THURSDAY
Up at the crack of 7.15 or so for my longest day - 5 hours at school, of which 4 are teaching.
I start from 9-10 am with another class with Mme G. (she of Monday mornings). I get to go to a room of my own for this and she sends students one by one to do their oral presentations for about 15 mins at a time, I correct them, that is that. Easy as pie, no preparation required. :)
10-11 I have class with Mme T. This is one of those classes where I'm not sure what's going on and I feel a bit like a spare part (not as much as on Fridays though). I work with Mme T. in the classroom - last week I presented a quiz on New Zealand, which worked pretty well (have done it with three classes so far) and then Mme T. split the class into two groups to discuss a painting by Norman Rockwell. Fun fact: the French school system is positively obsessed with Norman Rockwell. Apparently he holds the key to understanding the totality of American culture, despite being (in my opinion) hackneyed and dull. In line with this dull-and-hackneyedness, I found it very difficult to think of anything to talk about vis-a-vis this painting: it wasn't my job to do the talking, but the students didn't have much to say either and it was hard to lead the discussion when I pretty much agreed with their silence. Little bits of Mme T.'s group's much more focussed discussion kept drifting over to me and making me feel useless and inexperienced, which of course I am (inexperienced, at any rate).
Then I have an inconveniently-placed 11-12 lunch-break. I suppose it's good for avoiding the seemingly mandatory 12-2 closing of all the shops, should I have anything to purchase at this time. But anyway, then it's back to teaching.
From 12-2 I have two small group conversation classes with prepa students. Prepa students (now this truly is insane) choose to spend two extra years at school after they pass the final Bac exam. This is so they can study hard and sit a nationwide competitive exam at the end of it in the hope of getting into the best universities. Now there's dedication for you! Accordingly, these students are expected to be willing to give up an hour of their lunchtimes to come and have voluntary extra English classes with me. Last week no-one turned up for the 1-2 pm hour, so that shows how well that works out! I suppose it was the second to last day before holidays... No-one ever told me what to do if students didn't come, but I just waited for 15 minutes and then went home, so long may they continue skipping class! Anyway, the first hour is the litteraire bunch again - I had them for the first time last week, and contrary to my expectations that they would be particularly adept at languages, they kinda sucked (well the 3 that turned up, anyway). It was like pulling teeth getting them to talk (using the same game that I had used with great success with the 1-2 group the week before), they frequently couldn't understand me, made basic mistakes etc. etc. So that was painful and I'm hoping for a different group next week. Making mistakes is fine, but if people just don't talk it's awkward and sucky for all. I had the 1-2 group the week before that, these are the business stream, and the 3 girls who came were awesome! Chatty, pretty good at English, lots of fun. I would like all the conversation groups to be like them! I hope next time I don't just get a completely different bunch who suck as well.
FRIDAY
Another slow start to the day, I don't have class until 1 pm. 1-2 is class with Mme M. who is a lot nicer than I thought at first when I was given her details as my contact person, and since she wasn't actually doing it this year, she just didn't reply to any of my emails or pass them on to my actual contact person. That's still totally arse though. This is another class where I have to work in the classroom with Mme M. and the whole class. Last Friday was more of me just awkwardly hovering on the sidelines with nothing to do for ages, then I took half of the class and listened to them present on newspaper articles. Nothing too exciting.
2-3 I have class with Mme B. who is just the nicest lady ever! When the students talk over each other (and they do, it's kinda annoying) she looks mournful and says something like "Don't you want to listen to your friends", it cracks me up. Her classes are also always interesting - she gets the students to prepare presentations on fun topics like concepts for reality TV shows. The downside is that I feel like a complete spare part in this class. Last week the students just did their presentations and I sat there and did nothing. Then Mme B. critiqued them, and I pretty much still sat there and did nothing, although she did ask me to point out some mistakes, at which point I did my best goldfish impression because, although I had taken some notes during the presentation, suddenly they were completely useless and I couldn't remember what they meant etc. etc. and then my hour is up and I have to leave in the middle of the class, which always makes me feel like I'm slinking out.
So anyway, as you can see, there's a lot of variety in what I'm expected to do and I'm not quite settled in to it all yet. Not much actual getting up in front of a class and teaching there, but I think in due course I will be expected to present more stuff in the classes where it's me and the teacher and the whole class, I think they're easing me into it a bit. The lines of communication are pretty poor and I only usually see the teachers in class time when they're busy teaching, so I very often just turn up to class with no clue as to whether they expect me to have something ready to go or not. I've tried to prepare a variety of exercises and themes so I can whip out something if need be and not be a total fail.
We often go out to town on Friday nights, which is a total pain because after 9 there's only one bus an hour home, and they stop at 1.10, which is a real struggle for me because I want to stay out all night! This means Saturday is often spent 'resting' and then yeah, Sunday's Sunday, whatevs. And that's my life thus far...
Last night I went out salsa dancing, which was fun although I pretty much sucked. It was a nice club though, it was nice to find somewhere that was full of (as far as I could tell) mainly locals and French people instead of English-speaking tourists like the places we always seem to wind up at on Friday/Saturday nights (partly because there are not a lot of clubs in Nice at all for some reason). And it was packed out on a Tuesday night! Might go again in future, I have Wednesdays off of course, so nothing stopping me other than money and laziness. Talking of which, have really done nothing of note with my holidays, and may very well not today either, considering I got to bed at about 1.30 last night and for some reason woke up at about 8 this morning, which cries out for an afternoon nap. Why do holidays always go by so fast??
