Okay so since last Thursday...
I'm pretty sure it was Thursday night that was the horrendous Erasmus party, so we won't go into that cos it's just boring. Plus my shoulder was still hurting from the unfortunate door incident, so I wasn't it the chirpiest mood ever! My American buddy Erin who lives in Thiers came to stay on Friday night which was beautiful! This is turning into a regular occurrence, which pleases me! We went out very late to that club I don't like but had an epic night and was delighted to discover quite early on in the night that I was in that state of drunkeness that most 14 year-olds experience where everything is absolutely hilarious. Especially certain Americans shaking their thang and saying (in all seriousness) 'Lauryn.. If you wan' it, that's ok.' Amazing. Pretty good night!!
Saturday afternoon, Erin took as to a Lebanese place to eat which was the lushest thing of my life, until the hangover kicked in. It came in horrendous waves and I was still quite drunk, in all honesty. I laughed at a soggy bisuit on my lap in a café for a good minute or so and sang to a guard in a pharmacie when picking up Neurofen.
Saturday night.. Well... Won't really go into it, but let's just say people are hating violently on Anglophones, here :s although in the middle of it when no fights and arguments were occurring (for all of, what, FIVE MINUTES?), all I could here from outside was 'On y va, des anglais!'. Bants. Some of them literally can't stand us! :s
Monday (yestderday) at work was alright, apart from the fact that I'm doing 'holidays' with my pupils this week, les pauvres. So we're basically all bored shitless haha but they're learning shit so all is well. Buttt this teacher scared me so much yeah he rocks up to me at lunch and started with 'Laurriiiiiiine...', putting a hand on my shoulder. I thought he was gonna apologise for the fact that three classes STILL don't know they have lessons with me on various days because he's seemingly refusing to tell them, but he was like 'you have pupils waiting for you'. I was like... SHITTT then was like whaaaaa? Got so confused. I had 4 lessons yesterday, I'd already taught 3 of them by 1pm and knew I had one more at 3pm. That equals 4. Where had this extra hour come from?? He was giving me daggers all lunch because the other teachers wouldn't let me go sort it out. They got all dramatic like 'but, Laurriiiiiiiiiinnne, you have to eat! It's fine! They'll be fine! Don't starve yourself!' Yeah, alright, calm down. Didn't eat cos I was so confused and nervous. Turns out it was their timetable that was wrong and it wasn't me being an awful human being and forgetting about my pupils! However, even after this had been established, this dude was still being rude to me! Cheeky minx...
Today has been pretty boring, as well! And it's been ONE OF THOSE DAYS where I just can't speak French. Or English, for that matter. The lovely German assistant asked me things in the car like 'do you like this music?', 'which languages did you study at school?' and 'what time do you finish today?' Literally couldn't process a worrrrrrrrd she said haha embarrassing times. So tired! Grassssssee matinée, demain.
Had ONE lesson this morning with the most boring pupils in the world, but their English was mint so that made up for it. Had no lessons after 10am as both BTS years are on stage this week. Ventured down the mountain for lunch with Erin at the bottom of town, which was naaaize. Spent lunch talking about Lobbiers and laughing about our foul-mouthed secondes. I have this legendary ginger bird in one of my seconde classes who, every five minutes I swear, is like, 'Aahhhh pUtaaaiiiinnnnnnnn. *Realises Lauryn is still sat in front of her* MERDE désoléeeeee Madammme!!' Five minutes later... Haha. Should probably tell her to stop, but she makes me laugh every time! :) The only bad thing about lunch was that I then had to mission it back up the mountain in the shitting rain to get back to the station. My bro called me whilst I was tackling a particularly bastad hill, but unfortunately talking was not do-able at that time in my life, so I guess I'll talk to him later!
Anyway, apparently I live in the Arctic now, so I'm off to buy some warmth!!
Love love love xx
mardi 23 novembre 2010
jeudi 18 novembre 2010
So many blogs aaahhhh!!
