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!

You Know You're In France When...

- 11/12 year old kids at the school double air kiss each other.
- The school cantine serves Moules Frites.
- The local tramp doesn't just have a dog as a companion but also a cat. (It sits there on a mat cuddled up next to the dog. So cute.)
- Said tramp is actually a fraud as I've seen at least 3 different people with the same dog and cat combo.
- You can have a beer with your Big Mac at McDonalds instead of Coke/Sprite/Fanta. (Someone even told me they could have beer in their school cantine.)
- It's hard to find a section of your body which hasn't got a mosquito bite on it. I seem to be irresistible to them.
- The staff room has a smoking area.
- Your daily bus stop looks this beautiful -

Hello, my name is Rose and I will be your English assistant this year.

I haven't blogged since Saturday now and there has been a reason. If truth be told, I've had a difficult and tearful week and definitely didn't want anyone who reads this to think i'm really depressed and not having a good time! (Especially my stalking aunties who I know will read this within 10 minutes of it being published!) So I thought saying nothing was best.
I was majorly stressed about having no where to live here! And because i'm a girl this snowballed into me feeling rubbish about being here, however I have got over this and am fine now, and excited to start forming a life. I have a little studio apartment lined up and hope to move in next week. I can't tell you how relieved and excited I am! Will this little orange boarding room always have a special place in my heart? Maybe, but it's not special enough to make me want to stay here for the year!
Now I've explained I can say what else I've been doing (besides being stressed).
Well, this week I've been to Nice for my welcome and training days. I can't really say i've explored Nice yet though, as I've pretty much been confined to the Rectorat and another Lycée that we used. They tried to teach us how to teach others in new and interesting ways. What they said was neither new or interesting and I had flashbacks of sitting in a Burgate School classroom in a sweltering jumper and feeling as bored as I did then. So I need to think up new and interesting ways to entertain and teach the students. Ideas on a postcard please...
I started actual work yesterday and got thrown in at the deep end by having to take 8 into a different classroom and make them talk. No preparation, no warning just GO! It was probably just as awkward for them as it was for me so I hope they don't think i'm too uncool. We ended up talking about 'Desperate Housewives' for most of the time though, which is soooo popular out here! I swear the hype around it has died down majorly in the UK, but the magazines still have it on the cover and there are posters advertising it. Weird.
Must go or i'll be late for work. Definitely not appropriate on my second day.

Language and Light-sabers

I'm so surprised at how much my level of French has improved after only 5 days. I'm so pleased with myself! I'm not sure if it is just that I have more confidence or that I have actually improved.

Before coming, the idea of having a phone call in French would send me into a fretting, worrying, blubbering  mess about what I should say/how I should say it. But I've kind of realized that it doesn't have to be perfect at the moment. It's the same thing when listening to others, as long as you get the idea and understand most of it, the little words in the middle don't count! 

I've even started to speak to myself in French. Yes, I speak to myself.

One of the things I've found really frustrating is when French people speak to me in English. I know I have an accent!! I'm trying to learn the language and you're really not helping if you reply to me in worse English than my French! (Rant over.) Also not sure why I kept saying you in that sentence, the shop keeper/waiter/random person is probably not reading this...

Anyhoo, today I went to Cannes and spent the afternoon on the beach with a few other assistants. The weather here is much the same as what it is (amazingly!) like in the UK. It was nice to see Cannes, as I've never been (except for the forest-fire night many years ago! - It's another story for another day.) There is this massive cinema thing which is usually at the center of the Cannes Film Festival and they have those cutouts of famous people with holes to put your head in there! Jack Sparrow, Charlies Angels and Star Wars. However, I don't have a photo of it as I thought the people I've only just met might think i'm a bit strange...

So, this is the slightly more boring photo of me in the harbour of Antibes. Would have preferred this photo if my body was that of Yoda/Jack Sparrow and I was carrying a light-saber/sword... 

Je suis arrivée!!