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
La vie quotidienne - mardi et mercredi
The advantages of working four days a week, instead of three like my lucky so-and-so flatmates, is that at least my days are short. (And yes, we are ALL lucky with 12 hours a week teaching plus lesson prep time, but remember that we are earning povvo wages and having to pay for everything - rent, food, utilities, transport etc. etc. on our own dime.) So anyway...
TUESDAY
I get to have a lie-in or whatevs, because I don't start work until 1 pm. Lie-ins are facilitated by the awesomeness that is the metal shutters in my room - they are electronic, and once they're down, by crikey, you could be in the Black Hole of Calcutta. I ADORE it! On the downside, this means when I wake up I'm usually none the wiser as to whether it's 2 am or 2 pm, so I've taken to leaving them open a crack at the bottom, which means that they aren't fully concertina-ed together and little bits of light peep through the whole way up - still dark at night, but enough to make waking up slightly easier in the morning. Anyway, if I manage to get on to the English-American library again, maybe I can fill my Tuesday mornings volunteering there. I tried dropping by this afternoon for the second time, because there are allegedly people working there on Monday afternoons, despite the library being closed, but no joy. Will have to email so they don't think I have no follow-through. (Update: email sent.)
So, 1-2 and 3-4 on Tuesdays I have more classes with the aforementioned Monsieur A. 2-3 I have class with Mme K. who is Irish and very nice but offended my patriotic sensibilities last week by telling the class not to buy NZ-origin produce because of the airmiles issue and said that my claims that studies showed that Europe-grown fruit and vege often used more energy overall than imported stuff from NZ was propaganda. So there you go, stand by for the economy to go (further) down the toilet. I tried. Her class is in the 'literature' stream, which requires a wee digression on the nature of the French school system:
For those not in the know, students at lycees (high school) are separated out not only by the type of lycee (basically, more vocational or more general/scholarly - mine is the latter) but also by the subjects they concentrate on. Effectively, it's like they pick their university majors already in high school. I know that my high school education was heavily skewed in one direction, but that's because I individually picked those courses - they pick a stream e.g. literary, scientific, business - and then their programme of study is mapped out for them accordingly, and they all stick with the same classmates. Even though 'literary' (litteraire) sounds like they'd spend all their time reading literature, a lot of the literary kids (to my surprise and disappointment) profess not to read at all, so a better word would be something like 'humanities' - they concentrate on learning languages (some more than others), history, philosophy etc. as well as literature.
After 4, I'm free again and more than likely ready to head back home.
WEDNESDAY
Wednesdays are my 'sole' day off (obviously the weekend doesn't count, cos even wage-slaves get that...) and, unfortunately, also my designated laundry day. We were all mucho excited last week to get a brand spanking-new washing machine, one that doesn't perform so poorly that the clothes have to have an entire bucketful of water hand-wrung out of them after the end of the cycle. But anyway, there are still three girls and one (albeit capacious) drying rack between us, so we each have our designated laundry day, spaced out through the week. It obviously makes sense for this to be on my day off, but naturally it cramps my style going out-wise. So Wednesdays are at least partly dedicated to laundry and other such chores. Whether it be a peculiar feature of the lino chez nous, or whether it's owing to the curious abundance of antique wooden furniture (we seriously have so many chairs we don't know what to do - 4 wooden chairs and an armchair in my room alone, I would say perfect excuse for a party were it not for the "elderly noise-hating extremely religious neighbour" who supposedly lives next door to us. Said neighbour has never been seen, and his apartment is shrouded in such silence that I suspect Mme C. made him up in order to (if you'll excuse the semi-pun) put the fear of God into us, but I digress...) As I was saying before the sentence trailed into oblivion, for reasons unknown, our apartment is, like, crazy dusty. Once a week is the absolute minimum for vacuuming - in that space of time, actual dustballs form and roam about my room in search of sustenance. Or something. So, much to the anticipated disbelief of my father, we all wage a constant war on dust here. So that's my go-go Wednesdays.
STUFF WOT HAPPENED TODAY
I read my insurance policy and found out that, with what they call the 'el cheapo policy' (not really, but...) breakages are specifically excluded from cover. So, no free camera repair/replacement for me. Sigh. I found the names of a couple of repair shops on the net, managed to find one today but not the other - closed on Mondays. Fricking typical. Must preserve the sanctity of the 35-hour working week, mais non? After that, I had some socca - my students have been nagging me on the subject - this is a Nicois speciality - a sort of chickpea pancake. It actually wasn't too bad, I like chickpeas, albeit a bit greasy and coulda done with something else (an Instant Kiwi perhaps?) Then I sat around next to a fountain in old town, then in a park, enjoying the sunshine, then walked for a while and went home, where I cleaned the toilet and bathroom and vacuumed and mopped the whole apartment, then cooked myself a real honest-to-goodness dinner of crumbed chicken breast, mashed potatoes and spinach. So domesticated! Was wondering where the flatties had got to - turns out I had been an hour ahead since Sunday, as I didn't realise the clocks went back until this evening. They had actually been on a day trip to St Paul, a small village somewhere or other, which I'm sorry I missed out on. Big bonus is that we can go anywhere on the normal bus routes for free with our bus passes, and anywhere else in the whole departement by bus for a euro. Must profiter-en (as the French would say) during the holidays - particularly as I'm getting broker by the minute and can't afford to go anywhere else. And that is all the stuff wot happened today. No idea what stuff will happen tomorrow, hopefully something more exciting.