I'm aware that I literally posted something on Monday or something (it's now Thursday), but the ANNOYING thing is that there is always a train from Thiers back to Clermont on the hour I finish work each day which I miss, and I have to wait 1 hour and 40 minutes for the next one. Always. Screw yooouuu, France! So I literally end up doing UNI WORK thrice a week. What. A. Joke.
Here's a funny story for ya:
So, this has been my week of accidents and injuries, which has been a long time coming, in my opinion. I seriously need to take out some form of medical insurance before the snow comes further down the mountains to Clermont or I am actually fucked. Those of you who know me well will know that I cannot go more than a month without obtaining at least a wee battle scar - for example, I still have a scar on my hand from cutting a potato in the dark whilst completely off it a couple of years back. Basically, last Saturday we ended up in a club that I don't particularly like where a barman plays shit music off his shit laptop through some shit speakers and the whole thing just makes me a bit sad inside, tbh. Anyway, there was broken glass everywhere (stupid, scabby RatPack) and Lauryn was wearing ballet pumps. So were a lot of the girls, but obviously I'm the one who's foot starts haemorraging really dramatically in a really weird place. Anyway, it obviously looked a lot worse than it was, but it did look a bit extreme! One side of my shoe was soaked in blood it was actually so grim. So I got sent home by my friends like a child to sort it out :(
You'll like this bit :) before I begin, let us please bare in mind that, although I, too, find this hilarious now, I was NOT happy at the time... Tuesday morning, I'm up at 6.30am which honestly feels like a lie-in these days. It's still pisssiiinnggg it down with rain at this point, so much so that I lose my bag strap on the way to the station. (Yes. You read that correctly. I actually lost an entire bagstrap to the torrential downpours and have been walking round like a total briefcase wanker ever since.) I need to be in school by 9am and the SNCF website informs me that there is a train from Clermont-Ferrand at 8.05 which will get to Thiers at around 8.50. Parfait, non? Anyshits, I rock up to the station at 7.50ish, believing myself to actually be sehr early. Lies. Bloody website and its huge web of LIES! So this absolute twaaaaattttt is at the ticket desk and when I ask for a ticket to Thiers, he's like 'aahhh yeeaahhh you've just missed it'. I was like 'QUOI?????!!!!!!!!!' Then, right, he takes his sweeeeeeet time printing the ticket for the train I've just missed? Odd. I point this out and he casually leans back and says (AFTER TAKING SO LONG!!) 'Oh, actually, it's still there, that train. You have one minute. Bye!'. C**t. Do excuse my language, but that particular word somehow immediately sprang to mind. I gave him THE filthiest look. Sorry, but you know when you KNOW that someone's done something deliberately and you're just like... Why? Why??? So, I decided to run for it. Actually sprinted out the door. Kind of. Basically, I like to think that I was just SO QUICK that the door did not sense my presence, but clearly French automatic doors are just retarded. It started to close AS I was running through it. Really want to use that word again. Ok, so I literally went BANG into the door and absolutely FLEW off it, leaving the whole glass wall thing shaking and reverberating. When I say that the station was busy at that time that morning, I mean it was PACKED with French teenagers. Don't worry, they didn't hold back with the laughing. I swear some of them actually couldn't breathe. They were roaring with laughter. You know people sometimes have nightmares of being in a crowded public place and having everyone laugh at them? I've never had that before, but it happened : motherfucker. But, being the absolute TROOPER that I am (sure), I kept going, struggling through the crowd with my stupid briefcase bag thing and pegged it back up the steps to my platform. As I emerged onto the platform with my broken bag, broken shoulder and broken dreams, I watched my train disappearing, along with my dignity, into the misty distance... Jesus Mother of ohmylife I was so pissed. I had to take 15 whole minutes to have a cigarette and calm myself down before I trusted myself to go back to twatface and ask to change my ticket without slapping him silly.