So, got to Antibes on Tuesday and it is now Thursday evening. The first 2 days or so have been busy and full of mixed emotions. Therefore blogging has not been top on my list of priorities.
My dad came out with me for the first few days to help me which was good (especially as our hire car turned out the be the coolest Fiat 500 ever. Soft top and everything.) But thanks for coming Dad :-)
Me being me, a complete wimp, I've been tearful for most of the two days I've been here.My last post said I was excited and I kind of am but as soon as it hit me I was actually going to move to a country where I had to speak (pretty poor) French and where I know no one the excitement shimmied away. I majorly need a dose of man up right now.
So, what have I done? I have so far -
- Found the school i'm working in. It's not in Antibes but a town called Sophia Antipolis. It is the weirdest place ever. It's a relatively new town which was made especially to be a business district. The result of this seems to be a mix between Centre-Parcs (off of holidays when I was little) and RHUL campus. It freaked me out when we first got here, but i'm kind of used to it already.
- Met my 'responsable'. This is the person who is supposed to look after me a bit at the school. He seems nice and has given me my timetable and some very exciting books. I have a 'cahier de textes du professeur' where i'm supposed to write down things we do in class and to keep work i've collected from the students, a 'carnet d'appel par professeur' which is basically a register (exciting!). And a 'cahier de textes pour groupe' but i'm really not sure what i'm supposed to do with that one. Maybe I should find out.
- Temporarily move to Lycée accommodation. All I can say is my room is off of the 1970s and it's very orange. Feels like living in halls again, but more ... orange.
- Bought a French mobile. After much confusion I have a french number and the most amazing phone off of the early 2000s, which cost 24euro with 5euro credit on it. I thought that i'd be able to use my iPhone, mais non. I kind of feel like my arm has been chopped off without it, does France not understand that?!
- Organised viewing a flat. But this didn't go well because the flat didn't have a doorbell. How am I supposed to tell someone I'm here if there's no doorbell!? I decided not to go for that one...
- Got stopped in Carrefour on suspicion of shoplifting. This was whilst Dad was still with me, and he was carrying a back pack and the checkout woman wanted to see inside and then security came over. Unfortunately he had in there a pack of biscuits and a pack of croissants. The croissants were from a different shop, but the biscuits were from Carrefour - we just bought them the day before. Of course we didn't have the receipt so I learnt a valuable lesson not to wear a back pack and especially not in Carrefour. We got away with it and I don't think the police are tracking me...
- Opened a bank account. I think. Not entirely sure what i'll end up with or what I've signed up for but I guess we'll see. I don't understand banks in the UK, let alone in France!
- Took a bus. 1Euro a journey, bargain! Much cleaner/tidier/nicer than Wilts and Dorset buses (French bus drivers will answer your question about which stop you want!), even though every time the bus turns a corner you either fall over or fall out of your seat. The french are really bad drivers.
- Met people! I met two other assistants today in Antibes, and I was really glad to meet them and see that I hopefully won't be lonely for the whole time i'm here.
And finally I got over my not sleeping/not eating period caused by anxiety. So therefore, I must go finish my ridiculously massive apple (seriously it's like a melon) and then sleep. Night :-)

First Post Nerves

So, I'm moving to France in 22 days. That's 528 hours. That's 'I can't even work out how many' minutes. Despite the past year being about sorting out finances and placements and filling out countless forms I'm excited about going. (I say that now. Come back to me in 500 hours time. Things may be a little different.)
I thought I would try to start a blog to describe my life when I move, thinking that people will ask 'Rose, how's life in France?' and I'll say 'Well, just take a look at my blog whydontcha?' Of course, this may not happen. And I could be writing (as I am now) to no one. Posting onto the Internet for no one to see... The hardest part of this setting up a blog business was thinking up a hilarious name which was both thought provoking and ironic. As you can see, this didn't happen. Instead I called this blog 'Je ne comprends pas,' which I imagine will be a phrase I will be using a lot over the coming year. Unfortunately. I imagine some hilarity could emerge from my wonderful use of Franglais and of course it'll be published onto this blog for everyone to laugh at me. That's another thing - I've never had a blog before and I have two reasons why not. Firstly, I've never had anything to write about before. (I wanted to start one about which clothes I want to buy but can't afford. I was told that was a stupid idea) and secondly, I really don't want to sound pretentious. So I can't promise how well this is going to go. I feel like I might give up on it after approximately 3 posts. Much like a New Years Resolution to start writing a diary every night when you were a kid (I never got past January.)
I imagine everyone reading this I know, and know me. But I have this romantic idea that one day someone from a far corner of the earth will stubble unwillingly along this blog and become so enthralled by the content that they'll want to read every single post. So I'll introduce myself. My name is Rose. I'm 20 years old and currently living in Fordingbridge, UK. It's a teeny place no one's ever heard of so I'll say I'm from Salisbury (which no ones ever heard of either) so maybe I'll then move onto Bournemouth (sometimes that's known.) I go to University in another teeny place called Egham at Royal Holloway. I seem to like living places where no one knows so I say London. Then they say 'oh, where abouts? I've got a friend in Tottenham/Lambeth/Edgware' (delete as appropriate) and then I have to go backwards again and say 'Well actually it's in Surrey...' Anyhoo, I study French and Drama.
Therefore I have to spend my third year abroad in France so I am. I am going to be working for a lycée in Valbonne/Sophia Antipolis teaching English. So, I'm going to be living in Antibes in the b-e-a-utiful Côte d'Azur.
This is probably why I'm excited. Whilst I'm sat at home on a Monday morning and it's half raining, I'm dreaming of warm and sunnier climates. I'm excited about experiencing the French way of life, (but again maybe come back to me in a few weeks when I'm all alone in a hostel in France with no friends...)
My main worry right now is accommodation. I've got no where to live, which is a bit scary. Searching for flatmates on the Internet is weird, I don't like the idea of randomly finding someone and asking them to live with you! Usually I would want to get to know someone before I make such a decision... But, I have faith that I'll find somewhere soon. And in the mean time will procrastinate on making any decisions, preparing in anyway and packing. Maybe I'll go make some lunch instead...