TUESDAY
I get to have a lie-in or whatevs, because I don't start work until 1 pm. Lie-ins are facilitated by the awesomeness that is the metal shutters in my room - they are electronic, and once they're down, by crikey, you could be in the Black Hole of Calcutta. I ADORE it! On the downside, this means when I wake up I'm usually none the wiser as to whether it's 2 am or 2 pm, so I've taken to leaving them open a crack at the bottom, which means that they aren't fully concertina-ed together and little bits of light peep through the whole way up - still dark at night, but enough to make waking up slightly easier in the morning. Anyway, if I manage to get on to the English-American library again, maybe I can fill my Tuesday mornings volunteering there. I tried dropping by this afternoon for the second time, because there are allegedly people working there on Monday afternoons, despite the library being closed, but no joy. Will have to email so they don't think I have no follow-through. (Update: email sent.)
So, 1-2 and 3-4 on Tuesdays I have more classes with the aforementioned Monsieur A. 2-3 I have class with Mme K. who is Irish and very nice but offended my patriotic sensibilities last week by telling the class not to buy NZ-origin produce because of the airmiles issue and said that my claims that studies showed that Europe-grown fruit and vege often used more energy overall than imported stuff from NZ was propaganda. So there you go, stand by for the economy to go (further) down the toilet. I tried. Her class is in the 'literature' stream, which requires a wee digression on the nature of the French school system:
For those not in the know, students at lycees (high school) are separated out not only by the type of lycee (basically, more vocational or more general/scholarly - mine is the latter) but also by the subjects they concentrate on. Effectively, it's like they pick their university majors already in high school. I know that my high school education was heavily skewed in one direction, but that's because I individually picked those courses - they pick a stream e.g. literary, scientific, business - and then their programme of study is mapped out for them accordingly, and they all stick with the same classmates. Even though 'literary' (litteraire) sounds like they'd spend all their time reading literature, a lot of the literary kids (to my surprise and disappointment) profess not to read at all, so a better word would be something like 'humanities' - they concentrate on learning languages (some more than others), history, philosophy etc. as well as literature.
After 4, I'm free again and more than likely ready to head back home.
WEDNESDAY
Wednesdays are my 'sole' day off (obviously the weekend doesn't count, cos even wage-slaves get that...) and, unfortunately, also my designated laundry day. We were all mucho excited last week to get a brand spanking-new washing machine, one that doesn't perform so poorly that the clothes have to have an entire bucketful of water hand-wrung out of them after the end of the cycle. But anyway, there are still three girls and one (albeit capacious) drying rack between us, so we each have our designated laundry day, spaced out through the week. It obviously makes sense for this to be on my day off, but naturally it cramps my style going out-wise. So Wednesdays are at least partly dedicated to laundry and other such chores. Whether it be a peculiar feature of the lino chez nous, or whether it's owing to the curious abundance of antique wooden furniture (we seriously have so many chairs we don't know what to do - 4 wooden chairs and an armchair in my room alone, I would say perfect excuse for a party were it not for the "elderly noise-hating extremely religious neighbour" who supposedly lives next door to us. Said neighbour has never been seen, and his apartment is shrouded in such silence that I suspect Mme C. made him up in order to (if you'll excuse the semi-pun) put the fear of God into us, but I digress...) As I was saying before the sentence trailed into oblivion, for reasons unknown, our apartment is, like, crazy dusty. Once a week is the absolute minimum for vacuuming - in that space of time, actual dustballs form and roam about my room in search of sustenance. Or something. So, much to the anticipated disbelief of my father, we all wage a constant war on dust here. So that's my go-go Wednesdays.
STUFF WOT HAPPENED TODAY
I read my insurance policy and found out that, with what they call the 'el cheapo policy' (not really, but...) breakages are specifically excluded from cover. So, no free camera repair/replacement for me. Sigh. I found the names of a couple of repair shops on the net, managed to find one today but not the other - closed on Mondays. Fricking typical. Must preserve the sanctity of the 35-hour working week, mais non? After that, I had some socca - my students have been nagging me on the subject - this is a Nicois speciality - a sort of chickpea pancake. It actually wasn't too bad, I like chickpeas, albeit a bit greasy and coulda done with something else (an Instant Kiwi perhaps?) Then I sat around next to a fountain in old town, then in a park, enjoying the sunshine, then walked for a while and went home, where I cleaned the toilet and bathroom and vacuumed and mopped the whole apartment, then cooked myself a real honest-to-goodness dinner of crumbed chicken breast, mashed potatoes and spinach. So domesticated! Was wondering where the flatties had got to - turns out I had been an hour ahead since Sunday, as I didn't realise the clocks went back until this evening. They had actually been on a day trip to St Paul, a small village somewhere or other, which I'm sorry I missed out on. Big bonus is that we can go anywhere on the normal bus routes for free with our bus passes, and anywhere else in the whole departement by bus for a euro. Must profiter-en (as the French would say) during the holidays - particularly as I'm getting broker by the minute and can't afford to go anywhere else. And that is all the stuff wot happened today. No idea what stuff will happen tomorrow, hopefully something more exciting.