But it was quite funny, though :p
What else... Oh yeah, standardly quite embarrassed to be British in France right now after the football last night. Christ's sake, why are we so crap at everything?! Kind of over it, didn't get as much stick at work today as I thought I would! Although my wee bro gave me a tip on the phone last night - when we're losing, whack out the 'actually, my family's Irish so I'm not reeeaaally that English' card, and when we're winning, casually wave around the proud Londoner card. Cool.
Also, today we had a wee partay in the staffroom at lunch for le beaujolais, which is a type of red wine (and very nice, indeed!). I asked quite a few people, to be fair, but, at the end of the day, no one actually knows what's so great about this particular wine or why they celebrate it, at all. Would love to be able to tell you something nice and cultural but I get the impression it's pretty much just an excuse for a party/maybe for some independant local shops and stuff to close early or just not open because the wine said so. On continuera la fête ce soir chez ma copine français :) woop!
Much lovin'
Here's a funny story for ya:
So, this has been my week of accidents and injuries, which has been a long time coming, in my opinion. I seriously need to take out some form of medical insurance before the snow comes further down the mountains to Clermont or I am actually fucked. Those of you who know me well will know that I cannot go more than a month without obtaining at least a wee battle scar - for example, I still have a scar on my hand from cutting a potato in the dark whilst completely off it a couple of years back. Basically, last Saturday we ended up in a club that I don't particularly like where a barman plays shit music off his shit laptop through some shit speakers and the whole thing just makes me a bit sad inside, tbh. Anyway, there was broken glass everywhere (stupid, scabby RatPack) and Lauryn was wearing ballet pumps. So were a lot of the girls, but obviously I'm the one who's foot starts haemorraging really dramatically in a really weird place. Anyway, it obviously looked a lot worse than it was, but it did look a bit extreme! One side of my shoe was soaked in blood it was actually so grim. So I got sent home by my friends like a child to sort it out :(
You'll like this bit :) before I begin, let us please bare in mind that, although I, too, find this hilarious now, I was NOT happy at the time... Tuesday morning, I'm up at 6.30am which honestly feels like a lie-in these days. It's still pisssiiinnggg it down with rain at this point, so much so that I lose my bag strap on the way to the station. (Yes. You read that correctly. I actually lost an entire bagstrap to the torrential downpours and have been walking round like a total briefcase wanker ever since.) I need to be in school by 9am and the SNCF website informs me that there is a train from Clermont-Ferrand at 8.05 which will get to Thiers at around 8.50. Parfait, non? Anyshits, I rock up to the station at 7.50ish, believing myself to actually be sehr early. Lies. Bloody website and its huge web of LIES! So this absolute twaaaaattttt is at the ticket desk and when I ask for a ticket to Thiers, he's like 'aahhh yeeaahhh you've just missed it'. I was like 'QUOI?????!!!!!!!!!' Then, right, he takes his sweeeeeeet time printing the ticket for the train I've just missed? Odd. I point this out and he casually leans back and says (AFTER TAKING SO LONG!!) 'Oh, actually, it's still there, that train. You have one minute. Bye!'. C**t. Do excuse my language, but that particular word somehow immediately sprang to mind. I gave him THE filthiest look. Sorry, but you know when you KNOW that someone's done something deliberately and you're just like... Why? Why??? So, I decided to run for it. Actually sprinted out the door. Kind of. Basically, I like to think that I was just SO QUICK that the door did not sense my presence, but clearly French automatic doors are just retarded. It started to close AS I was running through it. Really want to use that word again. Ok, so I literally went BANG into the door and absolutely FLEW off it, leaving the whole glass wall thing shaking and reverberating. When I say that the station was busy at that time that morning, I mean it was PACKED with French teenagers. Don't worry, they didn't hold back with the laughing. I swear some of them actually couldn't breathe. They were roaring with laughter. You know people sometimes have nightmares of being in a crowded public place and having everyone laugh at them? I've never had that before, but it happened : motherfucker. But, being the absolute TROOPER that I am (sure), I kept going, struggling through the crowd with my stupid briefcase bag thing and pegged it back up the steps to my platform. As I emerged onto the platform with my broken bag, broken shoulder and broken dreams, I watched my train disappearing, along with my dignity, into the misty distance... Jesus Mother of ohmylife I was so pissed. I had to take 15 whole minutes to have a cigarette and calm myself down before I trusted myself to go back to twatface and ask to change my ticket without slapping him silly.
But it was quite funny, though :p
What else... Oh yeah, standardly quite embarrassed to be British in France right now after the football last night. Christ's sake, why are we so crap at everything?! Kind of over it, didn't get as much stick at work today as I thought I would! Although my wee bro gave me a tip on the phone last night - when we're losing, whack out the 'actually, my family's Irish so I'm not reeeaaally that English' card, and when we're winning, casually wave around the proud Londoner card. Cool.
Also, today we had a wee partay in the staffroom at lunch for le beaujolais, which is a type of red wine (and very nice, indeed!). I asked quite a few people, to be fair, but, at the end of the day, no one actually knows what's so great about this particular wine or why they celebrate it, at all. Would love to be able to tell you something nice and cultural but I get the impression it's pretty much just an excuse for a party/maybe for some independant local shops and stuff to close early or just not open because the wine said so. On continuera la fête ce soir chez ma copine français :) woop!
Much lovin'
lundi 15 novembre 2010
By special request of Marge...
I'm officially updating this shit!!
I have definitely settled into 'working' life at the lycée. I hesitate to call it working life as I still haven't taught a full day of lessons yet, let alone a full week! Complaining, much? Nope :) I have time to sit and cry over / do my other work slash talk to some nice people in French whilst I would otherwise be discussing snakes in bottles and other bollocks with young Thiernois. I loosened up at lunch today and had a couple of glasses of red which I'm kind of regretting right now, but it's ok as I practically have YEARS until my next lesson!
I did stereotypes with a couple of classes this morning as I was feeling really creative when lesson planning this weekend (naaaaaat). Turns out that us British peeps are very polite and always on time. The men all wear black suits and 'melon hats' (bowler hats, bless their little hearts) and have thin moustaches. All British women have curly hair - FACT. Oh and English people hate Irish people and cannot cook for shit. This cooking bit may be ever so slightly true, although I do like to think that I am an epic vegetarian exception to this assumption.
Yesterday, a few of us went to see a couple of mates play a football match somewhere in Clermont against some other team. Was a bit hilarious. Our two mates who were playing were good, don't get me wrong, but the rest of the show... Tragic. Absolutely tragic. Couldn't even tell you the name of the team and neither could those who were actually playing. It was an 'experience'. Another stereotype cum massive truth: England = football's best nation. Auvergne, mmmmmm, not so much. Haha by the by who else really really very very muchly much appreciated Sunderland's efforts yesterday (Sunday 14th)? :) Highlight of my entire WEEK.
Only 5 weeks until Christmas! (Btw a war plane just flew really low over my school, they keep doing that). Anyway, word on the street is that a certain Becca Francis has literally got a job on a Christmas Tree Farm. C'est quoi ce bordel? I am expecting great things from Alderney Road, come December! Very excited. Bit nervous about the inevitable alcohol intake, tbh. Takes quite a lot for me to get nervous about alcoholic measurements, but it's happening :s I feel like Christmas with the bessies will be more of a punishment for having been away for so long, rather than a 'welcome back' thing haha!
