It's gonna be a long one!

I really need to update this more often to save long and painful posts!  I'll put in as many pictures as possible to make it a little more endurable!

I thought our endless trips up the spiral stairs to our third floor flat had ended and I was looking forward to the next time we carried heavy stuff being a trip back down the stairs on the way home.  However, when my back was still killing me every morning even after a couple of weeks rest, I realised it was the rubbish mattress I was sleeping on and not from the heavy lifting.  Jen's was much the same so we trekked back yet again to IKEA.  I assured Jen we'd be fine because the mattresses would be foam and vacuum packed and we'd get them home no bother.  They were indeed foam and vacuum packed as expected.  However, in a Sandra Turnbull worthy moment, I overlooked the fact that sucking out all the air doesn't actually alter the weight of the mattress.  And so we struggled out of IKEA carrying knives and scissors too (not the wisest move) and headed back home on the bus for another entertaining trip up the stairs.  It's just as well the building is almost empty because people may have thought we were up to something very dodgy with all the heaving and hoing upstairs.  I'm sure you'll all be glad to know we made it back in once piece without falling backwards down the stairs and my backs been fine ever since!



Not the best quality since it's night and on my phone!

 The strikes have sort of eased.  They're still ongoing but not as disruptive.  I admire the perseverance of the French people but it's not going to make any difference so they may as well give up and let us get on in peace!  Maybe it's just my typical British attitude.  We just accept what we're dealt with and don't make much fuss.  Maybe we're the ones in the wrong?  But they don't seem to have acheived anything other than to annoy us language assistants in the country right now!

A few weeks ago we went to a wine exposition and basically just treated it as a free night out!  We had free tickets to attend and so we were handed a glass at the door and we spent a good few hours wandering from stall to stall feigning genuine interest in the vendors wares whilst profferring our empty glasses towards them for a wee taste.  Well it wasn't genuine interest for me anyway since I absolutely detested wine at the time.  I've warmed to it ever since that night mind you and may even buy a bottle one day.  But my point is, it wasn't a bad night at all.  We even found it mildly amusing that we had missed the last bus home and had to walk back a road we didn't know for an hour in the dark.  Not bad at all.

I've managed to fit in another little weekend in Paris just last weekend there.  And I'll be back again for a day trip next Saturday.  Last weekend was good.  It seems that every time I go to Paris I'm destined to be with someone who has never been before and so we've got to go and see all the main sites.  Fortunately I'll never tire of them.  I was very very close to trying either snails or frogs legs but chickened out at the last minute!  I'll do it one day!  The Christmas market  on the Champs Elysees was in full swing so I got a taste of some vin chaud (mulled wine - really getting in to this wine now I suppose) and saw possibly a million different little Christmas chalets full of christmas goodies.  That's the aim of next weekends trip - we're going to do the Christmas markets and see the Christmas lights.  I did manage to do a couple of things in Paris that I hadn't done before.  The best of which was the Grande Galerie d'Evolution.  It was filled with stuffed animals and it was pretty cool!  I now desperately want a pet Zebra.

Not a true Scotsman in any sense - he was English.

When I win the lottery I want my staircase covered in Swarovski crystals!

I'm on the left - can you tell me apart from the 4 year olds?

So school has been continuing to progress nicely.  I've got a few classes that I really really enjoy.  There's one in particular that I get on great with.  They're the best in the school so it's easy to communicate with them.  My timetable might change after Christmas and I'll be really disappointed if I lose them so fingers crossed that doesn't happen.  A lot of the classes are quite weak, but then that's why I'm there I suppose.  I feel a little bit restricted in some of my classes.  I'd prefer to be completely alone with the classes and there are three teachers who are happy for me to do that but my classes with the other three teachers are different.  Both me and the teacher are present and I have the whole class at once.  So I'm not getting to know the students and it's difficult to assert any authority with the teacher there.  I feel like when they're there it's not my place to tell them to be quiet because they still try to be very active in the class.  One teacher actually said to me last week she was really impressed with the lesson and how well I got the students to respond, but I had to take more control of them.  I can't do that with her there!  But I'll just have to give it a go.  It feels as though I'm stepping on their toes if I do that though, it feels wrong.  We'll see what happens.  There's one teacher who gives me the most ridiculous things to do in classes with her.  I have to prepare classes on the most mundane of topics.  It's no wonder the kids don't enjoy English.  And another teacher asked me to do Thanksgiving with her classes last week.  I'm Scottish!  I don't know the first thing about Thanksgiving.  I did the lesson as she asked but I'd rather just do my own thing.  I find my own lessons are much better received than anything the teachers come up with.  I was looking forward to my 12 hours of work a week but it's definitely more than double that.  I spend ages preparing classes, making up worksheets and lesson plans and getting all my photocopying done.  When I'm in school I'm either in class or doing work on a computer and doing photocopying.  So I'm not getting to mix with the other teachers and socialise in the staffroom.  That's definitely going to change this week.  My plan is to spend this weekend getting really organised so that I can just sit in the staffroom and try to absorb as much French as possible!  My time here is going to be over before I know it!

