14Bah ouais, pourquoi pas?
Well can you believe it? Currently typing this between lessons on my final day at school! I will write a proper post to round up my time in France over the weekend some time, but for now I will just give a final update on what I have been doing over the past week.
Lucky for us, the weather has been fantastic for the past couple of weeks, seemingly with the exception of today where the gloomy looking sky and possibility of rain has returned. I won’t miss the rain over here in Northern France, but it would be rather fitting to see it rain before I go. Nice weather has meant that I have had my legs out a couple of times, something that the French do not seem to do, sticking to their jeans and coats combo regardless of what the weather is like. Needless to say, attracted unwanted attention in Béthune, but in Lille it wasn’t so bad, people are more normal there.
Last Friday was quite productive for me, involving a whistle stop trip to Arras, going to the Post Office to send the letter to cancel my internet contract, going to the shop to make sure I had done everything right to cancel said contract, buying a few souvenirs (nothing beats a Tintin comic or two) and buying some food to sustain me over the weekend. I do this every Friday and yet every Sunday I sit and stare at the collection of noodles and stale bread I have left wondering what to have for dinner. Well I’ve done that for the last time!
As for Saturday, I would have loved to have gone to the beach. The weather was lovely (again, skirt weather) and being so close to the coast (about an hour from Dunkerque, or Dunkirk as you English people like to call it!) I thought it would be nice to see the D-Day beaches and then just have an ice cream whilst paddling in the sea. Unfortunately, on closer examination on Google Maps it was apparent that it takes about an hour to walk from the station to the beach, and navigating our way around an undoubtedly busy unknown town didn’t really seem like much fun. Instead, Hannah and I decided to go to Lille to go shopping. Although we didn’t buy that much or stay for very long, it was really good to catch up, for one reason or another we hadn’t seen each other for about 3 or 4 weeks and it would be the last time I saw her before heading back to Herts. We even managed to eat outside since the weather was so nice.
And then my last week at school began! As much as I love having lessons cancelled, it has been really nice to go to all of mine this week, especially since most of them haven’t been real lessons. Before coming to school on Monday for my 8am lesson I felt a bit fed up – I had been asked to organise a game for the students and really wondered whether this was worthy of going to school for. Fortunately I was reminded how great this class were (and how one of them looks scarily like Sophie Novak) and they made laugh, so it was worth going to. Another lesson that day involved me going along half way through where the students would sing songs in English to me (Heal the World, Imagine and Over the Rainbow) to prepare for the ‘Journée Culturelle’ (Cultural Day) on Friday, and later on 2 of my students arguing over whether Rocky was an American propaganda film.
Tuesday was a bit different, I had to do a couple of proper lessons where one class behaved and the other was a nightmare. I feel bad in saying it, but I won’t be sorry to see the back of those students if I’m perfectly honest. In my other classes that are more often than not cancelled, I was just asked to stay with the whole group whilst they had the opportunity to talk as much as possible with me. This was really just question time with Hannah, I stood at the front of the class whilst being asked questions that the students didn’t really want to ask. It’s all good for their language! I also learnt a new expression – ‘Les deux font la paire’, basically meaning that they are made for each other, a lovely little phrase I think you will agree. (This was in reference to 2 Spanish teachers at the school who are married and have started to seem more and more like each other. Think dog and his owner looking alike – I noticed that they have matching denim jackets and His & Hers glasses, plus they’re both a bit loony apparently!)
A lazy Wednesday was on the cards yesterday, I’ll have plenty of time to do my project when I get home. And now we’re on today. I have to say that today feels just like any other Thursday to be honest, nothing special has happened and I don’t think it will sink in that I’m not coming back here until much later. But in my class this morning I just stayed and was a pupil for the lesson which was fun – good listening practice for me, believe me and it made me so nostalgic for my old English lessons at school. Also learnt the meaning of exculpate. Definitely a bit embarrassing that the students know the word’s meaning in English and I don’t. During the lesson I was bombarded with questions from one particularly enthusiastic pupil, and got invited to school tomorrow for a ‘surprise’. Having little else to do (packing can all be done on Saturday) I said yes, I am looking forward to seeing what the class have prepared for the journée culturelle, I always like to see what the French think English culture is!
So really, all that is left for me to do is take my final 2 lessons this afternoon before I have completed my assistantship. It really is so odd that I am going home for good on Sunday, like I said, it could take a while to sink in.