La vie quotidienne - lundi
So (Mum wants to know) how are things going? What do I do with myself all day? This week, and until the 5th of November, I'm actually on holidays, so the answer will hopefully be "fun day trips within my meagre budget!" but let's pretend you asked about the 40% of the time when I'm not on holiday.
MONDAY: I haven't had to do this yet, but in two weeks' time, I will have to get up at a ridiculous hour, probably 6.15 or something, in order to get to school for an 8 am class. :(
The day will begin with a shower. I'm still struggling to come to terms with ours - no shower curtain or similar, and it's one of those with no support thing for the shower head, so you have to hold it in your hands at all times (or between your knees when washing your hair). Cue a bathroom inevitably flooded with water. Seriously, French people, I know some of you travel. Why has no-one returned with the shocking news that THERE IS A BETTER WAY?
Then comes the commute to work - about a 15- or 20-minute bus-ride, normally not too bad because I get on early in the piece and can usually get a seat. Lately, since the weather has turned mildly cold, the sun-loving Nicoises have panicked and cranked up the heat on everything, including the bus, to stifling levels. The other day (by accident or design, I know not) my bus seat was so hot it was uncomfortable to sit on. And they all sit there in their jackets and scarves! They are actually insane. Do they not sweat? If you prick them, will they bleed? On Saturday we went to the park on a beautiful, sunny afternoon - all of us in summer dresses and skirts. Every French person about was rugged up for an Arctic winter. It half makes me wish for proper cold weather (and, actually, it is pretty cold in the mornings/night at the mo) just so I can blend in a bit more with these people.
Anyway... usually I get to work a bit early and check my emails, although this won't be as imperative now we have the blessed wifi. I also try to print out materials to use in class - you have to drop them off at the photocopy room for an up-to-24-hour-turnaround, so trying to get organised in advance.
Then I will have (haven't yet) Mme G.'s class 8-10. If I remember correctly, this is going to be one of the deals where a small group of up to about 5 students come see me in another room and I do... whatever... with them. Probably more kind of conversation-class type things than teaching as such. Or these are possibly the ones that are fiends for practising 'les documents (in)connues' - part of their Bac exam is giving a short oral presentation on '(un)known documents' - i.e. ads, photos, paintings etc. which they have to describe in English. So quite often, I just have to listen to students giving these presentations and correct what they say, ask questions, etc. I did this with three students last week, pretty simple.
Then 10-11 I have class with Monsieur A. Monsieur A's classes - I have three with him - are entirely different. He and I stand up in front of the whole class and (as far as I can tell from the ones I've attended so far) work through translations with them. This consists of a student volunteering his or her English translation of a French text, Monsieur A going "Gwan, will you accept that?" Me: "Erm, no..." Monsieur A: "She is too polite to say, but that was VERY WRONG! Gwan, what do you propose?" and then I have to suggest a translation. It's not so bad now that he gives me the articles in advance and my 'homework' is to translate them into English (it's like being back at uni!) but the first class with him, I went in cold without ever having seen the article before and it was HARD! I'm not a translator nor do I speak perfect French! It's often quite hard to explain why the students' translations don't work (I mean, sometimes they do, but...) mostly it's just that it sounds "off" to my native ears. Which I suppose is what I'm there for, as a big set of native ears (hold your cruel comments on my ears, please) but I often feel my explanations to be inadequate at this juncture.
Anyway, so 11 am Monday morning rolls around and that's it - finished for the day! I can't really tell you what I will do with my Mondays at the moment, although I have the distinct feeling that 'afternoon nap' will loom large in my timetable. My school is pretty centrally located - just across the street is Old Nice, the heart of the tourist trap, but also a pretty nice collection of narrow alleys in which to wander. Beyond Old Nice is the sea and the big avenues of the Promenade des Anglais and Promenade des Etats-Unis. We are also close to the central library, with which I am already well-acquainted. It has a whole row of English books - I'm pretty sure I'll get through all the likely suspects before too long, but it's keeping me going for the moment at least. If you head in the other direction, you get to Place Massena and the road which runs at right-angles from that is the main shopping drag. So there are lots of time-killing options in walking distance.
Or I can take the bus home. The main feature of my bus route, for tourists, is the Musee Matisse, which is only a few stops from my house. I like to amuse myself by spotting who will get off at that stop. Usually it's pretty easy - clutching maps, looking around anxiously, speaking English, wearing baseball caps - all dead giveaways. I had a bit of a malicious chuckle the other day when I noticed one couple, after having asked the bus driver about 3 times where to get off, walking past the entrance into the park where the museum is. Ah, cruel - and unnecessary, given how much touristing about I do. I just like to snobbishly think of myself as a better breed of tourist, but I'm sure I am equally an object of the locals' scorn, and even that of the semi-locals like me.
My flatmates and I are almost always home by about 5 pm, for a quiet evening of TV-watching and dinner-preparation, before bed at about 10. Indeed, life on the Med is full of glamour and excitement! My flatmate Emily is even teaching us how to knit, a process which currently consists mainly of doing the same row of stitches again and again after I get to the end and find all the mistakes I made. Our favourite show is a French version of Blind Date, which is known chez nous as 'the dirty show' because it features extremely average, usually 40ish, French men and women (the latter in embarrassing short skirts) who are only too happy to go on national TV and proclaim their willingness to do just about anything to snag a partner, in horribly suggestive detail. It's cringe-worthy fun!
