Progress

London Pub, Marseille!

So on Monday I did finally get to speak with my 'responsable' (Julie) - although I admit that due to my crippling Gallotelephonophobia(?) I had postponed the inevitable all day, and it ended up being her who called me. I was expecting a long phone call with lots to sort out - especially after I'd got myself all stressed out about it the night before - but it turns out that, of course, I was being a little melodramatic. Funnily enough what seemed like a monumental problem to me on Sunday night was solved as easily as 'Hi, um, I'm the English assistant for next year.' Fab.

Marseille

Initially I was very apologetic about my inability to address a letter correctly, but apparently (in addition to all of the various misspellings of what turned out to be Paucourt), this summer the French government decided to change the name of the street to Avenue Maurice Chautemps. Naturally. To add to the communication problems, on the letter the Académie had sent to the school they had misspelt my name and email address as Eleanor Jerrans. No wonder they couldn't get in touch. Given the general inadequacy of the Académie at furnishing either party with the correct contact details, I'm a little worried that my first stumbling steps into French bureaucracy may prove to be representative of the whole... but luckily Julie is lovely, and has promised to help me sort all the tricky stuff out, so I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about the whole thing.

Manon and me

She's also given me some information about the school - apparently there are 15 English teachers, whose ages range from 26 (Julie) to 54, and around 1200 students between 15 and 19. So, a lot bigger than my sixth form then. Guess I won't be teaching them all, or I'll have to get through 100 an hour! Oh, and they have Saturday school... but not me! Lovely Julie (who is in charge of my timetable) has promised me my weekends will be free to travel and make the most of my time here (phew!) In accomodation news, there is now no spare room as there's going to be a chinese assistant too, which should actually be quite exciting! But don't use that as an excuse not to visit. Oh and had she mentioned the flat is within the Lycée itself? Um no... no she hadn't. No excuse to be late for work then!

Buffalo Grill Face

So feeling generally a bit more together with regards to October. Otherwise I've been having a lovely week with Manon, although typically the week I stop working the weather starts looking a bit 'Anglais'. Merde. Sunday was a prime example; Thunderstorm, market morning, unsheltered meeting place, Olivier half an hour late to pick me up (typically). On arrival he commented that I looked like I should be in a wet T shirt contest. And then the weather cleared up of course.

Phone box

Despite the weather Manon's been making the most of the week to give me a real insight into Provençal culture. Start as you mean to go on and all, so on Friday evening we went to probably the only English pub in Marseille - The Red Lion (complete with Beatles montage on the wall and English phone box) followed by Buffalo Grill for dinner - hmm. To make up for it though, the next day we went to le Val to the fête des saussices - a truly French experience. Unfortunately though, halfway through I realised I was LITERALLY at a sausage fest and couldn't take it seriously any more... Sorry Manon.
 

avec Valentin

On Monday I was left to my own devices in La Seyne sur mer (Manon had a meeting), and decided to go to Charlemagne - roughly the French equivalent of WHSmith. Now, I get excited enough about stationery shopping in England, so this particular expedition was nearly too much for me. Especially when I found the teachers' section (with markbooks and everything!) and had a sudden realisation of my soon-to-be-sort-of-teacher status. Fortunately I resisted going crazy, and contented myself with a shiny French Academic diary (so I can at least pretend to myself that I'm getting organised), and a real live Clairefontaine notebook with all those crazy French lines - both of which I am ludicrously excited about. Oh, and a pen.

The other highlight of Charlemagne was finding a series of books for children all about a boy called Max and his various character faults - Max hates reading, Max annoys girls, Max hates losing, Max only thinks about his willy - it rang a few bells for some reason... Can't for the life of me think why!