One of the teachers at school mentioned to me that she was part of a rambling club.  I think the average age is about 60 but I've mentioned it to a few other assistants here and we're going to go along and bring that average down quite substantially.  So that's my Sunday's organised until next April.  The same teacher also wanted to do a conversation class so Jen and I are heading that up.  Evelyne (the teacher) and a retired couple she knows, Alain and Marie, all attend.  We're taking it in turns at each others houses and will do a mixture of French and English so that we're all benefiting.  I'm feeling really positive about it.  It's a safe environment for me to practice my French a bit more.  At the moment, I'm still hesitant about using it because I know it's just not that great.  So if I can build up a bit more fluency in these classes it's going to help me out there in the big wide world.  We had our first class on Wednesday.  It was such a hectic day.  I had a solitary class at 8am in school, rushed home and Jen and I ran to the cinema because 24th was the day that Harry Potter was released here.  I've been itching to see it!  However, the stupid French cinema wasn't open.  So we took a wander around the Reims Christmas market and found a little stable with sheep and a donkey!!  Who then proceeded to bite Jen.  It didn't end up in hospitalisation fortunately, just a bruise.  Had it been hospitalisation she'd have been making her own way there because I wasn't missing HP for anything.  After the donkey biting incident we were in a festive mood and bought a Christmas tree and decorations!  It might be a bit early (which would explain the funny looks as we made out way back to the flat with it) but we're only going to be here for a couple of weeks in December so we needed to get it early to make the most of it.  It's so pretty!  I saw Harry Potter twice that day, so it possibly makes it the best day I've had this whole year. 

Possibly the worst was yesterday when we got locked out the flat.....Actually it was great fun.  Emily was on her way out to the shop, Jen and I to the laundrette, so we all left together.  Were Jen's keys still in the door when we left?  Yes.  Did Emily shut the door without taking the keys out?  Yes.  Did I shout back "Did somebody take the keys out the door?"  Yes.  Did it make any difference?  No.  fWith the key in the lock we couldnt get back in.  I came over all master thief and proceeded to try to pick the lock with a kirby grip and somehow try to push the key out the other end but didn't have any success.  So then I had the bright idea of trying to get in through our toilet window.  Jen managed to wrestle the landing window open and we took a peek outside.  We debated about what would be cheaper - a new window or a locksmith call out.  It was just as well we voted locksmith because I didn't fancy a mini leap across to the ledge of the other window with nothing to hold on to and a three storey drop below me.  Our upstairs neighbours (the eventual victims of our Vengeance Party) tried to help us and even offered us a place to stay that night if we were still locked out.  We've slightly softened towards them now but the party's still going ahead.  They got us a locksmith number and Jen and I ditched Emily to deal with it and went to the laundrette and supermarket.  The locksmith came while we were out and Emily said he basically took a bit of cardboard and slide it down the crack in the door and that was it.  Then he whacked us with a bill for nearly 75 euros.  For about 5 seconds work.  Why oh why did we not think to try a credit card down the side of the door?!  We would each be 25 euros richer just now!  Not to worry, we splashed out on a bottle of champagne to enjoy with dinner to celebrate getting our flat back again!  We've been reluctant to leave it ever since!

Well that will be all for now.  Got a busy weekend planned and the next few weeks are the same actually.  We've got stuff to get organised for the flat, our Vengeance Party to organise, a trip to Paris, ice skating, mulled wine, letters to write to Santa (I figured they'd think it's a kid writing with my level of French), champagne houses to visit....It's just as well I've been paid!