So that's my Mondays. Stay tuned for the other exciting installments, and hopefully fun things I've done with my holidays!
Oh and PS - it's my one-month-aversary in Nice today. Time has indeed flown! That means only 6 months to go??? And then ???? Arrrgh!
MONDAY: I haven't had to do this yet, but in two weeks' time, I will have to get up at a ridiculous hour, probably 6.15 or something, in order to get to school for an 8 am class. :(
The day will begin with a shower. I'm still struggling to come to terms with ours - no shower curtain or similar, and it's one of those with no support thing for the shower head, so you have to hold it in your hands at all times (or between your knees when washing your hair). Cue a bathroom inevitably flooded with water. Seriously, French people, I know some of you travel. Why has no-one returned with the shocking news that THERE IS A BETTER WAY?
Then comes the commute to work - about a 15- or 20-minute bus-ride, normally not too bad because I get on early in the piece and can usually get a seat. Lately, since the weather has turned mildly cold, the sun-loving Nicoises have panicked and cranked up the heat on everything, including the bus, to stifling levels. The other day (by accident or design, I know not) my bus seat was so hot it was uncomfortable to sit on. And they all sit there in their jackets and scarves! They are actually insane. Do they not sweat? If you prick them, will they bleed? On Saturday we went to the park on a beautiful, sunny afternoon - all of us in summer dresses and skirts. Every French person about was rugged up for an Arctic winter. It half makes me wish for proper cold weather (and, actually, it is pretty cold in the mornings/night at the mo) just so I can blend in a bit more with these people.
Anyway... usually I get to work a bit early and check my emails, although this won't be as imperative now we have the blessed wifi. I also try to print out materials to use in class - you have to drop them off at the photocopy room for an up-to-24-hour-turnaround, so trying to get organised in advance.
Then I will have (haven't yet) Mme G.'s class 8-10. If I remember correctly, this is going to be one of the deals where a small group of up to about 5 students come see me in another room and I do... whatever... with them. Probably more kind of conversation-class type things than teaching as such. Or these are possibly the ones that are fiends for practising 'les documents (in)connues' - part of their Bac exam is giving a short oral presentation on '(un)known documents' - i.e. ads, photos, paintings etc. which they have to describe in English. So quite often, I just have to listen to students giving these presentations and correct what they say, ask questions, etc. I did this with three students last week, pretty simple.
Then 10-11 I have class with Monsieur A. Monsieur A's classes - I have three with him - are entirely different. He and I stand up in front of the whole class and (as far as I can tell from the ones I've attended so far) work through translations with them. This consists of a student volunteering his or her English translation of a French text, Monsieur A going "Gwan, will you accept that?" Me: "Erm, no..." Monsieur A: "She is too polite to say, but that was VERY WRONG! Gwan, what do you propose?" and then I have to suggest a translation. It's not so bad now that he gives me the articles in advance and my 'homework' is to translate them into English (it's like being back at uni!) but the first class with him, I went in cold without ever having seen the article before and it was HARD! I'm not a translator nor do I speak perfect French! It's often quite hard to explain why the students' translations don't work (I mean, sometimes they do, but...) mostly it's just that it sounds "off" to my native ears. Which I suppose is what I'm there for, as a big set of native ears (hold your cruel comments on my ears, please) but I often feel my explanations to be inadequate at this juncture.
Anyway, so 11 am Monday morning rolls around and that's it - finished for the day! I can't really tell you what I will do with my Mondays at the moment, although I have the distinct feeling that 'afternoon nap' will loom large in my timetable. My school is pretty centrally located - just across the street is Old Nice, the heart of the tourist trap, but also a pretty nice collection of narrow alleys in which to wander. Beyond Old Nice is the sea and the big avenues of the Promenade des Anglais and Promenade des Etats-Unis. We are also close to the central library, with which I am already well-acquainted. It has a whole row of English books - I'm pretty sure I'll get through all the likely suspects before too long, but it's keeping me going for the moment at least. If you head in the other direction, you get to Place Massena and the road which runs at right-angles from that is the main shopping drag. So there are lots of time-killing options in walking distance.
Or I can take the bus home. The main feature of my bus route, for tourists, is the Musee Matisse, which is only a few stops from my house. I like to amuse myself by spotting who will get off at that stop. Usually it's pretty easy - clutching maps, looking around anxiously, speaking English, wearing baseball caps - all dead giveaways. I had a bit of a malicious chuckle the other day when I noticed one couple, after having asked the bus driver about 3 times where to get off, walking past the entrance into the park where the museum is. Ah, cruel - and unnecessary, given how much touristing about I do. I just like to snobbishly think of myself as a better breed of tourist, but I'm sure I am equally an object of the locals' scorn, and even that of the semi-locals like me.
My flatmates and I are almost always home by about 5 pm, for a quiet evening of TV-watching and dinner-preparation, before bed at about 10. Indeed, life on the Med is full of glamour and excitement! My flatmate Emily is even teaching us how to knit, a process which currently consists mainly of doing the same row of stitches again and again after I get to the end and find all the mistakes I made. Our favourite show is a French version of Blind Date, which is known chez nous as 'the dirty show' because it features extremely average, usually 40ish, French men and women (the latter in embarrassing short skirts) who are only too happy to go on national TV and proclaim their willingness to do just about anything to snag a partner, in horribly suggestive detail. It's cringe-worthy fun!
