A round up of the week's news.

Monday was my first official day of school, which meant I spent most of the day filling in and signing forms, and being talked at by various important people. However, I also got hold of my attendance register, board pens and keys to the school! Never have I felt more official. The lovely ladies in the canteen also took pity on me and sorted me out with a card that lets me eat for free in the canteen - though I'm not actually convinced that's such a blessing having seen the "food" on offer there!

My classroom

(don't worry there's an English flag too)

I celebrated the success of my first day at school by promptly taking the second day off. I love my new job. I did however, use my time sensibly, and spent the afternoon becoming a member of the BNP. Fear not tolerant friends - the French bank, not the British extremist party. This was a gruelling process and took up most of the afternoon - and I still have to wait a week before I can actually, God forbid, use my account... But that's one thing off the list anyway. Spurred on by my achievement, I indulged in a little house hunting, and at last found an reasonable prospect (more on that in a second). Tuesday was also the day the rain arrived, and with it, the realisation that I had forgotten to pack my umbrella. Oops.

Artist's impression of "Thierry"

On Wednesday I got a reply from "Thierry Marquand" my potential landlord, informing me that the flat was still available, and that it would be available to visit the following evening. Encouraged, I replied expressing my interest, and went to buy some bedding. On my return, I had another email waiting from M. Marquand who was delighted I was so interested, and keen to sign straight away. Sadly though, he was "out of the country on business", and "having a few problems with his bank account" - so could I possibly send him the money for the deposit via Western Union before visiting the flat with his nephew, so as to speed the process up? Hmm. Fortunately I wasn't born yesterday, so I was hardly going to be sending him €860 of my hard-earned student loan via a company so infamously associated with scammers. However, I was pretty pissed off with him for wasting my time and getting my hopes up - so Julie and I decided to give him a taste of his own medicine, and sent him an email saying I agreed to his conditions, and offering to pay all the rent till January at the same time. Just wish I could have seen his eyes light up at the prospect of hooking such a naïve mark. On the positive side, at least I have added the words for "scam" and "conman" to my French vocabulary!

Tartiflette!

Thursday I went to school armed with more rice crispy cakes to try to win over the English teachers. Those who tried them thought they were great, but more of them than I would have thought possible genuinely refused to touch them because they were "English". Thought that was pretty rude actually - I knew it was a stereotype, but didn't realise that it was believed to such a large extent (and these people are English teachers!) Anyway, I was cheered up with some delicious French cooking for dinner in the form of Tartiflette - consisting of potatoes, bacon and onion with 2 WHOLE CHEESES melted on top. Ah, the French.

On Friday I was up bright and early for a 'stage' (training day) in Orléans. It was nice to meet some of the other assistants in the region, and to see the startling girl/boy ratio - no prizes for guessing who dominated by a LONG way! The stage itself was pretty dry, almost all administrative, and a lot didn't apply to EU residents, but we did get a tour of Orléans, including Joan of Arc's house (pictured on the left - built in 1965!), LOTS of statues of Joan of Arc - we English are apparently not too popular here, and the cathedral. 

 It seems I was missed at school on Friday though, as Julie tells me one boy dressed up smart especially - and is proudly telling his friends that I smiled at him in the street the other day! He was incensed that I wasn't there, as he'd even come on time for a change! The students are lovely though - two girls in my Seconde  class (year 11) have offered to give me a tour of Montargis, and my Terminales (year 13) were a bit naughty yesterday, so they want to take me for ice cream (at McDonalds!) to apologise. Bless. Then again, given the teachers' reaction to the fruits of my baking labours on Wednesday, maybe I'm better off being friends with the students  - after all, it's not that long since I was a sixth former myself!

To round off the week, I've just finished watching France beat England in the rugby, and I can tell you they're not the most gracious of winners: