Thiers!

So, things really have picked up since Wednesday - I have friends! Things were pretty miserable before and I honestly didn't see a single human being last weekend; but I was very relieved to discover that I wasn't getting upset over nothing and my feelings towards this place were normal!

At the assistant training day, one Engligh teacher from another lycée in the city repeatedly said 'you must be so depressed in Thiers'. And he was being serious which, in a way, was actually quite comforting! The other assistants were horrified when I told them about it (and I'd sugar-coated the details a bit!). I'm going out with them all in Clermont-Ferrand tomorrow night, allegedly to the biggest club in France? Hmm, we'll see about that!

I am using a computer in the staffroom atm, and am disgusted to discover that there's a block on facebook! However, have had a good day! Had bank meeting no.2 this morning and the bank manager and advisor are both the lovliest people! So that helped a lot and I was able to get my RIBs straight away to give to la vie scolaire (who were getting quite angry! Not my fault the bank's so small and never open therefore very busy!!).

I also really saw Thiers for the first time today and I have to say, despite myself, that it really is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Idyllic, but not ideal :p yeh get meh. I have befriended a lovely American post-grad who is assisting at the collège behind my lycée and at a lycée professionelle. Her résponsable has done everything for her that mine hasn't and the staff at the Foyer she stays at have also been very helpful, so she was able to show me everything she's learned/seen/been to, today! I've found a laundrette!

The town centre's hilarious, Thiers is the CAPITAL of CUTLERY, don'tcha know? Every other shop is a cutlery shop (no word of a lie) and there is even a CUTLERY MUSEUM down CUTLERY ROAD. There is also a mechanical-looking clock in the centre ville which has water running from underneath it and every hour on the hour, a metal dude pops up and starts banging a knife and fork on the clock and these weird factory noises are played. If I worked in the café opposite I would have smashed the twat by now, but as long as you only see it once it is hilarious. And trippy. When it started, everyone walking past stopped, put down their bags  and turned to face the clock and watched in silence until it had finished. I was actually pissing myself laughing but kind of in a nervous way. I felt like I was in George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', for some reason!

After that, we discovered a cheeky Spar (same thing in England) that also sold clothes and seafood. SURE! Then we found the medieval bit of Thiers. It really doesn't seem real down there! Hidden in the mountains are buildings that have been around for bare time and still have all their original features, inside and out. And people still live there! It's incredible to see these houses from the nothing century that look like they belong in a period drama or a recreation in a museum/historical attraction with modern numbers fixed to them and a few washing lines here and there! My new church where I will be attending mass on Sundays was built in 575 and restored in 1107 and hasn't been touched since! It's actually amazing.

Blatently I cannot live in such a place so will hopefully be moving to the city asap, but I feel kinda privileged to be working in such a place and can't wait to show Emma and Marge around when they visit before Christmas!

STILL haven't got my timetable and I can't see that happening until late next week, but I'll update me bloggy to let you all know how it goes being a teacher to people who are actually a year or two older than me :s

More mountain lovin' xxx