So that's my Mondays. Stay tuned for the other exciting installments, and hopefully fun things I've done with my holidays!
Oh and PS - it's my one-month-aversary in Nice today. Time has indeed flown! That means only 6 months to go??? And then ???? Arrrgh!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Monaco photos
Sadly, as I said, camera is caput, so this will probably be the last of the photos for a little bit. Happily, a thought occurred to me the other day - I have insurance! For once in my life, basically because my landlady, the redoubtable and garrulous Mme C., MADE us, I have insurance. So, smiley face, I don't have to suck it up when misfortune strikes, I can (maybe maybe maybe) do something about it! Of course, this means navigating the uncertain shoals of French customer service, a harrowing experience at the best of times, even worse if done on the phone. I'm hoping in the holidays (yes, ALREADY) to go in to the office where they sold us the insurance and get them to help me. I bet you anything that they will refuse and tell me to call the claims number, but maybe if I look sufficiently pitiful they might take pity on me. Worth a shot, anyway. I'm hoping that they will pay for repairs/replacement up front because I don't really have the money to wait for reimbursement, but we'll see, anything would be gratefully received. Must have a camera! Discovered camera was broken when I walked past a shop here in Nice called "Moustaches" (gentlemen's outfitters) - how many more ridiculous shops must go unphotographed? The anguish!
Ads for superyacht insurance! Tres Monagasque, non?
View of the sea
The Rock
F1 tunnel
The excitement of an F1 corner! Revel in it! REVEL [shakes fist]
The gardens behind (in front of?) the casino
Cool fountain in the casino gardens
Fountain again
The casino, I think. Or possibly an opera house? But I think the casino.
Ads for superyacht insurance! Tres Monagasque, non?
View of the sea
The Rock
F1 tunnel
The excitement of an F1 corner! Revel in it! REVEL [shakes fist]
The gardens behind (in front of?) the casino
Cool fountain in the casino gardens
Fountain again
The casino, I think. Or possibly an opera house? But I think the casino.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
"Most girls would give their eyes for the chance of seeing Monte"
"Wouldn't that rather defeat the purpose?"
Ah, if there's anything better than a lame old joke, it's a lame old LITERARY ALLUSION. Ahhhh...
If that little auto-amusing exchange wasn't sufficiently clear, I went to Monaco the week before last, on a day which was sunny and glorious, instead of cold and rainy like today. Due to ongoing lack of internet access (still counting down to this Friday, yessss) my memories have become as blurry as a bus ticket left out in the rain, sad at my age, isn't it? So, what can I say about it then... It's pretty obviously the preserve of the rich and leisured - if nothing else, all the joggers out in the middle of the day on a Monday can tell you that - "there is no recession in Monaco" and all that. It has probably the best sea-front I've seen - the main drag has terraced rooftop gardens hanging over the sea - these are built on top of rooms of nebulous purpose, fronting directly on to the sea. You'd think they'd be luxury apartments or hotel rooms, but the ones I could see in to were identically and pretty cheaply furnished, so a bit of a mystery. Maybe you rent them by the day like you do with beach chairs in these parts? Prize (of my temporary gratitude) to anyone who has the answer. I got all excited, of course, whenever I spotted where the F1 is raced (they keep the red-and-white curb markings so you can tell). Other than that, I wandered about, tried and failed to find a Monaco charm for my bracelet, sat by the sea, and that was about that.
The rest of the week and a half has been pretty dull. I went to the Russian Cathedral as you will have seen, that's been my only expedition. Funny how easily you can fall into a routine when you live somewhere, and never stir outside the quotidien round of work-home-occasional outing to the "old man bar" (aka local Tabac, only watering hole of note in the neighbourhood, but I must give it props because on our second visit, more than a week after our first, they remembered us and proudly introduced me as "the New Zealander" to some guy trying to emigrate to Australia. I feel we are a conversation-piece in the old man bar, which is all to the good). Of course, I have been busyish working, although I've still only really taught one class (with three students), the rest has been mostly observing and introducing myself around - and at the end of this week, it's our first holidays! Yay! I've been sick for the past few days as well, so you know, nothing spesh.
We went out again on Friday, to this little jazz bar and then to the ubiquitous Wayne's touristy bar, because we seriously could find nothing else that wasn't a restaurant. Will have to keep working on this... It transpires that I dropped my camera, and it now functions perfectly in every respect except that every photo is just a mass of blurred lines. Displeased, but what can you do? Obviously no use crying over spilt milk or drunken clumsiness... Will have to see if I can get it repaired, presumably can't be that hard if it's not completely broken altogether?
Anyhoo, after this Friday I will probably be online at all hours, so my multitude of fans can look forward to more regular postings; always supposing that I have anything to say...
Ah, if there's anything better than a lame old joke, it's a lame old LITERARY ALLUSION. Ahhhh...
