I'm not long back from Dijon and, I have to say, it's no wonder Katie's had such a fantastic year! Spent a truely terriying amount of de monies on train tickets to visit Katerina(minina) this weekend and it was so nice! Nice 1) To see Katie as she's pissing off to work in the middle of nowhere in the Ardèche until September, 2) To meet her friend Siobhan from Brizzle and 3) To finally see this lovely place!
On Friday, we had lunch in a wee park next to Katie's appartment (which is also naize), then got ready and did the walk from her place to her school, which was cool as I got my first glimpse of town and of Katie's LIFE as it has been for the past 7 months. Got to see her school and the staffroom (which was huge! And they have bigger pigeon holes than us... Whatever...) and we met one of the really nice English teachers who drove us back to her's to chill for a bit. She was so nice! And her appartment was epic, was up a hill so you could see all of Dijon! Lavly! Why couldn't the English staff at my lycée have been as nice and appreciative as those in Katie's lycée?!!
Then she drove us to Katie's résponsable's appartment (which was truely amazing, I need to add) for apéros with all of the English teachers from Katie's lycée. It was so nice! They were soooo nice! I had my first Kir which is a very Dijonaise drink made with white wine and cassis liquor. Hell yeah. Had one glass and immediately felt as if I'd had 3. I am also a fan of this drink.
'So, have you had a good year as an assistant, too?' They asked. Uhhhhhhhhmmmmm................. I like the assistant bit?! Didn't really know what else to say haha. At first they seemed a bit like '... Alright then' when I wasn't immediately spewing out all the 'IT WAS AMAZING's they were clearly expecting to hear, however, when they found out I'd been placed in Clermont-Ferrand this year, there was a collective 'ohhhhh' of understanding from the women. They were also very understanding and sympathetic when I told them I actually teach in Thiers and had to live there for the first month. One of them described it as 'bleak'. Yeaahhh, that's one way of putting it :p It was nice to, again, be reminded that it's not just me! Clermont is shit!
Later on, after we left the teachers, we went to a wee flat part in Dijon and then to a bar in town. It was quite sad to see all of the assistants shaking their heads and saying repeatedly 'I can't believe it's all over!' but nice because they've obviously all had a lovely year in that lovely, lovely place! Also, another Thiers connection! Got speaking to one of the other Dijon assistants who was like 'oohh yeaaahh Clermont-Ferrand hmmm... Bit crap, my parents have a holiday home literally in the middle of nowhere kinda near there'. She proceeded to talk about how horrible and isolated this place is. 'The house is next to this tiny shit town called Thiers'. Yep. Great. Hahahahahaha! It is INFAMOUS for being grim and awful! IT'S DEFINITELY NOT JUST ME!!!!!!!!!!
The next day, with Thiers firmly out of my mind, we went on the owl tour of Dijon :):):) yessss. The little owl - la chouette - is the symbol of Dijon and it's sooooooo cute (fittingly, 'chouette' also means cute/sweet/great etc). There are little gold chouettes all over the pavement in Dijon which lead you to most of the things you must see while you're there! It also leads you to THE OWL, a small owl which has been engraved into the side of Notre Dame (one of the three cathedrals) that you touch with your left hand and make a wish - it's lucky! So cute!
Ahhh I can't even begin to describe how cool the whole place was! Definitely going back there when I'm rich for shopping - it's a VERY middle class place btw... Which means the shopping is excellent!!! Also bumped into the assistant from Katie's school last year who is back every other weekend because her boyfriend plays rugby for Dijon. So met one of the Dijon rugby players as well. Couldn't tell you who. Dijon aren't as good as ASM nerr :p haha!
Not much to report from Clermont end of things, tbh! Had a bit of an awkward goodbye with my résponsable haha! Not sure if it was goodbye, she said something about us meeting up in the holiday when her and the other teachers are back from England (where they're going this week). I wrote them all thank you letters that I didn't really mean :s sounds bad, but it's the truth. 'Thank you for everything you've done for me this year... Like take advantage and be a dick rather than thanking me.' 'Thank you for all your support this year... Especially the time where you berated me/completely took the piss in front of all of the other teachers at lunch and, once again, made me feel like shit'. Yeah... Haha. One of the English teachers (after having received my nice note) completely blanked me in the corridor as he walked past. Bye, then? Have a nice life! And another locked his classroom door, looking longingly down the corridor with a ridiculously emotional half-smile on his face, whipped his hair back (and forth) and strolled off, slowly, in the other direction with his long vampire coat flowing behind him, looking back occasionally at an awkward Lauryn (who was in fact waiting there for something and couldn't very well walk the other way!) like we were in a bloody movie or something.
Actual weirdos. Like... Oh my Christ. I don't think I will EVER get over how weird this year has been and how weird the people in it were. Bloody hell. I also wrote their notes in English because I couldn't be bothered to try and fake sincerity in another language. However, I will be writing heart-felt letters of thanks in French to the Proviseur (headmaster), Nataša (a French teacher who gives me a lift on Monday mornings) and one of the Pierres (an ICT teacher who is obsessed with Canada) for being so genuinely lovely. They are nice. The rest of the staff can do one. :):):)
Oh and Deji's back! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!
Lauryn <3 Rachael.
That's big Clermont news!
Anyshits thank you very much to Katie for such a lovely weekend à Dijon!
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