Well the bad news is, even after last week's teaser, I am still lacking a latin lothario. Also the first lesson went entirely without incident, and the weather is still unseasonably warm, so that's a bit of a let-down, sorry!
Given that 11/11 was férié this cartoon makes no sense.
But other things have happened, so let's briefly rewind to where I left off last week. Friday was (as we all know) remembrance day, which the French see as a jolly good excuse to take the whole day off. Not only that, but in France the 11th November is strictly only for remembering the First World War - WW2 gets its own individual day (and bank holiday, naturally) in May. Other wars... meh, apparently. Not that any of my students actually seemed to know the meaning of the day when I asked them... But I'm certainly not complaining about the French workshy attitude - it meant I got to avoid working on Friday yet again, and that I could celebrate 11/11/11 11:11:11am (aka. corduroy day) by sleeping through it. I have also come to the startling realisation that this means that, despite having been here for a month and a half now, tomorrow will only be my second full-day Friday. Naturally I'm outraged - couldn't someone have come up with some kind of holiday? I could use a long weekend... maybe I'll just go on strike.
In aid of the long weekend, on Friday afternoon Emily came to visit me from Paris (which was jolly charitable of her). We had dinner at Courtepaille (which despite meaning "short straw" is a grill restaurant, not a punishment), and then we were probably the last people in the whole of France to see the immensely popular "Bienvenue à Bord" which was hilarious. We also learned the valuable lesson NEVER to go to the cinema on a "jour férié" again, as apparently 90% of the population of Montargis had had the same idea, and 90% of the staff were enjoying their day off at home. This, coupled with the French's rather "different" attitude to queueing from our own beloved British reverence, meant that getting into the cinema was complete chaos, and I'm actually rather surprised we made it in the end.(Also no student discounts on bank holidays! Outrageous!)
On Saturday, Emily, Christina and I went for a little jaunt to Orléans, mostly in the interests of shopping. I bought some glittery London stickers to decorate my class books and register, which have been a massive hit with the students (and with me!) We kind of forgot about lunch until it was a bit late and all the restaurants were already closed, so we settled for paninis and crèpes served by a ten year-old on the Rue de Bourgogne. This was followed by a moderately paced jog for our respective buses and trains home, taking in the traditional French music on the way... oh no wait - bagpipes.
On Sunday, Christina and I met up at the Blue Mountain Café - one of the prettiest spots in Montargis, which is now becoming a regular haunt - for a cheeky German lesson. It was a bit of a strange experience as it made me realise just how much German has been sacrificed for French space in my head, and the whole situation was made all the more bizarre by the fact the lesson itself was in French. But even if it's frustrating, the fact that I've learnt it all once before does at least make it come back quicker. I'll try to keep at it. Afterwards we went for a little walk by the lake to try to regain our sanity - the weather is holding for the moment, and Montargis may lack many things, but the opportunity for beautiful lakeside walks is not one of them.
This week I've given up almost entirely on my "real teacher" pretence, and spent my lessons playing such classic games as "Stop the Bus" (for its unrivaled vocabulary-building traits, of course) and "Taboo". The latter may have been a bit of a mistake, I admit, as asking my students to describe the word tree without using the words green, leaf or plant came up against a rather large hurdle when it turned out they didn't understand the word tree. Brilliant. Next week, 20 questions, and the celebrity game.
The last paragraph was brought to you by "Preparing Lessons in front of the Sound of Music"
Socially things have been looking up too, and now Sara has moved into the same building as Clément (and his sometime squatter Mus) I've been spending most of my evenings there perpetuating British drinking stereotypes and learning filthy French slang. I hope you're all proud. In any case, that's all from me for now, and, as promised Ed:
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