If that little auto-amusing exchange wasn't sufficiently clear, I went to Monaco the week before last, on a day which was sunny and glorious, instead of cold and rainy like today. Due to ongoing lack of internet access (still counting down to this Friday, yessss) my memories have become as blurry as a bus ticket left out in the rain, sad at my age, isn't it? So, what can I say about it then... It's pretty obviously the preserve of the rich and leisured - if nothing else, all the joggers out in the middle of the day on a Monday can tell you that - "there is no recession in Monaco" and all that. It has probably the best sea-front I've seen - the main drag has terraced rooftop gardens hanging over the sea - these are built on top of rooms of nebulous purpose, fronting directly on to the sea. You'd think they'd be luxury apartments or hotel rooms, but the ones I could see in to were identically and pretty cheaply furnished, so a bit of a mystery. Maybe you rent them by the day like you do with beach chairs in these parts? Prize (of my temporary gratitude) to anyone who has the answer. I got all excited, of course, whenever I spotted where the F1 is raced (they keep the red-and-white curb markings so you can tell). Other than that, I wandered about, tried and failed to find a Monaco charm for my bracelet, sat by the sea, and that was about that.
The rest of the week and a half has been pretty dull. I went to the Russian Cathedral as you will have seen, that's been my only expedition. Funny how easily you can fall into a routine when you live somewhere, and never stir outside the quotidien round of work-home-occasional outing to the "old man bar" (aka local Tabac, only watering hole of note in the neighbourhood, but I must give it props because on our second visit, more than a week after our first, they remembered us and proudly introduced me as "the New Zealander" to some guy trying to emigrate to Australia. I feel we are a conversation-piece in the old man bar, which is all to the good). Of course, I have been busyish working, although I've still only really taught one class (with three students), the rest has been mostly observing and introducing myself around - and at the end of this week, it's our first holidays! Yay! I've been sick for the past few days as well, so you know, nothing spesh.
We went out again on Friday, to this little jazz bar and then to the ubiquitous Wayne's touristy bar, because we seriously could find nothing else that wasn't a restaurant. Will have to keep working on this... It transpires that I dropped my camera, and it now functions perfectly in every respect except that every photo is just a mass of blurred lines. Displeased, but what can you do? Obviously no use crying over spilt milk or drunken clumsiness... Will have to see if I can get it repaired, presumably can't be that hard if it's not completely broken altogether?
Anyhoo, after this Friday I will probably be online at all hours, so my multitude of fans can look forward to more regular postings; always supposing that I have anything to say...
Friday, October 16, 2009
More Nice photos
The Russian Cathedral in Nice, founded by Tsar Nicholas II
Me and my flatmates Emily and Kelly at the bus stop pre night out
Drunk self-portrait with Ibiye, the other English assistant at my school
Mother, lock up your daughter! Yes, my neighbours include Casanova!
The library aka giant head! Not sure what this is supposed to symbolise...
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Busy Busy
Hi all
Sorry I haven't been able to get on the computer very much lately, only at school where I don't really want to go on the blog and I haven't had very much time to do stuff anyway. Things are going well, Nice is beautiful as ever. Apparently there was some rain yesterday but it was while I was sleeping off Friday night, so there you go.
Talking of which - yes, I had my first night out in Nice! It was much needed, since our usual nightly routine at the flat is to all be home by around 5 pm at the latest, and hang out together before about a 9 pm bedtime! Ha! We went into town and met up with the other girl who works at my lycée at her flat and had a few pre-town drinks and then went to some other assistants' flat for some more drinkies then out to town. We ended up at Wayne's, which even I have heard of as a notorious haunt of tourists and expats, but it was fun and I even managed to make friends with some French boys who I'm hoping will serve as our entrée into the mysterious world of the French.
Today I went to the Marc Chagall museum which is basically at the bottom of the hill we live on. It was pretty small and had a late-career sequence of Biblical-themed paintings at its heart, so not much of the uber-characteristic Chagall style, although they were recognisably his. It was quite nice, and small enough to really take in the works, but not fantastic. Nice grounds though.
As for my "working life" - well there hasn't been much of it yet, not that I'm complaining. We had two training days last week, the first of which was set at tear-inducing on the boredometer, the second of which was more practical and helpful. The other days I spent observing a couple of classes at my lycée, mostly consisting of the students asking me LOTS of questions (including the likes of "do you want babies?" - they were so shocked when I said no that I don't quite know why they asked the question to begin with). I was meant to have a sweet timetable with Mondays and Wednesdays free, but I got a call on Friday saying it's changed - quite how, I don't know, and think I will have to work Mondays :( But not tomorrow - apparently next week will be full of observations as well, which will only leave one week of work before the first holidays, sah-weet! So might take a little trip to Monaco or something tomorrow.
Anyway, that's probably about it. I hate being always rushed and having to do résumés of my activities, the posts always seem a bit bland and blunted, but there you go. Internet at home before too long we hope.
Sorry I haven't been able to get on the computer very much lately, only at school where I don't really want to go on the blog and I haven't had very much time to do stuff anyway. Things are going well, Nice is beautiful as ever. Apparently there was some rain yesterday but it was while I was sleeping off Friday night, so there you go.
Talking of which - yes, I had my first night out in Nice! It was much needed, since our usual nightly routine at the flat is to all be home by around 5 pm at the latest, and hang out together before about a 9 pm bedtime! Ha! We went into town and met up with the other girl who works at my lycée at her flat and had a few pre-town drinks and then went to some other assistants' flat for some more drinkies then out to town. We ended up at Wayne's, which even I have heard of as a notorious haunt of tourists and expats, but it was fun and I even managed to make friends with some French boys who I'm hoping will serve as our entrée into the mysterious world of the French.
Today I went to the Marc Chagall museum which is basically at the bottom of the hill we live on. It was pretty small and had a late-career sequence of Biblical-themed paintings at its heart, so not much of the uber-characteristic Chagall style, although they were recognisably his. It was quite nice, and small enough to really take in the works, but not fantastic. Nice grounds though.
