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.

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.

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...