculous today was that I was using a classroom which DIDN'T EVEN HAVE ENOUGH CHAIRS. And this class was made up of only 6 students. Utterly ridic.
So, as a result of a lack of technology or resources I've been getting them all to do presentations on some film posters which I have printed off (in black and white obviously, a colour printer would be much too modern!). And actually, it seems to have gone really well and you can easily adapt it for most age groups. The only problem now is how blooming bored I am with those posters. The sentence "This poster is advertising the film Titanic which is a film about a sink - sunking - sinking - sunked boat. I know this because there is a big boat on the poster" will now send me into a mental breakdown.
If anyone can think of some wonderful things for me to do, ideas on a postcard please. I'm wondering how early I can start with the Christmas lessons, I know where I am with Christmas. I'm looking forward to teaching the word "tinsel" 12 times a week.

November - the month of the visitors

This month has been a month of visitors.
Number one was my mum, who came at the end of October (woooah I haven't blogged in a long time, and yes I realise she wasn't here in November thus making the title of this post pointless but I don't care. Sssh.) She bought with her some awful weather but also some treats like magazines and sugar-free jelly. For people that you know me, you'll know that these two things are vital in my life. She visited during the first week of Toussaint, which is like half-term. After working for a grand total of three weeks I got to take a week and a half long holiday. Twas wonderful.  I took her to visit Nice, a city which I have mixed feelings about. Feelings that I may explore through the medium of blogs another time... But as well as Nice we wandered around Antibes, even though she has been here before so I felt I wasn't really imparting my new-found wisdom. But was lovely to see her. (If I hadn't of said that I will get a very annoyed text in about 2 minutes time...)
Mum's visit also taught me about something VERY important. The scandal of the bus to the airport. "Lignes d'Azur" obvs think that all tourists are stupid and make them believe the only bus to the airport is one that costs €8 each way (ALL journeys around here cost €1) so I decided to research and found another bus which uses the exact same stop for €1. I feel I've beaten the system. HURRAH!
This was a discovery necessary for the arrival of Emily Copley. (Visitor number two) Em was here for almost a week and so felt like I had a room mate for a while. A room mate who tidies up after me, it's wonderful! I took her to Cannes (I much prefer Cannes to Nice on the scale i'm apparently making) and we went just before the G20 summit which was held there so the police presence was ridiculous! I also managed to take one of my favorite ever photos, one which i've been wanting to take for a while if you look here. 

We've also found that if you play this song at the same time as looking at the photo it's a sure way to cheer anyone up. Especially me, I start crying every time. Emily's visit also included a Halloween party (dressed as a Red Indian Chief and a belly dancer of course) me falling over and me going off to work in the mornings leaving Emily in bed like a housewife.
Getting her back to the airport on the Saturday was the MOST STRESSFUL MORNING EVER. The weather had been so terrible here that there were awful floods and floods mean closed roads and lots of traffic. It also meant a lot of running in between terminals and we finally arrived at the right place 7 minutes before her gate closed, barely time for a goodbye! Horrible horrible. This gives you an idea of what it was like!
And finally we get to surprise guest number three! Samantha "Wendy" Wynn. An impromptu visit, which experimented with the french covoiturage (car-sharing) scheme. Sam was neither murdered nor kidnapped during the journey from Lyon to Antibes therefore it was found to be a successful and viable travel option. I took her to Cannes once again and got another amazing photograph. If you enjoyed Emily in Pirates of the Caribbean, please welcome Sam in Star Wars!

Music provided here. Enjoy :) Other things that we got up to included drinking cocktails in Monaco and taking part in an accidental club lock-in.
Overall I've had a very exciting and populated month here in Antibes, and am now slightly sad to think that I have no more visitors coming! However, now on the countdown to Christmas and i'll be seeing you in 4 1/2 weeks England!!! Don't worry, i'm perfectly happy here, i'm just excited to be going home for a fortnight!

p.s. Sorry if you don't find the photo/theme song mixes funny. I think they're hilarious. xxx

The new man in my life

I want to talk about my favorite place in Antibes. Friends on Facebook will have already seen pictures which I have posted but I have since found out more about it.
If you continue through the Old Town and past the wall you come Port Vauban, and the Bastion Saint-Jaume and here is where you will find "Nomade."

He was built (I have to say he, I don't want to say it!) a few years ago by a Spanish artist called Jaume Plensa. This information is obviously all taken from another website, I don't, or didn't I guess, know a lot about him.
I went up when I first got here and took these photos but last night I went there in the dark where he was lit up. Unfortunately the photos didn't come out well at all, and also you can't walk on the wall at night like you can in the day it seems.
As you can see it's a giant sculpture of a man, all made out of letters. (Not lettuce as someone misheard me the other day...) From the sea you can see him folding his legs up in front of his chest, but that isn't really visible from the land.You can also walk inside which is pretty strange, especially when you look up into his head! The fact that you can see up into his head which is made up of letters makes you wonder what he is thinking... I can't imagine what he looks like from the sea, it must be a completely different view.
I can't say for sure why I like this place so much, but I can say that any visitors I get will be dragged to see him as soon as they step off the plane.

For anyone interested this is a good video with the artist, however for any non-Frenchies, it is all in French. But, watch it anyway, you never know!

So whilst visiting "Nomade" last night I got to walk down "Quai des milliardaires" which is one of the most ridiculous places I've ever seen. It's where the yachts that won't fit in the normal port are docked, and I thought the other ones were big! These boats made them look like dinghies. I went to see the super-yachts. The biggest one there was Dilbar at 110 meters, and I couldn't comprehend how huge it was! Reassuring to know, then, that it is only the 23rd biggest in the world. Roman Abramovich owns the biggest at 164 meters. Read an article about it and how he had trouble parking his understated yacht in Antibes here.
Also, (sorry majorly long post - catching up!) my friend Jessica has written a great post on her blog here, about French politeness (also includes a clip from Beauty and the Beast which is maybe why I like it so much). I just wish I'd written it!

Wow, so long post, full of links and pictures and videos. Maybe this will stop Mum texting me to tell me "it's nearly time for another blog!"

La Fée Verte

Last night I visited Antibes very own Absinthe bar. I wish I had my own photos of it to post but I stupidly forgot my camera so I've stolen one of off the internet. I know that my Emily, Kathryn and Sam would actual love this place, so we are going when you come to visit!

The place is tiny, what you see in that photo is pretty much it. (I was told that even the toilet is only separated by a curtain - I was definitely not going to use it!) You seem to have to wear a hat in there, and I ended up swapping hats a few times, but eventually chose one of those ones with viking horns on it, i'm pretty sure it was a good look.
So we got there late, and it was in full swing. I've never had absinthe before, and got showed how to drink it 'properly' using the sugar, the spoon and the weird tap thing. We chose one purely on the name, and tried a white absinthe with a name something to do with fairies. Definitely wasn't my favorite drink but the atmosphere made up for it! There was a man playing requests on a piano, if only we knew the words to sing. It was a great experience and one which I will be visiting again in my time here. (I also read on the menu that they are only allowed to serve you a maximum of three drinks, it's that potent!)
Ooh, also, i'm currently writing from my new studio apartment in Antibes. Yaaay, i've moved!