Nothing much else to report. Have gained hideous amounts of weight. I am hideous. Don't look at me. Ever. Although it'll be gone in a month, I swear! French people are still being French. Yesterday I saw a LEAST three people mincing around with giant baguettes. Old men do wear baguettes and practically make out with each other when they say 'bonjour'. Uhhhhh, people in Thiers are still weird and won't ever look you in the eye, but it's ok I don't have to deal with these people too much! It's been pissing it down with rain today, but I hear it was worse in Paris over the weekend and we had a really pleasant Saturday, so nerrr :p
That's probably it. Will write to you all when things of various natures being to occur once more.
Happy 19th birthday to my wee bro for tomorrow, and happy 21st to my mammy for the day after!!
Lieeeeeeeeeeeeeebe x
I have definitely settled into 'working' life at the lycée. I hesitate to call it working life as I still haven't taught a full day of lessons yet, let alone a full week! Complaining, much? Nope :) I have time to sit and cry over / do my other work slash talk to some nice people in French whilst I would otherwise be discussing snakes in bottles and other bollocks with young Thiernois. I loosened up at lunch today and had a couple of glasses of red which I'm kind of regretting right now, but it's ok as I practically have YEARS until my next lesson!
I did stereotypes with a couple of classes this morning as I was feeling really creative when lesson planning this weekend (naaaaaat). Turns out that us British peeps are very polite and always on time. The men all wear black suits and 'melon hats' (bowler hats, bless their little hearts) and have thin moustaches. All British women have curly hair - FACT. Oh and English people hate Irish people and cannot cook for shit. This cooking bit may be ever so slightly true, although I do like to think that I am an epic vegetarian exception to this assumption.
Yesterday, a few of us went to see a couple of mates play a football match somewhere in Clermont against some other team. Was a bit hilarious. Our two mates who were playing were good, don't get me wrong, but the rest of the show... Tragic. Absolutely tragic. Couldn't even tell you the name of the team and neither could those who were actually playing. It was an 'experience'. Another stereotype cum massive truth: England = football's best nation. Auvergne, mmmmmm, not so much. Haha by the by who else really really very very muchly much appreciated Sunderland's efforts yesterday (Sunday 14th)? :) Highlight of my entire WEEK.
Only 5 weeks until Christmas! (Btw a war plane just flew really low over my school, they keep doing that). Anyway, word on the street is that a certain Becca Francis has literally got a job on a Christmas Tree Farm. C'est quoi ce bordel? I am expecting great things from Alderney Road, come December! Very excited. Bit nervous about the inevitable alcohol intake, tbh. Takes quite a lot for me to get nervous about alcoholic measurements, but it's happening :s I feel like Christmas with the bessies will be more of a punishment for having been away for so long, rather than a 'welcome back' thing haha!
Nothing much else to report. Have gained hideous amounts of weight. I am hideous. Don't look at me. Ever. Although it'll be gone in a month, I swear! French people are still being French. Yesterday I saw a LEAST three people mincing around with giant baguettes. Old men do wear baguettes and practically make out with each other when they say 'bonjour'. Uhhhhh, people in Thiers are still weird and won't ever look you in the eye, but it's ok I don't have to deal with these people too much! It's been pissing it down with rain today, but I hear it was worse in Paris over the weekend and we had a really pleasant Saturday, so nerrr :p
That's probably it. Will write to you all when things of various natures being to occur once more.
Happy 19th birthday to my wee bro for tomorrow, and happy 21st to my mammy for the day after!!
Lieeeeeeeeeeeeeebe x
jeudi 4 novembre 2010
Also... (04/11/10 part II)
I forgot to add something that I learnt today.
In America and England, little ones knock on doors and say 'trick-or-treeeaaattt?' - which is annoying as shit, obviously, but harmless. In France yeah les p'tits say 'la vie ou des bonbons?' (lit. 'life or sweets?')... sooo basically, 'give me sweets or I will kill you'. Whaaatttt thhheee ffuuccckkkk maaannn? Have to say, that did send a chill down my spine, and I'm now glad that I didn't choose primary education here. Weirdos.
