Happy 101st blog entry!

The Banque Populaire narrowly edged out its fierce rival, the Banque Unpopulaire, to become France's market leader

St Omer's ruined abbey

'Le Queen Vic' as we locals know it, everyone's favourite place in St Omer. Well, that or 'Le Dickens'

Yesterday all the cleaning was done by 11 am, sweet! So about 2 pm a bunch of us headed into Saint Omer, which is a slightly bigger town than Hazebrouck, about 20 mins drive from the chateau. The others went to see Spiderman 3, but since that's not my bag baby, I just wandered around the town. In honour of it being a day on which the French would have otherwise had to go to work for some 5 hours hard labour, it was a public holiday and most of the shops were closed, unfortunately. So I mostly just mooched about the streets, saw a scenic ruined abbey or what-have-you and then met the others at the pub. There were also a couple of French boys and girls there (existing friends of the chateau crowd) and I was very proud to be able to understand most of the conversation. I'm sure they were simplifying at times, but still, I can sense my French improving by the minute. It's like I have a French frequency in my brain that just needs to be tuned in - par exemple yesterday I remembered the word for 'gloves' randomly - I mean; how often do you use that word in French class in New Zealand eh?

We had to get back to the chateau in the evening to serve dinner and to run another disco. This time there was an unfortunate incident - Kathryn and I were running the disco, and at the end we left the room for 5 mins to take the DJ equipment back, leaving the chateau's iPod on the table. There was a teacher, the coach driver and about half a dozen kids in the room, so we thought it would be safe, but alas, we returned and the iPod was gone, gutted! The teachers supposedly searched everyone's bags but it was not to be found, which was pretty stressful but we didn't actually get yelled at this morning, which was nice. I was very glad I'd put my iPod in my pocket. Of course, the group was from Liverpool so there were plenty of "what do you expect from Scousers" comments. The British really are stuck up and prejudiced about where you're from and how you speak - I can't think of any places in New Zealand where we write off the inhabitants as universally thieving in the same way. People from Gorrrrre may be inbred, and people who move to Marlborough are well known as being retarded (mek kek kek) but that's about it. It wasn't even the stoner children who were responsible - seriously, there was an entire hallway that stunk as though inhabited by a warren of potheads. Before you ask, I, like the National MP who discovered people smoking dope in the toilets of the NZ Parliament (that, incidentally, is why we're not out starting wars with people: America, take note), "recognised the smell from police burnings". That's my favourite quote ever, go me for finding a way to work it into the blog!!

Today was a 'triple changeover' - meaning that all the groups on site left today and 3 new groups are coming this afternoon. It also means that beds have to be changed, rooms vacuumed and mopped etc. Sigh, but it's all done now and it's my day off tomorrow, so the plan is to hit the happening scene at St. Omer and party hardy. I've been told that French chicks don't wear skirts out and it will be assumed I'm a slag if I do, but I'm afraid my jeans are in the wash and I have nowt else, so I don't care.