As for my "working life" - well there hasn't been much of it yet, not that I'm complaining. We had two training days last week, the first of which was set at tear-inducing on the boredometer, the second of which was more practical and helpful. The other days I spent observing a couple of classes at my lycée, mostly consisting of the students asking me LOTS of questions (including the likes of "do you want babies?" - they were so shocked when I said no that I don't quite know why they asked the question to begin with). I was meant to have a sweet timetable with Mondays and Wednesdays free, but I got a call on Friday saying it's changed - quite how, I don't know, and think I will have to work Mondays :( But not tomorrow - apparently next week will be full of observations as well, which will only leave one week of work before the first holidays, sah-weet! So might take a little trip to Monaco or something tomorrow.
Anyway, that's probably about it. I hate being always rushed and having to do résumés of my activities, the posts always seem a bit bland and blunted, but there you go. Internet at home before too long we hope.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Relief = palpable
So the big news is that I have somewhere to live! It's in a suburb of Nice called Cimiez, up in the hills about a 20 minute bus ride from the centre. Yeah, I had hoped to be living it up down by the Med I suppose, but this has the advantage of being quiet (except when French drivers go on a 5-minute non-stop honking spree like they did several times last night when we were trying to enjoy France's fab show "Who will be the best celebrity impersonator?" - hilarious btw, and I challenge you to have a better Saturday night in Nice), spacious, equipped with all the mod cons like washing machine and dishwasher, plus THREE balconies, one of which I can call my own, away from the tourists etc. etc. But the best thing about it is that I'm in it. If you've never moved to a foreign country where you know no-one, speak the language to an adequate but not fluent extent, and have a limited supply of funds, well - I'm sure you can still imagine the stress inherent in finding somewhere to live, so very very pleased.
Also set up with a bank account and mobile phone, so we have only to negotiate the horrors of signing up with social security, trying to get internet installed at our flat, trying to wring some housing support money out of the government, getting a badly-needed advance on my first month's salary... and the small matter of teaching. Tomorrow I go in to the school for the first time, meet my contact person, get shown around etc and hopefully start on some of that pesky paperwork the French are so fond of. Then the rest of the week is made up of two training days and two class observation days. I am, frankly, terrified. At the orientation (which was conducted entirely in French, but which I think I mostly followed) they said you should expect to spend about 6 hours per week preparing lessons, which is fair enough - so that's 18 hours' work per week. They also belaboured the seriousness of the whole affair, thus terrifying me further. Deep breaths, I'll be fine.
I haven't seen much of Nice so far, at least not 'tourist Nice' - too busy running around trying to get a life. Yesterday, buying sheets, a towel, rubbish bin and a laundry basket and finally getting my room in order represented a huge achievement. My money supply is vanishing rapidly - we had to give 2 months' rent as a security deposit, plus 1 month rent in advance, total of 1050 euros, which represented probably two thirds of the money I had left. I'm dreading having to pay for things like my bus pass, but has to be done... Good news there is that I'll get 700 euros back at the end of the 7 months, supposing my landlady isn't evil and/or we don't burn the place down, so there's a little nest egg for whatever my next move will be after the assistantship.
Okay, I could probably ramble on further but I think I should publish now as my battery life is draining away - using the free wifi at McDonald's until such a time as we get the net at home... Talk soon I hope!
First of many views of my bedroom!
My very own balcony, one of 3 in our flat
View from our balcony, on the hills above Nice
View the other way from the balcony
Amuse! The French ACTUALLY have "match of ze day" ha ha!
Also set up with a bank account and mobile phone, so we have only to negotiate the horrors of signing up with social security, trying to get internet installed at our flat, trying to wring some housing support money out of the government, getting a badly-needed advance on my first month's salary... and the small matter of teaching. Tomorrow I go in to the school for the first time, meet my contact person, get shown around etc and hopefully start on some of that pesky paperwork the French are so fond of. Then the rest of the week is made up of two training days and two class observation days. I am, frankly, terrified. At the orientation (which was conducted entirely in French, but which I think I mostly followed) they said you should expect to spend about 6 hours per week preparing lessons, which is fair enough - so that's 18 hours' work per week. They also belaboured the seriousness of the whole affair, thus terrifying me further. Deep breaths, I'll be fine.
I haven't seen much of Nice so far, at least not 'tourist Nice' - too busy running around trying to get a life. Yesterday, buying sheets, a towel, rubbish bin and a laundry basket and finally getting my room in order represented a huge achievement. My money supply is vanishing rapidly - we had to give 2 months' rent as a security deposit, plus 1 month rent in advance, total of 1050 euros, which represented probably two thirds of the money I had left. I'm dreading having to pay for things like my bus pass, but has to be done... Good news there is that I'll get 700 euros back at the end of the 7 months, supposing my landlady isn't evil and/or we don't burn the place down, so there's a little nest egg for whatever my next move will be after the assistantship.
Okay, I could probably ramble on further but I think I should publish now as my battery life is draining away - using the free wifi at McDonald's until such a time as we get the net at home... Talk soon I hope!
First of many views of my bedroom!
My very own balcony, one of 3 in our flat
View from our balcony, on the hills above Nice
View the other way from the balcony
Amuse! The French ACTUALLY have "match of ze day" ha ha!
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