In America and England, little ones knock on doors and say 'trick-or-treeeaaattt?' - which is annoying as shit, obviously, but harmless. In France yeah les p'tits say 'la vie ou des bonbons?' (lit. 'life or sweets?')... sooo basically, 'give me sweets or I will kill you'. Whaaatttt thhheee ffuuccckkkk maaannn? Have to say, that did send a chill down my spine, and I'm now glad that I didn't choose primary education here. Weirdos.
I'm not sure how many more 'catchy' titles I can think up for these entries, tbh!
HI GUYS!
Had my first REAL day today. I say that, but I still only had 2 lessons. How tragic is this, right, although I did manage to get a cheeky lift in to school with another English teacher so only had to leave at 7 qui c'est pas trop grave, got in at like half 7 and none of my pupils turned up to my first lesson at 8 as SOMEONE had neglected to tell them about it. Dayum. I did cry a bit inside but I had had 4 espressos before my next lesson at 11, which prevented me from outwardly crying.
Got some bon feedback from the lessons, had a group who were terminales (final year before BTS or uni, like A2) and premières who were a bit chatty but blatently my teacher voice and my teacher look, which had both already been perfected through my normal job, sorted them out.
Getting along really well with my résponsable now, which is a relief. She offered me cuttlery, which was nice. Working in Thiers and not living there makes me like it the tichiest bit more haha. It's bloody FREEZING compared to Clermont (mountain, yeh get meh?). The lycée feels, to me, like a proper working environment now, maybe cos I'm not constantly hating on it cos I know that, at the end of the day, I can hop on a train or bus if they decide to run back to my sexy studio in the 'city' where people live.
I think my French is getting a bit better now. Sorted. Also, have been invited to a cheeky student party ce soir! French students, uhuh. Tomorrow I may or may not have to go on a 'date' with some random taxi driver who saved my life on Toussaints which is a bit annoying but hey ho. Long story, would only happen to me etc you get the picture. Anyway, I will probably just bring friends along too haha he.will.love it.
Anyway, as you can probably tell, I am feeling 10x better about this whole France debacle now that I am with people. I have nothing but love for them, even if they are French, American and occasionally have phobias of toilets. Baa.. c'est la vie.
Ti amo tutti! Arrivederci! xxxxx
Had my first REAL day today. I say that, but I still only had 2 lessons. How tragic is this, right, although I did manage to get a cheeky lift in to school with another English teacher so only had to leave at 7 qui c'est pas trop grave, got in at like half 7 and none of my pupils turned up to my first lesson at 8 as SOMEONE had neglected to tell them about it. Dayum. I did cry a bit inside but I had had 4 espressos before my next lesson at 11, which prevented me from outwardly crying.
Got some bon feedback from the lessons, had a group who were terminales (final year before BTS or uni, like A2) and premières who were a bit chatty but blatently my teacher voice and my teacher look, which had both already been perfected through my normal job, sorted them out.
Getting along really well with my résponsable now, which is a relief. She offered me cuttlery, which was nice. Working in Thiers and not living there makes me like it the tichiest bit more haha. It's bloody FREEZING compared to Clermont (mountain, yeh get meh?). The lycée feels, to me, like a proper working environment now, maybe cos I'm not constantly hating on it cos I know that, at the end of the day, I can hop on a train or bus if they decide to run back to my sexy studio in the 'city' where people live.
I think my French is getting a bit better now. Sorted. Also, have been invited to a cheeky student party ce soir! French students, uhuh. Tomorrow I may or may not have to go on a 'date' with some random taxi driver who saved my life on Toussaints which is a bit annoying but hey ho. Long story, would only happen to me etc you get the picture. Anyway, I will probably just bring friends along too haha he.will.love it.
Anyway, as you can probably tell, I am feeling 10x better about this whole France debacle now that I am with people. I have nothing but love for them, even if they are French, American and occasionally have phobias of toilets. Baa.. c'est la vie.
Ti amo tutti! Arrivederci! xxxxx
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